Naperville 203 Board Meeting 4/21/2025

001good evening since 6 PM the board has been in closed session to consider the following the discussion of minutes lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of school board approval of the minutes or semianual review of the minutes as mandated by the act the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees or legal counsel including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or legal counsel to determine its validity litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the school board has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the school board finds an action as probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting and collective negotiating matters

002between the school board and its employees or their representatives or del deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees i will take a motion to come out of close session so moved second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton mcmillan i fitzgerald i gerky i wanke i kelly Black i kush i cuzinsky i the motion passes we are in open session welcome to our April 21st 2025 board meeting our mission is to empower students to develop a learner's mindset demonstrate adaptability communicate effectively think critically and become global citizens please call the role mrs patton board members present this evening Christine Gerky Kristen Fitzgerald Charles Kush Joe Kazminsky Amanda McMillan Donna Wanke and Melissa Kelly Black student ambassadors present Allison Ebersol and Caleb Lewis please now

003join our friends from Riverwoods for the pledge of allegiance good evening we have students from Riverwood School represented through the student council this evening to represent all of the redbirds at Riverwood School and we'll introduce ourselves i'm Gina Bombgartner the principal at Riverwood School i'm Victoria and I'm in third grade i'm Kayla and I'm in fourth grade i'm Alex i'm in fourth grade i'm Gabby and I'm in third grade i'm Camille and I'm in third grade i'm Abby and I'm in fifth grade i'm Marley and I'm in fifth grade i'm Hana and I'm in fifth grade i'm Ellison and I'm in fourth grade i'm Mia and I'm in fifth grade i'm Isaac and I'm in fifth grade ready of standyice for all thank you and always show pride okay we're going to have you stay

004right here for a second miss Bombgard is gonna join you okay miss Zagus is going to take a picture and then as she gets the picture for the district if there are any parents family friends or fans who want to come take a picture come you're welcome to come forward into the center you get closer and take a picture thank you to our friends from Riverwoods for joining us tonight and leading us in the pledge okay please join me in a round of applause thanking our friends from Riverwoods we have now reached the point in the agenda for good news okay uh last week we celebrated National Assistant Principles Week a week uh all week long we recognize the incredible dedication leadership and support our assistant principles bring to Neighborville 203 their commitment to students

005staff and school communities help create positive supportive learning environments every day so thank you to all of our assistant principles for all they do on Thursday April 10th Maple Brook Elementary with a special assembly filled with excitement and school spirit students and staff gathered in the gymnasium to celebrate the school's legacy playing a fun game of true or false trivia and enjoying a nostalgic slideshow highlighting how the building and community have evolved over the decades congratulations to Mabelbrook on 50 years of excellence kenny Junior High sixth graders had a magical experience with best-selling author Sumani Chanani creator of the school for good and evil during his visit to the learning comments Janani challenged students to rethink classic fairy tales and explore the fine line between good and evil his interactive thought-provoking session left students inspired

006and full of questions even a few laughs thank you for an unforgettable visit and then on April 16th the Naval Education Foundation NEF welcomed over 400 guests to the 32nd annual Building a Passion Breakfast business and community leaders elected officials parents district staff and supporters gathered to show their commitment to our students and schools the morning celebrated the impact of community partnerships and reminded us all that there's no place like 203 thank you to everyone who helps build passion purpose and possibilities for our students that's our good news for tonight [Applause] next we have our student ambassador reports and you can decide who would like to go first good evening everyone and thank you for having me uh to start off Central had a great break we had our duck break pictures and they all

007looked awesome um personally I had a very relaxing break i went to Florida and I'm still suffering consequences from the southern sun um last Wednesday we proudly recognized around,00 students at the 4.0 awards so congratulations to all of our high achieving Redhawks we also had our annual drum show at Central which was themed comic book characters and superheroes um seriously if you guys have not seen it yet please mark your calendars for next year they are always awesome uh looking ahead prom is next weekend it's Saturday April 26th and our math team will be representing us at the state competition on April 25th and 26th so best of luck to all who's competing in that we're also excited to cheer on several Red Hawks who are part of the Husky Robotics team as they compete

008at the World's Robotics Comp competition um mark your calendars for the school musical Greece which is coming to stage May 1st 2nd 3rd at 7:30 p.m and May 4th at 2:30 p.m and I'm also working on this show for tech crew and it's awesome so please come and watch it um as AP exams approach the week of May 5th sore time is being used for focus prep um fur packets are being handed out students are starting to work on those seniors are also being celebrated at various spring sports senior nights following the senior athletic banquet held last weekend this Wednesday during lunch periods NCHS hosts the Cood takeover event all students should stop by even if they aren't planning on going to COOD it's going to be a lot of fun uh meanwhile submissions are

009rolling in for our senior art showcasing the incredible talent of our graduating art artists and finally we're gearing up for a memorable senior sendoff from senior sunset after a commemorative to the beach party and of course graduation it's almost time to celebrate the class of 2025 um and this is my last meeting so I just want to thank you all for having me and it's a privilege to be able to speak at these meetings so thank you well um my name is Caleb Lewis again and this is also my last time presenting in Oh well hello too presenting in front of this distinguished board and um so it is a bittersweet moment but I guess this is how they treat you after months of faithful service they just kick you out so we will go

010directly into our report so on May 10th a pint for Kim a pint for Kim Illinois's largest single day blood drive is happening at Neapville North commemorating Neapville mom Kimberly Sanford who passed away in March of 2020 after her year-long after her eight-year long battle with a rare cancer it will last from 7:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m with food trucks games and an auto show to commemorate this remarkable individual neapville North Student Government is sponsoring a Husky thrift resale shop during April 22nd and 23rd to provide funding for the class of 2025 which means we're frugal um on June 12th the Neapville North Boosters hosted is going to host the annual golf tennis and pickle ball outing at Crest Creek all funds will go to Neapville North athlet athletics and activities neighborville North is hosting

011its prom its best prom the best prom um this year the golden gayla with accents and elegance from the roaring 20s in the spirit of the great Gatsby which the book was better than the movie but um on May 3rd from 5:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m on Sat this on this I wouldn't say this past Saturday but two Saturdays ago on April 12th the senior celebration lockin took place with the Napville North senior class enjoying fun activities inside of Neapville North from 5:30 p.m until 10:00 isn't that exciting teenagers locked in a school together on a Saturday neapville knows uh Neapville North hosted hosted the emerge event on April 8th which consisted of a free resume building workshop so they want to get you a job when they kick you out um especially for seniors

012um and then finally the Napville North Arts is proud to present Rent the Musical which aims to foster awareness empathy and meaningful conversations on complex issues and it will be showing on April 23rd to April 26th at 7 p.m and April 26 to April 27th at 2 p.m this is my final transmission godspeed thank you thank you so much for those reports and we really do hope and wish the best for you on your next um endeavors next we have the Superintendent Student Advisory Council update okay um welcome to our Superintendent Student Advisory Council members who are able to join us this evening and provide the report on their work uh that they've done over the course of this last school year with a heavy focus on a learner's mindset um this group is supported

013by Dr russell Smith sitting in the front row Mrs bouty our assistant superintendent for the middle level uh Mrs bouty I don't know if you have any introduction or if Dr smith does or if we're going to go right into our students we're going to go right into the students it's their show tonight um and at the end we'll have some closing remarks but we do want to recognize our one senior who is here tonight before we start Kamani Smith so thank you Kamani for your time hello everyone my name is Henry and I am Cal and we are honored to serve as a sixth grade member and a fresh and a freshman member of the superintendent student advisory council for Neighborville Community Unit School District 203 this opportunity is more than just a title

014it's a platform for student voices to be heard valued and acted upon as members of the SSAC we have unique responsibilities to work collaborative with district leaders including our superintendent and other district administrators and and to enhance the student experience across our junior high and high schools for direct instruction and discussion led by our district leadership members we have gained insight into discussion making processes and contribute to shaping procedures that affect students like us every day one of the most significant aspects for the council this school year centered on our voice and our roles regarding one of the profile learner competencies learners mindset this year we met to engage our own understanding of the process and outcomes of developing a quality perspective about unlearning information learning new information and as it emerges and relearning more

015productive neuropathways to create new patterns of processing information we used our meetings not only to not only unpack this information but also to develop messages we felt would resonate with our 203 peers and community members in support of the district's continued effort to innovate new experiences and improvements through the dedicated leadership of Dr lesby and Dr russell Smith our SSAC mission was clear to engage students in sharing their authentic experiences so that we can help shape a school environment that truly reflects reflects our needs to develop recommendations for improving the student experience whether it's addressing mental health support academic resources or school culture our ideas help drive change that benefits all students in our school district lastly to serve as a model for building actionoriented student committees by working together we can create tangible steps

016towards solutions set an example for how students can unite to create meaningful change in their schools we are all grateful and excited to be on this journey alongside such passionate and driven peers we want the SSAC to continue to use our voices share our experiences and make a lasting impact on our schools and communities and now on to Haley Benson hello my name is Hadley Benson and I am the Neapville North sophomore SSAC representative this year in SSAC we focused on a competency noted in the profile of a learner called learner's mindset throughout the year we engaged in numerous different activities related to the ideas of learning unlearning and relearning first we interviewed our principles to understand and learn about which initiatives were already in place then we made videos promoting these ideas to inform

017students and finally we collaborated with district administrators to implement our ideas personally this competency has allowed me to reshape my own thought process when presented with a challenge by reflecting on valuable learning strategies that are presented in the learner's mindset this has been a rewarding and exciting journey to be a part of and we look forward to future endeavors i am proud to work alongside peers and dedicated administrative leaders who have successfully shaped and implemented 203 initiatives next I'd like to introduce Anushka and Kadisha thank you hi my name is Kada and I'm a junior neighbor I'm the junior Neighborville Central representative throughout my experience and time as a member of the SSAC I've learned the value of being taught how to learn unlearn and relearn and it's had a huge impact on me this

018mindset has helped me grow both personally and academically i've become more adaptable more open to feedback and more confident in challenging my own perspectives and ideas i've learned that it's okay to let go of old ways of thinking to make room for growth and that's a lesson I'll carry with me far beyond high school thank you my name is Anushka Anand and I'm a freshman representative from NCHS throughout my experience at SSAC I have incorporated aspects of the curriculum into both my personal life and my student life we used collaborative whiteboard feedback to improve communication skills with district stakeholders i've learned how to convey messages effectively and with poise just like many others in the group i have seen how quiet shy kids have evolved into leaders who consistently participate in discussions finally I have

019learned how to become an adaptable student because of the lessons taught on learner's mindset throughout the program rather than viewing a situation one way having a learner's mindset offers a broad perspective that is useful to in all aspects of life this experience taught me how to be an adaptable student a trait that is valued in both professional and personal environments thank you for your time the next presenter is Liam hi my name is Liam and I'm one of the three freshman representatives from Nepal Central and I now want to take the time to display a video made by SSAC and edited by our very own Spencer Brignack uh this video features our SSAC members taking the time to tell you about how SSAC has shaped them into leaders in our district and how learner mindset

020has taught them new perspectives so without further ado enjoy the video in elementary school we had to be quiet in the halls walk in straight rows and to not push each other out of the way these are the norms that we learned in elementary school now in high school and middle school none of those apply we have to learn unlearn and relearn all of these new skills so we'll be doing this our whole lives and we need to keep doing hey this is radio station WSK we're taking calls on the wish line making your wacky wishes come true hello one thing that SSAC has taught me how to do is learn unlearn and relearn things that I do in my daily life it also has taught me how to communicate effectively regard with other people

021regardless of our differences ssc has taught me about the importance of adaptability and the importance of being able to learn unlearn and relearn something in our daily lives and it has empowered me through building strong connections with my peers and having open conversations that impact your school community a dynamic mindset mean that you can embrace the flexibility of your mind and take ownership needed to involve in life with a positive mindset going into things and having a great learners mindset relearning means that everything that we have learned needs to be unlearned if you don't develop these skills now how will you ever embrace them in the future when you have new opportunities and create the life that you want example you need to learn how to use a Nokia phone when it came out then

022you need to unlearn how to use it when you move on to an iPhone finally you need to relearn how to use the iPhone using your prior knowledge from the Nokia you are probably thinking why would I do that well as you know from the ads and electronic news technology is changing almost every day for the better this means that even we have to will have to adapt and change our point of view in the future relearning is a way of finding opportunities and maximizing your listening skills to gather a diverse perspective from others is always a good thing it means to be able to learn in a school education then for the pandemic unlearn that and eventually relearn how to use online for unlearning means to me is uh unlearning something that didn't work

023and relearning something that might be able to work unlearning and relearning is powerful but please make sure you're relearning the right things learn what you know to relearn what you need to know as time progresses the technological landscape evolves and the very tools we have been accustomed to may be obsolete or replaced by more advanced solutions acquiring a willingness to let go of old practices and embrace new ones c has taught me that sometimes change is about the greater good and not just about yourself later in life we are most likely going to have to unlearn all the things we do now as well as the things that we learned in school csc has helped me voice my opinions and views to help other students in the district better oh empower all in all SSAC

024is awesome let's hear from Von on our group's recommendation for the next profile of a learner competency focus hello I'm Vivon from Candy Junior High the very place we are today our group feels that the next focus of our study in regards of profile of aable learner should be adaptability adaptability will be crucial to demonstrate for next year and in our future because of how our world is changing and at the rapid pace it is changing at we already in the past decade we have seen immense change in how we act behave and communicate fast forward to the future we'll keep doing this and eventually we could go at such a pace that we might snap if we don't change if this happens it'll be a global disaster this is why we must adapt and

025learn to change for our own good we will now invite Grayson and Gavin up to talk about the innovative school experience and share how our student group gave feedback and recommendation for what's next hello I am Gavin Lamish the seventh grade representative from Lincoln hi and I'm Grayson Seo i'm the eighth grade representative from Lincoln during the spring of 2024 students of our middle schools gave have recently given feedback about the innovative school experience or ISC for short in total about 2,775 students took our survey and expressed their desire for many things such as a variety of classes socialization extracurricular activities and independence personal growth and environment with fun teachers engaging classes and a general positive atmosphere at SSAC we were we overviewed the data from students and learned about the recommendations from the innovative

026school design team many students expressed a desire for additional explor exploratory course offerings such as cultures different languages like sign language expanded computer science courses and additional art and music offerings and different types of physical education classes many students also wanted to learn about the PRA about practical business skills like tax management economics stock trading financial literacy and investments students students also expressed a desire for band orchestra and choir to become its own class and for students not to be pulled from other classes like math and science to participate students expressed a huge desire for less homework i mean come on that was kind of a given here and coursework to focus on each day as students ourselves we can relate homework piles on and some students can feel a lot of pressure juggling homework

027grades and extra activities outside of the school building for one I have Boy Scouts hockey little engineering projects that I like to do and music and homework takes up a lot of free time another thing students express a want for is more free time and flexibility during school hours like longer recess and lunch periods longer passing periods the ability to choose groups during and before classes uh the ability to have uh wait hold on the ability less strict rules regarding phones and backpacks to elaborate on indoor recess students also want more activities to do during indoor recess such as board games book clubs music study hall and the ability to use Chromebooks or other organized activities some students expressed a desire for more time for teachers to work within the school day to help them

028with homework kind of like an office hours or times to see uh teachers at the end of class students also expressed a a desire for a shorter school day or later start time i mean who doesn't want sleep another thing students over overwhelmingly want is a more hands-on learning experience and opportunities for group work students also want more brain breaks time to socialize and time to build connections with others thank you for your time and consideration of these students desires now we will hear from our very own Spencer Bricknick hello everybody i'm here to provide the recommendation from the high school students to the board based on our lived experiences both at school and on Fridays at SSAC the high school students recommend that next year as Gavin mentioned continue that we continue to focus

029on the innovative initiatives and new programs that are entering Neighborville Central and District 203 such as the innovative school experience and other pilots like standard-based grading in an effort to help shape changes coming to our schools and our educations overall SSAC students have felt heard and really look forward to continuing this work next year next up I would like to call Cal and Katie to conclude our presentation we hope you all enjoyed our collaboration creativity and conversation for this school year we want to extend a huge thank you to our very own Spencer Brignack from NCHS for editing and creating our video presentation we look forward to continuing our SSAC work together we would remiss to not end our presentation with sincerest gratitude first to Superintendent Bridges a special thank you for leading and supporting

030our student leadership group and recognizing the importance of student voice next thank you to Dr lesby and Dr smith their work to co-f faculty SSAC this group truly feels like family and we are grateful for their dedication and the time they have given us we also would like to thank our principles if our principles could please stand we would like them to we would like to recognize them thank you to our principles for becoming familiar with the purpose and objectives of SSAC and feeling compelled to recommend each other of us to serve a prestigious membership please receive our appreciation as well as a personal token of our gratitude [Applause] somebody from each school if the principles could come forward the students do have something for you other students will be presenting Superintendent Bridges with something

031central okay [Music] okay students you may find your principal if they're not here we can have a volunteer take it to them tomorrow at school a couple had to were out sick today also yep henry you got it perfect i think we will conclude tonight's presentation um I don't know if the board has any comments or questions for them but after that we will take a group picture with Superintendent Bridges and Dr russell Smith up front any questions from the board or comments questions or comments donna first of all thank you so much for your presentation and for all of your hard work um it's very important and I and I know I can speak for the whole board because I've heard us all talk about how important student voices uh for us to hear

032and so I really appreciate uh your participation over the course of the year and your voice um it sounds like you've learned so much individually uh it sounds like you've had an opportunity to share your student voice uh as a representative from your school and I love that you've come forward with uh recommendations um I would ask if uh the data from their survey could be shared with our um board members that would be great and that was really all I had thank you Melissa actually I just want to reiterate what Donna said thank you so much for the work that you've done and the uh staff members that facilitated this um your student voice is important and I definitely think we'll be using that data as we make decisions in the future so thank

033you Charles so I'll be the third to echo there's a big echo going on here anyway um so students thank you so much for for taking the time principles thank you for your support as well um I thought it was very nice that the students were um acknowledged you guys for that but I just wanted to say that each and every one of you is extremely impressive i actually had the opportunity to attend one of the sessions i don't remember exactly which one it was but um when you guys were meeting at the Alive Center and just the tremendous and you a lot of you talked about the tremendous amount of growth that you all experienced as part of this is something that it sounds like you all reflected on and that you um are

034carrying forward with you throughout this so um thank you for your contributions and uh you know I'm always impressed when I hear our students talk because it just makes me really feel good about the work that we do in this school district so thank you Amanda i also want to thank you all so much i it feels like the lesson that you really focused on this year about learning unlearning and relearning is a very valuable tool that I'm sure you'll take throughout and all of us can uh you know take some time to reflect on how do we go about those practices and so um I also just was kind of curious i do have a kind of question um from the work that you're doing within the um the SSAC and learning about these

035skills about learning um unlearning and relearning how do you take that back then to your larger schools how does that kind of trickle down in the district i can give a little bit of information but then if anyone wants to step up and speak you're welcome to uh their videos that they did create um each school created their own videos and then the group videos shared uh back with the schools they created some a platform that they thought their school body would be most interested in um and then they've interviewed their principal throughout the year to give feedback and share information so it is a a conversation sometimes the homework from SSAC is to go back and provide insight and information would anyone else like to share anything else yeah Kamani um I think one

036of our most like notorious examples that we used was probably COVID like going through that and unlearning how to do school and relearning that whole thing but I think there's so many different ways that it can be applied in each of the school buildings i know for Central I guess I would speak more specifically to being a senior one of the things that came to mind was um Central really focuses on teaching the seniors and upper classmen in general how to move past high school and how to be not just a successful student but a successful adult in life so it's kind of um unlearning that process of high school even though we got used to that and we got really good at doing that routine um and then teaching us how to move on

037to something bigger whether that be you know moving on to college or post-secary plans whatever but it can apply in so many different ways but that was just one thing that came to mind for me Joe I also want to echo what my colleagues have said um and just thank you for the time you've put into this and for the feedback you're able to present and I'm looking forward to the updates on adaptability next year kristen so thank you to each of you um from the board side um student voice was something that we were so wanting to hear for a long time so the development of SSAC was something that we were so excited about and we're so appreciative of the work that you've done adaptability is the newest portion of our mission so

038it's exciting to see it in your words um because that's something that we're all working to continue to develop and that's something that is exciting for the future um my favorite part is that you all said that you all felt heard so I'm so glad that you were able to have an experience where you shared feedback and you really felt like the feedback was listened to and that you were then went on to continue to develop leadership as well as relationships with with one another so I'm looking forward to hearing all the various things that you all will do in the coming years but thank you for all the work that you have put in and to all those that made it possible on our administration from our superintendent our our principles we're really appreciative

039of bringing this effort to the board i would like to add to the the um when you said you know next year you're going to work on adaptability i am curious to hear what uh you bring to us on that topic but it also uh to me showed excitement to keep working if you weren't excited about what you were doing you wouldn't be setting any future goals you say I'm good and walk away from it but um it shows that um it shows your excitement and I hope that that excitement is trickling down to students who will be coming in after you they'll keep it going for as long as it needs to keep going on so I appreciate the enthusiasm the excitement and um it's fun to watch our future leaders in action right

040now i'll just say it um thank you to every one of you um it's my favorite part of the job to be able to spend that time with you guys on those Friday mornings um you bring a lot of energy you bring a lot of passion for what you do um I'm glad you feel heard because I sure heard you and it was really good to have your feedback and your input and your voice uh at the table huge thank you to Dr russell Smith Dr lesby who's not here this evening Miss Boute for all that you've done to help coordinate miss Patton's always there to greet them and welcome you so a lot goes into it and Mr kush mentioned being at one i will tell you that's one of the things the board

041looks forward to the most is when I post the dates of the meeting so they can sign up to rotate being able to come listen to you and be around you so uh your voices are so important we're so so grateful to have you as a part of it and I think some of you probably came with some uh family members just know how proud uh this district is of these individuals and their voice and all that they've brought to the table for us to have conversations about how we can be better for kids so thank you for sharing them with us uh and I'd love to invite you up here for one more picture so you can bring your thing and then we'll let you get out of here you're welcome to stay of

042course so thank you huge thank you everybody [Applause] that's it just going to make a video for Yeah seriously oh my gosh we have now reached the point in our agenda for public comment the board of education welcomes comments from the public at its meetings citizens who wish to address the board of education should identify themselves by name comments by individuals shall be limited to three minutes if the individual is representing multiple individuals or a group they shall be allowed to speak for five minutes the board respectfully requests that speakers refrain from commenting about specific individuals at this point I would like to welcome Mark Rising who will be followed by Julia Alamo good evening Superintendent Bridges and Board of Education uh my name is Mark Rising i'm coming here a little unique that I

043didn't even expect to talk to you when I walked in the door but I'm offering a unique thank you um specifically if you'll allow me to identify individuals specifically to Kristen Fitzgerald and Donna Wanki for their 12 years of unselfish service to District 203 students parents staff and community um I can say this unbiased and unselfishly because I am a fellow board member in another district directly to the west of you so I have no vested interest in this and I am not a member of your community however I have witnessed myself personally for the last 12 years because I have been a board member as well dozens of meetings if not hundreds of events that Kristen and Donna have attended constantly advocating for district 203 um at the local level the county level the

044state level and the federal level they're always advocating for 203 and for public education just some backgrounds of characteristics of schoolboard members as identified by the Illinois Association of School Board U board members they're thoughtful sincere in their approach and understanding issues that impact the district um their constructive attitude towards teamwork their willingness to spend time to be well informed of issues at the district state nationally and globally and just for the community what you see the schoolboard members doing at the schoolboard meeting is only about 10 to 20% of their time that they commit to being a schoolboard member 80% of that is not in public meetings and they're out in the community at events uh the ability to represent the community not special interest partisan politics or self-promotion the temperament to listen to

045the community work collaboratively with board members self-reflect on how to always be a better board member their willingness to express their opinion in an open honest manner and respectfully listen to others their willingness to uh model continuous learning the willingness to abide by the code of conduct adopted by your board and the oath of office that you take kristen and Donna have always done these things consistently and honorably uh you both are not only respected locally but at the county and state level and I have witnessed this again again thank you both for your 12 years of service your contributions to making 203 one of the best school districts in Illinois one of the top 50 school districts in the country and the communities for the best public schools for the past seven years since

0462018 thank you on behalf of the board thank you for your comments next is Julia Alamo hi there my name is Julia Elmo and I'm the parent of a kindergartenner at BB i'm also a research consultant who uses methods like listening sessions focus groups and surveys to help ensure government programs meet community needs i've spoken at a couple of these meetings urging the district to gather more input from parents teachers staff and students to help inform the ISS proposal i was really excited to receive the update from the district last week saying they are now planning to have opportunities for stakeholder input before asking for a final vote on the proposal that was part of the reason why I wanted to make a statement tonight i wanted to thank the district for listening to all

047the parents and teachers who asked to have more of a voice in this process it's a big step in the right direction however I also wanted to share a concern that the recommendations do not allow enough time for the community to play a meaningful role in this process currently the district plans to convene a stakeholder committee three times over the course of six weeks and to have a final proposal ready by midJune there is no way this is enough time to survey the broader community about their needs and concerns analyze that data develop various options for new school start and end times consider the pros and cons of the new options figure out how much they will cost re-engage the community and give them a chance to ask questions and reach a consensus on the

048best option what I don't understand is why the rush the district has this wonderful opportunity before it to craft a proposal that improves the lives of families in district 203 but before they do that they need to take the time to listen to the challenges that parents teachers and students are facing and develop a proposal that addresses these challenges while minimizing the introduction of new ones while the current proposal has some good ideas it isn't there yet for instance while it pushes back the start of middle and high school a change I know a lot of parents support it does so by moving elementary school earlier which means the youngest students will lose valuable sleep is this a worthwhile trade-off are there other options that would allow older students to start school later without harming

049younger students what would these options cost these aren't rhetorical questions these are exactly the sorts of questions we need data on in order to make informed decisions i'm asking the board to please push the district to take the time to do this right i don't see the point in engaging the community if that engagement doesn't have the potential to yield meaningful improvements to the current proposal whatever changes are implemented they're going to affect the lives of 16,000 students their families and teachers please take the time to do the necessary research to listen to the people who are going to be affected every day by these changes and to allow the community to help you develop a proposal that does the most good thank you on behalf of the board thank you for your comments i

050do not have any more public comment requests does anyone else in the audience wish to address the board of education as a reminder because the questions raised in public comment address district operational matters the board has designated our superintendent as spokesperson for the district as our designate to respond to public comment and he will apprise the board of education accordingly this will now conclude our public comment period item six monthly reports monthly reports have been loaded for board review we have now reached the the business portion of our meeting as a reminder to the community the board understands and has affirmed through our board agreements that it is each individual member's responsibility to prepare for each meeting additionally we understand that it is our individual responsibility to effectively communicate our concerns either to the superintendent

051or board president prior to any meeting in a timely manner board members have also agreed that avoiding no surprises is paramount in displaying respect for all district administration and the community in the spirit of no surprises in accordance with IASB best practices the board has tasked itself to send questions in advance of each meeting to the superintendent this practice allows the superintendent to provide the best possible answer for the community additionally it allows for maximum efficiency during the community's meeting those same submitted questions may also be asked in open session along with new ones that may arise during discussions if you do ask a question please state if you sent that question ahead of time mrs patton what time was the email sent to board members alerting us that board docs was loaded and ready

052for our review emails with a link for the board agenda were sent and delivery was confirmed at 4:13 p.m thursday April 17th 2025 and no emails bounced back thank you Mr bridges did you receive questions from board members in advance of tonight's meeting i received questions from all seven board members thank you item seven action by consent oh Melissa oh Melissa if we could pull 7.01 7.03 7.04 and 7.05 okay okay so everything but 7.02 and 7.06 is that correct 26 78 two 267 and eight i just need to scroll down okay okay so I had the privilege of doing um bills and claims i want to thank Michelle Swoop for all of her attention and support to provide and answer all my questions in regards to transactions through this past month and um I

053would move approval of warrant number 460 through 1068067 and warrant number [Music] 01 1 0 through 9 0 0 011 totaling 26,661,82362 for the period of March 25th 2025 to April 21st 2025 and items 6.0 I'm sorry 7.06 7.07 7.08 08 second i have a motion and a second please call the role mrs patton kush i mcmillan i fitzgerald hi wanke i kelly Black i cuzinsky i gerky i the motion passes i now need a motion for item 7.01 i move to approve adoption of personnel report 7.01 second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton kelly Black nay mcmillan i kazminski i juani i kush nay gerie i fitzgerald i the motion passes item 7.03 motion to approve item 7.03 3 board meeting minutes for 324 20225 and

054472025 second do we need to pull those apart correct we need to pull them apart and then I believe that they're on one of them they did not list me as attending the meeting before we went into closed so if we break them apart we can discuss it each one okay so better let's start with a motion for the minutes for March 24th i would like to revise my motion to approve item 7.03 board meeting minutes for 324 20225 second okay a motion and a second have been heard please call the role Mrs patton wait oh sorry i'm sorry so are we working with the minutes just on the March 24th right okay thank you for clarification go ahead Mrs patton Gerky i Cosminsky I McMillan I Wanke Kelly Black abstain Fitzgerald I Kush I

055The motion passes now I will make a motion for item 7.03 board meeting minutes for 472025 second melissa did you have a question i believe at the very beginning when it lists who is present when we go into closed door meeting I my name is not listed okay so we yeah that is correct and she should be there okay so we can do modified modified okay so I would like to make a motion with the modified minutes that includes Melissa Kelly Black's name in attendance for close session on 47205 i'm open session 2025 so sorry is it closed or open the first one's open okay so are we making any changes to the open session minutes on 47205 we are make a motion yeah isn't that what Yeah that's what you're okay second thank you

056a motion in a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton kelly Black i kush i fitzgerald i mcmillan i kazminsky i wani i gerky i the motion passes item 7.04 the close minutes for March 24th and April 7th do I need to separate those two please separate them okay i make a motion to approve only the close session minutes for 324 2025 item 7.04 actually those two can be included together okay okay go ahead all right can you modify that motion i modify my motion to for 7.04 for close session minutes to include both 3 2024 2025 and i second that remotion a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton Fitzgerald I wanke kelly Black abstain kosinsky i mcmillan i gerky i kush i the motion

057passes item 7.05 5 the retain release of close session minutes as discussed in close session okay i make a motion oh did you I'm sorry yeah I had a question um I guess I'm not quite sure what we discussed during closed door session but so I just made a statement about my stance on this um hold on and I'll just read that because I'm not quite sure how everyone's going to vote if there's been some type of agreement here sorry I gota flip through my papers because I know that previously we have not um released some closed door meetings um if we thought portions of the minutes were still sensitive and um this statement addresses that practice says "Well our dis while our district's uh attorney our board attorney um who we hire through our

058insurance provider understandably advises caution to limit legal liability our school board has a greater obligation to serve the public with transparency accountability and integrity as elected officials we must never lose sight of the fact that we work for the community not for an insurance company the Illinois Open Meetings Act mandates that executive session minutes be reviewed semianually and released once the need for confidentiality has passed in situ in situations where sensitive information must remain protected releasing redacted versions of the minutes offers a reasonable and balanced approach one that honors both the privacy and the public's right to know while legal counsel provides valuable guidance in minimizing risks our duty to uphold public trust must take precedence withholding information longer than necessary may protect against hypothetical liability but it risks something far more important the confidence

059and the trust of our community for these reasons I I support releasing closed door minutes notes that have been redacted to make sure that information that no longer needs to be held private um is released to the community stakeholders um I think this is important we should be leading with openness integrity and we reinforce the strength of our public institutions and honor the values that we were elected to represent mr bridges um thank you i respect your position i just want to share with the community um attorneys hired by the board are hired independently by the board not through our insurance provider i think that's an important note to make um and I will just go on to say that uh the recommendation to retain the closed minutes at this time um is compliant with

060the requirements of the open meetings act according to our attorney thank you may I make a motion oh Melissa um I just want to I I understand that we may hire the the board attorney that advised us however we are through our insurance group are required to use that attorney's firm so there that's an issue actually not true it's in if you it's in our agreement um with our insurance the group that we're it is actually in the contract so I am more than happy because I think this is a good point to clarify if at the next board meeting we were to look at that agreement and see if that is actually accurate or not instead of arguing now it just seems better to refer to the documents we we can certainly look at

061those documents amanda go ahead yeah okay um I make a motion sorry my glasses uh to approve items 7.05 retain release close session minutes as discussed in close session second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton fitzgerald hi kelly Black nay wanke gerky i mcmillan i kazinski i kush i the motion passes next is communications item 8.01 written communications are loaded for review 8.02 Board of Education reports does anyone wish to give a brief update on something they've done in their official capacity as a board member as it relates to our committee assignments or our adopted schools or special district events amanda um first I wanted to share that I am uh still active on the Illinois State Board of Education uh committee that is focusing on revising

062our social emotional learning standards uh for the state and um so we've been focusing on revising and updating the specific goals and uh targets for each of the various areas looking at um other states as guidance uh such as Iowa uh Pennsylvania New York um for example diving into small committees so it's um continuing to move forward and um it's been a really great experience so I just wanted to share that it's exciting um to be part of that and have a voice on uh something that's going to be sent out for our whole state uh the other thing then is just uh it was a real privilege to be able to attend the NEF uh breakfast it was amazing first time that I've been to the uh Matrix Club they did an amazing event

063um as usual and uh just want to thank them for all they do to support our district thank you for your reports Melissa um I just want to also thank the NEF team for um the wonderful breakfast they put on and for all the contributions that money goes back for grants and supports our student learning and our staff so I appreciate again the NEF team and all the people that were so generous and attended and donated for the cause thank you Donna i just wanted to thank Christine um for joining me on the NEF board this year and um I we've already heard how wonderful the event was it was uh there were record record-breaking attendance and so it's wonderful when we uh can really get the word out in the community so that more

064people are familiar with what NEF does and um as they learn their mission they uh can hopefully support uh the the things that go on behind the scenes in our district that are above and beyond our taxpayer dollars and and it's grateful I'm grateful to have NEF to do those things so thank you Kristen just a quick followup that um I I am grateful to Dr pat Patrick Nolton for being able to um uh conduct a session with ISBY um state assessment reform or state assessment review committee staff um to comment on the performance level descriptors i know a lot of work went in from um Mrs willard and um Superintendent Bridges as well um but I am grateful that we were able to provide feedback about the alignment that we should have with NAPE

065um I also wanted to say that I think that we benefit very much by having um staff who works quite often with ISBY and it was clear that there's a lot of respect um that goes back and forth with our um our assessment staff and their assessment team so I'm grateful for that and I hope that um I hope that they listen to our feedback and I hope that they do see some continued alignment as a as a part of the um new performance level descriptors okay thank you so much for doing that work also president's report i do not have a report tonight the item 8.04 superintendent staff school report okay we do have one report uh to share this evening um at the May 5th 2025 board meeting which is our next meeting

066um Mr francis our chief school business official chief financial officer will present to the board its first tentative draft of our proposed uh 2526 budget uh and so in anticipation of that we thought it was appropriate time to provide a little bit of a financial update to the board and community on some data that we're looking at that informs this process so I'll turn it over to Mike to kind of run through that uh presentation and report all right thank you as you said in two weeks we're going to see our uh first draft of the tenative budget so tonight we're going to focus on some of the the revenue expectations uh for uh upcoming FY26 school year and beyond uh some of the knowns the unknowns some of the things that are positive and

067some of the challenges we're going to be facing uh next year and in the in um sometime in the future so I think you've all familiar with this how the district is funded uh this is a a pie chart of our current FY205 budget and uh the different pieces of how the district receive it receives its funding over 85% comes from local property taxes with uh another one and a half percent for CPPRT which is corporate personal property replacement taxes uh I'll get into that a little bit more in a second and then other local revenue which is really made up of uh fees that are paid by um uh parents or students in the community um for courses uh different fees that are that are collected um money that's uh paid into the school

068lunchroom for lunches um and then finally the biggest piece of other local revenue is our in our earnings and investments um so those three pieces are what's known as local revenue and it makes up over almost 91% of the the total district budget and when we're looking at this this is the complete budget this is all funds all sources of revenue um beyond that we get about 6 and a half% from the state 4% comes from uh uh what's known as evidence-based funding which which is a formula that changed at the state level back in uh fiscal year 18 talk a little bit more detail about that particular funding source and how that affects district 203 in particular other state funding is mainly mandated categoricals so that's reimbursements we receive for transportation whether it's regular

069or special education that's the biggest piece of our mandated categorical reimbursement and also private facility uh tuition so when we send a student outside of the school district for special needs for some particular reason um the state also reimbures um us some funds for those types of things at the federal revenue we receive about two and a 2.7% of the of the overall budget so state and federal are are only about 9% of the school district's budget so I'm going to talk about each of these pieces um individually with a little bit more detail on what the again the the known unknowns positives or challenges that we're going to be facing so the biggest piece as you saw over 85% is local property taxes and that's driven by PTA which is the property taxes extension

070limitation law that's over 30 years old now and this chart shows you in the light green bars the history of actual CPI PEL CPI changes over the last six years and then what's in the projections for uh the next four years in the darker green bars so the the the nice piece about um property taxes and the way that this law is written is that we know what our property taxes are going to be uh for next year and even the year beyond that because the 3.4% which was the calendar year 2023 CPI which drove the 2024 levy that the board adopted last uh December just a few months ago um is driving the tax bills that the the community members are receiving early next month that will be pay payable in June and September

071and will be driving the tax revenue for the upcoming school year that's a known that's a known amount and then the 2.9% which is last year's calendar year CPI which is the maximum amount that the board can uh levy for and adopt at the next levy next December and that will drive tax revenues for FY27 so we know the majority of our revenue now for the next two school years the other piece on property taxes is the amount of additional uh few additional dollars we receive for what's known as new EAB growth uh mainly tear downs in our in our in our community and again we have a little bit of a history in the lighter green and then projections in the darker green and that's been consistent between 25 and $35 million over the

072over the over the last few years for the 2024 levy that was adopted back again a few months ago we were estimating 20 the the $25 million figure and since then and we we do we have to do an estimate because we don't know what the actuals are going to be until sometime uh in March so we actually got that report uh on March 25th we received the property tax extension this is the Will County version of that report and we actually received $28 million we got $28 million with the new construction so 28 versus we were estimating at 25 that actually resulted in a positive about $150,000 will receive additional in taxes than we were we were estimating back in December so what does that mean in total though the the way the property

073tax extension limitation law works is they take what our previous extension was which was $292 million they add the CPI which was the 3.4 for plus the $28 million in new construction and our total extension this upcoming year will be 303,591 which is an 11 about almost 11.3 million of additional revenue in taxes that we know we will receive that has to fund everything that we do in the upcoming year the next piece uh the small piece of of the the pie in the upper right there is CPPRT which again is corporate personal property replacement taxes this chart again shows the history over the last five years the blue bar is the current budget for CPPRT and then what's in the dark green is uh the projections so this one is uh not looking uh

074real good in the future but it's really going back to what I would call normal if this chart went back beyond it starts in uh 2020 if you went back to 2015 or even 2010 it's going to be in the 2 million two to two and a half million dollar range it was very very small change in this in this area over many many years this law for CPPRT goes back to the late 70s but starting in 21 especially in 22 and 23 you could see there's major spike in this area um inadvertently not just district 203 but all all government bodies and there's hundreds if not thousands that receive CPPRFT dollars all got the same percentage prational changes in this area but the department of revenue corrected course and we saw a decrease in

07524 i budgeted uh a similar amount around $5 million for this year after the budget was adopted the department of revenue comes out with their estimates which typically happen at the end of the summer and we're only going to receive about $3.6 million this year so we're not going to hit budget in this particular area we're also anticipating another 20% decrease in this which is why the projections are down to three million which again is just loss of revenue but it's back to what our more normal levels in this area the next piece is investment income now this one is actually a positive story um last year 2024 we received a record amount of uh interest income at 12.6 million uh the budget for this year is only 5.3 million we're going to well exceed

076that again this year uh it will be north of $10 million of investment income this year and you can see the projections and what's in the upcoming budget have been adjusted accordingly also short-term interest rates have stayed up high uh high longer than uh we anticipated uh but those and the Fed is holding on those there's tremendous pressure to lower those and all analysts think that they will be lowered at some point in the future and they're all uh projecting uh decreases on short-term rates in in the upcoming uh year or two um and that's reflected as fund balance uh gets spent down in some of our construction projects and anticipated uh cuts in the short-term interest rates but that higher number is reflected you'll see that reflected in the upcoming budget that you'll look

077at in two weeks moving on to the state level uh EBF again is the evidence-based funding this is a a chart that uh it says on Wednesday the governor delivered his budget address this is about two months old when the governor gave his budget address and the the governor's priority is uh to putting uh money into evidence-based funding 350 is what the uh his request is and it's the same as the state board of education's request for evidence-based funding so what does that mean so uh evidence-based funding is based on tier assignments so there's four different tiers tiers one through tier four and they're based on your percentage of uh adequacy and if you have a low percentage of adequacy you get much more money from the state if you have a high percentage of

078adequacy you get much less uh state assistance so we are a tier four district so we get the smallest amount uh from the EVF changes on an annual basis so this is how the the tier distribution is comprised tier one receives 50% of the $350 million and then tiers one and two combined receive another 40 the other 49% so 99% of the EBF 350 is is uh delivered to tier 1 and two tier 2 school districts with tier three receiving just.9% and tier 4 in total districts receiving 0.1% of the additional state funding for EBF so what does that mean uh to us and some of our neighbors so Neighborville 203 being a tier 4 school district and this going back to FY18 which is the year that EBF came into came into uh um

079fruition $12.6 million is the amount that we started with EBF and that has grown by almost $100,000 over the last uh eight years to uh 12.7 million you can see the annual changes uh in the second column uh so the total increase is just under 96,000 a cumulative increase of about $380,000 over that period of time how does that compare to our neighbor to the north wheaten 200 is a tier three school district they started at about the same level that we did 12.5 million their current EBF funding is at 14.2 million um they get an annual change between two or $300,000 a year they've had $1.7 million of additional increases over that time or $7.4 million cumulatively our neighbor to the west uh Prairie 204 is a tier 2 school district much larger school

080district than we are they get $ 38 million in EBF back in FY18 their current EBF uh amount allocation is 43.2 million and you can see their annual changes run between half a million to a million dollars on an annual basis uh they've their total increase over that time is almost 5 million cumulatively it's $21.7 million and then finally a tier one school district playing field 202 they started out their EBF distribution was 87.1 in FY18 it currently stands at $133.2 million for the current fiscal year you can see their annual changes are range are much larger between 4 million and as high as $13.2 million that one year total increase from the beginning to end 46 million or cumulatively $143 million worth of additional state funding uh through the evidence-based funding formula so this

081is what that looks like graphically um Neighborville 203 is either the left and we're so small you cannot see the bar the light blue bar is Weaten the dark green bar is Indian Prairie and then the orange reddish orange bar is uh Planefield 202 so you can see that this evidence-based funding is doing what it's supposed to it's supposed to be giving state funding to the neediest schools and it's doing that but we're not receiving anything and we're not projected to receive anything really in the future besides our 14 or $15,000 on an annual basis so that's this is the projection for EBF you can see that uh this is our EBF funding again the light green bars are the uh history uh for the last five years the current budget in blue and then

082the slight increases I'm projecting which are in line with what we receive typically on an annual basis moving on to other state um funding which is the mandated categorical portion of of um of the reimbursements we receive from the state the the three big ones are listed here transportation for special education transportation reimbursement for regular and then special education private tuition you can see what the governor proposed versus what ISBY was requesting so Isby was requesting an amount to keep up with the additional cost that we're all experiencing every year we have additional costs for transportation we every year we have additional costs for private facil private facility tuition but the governor's um preference in in in the additional dollars that the state has to to allocate has gone into EBF one where we're not

083receiving additional dollars we receive we our goal is to try to keep up with our MCATs but the governor's proposal has no increase for MCATs so what does that mean in terms when there's not an increase for MCATs what happens is the proration gets cut on an annual basis so this this uh table shows you the the three different main main E MCATs that we receive the actual prorations uh for the last two years and the estimate for the upcoming year uh and again this is against full funding if they were funded in full um again the state mandates that we provide transportation and then part of that is they reimburse us for some of the costs but they are only going to reimburse us for costs that that they budget for and when they

084don't increase that budget and the costs go up the amount they give us per dollar goes down so we're receiving um for instance special ed transportation is supposed to be funded at uh received 80% of all of our cost but we're receiving 69% of the 80% which is only 56% of the actual cost for special education transportation this year next year that's projected to go down even further to 61% uh again as there's no increase in those funding sources our amount that gets prated goes down and affects our budget and it's affecting the numbers you're going to see in the next at the in the at the budget uh adoption we could see at the next meeting finally we have federal revenue four major pieces of federal revenue are are listed here ideida and this

085is our current budget about 5.5 million national School Lunch and Breakfast Program 1.7 million title One we receive about 700,000 and Medicaid fee for service we receive about 1 million again this makes up about 2.7% of our budget and then we were for the upcoming year we're projecting basically flat federal funding in all grants except for Medicaid uh outreach where we're currently receiving only about $500,000 so we reduce that budget by 500 now some of these are IDA is actually projected to go up slightly title One's projected to go down slightly but the overall federal budget is going to be cut by about 500,000 in these projections and that's realistically somewhat optimistic so that's my update for um our revenue and what you're going to see at the upcoming um tenative budget when we present

086that in two weeks i'd be happy to clarify anything or take any questions joe I really appreciate the um the the budget update and kind of the clarity on on all these um uh different revenue sources um I didn't uh ask this uh in advance but uh I'm curious if you have um an kind of a dollar amount uh that's tied to these uh mandated categorical uh grants if we go from you know 79 to 71% for uh regular transportation and so on yeah the the um I do have those values the the private facility tuition we receive about a million and a half dollars for that uh spe uh combined special education reimbursement is about uh 3.6 million and the the reduction in the reimbursement or the reduction in the proration will hopefully keep

087those levels flat meaning we submit our expenses along with the other 800 school districts submit their expenses for state transportation all everyone's expenses have gone up the pot though to reimburse school districts has not changed so the reimbursement gets cut or the proration gets cut hopefully we receive a very similar amount that we're receiving this year okay it doesn't necessarily mean it's an 8% cut or a it it it could be but it we won't know that until the state adopts a budget which is at the end of next month and then ISB figures out after everyone submits a transportation claim in the summer then they figure out what everyone's going to get we don't know that amount until sometime in the fall but we have to budget an amount now thank you um yeah

088so kind of just back of the envelope uh numbers that we have some increases some decreases but it seems to kind of play out to that $1 million um number uh right with with the amount of new revenue we might be getting um next year the the tax number is is unknown right but I if we look at the CPPRT it's going down by 2 million if we're doing investments it's going up by five if we're um looking at the cuts to uh the MCATs uh and the Fed federal government those are probably all going to be a wash pretty much so um that that's 11 million and then tier four funding we can't even buy a new driver side vehicle i mean that's right um so uh so so basically all of the you

089know construction inflation uh raises everything is built into that $11 million that's correct thank you Melissa um I thought I would ask just for clarification for myself and for the other stakeholders i happen to be one of my committees that I'm on is the finance committee and I know that we met briefly um in December but I would just I wanted to know what part as we go into the budget process does that committee meet again and are there goals what's the role of that committee they are an advisory committee to the superintendent and the chief financial officer uh they current on the current um system they meet two to three times a year or more if needed um the next meeting is do you know the date it's typically right after the we present

090the tenative budget it has not been scheduled yet I don't believe but it will be an early it'll be in the first the second or third week of May that's right and me members of the committee play various roles in our community um that would have knowledge experience or work around things related to finance or factors that impact the financial decisions as an example we have an attorney who represents developers that helps us identify potential new developments we have somebody who's in the healthcare industry that helps provide guidance and input on our projections so they are just an advisory group uh no decision- making uh they simply provide advice and input on uh our financial forecast as well as our budget melissa um the other thing I know that from our last meeting I took

091note that I guess a lot of the documentation came in right before the meeting so it was there were a lot of comments from the other participants that they weren't able to review it so I was just going to remind you that I don't know what the timetable is to presenting the documents or what they receive but maybe have a little bit more of a buffer so they can review them so over time uh direction from the board is that the board should see it first and so that sometimes influences when we can provide them with that information but um as soon as it's loaded in boards they'll be able to get it thank you other questions or comments okay thanks so much for that uh leadup to what we'll be receiving in two weeks

092mike item nine discussion without action we do not have any items 10 discussion with action as a reminder to all board members I'll recognize each individual to ask any questions or comments as per our board agreements we share time with each other after each person has had a turn we will go back around if necessary if you ask a question please state if you sent that question ahead of time and please remember it is not in order to interject unless you have been recognized item 10.01 new course proposals okay at our last board of education meeting uh Jane Willard and representatives from each of our two high schools presented recommendations to the board of education in regard to um new courses uh and the removal of some courses recommend that you approve those as presented

093okay any questions or comments from the board okay i'll take a motion for item 10.01 i move to approve item 10.01 01 new course proposals as presented second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton kush i mcmillan hi kelly Black i fitzgerald i cuzinsky i gerky i wani i the motion passes item 10.02 instructional resources i also presented our last uh board meeting with recommendations from our learning services team for K12 instructional resources recommend you approve them as presented questions or comments from the board melissa um I wanted to mention I'll be doing a a report i did I was able to visit uh Prairie School with uh Katie Matthews and um we one of the things that I noticed during the visit is that was one of

094the schools that was uh piloting the literacy program because I know that when you look at the resources that's something that's going to be very we're starting a new literacy program next year um I just want to mention it was great to be able to kind of see how it was working in the classrooms and to be able to talk to the teachers and the people actually working with the curriculum um I would recommend maybe in the future to have I wouldn't mind school board you know field trips because I think it it it you know when we come into the board meeting and I just see a list of curriculum and that's a big part of our job our responsibility is to select curriculum but obviously just reading the name of it doesn't really

095give me a feel of what the curriculum actually entails and how it works and I think it was very valuable to hear from people on the ground level um about how it was working to see how you know it was actually imply you know what they learned about the implementation process how the students were responding to it so that would be my suggestion moving forward maybe on some of these issues it might be easier to vote if we actually have more of a feel of or get a visit where these programs are piloted thank you other questions or comments okay I will take an motion for item 10.02 move approval of item 10.02 instructional resources as presented second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton kazinsky i kush

096i wanke mcmillan i fitzgerald i kelly Black i gerky i the motion passes item 10.03 policy review policy 7180 okay policy 7180 uh preventing bullying intimidation and harassment was presented to the board of education for reading at the last meeting um it would provided it received input from u a small committee we recommend that you approve it as presented any questions or comments from the board okay i'll take a motion for item 10.03 move approval of uh item 10.03 policy review uh policy 7180 second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton wanke gerky i fitzgerald i mcmillan i kush i cuzinsky i kelly Black i the motion passes item 10.04 policy review 7190 yeah this is our practice annually once again 7190 student discipline was reviewed it included

097a committee of stakeholders recommend that you approve it as presented and I believe this is the one that had no changes questions or comments from the board okay i'll take a motion for item 10.04 motion to approve item 10.04 please second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton mcmillan i gerie i fitzgerald i kelly Black I Wanke kush I husbinsky I the motion passes item 10.05 policy review 7 policy 7240 and then finally in terms of policy 7240 is also annually review that includes a committee of stakeholders um recommend that you approve 7240 as presented questions or comments from the board kristen um this was one of the committees that um u Mr kush and I both sat on um and I I want to thank all the

098participants uh both for the student discipline the bullying and the co-curricular code i do think that um we are working to um find out the ways in which we can have timely and effective feedback with regard to the co-curricular code um whether that's um multiple times uh a year and what time that would be and how we're able to get that feedback from all individuals i think that's an important consideration i also I want to affirm the work that's been done to um make sure that the message goes out both to parents and students i think we still have a little more to do there um but I I'm you know just with some comments about like still thinking that we could better inform some parents and and potentially even some students and so I

099support that work but I also support the work of the committee in and the dialogue that was particularly focused on data charles yeah um echo everything Kristen said the only thing I would add to that is uh just mark my uh um compliments to you in terms of the way you facilitated the session um you you got a lot of information you got the students really talking we always talk about the importance of student voice but if they're not willing to share their voice then it's hard to understand what their voice is and so you did a very nice job of really drawing out their comments and commentary and making sure that every student that was there was participating actively so I think we got the most we could out of the session that we

100had so thank you for that okay i will now take a motion for item 10.05 i'll move approval of item 10.05 policy re review 7.240 co-curricular code of participation second a motion a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton Kazminsky I Kelly Black I McMillan I Wanke I Gerky I Fitzgerald I Kush I the motion passes item 10.06 06 the innovative school experience okay invite there we go and um I will just tell you when to switch slides here on this one script is kind of modified here um so beginning in January of this year um the administration has presented its recommendations uh to the board of education and committee in regard to innovative school experience i'll talk a little bit more about how that ties into our work in the district

101and where that comes from in just a moment just want to acknowledge uh the process that we've been under since January uh is our initial uh hope actually to have action at the January 21st Board of Education meeting uh we moved that initially um to present information and then looking for action potentially on February 3rd uh and as you're aware based on input and feedback that we've listened to that timeline has um evolved uh and changed uh to where we are this evening so we'll move to the next slide um so our our goal this evening is to provide updates on the innovative school experience recommendation and how moving forward opportunities for stakeholder engagement in input uh will be planned uh and then to recommend the board approved the modified comprehensive uh innovative school experience

102commitment again I want to acknowledge and thank uh those who have spoken who have sent notes and messages uh to the board to the district um those who have sought out answers to questions from their principles and others involved in the process it has really helped inform us uh and really spoke to the importance and the the value of ensuring that we are providing ample opportunities for stakeholder input uh and feedback especially on some of our most significant recommendations we go to the next slide this is a slide that should be familiar to the board uh I think it is important to ground us in where the work comes from the recommendations for the innovative school experience ident reflect the identified and shared goals outlined in our strategic blueprint uh considerable amount of thought and

103consideration had gone into the recommendations brought forward for both the experience in the classrooms and the operational improvements that are needed to fully optimize how our time is spent we've spent time during the board meetings talking about some of the inefficiencies uh that exist within our current day uh as a reminder the innovative school experience proposal was designed to primarily address strategic focus one which is to design and implement effective practices that enhance academic social emotional and college career and post-secondary readiness for all students uh our proposal however actually addresses commitments found in all four strategic focus area and also embeds many of our ongoing commitments in the strategic blueprint next slide so we'll be seeking approval for three parts of the comprehensive innovative school experience uh outlined on this slide recommendation one are the

104learning structures by design presented by design teams with additional opportunities for feedback for clarification and workg groups to plan for implementation kind of moving from a design team to an implementation teams and what that would look like and what would be necessary for success we always remain responsive to feedback themes and what we hear through these processes and how it could inform how that structure looks moving forward second part of the recommendation is our proposal uh for the start and end times to ask the board to approve the development of a start and end time committee um as you're aware we've talked about operational inefficiencies caused by some of our uh schedule our challenges with transportation and scheduling uh we believe those are things that need to be addressed and then recommendation three which was

105uh a shift that we made previously uh to have the transition occur at the start of the 26 27 school year as opposed to beginning next next year so I'm going to spend a little bit of time getting in a little bit more of the details of these so the first part of our recommendation is to approve uh innovative school experience learning structures that were developed by leveled design teams at all four levels uh with additional opportunities for clarification and workg groupoups that would include staff meetings to increase understanding identify concerns that could be addressed by small teams uh workg groupoup teams uh would be established to plan for implementation around components related to the innovative school experience recommendations several but no limits are listed up on the uh screen right now these implementation teams

106are are really a common practice whenever we implement new programs curriculum and professional learning for example uh as as you just did moments ago the board approves curriculum and resources uh our teams continue to meet and revise during the planning phase and throughout the first year of implementation to make any adjustments as necessary uh and reflect and gather feedback similarly when the board approves high school courses the course teams begin work on the details of the course learning experiences and assessments all happening after that approval reflection refinement and continuous improvement are critical components and an expectation for implementation of any new program curriculum professional learning or initiative it's also important to note that some recommendations very important to note here in red uh they are subject to collective bargaining and potentially by all four of

107our collective bargaining groups and we are fully committed to that process and ensuring that that process is respected recommendation two next slide well the design team had a lot of opportunity for input and staff design and we recognized that developing start and end times didn't follow the same opportunities or didn't allow for the same opportunities for feedback so our recommendation would be to develop a start and end time committee which would include surveys to all stakeholders committee would be participants from community staff and students to meet to review current structural needs constraints start end time options and develop proposals there will be opportunities for selection at random and then some participants will be selected based upon them having previous engagement both with in agreement and disagreement with the current innovative school day proposal all meetings

108would occur between May 1st and June 12th committee would be facilitated by a third party to ensure that we are uh going at it from a very open and transparent process a community online engagement hub to gather feedback on proposals be developed by the committee who will then make a final recommendation to the board uh I think uh one way to look at that for experience that we did see some success on an initiative would be a community online engagement hub similar to what we used for the carbon action plan uh if approved uh this unit all stakeholders will receive additional information on these opportunities and how they can participate and share their voice on Wednesday and then the final part of the recommendation would be implementation for the transition to begin at the start

109of the 2026 2027 school year with a little bit more in regard to the timeline on there we should go to the next slide please okay and now we'll move to the next step slide here and so some of the next steps uh listed here as indicated um approval by the board of education there'll be communication to all stakeholders on Wednesday April 23rd to include committee meetings dates and application form uh stakeholder survey implementation window uh as well as process for keeping uh the community informed how you can stay informed um selection of the committee members and publication of the process as well as ongoing communication to all stakeholders uh and I want to reemphasize the important part of collective bargaining while we are in the process of collectively bargaining with NUA at this time

110we do also understand that there are potential impacts to others that we need to consider as well so finally again um we looking for action from the board this evening and I want to remind the board and the community that all of the documents that we have been sharing over the the course of this process are are loaded in board docs again and then publicly available so with that the team and I will be happy to answer any additional questions recommendation that you approve these as presented thank you for your comments Kristen okay so I I'm just wanting to restate um what you what you kind of outlined um and make sure that I have it correct so with the board's action tonight would be to affirm the direction going forward um but in each

111of these areas recommendation one with our um with our let's see what were those committees the implementation committees so in recommendation one with the implementation committees in recommendation two with the school start and end time committee committee um and which with the additional note that you have made on all the slides the collective bargaining processes with each of these processes um there will be um you know the processes will be conducted with fidelity and thus there will be changes that that come forward from each of these processes and those would then be presented to the board finally in June is that correct yes i I mean I don't know what that's going to look like or how that's essentially going to go right and and you know um you know there once we talk for

112example let's think about start time i know you're talking about recommendation one but there are things about it yes so we had level design teams for each of the four levels it spent a lot of time really digging into research unpacking um the research and best practices and thinking with an innovative mindset moving forward so a lot has gone into that however fresh set of eyes new people engaged in participating the raising of uh seeking for clarity uh or what's going to be necessary for implementation could raise issues that we that the teams would need to recommend changes there are opportunities to come back to the board in June and I again want to reemphasize parts of what we recommended um are subject to collective bargaining and that process has to also unfold as well

113okay okay so thank you for clarifying that i appreciate your efforts to clarify you know what what the what the proc what you expect the process to yield so we appreciate that um I know this has been a a very um we've had a lot of community members who have spoken to the board to the district and I want to thank them this has been um feedback that has been vital in in the crafting of the revised recommendation and it's clear um as you've um made the changes that that you have worked to incorporate the things that have been expressed by many of our community members whether that be at board board of education meetings at the many meetings that you all have had um as as a part of emails as a part of

114informal conversations I know there's been numerous and so I appreciate um the ways in which you have taken that feedback and used it um to to inform this second revised recommendation um I also appreciate the many in addition to many staff members and community members many parents and I know that we have heard that that feedback in the ways that I mentioned but as well through um groups like home and school um and um general home and school and all of those leaders who have worked to clarify and express their questions etc so I want to thank all of our community for all of that feedback because it's a it's a vital part of our ability to consider um I also want to express my support for the direction that we that we are affirming

115here um I know that there is a lot of research and thought that went into uh the proposal which I think at its heart is designed to fulfill our commitment to students so really working to ensure that all of our students are successful um in particular um though and and as we talk about it all our board meets I feel like um we are seeing lots of progress we are seeing lots of recovery from the pandemic but we are not seeing that across the board for every student group and so with that that with that reflection I am appreciative of the ways in which that you have looked at those issues specifically those students specifically and worked to craft through the research um a proposal that you believe I think um is intended to provide

116more time whether that be more time for math whether they be more time for interventions whether that be more time for time with teachers i believe that the intention of that is to utilize what I think is one of the most clear research areas that that time could potentially lead to improvement for those student groups so I appreciate your hearing of the board's direction in that way and your work to incorporate that research to to to to aim this proposal at that goal um I know there's some additional areas that are also clear in terms of research i.e the discipline disparities that we've always looked at and the ways in which the potential is aimed at um addressing that and ensuring that um the areas where we are seeing um discipline concerns um truency absenteeism

117etc that we're looking at all of that and I know as well that you are also affirming um the work to ensure that we are engaging all of our students and I know that this proposal is is aimed at that um you know we do to see concerns in terms of engagement and and we do see concerns more representative in some student groups some of whom we're really working to change in terms of academics um but I appreciate that you are looking to try to engage and to engage towards the student of the future i also I want to affirm that the revised proposal reflects the fact that even well-intended changes can have impact and so we've heard about those impacts and I really appreciate the efforts that you've made to form the committees for

118our community of stakeholders so that we can have a better understanding of the feedback a better understanding of the of the um implementation um things that we will encounter um and so that we can really see um recommendations that come before the board that incorporate the very best efforts of all of our stakeholders um to really look at all of those issues share their feedback back and provide a revised recommendation that is you know the best that we can get so I appreciate all your work to reflect that though I will not be here um as has been mentioned by our speaker though I will not be here to receive those revised um uh recommendations I know our new board will do a wonderful job with those new recommendations and I appreciate the opportunity for

119us to affirm the direction that we're going um and with changes um but but go forward to um to work to implement our mission for all students so thank you for hearing the views of our community and thank you for adapting and making changes to the proposal so that we're able to um move forward together in the best way we can u Melissa well I aspire to the same goals um I have a different view of this process and different concerns so um I'm speaking out tonight out of the deep concern regarding the decision to move forward with a vote on the innovative school day proposal at this time this proposal has raised significant and valid concerns from teachers parents and students the community has repeatedly requested more information more clarity and more engagement and

120those requests have not been adequately addressed one of the most pressing issues is that the purpose and rationale for this major change have not been backed by clear data or research showing how it will benefit our students or improve outcomes in our district it seems irresponsible to vote on a plan that in reality does not yet exist in full a shift to black scheduling is not a minor adjustment it represents a fundamental change in how schools operate this kind of change deserves a thorough and transparent pro transparent process that includes evidence-based reasoning input from educators who will be direct directly impacted and meaningful engagement with families and students equally concerning is the timing of this vote we must acknowledge that this decision is being rushed through before newly elected board members are seated at our

121next meeting outgoing members will be making a momentous decision that the new board will have to be committed to while those retiring members have already moved on voting on an issue of this magnitude before those members can participate seems to send a troubling message the voice of the voters and by extension the voices of the community are not being fully respected this is not just a procedural concern it's a matter of trust transparency and representative leadership i know that I'm going off my script but one of the major issues in this election the biggest concern was the community wanted to know how the people that were running were going to vote or deal with this issue and they voted based on that they voted for those people to represent them so I think that to

122not allow that vote to go through with the newest people they elected supersedes the de democratic process as elected officials our responsibility is to represent voice needs and goals of our community and at this moment this proposal clearly lacks the support of the students staff and families we must also consider our district's capacity we will be implementing a new literacy curriculum an important and necessary effort that demands training focus and support to simultaneously plan and implement a structural change like block scheduling risks undermining both initiatives our educators are being asked to do too much too fast and with too little clarity we also cannot exor ignore the broader context our families are navigating significant national changes in education and funding uncertainty around school budgets special education resources and access to mental health supports at a

123time when stability and support are urgently needed this proposal introduces more disruption and unanswered questions we owe it to our community to step back and gain a better understanding of our district's needs we should be exploring a full range of possible solutions and locking ourselves into the innovative school day concept that doesn't have broad support and lacks necessary specifics as a board member I cannot in good conscious support this i will be voting no not just because of the lack of content in the proposal but because the process itself has been flawed and rushed our decisions must be made in a way that builds trust not erodess it i urge my fellow board members to reconsider the timing and substance of this vote let's do this the right way together transparently and with the input

124and support of the community uh Charles uh thank you um I am uh I want to just first of all thank uh the administration for providing um you know and bringing forward a proposal um it's really interesting in having conversations with folks in the community one of the things that I've gotten um is now I'm off script a very interesting um sentiment that somehow this this type of a proposal should never even have brought forward and I completely disagree with that um uh I am all for innovation and I believe that um the intent is the right one i believe that everyone who worked all this all the work that went into it was with the right overall intention um I I do have significant concerns with the overall process um and uh I'll just

125put it out there i will be voting on no on this proposal and I want to make it clear as to why um uh I believe that voting on this prior to gathering more formal feedback would demonstrate that we're not really listening to the voices of the people that we serve um we've been discussing this proposal in its entirety since February 3rd i say it's an entirety because the first presentation in January 21 did not January 21st did not have the uh start and start and end times as part of it so I think it's really difficult to tell people all the benefits that a proposal is going to give you without giving full vision to the cost what it's going to cost uh in terms of the community sacrifice um since that time uh

126since that date February 3rd I've asked several times for us to have a group of parents and a group of teachers um come out to voice their agreement to this and actually what we've gotten is the opposite both in public comment and among parents that I have heard from um those who've reached out and those I've randomly reached out to myself just to ask where do where do you stand on this um they're not ready and more importantly and this is the part that um I find most frustrating actually is um they believe that their voices were not proactively sought or heard um I don't think that we can hold uh stakeholders accountable for feedback that they gave without the benefit of the full information um I believe that there's some great things in the

127proposal but I think that like anything else um whether or not I'm willing to go after those benefits or pursue those benefits is going to be at what cost and I think that's the part of the equation that we haven't fully really vetted out and understood um so uh you know we have a chance to to go back now and and get that feedback and I believe that we should take that chance uh let's gather more formal and quantitative feedback uh and let's find out from the community if they believe that the benefits of the proposal are worth the cost um we can't make a change of this magnitude without the support of both the community as well as our teachers because it will take both of those groups um to make this successful uh

128so um I would actually not only say that I'm voting no but also um encourage my colleagues to to really consider whether or not um this is the right thing to do at the right time to do it um because um you know given some of the questions that are still out there if this is a great idea and this is something that we should be moving forward with today then I think it will clearly also be a good idea and even a stronger one once we have more um input feedback on the implementation plan from the community and so that's where I stand on the issue donna thank you um I want to disagree that this hasn't been a transparent process um I also want to disagree that this is not something that this

129board can vote on because we've all been seated here and have been learning about this for years let alone months i want to also say that I'm very supportive of the concept of us moving forward with this and the work of our design team and our administration however I'm going to agree with Charles that I have concerns about the process moving forward from my own work experience I've learned how important it is to leave no stone unturned when considering change so as to avoid unintended consequences i'm not at this point sure of the support or the lack of support from our community and our educators at this point that concerns me the proposal for recommendation one the way I understand it is the design proposal as presented on February 3rd so I guess my first

130question that I did send ahead of time was what exactly we're approving i think what this includes but I'd like some confirmation is this is adding 15 minutes at the elementary level a daily morning meeting at the elementary level at the junior high level it would be modified block with weekly anchor days increase in math minutes incorporated band choir orchestra as exploratories expanding exploratory choices time for individualized invention interventions and at the high school block schedule with weekly anchor day and all that that brings for individual inter interventions is that the proposal for recommendation one I think it's important to note that um early childhood yeah you didn't mention which I didn't I'm sorry I didn't think there was a lot of change there so thank you for bringing actually there are some changes in

131terms of dedicated sessions for three-year-olds in the morning and PM sessions for four or five year olds um so that when you look at the elementary proposal Primarily uh again would be an addition of 15 minutes to the school day uh which would allow for the built-in time for individualized interventions and extensions to ensure that a daily morning meeting uh is available or part of the day minimize use of instructional time um because right now there there aren't any really built in uh and then opportunities for collaboration within the schools and across the district uh some of those things that we're talking about are being done in some of our classrooms right now at the elementary level um but that's coming at the cost of instructional time um and it's it's a very important reminder

132here which again where I want to remind the board there are some additional guard rails moving forward um you know when we look at things like a a change of a working condition of an addition of time of the day those are things that would be subject to collective bargaining too so that would have to be something that we continue to collaborate with our uh NUA on i think otherwise um middle school is going to flexible modified block with an anchor day um that would allow us as we've we've shown with the board and we've talked to through school improvement plan planning process talking about our data uh opportunity to increase math instructional minutes um our growth needs to improve in that area um also opportunities for the individualized interventions deeper learning band yes band

133chorus orchest brand band choir orchestra you mentioned but also some flexible time high school uh primarily the big shift would be to a block schedule with an anchor day anybody on my team does anything terms of highlighted that's been left out okay so that was my first question and that's what's encompassed in recommendation one um I'll get back to my concerns about that but I believe recommendation two is the start and end times and we're approving the de development of a committee that will come back in June with recommendations and that process seems to me like it's hearing what some of my other board uh colleagues have said in regard to providing more feedback from stakeholders so the recommendation there is for a committee to come back in June correct that's right okay and I

134absolutely love recommendation three which was the approval of moving it to the 2627 school year um in fact my question that um I I don't think I sent this one ahead because it just occurred to me uh but the revised uh proposal then I understand the delay of we've addressed two concerns which were big concerns but I've heard many more concerns and so we've addressed the delaying of one year and the input for the uh start and end times what I don't see is the ability to have feedback that will it affect change to the structure structure in recommendation one is is that because of the way it reads it says that we are approving the innovative school experience learning structure EC12 and then the feedback is for concerns to be addressed and implementation but

135not structure change except if it were to be a part of collective bargaining is that correct well I if there are things that come through the uh teams the various components that would inform a change is necessary then we would have to look at that yes so that there's potential for that okay so one of the questions I did send then was why is the recommendation one written as though you know with us approving the structure and and then we have this feedback and we might have to come back and reapprove whereas recommendation two is providing a opportunity to provide a committee that would come back in June i would be much more com uh comfortable with recommendation one reading as recommendation two reads where we're pro providing an opportunity for all this feedback and

136then coming back in June with a recommendation for recommendation one why are those different so there's I think a couple of things at play there and I'll invite members of the team here as well um I will acknowledge that we played with that word on what that first word in that was going to be is it approved is it is it accept is it to receive it you know um to to just communicate what we want but I also want to go back and just say that the the level design teams um spent a considerable amount of time in the research doing the work to come forward with these recommendations uh and as a reminder those level design teams um you did include representation from various work groups um it wasn't just an admin recommendation

137the one where we took the decision away was really on the the start and end time despite although we did say it was going to be sometime between 7:30 and 4 we had to figure out what the final ones were um and so I think that's kind of the the the big why um there are the opportunities for this but I think we would actually have to restart the whole process with a with a new group um and you know I so I I think we're we're we're trying to create a process where um my belief is that some of what is seen as opposition is also from a lack of full understanding about components of the recommendations so we believe staff meetings to increase the understanding and identify what additional concerns they might they

138that especially staff might have about the recommendations can be addressed um and as we said we've come up with new ideas in response to conversations um at the board table and input from our uh community uh one of the committees you see there is a potential middle school zero hour there has been concern expressed about um for families who have elementary and and junior high school students such a large gap between the two start times what are some things we could do that was an idea that came forward um so you know it it's I I think it's important just again the recommendations we have we believe are solid recommendations that are responsive to direction that we've had from the board over time um and is rooted in best practice and we think these are

139the right things for for our kids uh moving forward it's not set in stone and there is the opportunity for modification or or change based on additional you know participation from others as well um so I don't know if there's anything we want to add the only thing that I would add is you brought it up Donna that we've been doing this for many years back to 2016 you know when we started this and one thing that has been consistent is the learning structure and so those teams that even met years ago um they also came up with the idea of longer learning time um in a block versus a modified block so Dan I agree with what Dan said we've gotten our um staff they've been involved in the process we've had them we

140had listening sessions Allison Jenny and myself went met in every building katie also met um with elementary staff so we feel good about that recommendation all the details similar to like a uh curriculum design the details of the curriculum and the assessment all of those still will be um worked out with the teams and of course it would uh include our our uh staff like it does for anything but we feel good about the recommendation for the learning structure okay so I have two more comments and then I'll yield and I might need need more time um it looks recommendation one feels less flexible to me and that's how I'm reading it and that's what I'm hearing about adjusting to any kind of change recommendation two has us uh it coming back to the board

141in June so I would feel comfortable with approving this if they were both coming back to us in June i'm not hearing that entirely i'm hearing there's room for change but I'm also hearing that we already know that this is what we want and I'm not sure I know that the staff said that because the feedback that many of us have asked for um h has been provided by some of those who've reached out and some of the smaller groups that you've spoken to but I think I've heard that the there's board members who wish that we were to go beyond that and actually seek and provide opportunity for all stakeholders to provide feedback and assuming that those that we haven't heard from are fully on board is a disservice to the two-way communication effort

142that I feel is critical for such a big implementation so um I'm a I'm a no because of the small issue on recommendation one not feeling like it's flexible enough to come back in June and I don't feel like four weeks is going to make a difference i'm fully supportive of a target of moving towards those things that you've that you've indicated but I'm not comfortable voting to approve the structure for the innovative school experience without that feedback coming back in June on both recommendations i'm going to yield my time amanda if I if I can actually just you know just in in terms of response um to that um feedback and opportunities for feedback are very critical um to any anything that uh especially when we recommend such a change change is hard u

143and changes that we've recommended will have an impact on our professionals it'll have an impact on families though um because of that the types of changes um I don't have the role to get to where everybody's on on board um I we have to get to where you know everybody's had an opportunity to have their voices heard we work through those right I I I do think um we have that support if it helps the board on language in terms of what the recommendation is to come back in with another you know in June then that can be a part of But I I you know I think it is important that we have ensure that this is uh an authentic experience for our our staff that we engage in this not just a performative

144exercise and it is and if you think that helps communicate that um in a better way I I'm open to that i thought I would give one example um for recommendation one that would maybe spell out how people do have a voice so from the middle school recommendation when the innovative school day design team said they wanted a weekly advisory they gave some thoughts and ideas of what they would want that advisory to be but we had a separate application where anyone at the middle school level in the district could ask could apply to be on there every single person that applied we put on the committee it wasn't selected by myself or anyone else um on cabinet and we've met a couple of times to talk about what is the purpose what data are

145we utilizing what do we want this to look like what are our themes for all five schools moving forward so having those subgroup committees is to really refine the plan the plans and the professional learning and the resources needed for staff and then we give updates back to the team so there are many focus groups like that and that is the intent of the working groups is to further refine the broad thoughts that the innovative school day design team said this is where we want to go now some people from the innovative school day design team are a part of some of the committees but anyone had the opportunity to join that and it would be the same moving forward uh for stakeholders uh to do that so that's just an example of how the

146focus group really works they they do the details the fine details of the plan amanda okay lots of thoughts really respect my colleagues on their their feedback i have a different perspective I guess um so first I just want to kind of focus on again the why right you know because as you mentioned Dan there's a lot of things that us as board members have been asking for um like reducing the achievement gap like reducing the disparities in our discipline data like maximizing our school day and protecting our um fleeting resources which is time for all of our students and our staff right um and if we keep doing the same thing and expecting to achieve those things that's not you can't expect to actually make that happen right so what I really appreciate is

147this innovative school day what you guys have provided and spent a lot of time researching for years and years and going and uh getting consultants and out outside consultants and uh gathering the voice of people um within our district and outside of our district to come up with a proposal that allows more protected time for math that allows for more planning time with teams to allow for um more uh opportunities for students to have meaningful transitions is something that I can really get behind what I hear from the community from staff and from the board is that it's how we got here um that it's not the why that we have an issue with it's it's how did we get here right but since February what I've observed is that there has been uh responsiveness

148to some of those concerns right so going back to just even the NUA survey that was shared with us I'm looking at it right now and some of the questions specifically about innovative school day um schedule um let's see not starting end times but just a school day like are for junior high are you um how do you feel about the proposed modified block schedule right so there's only there's about 30% that said nope I don't want this but 28% that said I need more information decide and then 18% I need more training um 13% is like I don't care uh 8% is um I want to like I'm ready to go and others like give me at least a year right so that's almost 60 or 40% or so coming together that are like

149I need more time so what I'm seeing with this recommendation is that innovative school day experience is like the theory right and so with the recommendation one then you're taking it down into implementation groups groups that can be like "What does this really mean for me?" And you're u delaying it a whole year for the actual implementation to take time to be like "What does this actually look like in each of our individual schools?" Um what does this look for our like from our parents how do we go through what about this what about that what about this and we can answer those questions um which is kind of what I wanted to make sure that each school felt comfortable and prepared and then it gives a little flexibility in the specific wording this is

150what I see right let me see if I can see here with additional opportunities for feedback clarification of work groups in order to plan for implementation so that wording is a little like does it actually allow for us to change or not i'd feel more comfortable like Donna said to maybe switch it up a little bit to be we can expand or you know make make changes based off of what implementation actually looks like i would prefer feel more comfortable with that for recommendation one but it is getting staff feedback about what does this actually look like that's what I I like about that it's not just coming in and being like okay we're doing this um and it also I'm assuming that includes time for training staff and giving them time to plan for

151how do I adjust my schedule from a regular schedule to a modified block or a block schedule right and then recommendation two about this is getting you know we said we wanted feedback from families right families are the ones that are most uh impacted i was most concerned about this huge gap of almost an hour between the start time of elementary and middle school and so having uh this recommendation and making sure that it's open to the voices of parents and uh school and staff ideally the biggest naysayers I like to have at the table so that they can really uh really think about what is um what are the challenges and what can we really do to help adjust the options so that we can go back to what you said was we got

152an okay down here we got an okay down here we got an okay down here now we can lift off with your rocket analogy from before um so I'm much more comfortable about this because this is moving us towards our why i we can't change what we've done which again I don't really agree with how this came about but I can see the responsiveness to try to get that feedback to make this implementation right and given us the time of a full year to get there so that's why I'm moving forward with um supporting this recommendation if we could maybe make a modification to make that language and recommendation one a little bit more flexible because if anything comes back in the implementation that needs to be fixed that it is addressed that would be

153great for me so that's where I'm at joe I'll just piggyback on that because that's what I was scribbling down in my notebook as well um so I I'm very uh excited about a number of the things in this um uh innovative school experience plan um I think there are a lot of potential benefits uh for the students with the block schedule with the increased math time um you know I I think there's uh really just a lot of uh opportunity for uh you know internships and some of those workforce development uh parts of the the curriculum um I do have similar concerns uh with uh Yodana and Amanda uh about um the the current wording of recommendation one um I did uh send a a question about that as well um and um I

154I if we can um you know put some language in there to um provide room for some modification that you know comes out of these working groups and uh the feedback that we get from the the community and the stakeholders um I I really think that that would um be beneficial um also you know depending on what comes out of recommendation two that could have an impact on recommendation one so um I think if we lock in one and then we you know try going after the other one you know we're we could really find ourselves uh in a bind so I I think having that that flexibility um is beneficial um and you know I I see recommendation one is kind of using the the current proposed structure as that baseline for discussion and

155then uh you know we we really make sure that people understand kind of what went into it uh what's in there um but then you know are there additional uh ideas around it are there tweaks that that we can make um and I I think um you know we don't want to uh just keep discussing uh forever right we we do need to have some kind of movement um in order to get professional development in place uh that that's going to be really critical uh for the uh for block schedule uh and for some of these different pedigogies right so um I I would um really support uh that idea of um tweaking the the recommendation number one language uh a little bit um so that it it does kind of come back and and

156we see everything as a a full package um you know in uh June or you know uh you know when we're comfortable with the uh feedback uh that we've gotten donna so I have additional questions but I'm going to skip those after hearing what some of my colleagues and what Dan has shared and uh propose a potential solution and then we'll see if we can move from there um so something like this this is not my actual motion because I want to hear my colleagues but something like this something like I would I move to approve moving toward the targets of an innovative school experience that were presented to the board on February 3rd through the development of committees to review proposals consider additional options and present the board of education with and I took

157out the word final and put additional recommendations in June on both recommendation one and recommendation two and then I said recommendation three can continue as presented i would like to hear if some of my colleagues who had the same concerns I had feel comfortable and if the administration feels comfortable with something like that do you want Could you read that one more time sure i move to approve and again this is hypothetical i'm not actually making the motion moving toward the targets of an innovative school experience that were presented to the board of education on February 3rd through the development of committees to review proposals consider additional options and present the board of education with additional recommendations in June on both recommendation one and recommendation two recommendation three can continue as presented and then my

158hope is because I won't be here that that feedback and those committees will take into consideration the input of all stakeholders okay let me just kind of process out loud a little bit here okay um kind of words smmith myself a little bit here um so we can play with some of the the initial action words such as endorse or accept um the innovative school experience learning structures is recommended by the level four-level design teams uh with a with an understanding and a commitment uh to continued opportunities for stakeholder feedback clarification and targeted work groups to support planning and implementation um allowing the design team uh ability to modify uh the plans as necessary based on feedback uh and evolving needs i think where some of the con that that provides us with some of

159the direction that we need in terms of taking steps forward with some of the work that we're we have ongoing in the district um I hesitate about a full commitment in June um just because the depth of the work and the timing of the year with pulling staff out but I think we can probably we the start of the 25 school year maybe yeah I I I like I like June but let's I just that's my caution so um so my I didn't have a final recommendation in June changed that to additional recommendations in June to allow you to have more time if needed where needed but I don't like endorse or accept i like moving toward the targets of what was presented in Febru February 3rd because I endorse and accept are too strong

160to not allow for feedback I believe what about affirm what about affirm the targets well yeah and the reason I'm using words like that I like what you said i feel like it is there's a difference in looking at this but that's what I feel like we're doing we are affirming the direction we are affirming the targets and we are allowing this process to continue to unfold with additional and if I can just add one more thing to that okay sorry these are the these are the recommendations of the level design team and so that's why you're you're you're affirming you're accepting your whatever word that you just said um their reports and their recommendations i also was going to say some of the items will be approved you will be coming back to the

161board a year from now six months from now a year from now two years from now like adding additional exploratory options are not all going to be offered for the 267 school years so then you would approve the new courses that the staff have worked on in design team so some of it is a phased in approach so this will go on for years that's yeah that's I think that's why I was kind of say oh by June right um but I think conceptually the framework we can get some input for that melissa I want to thank Donna because I think that she is trying to find a solution that more people can live with and I think that's been a reoccurring theme here of not having an all or nothing or not having it

162so strict um I think that again even having board support having the board member support it we're falling into the same trap so again I thank you Donna for trying to find wording that can gain overall support she's got Donna the one thing that was said earlier that I want to make sure that we really think about was I don't anticipate or I'm not even asking you to throw out all the work of the design team and all the work since 2016 if this is truly that what the design team has brought forward and believes in then our staff and our feedback will reflect that and so I don't feel that we have to approve accept I don't know affirm i think that that's up to that that a feedback process that will occur after

163we say yes we want the we want to move towards what that design team presented in February 3rd we just want more feedback to make sure that the rest of the staff is on the same page and and everybody so I don't think it's throwing everything out or starting over that's not what I'm looking for at all just like your uh school start and end time isn't going to th like I'm sure you're going to provide them with all the options that you considered and how you got to your solution and then hear what they have to say i think the same thing's true for the design teams and the structure of the day provide them with whoever is on this uh committee with the the all of the research and and uh input that

164we've been working on and then just hear of them out that's all that's all I want i want us to be able to hear them out i don't want to affirm approve i don't know what other verbs were used i'm sorry what was the first word you had were mine moving toward targets of an in innovative school experience that were presented to the board on February 3rd so we're acknowledging all that work and we're moving towards that but we're moving towards it through the development of committees to review proposals consider additional options and present the board of education with additional recommendations in June on both WCK one and rec two and then RC 3 can recommendation three can continue as presented and I and I said like I said additional recommendations in June because I

165would anticipate that on some of these you're going to need more time than that as we heard in public comment so I want to allow for that and even in recommendation two it says with final recommendations in June I don't feel like we're going to get to final recommendations in June i I mean that'd be great if that's where we all land with feedback from all stakeholders but I don't know that's a lot to do in two months i'm gonna um I appreciate the trying to work through that wording Donna i do um I I want to share my views on it because I I think I think we're like really close to what each other is saying and so um in in thinking about this truthfully for the last two weeks especially but I

166have been thinking about this since the first the first presentation and I had to stop and and and in order for my thoughts to stop swirling in my head I had to tell ask myself what is my why and I stated this to the students a few meetings ago about holding on to that and it continues for me to be focused on what's best for our kids what they what do they need to succeed in this world that they're going to be living in what do they need to succeed in whatever career paths they choose and our kids are attending when I when I tried to break it down into just these different things that we're looking at i realize our kids are attending school at hours that do not allow them to function at

167their best we've been asking them to adjust and bear a burden for too long and it's time like I feel this is our time now as the adults to do what's best for them so that's where my comments start from is again the kids are at the center of this and we just stated it a few minutes ago we started work on how to utilize our school day in 2016 2018 somewhere also pandemic and then we went right back to this work because we know it's important we didn't just let it go we came back to it we knew we had to be there when I looked at at at all of the slides our level design teams consisted of 11 people at EC 23 at the elementary 37 at junior high 48 at high

168school i counted 26 various engagement sessions for staff and this is what I was counting last night this isn't some of the new information that came in terms of how we've had these ongoing conversations um throughout this whole pro this whole process um we've had four in-person focus 203 sessions for community members i don't know how many videos emails thought exchange access and we're on our sixth board meeting with this i feel like the engagement has been there no one's been cut off and we we certainly did have some bumps in the roll out with this but the the bumps in the roll out have to be separated from the work that we're attempting to do we've received emails from community members staff students we've had feedback from tonight and previous student advisory um committee

169uh reports we've heard feedback from our student ambassadors the Central Times even weighed in on it in a February 5th editorial so we're getting feedback from a lot of places and we've had ongoing engagement from a lot of of stakeholders there's 31 pages of questions from board members that have been loaded in board docs administration has answered them they've been available for the community to see and those same questions have been used as a springboard for our district's FAQ on the topic my own questions including those in on research and best practices have been answered and early on in the process I stated a little more time to help smooth out the bumps that come with any change may be what we need and those 31 pages helped me understand and shape my view on

170the topic as a board we have to remain focused on our priorities and the big picture of what we are trying to accomplish for the students in our district our strategic blueprint is one of our guiding documents and when you look at the the school uh school day proposal six of the eight comm commitments in strategic focus one are hit with this that's significant to be able to hit six things like that with this with one proposal and I know there's multiple pieces to this proposal but just looking at it from that perspective we also have a proposal in front of us that has the potential to address multiple ongoing board priorities including discipline as has been mentioned before student mental health concerns how to improve our ma our students math scores these are just

171a few of the priorities that this proposal is hitting for us it incorporates a great deal of what the board has been focused on for many years including almost all of the time I've been here and it demonstrates that our superintendent and his staff have been listening intently to the board throughout all of this time I've heard two recurring concerns both from the board table and from our community and our staff and students professional development and time for families to plan for change we're the ones that have been serving throughout this process and it would be wrong in my opinion to delay a vote in affirming or whatever word we want to use in affirming these concepts and the work for any of us doesn't stop when we leave office we've all been elected to

172advocate for our students throughout our entire term and I know we all do that faithfully and we all all boards not just this one have and will work with decisions from previous boards and what I like about this modified presentation or recommendation is that our new board members will also be involved in this going forward when I take the totality of our questions community feedback our board priorities if I take it all into account I believe it's clear that the superintendent and his administration have been responsive to these concerns by prop proposing this modified approach and from where I'm at right now approving recommendation one seems reasonable i haven't been able to see a reason why we can't move forward with the learning structures brought forward by our level design teams these people are the

173experts and I believe these teams did their best work with fidelity we have these professionals here for a reason and I believe we really need to listen to them and I'm quite confident that the committee proposed or any of the committees proposing recommendation to will provide valuable insights and I look forward to what they're going to bring us in June and finally that implementation delay for the 2627 school year gives us all the time needed to plan learn and be ready for that new school day and that's why I I am voting yes i think I gave a whole bunch of reasons why and I am so appreciative of of Donna's consideration and how we can get the board firmly behind moving forward so I appreciate everyone indulging me with some time and are there

174other questions uh Charles so I don't have a question but I have some additional comments having heard some of the comments from my colleagues um so couple of things one as I stated at the beginning I think that there are quite a few benefits here but you cannot have benefits without understanding costs the biggest concern I have is that the work of the design teams all the design teams I believe the last set of design team meetings happened sometime around late December early January in terms of the actual convening of the design teams based on the what I've been able to glean from the feedback and and the presentations that have been given prior the proverbial cost of this in terms of what it would mean in terms of scheduling implementation for families which then

175has its own set of costs that go with that cost that we've asked for and in my opinion have not gotten complete adequate information in terms of what that looks like and how many people that would impact we asked people do you want all these wonderful things and they said sure sounds great and then we showed them what it was going to cost after we ask them if they like it and we're holding them accountable to the oh but you said you wanted all these things but that was before you told me what it was going to cost me I don't know I personally don't make decisions um when it's when somebody asks me do I want something and I say sure it sounds great and then they tell me how much it cost I

176reserve the right to then say never mind that's too much for me to pay at this time for that and I feel like that's where we are um the there there's there's not a question in my mind that the intent behind this in terms of what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish is noble and good and makes a lot of sense in terms of what we're trying to do how we're trying to make things better for the kids but it has to be at the right cost because um someone asked a question a moment ago what do kids need to succeed they need the support of their their families i mean this this doesn't happen devoid of the families and I'm not you know I don't feel comfortable telling families what

177they should be what should be best for them for their kids yes we can make recommendations but if it doesn't fit the needs of the overall family how we go about this matters there's the what we want to try to accomplish but then there's the how and it just feels to me like we're dragging the community kicking and screaming into this without actually getting support and feedback and in an adequate amount of feedback from that community and that's the community that we were put in these seats in order to to support and that's the that's the part of this that that gets to me i'm fine with recommendation too you know let's get some recommendations and let's get some feedback that's that's what I've been asking for and many of the col my colleagues have

178been asking for that for the last since the last two months now and to my knowledge none of that has actually happened in any kind of a quantitative way to understand exactly what portion of the community is on board with this what portion is not and I don't understand why in the two months that we've been talking about this two plus months we've been talking about this I'm talking about the the presentation I'm not talking about the theory of this I'm talking about since we've been being presented this plan as it's currently constituted why we have not taken the two months that it's gotten taken us to get to this point to then go gather that feedback and have quantitative answers to how much of the community wants to do this or not like I

179said I asked for a table of community members we don't have one on other initiatives we've had people come and advocate and speak and things like that but I don't know that we can say that oh there's there's there's decent amount of community support for this that's not what we've heard um even in the data that was presented um when the start times were announced I think there's a piece of data in there in the February 3rd presentation that said that 63% of the community this was in our own data that was presented on the February 3rd meeting 63% of the community was against the the the proposal what have we learned since then that says that that number is no longer 63% who knows if it's not worse than 63% i think it we

180we would it would behoove us to go find that out again I think recommendation two makes a lot of sense let's go let's get the feedback but I think anything that sounds like an approval sounds to me like we're just saying okay if we get feedback back or not there is no other vote after that there's no set vote that would happen after that and so if we approve this tonight it sounds to me like we're agreeing that if nothing changes we're okay with that not saying nothing's going to change but what I'm saying is that an approval sounds to me like if nothing else changes we do all this committee work and we come back and we say we think we're we're good with where we are then that's what would happen and that

181that concerns me because if we're going to go get feedback which I think we should I think we need to have a definitive plan in place that says we will after getting that feedback then vote on implementing you know the final recommendation or semi-final recommendation or whatever subject to maybe minor things that need to tweak but it sounds like we will clearly know more than we know today there are just in my mind too many unanswered questions and I don't think we have the support of the community on this one not sure if we have the support of our teachers on this one and I think it's critically it's critically important to have both of those groups on board if we're going to be able to be successful and make a magnitude of this change

182we have never done anything in this community as an island it's always taken the support of the community and the support of the fantastic teaching staff that we have implementing these plans in our schools and anything short of that to me doesn't make any sense go back to her donna all right Charles I hear you i've added some words [Music] um so I've added I know I mentioned that I would hope that that would gather feedback from all stakeholders but I think adding that into our approval would be great and then I also added and I'll read the whole thing again if if if wanted for my colleagues but I also added that when uh like the board of education with additional recommendations in June on both recommendation one and recommendation two to consider for

183final approval so that it's clear that we're moving towards this but the final approval comes later i can read the whole thing or I'm just going to let it sit and you all tell me what you want me to do i would like you to read the whole thing Joe yeah um so I I think uh right at least I hope that what Donna is doing is kind of moving in in a direction um that uh you know you're on board or moving toward on board with i know that's a hard cell um but no I I think you have some very valid uh concerns um about the process and and um you know it would have been good to have some of these uh in place uh certainly before uh this meeting um I

184I I I like Donna's uh motion i think um you know kind of hearing what what Dan had to say um you know maybe we could add uh something to that motion uh you know we something like we commend the work done by the level design teams and we approve moving toward the targets of the ISC and then you know kind of continuing on with with Donna's wording um and I think that we need to make that acknowledgement there there's been a lot of good work done we have a a good baseline line um to start from uh or to to kind of tweak modify um but uh you know so I think you know commending their work is important um and uh you know Donna's uh motion um you know kind of allows us

185to have this uh the stakeholder feedback now with uh kind of a final approval uh during the summer and maybe we don't need to say June specifically but but during the summer oh Dan did you want to Yeah just a couple of things here i would have to hear um Donna's proposal again here in a minute but there's a couple things in there that I just want to make sure that we're we're acknowledging and we're we're kind of ensuring that we're all on the same page here with um and I don't think this is what you're asking but I'm just I'm thinking about the power of words again right and so our level design teams met for about 18 months dug deep into research had readings and in some cases did site visits to I

186think places out of the state even to see examples of things happening um I am open to a process that allows you know um us to to hear more voice but I don't think we can re start over the process in that amount of time right um so I want to be thoughtful about the words to ensure that we're uh when we talk about consider additional options that we're not just going back to the drawing board with a different group of people going through a very thoughtful process we've already been through um you know I I I I'm open to you know something that indicates the ability to remain responsive to the feedback and sharing the feedback the board and the community throughout the process and considering how it may inform influence or um the

187recommendation but um I think those are my concerns and I guess ultimately um my job is to serve at the direction of the board and we have a strategic plan in place that we've brought to you a response to several of the initiatives within there that is included a lot of our best experts a lot of people a lot of voice a lot of thoughtful time went into coming to those recommendations um and I I acknowledge that the change is hard and I and I talked a little bit about this throughout the process i I at some point I was afraid we were going to get to this because it is impact it will impact everyone because schedules could change right and so I'm not um I want to I want to validate that um

188but when we go back to really ensuring that we're bringing a recommendation to you that um is responsive to our strategic plan the direction set by the board and then ultimately ensuring that our all of our kids have opportunities to be successful and preparing them again for their future not just to do well in school now or not just to do things the way we did we've got to think differently i appreciate what was said by Amanda about you know yep we're lucky that we we we've been doing really well in in a system that we've had in place but the world is changing quickly and we've got to help prepare uh I I haven't had a chance to read the research today uh another report just came out about I don't Maybe you can

189help me i know Joel sent a copy of it to me it was the uh survey of the work for just top businesses or whatever and just how even college now is not preparing them kids for success in the workforce so we've got to be thinking differently um about the work a work that we do do so um I I'm committed to the work and I'm committed to you know seeing um the recommendations of our design team and and changes happen so we have business in the district that has to happen um that this will help inform decisions about those things so we can't wait forever um we do need some action tonight that moves us and tells us okay this is the direction because it will inform us uh in in some of our

190work um but what I'm trying to say is I mean I I am committed to this and and seeing that there is transformational opportunities in our classrooms and schools so um if we have to kind of we if it's important to the board to do all of the things that you said uh and we can continue to move and advance in a forward direction um that then that's fine um you know voting no on all the recommendations as is I mean essentially ends that work right and so this helps gives gives us direction and tells us uh where we need to go um I do think we we we've talked about um our transportation challenges and and scheduling um we've got some structural problems we have to fix um I don't think it's right that

191we're dropping kids off an hour before their school day starts and require them to be picked up uh at a time so that they can catch that bus we've got to make some of those changes it's just not we we've ignored it for too long and we came to the board in 2018 after we started our first work with a recommendation that just cost too much money and that requ that that was buying buses hiring drivers um we found a solution not everybody's ideal solution but if we shift from the type of school day that we have now to one that is more staggered we can accomplish that uh and we can make those changes so um you know I again I don't want this work to stop i I'm I'm asking the board to

192make some decisions tonight that helps move forward um we don't have to be in a a state of finality tonight um but I do want to continue moving forward go ahead Charles i want to address something that I've heard said twice that I just want to confirm um Dan in your in the beginning part of your comments you said um that this is throwing this out i don't think I've heard any one of my colleagues including myself say that this is a start over start from scratch throw away all the work that's been done i didn't hear anybody say that so I don't know why it's a either we approve this tonight or we're throwing everything away i don't understand why we're turning this into a zero- sum game recommendation two simply says go get

193some more feedback hear from hear from folks get some put some things together i like that idea i think that's great none of that says anything about throwing away the work that's been done i think the work that's been done is tremendous again I even stated even though I said I was going to vote no is on the recommendation one what I said was I think the intent behind this is great i think there's a way for us to figure out a path forward but we ha we need to make sure that we're garnering the right support from the community on this and or at least confirm that we have it if we believe we already have it then great this shouldn't be a problem but what I don't understand is why it has to

194happen right now why we have to say that we're agreeing to something that's happening a year from now when this first proposal first came out the original recommendation was that we were going to approve this in February and implement it in August that's 6 months now the recommendation is a year from August so that's now 13 months so that's an extra I'm not the greatest at math so that's seven more months than we originally said we would have to for implementation of this why can't we use the time to make sure that we have the support of the community this is what I don't understand we were we were prepared and ready and if we had said yes in February if we had voted on it and and it got approved in February we would

195have had six months to implement this from very very beginning my question is one what have we done with the two months that we've had since then and two what you know what can we do now that we have agreed to potentially or the recommendation is now to push it out i go back to if this is a good idea today it's going to be a good idea in two weeks or in three weeks or in four weeks or by the end of June that still gives us way more time than we were originally being asked to be able to approve and implement this so um I I just I just I and then the whole word smithing thing I don't understand why we're spending all this time trying to figure out what the right

196word is at the end of the day either we are saying that we would be moving forward with this in terms of an approval and then if we get more data back then that's great but I want to make sure that if we're going to take the time to get the data that we're honoring the data and that we're guaranteeing that we're honoring the data which is why I don't feel comfortable making anything that sounds like an approval tonight affirming or whatever whatever word we want to use i'm a marketing person trust me I understand different ways to word things but at the end of the day it's really what what what the meaning behind the word is and if it's if it's saying that we're ready and comfortable moving forward regardless of the feedback

197that comes back in June I'm not saying that there won't be any but it doesn't sound to me like there's a plan in place that says that we will then have an ability to actually get an approval in June and if we do have the ability to get approval in June why don't we just say that we want to get an approval in June as opposed to trying to get an approval now and then potentially one in June as well and I I'm I'm I'm done i'm good donna thank you charles can we have uh an answer to that like why um do we need it today and not in June i mean I'm trying to get something but um I'm hearing Charles and I respect where we're where he's going with this and so

198I I may backpedal even though I just uh sent this to you Dan so you had it in front of you i'd like to understand why we need it now and not in June well quite honestly I think we're looking at um the need to to have direction moving forward um I think a lot of our staff who and families who are impacted by this you know need to know that this is continuing we have um business occurring in the district that involves some of our employee groups that this needs to help inform uh that process um I think the uncertainty of what's happening is is um a challenge for that so um so we've talked about I shared earlier Melissa I agree with uh Charles and Donna i do not understand why we need

199it right now and to say that we need to have it for business or other um needs of the district I if we're saying we're going to get input and that you know we're going to honor some of these things then it's going to change anyways I think I go back to what been said over and over again if it's a good idea today no one intends to throw it out but we need to make sure that we're all on the same page that there's clarity and I think something that this process has brought out is hearing that voice we talk about that constantly as a board how important it is the voice we talk about I know our uh student advisory committee just talked about adapting i think that this is saying that we're

200not as a board we're not as a community this is not we're not where we need to be to make a vote tonight and I I appreciate Donna's wording to try to find something that we can all agree on but to be quite honest I don't understand i'm not even comfortable doing that without having the time to reflect upon it so I don't think there should be a vote tonight i don't think there's this need i think that yes I understand the administration speaks from their needs and their wants but this board is to represent the the all stakeholders and especially the community members so I don't think we're there i there's no need to vote tonight it's not in the best interest of our community the trust the unity could we go back to

201hear what your wording initially was Donna i'd like to hear the wording and I I do want to continue to confirm like I we haven't had a a whole lot of discussion about topics like the busing because of the fact that that impacts the school day but I did appreciate what you said Superintendent Bridges in terms of um about of the concern for our students in that regard and I know that's a big part of this and that will be a part of the work of that committee but I I I I do hear that and in terms of you know the um urgency I I do I mean we we've talked about this you know at length but not all of our student groups are succeeding and and that's something we talk about all

202the time and and so I I do feel urgency um in that regard um I feel urgency for for students sleep but I really feel urgency for their academics because we're a school so um understanding that that is the case I do feel like we have an obligation to continue to move towards change that will better accommodate and better support those student needs and so I think that is that's that's that's the urgency of all of this you know we're working towards g gaining all the feedback as we do move towards directions that will assist our students but that's that's the urgency i I I I I would also say we heard very clearly from our staff and our families that that they wanted time to adjust to whatever recommendations we are so I think

203it's very important that we have a process with fidelity i think it's very important that we allow the time for those processes to gain the feedback to bring recommendations additional recommendations to to the board but we don't want to use up all that time that we that we will then need to help our our our families have certainty and our staff to prepare that was one of the big feedback pieces that we got is that they need that we that we wanted time or that our staff wanted time to digest and go forward and we needed even if there's change recommendations that that come to the board in June we would then have to revise our efforts for professional etc so like I just want to be sure that we that we do use the

204time that we need to prepare for this big change because it will be a big change i would like to hear your wording if you don't mind i don't mind but I've changed my wording again okay um I I'm going to propose from what I'm hearing that our president makes a statement on behalf of the board with a commitment to continue this process and there is no vote until June so here's my wording we the board of education would like to continue moving towards the targets of an innovative school experience that are present that were presented to the board of education on February 3rd through the development of committees to review proposals consider additional options gather feedback from all stakeholders and present the board of education with additional recommendations in June on both recommendation one

205and recommendation two to consider for final approval recommendation three can continue as presented and I I also added the note at the bottom of the slide that said some of these recommendations are subject to collective bargaining and we are committed to that process and I believe by including that we work towards the goals that were set forth on February 3rd with the understanding that change may occur and we'll have to bring that back uh to that process as well but I hope that maybe we can read this as a statement and not uh you know similar to like a resolution per se and not uh push it to I don't know if all my board members agree with this but I agree on moving forward with the process and gathering the more feedback and so

206maybe this is a solution where we don't have to have a vote but I'd like to hear what you have to Kristen asked me to read that so I don't know if you have some feedback or Christine you'd have to read the recommendation let me know what you think did you have Did you need to finish the thought or I had asked her to read her initial her um Well could you read your your original yep thanks i don't know if I agree with that anymore but I move to approve moving toward the targets of an innovative school experience that were presented to the board of education on February 3rd through the development of committees to review proposals consider additional options gather feedback from all stakeholders and present the board of education with additional recommendations

207in June on both recommendation one and recommendation two to consider for final approval recommendation three can continue as presented it's basically the same thing except instead of approving it and pushing it to a vote on behalf of the board christine would read the statement melissa I just want to go back um to something Kristen had said talking about those achievement gaps and the need to um address those in a timely fashion i think as a parent of special ed children and one of my children does have I'm not sure that part of the importance of having the feedback of the community is we have seven people here but we have a very diverse group so if we're talking specifically my children fall into the category that where there are the b biggest achievement gaps and

208and do have those needs and I think something that's not being said is that you know my son he had therapies every night he had so so as we talk about all these changes the other thing is these families with kids that are in those most needy groups already have a lot more demands on them so you're creating possibly more stressors and problems if you need to make an appointment with an OT you have to wait years sometimes to get a certain time that your child doesn't miss academic or school time so I think it's really important if we're saying our goal and our urgency is based on the academic needs especially of those most needy and those achievement gaps i think it's even more vital that we have the feedback from the community from

209those parents and from those teachers that work on the front lines so we hear exactly so what when we do this when we implement it the amount of success we can have for these students will be well thought out by the people that know these students and their needs the best on behalf of the design team I do have a couple of comments regarding of things you just said um specific to the middle school plan and other levels there was time allocated for what the students need PT OT speech services special education intervention minutes right now students don't get their minutes fulfilled either or they have to miss something like exploratory classes or they're not having enough time for intervention so I just want to acknowledge that the committee was very deliberate in their designs

210to ensure that all students have access to both choice and exploratory as well as intervention and getting their needs met within the school day melissa so in response to that one of the things as a parent and what I know because I'm involved in a lot of the local special needs communities that the amount of services our kids receive in the school and especially what we see with national and funding really we're trying and we see these achievement gaps they don't get a lot of minutes there's been a lot of push back from parents that feel that their kids are not getting the services they need a huge vast majority of our parents do have to pay for outside physical therapy OT because the criteria is that you know if it impacts educational uh ability

211to perform anyways again we need the feedback these parents are having outside services we live in a community people move here because they value the education but we also have parents that are paying a lot of money for outside services and those are our most needy so again I know from a school perspective you probably took that into consideration but there's such a bigger picture for these parents and families that I think we need feedback from kristen I'm comfortable supporting your wording Donna your original wording and I the one thing I would say about Christine just reading a statement even when we have a resolution we do vote to affirm it and so I'm not sure if just her reading it is a statement from the board you know what I mean like without us

212affirming that in some way so I'm comfortable with your original wording if you are comfortable with it and if our superintendent is comfortable with it i do feel like it has um incorporated the things that we hope in terms of what this process can actually yield and um you know the intent but I'd have to hear it again please I emailed it to you so you could read it because I'm a visual learner and I thought you might need that too but as he's getting that I um I really want to value the input from all of our board members and if we are going to look for final approval in June I'm I'm still not convinced i was trying but now I'm not convinced that what this actually does if final approval is in

213June so I would either say we move forward with this without a vote with the process coming back to us in June with all in the intentions here adhere you know worked on or we just make a statement that we don't vote on and I think Christine makes statements that we don't vote on as far as how we even approach our questions that we ask and things like that and it's a at least it will go on the record as a formal statement if other board members are comfortable with that my comment here is not intended to reflect um um not having the the the process and engagement that the board is asking for i just um it's a lot to bite off between now and June um so change it to the summer that

214might help may I Amanda i think the only clarity that I need right and I do appreciate Donna coming up with the wording it feels much more comfortable but what's not there is exactly what we expect right you know like what how do we know we're going to get there like how do we know we've achieved that right how do we know that what the efforts they've made to do parent committees or staff feedback or whatever we're not going to get everybody you know 100% you know buy in but like what is the outcome specifically was like that this was a really good effort because you know I feel like Christine you outlined a lot of things and you feel like that's a good effort but other people don't so what is it exactly that

215we're asking what what do you propose i I guess I'm just like well what are you guys actually asking for right do you want like is is the recommendation then to have these work committees within the staffing for recommendation one and um x number of committees for uh recommendation two that represents x number of people from the community and therefore after that that's good enough and we'll take it what we've got or say at that time being like well I didn't have a voice I don't know I'm like that's what I'm just trying to say is like what what specifically are you looking for that will make you feel like you have a representative voice and feel comfortable to move forward that's what I'm not clear on I can I just follow up I I'm

216I'm just I want to I want to better understand who you're asking and what you're what you Like I I I'm asking specifically I'm sorry I cut you off but I'm asking like you know Charles I'm asking Donna I'm asking Melissa who has specifically said that and and myself too right okay I said I'd like to have more feedback but again I'm like well that seems to be pretty objective because a lot of uh people here or some people here says we've already got it other people says we do not and so if my group isn't represented at this table then and they didn't have a chance to show up does that mean that we don't have all the community voice like what who do you want to be there like what what is it

217going to make you feel comfortable enough to be like we can move forward ready yep go ahead sure all right so see I said I was done you pulled me back into the frame but that's okay that's all right all right uh as I stated earlier in the February 3rd presentation on uh let's see the innovative school day February 3rd presentation slide nine of 55 it says approximately wait 139 out of 102 this was like a le let's let's talk le let's talk 139 out of 100 of 222 expressed disagreement 63% 63% sounds like a lot of people to me so my question is this was data that was reported then what have we done since then to get more feedback whatever this was was again it was quoted as a number 63% if we

218knew at the time that 63% of the people who provided responses said no what have we done since then to get that number to be better i think that you know again we've had several other types of initiatives where we've had um when we did the uh the on on-site off-site rather the health thing we actually had Ross Berkeley sitting at a table not here it was at PAC but sitting at a table supporting this from from representing the teachers in terms of that supporting that initiative again we've got two major constituencies that would need to be very much behind this in order to make this successful we have been a successful school district and it's not because we've dragged the community kicking and screaming into things it's because we've worked in partnership with the

219community and in partnership with our with our amazing staff we've got amazing staff let's not forget that right so let's just make sure that we've got good representative voices you know we can ask Patrick Nolton what a representative voice is because he's the data guy so he can say "Hey if you get 300 people in a survey or whatever the number is he can say that's statistically significant." I'm just saying let's make an attempt to do something like that and what fr frustrates and bothers me is that we have not in the two months that we've these concerns have come up i don't think they're actually really many any new concerns that have come up in the last two months they're pretty much the same ones but we still have not you know in my

220opinion adequately addressed them or gotten data that says you know what we we we did the poll and 40% of the communities is is not on board 60% is on board it's not that we can't get at better information to understand what level of community support we have and so my question is why not do go do that and then make a final determination as to whether or not we're going full steam ahead with implementation i think I use the analogy and you re referenced it you know when NASA's launching a space shuttle they go around and they go to the different departments and are you go for launch and they go "Yes check check check go for launch go for launch go for launch." Get the major constituents around and say "Are you are

221you a go for launch?" And if they say yes then we know we have the support of the community again it's going to take the support of the community dan mentioned it a couple times this is change is hard this is not But it's really hard if you don't have the support of the people who have to be behind the change as well and that's that's that's what I'm looking for does that answer your question i guess my Thank you but I guess my concern is I don't want to keep kicking the can down the road right i want to get to a point where we can actually make a decision right um because if you you referenced 139 out of 200 people that emailed us that represents 0.008% of the population if you just

222take divided by 16,000 because you assume each kid has at least one guardian right um the uh NUA survey had a thousand participants that's 29 30 29% of the staff and that's just NUA that that doesn't include all the staff right that's just NUAA i'm sorry i'm looking right here it says total number of participants 1200 okay and we have 3,500 staff 2500 i know that's what I'm saying you That's what I'm saying is you're a representation of all the staff right you're you're Exactly this is a NUA survey right correct that's what I'm saying it didn't do NTA it didn't do NUMA it didn't do right nespa right it was just NUA that's that's what I was pointing out it was a survey for one group of all the staff that we had right

223it was just NUAA yes it was an NUA survey it was It didn't include all the staff the 3,500 staff that we have in this district it was only NUA staff that took it right correct thank you you're confirming that yes thank you so I'm just saying that um so when are we going to feel comfortable enough to be like "Okay we we've we've done our due diligence and so is it one more round of surveys or group facilitation or group feedback of people and is it going to be the same people where where where are the people who are saying we absolutely possibly have to do this as the members of the of the community i I've I've asked multiple times um find the people and have them come and say "Hey I I

224I'm adequately I I really want to we really want to do this." We've had plenty of people say they don't want to do this my question is where are the voices saying this is we we have to do this we have to do this we have to do this and that's that that again that's what I'm saying because even I know we all like to remember this but even during the whole COVID situation oh my goodness you know you get you get lots of folks came here they had one particular position and it was overwhelmingly one one-sided but when I was in the community I'd have people call me aside and say "Hey you know what i know what people are saying but I support you." I get exactly the opposite in this i get

225when I'm out there I hear the same thing I hear that I'm in here and that's all I'm saying if it's so overwhelmingly supported then we should be able to find that support garner that support and make sure that everybody when I say everybody I mean that that at least there's a a large number of people that are on board right now the data we have says 63% are not then let's find some data to do whatever that level is again and flip it around the other way it it it just again I still go back to the this is not throwing away all the research that was done it's not throwing away all the effort that was done it's just saying let's do recommendation two and then you get those recommendations to then potentially

226be able to move forward to make a final decision i'm just not I just don't think we're at a place where we're ready to say we're going to definitely move forward with this right as is currently constituted right now that's it dian go ahead yeah I appreciate um Amanda with the with the question on that um and And I kind of shared a similar uh concern um and I'll actually go to the exact same slide that u Charles just spoke to um he's referencing a bullet point that said 139 of 222 expressed disagreement and that either was related to start and end times or their personal schedules as the reason for disagreement and that's where the 63% came from those 22 222 Let's Talk submissions that responded to uh an email that was sent on

227January 24th regarding the changes to 21,285 email addresses so my concern though is obviously we've got to find a solution for how we get engagement and so um I appreciate trying to get some sense of providing a clear direction melissa um I would say Amanda when you asked that question of us I think you proved exactly what we're kind of saying is that we don't have the data so we need to find a way to get a real representation so we have an accurate assessment of what the community thinks and one of the things I hear over and over again from a lot of the people in the community is they have somewhat stopped engaging i hear and you see that if on all the different formats that people are like they don't listen to

228us that board doesn't listen to us they don't reflect our opinions you have disengagement of the community and it's just not a few people saying that there's a lot of people saying that so I think that again we're proving them right if we go ahead without having more feedback we not only don't have their support we're reinforcing the narrative that we simply don't care and we're not going to bother to collect their information because I think the one thing it seems like we all agree in is that we don't have enough information about how they feel about this so again I go back to the most paramount thing our job as board members is to build trust and be the voice of the community we need to make sure that we reflect the community and

229what's done obviously isn't enough statistically or data-wise to be able to make an informed decision u just a question and I don't know if you can if you have the data off quickly but the February 3rd presentation says that this data as far as like all the feedback and the percentages was from January 29th at noon so that's when we put it together do we have do you have anything you can say like how many um sessions with different staff any additional time with um the level design teams you know because that's the only problem I'm seeing here is we do have three months since this slide was presented to us so in terms of that we didn't stop conversation on June 29th at noon that there has been ongoing engagement am I right in

230assuming that I think Lisa could speak to the communications and and let's talk but if you're asking about like focus group work uh some examples would be the middle school special education department chairs have met with student services grades four through eight band choir and orchestra focus group have met multiple times the middle school advisory committee has met twice uh math curriculum team we have visited to talk about the back 20 and talk about what future needs they have in terms of other districts who do something similar going on a site visit or getting information from them um the SSAC student feedback session has occurred middle school student leadership feedback uh session has occurred ipc between the union exec board for NUA and cabinet has occurred multiple times so like those aspects of focus groups

231groups and work have continued in addition to board meeting feedback in terms of let's talk we haven't received a large number of let's talks at all recently i think as of February 18th the update we gave you is we had 302 total submissions um I know in the last two weeks I've received three okay so just again and you tell me if I'm wrong it's okay the engagement that you described Allison it has centered around this the innovative school experience can I add to Allison's too like I we don't necessarily have a a complete picture of that because I know many principles have met with small groups or large groups they're talking about it in buildings we've met with home and school some home and school meetings have happened in schools that we may not

232even be aware of so we wouldn't necessarily be able to give you a complete list of all the conversations that have happened no and that the complete list is I I'm just trying to get a a a big picture view of it because what I'm hearing that's really reaffirming my my position is just like any other initiative or topic whatever word we want to use there it's not just a here's what we're doing and the conversations end we're talking about this going I mean it's it hasn't just been a a stop wait and see or we can't talk about it until some magic day in May or whatever the case may be these ongoing conversations is what we do that's our work and we don't exclude anybody we haven't stopped the conversations I guess is

233there has anybody for lack of I mean it is you know 10 almost 11 has anybody left the meetings kicking and screaming that we're being unprofessional or we're being not responsive i mean when I'm look and I said it in my statement i mean I'm seeing responsiveness from an administration whether it's at this level it's at the building level so I'm just confused as to I hopefully I'm understanding Amanda corre correctly that I don't know how much more we're supposed to do we have out you've outlined that we will have additional focus groups including but not limited to a list i I don't know what the magic time frame is to get the feedback i I feel like we have been inundated with feedback and we've been really inundated with a with the engagement the

234amount of engagement with our staff I find to be encouraging and I don't ever expect 100% everybody's nowhere in life are we all going to be 100% on anything but I I I'm just I don't know how much longer we would have to have this open for feedback especially knowing the modified proposal gives us a timeline it tells us exactly or not exactly it gives us the groups that we certainly want to target but we are open to more i I'm just I don't know what more we need to move forward so that we can give our staff the time they need to make this successful this is like this doesn't feel different than a lot of other things we've looked at we've done it with music we've that's the most recent one that comes

235to mind there was a lot of consternation around changing the music program but we kept the dialogue going and we we've made the refinements we need so I I'm I probably sound like I'm whining but it is a source of frustration we have so much here that I think we can make a very educated um and we've been able to thoroughly look at stuff i I appreciate the answer as far as continued engagement thank you Donna all right i just want to be clear that I feel like we're way in the weeds with the communication here but that being said I'm going to fully disagree that we have solicited feedback because this is initiative coming with a recommendation from the administration through the process of our design teams and when an initiative comes from the

236administration I think two-way feedback is critical with our community on a big initiative like this and with our staff the only two-way communication that we've gotten has been the in the feedback from the NUA survey because they went and they actually sought feedback from their members that has not happened from the administration or from the design teams and it's not the design team's job but that has not happened and I feel like when we provide information either in a board meeting or through an email expecting people to just on their own send an email back when you're not asking for the feedback is not a way of collecting feedback so I feel that we have not collected feedback now that being said and I said we were in the weeds I think in the answer

237to your question Amanda back I don't know how many 20 minutes 30 minutes ago is right on slide number I don't know what SL recommendation two the staff I this is not my wording this is coming from the administration's proposal on recommendation two talks about a survey to all stakeholders gathering feedback establishing committees gathering community feedback on community proposals through an online engagement hub yes yes yes let's do all of that for both recommendation one and recommendation two this is what they've already proposed to do by June i'm just saying we need to do it for both recommendations this is not me getting in the weeds this is me saying yes I agree with what you're proposing for recommendation two can we do that for recommendation one that's what I'm hearing my colleagues asking for

238as well and have been meeting after meeting after meeting thank you i was getting a little frustrated because I wasn't clear on exactly what you were asking but if that's exactly what you're asking for for just extending that to both recommendations I'm cool and honestly if we put out a survey and we get two responses we tried i don't feel like we've tried i'm I'm really good with moving forward with the design committee and two responses to an interview for to a survey that went to the whole community because we tried okay i don't feel like we've tried Melissa and to further what they're saying is you know we're supposed to one of the things they teach us at like those conferences for board members and it's throughout all the literature is we're to be

239data driven and and I agree we don't have that data and we need the data in a format that you know gives us those numbers and that's where we'll have our answer but we we do need to go back and and get that information before we agree to anything okay any other questions or comments so how does the board wish to proceed do we want to look at a modified um modified motion I suppose do we want to look at the just as it's been presented Joe yeah I would support uh Donna's um wording on a motion um to move this process forward and um you know set up the the stakeholder uh feedback mechanisms and um you know come back for a vote um on the full proposal um but uh I I do

240agree with uh going forward with a vote tonight with uh Donna's modified motion melissa I agree with I think Donna gave a lot of fair and logical rationale i agree with her that there and I agree with Charles i think some of us feel like this is a a self-imposed time frame and that the quality of the the decision should be paramount so I like Donna's idea i mean it's late at night we're now going to craft it we don't have time for feedback to make this very important decision i think I agree with Donna that we go we put that statement out there that is our intention that's where we're going i think I agree with Donna's uh that we we just state that we do not have a vote tonight and that way

241it sounds like we could have board agreement that we're going to take those steps to move forward so are we but I just want to clarify we're talking about not the statement we're talking I'm saying that right now Donna had her last if I'm correct me if I'm wrong Donna but I thought her last statement was about coming out and making a statement and that I think it sounds like as a board we can stand behind this statement and that we can move forward um so that we are moving forward but we're doing it in a way that honors and collects that those that voice that imp that data before we vote on this what about from other board members amanda go ahead or did you I would No I'm gathering my thoughts sorry um

242I would feel comfortable with voting on a recommendation for the modification to implement these various community feedbacks for recommendation one and two and recommendation three as listed i like the original thing and I'd rather vote for it um just to make sure that we're all clear that we're we want to move forward with this but with community feedback and then a final recommendation for how it all comes together this summer donna I um I'm hearing my fellow some of my fellow board members still have reservation and I feel that pushing such an an important initiative to a vote that's not really even a final vote because that's going to come in June seems like it puts a bad cloud on top of a really great remember my my initial words were that I support all

243the efforts of this and where we're going with this but the process needs some tweaking and I feel like if we push this to a vote we're going to be very divided and I think it creates the wrong image on where the board is in in uh response to the innovative school experience so I would suggest we make a statement or we table it for two weeks i second DS honestly it wasn't my intent to uh um get to a point where I said table it but um I mean some recommendations that have been made by the board you know we haven't operationalized on what that would look like or what the calendar would look like or how this would happen or when we can get that back by so um I would recommend not

244taking an action this evening tableing it it doesn't the challenge obviously it doesn't give us clarity that is needed um for parts of our work moving forward but um I just think we've been in too many different places through conversation tonight in different ways i I don't think there would be clarity on actually what's happening and what's expected so I'd rather have an opportunity to work with my team to develop what that would look like and bring it back to the board joe Um I if we are going to table this um then I I would support Donna's uh suggestion to uh have a statement uh read in and uh support of the process going forward although I'm certainly not in favor of tableabling it I do I I feel that we have a time

245thing here and we have we have work that needs to get done um if the board so chooses I would uh certainly read a statement if that's the consensus that we do stand behind the work and that we do want to see it move forward i'm actually going to ask that you just hold on that as well i I I think we need to really fully operationalize it and and look at Donna's words and what that would look like in action so I would prefer that that just wait so then I would need a motion to Oh I have a question donna um would it help to read a statement just with the beginning of it without all the extra operational pieces Dan where we the board of education would like to continue moving toward

246the topics the targets of the innovative school experience that were presented at the board of education on February 3rd period like our intention is to move forward we just there's a lot of process that needs to be done would that help i don't think there's enough clarity there so Melissa I actually like Donna's idea because I do think that it gives something to tomorrow people are going to be wondering and I think it does provide some clarity and I think that Donna even said it earlier that it during difficult discussions where maybe we didn't agree that there was some unity in a statement when you put it out like that do I Well I I guess I can take a motion to table it if we so choose i move to table item 10.06 innovative

247school experience second a motion and a second have been heard please call the role mrs patton mcmillan i kazinsky i fitzgerald hi kush i gerky I kelly Black I wanke I the motion passes item 11 old business we do not have any old business item 12 new business we do not have any new business item 13 the schedule of events uh next board meeting is scheduled for Monday May 5th 2025 commencement on Sunday May 18th and then a board meeting on May 19th okay and uh item 14 adjournment i will take a motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn second a motion and second have been heard please call the role mrs patton kush i kelly Black i fitzgerald hi wanke kazinsky hi mcmillan hi gerki i the motion passes we are ajourned