[1/22/24] D65 - Regular Board Meeting

001ready good evening everybody Welcome to our regular board meeting for the evening I want to Welcome All community members thank you for engaging us and being with us today um adila can you please do the roll call yes today is Monday Jan January 22nd 2024 the time is 7:09 p.m. roll call Sue here Lindsay Ryan here K here Kern here Salem here wilin here Hernandez here I'm going to go ahead and read the land acknowledgement we take time to acknowledge that the land we meet on is the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires the parami oji and Odawa this land has also served as an important meeting place for Miami hunk the monoman enoa sack Fox Peoria Arapaho cheyen and other tribal Nations this land has long been a center for indigenous

002people to gather trade and maintain kinship ties located at the intersection of several great waterways the region has become the site of travel and prosperity we acknowledge Evon and John Evans are tied to the massacre of the Arapaho and Cheyenne 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 descendence despite Illinois eventually prohibiting slavery slavery was an accepted practice before and after statehood the vestages of slavery remain throughout the United States and directly affect the descendants

003of enslaved peoples rich and heterogeneous communities who help to find in the African diaspora the genocidal patterns of of violence against peoples of African descent and Indigenous peoples have been replicated to exclude and Har people from many intersecting marginalized identities in the United States religious minoritized disabled and lgbtq identified peoples black and indigenous people of color and people of color r large these patterns demonstrate that the pursuit to end State action violence against black and indigenous people of color is a daily struggle for Liberation from continued social political and economic anti-black racism and oppression today we acknowledge that we are living breathing loving grieving laughing and sharing space on unseated territory may we learn to honor the historical and contemporary presence and power of the people and their belief that we must be caretakers of

004the lands and Waters for the livelihood of future Generations we 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 uh the next item on our agenda is our district update so um Dr Turner if you'd have any updates for usend agenda oh I'm sorry we give me just say we need to do do the approval of the agenda go ahead I moved at the Board of Education approved tonight's meeting agenda as presented second I'd like to make an amendment to the agenda if I may can we um can we pull out of the consent agenda the list of bills and place

005that at the new agenda item number eight after the approval of Head Start agreement so the treasurers report stays but just the list of bills everything stays except for the list of bills thanks makes sense cl to eight we can do it we can either do it right after the consent agenda or okay after the Head Start so I move that the Board of Education amend tonight's meeting agenda as currently presented and adding the list of bills under item number eight second Sue yes lindsy Ryan Yes Tim yes Kern yes Salem yes wilin yes Hernandez yes motion passes 70 all right now we move on to our district updates tonight we are recognizing our January high five celebrating excellence in District 65 award recipients now in its seventh year we have received hundreds of nominations

006and honored nearly 100 license and support staff members for their tremendous work I would like to thank by Line Bank for its continue support and sponsorship of the program over the course of this school year this evening's recipients will receive a $100 gift card and a framed recognition certificate I am now going to turn it over to Melissa messenger our chief Communications officer thank you Dr Turner um tonight we have the pleasure of recognizing two very very long time d65 staff members uh guy Engelman and Ivon Boon um so I'm going to invite both of our team members up um after the awards to take a photo with our board president and superintendent um so first up we are recognizing Mr engan do you want to come up um so he's a social studies teacher

007at Nicholls middle school and has been in our district for an impressive 24 years and he was nominated by one of our family members and excited to uh bring up Josh one of our students to give some remarks on his [Applause] behalf um hi my name is Joshua mcferson I had Mr englman in fifth grade and and now in sixth grade for social studies um Mr Engleman has not just encouraged me but also my classmates and has told us multiple times never give up and just keep fighting through it and you'll eventually get it um um Mr Engle is uh super funny nice he last year he nominated me for the African-American Achievement Award um uh Mr engman is not only a mentor but he he uh he gives hope love and support he deserves

008this [Applause] award sorry to take advantage of that photo opportunity just before you announce the next [Applause] thank you Sergio and we apologize that we missed that want to make sure everyone is accommodated for and can access uh today's conversations okay I think we are almost ready okay um so next up we have our January educational support staff recipient Miss [Applause] vanon um so miss Boon currently serves as the administrative assistant at Willard Elementary School and has been in our community 20 20 years now um she was nominated um by um one of our family members who wished to stay Anonymous but ask that we share remarks on their behalf they wrote Miss Boon has consistently gone above and beyond her role as an administrative assistant demonstrating unwavering commitment and professionalism her dedication to the

009students families and staff is truly remarkable she Fosters a warm and welcoming atmosphere making students feel valued and safe every day she has a remarkable ability to connect with parents and families providing them with the support and information that they need her open communication and approachability have built strong bonds within our school [Applause] community back [Applause] great well I I just want to again take the time to thank uh our two Educators there and again this is one of our favorite Parts board meetings is really acknowledging uh the incredible staff that we have in the school district that continue to give their all for our students and families so thank you thank you thank you uh the next item I wanted to uh discuss was uh or just to give you an update give the

010community update around the superintendent search process so um as of January 8th our uh um our um advertising our application window closed uh again we as a reminder we contracted out with the Illinois Illinois Association of school school boards to help us with the with the superintendent search uh we have narrowed it down to five candidates which we will be interviewing uh in the next week um and then uh so so through throughout the the end of January up until February we'll have a couple of rounds uh and just wanted to give that update in regards to uh where we're at in this particular process uh again we'll continue to provide updates uh as as new developments occur uh we do have a dashboard that uh the Illinois assciation school board has provided which we

011will be posting uh just so the community uh can follow along in regards to how that process is unfolding so that is just the update for our superintendent search uh the next item up is our public comments members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to hear specific concerns about staff members being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable for 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

012to respond to public comments the best way to respond correspond with members of the board is by emailing Schoolboard at district 65.net and with that adila do we have any public comments yes um we have a Full Slate today I'll call the first three um speakers Ryan lza sorry Lano okay Eric Parsons Oliver Ruff good evening Dr Turner members of the school board my name is Ryan Nano father of a second grader at Bessie roads with a younger child said to join as a kindergarten next year first first I want to make it unequivocally clear that at no point during this entire process has the bie roads Community opposed the creation of the fifth W School contrary to what some members of the community suggested at last week's school board meeting our advocacy has never

013been against this new school our fight our unwavering commitment has been to preserve the k through eight wall to--all School model that was promised to us this model is not just a program it is a testament to our community's Val values and commitment to Quality education for a vulnerable population that benefits from continuity as opposed to constant change furthermore I believe that the besty Ros Community would be better served at a location other than the fifth War school this is not a stance against a new school but a recogn recognition of its intended purpose allocating spaces at the fifth world school to the to the bie roads program could inadvertently limit the opportunities for the fifth word Community which is a new which the new school is primarily meant to serve it is important to

014note that it it was not the Bessie roads Community but the district itself they initially proposed relocating Bessie roads to the fifth W school for years we were given assurances by the district that our k through eight twe wall-to-wall model would be preserved these assurances formed the Bedrock of our trust and our and our plans for our children's education yet in a span of just three months months we have been a we have seen a strling reversal with the district now considering the dismantling of this very model this abroad change is not only unacceptable but also deeply concerning while I fully support the construction of the new fifth word school and understand the rationale behind the closing of the Bessie roads building I must raise an important question why is the closure of a building

015being equated with a dismantling of a successful successful School model we as a community are less concerned about the physical location and more about preserving the educational framework that has proven effective for our bilingual children I respectfully urge the board to engage in a transparent and thorough discussion regarding the decision to link the closure of a physical building with the dismantling of a k through eight wall wall to--all model it is crucial to understand the rationale behind this decision and explore all possible Avenues to maintain the integrity of our educational programs independent of their physical location the creation of the fifth word school will inev inevitably lead to a significant reshuffling of students many who are currently busted to schools outside their neighborhoods will return to a more proximate walkable school this shift will open

016up space in various schools across the district presenting a unique opportunity to reimagine and possibly relocate the K through A2 program why must we be my why why must we abandon a successful educational model that has served a community so well should the board consider to close the closure of the Bessie roads building as a necessary step for the development of the fifth world school I would let's keep the dream of the K wall wall to Walmart alive this would be involve focus on just closing the building but keeping the K2 twe program alive thank you [Applause] good evening good evening everyone uh I'd just like to take a quick moment here uh Dr Turner I want to acknowledge you for your leadership and your insightfulness as you have directed the closing of the building

017due to the inclement weather many people going to be upset with your decision making because you know for personal reasons and and I understand their reasoning however I want you to know that as a leader I think you did an outstanding job and you should be acknowledged for the job that you did and keeping the children safe and also giving them an opportunity to um not you know have frostbite and other things so thank [Applause] you now I'm ready for my 25 minute speech superintendent Turner Dr Turner Board of Education members administrative staff students parents teachers District staff and community members My Name is Oliver a Ruff as we discuss the establishment of a new school in the Fifth Ward of Evon it is crucial that we address the historical patterns of educational disinvestment that

018have disproportionately affected the community the need for a new school goes beyond physical infrastructure it is opportunity to rectify the systemic issues and Champion educational equity for far far too long The Fifth Ward has been has borne the brunt of traditional educational disinvestment this has resulted in disparities and resources opportunities and ultimately ultimately student outcomes the establishment of a new school is a chance to reverse the trend and to pave the way for transformative change we must recognize that true educational Equity requires intentional and targeted efforts the new school should not only be a symbol of progress but a tangible commitment to rectifying past injustices this means allocating resources strategically implementing specialized programs to address specific needs and fostering an inclusive environment that caters to the diverse backgrounds of students of our students Community involvement

019is a Paramount in this process engaging with parents teachers and residents of the Fifth Ward will ensure that the solutions we Implement are rooted in lived experiences and aspirations of those who direct who are directly affected um by educational disinvestment this collaborative approach is essential to building trust fostering a sense of ownership and ultimately creating a school that serves as a Beacon of Hope for the entire community in conclusion let us view the establishment of a new school not only as a construction project project but as a callous for positive change by addressing the traditional educational disinvestment headon we have the opportunity to set a precedent for Equitable educational education that benefits generations to come let me be perfectly clear there's no contest with the twe issue there is just a priority request because of

020Decades of denial for the fifth wart community remember audacious advocacy will produce living Legacy thank you for your commitment to the bet for the betterment of our community and to pursue and the eradicating educational Injustice I have another 10 minutes thank you all very [Applause] much uh I'm a Bessie Road's parent I live in the Fifth Ward I've lived in 15 cities and 10 states I have moved 36 times in my life I've now lived in Evon longer than anywhere else and I've been teaching for over 20 years and I'm currently working on my dis on my dissertation and curriculum studies throughout this process I've been a guas at the way the the broader Evon Community has failed to show this the actual material support for both the fifth word school and particularly Bessie rhods

021the dog whistles have been deafening calling them out has not when I speak to my fellow Neighbors in the fifth word going back to the very beginning of saying we were going to do the school everyone said we absolutely need a school in the Fifth Ward but I don't trust the city to make it happen the way it needs to happen and I desperately said man that attitude's not going to get us where we need to be and yet those sentiments have been completely borne out now I'm in a very privileged position because of who I am and things that are outside of my control as a result I want to make sure that I am voicing giving voice to people who have been silenced and I would highly recommend that everybody who has any

022say in this process needs to genuinely look at what happens when you simply close a school if you read or listen to anything EV valuing has said on the subject particularly in her book ghosts in the schoolyard documenting what happened in cide Chicago and you don't see parallels between that and Bessie rhods then I think we need to have a real conversation um and if you haven't engaged with that at all then you need to pause and consider taking that into account before you take advocacy and action um so as prom Pro I do want to make sure I share some other people's uh words here and want to bring attention to the article by Bridget Udall in the uh Evanson Roundtable which outlines the history of this quite thoroughly okay can I give these

023four quotes from other people that have been given to me these are quotes from other community members of Bessie rhods the fifth word school should be done but not at the expense of another marginalized group please don't think we are all the same that all of our needs can be met with one solution we have different histories please don't assume what's best for me the work schedule of some parents at Bessie roads make it difficult for them to sit and read with their children at night they have no time to come and speak to advocate for their children who is left to advocate for them it's a shame because there is so much there is such potential for this school to become the pride of District um roads uh sorry the board is taking advantage

024of Bessie roads because they can they are taking advantage of immigrant families afraid to speak up would this even be a topic in a school where the majority of students are white so again consider whether all of this situation and the difficulties we're facing would be the same if this was the first Ward or the seventh thank you next we have Roger Williams Reverend Michael neighbors Melissa Rosen Wick good evening uh District 65 School Board good evening uh Evanson residents my name is Roger Williams and I'm a a board member with crew 65 it has come to my attention an unstated hesitancy on the part of a few members board members regarding moving with forward with the Fifth Fifth award school this hesit hesitancy is caused by an unwillingness to sign twe grades K through

025five to the fifth W school and grades 6 to8 to Haven Middle School assigning twe to the fifth W School makes a lot of sense not only not only is the greatest number of black families living in the Fifth Ward but most uh of the Native Spanish-speaking families in Evanson also live in the Fifth Ward if District 65 places twe in the new Fifth Ward school both black and brown children in the Fifth Ward will be able to walk to school rather than being bust as they currently are we believe it is District 65s moral obligation to build the fifth W School the The Fifth Ward in Evon is the only Ward that does not have a neighborhood school as a result black children from The Fifth Ward have been busted seven schools since 1967

026I have learned that when making decisions it is wise to consider the broader historical context it is documented that the Fifth Ward and Foster school have always been the victims of racist policies and racist behaviors The Fifth Ward itself with this African-American majority was a product of red lining that funnel black people into the Fifth Ward likewise Foster's School began as a white school in in the early 1900s later it became a black school because of red lining and the deliberate deliberate placing of black children into that school during the night during the 60s there was an initiative to desegregate evence schools through busing black children endured the worst of this plan the desegregation plan was designed to motivate white families to s kids to Foster school black children on other hand were shipped away

027from Foster School their neighborhood school and were busted to other War schools that were predominantly white many white residents of Evon Pride themselves on this City's diversity but let me ask you this do you think it's fair to require black children to do something you would never require or ask of your own children to do like being bust to schools outside of their own NE neighborhood every day that should be the first question you ask yourself is this good for my own child if the answer is no then it's not good for black children either we believe that the creation of a K5 School in the fifth war is the best solution for all children all children in that neighborhood it is District 65 is moral obligation to build this school it is an opportunity

028to correct the past wrong that is long overdue thank [Applause] you good evening Dr Turner and to members of the board and those who are present I appreciate all of the words that have been spoken already um my name is Michael neighbors and I serve as president of the Evanston NorthShore National Association for the advancement of colored people and also as pastor of Second Baptist Church of Evanston uh the first organization has slightly under 500 members and we're growing more than ever um and Second Baptist Church has a membership of about 900 people I'm a Baptist so I always round it up a little higher than what it usually is um so I'm I'm here to fully support uh the Fifth Ward school and to share the need from my perspective for the plans uh

029of the construction of the school to continue without delay I want to talk about that the announcement for the construction of the school came as a very bright light and a ray of Hope for the Evon Community both residents in the Fifth Ward who have long been without the school or any school and for others throughout the community who have expressed concern about Equitable Justice for all of evon's children there is an eeriness when it comes to any suggestion of delaying the decision to move forward with the fifth W school as we come away from the wonderful celebration last weekend commemorating the life of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and today as we even grieve the death of his youngest son Dexter at the age of 62 we remember as he went to Montgomery to

030call for changes in that City and to begin the process of integration white clergy urged him to delay his plans they did not want him to come to Montgomery because it might upset the so-called relations of negroes and whites in the city all of this resulted in Dr King being jailed and writing one of the most important moral appeals our nation has ever had the letter from the Birmingham Jael on June 19th 1865 General William Sherman issued a declaration in Texas that slavery had ended even though actually ended January 1st 1863 with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation blacks were denied their freedom as many Texans felt obligated to delay the process it was also Sherman who called for 40 acres and a mule for every black male who had been enslaved and as you

031know that has been delayed for 159 years it is not just African-Americans who have felt the ill effects of delay Japanese these Americans were placed in concentration camps and all their possessions taken during World War II the decision was to delay investigating whether there might be spies working on behalf of the Japanese not a single spy was found indigenous Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands including the land upon which we now stand and these many years later we offer conciliatory salutations at the opening of every public meeting beautiful as they are as those people continue to wait for justice and fairness no matter how smooth the road towards delay might appear no matter how reasonable the excuses for delay no matter how lofty the concepts and ideas making delay appear to be intelligent

032and reasonable the history of delay leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those who are left out and overlooked and who have suffered the most it is time for a new taste to enter our pallet it has been long overdue it is called The Taste of equality Justice recompense and fairness out with the staleness of delay and end with the Savory Taste of Beloved Community it really is all up to you thank [Applause] you hello my name is Melissa Rosen SW and I'm a Bessie Road's parent I'm here tonight because you all did something good over the past few weeks you have received emails from Bessie Road's parents explaining to you why they love this program and why they chose this program they chose one school K through 8 twe you created a one

033school k through eight program that is working they self- selected to be part of this community families of central Americans South American and afro Caribbean descent moved to or stayed in Evon to be part of this program it is one of your greatest accomplishments you have made something beautiful Bessie rhods is the most diverse School in District 65 and here I am quoting from 2023 data in Illinois repcard docomo students are lowincome that is the highest in the district no surprise here 37% of our students are English language Learners that is the highest in the district with the exception of Joseph Hill Preschool 54% of its students are English Learners and I'm willing to bet that many of the parents of those Spanish-speaking preschoolers are hoping to have one school K through 8 twe as

034an option for their children in the future now this next part is really important Bessie wrote is by Leaps and Bounds your least white school only 9% of Bessie Road's students are white in a school of 274 students that's 24 students now I get why you might be under the impression that all the white parents from Bessie roads that you've been hearing from are trying to save Bessie roads for these 24 students but that is not what's going on we are not fighting for those 24 kids we are fighting for the 250 students of color in this program we are up here cashing in our White Privilege as black educator batina love would say for them and I know it is irksome to hear over and over again from Bessy roads whites parents we're irked

035by it too because there are very real structural barriers that are preventing more of our caregivers of color from standing at this Podium and telling you what they want to say but the truth is they've been with us all along we've always had them here remember twoth thirds of our families are lowincome onethird are Spanish-speaking households these parents might be unable to get child care working evening shifts unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with Schoolboard politics intimidated to speak before an English audience are unwilling to go on record because public exposure makes them vulnerable we are here for them we know we are not the ideal Messengers but we are here nonetheless to stand with and represent our community Bessie Road's cost per student is $2,591 that is only $6 more than oron's cost per student $6

036Orrington is your least diverse School in the district Orrington is is 58% white 16% of its students are lowincome 11% of its students are English Learners that means you are only paying $1,644 per year total on your most diverse School than on your least diverse all right let me just repeat all that not for more Applause your most diverse school is only $6 more per student which comes to $1,644 annually than your least diverse School Bessie roads is serving such an important part of our community are we really too expensive I have here a petition signed by 135 residents of District 65 that agree with me the Evon Community recognizes your are compliments and they want you to to preserve them Bessie roads is worth saving save it for our kids of color who make

037up 91% of our school and the Hispanic students who make up half of Bessie Road student body they are the drivers and the benefactors of the magic that is wall toall k through eight twe you made something good don't get rid of it fight for it vote for option b next we have Alice Barry Rita Kendrick and Sarah Peterson I'm Alice Barry with crew 65 it's been evident from many public comments that the Bessie roads Community had a very tough year in 2023 losing a principal is hard for any school community and despite the district's best efforts a new permanent principle wasn't in place for some time in the midst of that school turmoil plans for the new fifth W school had to be downsized for financial reasons Beyond The District's control I've learned a

038lot about how I've been raised as a white woman our culture tells me as a white woman to ask for what I want to be assertive to go for it to follow my dream I have been told countless times that if I just want something hard enough and fight for it it will happen what I have not been taught what I believe most white people have not been taught is to look around me to see what the impact of my dream might be on others in my community especially those who have less than I do our culture focuses on an individual fighting for a dream it rarely focuses on inclusive dreams that work for the community last Tuesday someone brought a sign to the board meeting that read Ka TW is equity TW is certainly

039a form of equity and what was that signed advocating for for building a K8 all twe School even though the district can't afford it or maybe for keeping Bessie roads open spending $10 million repairing it and shelving plans for a fifth award School neither of those would be Equitable to members of the Bessie roads Community I hear you and I hear you had a tough year and families in the Fifth Ward have had a tough 57 years since the closing of their neighborhood school I hear that you feel a promise to you was broken to give you an all twe K8 school and when this board voted to build a school in the Fifth Ward that was a promise to that community that the busing of black children for the purpose of integration would finally

040stop busing that began at a time when white parents would not allow their children to be bused I ask this board to end that Injustice and build the fifth W school black children should no longer have to carry a burden not shared by shared by their white peers in my opinion Bessie rh's families deserve the best Solutions available for transitioning out of their existing building but that process must not delay or defer the long overdue correction for the Decades of Injustice suffered by fifth W families thank [Applause] you good evening Schoolboard members I'll keep this quick my name is Rita Kendrick I'm a parent to a second grader and kindergartener at Bessie Road school I have such incredible hope that this board will reconsider and choose option b tonight but if we the community of

041Bessie roads do not get the answers that we hope for tonight I want something to be said we are so grateful for Bessie rhods my husband and I both agreed if we knew then when we registered our first for kindergarten what we know now if we had known that our hearts would go through this roller coaster of hoping to keep the school we love if we had known there was this possibility of Transitions and difficulties with for our kids ahead with these decisions we would choose it again and again this Global study school has had such a tremendous impact on my family and even if it will just be for a short amount of time at the school we will always be grateful grateful that our children were taught by the greatest teachers grateful for

042the lifelong friends we've made grateful that this school is the type of environment that made my son and his friend want to stand before this school board with their own step stools in the language of their classmates and ask the board to please not give up on their school I'm grateful that my children have embraced their bilingualism where I'm just grateful every single part of being at Bessie rh's School of Global Studies it has been wonderful i' choose it over and over again I yield the remainder of my time to [Applause] Lio good evening ladies and gentlemen of the school board my name is Lionel gentle we are a Bessie roads family our family intentionally chose Bessie roads because of its smaller size K through 82 while his son has had some challenges he's just

043recently said this feels like my school the thought that you would take that from him is unacceptable to me we in America find money for things that we want and we prioritize we find money for things that we want we prioritize and I feel like we should want to prioritize to find money to keep this program alive to keep this program going the thought that you would take that from him is unacceptable to me and we find money for things that we prioritize I would challenge you to continue the discussion involve our community ensure that 50 years in the future we don't have to undo your decision making just imagine all these signs sitting here before you from kids from a school begging you asking you to keep their school running when do you ever

044see a school of kids asking and begging to keep their school alive to keep their school going because I know it's time because of what they've learned learned because of what they can learn because of what they're going to be in life and if you take that from these children if you decide not to give them more time to discuss this with the community then shame on each and every one of you educated people sitting on this board that have done a great thing in and I'm sorry babe I'm not supposed to point but I'm say it's you've cre created such a beautiful program and I apologized last night for doing the same thing I'm sorry you've created such a beautiful program it is a shame for parents and children to beg for this program

045to be continued so that is my time twice over thank [Applause] you hi my name is Sarah Peterson and I'm a parent of a seventh grade student at Haven and a fourth grader in the Tweet program at Willard first of all thank you to Dr Turner the staff and our your school our school board for your dedication to our community these board meetings go long you review many reports and budgets attend subcommittee meetings and read and listen to countless emails and comments from community members like me thank you for volunteering your time to care for all of our children you face a difficult responsibility as you must consider not only only the voices of speakers like me who are able to come to these meetings or show up in your inbox but listen for and

046balance the needs of all students in our district when surprises in the budget appeared last year thank you for making the responsible difficult decision to shift plans for the development of the fifth W school to a K5 school to be sure this long needed School becomes a reality looking at the numbers it was apparent you made the best decision possible when there was no perfect decision taking into consideration the new Financial constraints while still being able to move forward with plans to return a walkable school to the central Corp of Evanston today you have an opportunity to affirm that decision and justly serve the students in evon's Fifth Ward I'm concerned that any delay in making this decision would not only continue the uncertainty some parents feel for the future of their children's education but

047may have the unintended consequence of ending the hope for a fifth word School Al together after you recommit to a fifth W school I urge you to focus your careful consideration to the transition plan for schools and school communities and programs who will inevitably need to adjust and adapt to new schools and programs after the sap process finishes I appreciate your view of the long-term future of our district and no and know and hope that you'll also carefully consider how best to support Children and Families impacted by times of transition as we move ahead thank you next we have Ashley Jackson Z dinardo Brandon utter good evening everyone my name is Ashley Jackson I have a first grader at Bessie rhods first and foremost I want two acknowledgements first I want to thank Serita Smith

048for all her hard work and bringing us data make decisions and coming up with Solutions I also want to thank Sergio and Maya for coming to a meeting yesterday with the parents of color and to Anya for setting up that meeting I'm 37 years old I have a pretty unique view on the impact of the racist policies of Evon from the 50s I grew up without a grandmother because she died because the ambulance wouldn't pick her up because she was black so when we talk about the decisions that happen with Foster School let's not repeat history if you look at the articles that talk about Foster School there was some great attent let's desegregate the schools in Evon what did that lead to people made quick decisions so while I agree with Pastor Neighbors when

049it comes to the fifth W school don't delay we've talked about that long enough what we haven't talked about long enough though that is a completely separate issue is what happens with Bessie r sometimes delay is what we need when a new product comes to Market people don't just rush it through to Market it has to go through FDA approval why because we need to delay to make sure those are the right decisions those medical devices work as they say I encourage the board yesterday we had a great meeting Serita talked about you know she had come up with 50 different choices as a community we were able to come up up with 51 sometimes we need to just stop what do we tell children when they make bad decisions stop and think about that

050at the committee meeting last week we talked about teaching students social and emotional learning we need to think about what we're teaching our students and making sure that we're reflecting that as a school board and as a community we have a board here that talks about miracles in action focusing on continuous Improvement I challenge each and every one of you how rushing a decision on Bessie roads follows this Miracles are possible Bessie Rose is a thriving community of black and brown children Foster School Foster school was a community of thriving black children and look what happened let's not repeat history we can move forward with the fifth board School we've talked about that long enough we have not talked about Bessie Rose long enough we need to delay we need to make sure we're not

051just making quick decisions but the best decisions for our students thank you good evening school board members and members of the community my name is Za dinardo and I'm a parent of two Bessie rhs students along with being a state licensed high school Spanish teacher I'm here to address the dissolving of this magnet school program by voting option A the magnet school program at Bessie roads will end and its unique curric curriculum will be lost during a period of declining enrollment across the district a magnet school like Bessie rhods could attract much needed new families the Bessie roads building on the other hand is expensive to maintain along with many other buildings throughout the district however to sacrifice the unique Magnet School curriculum just because the physical building is too expensive would be a textbook

052example of throwing the baby out with the bath bath water Bessie Road's teachers and administrators with their specialized training and experience have shown how effective they are as a team especially through the uncertainty of a global pandemic and the unique challenges that face the district by voting option b and postponing the dissolution of buy roads the entire magnet school program could be given a second chance at a different location as a part of a larger districtwide consolidation effort Bessie rhods Evanson and scope deserve that chance thank you all right good evening uh board members Dr Turner uh first off please do not confuse my advocacy for Bessie rhods as opposition to the fifw school first thing first tonight I wanted to talk about some numbers that appear to have influenced board decisionmaking that I found

053to be inaccurate or inappropriately contextualized firstly at the December 18th board meeting a number was reported by sap staff stating that 80% of the Bessie Road Spanish-speaking families live in the Fifth Ward the board then used this number to Advance The Narrative that closing down Bessie roads is necessary upon opening of the fifth W School the number was neither dismissed nor questioned by the board at that time following the meeting I emailed District admin staff inquiring about the accuracy of this number and it was said to be an accurate District staff returned to the committee of the whole meeting last week in January with the corrected numbers which happens to be 211% not 80% or approximately 50 students at that meeting a community speaker repeated the 80% number propagating this incorrect statistic given that the

054discussion around the 80% number was so robust in December and appeared to influence board decisions I assumed it was going to be explicitly publicly corrected sadly this never happened secondly at the committee of the whole meeting the cost per pup was reported accurately for Bessy roads at approximately $25,000 per student per year what was inappropriate about presenting this number was that its context was not provided rightly so 25,000 sounds like a lot per student per year but out of the K8 K5 and 6 through eight schools in d65 the range of costs per student per year is $2,547 it's Walker to $ 29,42 that's King Arts the mean cost per student per year of the of the group of 15 schools is $23,700 and the median cost is $233 58 so while be Bessie roads

055is above the mean is not the most expensive by a significant amount it the third most expensive and it's a mere $6 more expensive than the fourth place with within $500 of the fifth most expensive School in the district this appeared to influence the board's stance on votes uh on voting for option A versus option b but with context using this logic to support closing a school could be applied to about six schools in the district of course excluding rice and Hill uh let us not forget while we're here having this conversation in the first place which is in part due to under and misreporting of known cost discrepancies on the fifth W Construction from The District administration to the board when the above discussed inaccuracies are add added to this context the board should

056be heavily scrutinizing information coming from the district the idea that the closure of Bessie roads has to coincide with the completion of the fifth W Construction should have been abandoned at the same time the fifth W School unfortunately had to be downsized to a K5 to stay on budget what does the district have to lose by further comprehensive evaluation of the cost and role of Bessie rhods in a districtwide context Bessie roads will have to remain open during the construction of the Fifth Ward school anyway and without compelling reasons the knee-jerk reaction of closing Bessie roads in the name of social justice for the Fifth Ward creates a social injustice in itself which establishes a precedent that is okay to create social injustices and an attempt to alleviate social injustices of the past this is

057a scorched Earth social justice approach thank [Applause] you next we have Stephen Kei Michael nindorf or is it Michelle nindorf sorry Ida aosta hello uh my name is Stephen kyrus I'm a father to third grade twins at Bessie rhods and speaking on behalf of Jennifer kyrus a mother of our roads twin uh who's unable to be here tonight uh she's in the hospital uh for health reasons uh but she feels so strongly about sharing her perspective that she asked me to come present what she has prepared I'm here tonight to show our strong support of the option for Rose to be an interrupted k38 smaller School Equity entity sorry uh Miss kyus has worked in the twe program and the District 65 for 20 years and she's currently a bilingual intervention teacher for the K3

058grades at roads Jenna has a unique perspective as a parent and a kther teacher at roads she experiences firsthand the int intricacies of diverse and Divergent Learners in our community her work with students and kther highlights the importance of a smaller School experience for our children including our own son for students who are not in TW an option has existed at King arts for k38 model if tonight you do not vote to eliminate this option for our twe children moving forward many of them who are L next will send a powerful message of in inequity to our community your values regarding our twe Community will be evident we acknowledge that there have been many painful missteps in our district over time don't let this be another at your hands please strongly consider your verbal commitment

059to equity and your and rethink your Collective position leaning towards elimination of rose as a k38 entity again your rival commitment to equity is being put to a test this is in your hands now J and I feel it is extremely important to be here tonight to represent our schools families we unable to be here or uncomfortable with being here please know that Jen's commitment to her community runs very deep and she recognizes that tonight a critical decision will be made that will impact the future of our children and our community if there's nothing else you take away from our message tonight please acknowledge this a k38 school and Incredibly powerful support for many of our children it is time that our TW students provided the equable opportunity uh for an uninterrupted smaller Kate model

060please vote for in favor of option b where Betsy roads Kates moves through into an un into a repurposed North Evon school that becomes a new k38 twe program thank [Applause] you my name is Michelle neindorf and I am a parent of two kids at Bessie roads when the district proposed transitioning Bessie roads to a wall to--all Spanish English uh twe school it argued that it would be quote more welcoming and inclusive environment for all students and it would help to increase the status of the minority language among other benefits uh such as better ability to hire bilingual Educators and better support for family communication and engagement with the school this board including members who are still here voted for that plan now Bessie rhod's families ask what happened to those values we're told budget

061we're told facilities we're told told walkability but where is the discussion of equity of anti-racism M of multiculturalism because Equity means looking Beyond Financial concerns and looking at who is harmed by these decisions closing Bessie roads disproportionately affects marginalized groups and that harm is not being recognized I didn't realize I was going to repeat some of the things that Melissa said but according to the ISB report card for 2022 23 Bessie roads is 32.4% black and 50.5 5% Hispanic 37% more than twice the dist District average um of Bessie rhs kids are English Learners almost 66% of Bessie roads is lowincome if we truly value Equity then where is consideration of these facts why is this community being dismissed because bie Road's families feel dismissed instead of dis regarding this community I encourage you to

062look at it through an equity lens and think about the value of another k through eight School in the district one centering twe and Hispanic families twe strands are terrific additions to General to a general school and of course they fulfill the district's legal obligations to Spanish speak speakers but they are not the central focus of the school strands are not a substitute for wall toall twe K through a school if you vote to break up Bessie roads you'll scatter these kids across the district and you're making a shortsighted decision to give up on the development of a unique school this could be a place where you walk in the door and all the sights and sounds around you will be truly Multicultural censoring Hispanic cultures bilingual kids will fill the Halls whole families can

063attend the same school for longer periods of time and truly engage engage with teachers and administrators tweet teachers of all backgrounds will find a place where they can thrive in a school where they are the primary leaders the board is imagining a big bright exciting new future for the Fifth Ward school please use the same imagination for another marginalized community and think about what a k througha twe school can truly be the entire Evon Community will be better for it thank you good evening my name is a Costa a Bessie rhod's parent last year I felt so much pride in being part of District 65 community and specifically I felt at ease that we have chosen the best school for our son as a product of ESL myself and an overall racist educational experience where

064expectations were lowered for Mexican children I do not take my child's education lightly my son has had a positive experience feeling pride in being Mexican and multilingual and let me tell you I can't get him to sing in Spanish but he sure sings in Mandarin I hope I know what he says um Elementary education is foundational not just in developing a strong educational background but informing healthy human beings at Betsy roads being Multicultural and multilingual is immersed in the whole school it matters for all children I hope you too are proud that you helped build that experience I urge you to consider the implications of dismantling such a promising program as a Latina parent it has been heartbreaking to listen and interpret the lack of value for a comprehensive and immersive K through k k

065througha tweet program for all children and yes it is also urgent no one has asked for the loss of potential or what is the harm as it just was stated while budgetary constraints have been cited there are so many critical questions missing today what is the actual cost as has already been shared and that this wasn't brought up here but is it even comparable to make these schools against each other why has there been severe under investment in Bessie roads is it because it is predominantly children of color and thus this building can be overlooked for so long why are black and brown children burdening burdening the cost of mismanage at the district level lastly I find it ironic and a bit performative that this meeting opens up with a Native American land recognition the

066American education system develop by targeting racist and violent assimilation approaches to strip native children of their culture and their languages native children were forbidden to speak their languages in this country there is a long history in the American educational system that has violently stripped children of color of their language and thus their identities I ask that you reflect on the societal impact of eliminating a truly inclusive and Equitable program like the 2E k38 program at bety roads ask yourself if you truly value equity and thus will you consider a program that can be the antidote for racist assimilation in Evon and as a model across educational spaces Equity requires us to be focused on an and uphold what we value now the fifth word deserves the opening of a neighborhood school that is without a

067doubt and not a but and this community deserves a robust K througha tweet program that continues to elevate and celebrate multilingual and Multicultural identities both are and can be true thank you speakers are um Gabriel annaya Shira Haman Robin Brown Andrea Martinez and sorry I'm not able to pronounce the last name um G ging good evening W noes my name is Gabriel a I'm the father of a second grade student at Bessie roads over the weekend I read reports and studies and the effect on students when you move them to different schools the so-called structural moves the more you move a students due to restructuring such as the potential situation with bessi roads or when students go from k25 and then to 6 to8 there's a correlation between lower graduation rates decreasing performance in English

068and math below is an Obert from a study done by Schwartz Estel and cordz 2017 regarding structural moves these structural moves have negative short-term and medium-term consequences the systems that minimized them had the potential to increase performance for example moving to a system of all K to8 schools will eliminate a structural Mobility which will increase performance so so what the current thinking now is to go from a k to a wall to wall what we're trying to do here with Bess Ro is to split it right if Bessie Ro shs down and you split the T program k25 and then 6 to8 think about this some current students in bessi roads will go through three different schools once they finish High Junior highight okay B roads then probably fifth W and then another one three

069different schools my concern is the following in 10 years the board will be having discussions at different board different people to understand why the T program is failing and the answer will be for decision that this board is making today don't fail the B Road students don't fail the Bas Ro faculty and don't fail to yourselves do the right thing thank [Applause] you Dr Turner members of the board members of the administration School staff and members of the public I'm here to speak about something entirely different from any everyone else here um I want to speak to you about the experience that children have in prek getting into prek and prek and moving on to kindergarten in this District I'm the mother of a kindergartener at Walker and we've had three years that have had

070some real high points and have had some real low points and I think that the highs and lows we've had are anything but unique um what I heard on the forums on Facebook when I was first beginning this process was getting into J is hard J is amazing you will love it resources drop off in kindergarten I said well maybe it maybe it will be different for us we tried to apply to J um they were supposed to evaluate six months before a third birthday they put that off till two weeks before we had no answers then we were told things that were not legal about having to be delayed 30% across a category to be accepted we went away for a year we had fortunately for us the privilege to get an independent evaluation

071and come back when we hit a burn rate that even we could not begin to afford and get come into the J program which was amazing except that there's no after care and the only after carees there are in town were abusive all of them and there were no other ones after Head Start like for that those hours for three to six for a working parent no other ones in Evon and you don't bus outside Evon but I did phone everyone in Sky Lincolnwood every Community every adjacent community and I checked the DCFS onshine list I looked at everything it's a gap it's just a gap and I ended up paying for full-time preschool while we were attending JH because that was my only option to have three hours of Aftercare um but J was

072amazing it had great resourcing um my child was in a classroom with an experienced teacher two experienced AIDS uh 15 person classroom some roving folks around the building and he did great and thrived and was wonderfully happy there and then we came to Walker and it is 15 it is 19 kids in a classroom one teacher no Aid no second person in the room from again full-time you know experienced teacher to experienced AIDS in the room and roving folks around the building so now we've cut to one teacher no Aid no second person in the room most of the time when there is it's an ESL person kind of wandering in and out um I would say the training couldn't possibly be what it needed to be because of some of the clearly harmful practices

073that have happened this year um and they are not from one person they are from many different people that to me signifies a systemic problem around training um there was not enough continuity there was no transition in there's not enough play in the curriculum wit and wisdom is structurally sound from an phonics perspective but it's a lot of teacher talk and we went from play kitchens and full-time play in JH to no play kitchens no play anything no play at all and a lot of resentful reports from my kid coming home because there was no transition of that um not enough uh okay uh a couple years ago in CPAC um they gave a talk where they talked about inclusion and inclusion costing the same and now I see how because a lot of kids

074end up outplaced and this is why because your resourcing drops off there's no continuity and these things need to be looked at I don't think it would really cost more but it would require attention thank [Applause] you good evening I'm here to urge the board to approve the revised plans and budget to construct The Fifth Ward school tonight without delay in an Ideal World this school could be built with no loss to any students or families in the district but that does not seem to be the current reality I recently read a quote which seems to capture the current situation the author said movements are often tense with the contradiction between what we believe we are fighting for and what we feel we must practice to navigate the current conditions the current condition seems to

075be that building a neighborhood School in the Fifth Ward is long overdue and budget constraints necessitate the need to approve the plans and the budget without delay I look forward to the board taking decisive action in order to help families move forward and alleviate uncertainty in the community about the future of a neighborhood fifth board school just uh lastly I trust all of you I trust that no one wants to make a decision that significantly you know causes significant disruption I trust whether it's deciding to do e-learning or close a school you all have the information um I trust your Equity backgrounds and I ask for your commitment to move without delay to approve the plans for the school good evening everyone board members my name is Andre martinis and I am a parent of

076a third grader at Bessie as I mentioned last week my husband and I are both products of Evanston Public Schools and Native Spanish speakers and we intentionally chose a continuous k38 twe School Bessie roads the Bessie roads model has allowed students with needs to feel safe to feel at home to feel a sense of belonging many before me that have come up here have expressed passionately their concerns and reasons as to why we should keep Bessie rhods and I Echo those concerns and I Echo those reasons so please I ask the board to please keep your commitment to our Bessie roads community and when making a decision make a decision as parents of Bessie roads but most importantly put yourself in the shoes of the students and think about how this change will affect them

077socially and em Al I support the building of the Fifth Ward school just not at the cost of the thriving children at Bessie roads and thank you Bor and thank you uh Maya and Sergio for um hearing us out last night as well thank you and the last speaker gusto good evening everyone I'm sorry I thought I was signing up for uh the sign up here at the sign board I didn't know as was a speaker I speaking sorry about that but anyways I'm not here to um basically I'm here to Echo all the eloquence of all these beautiful people here that are here for Bessie rhods I have two beautiful children at bie rhods first and second grade listen I'm Hispanic American I fought my whole life for my education I'm still fighting to

078this day I'm just I'm here to plead every one of you please make make the best decision do not get rid of our school do not get rid of besti Roads please thank you so much for everything all right thank you guys that concludes the public comments for tonight K I want to take the time to acknowledge and thank all the uh Bessie Road's parents as well as community members whove engaged us throughout this process as we go into this very difficult vote um as folks mentioned again we our intent is not to hurt right we really want what's best for all children black brown Latino white I again we we serve all all children and I just want you to know that we are trying our best with some very difficult POS you know

079again things that are beyond our control which actually we do have to find a way to control uh and these are budgetary issues that we we've been dealing with um and again this is not an issue that is uh particular to our specific District uh other school districts across the country are seeing low enrollments budget issues uh having to think about consolidating schools um just read an article today about how this happened in Colorado uh and how that approach again it's just painful uh so again just really trying to address some of these structural issues uh is is super super difficult um again it it is just not an easy process for any of us but but I do want to thank all of you um again if I was in your shoes I would

080be fighting for the school community that I love I really care about uh again we you know I was a do with my colleague here uh we we were we've been trying to fight for at least get connecting our our kindergarten building to our uh to to to the rest of the building right and hasn't happened yet again it's just uh we continue to fight um and I think all of us share uh our devotion to ensuring that children have access and families have access to Equitable practices uh and to the resources they need to succeed right uh the intent of building the K K8 School originally now K5 fifth worth school is to really really meet the needs of of our black and brown students and working class students in the Fifth Ward right

081it's a historical wrong that needs to be writed and I hear from all community members that you agree with both pieces you want to keep a okay wall to wall and you also want to ensure that the children in the fifth wward and families have access to programming that has been long overdue and that they don't bear the burden of having to diversify our schools uh at the at the core is that again you you built these relationships with Educators with each other as parents and I I get it I would be fighting I would be right there as well with you uh and I am with you in spirit again I I voted for want wanting to continue with the K adoption our board voted for K5 because we we we have a fiscal

082responsibility to this community and I stand by my board's decision uh so again we will move forward we will as this transition happens as we continue these conversations we will continue to engage the community and we we will invite you to be part continue to be part of this conversation uh because this conversation isn't done yet so just wanted to let you know that I appreciate all of you all of your passion for coming uh and engaging the board and that we see you and we hear you and uh we care about you uh but again there's these decisions that are before us that are very very difficult uh that we we hope you can work help us work through um as we continue on uh this overall systemic uh evaluation of how we do

083work here at the at the school district uh in any event what what I will um go ahead and our next piece here is the consent agenda so I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendations outlined in the attached group motion and approve the Personnel appointments leaves and separations approval of December 2023 board and committee meeting minutes November 2023 treasurers report budget amendments and the cost optimization and bright lift insurance coverage second Sue yes Lindsay Ryan yes Kim yes pper yes Salem yes Wilkins yes Hernandez yes motion passes 7 Z sure I don't want you want to wait till 8 it doesn't matter or we want to do it after okay you do it now so what's the it would be the it would be the same motion but it would just be

084the list of you want me to just do it I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendations outlined in the list of Bills second you want to discuss we discussing them we're discussing our okay no not for me okay okay you just want a separate vote all right Sue yes Lindsay Ryan Yes Kim yes abstain Salem yes Wilkins yes Hernandez yes motion passes 6 Z all right the next item up is our approval of isby discipline Improvement plan yeah uh well I'm sorry um we did that was part of the yeah we did that uh I moveed that the Board of Education approve the discipline Improvement plan required by ISB as presented um um be seconders sorry um any questions or comments the focus of this plan is to reduce the disproportionality of

085discipline against um black children in certain schools correct correct want to speak on it um Joey to expand on that so the state of Illinois pulls uh disciplinary data for all schools across Ross the state each year and we were tagged as being the top 20% in the state of Illinois for the disproportionality in the rate at which African-American students are referred for disciplinary infractions um I think specifically we ranked 12th in the state of Illinois and so we pulled um shout out to our director of culture and climate Cheryl McLoud she worked really hard with um Donna cross and the rad Department to really dig into the data they just kind of give us a broad overview so we were really curious about which schools in particular do we see higher rates is there

086is there a trend at various School sites um unfortunately really all but two of our schools sit above that 20% Mark and so that's why we're falling so high within the um disproportionality rate so we we felt we we had hoped that we could identify a few key target areas schools for extensive support but um the reality is that this is a tier one issue and we need to address uh disciplinary practices actually at almost every school the only two schools that are really not sitting in an at risis category are rice and Dewey um every other school has a good amount of work to be done to reduce the disproportionality um and so in the in the plan you've received we we did create three tiers of support tier three being the most extensive

087and those are for any schools that are above 40% disproportionality rate our tier 2 schools are for schools within um the high 20s to high 30s in their disproportionality um and and as you can see in the plan we've outlined various approaches both first and foremost at a tier one approach what do all schools need how are we going to address this issue at every school and then more extensive support for tier two and tier three and and my assumption Lydia is we will continue the schools team will continue to partner with the deck exec leadership as we think about putting the systems and structures in place to establish better tier one practices uh inclusionary practices in our classrooms yeah absolutely uh step one was really to bring it to the board we're open to

088suggestion for improvement or any feedack back um but then our next step would really be to collaborate with deck exec before we then the there's a full implementation plan that then involves working with school-based site teams including their school leadership their culture teams within their schools but yes Dr Turner that's a big piece of it and when will we get updates from a board perspective on how the implementation is going and what is aligned on for the plan yeah and and Lydia can CH on this um I I see she's taking notes but in an Ideal World we would love to add this as part of continuous updates built into school Improvement plans um to be very transparent um we do have quite a few schools who have uh specific culture and climate goals and

089this is one where um we can dive in to really set some some solid goals um moving forward but I think uh part of what we'll work with um a and the schools team and Dr Green is really thinking about how to embed ongoing updates in our overarching Board calendar for the board just to keep a steady post on how we're improving in this area that's great because I would love to know as a district and as a board sort of where we stand throughout without you know us sort having to sort of get notified by the state that we have to do something I just had a quick question about what data is the State pulling from each school district is it like are they pulling our discipline data that's that we've been collecting

090in like branching mines okay yeah there's multiple different metrics for the ISB um it's called exclusionary dis exclusionary disciplines so they pull um suspension data expulsion data they pull a range of metrics and so we're showing up right now on just the disproportionality metric um so we we were not flagged for overuse of suspension for example because that's reduced yeah because that is reduced over the years but um um this you asked about the the data that they P so we report to the state our disciplined data that is submitted by our teachers in our school based staff through branching mines and so we've been collecting trying to collect more detailed data from each School more accurate data through branching Minds right so we do have the ability to track this data over time as

091we put these interventions in place right corre um so the other question I had was um you know yes all schools need all schools are showing disproportionality and all schools need support um but the schools that are doing a little bit better that are have the lower disproportionality are we able to see like what practices they have that that are working um say among the middle schools nichels is the lowest what are they doing that's different from shot or Haven are we able to kind of see and replicate right the the implementation or is it that those schools have more fully implemented the the um practices that we're trying to embed to begin with so are any early indications and Lydia you specifically Nam rice and dewy yeah right too so I want to I

092want to hear um from the rice side should be able to fill us in in terms of practices that rice has put in place and I want to really celebrate rice um because we we have historically in this District the perception of that school and I want to commend shalima um franois blue and her team for doing an extraordinary job uh with that population of students they have really changed the culture there and more of our students students um are moving into um our other middle schools and our other elementary schools because of the awesome work that they're doing so that's something we can definitely learn from that population and that Community what they're doing to really think about how to strengthen the practices across our other schools in this District so just want to

093name that as [Applause] well yeah definitely a shout out to rice and one of the things that Miss McLoud and I reflected on immediately was just the level of trauma informed care that Rice develops within their staff I think is really significant and it matters and it makes a difference and um it enables adults to approach children with a level of compassion and empathy that often takes training in our schools and so we we've that definitely stood out to us as as a thought to start um when I think about King Arts you know Rebecca's done a great job with some tier one whole schoolwide approaches such as a new um Hall Pass system for every student in the building right and and I don't know that right now we are implementing like schoolwide this

094is how we do it everyone is experiencing this behavior management system the exact same way so that's something I would raise up there um and Nichols has just had a really strong focus on culture um yeah their school culture team did a lot of work over the summer reestablishing expectations and so again it goes back to that tier one so I I definitely think there's something around trauma informed care um and deescalation for staff um and then tier one approaches that are that are just best practice that we wanted want to lean into um and then honestly we we've just got to have some tough conversations um some of these disproportionality rates like they really take you a back when you look at them and I I you can't change them unless the Educators in

095the building are aware of them and understand understand the impact that is being had on children and I've only been here about a year and a half but I don't know that those conversations have been had explicitly with with staff at our schools um to understand this data and and Sula to your earlier Point we've started to pull the data this year and we've started to share that with school teams but that wasn't a a regular practice around discipline data in the past and so we're still very much you know building our muscle and muscle memory around how to look at this data how to use this data and then most importantly how do you act on it the data is only good as good as the actions that you implement based on it so

096um those are a few initial thoughts yeah and I just want to you know publicly celebrate King arts and Nicholls as well we know the narrative that sometimes can get built specifically around um the work of school leaders um and these School leaders have worked extremely hard as well as the staff at those schools to really change the narrative and I want to really just celebrate them publicly because I don't think often times uh we we do a good enough job at the district and at the community level really celebrating where we are making improvements and so I want to publicly say kudos to King arts and to the nichels uh leadership and to the school staff for doing an amazing job of really turning the corner and really really centering the focus um more

097around really connecting with kids and really trying to um understand how to really support their needs so just want to publicly say that as [Applause] well Lydia I'm hoping there's two places we dig in into this data one is What's Happening by student right so if this is a small population of students getting targeted over and over and over again and how that threatens their belongingness and leads to their exclusion and leads to behavior and all of those things and and to the point of you know trauma informed care and what kind of things we need to do to coach our Educators to to create a different space and a different way of s you know leading those kids to success and then I think in your conversations with deck we have to look at

098it by teacher as well and if certain educators are using disciplinary Tools in a way that their peers have found other ways to classroom manage and their peers have found other ways to connect and build relationship and are not using those in the same way then you know what is the coaching and accountability for those Educators so I I know you know data can be cut thousands of different ways but I I think that those two specific ways of digging in could really inform that action piece that is next agreed thank you I just had a quick question too about you talked about those difficult conversations especially when you're talking about particular Educators or staff um whose responsibility is it to have those conversations within the school buildings does that rest with building leaders or

099climate teams or where where is that conversation happening yeah I think it needs to be with the school leader I don't think it's appropriate for staff to have the to necessarily point out in their colleagues maybe some of these areas but um I do think to Dr Turner's point it's an important collaboration with deck absolutely and so I would would expect that well my guidance to our leaders would be if they need to engage in a conversation with a staff member that they should engage deck first and and leverage that partnership to to support the educator in in growing their practice that's the ultimate goal right is is restoration and improved practice and Imp in you know building our own capacity so it's the leader alongside deck leadership in support of the educator to to

100know better and do better okay thank you for that clarification I think this is also this is a nice Evolution from the conversations years ago about really high suspension rates and suspending you know 450 students a year um or suspensions a year so I really like that we're moving so we're suspending less we're keeping kids in school now how do we like create systems that make the school environment predictable when I do something this is how I know the system will react to me this is how I know adults will engage me um that all sounds great um going back to your comment about how leaders can engage I think it's really important to double down on the leadership role as mentor and Coach with Educators prior to supervisor and evaluator right and and making

101sure that we're separating those things so that people know that like this is about environmental team development on something that systemwide we struggle with right when it's a we problem we work on it together and we grow as an organization and when it's a you problem specifically we'll have a different conversation about that I feel like that's something that's really hard in schools to do that people the work is personal um and I hope you know it's nice to see these celebrations when you're looking at the schools in the tier three tier two and tier one is it assumed that a school falls into tier two that um that all of tier one is in place or do you go back and like look for that no correct so every school in D d65 would

102get tier one support right but but that it's like it's thriving so we're working on tier two now because tier one's in place because we want tier one to be in place before we do tier two right uh yeah and I think I no I don't think we should assume that I think there are schools in which that's part that is the reason we're here if our tier one was going really well we wouldn't have 16 out of 18 schools above 20% so when it says like tier 2 interventions all of tier one is the first bullet point a part of that team's reflective activity is let's make sure tier one is in place and systems are working and then we'll look at some of these other more specific data pieces that's right okay that's

103right but I think I I want to capitalize on I don't want to miss the point of what I heard you say Joey in terms of this idea around the importance of the school leader being the mentor and the coach um and in full transparency to be very honest you know and I'll say this publicly you know our our schools team leadership was deployed in other ways the first half of the year and so we now are in a space where we have the steady leadership specifically at Betsy roads where now that leadership can really do the effective coaching and support of school leaders to then do a better job of the coaching and mentoring of of staff and so I just want to name that that we're moving in that direction and that has

104been the focus now that Lydia and Sh and sharmik has the ability to really walk alongside school leaders to do the coaching and mentoring to build their leadership capacity to then better support the needs of students so that makes a lot of sense and my and my question comes from this data is a lagging indicator right this is look back data um this table is last year right but we have this year through um but it's really important to me that our Educators when they're working with our children feel like if they are struggling with the student that they can partner with people in their team and if it's not their grade level team or their their you know their teammates around them that their administrators are teammates in that work as well not people

105they should fear are always coming from an evaluator supervisor perspective but a teammate to help problem solve coach and and move them along the professional Journey agreed and I mean that takes a relationship right so yeah the relationship and the trust we want to be there so that you can go have a difficult conversation and there's that level of vulnerability empathy and compassion exist there for the sake of growth yeah I agree Joe thank you for that uh information Lydia for you know answering our board's questions uh you know one of the things I'd like to recommend I just want to go back to the trauma and form piece um I know there's uh uh School Board members now are required by state law to take uh trauma trainings I took mine um in U

106in the fall and all of us did we required which is a beautiful thing so at a Statewide level right I think we we're starting to try to pay more attention in regards to how we build our own capacity and understanding and then we as board members can you know push our Administration uh to engage as we're suggesting here with some of these strategies in order to again create that type of environment that's trauma informed another thing uh one of the things I I talk talk my colleagues at ISB about is you know we have these great resources that we offer to school districts through our Roes uh we have project reach which is a Statewide initiative um again if you know if school districts are interested or even specific schools can join the what's

107called um the reach initiative um and um it is a partnership with the Illinois Department of Public Health and Center for childhood resilience with lures um it's free on demand virtual train learning experience uh there's communities that that are um again can can be formed uh with other school districts uh so again something that is free uh that we can take advantage of that the state state has invested in regards to really building capacity around trauma informed practices across school districts in Illinois so just just a suggestion as we think about how we build the capacity uh to to create a culture that's inviting and that's trauma informed can I add um Lydia you mentioned something about you know engaging with deck and I think that's really important and for those who don't know deck

108is the acronym for the teachers union at d65 and so I just I bring that up to say cuz in addition to everything Sergio mentioned which ISB and the Roes do awesome work the you know I work for the if which is the other teachers union and one of the things I do is trauma training from the union so in addition to what our districts get from their admin they also get it from their Union I'm C I'd be curious when you engage with deck to see if the Ia doeses that too cuz that might be a great another Avenue you know it's like let's like Trum informed is the way we're going let's get it everywhere we can and at least on our end it doesn't cost anything so when we go in to

109do it with if districts members does already cover our fee so if we can get this training done at no cost to the district let's see if IA does it and if they say no tell them if does it and then maybe they will yeah for sure all right thank you colleagues uh next item up is the approval of the head starter we have sorry got to vote it was already moved and seconded right yes yeah um Sue yes Lind Ryan yes yes yes Sal yes wi yes herandez yes motion passes 7 all right now item seven is the approval of the Head Start agreement all right I move that the Board of Education approve the addendum to the Head short Head Start agency agreement between District 65 and iwse for full enrollment initiative flexibilities

110through June second Sue yes Ryan yes yes yes yes yes hernandz yes motion passes 70 all right the next item on the agenda is we have our Early Childhood reports I want to invite our JH team to the they've been so patient yes thank you for thank you for your patience good evening school board members Dr Turner cabinet families community members I am Nisha par I'm the director of Early Childhood programs and this is my first year as a director here at je my team and I are extremely excited to present our early childhood updates tonight and before we begin I would like my amazing team to introduce themselves hi I'm Jesse black I'm the assistant director of operations and I've been in my position for 14 years hi I'm Teresa Lee the assistant director

111of teaching and learning I've been here for five years now hello I'm Leia Perkins I'm the coordinator for our individualized education services and this is my second year in this position uh just before you proceed I we have our interpreter he just requested that as f as folks are speaking speaking to the mic so we can actually interpret my my apologies so all of our work at je is grounded in our vision which is Joseph E Hill education center is a comprehensive Multicultural Early Childhood developmental program that is that effectively draws from and connects with our community to ensure that all children ages Z to five and their family units experience a strength-based anti-bias respectful and inclusive learning environment for J The Early Childhood Center has moved forward with a school work plan just as

112any other school within the district the formulation of our school work plan goals was collaborative and datadriven process the primary data resource the primary data sources informing our goals were the map and tsg assessments these assessments provided crucial quantitative and qualitative data that guided our decision-making process the development of our goals was a collective effort involving all leadership teams within the school including the school Improvement team multi-tiered systems of support and school culture and climate team by incorporating input from these teams we aim to create well-rounded and effective goals that address the needs of our entire School Community as shared during the August 14th board member meeting J ECC schoolwork plan twoyear goals are as followed by school year 26 J H ECC kindergarten Alum will show a 20% increase on the beginning of year

113map literacy Readiness assessment to 47% in the area of listening comprehension and 61% in the area of picture vocabulary by school year 25 at least 85% of je ECC students will be in the meets or exceeds widely held expectations on the teaching strategies goal social emotional learning assessment and our third goal is the five five Essentials teacher collaboration current overall score of 17 points will increase by 24 points by the end of school year 25 okay I'm going to briefly go over our student enrollment and demographics and for the purposes of this section I'll will be focusing on the enrollment and demographics for the 3 to 5-year-old program the following numbers do not include Family Center which is our 0 to three-year-old students here at je we have rolling enrollment so these numbers were up

114to date as of last week but they are ever changing so maybe slightly different this week we currently have students we currently have 287 students enrolled in J in four different types of classrooms we have five full day header classrooms which as you can see on the bottom chart are full at 95 students um I I recognize the chart is a little bit small the blue section of the tap chart is how many students are enrolled the red part is how many spots we have unenrolled right now how many open slots we have and the bottom chart the top line is capacity in each of the different types of classrooms and the bottom line the blue is actual current enrollment so we have our F our full classrooms which are full we have one classroom

115two sections of half day Head Start which is nearly full and then we have 15 sections of preschool forall half day programs which we currently have 75 open slots the capacity for that is 181 gened students and 60 inclusion students those 75 open slots are all for gened students the 181 represents the physical capacity of those classrooms the preschool forall Grant actually requires only 160 students so we need a little bit less to be fully enrolled per Grant but we're aiming for that 180 so that we could maximize the number of inclusion slots we have in the in those classrooms uh lastly we have three sections of self-contained students um which is is nearly full we have 17 students in those classrooms all of our programs aim to serve at risk student population so the

116demographics of J looks slightly different than the average District 65 Elementary School here's the racial and ethnic breakdown for our 287 students as you can see we have separated this information into two separate graphs uh one for the ethnicity and one for the race this is because several of our families who are uh part of the Hispanic latinx Community identify either as white biracial or American Indian and so in order to fully capture the our population we needed to put it into two separate graphs um next we have over 50% of our students that qualify for free and reduced lunch which is reflective of the lowincome requirements to qualify for the Head Start programs we have 31 languages spoken here at JH the majority being English and Spanish and 19% of our students speak at

117least one of the other 29 different languages here like Jesse shared we want to ensure that we're representing our full student population and we cannot do that without recognizing the significant population of students with identified disabilities at je we currently have 32 2.4 of our students with IEPs if you look at this demographics comparison between je Early Childhood District 65 elementary schools the Illinois State average and the national average it is clear the need and the discrepancy of our population and what is needed we should also note that we still have another 45 open and incoming evaluations through the rest of this school year now it's time for us to look at how are our students doing we've heard about how our students are demographically but the thing that's most important is the strength of

118our families the strength of our students and the strength of our staff when you look at our data what it shows is it tells you that they have had an exceptional ability our young scholars and the results have been not noteworthy Improvement and literacy Readiness among our students at je ECC the beginning of the year literacy Readiness data according to school year 24 there has been a substantial increase of 10% or more in the proportion of students who enter kindergarten prepared in literacy foundational skills compared to the previous year school year 20 2023 which is helping us get closer and closer to our next goal which is making sure by school year 2026 that there's a 20% increase on the beginning of the year MTH literacy Readiness data for our students that are entering school

119now we are looking at the data by race when we look at the data by race our black African-American students are measuring reflectively the same as their white peers in the meet and the SC Matrix for the beginning of the year m in phological Awareness listening comprehension and picture vocabulary more notably in the area of phonetics and word recognition black African-American students out outperforming their white students in the meat or Seas Matrix our American Indian Alaskan and Latino Hispanic student Latin X hispan students are measuring much lower we as a school have noticed this disparity and are digging deeper into uncovering the root causes we know that there's much work to be done at je ECC when comparing the performance of je ECC students to non J ECC students on the beginning of the year

120map literacy Readiness assessment both group of students are achieving similar scores in the area of decoding next Here Comes our challenge the data indicates that je ECC still needs to improve in literacy foundational skills particularly focus in the area of language comprehension what we've also discovered is that this is not limited to the city of everon but this is something that is occurring in early childhood Across the Nation according to the data chart provided students who are not enrolled in j ECC program perform better than ja students in every component of language comprehension based on these findings we have decided to focus our efforts on enhancing instructional practices in listening comprehension and picture vocabulary using higher order thinking strategies increasing our teacher collaboration and utilize data to drive our instructional practices the you we are

121not stopping at what we see but we are encouraged to move forward and seeing the growth of our students in the city of Evon the family center JH Early Learning Center prioritizes the needs of Evanston community and centralizes the demand for early learning and intervention for our youngest most vulnerable Scholars 0 to 3 years old the family center has recently Incorporated a total of 17 new Personnel the family center continues to make strides to address the ongoing Staffing challenges we have provided retention bonuses salary increases and sign on bonus bonuses our district HR department has partnered with us and have been incredibly responsive and supportive in the mission to fulfill the remaining open positions which are 11 so our next steps J ECC has made strong progress in the terms of student outcomes on the

122map beginning of the year kindergarten assessment even though we are in the middle of our school year work plan we have made Solid progress towards ambitious goals and feel that we are have created a strong system that will allow this work to continue based on the findings we continue to focus our efforts on enhancing instructional practices and language comprehension while we recognize that we are currently under enrolled at je ECC we will persist with its recruitment re efforts until more full day classes become available part of our recruitment plan is to go out into the community to local organizations and businesses to inform them about our early childhood programs looking forward we are considering a PFA Grant rein revisement to allow for additional full day slots J ECC continues partnering with the student assignment planning

123team to consider the possibility of opening some full day classrooms throughout the district so to end a little bit we would like to share a few moments of the j j or Joy Factor as Dr Turner always calls it and on October 12th 2023 no little typo 24 J ECC hosted our third annual Hispanic and Latin acts Heritage celebration families and Je staff came together and enjoyed table displays of various cultur artifacts and ofenda dancing and singing to the tunes played by the music group Frankie people food from supreme burrito one of our local restaurants and face painting by Miss Rebecca Mendoza students also received donated books and hats another celebration we really want to highlight is our first annual kindergarten transition parent info night for students with IEPs that's a mouthful but it's a

124really important um component for our families that are transitioning from preschool to kindergarten um and it was held just last week on the 18th this is a response and recognition of how confusing and emotional this process of transition is for families and further evidence of our team's commitment to equity inclusion and belonging and in closing we invite you to attend one of our many Community engagement activities additionally we host a variety of monthly events for staff and our families in order to foster a strong sense of community and positive School climate so please save the date of Fe of February 22nd where je ECC will host the black experience family night to end we thank you for listening to the team J ECC where Excellence is the expectation and nothing less # [Music] [Applause] winning

125thank you so much to the je team uh and again the hard work uh I know working with little ones uh is is a challengeing of itself right but it's a beautiful thing uh and um again it's it's it's where our children families start off their their educational Journey uh and it's just such such an important important development on stage and I think again we know uh the research is really clear when we invest in early childhood uh and uring that it's a quality program it really pays dividends in the end uh um as children become adults so again whatever we can do to in me you have somebody who just again I'm I'm a K12 guy but I I I got into Early Childhood policy and of course became a dad and did early

126childhood my kiddos and I just saw the the the incredible uh work uh that that good programs can do so so thank you thank you colleagues any questions for the je team um no thank you for the presentation um it seems like from the data and I know you also mentioned in the memo like the need for full day is clear right so um I and what's involved in in requesting that you know additional um allowance for additional full-time like how long would that process take like and and what would it take to you know physically uh allow for more full day slots at je right okay so the team we've been exploring that um we are um looking and we're working to determine if we can possibly maybe close a couple of our half

127day classrooms um and open them up for full day um as well as again we're partnering with the student assignment um Team to look to see if there are some Open Spaces within like our buildings in District 65 that could also hold some additional full day classrooms as well yeah uh I hope that can happen because it seems like you said there are families on the waiting list for the fulltime and then we see that you know as a working parent like half day would never have worked for me right so um that juste precluded lots of uh preschools in the area so I can see that being a real challenge for families um but I also I also wanted to celebrate the the fact that um we don't see this same opportunity Gap in

128our data with our ECC students that we see in you know in our other in their K through 8 so I think that is that that you have sustained that you know we saw that early data we all got really excited and we're like is it going to happen again um and you have sustained that and that's that's really important and and worth noting and celebrating so thank you thank [Applause] you yeah I Echo everything Sula said I think it's very commendable my question I don't know if it would be for you all or someone on the cabinet is um is an after school option possible for J cuz theyr ly isn't one is that correct and I don't know there is not one no is it an option cuz like to your points like

129the half day is tough for folks but also even the full day can be tough for because of the hours and so I know I've heard that from some people so again that doesn't need to be answered tonight but I think that's something I'd love to hear more about um yeah maybe to clarify like what would it take right what would the staffing needs be what would the budgetary needs be like what you know that and are there different like um Le like DCFS like is it the same as a K5 building having or is it different because of its early that like those kinds of things I'd love to to hear more about we will definitely look into thank you um I did want to make a a suggestion uh for the next time

130uh for presenting data I know you mentioned that I we there's some work to do with our Latino students latinx students um I know uh teaching I gold is offered in Spanish uh and I know we have bilingual uh prek again in in in compliance with our board's Vision to have multilingual experiences across the the Continuum here in District 65 so for you know my my recommendation is for the next time if we can uh see what those results are right because again we we want to get a complete picture of our multilingual students that are in are ESL or are multilingual or bilingual uh pre preschool for all classrooms as well as a start I think offers uh uh you know a bilingual option or in Spanish so if that could be added to

131to the next uh report on on progress I think we'll see uh a complete picture and you'll see that those students are actually pretty I imagine or doing well um the other piece that I had here I really appreciate the the transition meetings uh is particularly for our students who are IEPs I know this is a a problem in the early childhood world uh again in regards to kids transitioning from 0 to3 programs to 3 to 5 into the kindergarten 8 System um I know there used to be meetings between uh for a couple years we had meetings between kindergarten and um preschool teachers um and we would have a featured speaker to kind of talk about a best practice but have you know folks chat with one another uh something that maybe we can

132consider you know having those conversations between our our je preschool Educators and and and our kindergarten to even first grade staff right so they can see what we can expect um you know and and for me you know pre you so early childhood extends to third grade right I think the the the work of children at that age is play children learn through play right I mean that's and you I know you all believe that uh and um I know you know many school districts continue to chase test scores and reading and math and all that okay we got to do it but you know part of a social emotional development and developing a whole child is is that they play uh to to help them develop social emotional uh skills uh as well as

133learn academic Concepts right uh so um I know one of our speakers in the public comment mentioned that kindergarten is lacking play uh we really need to look into that uh so I I ask the administration to really see if there's ways that we can continue to as part of the transition we incorporate uh um what what what we call um it's it's it's play through learning through play right is what we call it in in early childhood so again I think something that we we really do need to consider I just want to add on to that and your presentation was fabulous and now you're getting caught into a whirlwind of District Vision that is beyond the scope of your presentation um because now it's hopes and dreams but you've for several years now

134presented um data that does not predict outcomes based on race that's exceptional and commendable and I think we all wish you well on the journey to continue that um the broader conversation around facilities and continuity of programs um future sap conversations to hear you talk about Early Childhood in other places is awesome because that is that's an opportunity right for kids who need Early Childhood programming and maybe even a couple of years in the place they're going to be for K through 5 ahead of time that seems like an exceptional opportunity that we have to keep as like the why for realignment of programs and streamlining things because there is a better educational alignment in our future if we desire it um and if you were to add three years prior to elementary school in

135some buildings for some kids you're able to give some kids now 9 years in a building um and that's an exception continuity of service that isn't offered anywhere else right now except for our two magnets um so I'll just put that on the table as we're heading into the rest of the night I I imagine that there are others that at 918 are also um not figuring out the math on this so I just want to I know we've all said we're excited about the racial predictability elimination that but I want to just put the point on it that this started before the pandemic and has been maintained through the pandemic and that is not nothing um so you know that not just that this data is exceptional and really hope giving but also through

136the hardest educational time nationally you all have found a way to continue to to do great work so thank you ital work U one one more thing around the U you know assessment and the data um you know kids assessment was developed by the you know State Board of Education to reincorporate uh play and and and the measuring of of um of Child Development uh in in kindergarten so I know that's again we're required by state law all school districts to to provide the the kids assessment which is an observational assessment that assesses academic skills as well as gross motor skills as well as social emotional um so again I think if we can get that incorporated into either this report or one of our next reports at least in a u in our K

137through third right which again is a a transition Point uh that would be really great uh and then there there's continuity in regards to seeing the impact if we can sustain the incredible work that's going on in in in J and sustain uh that that closed uh opportunity Gap through K through third and Beyond so that's good feedback and that's more feedback for us at the district level so I know Dr beerley is taking feverish notes there for us to consider um the kids assessment more broadly and how we're how we're using that data so right and that's offered in Spanish and and English as well so that's again that's another way to do do a full assessment of kiddos yeah I want to also capitalize on uh essentially what we named in terms of

138being able to offer uh preschool and some other places Beyond je really falls into um work that needs to be considered when we think about the Early Childhood expansion and so just to let this board know like that that is another area that is um on my team's uh myself and my team's agenda in terms of really thinking and and really trying to figure out what that looks like potentially and as part of consideration for um sap 3 work so just want to kind to name that as well for this team sounds good all right well thank you very much all right so the next item on our agenda is the action thank you [Applause] J so the next action item is uh action to commence process for consideration of closing of Dr Bessie Road

139School of Global Studies yes and so um I just I have a memo to the board where so a little bit of background at the December 18th 2023 regular board meeting and the January 16 2024 Committee of the whole meeting the school board and members of The District's internal fifth award School planning team engag in a robust in robust discussions centered on the future of Dr Betsy Road's School of Global Studies this was the result of a shift and design plans from the new Fifth Ward School serving K8 students to K5 students due to budgetary concerns based on the discussion and the informal consensus by the board at the committee of the hall meeting to move forward with option A as outlined in the presentation that we delivered the administration is requesting the board to

140take action on a motion to commence the formal process for considering the closing of Dr Betsy roads School of Global Studies what does that process entail the Illinois School code requires that a school board hold three public hearings prior to closing a school building that the board determines is unnecessary unsuitable or inconvenient the board must post notice of each public hearing at least 10 calendar days in advance of each meeting on the board on the district's website at the hearings the board must discuss its decision to consider closing the school building and allow for community input the district is committed to following all the requirements outlined in the Illinois school code related to the Future closure of Betsy roads a timeline to meet these requirements is being developed by the administration and will be presented

141to the school board at a future meeting the earliest the school closure will go into effect is after the 2025 2026 school year the district is committed to collaboration and developing a thoughtful transition process for all those impacted by the closure what is my recommendation tonight it is recommended that the board take action tonight on the motion being presented so before we vote I mean let's have a discussion yeah so we have to have now three public meetings which in in essence to me sounds like default it's option b almost right I mean is that is that a correct reading can can I ask a point of clarification this school code is for the closing of a physical building correct doesn't say what's happening to the program right doesn't say what's happening to the program

142so I I feel like this isn't really an A or B this is closing the building is separate from yeah what we discussed last Tuesday right that's how I understand it I'm not sure if that's how others well we discussed that it would be expensive to have 19 School sites and it's possible to transition the program to another place and still own the building but vacate it without having to go through oh the motion to oh I got it to close it and sell it right but if we if we have these hearings that's a good and I don't know if anyone here knows the answer oh Brian yeah Brian and and and it might just be better if our internal fifth W team just can come up at this point because there might be

143other questions as as well as um Amy come on up and join this conversation as well for uh any programming questions so Brian if I can ask a qu like if we you know move forward with the steps the three public meetings to close the building and we change our minds about selling it or something we just leave it empty are there any legal ramifications no correct no so if if you want to close the the school if we're going to close that building down you will have to have three separate public hearings once you go through that process and then officially vote on it you will have closed the school and we can sell it or we don't have to sell it like what we do with the building at that point doesn't matter

144correct okay and also just to clarify Brian that those hearings would be where we would determine sorry I can get closer that this resolution is about closing the building is this we are not voting tonight on language that says what is happening programmatically and where that and where FY Road students are going we're just talking about the building all you are doing tonight is starting a process and telling the administration that we want to begin that process that process includes will include if you to close the school three separate public hearings that's all you're doing tonight so by if you vote Yes on this you will have not closed the school yet you'll have commenced the process to close the school because in order to close the school you have to engage per the Illinois

145school code in three separate public hearings and which have to be um presented at least 10 days in advance to public notice correct that's correct you will have to have three public hearings before you can act to officially close it but to Sergio's point this is option b because we are still going through it's delaying it at least three months if you do a he not necessarily right um I mean I mean the next resolution is to build the fifth W school and I think our discussions last time were that the fifth word school um needs to include the K the twe K5 population right that's what we're planning um so just for clarification based on the number of e students that live in the fifth war that school has to have a tweet at

146minimum one or two tweet strands right okay so we are still talking about K through 5 twe in the fifth word school that's the next resolution uh it I don't see it that I mean I think I think there's still I think they can still be separated I guess the way I see it is this first motion is start the process to close the physical building then the next one is officially you know officially officially make the Fifth Ward K5 School P you know continue I feel like the Bessie roads Andor twe strand number of twe strands at the new school is can actually be separated from both of these res uh resolutions or motions thank you but is that is that how others understand so then here's the question because again we we need

147to start planning in regards to who's going to take advantage of of sixth grade um twe which we begin in in in besty roads right so that's my question to to Amy then because again we we would still need to figure that out for her for her team to plan to see how many students will stick around well the numbers was what 147 current fifth graders right that would start Middle School twe in the whole District right not at Betsy roads necessarily right so we have to ensure there's enough demand at Betsy roads to to um then open it up to other bu other twe sites for consideration of becoming being in the Dual language program at bsy roads um I do recall back in 2017 uh Middle School twe was really where those students

148started to outperform um their peer classmates that were not into twe programming hence you know both of you talked about the importance of having the Middle School TW um and I know one of the options that we had discussed was you know the K through five twe strand at the fifth W school and then the middle school being at Haven um I guess my question is looking just at these numbers why can't we have the two middle schools like a Haven and then and a shoot or Les we talk about you know we have these elementary schools with one strand and it's just not as um yes exact word but not I don't know just not as strong as those that have the two such as the Bessie rhods or the Washington so it almost

149would make sense to have two middle schools that are able to rely on each other partner um concurrently in building their middle school twe yes that is an option that we presented a timeline last week that that it is under consideration absolutely the commitment is strong with the board and with best practice to ensure that we continue a dual language model up through 8th grade so it's it that isn't um that is that will continue and that is the plan with enough Demand right so we we have to if if the parents at say a feeder pattern at Nicholls uh they say you know that's great but I don't want to dual language program through for the middle school because it's not best and there's only three families that want it then we will have

150to make sure that they get their um legal rights of having a program somewhere else maybe not opening it at a particular site if the demand is not there but yes it is the de it is the vision of having the whole District have a k A8 dual language model so after we build and open the new school and we enroll it there's going to be students from a myriad of places that come into the new school um that choose it that choose it in year one that choose it in year two and five years later it's going to be people's neighborhood school right people that are selecting without having to go through change is that a fair assumption yes we got to work with some um you know one of the things we haven't

151talked about is like how many families are at King Arts because that's where they were suggested to go because their neighborhood school was full um and you probably can't answer the question because we probably been surveyed everybody but one of my questions last week was how do we reconcile the need for a decision today with future decisions that are going to need to be made so that they don't end up in conflict and going back to separating the Dual language program growth change Evolution improvements to the closing of a physical site selling a site um I guess I'm wondering is it possible for us tonight I know we're going to talk about the fifth word school is it possible to commit to sap 3 being something that happens I think you said in the memo

152starts this spring yeah we try I put the Dual language program as the first topic of conversation before the sped program before the Early Childhood Program so that we can talk about Bessie roads but also talk about the expansion do some due diligence around this a little bit further to explore options like if we vacate a third of King Arts because those kids want to go to their neighborhood school we now have space at a place like King Arts to expand maybe a dual language program or something else I these are things that um for me aren't settled and I feel like if we make certain decisions right now we're going to eliminate some of those options from still being on the table and that's what I I feel completely confident that of all the

153things that are on the table we're going to we're going to break some hearts right wall toall twe seems like it's a a stretch in the future um K8 might not contiguous might not be possible but I do think that there's a great program that can be built in the future I kind of want to have that presented first before we decide something that's going to happen 3 years from now I don't know where my board colleagues feel on that but yeah I you know I think this is a tough situation um and you know my heart is heavy because I think whenever we talk about closing a school I know how painful that is I've had the chance to hear from parents at Bessie Road parents at Haven parents in the Fifth Ward black

154latinx white families and I I get it um I appreciate you know parents coming out and speaking up and talking about how much they love their school um I think with all that being said we are in a situation where we can't do everything I wish we could I wish we could disconnect the success of the fifth W school from the decision of what is going to happen to Bessie RADS I think in a perfect world resources would be unlimited money would be unlimited time and the ability to make plans would be unlimited we would have the ability to see in the future what parents are going to decide to do and how empty some schools are going to be but the truth is we don't live in that type of world and at some

155point we have to come to terms with what the reality is and the reality is we cannot have schools that are underutilized we have to make some tough decisions and I'm still in the position where I think that we really have to think through making some of these decisions because if not we keep coming back to what what comes first the chicken or the egg are we going to keep talking about what we're going to do and then parents don't know what their options are and because they don't know what their options are we don't know what the numbers are and because we don't know what the numbers are we can't put solid plans in place we can't Implement in a way that is going to make the fifth W School successful we can't Implement

156in a way that's going to make tweet successful at some point I know it's hard but as a board we have to start making some of these tough decisions and I think that we have to do that with the lens of equity in mind but when I hear about equity and when I hear about a concentration of latinx families who are English Learners in the Fifth Ward it does not feel Equitable to me to continue to have to have those students bust to a school outside of their Community we've been waiting 50 years in order to have a school in the community of the Fifth Ward for black families and now I feel like we're in a situation where we're making or could possibly make the same mistake again and have to bust a population

157to another school outside of their neighborhood and to me that does not feel Equitable I feel like I've heard from a lot of people and I understand and that there are some real real fears and real discomfort around possibly having to be integrated in Haven and I understand that I can empathize with that I know how painful and how hard that can be to be in a place where you don't feel like you are necessarily welcome where you don't necessarily feel safe but to me we can't be Equitable if we have any schools within our district where all students don't feel feel like they're safe where all students don't feel like they're welcome and we've got 200 students at Haven now who are black and latinx and I can't say to those families we're not

158going to focus in on making Haven a safe and welcoming place but instead we're going to have families who were going to you know have go somewhere else instead of going to to that place to me the only Equitable solution for that is to make that a strong school so everyone does feel welcome there and so I think that as we make our decisions tonight and as we talk about the different options we have to keep in mind you know definitely how hard this is and because this is so hard we need to give ourselves adequate time to plan and do this right so that we are not in a situation where we're doing more harm to families at Bessie roads families in the Fifth Ward and families in Haven we have to make those

159tough decisions or things are going to get harder I totally agree Maya with what you're saying um but I guess like one point I just want to point out is that like if we were to re-evaluate and go with option b when it's time to talk about which option we're going to go with there's like I think Serita just said there would still be enough students for a twee at least at least one if not two twe strands at the Fifth Ward school so I we wouldn't need to be busing students out of the Fifth Ward for twe I guess again I think these conversations can be happening at the same like they're two separate conversations the fifth W school is going to happen there's going to be twe there but the I think the

160Bessie rhods conversation can be taken out of that and put into sap three because to your point like I do like I guess I guess if if you know if the staff said choosing option A right now would make the planning so much easier I I would respect that but I also think the sap process has been very thorough and I know there was a wrinkle in sap 2 couple wrinkles you know superintendent leaving the money situation K5 K8 to K5 changed things but I think you know under Serita and her team's guidance like the sap 3 process can really work so again I just feel like why can't we do both like you know and and and I guess having said that I still would like clarification to my question which is with this

161action all we're talking about is voting on like the option to start the process to close the school meaning I think we should vote on this now assuming we all agree on that and then continue the next part of the like or I mean Sergio tell is is choosing option A or B part of this in your eyes or is that a separate conversation well that's the thing because we we still have my understanding since we have to do have three public meetings still it delays the process or at least the decision that we were asked to make as a board so I think that's the issue so so again I I we want to make sure that our teams have the opportunity to plan as Maya is suggesting because again the longer we wait

162it's just again and this is Again part of a larger process again sap 3 is going to focus on on continued programmatic conversations as well as conversation around consolidation um so it is something that we really need to make a decision on so that that that's my question to the team how many people might be able to take Middle School dual language at Bessie roads with the expansion we have to but about I'm not going to hold I think when we looked at the numbers with cni I think we said at most three but we have two and we can probably fit in a third one when we open it up when the fifth word School opens that extra class of students would go also to The Haven dual language program if that is a

163site that the board deems it then yes that's how would those students get to Haven if they don't live near Haven they'd be busted right that's what I'm not comfortable like we're pigeon ho holding ourselves in a busing situation again without thinking through no middle wait no can I I just don't want to do get bust my kids get busted to shoot Middle School gets busted in certain circumstances but if you're a kid at daw's dual language and you sign up for middle school and come to Bessie roads but then we allow you to go to Haven don't we have to bus you so I just I just want to make sure that we're doing this with our eyes wide open because if the concern is Pigeon hoing us and busing one way I just

164think we should pause for a second and think through in sap 3 all the possible scenarios and do this with our eyes wide open but you're talking about 6 through eight you're talking about Middle School twe um but we're also talking about K through five fifth W school and twe in that school so we're separating out K through five twe from 6 through 8 twe right yeah concern those are separate yeah my main like I'm I'm curious as to the broader middle school expansion because I think doing it in one place is highly restrictive so then again as Amy mentioned and in the memo it says to be determined so Haven isn't necessarily the place that six you know the middle school will have will end right ultimately we wanted them in all the middle

165schools so and I think she you know again we made it clear last meeting was that we want expansion across all middle schools and that's something that the team is going to work on am I correct that is correct so I'm curious Serita you you were also at the meeting um with Bessie Road's parents um and I was wondering if you'd share some highlights about that conversation and uh you know Middle School twe the future yeah so um a parent organized uh a grp a subset of our uh Black and Latino parents at bie rad for us to meet um just so their voices could be raised in this conversation as you've heard from many comments and obviously as we continue to push um from our lens as as well and I think again consensus

166is like if they can have K8 waterall twe as promis that's what they want um I think the other piece was like there's some wiggle room that if Ka twe is not a wall to- wall building um that there are to Maya's Point some really concerns about moving their kids to Haven and since they have Beed the kind of burden of of being our guinea pigs through this process we should give them option or there should be choice for that Middle School uh CA um sixth through e8th grade dual language program and they shouldn't necessarily be um forced if you will to only go to Haven if there are other options could there be Choice um so I think one of our speakers talked about and we came up with the 51st option and so

167one of those was like to I think an earlier point about King Arts is it a possibility that that that Middle School strand maybe lives at arts and Haven could you do twoo and again just giving some options to provide some flexibilities for those families so they don't feel like there's only one choice uh for dual language if it cannot be in a Ka bill building and King Arts might be close enough that it's a walk considered a walkable school for many of our fifth word families as well so the second biggest dual language population at Bessie Rose is the second ward um so correct that kind of Washington and King Arts is kind of in that W as well I'm not opposed to talking about closing a school I I've said before we can't

168have 18 sites with declining enrollment that's like like I said we're going to have to make some tough decisions I'm uncomfortable I I like to worry in order and um deciding to like close and sell a building seems like it's coming before a few other things that should be known um before we do it that's why I keep asking the same questions so I I just want to I'm having a visualization that is helping me I don't know if it will help anyone else but I I'm worried that sometimes we're talking about populations di as though they I I have vet diagrams that iown as well um that we often talk about populations as though they're totally separate right so as an LGBT person often the conversations about are about l LGBT people and people

169of color as though there are not LGBT people of color and though having those conversations separate leads to double like the most extreme marginalization for LGBT folks that are that are folks of color and so I want us to be careful that we don't talk about fessie roads and Fifth Ward as completely separate populations because they're not and that we don't think about what the current Bessie roads families are and the future who won't necessarily be Bessie rhods but are whoever right like we have to be thinking about those things in Tandem and I I just want us to be careful about thinking that we can look at one group and say this is what they want in total isolation of this because again there is a reason why and I think you know there's

170some things that we want to separate out in our decision- making now but the there are many reasons why the conversation was about Bessie rhods and the Fifth Ward initially because of where folks live so just to review some of the numbers I think someone mentioned and um Bessie roods is 34% black and 50s something per latinx so that would be about 80% because I know there was some mention of the 80% being inaccurate but it seems like there's 80% of Bessie Road's students % was folks of color com no they no we I think the the stat was on it was in on the December 18th meeting that 80% of the Spanish speaking twe students at Bessie rhods live in the Fifth Ward and that's incorrect right no I understand but 80% of students

171are of color at Bessie roads and 301 91 okay 30 thank you 39% of latinx families live in the Fifth Ward right that was I think 39% of fifth W families are attend or I'm sorry hold on not y'all not going to misquote me so give me a second period but just to underscore biz's Point these are o overlapping populations um and that doesn't even take into account the future right that's just the current is overlapping that doesn't take into account Willard families who live in the Fifth Ward who are in exactly so so I guess what I hear when I hear that because again I agree with that argue what I hear there is that means the Fifth Ward school should have twe regardless of what we do with Bessie Road like I think

172they're going to be able to support two strands based like even if we were to move Bessie roads else I I guess I don't see from the numbers and from the from what we're talking about in terms of the financial picture that there's a wall toall K8 model um if we close messie roads and a lot of the families are absorbed into to K5 in the new new fifth W school I don't see us finding another building for a K8 right but I think we can talk about where 68 Middle School twe goes I think that is a conversation worth having we heard King Arts we heard Haven we heard all of the middle schools right um and and I would be I think that we can we have this the time because of the

173necessary public hearings we have the time to uh discuss those options I just want to address the 80% I I think um it was mentioned 80% but at some point I said in previous board meetings that about 80 students that live in the fifth War so I think maybe the percentage of number of students got mixed up um but 80 80 over 80 now but at that time that we had data 80 students who lived in the fifth War qualified for tweet which means that and we know it has to have at least two strands in that building and 40% of um current Bessie rolls enrollment lives in the fifth War not necessarily twe so when you pull out just Spanish twe eel uh in the fifth War it's um 25% of that K5 population

174can I make sure we're all working from the same definitions on something yes so when we say wall to wall twe that means there's no gened there's no other program in the building it would only be twe and all the staff and all the staff so I think we can be clear about two things that we are eliminating that are that have already been in our discussions eliminating one is that I mean obviously we have to vote on this still but like that Bessie roads is it physical structure is not going to exist anymore and that there is not a place for there to be wall to--all twe there's a different question about k through eight there's a different question about whether it's K through 5 but like right there's do anybody see any scenario

175where there's a b that there's a Bessie roads closes and another building becomes wall toall tweet no and I just again the program convers ations we're supposed to be a part of a future set process and that's where I want those conversations to be had where it's beyond the scope of just the seven of us and um like the best case K8 twe scenario that pops in my mind is five years down the road king Arts has depleted its population enough that you can put up monolingual and dual language side by side K8 but we won't know that for a while so again worrying in order what we can do is talk about when are we going to have the program conversations to discuss significant changes to our school communities not just bie roads all

176of the ones that are impacted by dual language programming which also includes the conversations around special education like when's that going to happen and and a comprehensive plan in regards to the consolidation and closure of other schools so so those need to be happening yes which we've talked we've talked about that toart I just want to clarify the wall toall cuz I don't want people to have appr scario that we really I don't think any of us possible and I think it's good to clarify so I again I want to kind of go back to this the motion that's at hand is discussing the closing of the physical building so when we have we're going to have to have three public hearings but those hearings should really just be focused on the building itself I

177don't think we're going to get people coming to those things saying keep Bessie roads building you know people I think that's clear I mean they might but in reality like that should be a totally different conversation and kind of Joey to your point like we don't have to do this now but if we do we're not pigeon ho holding oursel because we can go through it and then decide not to sell it if that's the case but I want to be clear that I don't think that's what we should do what I'd like to know from the district and I think that you know obviously we have to have these hearings no matter what and I think you know there are opportunities I think it's it's very fair for current Bessie R's family to talk

178about a transition plan and what sort of choice choices they will have in that sort of thing but what I think we really need to understand from the district is what decisions do you need to be made in order to move forward with a successful opening of the fifth W school and being able to adequately plan and adequately put in place the implementation plan for that I think those like we owe you decisions so that you can do that so you don't feel rushed and so our students aren't impacted because we're Rush [Laughter] because this this this gets further and further uh mentally um draining every time we have to engage in this conversation and tonight what the ask is is for a motion to move forward and following the Illinois school code process as

179it relates to closing a school building which requires us to have three public heing right and the problem with us not making that decision tonight of really landing on the contents of the email and where we came to the informal consensus at the January 16th Committee of the whole is because part of our timeline was to reach out to the fifth grade families to really determine what their interest and plan plans are and with stalling or delaying this process it further puts us in a place of not being [Music] able to really to really get more to get more accurate to what we really need to do if that makes any sense I don't understand how well could we I mean if we can entertain like when are asking fifth word fifth grade families at

180Bessie roads um could we ask them like would you go would you do Middle School twe at Haven or would you do Middle School twe at uh King Arts right like if those are the two potential locations um of Middle School twe would that give more clarity in terms of numbers honestly I think um aot a lot of families are really really confused right now um because there's just been a lot of information so I think part of the recommendation A or B is to for us to kind of put a stake in the ground to say okay we know we can communicate and me and Melissa were like sitting today like so we're trying to struggle a little bit about what to say um and so I think clarity about if there has been

181a motion to close the school is is one that we can communicate um clearly if there is not a recommendation a B that becomes a little more muddy for families for us to say well perhaps it will be X Y and Z or perhap like that's hard for families to decide and there are several parents in my ebox in inbox now who is like they're waiting to listen to this meeting to determine if they're going to keep their kid even for the Dual language currently at Bessie roads because they know it's not going to stay through eighth grade right because that you know because when the new school opens is moving somewhere and that moving somewhere is a part of their decision making as well so I do agree with Turner that there has to

182be some consensus around recommendation A or B too so we can articulate that to families s can I ask a follow question because I'm I am a little confused by part of what you just said because if if in the option a option b situation the advocacy has been for delay which doesn't give the answer to those questions agre so they feel contradictory to me of like if if if we say we're going to delay we're saying we will not know we will not be able to give you conclusive decision on where your kids are going to go for quite some time so but but if you're getting pressure from folks to say I need to know so I can plan how is that work with delay I don't I don't like I don't know

183is it is it Brian can you chime in at this point do you have do you want to talk us through maybe clarifying the public hearing process sure so you will if you commence this process you will need to have three separate meetings you can have those on a Monday Tuesday Wednesday you can have those a month apart you can have those three months apart but you'll need to commence all those and you will have to give it's sort of like a budget public hearing people will have an opportunity to speak directly to the issue of the closure of bety Road school um and you will have to have those distinct meetings you'll have to put the notice it'll be probably very much like your public comment tonight and then the board will deliberate discuss

184and probably at that third meeting or a subsequent regular meeting you will actually act as to whether you will close the school to student enrollment and such so that we can then put it up for sale or however you want to utilize it so that is the process and tonight again you are not acting on the closure you are act you are telling the community that we are going to commence this process okay I can do well let's let's take a vote wait can I ask one more sorry one more question in any of those hearings do the decisions to close the building require us to say what is happening with this no so that required to say what is happening no except this memo asks us to pick between a and b and a

185says that middle the middle school dual language will go to Haven and my concern about reconciling decisions today against the future is is it possible we've vote for a to close the building and enact this plan and then we go through a sap 3 process and we have other options and the people you've asked questions of say they want to do this but then you give them a better option five months down the road and I don't think these are mutually exclusive things we can do the building thing but the resolution that's been put forward includes a student plan and I'm not sure the student plan has been properly thought out to to cons to consider for me today resolution what res that language isn't in there the memo no no it's just about we

186talking separate MOS just about yeah I don't think there is there is no action tonight there's no action tonight be it this motion regarding Betsy RH to commence the process and or the resolution to approve going forward with the fifth W school that deals with option A or option b you are not taking that action you're not taking that official action tonight so so I was confused by the based on the discussion and the informal consensus from the committee meeting to move forward with option A as outlined in this presentation as part of the memo so the board is asking I am the administration is requesting the board to take action on a motion to commence the formal process of considering the closing of Betsy Rose I just recapped for us the last time but

187essentially what I'm asking tonight is for us to commence the process for the school closure of Betsy Roose if that makes any sense we the the other piece is it does it does make sense but it doesn't make sense that we're voting to close a building before we've told people what's going to happen to we're not voting to close it Joey we're voting to I I get it but I I guess I'm asking Brian if we waited a year before the fifth world school is still open and we enact this process and do a Monday Tuesday Wednesday we can still close the building yes no but and yes and like yeah I mean to your I mean it works just like a budget hearing does so it would be we could tack it on to

188a existing board meeting if we wanted correct I I need to I I need to look at that there are there are certain meetings that have to be distinct and separate you just have to it only is that I need to take a look at the statute that can be a part of a regular board meeting or separate I think it might need to be but to your point it could be three days in a row so we could wait if need be to Joey's point on the other side of that we can initiate this process we still have to go through three hearings We could decide not to close the school so delaying this process that we have to do no matter what doesn't actually solve any of our problems it just starts a

189process that we then in tandem have to make these other decisions with it just seems like we've making making decisions out of order no I don't think so I think I think this was part of fifth W School plan right closing Bessie Road I have no I have no um illusion about the fact that Bessie roads is going to close and we're going to um probably sell the building and all that's going to happen that doesn't mean that certain work should have happened first I think we can chicken and egg this 12 different directions right of which I mean I think we have to make it at some point some of these decisions have to be made and we I think there's arguments as to which order they can go in um correct but I

190have you know my my issue last week was about Middle School dual language program expansion and the speed of that and the opportunity to be proud of a program and develop the program and expand the program and I ju I just want to see the plan before before we do it and you know I might be on my own boat sailing out in the waters but this just feels like um we we literally have 18 months before the opening of the new school and all I'm asking is that between now and in the next six months we go through sap 3 figure out the Dual language programming that's best for this district and put that into motion and then talk about how we're going to close a building that currently has the only Ka tweet

191program we have it's not like if we vote on this tonight the building's going to close tomorrow talk it's going to take and we're not closing it until the fifth W school is open you're absolutely right but if I wait to tie my shoes until after I've run the marathon there's a chance something goes wrong in the race you know 18 that is AA analy it might be a fla analogy but it still doesn't what 18 months feels like a really long time 18 months a long time need to do I think one of the things that would be really helpful is at the next time we have an update for us to see more of a timeline not just around the construction but to start to talk about the timeline around the transition plan

192and the programming as well because I think we are underestimating the work that we need to put in to do this right and we can people on having conversations and really hurt ourselves by doing that you know and also one I I would like to point out in the motion that if you do approve it tonight it is very Broad and it does not provide when those meetings need to be I think what what would come from this if you voted yes on it was the superintendent Administration would come to you with a time frame with what they a recommendation of what that time frame should be that is not in the motion it's not saying the specific dates will be next week those three dates could span the next 18 right and can I

193let let let me let me let me chime in here for a second so somebody said why I'm going tell you why and so I'm chiming in here to specifically clarify that all of what you just described is going to happen in the sap 3 process tonight is just the process for us to follow the school code when it's time to make the decision of closing the school my team is geared up right now to provide a timeline of um to provide the timeline for the work that's going to take for sap my team is geared up right now and the rest of the folks can cuz it's a fog we've been talking about this for a very long time I've been talking about this all day to be quite honest with you and so

194can you recap the what we discussed today in the fifth War internal meeting in terms of what our internal process is we we we're building out a sap timeline on what that work will entail also at the upcoming curriculum and policy meeting our plan is to present um to discuss publicly what our timeline looks like for the expansion of the Dual language program across our middle schools clarify for this board the the the discussion that we engaged in last week specifically around this idea of a lottery and really defining what a lottery means for this district and then the third the third piece of what what was the third aspect that we were going to include in this week in for the Fe February 5th uh curriculum and policy meeting I think it was the

195third one was around like some legalities around twe I believe or and so we wanted yes and we wanted to really demystify and really clarify the purpose of dual language and who the Dual language program is targeted for right because I think there's some we going back and forth on some stuff and to me there's a lack of knowledge and education really of understanding the intended audience that the the Dual language program is designed for right so our team is geared up to provide that to this board on February uh 3rd we are also in that process our plan is to embed in when these hearings need to take place as well so that the board understand the timeline for the hearings so the this work is so comprehensive tonight we're just saying we're going

196to follow the Illinois state code process for closing a school part of the sap work just to name and be very clear on what our team is really proposing for that next edge of sap 3 work is dual language uh dual language middle school expansion Early Childhood expansion and consolidations is all mixed into that but those are three those are three big heavy lift lifts that we're asking them to do and it's going to take time hence when you see the timeline that sap 3 work is spread out over the duration of the time while we're getting our plan is to get the fifth War School built so again tonight is just the motion in place for this board to agree that when we get to when we get to the place of deciding on

197closing schools We are following the Illinois school code statute as it relates to the process that it takes to engage in a school closure that's what that's that's what I'm asking you we just on the first memo tonight that's what I'm asking for tonight thank you for that angel I want to just say like it seems like the fifth word school is opening a long time from now but so you just listed like the entire St process and imp mation the Dual language timeline and St sporting and oh by the way we got to decide consolidating schools and open a fifth word school and also you all have to run the District of 18 schools while we're doing all of that yeah so this seems like clap that thank you let me do the clap

198in this this seems like the least we can do is to just get this ball rolling and while we still figure out all of these other things I don't think it let's vot hurs us make two quick two quick things just real quick it's not 18 months right is in it 20 it's 18 months would be 20 fall of 25 yeah I didn't say 18 months I I'm just it's late it's very late the other thing just real the next the meeting the curriculum policy meeting is the 5ifth not the third it's late we're all I'm angry myself it's just one more it's like the rest of the school year one more school year and open clarify that's not a lot of times but I think would can we give any consideration to sap 3

199not being a superintendent's committee but a board committee functionally that just means that two board members would have to be at all the meetings that's always been the option I think that the board members parti it's different being a superintendent committee versus a board committee can I yeah I I I think it's a good idea I think Serita has done a great job with her team of facilitating um bringing in it um but also she has to take a lot of like calls from parents which I would consider I hate to use this word but more political than she should be dealing with she should be dealing with with numbers and statistics and not playing the political game and whether you know that's our job right so I I agree with Joey I think that

200makes a lot of sense um I don't feel ready to decide about what that whether the committee is board or superintendent let's let's vote let's vote on on on starting this process I think that's a start we want to pause everything yall feel uncomfortable with except for this thing no we just want to we're going to vote on it you can vote no we don't have language about a vote around the separate what how the committee operates I'd like to know how that functions and I would like to give our staff a time to talk about how that would function I I guess in the future I would like big decisions to be thought out before we're asked to vote on them so we can and and I just I I just want to chime

201in in full transparency and say because I also want to be clear my my team has been working extremely hard day in and day out since October I I want to clarify that so so that that puts me in a in a very weird space right now and and I just want to go on record and and and saying that because we have been transparent and have come forth with everything we possibly can and have not cut any corners and tried to Blindside anybody so that's what that feels like for my team and I just want to want to publicly just just say that I wasn't implying that anybody wasn't working hard I just think that the the there's more left in the ideation process yeah and I appreciate all of the work that you

202and your team have put into this I know that this is not easy and I know that you know we need to do our job and fulfill our responsibility as a board in order to give you the direction so that you don't have to you know keep going back and doing double work and I think that the process that we have in front of us is the process to continue to get community feedback and input um and so with that I move that the Board of Education Direct the superintendent to work with the board president to set the hearing dates and authorize the board president to call the public hearings and give the proper notices in accordance with the open meetings act and section 10 to 22.13 of the Illinois school code and take other

203necessary actions to enable the board to consider the CL closing of Bessie Ro school which closing would not take effect until after the 2025 2026 school year second Sue abin Lindsay Ryan Yes Tim yes helper no Salem no Wilkins yes Hernandez yes motion passes 4 two all right the next item on our agenda is the approval of resolution for the construction of a school in the Fifth Ward at the December 18 2023 regular meeting the school board continued its discussion regarding planning for our new fifth War school at this time the administration also presented an initial schematic design and preliminary estimated budget the board reached a unanimous initial consensus to plan for a twostory K5 School serving 600 students at an estimated cost of 48.4 million the return of a new state-of-the-art school to evon's

204fifth War exemplifies both necessary historic and critical investment within the community should the board approve the resolution being pres presented this evening it will reaffirm our commitment to returning a neighborhood school to evon's fifth War Community for the first time and almost 60 years since the closing of foster School in 1967 students who reside in the Fifth Ward consequently experienced a disproportionate burden including the loss of a neighborhood School increased busing and Acom accompanying environmental hazards reduced sense of community and lack of access to be to before and after school programming not shared by other students residing in the district who had access to walkable neighborhood schools on March 14 2022 the board authorized the previous District administration and its Architects to pursue construction of a kindergarten through eighth grade kada a school on Foster

205field at an anticipated cost of $40 million as brought forward by the current Administration in October 2023 based on significant comprehensive site design plan revisions and other unforeseen costs the the original estimate and cost for the KA School Rose to an estimated total cost of $65 million since that time the board determined it was too costly for the district to undertake given its structural deficit and need for a significant budget cuts in the up upcoming academic years it was determined that establishing a school in the Fifth Ward for students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade balances the necessity of constructing a school School in the Fifth Ward that is walkable for neighborhood students with the district's funding limitations with input from Educators staff and administrators the state-of-the-art school building will be approximately 84,4 square feet

206and is intended to include the following 24 classrooms dedicated spaces and storage for arts and special classes drama music Art band Orchestra stem a cafetorium with a stage and a vitable gymnasium with bleachers to provide flexible large space functionality a focus on the needs of Primary students for proximate access to bathrooms the playground and the Arts and special classrooms a central location on the first floor of the school library the inclusion of a sensory room flexible and accessible intervention small group spaces age appropriate outdoor playground spaces Flex multi-purpose room on the second floor to allow for school age child care Fitness fine arts school and community events morning Child Care recess inside and flexibility for future programmatic growth and Lead silver sustainability features the budget and financing the following Matrix describes a proposal for the

207k5600 student building this includes all construction cost estimated plus soft cost furniture and Technology architectural fees construction manager and permit fees and contingencies as it relates to cost escalation due to inflation while the majority of the construction costs will be covered with the lease certificate proceeds an investment income earned $44 million additional funding $4.4 million will be needed to cover the difference in the overall cost if required the district will use its unreserved fund balance if the district decides to sell an underutilized building the proceeds from that sale will be used to rep replenish the fund balance starting with fy2 budget the annual cost of leas certificate payments of $3.2 million will be processed from the operating budget the district will develop an operational efficiency plan over the next couple of months to address this

208added expense and the district's current structural deficit my recommendation to avoid additional project delays and help mitigate Rising costs it is the administration's recommendation that the board formally approved the resolution being presented tonight overall it is recommended that the board continue its discussions regarding the need to more holistically address the district's declining student enrollment and building utilization the ongoing need for significant budget cuts in the upcoming academic years as well as ongoing maintenance and capital needs for our aging buildings these topics should continue to be addressed at public board meetings as planning for the new fifth War School proceeds I don't read the resolution right no Brian the oh me right here okay the resolution doesn't get read right or it does it does read the resolution so poetically written too so just to be

209clear we're voting here just on the fifth the moving forward with the fifth W School giving cord and Clark the go-ahead we're building this school as a K5 school this is you know separate from the Bessie roads or twe discussion we're building the school yeah yes all right so I am very honored to move that the Board of Education approved the resolution of the Board of Education of Evon skoki Community Consolidated School District number 65 adopting revised plan and budget for the construction of a school in the Fifth Ward and substantially the form presented to the board with the understanding that the district will continue to work with the district's architect and construction manager to seek additional savings related to the budget second Sue yes Lindsay Ryan Yes Ken yes Kern yes Salem yes wilon

210yes Hernandez yes motion [Applause] 70 all right our next item is our motion to resist into close session as I get as I mentioned this is a part of our superintendent search process so I moved at the Board of Education recess into close session on Monday January 29th 2024 to discuss the appointment employment compensation performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body specifically review of superintendent candidates 5 ilcs 122 C1 second can you also add the date February 7th at February 7th oh and February 7th of second call shut hang on Pardon Me can we keep keep it down we're still voting I'm sorry please exit quietly please we still need to vote thank you thank you so much Sue yes Lindsay Ryan yes yes yes Salem yes wils yes herandez yes motion

211passes 7 right without no more further business can I sorry can I clarifying question sorry yes just to be clear we did not vote on options A or B is that correct correct we did not vote on that I just want to be clear we did not okay I just want to make sure so we did not vote on options A or B okay acting a process that's all thank you the process thank you with no further business I adjourn this meeting at 10:22 p.m. thank you everybody for engaging us we will see each other at our next meeting thank you