001the time is 7 10 this is the regular board meeting of district 65 board of education monday april 18th roll call weatherspoon here sue here caleb here hernandez here ken here lindsay ryan here tanya booty here we're going to start off with our land acknowledgement we take the time to acknowledge the land that we meet on is the traditional homelands of the council of three fires the potawatomi ojibwe and ottawa this land also served as an important meeting place for miami ho chunk the menominee anoka sac fox peoria arapaho cheyenne and other tribal nations this land has long been a center for indigenous people to gather trade and maintain kinship ties located at the intersection of several great waterways the region has become the site of travel and prosperity we acknowledge evanston and john evans
002are 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 chicagoland is still home to thousands of native people who are actively struggling for sovereignty self-determination and justice the genocidal acts of settler colonialism extended to peoples of africa and their enslaved descendants despite illinois eventually prohibiting slavery slavery was an accepted practice before and after statehood the vestiges of slavery remain present throughout the united states and directly affect the descendants of enslaved peoples descendants who helped define the african diaspora rich and heterogeneous communities descended from african peoples the genocidal patterns of violence against peoples of african descent and indigenous people have
003been replicated to exclude and harm people from many intersecting marginalized identities religious minoritized disabled and lgbtq identified peoples black and indigenous people of color and people of color writ large in the united states these patterns of violence demonstrate that the pursuit to end state sanctioned 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 this land and waters for the livelihood of future generations the land that surrounds us is part of who we are it reflects our histories it is within
004district 65's responsibility as an academic institution to disseminate knowledge about black and indigenous peoples and marginalized peoples writ large consistent with our commitment to equity we will work towards sharing and promoting healing for the sake of our children and families it is important to understand the long-standing history that has brought us to reside on the land and to seek to understand our place within that history land acknowledgments do not exist in the past tense or only in a historical context colonialism is a current and ongoing process and we need to understand our present participation we encourage everyone consuming this message to continue expanding their knowledge and reduce their harm through awareness of local mutual aid models for survival and engagement with online local resources such as the chicago american indian community collaborative and the shore
005front legacy center this land acknowledgment is in english and spanish on our website i move that the board of education approved the meeting agenda as presented second weatherspoon yes sue yes hernandez yes kim yes lindsay ryan yes tanya booty yes motion passes seven zero good evening everyone thank you to our board and our guests who are here tonight thank you tonight we're going to recognize the march and april high five recipients celebrating excellence in district 65 awards now in its fifth year we have received hundreds of nominations and over 80 licensed and support staff members for the tremendous work nominations are accepted through the school year from staff and members of the d65 community and forms are available on our website i would like to thank byland bank for its continued support and sponsorship of
006the program this evening's recipients will receive 100 gift card and a frame recognition certificate i am now going to turn it over to dr angelina pilgati our assistant superintendent of schools of human resources now who will help with our recognition this evening dr kilgati thank you dr horton good evening everyone we will recognize four recipients this evening bridget evans saranda carpoozi kim hamilton and adrian alcala we also have some special guests here tonight to share summer car remarks on behalf of our recipients after all of four of our recognitions i will invite those team members to up to receive their rewards and take a photo first we will honor march licensed staff member bridget evans miss evans is a 7th grade english language arts teacher at nichols middle school unfortunately she could not attend this
007evening due to a prior obligation she has served our students and families for 31 years she was nominated by district 65 65 staff member jordan clifford who shared miss evans is an inspiration to not only her students but also her colleagues she is consistently going above and beyond to help everyone around her miss evans gives up her lunch periods to work with students help sub for colleagues in the building assisted in the creation of the high jump program has sat on a variety of committees and above all this she does it all with a positive attitude and a smile under her mask for example just this past friday she set up her classroom for speed dating each student took a different persona and threw a set of questions the goal was to determine each other's
008words students absolutely loved it with one saying it was the best experience they'd had in school thank you bridget for going above and beyond to engage our students let's give her a round of applause next we want to recognize our march educational support staff recipient saranda carpoozi seranda karpouzi are you here you're here i think you're here okay we want to we would like to recognize you um she is the assistant manager of student assignments who supported students in our community for three years she was nominated by district 65 staff member sarita smith who is here tonight to share some remarks serena well i have her comments so i will read them for her because it's worth going on record serena goes the extra effort to make sure all students are registered and enrolled in
009school this year was especially challenging with coven 19 and supporting families who weren't sure if they were returning to district 65. serena never complains and works harder than anyone she supports our most compliment complicated registrations and all of our interdepartmental processes that ensure our students files are accurate we have received so many compliments on our new registration process and i believe most of that is due to surrender's poise loving energy and compassion she truly believes in the mission and values of district 65 and is a wonderful example of an educational leader and advocate thank you sarita and thank you so randa for your positive energy and excellent customer service and support of our students and families let's give her a round of applause [Applause] next we will honor the april licensed staff recipient kim hamilton
010yay i know ms hamilton very well miss hamilton is a fourth grade teacher at dawes elementary she has served our students and families for 31 years she was nominated by a district 65 staff member mindy perry who is here tonight to share some remarks sorry i'm short hi i am mindy perry i am the librarian at dawes and i nominated kim hamilton fourth grade teacher i knew it was time for kim to get the recognition that she has deserved for a long time she has taken on a role as co-chair of the african-american achievement committee she has been a member of it for the past 13 years during that time she has created a chess program focusing on our black students because she noticed that the chess club that was before school had was very
011underrepresented and she wanted to do something about that so she created this really great club she was recently written about in the round table for focusing black history month celebrations on evanston's first black hospital she created a whole document on how other schools can adopt the african-american achievement committee at other d65 schools she's very passionate about this committee i can go on and on about how wonderful kim is and i wrote a lot more but it looks like we have pressing matters so i'm going to keep this short i am grateful to have nominated kim and thank you for accepting the nomination thank you [Applause] thank you mindy and thank you kim your commitment to our students and to your efforts to centering inclusion and equitable outcomes for all students is exemplary and something we
012are striving for across the district and finally we want to recognize the april educational support staff recipient adrian alcala adrian is a custodial staff member at nichols middle school who has supported students in our community for four years he was nominated by laura lindroff who is also here tonight to share some remarks she's not here i do have her comments uh laura has state has shared that mr alcala goes above and beyond not only for the students but everyone who comes in the building my son is an 8th grader and is transgender not everyone is always kind to him but mr alcala always feels always treats everyone equally and is very kind to my son my son is on the volleyball team and his grandma likes to come to watch him mr alcala make sure
013that my that my mom grandma can get to the elevator easily sometimes unlocking doors for her and he's even stayed late to make sure she makes it out okay afterwards he even gave her his cell phone number in case she had any trouble that he will be there for her he is kind thoughtful and obviously cares very much about others putting them first especially the children very welcoming and accommodating to all very very positive person thank you laura and andrew and adrian nichols is better in a more welcoming community because you're a part of it we are so grateful for your kindness and many intentional efforts now i'd like let's give adrian a round of applause [Applause] and now i'd like to invite our march and april recipients up and ask that everyone gives our
014high five recipients a big round of applause [Applause] oh [Applause] all right so high five is always a highlight of our meetings we are so proud of uh all of our recipients and everyone who takes the opportunity to share something positive about their peers and their community members it's really uplifting part of our governance work um we do have next on the agenda board and superintendent comments uh i know i have comments so i'll get us started and we have an additional chime in um i heard a really important distinction a few weeks back that i want to preface my comments with which is enabling is not love and accountability is not hate we as a district 65 board share in concern for safety at haven as physical emotion physical and emotional safety our top
015priority given that it's foundational to the ability to learn we have made sure that we are fully up to date and are authorizing and encouraging the necessary deployment of resources it's important that we acknowledge the years of struggle with culture and climate at haven and frankly in evanston skokie district 65. decades in fact of violence consistent and persistent harm to black and brown children families staff and community members it was referenced in mudlark and art of revolution's play conserving concerning foster i've heard heartbreaking deeply troubling recollections of racism suffered by black and brown children at haven and its feeder schools acts of violent racism that cause black and brown children to not feel safe for decades disproportionate discipline and achievement outcomes that indicated high levels of institutional hostility and neglect that could be characterized as
016violent disregard in fact in 2018 in the 2018-2019 school year when reports of incidents of explicit racism were at an all-time high in my board tenure epitaphs epithets carved on playgrounds native foods thrown at immigrant children black children called chimps at haven feeder pattern schools i was pained black and brown parents were pained yet many of the parents of non people of color offenders pleaded that we not judge their child by one mistake a stark contrast to the current calls to criminalize the behaviors of middle school children in crisis [Applause] thank you for your honesty all that to say unfortunately our community has seen violence and it is inaccurate to characterize our board or administration response as normalizing it we have been prioritizing making haven and all district 65 a safe culture and climate for
017all children and families for many years now and i invite you to listen thank you in 2020 we saw a change in school administration in 2019 to 2020 we also saw a discontinuation of our relationship with sros during the school day as the district we made the decision at that time to invest in what children and families showed they need needed de-escalation trained staff restraint trained staff as an expression of our board and admin leadership values we have invested in de-escalation training for targeted staff in each of our buildings in 2019 in 2019 and again in the winter of 2021. excuse me uh please we just want to have be able to get through this through the conversation and be respectful of that um [Applause] we're asking everyone to just we're asking everyone to just
018be respectful of the of what's being read please that's all right you'll have your moment as well additionally earlier this year we added hall monitors to haven to respond to student needs and expressed concerns last month we added a second assistant principal to the haven ranks to support additional student i appreciate the modeling of conduct last month we added a second assistant principal it's a third eighth it's a third okay additionally we have invested in increasing social and emotional expertise in the building by adding guidance guidance counselors and school psychologists i know all of this to say from the board level we have been listening and responding we have been prioritizing checking in board members visited the building in the fall on more than one occasion additionally central office administrators spend a good deal of
019time in the haven building and were present during the incident last week we are disappointed that all of our investments could not prevent the incidents that occurred over the past two weeks and we expect that incidents such as those never occur again but we do not believe they occurred as a result of lack of board and central office listening engagement effort or investment as has been mentioned before there appears to be a small percentage of young people in the haven population experiencing severe dysregulation and discord that are causing a bulk of the challenges to to themselves staff and their peers we say this because it brings to light root cause which nods to the likely strategic response collaboratively as stakeholder groups entire school evanston skokie community and families working together to address the needs of
020young people in crisis we need to pool our resources restore relationships link arms with a value for care and transformation for young people who are clearly struggling we need to treat child development needs with child development investments and we need to do it together to respond an effort will be made to redistribute district 65 resources to meet these students and haven's unique needs additionally we will be reaching out to targeted youth serving community stakeholders to identify appropriate interventions and support to help these students who are dysregulated and their families get what they need to engage stakeholders authentically principal ladding is listening and creating additional responsive plans april 8th there was a town hall opportunity for educators and there will be one for parents and guardians tomorrow april 19th haven's board liaison ms lindsey ryan will
021be in attendance as well haven has had an established school crisis plan since the fall of 2021 as required it was shared and reviewed with haven staff in the fall as well feedback regarding school administration closing the communication loop on student concerns has been received and what has been more aptly addressed this winter however it was not a able to address unfortunately how community conflict made its way into our school and how a dysregulated child running through the hall accidentally pushed and harmed an educator all that to say we understand that our it may go without saying but we do not condone any harm at the hand of others coming to children families or staff during school activities and we send our sincerest regard to the staff that have been impacted we are analyzing the
022multi-tiered and sourced challenges that comprise the current culture and climate and safety at haven and we will be addressing thoroughly strategically and accountably going forward i was not planning to speak tonight because we have a meeting tomorrow and i want to engage in that process fully but i think i want to just acknowledge that i've been on the board for three years i've never witnessed any board members ever interrupt someone during public comment and i have never witnessed an audience interrupt our board as they spoke you have a sign that says you want respect but to me this is not a respectful way to engage i have been just keep talking you will you will have an opportunity to speak during public comment i appreciate that right and and i think what um what i
023would just like to acknowledge is that that there is an incredible commitment by the volunteers that are on this board um to engage and respond like to read all of the emails and to listen to all of the public comment and to continue and to respond and to engage in conversation um but i i'm fairly horrified that this is how we're modeling i think it's really important to just note that we our children are watching us all the time um and i i teach classes on activism i totally think it's appropriate to to engage in activism but i also think that we can have a respectful conversation and this is not it go ahead i i guess i'll start by saying that this is a um this is a meeting in public it's not a
024public meeting and i think this is a this is a meeting in public it's not a public meeting i think that's sometimes hard to discern because when when statements are made or when statements are listened to sometimes it frustrates people that the the back and forth that it's a meeting here and people want to be recognized differently so i'm speaking as a board member but i'm also a father of four with two middle schoolers and several decades in public education experience including teaching and and the principleship so i get it i've led what felt like slow motion chaotic periods of time in school buildings before and in districts where there's moments of turbulence always i've lost students to the prison pipeline i've lost families to seemingly greener pastures of private and parochial settings i've lost
025students within my class and building to a system that i wasn't strong enough to change fast enough for their precious lives and here i sit as a governing board member just one of seven so i have less i have less actionable ability and as a governing board member one of seven i'm not a building leader and i'm not a teacher i believe we are well resourced and resourced enough to solve our issues we have enough teammates we have a strong community network we're just not using each other the right way to make things work better for the kids right now when people fill a room like this it does not illuminate it does not illuminate who is right and it doesn't illuminate what is necessarily important in the moment it does shed light on a
026breakdown between stakeholders and the need to work together even when we are laser focused on kids and the kids experiences sometimes we still fall to the whim of the systems and the structures that are a professional prison to some and a blueprint for a community gap in expectations for others the pitfalls almost always are pillared by communication if communication truly is the art of a message message being received we as an organization must do better clearly your message is being received here but the message that's being sent to you might not be getting received the way that you want or the way it's intended to be all of us can do better regarding some current dynamics going on at some schools and reported in local media i think the buck does stop with us as
027a board this board and i'm proud to know that this board leadership this district leadership and deck leadership have been working through challenges to find a way to stay at the table together that hasn't always been easy and it's taken some time but it's been important and it's been a wonderful model for our community to see leadership continue to work to stay at the table together because that's where conversations that's where communication and that's where problem solving happens thank you to our leaders for modeling what must be done for the sake of our institution and for our children we need symbiotic communication that leverages systems so that predictability for all stakeholders can be in place we need the same model to be taking place in every school with building leaders teachers and families alike physical
028and emotional safety is a top priority of this board yet we have been unable to stabilize the current unrest and rally our network together as schools are meant to do because communication is broken down this is the cost of turnover this is the cost of people not giving one another the benefit of the doubt this is the cost of too many of our new school leaders many of them leaders of color receiving an onslaught of pushback sometimes by people seeking information about other people's children that they have no right to know everyone deserves the right for their children to attend a school that is a safe haven everyone deserves the right to work in a safe space yet we need to give building leaders and their teams space to regroup when tensions arise we need
029to give them space to lean on their support networks and think through plans and action steps we need the teacher partners to execute plans effectively we need guardians and partners in the homes to process and plan with their children to move from unrest to a new normal we need our local law enforcement ready for the call but that doesn't mean we want them walking in the hall we need administrative support to strategically coordinate the resources we have the resources when the web is cast well it works and it feels great it feels like we have room when the web is jumbled students struggle they feel unsafe and everybody feels underwater we need more communication from everybody we need more plans that are not only drawn up shared and received but understood supported by a unified
030staff that they were that they helped develop and by a team that relies on with the team that relies on the plan for execution what is happening at haven and being reported in media outlets is not what's best for students when staff talk outside of the building it is a sign of broken communication we need to fix that when community members feel the best course of action is coming to a board meeting and you're welcome to be here it is a sign of broken communication within the school community let's be clear these incidents are not happening because we no longer have sros in the building there are breakdowns in relationships within the building and in the community that must be repaired these incidents are not happening because children lack what some call a reasonable a
031reasonable amount of fear of consequences let me be even more clear as a parent an educator and someone occupied one of the seven board seats here i do not believe we as an organization should be in the business of systematizing fear so that calmness can ensue we must systematize relationships we must make space to talk to one another and hear one another between home and school between teachers and administrators between adults and children and between children and children i have read and reread every message sent to this board about recent events at haven and i apologize for not responding to all of them it is clear to me that we must up the ante regarding communication with stakeholders and build relationships in person that have been most fragmented over the last few years if you
032were invited to a table to talk be it a town hall or a sidewalk conversation participate engage do not turn away from someone who is a part of the resolution and most of all lean on one another and let's let the team at haven and at other buildings that need to work through their issues have the bandwidth and space to do so thank you joey any other board comments this evening so we'll move on to item seven on our agenda which is public comments members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for fact-finding or resolution of disputes rather we
033encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook please remember to state your name and that you have three minutes to address the board also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments the best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing school board at district65.net okay i'll call out uh the first five people and you can come up and line up here um we'll start with maislyn kelly eloise awesome and if i mispronounce your name please go ahead and correct it once you get up here [Applause] hi my name is maislyn kelly i'm a part of the ssac group within the district and fellow 7th grade student at haven middle school hi
034i'm eloise asean a 7th grader from haven middle school we've heard a lot of people talking about haven students and talking for haven students so we wanted to voice our own opinions that said we are not speaking for every student at haven we created and circulated a petition to encourage the haven administration and district 65 board to hear us out about haven safety and actions that need to be taken the petition stated dear district 65 and haven administration after the fights threats and injuries that have happened over the past few weeks we decide to write and ask for help we're signing and asking for your support to make haven a safe school for all students teachers and staff the petition has gone 459 signatures that is over half the students attending haven we were not
035able to reach every student because we had limited time but it's the best that we could do one of the reasons we're here today is because we want to speak up for the students who entrust us with their stories and experiences and show them that they deserve to tell their side of the story one thing a lot of people expect from students is that we get up come to school and just repeat over and over again but sometimes that's really hard many of us students don't have all the help that we need which can lead to a lot of these issues that can happen in schools and it's not just the school's fault it's a community that builds a young person that being said the blame is not being put on anyone specifically but it
036is our job to encourage kids to believe in themselves in each other and make sure they feel safe over the past years certain behaviors have been building up over time causing students to really want to encourage change for the better students are struggling and the staff are struggling this is one of the biggest signs that we can get that tells us that we need change some examples of behaviors that have occurred at haven are there have been numerous fights directly outside classrooms the kids who are fighting will be slamming against the doors and walls and really scaring the students and teachers a person was randomly attacked outside of a bathroom during a passing period and other students got hit after the most recent fight students were making jokes and banging on doors to scare classes
037terrifying students and teachers students and faculty members are tired of this haven could be so much more than just a school with a bad reputation the haven students want change we gathered feedback from students who signed the petition here are some of the changes they want to see fewer fights more support and resources for students and teachers more transparency whether it be emails or staff parent communications more homeowners who have experience with children home passes manage better for example a different color pat hall pass every day disciplinary actions with student input and more hall monitors who can break up fights safely there are many things that we can talk about today but there simply just isn't enough time for all the voices and stories that need to be heard one of the problems that we
038are facing currently is the fact that there are so many decisions being made but none are involving the students voices students should have always had some type of say in what's going to happen in their education because it's their education this is a change that can impact the school's environment immensely even just by giving the students options to choose when thinking about solutions to certain problems and situations students and teachers want change in our schools and our community we have come here to try and advise for change for the better we ask that you please at least consider what we are saying tonight and help us continue to add to the solutions that are currently taking place it takes a village to raise a child and we all need to help out our village thank
039you [Applause] so next we had michelle though carrie marr christina aposto heather murphy if you'd like to come line up up here all right i just want to say hello to everyone dr horton and the members of the board just want to thank you for your time tonight my name is justin neal i was born and raised in evanston as was my wife and now my children and i'm here because i'm concerned with the way the staff and the teachers at willard haven and all the schools across the district are being treated my children are students at willard which as many of you may or may not know we're losing our vice principal mr jerry's success and he wasn't retired for next year very disappointing um as he's an important role model to me as
040he was a teacher of mine 30 years ago important member of the community um one of the few black male teachers that i was fortunate enough to have during my time throughout district 65 it's one of he's been a strong mentor to my children and it's just it's disappointing the lack of transparency and communication that's been given to us by our principal miss mccoy and members of the administration so why the choice was made as i said this transparency is frustrating and it's concerning as this is something that's going on across the board not only with mr success but with a lot of stuff that's going on right now while we're we're devastated to lose him um it's just unacceptable with the treatment that that he got but i will bring it back to the
041teachers as the teacher told me once relationships are cornerstones of teaching and to remove someone with 10 years of relationship building is confounding it makes everyone feel disposable i've never felt so disposable in all my years of teaching and unfortunately we parents have been hearing similar thoughts from the teachers across the district if you do not feel trusted or respected by the administration and the value teachers are leaving and planning to leave and they're wholeheartedly committed to the evanston students have been for years and for decades many support the equity goals that have been put forward by dr horton but they're not being allowed to be part of the solution they say the district doesn't want to hear their ideas for achieving equality and closing the achievement gap they say they feel retribution and challenging
042when challenging any of the district strategies they don't feel respected or honored and they don't feel their teachers or the union have have had this honor or respect it's heartbreaking because the teachers are the biggest allies and partners going forward and if they were valued for their experience and ideas this would help all children throughout the district and we won't achieve these goals without partnering with teachers and treating them with the respect they deserve and on behalf of teachers and people like mr success i urge dr horton and all the members of the administration to recognize rise up and support the teachers they're the ones that are in the classrooms every day doing the best for our children that's the only way forward is to work together [Applause] good evening district 65 board members dr
043horton and members of the community my name is fuama gogumo i've lived in evanson for the last 14 years and i've been a district 65 parent for over eight years i've got two kids at willard now and one at haven i'm also here to express support for district 65 teachers and educators working hard to educate our children under very challenging circumstances and i want to express my concerns around what i perceive to be an insufficient support to our educators and our children by this board and administration and the level of communication and transparency around some of the events and challenges in our district schools during the most recent district 65 board elections i supported and voted for each of the current board members who are on the ballot because i agreed with the perspective and
044the vision that you laid out on issues like equity inclusion bridging the achievement gap advocating for community school on the fifth ward and reducing racial disparity and discipline but i feel compelled to speak tonight because i feel that the actions of the board and the administration that you started to hear about are contributing to an environment in which the principles that you're seeking to serve out are not being born out in terms of the experiences that we're hearing from teachers and educators many of us have been having conversations with educators in different schools where we hear words like silencing intimidation retribution lack of trust when describing their feelings as they relate to interactions with school administrators or central administration for example an educator sharing that they were told to quote be careful after they spoke
045out on facebook in defense of jerry's success since the principal willard a lack of respect for teachers and what they're contributing is a theme that we keep hearing over and over where teachers are feeling that they're not valued or worse leaving them feeling insecure and like they're easily replaceable one example is our beloved ap at willard mr success you'll see lots of people here tonight with these yellow buttons like what i'm wearing here in support of mr success the fact that he is not being rehired at a as ap at willard has had a ripple effect in our community causing much pain and heartbreak mr success's story is an evanston success story he attended d65 schools has worked in d65 for almost 30 years and worked throughout this district before becoming ap at willard he
046has served the willard community for almost 10 years now during which he's built invaluable relationships with families and teachers when you talk to willard parents and teachers and staff you will hear the same things he cares deeply for willard students deeply about building relationships and has done so with teachers staff students and parents and yet despite doing his job effectively as the ap at willard for almost 10 years despite the respect that he has earned in the willard community despite the fact that we are emerging from a severely disruptive pandemic in which students have been greatly impacted and for which consistency and continuity are that much more important the decision was made not to select mr success to continue as the ap at willard i will my name is michelle thaley and i will finish
047reading pawama's speech this decision nor how this decision was made puts students needs first i understand that as an employer management or administration is entitled to make personnel decisions however i also expect that when such decisions directly impact the educational environments of our children there should be transparency and clarity regarding such decisions and as a willard parent i have not seen such and to make matters worse the manner in which this decision was shared with the community and how that might affect mr success a long tenured and valued member of d65 seems to have been an afterthought the announcement that mr success would no longer be a part of the willard community was a short paragraph in a letter attached to an email update that simply said please see the attachment for an important message
048along with connect corrections to our masking updates this after nine years of valued service what kind of message does this send to mr success what kind of message does that send to teachers and staff at willard what kind of message does that send to educators throughout d65 that know mr success and have built a relationship with him over 30 years in which he served this district for us parents there weren't communications about the ap selection process beforehand and almost no communication as to why he was not selected even up to today despite many parents and staff requesting information about the rationale and reasoning for this decision this is very disappointing to say the least and so given what i've shared and the lack of any meaningful information regarding the decision i am at a loss
049for how it was determined that mr success was not the most qualified candidate for the role i'm also confounded as to how this decision came to be made when mr success was subsequently offered an ap position at haven he's qualified to be ap at haven but yet was not the best candidate to remain ap at willard on top of that he was offered an ap position at the same school from which the incoming willard ap is currently at how does this square with having the best interest of children in mind to create such disruption by in essence swapping aps especially now at a time when continuity and consistency is so much more important than ever before in fact some teachers feel this decision was made with the intention of removing a trusted confidante and ally
050in order to make them feel uncomfortable insecure and unsupported if true this is terrible for teachers and for mr success and an immeasurable loss for our kids and our community [Applause] my name is carrie marr i'm here tonight in support of d635 students or students and teachers and i'm going to finish one with speech another example of this administration and board's lack of respect for [Music] their i did not bring rain glasses their interpret is everything that's going on with heaven this is district-wide this this lack of respect for teachers as much as i want to spend time talking about about haven i know that many others will be speaking on that so i will just say that while it is not this administration's fault this or this board's fault and not our teacher's fault
051there are can i help her read um yeah okay thank you i just i have my reading book all right another um it is not this board's fault or our teacher's fault that there are children who are in crisis at haven it was also entirely predictable that the challenges at haven which were present before the pandemic would likely be worse after children were not part of in-person school for nearly two years and yet at haven where there have been long-standing school climate issues we only have one staff member trained in crisis prevention intervention for a school of over 800 children why is it only now that we are hearing about steps being taken to train more individuals in cpi and how much will that help when we're already halfway through april and the year end
052is just around the corner this is simply unacceptable to be clear i don't believe in zero tolerance and the teachers i've spoken to don't believe in zero tolerance members of this board ran on a platform of reducing disparity in disciplinary outcomes by way of restorative practices this administration should have prioritized haven having the resources from the beginning of the school year to ensure effective implementation of restorative practices if it wasn't feasible to have more individuals trained in cpi for example there should have been alternative solutions in place to address these student challenges and to address the concerns that teachers have been raising over many months this is yet another example of not putting children first and not respecting or listening to teachers who have been asking for more support since the beginning of the school
053year finally and he knows he's been talking for a while the last thing he wants to say is harder to quantify but in talking and engaging with many educators it is clear that the culture and environment in our schools has changed can somebody finish my name is heather murphy and i'm here to support the teachers of d65 i know of two teachers who have quit mid-year at haven several aides special ed teachers and two well-respected long-term subs who quit at willard teachers share that they are feeling depressed and anxious and that morale is low at their schools many are applying for jobs in other districts one teacher said our principal has destroyed the climate in the building students educators and the whole community are suffering another teacher said this is the climate that this central
054administration and board has created almost every educator has mentioned fearing retribution or retaliation if they speak out this is not the way to lead this is not the example to be showing to our children no profession is perfect there are always people in every profession that need training and support to do their job effectively and we are all human and therefore imperfect but by and large in my experience our g65 teachers are an asset to the evanston community and they deserve to be treated as such therefore i ask that you please actively listen to our teachers and consider their perspective that you respect our teachers that you engage with the teachers and work with them to solve these problems i worry that this administration and board is not valuing their contributions expertise and dedication to
055their jobs and that if you continue with this approach we will lose more good teachers and we will all be worse for it thank you for your time and for listening [Applause] okay hi my name is carrie a friend of mine who wasn't able to be here asked me to read this on her behalf although this letter is most likely being read by a white person please hear these words as if they were coming out of my mouth the mouth of a woman of color the mouth of a black and mexican mother the mouth of a parent of a brown child in a tweet program i want to start this letter with saying that the reason i need to remain anonymous is due to my position in the district i have spoken out on facebook
056about issues that i have an opinion on as a mother and have been told by the principal i work for that i need to stay out of online disputes i'm always trying to be i am always trying to be silenced i am enraged that i cannot open my mouth and express my opinions the way i would want to i start with the major issue going on in this school and that to me is the severe lack of communication from our leadership we began the school year so hopeful that a woman of color was coming into our school and taking on such an important leadership role but we slowly realized that we were not getting what we expected mr michael and mr success always kept the lines of communication open with us parents they answered every
057email and kept us in the loop about everything going on in our school community i joke with mr michael that he and mr success spoiled us they set the bar so high for what a principal and assistant principal should be unfortunately we have not gotten the same level of communication with current leadership that we are so used to i can send plenty of emails and get no response we went months not knowing how to get in contact with the new teacher in the fourth grade tweet classroom and we're told for spanish-speaking families that needed to contact that specific classroom teacher we were to speak to the health clerk what the health clerk knows about what is happening in that classroom is a mystery to us thankfully we now have a direct email address to miss
058felix but i was the one that sent her email out to the rest of the parents in our classroom i only knew it because i work for the district and know how the email addresses are set up now that we have all developed a relationship with our teacher i find that we are having to rely on her for communications coming from the principal it is no secret that twee families have always been left out of the loop but mr michael and mr success always stood up for twee families and helped engage us and our children this brings me to my second point mr michael and mr success made us feel heard recognized and appreciated with mr michael's departure we were happy that mr success was left to keep the glue together that holds our community
059together now with both being gone i am afraid the twee families of color will be left behind i already see that happening i see how we are not being paid attention to we are not being included in the school community as we were before the lack of communication the lack of visibility the feeling of thinking my sweet brown skin child is being put behind all the white privileged children is sickening it makes me cry hi thank you my name is john martin and i'll continue speaking this on behalf of um again keeping in mind where is it okay um keeping in mind that this is uh coming from the mouth of a woman of color mouth of a black and mexican mother moved to evanston from rogers park because of the diversity because of the
060tight communities the principals worked so hard to glue together and for what for a woman of color to allow power to get to her head and forget that every student matters no