I further swear that I shall respect taxpayers interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of my of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing 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 abide by my majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibilities 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 District 308.
That being said, we also recognize that there are um times when we need help and that we, you know, particularly with, you know, again, with the open side curriculum, um we were fortunate our teachers were able to go out and visit some of the local schools that are already have already adopted it and observe lessons and talk to the teachers that are involved in it, going to community days. Um Ross is working on having some um professional development again for them in the fall because it's a very difficult challenging curriculum but also very a very good one. So we try to keep that balance. We try to keep make sure that we will continue to ask for our teachers input and and make this a successful PD. Um Sam is going to start you off with safe and supportive schools. Good evening. So, I'm going to speak to maintaining a strong inclusive school culture.
You could um like, and that's why I say cuz I'll go into classes and I wasn't seeing when I was going into a class, you wouldn't see cell phones out all that much anyway. Um, not that I never have and I still probably always will. I can walk into a superintendent's cabinet meeting and find somebody with a cell phone, I'm sure. But, um, with the hallways like the use is like dramatically different when you walk down the hallway. Even a kid who might have one in will acknowledge you in the hallway now where like two years ago, they're sick of it too, you know, zombie. Like they they're sick of being zombies, too. But I, you know, I think there's a certain safety and comfort in being a zombie, you know, socially, which is uh not good. And so I feel good that we've really turned the tide on that.
So, we were happy to see the results from the survey and from the the survey that told us that most of our students are involved in some form of activity in district 99. And the data also really affirmed our beliefs as Ryan was talking about some of the reasons why there's barriers to why people are not involved in something that's affiliated with district 99. They're still maybe involved in other things outside of school. So, we knew that, but now we had something to tell us a story about where are some of the areas that we can focus on because how he just said like maybe someone's like focusing on academics or that they have um a lack of motivation. Maybe some of those percentages are going to be a little harder for us to dive into and help change those behaviors or those um areas of lack of interest for being involved in 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. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children and compliance with state law. I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students and our community to advance the vision of district 308. And I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision the board has created, fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, s Is there any more? Are we missing something? That's it. Okay. Welcome to the board of education. You guys got to take your speech. [Applause] Wait, stop. Yeah, that's hard. people. Okay. I'll sign out. You'll [Music] be your friends.
We are a PBIS school. So, our goal is to promote and celebrate positive behavior. Our PBIS team is one of the stronger teams we have in our building. We have over 30 members of our staff who are part of that team. And we really try to focus on three areas. We have our check-in checkout program which is a tier 2 intervention where we try to match up a student and a staff mentor where they're meeting at the beginning and the end of every day and that staff member is just an extra layer of support for that student throughout the day. Um, we have our rare cards where every teacher has rare cards that they pass out to students when they're exhibiting rare qualities in our in our building and students can later cash those rare cards in for some some sort of a prize. And lastly, we have our rare celebrations, which these are more of kind of the big events where the entire grade will get together typically in the gym, sometimes outside, and we give every single student that goes to the event, they have an opportunity to participate if they feel comfortable.
A lot of parent education, a lot of student education. We have kids that have made videos about it for uh freshman orientation and link crew and for kids coming into the high school. So our kids are educating our kids on it. I got to get a copy of that. I'll send it to you. But um you know we've really done a lot of work in that domain and you know I've certainly seen that at the high school. You know that'll be another challenge. You know how um uh principal Gerillo mentioned about uh what was it? Social interactions from sixth grade to seventh grade. Now we'll have like that additional social interaction where they sort of were cut off from their devices in school and how that's great. How is that going to translate when they have a little less um restriction on them? How's that going to work?
but others that we could look at to be able to start figuring out what is the story behind this and what can we change to just continue to improve the opportunities for our students in district 99. Um, so I want to echo one more time just uh thank you to Ryan uh because this deep dive what it allowed us to do is that that one-on-one access discussions which we were not able to do in the past. Um, and just to go a little bit more in to those one-on-one discussions in the past, like we've mentioned, we had a pretty good idea of why kids weren't involved, um, what they were interested in, things like that, but the data definitively told us what they're interested in, and more specifically what kids weren't involved. So, those one-on-one access conversations allowed teachers during access classes to have those one-on-one discussions with kids um, and figure out maybe things that we didn't offer that there was potential to offer.
Again, we want to welcome Dr. Heather Martin, Dr. Rell Pollock, Mrs. Brandy Robinson, Mrs. Erica C as they join Dr. Murio, Mr. Cerrone, and Mrs. Wimmouth to the new 308 board of education. [Laughter] [Applause] Your first order of business is to uh I am to lead you in the for you to appoint a board officer. I may ask that the board make a motion to appoint a president Ro tempor to I think I said that right to preside over the election of the board of education president. The elected board president will then preside over the election of the board of education vice president and secretary. Okay. Um I move that Dr. Amy Mario uh serve as president proemp. I'm not going to try uh to presside over the election of the board of education president. Second. Miss Lenmouth. I miss Robinson. Hi. Mr. Cerone. Hi.
Now, typically some of these events to give you an idea are we have relay races, we have basketball shooting competitions, we've done musical chairs with the entire grade. The kids actually really really enjoy it and they really look forward to it. And we get a ton of help from our um not only the PBIS team, but also our fizzed staff as well that kind of really helped to organize and run all of those events. again with the whole purpose of celebrating positive behavior and if and if students are doing that they get to be a part of those events. Uh moving forward we'd like to increase the number of students on our check-in checkout program. We have plenty of staff members who have volunteered to be mentors. So I think we can find more students in our building who we can help. And sometimes it's not necessarily a behavioral issue, but sometimes just to have that social emotional support from a staff member, which can be really good throughout the throughout the entire year.
Is it going to be night and day like it was from sixth to seventh grade or is it going to carry over to have better social interaction? And I think that's where we're trying to educate our freshman and our seniors. So I did a book club with our high school kids and all the girls were talking about, man, I wish I knew then what I know now. And so then they ultimately ma made a video about it, right, Mike? Did Did you do that video? Somebody did a video about it because I know um I heard about it the other day. Maybe they're doing the video for it. Pure wisdom. That's always very effective. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz these girls, they were definitely motivated like Well, they cuz they've seen it. They've been stung by it. Hurt by it. Yeah. And uh you know, they know it's really hurtful and just it stinks.
Um and then more importantly, what were potential um obstacles to those kids that we could hopefully address and get those kids uh involved moving forward. And then as you see uh kind of to stick with the gratitude, um it takes the statement, it takes a village, you can see on here all the people that really involved with just getting us to the day. Uh our equity committee was involved right off the bat. We met with them before even did any surveys or any kind to make sure we're asking the right questions and make sure we're targeting everybody and appropriately. Uh ASC, our tech teams, uh teachers, uh coaches, and in our athletic and activities department all the way to our executive administrative assistants. They were the ones as you mentioned with Ryan that we were able to find 102 I think it was the number at North and 81 I think it was at South uh that were involved that weren't collected because this data for that second survey was done right prior to spring season.
Miss C. I Dr. uh Pock I Dr. Mario I Dr. Martin I motion uh motion passes 70. 7.1 Board of Education Reorganization. The board of education will elect a board member for the position of board of education president. Any member of the board may nominate a board member, including themselves, for the office of board of education president. Nominations do not require a second. Nominations are now open for the office of board of education president. I nominate Dominic Cerrone for president. Dominic Cerrone is nominated. Are there any other nominations for the office of board of education president? My script says to repeat this question two times. So, are there any other nominations for the office of board of education president? Are there any other nominations for the board of education president? If there are no further nominations, the nominations for the office of board of education president are now closed.
Um, and we also want to try to increase our rare card distribution. Um, again to increase positive behavior, student leadership opportunities. Uh with the help of Ross Tibo, we have partnered with the Boston Celtics and Project 351 to participate in the 2025 playbook initiative. Uh we had an eighth grade student, Maya Barry, this year who was the ambassador to Dartmouth for project 351. And what Maya did is throughout the entire year she met with other students across the state to um discuss community service projects. and she actually organized in some of our uh schools through throughout the district collection bins for clothing and she later then collected all the all those clothing uh children's clothing and she donated them to Cradles for Crayons. So, um big shout out to Maya for all her hard work in that because that was a whole year-long thing for Maya.
So they're they're um wanted to do something about it. Give a lot of credit. For legal references, I think Hazel was cool miner, not cool versus I'm pretty sure it's cooler. Ku H. Hazel Wooder 1988. See, there are good uses for AI. You can just talk to your correct sir. Get the right one. First amendment rights of student journalists. Prior restraint. I'm very impressed, Mark, that you knew that uh very legal heavy edition of the policy. It's first first minute. So, it's M E I E R K U H O M E I E R E R. They really blew it on that one. See, I I would have got that. I just knew it was it was missed the boat. I feel so much better passing this along. Perfect. Make sure that's that's reflected in the Mark knew the Jeopardy answer to Hazelwood vers.
So we didn't want it we wanted this baseline data to be 100% accurate the best we can make it um because this is the first time we're doing it and this will be the baseline that we can move off on for years to come now. So we by doing that and going through it fine tooth we know exactly why with all the numbers to anyone that was involved and having that one-on-one access discussion really as they said puts that story but uh and assumptions away when you have students and you ask them why and not just thinking well it's not just a percentage anymore. It's an actual answer from their mouth of telling you exactly why uh they may not want to be involved or what they're involved in elsewhere. And that's what we saw a lot of times they are involved with something just maybe not in our in our in our building at the time.
Uh, may I have a motion for uh, Mr. Dominic Cerrone to serve as board president? I move that Dominic Cerrone serve as board president for the board of education community unit school district 308. Can I have a second? Second. Dr. Martin. I. Yes. Miss Benmouth. I, Mr. Cerrone. I, Miss Robinson. I Dr. Pock I Miss C. I Dr. Mario. Hi. Congratulations. [Applause] Says I gota No, I can sit right here. Right. No, right here. I got Okay. I want to touch it. I think you have to hit the gabble to start the There we go. Call me on your phone. Yeah, that would be something, right? Um, so we're Thank you everybody. Um, appreciate the confidence. Um, I'm going to move on to uh 7.2 uh to elect an officer for the position of vice president. Uh the board of education will elect a board member for the position of board vice president.
Um as as I mentioned with the playbook initiative, we had 37th and eighth grade students who participated in the who participated in the playbook initiative which aims to increase in inclusive communities and they met four times throughout the year. It was led by two Dartmouth High School students and they just brainstormed ideas on how we can increase inclusivity in our school and in our community. We have rare reps for seventh and eighth grade home rooms and they really help us with some of our fundraising and our collections when we have donations. We have uh moving on up day coming up in a couple weeks. Our our current seventh graders who will be eighth graders next year are going to help with that moving on up day because they will be the leaders of the building next year for those incoming sixth graders. Um, moving forward, we want to find more ways to get our rare reps involved besides just doing fundraisers and and collecting money.
Minutia anyway. Really good at the minutia. And you wouldn't have had to spell it. So, no. Well, I just got the K. You know, I didn't get the rest of it right, but I got the K. Okay. So, are we passing this along? Are we making a motion for this? Do we make a motion to push? All right. 4:30 to go to the full board. To go to the full board. Make a motion. Yeah. I move that we just need to motion for the third. The third. Yeah. That uh policy 5131.81 electronic devices uh be sent to the full board for vote for third reading and second. Yeah. Um, Carol, you know how to write. Further discussion. All in favor? Yes. So, there's no, we're not taking any action on We need to remove the others to the second and the first to the first.
So, so as you all probably know, one of our core values in district 99 is belonging. And at Donner's Grove South, like we have belonging everywhere as part of our motto, from t-shirts to logos on our walls. And then as Ryan mentioned, there was a portion of the survey uh for district or sorry for Donner's Grove North um that they actually asked a specific question about do you feel a sense of belonging at DGN? And so that's just really important to know that students that might not be um recognized in the survey as somebody that's involved in a organized sport or activity at Donner's Grove North or Downers Grove South still has a sense of belonging. And there's other ways in which our students can be connected to staff and other students by things that we're able to put on during the day because life has changed so much in a high school that there's not just the things that are happening after school.