So, you you truly believe it's best to do it. Next year will run similar to this year because we'll still be in the hybrid model. Okay. No vote there. So, information only a lot of hard work and dedication. Absolutely. Well worth That brings us to item 8C the vote 2027-2028 school calendar recommendation. Yep, one of my favorites here. I won't go into great detail but we we've maintained a very similar calendar for what's been over a decade now where we tried to establish we have we know we have 180 instructional days. I try to stay a year ahead. Next year's calendar is already approved, so this is for 2027-28. We know that parents many parents are planners and so they want to make sure that we have approved calendars. Uh parents love consistency, parents love to have things in place that are clear. So this is just to make sure that we get the next year's calendar in place.
>> Yep. Taylor with the ball. Gets the ball over to Kozub. Kozub back up to Lee. Lee looking to find a cutter. Nothing there. Ball's thrown away. Nobody's going to press on it because we're Yep. we're down that player. Ball gets up to Lee. Lee looking to do something. Nothing there. She tries to feather one in. The ball's thrown away. Burns chases it out there, but leaves Minnechaug's Stackwitz to get it. Stackwitz brings it up on top. And that should be a 3 3-second violation. 3-second violation on Kaia Moreno. As Great save. >> Good save as >> [cough] >> Who is that? Mack Whitmer takes another one. I don't know if Mack got one in the hand. I don't know if that was on the shot. [snorts] I was I was looking down. I don't know if it was on the follow-through or Looks like Mack got one in the hands.
Um some teachers, if a student's not showing up, you know, right at the bell, they're walking afterwards, they'll let it slide. Teachers have different relationships with their students. So, as long as they're consistent, it works. However, sometimes we know that if you let a student, you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. So, as the year goes on, again, the March Madness, I think, is when I get a lot of calls, so and so has been tardy. So and so's late to class, and I'll get a write up. What does that really mean? When I dig deeper by talking to the teacher and find out with the student, it's more of like now the kids showing up 5 minutes late. Well, why did that happen? And well, they started just coming in a few minutes late, then they started saying, "Hey, could I run to the bathroom quick?" Then they, you know, eventually it's later and later and later.
And again, people may disagree with how we we would do it, and those are things that we're going to have to look at. These recommendations that I'm going to present to you tonight, lately. They reflect a careful balance of fiscal responsibility while continuing to maintain the high quality education experience our community expects for our students. Want to thank the Board of Education, our staff, and especially the Kent community. Because I did listen, the administrative team did listen. And for their partnership and engagement throughout the process, even during the challenging budget conversations, and I appreciate everyone saying it's a challenge. Not community members, and it's a challenge for us, but this team is committed to doing what the the board suggests. So, what I would like to do right now is pass out this document so people can see them. And we have enough for the community members, and here we'll pass this out on the line.
9.5 is the approval of Red Rover renewal. 9.16 is the approval of three-year agreement for annual penetration testing services. Thank you, sir. It was quite a lot today. Uh does the board have any questions or comments? Uh Okay. On the textbook and display, we got an email um raising some red flags about specifically students not reading novels within this curriculum. Um what is our response to the concerns about the academic and workforce setbacks that that would lead to? >> Sure. So, I'll go in uh make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the process we went through to select this and then where we're headed with it. Um so, this again comes from the board's strategic plan around literacy. So, over the course of this year, you've approved different things for the elementary, the middle school, and this would be the final piece of the high school.
So, I'll go through them relatively quickly. Just stop me if you have any questions. So, we have the first one is 2:220 E1 and this is board treatment of closed meeting verbatim recordings and minutes. The next exhibit is 2:220 E2 motion to adjourn to closed meeting. 220 E3 closed meeting minutes And Dr. Thomas, is this >> [clears throat] >> Does the district have to use this form or will it just be is that just going to be a sample template? This is the form that we actually use now. Okay. So, it we would be using this form, yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, 220 E4 This is open meeting minutes. 220E5, semi-annual review of closed meeting minutes. Which I think we're actually scheduled to do tomorrow. 220E7. This is uh exhibit access to closed meeting minutes and verbatim recordings. 2:220E8, Board of Education Records Maintenance Requirements and Frequently Asked Questions.
Some things that that I considered going through this the review of the calendar. Uh we know we have 180 instructional days and try to do as many of those as we can in person. Um obviously some winters are are worse than others and we had 12 virtual days. That's that's about six five or six days uh past the average. We usually have six or seven days in a winter. So this past winter stung a little bit um uh with the number of virtual days that we had. The Cal Central does not apply for waiver days. Um and I don't intend to apply for waiver days. Uh some districts will apply for they'll they'll apply for a waiver day to take a student day, make it a virtual day, and turn it into a professional learning day for the staff. So essentially you're losing us an in-person student day.
That's not Mack's holding her fingers or wrist. Yeah, but coming out of this you wonder if the Spartans should just hold it back in the I don't know. Yeah, I mean I I definitely think you have to get the ball in some of your sure stick hands. >> Yeah. And let them uh let them find some seams, run out the clock. I think they Minnetchaug cut the lead down to four, but there's only 6 minutes left, so they're still going to they're and they're up a man, so they'll be double they'll be double-teaming the ball. So >> All right, if I'm if they're giving you that line, I would just stay back, but Mack Whitmer goes in and out of the Minnetchaug. That's one of the one of the calls I think should happen in future cuz a lot of the girls can go over the restraining line.
I like to have the discussion with the student. And I my expectation and my what I'll hold the kids firmly accountable for is my expectation is you're in your seat in the classroom working on the activator when the bell rings. Anything beyond that, I'm going to mark you tardy. And one again, if it's two seconds after the bell, it's a two-hour detention. [snorts] Kids have to learn, they have to know to hold themselves accountable because they might not want to do it the way I hold them accountable. So again, uh tardiness, the goal, improve punctuality, minimize learning disruptions. It's always disruptive when students are walking into classrooms late. Uh we have a couple now that are uh have to do with substance uh use and abuse. Uh obviously THC is a big one. Marijuana um we've seen a major uptick. Uh two things I think have led to this.
Thank you. So, I think everyone has um the document. The initial reduction in the Board of Finance in the first chart, transportation and reduction of two bus routes affecting all schools for 90,000. Mrs. Robbins and Mr. Bishop are working hard on that. They're running routes. And they believe that it can be done. Reduction of certified and non-certified staff to be determined. We still need to do that. We need to determine based upon enrollment, and in particular, as I mentioned at every Board of Finance meeting to this quarter, that we're still debating and looking at our kindergarten numbers. Right now, it's 85. 86 86 86 you said. Now, you can see with the $375,000 reduction because there's certain of the things that I spoke about. Art lab computers, they're due to replacement for the high school art lab. And what will happen instead of replacing them, they'll just go to another lab.
So, it's a direct link to our strategic plan. And it really spawned from not only the community kind of saying this is something that we want to see improvement in, but the state itself said literacy There's something going on with literacy instruction. So, they put out the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan, which is kind of a synthesis of a lot of research on what works to get kids reading. So, we did an intensive study first of the ICLP with our staff with a lot of our staff to kind of make sure that we were aware of the shifts in literacy instruction that were coming. Um so, that was kind of a big educational push for us. As a part of that, we did a gap analysis with our current curriculum and where we're going. And what the gap analysis really showed is that we're not meeting the the components of the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan.
Uh the next one is 2:220E9. Requirements for no physical presence of quorum and participation by audio or video during disaster declaration. Which we hope we don't have to use. Then we have 2:240E1. And this is press issue updates. Uh and the next one is 2:240E uh E2, Developing Local Policy. All right, the next one is actually a policy. So, it's 2:250, Access to District Public Records. There [snorts] are some changes on page one. These are primarily just minimal style changes. Uh instead of saying that was delegated, they just switch it to the word delegated. Um They do have some updates on here, which are great actually in terms of FOIA, uh including under the definition. It talks about the district's public records do not include junk mail. So, if something that is considered junk mail is FOIA'd, we do not have to send it. Um the other one is in requesting records, the fourth paragraph down, it does say email requests must include the entirety of the request within the body of the email and not as an attachment or hyperlink.
I don't I don't like the idea of applying for a day that might be perfectly good for an in-person student learning day when we already have inclement weather days that we missed a number of of school days for virtual. So I feel like we we try to stay with our 180 instructional days as much as possible. Um the the year's divided into two semesters. That's probably more useful at the high school um than any place else. So we try to uh separate it with winter break. So really when looking at the calendar, I I start with where winter break is going to begin and work work back from there and that kind of determines where we start. And of course that's taken into consideration fall break, Thanksgiving break, fair day, teacher in-service day, um Labor Day. And so, that ends up determining where we start school.
If you go over the restraining line, you're offsides. If you were to get a green card and be out for a minute, they do that in college. I think that would be better. Cuz it'd force the girls to stop more. Hackney with the ball getting the ball over to Whitworth. Minnechaug up a man, so I'm surprised they're >> we're back to full strength, Mary's I think cuz 5:30 5:30. >> Yep. See, good thing. Glad you have you here. So, now they're they're not man-marking Mac anymore. >> good. Which is going to end up leaving a lot of space. >> much space in there. >> Yeah. Now, they're going to come out on Mac. That's when you almost want to see and now Mac has a open space. Mac turns around, pulls out smartly knowing enough that the the goal doesn't make a difference and the clock makes more.
Uh back in the day, uh I remember my first year as an administrator in in Drake and I was actually my first year I was in a junior high school and a student was caught with a small amount of um marijuana in a um I had to call the police and that student who was in seventh grade was walked out with handcuffs. We don't do that anymore. Since that was in the early 2000s, we've changed. The laws have changed in Massachusetts. Uh marijuana has been legalized for uh if you're over 21. Our students have access to it like they didn't before. Not only because it's been legalized, but it also has become uh it's no longer a flour substance. It's now they they have the oils that they could use to uh you know they could be become I I think they could become addicted to it.
Pause district LCD installation. You all have been into classrooms, so you know that we have LCD projectors in beaming to our art boards, and they're due for a replacement cycle. We're going to hold off on that replacement cycle, not the year they're due. Pause the district staff laptop. Spoke to our union president about that. And And this is something that we are out of cycle with our laptops, and um if they break, there is repair money to be able to replace them, but we're hoping that we get another year out of them. The seventh grade Chromebooks, which I mentioned, this will play a part in not purchasing Chromebooks. And eventually down the road, this will play a part that as some people said, we may not have as many Chromebooks and um else and other technology devices at Sherwood Primary School. And that's something that we need to talk about as a a board because it could have direct impact on possible student achievement.
And because of that gap, we didn't feel that our current curriculum could be manipulated into fulfilling those gaps, we went looking for new curricular resources at all levels. So, at the K through 8 level, we're using a a product from Amplify that you guys have approved. There's not a a product that extends in the high school. So, the high school team, the SALT team, um they really looked at what was out there for high schools. And we're not talking cuz we don't really control the curriculum for like AP Lit, AP Lang, um our electives courses we do control but it's like very self-contained um those things. What we do control is like where most of our kids are at and that would be your required English 1, English 2, and English 3 classes for freshman, sophomore, and junior students. So, they went through, they uh interviewed all sorts of um vendors to see what their products did.
So, this is because there are sometimes FOIAs that are created that are sent out that um have a hyperlink and the hyperlink is some kind of malware or other issue. So, whatever the request is actually has to be in the body of the email. If they don't put the full request in the body of the email, we are not obligated to click on random links. Mhm. Which I think is a good thing. That's also listed down at the bottom under number four. So, if somebody wants to FOIA your email, they can just look in the your inbox, but they can't go through your spam or junk mail? Uh that would be correct. Okay. Dr. Thomas, I think [clears throat] that um under Freedom of Information Officer on the very first first page of 2250 or page 101 if you're at home, is the responsibility for is repeated twice in that last sentence.
And then after break, with the number of days that we have remaining, we plan those accordingly with the goal to get out of prior to Memorial Day. Um that's kind of the goal. It doesn't always happen. Um and this year's a prime example of that when we approved Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it bumped us to a school day after Memorial Day. So, that's why I've been asked that question. Maybe you've got that question, too. You're like, "Why are you going to school after Memorial Day?" So, that's why. Um because we we did we did uh take Martin Luther King Jr. Day off of from this year moving forward. Um we really look for uh very intentional breaks of a 1-week fall break, 1-week of uh spring break, and 2 weeks of winter. Graduation is set for Sunday, June 4th at 2:00. That's Uh we've always appointed Memorial Day weekend for graduation.