Good evening. I'm Anne Rodriguez, a CMEA member reading on behalf of another CMEA reading uh member, Andrea Flanigan, who is a fourth grade teacher at Belmoral. Good evening. My name is Andrea Flanigan. I am heading into my 16th year teaching fourth grade at Belmoral Elementary. I am what people in the district like to call a creek lifer. I have had the opportunity to work in other districts and have chosen to stay at Belmoral due to the many amazing people I work with each day. In fact, my own children have heard about all the activities and fun we have in our building and asked me if they too can attend Balmoral. Aside from the fact that we live outside of the community, I have hesitated when my own children have expressed they want to attend my school because I would not want them to endure August, September, and some days in October in our building due to the extreme heat.
I have been fortunate enough to remain in the same classroom for 16 years. It is my home away from home. When the temperature rises above 80°, however, it is unbearable. You see, two out of my four walls are covered in carpet. I believe this poor choice was made in the 70s when this was an addition to our building. My windows tucked in the corner of my room face two other brick walls and we do not get any breeze from outside. The upper windows that do not open face the sun. And I'm sure if you've ever sat in a hot car with the engine turned off while you wait for someone with the keys to get in, you can imagine what this feels like. In the years that I have spent in my room, I have acquired fans from garage sales. I've taken them off the hands of relatives, and I've brought some rather expensive models at big box stores, hoping that would make a bigger impact.
It didn't help. The noise of the fans becomes so loud, I often have a sore throat at the start of the year from trying to speak over them. And I am sure we can agree, fans do not do much to cut down on humidity. They offer the breeze my windows do not provide, but do little else to suppress the discomfort. Extreme heat has been an issue for years in our building and around the district. We have hoped a new building would get built and now we see more than ever that may never happen. What concerns me most today is the fact that we are now heading back into this familiar oppressive heat with the added stress and complications of a pandemic fueled by a respiratory virus. We are asking children to wear masks in a room that rout routinely sits at 85 to 95 degrees along with high humidity.
We are hopeful that a water bottle, a popsicle, and rot rotating in and out of cooling stations for 30 minutes at a time will help our children get through the day. I also think it is important to note that when we come out of the cooling stations in our masks, the heat is actually 10 times worse when we return to the classroom. I am an allergy and asthma sufferer as many of my students as are many of my students. My asthma and allergies are well controlled according to my doctor and yet when I enter my school in the beginning of the year I along with many of my colleagues experience triggered episodes due to the poor air quality and heat. I can imagine many of our students are experiencing similar issues. While our teachers and students are excited to return to learning five days a week, the staff and students of non-airconditioned buildings are also feeling an added sense of dread.
Knowing that the heat is going to make our COVID safety protocols even more difficult to follow, our mental and physical health is at risk and learning may be interrupted when we cannot stay in our own classrooms, but rather be forced to get my stu forced to forced to cooler spaces. We have such important work to do. I have never been so eager to get my students in front of me and dig into the business of learning. However, I am afraid we are going to lose precious time due to once again battling the heat for the first two months of school. We talk a lot in this district about equity. There is nothing equitable about the vast difference in learning environment from the buildings with good air quality and filter temperature controlled environment versus those without. As a teaching staff, we are expected to bring our students up to grade level and beyond.
We are preparing our students for state and local assessments and we are most certainly looking to close any learning gaps from the time spent remote learning. We are asking a lot of from our students to give us their undivided attention to meet these goals and when most adults would not be able to do their jobs well in that same environment. I am writing this letter to you be begging you to please work together as a school board and administration to come up with solutions to give our students the environment they deserve. Please explore every option. Bring in thirdparty heating and cooling experts for advice and current estimates. Spend even more time reviewing what can be done with the COVID relief money or other funds to solve this problem once and for all. Additionally, I would like to extend an invite to any members of the board or administration to volunteer in our classroom when we are expecting extreme heat.
I say volunteer rather than visit because my students and I will still be busy working hard to meet their learning needs and we would love for you too to join us in that work. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, the next comment comes uh via email from Serena Michelus. I hope I've said that last name correctly. Good evening all. I have many concerns about the upcoming school year. The heat in non-airconditioned buildings is stifling under normal circumstances. Students are irritable and learning is near impossible on these days. Add wearing a mask to the mix and it is unbearable. Please do not please do not get me wrong. The mask mandate is needed to try to keep our students and staff safe. Something needs to be done for these buildings without AC. Remote options for hot days for the nonAC buildings would allow learning to continue to occur and keep people safe at least from the heat stroke and other issues.
There was a word used a lot last year almost as much as asynchronous. That was metrics. So, let's talk metrics, or shall I say lack thereof. Last year, we had metrics deciding when we would return to in-person learning. Granted, in March, we ignored it and returned anyway. This year, we have none. Currently, for Will County, three or four categories for school determination are substantial and one is moderate. Please keep in mind this data is about 7 to 10 days delayed. So, there's a chance by now that they are all substantial. Pre previously, if even one category was substantial, everyone would be home. Ignoring the metrics we followed 98% of last year is mind-boggling to me. I know that some will say there's a vaccine now and blah blah blah. I'm sorry to say that as there is a vaccine, many people have chosen not to get it.
Many people are unable to get it because of health reasons. Plus, kids 12 and younger are not eligible to get it. That is a very large population of the people we serve. Putting children, faculty, and staff at risk is unnecessary and reckless. I am very disappointed and this makes me feel like I am a glorified babysitter and that's the only reason the kids are returning in person. So, we can watch them after years of teaching. This may just be my last year in the profession. Will it be from retirement? Will it be from COVID? will be to find some place where I am treated as important and that my safety matters. Only a matter will only time will tell. I implore the board members and family of our great community to attend a board meeting at one of our non-airconditioned buildings to see how it is for those in the trenches.
Then keep in mind it was hotter during the day than when you were there. Thank you for listening and I hope you consider those you serve, the staff and students of this great district. Next public comment is from Megan Krauss. Good evening. My name is Megan Krauss, mother of a new student of Balmoral Elementary. My husband and I would like to address how this board is allowing kindergarteners to walk in to your facilities without some form of acclamation, whether by meet or touring prior to the first day of classes. As I expect many parents to know, the first day of school can be daunting for any child and especially for a 5-year-old who knows no one and has not had the opportunity to meet teachers or administrators. I find it quite unfortunate that after 17 months of going through this pandemic, there was no preparation for Balmoral Elementary to create such an event in person or virtual.
I can only hope that there is more organization and care in all other aspects of my child's future at Balmoral. Thank you for your time. Okay, thanks for all the public comments. Um, next up is administrative updates and I'll turn it over to Dr. Cara. Thank you. Uh, certainly heat is a topic of concern for all of us. Um, as we're going into the season at the summer, let alone with maskearing. Uh our administration has been working tirelessly to look at the options we do have to try to mitigate some of the heat. Um we've looked into we have the the five e-learning days that will be available for the extreme heat days. Um as you heard as well, we've put fans in the buildings and we've also um have put in uh cooling stations and so forth. Um later on today we're going to talk a little bit more about some of our plans moving forward with our facilities in coming up with some air options uh moving forward and I know Mr.
Sur is going to be talking about that at length during his presentation um for the budget. So you'll be listening to that. Is there anything that you might want to add either Ken or Jantel? Feel free. I'll join. I'll join. Sure. So, um we have been working um in administration to determine if we have to call heat days um how we use um that time outside of the classroom. And so school code allows us to dismiss after five hours of an instructional day is ma maximized. Um it allows us to use emergency days or e-learning days, not both. We have a maximum of five days per year. Uh we also can utilize an interrupted day which means uh we can dismiss after a minimum of students being in school for an hour. However, by law we cannot call that day ahead of time. Uh we can let parents know um that we we will um dismiss have a possible dismissal, but we cannot say um the previous day that we will have an interrupted day, which makes it difficult for families that would need uh child care.
If we exhaust all of our emergency days or e-learning days, those five days total for the year, uh then we would have to go into act of God days. In our act of God days, the superintendent would have to get approval from our role uh to use any days uh that pose a risk to students. Uh we are currently working with our building administrators and teachers to build uh e-learning plans should we need to go and use any of those days. And so Ken can talk about what transportation looks like and what we purchase uh for the buildings. Thanks Shantel. U just I guess a couple things I I will share and and again I will be straight with you that fans really don't do a lot in buildings. All they do is push around hot air. They really don't cool. Um, and you really, you know, one of the things when we talk about air conditioning is there are codes that the uh Illinois uh state board of education has and you have to bring so much fresh air into a classroom and that.
So, I'm going to talk about that when I get into my presentation, but that's one of the big things. So even in pushing around air into a classroom, you still should really open the windows and get fresh air in because you need fresh air into the classroom. It just again brings more hot air in. And that so we are supplying fans into our buildings, all of our non-air buildings. Um I if we don't have enough, I'll be happy. We we'll order more. We can get those overnighted so that that isn't an issue. We are also bringing in four water coolers into every facility, every non-airconditioned facility. So there will be four water coolers in there. Um we do also have bottle fillers that we have put in uh drinking fountain bottle fillers. Um so those can be utilized too. Um there really isn't a lot we can do to cool a building right now.
I mean, I'm I'm just going to tell you that unless we put in air conditioning, that's the only way we're going to cool a building. You know, these things that we're doing right now that we've done for years, have done for the four years that I've been here, um really only kind of push hot air around, quite honestly, on that. All right.
So, I don't know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer any from a facility standpoint. Um I know Jontel mentioned transportation. If there is a situation where uh a building does get too warm and we do have to let children out, the bus company is prepared to bring buses here and can get them here quickly for us uh by midday if we have to do that. The buildings really start heating up. I will tell you this, they they'll start heating up around 10:00 in the morning. They start cooking uh because they're brick buildings and and that's just they do. They cool down a little bit at night, but then they'll as soon as the sun hits them, they start baking.
So, um, again, I I again I I don't know if you have any questions. Be happy to answer. So, so real quick, yeah, the e-learning days and the act of God days if if you do an early release does what does that account for? The that's the interrupted day. So, we cannot call an interrupted day the night before. So, we cannot say tomorrow is going to be an interrupted day. Okay. So the real but we would if we did that we would have to make that day up. No, I take that back. We don't have to make that day up. We um we can only use an emergency day or an e-learning day if we call it the night before. Okay. So and who controls that? The ROE. The Illinois code controls. Yeah, there's an Illinois school. The Illinois School of Code says this about and it's called an interrupted day.
An act of God, an interrupted day. And so what happens is is and I'll give you an example. So a a school district has has multiple buildings and all of a sudden the electricity in one building goes off at nine o'clock in the morning. You can call that an interrupted day because it's called that day. And as long as there's one hour of instruction, you do not have to make that day up and you can let those children out. All right. The rest of the day. So hear me out. At the last business meeting, I had brought up that we are allowed five days. Mhm. But in a situation in our district, we have four if not five buildings without AC. And so the ROE has to have some compassion in that sense. Okay, there's no way that it's going to be 90, let's say 92 next Tuesday that we can't warn our parents and use that, right?
They have told us right out that we cannot do that. There is no exception to that. And here's why. Air conditioning is not a life safety issue. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Now, let's go back a little bit. I'm just I'm just I understand that. Listen, I I get that. I know. Okay. Uh being in the industry, whether it's 100 degrees out or or minus 10, we're working. Mhm. But when you have kids and staff in a building, there has to be there has to be a shelf. And it is a life safety day in a it is a safety day for sure. I mean, but that's why they're saying you call it that day. You have to call it that day in order to have as an interrupted day. That's according to school code. I that that's what they're that's what they're telling us.
We we've asked this question, you know, when we talked to them about this and I agree in a normal situation, but now that we're in different situation with pandemic and mass, all that should not we shouldn't be on regular rules right now because if the governor decided that, hey, we're going to all wear a mask now, all that should be negotiable. And I think a phone I listen at the last meeting I had mentioned that I know we have five days and I know maybe you're saying they're not going to change but some kind of contact to them and we have we've contact and so the fact that now they're mandating mass there's no way of working around that according to them there is not they have told us you can use your five days as emergency days or as e-learning days or you can use interrupted days and then you and look into act of God days.