001Okay. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the regular board meeting. Uh Adila, can you please do the roll call? >> Yes. Today's Monday, August 18th, 2025. The time is 6:19 p.m. Roll call. Anderson >> here. >> Salem. Z Wilkins >> here. >> Pinker >> here. >> Oak >> here. >> Wymer >> here. >> Fernandez >> here. All right. We're going to do the land acknowledgement. We take time to acknowledge that the land we meet on is the traditional homelands of the Council of Three Fires, the Pawatami, Oji Boy, and Odawa. This land also served as an important meeting place for Miami, Ho Chunk, the Manamin, Inoka, Sack, Fox, Poria, Arapjo, Cheyenne, and other tribal nations. This land has long been a center for indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Located at the intersection
002of several great waterways, the region has become the site of travel and prosperity. We acknowledge Evston and John Evans are tied to the massacre of the Arapjo and Cheyenne for railroads and westward expansion upon which John Evans developed his wealth and founded Evston. This land was violently taken under settler colonialism through genocide and open warfare and the region that is now Illinois and Chicago land is home to thousands of native people who are actively struggling for sovereignty, self-determination, and justice. The genocidal acts of settler colonialism extended to peoples of Africa and their enslaved descendants. Despite Illinois eventually prohibiting slavery, slavery was an accepted practice before and after statethood. The vestigages of slavery remain through the United States and directly affect the descendants of enslaved peoples, rich and heterogeneous communities who helped define the African diaspora.
003Genocidal patterns of violence against peoples of African descent and indigenous people have been replicated to exclude and harm people from many intersecting marginalized identities in the United States. religious, minoritized, disabled, and LGBTQ identified peoples, black and indigenous people of color, and people of color at large. These patterns demonstrate that the pursuit to end state sanctioned violence against BIPAC is a daily struggle for liberation from continued social, political, and economic anti-black racism and oppression. Today, we acknowledge that we are living, breathing, loving, grieving, laughing, and sharing space on unseated territory. May we learn to honor the historical and contemporary presence and power of the people and their belief that we must be caretakers of the lands and waters for the livelihood of future generations. We encourage everyone to continue to expand their knowledge and reduce their
004harm through awareness of local mutual aid models for survival and through engagement with online and local resources such as the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative and the Shorefront Legacy Center. Uh the next item up on our agenda uh is the of the meeting. >> I I move that the board of education approve the meeting agenda with a change in agenda order. Moving FYI items for consideration following public comment. >> Second. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Wilkins. >> Yes. Her >> yes. >> Updike. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Hernandez. Yes. >> All right. Next item up is our district updates. So, uh, Dr. Turner, any updates? >> No, no major updates except the fact that it's almost that time and we're getting ready to start school back and so we're super excited to receive
005families back. Uh, our staff come back on Thursday and we'll be immersed in um two days of professional learning as well as preparing classrooms and getting them ready to receive students on the first day of school. Monday, August 25th. So, let's go. District 65. We're ready. >> Yeah. And on behalf of the board, again, I just want to welcome all our families back and looking to have an incredible school year. Um I I know we will be having some difficult decisions to make though, but again, we'll be doing them in partnership with our community as we continue to engage community through the SDRP process. I also did want to note um uh earlier a couple of weeks back u the our school district was featured uh and visited uh by the governor's office uh and
006governor pritzkar joined us at chute elementary to uh sign uh legislation to um that's going to make Illinois the first state uh that will uh provide uh mental health screeners for students from K K to 12, which is really great. Um and again, I think it'll they chose us because again we've been practicing what the law is mandating, right? um starting next year. Uh so I just really want to give a shout out to all our our social workers, our psychologists, our educators, again, the folks who are out there in our classrooms and in our buildings uh who who have made us shine so much that we had the governor visit us uh and and had that sign had that signing ceremony here uh in our school district. It's welld deserved and and and it's
007something that our staff deserves for doing this incredible work uh and engaging not only uh the intellectual aspects of our of our students but also their social emotional as well. Uh the next piece and I'll I'll open up colleagues any other comments or questions or okay uh we're moving into uh public comments now. So 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 form for factf finding or 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
008you have three minutes to address the board. 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 district 665.net. With that, uh, do we have any folks signed up for public comment? >> Yes. Um, we have Bridget Utdd, Mara Glasser, and Zaki Tasik. My name is Bridget Utter and I'm a Bessie Rhodess parent. The chaos at Bessie Roads continues. Third grade families at Bessie Roads faced uncertainty as they were told that one of our kindergarten teachers, Miss Martinez, would become their third grade teacher. Unfortunately, this kindergarten teacher was told of this change at the last minute without any consultation or discussion and is now being coerced into leaving the district. Meanwhile, with less than one week
009to go before school starts, third grade families have received no updates. and our school faces mourning the loss of a beloved teacher who has touched the lives of so many. This is a kindergarten teacher who personally binds books for her students, champions events like the Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Night, and has won Foundation 65 grants. This is exactly the type of educator districts across the country fight to retain. Every last minute reversal like this chips away at parents and teachers trust in the district. A trust that once lost is nearly impossible to rebuild. A district that wants to build a strong dual language program should be actively working to retain such a talented educator, not appending her life and the lives of her students a week before school starts. Another district that is serious about dual
010language will be extraordinarily lucky to have her. This is just the latest event in a long line of years of mismanagement and lack of transparency with stakeholders at Bessie Roads. President Hernandez, as a previous champion of the two-way immersion program at Bessie Roads, who later decided to turn your back on the school and vote to close it, you bear personal responsibility for these missteps and need to take accountability by actively managing the chaos your votes created. I invite all board members to dig into this troubling situation and the year that lies ahead for Bessie Rhodess. Superintendent Turner, your team must be proactive about managing Bessie Roads, not continually being reactive and apologizing or backtracking after the fact. The stakes remain high. Closing Bessie Roads is not just about closing one school. The students at Bessie
011Roads come from all over the district, and our teachers are gifted educators who believe in the specific mission of this two-way immersion program school. By not proactively managing the situation, you put the entire dual language program across the district at risk. This is not just an afterthought program. It is a resource inensive curriculum that a quarter of district 65 students are enrolled in. Board members and administrators need to be doing far more than merely heaping praise on district 65 dual language plans at board meetings and superficially grandstanding about the vision of the program. You need to be deeply engaging in the process of middle school expansion and asking tough questions about the planning, implementation, and outcomes of dual language. The future of dual language in district 65 hangs in the balance and only you have
012the power to make this right. Thank you. Am I blessed? Members of the board, my name is Marne Glazer and I'm a retired district 65 school psychologist. I have been studying the effects of wireless signals on biological systems for 25 years. I've been mentored by physicists, engineers, and biological researchers. I am here today to do four things. I want to support parents who want to limit the presence of cell phones in schools during the school day. It is a very good idea. I want to strongly discourage the board from any consideration of leasing school property for the installation of cell towers and/or antennas in exchange for needed money both for safety and legal reasons. I want to encourage the district to look into existing lowcost and very doable ways to lower students daily and hourly
013exposures to the schoolwide Wi-Fi system and its pulsed radio frequencies. I want to bring awareness to the fact that it is likely that a small percentage of students may be especially sensitive to these wireless signals causing headaches, nose bleeds, attention problems, etc. The issue is that the majority the majority of studies at this point worldwide are showing biological effects from wireless signals. And we need to take precautionary measures to limit our kids exposure to them through simple steps even as we all enjoy the benefits of this technology. I brought up this issue here 24 years ago before the board when all of us were new to it. I was being mentored by a theoretical physicist from Argon Laboratories who had noticed the science even then was showing problems. Since that time, I have spent years,
014decades getting to know many scientists, lawyers, as well as lots of industry people on standard setting committees I was part of for 13 years also federal agency people on those committees. I would be happy to share more about this with the board, with parents, anyone who's interested when I have more than three minutes. I will meanwhile be submitting information to the board on the things that I have brought up here, including a copy of my remarks, a page of references, and a copy of advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics called Cell Phone Safety Tips for Families. Thank you very much. Saki tasic. Uh, let me start by saying I also look forward to my kids being back in school next week. Um, President Hernandez, uh, members of the board, good evening. Um, I will
015need to shorten my comments tonight and keep an eye on the clock. Uh, let me just introduce myself first. My name is Zoki Tasich and all three of my children attend elementary school in District 65. Um, I'm here tonight on behalf of Sense Evston, a group of of Evston parents who are concerned about the role that technology is having in our children's lives. Uh, specifically how our kids are being exposed to certain technologies in schools. Um to give a brief summary, scientific research on children's use of these uh these uh these technologies have established beyond any doubt that children are harmed by the prolong prolonged use of the internet and devices such as smartphones and iPads. They are h har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har
016har har har har harmed mentally, emotionally, socially and even physically. Uh and for the youngest children, no amount of screen time is healthy since I only have about a minute and 15 seconds. Um, I'll have to skip most of my comments, uh, and go directly to the main thing I wanted to say, uh, which is that Sun7 is currently circulating a petition to the board. Um, it it advocates for five changes to to district uh to district 65 policies. um that have to do with student use of screens. Um I would note that at this time it has been signed by nearly 500 uh district 65 parents. Um it was circulated only a few days ago. Um on behalf of myself and other district 65 uh district 65 parents, I I uh I urge all
017of you to carefully uh look at that and to implement the common sense policies that are being advocated for. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. That concludes the public comments for tonight. >> Thank you to all of our guests who came in to register public comment. Uh next item up is our um SDRP3 and beyond update. >> You know, we had changed the agenda. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, we're doing FYIs. Okay. So, yeah. Yes. I'm sorry. I apologize. Yeah, we're doing the FYI. So colleagues, if there's any questions on any of the school work plans that were part of our um um FYI items uh that are available for the public, uh personal electronic device procedures, monthly foyer report or care for learners pilots. >> Okay. So school work plans.
018Any feedback on any of the school work plans? I know this was discussed at the committee the whole meeting but again this is another goound if there's any you might have had a question that you might have not asked and you want you now you wanted to ask >> I think I got all my questions answered. >> Okay. Uh anything around the personal electronic device procedures that are being recommended? >> Yeah, I had a question just it's probably a really simple question. All right. >> Before you start, um, Dr. Wymer, can you can Sharma and the folks who were part of that um, come up to be able to address any questions. And just to give you a little bit of context, it included folks from our academics team, i.e. school leaders, the people that
019are boots on the ground in schools, um as part of creating the procedures to match the policy and the Illinois school code as it relates to electronic devices. And so essentially the memo that has been submitted and will also be um published will include the procedures that we are taking to address those policies and Illinois school code. Okay. Go ahead. >> Great. Great. Okay. I just want to say thank you uh to the team who worked on this. Uh Dr. Turner, uh Dr. Beardsley, y'all. Uh thank you so much. If there was anyone else I'm leaving out, um this is exciting um to see for the district. We even came up with our own line away for the day. Not uh not bell to bell, no cell. So, we have our own thing. Um I
020did have just one very basic question about this which was the the need for headphones. Can you explain that for me? I just couldn't make that connection. >> Yes. So first I want to say thank you to our team if we can just they did some great work. Um, so for the headphones, some of our apps, assessments, and some of the other learning materials that students use do still require headphones and along with a microphone. So to minimize students bringing their own headphones or earbuds, then we're asking for we're actually working with technology to get each student their own set so that they can be kept in the classroom for those moments. And so it'll just be during the instructional time when students use them as opposed to students um bringing their own. >> Thank
021you. >> Can you just give an I mean I've read it, we've read it, but I don't know if everyone else is there. Just a quick summary of what the what the new policy is. >> Yes. >> Procedure. Procedure. Um so for the new procedure we are doing away for the day where our students will not be able to use their personal electronic devices in the classroom or throughout the school building during the instructional day. And so those will need to be locked away and turned off and not on vibrate but completely turned off throughout the course of the school day. And so in the procedures that we've put together, um, one of the recommendations, as board member Wymer brought up, was to have headphones for each of our students in the classrooms along with
022personal, um, classroom caddies that students can put their devices in should they have them, but also utilizing the lockers if they have a locked locker accessible. But we know not all of our students have a locked locker, which is why we would have the uh, caddies available for students to use in the classrooms. They would put them in when they come in class and then when they leave for class for middle school, they would take those with them to their next space. For elementary, they would remain with the teacher until the end of the instructional day. M just to further clarify, middle school taking their device to them period to period. >> Correct. >> Which is similar to what ETHs does correct there, right? We're we're preparing our children for high school. We're trying to
023mimic what ETHs has so that they are familiar with that process already going into high school for next year. >> And the difference that we have um from ETHS is that ETHS students are able to use their cell phones when they're transitioning. We are not allowing our students to use theirs during their transition. Another part that we have is also around the smartwatches along with their earbuds. No using those. Now smart watches get a little tricky because you really don't know. So, we did put state a statement in there that says if they are using it to transmit data or using it like a cell phone, then it will be subject to the same uh expectations. And then for any students who do require uh their personal device for medical needs for their IEPs, 504s,
024then they would um have an accommodation set up and then that would be shared with the educators and administrators. if there are any students who um need a personal device for translation, we do have translation already built into our iPads, so they would have access to that in that space. >> Team, is there anything else that you want to add? >> I have a quick question. Um, so can you just talk a little bit about the difference between the middle school policy as it stood and this new procedure? What >> I might ask for the what we >> in other words so in other words what she's saying is what were what were the practices that middle school was doing before that gleaned us gleaned it necessary for us to go to a structured procedure
025that is clear transparent and a system for everyone. So it was basically what each school was willing to what sword they were willing to die on to put it uh you know kind of that way. It depended on the administration and and kind of what they were willing to enforce in with their teachers. And so the feeling was we needed to have a consistent procedure across all buildings so that we were all doing the same thing. >> And how do you plan to monitor the implementation of this so that it actually is implemented with fidelity? So, we're meeting with teachers this week that it will get rolled out to them and then it will be through our classroom kind of walkthroughs and walking of the building and stepping into classrooms to see that those things
026are in place and reminding students and then enforcing the the different um consequences >> and considering that like sixth graders are are far away from high school. So, I understand the preparation for them for high school, but um you know, how do you anticipate uh you know, or are you willing to think about like the the burden that this puts on the the students themselves with having to kind of police themselves if they in fact have their device in their pocket? It seems like how do you how do you police that in the hallway of a middle school in between classes to make sure they're off? some that we actually I would say some of us so at Nicholls as well as at shoot we had a very similar policy that we ran last year
027uh procedure that we ran last year um and so in some ways it was a version of a pilot and I would say at least at Nicholls and Ann can speak for shoot after the first couple weeks there were very limited situations where we came back to the table around the procedure um students for the most part understood it you had your outliers here and there. Uh but ultimately in a level of consistency, we didn't have as much push back as you would think. I think there's also a level of grace in recognizing the first couple weeks there were reminders and teaching of routines and reminding kids to lock them in their lockers and things like that. Um do you want to add? Let me also >> they walk in the room. Okay. Remember your
028cell phone caddies right here. Put it in you know what your number is. Put it in your number. Um you know is just the teachers building routines at the start of the school year. >> Yeah. Let me add one of the expectations um that I am really heavily emphasizing with school leaders is the importance around the first 20 days of school. That's taking us back to the basics. The first 20 days of school really entails building strong relationships among students among students, students among adults. That's putting systems, routines, and procedures in place so everyone knows what the expectation is. And then we are constantly enforcing that the first 20 days because research says if you don't really enforce it the first 20 days of school, you can hang up the rest of the year. And
029so what these folks are being charged with is making sure that they spend time with their staff during institute week, getting clear around the shootute way, the walker way, the Willard way, whatever way it is in their school-based community and and helping and making sure that the systems, routines, and structures are emphasized there so it is clear and that it it gets to a one band, one sound. I think the monitoring piece is we're shifting to um a different structured way of how leaders will get together and collaborate. And so when they come together in those spaces to collaborate, they're going to be doing some reflecting around how is this particular system and procedure that we implemented, how is it working across schools and where do we need to tighten up or realign or reassess.
030And so that's the power of collaboration is what what really the goal is when we shift to a school-based staffing model with clear uh expectations and routines for all. One uh just uh clarify and I think you already said this. So in this case there's no reason for me to wear my own headphones. They should never be out. My earbuds they just don't need to be there. Okay. So they're not tempting me. Perfect. Okay. that can't even be connected to my to my um to my iPad. Right. Correct. No. >> So, actually by doing uh district use headphones, it also allows the um thing the parameters that have been put in place with our iPads for Bluetooth use to be set up more accurately and more effectively, which then will allow the teachers to also
031connect to the uh Google. I'm going to say it wrong so Elena wherever she may be can correct me. Um it's kind of like the securely where the teachers can monitor the computers for students. >> Apple classroom. Apple classroom. Um so that will connect better now without students using their own devices. >> Okay. >> It allows teachers to monitor what screens, you know, what websites kids are on, what what their screen looks like. And when they have access to Bluetooth and can hook hook up their own headphones, then we lose that access ability to to monitor screens. Well, and add to that, K to 5 already has uh headphones allotted to them, so it's just really an extension into middle school. So, it's not a huge shift necessarily. >> How are you going to monitor
032lunch and recess? >> Uh, similarly going through the routines and then we also have been working alongside this with the lunch recess um process as well. And so there will be screen free time during lunch recess for students. seem I guess you know I I if it was me I would just opt to not allow any middle schoolers to have their phones because as soon as you get into a lunchroom situation it's going to be chaos and I think part of the point of the of putting the device away is really encouraging that face toface conversation and so at any point when you let them have it they will be on it and the lunchroom supervisors I would just say if if they if you moni if you if you step into a lunchroom and
033the first, you know, obviously you will in the first several days of school and that becomes a point of contention. I think the lunchroom supervisors should have we should have the option to just put it in the locker for the day. And I'd like the away for the day, but if it's away for the day, but in your pocket and not and sometimes on and sometimes off, I don't think that gives a level of clarity that we're really seeking here. >> No, the expectation is for it to be off and not visible. And so if it's seen, if it's out, it's taken away. All schools are expected to follow the steps that go alongside. And then we're also meeting with our lunch recess supervisors when they come back at uh during institute days and going
034through this process as well. But never getting into a power struggle with a kid. That's where our administrators come in to help reinforce and just constantly teaching and holding students accountable. And then also asking parents to come alongside because it takes both. Um we actually name in there. It's better for it to not come to school at all, but if it comes, this is where it needs to be. And we felt we had to have the two options because you know the situation at shoot is I have 610 students but only 405 lockers and so a number of kids have to share lockers and if you don't feel comfortable leaving your personal electronic device in a locker with somebody you're just getting to know I'd rather you carry it than have to spend time trying
035to track it down. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I just want to add, I think we're getting real deep into the operational aspects that we're charged to do at the district level. And so I think what we wanted to do is provide our first attempt at establishing some procedures because we heard all of the things. The course correcting and the adjusting and the monitoring to make the adjustments is something that these folks will continue to monitor as we do in the daily running of schools. And so I asked the board to just allow my team to take the procedure that we've matched to the policy and to the Illinois school code, allow us to enact this, and we will follow that cycle of the monitoring until we get to a place of perfection. And
036so I I just want to just name that piece very transparently and celebrate these folks that we're trying to get to a space where we're trying to create some systems processes. But but do know we're very aware of how a cycle of inquiry goes. Um we're very deeply rooted in that kind of work and so we'll continue to plan, study, do act. You know that cycle of inquiry. We'll we'll continue to do that. this is what this team is is in in focus on and the rest of the school leaders who are here and who who's not. So just want to really just name that. >> All I have to say is good luck. Thank you Pat. >> Questions colleagues? >> All right. Well thank you so much. I appreciate the good work that you've
037done here. >> Uh any other pieces? We we also have the monthly foyer report and then the care for learners pilots. Any comments on that? >> Yeah. Um yeah, Dan for the care for learners pilot. >> And before as Dan comes up, do you all have any qu You got questions for Dan? >> I have a couple. >> Okay, Dan, come up. So, I just want to say to my school leaders cuz they have been working hard and they're still really trying to get schools ready. I'm going to say have a great night. Thank you for all you do. Keep shining. Get ready. I'll see you Thursday. [Applause] I just want to make sure. Okay, cool. >> What is it? Melissa Path. Yeah, I was going to say close that door so we can keep
038keep the meeting going. >> Dan looks different without his glasses. >> Glasses. >> Yeah, I'm like >> Yes. Hi, Dan Coin. Um, I have worn glasses since I was 12 years old, but this uh, fortunately our education system in America teaches scientists how to fix your eyes. So, I got new headlights this summer, new lenses, and I don't need glasses. >> Where's Dan? >> I think you had a >> question, Colle. >> Yeah, I have a question, but Dr. Pinker did something with the last one that might be helpful. Can you just tell us what you're sharing here, Dan, first about the caring for learners? >> Sure. program. >> Sure. I I wear different hats in town. Emily and I moved here from Portland about 33 years ago to join Reeba Place Church, so I'm
039a member there, but I also became employed with District 65 as a school social worker working across the street here at King Arts. Um, in my 33 years of being a social worker in the Northshore and also in Chicago and now here in Evston, it's always uh impressed on my heart the lack of resources available to the needs of the students and families that I do work with. It's a common problem. There's not enough resources for the families. Um so this year a new idea came up in our Menanite world and at Reeba Place um is if we could possibly come up with a sustainable fund from private uh monies, not taxpayer monies, that would be a partnership with district 65 to maybe meet some of those needs of our most vulnerable families here in
040Evston. And our thinking was is those that are experiencing housing uh uh insecurities, food insecurities, having a hardship, as a social worker, you find that all the time. Many of our families, even if they're not labeled or experiencing homelessness, um issues happen at home, divorces, prison, death, uh loss of job. And as a social worker, we're always scrambling with the families and other partners in town to try to bring res resources to the table to help our kids so that they can learn better. You know, it's a lot easier to learn, right, when you have a full tummy and a house over your head and and it's safe at home. Um so this idea came about and we we kicked it around and found about $9,000 that we could start with as a pilot. Um
041it would be a fi it is a 501c nonfor-profit kind of entity with uh the standard um IRS kind of protocols. So all of our records would be public information. Uh except yeah that would all be public. And our thought was is that we could start at King Arts since that's where I work and I know the CARES team pretty well. We work with a lot of these families anyway. Our car's team is pretty much in touch with the families that are most struggling at King Arts. Um, and see if we could come up with a simple, efficient way to get some target gift cards to the families that are experiencing a hardship at the moment. So without a bureaucracy or a lot of forms involved but a legitimate fund that's there for our social
042workers to confidentially let the U metanite organization know we need X in our currently right now we need X amount on a gift card and so that gift card then can electronically be sent to the CARES team uh without knowing which family's in need or where it's going. And then the cares team member then could send that email, that gift card to that family so they immediately that night they go buy some shirts or some hygiene products for their daughter or whatever they need at Target food. Um and um we would we thought that if we had around a $1,000 a year cap on that, we would kind of protect ourselves from maybe abuse or too much reliance on that fund. Um, and our hope is is that if this is something that is of
043interest, it is at King Arts, but we wanted to make sure that the school board felt good about this idea. Um, that we would start raising funds for this, too. Um, just in my own role here the last 33 years in Evston, there's been a lot of neighbors and and different entities that have wanted to donate uh monies and resources for different projects that I've been involved in. So, I do know we have a generous community and I'm confident we could build a fund to make this thing more sustainable. Uh, but we had to start somewhere. So, our idea is to start with the pilot project this year, report back to the board if you're okay with that in the spring. And I'm an optimist. I'm my mom raised me, right? So, if we raise
044a lot of money, maybe we could expand this to other uh schools that are interested in. But I do believe the car's team is a good way to start because we are connected with those families every day. >> And you answered my question. I was just curious about the scaling if this is a pilot at King Arts or a pilot that possibly be for the whole district. So you already answered that. >> Well, right now at King Arts, you want it. Right. Right. >> But not but it's to see if it can be scalable in the meantime. Yeah. And one of the just to um reaffirm what you just said the you you are never in possession of information of which families are receiving um it's always it's but it's also up to the um
045the social workers to trigger the ask um for >> that's correct. Our cares team meets every week anyway. So it is it's not an extra meeting for us. It's not a burden on us. Uh this is just another tool that we could use to help some of the families we work with. Dan, are have there been opportunities for social workers and psyches from across the district to sit down and and chat like and really kind of share resources and and talk a bit about, you know, again just some of the one, you know, as an opportunity for you all to reflect on the work that you're all doing in your respective school buildings, but also, you know, just kind kind of sharing some of these resources that you've identified, right? that way. And I think
046about it in regards to scaling as Andrew just mentioned, you know, really kind of at some point um having like this repository, if you will, you know, that's made up that uh from those conversations and and opportunities for social workers and psychologists to to have and counselors to have these conversations. >> Yes. Our expert in the house is Miss Lori right here who's uh an amazing administrator that's helped all of us social workers to organize exactly what you're talking about. Thank you for that point. And we work very closely together. My vision as I retire and get into retirement this June of 26 is be a volunteer on ad hoc volunteer committee to help Miss Lori and also our district to grow this fund. >> Thank you. Thank you so much, Dan. Appreciate it. Thank
047you. >> Get used to the new look. >> All right. Um, so moving on. Um, I think we've covered just about every FYI item. I'll just one last pass, folks. Anything else that you'd like to discuss on FYI? Okay. Uh, so next up, uh, we go back to the ST SDRP3 and beyond update. All right, I'm going to open us up tonight. Um, so this evening, Melissa and I are going to be sharing a general overview of the feedback that we received during our summer stakeholder engagement. That included the two in-person engagements in June, as well as the survey that went out in that same window of time. We received over 800 responses to that survey. go on to the next slide. Essentially, you know, to launch the presentation tonight, I want to continue to
048underscore that having conversations about school closing and consolidation is difficult. The only reason that we engage in this process is because we want to make sure that district 65 is strong and viable for today's students and future students. And so it is kind of with this desire or aspiration to ensure that we build a strong and a strong dis district for today and tomorrow that we engage in a difficult conversation. And we did use that framing with our community members when we began this feedback. It's important to understand that ultimately we're really trying to solve three problems in order to be able to hold on to that hopeful and optimistic vision for the future. One, we need to ensure long-term financial sustainability. Two, we know we need to address significant repairs and improvements in our
049building. And three, we know that we have declining student enrollment. We know that this has now been a trend for about eight years. And that is leading to underutilized buildings and ultimately greater overhead expenses. You can move on next slide. Nicely done. All right. And this is a familiar slide for our school board, but I do think it's important to continue to ground ourselves in these numbers. These numbers are still rooted in our data from last year, but it's critical. You know, we know we're doing a lot of work with TAM. We've looked at financials coming back from this last school year. We have a structural problem in the sense that we've been had our expenses outgrowing our revenues and we need to get to a place where long-term sustainably our revenues outpaces outpace our
050expenses. Second, we know that all buildings in the district with the exception of one are classified using that master facility assessment as poor and very poor. We know that and I think Andrew brought up last board meeting like indoor air quality influences student learning. There are many aspects of the environment that influence student learning, not only around feelings of joy and optimism, but around health and ability to focus. And we know that looking forward, we've got to be able to address that in the district. And as I mentioned, we know that our enrollment has been decreasing. We know that our demography report says that that decrease begins to level out, but we're decreasing based on that report for another seven years before we kind of balance out and come up a little bit. And so
051we've got some decisions to make ultimately about how we want to structure this current student body and student enrollment. Melissa is now going to pick up and just share um essentially some of the analysis from our engagements. >> Yes, thank you Dr. Beardsley. So um as we've previously shared, our goal is not to make decisions or have this process evolve behind closed doors. We've really been trying really ever since phase two and last fall. Um we've held I think three to four stakeholder engagement series over the course of this process which is really iterative. Um if you could go to the next slide. Um our goal is really to bring people and different voices into this conversation. And so, um, we knew that this next phase of engagement was taking place over the summer, which
052is generally not the greatest time to be having these conversations, but given the timeline and where we're at, we had to continue to move the process forward. Um, and so we tried to get the word out over the summertime as best as we could, these were just a few things and ways that we got the information out. I do really want to shout out though our community partners especially Evston Cradle to career who has been an incredible partner in this work who we made flyers in English and Spanish. They were literally boots on the ground within different portions of the community at events um especially in places and spaces where we do have our historically marginalized or underrepresented families to give them QR codes to the survey literally pull it up for them in English
053and Spanish trying to get um them to participate. Um if you want to go to the next slide thank you. Um so if we go in our uh in our time machine back to June and July um we hosted a series of in-person and engagement sessions as well as um an electronic version of the survey. Uh the purpose was really to if you go back even further into April we asked the community what do you think should be included in the criterion categories and we had a whole host of response as we did the survey. Dr. Beardsley brought that to her facilities subcommittee which is comprised of staff members and parents in the community and they really chewed on that data to develop this criteria. And so the purpose of going out in June and
054July was then to get feedback from the community on here's where we landed. Here's what we thought was most important to the community as we considered uh consolidation and closure. What do you think now? Uh Adila next slide please. Um, so as mentioned, we did an online survey that was open for two weeks and we got 865 responses on that. Um, which is actually pretty high considering um, it being summertime in our our previous survey efforts. It was certainly the highest of any of our SDRP related engagement sessions. Additionally, we held two in-person sessions that um had about 90 participants total across the board. Uh, oh, can you go back Adila? Sorry. Um, so we conduct conducted analysis. The purpose of the online and the in-person sessions are to gather the same input. We know
055not everybody can come out to an in-person session. So if we ask the same series of questions and we can analyze that data, we could try to get then feedback from, you know, the 865 folks who took it online and 90 who came out and participated in person. Um, also thank you to our Northwestern partners who did an independent analysis of this data. both that report as well as just the um notes from the inerson session are publicly available on our district website. So they're available to anybody who wants to take a peek through them and then ultimately they were shared with the facilities committee um to be able to determine uh what were the next steps of the criteria. Next slide please. So at a high level uh the purpose was to really share
056out information about the criteria and the categories as well as just to get a gauge on the level of satisfaction within the community on each of the categories. So again a more detailed analysis is available on our website and will be in the board packet but um you can see let me look at my own notes here. Um so our equity category was the first one and overall 58.2% 2% of people indicated that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with that criteria category. Next slide. Geography. Um so this one saw the highest level of satisfaction with 79.8% of respondents indicating satisfied or very satisfied. Next slide. Building functionality was 68.7% of respondents indicating that they were satisfied or very satisfied. financial impact was 57.5% of respondents who indicated that they were satisfied or very
057satisfied. And then we asked a question overall when you think about the categories and the criteria holistically um what are your feelings and so overall that was at 59.7%. Um our lowest satisfied response level was 57% and if you'll notice most of the neutrals hover anywhere between 19 and 25%. Um, so we did take this as a as a good sign. I mean, there's no perfect answers or easy solutions with what we're dealing with, but the fact that the majority of the community and people who took it said that they were satisfied or very satisfied, we were we were pleased with. Um, so Dr. Beardsley is going to talk about some next steps about how we used this um, information to further develop our criteria. >> Sure thing. So essentially um after reviewing both all
058of the raw data on the survey and then reviewing the analysis courtesy of our Northwestern partners essentially well and I'm going to talk to this quickly. I think most of this was covered by Melissa, but I think it is critical to know that the Northwestern analysis is available online on the district 65 website. So if people do want to take a look at that, that is there. You can see the range. Um and essentially we did spend time looking at the feedback particularly in open response and then from our charts and convers question and answer portion of the uh inperson engagements. We can go on to the next slide. Coming after doing that analysis there are a few things that we did to we took a back to the facility subcommittee. Um, in particular, one
059thing that came up were a number of questions about how we were moving from our categories and criteria into the calculations for the scorecards. And um, people noted clearly we had a different number of criteria in each category and they were curious about whether those would have unique weights or if everything would be weighted the same. when we um one we worked with our research accountability and data team and also after engaging with the subcommittee we also engaged with the University of Chicago um essentially statistician who gave us some really good feedback and ideas on the data but number one on calculations um the determination was made that criteria would all be counted equally so if there are three criteria in a category they each count for 33% it's divided equally within in the category.
060If they're two, it's 50%. Rather than trying to say one criteria was more important than the other, they roll up equally into the category score. Um, we also move to normalizing all of the scores for the categories and the criteria. And what that does for us is it allows us to establish a numeric value from one to five that takes into account the range of data across the schools. And so that one to five value can reflect the distance that a school's data is from another school. And so you get a pretty nice sense of representation about where this data is from each other. And so we use normalized values and all of the categories and criteria. We equally weighted the criteria within a category. And essentially we've in our one to five scale a
061one would represent least impactful to close. And an example of that might be under the operational costs in a building. Least impactful to close would be the building that has the highest operational cost because our goal here is ultimately to reduce its deficit reduction. Okay. We have another category that's uh the distance of three schools from a potentially closed school. Least impactful to close would be the school that has three schools that are closest to it. All right, so we have those values of one to five. Um, additionally, there were some questions about how we would um calculate the individuals that belong to historically marginalized groups. And the decision was made that essentially a student depending on that criteria would be included if they belong to any of those groups and would be counted once.
062So you are either a member of a marginalized group or you are not in the calculation. Moving on to the next slide. Additionally, we um heard from the community some potential concerns about um the equity criteria and essentially the use of race in the equity criteria. After consulting with our legal council and the school board, a decision was made ultimately to remove race from the criteria in the upfront scorecard. The subcommittee will continue to monitor for disproportionate impact to any racial group as we assess assess each potential scenario. So when we're working through scorecards, the scorecard lets us know where to start in modeling and helps to inform which schools will go into scenarios. And then with each scenario, we calculate the data in the impact of that scenario. And if you recall from the
063scorecard, we have some some criteria that are scenario specific. With that there's a data table that captures essentially the data of the students and the families around walkability demographics and that is where we will look for any disproportionate impact of a scenario and use that to help ensure our commitment to equity. Um, and so where we are is essentially the equity criteria will continue to include socioeconomic status as well as whether a student has an IE an IEP or qualifies for EL support. Next slide. And then in closing is just a reminder that we are in the midst of a kind of multimonth process here. in September. Essentially, our goal is to bring forward a series of scenarios to the school board that would capture options for really zero to three, potentially zero to four
064closures that the board will be a will consider, have discussion about, and then we will turn back around to community feedback at that point. Our ultimate goal is to continue to iterate with feedback from the community and the school board to be able to have the board ready to you know essentially make a decision on a scenario from 0 to 4 by November. It's important to note that if we are going to move forward with closing schools that those closing hearings would really need to happen prior to a winter break. All right, questions. >> Thank you. Any questions colleagues on the t the scenario timelines? Well, >> thank you so much for the update on the process. Looks like again we've been engaging community and uh ensuring that we're leveraging partners our partnerships as well
065as we come up with the scenarios. So again, I just really appreciate the the work that the team is doing uh to get the board the information we need as we uh are heading into some tough decision- making that's ahead. The next item up on our agenda is our foster school construction update >> Kirby. I like I like to Kirby. I apologize. So, as Kirby's coming up, we do not have an a foster school update, but you do have a change order um on the agenda for approval. So, Kirby can answer any questions. >> So, any questions around the uh >> change order? >> I have a um not necessarily about the change order, but in terms of um we just approved one last week and then if I look at this one, this one,
066if you look at the dates, it was in conversation in January. And so my ask is to you know in some sense you approve one like oh that's a change order and then there's another change. This isn't a lot of money so it's not that but just how to have them together so you don't feel like >> you know you're approving something like I would have liked them both together. That's all. Just sorry Kirby. >> Well part part of the issue is change orders come up over the course of the construction process. >> No I mean normally I was just this one I'm just in particular about this one. The dates on it was in January. So, just a particular one about this one. I'm being picky. Sorry. >> No, no, no. I mean, this
067one is a little complicated just because of the subcontractor. Um, we're dealing with concrete pourings and foundation pourings in January and February. Um, they presented the bills to our uh construction manager, recorded in Clark. Um, it was over the amount approved. It was over the contract amount approved. It was also some of the work that they're charging for us appeared to be. it was already within the scope of the bid. So there were and then there was a lot of uh unconfirmed or un unproven amount of concrete that they were charging for in terms of what they put in the soil. So there was three or four or five months of back and forth between the general contractor and the subcontractor about verifying how much they actually did, whether the work was within bid or
068not. Um the amount that they originally invo invoiced was brought down by over $40,000 through those negotiations, but it still was quite a bit. In the end, they negotiated to a settlement and agreed to pay and we had our owners rep turn and hear to review that and they approved it after being a part of that process as well. So unfortunately that's part of the construction process when you're doing lots of subcontractors. Um it got a little sticky, it got a little icky and it took a long time and so you don't see that you know what you're approving is payment. we haven't paid that yet. So, that finally came together because they finally agreed on the price and the invoicing finally came in and now it's up for payment. So, >> yeah. And I
069I just want to commend, you know, in response to that, Kirby and the district's owners rep because they are watching this so that we don't get >> bamboozled. That might not be a good word to say in public, but essentially, you know what I mean? It is what it is, right? And so while it might sometimes appear like it's an inconvenience a little bit, that's because we didn't caught something that we like, wait a minute, hold on, and this could potentially save the district some money. So, it's not like it's not that we do that do it this often, but there we can't we can't say that we might not do this again if we come up another time where we can figure out where we see a duplicate payment or, you know, something doesn't
070make sense and it we can adjust something to make save some money. So, just want to say that. >> Um, I just have one request. I don't know if this is possible or not, but as we're kind of closing in on on the last year of this uh construction, my guess is that we're going to we may have some more of these coming in. Um would it be possible for us to get uh just a rolling accounting of the of the change orders and how it affects the contingency budget? Do we have that? >> Yeah, we can provide that subdetail. So far, there have been three change orders, a little under $300,000 total. >> Okay, great. >> Um, so you've approved two of them and one came in uh back in January was the first
071change order that was approved. >> I guess I always have the same question about this. I think I know the answer, but we're still under budget. >> Still on budget, still on time >> and and we're still working. We're being very thoughtful and I won't say frugal, but we're being thoughtful with the contingency as well. It has to make sense, right? So, some stuff if it don't make sense, >> it don't happen. >> It don't make sense, right? But if it makes sense, then yeah, we make the adjustments. But to your point, we're also watching the contingency spending as well as trying to stay under budget. our our bid group five, which is the last major bid group. Those came in last week. Uh the general contractor is going through all those approved bids, not
072approved bids, the bids that they're reviewing and and um making sure that they follow the scope in the budget and we'll be coming back to the board in September with those bid approval bid um recommending for the board to approve those bids. >> We didn't have you at the committee of the whole meeting and we'd wondered I'd asked where the contingency budget stood. Do you know where it stands after this expenditure? >> Oh yes. Oh um I've given that information several times but um uh yes the contingency stands at about 1.75 million and we are a little over two. So the loss so those three we we again we have three contingency funds. So there's an allowance fund that the that is pre-approve approved by the board for each bid. There's always about a 5
073to 10% amount that they add into the bid contracts so that small things that come up uh contractors can and we can pay for it without having to go through a monthly bid process. Then there's the contingency uh fund that has to have board approval. We also because we are so far under budget at this point, we've also reserved an additional owner's contingency that has remained in the project budget and we are we do not plan to touch that. we plan to return that to district, but we're holding that and only that can be tapped in by pre-approved board board approval. So, if something comes up and we come to the board for that, um, but we don't expect for that to happen because we expect to use the allowance and the construction contingency funds
074as it is. >> So, you have to you have to vote on the uh resolution. I move that the board of education approve the change order for the additional concrete which will increase the concrete by Wagner contract to a new value of1,443,98. A second. >> Henderson. >> Yes. >> Wilkins. >> Yes. >> Pinker. >> Yes. >> Up. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much, Kirby. >> Thanks, K. >> All right. The next item up is our proposed action item. >> I move that the board of education approve the following items outlined as part of the consent agenda. Personnel, appointments, leaves, and separations. SY26 track movement applicants, June to July 25 board of education meeting minutes, gifts of school supplies and tree planting at JE, and August 2025
075bills payable. >> Second. >> Anderson, >> yes. >> Wilkins, >> yes. >> Pinker, >> yes. >> Wymer, >> yes. Hernandez. >> Yes. Next item up is a resolution for dismissal. >> I move that the board of education adopt the resolution for the dismissal of administrative staff as noted. >> Second. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Wilkins. >> Yes. >> Pinker. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Hernandez. >> Yes. Next item up is approval of contracts. I move that the board of education approve the August 2025 contracts above $25,000 as noted in the board packet. >> I had a question about one of the contracts before we go. Um the antifrain contract was over 700,000. Tamron, I think the maximum amount um in the actual scope of work for this next school year was about 500,000.
076And I'm wondering what the delta is because I know we reach 750 at some point and if you want to carve this one out. I'm sorry I didn't submit this earlier. I'm showing that as 650,000. I think it can get up to I think it gets up to a maximum of 750, but I don't think we got there because Lou has done some negotiating with Andy Frame. >> Okay. >> And what you're currently showing is 650,000. >> Yeah, I'm looking at the contracts listing on board book and Andy Frame is at $650,000. It is a $750,000 amount, but that's for a different contract. >> Not Andy Frank. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> I added a note in the questions, but I didn't see Oh, okay. >> So, so >> what you said, >> can you
077just clarify then like what the difference is between the Andy frame and the village of Skoi IGA agreement. >> Is it the same money? >> It's the same money. Yes. >> Okay. Yeah, it looks like two on here. It looks like there's 1.2. Okay. >> Yeah. No, $650,000 between the two of them. >> Okay. Yeah, it looks like two different. We as we get through the year, you'll notice on the bills list there will be payments to Andy Frank and then payments to the village of Skoi, but combined those should not exceed $650,000. >> Right. Yeah. And and just to note, Andy Frame is connected to Evston. Village of Skoi is connected to Skoi. We got schools that sit in Skoi. They are not included in in Edmonston >> but for this cont I mean
078but trying to understand this here because there's two line items you can look at it looks like there's 13 1.3 million >> as opposed to there's 650 to support across both is the way >> 650,000 to support across both and our system is the same contract number >> okay >> so that's why it's listed there um Skoi the village of Skoi should be about $40,000 >> way less Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. But in total $650,000 is the max. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that clarification. >> The motion was made. >> Was there a second or any other questions on any of the U contracts? >> I need a second. Second. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Welcome. >> Yes. Harder. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Hernandez. >> Yes. Next item up adoption of
079board agreements for 2025 2026. >> I move that the board of education adopt the 2025 2026 board agreements as mutually drafted. >> Second >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Wilkins. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Hernandez. >> Yes. All right. Um la next item up or last item is our is there any other business? So, is there any other business for the board to consider? Things that may not have been added to the agenda, but that you might want to discuss or maybe add on or suggest for our next gathering once twice. Okay. So, with no further business, I adjourn this meeting at 7:28 p.m. Everybody have a good uh first week of school.