Crete Monee School district 201u Committee of the Whole Meeting 4/14/2020

001okay so I will call this meeting to order roll call please everyone turn their mics on please mr. Brown thank you mrs. Mitchell here mrs. roof here mr. siwash here mrs. Walters here mrs. Gilbreth is here mr. Ober here his room please read the mission statement sure our mission is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future and I think I got that order of order so we have the Pledge of Allegiance please yes pledge allegiance thank you okay so before we get started tonight I just have like read something to the public here and our staff and students district 201 you finds itself today an unprecedent ances due to kovat 19 I want to take this opportunity to share from the Board of Education our heartfelt condolences to

002the families suffering from illness and who have lost loved ones the board also wants to acknowledge the courageous efforts of our unbelievably talented staff of teachers administrators food service staff custodians and security personnel these are trying times and we appreciate these heroes that have come in every day to attend to our students and families particularly those in need we are also immensely proud of our scholars who persevere through their studies while missing their school teachers and friends we also want to acknowledge the hardship this virus has bestowed on our seniors at no fault of their own please also know that the board's overarching mission at this moment in time is the health and safety of our students families and staff in that regard we will continue to adhere to the guidance provided by the state

003tonight is our first virtual meeting please bear with us and you'll get through this together so next step is public comment we have eight tonight and for those watching livestream with our virtual meetings public comments can be emailed to terry Tobin before 5:30 on the night of the meeting and they will be read aloud our first public comment is from Jamie Healy subject is public comment for April BOE meeting I want to extend my gratitude and appreciation for all our teachers admin staff support and other employees of 201 you for all their hard work and flexibility during this uncertain time my children you Nelson if you can hear me you're muted your mic is off okay did it look on your back you're getting read the statement read please read it again I know I

004will district 201 you finds itself today in unprecedent unprecedented circumstances due to Coba 19 I want to take this opportunity to share from the Board of Education our heartfelt condolences to those families suffering from illness or who have lost loved ones the board also wants to acknowledge the courageous efforts of our unbelievably talented staff of teachers administrators food service staff custodians and security personnel these are trying times and we appreciate these heroes that have come in every day to attend to our students and families particularly those in need we are also immensely proud of our scholars who persevere through their studies while missing their school teachers and friends we also want to acknowledge the hardship this virus has bestowed on our seniors at no fault of their own please also know the board's overarching mission

005at this moment in time is the health and safety of our students families and staff in that regard we will continue to adhere to the guidance provided by the state tonight is our first virtual meeting please bear with us and when we'll get through this together so thank you so did everybody hear that okay so we have tonight on public comment we have eight public comments that I will read and as I was trying to say while I was on mute before with our virtual meetings we've asked that public comment be emailed to Terry Tobin prior to 5:30 on the evening of a meeting and we will read them aloud so the first one is from Jamie Healey the the topic is public comment for April BOE meeting I want to extend my gratitude and

006appreciation for all our teachers admin support staff and other employees of 201 u for all their hard work and flexibility during this uncertain time my children's teachers have been phenomenal all year but I have been so impressed by all they are doing while navigating these uncharted waters the extra activities like spirit weeks that each schools been doing has created an extra sense of community that is so needed during this time teachers worked so hard as it is and the way all of our educators are coming together to create engaging lessons over the computer is amazing to see I also want to thank Pam Panza in her entire staff for continuing to feed families during all of this my family and I are proud to be part of the 202 oh one you community thank you

007Thank You Jamie a drink of water here second is from Tim peep and bring the topic is save the dome thank you for the opportunity to address tonight's meeting the residents of our school district have been hearing of the district's plans for the future which includes consideration for demolishing several buildings including the warrior dome while the plans aren't finalized yet many residents feel that losing a dome would be a waste of a true community asset as a group of supporters to keep the dome we feel we are there are missing points that should have been considered in the proposal from district architects which have listed the cost of dome upgrades at over twelve point six million won the structural integrity of the dome was not evaluated it has it was stated however that the dome

008was not suitable to uses storm shelter how could that be known in fact without an in valuation - drainage issues were not looked at for a solution of the moisture problems in the lower levels three concerns about the atmosphere inside the dome have been questioned the lower levels are in a musty and dank condition due to being closed up for closed up for a long time we've approached companies that would cleanse the area at a much lower cost than proposed especially if they are no longer used as locker rooms for requests for a group of interested and qualified people to inspect the inside the building was made but with the social distancing and lockdown orders in place it seems like that is not possible at this time blueprints and elevations of the dome site have

009also been requested but access to the buildings for retrieving these documents has not been given five according to the recent calculations based on the size of dome as part of the old sixth grade center it cost the district around $600 per month in utilities to keep it as is that cost could be paid for only a few that cost could be paid for by only a few events or rentals each month to cover those expenses the creek park district has an interest in the dome for their activities that should be noted here that there is a petition with over 750 signatures and it says we are encouraging the school board not to demolish the dome but to include it in their building plans and/or make it available to community organizations for activities and events have

010board members and facility committee members actually walked around the dome inside or out to see what repairs and improvements could be made there are upgrades and improvements that will have to be made but do all board members have a copy of these proposed upgrade costs we feel that these costs are exorbitant and in some cases not needed to be done immediately or in their entirety reviewing these individual costs with qualified contractors and taking a look at what is actually needed for the dome to be a public facility would be the best way to get an accurate and fair cost of these upgrades these numbers are from the architects proposal dated February 20th 2020 replace existing domestic water piping 440 mm repair refinish exterior walls and structure 100,000 reroute the facility 1.1 million replace or upgrade

011interior finishes 1.1 million renovate locker rooms 2.4 million enclose exterior egress stairs 1.5 million storm shelter upgrade in new ES 810 thousand new 3 stop elevator for accessibility 150,000 new fire suppression system 176,000 replace replaced HVAC and TCS 1.5 million upgrade lighting 442 thousand new fa system 132,000 utility upgrades for gone after SGC demo 407 thousand page 2 of the report has another 2.2 million dollars for architect and engineering fees and the contingencies for design and bidding construction the sum total is 12 point 6 million the total figure would be greatly reduced and there are grant possibilities to help defray those costs with their decision to keep the dome in conjunction with the school district community groups organizations and individuals we can make the dome a destination for many people to attend events and activities

012all kinds use of the dome will be a feather in our cap and it will Hance our region and be a good stimulant for the recognition and commerce that we all desire sincerely Tim make them drink number three from Billy Morgan subject public comment Billy Morgan I want to thank the creat mony school board for continuing to meet and doing the people's business for our students faculty and staff at this critical and unprecedented time in a nation's history certainly none of us have lived through anything quite like this though it is difficult it is important to have a steady hand and continue to make sure that the bills are paid and critical operations continue and I commend you for making sure that our proceedings are screened streamed online and public comment continue to take place

013with the Cova 19 changing our daily life it's important that we take this time to get things right there's no need to rush and make big decisions now especially as no one knows what a post code vid world will look like or when it will begin instead now is the time to gather as much information as possible as many viewpoints as possible and make as many plans as possible this heart is is with a solidly designed plan with robust answers to funny questions that will convince the public of the need for change throw any questions like a proposed new school in University Park what would it look like or would it be what designs do we have a petition to save the dumb with more than 700 digital signatures as a district talk to every

014possible stakeholder and utilized all the connections it has to make sure that there are no alternative tourney's to demolishing the creat landmark thank you again for this for your commitment to the public service and your willingness to continue to do the people's work while under a worldwide pandemic Thank You Billy number four is from James Young titled property preservation hello Bo mie members and superintendent colonies I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and in good spirits as you're aware these past few weeks have had an unprecedented impact on our students district families and all the 201 communities the coronavirus is a new and unique challenge we all face together I have been a CMS d201 you resident for 22 years during that time I've never seen heard or experienced anything like

015bovid 19 it has halted many daily human activities in our county state nation in the global world consequently I want to encourage each board member to look further ahead and take advantage of this opportunity to respond in a way that is greater than the fear of this else health crisis in the midst of these uncertain times CM SD 201 you can be an example of grace to those affected within and outside of the warrior community keeping the dome will be a valuable resource for alternative living serve as a testing facility for first responders become a storage center and can be used can be converted as a temporary treatment facility for immediate aid if the United Center mccormick place in closed hospitals in Blue Island Elgin and Chicago can be reopened and transformed for humanitarian purposes

016surely we can save our dome from destruction and invest in it for multiple purposes consider these statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health as of Monday April 13 2029 firm cases of co-head by zip code 604 1 7 crete 47 604 49 monie 23 604 66 park forests 156 604 84 University Park we must cease all efforts to demolish the dome because these statistics are alarming this adds to the other credible perspectives of thousands of residents who voted yes to being included in future school district reorganization plans and to over 740 district residents who have signed the online petition to save the dome as we approach the final date for voting on our dome we must not forget where we're in this predicament together everyone can and should benefit save our dome don't destroy

017it invest in it and the event the BOE decides to continue with its efforts to demolish the dome I want to recommend that those voting members who reside in Crete recuse themselves from voting the public image created to vulnerable student populations stat school staff and minority community is not and never has been conducive to the goals of equity we cannot afford to repeat history or go backwards let peace transcend all levels of understanding take care James Young number five this is from lavona Swilly subject creek mony high school prom 2020 cancellation good evening all I hope everyone is safe well and healthy I've been discussing with my high school senior for the last few weeks the idea of her senior prom being canceled she was very understanding about the seriousness of kovat 19 and white

018is more important for her and her classmates to practice social distancing during this time in addition we were we were both disappointed because we've already spent almost a thousand dollars on the dress shoes undergarments and deposits on hair and makeup appointments however even in the midst of disappointment we are looking for other opportunities for her still have a prom moment because of the pending cancellation after the mandated shelter-in-place has been lifted however to my dismay on the evening of Friday April 10th my daughters added attitude went from laughing to melancholy within seconds of viewing social media and reading the disheartening message from Creek Moni High School Principal and miss Trish posted on the website I believe that posting a letter and not having out what for seniors to discuss their disappointment was unfair and highly

019insensitive this announcement should have been made through one of their classes or through a scheduled online announcement from ms Trish as a parent I want to know if other options were considered before a full cancellation was made and if other schools are rescheduling the prom why not cret Moni warm regards lavona slowly fields number 5 this is I don't have a last name just from Karen subject is 2020 prom suggestion maybe we have both the graduation if it gets canceled and prom on the same day during the summer or when we were able to gather in groups that is maybe have graduation Saturday morning and then prom that night all in one day some seniors will be going to college some may even mean going away may want to plan a last-minute vacation with their

020family if possible before heading off to college so having it both in the same day might be easier for most if not all to attend both in one day versus having them separate and at least we're not taking those memories away from them and we're giving them one day to dress up and feel special basically giving them their day albeit late but at least they're getting their days which they deserve my daughter is a senior and I would love to see their graduate that I would like to see her graduate and enjoyed her prom just like we were able to do moons ago thanks Karen number 7 this is from Katie Sylvester and subject as prom thoughts as a business owner in Crete I would like to be a partial sponsor for our seniors cm

021HS to have a senior prom I think would be a wonderful if all the businesses in the district and parents alike stepped up to put on a prom I don't think this is something that we should be taken away completely or canceled I would be willing to help in any way to make this happen ensure our students that they're there are always a priority in our community we can do fundraising collect money for tickets search for a discounted venue and make this happen work for Future Leaders head to college please let me know in what way my efforts can help Eddie Sylvester number 8 from Sheryl Albrecht and Carole Millsap subject is 2020 prom first we completely acknowledge the seriousness of co-ed 19 but we remain hopeful that the end will be sooner than later

022but this being said we would ask you reconsider the cancellation of prom for 2020 this pandemic has affected so many in so many ways but right now we are thinking about the seniors prom is the rite of passage for any high school student we have to try as a district and communities to honor that rite of passage for our seniors they deserve it we have a group that will grow in numbers that will partner with the district a host of prom for graduating seniors we hope that you will reconsider and take us up on our offer make our senior class know that we are looking out for them during this pandemic we look forward to respond sincerely Cheryl Albrecht and drill noise and that's it for public comment up as a departmental updates I'll hand

023it over to Carol alright thank you very much what we wanted to do during vistas discussion today is make sure that we had an opportunity to have every department share with the board as well as the community what has been going on in the district behind the scenes during these last four weeks of social distancing certainly are very proud of all our staff our students for the Galleon work that they have been doing and certainly want to give them that an opportunity as you can imagine these are difficult times that we're all going through there is no rulebook in the administrative handbook on how to handle pandemics for such a large amount of time but we are all using our strengths our collaboration to do the best that we can and we've been very proud

024with the results of this community our students and our staff our priorities have always been number one safety to engaging the learning of our students that have been gone from us for several weeks and also looking at the social-emotional well build the well-being of both our our students and our staff because our staff has missed our students as much as they have missed us and their friends as I said staff and students have done an exceptional job following the governor's social distance E guidelines we have done so much with the e-learning the food services we've mentioned but the buildings have also done an enormous job of keeping spirits high and contacting students doing special celebrations and that has been immensely helpful and even the public comments tonight so thoughtful in in reaching out and emphasizing

025what you're seeing in the community we certainly do appreciate that to know that our work is being noticed the biggest questions that we have been having here in the district and at the building level is what are we going back when are we going back to school and I wish we all knew that I know all of you are doing the same thing that we are doing we are following the social distancing guidelines we're waiting to find out what the governor's directions are going to be we are closed until at the end of the month however like you and watching what's going on in the other states other counties to decide whether that's going to continue or if there's going to be a shutdown for the rest of the school year and that that could

026be highly likely we're following the news and the analytics about how kovat is working we are hearing about the flattening of the curve but how much longer there's a lot of information out there about how long for social distancing to make it effective they've been talking about a second wave that may be coming in the fall is looking at the statistics so these are some things that we have to be very mindful as we start going and thinking forward pass really this school year but thinking towards summer and even thinking towards fall we are trying to be proactive and not reactive as best we can in reviewing some of the major events that are coming forward we have done a great job with our e-learning but the next big events are prom and graduation graduation

027at the high school eighth grade great but prom prom is scheduled for two weeks from now that's May 2nd and we know the kind of work that needed to be done for prom takes weeks and weeks in order to do that and we will understand that May 2nd is not likely so I think the question becomes what do we do with that that situation these are really big decisions to make none of these are taken lightly we do know how this affects our students we were all high schoolers we have children we have children that have either gone to a graduation prom and some that have not and we know how how disappointing this can be for students but also parents and community members so this has been probably one most difficult decisions that we've

028had to make because we are we are guessing about what's gonna happen we don't know and it's very difficult to make decisions when we don't have all the facts but people are asking what are we doing what's going on we are buying outfits are we canceling flights from families coming in we've been getting bombarded the high school with wanting to have an answer either way so we have been trying to figure out what is in the best interest of our the safety of our students but also the social emotional well-being as well so these decisions have certainly been weighed upon and discussed the question becomes do we postpone or do we cancel what is the difference I know many people have given the suggestions and we had thought about it to just postponing you know

029what does that look like postponing till til June July August there are a lot of factors in the postponement what we don't know is will social distancing be lifted even in June or July we are also making sure are we going to be opening in August we don't know for sure so the postponement and setting a date we don't even know if we're going to open in June or July is is again guessing and as you know our staff is gone all our teaching staff is gone in June July over the summer so it causes a lot of plans that we would have to really consider and think through then we need to think about if we just cancel what does that mean last Friday as mentioned miss Trish did write a letter that was

030put on the website to inform students that the prom that was to take place in two weeks was going to be cancelled cancelled because not knowing what was coming up and not having other alternatives ready even for July June or July not knowing if we were going to be even open from social distancing at that point was worrisome now we do recognize the letter did not go out exactly how miss Trish had intended to it but we wanted to make sure that people knew as quickly as possible and that this was actually a very difficult decision for us and one that was not taken lightly so again canceling our postponing we just don't know when we're going to reopen even in June even in July we did hear over this last few days about the

031disappointment of community we have heard and we realize how disappointing this is so we have been talking to try to figure out what are some other alternatives that we can do but more importantly how we can enlist the ideas of our students our parents parents already tonight gave some ideas they're thinking but we need some help in figuring out what would be some alternatives to prom perhaps for alternatives to prom what if we don't open in June or July so we don't want to miss that opportunity if we postpone and wait and then we don't open we will have missed all opportunities to do anything even virtual and we don't want to do that we want to be proactive instead of reactive so we would like to focus on sending a letter out to families

032tomorrow with a forum with students and parents to have them help us figure out some virtual ideas or suggestions that they would help we have seen some ideas out there in other states and other communities about you know posting pictures of students in there and their prom dresses and having a virtual prom that way we've seen families dressing up and having prom at home you know so a variety of activities so that we are perhaps celebrating that but our students and our families have you know a host of other ideas and we want to reach out and listen to them so I have been talking with mistress today we are working to put together a form that will be coming out to out for a short period of time we have a small committee at

033the high school that will be looking through those ideas and coming up with an alternative virtual prom situation as quickly as possible to make sure that students are at least getting something just in case social distancing is not lifted in June or even it's July the other questions that have come up is what is going on with high school graduation and middle school graduation now there are many districts in our area that have already canceled them both one example with the the Blum School District I understood that they've canceled you want if not both I know crystal lake district 155 way up north is canceled and there's other districts that are beginning to talk about this canceling because of the uncertainty even about social distancing being lifted in June of July we are also concerned

034about losing that opportunity to do something for our students the high school is working to explore they're working right now about exploring virtual graduation and what that can look like virtual graduation as well as some alternatives out there to see they've already started that the eighth grade yeah they are thinking they would like to just cancel that however they would like to replace it with something they are looking at in August probably mid August to create a farewell picnic or eighth graders are invited there there would be ordering t-shirts for t-shirts signing and the 8th graders have an opportunity with their teachers to have a farewell and some closure so we are looking to find a way to replace a social setting and just not to move on so these are some of the things

035that we are working with they are not ideal we understand that but we're trying to make the best situation out of what little information we have but I don't want to miss an opportunity to at least do virtually something to acknowledge our students and let them know we do care about them and we do recognize their disappointment that they were the ones that were in this place in their senior year or their eighth grade year any any questions on that yeah dr. kossler nice this is mr. Brown I really pretty you've been proactive given what the whole world will be going through and specifically our district and I am on one Accord with you looking for the opportunity for our high school graduation moaning and so forth if we can look at additional things that's

036kind of a life opportunity for our students you know sports for our seniors more so if we can look for opportunities to do virtual settings in some manner or acknowledgement in some manner ever greatly appreciated so not just those three or four teach names but anyone other opportunities you can do or those people that I just mentioned okay thank you just done that's so much a question is that a concern in regards to Dean letter that went out on social media and I understand the need to get the information out as quickly as possible but I think that we should have thought a little bit better and the way that's like one of the most important things that a parent in a community looks forward to and then some type of formalized letters should have

037gone out to the households it's almost like finding out that your loved one has died on social media for me and so I think that a formal letter not something placed on high school social media account that should have gone out to the parents and the households of graduates and because if it was me I would not take too kindly to that and I think that even in retrospect that we should send a formal document out on to those who have graduates within our district MS Mitchell I was planning to send a letter out from me tomorrow because we had talked about having mistress send a letter through the emails to parents but we had thought maybe if I could send something that covers everything you know is that is that kind of what you're

038thinking as well yeah I think so um dr. Kara I think that that would be the most appropriate thing and especially in light of the feedback you've been getting back and you know the fact that we've got a child out there that found out on social media that you know and then I don't want to belabor it but I just would ask if we could have a formal more formal process to notifying yes and we agree I think you know we want to set that out and we want to do it quickly I wanted to talk with the board first and also let the commune no from from my perspective what we're thinking and these challenging decisions and even the discussion about canceling versus the postponing what what difference what are the risks so we

039wanted to make sure that we got to you today to share this and that I will send a personal letter out to the middle school as well as the I school tomorrow great thank you dr. Carr you I do have a question um so I completely you know understand we're on uncertain times and that we you know would like to do something for our seniors of course but I don't want to say I just would understand we're not saying that we can't postpone it can we can we keep it as a possibility I know other school districts are talking about trying to plan it even if it's down the road in August trying to do something for our seniors are we saying it's completely not an option that we just need to go the virtual

040route or can we at least try to keep that as an open option I anything's possible I think but my main concern was trying to at least do something virtually so that if we didn't open in June July or even August they would have been at some thing oh yeah I would love to see them actually be able to have a prom graduation it is really a rite of passage for these kids and it's heartbreaking you know I I can't imagine as a senior as the parents everything so I would really like to hope that we can at least maybe try to think of post not doing that virtually but also consider something down the line if things do open up and we're able to do that right and I think we all want that

041we we feel terrible for our students here in our families and that would be ideal okay thank you Harmony's and me for everything the letter that you plan to send out tomorrow is that going to just senior class numbers it's going to go to the whole high school okay thank you and it's going to we're going to be sending something out to the middle school as well a different letter letting them know that we are going to cancel eighth grade graduation however we're going to have an alternative social they planned to replace that okay thank you any other questions or concerns okay all right um in just a few minutes we're going to have each of the department heads share some information then what I've asked them to do is to go ahead and sign

042off after there they present the only people that will be staying on the screen will be those that will be discussing information later such as Ken I think HR and I think in curriculum that way we don't have so many screens open they'll still be listening but they won't have any screen open so anyway so if you see them click off you'll know you know that is the reason for that okay all right dr. Clarke I'm going to let you go next talk about district affairs and registration that's the other big question that's coming up yes good evening everyone so I've been working with the registration and mckinney-vento liaison regarding strictly online registration for everyone and I've also been working with the curriculum Department for CSK and kindergarten registration so where we are right now

043we're almost done putting everything online so that people the parents can just go in and access that information thank you to IT it Eric and his team they were able to put something in place so that when parents begin to call that we can actually answer those calls via our computer system and we can kind of walk them through that registration process so just like last year we have to get everything set up we have to test it to make sure that we work out all the kinks and then we're going to go live with that what we have discussed is May 26th through June 3rd or the dates that we went to a half or kindergarten registration and then our continued registration for everyone else would be July 6 to July 24 and so

044what we're just trying to make sure that we are able to do is take care of those families that we know will have problems with that online process just like they did last last year they were able to walk in and because they can't do that now we just wanted to set something up so we can do something like this to walk them through that process any questions yes I have a question I know later on the agenda we have CSK policy in kindergarten lottery so are you addressing that or do we have we don't have a plan for that you're right CNI is going to address that it's just going to be a temporary change because of the way we have to do the enrollment this year so I asked I look back at

045our enrollment reports and I know that several years ago we had 50 enrolled in kindergarten CSK then 46th and 49 in the last two years unknown as have dropped pretty far off what number do we have to hit before we hit a lottery or it is pretty much if it's under 50 everybody that signs up gets accepted in the CSA I'll let CNI address that okay I didn't know if we had a number that was you know just like you know I know there's two kindergarten classes I don't know if we had a certain number of kids that we had it would be better hold that off that discussion off until we can okay any other questions I have one dr. Clark this is Jeanine I Hyatt last year we were able to let people

046come in and use computers because they do not have a computer so us walking them through that in a situation like this isn't going to work if they don't have a computer have we addressed the need for that or is there a way to address the need for that so we've been trying to figure out how we can go about doing that and so we have three I'm sorry two things that we can do we can help them they can give us information and we can keep the information in but eventually they're still going to have to upload documents to us , then the other piece that is is to do a temporary registration and then when we get back completed we rather do the first one which is just walk them through it and

047then some kind of way they have to get documents to us even if they have to mail it to us okay great I wanted to make sure because I know we we helped a lot of people in house last year with or computers so I wanted to make sure that possibly if at all we could have another situation where we could help them again and that's one of the things that Eric worked very very hard on making sure we had access to all of that so we have Carmen Caron myself as well as Jennifer that we'll be able to assist families great thank you very much you're welcome any other questions all right thank you dr. Clark all right Laura are you doing dontel is going to do the learning and Laura will give some

048data on the attendance and talk about CSK and the lottery change later okay thank you good evening we would like to start off by saying thank you to our staff has been great through this remote learning process our tech team our tech coaches teachers admin and our students and families we have had the distinction between a learning plan and the remote learning plan and so the e-learning plan was meant to be served as a short time temporary emergency which required five hours of instruction we had this plan approved by the board on March 17 this is what was implemented for the nine days we were first out of school it was the plan in place from March 17th to the 27th on March 27th is be designated days beginning on March 31st as remote learning

049days who are when you started our remote learning days on April 7 is be provided the recommendation for designing remote learning plan which we did put in place we use the recommendation plus feedback we gathered from our parents from thought exchange and our conversations with teachers in adman to provide routines and structures to learning time and activities to a manageable level and to ensure opportunities for interaction happen between teachers and students the is be guidelines recommended that we focus on learning with the idea of supporting learning with continuity of Education the student engagement using a recommended amount of time for each grade level and the consistency of having a daily plan a mix of real-time recorded an independent time provided flexibility to both students and families and to use learning platforms as Google classroom and

050Google meets using a learning platform that our teachers had already been trained in was very supportive for us we monitor student attendance based on participation to make sure students are engaged daily not just by class but as academic and making sure that we are checking on the well-being of our students making sure that our teachers and admins are having contact with our students and families using a Grade II structure that does not academically harm the students giving feedback using a pass or incomplete using 3rd quarter grades or incomplete focusing on the social emotional experiences relationships and connections was very important to our families and to our students again like dr. Kara said making sure there was that connection because our students really miss their teachers emphasizing homeschool partnerships and communication we believe our plan addressed

051all of these areas the board was provided copies of the plans that were designed designed observed by grade level pre-k elementary middle and high school and family information is posted on our learning website is we also provided schools with by remote planning days we use our first two on Monday and Tuesday of last week before we launched remote learning on Wednesday the eighth our next planning day is tomorrow so teachers and admins will be in meetings and trainings to look at the work that will take us to our current end of closure that we have and make any revisions that will go through the end of that period this gives our teachers time to reflect on implementation and make the necessary adjustments we will use our remaining two days once we know where we are

052going if we will return on May 1st or if the closure will be any longer everything seems to be going well teachers are engaging with students our students are very happy you know we've heard all of the success from having the virtual classrooms and their excitement around the seeing their teachers our next focus was on issuing Chromebooks to our kindergarten students who were in need of devices and our tech team has been doing a great job this week making sure that we guide devices into those families hands and Laura I'll let you talk about the attendance track sure good evening everyone attendance is not I think what we traditionally think of as attendance so we're you know we're we're trying to make sure we're having contact with students that students are participating in our learning

053plan our 6th through 12th grade students for asking them to fill out an attendance form every morning and that kind of gives us an idea that they're there and then as they engage with their varying teachers throughout the day those teachers are also making sure that students are participating in those classes and when that's all done well we're doing the following day as then collecting all the information on whether or not at least somebody has had contact with students we know that we have students that our high school students have may have jobs we know that we have families that are under some stress during this time and you know just because the reading class or the English class is happening at 10 o'clock in the morning that doesn't necessarily mean that our students are

054actually attending then because we may have recorded the lesson and they may get to it at 5 o'clock in the evening so what we're trying to do is throughout the whole day and into the evening we're coming back the next day and then we're able to see who's engaged the day before and we're using that to measure attendance so what we've asked our schools to do is to monitor kind of that participation attendance over the course of an entire like 20 24 hour period and our first first metric I think that we're using for these first four days is do we have any students where that we are we are unable to connect with and that and that's the data that we've collected over the first four days how many students do we have that

055are out there that are have missed three or four of these days out of the first four and right now everybody if I X I'm going to exclude the high school right now they're having some challenges having almost 1500 students determining whether or not we how many students we actually have not had contact with because we have so many classes and so many teachers and some classes are a mixture of grade levels so they're still working on their numbers but everything pre-k through 8 right now we're at about 90% and so I'm pretty pleased with that and we're going to continue to do this every Tuesday now where we have a Google Doc going and we're asking each school by Tuesday at 3 o'clock to report those numbers to us for the previous week and

056we'll continue to give you updates in our F weekly FYI so we're I have a question sure the 10% of kids what happened what we would what happens to those kids and how do we like what happened so so what we've asked the schools to do is first identify those students and then the first kind of the first thing that happens is just like on a normal school day if I'm the teacher and I haven't heard from you today I'm gonna I'm gonna make that initial contact but if it goes to 3:00 when it gets up to three days we'll be that's the schools to do is to take the list of students and now kind of ramp it up so that the admins guidance counselors social workers you know kind of the all-hands-on-deck approach

057and get those other people starting to reach out and then dr. Clark we've been talking to her about this then what we'll do is send a letter to the families trying to engage them and then we'll rely on our truancy specialists to kind of help us out with this one in terms of intervening so that we can reach out to these families and hopefully make some contact so we do have that process are their grades affected at all if if for for some of the students don't show up for the rest of the year what happens anything right now if it depends on the grade band but k2 were simply giving feedback and then when we hit grades three through eight it's either a pass or an incomplete if it's an incomplete what we're working

058on now are putting structures in place this summer so that students can either remotely or in person depending on what society is like at that time you know give them the opportunity to go in and make up that work and then for our high school students right now their semester grade is their third quarter grade so as John tell said part of what the recommendation is that and none of this can do academic harm to students so third quarter grades are the last grades we got really lucky on this because our third quarter ended the Friday before this all happened so we know that they all have third quarter grades and through this past process that they can if they if they can pass the work the graded work all work is great if they

059can get passing marks on whatever is turned in that's graded then that third quarter grade will remain in effect and if they do well on those assignments that are graded they can actually raise the grade up so again with that idea of no harm done okay thanks all right nearly Nash are you ready to go next we can hear you hello everyone I what am I saying here okay so here's what I know what I know is that we've been working hard and when I say we all of us have been working together to just make sure that messaging is getting out there to parents I've been trying to offer a lot of for to all the assistant suits in helping to share development and information coming from their department we seem to have we're

060really gaining momentum on phase following us which means people are you didn't tell our story and were able to share and I'm also trying to make sure that the website is constantly being updated every day that we are adding new information to our kovat 19 updates dr. Kara each time she issues a new statement or we do and we get new information from the governor we try and keep that up to date so that it can become sort of a repository for people to find the most up-to-date information so right now we're also trying to work on sharing information I'm working with dr. Clark to share information about kindergarten registration I'm also getting a lot of questions on Facebook parents and community are in boxing with questions so every day I go away and I'm

061trying to keep answering their questions and some of these issues and trying to ensure that we are up-to-date and accurate so that that's most of my work these days is really just making sure that a messaging is happening quickly and inaccurately okay any questions for her all right Thank You Natalie appreciate that thank you okay we're gonna move on to IT mr. Bertram hi good evening sorry I've kind of gone dark here Sun going down we have Chromebooks in the hands of every student from 1st to 12th grade now and this week we're working on getting Chromebooks to the kindergarteners that did not have a device at home it looks like that's gonna extend it the next week as well with that many devices out there of course we're gonna have some issues here and

062there we're not fixing devices right now the can't be fixed remotely we set up a swap station that's very here Pam's operation and we have at least one tag usually it's just one though come in each day and we're just swapping out devices we're will repair them at some later date but at this point we're just swapping out the problem devices or chargers that kind of thing it's by appointment only right now this week the kindergartners are picking up their devices by appointment from 9 to 10 a.m. and then other swaps for devices with issues are done between 10 and 11 a.m. we do still have the help desk column they can be reached at the same help desk number between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and they've been doing a phenomenal job they feel

063hundreds of requests most of what they they're able to fix most issues remotely and get the students and staff back working on the devices that they have it all I'm just immensely proud of the job my crew has done just meeting that we're all in being one of them one of the things we've tackled and that credit goes to done runner for taking a lot of moving pieces and putting them together so that we can broadcast this on YouTube to the public's I want to want to get down a big shout out things keep evolving we keep receiving requests and I don't I don't just discount anything anymore because I'm just amazed at what we're able to do remotely when we really have to get it done so this has advanced our staff and our

064knowledge and our creativity leaps and bounds so I want to think can also or give this a little bit of latitude in the way we're doing a few things that's really about all I have I've talked to most of you this week but if you need to have any questions I'm thank you Eric thank you thanks Bob okay mrs. Panza Pam Panza talked about foods service here I'm your Pam I was tryin hello everybody first of all I'd like to thank my staff for doing a tremendous job of helping me get all these meals served it's been a challenge but they're up for the challenge I've only had two staff members that are a little leery about coming in but the rest of them been super I think it's the way that when they come

065in the door we go through quite a few safety precautions and I think they're also very comfortable with what we're doing so kudos to them they've been phenomenal I've also like to thank the board members and staff members that stop by to say hi couple people of breadless water donuts and we even received some thank-you notes from students so we're really we feel appreciated be it out there so I do thank you all for your support we have served over eleven thousand meals so far which is phenomenal we applied for a bonus which instead of breakfast we normally get reimbursement for 224 we're getting reimbursed 233 starting in April and then for lunches we normally were reimbursed per meal 354 and it's going to be 409 so that's something that is gonna impact us quite

066a bit I did last month based off of what our numbers were from last month and we could be about $1,900 more just by getting that extra money so it's gonna help a little bit another thing we had going is we did the pantry which we served a hundred and twenty-two families with that there's two hundred and twenty-two students which were 18 and under so we fed 337 and out of that I should have said was 222 or 18 and under which is phenomenal I want to thank Janine and Bill for coming and helping out which they busted their butts the way thank you it was it was a very nice turnout and I believe that's all I have all right Thank You Pam yeah well I just wanted to I did stop by a

067couple of times Pam and think just and down thank you for the great job that you've been doing out there so I didn't want you to know that I did stop at a time yeah Thank You Pam as I said before you and your team or the shining star and the warrior galaxy so you know keep shining brightly guys are doing great job you're welcome we have a lot of help from people around us so yeah thank you Pam I do have a comment to make in that is that I have been contacted by many community members that were so are thankful every day that you're there and they were so thankful about the unity kitchen and that we were able to when we ran out of food literally go and pick your shelves clean

068and help about what 50 more families Matt yes well they knew that and they were very appreciative and I've I've heard from many people who just said they couldn't believe how hard we were working to help the community and I just want to let you know that there are a lot of people saying thank you to this district for the EIT for the food for everything that the district is really reaching to the community and being a solid place and you above all with the breakfast and lunch are making a huge difference in our community so thank you you're welcome that's why I do what I do thank you all right McLean doctor I apologize so this is mr. Brown just want to make one last conscious Pam's and I know she had a lot

069of parents I heard quite a few board members talk about parents say what a good job pam has done and I do echo those comments even in the midst of some negative comments that came from some parents out there in the field to me those problems was quickly rectified by little super tippmann and Pam so I really really commend the team for doing such an excellent job and I did do a drive-by but it wasn't to get any to cook any food to obtain my computer my Chromebook and I efficient the team was working this job what's it in I wish it in but it means if you guys are not doing it we out of this man mr. story with this coronavirus just to let you all know that we have a community member

070and University Park thanks to mr. brown that started off she kind of pre orders meals from students and she comes and picks up Monday Wednesday and Friday and she originally started with 30 meals she's now up to 75 and she's a trustee in University Park and also one of my staff members goes so we have a food service person with her so we're reaching out into that so kudos to mr. Brown for having her lead the way of trying to get more people out there to get food excellent Keith you're up um well I want to give a shout out to the custodial staff as well cuz you know while all the buildings are currently shuttered except for DLC on the foodservice distribution areas it took a great deal of custodial teamwork to get all

071the spaces sanitized and disinfected especially keeping in mind that some of them were scared to leave their homes due to the up with the colonel norovirus I'm known especially in the very beginning um we were lucky enough to have had an in-service regarding our protocols and pandemic and pandemic an outbreak cleaning protocols we had done that just just before this all broke loose so our our staff was pretty well informed on what they had to do all the trainings included our product specific you know there were product specific trainers for us so our disinfectants were used in the training and our sanitizers and by our sites for using the training it was very timely and and then our processes the processes are pretty much the same across the board when you look at the CDC

072or EPA everybody's cleaning guidelines are really the same so having that training along with the standards of the suspicion of the CDC we use the CDC a lot that worked out well for our staff so they were able to hit the road running and in looking forward to the reopening of schools so Ken and I are currently investigating a possibility and what we're talking about right now is we would do another deep planning prior to uh kids coming back prior predatory occupancy we've got no prices right now on either say that companies are just coming out though but work company that used to do something now is a cleanup company oh but we've got a relationship relationship business and what I've done is created a list of the different service dan and we're letting people

073give us line-item pricing and uh you know we're trying to do it to where we can get an ample stay comparison because everybody doesn't clean the same so we've pretty much told them what we want there's still questions because they can't get into the building to see some of the stuff so so we're doing a little back and forth but I think we're gonna have some good prices if this grant opportunity comes too so we clean the buildings parent or student reaction see no I'd like need to say give a shout-out to the maintenance crew they're still leaving their homes every morning to come in the majority of them anyway to make sure that emergencies are handled and timely items for ladies the relocation of our operations are handled those neither say that's desk and

074that that keeps moving forward regardless the crew on a virus or anything else so I still have the maintenance guys in go prepping for that right Thank You Keith all right all right I have just one other comment before we leave regarding some updates just wanted to let rest the border community know that you the village of University Park have contacted me about getting our support in using our high school to conduct the University Park food drive and that is on April 24th and it's going to be at the high school and our East parking lot and I know several of the board members will be participating I am coming and bringing my husband along - he's going to be coming it's going to be all day and they've done one before and they've had

075quite a bit of participation and went very very well and so there was interest in running another one so that will be coming at the end of this one so just wanted people to know about that is that the 24th or 28th I have the 28th murked it's a Tuesday all right well let me double check that my calendar I was looking at said the 24th so let me verify that date it's just it's a like a food pantry but they're calling it a food drive okay thank you yes so I'll need to verify that date so Terry I'll give a correct date for you for the minutes thank you Cara I have the email up that you sent to us and it is April 28th from 11:00 to 1:30 and then three to five

076okay all right thank you I have two dates apparently down so okay hey is the universe in park village or is it is its village of University Park yes but there's a lot of other participants but it is I think the business being there organizing it yes okay and I see a couple other we'll have a few people out there if you've not done so just email me your interest and let me know if you want to do morning afternoon or all day and then I can let them know because they're going to be organizing a little bit of a training before you actually get to that day okay all right I think we're ready to move on to business so I think you know Ken will be out but the first item on the

077business is the demolition of the doll so I know that's been a discussion item on there for several weeks and you know these are some interesting times we have right now with a lot of decisions we've had some recommendations from the facility committee and yet we've also have spent some time revisiting the concept of the idea I wanted to throw that out to board members at this point any thoughts or discussion at this point time yeah do you mind if I jump in yes I reached out to the to my other six board members and just kind of share some thoughts with them because we have so many unknowns out there and with what's going on I know we approved in February the demolition of the sixth grade Center and I know next week we're

078talking about the demolition dome and I know we have the facility committee and the Finance Committee the only thing I shared with with the other six is that I think at this time I understand you know there's their stuff I'm not here to tell you no to sway everybody to save the dome everybody knows my feeling on that and we're at but I think the cost and the money that we spend on that it is can is I think we should save just because we don't know what the future holds I mean exactly the prom issue and graduation I don't think anybody here we don't have any answers and going into the next fiscal year I know Governor Chris Carr said that the schools are gonna get their money and they're gonna be funded but

079how do we know that that's gonna happen when we know that unemployment in the last two weeks has skyrocketed to I think all-time highs so I just shared some thoughts that I think at this time maybe we should suspend the facility and Finance Committee's for now and obviously we voted on the sixth grade Center but if we just hold off on all that stuff until a future date just because if it cost us as an example of 50,000 to keep the 6th grader of the dome just with the water and electric on but it's gonna cost 1.3 million the dumb one you can correct me if I'm wrong I think at this point in this juncture we probably need to keep as much money in our accounts as possible because we don't know what the

080future is gonna hold and if the state of Illinois is gonna piss we do bill and I'll agree with you I think you know there is some uncertainty in the future I'm not worried about this year but you know I'm worried about next year on some revenue streams I've been reading in that they're not certain but I think they're gonna happen there might be some delay and people thinking property taxes which is going to be a delay in us getting some revenue in the future there are some concerns like you mentioned about school funding so you know and again just using some kind of and sense I just saw an article today where I think the state has paid a hundred and eighty five million dollars in some just supplies for to fight Cove in

08119 so where they're coming up with that money I don't know you know and that's so there is some uncertainty but the other side of this and this is something I want to share with the board the other side of this now becomes our life safety issues that has been dragging on for years and you know I will say this I believe it's become gonna become a liability issue it's been dragging on for seven years now real quick last talked to dr. Kara yes as I reached out to the other six board members I did express that I think this time we go with the bare minimum life safety issues to satisfy the state here we have to do that I don't think we can avoid any of that but what I'm saying is I

082know that we originally went out and I'm just gonna throw a ballpark of a hundred million right we don't at this time our four communities are struggling right now possibly with jobs unemployment with fun I mean even last Wednesday when I was I was honored to be part of the food pantry we service twice as many people as normally good service price I already can see it happening but I just don't know that going to a referendum and doing all that other stuff I think all that goes on a hold but I think we should for sure finish the life safety the bare minimum just to get the state satisfied that's just right and I agree with you 100% on that on those thoughts - I don't think now is the right time to do

083that I've I've thrown some numbers together I could share those with the board on doing the life safety also doing climate control in our buildings quite honestly as a bare minimum I've looked at those two things I've had they are to take a look at that because what happens when you're gonna do some HVAC work there are some other works and I'll give an example and Crete in order to do HVAC and put an air conditioning we've got to upgrade the electricity there because it doesn't have the power to do it so there's those type of things in that and I can share that out dr. Kerr and I can share that out I've got some estimated cost from a financing standpoint to be honest with the board I haven't contacted PMA yet because I

084wanted to get your flavor and kind of have this discussion bill and then I'm going to go to them to see if there is a way we can finance this and at the same time lower our annual debt payment - which would save the taxpayers well that dr. Karen a little bit lastly is that you're talking about restructuring the debt payment - ha obviously hopefully help the taxpayers alleviate pressure from right exactly so so I want to have those discussions with them you know and maybe have them put together a couple scenarios and I can get that done pretty quickly we're in a situation right now I'll tell you this even with life safety things we wouldn't be able to start those until next summer actually because a lot of those things have to be

085done when kids are not in session we have to do bid documents and all that stuff but you know the key to this is going to be the financing because you know we don't have enough in our coffers nor do we want to spend the money out of our coffers you know to do a lot of this you know the plumeria number that I have for doing the life safety stuff right now is about thirteen point five million dollars that's what some escalated costs in there over what was presented to the state back in 2013 it also includes some contingency and some fees that are all wrapped up into that stuff - from from a budgetary standpoint relative projects so god no that's exactly my point is we've taken a hot million and we dropped

086it down to 13.5 just to satisfy the state because let's be honest in four to six months if we're back to normal we can start up the facility and we can we can resume everything because you and I can we can be honest that the bond markets not going to change it's gonna have to remain flat for a little while to allow everything you get out of this so one would still be good for a while right let me let me add just let's bring it back just to the dome in the 6th Grade Center for a second I mean recall that our intention was is to handle that through paid for that through operating funds with the anticipation that we would reimburse ourselves in a future bond issue and we you know we entered

087into the reimbursement agreement that's all set that was our intention but right now our request for real issue 30-year bonds is sitting in Springfield this legislature legislature isn't meeting so that's going nowhere so we we have no certainty on our ability to issue bonds in the way that we would want to issue bonds in the future right now so you know can I'll defer to you but I think spending 1 point I think would be 1.5 million dollars for the demolition right now out of operating funds with no certainty to reimburse ourselves probably isn't the prudent thing to do no and I concur with that I I agree with that 100% I don't think it is the right thing to do right now I think we need to sit tight on that you know and

088start looking at some of these other scenarios and I'll just say you know model one where we kind of look at life safety stuff and again I can separate out cost for HVAC and all of that stuff because I think you know that's one of the issues that we're having in a lot of these buildings is our HVAC even if we don't put air conditioning and we've got some heating problems in some of our buildings so kind of addressing that but I can separate that out I can look at the finance we can have p.m. a look on the financing for from a 20-year amortization schedule versus the 30-year you know because that's an uncertainty to right now right this good time to borrow more money to be honest with you I think well kind

089of knows that lets you know rates are way down there but again and we want to do this prudently and we want to really be completely fiscally responsible in that way for sure so and there's two and there's two separate sets of bonds that we would use one would be life safety bonds that we could use for the life safety projects and the other ones would probably be a general obligation bonds that we can use for any type of you know other type of remodeling and all of that so you know again I can we'll have to look and enterin you may need to help me on this one because the board has approved the contract for the demolition of the sixth grade center so we need to probably rescind that somehow then and I

090don't think we have to do that in a formal motion and I don't know that that's where I think we need to some advisement on that Karen do you know that even I don't know this is that you know we've we were allowed to use it but it's a matter of us actually sit in the date and actually doing it if we never take action on it I don't think you need to resend it okay all right well I'll let me talk to the architect and the contractor about this little thing and that the other thing I will mention to you when we started talking about cost and demolition the dome to demo the dome again I just bring this up that to demo the dome we get a credit of fifty four thousand dollars

091so it doesn't cost us anything to demo the dome I just say that that that's not a comment in support of demoing it I just want to make that very clear no I'm and I get it and again don't get me wrong I think all the six of them know that my vote is to get my vote is not to keep the dog right right in this time I think we have to take the chance of the money because we don't know what the future holds I mean like dr. Kara setting earlier we don't know that we'll be back in school August 20th or whatever it is yeah after June 30th when our I think that's our fiscal year ends right yes how is the funding gonna work if you're right I mean people are

092paying rent because they're being allowed to withhold two months taxes probably be paid I mean we've got some unknown hurdles here that we're just not sure right exactly no I and I agree with you I I agree with you 100% bill and the rest of the board on this whole thing so you know I'll have conversations with the contractor and with the architect is to spend that stuff you know I'm sure we can do that based on just a letter from me to them so that's that's not an issue at all so I can take care of that right yeah well let me pose this question to the to the board are anticip you know our expectation was that we would have on next week's agenda an action item for demolition of the dome should

093we have which should we keep that on the agenda or should we leave it off the agenda until we have further facts Nelson before we go there fair I have a specific question for Ken okay we have been bouncing this around back and forth it's on an agenda it's off an agenda and ideas here and ideas there my feeling is and I eyed waste this very strongly to build the other day when he called me about doing different things I agree that this is not the time to spend the money today but my question is can we not take a vote next week one way or the other whichever decides and if it stood amount demo it then can't we say it's gonna be in six months or whatever but that vote is behind us

094the decision has been made and we carry on with life safety or whatever needs to be done my concern here is if we vote next week we cut that lower rate if we don't make a decision then we have to go out to bid and start all over with the whole process and everything is that correct am i understanding that correctly you are correct I here's I would recommend I would recommend not to take a vote next week to demo the dome because what the board actually does is they they take a vote to a war contract to a person to do something so again when you did the sixth Grade Center you you awarded a contract to a certain company at a certain amount now what I will tell you is this if we

095are to postpone this let's just say six months and again I'm not saying this as a support to demo and now but I'm just saying if we support if we postpone this for six months we are going to go ahead and have to go out to bid because I'm already getting some pushback from contractors holding the Frenchman so my question will be if we could vote next week and whichever way it goes if the boat does go to demo it could we not in that contract with the person who has given us the bid for both buildings could we not say with demo to begin at a future date or something or 90 days from 90 to 180 days or so because we're not going to demo now anyhow there's much about money because we

096know the new price would be much higher we know here's here's what I'm thinking though as much as I would love you to do that I would advise you not to do it because if you commit yourself then to demoing the dome your bids are going to come in pretty high you know because they already know you want to do it so they're just going to jack up the prices and all that we already got a bid for both buildings we do but if you're not if you're not going to do it for another future date I mean I had we had trouble holding them to their price now because there I thought her me I thought we couldn't demo now anyhow they don't but we were holding the price until now hoping that we

097were gonna demo start in June but we're not gonna start in June now to demo any of those facilities it was like I thought the last I heard was it was going to be fall soon you know I mean I don't I don't even think we're gonna get to this thing in fall we'll be honest with you I you know because again and we have to see what our revenue streams are going to be like and our first big revenue stream doesn't come in until September or October where property taxes so that'll be that's going to give us an idea so I you know as much as and everybody knows my opinion evidence too you know and but I would advise the board against that really taking any action on this chair I don't know

098what your thoughts are on that but I think this is exactly like if we're putting an addition on our house right now would you put an addition your house right now if you didn't know you're having job you know you would kind of want to kind of rally in your finances and figure out where you are because if this goes on for eight six eight nine months for five years so I am strongly getting this feeling that we're going backward on this board again we take two steps forward and we take a step back and I get what you're saying about money I just I'm really feeling bad here guys and I'm I told you this before when we delayed this for more information now we have here we are in a pickle I get

099it but I don't want to continue to keep backpedaling on decisions we made earlier and now it comes to a vote and we have to backpedal in Jenin just just put it out there you can like me for it or you can not like me for it but I'm of the thought June 22nd last year was a turning point for us and I feel now we're starting to backpedal again and I'm terrified we're gonna end up in a mess I do understand the monetary bill I got it a thousand percent but again we're backpedaling now we don't even know will we do this can we do this I know it's uncertain with coronavirus up but we still didn't even know if we would have gone with life safety what we were doing that was an

100alternate plan that didn't have an endpoint to it either so we have all these beginnings with null ends and it's beginning to totally frustrate me as a board member because it's our job to keep this district moving to keep it financially sound and I feel like we're not moving we'd become stagnant again and we're all we're all all over the board again and that's my my opinion and I'm putting it out there because I'm frustrated again this is not the worst decision that we've backpedal down and I'm having a hard time with it but I totally understand what you're talking about the money absolutely want to do the right thing for our communities if we can do something with the taxes can like you were saying looking at the debt structure I get it but

101at some point these decisions have to be made and now they're gonna cost us more money so I I'm just voicing my opinion with how I feel things are going frustration Janeane but I think that one of the things and I agree with you know Nelson and um can know in regards to there's too many unknown factors right in this moment for us to say that this I mean I was prepared to make a decision and to do a vote on the dome as well but you know hearing everything and actually thinking over everything as well I don't think it's in our best interest to make that decision right now when there are so many variables and so many unknown and all of them would impact us on the financial level and it's unfortunate that

102the pandemic you know came right in the midst of our movement but I think that we have to understand even on an emotional level I know you feel that is back Hamlin but I think that what we're looking to do at this point in time is to be a good steward of our resources and we can't be in the store when we're dealing with the unknowns and I get it I get your frustration and I think everybody here would like to you know be able to make a decision their own thoughts about the dome so then you know and then decision can where all of the community is concerned and involved in it but I think that it's bigger than just a dome and what we want we're dealing with the unknowns even the country

103is dealing with the unknowns and every promise that has been made has been broken by the people that you know hold the purse strings can do we know if it is voted on to demolish the dome that we cannot hold that price I mean can we check on that to see if that can be held you know I can check on it I mean that isn't an issue I could check on it but I will tell you the chances of them holding it or not really good because I struggled with them holding it now okay I'm just think under the pandemic a lot of people are making exceptions to the rule you know their shirts are you know and these aren't dust and stuff so I didn't know under the circumstances if they would be

104willing to you know hold that longer so that I can ask them that to find out and I can look up or you know or at least how long out far out they'll hold that price don't win that prize yeah so August you know or September or something like that so I'll find that out okay thank you yep not a problem okay Nelson I don't think that answered your question about putting them to find out yeah next week Harv Eker that's what I'd like to find out the agenda my recommendation would be let's leave it off the agenda and not force people on an up-and-down vote with all the uncertainty but I can you know I'll go with whatever the consensus of the board is okay kind do you think you can get that information

105if they would hold it but before we would vote next week yeah I mean I'll try and I'll try and call tomorrow on it and see if I can get an answer by tomorrow or Thursday I think that answer might change some people's feelings yeah you know Annette so let me I can get right on it tomorrow morning would be great I would say my personal opinion is let's hold off and see if Ken can find that information out and if he can't then we'll have to make a decision from there but if he gets an answer that may make it easier to decide what we're gonna do next week yeah I'll get an answer and then what I can do is I can get an email out to the board you know or care

106can get an email out there but wonder if one of us will get the email out to the Lord and let you know what that answer is thank you you know that's not a problem and then it's looking or care and I'm making a decision then based on that whether we how we how we address it in the agenda next week well I would say after after you know that information you'd have to put it out to the board and then get the consensus okay right correct okay okay any other questions on that hopefully not okay let me go to the insurance rates and that some good news here as you well know we have an insurance committee that's comprised of members of Acme members of CMEA also two of our board members Jeanine and

107Cheryl serve on that with some of the individuals from central office and insurance rates are going to stay the saying for next year all the way across the board and there are going to be no planned changes at all so that's some positive news for us and that's some good news for us so Janine and Cheryl I don't know if you wanted to add anything on that but just to mention that I had a quick question on that yeah it was on the on your report six point six million spent last year and this year was like three point four million dollars so 2018 to 2019 was six point six and this year was three point four and it looked like a PPO and HMO they want to they went up a lot so can

108you just kind of explain that or unless Cheryl or Jeanine understand that because it said the PPO went up 11.3% an HMO 21.7 it depended are you talking about the expenditures bill yes it was because we had a couple of big cases a couple employees that had some major illnesses but looking at the rates this year can i I would like you to explain how we got to the point where we decided to hold everything that we want it to be able to have our employees not taking it monetarily there's a there's an equation can help me out here is thicker we should have three months worth of money in reserve how is the scope sure so we have we have a health account that we have a reserve for because we're self-funded so all

109the expenses really come from the district we're not fully funded what's called full fund there's 40 funded and then they're self-funded so we're self-funded so the recommendation is always when you're self-funded is basically have six months of reserve of claims average claims in the bank right now and I'm thinking up that my head because I don't have that information handy right now I think we might have about three and a half to four months that sounds about right Jones you mean you say you had 1.5 million in there yeah there's 1.5 million in there they're recommending it should be a little over two million dollars that based on our with our average claims our and all that stuff so what happened when so BlueCross BlueShield when we go to them they're the ones that kind

110of determine what our rates are and how we where our rates should be for the next year so they actually recommended a leave they recommended a two percent decrease yeah it went yeah 2.2 percent decrease in rates however the committee said let's hold the line on that and keep rates constant and then that extra two percent we can take it Bank is in order to build up our reserve for our health account than that to get closer than at six months and everything so that's kind of the way it works and all that stuff the increases Janine was saying there were a couple of large you know bills I mean I'll give you a for example one is myself you know and that that you know I went through a couple surgeries I had chemo

111treatments and all of that stuff but we also have a an insurance plan and I forget what I think I'm trying to think of it's called stopgap what once the claims hit I think it's a hundred thousand or one hundred twenty-five thousand so my bills get to that then that insurance kicks in and it doesn't cost the district anymore so we had we had a few of those that got to that level and so that's why there was that increase and all that stuff now again taking my own personal situation for next year you know that'll back off because I don't have chemotherapy I don't have hope not I don't have any surgeries or anything like that planned or anything like that so so you know it'll help the district that in the long run

112in that so what they did is they're looking at your experience on the plan your catastrophic illness in a plan which just was determining that and then I think the other thing do they look at the age of your employees on the plan and use it as a determination as well what can be an expected expense when they're determinative I don't know that mr. Patroni well if they use that as part of their actuarial black relations and all that stuff I know they do some of that but I'm really not sure that yeah I think they look and they they take a look at the aging of your workforce as well in factor on that in but I'm not you know sure ya know that catastrophic illnesses will drive in you know I'm sure and

113then they'll look at when that aging population is that may have the potential to drive right because not you know again I would think the older your your workforce is you know the more likely you are you know to have some type of illness or something like that or you know that's why I can find that out though but I'm sure it's part of their actuarial point by Mary brag but I'm not certain I think when we first started doing this whole committee group they talked about how they looked at the age and how many were you know elderly shall I say what they look at 50 right but families they really address the family issue and go I got a say in a way I'm kind of glad now that we decided to keep

114that 2.2 going and not give them a decrease because we don't know what's with this pandemic I don't really know if we have employees we don't know that could have really hit us hard also and then at least we have the money to help and we're not weighed down in our reserve and have to raise the rates tremendously next year which is what we always want to not do I think how we ended up saying let's just leave it everything the way it is get a little extra money in there and then we'll be close to our three months and we you have to worry about arrays and rates yeah the the other good news I want to share with the board - is one 800 m D 1 800 MD is a service that

115we added last year to our plan and you know there's a cost of two dollars and forty eight cents per member that's getting insurance and all that but what it does is that you're able to make it's almost like having a virtual doctor's appointment you know and that so we started that they calculated some savings for us and it probably I'm just looking at the numbers right now saves us almost forty one thousand dollars in savings by using one 800 MD versus somebody going to the emergency room or someone going to Urgent Care and all of that so they're estimating our savings was about forty one thousand dollars for last year which is which is really good they said to us that we're one of the top users of this service of all of their

116clients and the rewards are are really are really helping us so that's been a good thing for our plan - I know I've personally used it and it's been great you know that too so I just wanted to share that with the board so next week the insurance rates will be coming approval for the insurance rates will be coming to the board in a motion there are no changes in rates or plans from last year or I should say for this year from this year so I don't know if there's any other questions that you may have on that none here okay I think the next one I put on here was the audit I think Karen mentioned to me I know why I wasn't at the board meeting last last month around the board

117meeting last month but she said there might have been some questions on this just you wanted to hold off and put that back on the agenda so if some individuals had some questions I'd be happy to answer those I had questioned us and I think I answered my questions in that you know let me just present it back to you the question and then I know that in the audit the main recommendation is my understanding that you know there were other recommendations made in the last year and in our audit process you know there's some recommendation should be something that you know incentives to Cara that we should be using as a measurement for us to make sure that when we get to our auditing processes this does not present itself as an issue when

118there is staff knowledge you know things that need to be put in place to make sure that it maintains the integrity of our processes as well and so that was my concern because there were a couple of recommendations that were made that I think that we should adapt the recommendations and use it as a benchmark to make sure that we do not see ourselves or present ourself in light on in this auditing here I and I agree with you 100% I you know and I will share this with the board that I have I have done some personal work on this on this audit as I prepare for next year I think everyone knows that one of the big things was this whole bank reconciliation situation that was going on I have personally met with

119I've had skyward in on-site for three full days out of those three days I've met with them on one day on bank reconciliations I've also had an additional five days of webex's with them to try and get this taken care of I think you'll see also from the personnel report that Lyla will be presenting about the hiring of an assistant business manager with a strong accounting background and so you'll see that as a way to prevent that from occurring in the future my goal is to take care of all of these findings this year and so they don't present themselves but I I agree with you miss Mitchell 100 percent ken whatever and then you know how we've had a standing old business item this year sure bus discipline bus behavior you know we can

120probably take that off at this point at least for the rest of the school year but I would suggest we have a standing business item just to get an update on the reconciliation of accounts sure once a moment sure that's not a family Precure of that yep so Candace is mr. brown oh and your hello in your document or justification and all that is to put on in the board packet tonight you put down the final order to 2018 2019 the school year that we had issues with reconciling our our bank statements and so on and so forth and it says you could action planning so is it fair to say that we do not have any issues right now take a snapshot but breakfast to me um I don't think that's a fair statement

121we do have some issues and the issues are and and I will tell you what the issues are and I'm gonna say this very bluntly there is no evidence of any type of fraud or mismanagement or anything like that okay these are all system issues where accounts are not being reconciled in our financial system which is skywards then they're all they're all over the place to be honest with you some are being done in Excel some are being done in Quicken some are being done in Skyward but not being done the right way so what I have done and am doing I should say is I'm tearing that whole thing apart so that all accounts beginning Joe one of 19 for the 19 2008 all accounts will be reconciled in skyward and that and that

122is my goal and that is what I've been working on with skyward because there's some there are some system issues not created by skyward but created by predecessors of mine and other staff that are not there anymore in the business office when it comes to reconciling I mean I'll give you an example there was an account that they started reconciling back in 2017 and then they stopped and then there's no other reconciliation of that account but all the transactions are there but it's never been reconciled so you're guessing so it still it's those type of things so again I've taken I've taken the bull by the horns on this one and I've gotten involved in it through the nitty-gritty of transactions and I'll get it right and my goal mr. Brown right now is to

123get it right for the 1920 bought it towards coming support you on trying to find out what exactly is going on and provide recommendations to our district specifically you and our superintendent to get this lip control so you're basically saying right now we do not have it under control when it comes to reconciliation and we do not have a date basically saying that we are going to put this under control by this date so you're saying by next fiscal year we would have things under control is that the date or time frame and I'm hearing well when I when I have told skyward is this I want to have the accounts reconciled up through March of 2019 by the end of April okay okay that's that's my goal right now can I meet that goal

124I don't know but skyward is is is working with me on this you know and there's just a lot of detail on this stuff of trying to find transactions and trying to I mean you know it's you know I'll get I'll get through it I'll get through it and I'll get it done I think what what will help from a recommendation standpoint is again you'll see this on the personnel report we're gonna be bringing somebody in that has a strong accounting background that's a CPA that can assist with this whole process and everything too you know so but you suggesting that you would have it resolved with the fiscal 2008 which wouldn't ordinarily be completed on a normal schedule to be completed in November of 2020 yes yeah yes so all accounts what I've done

125is that I'm working on having all accounts reconciled in skyward beginning July 1 of 19 so starting in July 1 1900 counts will be reconciled in there then we started to look forward so that when our auditors look for their cash balance in our bank compared to our book they'll be able to see that once we finish the June reconciliation yes so again you're saying that once you get everything copacetic taken care of by four months from now for 2019 2020 we have and you know you have necessary to that you need that we should not see this problem again yes okay yes that's definitely I can't ask let me see that okay I thought I need thank you sir yeah you better okay the other question for enter can we move on to curriculum

126okay thanks board I appreciate it okay thanks Ken I'll be here still okay to talk about CST policy okay I think I'm going to start answering bills earlier question as we lead into Keith Laurel did you repeat what your bills question was how many kindergarteners do we need before we have a lottery I think that was that was your question so CSK has two sections of kindergarten 25 is the cap on those two sections so max of 50 students start filling those 50 spots with our family admission students so again the policy is that if if you have a student who is currently enrolled in CS K and you have an incoming kindergartener that student automatically gets in they don't go through the application lottery process so right now we have 12 those students who

127are going to enter CS k through family admissions so doing the math here that means we have 38 slots that are technically open what we typically do is we run kindergarten registration in April and then according to the board CSK policy we do the kindergarten lottery no later than May 15th so when kindergarten parents register their students they have the opportunity to fill out the kindergarten application for CSK to go into the lottery and then no later than May 15th we run the lottery now as mr. Savalas pointed out we our numbers were low the last two years we did not actually have to run a lottery last year because we didn't have enough students to do that it's hard to predict whether we're going to need a lottery or not so earlier dr. Clark

128talked about running an online kindergarten registration from May 26th through June 3rd and then we would hold the kindergarten lottery if we need to no later than June 15th this is technically a change to your policy but what I wanted to know is do does the board then need next week if this is the way if this is the route we're going to go and change in the date of the lottery does the board that need to approve a temporary change for this year because it is different in the policy given these crazy circumstances that we have rather than you know make an exception to the policy rather than actually change the policy well I guess my thought is I think we just instead of changing the policy I think we do it I don't

129know what would it be called doing addendum for sure because this year is different than every other one we did and again just to clarify you only do a lottery if you have more than 50 kids apply for that kindergarten right right so if it right now let's just take our current scenario we need if we have more than 30 if we have more than 38 parents of incoming kindergarteners that want their children to go to CSK we would hold a lottery to pick the 38 students that we would use to fill the slots if we have less than 38 then we wouldn't run it because we would have enough to fill the open positions well I think we could just do a verb the policy for this year take some action as opposed to

130rewriting the policy I agree so next next week we'll bring an action court to change the lottery let the lottery date for lack of a better better phrasing for this year only just due to circumstances and then you'll vote on it and then we'll be good to go holding it after we do our kindergarten registration to Proctor Cara me being the policy person I agreed what we want to do is figure out a way to fix it for this here but I think we better make sure with either press Plus or our attorney that we do it correctly because you have a policy in place I'm not quite sure how you do it just for this one year so we need to make sure that we check with somebody so whatever we do is the

131correct way to do it just for this one time a issue yeah I contributed that with Bill yeah I'm not sure if I'd be press Plus could help you or just somebody we're doing it right Chris plus connect this is an individual customized because it's CSK well we're going to make a change a minor change or an addendum or whatever so it's not really changing the policy so somebody just so that we make sure we're doing it the correct way so that it's only valid for this one time and that our other policy stays in effect for the future thank you questions all right next up for Human Resources I wanted to have the board consider taking a look at raises for the non-union as well as the administration last time we talked I know

132that there was some interest in perhaps looking at these groups separately so we did prepare some lots on that for you and I'm going to turn this over to Lyle at this point well good evening what I have provided in board book for you for some calculations based on a split increase I believe last year we had a discussion or actually probably earlier this school year we had a discussion about coming back in April with an increase that considered non-union employees non-administrative employees a little differently than administrative employees and primarily due to the difference in salaries between the two groups and so dr. Kara had asked me to put together some calculations for you for an increase of 3% for non-administrative non-union employees which would match up with the some of the other increases that

133our contractual employees are getting through their union contracts and a CPI increase for administrative employees which would be a 2.3 percent for this year if you look at I believe it's page 341 in your document so some of the numbers on page 340 you might look a little misleading until you look at this page the total cost of those two increases would would be two hundred thirty six thousand three hundred eighty six dollars and eighty three cents over the 2019 2020 salaries for the for these three employee groups however when we factor out some reductions in administrative cost as well as the elimination of a financial assistant position and yeah and you the glial froze up oh boy did we lose while yeah he'll probably log back in I think he's gonna beat we okay

134340 that's that back hopefully that 341 kind of explains those numbers well I think we're mixing apples and oranges here cuz you've already presented the elimination of a position and reduction in some of this in our staffing plan I think what a better presentation here would be to take the staff that that's currently on the books and being retained showing the percentage increase just in that population you you're not going to provide increases to any new hires ie the you know the assistant business manager because I found this very misleading and I thought I kind of felt like you're double-dipping on something he'd already shown the board a little misleading and I agree there I'm not really livid with the increases you can utilize the positions that were eliminated because I know where we're going

135to talk about a new assistant with Kent right the with the CPA so we're right yes that's not it that wasn't necessarily an administrative position and I believe that went under the yellow section there so that's already factored in yeah but we're not providing him at a salary increase you're just hiring him and bringing him in so I think you need to look at correct yeah comparison of just the staff that are currently on the books and those with and the intention of those that we've been retained and I think it would be a clearer picture of what our the true increases to the budget yes truly the true increase is that two hundred thirty six thousand three hundred eighty six dollar amount that's the true increase and it is represented here like you said

136you know this this was meant to be just a global view I certainly can present it in any way you want to look at we're not trying to hide anything whatsoever what what I will stay is it it will come out roughly to a three percent increase for the orange and blue group and then for the administrative group roughly a two-way three percent increase but I will I will go ahead and just have this that spreadsheet we calculated a little bit for you and and I can have that for you probably either tomorrow or Thursday okay that is the main point concern I have is I want to make sure that two loops are completely separated yo can I ask a question because I think that doesn't even these didn't either have a committee looked

137at it um so that we can take a look and see where we were where we're trying to go with the salaries um because when we get it it's like I'm looking at this but it's like you said and also it needs to have a deeper dive and it should be on the excel sheet so that we have an understanding and we're able to compare you know apples to oranges and to know what we're doing and I'm not criticizing Lyle I'm just saying that promising I just think that for me I it doesn't give me what I'm looking for in order to even make a decision if this is moving in the direction and even all of the moving parts we're losing people were adding people in when we're experiencing the same thing on one

138part because we eliminated Department but then on the other side we're putting in more position and so I just want to see where's our real savings and what we're doing and where the money is supposed to transfer over into curriculum the other thing that I would and I may be moving ahead of myself so Nelson you can stop me the other thing that some things I mean we've got Finance Committee's we've got all of these other committees but we have nothing that tells us even the welfare benefits in the salary structure all of that probably needs to have eyes on it because even if we look at our structure and I would also recommend this because we have under utilization and I asked for the EEO one report and I'm still only asked for that

139again so that I can see the structure of staff there are places that were underutilized but we don't have any working document that says how we're going to target recruitment so that we can fill the gap at the administrative level and other levels throughout the district so that it mirrors what our strategy is in terms of diversity equity and inclusion in our workforce so that's still a concern of mine so I'll put it down there and I would like to see an l1 current that's okay that I get that report on so that I can take a look at the workforce to see what we look like but I think that we need to do more targeted recruitment for minority presence within the district I arrived that's something that we're certainly want to take a

140look at I think it's a little bit it's a separate conversation than looking at just raises for next year but I definitely think we need to have that conversation as well in hiring from the board they would like Lyle to kind of strip out some of the extra things that he put in and just really focus on our staff apples-to-apples yeah so that you can see you know what we spent between this year and last year is that correct yeah the last question for Lyle is la does this satisfy our minimum wage issues that we might be coming up in in the next I think it's going to hit twice this year or once this year in the beginning of max right well the minimum wage the minimum wage issue really won't be tremendous issue

141for our non-union employees here with the exception of substitutes and some of our playground supervisor employees and so forth who are non-union but they're also very limited part-time we're going to be coming with some recommendations on that but we haven't crunched all the numbers with our current staff to see exactly what those costs are going to be but I yes we're going to have if not for July definitely by January we're going to have an issue that we're going to have to resolve with at least some of our staff both in those groups that aren't necessarily represented here and also some in acme as well so we'll have a negotiation issue that we're going to have to work so in any of these any of these categories of three administrative clerical obviously probably not administrative

142but clerical maintenance and technologies or anybody that we have to worry about the known wage no okay so so while this is the brown well does this line up with our mock market value you know as we compare to other districts with these raises are we in line with market value did you look at that when you consider the proposed raises yes you know the market rate is is kind of hanging around that CPI level some districts have gone a little bit about it to adjust for freezes or whatever that they may have had but you know it looks like this is going great he's from that the forecast five data that I was able to access okay and and what is so you're trying to align these raises up with CPI is that what

143I'm hearing the administrative raise is lined up with CPI the we make the other nine administrative employees would be at three percent which would be in keeping with their Union counterparts Oh understood thank you okay well you can have that chart maybe later in this week oh if nothing else it'll be with the FYI but I will try to get it to you sooner okay thank you thanks a lot and then one last thing and maybe this is for Ken just kind of like you know a total increase our total package increase of two hundred thirty six thousand like like to get some sense before the vote of kind of where that fits into our budget or budget deficit right when I when I gave you those projections remember those the three year projection that

144I put together that for next year for everybody for both administrative and non clerical and non-union salaries I put in a flat three percent increase okay now so this is a little bit less than that they already covered then technically others radically yes yes okay okay any other questions for horses and just win enough I can't sure what Brenda I'm sorry if you can follow up with me on the eagle one report Oh ego one that was the other thing okay any old business okay any new business okay you know we don't have our self-evaluation sheets out this week I well I guess what I would ask each of the board members if you can shoot me an email and just kind of what worked well tonight what didn't and so we can try to

145improve before our next meeting to the extent we can so this is all new territory for all of us so any feedback would be appreciated Nelson why do we not have the self evaluation just because it's our first virtual meeting well I'm sorry not that there was supposed to be another evaluation tonight that did not take place or did we not have closed because of our newness to this know that the superintendent evaluation forms were due to me today I will compile them and get them out to you so we can have the discussion and closed at next Tuesday's meeting that was always the plan oh I thought they reduced so we could discuss it today no just and even me so that I could compile okay and then I didn't rush okay no we're

146still on track for that okay thank you any other questions Karen you have anything else I do not okay can I have a motion to adjourn so second you have that Janine yep 843 okay all in favor say aye aye all opposed nay we are adjourned thanks everybody you have a community oh there mrs. Tobin are you there okay I'll email her I'm not sure I get my information to her but I was gonna ask her now thanks guys sorry but I saved