001Good evening. Since 6 o'clock p.m., the board has been in close session to consider the following. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the district or legal council for the district. Discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes. Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or or their representatives. and the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired. I will entertain a motion to come out of close session. So moved. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. McMillan. I. Gerie. I. Fitzgerald. I. Wani. I. Kush. I.
002Kazinsky. I. Okay. The motion passes. Good evening and welcome to our February 6th board meeting. Our mission is to educate students to be self-directed learners, collaborative workers, complex thinkers, quality producers, and community contributors. Please call the role Mrs. Patton. Board members present this evening, Kristen Fitzgerald, Christine Gerky, Charles Kush, Amanda McMillan, Joe Kazminsky, and Donna Wanke. Please join the board of education in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have reached the point in our agenda for good news. Okay, we do have some good news to share. Um on Friday we were thrilled to celebrate two exciting events in April 203. Uh which we'll share
003on the next two slides. So we'll go ahead to the next slide. Um one more. There we go. Uh in partnership with NEF, our schools across the district celebrated our inaugural 203 day. Uh it was so exciting to see our students and staff across the district use this day to express gratitude, giving, and celebration of the people, places, and things that make our school district so special. It was a lot of fun. And that day culminated on the next slide um with um our cross town classic. We held our cross town classic both boys and girls basketball neighborville Central versus Neighborville North and also included a title N celebration. Uh this was a continuation of our celebration of title N legislation in the 50th anniversary last year. We had the opportunity to honor female Neapville
004203 staff members who participated in sports and athletics at halftime of the girls game. Uh it so many other things going on. It was um uh Hall of Fame induction in April Central. We had kids uh from our elementary schools with the dance team. Uh Mrs. Posy's here. I'll be respectful of how the night turned out that night. Sorry. Um but anyways, uh thanks to all who made this a great day of celebration in Neapville 203. Wonderful. So, we make up for Mrs. Posie with a little bit of a special recognition and celebration. I'd like to introduce Dan Cross with the Illinois Principles Association. We' previously shared the great news with the board of education regarding Mrs. Posey. Uh but Dan's here on behalf of uh IPA to uh officially recognize Stephanie's Dupage County High
005School principal of the year. Dan, thanks so much. I'm actually the hasband I brought the real uh the real deal. Uh the president of the Illinois principal association reon is here as well. I will jointly present this to Stephanie. So Stephanie, if you can come forward. Thank you. Uh I I have had the honor and privilege of serving as a principal Brook High School now for 16 years and throughout the Page County. Uh seeing and working with many of the high school leaders uh and Stephanie is uh actually is one of a kind uh and and certainly uh tremendous in her leadership and the work that she does throughout this community and throughout the state of Illinois. Uh having served now as a principal in two different areas. She's well known uh throughout the state
006of Illinois. She's one of 21 recognized high school principles now that will be considered for the state high school principal of the year award. and that will be decided uh later this month. Um so congratulations Stephanie for incredible work has an unanimous decision amongst the uh the board for the DEPage county for the DEPage region of the Illinois principal association and obviously with Raul serving as the president this year uh we had an opportunity to to talk a lot about the principles that were going to be recognized from this area and be considered at the state level principal at Jefferson Middle School in Park District 45 and as a principal president get those confused I Next one is emperor. We'll just keep going. But president of Illinois principles association. I'm proud to uh be a
007part of this group that does tremendous work and uh part of our work is to recognize amazing talent and as you well very well know. Uh Miss Posie is definitely one of those people that need to be recognized and brought forward. So I just want to say thank you for allowing us to this moment to be able to present uh her with the principal of the year. Uh we have a few more rounds to go. We have elementary, middle school, high school as well as assistant principal of the year for each of the regions and counties and uh be able to move them forward in the process. So uh congratulations and thank you so much for allowing us a few minutes of your time. Congratulations. And you know Stephanie well she has 35 slides ready
008with a little bit of a sing along you know karaoke ready to go as well. So congratulations. Thank you so much Stephanie. The microphone's yours if you'd like it. I would like to say just really quickly, I would be remiss if I didn't thank my family for the decades of understanding and embracing and um appreciating the fact that sometimes our family is bigger than just a few of us, but sometimes there's a few thousand students and parents involved with that as well. Um, but really this award, um, I'm honored and I'm humbled that to be recognized by my peers and my colleagues, but this really is an award that speaks to everyone and belongs to everyone at Neapville North High School because um, without the amazing school community, most importantly, the students that I love,
009but the staff who is second to none, and then the the embracing of our parents and um, caregivers and everyone that plays a part from our custodial staff all the way up to my amazing and talented admin team. This belongs to everybody in that building, not just me. So, thank you very much and especially for your support. [Applause] Thank you so much for being here for this recognition. We appreciate your time and I know I can say on behalf of the board how how proud we are and how excited we are for you. So, thank you. All right, we have reached the um 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
010name. 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. At the conclusion of the time, Mrs. Patton will designate by saying time. As I call an individual for public comment, I will also designate the next speaker so that they have appropriate time to prepare. In accordance with board policy, issues raised in public comment will be taken under advisement by the board of education, but will not be discussed this evening. Issues raised during public participation may be added to future agendas or addressed by administrative staff. Because the questions raised in public comment address district operational matters, the superintendent as the spokesperson for the district is the board's designate to coordinate response to public comment and will apprise
011the board accordingly. As outlined in board of education policy 2.230, individuals addressing the board should conduct themselves with respect and civility toward others. Individuals are free to express their criticism regarding decisions or policies, but the board of education expects that they refrain from personal attacks on our superintendent, board of education members, and administrative staff. At this point, I would like to welcome Tiffany Stevens. Good evening and welcome. Good evening, everyone. gonna leave my coat on because I'm gonna slide in and slide out. Perfect. So, um uh my name is Tiffany Stefins and I wanted to discuss some things uh today. Um I'm happy to be at 203. Um want to say be easy on me. All of my children graduated from 204, but I still love 203 school district. I'm coming here today because as
012you know it's February and it's uh we're celebrating Black History Month. And uh over the weekend uh I was just sitting in my living room and I was thinking of different ways uh that we can contribute and uh bring to light in Neapville. And um something came to my mind and I actually just looked you guys up today and found out that you had a meeting today. So hopefully I'm prepared because I'm tired. I've been working with kids all day and I'm hungry. So um I'll try to make this short. Uh need some snacks. You guys have any snacks at the meeting? Uh but anyway, um I was trying to see a way that we can kind of uh pay homage to a young lady who has inspired me and I know so many others
013in the district. Um in 1990, OC Davenport became the first person of color to be elected to the Neapville District 203 school board. So, um I was just saying, you know what, it would be a great idea to kind of bring this up in the meeting. And so, you know, someone mentioned it to me and said, "You know what? Maybe you should go to the school board meeting and mention it." And so, she's just been an inspiration uh for students and she's always focused on education. And also, she's been a really big mentor for me. And so, I just wanted to figure how we can realize and give her her flowers. Now, she's uh older in age and uh she's been a good inspiration. So also um she finally uh back uh nine years later
014was elected in 1999. She was the uh school board president. So it says OC Davenport spareheaded a range of diversity incentives and expanded the district's anti-harassment policy uh to prevent the discrimination of students based on sexual orientation. Um she was now retired. She's now retired now and she used to come to board meetings and she's been a a community advocate for benefits of diversity. So, I thought that this would be a wonderful way to kick off. I don't know about you all's mission statement, but I do know the city of Neapville has a mission statement where they have diversity, inclusion, and uh diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, I definitely know that you guys are going off of the same mission uh that you have added. So, I think what a wonderful powerful way that we
015can add this in. Maybe my thoughts was maybe add her name to a library. But again, I'm open for anything. I just thought that this was just a conversation that we should be able to have. So, my three minutes are up time. Okay. I'm on behalf of the whole board, thank you for your comments. Okay. I do not have any additional uh requests for speaking. Uh does anyone else in the audience wish to address the board of education? Okay. So, we'll move on then to action by consent. I will entertain a motion for the consent agenda. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. A motion is second or heard. Please call the role. Mrs. P. Kazminski. I. McMillan. I. Monkey. I. Gerie. I. Fitzgerald. I. Kush. I. Okay. The motion passes. So
016we'll move on in our agenda to item 7, policy consent agenda. And we'll start with item 7.01, press 110, update, legal references only. All right. If I there were some questions that board members had. And so um um I'll I'll I'll beg for forgiveness in terms of our learning pro the press process and working through them with the new service that they are provided. Um so the documents that were loaded within board docs, some of them included um updates that had previously been approved by the board through the press 108 version update at the December uh 19th board of education meeting. A couple specifically noted were policy 660 6 7250 um I think 7180 uh that looked like in the documents that you were provided because it showed the press 108 updates and the press
017110 updates. Okay. So those were all all have been approved. um they're all current policy and so the only changes uh in the the the since you most recently approved them most of them on December 19th were legal citations references and I think in one place just a grammatical change. So there is no no change to content language um from the previous one. Um so again for our kind of our new practice when we have the new press updates for just those types of citation uh updates we bring on the consent agenda. We will have others on press 110 that will have further review for the board of education upcoming meetings but recommend you approve these um as presented. Okay. So to be clear then in the um documents that we have included with regard
018to the legal references only we would be approving policy 660 110 update legal reference only the previous documents have already been correct and in in addition from 7250 we will be approving 7.250 student support services with 108 update PDF as opposed to the previous. That's right. Okay. Got it. Thank you. And I know that it is a new it's a new system for us and and we caught a couple of them that they had not updated in the manual which they have since board action board approved. There were a few that they they did not get updated. So continuing to work with them. They do now have them updated since we called it to their attention. And I should have said 650 as well. The 650 with 108 updates. That version not the previous that
019previous had already been approved. Correct. Okay. Any questions or comments from the board of education regarding any of the legal references um that were made or changes? Okay. Then I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve item 7.01 press 110 update legal references only. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. McMillan. I. Cuz I. Fitzgerald. I. Kush. I. Geri I Wan Key I Okay, the motion passes. So we'll go on in our agenda to item eight, communications, and we'll begin with item 8.01, superintendent staff school report. I have no additional report. Okay. All right. So we'll go to item 8.02, president's report. I do not have a president's report. So we'll go to item 8.03, board of education reports. And I know we have a couple. Okay. I probably
020won't have much after. That's good. Um Amanda. Yeah, thanks. Um, last week was a very very um busy week for um all of us as a board. Um uh Donna and I are part of the diversity advisory uh committee and so that was um always really great um led by Dr. leaks and um we um got updates from the great work that they're doing and um uh within the district to continue to enhance our um um um diversity and equity and inclusion um uh plan. And the most uh recent development is uh implementing a gender um equity statement um for all staff um to begin implementing and addressing all students and staff with the preferred pronouns and names and gender identity. Um which I think is incredibly important. Um I have a lot of respect
021for that. So thank you. Um and lots of different trainings. Um and then um also looking at um increasing uh diversity of our our staff through uh being more present in um uh educator job fairs um including focusing on um H.B.CU and um other colleges that we hadn't uh tapped into around um the area. And then also as mentioned about Black History Month, um we're excited to see actual Black History Month posters in most of our schools. And she also gave some really great recommendations about how um each of us can um celebrate Black History Month, including um going to the success uh Black History Month showcase on 227, which I personally will be there every year. It's been very different and very inspiring, so I'm very excited. Um this is talking about black professionals
022this year at Neighborville North. um as a family could uh visit the Dabble Museum in um Chicago on uh black history. You could read contemporary stories of black history, attend Neighborville libraries and events um support uh blackowned businesses, advocate for equity and justice for black people, and intentionally seek out, utilize, and give credit um to black people in our communities like our um speaker just did, which I think is amazing. So um and then after that we also reviewed the focus 203 strategic blueprint and provided feedback um as a group. So that was the diversity committee. Anything you want to add, Donna? Can I really quick? I'm sorry. Just for clarification and make sure that we're correct in the minutes. The Black History Month event is on 226, Sunday the 26th. Sorry about that. No,
023that's all right. I just wanted to I run to my calendar to make sure that but that's Yes, it's the Sorry about that. Sorry. Oh, I would just add a huge thank you to Dr. Rikita Leaks for um we've just come so far in this area with our uh diversity and inclusion committee um over the you know 10 plus the 10 years that I've been on the board and so it's exciting to see the progress that we're making and all the things that are coming from this committee and from your leadership and so um and I think you you you got all the details so I'll just just say the thank you and are there other reports or do we want to share there are other reports that from what else we did this week
024then I won't s anything if you have anything else with regard to that. Okay. All right. So, um, additional reports from the board of education regarding the week's events. Didn't I mean, I did take notes of all the meetings, but I don't want to, you know, be the hog either. So, uh, the next one was the, um, uh, Illinois Association of School Boards had their semiannual meeting. Um, and so, um, I I know that most of us attended that one as well. We had guest speakers from the Rockford public schools um that have been working for over a decade on innovative programming around um intentionally um hiring both internally and externally training staff uh and recruitment uh for teachers and retention of teachers. Um they have grow your own programs. They have an amazing partnership
025with Rockford University where they um created their own masters in urban education. Uh where most of the teachers that teach there get it for free. Um they have partnered with uh a historically black uh college and university at Central State University in Ohio um for diversity teachers and asked why there because the weather's the same which I thought was great because it's true. and uh you know so uh and they also provide other incentives like housing incentives and um uh paid internships and things like that. So that was a great meeting and thank you for summarizing it. I we're always appreciative of the board for continuing their commitment towards continuing education and participating in the ISB trainings and events. Any other reports? Go ahead. Uh so one of the other things we did last week
026um the night after that dinner we were with um different um entities in Neapville for an intergovernmental dinner. So city council uh park district library the two school districts uh neighbor settlement. Um, so each group gave a presentation on what we've been doing and uh what was really it was uh good timing because it was the night before our 203 day and in that room the the level of partnerships that we have with everybody, you know, like none of us is operating alone. So it was just a very timely event and uh to see how much we've done together. Um, and it was great to have that dinner again because it's been three, four years. So, it was it was I'm I'm happy that that uh happened again. Donna, can I just ask that we
027um it was such a wonderful compilation of the things that that the district was working on. Can we please get that sent to maybe all of us so that we have it just for our own reference? Yeah. And actually, just for your reference, um Christine Jeff um I think this morning or sometime over the weekend actually sent a compiled uh presentation. So all well I'll send you all of them from the breakfast or from the dinner. Great. Thank you. Wonderful. And thank you again to the board for attending that event. I think Christine put it right. relationships are so important and the partnerships and we know that um our staff is working with all of these entities often and it was a great opportunity for the board to get to you know hear about some
028of the things that we work on in terms of partnerships with others and to share um some of the partnerships that we've worked on and we were very proud of all the accomplishments of our district you know um the the variety of different things the 203 day um the the we shared a little bit about the RISE program um just updating everyone on the different thing the um the career day. We thanked all of our partners that were there. So, that was lovely to be able to share some of those things with that group. Okay. Any other board of education reports? Thank you to all of the board members for attending and I know many of them attended part of the 203 day events as well which was those were outstanding. So, thank you. Okay.
029So, moving on to item nine, we have discussion without action and we'll begin with item 9.01 general and optional fees. Okay. Okay. Annually, the board uh approves the school fees for the upcoming school year. Uh concluded within board docs is the pro proposed listing of general and participation fees. Uh you also have a multi-year history as a reference. Um and we will be asking for approval at the February 21st board of education meeting. Uh and the recommendation will be approved those as presented. Um chief school business official Mike Francis handles this. Anything additional, Mike? No, just said there's no changes from last year. No recommendation for any changes. So again, looking for action at the next meeting. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions from the board of education. Okay, I don't see any
030questions. So we'll move on to item 9.02, high school course fees. Okay. Also annually, the board approves high school course fees uh which are presented uh this evening for discussion. Uh uh once uh once again just like the other uh approval will be requested at the February 21st board of education meeting contained within board docs our proposed course fees with the changes that are in that are recommended. Any changes are due to changes and cost of the materials the resources the test text selections that result in those increases. Um, we've uh done some updating of the document to ensure that everything is specifically bolded to call your attention to it, but our recommendation would be you approve these uh at the next board of education meeting. Dr. Shayla Holland handles uh this one. Be happy
031to answer any questions that you have. I do have a couple of things to mention um that will be updated that's not currently on here. Um, in terms of Spanish 4, there wasn't a $1 increase. Um, and that was due to um addition additional costs from the publisher for that reader. Um, in PE somehow I think in transferring information over um that information was not transferred over from the 223 school year to the 2324, but there are no changes in those fees. So, I definitely wanted to mention that. Okay, thank you for that and for um your presentation. Are there any questions or or comments from the board of education? Charles, uh just one comment for me. I was excited to see that. Um so the increases are because of cost increases. I assume that
032any decreases are also passing along those savings that we're realizing also. So I was happy to see that the fees were where it was available to see a decrease. We saw a decrease. That was it. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. So, for both of those items, we won't have action until our next board meeting, but if anybody has any questions, please go ahead and send them in advance of the meeting. We can answer those at our next board meeting. Okay. So, we'll move on then to item 9.03, policy 6.32, class size. Yes, we've had uh the board of education has provided some guidance and had conversations at previous board meetings. administration is still working through some of the recommendations and thoughts from the the board and we'll bring this back um for
033future discussion. We're still working on updates um based on board feedback. Okay. All right. So, that wasn't listed for action, so I don't think we even need a motion for that. Okay. All right. So, we'll move on then to item 10, discussion with action, and we'll begin with item 10.01, consideration of board of education expenses. Yeah. Board of Education policy 2125 requires all board member expenses for travel, meals, or lodging be approved by roll call vote at an open meeting of the board of education. We have some expenses related to the joint annual conference back in November as well as the previously referenced DUP page division dinner. So recommend that the board approve these expenses as presented. Any comments or questions from the board of education regarding the board of education expenses? I know one
034of them is the ISB dinner and it's clearly well worth it. You know, the the learning that is um that we're able to to go through when we go to those presentations. Okay. If there's no additional comments or questions from the board of educations, I'll entertain a motion. I move approval of item 10.01, Board of Education Expenses, as presented. Second. A motion is second or heard. Please call the role, Mrs. Patton. Kush. I. Fitzgerald. I Wanke I Kazinsky I McMillan I Girki I Okay, the motion passes. So we'll move on in our agenda to item 11, old business. We do not have old business for consideration. So we'll move to item 12, new business. We do not have new business for consideration. So we'll begin with item 13, upcoming events, and we have item 1301,
035schedule of events. Yeah, just a reminder that um we're off our typical cycle of board meetings in February due to President's Day on Monday, February 20th. So, the next meeting is on Tuesday, February 21st. Um then I again I will echo um what was mentioned earlier, the Black History Month celebration on Sunday uh February 26th. I would then also call to your attention uh the morning of Wednesday, March 22nd uh and yes, building a passion breakfast. I think information regarding registration for attendance at that breakfast is out. Uh and I encourage you as your availability allows to consider uh supporting the foundation at their breakfast. Wonderful. And I know that we've heard lots of great things from NEF from our our two representatives from the board of education and thank you for being our representatives
036and I know the board has participated in this for in the past and it's a great event. Okay. Um, so if there's no additional events to highlight, we'll go to item 14, adjournment. Item 1401, motion to adjurnn. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjurnn. Second. A motion and second are heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Hery. I. Fitzgerald. I. Kazminsky. I. Kush. I. Wanke. McMillan. I. Okay. The motion passes. We are adjourned. Good night, everyone.