So, thank you all for your service. [Applause] Okay. Do we need a motion to adjurnn? Yeah. Motion to adjurnn. It should come from one of our board members. Do I just say so moved? So moved. Jenny moves and Charelle seconds. All in favor, please. Uh, all in favor? I I motion carries. We are temporarily adjourned. to say that. [Applause] I'm just ready for ready for a break. So, we don't need to call this meeting because we were just [Music] a lot. My wife would die. But we had a lot of down. That's pretty much it. It's four people. We're going to break it up. That's what I usually do. Are you sitting right there? Okay. Before we call the meeting to order, um I need to administer the oath of office to our newest board members. Um that would include Chris as well, right? Yes, sir.
She's kind of stuck with me now. Um I've watched my mom have the strength to bury children. Um, and I'm sorry that she had to do that. Uh, I can't imagine anything worse than that. Um, but I am very lucky and I'm very fortunate because um, the other teacher is that I honor is my wife Moses Meister Espanol, right? She's a Spanish teacher and she also uh, welcomed in to our family a son that was was not hers. And so my own family is a uh I I I grew I started off in a what do you call it? A traditional household and then I was in a single parent household uh after my parents divorced. And now I find myself in a multi-generational multi-racial household. And I got to be honest with you uh when your grandson cries because you're leaving. That's pretty darn good feeling that that cuz cuz it's terrible feeling but it's also a pretty good feeling, right?
That's not what the SIP is supposed to be or the district strategic plan. It's a working living document and we feel very strongly that we should have stakeholders around the table discussing our SIP, talking about our action steps, talking about our measures of success. It's not just a checkbox, but really delving into what we've done during the school year, what we need to tweak, if anything, change for the following year. So, really having people around the table and and hearing their voices as this document is a living, breathing document that we want to continue um continuing our weekly meetings. We do meet once a week with our um outreach social workers. So, Erin Gomes, Melissa Sullivan, Kelly Bloom, Tiffany Martin. Um, and that really is a beneficial time for us. We talk about students. We talk about concerns. Um, we talk about if there's a, you know, a student who isn't coming to school, we'll talk about what can we do to get that student in.
Sometimes kids like they do the same, you know, bad behavior or poor decision again and that's where parents and educators frankly get pretty frustrated and you have to try a different approach at that point. But this is the what the state has defined is the most contemporary approach and we're required to adopt this for July 1 for the next school year. If I receive this form, right? Yep. Summarizing what happened. Okay. That can I sue to get the underlying forms? Um, you can sue all you want. You know, it doesn't mean you we can furpa does furpa protect that. Yeah. And because assault is on here and other things that a person can be arrested for. Sure. When if there's a criminal investigation, do those documents become part of the investigation or is the investigation start over? Do you pretend like that wasn't there and then when the police take over, is it a new thing?
We have students from outside district right and stuff but knowing their connection to the district could be useful. Yeah, there was something we did have conversation about that. Yeah, I remember that conversation. Thought it might be dangerous even to give out your address public meeting. Okay. Anything else? Then I will make the motion to second. All those in favor say I. I. I.
This item was pulled from consent, so I will stand for any questions on I believe it is the out ofstate travel. I just had a question on um the last one. There's a conference October 27th to the 30th on the Adobe Max in Los Angeles. And um for $12,600 and I looked on the um website of Adobe Max and it looked like they had a lot of um videos and I just wondered if we could instead of um spending that money on a conference if if if they could just look on the website and get their information about it. Madame President, members Iola, that is a possibility. This is a yearly item where we send our um our public relations department to be trained um and learn that is their main platform for everything they do with their advertisements and all the awesome things they do uh to promote our district.
Okay. So, if Chris, Katie, April, and Mike can stand with me, please. There's a copy of the O in front of you. I'm right there. Can you raise your right hand for me please and repeat after me? I state your name do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of community high school district 99 in accordance with the constitution of the United States the constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability you'll repeat repeat after me I do solemnly swear that I will discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of community high school district 99 in accordance with the constitution of the United States the constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability I further swear that I further swear that I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets I shall encourage and respect ect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees.
It's a terrible feeling, but it's I gotta be honest with you, the fact that um he he loves you that much. And we were roaming the halls trying to find his dad earlier who graduated from here. And and so I I honor my wife because um my my wife and my mother are constantly teaching me. Uh I don't always listen and I don't always learn what they're trying to teach me, but but but trust me, I try. Um, and so I've been very fortunate to have um, educators and in my own district, uh, part of my gig over there is to represent educators and, um, to your point, Miss Johnson, um, I I I want to apologize to my wife because of the times where she was trying to get my attention and someone's on the phone with me. And, um, and I'm sorry, too, because to your point, there were things that people said that, um, were not true.
Um, so that hour of time per week or so is so important for us. It's critical to ensure that students are getting what they need. Um, and families are getting what they need as well. So, continuing that next year. The other thing that we would like to bring back is our Swiss system, which is the schoolwide information system. They call it Swiss data. Um, we've gotten away from that in the past. Um, and we tried something a little bit different with just a Google doc and documenting behaviors, but have come to find out that the Swiss program is actually extremely beneficial to us. um the data that we can get from that information um about students, settings in the school, days of the week, all the things that we can kind of look at together as a team and then determine um modifications or accommodations that we can change in our school for our students.
So, because it's Furpa, I'll tell you what typically happens is that it's a new thing that the police are going to do their own investigation and our documents are still FURPA protected. um Mark is a former uh youth officer or uh officer Khan is our SRO. They're not going to come to me and say, "Hey, I know you just did this investigate. You mind?" That that doesn't hold up in court. So, um they don't. In order for it to be valid in court, the police have to do it themselves. They have to start over. Yes. But if if but the complaint's coming from the school. Yeah. The complaint could come from the school. Rarely it does. more often than it comes from the parent. But my butt was if this goes and Mark brings that to a prosecutor, he might try and subpoena records, but at that point we probably still argue that they're forputed unless there was some sort of overarching legal reason.
So with that, um we are sending two additional this year. We usually send one, we are sending two additional because they are brand new to our district and it's essential that they learn uh the skills of Adobe Max. So, um while we could do it online, I don't think it's as hands-on and um provides that direct instruction that they need to do that, but it is certainly an option. Yeah, I would actually like to support uh the fact that uh this this year being one of the probably most um years that we probably the visibility. Um I would recommend that we do maybe an online training this year and we see how that goes. Um, being in IT myself, I understand that sometimes online training does not provide the best training, but I think the way that it's funded, I think that's that to me that would be a a proper course that we would look to go that route or um find something that's less expensive.
I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek adhering before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall abide by majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. I shall abide by my decision of the boarding the right to see changes and such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district.
Uh, and I'm sorry that you had to hear those things or see them. It's not fair to her. If you knew my I don't care. Like me personally, I don't care. I find it humorous. But um I'm all kinds of things and apparently got fan base outside of the state. But but um but to my wife, I'm sorry. Um she doesn't deserve that for those who know her. Um trust me, she's a way better person than I am. And so I I I apologize uh for those pieces. But for anyone who's listening in my own district, and I know we have people here, it's it's pretty easy for me to stick up for for educators. It doesn't mean we're all perfect. It doesn't mean that some of us don't need a little bit more help than others. Uh and it doesn't mean that we don't still need to continue on a journey.
So, that's something that we're going to have for next school year that we did not have this year. As we all know, we have an amazing fifth grade peer leadership program at Quinn. have come here uh before um under Tiffany Martin, again, one of our outreach social workers. Um but expanding that fifth grade peer leadership program is something we're really looking to do, keeping what they're doing. Now, I just had two peer leaders come to my office today to talk to me about a school spirit day where they want to raise money for uh children at Boston Children's Hospital so they can buy some books at the book fair coming up. Um they're always thinking about how to make the community better, how to make Quinn better. So, we want to keep that that great boost in school morale um in that student engagement. But again, listening to my colleagues talking with even Melissa Mckenry about, you know, some of the things that she's thinking about with peer mentoring and social skills and having the older kids help with the younger kids.
That might be the only time that the court could um make a decision that indicates no, this is not for protected record. But I've never seen that. Uh, and if anything, we've been required to produce documents that are heavily redacted. I mean, I've had subpoenas. I have one now for a student record of a graduate, you know, who's, you know, nothing violent or anything, but just an incident. And, um, you know, you have to comply with those subpoenas, but only when you're directed by the court to do so. But the Treasure Police is never going to come. I've never had that. I don't ever expect to have it where they're going to come to us and say, "Hey, give me give me that investigation you have." They might say, "We need to look at, you know, a video or something." Um, and they'll draw their own conclusions from that.
Okay, I will uh turn that over and ask Renee if if we do have on is there online trainings Renee for the training that you receive? necessary. So, should we consider tableabling this then? Okay. Okay. I make a MO. I'll make a motion. Um, I move to table uh the the overnight and out of state travel request as listed. We need the rest of them approved on there because you're turning down the rest of the screen. Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. So, yeah, I move to approve overnight and out of state travel requests as listed uh with exception of the Adobe Max event that we are tableabling. For more information, second. motion. carries. Next up, we have item eight, Dr. Croto. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, I will stand for questions. This also is another item pulled from consent. Oh, I just um was looking at the um on the uh let's see, it was contract renewal.
As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Community High School District 99. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Community High School District 99. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. Assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law.
It does. Um but I also want to honor one last educator. Um and that is as I was sitting at the district office, this is a great story. As I was sitting at the district office in my school, uh, in my school district, in walks in walks this young, I'll call him a young man, but I'm getting older, so it might be a kid. In walks this young man, I'm looking familiar. And I was like, I don't want to embarrass myself. And all of a sudden, he says, "Jared Blogger." And I said, "Who are you? I know you." And long story short, he is the older sibling of one of my youngest son's classmates. and he is a product of our dual language program here at Asiggo. And that district was so excited to have a male social worker at the elementary level out of our dual language program.
So, really talking and collaborating with other schools about what they're doing and maybe adding something onto our peer leadership program that we haven't tried before because we have had it for quite a number of years now. I want to say maybe like 8 to 10 years where we're kind of doing the same thing, but maybe there's something we can expand upon. So, that's something we're really excited about. Um, as far as aligning safety practices, we would like to create a Quinn crisis management team. This kind of stemmed from our district crisis team that's being led by the amazing Kim Redlon. Um but really getting together with our peers and colleagues um as administrators and leaders and then bringing that back back to Quinn and having our um educators and other stakeholders in our school to come together reviewing um feedback especially from our safety drills that we do talking about we just did that at the last um staff meeting really debriefing about our safety drills but doing so by looking at data and having um our staff fill out surveys and having that open, honest communication of how they feel those are going and maybe things that we need to tweak or change or just discuss in a forum.