[12/8/25] D65 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING

001Well, I guess that's >> okay. I'll have Let's have the roll call. Today is Monday, December 8th. The time is 5:01 p.m. Roll call. Oakdike >> here. >> Wymer >> here. >> Wilkins >> here. >> Pinker >> here. >> Hernandez >> here. >> Anderson >> here. I move that the board approve tonight's meeting agenda as presented. >> Second. Oak, >> yes. >> Wymer, >> yes. >> Wilkins, >> yes. >> Pinker, >> yes. >> Hernandez, >> yes. >> Anderson, >> yes. >> We're going to move on to public comments. Members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings. Speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for factf finding

002or resolution of disputes. Rather, we encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook. Please remember to state your name and that you have three minutes to address the board. Speakers may not yield their time to someone else. Please refrain from applause between speakers so we may respectfully allow all speakers the opportunity to be heard. Also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments. The best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing schoolboard district5.net. Okay. Um, the first few speakers we have are Kelly, Kelly Post, Myra Gatau, Terry Shepard, Lindsay White. Three minutes. I wasn't ready for three minutes. You're lucky. All right. Good evening. My name is Kelly Post and I

003represent over 700 deck members. Change is change is inevitable in the face of the challenges ahead. There is no scenario in which cutting 10 million from next year's budget will leave any student, program, or school untouched. We will all be absorbing the impact. It is essential that we face this fact with unwavering commitment to the care of our students. Deck will always be committed to supporting our students and the staff that serves them. Dex's mission states that we will use our collective power as educators with diverse voices voices to advocate for the dignity of our educators, our profession, and to ensure equitable access to public quality public education on behalf of all of our students. While we acknowledge the losses that change may bring, we stand resolved to support all of our students and each

004other in the chapter ahead. Good evening. My name [clears throat] is Morgat and I am a fifth grade teacher at Washington Elementary. Tonight, I want to address an issue that deserves just as much attention as the ongoing conversation about school closures. Over the past several weeks, nearly all the focus in our district has been on whether or not schools will close. And while that is undeniably an important topic, one that affects families, students, educators, and our entire community, another critical issue has been pushed into the background. Our dedicated, hard-working support staff are working without a contract. These are the people who greet our students in the morning, prepare their meals, keep our buildings safe, support students in classrooms, help them regulate big emotions, assist them in learning, and make sure our schools function every single

005day. They are essential. Yet, despite their essential role, they have gone far too long without the fair pay and fair contract they deserve. Working without a contract means no pay raises at a time when the cost of living has skyrocketed. But their wages have not. Many of these staff members already earn too little for the enormous contributions they make to our students daily lives. They show up every day because they care deeply about our kids and our community. The district should show that same level of care and respect in return. It is time, past time, for the district to finalize the matter of school closures so the board can turn its full attention to ensuring our support staff receive a fair and equitable contract. These individuals deserve stability, respect, and wages that reflect the value

006of their work. Thank you. [applause] Good evening. My name is Terry Shepard and I'm here tonight as the chair of the NAACP education committee. I want to begin by commending the so-called Horton 3 on their support of the process in negotiating this present financial crisis. Maya, Mia, your comments hopefully were heard by all and listen, they were truly touching. Sergio, in your comments, you referred to those students whose needs are going unressed while the board refuses to act. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you for holding strong when there have been so many negative comments directed your way. For those parents who are fighting the movement of their children from one school to another, the black students in district 65 have been shifted from school to school in the name of integrating our schools since 1969. If

007you think this movement will negatively impact your kids, it's time for you to accept the responsibility of moving our kids from school to school since 1969. Like I told parents, we're fighting the move to bring the Lincoln school kids to Oakton. The only thing that will happen is a teacher getting new students and kids getting new friends. If you think this was harmful, you need to step up and accept your responsibility in what has happened over the last 50 years and support the current administration in closing North Side Schools. For the board member who referenced Brown versus Board of Education, I encourage you to read Blacks Against Brown. There are four candidates to fill Omar's seat. I'm throwing my support to Natika Washington and Jamie Wallace. I hope you make the correct decision of who

008can best lead our district. And where is your fiduciary responsibility in paying a firm to lead this process than giving that responsibility to a group of residents calling themselves the quote nerds end quote. Lastly, show those principles who were in attendance at the last board meeting that you care about them, their students, and the programs their school supports. Do something. Thank you. [applause] Hi, I'm Lindseay White. Uh, when I saw the agenda come through for tonight's meeting, I was pretty alarmed that it appears there will be no discussion of how much money will need to be cut from next year's school budget. I'm disappointed to not see any effort at compromise reflected on this agenda for the board president to be working tirelessly towards compromise. I'm not seeing that reflected in what you're showing to

009the public. Will there be any public discussion about the budget for next school year? When does that start? The board owes the public transparency, especially with all of the distrust and division in our community right now. We deserve to know and hear this board discuss the actual dollar amounts of cuts we'll be facing next school year. You have to know that these cuts will disproportionately harm students of color, those from low-income households, emerging English learners, and so on. I know you can't name the specific positions, but you can be clear on the number and how much this will affect all of our kids. Maria claimed at the last meeting that this budget shortfall was not dire, that it was not an emergency, that quote, "The math isn't mathing." But from where I'm sitting, the kind

010of cuts that I believe are likely to happen now with no additional schools closing in 2627 are very dire and they do would certainly qualify as an emergency. Is it really $3.67 million that we'll need to cut in programming and staffing this next school year? while we sit here and we don't talk about it. You need to speak to these numbers. Get everyone on the same page, including the public. The public needs to see what's happening here. There's nothing. The division over whether or not this situation is an emergency is further dividing all of us, and I would encourage you to think about that. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have Kelly Farley, Zaki Tazik, Russ Shoner. >> Hello. Oh, can you reset the clock? I don't need three minutes, hopefully. So, I was

011looking in a year ago on December 9th, the board was presented a financial forecast that showed we would need to implement an estimated 13 million cuts by FY26 initially and then 15 million more by FY27 in recurring operational cuts. That was a year ago. In the estimates provided this fall, we see that FY25 is actually projected to show an estimated uh 12 million saved and a million more in revenue than was budgeted or forecast last December. The expedience of the administration seems to have put us a year ahead of where we thought we'd be on that 13 million of initial cuts needed. That's great. But now we're wasting the time we bought, right? As we have this remaining 15 million to solve for 15 million that's been publicly available to the board and the public

012for a year. The board policy in recent months we seem to think those aren't reliable numbers. Do we not believe the admin or the external consultants? Whose numbers do we believe? If not, what are you doing about the fact that we have no numbers that the board trusts? That's a problem. The board policy is to have 90 days cash on hand. That's not a shining example of responsibility. That's a bare minimum to be considered responsible. According to NPR, at the end of FY21, 70% of districts in Illinois had reserves between 100 and 359 days cash on hand, and 23% had over 360 days. That means 93% of Illinois school districts had at least 100 days cash on hand. I think 90 days is a benchmark for the bare minimum, but certainly not what we should

013be striving for, and we're not even enforcing that. How this meeting is not centered on what comes next is an insult to those of us in the STRP comm uh committees, the community, and the staff who have been deeply invested in the STRP process. and it's a betrayal to the staff and students who will feel the magnitude of these looming cuts the most. Thank you. How much time do I have? >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh my name is Zoki Tasich. Uh, I've been here before. I'm here today to to talk about equity. The word equity has been used by nearly every member of this board during nearly every meeting in the past two and a half months. Three observations. Number one, Superintendent Horton was hailed as a champion of equity as he defrauded the

014district due in part to the lack of board oversight. Number two, during Horton's tenure, the then board, including Sergio, uh unanimously decided to take out 40 million uh million dollars in loans to build Foster. And again, I invoked equity. We are now facing huge deficits due in significant part to those loans. and Sergio and two other members of this board keep warning us that cuts to programs for marginalized children [snorts] will have to be made if we don't close at least two schools in addition to Bessie roads. Once again, the word equity is being waved around. Now, some of you in this room, I'm sure, are thinking, [snorts] "Who's this goofy white guy to be up here and to talk to me about equity?" Well, that answer is a very long one. So, I'll just

015share a handful of uh you know, handful of information about me and you can decide that um on your own. [snorts] I have three children um in this district. I have a daughter who is uh seven. I have two nephews. They're seven and nine. [snorts] I've been their legal guardian for four years now. The younger one has a disability and an IEP. and I love them as though they are the my own sons. Number two, I am a lawyer. When I was in law school, I worked at the public defenders office in St. Louis. I second shared a murder trial defending an African-American man who when he was when he was a teenager shot and killed another young man. Three. Since completing law school, I have represented pro pro bono, an African-American [snorts] man who

016was an inmate in Cook County Jail, uh, and, uh, several other incarcerated people. Number four, I believe that every human is created in the image and likeness of God. Every human is worthy of reverence and respect. No one is less than anyone else. All right, let's get back to the word equity. Uh, I recently saw something online by an anonymous district 65 alum that I think sums it up pretty well. [snorts] Heston's moral language has become a shield, even a weapon for administrative negligence, cruelty, and criminality. Courage now lies in demanding substance over symbolism, honesty over theater, and leadership that sees students as learners, and I would add as individual learners with individual needs, not as political abstractions. That is all. Thank you for your time. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Russ Shone,

017parent of two students at Willard. Uh, in previous board meetings, I shared the three pillars of trust identified by trust expert Corey Shear. competence, problem solving, and care for others. His research shows that when even one of this these pillars are missing, trust breaks down. Um, based on the last board meeting, I'd like to personally recognize Miss Anderson, Miss Updike, and Dr. Pinkert for what I believe you demonstrated competence, thoughtful problem-solving approaches, and true care for others. I believe you were generally working to rebuild trust with the community. Unfortunately, the comments and votes from the other board members, in my opinion, eroded that trust. First, Miss Wilkins calling it wishful thinking to explore alternatives to closing two schools signals to me a troubling lack of imagination. My profession is teaching creative problem solving skills to

018others. A definition of creativity is the ability to modify self-imposed constraints. That is, do you believe something is possible? If you don't, it is not possible. That mindset concerns me. Second, Mr. Hernandez, your lack of oversight for Dr. Horton is very serious. The community will be reminded of this in the months ahead as this trial begins. Accountability matters and I believe it would be a tremendous value and signal of trust if you step down. Third, Dr. Wymer, [snorts] when the vote to close two schools failed, you had an opportunity, in my belief, to stand up for one of your priorities. If protecting programs is your priority, how do you justify refusing to close even one school, saving at least a million dollars? As one of my kids said, maybe it's not about the money. I

019don't know what it's about. I'd ask you personally if a vote comes up to close one school and the two school closure option fails to please consider that. My hope going forward is that a seventh board member is added who demonstrates competence, problem solving, care for others, and a willingness to set a clear vision and strategic plan. Perhaps this could accelerate the rebuilding of trust. I'd also ask you to consider the vote totals of the previous election in that decision. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Next we have Katie Armstead and then Jamie. >> Hi everyone. Katie Armistad from Invest in Neighborhood Schools. Uh I just want to make a brief comment about the seventh board seat. Um I've been thinking a lot about the dynamics here. Um, and I'm an executive at a nationwide

020tech company and we have a CEO and we have a board and there's a lot of different perspectives at play and I think it's easy to assume that the CEO or the board of the decision makers, but they're not. There's one group that matters. It's the shareholders and that's us. Just as shareholders control a company, the taxpayers and the voters in this district, the voters and the taxpayers control this district. And all roads lead back to us. Your roles in this district, they'll come and go whether we agree or we disagree. But one group will be constant and that's us. And I think there there appear to be some really exceptional candidates in this group of 28. And I really hope they run next spring and give us the opportunity to evaluate them. But when

021you meet in close session and you refuse to select the candidate who your shareholders have told you they want on this board, know that you can only outrun democracy for so long. We have to move forward. Please move us forward. Thanks. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Jamie. Good evening. And I want to thank Pat and Nicole and Maria again for your no vote on the two school closures, two north side school closures. [clears throat] It was striking to hear last week Maya and Sergio lecture us about getting our finances back on track and about how we're losing populations due to continued property tax increases. when they have approved virtually every major expenditure for years. Have they ever voted no once on spending in the past 3 to nine years? Anyway, [clears throat] 7 months ago, an

022unusually high engagement election, the largest district 65 candidate field in at least 15 years, produced a clearly defined ranking of candidates. [clears throat] Following president, the board should appoint the next highest vote getter who received more votes than either Sergio or Maya. Ignoring the electorate's will behind closed doors and perhaps trying to override what the voters decided is an anti-democratic act. Bypassing voters and president to seat an unvetted candidate who would further erode public trust. Please do the right thing and appoint the next highest vote getter. Thank you. That concludes public comments for tonight. >> Okay, we're going to move into discussion of curriculum and policy and Maya Wilkins will lead this board of the meeting. >> Okay. So, I think the first item that we've got on our agenda um is the a discussion

023around the instructional framework implementation, instructional strategy update. Good evening. I'm Regina Culpit. >> I'm Sonia Krishna. >> We are the teaching and learning team. So tonight we're going to do a little bit of a backup kind of give you reminder of where we started off at the beginning of the school year and then we'll mark you march you forward to where we are now in looking at the instructional framework and our instructional walkthroughs. Um last school year SY25 the curriculum and instruction team got together and created this instructional framework. We used the work that was found in the teaching uh for equity workbook and we basically lifted up and identified eight components from that work that we felt would help to lay uh raise the bar on our instructional practices and to give us an

024opportunity to have a north star to kind of guide and point ourselves towards. Um then this school year over the summer we as the new academics team we got together and we created a walkthrough tool and that tool um is has been used now um since the beginning of the school year. And basically it is um helping us to look at those same components but this school year we decided instead of looking at all eight components we would look at only three of the eight components. we decided to kind of go after um a coined phrase that Dr. Turner often mentions which is to go slow to go fast. So we know that if we take a very um a very specific view and look at the work of instruction with our three identified components

025that we could um there really be impactful in the way that we look at instruction. >> All right. So the first one of the three is component number four from that equity uh framework. Um and this is centered around access to grade level work for students with the appropriate scaffolds. That's what this is about. Um what it means is that students are all working on grade level work. The rigor is there and they're expected to do grade level work but with the appropriate scaffolds. Why does this matter? It matters because if we're asking kids to do the rigor and there are different paths to getting to the end goal, we need to provide the scaffolds that will come off over time, but when they need it to get to that destination. Component seven um focuses

026on the belief and how it's being communicated with students when they are in the learning pit. Are we being encouraged? Are we being affirmed? Are we seen as the learners that we are? We know that um how students feel as they are learning impacts their achievement and and in impacts their future growth. The third component is um solely centered on students who's doing the cognitive lift during the learning process. What that looks like and what that means is who's doing the talking, the thinking, the writing. And why it matters is when students are doing the cognitive lift and are working through, they develop a deeper understanding as opposed to others doing the work for them. So they can transfer the skills, they can internalize the learning, and they can be set up for success. So

027now we'll talk about our process so that you have a we're trying to paint you a picture of what our walkthroughs look like. So, we had a beta version of what we thought we wanted our walkthroughs to look like and we started off with Shoot and Daws. I will say personally, I selected those two schools because I knew I could and and they were very accommodating and they were very gracious to allow us to come in and kind of tool and work on well, what do we want this to look like so that it's meaningful. Um, so we normed our our current agenda. So that's how we built it out. We now have three phases to our walkthrough. We have phase one which is a meeting that happens between u myself and Sonia with the

028building leaders. Then we have phase two the actual walkthrough day and then phase three back Sonia and I are back together again with our with a feedback loop for the leaders. So we'll walk you through each phase. Um phase one before the walkthrough we have a brief meeting with our um building leaders and the sole purpose of this is to partner with them in this process and be a support thought partners but not make it an evaluative process. That's the main goal of this and we do this by answering any questions that they have talking about their schoolwork plans and how these indicators align and what exactly they are working on of the three that they would like us to give them feedback on. And we also give them guidance on setting up the walkthrough

029schedule. So logistics of it. So during the walkthrough day, we actually meet in one common room with the entire academics team. That can be anywhere from six members on the academics team to 10 people. Uh Dr. Turner has been awesome in being able to attend quite a few of them um with us, almost all of them I should say. Um, and so we then review all of the notes that we took during our meeting with our building leaders and we share that with the team so that they have full understanding of the building that they're sending in and what's being lifted up. The building leaders are there also to provide additional context just in case there's something else we need to know that is um apparent on that particular day. And then we walk the

030building and we visit classrooms in teams of two to three for an hour. And then while we're in the rooms, we take what's called low inference notes. Meaning we do not make any judgments like, "Oh, wow. That was great. Oh, that was fun." Instead, we do things like teacher um teacher, one co one teacher, one co-teer, two paras um question. this question was asked. Three students raised their hand, one student response. Boom. Very low inference, no judgments. So once we've done our walkthroughs in our groups of two or three um in three or four classrooms, we come back together as a whole group and do a debrief. And these are the steps that we follow in our debrief. We have a padlet where we take some individual time thinking reflection time and we add two

031to three glows and grows for each of those indicators. And we also fill out a Google form from which we can Regina and I can synthesize data to send back to the schools but everyone gets to record the things that they saw and heard like Regina said as is descriptive in a descriptive fashion. Then we open it up for a group discussion. The leaders are sitting in with us as school leaders and they hear our discussion and they give us some context as needed but they hear the glows and grows and what's happening and how we're seeing it and how it relates to what they're trying to do um in the school. mainly around trends we noticed and then opportunities for growth that can be there. Right? So then as a followup as a final

032step, Regina and I draft this letter and we send them the glows and the growth and focus areas for their work and their leadership teams as a followup with that with their teachers to beef up the areas of growth and we leave it up to them how they want to share it as appropriate with their staff but they have all that information and feedback from us. So, so far this year we have conducted 12 walkthroughs. Um, this schedule is pretty accurate minus one. We had to reschedule Rice and we actually had Rice last Thursday. Um, on December 18th coming up next week, we'll be seeing Kingsley and Walker and our goal is to see all 18 schools by the end of the twice by the end of the school year. So we'll wrap up our

033first round in January. So that's our process and what we're focusing on. So what did we learn in this process so far component four which if you recall was about grade level work with appropriate scaffolds. What we're noticing is a pattern of modeling and giving guided practice um to students before they go off and do their independent work. We see that across the board in whole group discussions and um teaching. An example would be students are working on a surface area problem together discussing on a Desmos you know screen and figuring it out and once they understand it then they go off and work on a BTC task for an application. So that's one example. Um we're also noticing >> sorry >> BTC is what >> building thinking classrooms thank you um a task for

034an application. So then organizing tools, we see a lot of organizers of different kinds in all content areas being used widely um to support students. For example, if they're doing a writing task, they take out their notes and what they've talked about and things that they've noticed to draft their paragraph. So we're use seeing them use a lot of organizers grow. What are some areas where we could be doing better? Um one of the things we could do better is really be focused and intentional with the group work that we're selecting. if you're using our exit slips, what data are we using about students that we know in real time to form those groups and tasks that those groups are being to work on. So, we could get better at that. Also, we could get

035better at um leveraging all the adults in the room to using scaffolds and working with the groups of kids that are in there. For example, resource teachers or TAs or co-teers. How are they working with the same group of students? We could be better at that. In component seven, we were talking about how we're communicating our expectations. Um, we've done a a great job of holding those high expectations and communicating them. We've heard statements like, "I know this is a challenge, but I've seen all of you solve even trickier problems than this." So, very encouraging. We also see that there's a not do we only have tools but students are being able to use those tools to better themselves independently. So like anchor charts that pretty much so are the things that um support a

036student when they're trying to do their own independent work. It helps them kind of have a recall center and they're being used so often that it's kind of a normed practice in the rooms that we did see. areas for growth um are embracing that mistakes happen and that you know there's that acronym um F A I L first attempt in learning um being able to embrace that um that mindset and helping students to learn that part because as we all know when you're learning something new sometimes you don't get it the first time it takes a couple of tries. Um and then the other area is thinking about and using students background and or their outside of school learned experiences as a way to bring them into the current learning that's present in the classroom.

037So using their funds of knowledge as a individual to help them um build the new learning on top of. Okay. Last component 11 um which is centered around who is doing the cognitive lift in the classroom. What we're noticing is a lot of teacher facilitated discussions or a lot of discussions happening in the classroom where students are thinking, talking and writing, but they're all teacher facilitated and and they're doing very well um discussing, talking, thinking, writing and processing. Um an example would be teacher provides opportunities for kids to turn and talk and then share their thinking with the whole class chunking of you know the lesson that way so they can process it along the way. Another thing we're noticing that's a strength is lesson specific dis discussions and opportunity to talk to sorry to

038talk about what's known and what's unknown. For example, the notice and wonder um routine it protocol is used a lot in science but in other areas as well um like for reading and image. What are we noticing? What are we wondering? Let's look at some patterns. Let's have some discussions. So we're seeing a lot of those happening, those kind of engagements happening with students and their thinking areas for growth in that for us. um are students making sense of the content and persevering through difficulty. How do they do that when they hit a roadblock? Like really working through that themselves to make sense of it. And by that I mean even if a teacher is giving some support and scaffolds which is perfectly fine that they still the students are still doing the heavy lifting

039when it comes to thinking and the processing that's important. And also how how are we having them often demonstrate what they understand and to apply it really well across you know tasks or problems. Those are areas where we have room to grow. So then what does this mean? Um so based on on our trends. We typically leave this information with all of our building leaders, but we know that this work is also being shared or feedback is being shared with our content committee um leaders. We're also sharing them with FAPO as leads to their department and we are also of course then sharing them with our instructional coaches. That way we can have some kind of impact, we can have direct impact on instructional practices um with the individual schools. We also have opportunities for

040um PLC's to kind of take on some of this work and focus some of the feedback there as well. Many of the people who are receiving the feedback are also our sit team leaders. Our next steps um is that we will see Willard Orington Roads and ECC in January and we will begin our second round of school visits in February. Started off with Dawson and Shoot again. >> Any questions? I have a question. Um you said you visit three to four classrooms in a school. So for the K through five schools are those class what's the mixture of those classes that you visit? >> We see a range >> um a little bit of everything and we are three teams of three in each team. >> Okay. >> So we all go to three or

041four classrooms. So collectively it is a lot of classrooms and we cover the K5. Yeah. >> Thank you for presenting this this framework and as we move towards a decentralized school district, right? I think this is super critical. Right. Because we're empowering building leaders, our principles who are should be our instructional leaders and I appreciate that you get the feed they they get the feedback report. Uh my question is I know you mentioned that the PLC's our professional learning communities get a copy of this report inform this as well. >> I'm wondering if our colleagues um again we can't do this with our without our our teachers our deck reps. So our deck reps from the from the buildings getting these reports as well, right? just to make sure that they're in the loop in

042regards to what we're finding in regards to these walks. >> Most definitely. Um like I know I have led every um committee from the social studies committee, K5, humanities committee, all of those are deck members as well. Um and also know building leaders use our Padlet as well as the feedback letter that we give them with their SIT team members. So they are privy to the feedback that we are we living leaving leaving behind. Same with our science and math committees. They also get this information. >> Wonderful. And as a reminder of the community that that's that is those are committees that are specifically made of of our staff, right? District staff along with deck members as part of our bargaining agreement >> um to improve instruction. >> We also want to I just want

043to point out too that we're very cognizant of focusing on the school work plans and the leaders as instructional leaders in their buildings. And so that is is really has to be like that highest level. So each school leader recognizes their own unique organization as a school and it's really important for us to continue to support what their plans are within the building and that's that very close relationship and that's why as the academics team this isn't just Sonia and Regina on curriculum instruction. It's Dr. McCoy. It's Dr. Plaza. It's Brian Harris. We're all in this and we all have weekly meetings and this also leads some of our work on how we can best support schools. >> So you read my you read my mind Dr. That was my next question. and how are

044we tying these to the school work plans which again our principles shared with us at the beginning of the year. So again it's about having instructional alignment >> uh with the overall school plan and and then um util utilized as a framework >> as you all walk in and do your observations how how are how is practice tying to the schoolwork plans and the goals of each specific building which is very unique to each building. So thank you for that. >> That that is what we do in our phase one where we meet with them is how that's the first thing we ask them. How does this align with your school work plan? Now, of these three indicators, which one's the best? Where do you want feedback? What are you working on? What's helpful to

045you? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> One of the other things, too, um I'm interested in um in in my day job, I'm trying I'm trying to get um and the hope is that we have the equity journey continuum, which um is a school district level measure that measures student learning, learning conditions, and elevated educators. uh we've we have framed our um academic progress reports as well as social emotional progress reports which are presented around September right October um to um that framework or those those key areas. So each of those areas, right, has uh um we collect data which is required federally and and by the state. So no extra work on behalf of the school districts. Each our school district of course like every other school district has a metric in the equity journey

046continuum under student learning learning conditions elevating educators. Um and each of those uh that's standing in in in that in that um in that continuum. Um each of those data or focus areas has data elements. For instance, for student learning, uh we're looking at um the um how they how they do in the kids assessment, how they do in the um the annual standardized test that the the state gives. Yep. Um and uh of course the multilingual access, right? Um I know for learning conditions, right? We tal we talk about climate there. Uh, and that's a piece, you know, I'm interested in in regards to I I you you kind of address, you know, climate in some of these questions is kind of built in >> if we could be more explicit. What is the

047climate in classrooms? How do children feel, right? Uh, and I see that where where you we talk about, okay, well, do are the teacher are the educators valuing the students lived experiences they're bringing to the classroom and utilizing that as a means to teach, right, content? >> So, so I I really again appreciate that. and if there's a way to align it to our academic and and social emotional progress that that's part of our current strategic plan. Hopefully in our future strategic plan as we refine it more uh that we utilize those three metrics, right? Student learning, learning conditions, elevated educators, which again are are just best practices >> on how to u um create practices that that ensure that students have better outcomes. >> Um can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Um, one is

048love uh hearing hearing from y'all. Qu two quick questions. One is the second school visit with the same teachers or is it with is it like a followup? We with the same teachers could be different. >> No. So we um we actually are flipping the schools. So our first round the school that was in the AM will be in the PM and the school that was the PM school will be the AM school. And that's important because you know our K5 schools start at 9ine and so we would probably we got a chance to see their opening part of their day and not see what it's like for them as learners in the afternoon and so maybe not be as relevant to the middle school schedule but it's very apparent when you go into a

049K5 building. >> Yeah. So that's that's um the sec I'm sorry um the second uh follow-up question to that is can you speak to how much the instructional framework is the same regardless if it's you know if it's steam or if it's humanities or how much is unique to the um subject matter I know and might be different in K5 versus in middle grades >> we've actually been very intentional of being content agnostic in creating this instructional so the instructional framework focuses on If you look at these these these areas um back to one of >> yeah I'm going I've got I can see better if I look at them. So for framework four is grade level learning and scaffolds to support with that you can utilize that across every content. Um component number seven

050is communicate belief to a students that they are um we believe in their potential that there's productive mindsets. We're looking at productive struggle and component seven is we want to encourage students to take the cognitive lift that should be happening in every single subject area and it shouldn't be and what happens is if you start to say well it looks like one thing in math and one thing in science then it starts to to kind not have that strength. We need to concentrate and focus on strong instruction and that strong instruction will then carry each content area. So, so a math teacher, so I know, I mean, I get it at the general sense of it, but at the application, um, a math teacher, if I'm teaching, if I'm teaching reading and my teaching math,

051instructional, there's not a necessity of the instructional framework being grounded in the in the different content that they're teaching. >> You you want to have a math discussion, you want to have an ELA discussion, have a science discussion. important elements in developing student agency and student cognitive gift that doesn't change. >> That doesn't change. Sorry, that doesn't change. Um I was just at uh the raising student achievement conference in today and spent the day with educators from all over Illinois. And that's exactly what they're all saying, okay? Is that we need to focus on instruction. In fact, I asked an instructional um strategist. I said, "Tell me about content versus instruction." She said if we don't have strong instruction it doesn't matter what our content is. So building thinking classrooms is a deeply deeply discussionbased

052protocol. I attended two sessions today that talked about embedding math and science practices is happening when you embed math discussions and students actually own the logic and the reasoning behind math and it's not just number sense or literacy or anything else like that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I can see how that's very important. [laughter] >> And it was amazing watching it's it's amazing being in these classrooms with building thinking classrooms and watching young students discuss their math thinking. >> Yeah, that's right. >> And when a teacher then ties, we talked about this way in math. We're going to talk about it the same way in ELA. We've got incredible educators that I've seen do that. We're just doing the same thing, just different language. >> Yeah. I think that really pushes people to really learn

053when they have to think about it and process it and talk about it in that way. So, that's great. I love this. I think it really centers students, which is who we're all here to serve. So, I love seeing this and I'm glad this process is in place. Um, so this is our first time implementing it and maybe it's too early, but um are there is there anything that stands out as going particularly well or on the other side things that you think you might want to tweak? >> I think we were very happy and and felt really good about kids are all working on grade level content. There's no dumbing down or lowering of expectations happening across the board. That's a win and we're shifting in that direction more and more and that was

054really nice to see across the board. And also when it comes to seven, I know you were talking Sergio a little bit about um how the expectations and and the climate and culture of the classroom. By and large, our teachers are very positive and reinforce our kids >> and and their language is very affirming where they say, "You've done things harder than this. You got this. You can do this. We don't know everything. That's why we're working together." You know, we hear that a lot in our spaces more and more. And I think that makes a huge difference that kids feel comfortable failing and learning from those mistakes. So I think those are things to celebrate across the board and we are working on things like BTC which can cut across concepts and how do

055we get kids to do more thinking and us not jump in and help them like too much because we want to help them but they have to productively struggle sometimes um to own the learning and understand it better. So those are the places where we can grow, but by and large our teachers are on the right track with our kids with grade level content and positive reinforcement and encouragement to move through the work. And I think with our our process, there are some things we we've we've tweaked as we've moved along. The addition of the Padlet was so that we could leave all of our thinking with that with the team at the school versus we were um given a summary in our letter and thought it would be beneficial for the teams to be

056able to see all of the things that we discussed during our debriefing. Um but we also have had school leaders to ask and talk about is there a possibility a moment when we can bring a sit member or two to and have them and join in on the walkth through and be then do the briefing with us because again this is not something done to schools but we are in partnership and alongside each other and I think that will improve >> that particular stance. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then the other thing is so you know like as we go through this and you know you've identified some goals and some grows for the grows are there things that you know like like are you sort of thinking about next steps and

057how we build on the grows and how do you see that that working and I guess what do you need from us to make sure you're able to do that? Well, we think that like because again we are centering the school leader in their community and their sit teams. Um we act as support for them um in helping them to either set up a professional learning session that they want to um look at with a um a particular team or just with their sit team or what whatever we can possibly um manage to do um to support that. We have also sent them like you know resources of titles and things like that that also feeds into um the work that we're doing. >> Got it. >> And we also have professional learning communities for

058our principles too. Okay. So the principle is is a combination of some full day professional learning, but the other part of the cycle are um professional learning communities that we are just finishing up one round with school leader PLC's and we'll be going into another round of school leader PLC's and we keep lifting this work back up to them too. So again, we're getting everybody in the same room. >> Makes sense. Okay, great. >> So it's lovely to talk about education. Thank you. Um, so I'm just curious because we'll rotate the the framework components every year, right? So it' be three different components that you're assessing every year. Is that correct? >> Well, our thinking necessarily sometimes I mean sometimes rotation is not the best thing and sometimes in education we go pendulum swings. Okay.

059>> So we need to to sit back. We need to have a conversation with school leaders. We need conversation with educators. >> These are three very critical components to a successful school child. And so It could be that we might have to settle on this for a little while to really see the cognitive [clears throat] lift, the ownership, the agency, and the students owning their own learning. And I've been in schools where that takes quite some time. >> Okay. So, my curiosity there was like how will when can we expect to see sort of longitudinal data from these walkthroughs? You know, it might be longer term >> depending on h how we Yeah. Yeah. But at the beginning of our um development, we talked about being very mindful of not taking on another initiative and

060another initiative and another initiative and calling causing whiplash with our educators. And so like Dr. Pep said like it's so much better for all of us if we can maintain these three and go deep and make sure we have a good um round of data following us so we can be data driven when we talk about which components we we can move forward with >> the new teacher the new the new teachers teachers >> TNTP thank you did a a study a number of years ago called Mirage one of the largest complaints for teacher professional education is that the pendulum swing you throw too many things at us. Slow down and let us deeply embed what we're learning. >> And also the ones we chose, there's so many layers to it that if we're doing

061this right, we're we have to do so many things to get it right. >> And if we do that, it's going to be really solid. And to going back to your question, if that's three years, it's five years, whatever it is, and they're ready to take on another thing to add on to it is when we should add on. >> Yeah. And I I I just want to add, I think part of it, too, is just collecting the data along the way. this data that we're collecting should essentially inform how we're providing professional learning around those particular things. And I think you know um we're trying to really be thoughtful around the type of professional learning that educators need that will push practice. I think uh in the past we focused a lot of attention

062around um curriculum professional learning specifically around the curricular resources that we've adopted here in the district and we know that we've adopted uh some resources in the district the past few years and so now it's really around how do how do we tighten up uh instruction and and you asked a a question earlier um Maya in terms of like where where the right spots are and where we see it done. Well, I I'll be very honest. We have seen and I want to say this very transparently, some awesome amazing instruction happening across this district. But if I had to say the places where the instruction has really been lifted where it's like everybody if if I had a magic wand and different school teams could come into these different places and actually see how these

063particular schools work with staff that absolutely would be parking Rice. >> And I'll be very very candid with you. We were just at Rice last week and the the environment and atmosphere at Rice this year and the very targeted level of instruction that staff is doing there. Same thing when we went a few weeks ago, we every time we go to park, we see the awesome work that Jill and Alyssa are are doing with that team. if we could just take our educators in those spaces where our most vulnerable population is and then then the question on the table is well what makes that so neat the the mindset there the staff is unified with their mindset they come together they work together they collaborate and I'm not saying that that's not existent in other

064places across that space but you see it and you feel it when you walk into those respective places working with those students and we could learn so much just in this particular area around how to intentionally scaffold learning for students that I think could have dividends across other places in the district. So, I just wanted to to lift that up um and call out that that's a really great bright spot for us and to really celebrate the educators all over the district, but to really celebrate our our educators at those particular places who have figured out how to really meet the individual needs of students. >> That's fantastic. >> Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate your presentation and and talking about uh instruction. And I agree if you aren't teaching it well, it doesn't matter

065what you teach. Um, my question is really around I have a couple questions and just for clarification in the slides it said you spent 10 minutes in each classroom but I thought I heard you say you spent an hour >> over the span of the walkthrough time we spend 10 minutes per each room and we're in small groups of two to three. Okay. And so the building groups, >> yeah, we may have three or four groups and each of us may have four or five classrooms to visit >> in that hour. >> Okay. And do the teachers know you're coming during this time? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um and my question is really around I see some parallels between these components of instruction and the five essentials survey. Um, was that intentional or is there

066a plan for you to kind of reflect on your observations and what may show up in changes in the five essentials year-over-year? >> It actually is aligned to ambitious instruction. So the five essentials have the ambitious instruction and yeah, we'll crosswalk it all. Okay. >> So, so every single thing we do has to be aligned and there has to be like there has to be consistent crosswalking. This is even crosswocked if you look at the Danielson framework which is the evaluation framework. These are high levels of areas of Danielson. We don't we don't want to this is non-evaluative. So we don't want to use Danielson language, but absolutely you want to make sure because if you're using these levers and if you're pushing these your ambitious instruction ratings should go up. So should collaborative teachers.

067So all of those elements are aligned to the instructional framework. The key to the instructional framework too is that it really gets deeper than what necessarily you can get from five essentials because it goes into things like cognitive lift. um embracing students lived identities. >> Yep. Yep. Yep. I see that. Okay. So, we should see some potentially some changes over the next several years if we're >> several years. And you want to be cautious. Of course, this is >> long-term work. >> Yes, please. >> I understand. Um that's great. Thank you. And then um I just wanted to hear a little bit more and you kind of referenced this a little bit, but um how are the school leaders then carrying this through on a more consistent basis with their teaching staffs in each of

068their buildings? >> So each of the building leaders um we we send them the email directly to the building leader. The building leaders have a choice on how they would like to disseminate the letter to their staff. Some building leaders have chosen to only give the letter to classrooms that we visited and other building leaders have chosen to share it across the building. Most of the building leaders have shared their Padlet at the at the at their sit meetings. Um so there is some variance but they are they are sharing. But regardless of that though in that letter I want to add we identify the topics for discussion with your leadership team for your PLC work. These are some things you could potentially be discussing as a result of these trends seen and that is

069where we're hoping they can tap into us to help them plan or they meet individually if they have the department chairs and other people who are teacher leaders or a coach depends on the building they could plan that out. So they do different things either run it by us or meet with us or plan internally and then ask for input. So those are their next steps for what are your spaces? Is that a Thursday meeting? Is a grade level meeting? How do you want to do that? But here are some areas you could focus on as topics. >> Okay. Thank you. And I have one final question. When I'm looking at the a couple slides down, there's some uh pie charts around observations and total responses. And I just have a technical question. Was that

070not supposed to be there? Sorry. >> We Oh, we omitted those. >> Okay. >> All right. Well, >> yeah. Go ahead. >> Never mind. I think I was good, but I maybe you could just answer my question anyway. There is a >> there was an NA >> response and I'm wondering it's consistently sometimes rarely not yet observed an NA. Can you just tell me what NA reflects? >> So like if you put for example um there's a component that includes a that how the other adults in the room are being used. >> Well you we could walk in a room there's only one adult. >> Oh at that point it's not not applicable. classroom. We saw it, right? >> Yeah. So, >> yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Absolutely. Thank you all. >>

071Thank you both. >> All right. Our next agenda item. [applause] >> Our next agenda item is on the student data privacy alliance. >> Hi everyone. Um, I wanted to take the opportunity tonight to discuss the potential for district 65 to join the education cooperative tech um, student data privacy alliance. So, we would be joining a cooperative that would allow us to access an additional up to 2,000 um, pre-existing data privacy agreements. There is an annual fee of $550 to join this cooperative. And to build in some background, the reason why we would want to join a cooperative like this is um currently we pursue data privacy agreements or exhibit E, which are an extension of a signed data privacy agreement by another Illinois school district and vendor. um when to be in compliance with SOPA,

072which is Illinois's Student Online Personal Protection Act. Um whenever we have a curriculum or technology vendor that has access to student personally identifiable information, we are required by SOPA um to pursue a data privacy agreement or exhibit E. Um currently we pursue a majority of exhibites through a free platform called the student data privacy consortium website. Um the tech cooperative works with that free website and it just has another arm that if we join the cooperative we would have access to more um exhibit E. And so I learned about this because we currently have a an exhibit E that is expiring and the vendor shared that they're part of this cooperative and so we have the opportunity to join the cooperative or pursue a data privacy agreement specifically with the company. Um when we get

073an exhibit E, it's a much faster process. I can get one on the website in a minute in a couple of minutes versus a data privacy agreement usually requires um the financial services team and um district the district legal team to work with the vendor back and forth in signing that data privacy agreement. Um so this would hopefully open up a pathway to additional exhibites which would help us in um getting data privacy agreements exhibit ease to ensure we're in compliance. >> Any questions? >> Technical >> I am um >> I think this would be a great move. I'm familiar with with their work um very recognized and it will make it easier both for the district and also for organizations seeking to have to do their work on the other side. So I think

074it's a great great move. >> Great. >> Yeah, I was going to say it sounds like it'll make things a lot more efficient. So efficiency is always good. Um and so just just so like we all understand and you know everyone kind of hears what are some of the risks you know in sort of not having um like I guess we would have these agreements it would just take longer to get them but like are there um additional risk out there that being a part of a cooperative could help us with other than efficiency? >> Um I'm not sure. I know on the website so the tech um student data privacy alliance works directly with Illinois's learning technology center um so they partner directly with them and they help to manage the student data privacy

075consortion which we currently access and so in their partnership they work with any um different things that come up from lawyers from companies so any of those negotiations back and forth Earth um are worked through through this alliance and the vendors versus ourselves. So, it would really just save us um legal fees and time. Um I'm not sure what other issues might come up, but just kind of from perusing their website and talking to the representative at um the learning technology consortium or center um that's kind of what they provided. >> Gotcha. Okay. It sounds like they're they're um they cover more than um the free service that we're using now. So, you know, perhaps they've got like additional expertise that we wouldn't even be thinking of if we do do our own um set

076up our own agreement. So, >> yeah, we do use um so we all we use the standard um Illinois national data privacy agreement. Um, Illinois has there's a national data privacy one and Illinois has a couple pieces in there that are different because SOAPA is specific to Illinois. Um, but we always use that agreement if we get a data privacy agreement through our legal team. >> Got it. >> I just have one technical question and if you don't know the answer to this, we can take it offline. >> About how many of these agreements do we have where we share we have apps or technology that we share student uh data with? Um, I was actually just reviewing that today. We have around 200 that I saw on our student data privacy consortion website. Um,

077it's about how many we have and they'll list when they're going to expire and things like that. That is not inclusive to um tools that don't collect student personally identifiable information. >> Right? So, you said something there I just didn't understand. So, you said that um something about the consortium website. Are all of our agreements posted there? >> Yep. >> Okay. And then other school districts can use our agreements. Is that the idea? >> Yeah. If we get a data privacy agreement directly with a vendor, we can post it to the website and then other districts in Illinois can get an exhibit off of that. So that's often what we do. There will already be exhibities posted on um the website and we will use an autoe um an auto e exhibit creator and so

078the majority of agreements that we have in place are exhibites rather than direct data privacy agreements with the company. So just as a uh experience with this besides CPS has their own so you have to negotiate separately with CPS but there is the um sort of the general one once you complete it with one school district then it applies to the other one. So it's just really beneficial uh and allows um the district to get access to systems because they can use the universal one as opposed to having to go through the legal to do a negotiation for every single one. So it really opens up access but you still have to accept and just and say we want to use the technology but it just facilitates the legal aspect of it. >> Yeah. I

079mean I think it's a great idea. I guess 200 is a lot more than I would have thought you would have said. >> Um but >> yeah and these um some of them might not be current. Some of them might be for one articulation app for a student that they need for their IEP. And so um the data privacy agreements or exhibities aren't for like applicable to everything to all students. Um if one student has um data is going to be shared with a company, we will get a data privacy agreement or exhibit for that. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. Okay, we're going to move into finance personnel and building and grounds. [clears throat] Uh Maria is going to lead this portion of the meeting. >> Thanks Pat. Um first up on the

080agenda is the discussion point to engage the law firm of Linberger Gagan Blair and Samson to undertake collections collection actions against former superintendent Dr. Horton and related matters. So, so I have some um information to share regarding this. [clears throat] Uh this engagement is only related to Dr. Horton's default to the repayment agreement and is not related to the indictment and the amounts Dr. Horton may be required to repay the district related to the indictment. The board is considering engaging Linar Gagan Blair and Samson, a collection law firm, to pursue amounts Dr. Horton owes the district related to his July 2023 repayment agreement. Under that agreement, Dr. Horton agreed to make monthly payments to the district to satisfy the 202 $25,000 he owed the district for terminating his employment agreement early. Dr. Horton is in

081default under that agreement and the board is seeking all remaining amounts owed under that agreement which total more than $7500 plus penalties and other interest amounts due to his late and non-payments. The Linebarger firm specializes in collections work and assists Chicago public schools with its collection efforts. Linebarger does not charge hourly and is only compensated if it secures the collection. Further, since the district repayment agreement requires Dr. Horton to pay for any attorney fees related to collection, Dr. Horton would be required to pay those amounts as well. At this time, this engagement is unrelated to any amounts Dr. Dr. Horton may eventually owe the district pursuant to his federal criminal indictment. Regarding amounts Dr. Horton may owe the district related to the criminal indictment at this time, the board is relying on the federal government

082to pursue those amounts on behalf of the district. The board may separately consider civil claims it has against Dr. Horton. So that is the framework for this this offering. I just want to say um I had some conversations with some community members with experience in in this area and have shared some of those out but wanted to just say that you know I personally am conflicted about spending our energy and money chasing um Dr. Horton only because uh I think it's there's very low likelihood that we will actually collect anything. Um and I want us to be focusing on forward movement and progress in our district. And on the other hand, I recognize that this is a very lowcost initiative to us. And there is a part of me that um really likes the idea

083of making sure his phone is ringing multiple times a day, reminding him about us. Um and so I'm just sort of sitting on that uh and wanted to share that in the discussion portion of this. >> Clarific clarificated keeping that in mind, Maria, like you know, how much do we have to spend in particular in order to try to get There's no guarantee that we will. But what I really like in here is it says that Lionberger does not charge hourly and they're only compensated if it secures the collection. So to me that makes sense. I guess my only question is like how much what percentage do we have to pay um if it is collected which you know something is better than nothing but do we know that? >> I think it's about 33%.

084>> Okay. I mean, at the end of the day, it's pretty low dollars um in general. >> So, it's not So, just to be clear, we don't pay anything unless anything they take the 33% out of what's collected. >> Yeah. And then it says here that that he would be responsible for any attorney's fees. >> So, yeah. >> But that's providing he actually pays it. >> So, so that's financial. Will it take anything like from a management perspective or from a resource perspective or our internal team because I just know Okay, perfect. >> Okay. >> Move into discussion regarding the forensic audit update. >> Good evening everyone. >> [clears throat] >> Um so we started discussing a request for proposal for forensic armate services back in November I believe. So at this point uh the

085document has been reviewed by legal. We've had some um well it's been shared with the board as well. Uh the timeline we are set to release that RFP to the public this coming Thursday, December 11th. Um, it will be posted on the district website as well as advertised in the newspaper. Um, as a reminder, some of those topics to be reviewed during this audit. Review of contracts in excess of $25,000 executed during FY21 through FY24. Um, a review of all no bid contracts during that same period. Um, and also, and this is not an exhaustive list, um, review of accounting and financial practices to detect irregularities. misappropriation of fraudulent activity and then a review of accounting and financial practices in accordance with board policy. Um the timeline that is set again that ad will be

086placed on this Thursday. The proposal will be due on Monday January 5th. Uh following that there will be a review of those submissions that will allow us to ask questions of the respondents as well for uh presentation to the board. There will be a presentation to the board on January 12th at that committee of the whole meeting. Um so respondents will come there be interviewed um can ask any questions of the board. The board can ask questions as well and then present it for board approval on January 26th at that meeting. >> Okay. I have a question related. When we approved this, we also approved um an audit review of our board policies. >> Yes. >> And where does that stand? >> Um I believe, excuse me, [clears throat] I feel like I have a

087problem in that. Um I believe IASB has been contacted about that policy review. If I'm not mistaken, we um have not initiated a third party to review board policy. >> Um I think that IASB would probably be the best place to start. >> My concern would be that um some of the recommendations we got in our financial um memo from SCS, there were six policy related recommendations. And I'm curious if that's already not in like an ISAB, you know, packet, will they even be able to catch those things? Um, so that's my question of will they attend to this memo that we received so that we make sure we're we have our policies at the highest level. Um >> we could certainly present that to IASB what's in press right now because that's where our

088policies come from from press right >> to make sure that what's in uh that report aligns to what is in press and then it's that the board has the ability to to write policy as well that would align with that recommendation even if it's not in press I would absolutely run that through legal counsel okay >> whatever the policy is run the language through legal counsel >> right >> um before it's voted on and approved. >> Okay, thanks. >> Okay. Um, next up, the foster school update. Does anyone have anything they want to talk about on the forensic audit update? I just wanted to keep that top line for everyone. Thank you, Tamara. Um, foster school update. Kirby Good. Good evening everyone. for our December uh board update. We want to talk about uh bid

089group five uh a financial update and then also talk about uh safe walk transportation plans uh in and around the school that we're working on with the city. So our long string of very good uh bid um data uh came to an end unfortunately. Uh in November we talked about the approval of bid package 18 and 20 ple landscaping which both came in under budget. So that was a very good news and and drove up our contingency expectations. Uh two weeks ago we opened the second aspect of bid group 5 which was bid bid package 1921 22 and 23. Uh we offer for the board through the memo presented to the board for the approval of bid package 1921 and 22. Uh, as you can see, those bid packages all came in quite over. Um,

090so overall, the the total bid package came in over a little under $500,000. Um, there was a number of reasons. Uh, but the the bid package, these bid packages were all rebid from a bid in October because we didn't get great outcomes in the that first bid. Um, and and great turnout. Uh, we doubled up efforts. Uh uh we employed and worked with Turner Townsen and Hiri our owner's rep to really spread the word. Um we still came in we came in with better uh bid results in terms of the number of participants but the bid numbers were quite high. Um we did have Turner and Town Townsen and Harry also audit the bid estimates that Cordig and Clark put together and they came in matching almost 100%. So the the actual numbers came in

091high mostly due to due to a low turn low um from what I hear from what I understand from our quarter and Clark and turn towns and hearing um there there's a lot of major projects out there and a lot of the biders are looking at this as small potatoes so they were reluctant to put energy and effort into these small bids compared to what they could get out in the market. Um so we had a lot of folks uh I I think uh our representative Ben Nelson is here. Ben, where'd you go? There he is. Uh, he's the account executive, uh, construction executive for Curt and Clark. Um, and he can speak to any questions you have about that as well. Uh, I do want to just present an overall budget as of November

09230th. This is up on our um web page as well, but you can see the overall impact to the construction contingency, which is in the green, went from 3.7 down to 2.8. Uh that's because I included in the the former one the good news about the the playground and landscaping um and then uh turn around and take that out in this in this current construct. That is still very good news. Um we're almost all done with all our bids now. U so the 99% of our bids are out there. 99% of this contract is pretty much under of this project is under contract. Uh we don't see any major obstacles to really impact those numbers going forward. Um but it is a construction project and one never knows but it's it's in very good shape.

093I think even more important not only are financially strong right now not as strong but still quite strong but our schedule is looking very strong and we are definitely under uh with in schedule to to be able to to ready to open the doors to the public in July of next next summer. Uh overall you can see the remaining construction work that still exists. We're 54% still still on general trades, 60% on paint. Um, we've only we've we've only have 23% remaining of plumbing. So, we're almost done there. 44% electrical and flooring, and then 100% of the the rest of the amount of the work. You can see on the last item, safe walk routes. We've been working with the city through the ordinance as we're required to install a new crosswalk at Dodge and

094Foster. We also revisited the transportation study that KLOA Associates did did as part of the ordinance and as part of the approval for the school back in 2023. Uh it includes um uh sections up here E which is making sure Ashland is a one-way operation during school hours when we open and close. That's similar to many of our other building other schools. Um, KOA recommended crossing guards, item D at six positions, and you can see those are on the numbered maroon boxes around the school and then two along Emerson. Uh, we also have to add item B, which is a pedestrian crosswalk curb extension at Dodge and Foster. That's an addition that's required as part of the ordinance. That's how we were approved to to build the city with to build the school with the

095city. And then we've initiated two additional measures that we're looking to employ. One is item A, which is reducing the speed limit along Emerson Street between Lamar and Asbury from 30 mph to 25 miles per hour. In doing so, we reducing that street as a designated uh crossing hazard. It won't be as a 25 mph street. It still is a is a truck route and it is still, as if you know, the major uh way that folks from the west part of the world get to Northwestern every morning. They love taking golf right through Emerson and right into the city toward Northwestern. So, it's a still going to be a very busy street. Um, so we're also looking to employ the kind of push button LED crossing lights that uh students can push and families

096can push at heart and and Emerson and at Dwey at Emerson. Um, just to make those current curb extension crosswalks uh more safer for students passing from the south to as they go to the north of the school. Uh and just in terms of a budget for this, um adding a crosswalk at Dodge and Foster and adding those lighted crosswalk signs, uh are additional $120,000 and then $40,000 each. That is in working with the city. That's city property. That'll be city equipment. What the city is asking for us is to pay that amount and they will um do the design engineering fees to that. So that's a one-time cost for us. We do not have to maintain those. We're in current um negotiations work with them in terms of creating anou for that understanding. In

097addition, the city's requiring us to add a uh do a study on Emerson with the same KOA firm to understand the impact of what going from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour would be and to determine how they would time the the stop lightss at Dodge and at Asbury so that the flow of traffic won't be greatly impacted from from that reduction in speed. What's good is that we didn't include the budget, the the credits that we have negotiated with the city for the track and the field lights. So, by including that in the budget, uh we're actually netted out to almost zero dollars as a net impact to our overall budget as it stands. Interesting how that how that all played out so nicely. >> Thanks, Kirby. Um about six months

098ago, I um just had a preliminary conversation with the city about putting in some additional crosswalk lighted crosswalk signs, not necessarily for this project, but just in looking at the overall budget for crossing guards. And the comment at the time was that um there there would be an opportunity to go back to the state for a grant to be able to put those lights in and that it may not be any cost to us at all. I'm wondering if he if if the city mentioned that to you or if that's something that you might just be able to check the box if you know Stacy. >> Yeah, we we did talk to the city about applying to for an ID dot grant. Um, and there was not interest at that point for applying for that

099grant. Karen Beretta can speak a bit speak a bit more to it, but the general feedback we got was that it was the feedback we got was they were not interested in applying for that grant. >> So, the city would have to apply for that grant on our behalf. >> They So, we looked at first we went there with and asked for that and they said no on that. Then we asked if they could co-sign so that we could propose doing locked bike cages at Haven and Shoot and they again said no, they would not sponsor that. The feedback I think we heard is that applying for the grant is a good bit of work and maybe not the best use of their time >> because they're not getting the money or because it's not

100enough money >> at this point. That's all I can say. I can't speak to what their intention was behind that comment. Are you aware >> it was not there was they were not interested in moving forward. They did partner with us on the education side of the ID do grant but they were not willing to move forward with us on the infrastructure side of the ID do grant. >> Have you ever had this conversation with them before about an I do grant or is this the first time like in your decades here? >> I personally have not had a conversation with them about an ID do grant. Karen was engaging with them on that. We went forward with a couple different ideas and that was, you know, essentially we were able to move forward on

101the education side but not the infrastructure side and that was based on feedback from the city. >> They had to be a co-sponsor on the grant. >> One more question. Um, do you know if there's a particular limit to that I do grant? Where my mind is going here is what if we were putting more of these blinking crossing cross lights in around town to help mitigate some of our >> hazard that was the issue at hand. Do you have anything to add to that? >> Okay. No, I don't there's you know the understanding was that my understanding from this was the grant was relatively small dollars and it was more work than they saw needed for the small dollars. >> So then another opportunity would be to make it bigger dollars. >> I believe

102that there is a cap on there that was that made the return on investment on the grant, but that's something that we can follow up with the city on. All I can say is the city was not willing to move forward with us on that grant. >> So and Christopher Seuss was from the city was is uh was helpful in working and setting this up and working with KOA. I can I'm in contact with him and I can follow up to see if there's any followup. >> What's the >> city was clear on all this that we needed to pay the side? >> Yeah. In our conversations thus far, um the city's been very clear on on the responsibilities for payment for these three uh investments. >> It's very interesting. >> It is. Kirby, what's

103the timeline on the establishment of the safe walk routes with all of the the the curbouts and the LED crossing signs that will be in place? Do we have a timeline on that? Yeah, I talked to the city uh just last week and they said as long as we we initiate theou and get our initial p go ahead um and get an MOU signed by Jan our January board meeting, they will be able to uh incorporate this as part of their schedule and make sure it's ready before school starts in August. So, one of the um as someone who lives right on the other side of this line here, there's a 190 I guess this will um move us from 190 kids needing to be bust across Emerson or something in that to 190 meaning

104they need to walk. Um and so right now we will have two crossing guards, one for Hartry and the other one to get across. I do think um a lot of conversation, community collaboration, that's a lot of kids to cross at two crossing guards and making sure that we as um um the community, you know, is really thinking because this is new, right? As opposed to most kids sitting to get on the bus right on Emerson, they're going to actually have to cross the street and the traffic is really crazy there. So, love that we're, you know, the concept of crossing guards. I think this is also one of those areas where we begin to understand community responsibility um to making sure we're all checking and even, you know, working with the university of getting

105um kids uh across our street. Right now, we just have high schoolers coming this way or Haven students going there, but we're talking about kindergarteners uh crossing one of the most busiest uh uh busiest streets. it can happen happen well as long as we're all um owning our responsibility and I think it actually does even conceivably open up a conversation about crossing you know there's paid crossing guards and then there's just community members uh standing outside and making sure things are going uh well so this the context of foster would be an interesting way to see how we manage this as a community to make sure it's safe uh for all Absolutely. >> Are there any questions about the bid group five or the budget? >> Can you tell me where these bids came in?

106You said these were a rebid from before? Did they come in higher or lower than before? >> Uh well, the fencing, the site work, and the mixed metals bids came in and there weren't any valid bids that actually came through. Uh, and the asphalt sidewalk curbs got a one. That one did come in. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, the site work bid. We had one bid for site work that came in a little less than the 433. So, that did go up, but not by much. I think by 20 or $25,000. [snorts] >> And how many more bid groups do you have left? >> Uh, we have zero bid groups left, but we are bidding out the the technical equipment package uh going out in January. And that is for things like projectors and cameras and

107uh TV screens in the building. And that we have we have a total budget for our tech of around $500,000. And we think that's going to come in around $300,000, but we'll we'll need some of that other money for install and other related uh tech equipment that's not related to that bid. And you're you're confident that how confident are you that this is the best we can do on these bid package on the package 1921 and 22? >> I'm going to ask Ben Nelson to come up and say that because that this is his personal expertise, professional expertise. >> Hi. Uh for those of you that don't know me, I'm Ben Nelson with Cigan Clark. I'm a construction executive with the CM Group. Um, so this is the the second time we sent this out

108uh for bid. We sent it out to well over 1,500 uh solicitor or biders. Um and and we actually got three to four um valid bids at bid time. Uh at this point uh from a scheduling standpoint uh it it is kind of important that um we we were these packages at this point. Uh I don't I I don't think that you know after the second round of doing this bidding that we would expect any better numbers than this. And unfortunately, uh, with current climate that we're in, I would only expect numbers to go up, not down at this point. >> Thank you. >> Any more questions, >> discussion points? Anyone? >> Anything else you want to share, Kirby? >> No, that's it. Just um, we do need a vote for the approval. >> I

109got you. I got you. Uh the action here is the approval of contracts for bid package number 20, fencing work, bid package number 21, site demolition, excavations and uh aggregates work and bid package 22 foundations, asphalt, sidewalks, curbs, gutters work for the Foster Elementary School. I move uh I move that the board approve the award to award contracts for bid package 20 for fencing 21 for site demolition excavations and aggregates work and bid package 22 for foundations asphalt sidewalks curbs and gutters work for the foster elementary school for a total of 2 million2,088 as outlined in the memo from quarter and clar dated December 4th >> second >> deck >> yes >> Wymer >> yes >> Wilkins >> yes >> Pinker Yes. >> Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, next up

110we have the taxi service transportation RFP process update. Tamara. >> All right. So, we had the bid opening this morning at 11 o'lock. Um I believe we had six biders. No, seven. Um we had seven biders who responded. Um our current provider Bright Lift responded. Uh we also had collagu elite fleet collaborative student transportation yellow bus group everdriven technologies compass transportation and first alt which is a division of um first student. So we will be evaluating all of the bids over the next few days. Uh there's a lot of components to that. The there's the base bid rate. There's uh charges for harnesses and car seats. There could be additional charges for extra stops. Um there's also charges for aids. So it's not just a a single dollar amount. So we'll evaluate all of the

111bids that came in, put a price to that, and then bring forward a recommendation uh to the board for approval next Monday. >> Okay, great. camera on um on the um RFP >> there are it lists the um the schools and the sites that the students will be going to. >> Yes. >> And in some cases there's more than one cab going to that site and my question was um I also looked at whether or not a cab aid was required. So the question is um are there criteria and stipulations that indicate when a CAB 8 is put into place? How is that determined? >> Um Dr. Sp, >> that's actually going to be according to a student's IEP. >> So whatever the IEP is going to outline in terms of the students physical, mental,

112behavioral safety needs, that's going to be outlined in the IEP. So that that that is determined by that document. And then and that request goes to transportation. >> Okay. So, so the the um sped t that there's their criteria for students with IEPs. >> I I I don't know if I'm comfortable with the word criteria. I think criteria some makes it sound like it's set. Okay. >> And really what you want to look at is if you've got a student's IEPs, what is the student's needs within their IEP? And what pro supports do we need to provide that student in terms of transportation, safety, behavioral health? Okay. What supports do we need for that? Because transportation is part of FAPE. So a free and appropriate education is we have to make sure we can safely

113transport these students to school. >> Excellent. Excellent. >> That makes sense. >> Yeah. Okay. Total sense. I just needed clarification. Um and in terms of the possibility of transporting Say two kids go to the same school and they don't need a bus aid. Is is there any possibility of grouping kids together so that fewer cabs are needed or is that go does that go back to individual need? >> It does I sound like a broken record. It's going to go back to individual need but that's absolutely something that we will continue to really look at like what do the roots look like? How can we combine there is it possible to send to safely send two students in a single cab we always have to go back to that IEP. >> Okay. >> So in

114that sense would we say that the way in which we're allocating um the use of cabs right now would be it's the most efficient process based on what the IEPs are saying >> students needs. I mean that's that's it has to start with we have to look at what we're doing in terms of student needs and then I think efficiencies might come secondary but the the primary thing we have to do is to make sure that we are safely transporting students to school >> and I think where the efficiency comes in is the special education department partners then with the transportation department to determine what the need is and they work to >> determine if it's the most efficient So I I think that's the those two departments collaborate in determining you know um the

115transportation department is to determine the routes and what we got going right the special education department is responsible for ensuring that what kids IEP say they need transportation and more of the intimate details in it if a kid can be with another kid or kid can be with right like the IEP says that then they will determine and work with transportation to determine who can be on those routes together if that makes any sense. Is there room for >> more efficiency? It's always room for everything in district 65 for efficiency. Um and and we're trying to work that as as best we can. >> Are we using um technology to do that? Because in some sense the complexity of trying to to match needs with you know routes and location. >> When you say technology

116outside of like what Versatrans and >> you mean routing software? >> Yeah, routing software. Not necessarily the um I guess it is probably special. So I'm assume there's routing software for general education um but this is a little more you know it's a little more complex in that sense. So is there routing software for you know figuring out the special efficiency in the in service in the in the special education. >> We have our manager of transportation here. So Lou, if you can step up and >> and I don't I don't think I mean Lou can probably verify this, but we don't differentiate a uh our routing software for different populations of kids. The routing software we put the kids in and then it you can kind of talk with the basics of it Lou,

117but >> I mean these these routes are customized routes. So I mean there's not like a how you efficient like I said we just get the direction of what student what the student needs where they can be what students can ride together but they're really an individual basis and they're you know um they're customized >> but I mean manual I'm just asking are they manually customized so you're creating the route or is a system creating the route? >> Yeah. No no I'm creating them. Um, is is it your job, Lou, to audit the bills, the invoices from Bright Lift against those needs from students or do we have a routine practice of auditing? >> He reviews those bills every month when they come in. So, the bills go to Lou. He's reviewing the bills before

118they are submitting to the submitted to the accounts payable team for payment. So, he is looking at that. >> Have you ever found an error at all, Lou? >> Uh, in in categorized. So also I get the bills and then the um uh McKenno team um special needs teams then they they also take a look too to see because sometimes there's a student that's listed as a spend and a McKenna Vento. So, but that's not based on a um a cost related issue. And we've had, you know, transportation audits, I think, two out of the last three years. >> And what have those audits uh audited? >> Uh billing. Billing over billing. >> Okay. >> Efficiencies part of SDRP2. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. >> And in terms of putting students together, we do do that

119whenever we can. >> Okay. >> We have some we have um an eight person van that are taking eight we can't even tell students to three different schools right now so whenever we can do that we definitely we definitely do that but we take direction based on what the student needs are >> how many students approximately Lou are we servicing in this bed contract do you know >> uh it always varies around 70ish uh it's it's been as high as I think 100 >> um those as well as McKenna Vento students I mean those numbers Um, we had a few that Lor's back there. I was just looking at some of her notes. A few that left. Um, some of them I can't even do, a few that just got added. >> Um, so those

120are always kind of changing >> and so Lou don't feel compelled to have to speak on behalf of other folks. Lori Adalzia is here who manages our Mckin Vento in the district as well as uh um Genie is here who is the director of spit. So like the more of the technical >> please feel free to come up so that we're giving accurate information if there's something you want to add to that uh ladies. So feel free to do that. Thanks L. Well Luca stay there just in case it's a transportation. >> Oh I wasn't telling to sit down think >> okay >> I'm Loretta Lizzy. I'm the McKini Vent leazison and I work closely with Lou related to transportation. So I can try answer any questions that you have directly related to minento um

121at this point. Um how can I how can I better explain the the process that we manage? >> No, I um I'm just curious how um what's the average number of years someone you know is with McKenna Vento the family needs that support is there. >> Yes. So there there isn't a a timeline. The state the federal law doesn't put a timeline in place for homelessness. A student could be homeless for as few as a day or as long as forever. You know instability can be in housing is really um individualized and can last for any amount of time. So the school district is not allowed to say after a certain period of time they can't be considered. >> But but I will say Lauri you've been with the district how many years now? >>

122Uh since 2023. >> So that's July of August 2023. >> Right. And so essentially she has done and I want to just say publicly thank you for the work that you've done before. To your point Dr. Pinker you came in McKenna Vento and even if life circumstances changed for you you you were Mckin Vento forever. That was the pattern in this district. Since Lori has been in this role, she has done a herculean job at really assessing our families that um our own McKini Vento and really without being intrusive and overbearing really assessing people's situation to see is this really a McKini Vento or is it it is it not and then really doing a great job working with um Lou to be thoughtful about the efficiencies of students that are Mckin Vento if they

123aren't living in this particular particular area, how to either get them closer to some place that is more suitable or get them the services they need. So, so she has done that that level of efficiency has improved tremendously over time. And I just want to, you know, um attribute that since she's been in this role since I think we came in together in that role, Lori. So, good job. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Appreciate that. >> Anything else I can answer? I don't have any other questions about McKini Vento. >> But you know my question for you is overall we're seeing because of housing pressures we're seeing across the country an increase in McKini Vento. I mean is that are you seeing that in the in the in the time that you've been here? Have

124you seen an increase? >> Um I I expect to see it. Um, I think that we are, District 65 offers a very unique opportunity in my role to provide wraparound support. So, I'm incredibly engaged with a lot of community partners. Um, trying to provide as many resources for housing access work, uh, employment, um, additional external supports for families. Not we're just not focused on identifying kids and sending them to school. We're doing a lot of other work. Um, I have had many conversations with Dr. Beardsley as we're, you know, kind of navigating this new environment about what we might expect in the future. Um, but I'm also fortunate to have the opportunity to sit on on some community partner meetings um, to try to prepare for these things and try to help mitigate some of

125that in the community. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Yeah. But you've you've reduced the number of Mckin Mckin Vento students that are being serviced by transportation since you've been here, right? >> Yeah. When I first came to the district and we started analyzing what was happening with transportation, what we found was that we were cabbing students that were within Aston boundaries. So really um transportation is required by McKinto law, but board policy actually can be referenced first. So, if a student comes in and is um doubled up within our boundaries, registration will enroll that student in their local area school and then the walking rules apply. Um, sorry, excuse me. Um, and then we're able to use things like venture passes um to kind of handle the middle school students, right? Because that's what

126all of the middle school students do. Um, and we try to work with the families to talk about what their barriers are. We don't want to make it hard for kids to come to school because we know they need to be in school to be successful. So, but we do we navigate all of the different options and then try to choose the one that's best for the family but also efficient for the district and follows the law. >> But I also want to just capitalize on something I heard you say in terms of getting to this idea of efficiency. It starts registration. Registration is really setting the pathway for us. Both of those all of those departments are under Dr. Beersley's leadership and I think she's done a really great job at trying to connect

127the dots for folks. Registration now talks to transportation. Registration talks to McKini Vento. Registration talks to multilingual services. Registration talks to special education. Multilingual like that is the hub for how it starts and then we connect the dots on all of the pieces of what a student needs. And I think we've done a much better job over the past few years of really trying to get in sync with creating systems, processes, and structures for us to work together and not working in silos. And so I think the the we're just cracking the nut on that. But the the more we continue to keep doing when I say cracking the nut, not like yesterday. We've been doing this over time. We just haven't been doing this since May. And so I I just want to just

128really capitalize on the work that they have been doing and how we're continuing to be thoughtful about how to get more efficient with the services. >> Thank you. >> Did y'all have questions for Jeannie? >> I think Dr. answered it. Is there anything you want to add? >> I think Dr. Sp said it well. Thank you. Um, I think the only thing that I would like to add is just like services throughout the school day, we're always looking at less restrictive type services. So, we're always looking at the needs of the students. So, even if they start in an individual cal with a onetoone aid, doesn't mean that they'll always be in the individual cab with a onetoone aid. Uh, similar to what Dr. Turner was just saying and Lori is that we're working collaboratively.

129So when those changes are being made with the students programming, we're making sure that we're letting each other know so we can make those those changes. >> Did you have any other questions? >> I have one more question. When um when a student needs an aid, is that an aid that pertains to the cab company or is that an a a parah in our district that services that student? >> Uh it pertains to the cap company. >> Okay. There's uh rare circumstances that we will put some of our own pair professionals on on the buses. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Uh the action here is to approve the Bright Lift contract extension. And I just want to clarify that this is an extension through the end of January of 2026, at which time we

130will have the ability to evaluate other bidters and potentially change if it makes sense for us to do so. And then do we feel that we're confident that the new bus provider, should there be a new bus provider, would be able to pick it up starting February 1st? >> Um, that will be evaluated in our process as we go through the bids that we received. >> Okay. Um, again, we did receive a bid from our current provider, so we know that they can handle our volume as one point of contact. One of the questions that did come up today from one of the biders was whether or not the district would consider awarding the contract to multiple vendors, which the bid specs did say that that if that we anticipated the possibility of having to

131award to multiple vendors. Um, so as we evaluate all of the um, responses that came in and all of that will be in the write up for the board as well. Um, but the vendors were well aware when they responded that if they won the bid, they would have to be ready to provide those services to us starting February 1st or whatever that first um, school day is in February. >> Okay. But we could potentially have multiple vendors that would service this if we and reason why that was compelling. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um I move that the board approve the Bright Lift contract extension. >> Upg? >> Yes. >> Wymer? >> Yes. >> Wilkins? >> Yes. >> Pinker? >> Yes. >> Hernandez? >> Yes. >> Anderson? >> Yes. >> Okay. The only um thing

132I have to mention under other business is that we will continue to work on filling our vac board seat. With no further business, I move that the board the meeting at 6:55.