[10/28/24] D65 - School Board Meeting

001e e e regular board meeting for October can you please uh do the roll call yes today is Monday October 28th the time is 6:15 p.m. this is the regular Board of Education meeting roll call Salem here Wilkins here Kim here Lindsey Ryan here Hernandez here okay okay okay colleagues if we'll also give you um if you need um yeah so we looks like we have we're going to need translation into Homer want one okay so that's three okay great four of us okay so we're just waiting for our translator so thank you for your patience all right Mane for Happ five on our going to text my m colle [Applause] oh this was different oh yeah thank so colleagues I'd like to remind you uh since we're we'll be translating I need you to

002enunciate each word that you're saying and don't speak too quickly so we can allow Mr Alan to be able to give us as inaccurate translation as possible okay thank you [Music] yes e I think she's ready I can't hear anything can you I just got sta I think that's just thank you so much for your patience everybody thank you Mr Al um so the next item up is the land acknowledgement we take time to acknowledge that the land we meet on is on the traditional homelands of the Council of Three Fires the pami oju and Odawa this land also served as an important important meeting place for Miami hunk the monoman enoa sack Fox Poria Arapaho shyen and other tribal Nations this land has long been a center for indigenous people to gather trade and

003maintain kinship ties located at the intersection of several great waterways the region has become the site of travel and prosperity we acknowledge Evanston and John Evans are tied to the massacre of the Arapaho and cheyen for railroads and Westward Expansion upon which John Evans developed his wealth and founded Evanston this land was violently taken under settler colonialism through genocide and open Warfare and the region that is now Illinois and Chicago land is still 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 prohibited slavery slavery was an accepted practice before and after statehood the vestiges of slavery remain throughout the United States and directly affect the descendants of enslaved peoples rich and

004heterogeneous communities who helped Define the African diaspora the genocidal patterns of violence against peoples of African descent and Indigenous peoples have been replicated to exclude and harm people from many intersecting marginalized identities in the United States religious minoritized disabled and lgbtq peoples black and indigenous people of color and people of color RIT large these patterns demonstrate that the pursuit to end State sh sanction violence against B bipac is a daily struggle for Liberation from continued social political and economic anti-black racism and oppression today we acknowledge that we we are living breathing loving grieving laughing and sharing space on unseated territory may we learn to honor the 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

005we encourage everyone to continue to expand their knowledge and reduce their harm 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 so the next item that we have on our agenda is the board and superintendent comments so Dr Turner if you have any comments yes thank you so I'm going to start with um our superintendent parent caregiver advisory Council I am excited to announce the formation of our superintendent's parent caregiver advisory Council this Council will bring together a group of District parents and caregivers committed to improving education and addressing critical issues currently impac in our schools applications are now available and will be accepted through November 6 and additional information information is available on

006our website at District 65.net I also want to just start you know specifically speaking to the Betsy RADS Community I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight last week I sent a message to the Betsy RADS community and I would like to take this opportunity now to publicly apologize for the way we approach the potential transition of sth and eighth graders within our monolingual program we know that we have continued to perpetuate harm to a community that has already been through so much and I am deeply sorry for the pain and the disruption that has been caused this was certainly not Our intention but an unintended outcome of moving too fast our goal was to give families and staff as much notice as possible to prepare for the transition however it did not

007allow for the necessary time for collaboration our team is working extremely hard to consider alternate paths in response to many of the needs we've heard in determining a final path we know that our process must be more intentional careful and reflective we recognize the need to get this right by the Betsy Rose community and I look forward to our continued conversation later tonight thank you for that board colleagues any comments yeah thank you Sergio um so I uh would also like to uh extend my apologies to the 7th and and eighth grade families and the wider community of Bessie roads for the way that you received very difficult news the communication didn't happen the way we would have wished and Dr Turner talked in her letter and and just now about moving too fast and

008I think the board also needed to have taken more time to think through the plan and the communication so I want to apologize to Dr Turner for uh not providing more guidance on that front as well um but I do want to put to rest the idea that this decision was somehow intentionally made to hurt families or hide things rather a decision was made in the face of a pressing Staffing shortage that was not sustainable and then got worse despite heroic efforts by Educators and building leaders to cover the gaps that said there needed to be more communication and discussion with families upfront both about the problem and the possible solution as you'll hear tonight none of the options is ideal while the decision to move students to their neighborhood schools was perhaps the most

009disruptive in the short run short term it also offered the greatest chance of long-term stability until students transition to eths so the intention was to do what was best in the what was in the best educational interest of students to care for students but the impact of the the way that decision was communicated was hurt and confusion so I'm glad we're having this conversation tonight both to make things right for Bessie Road's families affected by the difficult decisions in front of us uh and also to begin to dialogue in productive ways about the many more difficult decisions ahead of us we have to communicate with each other with care and respect even when it's hard and even when emotions are running High uh and by we I mean all of us we have talked as

010a board about the need to make decisions not just for now or for next year but for the next 5 10 15 years down the road and as we're making the those plans things continue to change we're working within a dynamic system and yet we have to move ahead and we have to remain adaptable and open not become defense when criticisms come our way as they surely will but also to be guided by the moral principles that motivated each of us to decide to serve in this role as we look ahead to our budget reduction plan to get the district on a stable Financial footing we're hearing calls for quote returning to fiscal responsibility and getting back to academic Excellence as if these things were incompatible with the district's educational Equity goals setting up a

011false choice between schools that we can afford to run and schools that work for everybody it's a both and and we have to do both thank you I want to start by acknowledging the moment that we are in uh I know that the Bessie roads Community has been forced to navigate a gut-wrenching process and I am deeply sorry that too often we are making that worse this process is hard enough and empathy and Care should be at the center of every decision and communication about paths forward and it's clear that we're falling short of providing that please know that I understand your outrage and share your frustration for the ways that we aren't getting it right and I will continue to try and ask the questions that I believe will get you the information you

012need to make the best decisions for yourselves moving forward to be clear the initial decision about seventh and eighth grade was made with the intent of giving the Bessie roads Community the maximum amount of time to adjust and prepare for the trans position but we made a mistake when trying to give families more time because we did not have enough stakeholder input to make a decision I'm grateful that we have slowed down the process to hear from more folks to see what is the best plan it of course means that there will be less time for transition once a decision is made but hopefully the decision will be more fully comprehensive and that therefore more successful of the options being discussed I think we need to fully consider all of the four choices and my

013priority is to minimize the shortterm and long longterm disruption to students the devastating reality is that a decision to close AO School inherently destabilizes the school for students they are forced to navigate friends leaving teachers leaving their parents being sad and angry all why trying to understand why this is all happening and it's a lot for parents and caregivers they are trying to navigate their own frustrations and feelings of helplessness their continued need to advocate for their kids their care and concern for theed Educators that have given their kids so much and trying to understand what can be confusing Communications about what seem to be endless changing updates about what is happening and for staff they are trying to hold it all together support the students who are struggling respond to parental inquiries and demands

014respond to the administration and also trying to figure out how to make the best decisions for themselves professionally and their own families and because each of these groups are navigating so many hard emotions and decisions people are making hard choices every student and family has the right to decide whether staying at Bessie roads or leaving for a place that feels more stable and more predictable uh that might mean their students needs at the moment uh meet their students needs at the moment is the right choice for them and I think the fact that Bessie roads is a magnet school further complicates this process because attendees already have more choices than those that attend a neighborhood school and it can be really stressful to know what choice is best for your child when you're comparing apples

015to oranges and every staff member has the right to determine what decisions they need to make for their own personal well-being and the health of their families I hope we can all agree that families and staff have the right to make choices to not stay at Bessie roads until it closes and yet those choices have a significant impact on the options and experiences for those that remain unfortunately the ways in which those choices impact students can be hard to predict sometimes it's a combination of factors that converge to severely limit our options a teacher leaving as we experienced recently can be the difference between us being able to find a way to still get students needs covered and no longer being able to do so additionally Bessie Road's parents rightfully demanded that their students receive

016the math instruction from someone with the proper credentials and that meant that we had to figure out different Staffing structures to ensure what happens every student and family have a right to demand that their student be receiving their education from qualified instructors that their students needs be met just as they would be expected to be met at any other school and I think the challenge is when parents Advocate they are not responsible for or in control of the solutions to the problems and it can seem obvious what should be done and it can be frustrating when that action is not taken and the reality is that while there see may seem like a multitude of options there are many competing interests that can limit the choices for example the district must find solutions that do

017not violate any of the five Union contracts that we have in place that do not violate any of the laws that dictate our responsibilities on serving students with diverse needs ensuring that everyone still gets their minutes of supports and that classes are staffed to meet the legal requirements ET and that and that respond to the needs of students and families that are often not aligned on what they want the solution to be these limitations can take the obvious answers off the table and leave us with options that many of us find acceptable I can't predict what other situations will arise in the time before the school closes but I can predict that as any school closes it is possible that more students and staff will leave and that will result in more challenges and I

018know that instability invokes fear and that the absence of information creates a vacuum and an opportunity for misinformation so I'm going to do my best to be clear about how I think see things as we go I've heard that one of the fears is that moving the seventh and eighth graders in November was our plan all along I can say unequivocally that there was no discussion of any plan to move seventh and eighth graders or any other grade of students at B roads for that matter until the recent Staffing short es we did not have a plan and wait until October to communicate a decision about November instead we were holding things together as best we could until now and the recent changes made our ability to meet students needs with the status quo impossible

019there are no secret plans for Bessie roads and every plan that I'm aware of is public and is and is based on what can be accomplished with the current student body and Staffing we'll have to respond to whatever situations arise and it is likely that there will be other decisions ahead that are not what any of us hope for with that I know the combination of a broken trust and vitriolic rhetoric makes this hard and there are parts that each of us can't control what we can control is how we as the adults try to sh shoulder this burden for kids my hope is that from this point fire forward we find a way to build Bridges wherever we can so that we can all get on the same page and do what is best

020for kids that are in a difficult situation knowing that we will not all agree on what decisions are best for kids we will need to be in constant conversation and as new situations arise we can partner to find our way through each challenge with the students at the center of our decision- making as the adults of this community we need to figure out how to take on as much of the hard as possible for so that the students can focus on being kids thank you for that sulan Biz next item up on our agenda is our public comments so members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings speakers are discouraged for from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members being mindful that

021the public comment period is not a suitable form for fact 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 you 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 65.net and with that deal do we have any folks for public comment yes I'll go ahead and call up the first three people um Dr Baker Emily Castillo o Kelly post good evening Dr Turner council members members of the school board the ENT community and our my fellow Deck members my name

022is Dr Trisha Baker I am currently my second year serving as Union president for the deck Union my career began here in Evon as an educator as a student should I say as a per professional I've been educator now for 31 years which includes 24 years here in Evon so I am a product of this District I attended then Timber Ridge and also Walker School I remembered my principal Mr Johnson at Walker I remember my favorite teacher Miss Butler at Walker and my favorite PE teacher Mr KAC at Walker I could go on but I end by saying it's been my honor to serve here and work here in Evon as a special education teacher for our students as of today deck Educators continue to work without a contract this means a contract is currently

023expired deck is currently negotiating with the district in hopes of coming to a fair agreement that best benefits our students staff and Community we have been negotiating for eight months now and just recently have requested the help of a mediator as we've entered the financial bargaining of this process I'm here tonight to express the seriousness of the situation and to let the board know that decr is committed to a coming to a fair agreement that truly puts students first we need a strong settlement now we cannot go on with the with the weight of the district financial problems on the backs of our Educators this is a complete distraction from what's really important as our students and providing them with the best public education possible as I visit schools and Educators throughout our district I

024get questions from Members about how we're going with the negotiations although we've made progress on issues one of the biggest concerns right now is that of the financial state of the district the devastating state of the district has sent everyone into a world Whirlwind of anxiety because the uncertainty of the district the talks of school was closing half staff being cut the cost of the building the new school and the Fifth Ward is weighing very heavily on the minds of our Educators not just about for today but for their future and for the future of this District the deck negotiating team is making fiscally responsible proposal at the table we are aware of the issues that the district is facing financially but we also recognize that we are in the midst of a critical teacher

025shortage and if we aren't careful we will lose our talented educated to more financially stable districts where they can earn more money what we do here in the season of negotiating will set the trajectory for the path for many Educators who live and work here and those who travel from neighboring suburbs and those who have aspiration of living in this District working in this District we look forward to working together with all stakeholders including parents Community leaders Administration and the board to find the best solution for all of us we know strong students mean strong schools and strong schools mean strong communities so let's get it done thank [Applause] you good evening board members superintendent cabinet Educators and members of our community my name is Emily castillia o and I am an bilingual instructional coach

026at Washington Elementary School and currently serve as the district Educators council's vice president tonight I stand before you not only as an advocate for over 750 passionate Educators and colleagues but also as a voice for the students and families who trust us every single day our educators are committed to this profession in ways that go beyond the classroom we show up prepare adapt and continue to pour everything we have into ensuring the success and well-being of our students and families even as we've worked without a contract since August 20th but tonight we're not just here to celebrate our commitment we're here to address the actions of this board and administration actions that contradict the very principles this Community Values courtesy professionalism dignity respect and humanization are Central to the thriving d65 Norms that this board

027and Administration expect all of us to follow so tonight I ask you directly how are you embodying these principles when school closings are on the horizon when educator pay is inaccurate and times delayed when our requests for guidance are met with silence when educators are asked every day to do more with fewer resources and the same pay I think the answer is clear you've asked us to show up for our students and families and we have but when it comes to building trust and stability in our schools your actions show anything but the courtesy professionalism dignity respect and humanization you claim to uphold I must also address the financial mismanagement we have seen from this board this mismanagement isn't just an issue of dollars and cents it's an issue of student services educator morale and

028the overall quality of Education in our district when Financial resources are mismanaged essential services for students whether it's social emotional support academic interventions or special education suffer moreover how can we expect to attract and retain the best in our profession when you fail to provide competitive wages and contract that reflects the realities of the work we do your decisions are driving away talented Educators who want to serve in this community and will continue to weaken our ability to meet the diverse needs of our students I ask you to reflect as board members and District leaders how are you upholding the thriving d65 ideals when your actions fracture communities erode trust and create division between leadership and those on the front lines of Education you've asked us to be patient to wait to continue our work

029despite the lack of a fair agreement and we have answered that call but make no mistake we are here tonight to elevate the voices of our more than 700 50 members who have been working without a contract for over two months we have shown up for our students for our families and for this community every single day let me remind you that our students learning conditions are our working conditions our students learning conditions by undervaluing us you directly impact every child's educational experiences in this District we will not be silent while our contributions are ignored and we will not accept the conditions you have requested that hinder both our work and our students success we will continue to stand together and demand what is right not just for us but for the children families and

030the entire District 65 community [Applause] um Kelly post okay uh so next we have Stephanie Ro and family K Tyler and wav Vasquez good evening board members superintendent and the Evon Community my name is Stephanie Rocher I'm the mother of Emanuel Rocher who is a Bessie rhods graduate and Xavier Rocher who is an eighth grader at Bessie Rose and also a three-year member of the superintendent student advisory committee if I were to describe to you the past two weeks of Our Lives it would be full of frustration anger hurt and sleepless nights all things that we would not have had to deal with without this decision when I spoke with my eighth grader he stated when I first heard about this decision to take out seventh and eth grade I felt betrayed by the board

031like they didn't care about us and that we were just nothing which seems to be a sentiment that others share in an article written by the Tribune it was stated by the district that these changes were administrative but this is not administrative for him and his friends this is his life this is a disservice to the parents and the children who attend Bessie roads there are administrators Who currently who have been recently hired Who currently work in this building that have credentials and are qualified to be in the classrooms with these children why was this not a solution that was thought of this teaching shortage is directly connected to the decisions of this Administration even with declining enrollment teaching staff loss somehow we finding the funds with no students and no teachers to build a

032brand new school this is the most important developmental age especially after being ripped apart during covid this is just another decision to further remove these children from their peers they've just gotten back to normal uprooting them now would be detrimental to their mental well-being it isn't just shortsighted it just feels cruel there are other solutions that could work and it's apparent that those Solutions were not visited based on some of my conversations thank you [Applause] my name is Kate Tyler and my son is Brooks Tyler in eighth grade at Bessie roads I have to say that what pains me most about the unfolding of the situation at Bessie rhods is the dissonance between who this Administration purports to be in terms of a champion of equity and inclusion and public stewards committed to transparency and

033engaging in open dialogue that was a quote from one of your um press releases and how you then turn around and outright bully the smallest most diverse and vulnerable population under under your care the announcement of the official closure of a school with hundreds of beautiful innocent trusting young people with no plan or concern whatsoever on how to maintain and ensure the continuity and quality of their education and leaving them in a hot bed of teacher job insecurity is shameful and completely irresponsible I would argue that the number one job of a school administration would be to make sure its children have teachers but after the gross mismanagement and the teacher flight that this Administration created at Bessie roads it doesn't appear to want to lift a finger to help correct the problems that it

034created I implore you all to take stock of that and how the situation was allowed to get to this point and let's be clear the situation is that we simply need three teachers a math teacher a science teacher and a Spanish teacher I don't call that a teacher shortage that I call a lack of effort shortage and because of the low value apparently placed on this population our pleas forg getting the teachers we need was met with annoyance we were mere flies buzzing around and instead of allocating the time attention discourse and necessary resources to hear us and help us you chose to attempt to squash us the erratic and unheard of solution to the problem was to kick my child out of his school separate him from his friends his teammates his teachers and

035everything he holds familiar in the middle of a critical informative year with less than 30 days notice with no choice no input or say whatsoever was hurtful disrespectful and dis disorienting especially especially in light of the fact that we were having conference calls with the administration's office about what was going on at the school and we're consistently told that we're working on something we can't share with you the details unleashing fear and anxiety and Chaos in the lives of the family in families involved but what's worse is that it was bullying and it was measured while the apology from the superintendent was appreciated and the admittance of the missteps redeeming everyone in this room knows that such missteps would never ever be allowed to take place at Haven like you have allowed at Bessie Roes

036the missteps were allowed because of the lack of value placed on this small predom black and brown School the one in your minds that can be pushed around and stricken through like a marker on a piece of paper with all that Bessie rhods has had to deal with and the short Runway that you had already set for the end of its existence we implore you to make this right we are pleading with you to fix this we are not just 40 or 50 Expendable families we stand with our neighbors our friends and neighbors and the other parents in all of District 65 who are watching and standing with us in solidarity take the time and effort to tap into all of the resources all the possible solutions that this district and city that has been

037built on Academia to refill these three these three teacher positions that we need to get our students back into their classrooms together so they can resume their learning and finish out their year with the normaly and dignity and quality of instructions that they deserve they deserve the best this district has to offer after all that you put them through you owe it to them thank [Applause] you hello good evening my name is Wana proud parent of three wonderful students who attend Bessie roads for the past eight years I have witnessed firsthand the growth and development of my children currently gr s Destiny 6 and fourth to stay I apologize today I stand before you to speak on behalf of my kids regarding the decision to close the seventh and eth grades and the profound impact

038that it has had on our family I want to share two words of two courageous leaders who faced these critical moments in history and took a stand against decisions that were made for them in 1964 before the Civil Rights Act was passed a brave woman named Rosa Parks was demanded to give a her seat she famously said the time had just come when I've been pushed as I could to stand to be pushed I had decided that I will have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen Rosa Park's refusal to move inspired movement for equality and her determination resizes with us today similarly in 19 in 1857 Benito huarez a Mexican educator and lawyer who fought for the rights of the Common People declare which

039translates to he who does not hope to win is already defeated his word reminds us that we must stand firm and fight for what is right especially when it comes to the children to our children's education as parents teachers and community members We Gather here to boys or refusal to be silent in the words of my daughter Destiny I refuse to move say aloud I refuse to move if all seventh grader and eighth graders can stand up we refuse to [Applause] move we will not budge we will not accept a decision that undermat the future of our children together we will advocate for their rights their education and their future we refuse to leave thank [Applause] you next we have Helen Alvarado Juan Chavez Jacqueline Mendoza I'm just going to say it in spanishs I

040don't think it's fair for my child to be moved in the middle of the school year I actually we refuse for him to move down from Bessie Rose and we would like for him to finish 8ighth grade save our school save our school thank you [Applause] good evening board my name is Jack lenda and I think for me the reason I'm up up here is that I want to speak on what it's like to live in a place where your school board does not care about you and where your teachers are underpaid I grew up in Tennessee and their school system where nobody cared about the black and brown children and this exactly what you're doing right here I brought my son here here thinking that this board this city was going to treat us

041differently and now I'm starting to realize did I make a mistake to move from a state that was already treating us this way and put my child in the school system who has special needs put him in the school system where you guys are consistently apologizing for your not intentions okay you are hurting our children you're hurting our community and you're creating divide I think Evanston has come a long way where the black brown and white Community has tried to create a community where we can work together and you doing this is showing that that does not live in your hearts right and like a parent just said you would never do this to Haven I can tell you that the white schools in my community were never harmed they had the best books they

042had the best teachers they had the best equipment they had the best everything but my school that I went went to had the broken books had the broken teachers it had the broken parents you have no idea what this creates cuz you're looking at it I can tell you that when I graduated school I felt like I was not important because that's the way our school board made me feel is that what you want for our children for them to feel like they're not important that they don't matter I hope your answer is no but your non intentions are saying a very loud yes I really really hope you guys do the right thing for our students for our parents and for our teachers do not let them suffer what I suffered and what I

043ran away from in Tennessee do not let this become what I ran away from because I do not want want to have to think that Tennessee is better than Evanston thank [Applause] you next we have Gabe annaya Ida Costa and Dr Francis aario my name is Gabriel Anaya I want to speak a couple of things I want to say right here uh to Tamara michell the district's new CFO you have been in the role for over three months now this is as much time as you get to review and clean the balance sheet in the private sector after that the problem is yours I recommend demanding a forensic audit of the District 65 finances for The Last 5 Years including including a review of expenses approval of contracts and hiring practices Dr Turner when you

044were hire superintendent I wanted to give you the benefit of Doubt despite the fact that the Chicago Public School System have placed you on the do not hire list two things have made me lose my confidence in you the decision to close Bessy roads and the way you handle the message of the seven and eight great kids of Bessy roads this proves to me a lack of empathy toward the kids and parents of the community that you serve you're a bully and unfit for this role to the board the negligence of how the finances have been managed and approve is disgusting some of you were already on the board and vote Yes on the approve of the fifth world school when the finances were already grossly mismanaged Sergio you were part of that board and

045now as president I make you responsible for the current situation of the district finances I don't even know where to start on this charade in the past I have tried to explain to you with facts and figures which you didn't listen let me explain you with a different analogy now the house is on fire and you're talking about remodeling the kitchen okay that's it I don't know how to follow that that's a truth tell right there good evening Costa my name is aosta I'm a proud parent of a child at Betsy roads and I got to start by saying you know um I don't know how you go from having a room a city of angry this just disheartened parents angry teachers outside your building and still talk about building a bridge I think but

046I mean parent um Gabrielle just said it best the house is on fire and you want to build remodel a kitchen that's the best metaphor thank you for that so let me share a little bit of um what is happening with our children early adolescence ages 11 through 14 since this was not considered provides a very small window of opportunity to brain development none of this was told to us right in a report by the University of Chicago to and through project at this stage students begin to distinguish their s of e between effort and ability that is a growth mindset and it is a critical time for self-discovery as students work to Define who they are in the place of this world a sense of belonging is critical and Aid your disruption halts their

047experience halts their development it is an understatement to assert that the recent decisions to upend the seventh and eighth graders at Bessie roads is a complete failure and lack of Competency on behalf of this leadership it centered adult Comfort over the needs of children adolescence is the second most critical time for brain development outside of child um childhood we should be concerned about what a midyear disruption means for the students AB besty roads what is this board going to mitigate how will this board mitigate the socio emotional harm done caused by your decision as a midyear transfer psychology psychology research has confirmed that disruptions in teenage years can be harmful it can also lead to self-medication self-medication as a mechanism to avoid feeling pain disconnect loneliness this decision is harmful cruel irresponsible the only option

048that is in the best interest of students is that they remain at their school and there's a lot more that I have to say but I'm going to have to synthesize of the lack of communication to Spanish speaking families it is non-existent that email that you sent on October 24th didn't even go to the majority of families and especially not the Spanish-speaking families I had to send them that email I wasn't going to translate that is unacceptable but I did trans for them now you have you know you start by doing a land a land acknowledgement will Center yourself in an indigenous people epistemology that centers a seven generation seven generation principle what you decide today defines Seven Generations ahead what you decide today defines Seven Generations ahead now our teachers told us how they

049show up it is time that you show up by stepping down um thank you aay I'm francisa paricio and I am not a parent of any student at Bessie roads I have I live across the street from shur Street I am a retired Professor from Northwestern I directed the Latino studies program there for eight years and I am here as an ally and in solidarity with the Bessie rhs families I directed the Latino studies program at Northwestern for eight years and most of that time what I remember doing besides teaching and research excuse me it was spending hours with administrators and Deans educating them on our communities our needs and our interests the underfunding for Latino studies program was stand Ed across the country and it was something that structurally we have always had to

050struggle against and the same disregard for the needs of Latino studies at Northwestern and in many colleges um and for the needs of the Latino Community is what I'm witnessing here with d65 and Bessie roads I have uh supported the the parents anecdotally talking to them in informal conversations and all of that but today I decided to show up to the March because I was totally totally embarrassed by the city and your your board decision to remove the seventh and the eighth graders Latinos in Evon have been disrespected they have been perceived as passive and unimportant just like a republican rally yesterday Puerto Rico was dis parish as an island of garbage right and this is how our families and our children are being abused today by all of you you and this is I'm

051not going to talk about white supremacy but I hope that you all know what you're at this wor I mean to me this is like such an egregious example of Evon education in Evanston a city that has so so many Highly Educated people including all of you and why are you making these decisions in such horrible horrible ways this is an embarrassment to all of us and I just want to say that Bessie roads is a jewel it's a model School across not only Illinois but across the country any dual immersion program that has such a wonderful diversity of community and families is an to be an example and a model for the rest of of uh of the country dual immersion programs are the best model in bilingual education across the country and I

052don't understand why this model school is being dismantled when other school buildings with white community ities that are under enrolled are not being affected so who is making these disastrous decisions that displaces seventh and eighth graders in the middle of the school year you all should be removed for the utter lack of professionalism you have shown in working with Bessie Road families and I just want to finish by saying that I think the parents who have spoken already show that we come from a very long history of activism and political activism and struggle and we were not going to give up thank you next we have Amanda M Macky Carly white Noel sheney and jesis Webster good evening my name is Carly white and I've been at Betsy roads since I was in kindergarten and

053I'm now in eighth grade and I find this truly heartbreaking that I've made a beautiful longlasting friendships and connections with my peers and teachers and we might not see each other again until High School my name is Genesis I've been here since kindergarten aswell and I think it's outrageous that we are getting kicked out of our own school and on top of that we don't get to choose the school that we want to go to we have all been friends for a long time and now we are getting separated against our will my name is Amanda Mackey and I'm in eighth grade and I think it's unfair and heartbreaking that seventh and eighth grade at bie road is closing because how are y'all going to make a decision where us as students have to leave

054a school then think we're just going to be fine and when we go to these new schools we're going to have a smooth transition when really we're not I don't think that this thing is organized I think it's really messy and in the meantime y'all are building a whole another school when y'all can't even hire three new teachers to teach us which is crazy to me and then and then they're not going to be teaching us they're just going to be sitting in a quiet classroom and not teaching nobody when we're if we even leave so that's just going to make them to quit probably and then I feel bad for the teachers that have to go through this and they can't speak amongst themselves because they can't and when I go to school I

055think of how hard this could be on them and I feel bad that they have to go through this and they can't speak amongst themselves therefore I think Bessie Ro should not close because yall are ruining these strong friendships that we have amongst each other thank you [Applause] hello my name is Noel Tam jany um I am an eighth grade student at Dr Bessie RS and I think it's heartbreaking that we have to look at a piece of paper and pencil knowing that we have to leave our Childhood school I feel betrayed in knowing that y'all are not letting us graduate from our school after promising that we will be able to it's very sad separating from my childhood friends and go to a school I am not familiar with this is a situation that

056is not easy to let go of and um and being an African-American in this school system is already hard enough and adding on this decision is already is [Applause] adding next we have um Russell Ferguson Ashley Jackson Spencer Stern and Joel sternstein hi I'm a parent of a kid that go to best Rose my daughter is in 8th grade and I feel like the decision that you guys are making is very unfair and it's how you guys went about making a decision you guys did not involve the kids the parent and obviously the teachers and I think you guys should go back to the drawing board and figure this thing out cuz my child is not going anywhere because I feel like at the end of the day there is Teachers out there that's retired

057that would not mind coming in and fill in the gap for these eight year um eight graders so you guys just figure it out you guys keep apologizing for making these decision and it's unacceptable [Applause] I guess we're back from summer break my name is Ashley Jackson I'm a parot at buy roads and I wanted to read portions of the oath that board members are required to take when they step into their position um you can go find it yourself it's in the Illinois statute um um I'm just going to read a few um the first and I think one of the most important is I Shall Serve as education's key Advocate on behalf of students and our community schools to advance the vision inert name of school district you have failed us this leadership

058has failed this District when you talk to parents from places like the city where they're going through their own issues they talk about Evanson and they're like but you guys have it just as bad you have brought us to the bottom of the barrel if any of us in this building if any of the teachers in this building performed at the level that you have performed you would fire them so to reiterate to reiterate a fellow parent Step Up by stepping down I encourage each and every one of the community members to to call for the firing of the superintendent to ask the board President and Vice President to resign and to take back our school district thank [Applause] you Spencer Stern good evening that's a tough one to follow um my name is Spencer

059Stern I have an eighth grader at Haven um thank you AB board and superintendent for giving me the opportunity to speak this evening I first want to acknowledge the uh situation of the teachers working without a contract we support you as well as the situation that the Bessie roads parents are going through I support you also I wanted to speak about the hiring of a consultant to make recommendations on which staff to Fire and which schools to close I'm really confused as to why the district might to hire a consultant with money we don't have as it appears the primary reason is to Outsource the responsibility for your poor decision-making all the consultant is going to do is review all the excellent data that the administration and Mr gry have already collected and make recommendations

060the board has been aware of the financial problems for years and instead of being accountable in making the decision yourself on who to fire you will conveniently hire a consultant say well we really don't want to fire you or close your school but the consultant recommended we did it my suggestion is that the school board and tenured Administration staff such as Dr bearley Who was here should actually decide which people to fire as your actions are direct cause of their dismissal your actions such as fraudulently pushing through a new school when no public no majority Public School support was present your backdoor hiring of corrupt activist and DR Horton who orchestrated the fifth W Financial Fiasco and revising the curriculum to implement elements that don't resonate with appearance looking for a new school district in

061a previous board meeting Miss lindsy Ryan stated to the effect that it's difficult to fire friends well today that's the reality I've had to fire friends and I've been fired by a friend that's how things work in the real world you guys mess this up so Step Up be accountable decide who must be dismissed and then conduct the dismissal interview Switching gears please accept and own the reality that the school population in District 65 the drop in it is due to your actions according to the Brookings institution the drop of 15% in this district is more than triple the national average for urban areas and more than five times the decrease in Suburban areas d65 is an anomaly when it comes to population decline again parents are intentionally avoiding putting their children into d65 or

062deciding not to move to Evon because of it this is not a mic macro issue this is a d65 issue you failed the parents you didn't listen to us and now we have a product that parents of perspective students are telling you they're not interested in the last thing I want to say and I'm not meaning to call out Miss Lindsey Ryan again but you stated in the previous board meeting that this slower growth of student population was actually predicted in 2014 so assuming that's accurate why did you approve a new school when you had the data that the birth rates were declining it's really confusing to me and I'm sure to others in the room what went into that decision thank [Applause] you my name is Joel sternstein and I yield my time to

063Spencer Stern thank you Joel you get to hear from me twice now okay this time I want to talk about standards based grading um I first got engaged with standard based grading about 18 months ago when I heard about it through one of the PTA newsletters I engaged Dr Beardsley directly in this through emails through conversations through a zoom meeting to better understand what SBG was all about I got a feeling that the district was going to move forward with this uh I made it clear that I was against SBG but I felt like I wasn't going to be listened to so imagine my surprise several months later when I got contacted by David wart to I a math teacher in District 65 who was cheering a parent advisory committee on SBG I immediately signed

064up I thought wow this is great I'm getting engaged by the district I invested more than 25 hours in in-person meetings researching SPG watching videos talking to people about this uh we came up with a bunch of recommendations which included totally deferring this um um as well as making sure that the current eighth graders do not get involved with this because they get two years with traditional grading and then you put them on standards based grading and guess what next year they're at eths which is traditional base grading that's Whiplash on our eighth graders we put together a bunch of recommendations none of which were were followed SBG moved forward my eighth grader came home was super confused on how to uh how to interpret this how to understand it he also said that his

065friends who were much more in academically inclined than my son still struggled with it but you know what it even got worse during the parent teacher conferences at Haven multiple teachers said to me that they don't understand SBG so if they don't understand it how are kids supposed to understand it what when when I found that out it was incredibly disheartening to me because I realized that this parent committee that I was on was just window dressing there was no intent to use any of the recommendations that we came forward with the administr patient said we're doing SVG and they plowed forward and they said well yeah we talked to the parents we had a committee put together but you didn't listen to any of the recommendations it's just like the Bessie Road situation you

066jump into something without thinking through things um personally um I don't know if it's too late but all I know is that my eighth grader and other eighth graders at Haven and I'm sure at the other schools too are experiencing significant Whiplash for two straight years they've had traditional BAS Bas grading they go to SBG they go to eths which the majority of them will and they're back on the traditional base grading there is no longitudinal study out there that says that SBG leads to higher test scores or will get kids into you know better universities or correlates with higher um college or um High School academic uh performance um my suggestion is to stop SVG immediately the roll out was awful if the teachers don't understand it the grades aren't going to mean anything

067because they don't know how to implement it I would strongly urge you to roll it back or at a minimum roll it back for the eighth graders thank [Applause] you that concludes the list of speakers that signed up to for tonight all right thank you public for engaging us and the next item up is our approval of the meeting agenda I move that the board approve today's meeting agenda as presented second Salem yes wils yes Pim yes Ryan yes Hernandez yes so the next item up is our Bessie roads Global Studies du language updates oh sorry seventh and eth grade oh sorry seventh and eighth grade support so if you're Bessie Road parent we are going to be showing a president presentation of how we move forward with the seventh and eighth grade piece so

068and how we're going to engage folks so you want to stick around for that um Sergio I believe there's someone who uh signed up to speak or would like to make a comment okay okay we have one more uh come onp I know they uh wrote my name down so I apologize um my name is Ryan Garten I'm not an educator I have had past kids in d65 with Miss pace and miss mcandrew and some fantastic teachers back in the day and I'm before you today because I'm just fundamentally embarrassed about what is going on um as the credentials I know how to run a large budget I ran a $400 million budget for United Airlines and ran the restructuring of United Airlines out of bankruptcy protection I read the budget quickly because I run

069a full-time business on you know I have a career like everybody else and I found 5.5 million dollars that I could shave like that that wouldn't touch a single one of them so I'm embarrassed about the arrogance of this board and the financial mismanagement that's going on there's been a call in the back the gentleman with a very Dapper dress and glasses and fancy hair um he said that you know the the the kitchen is being remodeled and the house is on fire I'd say it's more than that we've got all of the houses are on fire and we're building a new one that doesn't make any sense doesn't make any sense as we would say in Nebraska that dog doesn't hunt the last comment I'm going to make is just again about arrogance I

070read the minutes from the couple of the last board meetings and you all dared a citizen to come back and complain who's who's posting these Facebook complaints who's pasting this and who's complaining about that you're looking at him I'm embarrassed by you and I'm not alone and if you won't stand down or resign then we're going to vote you out [Applause] so the next piece is the I know we're getting our presentation ready for the seventh and eth grade besie roads discussion support we're having just a little trouble mirroring sorry for the technical difficulties folks can one of yall conect spe we is that you Melissa oh that's you thanks thanks B can you go to the first slide so I just want to start by really kind of just taking us through a timeline

071of how we got here can you click to the next one please oh this one's not on go back for me SP it's on now click to the next one so I just want to talk a little bit about the timeline and want to just really say the decision to move the S eth grade monolingual students is really due to the residue of a decision that was made in 2017 and so I just really want to name that in 2017 the decision was made to make Betsy roads a wall to--all twe dual language school and when that decision was was made several things were not into play one while there had been many attempts to build a foster school there was no Foster school that the decision to be made was built at that time

072coupled with the fact that we also did not anticipate that we were going to a pandemic in 2022 the board decided the approval of the construction of the new Foster school and as a result we came back the winter of 2024 and had to redesign that school when that decision in 2022 was made the original intent and design of that school was made to design a K8 school and as a result due to the fact that a budget was provided for $40 million to build a Ka school when I stepped into this role the price tag had quickly escalated to $65 million I had to come back to the board and say there's no way we can build a $65 million school at that point the board made a decision ision and approved the redesign

073to a K5 school and and in Spring 2024 which just passed the board made a determination to close Betsy roads and we expanded the Dual language program there I want to name one of our big factors is enrollment has continued to drop in this District about 10 years ago we had 7900 about 7900 students in 2018 and you'll see our year-to dat we have 6,100 students in addition to this District runs and operates $180 million budget in which 80% of our budget is people and so as the enrollment continued to decline there was no consideration thought about how to also align the Staffing model here to support I want to name that when we started the school year off this year we started off the school year with one vacancy at Betsy rad to support

074our students and as a result it has been a challenge trying to staff the students at staff teachers and Educators at Betsy roads can you click to the next slide please and so as a result this is the reality of where Betsy roads and our staff and challenges are right now so our current open educator positions we have four open educator positions um available and while we have teachers teaching specific courses there are are some groups of students who are not being able to be serviced as a result because they are filling in the Gap in spaces where we we can't get subs on average daily we have about 109 vacancies requiring guest Educators to feel daily at Betsy Rose and we only have about a 42% fi rate right now our current enrollment for

075both seven grade is n 19 students and eighth grade is 23 students so again when the decision was made to move children seventh and eighth grade from the monolingual program that decision was made to ensure several things one that students would be able to move to their neighborhood schools and be able to receive high quality instruction from highly qualified Educators who are licensed by the state of Illinois and so that's where that decision was made I stated earlier that there were several missteps on our end as a district because we could have done a better job engaging stakeholders and and I own as a leader of this District that that was a mistake click to the next slide please so here's our why I just raised that to you I received emails from families very

076irate and upset from Betsy Rose stating that they it it was a shame that we didn't not have um certified Educators to teach their children it was unex acceptable and so as a result my team and I kicked into action because we agreed that that was unacceptable and when we kicked into action we created an opportunity that again as I stated before would allow students to be able to receive a high quality education as a result our mistake was that we should have engaged the stakeholders who were most impacted in this process and we did not do that because time was of of the the essence for us and I know as much as I model as slow as we must this this situation itself could have been handled better with care and I own

077that click to the next slide please and so in making that decision we also prepared to make sure that we set up the necessary seal supports to be able to support students as they transition to those schools and so we have tonight those Middle School um leaders who are here who are present who have been working to set up and ensure that their environments are conducive and ready to receive those those Betsy Road seventh and eighth grade monolingual students can you transition to the next slide so where are we now go back one more so I heard I received the emails I received the calls I've saw all of the social media we we listen and my team went back to the table and we're now pivoting with a more intentional reflective and collaborative process

078process that should have been taken into consideration on the front end and I own that click to the next slide please and so with that being said we have gone back to the table and there are several options on the table the first option on the table right now is the option as it currently stands which we refer to as option A it's our seventh and eighth grade students return to the attendance area home school which is the current plan that we have already communicate out hence why we have talked to parents and and couldn't give more information because we were still trying to work through coming up with some additional options option b would allow the seven eth grade students to remain at Betsy roads under a modified Staffing model and this Staffing model

079we we can we can talk about the benefits in the drawback drawbacks on the next slide but I won't go into detail I'll just give this high level right now now option C was really the seventh and eighth grade students transition to King Arts it's not ideal because we're still moving students out of Betsy roads but it would allow those students to travel together as a seven eighth grade cohort to two King arts and then the last option option D would allow seventh grade to to move to their neighborhood school or King arts and allow eighth grade to remain at Betsy Rose or moved to King Arts as a cohort again these are all options and I want to be clear there's no perfect option all of these options have situations that aren't the greatest

080and aren't the best like we recognize that but these are the options that we came up with after hearing the feedback that have been shared with me and my team can you click to the next please so here's what option a option A the benefits to option A students will be able to receive as I stated before consistent high quality instruction from District staff who were hired in their current roles uh principle burel and AP Atrium will have additional time to focus on their administrative responsibilities because I just want to name those two administrators at Betsy roads right now in addition to being administrators at that school they also have full-time teaching loads the drawbacks to this this model is this option is that students will not be able to finish the school year with

081their peers and staff who have come to know love and and Trust the consideration around the mental health impact on students is a draw back and then the Betsy rad Community is impacted in a major way further eroding the trust we know that is is some of the the benefits and drawbacks to option a option b the benefits to this is students would be able to remain at Betsy roads and students would receive education from certified Educators who are familiar with the d65 curriculum again this model will be leveraging some of our current J staff to be able to go over to teach some of them but here's the drawbacks the instructional and curricular support that we provide across this district will be limited or will will come to AR rest for the the other

082schools in District 65 and that means that content facilitators content directors and facilitators would serve in a similar capacity to college professors essentially coming in and out teaching a class and then leaving to work on their District based duties after being taught in that class here's what I also want to name as a as as a drawback with option b it puts a Band-Aid this year on the problem and allow for students to have access to teaching but it puts us in this same situation again when those seventh graders those students who are currently in seventh grade go to eth grade again next year with the challenges of trying to hire staff for this particular school so I just want to name that publicly with option b well option C the benefits to option C

083this would 7 eth grade students transition collectively as a cohort to King Arts the benefits is that Betsy Rose students will remain together as a whole group at one Loc ation and the students remain in a small school setting with the same start and end times Ka setting what they are what they are similar to in terms of Betsy roads the drawbacks to this is this would have cultural and and scheduling implications on King Arts particularly for the seventh and eighth grade students in staff changing schools will still have an impact on Betsy Rose students in a new building with new staff and then World Language is not provided at King Arts so Betsy Rose students in seventh e8th grade may not have access to World Language Mandarin or Spanish class again all of these

084options there are gaps and holes they're not 100% perfect option D the seventh grade students move to their neighborhood school or King Arts while the eighth grade students remain at Betsy Rose or moved to King Arts as a cohort the students in seventh grade would have a full year and a half at their new school to make new friends and build new relationships as they Advance towards 8ighth grade graduation and high school students in eighth grade will be able to remain together at Betsy roads and will graduate together at the end of the school year the drawbacks to this option is that one grade would remain and one would leave which may feel additionally unfair to seven graders social emotional learning and supports will be left to the current social worker and Betsy Ro is

085currently down a counseling position here's what the next steps are we sent out Communications to the seven eighth grade families who are impacted by this our NE we have a follow-up meeting tomorrow these options we want to put in front of our seventh and eighth grade monolingual families at Betsy roads and we want to hear their feedback in a small setting the parents and Caregivers for those students at Betsy roads and we will continue this graph shows all of the stakeholders that we have engaged in this process with and we want to make sure tomorrow that we share all of that feedback in terms of pros and implications to each of those options to our 7th eth grade monolingual parents and caregivers to also get your feedback and to determine what is the best option

086for the students at Betsy Rose in the 7 eth grade monolingual program again the final decision once we engage in with those two stakeholder groups our goal is to then analyze the data from all of those stakeholder groups and make a final decision that will be communicated by the end of the week thank you thank you for that Dr Turner and for the plan that your team came up with to engage seventh and eighth grade families colleagues any questions or comments regarding these options or plans um I guess maybe just for the sake of clarity we could go over the Staffing shortages because you said we started off the year with one educator down and then now we're currently at four Educators down yeah sharmika do you want to tap in on on sharmika or

087Dr speth Dr mccoya Dr speith yes so we started off with a math and science vacancy and this is just for Middle School this is not speaking to the entire school when we speak to the entire school it was more about four to five positions throughout the entire building um so specific to Middle School it was a math science position that was vacant um right before what really shifted the need to make a different decision was when we had a resignation that particular team member was covering SLA which is our Spanish language arts she was covering social studies or social science in addition to World Language so she was covering about three different preps one of the things that our Middle School teachers did do is they stepped in and they really picked up a

088lot of different roles um just to try to make it work but as we've shared it's not ideal and it's not something um that we would prefer principal berel was covering um the math and science position when we received the resignation then um AP Anum graph went in and started covering the social science no I'm sorry the world language in Spanish and one of the other teachers picked up working with the social science and so it's technically about five to eight positions overall and current currently a par professional is covering seventh and eth grade science which to that and now we couldn't hear you but what what Dr speth said was currently we have a pair of professional that's covering seventh and eighth grade science I want to also name the pair professional also covered

089a class last year when there were were were staffing issues and technically it has been brought up several times that is a conflict of that person's bargaining unit as it relates to compensation for that staff member taking taking those classes we've had several meetings last year with the leader of their bargaining unit and it continues to be a problem this year with that person having to sub in that capacity again this year and that also puts pressure on IES services for students who need it as I understanded that was in the notes as well yes so um so I just wanted to get a little bit more detail on the on the staffing issues yeah and I can go down and name them um in addition we also have fifth grade which was set to

090be two sections we've condensed that to be one section due to a not being able to fill one of the fifth grade positions we have a sixth grade vacancy which is now being covered in a singular class by Mr Young who's covering all of the courses for sixth grade dual language we have a seventh and eighth grade World Language Spanish vacancy which is now being covered by AP Anum graph we have a seventh and e8th grade monolingual science vacancy which is being covered by the par professional we have a seventh and eighth grade monolingual math science vacancy which is being covered by principal burkel so it's not as simple it's three staff members yeah um so in terms of in terms of trying to recruit for these positions um I know it's been difficult and

091there's additional I mean there's a teacher shortage overall but then trying to staff Middle School is difficult and then trying to staff Bessie roads in particular is difficult yes right and part of it is is when you get to Middle School it's concentrated so Middle School operate very much like High School in the sense that you have to have the certification for the content area that you teach and so to find those positions are very difficult I think the misconception out on the table is that the district has not been trying to hire um for these positions and and that's a true misconception because we have been trying to hire for those positions if that makes any sense yes several candidates have been brought forth um sometimes they do not accept the offer because they

092want a higher rate of pay or they don't have the necessary credentials um so there have been multiple I heard a parent earlier say that in speaking with us they heard that there were multiple things being done that could not be shared because they all impacted different staff members and a lot of it was there were there was a continual um effort and principal burkel did a phenomenal job finding different candidates but we were not able to bring them on board due to different reasons um in addition to that we even looked at um using our involuntary transfer and that also was not um did not farewell and principal burill is here if you want to come up principal burill and add any context cuz we don't want to speak on your behalf we want

093to make sure that the challenges that you face every day as the leader of that school um we want to make sure it's it's heard and we hear your perspective well I I will second um what Dr McCoy um said there were various things in try from since February um there are different reasons why candidates don't accept the position some of the reasons are evolved around the political situation that you know when a candidate goes to apply they can't help when they go on the internet and pull up all the things around it so some of the candidates candidates will choose a another school within the district um if they're offered their position in voluntary transfers will also uh try um multilingual Department also um supported um finding candidates so yes it has been a

094challenge even though the staff the current staff has been um you know quite Valiant in and flexible in taking on things above and beyond what the contract requires them to do thank you yeah I guess my concern is about what you said Dr Turner about what happens next year right even if we can kind of stabilize for this year so I think those those are kind of the things that are weighing on me um as we think about these options thank you thanks principal burkill I also want to make make note that we do have Middle School principls here so we have the principal I believe um Miss Callaway is still is Callaway still here so we have Miss Callaway for King guyss can you come up Callaway please we also have uh both the

095principal and assistant principal from Nicholls we have I believe the principal from shoot I see Mack is here and we also have the principal for from Haven because I think the misconception sometimes is that these School leaders and their teams aren't make aren't working to ensure that um we're preparing the environment to receive students if that is the direction in which we want to go and so they have been working extremely hard to provide those those supports and and make sure that those supports are in place but they have also been really working really hard of really helping their staff to understand what this could potentially mean um as an option for for the district are there any questions for any of these leaders I mean let's uh yes if have a king Arts question

096no no uh like so I think we need to probably go through the options again so C and clearly have a significant impact on King Arts so I think hearing from you about what what that means for your staff what that means for your student Community like what what's possible is important yeah I think um we are definitely happy to tag in and welcome any and all students who are interested um and who and being slated for attending King Arts I think there are definitely implications in terms of Staffing we ourselves have been short a math teacher and an interventionist since the beginning of the school year we've reworked some staff and and had to do some seventh period stiens in order to fill those positions and kind of get creative with how we are

097providing our current students um access to highly qualified instructors so we would get creative um we would probably need some more seventh period stiens we definitely would need a resource teacher we would probably need to allocate some additional um clinician um minutes of service across the board but um the team has been working closely to create U like a potential Shadow plan buddy systems rework some of the class schedules just like thinking through the options CND and what all of those variables would be so the team is eager and ready um but there are definitely some implications for what that could mean in in terms of providing complete service for all students just for scope how many students do you have currently in seventh and eighth grade uh we have 41 sth graders and um

09857 eighth graders I might need to we're small we had we it' be like adding like another third like yep of students grade we have the space that's for sure another okay folks have other questions on and then if I'm sorry if we could I just want to just get the details of some of these options out just for for the community to learn about them a little more too um with option b um the idea of content facilitators and directors kind of coming into the school just for teaching those um subjects right um and they're famili amiliar with the curriculum but they haven't have they taught recently or the content the facilitators and directors uh well they they spent a lot of time going in with with the implementation of new instructional resources they

099go in and actually model and co- te and co- plan so I don't are you the only one here uh David for Content facilitators can they yeah let me just and any of the content facilitators and so they feel in all the time they're in classes I think when we met with one stakeholder group they talked about how having them to teach those classes will impact them being able to support and continue to co- te and co- collaborate and co- plan with other teachers across the district and so to your to your point of are they still teaching yeah because they go in and work alongside Educators all the time right how much of their time would be spent under option b in doing their current responsibilities versus teaching and Bessie roles we estimated about

100three probably half a day because if you it's not just going in in teaching but it's also lesson planning and it's grading and things like that what wouldn't happen is all the other things that teachers do field trips lunchroom supervision greeting the kids in the morning greeting the kids in the afternoon they go in they teach a content and then they leave and so the kids get the content but it's not the wraparound teaching that every educator in the classroom provides yeah that makes sense so I think as we evaluate these choices and and I just want to name uh I was in four schools in six years between sixth grade and 10th grade so I'm really wanting to be mindful of the disruption and to think about I think we have four different metrics

101we have to think about the disruption to students versus the disruption to adults and I'm in favor of having less disruption to students and more disruption to adults um but also short-term and long-term disruption um and so as you look at these options they you know they have a different impact on students versus adults and then you have the the short-term versus longterm I think option b has a lot less disruption for students in the short term might might um my concern is and and you know what we have to be in constant conversation about is that this is a plan based on how we can pull it all together with the current metrics um and those metrics may change right and so to your point like this may not be something if we lost

102ex I don't know what the numbers are but let's say we lost three more teachers for the next school year or we lost 20 more students for the next school year like that math might not be possible because as Dr McCoy was talking about like there's already a lot of folks covering stuff they don't normally cover and that that's great like that again I'm comfortable with the disruption being for adults wherever possible but I want to be very clear that like if that were to be the option we would go for you know we really can't guarantee that it can be maintained if the facts change right and then so that you know like I'm comfortable from us hearing from parents tomorrow and trying to you know determine what the right solution is but I

103I do want to name that of like this what we might want to get eighth graders across the line for this year and what might be the the evaluation of what works for next year we might say at the end of this year and I'm saying we and like parents might say at the end of this year like that was that was too much uh instability by having all of these people coming in out we we would rather for eth grade do X right so I just I I think that if we're whatever this decision is it's it's a the goal is to be a long-term decision but the challenge is that the variables may change and I would assume I'm going to kick it back to the best your owns principle right like that

104what happens with B for you if you lose more Educators like how how possible is that to sustain I think at the moment I'm thinking about educating the students for this year there's too many other variables uh for me to wrap my mind around for the for the future I will have to also say this is a little bit difficult for me because I used to be a Content facilitator and I was deployed in schools for the two years that I served I think we just need to understand for the central office administrators who are put in that position that the expectation for them to do their districtwide job needs to be adjusted um I do think there are other things to keep in mind teaching the content is one thing but also Staffing to

105have the right ratio of adults to students uh in transitions when they come in Home Room uh when they leave when someone calls in sick also needs to be attended to um because the person coming in to teach doesn't plan on staying there all day so I think that would also have to I think that would also have to be um um looked at yeah those are all really important things to consider and I don't think I'd even been thinking about that um just having the coverage throughout the day um and I agree like we really need to name and just make sure everyone understands that option b is an experiment and you know we can't promise how well that would work out or what implications would arise I mean we can think through it

106to the best of our ability but I don't know to my knowledge we've never done anything like this on this scale before and so we would all sort of be hoping for the best and planning as much as we can but knowing that we are not going to be able to see everything that might arise with that option because it is an experiment um so I think we have to expect some additional instability or possibly changes um if we consider that route if I may add um just a detail for the variable at King Arts um my eighth grade is actually a class of 39 students so and we certainly want to make sure that if if C or D were the options that our our students with individualized plans get all their minutes and

107we have the Staffing to make sure that their needs are met and that that would I think my understanding is that the percentage of students at King arts and best roads together would be a lot to deliver those services but I think particularly in seventh grade more so than eighth grade but yeah thank you and I I think you know we we want to be open to around you know the fact that because there have been some parents who have reached out to us who have said they want to return their children back to their neighborhood school and in my mind I think still affording them that opportunity still exists so in my mind a kind of bleeds through all of if if parents want that option we're here and ready committed to the district

108to be a to provide that because that's that's what they ask for but I think next steps for us is again spending time with our seven eighth grade parent and caregivers tomorrow walking through each of these options them having the ability in smaller groups to kind of discuss what they understand the pros and implications and kind of see that see this built out a little bit more um to provide them that information and then our goal is to get and hear from them the option that they um would like to land on in those respective groups knowing that families may choose something different than what's determined and knowing that staff may change again correct Dr Turner is it okay if I add some details around option A yes although it is the most disruptive to

109students um and does have a significant impact when it comes to social emotional needs um the team and the other middle schools have done a phenomenal job being very supportive and working together on the transition plans that would potentially put be put in place um our schools specifically Haven and chot have the largest number of students when it comes to home schools and the planning around those the teams have looked at how to Cluster those students together so they would still be in classes with one another they would not be separated also some of our um teachers who previously were at roads would be have already reached out and asked for those students to be placed in their classes if appropriate based off the students academic needs so they would also be educated by other

110um teachers who they are familiar with from their time at roads we've also worked with the social workers and the counselors to and the facely aison to set up time where they could uh connect with the students not just while they're at roads but also when if they were to transition to the other school so that they would have an opportunity to continue to connect and receive the social emotional support that they need um not just in the most immediate time but throughout the remainder of the year and then also setting up the Shadow Days for them to see the other schools because they haven't necessarily had that experience yet so they would have an opportunity to go over to the other schools meet the teachers meet um buddy students similar to what um principal

111Callaway just described and then also be able to have an opportunity for the parents to come and meet the other principles do meet and greets and things of that nature so there are a lot of things in place should option A be something that families choose um or if that is the final decision it's feels like a rush thing but it does have a lot of detail to it and a lot of support behind it when it comes to what the other schools are ready to do to support the student students um Inc coming over um one other piece to add that just completely slipped my mind so I think I should stop there I'll fill in and You' stop me if I if you get it so I think what I'm understanding for option

112A is that the long-term disruption is probably less because I want to talk about I guess I should add another metric the disruption for students from Bessie roads and the disruption for students wherever they're going right so with the numbers at King Arts there's going to be more disruption because it's a smaller population at at the neighborhood schools there might be more of an ability to absorb those students and not have as significant impact on that school Community um and have more Staffing to support the needs of the Bessie Road students as they go so in terms of like the longtime stabilizing factor of not having to deal with well what happens when the next staff member quits or three staff members quit or what happens next year like that the long-term disruption is better

113an option but the short-term disruption is is significant and I think we you know um I think as parents discuss tomorrow we're really going Eyes Wide Open into that conversation to think about what is best for their child and knowing that not everybody in the community is going to necessarily want to make the same decision for their child but to to be aware of like this to to your point be is a bit of an experiment right it is a it is taking system that is already stretched and saying okay here's some ways we can plug the holes but we don't know if we can continue to plug the holes but I as I said I'm I'm comfortable with if that's what families want if they are on on board for the experiment then I'd

114like to see us give them that option um but as long as everybody understands kind of what what it means for each option uh both for your student for the students that of the school that you're going to um I think be the the biggest challenge is the in unpredictability of the future and the um and the disruption for staff and as I said I'd rather see the the the students be protected from the disruption and and the staff uh the adults in the community try to take on whatever disruption we can thank you thank you any other questions you did you I you go ahead I can do that at the end I was just going to the only thing I was going to say I'm still very hopeful I think option b I

115really hope we can make it work but if not I I know a few board members I think asked is for option A is it possible that King Arts be added to it that's my only question I don't even answer tonight but I think that should be consider so to be very clear yes okay yeah and it already has so an example is I'll just name it transparently parents neighborhood school is nickels have already reached out to us and asked if King Arts was an option it it doesn't negate I mean it says home school but it's really any of our middle schools and is an option in in the option A not any of our middle schools but that was an option well that's a question is like and I don't know the legistics

116of this I apologize I have not asked this question yet but like in option A could Bessie Rod's families choose any Middle School option other like or are they restricted to just their homeschool I think that's a question Dr beerley can we make it work that people say I want to go to this middle school and the only reason I'm saying you because you know the intricacies of the numbers you the math I don't know the math of it um so essentially you know the process that has been in place right now is that if families as I understand it so Dr speth and Dr McCoy please feel free if families have a reason to believe that that home school is not going to be the best destination for their their student there is an

117opportunity consider an administrative transfer to a different school and that could include another of our large middle schools or the magnets and then what we are doing is we're just monitoring for class sizes and 7030 to make sure currently we have space in all of our in in seventh and eth grade in all of those locations but in a couple we are very close spacewise so we want to I think my understanding is to really have the discussion understanding the needs of the family and then if the homeschool is not going to be the best place use the administrative process that's in our school board policy to place them in a school that's going to meet the family needs thank um I would like to read a statement uh Jo Joey Halper could not be

118here this evening because he had a professional conflict but he asked me to read the following statement um among the four options all have drawbacks to students directly important to note option A includes significant mental health impacts on students I implore the administration to thank long and hard before openly delivering on an option that has a byproduct of significant mental health for students we cannot in good conscience with three other options on the table execute a plan that delivers those results option C and D have some real negative considerations for students at Bessie roads and at other schools while option b is not ideal nor are any of these options option b strains the system and adults but preserves the educational setting for students at all schools we need to offer stability if that is

119what families desire I do not have a preference for option b but an opposition to to a c and d unless it is the expressed desire of the family for me these options fall into the just because we can doesn't mean we should category again that was a statement from Joey any more questions can we just reiterate the process from here so tomorrow uh seventh and eighth grade families that from Bessie roads will get to grade parents parents and caregivers thank you will get a to uh go through the same process that all and I think just to highlight I think you said this but just all of these groups met and went through all of the options and discussed from their lens what the challenges are um because I think you know not none

120of us have the whole wide view of the entire district and every function within so so there's been an opportunity for all of those groups to to to talk there was an opportunity today for best Ro staff tomorrow will be uh with parents and then that will all go back to your team and you will determine the path forward and communicate that out by the end of the week corre okay well thank you principles thank you Dr mcoy for presenting the next steps as we reconsider seventh and eighth grade options the next item up is our Bessie roads dual language updates I'd like to invite Amy up our most immediate concern is supporting the seventh and eighth grade students and families and and identifying an option that is most responsive to the needs of the

121community however we want to reaffirm our commitment that the sixth grade dual language will remain at bets roads we will remain committed to expanding the Dual language program as planned we recognize that Staffing can be a challenge and here are some ways that we're responding to this challenge we have collaboration with the human resources to build a pipeline of bilingual student teachers starting in the spring and next year we seek out and attend bilingual job fairs we've identified potential partners and understand the process for hosting International Educators we're consistently screening and interviewing qualified bilingual Cadets throughout the year we had one today actually uh supporting our dual uh our d65 bilingual education um Educators excuse me who have an interest in becoming a certifi in a high needs content area like math and science we've

122learned several important lessons and are fully and fully recognize the need for proactive planning collaboration and engagement we will continue to keep our community informed and engaged in conversations to support the planning efforts of the Dual language program thank you for that Amy thanks for the update any questions on the Dual language expansion um so as we expand out I know we'll keep expanding buy roads I know part of the plan too is expanding to our other middle schools I I imagine it'll be of course Haven and we're on schedule we're on schedule with that okay wonderful yeah I think that you know that that's one of the pieces where again we really are trying to support uh utilize the best model to ensure that our multilingual students uh have support throughout uh from prek

123if they join us from prek all the way up to e8th grade uh and you know again just something that I'm I'm glad to hear that we're going to continue uh to again provide those Services uh to our students and the expansion of of of uh dual language in middle school which again did not exist before uh and we were able to make that happen so I appreciate the work that you and your team have done to help us expand dual language services and multilingual Services across the district thank you so I'm going to take the time to dism all all our content Specialists our principles I want to thank you for joining us today to take our questions I'm the next item up on our agenda is the discussion of our structural deficit uh

124request for proposal RFP so I'd like to invite uh well we have Tamara here talk to us about that process hello good evening everyone um so we have five respondents uh to the RFP who will be presenting tonight we have one who is fully virtual um that will be the second firm that presents and then um with us right now uh presenting first we have Dr Margaret creso from the ILO group um so if you want to have a seat there Dr creso um adila do you have her presentation okay welcome and so while we are getting ready I will go ahead and let you know the order of the presentations again we have IL group first um new Solutions K12 is going to be our presenter who's fully virtual uh up number up third

125CRA PGI advisory LLC I believe they are here on site um the RightWay leadership group we have Dr Wright with us tonight um and then lastly Marson Hasbrook and Simon LLP will finish out the presentations the format uh each presenter was told that they would have about 10 minutes to present and then uh about 5 minutes for question and answer period if we go beyond that 5 minutes uh in order to get more information or what have you then that's perfectly fine as well but the presenters were uh informed that they would have about 10 minutes to present followed by a maximum a 5 minute question and answer period so with that it looks like we're ready I will go ahead and turn it over to Dr creso thank you very much good evening board

126very excited to be here today for this 10-minute presentation uh we were provided a series of questions and asked to resp respond uh based on our experience and our practice and I'm here this evening to provide that so uh to begin with it has to like me so that it will click which it's not can you click the side Dr chis oh thank you look at that okay so we have uh IO has extensive experience in budget management reduction I think one of the exciting things for work like this is that the work that we do at ILO is not specifically in-house only we bring in bring in experts um and listed in our application we have superintendents that have been State superintendents District superintendents who have worked exactly on many of the things that

127you are working on right now as an example here is one example that we shared with very similar experience to What's Happening Here There was a fund balance issue there was lopsided enrollment across the district failed B measure and Rising facility needs in addition there was a level of mistrust in response the role was to come up with a variety of options that would adjust Staffing and facilities and develop a plan for a committee to come together long term to forecast what was needed so that we um as a district were not finding themselves 5 years 10 years in the same conversations our approach as you can see there is always to make sure that there's a cross District enrollment analysis happening both immediately and then beyond so that you can formulate a budget reduction

128plan that is strategic and in this example was a 20% C spending cut across the district the most important part of any one of these plans is really to look at stakeholder engage engagement and feedback we understand the importance of engaging the stakeholders it's very clear that the issue is um publicly noted and how do we provide alignment for school closures and other priorities with that in mind you will often and as was in this engagement uh have renegotiation of contracts so that is something that is key to uh maintain Quality Service while at the same time being mindful of what a budget projection would look like over a number of years so that's an overall uh experience window for what we've done at islo group I'm going to start now by talking about the

129questions that were asked the first question was asked to define or look into what a histor what historically happens when you do a deficit reduction plan how does it continue to perpetuate inequalities and systemic issues in funding resource allocation and the the outcomes so here's what we know we know that unequal funding resource allocations typically are based on tax-based funding State discrepancies and disproportionate budget cuts in order for that to in order what happens after that excuse me is the perpetuation of existing inequalities and we know what those look like those there are some examples that are listed there and then ultimately it leads to systemic barriers around Equity the concern for that is that it perpetuates decades and Decades of this disparity and in order to overcome it you need a strategy that engages

130stakeholders and commitment from the community on a regular basis the second question that was asked was while there no potential while there are potential adverse impacts IO of course would utilize the number of strategies to prevent or minimize unintended consequences and basically how would we do that so we know that when you do cuts to program disproportionately students of color end up impacted if you are not paying attention if you are not engaging your community if you are not connecting to those around you we know that increased class sizes impact students that have High needs often impacting communities that have the highest need we know that often there are reductions in Support Services there's a loss of diverse staff and you reduce the access for students to have opportunities beyond the school day the way

131to prevent that and what we know through data and through our work is that it has to be based on data driven decision-making protocols you have to constantly protect and monitor what's happening in the district so that your students are the focus and that you're making sure that what that investment looks like longterm is clear the same thing happens with your staff making sure that we together talk about the retention what does that look like longterm how are you targeting the needs um and then ultimately the capital needs we heard a lot of conversation tonight about what capital needs look like what capital thoughts feel like and making sure that we're being clear about what that what that window of opportunity means to the district and then frankly reassessing and aligning existing spending spending to

132align to the equity goals that you've outlined which was frankly the framework for how we responded to these questions and then finally I want to talk a little bit about in reviewing the financial Audits and the trends and things that we were seeing as helping make data driven decisions we know that disaggregating budget and program data by race and socioeconomic status provide a comprehensive understanding of the state of the of the district we know that it's very important to look at comprehensive Equity audit have conversations about what that looks like and then build a priority framework so that the decision- making doesn't become second guess and it's very clear around where you're going around the racial and Equity terms of the district and then lastly establishing a tracking system with metrics to monitor impacts to

133subgroups and to adjust as needed with a level of clarity outward so that people know what to expect and anticipate and know what that regular reporting model would look like so that basically answered the three questions I want to make sure that we cover the involving the community members as problem solvers it's very important to talk to families not just the families that are impacted not just the families of color all of the communities so that the representation is across systems and across models and it makes it much simpler when everyone understands the impacts to the student many of you tonight shared um the impact to the adult and the impact to the student and that level of clarity at all levels really helps Idis and give ideas around where we're going as a district

134the other piece that's incredibly important through this process is budget communication making sure that non-english speaking families have access and those with limited digital access also have the opportunity to engage and have conversations and there are a variety of ways that that can be um provided through conversation through technology through systemization so that no one has to ask where are we going what does this look like where have we been and the other piece that we think is highly important is making sure that there's a diverse Community advisory not just for right now when things are where they are but well into the future and certainly there are committees and and groups in the organization that already exist and how do we build systems and capitalize on what that looks like you see the results

135of this really incredibly hard work when you see solutions that are feasible beneficial and provide Community needs being met those are the key ke factors for those success as far as our our organization is concerned and then obviously Community morale has to be positive you have to have buying for proposed Solutions in situations like this frankly we all know that there is an impact you can't walk out of this circumstance without some level of impact the benefit is that um you can plan accordingly you can connect with people you can build relationships so that when you do have to make these decisions everyone has had a voice everyone has had an opportunity for Buy in and everyone one has the commitment for the whole Community I will tell you very honestly this is an area

136that I've had a ton of experience um sadly having to do closing schools repurposing buildings making connections with community so that everyone feels like there is a level of loss and a level of gain because ultimately the students are the ones that that have the greatest impact so the other piece that's really important that I wanted to highlight was just making sure that you have a skill Workforce that reflects the demographic diversity of the student as a priority looking at your numbers across the district certainly understand what the socioeconomic implications are the race implications in the community and the importance as a foundation for the district so in doing that and I as we were just listening to recruiting for the um dual language program that is a key factor is being very clear about

137where you're going to recruit and retain and who do you have internally we want to make sure that providing additional support and resources for staff in high need schools with vulnerable populations equal the reinforcement of what we're doing so that our Workforce um mirrors the diversity of the student body and then Frank finally in reductions we know that they'll be required uh what does that look like for a reduction how does that impact and at the same time protect and maintain High support for students 9 minutes and 30 seconds okay Capital Improvements prioritizing facility improvements one of the things that I would highly recommend is making sure that you're clear and you are about the facilities for all students being of high quality I heard that over and over again successful fiscal accountability and oversight

138and that means really looking through timelines being committed to what it looks like for a budget for securing funding for connecting with facilities and maintaining and aligning into the future with a constant Cadence of prioritizing what your students need and what that feels like and looks like into their future and with that um we know that Transportation was included we want to make sure that we're clear that we would address Transportation as well and we would ensure uh deficit reduction strategies of course by state and federal mandates uh we want to make sure that our students second language Learners as well as our students with disabilities maintain and have those High supports for students and that they have access to the resources they need hopefully that has answered the questions related to uh the board

139questions that were provided certainly stands at the ready to answer any questions that you may have related specifically to the iso group high level we're a proudly women-owned education strategy and policy firm we impact one three one in three students in America our staff um has the highest potential and experience uh around what it looks like for educational Consulting uh educational structures specifically related to budget reduction operations facilities closures and with that here I am thank you so much for your presentation colleagues any questions um just a quick question about in terms of the recommendations that you would provide um and options right um would you be laying out obviously we have the immediate cuts that we need to make but would you be able to provide options for what the what those reductions look

140like two three five years you know kind of projected out right enrollments continue at at a you know decline then what kinds of reductions we would need to make in subsequent Years thank you thank you for that question I would say first and foremost you have a comprehensive approach right now around what needs to happen uh and I would say that that will linger for a fair number of years and then we certainly will provide those options both now in ter and into the future and what we would say is that there's a high recommendation that the Committees that are developed the stakeholder engagement that um shows up for a lack of a better word right those individuals that are committed to the work that you continue to keep them um aligned so that they

141become part of the process so as a living example in a district where I provided this level of support um we have we have continued to have that operation facilities committee meet on a regular basis they also understand the de the depth and complexity of the budget and they are able to provide advice to the board support for the community around ballot initiatives and systems alignment so that people know up to 10 10 years out what that forecasting might look like for the district and you try obviously there are always mitigating circumstances as was mentioned before um so that you can address that long before it happens and no one is surprised uh and a lot of that is really about forecasting so yes we would be able to provide those options as well as

142support for what that would look like into the future thank you I appreciate you sharing that we do have comprehensive processes in place we did the master facilities plan a couple years back back Student Assignment process you know one and two we have all that data but we need as as a board I think is to really get that information organized that we've solicited from uh those processes to really help us make some of these again tough decisions uh and then again really as as Su is suggesting having that five 10e projection uh to see how you know what what impact it's we can make in order to rightsize the district right so so I appreciate that any other questions col yeah I had two um first of all it's in terms of timeline does

143the timeline seem feasible to you in terms of being able to give us some information for us to start making some uh decisions is that any reaction to timeline no I think um we thrive on a very tight timeline that's something that um frankly the level of expertise that we bring to the table you often don't get the runway that you need in order to make these decisions I think that our level of confidence also comes from the deep um commitment that you've had to building out what you need to get done and where you need the support and systemic approach is really around the engagement the conversations and then the fine-tuned development of what those plans might be so um the timeline does not concern us at all I I do want to just

144add that you're absolutely right sir Hernandez in in your statement around the reality of what we're doing and where you've been all of those pieces are key all of those components are how you drive the conversation forward and often um we find that that laps over time because it it it's just what it is right communities change systems change um and that's what we're here for is to realign what that looks like and then the other question I had was about cost um and I'll full disclosure I am a consultant professionally um I was surprised at how high the cost is like that wasn't what I was thinking we were going to come in at for this project because of the short timeline so um if we determined we can't justify that expense is there

145an amended version in your head that you think that you could deliver that would still have a significant impact for significantly less dollars so what I would say is that typically uh the school boards will work with us to determine what it is that looks like and and what their threshold is um certainly the level of service that we provide is you know I'm going to say Second To None of course right that's what I'm supposed to say um and I firmly believe it but absolutely um we will work with the board and and the administration to make accommodations as needed based on the deliverables that the district needs in order to move forward thank you right more questions well thank you so much for thank you I appreciate it good luck thanks thanks for

146your patience to wait for your time slot the next one is on Zoom Tam yes the next one next one is on Zoom hold on one sec let me let him know he's up just a minute okay our next presenter while he's getting ready this is Nate levenson from new Solutions K12 the audio is muted need to unmute okay can folks hear me that yes yes yes go ahead we're muted so you have to take it off say yes yes we can hear you now you can go ahead and share your screen okay great so good evening everybody my name is Nate Leon I'm president of new Solutions k12 and excited to be with you tonight to answer the questions You' shared in F and to answer any additional questions you may have share my

147screen and hopefully folks are seeing my screen and sing power great um so I think let me start with a quick introduction to First my background in the background of the firm um a little bit how we think about this question at a high level and then answer the three questions you had shared with me um um this is this work is very difficult work and very important work of dealing with a a significant budget shortfall uh we bring to this challenge um experience from multiple different perspectives uh first as a superintendent I've been in the seat of District leaders uh having closed the achievement Gap wall resources shrank uh others on my team have been special education directors they have been School principles uh so we do bring a Frontline perspective to this work

148um as a consultant over more than 15 years now I've worked in over 300 school districts in 30 States so we've actually had a chance to see how many many others have also wrestled uh with similar challenges and along the way uh we've done an enormous amount of research on um how to do more with less how to deal with structural challenges uh specifically how to do that in a way with the focus on Equity I've written six books on this topic including entire chapters and many articles on resource Equity uh so we certainly bring a lot of experience to this I think the place where we may be the um perhaps a little different from others um is we believe and obviously when you think of a structural deficit there's money there's numbers and

149sense there's financial analysis I I refer to that as technical expertise and I'm certain everybody you're going to talk to will bring a great deal of technical expertise we do too um but we know and I think we saw it just earlier this evening having an answer that is technically correct uh doesn't mean that people understand it doesn't mean people agree with it doesn't mean it's a a solution that the community can and will support um so we really believe that as much of the work is around addressing perceptions head on understanding what people in your community are thinking what they're worried about I certainly heard tonight um you some of the phrases coming during public participation about wasteful spending by the board I've spent six years on the school board I suspect none of

150you purposely or have spent wastefully but if people in the public think you have that's an important thing to know and really understand what do they think you did or are continuing to do that is wasteful and we have found there is as much value in investigating ideas that didn't come from you didn't come from us but come from the public and if they're great ideas great if they're not great ideas really understanding why people think they're good ideas and coming back to the public with a very transparent explanation of why it may have seemed like a great opportunity um but may not actually be as great an opportunity so I think we're going to spend a lot of time trying to address perception as well as technical reality um we will do that through

151extensive stakeholder engagement um the third major point is we work with districts on this again coming up with technical answers listening to folks I'm sorry he supposed to be moving perceptions head on um all of that to pieces if you're not really really really good at what we call Strategic Communications uh taking out the jargon taking out the lingo understanding and putting these presentations in ways that uh the average person can understand can ask questions so I think we really try to pride ourselves on making this work accessible to people um and then lastly and other is a question about hey what kind of recommendations will we make uh ultimately we will give you a menu of recommendations and ask you happy to help lead you through it but to allow folks to wrestle with

152the choices um we on our experience it is not helpful to say hey here's what you should do and you say yes or no I think you're example tonight of um I giving um the community four choices for how to deal with 7th and e8th grade is a good model um we can't just tell you what to do it's not our district we can give you a lot of options and give you the information in a way that people can respond and think about it so let me get to your your questions I'm be mindful of the time um the same questions I believe as you asked the first group I want to deal with the first two as a package historically how his structural deficit reduction planning work prod in perpetuated racial inequities and

153what opportunities do you see to reduce racial disparities um while we're doing this work um to bring your structural deficit under control and um to live up to your Equity commitments I think this is really about and I want to push back just a little bit on this idea that our goal in doing this work is not to just reduce your deficit that certainly a necessary step but our goal is to do this process to help you think through how you spend your money and come up with something that is better for kids that is more Equitable for your students fair to your staff and build trust alone way um I know that's a hard task but we really can't just do less um because what we know is if as um budgets are being

154cut there can be forces that pull resources away from students in schools who need the resources the most that that's often taking what were racial inequities and resource inequities to start with the kids need the most weren't getting the most and then as things get cut often if you're not careful they will get cut even further um but we believe this work and I'm going to give you a quick example can actually increase equity inre free services where they're needed most if this is done right we've done that with other schools let me give you one very quick example um of something called an equity formula that we use for Staffing and this says that we need to be hyper transparent about how you're going to staff different roles how you're going to build equity

155into each of those Staffing rules so for example if you're thinking about reading teachers and a classic case of in equity in schools that serve kids of color kids of poverty English Learners they need more reading teachers given an equal number of students because the need is greater there and so creating a metric creating a formula that is extraordinarily transparent that will tell you and tell the public in every school this is how we're going to allocate reading teaches to every building um and we're going to use public facing data so people aren't wondering whether there was favoritism or just history that guided that Staffing let me give you just a quick example and you know this works not just for reading teachers but social workers behaviorist counselors psychologists special Educators even class siiz was

156very broad application but this is a Formula that one of our clients we helped build for we said look let's look at how many students you have let's look at how many are struggling in Reading based on publicly available data we're going to say in this District they said 30 students it's a reasonable case load for a reading teacher so it tells you that this school needed 1.6 reading teachers so if you cut from 2 to 1.6 people know why you did that but here's the deal what if you had another school same size but it only had 15% of its students who struggled well you need one reading teacher there it's not the same as what the other school had but it's the right number and let's look at a school that is both

157larger and has a larger number of kids who faring to read you maybe you say hey we'll do it from 1 and 1/2 to two or what if the math actually told you you needed to be 3 and A2 now yes you are short on money so you should have the discussion of what is the right student case load what is the right formula but creating these highly transparent formulas help people understand why decisions were made and why some schools were impacted differently because I think at the heart um of Equitable resource allocation is the fact that equality is not Equity that kids in some school system schools will need more supports than others and we need to be highly transparent about that and I think because my last quick example is in a process

158like this if you're not careful the idea of one per school can become a perception of fair it's equal but it is not Equitable imagine three schools one with 50 students who struggle one with 100 one with 150 um having each having one social worker one reading teacher that is the opposite of Equitable so we want to help you bring this kind of transparency the other thing that these formulas do is as you have declining enrollment these formulas recalculate every year what your Staffing is so that you're not having these kind of budget debates and budget battles every year new time and time again that the formulas actually help drive you to sustainable Staffing on an annual basis because the formulas will adjust um so the last question I want to address because I know

159I'm about to run out of time is what are the adverse impacts or unintended consequences that could result from delivering the scope of the project um and how do we um minimize or prevent those certainly um it is so critical to have all voices heard we need to make sure folks who are not the um may not be the most likely to come to meetings that we come to them we need to do this in multiple languages we need to do it at times of day that allow people to come to the table and tell us their thoughts um we need to make certain that we're not trying to balance the budget on the backs of students who need it the most um this idea of hyper transparency around the funding decisions is the only

160way you're going to build trust and ultimately we believe we have to use this strategy uh this process to help you think about strategies that help you to do more for your students even though you're going to have less funds not to just do less in the best possible way so we we need to help you improve even while we're a triming which I know is not easy but it is doable and we've done it um let me stop there and happy to take your questions all right thank you so much for your presentation colleagues any questions I know you don't necessarily look in detail at facilities planning um but do you take into account facility needs at all and recommendations especially any recommendations around closing schools um yes and no so let me be

161really clear about I know you've done our proposal does not include doing a detailed facility study that's outside of what we think Educational Consultants are best to do we know there's a lot of data that's already been collected we will definitely look at that but here is and I don't know why this will disqualify us but I'm going to tell you what a lot of years of experience tell me and what watching tonight school board meeting and I've been on a school board um intellectually and financially closing schools make sense for you your your footprint is large um everything that I have heard and all of my experience over a couple decades says that you all are actually not ready to close schools that you will not see that kind of support that you need

162um and that this that much more of your energy should be going towards how do you run a large footprint cost effectively because that says that your problem isn't in and of itself the number of buildings your problem is that when you have a lot of buildings they are expensive to run for a host of reasons we have spent years looking at strategies to run of under enrolled schools more cost effectively we did that not because we don't think closing schools doesn't make sense but we've done that because in 90% of the districts we have worked and studied with um at the end of the day most communities do not close schools not not under 3 to five or 10 years to discussion and when they do close those schools the savings are shockingly small

163because in order to win enough public support for these very hard decisions enough compromise and promises are made that the savings are actually very small so I I know we will be focusing right on in everything but closing schools um we think you need to build a lot more trust and a lot more transparency and the lessons and approaches that were used to um move move and calculate Staffing and other spending needs can also then be applied uh to the facilities question well I'll stop there you have to have an extraordinarily high level of trust and an extraordinarily trusted and transparent process um and we do think from everything we've heard tonight what we've been able to read that you're not there yet we think this work can help build trust can build a process

164that will help you get there but it seems premature to us thank you any other questions colleagues all right well Mr lenson thank you so much for sharing and presenting your proposal and answering our uh racial Equity impact and ask questions thank thank you thank you all right okay thank you have a good night thank you who's up next camera all right our next presenters are C PGI advisory LLC gentlemen if you could come up to the table here good evening good evening welcome good evening does it work um there's a clicker up there if you'd like to drive there's a clicker okay begin let's see let's move it along yeah okay very good good evening I'm uh Dave Mack I'm Bob Handler Reggie olly um we're an amalgamation of uh two different consulting firms

165just for this and one is Pathfinder group The PGI and I'm the CRA side and uh we are all EV in Residence and our Consulting businesses uh are uh restructuring businesses and we restructure we restructure uh uh Comm a lot of commercial businesses and organizations and U and so we we have a different view uh we have up uh up here uh we have to deal with this we have a crisis we have an absolute crisis we have a timing problem we have a money problem we're running out of it and uh we think uh Ram emanuel's uh quote really fits this you have a crisis let's let's do some things that that can be good right now under your own projections you're showing a 13 half million deficit this year this fiscal year on

166top of two 10 million doll deficits the two prior years in addition your own projections show that you will have 72 days of cash at the end of this fiscal year in June in our backgrounds in our experience that means you're insolvent that means you don't have enough money for any contingencies for a rainy day for any surprises that come up our mission if we work with you is to start cutting expenses today to start building up a reserve so you're well in excess of your your minimum of 90 days by the time you get to June start making Cuts now sorry we go um we we want the the board to succeed we don't want regime change we've had enough of that we want to move forward and and make some things happen uh

167uh for the district uh we heard that today too we heard a lot of that but our goal is as restructuring Specialists to work with you because you're the education specialist We have dealt with crises of a variety of Industries all over the country I typically get the call in my business the day before payroll is due so we're doing a lot of triage we're doing scrambling because we have limited time limited resources when Dave and I started seeing the reports in the reader excuse me the the round table and seeing Tom Hayden's reports we immediately realize this is something that we can do because industry experience in our experience is not a requirement I did the city of Harvey's uh water system without having you know any managed any water systems before I managed

168a fleet a commercial jet aircraft in a Securities fraud case I managed a registered investment advisor where the owner had taken his own life and left the company a drift each case was a brand new situation in terms of the industry but each one was a situation that we figured it out stabilized the operation and figured out how do we address the the shortterm and long-term issues that's why we both felt that this is something that we could offer uh to the district my my experience is with a little bit bigger companies uh moldable plants around the country uh out of out of money lost a lot of money uh the banks are going crazy the workers are the workers pretty much like what you heard you know they're they're really difficult engagement is everything

169communication is everything and what do you do well in this par my particular case we we shut four plants Consolidated into two of them uh two of them were both in in towns where there was no no other businesses but the but but those big big plants and I kept going down to the uh the uh gas station uh for lunch and uh the the lady at the uh that managed the gas station that you know gave me the hot dog uh asked every day every time I went there is my husband going to have a job and I really didn't have much to say I said we're working on it and about 6 months into it uh we found a buyer for the company and I was able to go back and have that

170lunch it's say you bet your husband's going to have a job and uh that isn't what we're going to do here but it we're experienced of that working with unions it's it's speed right now that's needed and the the analysis where are we going what decisions need to be made what's the what's the least painful answer it's messy it's going to be messy we know that we know it you know it yeah that's what you have today it was messy so it's it's not that it's going to go away we're going to go through this process we're handson with you we're here we live here but we we'd be here anyway that's how we approach it so um I think we need to just move to uh to the let's talk about us or US

171let's let's talk about us a little bit I grew up in Evon I went to Washington School through fifth grade I went to chw I went to Haven I went to District 202 my kids went to King lab from from beginning to end in fact my uh siblings all went to King lab when it first opened uh in the 60s so I'm here for the Long Haul Sim similar I didn't I didn't grow up here but I've been here 33 years had three children and went through D d65 and d202 202 uh we're here for the duration uh my my wife has a business in town we're we we we are wed to this this town we know the the the the U the culture of the town the Dynamics of the town and uh

172people will get behind us as we as we get into this I know right now you're getting some fired at but I think once once we get in and deal with the with things and start working on telling people what's going to happen they will they will sigh because they know this city if we don't do it our values are going to go down of our of our homes and who wants to come to a City without a really good school I don't know anybody so we have confidence in you and and we're here to help you uh and and the decision is going to be the board of education's decision and we're going to be there to support the board and support Dr Turner and her team and that's that's the way it's going

173to be that's the way the decisions are going to be made and and proposed if you are wondering why I'm sitting here uh let me tell you why uh I was approached to be on the team uh I'm also uh EV stonan I've lived in the community for 39 years my boys went to the school uh um I was approached uh by these gentlemen uh to join the team and I accept it because number one they have an extremely diverse team and the expertise I provide is I have 39 years in facility management experience I have 39 years in labor management experience and I have 30 years working in the Dei space and lastly I love EV it that's a ditto didto we love Evanson and we're we're we're totally totally in line with the

174uh with Equity educational equity and racial Equity uh this is Evon this is what we live we we my family chose to we chose to move here so our family would be in an integrated community and that's that's the culture we have here our kids speak finally of Evon even though they moved away they miss they miss Evon they they miss they missed the mix here um we taught them to think independently then they left us so what what are you going to do um let's move to let's move to the questions questions any any questions think we're good on any questions folks I it just said one I was having a hard time figuring out the cost CU I know when you first approached us you guys talked about a more philanthropic effort of

175come helping us for a dollar and then the contract said uh it wouldn't exceed 500,000 so that's a pretty big range um as we're trying to compare um contracts like what do you anticipate the cost of this will actually be well let me let me explain the the dynamic we we made an unsolicited um proposal to Dr Turner and her team um and and uh you know a dollar a month that's what we offered but that was rejected she said go through the RFP process instead so that's what we did and we and you know we went through all the requirements it's going to take a lot of work it's going to take a lot of time um yeah we you we're we're we're a little bit expensive we could be a little bit expensive

176but we're camping it uh at the end of the day you're going to see all of our time you're going to see all of our entries and we're going to be you know you're going to see our see what we're doing if you don't like what we're doing you know then then you you can fire us at any time yeah so so you think half a million dollars is possible we don't know we don't know the difference between what we're doing and what others have proposed is we're sticking with you through the whole process we're going to be holding your hands we're going to be backing you up we're not just preparing a book and delivering it we're going to actually help you execute it because execution of a restructuring is hard it's just hard

177we've done it a lot is it possible anything's possible uh I I really don't think so uh I I think that uh I think that we we we we give an hourly rate and that's what it'll be could it go up and we'll be able to talk about it at that at that point I mean look we want to get the job done not not quibble over over Price look we're talking about it's like hundreds of thousands of dollars different than any of the other proposals so it's not a quibble it's trying to understand we also think that you know the 13.5 million that you want to cut from the structural deficit is not enough in our experience when a debtor when a struggling company tells us well I only owe you know I I

178can I can turn this around with so much in sales or by cutting these costs generally it's about three times that amount from what the company actually needs so our we think you got to cut probably we we've cut our rates by 30% yeah okay thank you any other questions any other questions folks okay all right thank you so much gentlemen appreciate it all right all right next up we have the RightWay leadership group Dr Wright good after afternoon everyone I know that it's been a long night for you and trust me I don't envy any of you right now um my name is Arona Wright and I am the CEO of the RightWay leadership group I do have my two team members that will be working on this project primarily online as well so

179I'm not sure if you can see them but they are there Kathleen Norris and Tim Frasier are both online so along with everyone else I think the reality is the responses to most of the questions would be about the same from all of us um you provided quality information in the RFB for what you were looking for it was very clear what you wanted and so all of us were going to respond in that way I think the thing that is the most important right now is we are dealing in a sense of urgency we're talking about children equity and action so to put those things in perspective that's what our conversation is tonight I I know that you already have our proposal so I did not add that to the slides but I do

180want to answer the question early on that's the advantage of going forth um on the list I do want to answer the question early on when you think about this kind of initiative it is hard there is not a population having been a over 30-year practitioner an educational leader for over the last 20 years going through these types of activities for the last 15 years your school district is among many other school districts in the country that are challenged by some of the same things our firm gets a request daily to come in and work with school districts around budget reductions and we are not seeing the benefits right now from the funding um I can talk about Esser I won't do that but we know that Esser only stabilized us for a minute because

181it took us back to where we should have been 25 years ago we've been underfunded as a school district as school systems across the country for many years so those that asked the questions around what happened what did you do eser went away because at the time that Esser came every school district in the country needed those funds just to maintain and that really had nothing to do with the pandemic so as we think about overarching thoughts we want to make certain that our our our focus is an equity focused approach and it's essential to thinking about deficit reduction I am a datadriven leader I always have been I do a lot of work across the country around outcomes and focusing on data but the one thing that makes school districts different is we are

182not just talking about buildings we're not just talking about projects we're not just talking about initiatives we're talking about children we're talking about deep relationships in school buildings I don't know why I'm hearing myself about buildings we're not just talking about project we're not just talking about kathen you might be on somebody might be on I don't [Applause] know I don't know okay her name is Kathleen someone's mic is on is it hers okay thank you so we're not just talking about just buildings we're talking about relationships and the relationships that families have with schools we're talking about historical perspectives and the things that we know to be true and so thinking about that we have to bring all of those things into the overall plan and the organizational structure and thinking about the work

183that we do next so we'll go to the next slide I'll just keep talking while we're pulling up mine cuz that one's not mine okay so when we think about the questions um and how we think about those questions I think that we all know as we look across the country and we look at budget reductions and what those reductions look like disproportionately school districts that have diversity within those school districts students that are within black and brown primarily black and brown communities are disenfranchised through any any process and so knowing that and knowing that is just the fact I mean that is just the way that it has been and so knowing that one of the things that we believe is very important about the process and I do applaud you for working with

184an outside Consultant Group because we heard tonight there were questions tonight there were comments that were made tonight the administration took feedback that was provided to them based on the information that was provided during the meeting tonight but there were still some that believe that that was the case there were others that believe when you said back in June that you were going to close in 20 of 26 that you had planned to do this already and so working with an outside group gives an opportunity for there to be an objective voice as we're looking at engagement what information is going to be provided how do we make certain that we are going into the organizations we're going into the homes we're going into the schools across the district to get individual feedback and recommendations

185one of the things that our our firm really Prides oursel on doing is making certain that to the best of our ability we're educating the larger Community around what really is because one of the things that we know and I heard it tonight sitting listening to the comments you do not have enough individuals in the central office to address the budget deficit gaps that you have right now so when we educate the the the larger population around what the challenges really are it allows them to really be informed and make recommendations based on being informed next slide please so ways that we really think about how to address this and talking about historically the the the the uh what's been perpetuated through raal racial inequities school closures and minority areas I've listed them up there

186you've seen them on the other slides and you know this to be the case unequal resource allocation increase class sizes reduce access to specialized programs and what many school districts have seen across the country postco is is an increase in specialized services and the needs for specialized services and with that also comes the increase in funding that goes along or the needs that go along with that for specialized programs displacement impacts long-term socioeconomic impacts and insufficient stakeholder engagement so the way that we think about working through that is doing everything possible through every possible Outlet of getting feedback from all individuals again not just those that are that might be impacted but everyone in the community that is really paying attention to what's happening within the school district and the needs of the school district

187next slide please what opportunities do you see to reduce racial disparities so we'll go to the next slide in terms of thinking about this we want to think about how we prioritize so beginning to look at Equitable funding having done this work in three other large school districts and thinking about what that looks like recommendation around Staffing and Staffing allocations but also thinking about the needs of the school because it it's important to recognize that as we put children first we think about children equity and action as we put children first we have to think about the academic needs of the children and how we're going to make sure that we're servicing them socially and emotionally inclusive decision making access to programming Equitable Staffing uh student support and what that support looks like uh ongoing

188impact analys is and then addressing any funding gaps that we have that are there as a part of the resource and resource models so these are things that we want to consider as a part of the overall reduction reducing the racial disparities and making sure that we're keeping Equity at the Forefront of the conversation next slide adverse impacts or unintended consequences so we'll go to the next one and as well as racial groups that might be adversely impacted so this is just a a few of the examples of the kind of adverse impacts that could come from the timeline and some suggestions that we may have around mitigation now this is not intended to be completely uh inclusive of all but just to give you an idea of how we conceptualize this as well as

189how we think about mitigation so the first we know is community disruption right and that's there is not a way to make this kind of necessary change without having some level of disruption we believe that one of the ways to really uh make sure that we're working through that is one of the biggest areas of disruption in a lot of school districts is around Transportation so one of the examples that we pulled out is to make certain that as we're thinking through the community community disruption thinking about what that looks like in terms of Transportation think thinking about what that looks like in providing mental health support to students and to their families thinking about how you're and I heard some of it tonight actually thinking about if you have to make changes not making

190it a one siiz fits all but thinking about what is best for that particular student and that particular family so doing some of the oneon-one kinds of work that's necessary when you're thinking about the kind of disruption that could happen the loss of resources so really being thoughtful around programming and ensuring that that there has been conversation among the board among the leadership around what the priorities are what are the areas of focus so that as recommendations are being given based on the feedback that's coming from the Community that's being done with the lens of what are what are the levers right what are the things that we're most concerned about and how are we holding those in the center as priority we do anticipate larger class sizes that's that's that's something that could be

191a factor as well and so setting those Staffing levels thinking about staff allocation and how we're doing a model that that is very transparent that's had involvement across all of those that could be impacted so that they're a part of the conversation and it's something that's done with them and not to them we anticipate as again as we heard heard tonight Community mistrust and so one of the ways that we make certain that we attempt to work through this is by being as transparent as possible so doing the surveys making certain that the surveys are translated doing uh open sessions so that they're in person so that people can come in they feel heard being boots on the ground going to some of the areas that may not be in the school building so having

192sessions not just in school buildings but other areas around the community that you deem as important for us to go to um the the last one that I'll do there is the impact on academics um thinking about resource shifting and how that may impact students so really making certain that we're monitoring closely the outcomes and the data and we're making adjustments as needed uh I'll I'll answer this last conversation uh the last question and then I added in which is a part of our proposal the facilitation for stakeholder engagement while I won't review that I wanted to add that here because what we know is that a lot needs to be done in a in a short amount of time because you have big decisions to make so knowing that as soon as we get

193started we would be boots on the ground right and making sure that we're working with the leadership so that we are um noticing our families noticing the community when we're having sessions doing in-person sessions and virtual sessions different times of the day so that we're able to get to as many individuals as possible and so we added the sample uh timeline there and activities as well as what a sample schedule might look like one of the things that our team did and we do have the ability to do that is you are doing community engagement around um budget reduction and so our proposal we took that into consideration so our proposal right now is actually about half of what our team would generally do and the reason that we did that is because we knew

194that you had a need and and we believe that we can assist with that need because we've done that work um but we did on the in the uh in the onset we looked at that and we added that as a part of The Proposal so I just wanted to add that that's how we got to that level of funding because we we did the recommendation of The Proposal at half of what we would generally do and I'll stop there in case we have any questions for us thank you so much for your presentation colleagues any questions yeah hi um you talked a lot about stakeholder engagement but um if you could talk a little bit about the capacity of your firm for um the kind of I think complex data analysis that I think

195this project is going to require taking a lot of different sources of data in terms of Staffing uh the different um kinds of roles that we have um building capacity um you know it administrator central office roles Etc um so if you could talk a little bit about the data analyses services that you could provide absolutely so having had the experience of doing this kind of work in three school districts and leading this work in three school districts um working with districts now around the same kind of work currently the partnering Associates on the team uh collectively cover over 20 years of additional experience outside of just the educational leadership experience experience a subset to that was also our team that works around specific data analysis um working looking at the someone asked about facilities

196planning earlier but taking all of the different plans that have already been done and then doing the analysis around that so 5 to 10 year facilities planning uh looking at what's already been done in terms of that we use a particular system for um looking at the projections for for where the growth is within a community across that Community even looking at birth rates as well and so our team together has the capacity to do that work in terms of doing the analysis around what's already provided in terms of facilities facilities planning redoing and thinking about Transportation how we're looking at Transportation where else are we seeing areas of concern U one of our team members that we've selected for this particular project uh has over 20 years of operations experience so specifically working around

197operations facility Transportation um and what it takes to really reduce the cost in those areas so there is the capacity that's necessary to not only share that information but to also give it back to you in a way that's digestible so that it it makes sense across across the community any other questions kex well thank you so much appreciate it thank you all right and last up this evening we have Martinson Hasbrook and Simon [Applause] LLP good evening good evening welcome thank you for your patience um I know it's been a long night for everybody um I'm pretty sure most of us have been up early so it's been a really super long day for us so we'll try to keep it short and sweet um my colleague here is passing out some print outs

198just in case you want to see if you're next for tomorrow just a brief introduction of us we are a law firm marus and hasb and Simon we are based in Evon we are newly um we opened our office about a year and a half ago in Evon and we are a nationwide Law Firm um and we have offices in five states uh and what we do basically is mostly labor employment help helping companies organizations um with their employee needs um any employee issues is that's what our specialty is unlike um the previous Consulting companies we did not submit RFP um telling you that we could do everything that you've requested on the RFP we cifically um said that we could do what we do best which is regarding any restructuring and re reorganization regarding

199employee reduction or employee reassignments this is what we do and this is what we do we excel at today I'm here with my colleagues um I'm Jessica Chang and this is my colleague Nathan shine and my um other colleague here adoro Roa uh we all work on the at the Evon office and we are um glad to be here and we are excited to work with us um sry uh so to J's point we will keep this short and succinct and we we joked so I'll I'll give it to you as well um since we're attorneys and we're litigators and we're used to being front of a judge we were going to address you you know me please the court so uh may it please the board uh certainly Dr Turner uh Miss Mitchell and

200the board we appreciate your ability to have this conversation to hear to listen um we've been with you from the start of this evening um in your overflow room so just the facilitation that you've provided to allow the community to engage is something that is not lost on us um we're here under really challenging circumstances and we recognize and appreciate that we commend the board for seeking guidance on how to navigate these uncertainties that are inherent with what you're faced with um and we've been asked to provide some perspective particularly from the l& or labor and employment perspective um in the area that we do best and so we did approach your questions um slightly different from a legal perspective to give some guidance with respect to that and considerations As you move forward um

201ultimately we identified five factors that contribute to potential racial inequities or inequalities in the context of restructuring um this includes not only um an uneven distribution of resources that you may find that disadvantage programs to support diverse and marginalized communities but also those cuts may lead to a diminished quality of reach Key Program initiatives these are things that have been echoed throughout the evening um and we hope when we get to some of our recommendations that you will see how this ties a second factor to consider is that layoffs may disproportionately impact persons of color certainly if you have more representation there is a likelihood that more representation will be impacted um we can provide um Quality assistance around sort of navigating that making sure that there is a blind submission relative to any reductions

202that may need to be taken um objective criteria is certainly a huge Factor within that and what I mean by blind is that we take all of the individual identifying characteristics out of the equation and we purely base it on as much objectivity as possible additionally um in the absence of analysis of study when implementing Workforce reductions you may see a higher demands on your remaining employees that can lead to fatigue and overall job uh lower job satisfaction third the divestment of equality focused initiatives um obviously deficit reduction planning often leads to the reduction or elimination of programs often specialized programs that are designed to promote not only workplace equity and equality such as your de initiatives but also those scholarships for underrepresented groups or initiatives that may be working to try to increase levels

203of representation of diversity particularly within leadership and ultimately um the impact on budget reductions Cuts in lower wage positions obviously can have a disproportionate impact on employees of color which just further perpetuates and increases the economic disparities across the board including limiting internal Mobility whether it be lateral or um sort of objectively upward into D into senior leadership positions and then finally a factor contributing also is the elimination of cultural attributes and practices where ultimately if a decision is made where you have to discontinue inclusive cultural practices you may end up marginalizing employees of color or diminishing the workplace cohesion that you've built and developed over the years how we can step in to help with some of this I don't know what happened um is that we've handled um well over a 100 reductions

204in force and reorganizations as a firm um collectively between the three of us myself and eduarda we have over 22 years of practice um in this space um dedicated exclusively within the the labor and employment practice um ultimately uh sort of a single thing that I I think has been missed in some of the presentations tonight is understanding that there are collective bargaining agreements that are in play here and so we have the capabilities and the abilities to to make a thorough assessment and an understanding of relative to those collective bargaining agreements certainly see minority is a factor that gets played into many reductions in force in those decisions that you're you're potentially facing as we move forward um as I mentioned earlier the development of of objective criteria is a key factor in consideration

205to try to um eliminate or reduce as best possible um I think eliminate is a a achievable goal only in sort of um only only sort of in thoughts um however um can reduce and minimize that as much as possible through some of these key initiatives I don't want to spend too much time because I do want to allow my colleagues to answer the other questions for you but we'll take those questions at the end as well good afternoon board as part of the questions that we were asked we were asked to see identify opportunities to reduce the racial disparities in advance and racial Equity uh we identified six six areas uh starting first with the data driven decision- making uh we see this project as opportunity for us to ensure the implication of a

206neutral and objective criteria that's to serve as the foundation of the decision- making uh that is an opportunity for us to put together um a measurable criteria that considers tenure time and position and performance metrics when it comes to making decisions uh We've also identified stakeholder engagement and Outreach uh we see this opportun is an opportunity for us to involve the stakeholders such as the parents the teachers and the board in the planning process to Ure that stakeholders uh perspectives are considered this in turn will Foster trust and collaboration that will lead to a well reason decision to well reasoned decision making other areas that we identified is Equitable resource allocation that is we we got to take advantage of this opportunity for us to identify underfunded schools and prioritize the funding of and resources

207of those School of those schools that have been serving historically marginalized marginalized communities and ensure that they have the tools they need to succeed the other area we identified is professional development uh viewing the efforts that are needed to reduce racial disparities and Advance racial Equity based on our experience with restructuring it is important that we use this opportunity to provide each employee with the training on cultural competency implicit bias and restorative practice to promote a more inclusive and Equitable environment other things as El employ uh L attorneys we've recognized that there is an importance for policy review uh simly policy review is for the purposes of conducting regular assessments and updating updating policies to eliminate practices that may disproportionately impact employees of color promoting Fair disciplinary action and academic support finally we I we

208put employee feedback there but what we mean is soliciting employee feedback we have found that it is effective when conducting restructures and general advice and counsel to multiple employers that soliciting employee feedback is effective to reduce racial disparities and advancing racial Equity that is because providing employees the opportunity to canly express their views without Fe without fear of retaliation has proven to assist assist in the decision- making whether it be developing New Opportunities revising policies or addressing certain issues while also taking into account each employes individualizes needs so I'll pass it on to Jess I have one minute left so I'm not going to go through my presentation thoroughly but I will say the um I'm Korean my nationality and ethnicity but our impact there's a Korean saying if you eat too fast you'll get

209a tummy EG and that's what we what my presentation was going to be about if you do if we if we um roll things out too quickly things will get messed up and this our role is as your legal council to make sure when when we do things hly it it does we don't do it too fast we do it right and that's our goal and that's our um what we want to do as your Council your Council for throughout this MCH matter and do we have that in your presentation and our my last slide is what we recommend you know prevention of minimizing the adverse impacts is what we stated in our um in our proposal we want to do a phase implementation so that we take a gradual approach to when we roll

210out things um it gives us the flexibility uh to make revisions based on real time feedback and shifting needs and most most importantly I want to focus on the last one was the three e our our our commitment throughout the process will be efforts energy and engagement we want to provide a full effort and we want to have you provide you with the you know energy that you got the Board needs and also engagement with the community members and stakeholders thank you so much thanks so much for for your presentation colleagues any questions um just a quick one um you talked about different organizations um do you have experience with school districts or uh large Public School Systems in the staff reduction or Workforce reduction experience a start um I worked with the city of

211Chicago as offsite Council and this is one of the things I'll be advised on regarding when they went through reductions um one of the things I did work on was during a few years ago I believe in 20 19 when the CBA was going on and there was lot of strike issues and there were a lot of um issues with Staffing is what is one of the things I did work on with the CPS I uh my I'm a CPS parent my daughter is in public school right now in grade fifth grade and I've went through that as a parent I went through that as an attorney outside attorney helping them guide through that process as well thank you my work also overlaps with the University of Chicago and St Augustine College both here in

212the Chicago land area um for similar purposes okay thank you so you would be the team that would be taking care one more I put one more um colleague in there but I thought you know three of us would be enough um I didn't want to another so what I'm seeing in The Proposal is four you know you got a partner the the of counil which is two of you right uh the associates and and a paal yes I we we always staff our projects based on needs um because everybody has a rates so depending on the task and then you know what's needed we task we task it appropriately so that the clients which is the board will not be overwhelmed with the with you know the building thank you for that thank you

213any other questions colleagues well thank you so much thank you so much well that was the last of the presentations uh folks any preferences are we voting tonight are we are we making a decision says discussion but discussion I saw that but yeah a decision does have to be made okay okay cuz I mean technically according to our timeline work should start October I said that I'll and I think that um just talking about what I think is important um I think that you know we've got some really complicated issues to determine and I think a lot of them are very specific to education so I do think it's really important to have experience working with school districts and just a deep understanding of education and how that works in order to be able to

214do this work um in a way that will get us to the optimal results agreed I think uh to evaluate Staffing decisions you have to understand what all those staff do um you have to understand the legal requirements uh from different departments by being underst staffed and what the penalties are for for violating those things so I share the leaning towards folks who have deeper educational experience I think in what I'm hoping for is there's as I mentioned there's a lot of sources of data and there's a lot of levers that we have to consider in making these reductions right if we reduce here we may have to spend a little more here in order to meet our requirements our educational requirements um if we consolidate these buildings and how do we move certain programs

215I think there was a lot of lovers that we have to consider so um you know we need experience in those areas um education contracts Staffing um some ability to analyze that facility's data Etc um so I'm hoping that when we get those options those levers are clearly laid out for us so we know right if we do X and this goes this way then what do we you know what what are the outcomes if we do why and it goes this way what are the outcomes um so I think that deep experience is essential I agree and just to your just to add to that I think the whole reason we're doing this is so that we can come up with a comprehensive solution so we really need to see how all the pieces

216fit together yeah you know one thing i' I'd really love to see and I know some other proposals mention it but it's really looking also at at program evaluation and making sure that again the the pro the the programs that we offer particularly are specialized education programs are uh are really evaluated in a way is part of our comprehensive look at how we right size the district but also ensure that our most marginalized students particularly our multilingual and and and students with uh have um individual Education Services uh really again that that that we're able to see and synthesize the data in a way that kind of helps us make decisions in regards to ensuring that those students are receiving um the best Services possible throughout this whole proc along with the fa facilities piece

217and our Master facilities plan along with the student assignment process and some of the great recommendations that have come out out of there uh again really uh digging into that um and having to affirm that I I agree has that deep U knowledge of how educ an educational system works and Al just you know systems level because what we're doing this is systems level work that we're we've embarked on right um and what happens at times again we and it's going to happen throughout this process is that that we're you know we we're going to make these difficult decisions and um again it becomes very localized to the schools or or or or groups that we're impacting so that was continues continues to create the tension and create the tension to throughout so having a

218firm that understands that that that this is systems level work uh and that can help us work through uh in our plan how we you know you know work through that tension that's going to be caused that becomes localized once folks who are impacted uh again react to the decisions and to the plan I think is critical I would just add that uh I think that the uh experience in education piece is also lining up with a financial piece for me and that I'm uncomfortable with signing on anything that is not giving us an end dollar amount um if if you can't predict how many hours it's going to be and you can't put a price tag on what that will be I I think we don't have the ability to monitor every hour that's

219being uh utilized so for me that kind of eliminates based those two data points on educational experience and having a firm number brings us down to only three to start like for me to consider between yeah right same and I think the one piece for me too is that I I really do think that we're not going to get to a solution that gets us where we need to be without considering the facilities component of it as well um I just think that like if we're not looking at all the pieces to the puzzle we might not get um the best outcome and for the type of work that we're trying to do and decisions we need to make I think it would be shortsighted I know that we you know we had discussed the

220previous meeting maybe that not being a priority but I think that it'll be really difficult to see how everything is going to work together long term without considering that as well I'm still uncomfortable with the price tag of two of the organizations so I um and and one I may not be wrong in terms of us not being ready to close buildings but I think we have to have a consultant who's willing to talk through all of that with us and so um I appreciated that our first presenter said that they could adjust the cost uh if needed we may need to renegotiate the total pricing and and scope work um I'm not super impressed frankly with any of them so I will you know if we have to make a decision tonight I'm I'm

221I'm ready but I'm I'm curious if we I know I know we don't want to delay any further but if we're talking about possibly adjusting the scope maybe the timeline slightly you know I know we did have another proposal that was withdrawn I think they had I they were my favorite frankly before they withdrew um but also yeah I do agree like the one the couple that I think were best are also pricey and so I you know I hate throwing a wrinkle into it but I just I'm not I don't feel super confident in any in anything we heard tonight frankly can you say what you think we needed to hear that we didn't so yeah I think like the I mean I'll just speak about the one that with Drew you know they

222have a lot of folks who have worked as superintendents and other uh District level positions in Illinois there was a lot of experience with closing schools and the process they went through with families um you know facilitating more specifics about facilitating um focus groups and and things like that and so um and again just more exper like experience in districts of various sizes in different communities in Illinois and I think that's what we're going to need um I think they were also the firm that just started their consultancy this summer right no the one that withdrew is a different one no that is the one that is the one that form this is that is that right summer okay yeah they're brand new but I mean looking at the the folks that were on their

223and again I I feel like I'm selling them I'm not but I'm saying like I just think like they seem to be uh in my opinion have probably have the experience with Central offices like similar to ours with you know unions similar to ours with uh you know school districts similar to ours like if you look at some of the names of the folks that have that were on theirs um yeah just they're not here so I don't know yeah I don't know what to say like so I was hoping so I you know I went into this hoping that we'd hear you know be wowed by one of the folks who presented I'm just not so but again that I can't I don't want to be the one to stop it if if if

224you all feel confident um I just don't I had more confidence than I did from The Proposal from the first presentation in terms of like being able to do the timeline yeah me I mean they were the ones who impressed me most I will say and so if we were able to go back to them and have a different dollar amount in mind that could get closer for me I don't know if anybody had somewhere else that they were leaning but I felt like they were pretty confident I think we've got some I think we've got some options worth considering I I'm I'm not sure if I'm ready to make a decision tonight but I think part of it too is just like I know you all have spent and I'm talking to the administration

225more time on this and I'm not sure like how you know references and that sort of thing those are all things I like to understand just what the feedback is but I do um you know I do think we've got some options I feel comfortable moving forward with um I I you know if we have to decide tonight I I can I just um it be helpful just to understand more about those references because we haven't had a long time to really um think through the proposals we saw yeah I mean I like ILO as well I mean again and they get they've worked with our district on other things right so they have some familiarity with us is that are the people on this team the people who have worked with us before or

226are they different people what's your question again sorry uh ILO has worked with us at other capacities right do the are the people that are going to be on this team the same people who have worked with us before yeah so being able to use institutional knowledge is important yeah just to public publicly State ILO Le engage in um a Leadership Retreat with uh our cabinet and the teams this summer um when we did the first round of the reimagining and restructuring and really getting in line with that so they did that that work this summer and Dr creso actually LED that work for um the district but in terms of like um we do have I think to the board's point we do have a committee of the whole meeting on Monday all right

227oh yeah this could be added you know we could potentially just add a special board a special meeting V at the yeah we could votee at the committee of the host let's vote then and see if we can get some other Financial options like like okay what can you do for $6,000 what can you do for 80 right like give a couple of numbers to for them to react to and what would adjust about the plan how does that sound Tam sounds good I guess I'd be curious too like where we it it seems like with the Leadership Retreat and things like that how deep did you get into our district and you know learning about the leadership challenges perhaps um because it seems like there's some ground work already laid in that sense yeah

228I mean we didn't get deep into structural deficit work we got deep into like understanding the Dynamics of restructuring and we're going into different teams and what that looks like and how to support and how to be very clear on setting the districtwide goals and expectations we did that aspect of the work but keep in mind that has been halted right because we went into a structural deficit right um I do think they're further along in terms of knowing us and understanding the work of us as an organization because I also want to say I started um attended some professional learning with them during the month of June July and August that really set the groundwork for a lot of the system process and structure work that we've been doing and they LED over into

229the work that we did during that Retreat this summer with with the leadership team so we're starting somewhere but we still have to give them the intricacies of other pieces of data that we will have to go deep deep around but they they do have a starting point more than you know yeah any any any of the others does anybody want information about any of these other folks for the decision on Monday or do we want to just see whether IO can meet us at a lower price point I mean I was was if I had to push nsk2 to like what it would look like if you did include closure of schools as an option in the budget reduction plan I guess I don't know but they would also need to come down on

230need to but it seems like additional work doesn't necessarily mean reduction so yeah and then the other maybe that's not it's not a road we want to go on and I think the other thing is just like trying to I think it is going to be important for some of this to be here um and I'm not sure if they'll be able to do that to be like in in person yeah was I don't did they did that say that in the proposal though for for who knew Solutions I can't remember cuz they're in massachusett I don't think I saw that in Ino has people here like they come did you guys do your stuff over Zoom or did they come no they came here just like she came here yeah came here yeah I

231think we're going to need some inperson work on on this definitely going to need some in iners work um I thought it maybe it was the stakeholder engagement piece there was for ILO no for um new solution yeah I I so what I hear is potentially going back teasing out the stakeholder engagement piece I also heard was there flexibility on the timeline because if there's flexibility on the timeline what I heard Omar say was potentially contact student services stud folks before servic the only thing would be would they would you would if they are like yeah you all adjust the timeline and then they provided us with a realistic timeline maybe that's what we ask them what theirs is but again to be clear I don't want to push it too much you know I'm

232thinking yeah I don't think end of January as opposed to beginning of January if they can provide it by Monday that's right so I think it's worth asking them if they're so that the issue is was the time the timeline or maybe even what they're capable of doing for us by January kind of how we talked about prioritizing a couple meetings ago maybe it's that it's I mean I'm a little concerned about the fact that they're brand new do they have projects under their belt that they've done on a timeline that they give us a realistic estimate because since July right the the firm is brand new since July so have they done things whose project scope is similar where they can say hey we have done this on this timeline or would it just

233be a best guess I remember from The Proposal the financial tool they had um that they talked about in their proposal right have some Financial too and the review part of the review team is looking at me like yeah so you know what I mean I think I mean I think timing is of the essence I think you know we asked for proposals and I think we got what we got and I do feel like you know I feel like um I feel like ILO is a real option if we can get some of the information we wanted um I would also like to see just some information from right way more on there like how they use data to drive decisions um and I think like if we have you know some of that

234information hopefully we can make a and we understand cost and and a little bit more about our process I feel like we should be able to make a decision on Monday because um you know there there is a cost of waiting in this situation the very real cost yeah I was remembering that the Student Center had a lot of experiences with referendums which is not NE necessarily where we need the expertise but they did have some experience with closing buildings so either the people did maybe not as a combined entity yeah I think they just had a lot of former superintendent their staff so they had experience as superintendant not experienced as consultants my sense yeah yeah going back to again the trying to see flexibility and cost and and then again that conversation we

235had a few weeks back around the priorities having that be the frame right we prioritized we had what five or six things that we want to do in our plan but there were three that we really want to prioritize and see helping frame the the the budget conversation right or or the cost conversation on those things that we PR prioritized couple of weeks back around the the three areas that bu staff buildings and so essentially having making the adjustment and cost to focus on the three areas were the reduction in staff and model the school closings and consolidations and then the third possible was the special ed efficiency so having them to look at and then making the price adjustment based on that yeah is I don't think you need go back to all of

236them with that we can just I think just go back to a couple and say yeah so ILO rights way U any any others said students stud we go back to those three is that so did you get that tamon I did okay okay thank you all right thank you so much thank you Tamar for getting all this together for us appreciate it um next up is the f School update like by Kirby Michael and Ben you can come up welcome to the 10 o' show can you turn on the projector yes I can please excellent done uh good morning board and that was a joke um we're here for the second board update this October because we gave a board update on Foster school earlier in October uh just uh a couple important things

237to talk about one is that bid group came bid group 2 came in um and we have asked representatives from couron Clark um Ben Nelson and Michael Perez to come and talk about big group two all right all right so good evening everyone um on September 23rd uh we put out bids for bid group number two this bid group included four bid packages bid package number three was building concrete build uh bid package number four was pre-cast concrete bid package number five was structural steel and bid package number six was site work and utilities the bids were arranged uh bid group number three we received four bids uh bid group number four for pre-cast three bids uh bid pack five for structural steel one bid and bid pack six for site utilities two bids and

238um bid packs three four and six all fell within 1% of our estimate so those those were in line and good uh we had one outlier which was that structural steel only receiving one bid uh we decided to delay the bid uh on the initial uh bid date to try to uh secure a few more bids we did not open that package on that day uh and extended um additional invit the following week to uh additional biders unfortunately we did only receive one so we decided to open and that one came in a bit High um talk talking to the mic a little bit more M sorry so that that uh fifth bid package did come in a bit High um that one was uh somewhere around 10% over our estimated budget and um so

239we've outlined um some recommendations two two paths forward uh to reconcile so bid being that bid packages 3 four and six were in line we are recommending to move forward tonight uh with the award of those um I'll walk through briefly uh each of those in summary the building concrete excuse me let me preface and say we did interview all the biders um afterwards and um we feel that the low responsive biders understood the scope and uh are ready to uh execute the work so bid group number three uh low bidder was concrete by Wagner um they had a alternate bid which we are recommending to approve uh which was moisture mitigation uh this is for a Concrete ad mixture to make sure that the moisture content in the concrete is not too uh wet

240when we go to put in flooring um later on in in the project scope with the aggressive schedule so we are uh recommending to move forward um and then we did add $65,000 of allowances for um trade coordination and stone um and construction contingency allowance we are recommending um that we have that in the bid just in case there are any unforeseen um conditions bid pack number four uh stonecast products uh the pre-casters out of Wisconsin um their bids were right in line um we added a an allowance for any kind of miscellaneous structural steel or me coordination that may be necessary it's recommended to carry that just as a float um and they did suggest that there could be a potential savings uh that's not reflected uh in this number for um alternative brick

241suppliers being uh allowed to submit a number so we're working through that with them um time frame for that brick is kind of tight so we do want to keep our options open as lead times are are challenging um I'll skip to bid group six site work uh Burger contractors uh was our low bidder um we do have an added It's a larger contingency for stone and undercuts um we are sort of in our opinion through the thick of the unknowns with the site workor that's already completed uh we have two additional significant excavations that will occur in this package which are um a storm trap system underground storm detention system uh we do have some um soil Improvement included in the bid for those systems uh but there's always the possibility that we run

242into a particularly soft spot uh of dirt while we're digging so we do have that recommended $100,000 allowance uh in their bid now moving to structural steel uh walk Keegan steel was our only only bidder as mentioned um so after we opened their bid and uh realized that the numbers were higher than anticipated uh we worked through a value Engineering Process with them to try to find ways where we could uh reduce some of the cost in their scope um we went through a back and forth iteration about a week and we identified about $145,000 in savings which is reflected in the number presented um if if we were to move forward with them we still would recommend carrying a $75,000 allowance for miscellaneous steel and pre-cast coordination um but again being 10% over we

243wanted to make sure we presented alternative paths forward in case uh we were not comfortable dipping that far into the contingency use this early uh in the bid bid schedule so in the letter we shared today uh we presented option two which would allow us to uh hold walk Keagan Steel's bid um for a period while we um explore rebidding this package with a revised steel package what we would do is we would modify the scope in ways where we feel there's cost savings um put it out for competitive bidding again uh we would reissue that this week and um ask for bids to be submitted on November 26th which uh coincides with our bid group 3 time frame as well so we would have a better understanding of where we are with those numbers

244as well as the the new steel bid numbers um what we would do uh We've outlined benefits and drawbacks um so uh obviously we'd try to secure more biders uh to get more competitive numbers um we would uh explore the added value engineering options we we mentioned uh but we'd also consider revising the qualif application and insurance requirements this round to make this bid a little bit more attractive to biders that may have walked away from the bid previously um we did hear back from a few that uh some of the insurance uh criteria was a little high compared to Industry standards uh those are based on some of the recommendations of the district's uh insur um but we do feel confident that uh if if we were to explore that option it may um

245secure more biders in a more competitive environment now drawbacks um is we would expect some delay as a result of this um one of the complicating factors is the steel is very important and critical with the pre-cast package um we have loadbearing pre-cast so uh the shop drawings that the steel contractor would provide uh would directly influence the pre-cast package so we looked at our schedule uh Ben Ben and I analyzed it today uh we feel that this would probably incur about a one month potential delay um in that erection but um we don't think this would be a fully realized as one month uh in that our low bid pre-cast installer did suggest that our schedule was very conservative with the time to get the panels up um so we we do feel we

246can maybe absorb a little bit of that of that in the schedule but obviously we lose a little bit of slack so you know if we get a particular bad spell of weather or things like that that would impact the install we've lost a little bit of that with this this path so we wanted to lay those out to the group today and I guess open it up for discussion and determine how we want to move forward one thing that oh I'm sorry one thing that I just want to add regardless of which direction that we want to go we're still targeting to be on budget for this job at the 40 48.4 five million that's a good point so this this is simply an exercise of risk assessment and what's the appetite for dipping

247into contingency now or trying to rebid and secure some of that contingency so just so I'm understanding um the budget the construction contingency that's in the bids right the totals um are under the budgeted construction contingency right it's it's below the budgeted contingency for just construction right so there are other contingencies for other phases or is this it but that's all the this is all the contingency is showed right there below the line which is the um in the recommendation if we do award steel we would be uh at 1 Point 743 million left in contingency to manage the rest of the job meaning we would lose $1.7 million of our contingency no meaning we would still have that remaining that's what would be remaining if we right so if we award steel we would

248have to uh take out about 282,000 out of our current okay I see it now yeah got it um I'm not going to lie that date terrifies me yeah yeah like that's a date projected still over a year away with no delays that might still happen in the next year so while I definitely would like us to save money I'm not sure the delay is like if the school can't open and we can't close like that's going to cost us a lot more than so yes yes um couple of other questions you said that the um insurance requirements may have you know scared away some others um would Wan steel be open to reconsidering their bid if we lowered the insurance uh requirements to Industry standards like would because they presumably they bid knowing what

249the insurance requirements were so if is there room for negotiation um and then this I guess the second uh question is is that the primary driver of the higher costs or is it the cost of Steel so we're only going to be able to get a you know minimum amount of reductions in the bids or um I'm just trying to understand like what what's the you know the cost benefit here of delay um and how much could we potentially save cuz we also could put it up for bid and not get a better offer right I was going to say exactly that this doesn't guarantee that the numbers are coming back in better that's a big gamble now what what we are are doing to help ensure that the numbers come in better is what

250um Michael was was saying and we have to do a redesign uh we have to change the scope to be able to send this out so there are things within the design that we can possibly look at simplifying from a connection standpoint for from a framing standpoint um we're also looking at changing some of the details for like the roof screening and that sits on the roof to cover the mechanical units so we have a feeling that there's potential just with that having some cost reduction um and then obviously if we do LAX on some of the requirements and get a more competitive market you know competitive market always helps to drive price to to answer your question about Insurance while Keegan had no no issue with the insurance on their end uh they had

251the $5 million um umbrella coverage already um so we did ask that in the value engineering and they said that would be uh that would not reflect any savings by reducing that post bid uh but they did tell us that uh they did not receive as many competitive numbers from uh Steel Erectors they're a fabricator they hire performing contractors to do the steel erection and they said a number of them were scared of that 5 million or potential to accept the 10 million or $15 million ad alternate that we we included in the bid that was recommended by the insurance company and I'm not sure I'm not sure we have the ability like we have no guarantee that our insurance company would agree to reduce these parameters right they generally are not super flexible on

252some of these things I guess Kirby I'd like to ask about I mean we have an owner's rep is there any feedback from them about these bids or recommendations well we have six bids from the owners rep we've interviewed four and we recommended one to be to move ahead with but we're still waiting on contract terms to finalize with that and we really can't engage them until those that's done and that will be next Monday so the timing issue there is an issue there if we were to go with option two did I hear correctly that we would still have W Keegan Steel's bid yes so it's not that much of a g like that wouldn't go up or the gamble is just the time lost right so we would still hold their bid uh

253they would still have to honor that bid they do have to honor it okay I know the timeline isn't ideal but if we can save some like I do feel like it's early to tap into the contingent uh you know the contingency money it's also early to be adding time on agreed yeah yeah and also that that's with the value engineering the the numbers you were giving us is with value engineering already correct if we rebid it there's a chance we may not have to do that no there's additional value value engineering opportunities if we rebid got it I'm going to ask a question that you might not be able to answer in any kind of way um how does the election play into what might come next on bids because you said the date

254would be end of November right so correct whatever the current state is whether we have a president whether the president like could that affect bids negatively positively it it could depending on the confidence of the market obviously we we can't know uh who ultimately wins the election but um everybody has a different feeling on where the market may go depending on the elected official so that timing is not beneficial I would say for the bidding but purposes but I'm gon to okay different question I know you said they have to honor the bid so they can't like increase the bid but do they have to do the work right so let's say the election has happened and things are off the rails could they just go now we're not going to do it anymore or

255do they have to we we would pull the bid bond in that circumstance and go out for find another contractor to fulfill the work and that bid bond is a penalty against them fin this is not my area no that's that's a good question that's a good question so we're confident W Keagan is confident to do the work they've not mentioned any kind of angst about the upcoming elections so not sure that's usually part of your RFP process not the common question you have about your ability to build this building if we change some of the specs I know you were talking about potential changes to bring down the cost if we rebid if we did that would we still would we also have the opportunity to do that with Wan still or would that

256require time and a rebid or could we talk to them and try to make some of those changes to bring it down we did we did ask some of those questions so aisc certification for welders Etc is something that we have as a strict criteria for all uh prospective biders we did ask the question if we were to wave that criteria would that have any material change in their price they said no I think what this ultimately does is it's not a direct influence on the price but who can put a bid forward so I think we don't know how walk heagan formulated their number but knowing that they were the only bidder on bid day and we told them that we would delay they we don't know how that influenced their number um so

257anytime you have a competitive bid with with multiple biders people will sharpen their pencil and usually give a more competitive number I mean I feel good that we're we still have a contingency budget left but I don't know how to think about like how far we are into the process and how good to feel about how much of the contingency budget this we use I guess that's what I'm trying to understand I mean you have built a lot of buildings we have not so in your project experience is it good to dip into is it advisable to dip into contingency so early um is it advisable to add a month of delay like which is the bigger risk in terms of looking at projects of the scope and you know with with these at the

258stage of the build right what I'd say is obviously it's never ideal to dip into contingency this early however as mentioned being that we've already done an advanced site work package we know a lot about what's what to expect out there when you carry a contingency for a new build on a on a site you don't know a lot about uh that's where you can run into some big big pitfalls right so uh we have had to do by necessity soil improvements we had to stabilize the soil we we're putting a twot stone base across the site there's a pretty sure thing that this is stable and we we're not going to run into what what's called undercuts when you run into soft soil and you have to dig down further add more Stone that's

259always an unforeseen uh that's what you carry a lot of these for that's those are the big unknowns once we start getting out of the ground we're doing Bim coordination which is uh Clash detection between all the trades so we help eliminate some of that like oh shoot a duct was in the wrong spot we should have known that but we're going to change it and add cost we're doing some of that on The Upfront side and we know this this the site is stable so in our in our estimation this is not a uh scary thing dipping into the contingency now but we just obviously knowing the the financial situation wanted to present two paths for you to consider is the date a scary thing I'll let Ben answer that I I'm always less

260conservative on the schedule side so I think there is slack but I'll let Ben speak to that and and that's a question right for for again our our administrative team the again the operations of how you know when when it started you got to start school you got to start scho three weeks later and again does that give the team enough time to be able to be ready to for the start of school right to get used to the building and I just want to make clear when we say the project completion date that's full you guys are fully moved in and we've already done the commissioning everything is set and and ready to go I mean punch list is done punch list is done Furniture is installed here are the keys so um with

261that being said that's why we're I'm not overly nervous about the state um and I I I do think that we potentially have some slack and some other um activities that that we can look at we are being somewhat conservative um but we've yet to hit or or miss a a date um that we've we've proposed on on a a schedule for for school so we any of your contracts are just in ours any yeah so I I would like to think also if if you save in between $2 to $300,000 by rebidding uh you are setting yourself up with that schedule push but one way you can solve a schedule push is over time uh in the spring of 2026 to get the building done so you have that 20200 to $300,000 there to

262use to cover that over time to cover that schedule and you come out of wash but at least you're giving this yourself the chance to if you don't have to go that route then you do realize the benefits of the of the savings we haven't set the calendar yet right so B but based for that year but based right am I right but based on our typical timeline like that date still gives us three weeks four weeks until school starts rough so Educators can't come back come back based on the current contract the first day Educators can return is August 20th so we usually base our start date after that so we usually start the fourth week in August so so very least we have four week three full weeks maybe four weeks as is

263based on that July 27th dat yeah and like if it's you know if we need it to ship the calendar a week you know the calendar start yeah like I would say we can't start schools at different dates but if we know we're behind which they've never been behind it sounds like um if we had to shift our entire school calendar a week it feels like it you know oh that I I mean people plan a year or two in advance I don't think that would fly I can just add though that we usually I mean we we have historically tried to approve two years of calendars we have not yet approved our calendar for next year yet because we are still in contract negotiations and we know the calendar is largely impacted but it

264so it would not be uncomon if we um approved next year's calendar and the following Year's calendar sorry in 2526 and we should have a better sense of the timeline and the project should be re really far along at that point I think if there was any concern over the timeline we'd want to just be really proactive and saying that if it was necessary we would start a week later than usual or something because I do think there are so many organizations and families and staff who plan based on EX I agree and again that's not ideal by any means but you know we're also being so we have at least three weeks keys in hand furniture in it feels like I still think I to me it feels like option two is still is

265worth it it's worth the gamble knowing that it's only a Time Gamble and that at the very least we still have walk keagan's bid um but that's just option two I mean I'm okay with the option two if it gets us again possibly $300,000 in savings I feel like that $300,000 in savings will'll have less of an impact in the school not opening on time but I will go with Will just to reiterate you you you said cter Clark has never missed a deadline is that correct we don't anticipate missing a this deadline not W Omar when you say that make sure wait can you kiry can you repeat wait trust me I don't want to pretty much everything here in EV I also really I think Kirby really brought up a good point if

266we are behind that money is there for possibly there is a risk there's you know no biders come back even though we've done everything we can to bring them back by changing a bunch of requirements Etc there's also a risk that the bids come back in they don't save as much as money as we expect so understand but there is added value we're adding to it and a competitive market will change the numbers um so we feel that there's likely to be considerable savings but we can't State exactly how much and then sua if you have that extra money then you can use it to pay for overtime if you're if you are indeed behind schedule in the spring of 2026 okay so you can you can save on the contingency and use it later

267to catch up on the building schedule yeah okay but then we've just stressed ourselves out for no savings that's how we live yeah want to make sure I understand just living on the edge we don't lose more money but we've put ourselves through this time pressure for not saving any money okay when will you know so let's say we go with option two you know you're saying an expected delay by one month when will we have a better idea of that like what if it's not a full month Etc like what does that look like I think we'd have a better understanding of that after post bit interview understanding when these Fabricators could get steel on site uh when they could get their shop drawings rather more importantly prepared for us uh if they'd be

268willing to do that advaned work with a letter of intent ahead of a board approval as as an example oh yeah um where they take on the risk of doing some of that that drawing work upfront so then we can get that to our pre-cast bids right away and understand where we fit in with their production schedule and when we can expect to see the pre-cast on site is there any ability to not go as long in the bidding process like I don't know what the mandates are but I think you said November 26th like is there any possibility of like cutting a week off or so that it's a little less on the back end we could but we then also run the risk of making this not uh appealing to biders if they

269have to rush a bid with fresh eyes with only two weeks uh we typically like to give three weeks yeah just like November 26 is like a while from now so I again I don't know the business like Thanksgiving tues Thanksgiving correct it'll be right before Thanksgiving the Tuesday before Tuesday Tuesday before two weeks yeah it feels worth it yeah yeah it's a lot of money yeah all right sounds like option b then yes option b okay option okay uh option b they didn't hear you option two option two option two I'm sorry option two 10:30 bety BR you're like there's no there's no letters on the board deal is there motion to approve bid package without this deal okay this would be is go ahead does it does it matter we can make a

270motion I mean can we just get to it in two agenda items do we need to do it right now yeah let's just yeah let's just let's just run through the agenda when we get to we get to it thank you guys I think any other updates uh just a give an update on that's just a re reiteration of the pl project schedule so you can see bid group 3 they're going out and opening on 11:26 and approving at the 1216 board memo and so we'll fit steel within that bid group three cycle so by 1020 wait a minute that was today right that's today by so you mentioned being above the ground having all that foundational work already to go so the projected time for that to be finished would be one at least

271just just just that part where you said well it's better to be once we finish allation and all the grounds then then we have less issues around contingencies what's the projection for that to get to that point when you a still concrete foundations so foundations uh if if we move forward with approving that that bid package today is anticipated actually to get started about two two weeks that work started we like to get it started that quick if we can uh the excavation portion of it will um we're working through with our uh ground Improvement contractor and some of the uh Foundation details that we we might have to provide um which is the only thing that we're or which is one of the reasons that we're wanting to carry some of that additional contingency

272um but we expect it to be complete foundations to be complete in December in December okay yeah can I ask a dumb another dumb question sure we're now talking about trying to do work in December does the weather make any of this possibly complicated uh we've got winter conditions factored into the pricing okay yep all right not that we've been having winter the last few years but we could don't jinx it please from the looks of it it might not snow this year new new Tennessee um the other part of the presentation was just an update in terms of sap 3 but it's highly related to the Foster school because it's the Foster School transition committee uh we sent out as I announced um released applications applic we did delay applications by a week uh

273per board recommendation which was wise and we did delay the meeting from November 6th to November 13th per board recommendation which was also very wise um so our goals were diverse representation um we wanted to particularly focus on parents and staff from the schools attended by Fifth word students you can see those top six schools right there that's of this current class of K5 students at um that that are in Evon the percent of students who live in in the Fifth Ward coming from those schools is accordingly um we made extensive Outreach through our social media direct emails or staff channels to to spread the word uh direct emails to all Foster families and fifth word families and Community leaders we did receive 35 applications which we think is really strong just to give you

274a little background of what those applicants look like 30% from The Fifth Ward 20% from the second ward um and then the seventh eth and skoki rounded out the top five uh if you look at um do they have children attending schools um majority not because their Community leaders or a lot of former District 65 parents um there's a high school student so they don't have a student they don't have a student in the district either yet I don't think um but you also see Bessie roads Kingsley Linwood or inton and Willard which are all those top schools uh so your parents represented from those schools really nicely the one area we're missing there is King Arts uh in terms of race and ethnicity well represented from the African-American Community the white Community um and

275it's mattering other races very low representation of anybody who identified as latinx um Or Hispanic so that is the other area where we're going to be looking to try to bring parents in I would say that reaching out and recruiting best Road's parents was not there very easy in the last couple weeks um and then you can see we have parents we have employees we have a two District Union Representatives um Community Partners Community leaders pretty well represented there so overall a good representation but we need to focus on personally appealing new king arts and latinx families to join on and our kickoff meeting is on November 13th we have a strong planning committee and we're working closely with our partners at Northwestern and to help in that process Kirby have we articulated whatever our

276plan is going to be for like translation so that people understand what barriers may or may not exist to meetings like will would someone who is that is Spanish dominant not be able to participate or will they be able to seamlessly we um that was a shortfall in our first communication we have followed up on that and we need to particularly make sure on our next round of personal appeals that that resource will be available okay because I think we do need that number to come up yep actually identified all the speakers who came from Bessie rhods to us who speak Spanish and we're personally appealing to them and saying now's your chance to help us any other questions that's good thank you gentlemen thanks thank you all right the next item up that we

277have is the adoption of a resolution in recognition Dolores Holmes I move that the Board of Education adopt the resolution in recognition of Dolores Holmes second I got to read the resolution first thank you um the school board resolution recognizing contributions and celebration of life of The Honorable Dolores homes whereas Evanson skoki School District 65 and all the Evanson Community lost a community matriarch and beloved Advocate on Tuesday October 22nd 2024 with the death of The Honorable Dolores Holmes and whereas Dolores Holmes worked with resolutely and enthusiastically for the return of a neighborhood school to evanson's Fifth Ward and whereas Dolores Holmes never failed to uplift younger Generations through her work at Family Focus the Evon city council and countless other community organizations and whereas Dolores Holmes was a champion for justice a pillar of

278evanson's black community and a leader who encouraged everyone around her to stand up for their Bel beliefs and whereas Delores Holmes was a selfless leader whose honest wisdom inspired us all to be our best selves and now therefore or be it resolved that the Evanson skoki School District 65 school board on behalf of its members and the broader Community honors the Legacy and impact of the honorable Dolores Holmes whose indelible impact will forever be remembered at Evon and be it further resolved that the school board extends its deepest sympathy to the Holmes family and the entire Evon Community whom dolor has nurtured in her lifetime of love and strength second Stone yes Wilkins yes Kim yes lindsy Ryan yes Hernandez yes the next item up is the approval of the Foster School bid number two

279for pre-cast site foundation and steel cool as part of bid group two I move that the Board of Education approve the bid packages involving building concrete for concrete by Wagner AR sorry don't you read B is that what I'm reading that's what I'm reading sorry it's okay it's late that's okay sorry sorry uh involving building concrete for concrete by Wagner architectural and structural pre-cast for stonecast product and site excavation and utilities for Burger excavation yes yes yes Lindsay Ryan yesz Yes next item up is our consent agenda I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendations outlined in the attachment group motion and approve the Personnel appointments leads and separations September 2024 Board of Education and committee meeting minutes September 2024 Financial updates contracts above 25,000 36,000 contract with Quaver for materials including music

280videos lessons Etc aligned to the Department's General music program 56,18499 September 2022 Clos session meeting recordings and review of me minutes press 115 and second Salem yes wil yes yes Lindsay Ryan yes Hernandez yes next item is a resolution authorizing the dismissal of an educational support staff employee I move that the Board of Education authorize the dismissal of an education staff employee as recommended second Salem yes wilin yes Kim yes Lindsay Ryan yes Hernandez yes next item is the approval of District 65 e-learning plan I move that the Board of Education approve and adopt the renewal of the District 65 e-learning plan for the next 3 years beginning with the 2425 school year e-learning could potentially be enacted on days when school is closed due to in inclement weather such as extreme cold major snowstorms

281or other emergencies second Salem yes Wilkins yes Kim yes Lindsay Ryan yes Hernandez yes 18 is any other business that needs to be discussed okay without further Ado with with no further business I adjourn this meeting at 10:35 p.m. thanks everybody have a great evening and a good rest of the week week for