001It's time. Okay. Yep. Let's do the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all brother Johnson Katie Johnston Diana Mendoza here pet Deborah Sweat here. Robin Bond here. So, going on to action items. Just to let everybody know, we're going to be going into close session this evening. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda items? I make a motion to approve the agenda items. as they are present in a second or a second. Um, John Brotherton. Hi, Diana Mendoza. Hi, Vicky Pettit. Hi, Deborah Sweat. Hi, Robin Bon. Hi. And you want to note that Katie is your right? Okay. No, she's just gonna add into the notes that she's here. The time. Are there
002any public comments? I'm not going to say that. Thank you. I'm kind of here as public information. Uh, first thing on my list is to recognize Jennifer Ferris who's going to retire. And I just wanted to say that we have had a wonderful collaboration with Jennifer working especially with Megan Anderson on some of the wellness grants and um things that we do as a as a unit together. So we wish her well. We thank her for her service to the entire community. So that's my first thing. I don't want to take Mr. Dr. Woods is Thunder. But uh yesterday the Ranchal Exchange Club recognized the policeman of the year and uh the candidate that was chosen was the SRO officer from Ranchel City Schools, Officer Caleb Craft. So he was there with his family and
003we gave him a little check and uh it was nice to see again the collaboration between the schools and the village. So if I'll pass that around and you can share that and it has former officers that were on there. And the third thing is that last night, I think Nikki was there, but last night at uh Ranchel Township High School, we had our academic nights awards, and we recognized about two over 290 students, all ages, freshman to seniors. The seniors generated over $700,000 in scholarships. And I brought you a program so each of you can look through. And I want to call attention to backb high school. The township is there for a good reason. The township means that we're all together. It's not just we don't just accomplish this from the time they
004get to the high school and they graduate. It's all about all of us. It's the feeder schools, the community, the staffs, the parents. And so there are just it's amazing to see what some kids accomplish regardless of the obstacles that they sometimes have to face and the challenges. So if you would like to take one of those and if there's extra and you want to share it in your buildings, I think it's always nice for the elementary buildings to go back and say, "Oh, we had her in third grade. Oh, you know, this and that." So anyway, I am very proud of our accomplishments, but I I join you to accept the fact that, you know, we all made it happen that they made happen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
005And uh I didn't mention this last month, Miss Brotherton, but the exchange club also recognized eight of our students from JW Ader. That was three weeks ago. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to the consent agenda. Okay. Um, so I will just do a short u items one through four are the regular items. One thing of note is on the bills and treasury reports. Uh there was a request that we have those all available to the board um at the time the agenda is posted. So I did talk with our business office and and we plan to do that. There's two documents in there that might have to get revised between Tuesday and Thursday and if that happens we would just send you the revised copy. Um the in the
006personnel report there are two uh in addition to the regular items there are two uh job descriptions uh listed in there. Um, I communicated more with the board about the prek teacher on special assignment. That's a a one-year position that we're looking to do will not be an added cost. Um, and then the other position um coordinator position is uh to work with uh Mr. Roundtree, our director of curriculum instruction um on school improvement and district improvement initiatives. um what am I remembering? Four, five and 46. Those are um typically they just go uh through at this time. I didn't realize that for the last several years you've only had the summary document uh for you and we not actually have the full grant draft in the board packet for you. But um we are
007a little ahead of schedule uh this year on some of those things. There's a few more steps. uh May 28th, we have a meeting with uh any with it'll be with St. Malake. Um and it's also open to any of our students who uh will reside in Ranchel City Schools but are homeschooled and have an IEP. So, it's for any of those uh families. Um then 46 these this is the updated updates for the building school improvement plans. This is something for if the future if you would like once those are more revised. So they're very much in draft form as they're revised for next year and as they're implemented for next year if you would like uh the buildings to come in and kind of give you a rundown of what they're doing at
008their schools. That's just just let uh me or board president know. I know that's something that used to happen where they would schedule and just come in for 10 minutes and share what they're working on. Uh we did one update on the academic year calendar. It has no effect on the families. It's just a switch in a work day and a holiday. Uh school improvement day and a holiday. The evaluation framework which has to be uh approved annually is in there. And then approval of banking updates. The only update is uh removing Jennifer Freric from the bank accounts. So any questions on the consent agenda items? I do uh just a correction if look over of the minutes again. Um Tyler Wilson is mentioned as voting after he was left the board. Oh, so there's
009a correction we need to make to the minutes. Very good. So, okay. And also the fact that he did park from the board was not mentioned in the minutes. Okay. Okay. Can So y subending those corrections. Is everyone good? Okay. I didn't. Someone has to read the long motion. Want to read it? I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items including personnel report as submitted with the stipulation that each individual is required to comply with all requirements for new hires as indicated in Illinois statutes and RCS board policy and procedures including including ratification of bills prepaid by the finance manager under board policies direct Second baby Johnson. Hi John Brotherton. Hi Pettit. Hi Deborah Sweat. Hi Diana Mendoza. Hi Robin B. Hi. Hi. This is theou. Yep. Okay. So, we as most of
010you are aware, we are transitioning with the uh to a new facilities manager who we anticipate starting in August. Um we are required however to still have an asbestous designated person. Uh so we've worked with the uh RCESPA which is the association that oversees our uh custodial group and and our teaching assistants. And so we're establishing this as a stipended role um and we do anticipate, am I correct, that this is going to continue for this person to continue to manage it um even once the new facility manager comes in. And um Tom, what is the amount we're actually talking about on this? 50 cents an hour. 50 cents an hour. Yeah. So, and it is uh Darren RS who's been a longtime custodian. He's already gone through the training. Um and so this just
011allows him to be compensated for that. Okay. Question. So, does that mean that he's going to his going to be bumped up 50 for as long as he's the asbestous designated person? So there are responsibilities with it. There's paperwork. But I didn't know if that meant just for that whenever he's doing something he's going to get an extra 50 or just addition because it has to basically pull that person. Okay. That's on call. So he'll be the point person when uh we have an issue in the building where we may have or something. He would be able to know where the records are for asbestous be. Okay. Thanks. Of course. Anybody want to make a motion? I'll make the motion to approve the item as presented. Anybody want a second? I second it. I Diana
012Mendoza. I Johnston. Hi. John Brotherton. Hi. Deborah Sweat. Hi. Robin Bond. Hi. All right. Um, ready? Yep. This is the fun part. This is the fun one, is it? Okay. So, we um uh I decided to make this word cloud, which now I can barely read it because it's white on white. um of all of the different things that we you as a school board and me as superintendent working with the school board many of the things that were responsible for uh and for overseeing um the and I did not mean to intentionally put FOYA on the bus driver's head. those kinds of things. Um so, uh one of the things that's recommended by IASB is that we do some type of board member orientation when a new board is seated. Um this is the
013first time since I'm superintendent where we've had a new board member elected and seated at the same time. So, they've been either appointed or or I was brand new. Um so actually two years ago I put started to put together the uh board member orientation document called school board member handbook. Um I started to put it together two years ago. Uh but then there were no uh new board member seated so we didn't really do anything with it. Um so here we are. U so the way uh Robin and Nikki and I talked about it in planning was we are not going to read this whole document. Okay. there. I put together I think it's 10 slides on topics and the whole idea is just to review some things basically because there's no way we
014know everything all at once. I know that I'm continuing to learn new things about how to run the meetings. It's ongoing. The biggest thing for me in working with the school board is u we have to overcommunicate um and ask questions. I don't always know the answers. I don't expect you to remember everything that you've ever been told. Um, the other thing is, uh, there's just, well, I'll just leave it as there's a lot to know and I I want to make sure that you all know that ask those questions when things come up. Um, and so we're going to go through it and this will give us an opportunity to ask some questions. I'm sure this is not everything. Um, also in new business, so we can probably just talk about it during this
015is, you know, some of this we may want to revisit. um with IASB with one of the self-evaluation meetings because we have not at this point Miss Sweat and Miss Bone have not gone through that process with ISB. So we do have two and some of that is based on so okay that was a long intro. You didn't even kick me under. All right so I'm going to run through it. One thing is the I say this when I do the staff get book. We're not going to go over everything in the handbook, but you got to know everything. Okay? Um, and in the case of school boards, we're expected to know everything in the policy. So, when we figure out we're not following something in the policy manual, which happens, the important thing is
016is we recognize it and then we we have to start to do it on if we realize we're not doing something. So, hopefully that makes sense. So um in the section powers and duties of the school board um this is where boards sometimes will talk about you know what is your role um from the perspective of IASB your role is very uh specific in that you know you employ one person to oversee and manage the district and your a big part of your role is making sure that the superintendent is implementing um policies and procedures and and what the the mission and vision are for the district. Um a lot of things listed. I think there's a page in here where not not going to remember it where there are um there were like a
017list of schoolboard governance basics 220 powers and duties. That's the section we're on now. It lists 21 specific things that schoolboard has to do um such as establishing the school year. That's one of the 21 things that you do. So where ISB guides boards is it's not really your role as a school board to decide school year calendar, right? It's your role to delegate that authority to some structure to do it. So in some districts, schoolboard members participate on calendar committee and are involved with the union as they develop it. Um so but that's just an example. It's not the expectation is not that you're the individuals out uh you know surveying the staff to find out do we want Easter Friday or Easter Monday. Um that's something which I just ask the union to
018do. Um but you know you don't want to get into the weeds too much on those things. Um so any thoughts on this section uh powers and duties of the school for so part of my job is to make sure you're doing those 21 things. For instance, approving the budget and the tax levy if those aren't brought to you by me and right it doesn't get done. Um, and you know the joke in school finance is that if you mess up the tax less fired, okay? And that you know it's either going to be me or Chris. But that's why we're not going to mess up tax also and we're going to make sure we do it in a timely manner. All of those things. So um but those are the legal responsibilities of the
019board. Traits of effective board members. Now this is different. This is not policy. So in the in the document there are policies which those are the rules that the board must follow and then there are things like this the traits of effective board members which this actually comes from the Iowa association school boards these are suggestions these are guidelines um so for instance and I hopefully we all agree on these things like we're prepared we're respectful um and committed to public education we focus on unity governance and evidence based decision making. Um, respecting the chain of command. That comes up in multiple points and we may end up talking about that more later. Um, as board members, you are representatives of the community members. Um, and you're going to get a lot of information from
020community members. You're going to get a lot of feedback. I know this. Um, so one of the recommendations is this idea of chain of command. you're you yes you listen you uh want to support the person but really as a schoolboard member you aren't the one who makes uh you can really you know like let's say they're having a problem with the teacher that's not really your role to go in to the school and mediate that hello motive all right sorry um Hannah you got the time yes sorry um and so we've I've talked about this and we've talked about in the past that part of it just, you know, if a parent were to come to you or a community member um listening and then, you know, helping them know who to go to
021next. Um whether it's the building principal, the teacher, the district office. Um it's typically customary to inform um the superintendent if it's something that I should be aware of because that's part of my role is making sure that whatever that issue is actually gets followed up on. Okay. Um, so as that information comes in, yes. So if a parent comes to us and they have gone through the whole chain of commute, is it out of policy against policy? If you then jump in and say, "Okay, what's going on?" and ask someone what's happening. I would ask what that's a board question. So, I think I think it's fine to have a conversation. I'm not ever going to say don't talk to people, right? And that's part of the listening, I think. But where I would
022caution board members on is um giving guidance to a parent or specifically um telling them you're going to get something done, right? That's a risk sometimes. I think that happens. Like, I'll take care of that. I'll make sure that doesn't happen because uh that's not an authority you have. Um and it's kind of like you don't want to make promises you can't keep either. Um, but I think it's I mean it's something I've learned over the years as in my job is I have to do a lot more listening and um but very often when I talk with we're using the parents as an example my response is still going to be I need to talk to the principal because I don't know the information or I'm I need the principal to talk to the
023teacher. So that answer your question. So, do you have they've gone all the way through the superintendent's office and they haven't got their issue resolved? Yes. Or they've gone to the principal and haven't got Oh, now I'm blowing my eyes. I'm blowing my eyes and um just Yeah. Like, so I had a situation where a parent said that she had talked to the teachers, there had been meetings, nobody was doing anything. She was all in the upwork. Now I know how we as a district operate. And so I said, "Okay, well here I mean put in touch with this person." Oh, I've already talked to that person. Okay. How about this person? Yeah, I've already talked to that person. Okay, then I'm going to call and see what's going on because based on what I
024know about us and what you're saying, it doesn't matter. So I I just got to figure out what's I need to hear from another perspective so I can understand what's going. So in that situation would they call you? That is what Miss Pett did. Yep. Okay. And we Yeah. And we talked about it and Well, no, not really. What I did is I called Allison and said, "Hey, can you give me a call?" And then they called Keep going. All right, there's 87 more slides. Um, there is a board member code of conduct. As I was preparing for this meeting, I learned that our policy says that this is one of those ones where we're supposed to do policy says the board member code of conduct is posted in the boardroom. So, it's posted in
025the boardroom now. They're on the wall. Um, so I think the board member code of conduct is something that's really probably worth um uh you reading through. Um, some of the things that are listed in there and it's also about being more effective in your governance is engaging respectfully in meetings. Um, being prepared for meetings. I know it's not reasonable that you would read and sometimes the packet is 500 pages long. Uh, but that's why I do try to send you summaries um of the information. One of the and then the second bullet point on here is I wish Congress would work this way where um we don't all agree and we don't get our way but we support the majority decision and uh effective school boards um tend to be more effective when that
026happens. So um for instance let's say we make a big decision on K5 reorganization. Okay. Um I know that Not every board member agrees on it, but what helps the district is knowing that when the decision is made as a board, the board supports moving forward with the decision. Um, and uh, so that's an ask in here. Um, also upholding confidentiality is a big one. I'm I think we my experience here has been that's been pretty pretty darn good. Um and uh particularly upholding confidentiality of what's discussed in closed session is very important. Okay. Any questions on those items? So for clarification, you don't mean that we all have to vote the same. You just mean that we we vote how we want to vote that we support. I'm not saying you have to support
027me, right? You're just saying that's the that's the idea. It'd be cool if we can. It'll be a sore loser. I guess what I thought on that. Yeah. It also wouldn't be very productive, for instance, if at every meeting it continues to get brought up that decision that was made and we need to undo that, right? Like whatever the decision was. And so that doesn't generally happen in school boards is that you know once something's approved, it's in place and we don't re continue to revisit it at every meeting once it's been approved. Similarly, if something were not approved, we wouldn't want to continue to bring it back. That was part of our training anyway, right? you're supposed to accept the other, you know, but if the vote goes, majority basically rules, then you just,
028you know, as a board member, we're supposed to accept it and do our due diligence to accept it and do what we need to do to support it and and make it better if we can. One item on here is avoiding conflicts of interest. Um I again with um my experience with this board so far is you all tend to be very much aware of where you might have a conflict. Um there are very few times when you can't vote though. Um it doesn't mean people sometimes folks choose to abstain because there might be a perception of a conflict but that's different than having an actual conflict. A real conflict of interest is typically when you or a member of your household would benefit financially like directly. Uh that's going to be the most typical
029conflict where you need to abstain. Um but sometimes as I said folks choose to abstain because of a perceived conflict of interest. Um so I can think I'm Can I use you? I was going to use right. So the for instance um we've had a lease with the church that Nikki attends. Um so you have abstained from those votes on the lease. Okay. Even though but I'm also the financial person. I didn't remember that. Well that makes a little more sense. Yeah. But no. Right. So there's no finan direct financial. You've done it on a grant. I did it for having regional planning because I was their grant manager at that time. It was for a different program. Right. Not the one that we were approving, but there was that break. So, usually what we
030do or what I can do is if you think you may have a conflict of interest, we would just call the district's legal counsel. I can I just say personally I would say if you feel there's a perceived um conflict um and I would caution you to I just don't I don't want us to feel like we um the community to feel like any kind of conflict. Do you does that make sense? Excuse me. So if there's a perceived conflict of interest conflict too So if there's a perceived conflict and you're you're not comfortable moving forward, you're not going to have my I don't know about you guys, but you need as well. And that's what the abstain is for. Great. And you don't have to give a reason why. You have Say why? I
031would need I believe you are supposed to but I would need to but you could just say abstain with conflict. Let's look it up because I feel like but I just feel I think if you are though it would be considerate to let the rest of us know before coming into the meeting so that we would be able if we were not we didn't have a quorum that day right and you were abstaining then we wouldn't be able to move forward with it. I guess I'm saying it because some people may feel comfortable telling us but not the world, right? I think the most common extension is on personnel items. Um, which is not a conflict of interest because you know someone doesn't mean you can't abstain still abstain but um I want you to
032think if you were the school board of blood hood, right? Right. Uh, I mean there aren't very many people there. I think the board probably knows everybody in town. Um, and they still have to vote on people and um, so you are just knowing someone you can still vote, but that one does come up quite a bit. Um, all right. Operational protocols. And I think this is one of the ones that I think this one came from IASB. I really should have put page numbers. Yeah, the operational protocols was one that was developed at the top. Yep, here we are. I didn't put page numbers on either. Um, yeah, so we did last revisited this April of 2023. Um, I do I will say that uh we've already been having some discussion, Nikki and Robin,
033about how to put items on the agenda. So, I know that's one thing they're going to want to It hasn't really been a problem because um but it can be a problem. So, that's why it's good to have protocols for how to do it or um with the last board and now this board, it's it's been a pretty simple thing where you just, you know, you got most of you would talk to John or talk to me and we try to get it on a board agenda. Um what you're seeing though in a a district southwest of us is some significant board conflict over how to even set the agenda. Um, so our agreed upon protocols are that um, and I did email about this recently, one week ahead of time informing the board president
034or vice president. Um, then it is put into one week ahead of the meeting. Then it's put into new business for the the upcoming meeting and then the whole board considers whether it goes on the agenda. But that also is seems complicated. um when sometimes we just want things to be added to the agenda. We don't want to have to wait two months. So I think if we do the self-evaluation meeting that is something to revisit. Um follow OMA. Woohoo. OM is open meetings act. We are all trained. Good job everybody for record time. a sweat um on the train. And uh when we talk about avoiding surprises, um typically what is helpful is to you in if you have something that you plan to to say or do at a board meeting. Um or
035maybe there's an agenda item you're strongly opposed to, um it is appropriate to inform at least the board president. Um so that hopefully whatever that conflict might be we can that you and the board president can try to resolve that uh prior to the meeting. Um but you know there still may be right. This one is in there twice that it's my role to communicate on behalf of the school district and it's uh the board president's role to be the spokesperson for the board. Okay. um that hasn't been much of an issue in our district, but again, if if we were a larger district south of us, um that does come up much more regular. Ultimately, the board president can become the spokesperson for the district. So, that's um if there was ever a conflict
036with the superintendent. Okay. Um, I do know that we're going to want to revisit right now. What's in the board established protocols I don't think is what was intended and it's definitely not what we're doing on visits to schools. So, it says when visiting campus in the capacity of a parent, initiate advanced communication with superintendent prior to the campus visit. That was in the established protocols. That's I don't think that's what was intended in that April 2023 premeating at all and it's also now overdue. That's one that needs to be resisted. Yeah. The main idea is is that if you are going there, there are times when school board members want to saying it here will want to go on like an inspection tour. I want to go see every classroom in the district. I
037want it is uh appropriate to inform me that you're going to do that. Um because whether you want it to be this way or not, when a school board member shows up unannounced at a school, it can be disrupted. Okay. Why? It shouldn't be. I understand that. But um it's I don't know. Can we think of other scenarios in life? Do you behave differently when your mom's in the room versus when your best friend from college is? Yes. Okay. You shouldn't you should be the same person. But I know when I was a principal um and I when I was a principal up in the suburbs um there were two board members that showed up regularly and uh kind of demanded information from me um wanted to go into classrooms. It wasn't about me. Um,
038but it um it puts the the school principal generally in a in a sometimes in a difficult position when that starts to happen. You can absolutely go to schools and visit schools. Um, and not every time like Mr. Brotherton's at Eastland right now or pleasant acres pretty regularly. They know he's coming. Um, he's there as a volunteer, right? Um, so that's one of those things and also many of you are parents. You absolutely do not have to inform me when you're going to go to your child's but that is what it says right now at that time. What is the board member want to go in? I mean is it is it prohibit and they go in just like a visitor any other visitor does. Okay. I mean, I didn't know how, you know, if
039it was an automatic um protocol to where a board member has to notify. I remember when we were setting this, I don't think we intended it for Dr. Wood said for it to be about parents or anything, but it was like just a courtesy like heads up like hey, you know, like I don't think it was anything bad. It's what we agreed to. It wasn't anything to do with like the law. It was what we as a board talked about at that session, which I remember that. Yeah. And I knew it was a courtesy thing. It was not about I was just that was the reason I asked that question. The way I asked it was because I wanted to know the legality part of it. And I understood uh and do remember when we
040said it's as a courtesy and of course to keep uh principles and and staff from being uncomfortable while watching us walk through there. I will say they actually want you to show up. I I'll say that they are not opposed to change coming into schools. I would think they want to be there. And if we just pop in and they're on vacation that day, then it's kind of defeats the purpose. You know, if you're popping in just to talk to a principal and say, "Hey, how you been?" What if we were just going in there to like basically like Dr. Wood said, just to pop in and see what's going on, how it's going. I mean, how legit is that is what I'm asking. I'm not trying to say that it's a bad thing or
041good thing. I'm just I'm just giving you my opinion. Um, and of course I do have a child that goes to Ranu City Schools and uh most of mines are set up meeting so I don't really have to call anybody. Is this an okay time or I can talk more about it later if you want me to, but I do think that it would be good for us to do the ISB situation again. like I was new to the board when we did it and I found it so helpful for us to all get on the same page and like know we were planning it as as a group and like kind of get acclimated to it. So I'm strongly in favor of doing it again with the new board. So well the new business
042portion might go quickly then. Okay. I think it kind of seamlessly moves into our goals that we set last year that we you know roll into building new policy or building adjusting policy based on those goals that we set last year. All right. Um there is I know some question about email and communication and so um I did include two colon 140e exhibit so an exhibit is not policy it's guidelines um and so one thing there is nothing prohibiting schoolboard members or superintendents from using their personal emails to communicate about school business. It's not illegal. Okay. However, well, it could be illegal if you're communicating private student information. So, let me clarify that. Um, but the issue is the use of district email is intended for transparency um in the case of a FOYA. Um,
043so or if there are legal issues that come up and we have something like a subpoena. If you are using your personal email, personal device, it's kind of antiquated now because most people, you know, they have their phone, they have personal accounts on your phone. So the device itself is not nearly as important as the actual account you're using. Um if um if you're using your personal communication, your personal accounts, so whether it's texting or um and there is a foyer, there's a possibility you're going to actually have to turn over the device or access to the account. Um it that's not an easy thing to do. Um, it's happened to me once when I was a principal where uh it was a specifically a foyer for personal text messages. Okay. Um, and so I
044but it was the the thought was that I was doing personal text messages about school business. And so what I ended up having to do was let the school district's attorney look at my text messages uh in order to review it to make sure um so that what that opened the door to was the the attorney to look at all of my text exchanges with this person. But the point was they had to determine what of that was school business. Okay. And then none actually no I had to unlock a door once for the person at the school. Um, so it's just you're better off, it's safer um to use your school district email. I do want to clarify that your devices that you have issued from us, which two of you have them out
045today. Um, you do not have to use the school district issued device uh for any school district purposes. That's entirely up to you. Um, we provide it to schoolboard members so that they all have the device. And I actually this would be as good a time as any. We did provide Miss Sweet with a Chromebook. If you would prefer a Chromebook instead of one of these um just let me know and I'll get that to you from Nikita. But we can't um we don't actually have the ability as a school district to monitor uh adults devices that are issued by the school district. Um, we have some capacity to see internet browsing history on dis on devices that are within the wireless network, but let me tell you that is very challenging to actually do
046for Nikia because uh it doesn't like it's not like it has your name on it. So, I I'm sure the FBI can figure it out, but um that's not in the key wheelhouse. Um we can for transparency, we can uh access emails, any of the emails that come in and out of the school district's email system. Um, so but that's also intended to be for FOYA um or when we have legal things that for instance Tom recently has had to deal with a subpoena for some records related to an employee um so he's has to go in and pull all of this and we are required by law to archive and store all of the data that comes through. Um, so as I said, I'm just I guess it's just for information. You can if
047you choose to use personal accounts. Um, but I'm strongly encouraging you, your district questions on that. Um, oh, this is one. I believe this one comes from the IASB. Um, I get a chuckle out of that. It says that I'm supposed to communicate at least weekly with the board. I think I send a couple emails a day most of the time. Um, the but I do I am uh, believe it or not, I try to limit what I'm sending to you. So, or president knows that you get a lot more emails don't. Okay. Um, so the uh one of the things that I need to be better on and I would like to revisit if we do have ISP here is on the emergency communications. Um, I'm just simply not aware every time any ambulance
048comes to one of our schools. And one of the things in there was I I I do want to let you know, but do I really need to let you know when a child is had an asthma attack and can't find the inhaler? We call the ambulance. Then the inhaler shows up, the parent shows up, right? So those are things like that. Anything on that? But the big one is the top line. The idea is the board sets policy, superintendent manages operations. question I have on this though is when I I don't think we ever got access to the app the emergency system we talked about that well it's almost not been used since the just for the record because you don't yet we don't yet no are you making that for me so I
049remember follow the other one is I want to figure out how to get the board into square so we can subscribe to uh like the staff plus I'm I've been forwarding some of them but you could be set up as a staff member to receive the notifications. My evaluation is a one of the big thing big responsibilities of the board that the board is supposed to do on its own. Um and so uh usually October, November, we I share with you now this is the draft evaluation tool. You have some opportunity to discuss it if you want and make any changes. Uh it's supposed to be formally placed on the agenda in December. Then it is supposed to be finished by February. So usually it's been done at the January board meeting. And I think
050probably when we get to my evaluation later in the year, the board would have some close session conversations. Any questions on that? Board committees. Oh, this question is coming up. All right. Um, so in board policy, there are three standing committees. I have gotten clarification. Thankfully, we don't have they don't have to. So, they haven't been meeting. Um, but what I want to make sure everyone's aware of is the uh policy committee is essentially the whole board unless the board wants to actually dig into a specific policy and potentially make changes on it. that could still happen in a full board meeting, but uh larger districts, so I I definitely in Champagne, they have a standing policy committee that would meet um at least quarterly, I think, to review the press updates and they do
051make a lot a lot more individualized decisions. some of those districts that do that. Um if we implement one of the standing committees, they are subject to open meetings act. So that means we have to publish the agenda um in 48 hours in advance and we have to allow for public comment and then we have to publish minutes. Okay. Um but the function of the those committees have been happening through district level. The board could also instruct um by the board would have to vote to form a committee. Um and then that would be for a specific function. That's typically not how this board has operated. Uh and so you might form a committee to what's a big topic that going year round schools. Let's throw that one out there like Thomas Brook. So the
052board may say we want a committee but the board may also say superintendent you just create a committee and do it so that because if it's a board create a committee then it well when board members are supposed to be on it and um it does have to follow the open meetings act any of the committee meetings that we have as a district those minutes and notes that are taken in agendas those are subject to FOYA so it's not like those are hidden uh and some of them we are like in today today's packet you have one of the committee uh meeting minutes is in your packet uh but the board committees report to the board those committees cannot take up they can't vote right they can't approve something so it's kind of like I
053think of like the zoning board in a village or a city the zoning board hears all the individual cases right and then it's they basically tell the board yes you should approve But the board doesn't have to approve. Okay. But um I'm not saying we have this discussion now, but if we need to start some of the standing committees, that's something I await your direction. I was asked to throw this in here. What are some of the district committees that meet and uh where board members may want to participate? Um, so the plan is for next year when we get into next school year is that once I've got the calendar set for these, I would inform you as board members if you would like to participate in those committees. So the for instance the
054under the MTSS behavior team committee uh the previous two years it was called the school and classroom environment committee. Robin and Nikki were attending those. Okay. Um we had a committee last year for the Illinois Arts Council and um John and Diana were on those committees. Um the finance committee which uh does Nikki's on it now and Katie wanted to do um so those are groups that meet and board members are invited. The big one that did not happen this year that typically happen every is the facilities committee. Um and we've when it did not meet this year is primarily because of the not having a facilities director. Um but that one they meet at the schools and when they do they actually kind of walk through the building and talk about the facility and
055that includes our custodial staff on that committee. So, these are all out there um for your reference, but I was asked to make sure that once we have calendar set for these that I inform the board. Um if you're going to attend though, that's one where you should probably give a heads up. Um because I'm pretty sure if three of you showed up, we would have to tell one of you to leave. I think you can attend and listen and we would not be having an OMA violation. Um but there's a again it's perception if there was a group of greater than two um and someone may think it's enough. I'd rather not find out. Sorry. All right. Anything on and I would say that the types and numbers of committees we have every year
056changes um depending on uh focus. Um but so for instance, wellness committee was on here this year. It's only required every three years. Um, but I I know Debbie is close to retirement. She's our food services manager, so I wanted her to get taken care of. Um, so she did it this year. Any questions on committees? What happened to the social equity committee? Was that just a one time and it dissolved after final report? It has not met in a long time. I mean, it's not standing anywhere at this point. Okay. Yeah. something we could revisit want to do. So, and was there ever any final report? No. Or any reports at all? Okay. Public participation always a fun topic. Um so, uh the public participation is established in policy. Um and the way the
057policy is stated is it does give uh it establishes the boundaries. So right now we have five minutes is the amount of time. Um it is generally agreed upon that board members are not responding to public comments as someone makes public comments. Um I know the board has discussed previously part of making sure we want to acknowledge the person who has spoken which um is otherwise the person's just getting stared at and that can be very offputting. Um but there are I would say there are reasons for us not to have that conversation publicly with that person right there in the moment. Um especially if someone's upset, if someone's angry. um and uh may not have all the information. So what should happen is um if the so our form now which we've updated and
058we had one public comment today and the person did not want contact after so that's on there but what we're trying to do is make sure we've got the contact information for the person and if they need a followup this is still by it's old it's got the old address on it I just looked at um is that uh we have the information so that the appropriate person can follow up and that could be a board member that follows up. You could follow up anyway as a board member if you want with that member of the public. Um, but typically what happens is I make sure uh usually the next day that if it's not me following up with the person that somebody is following. Okay. And that's a given that somebody will follow up
059with a parent especially parents. Yes. For community members that come in and speak during public participation. Yes. You are for sure. And what is the time frame within the next business day within the next two business days? I would love to say it's always going to be the next day. I know but life happens sometimes, right? But it does. We do try to and again it's not always going to be me. It's going to depend and I think in my mind I'm thinking of a parent like an upset parent that comes in. Um you know so typically it's going to be me or Allison um or Jamie or Tom u that are going to follow up. Most likely it's me, but if it's a special education matter I know I would likely defer to Allison
060to do that followup. Um I we usually have to call it school first. we don't know about it already. Okay. Um sometimes I know about it right when the person who comes in I know what they're going to talk about uh and they just want to make sure the board knows. Sometimes I'll try to catch them before they leave if they're still here at the end. Um, another thing oftentimes, um, I will then send out a communication to the whole court that there's been follow. Oh, I feel like we already talked about this. Do you copy us on emails or you're calling? Why don't you write and then you just go ahead? you copy us on the emails if they send ink to us in I mean we should probably share that for everybody. So
061if um someone emails the whole board um I am copied on those um and then in order for us not to have an OMA violation, I'm usually the one who will respond to the uh the person and I will usually include a statement as to that the board is copied on it. Um and again we've talked this is something to talk about with ISB. There's nothing wrong with you as an individual board member responding also to that parent. You just can't copy the other board members. Okay. Um and what I in talking with some of you, most of you, what you have done, those of you that respond is thank you for your email. Let me know if you need anything. Or um sometimes they might actually ask for you to call them like that.
062And so yeah, you don't it it doesn't have to be just me. Um but uh oftentimes those communications that come in aren't really board level decisions or board level action. It's there's something happening in the classroom or at the school and that needs to get it addressed as a quiet scientist. You are All right. Oh, that's it. So, it does sound Oh, I'll jump ahead. No, I'm not going to jump. No, that was it for those. Okay. So, what I will say is uh another good thing to do is go to the triple eye conference. Um there tend to be a lot of activities uh designed for especially for newer board members. So, did you want to say about that? Don't fall in the trap I did and get go to a sales meeting because
063I thought I was attending a really good a really good meeting and I ended up like a sales pitch. I'm like man about your evaluation. They were trying to sell me on a tool to do that. Yeah. I'm not meaningful to I think the other thing is like make sure you show up early especially if you think it's going to be a good topic. I went down 10 minutes early for a session once and it was already like standing room at the door. There was no way I could get in. So just be aware and that is the only conference designed for school. There are uh I know the ISB does do regional meetings but I'm not. Yeah. Yep. people's emails and I think they do a dinner. The one I went to did not
064but Yep. So one time it cost and I called to see if it's covered and things like that. So it's nice. I was Can I make a comment on the e house thing though? If you get one from a parent I think this is just my opinion and you don't know how to handle it. I would say either forward it to him and then um he can like he said copy the rest of us on it when he emails parents. Can you talk about the one carbon copy thing also the BCC situation? So it's allows me to email you all the same thing without putting you all in the same room. Right? So, if you're if you're not blind copied, then you're all in the same room, so to speak. And it also increases the
065likelihood that one of you is going to hit reply all. And if we hit reply all, I mean, I don't know what om looks like. I don't want us to go there, though. So the if one of us hits reply, one of you excuse me hits reply all and now we're having a conversation that should be happening in a in a board meeting then it's an violation. So yeah, I mean I do that with even when I send out a for different reasons. When I send out an all district email to the staff, I always put it in blind CC because you do not need a chain of emails of 400 people hitting reply all reason, but it's the same idea. Please remove me. Yes. 16. Okay, we don't need to vote on any of
066this. No information. All right. Ready? Yep. So, I wanted to uh some of these are the regulars. So, the first three items are regulars. I didn't have any media that I put in. Um I do want to talk about the board policy updates because this is considered the first reading. Um so most of the policy updates that are listed in the packet are related to changes in title nine. So uh in 2020 there were new rules put into place. Um and then those under the the first Trump administration they were his rules that went his administration's rules. Then in 2024 Biden's rules went into place. Um, and those rules were much more expansive as to what was considered um, sexbased discrimination. I think that was the term. Um, and then a court ruling came along
067and now it's taking us back to the 2020 rules. So, there's a lot of policies that have to do with Title 9 and that cross reference Title N. Um, so most of these most of those items on the list are related to to Title N. Um there is a brand new policy in the packet 7 col355. So what that one is called is students who are parents expected parents or victims of domestic or sexual violence. That's a long policy name. Uh but there's a new law in Illinois that will go into effect July 1. Um, it is essentially my when I look at what it's asking us to do, it's essentially creating another category that looks like title nine. So if a student feels or is being discriminated against because they are parents, expectant parents,
068which that could be a male or female, um or victims of domestic or sexual violence, and they're being discriminated against, there is now an investigatory process that we would go into that looks a lot like Title N, my opinion. Um and there's some training that's going to have to come along with that for staff for uh administrators. Um policy 6235 access to electronic networks. We for the first time are going to have revised policy with a subheading called use of artificial intelligence. So we that is within our basically our acceptable use policy for the network. the the paragraph on artificial intelligence is optional. So, it I think we'll probably end up I think I'll recommend adopting it, but we may need to pull in Nikia has to review it, but we may want to pull
069in some staff uh to see if we even want to proceed with an AI policy yet. Um, so there's that. Um, I do want to make sure the whole board knows that for a lot of the policies, if you really go into the materials, they have things called exhibits and administrative procedures. The board does not need to approve exhibits or administrative procedures. Those are used um for guidance or implementation typically. Um, so for instance, under the title nine policy, there's multiple administrative procedures that outline the investigation process that the district could follow. And that is that does happen to be what we follow. Um, so one of the things that I'm going to be doing, uh, one of my summer projects, uh, for several of the existing policies, uh, I've been advised that we should
070go ahead and make some of those administrative procedures accessible to the public because, um, that have to do with those investigatory processes. So, uniform grievance procedure, title N, this new one on, uh, expectant parents and domestic violence. Um, and you'll see some if you really go into our board policy, some of them are already there and some of them aren't. So, uh, anyway, I was advised that, uh, particularly for those investigatory ones, we want to make sure parents and folks who might be making the complaint can easily see what those procedures are. If we do get a complaint under one of those policies, we're required to mail them the procedures anyway. U, but the idea is that they would have before they make a complaint. Is is it our responsibility to know what all these
071are in our change? No. Yes. But there's no way we would know all of them. Right. So in that so there's the document from press that they put out which kind of goes through each one and says what it So some of them it will just say it's a fiveyear read meaning nothing has changed. We just make sure we read every policy at least once every five years. It will and so and then there's another copy and there you look in it. It's the uh the marked up copy. So it's like a word document that shows what was crossed out, what was added. Um so I'm highlighting the big changes. Most of the changes that happen are cross references to new laws and things like that. I think I think I've highlighted substantive change question.
072We are going to have a budget hearing next month. It's on the information. Um, I will talk with Chris since we do have a board member to see what uh she wants to go about making sure that she's sharing information. An amendment is much simpler than the whole budget itself. It's just some line item changes. That's what that there's no action on information. Okay. New business. There it is. There it is. We are going to consider the handling of a board sub evaluation of IASB. Want to vote on that? Sounded like everyone well agree on. Well, I think what we're supposed to do have to review our rules. Hey, I'm agree with this. I basically come to consensus on it. There's a majority of the board that doesn't want to do it. The way I
073just found it really good and I think it's a good way to get us on the same page expectations. So very I am in favor. Yes. So now the fun part of trying to schedule um hello um is uh I've reached out already to ISB anticipating this might be the outcome. Perry is not available in June. So we're looking at he sent me dates for July and August. So uh either tomorrow or by Monday give me the deadline. I will send out a doodle poll to you. um with all of the dates. I know doodle holder vote and doodle hold communication about scheduling a meeting does not violate or superintendent comments anybody I have some updates I'm not never there are things I've actually communicated ated already to the board email, but I want to
074make sure I share with them so the public is aware. Um, transportation is one item related to the A5 reorganization. Um, we are working through transportation models at this time. Uh, I don't think I've shared this piece. We are we anticipate moving up the start time of both of our prek sessions by 15 minutes. What that's going to allow us to do is turn around those pre-K buses and reuse them for elementary routes, which that discovery was a big cost savings for us when we realized we could do that. Um, also along with that is we are moving the parent drop off time right now to at least 84 8:45 7:45 uh where school starts at 8:05. So that's giving a greater window for parent drop off if they want to drop off at if
075they have kids at two elementary schools. We've also already communicated that with the daycarees uh that we have on our list. Um and that will that's been a request from them for quite some time. Um so there's that. There's a crossing guard job description coming on the June agenda. Um hopefully we can find crossing guards out there. I we and I'm anticipating that for next year we will have two crossing gardens to start um one at 136 and Grove I don't know what else to call it but it's that split there by the dairy so because it's Grove and then it's Champagne but it splits okay so at that intersection um and then uh the other way between 136 and Sun View that's what it is right which is uh right out in front of
076Broadmet meadow. Um, as of right now, the village does not have this in their budget to assist with the crossing guards, even though historically they have. Okay. So, we I you know, I'm looking at it's a it's going to be a paid hour and a half a day. It's not going to break the bank. Uh, it's going to be harder to find someone want to do it when it's - 10 degrees outside. But we also may not have very many families that take advantage of it. So, we'll see how it goes. The last part on transportation is uh we are working on having some of the new walking routes declared hazards or declared hazardous. Um so there's some rules with the Illinois Department of Transportation where we can um we have to go through a
077process to determine that a route is dangerous. And so with I can describe it better. We so right now say if you're a child at North View, most of the North View kids are east of train tracks, right? But now for third, fourth, and fifth grade, you would have to cross the train tracks. Okay? So train tracks alone are not considered dangerous enough to be a hazard. But if you cross the train tracks and you cross Century, it's likely a hazard. So, we're going through that process right now because uh of getting some of those. The other one would be is uh broad meadow kids that are south of 136 who would um have to use that underpass to go over. So that underpass and then having to cross century likely add up to be
078considered a hazardous route because the under the underpass the sidewalk is directly adjacent to the road has to do with traffic counts the speed of the road. Um and uh so other one I shared was 136 by itself is is not going to qualify because there are lots of crosswalks. Uh the traffic counts aren't high enough. The sidewalk setbacks aren't greater than the distance that's recommended. Um so that that one by itself is not going to end up being declared. Same similarly with century. century by itself because there's lots of stop lightss and crosswalks. Now, just to if if it's winter time and there's let's say a good amount of snow and those sidewalks going under that bite is not not cleared. Um you're going to have kids walking on the road, right? So that's
079why if we have it declared as a hazard, would we be able Yeah. I was wondering how that was going to work. Um, I'm gonna have to sit outside and count trains, too. Have to count. You have to count the trains that come through during the time window and stuff. So, um, there is there any way we can talk with village, you know, either the police department and or or um the new mayor and see about the speed that we have. A lot of these cars are still speeding through the school zones and or some of the um areas of which these kids are going to be walking. I I just think it's still in my opinion very unsafe for some of the some of the kids and the ages that they're going to be
080walking and distance they're going to be walking. So this I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. I was just wondering um at the Y there, if you want to call it the split there at Dairy Queen, is there going to be a study to see if a school zone can be made in that area to slow traffic? Because sometimes with the crossing guard, and I'm familiar with someone who was a crossing guard for a number of years, it doesn't matter if they're out in the middle of the street, cars still speed by them, and uh they don't even honor them being out in the street to stop. So, is there anything else going to be done to control the traffic in that area where all the crossing guards are to make it safe? Yeah. So I no
081there's nothing in the works on that but I can definitely reach out to the village. One of the challenges is uh I I'm sure there's more to it but one because 136 is a state highway um it's the village has less freedom in what they do whereas on Maplewood you know we put in the flashing lights at the crosswalks and things the village was able to do that. So, um, but yeah, I can, uh, reach out to the village and see what the next steps we've got. Yeah. I mean, because I see in other communities like that on 136 at Sun, um, you know, there's no flashing lights. There's no well, crosswalk needs to be repainted by. So, there's lots that could be done. I don't know how to get it done. the consistency of
082the signage. Has anybody noticed that? One of them says when kids are present, they switched on. And then another one said flashing. So, um, and the lights go off uh what, 2:30 to 3:30. But the one on 136, because the high school gets out at 1:45, those lights aren't even on. They don't come on to slow the traffic. But if they if they don't see children 245 out there at Sun View, they're going 40 plus. That's how it is in the morning, too. And I will say they village does control timers on those. Yes. So, I do know they have control. Oh, on the on the flashing lights. They might be all set to one. A lot of people really don't even follow that anyways because um for example, I picked my daughter up on
083the back side of the high school where that crossing walk is like if you're going to go if you're in track, you go over it and throw the discus and the lights going and she's walking across. Some cars stop, some go right around them. She almost got hit um a few times and this was in the past month. And not only her, but I've seen other kids that almost got hit just in that area alone. But then again, you have kids that will go 20 yards down and cross before they even go to that crosswalk. So, there's just so many different um situations where the kids can be wrong as well. It's just the cars not doing what they're supposed to be. One of the things I've also talked about with Officer Craft is we
084we're going to want to do some safe walking to school education for the kids too because that's part of they're their best defense. Kids are scared. Um I don't know how many kids anymore, you know, are taught to stop listen and song and work both ways. giving officer craft to sing a song to the kids. I'm sure there is. Look at teroses over there. That is really what I was going to ask is that safe box to school program. I remember right after I got on the board, they gave a pretty memorable to my brain at that time presentation on the routes that they were suggesting. And I was going to ask like is that still a program that exists? Was it grant funded and doesn't? I don't know. It just could be worth thinking
085about. The next one up is Ader. Okay. And we're looking I don't know where I I haven't had an update in a while, but um resuming law bash in front of Ader where we've done some temporary things and tried some different ways. So we've been able to show that it's needed. Um it's like a game of Frogger some days there. Four lanes of traffic and kids. That's another one where 136 meets up with that road there eater that comes right out. Marshall. Marshall. Thank you very much. That's another one that's very dangerous. Um, um, I had one question with the start time at 7:45 where you can drop off. That's the earliest the staff is going to be there or are we taking early? Staff work day starts at 7:30. 7:30. So parents can drop
086off. What we're saying is we're So right now we have supervision starting at 7:55. So now we're saying start at 7:4. We don't think we're going to get flooded with kids, right? But um and truthfully, there's already kids out there that early. So bulk of kids are still showing up by 10 minutes. But but this time we'll have we really want well we need the daycarees to be able to drop off and if parents are going to drop off two of the elementary schools flexibility we're saying 7:45 right now that time needs to adjust a little bit good I make a motion we enter into close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensating finance, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body and collective negotiating patterns between the public body and its
087employees. I get a second. I will second it. You can do a voice. I mean, no, you can just say all in favor. Oh, all in favor? I maybe somebody's opposed it. Was anybody opposed? And there is no action after close session. We will not continue report. Good evening.