001[music] Mrs. Layman >> here. >> Mr. Onus Forge >> here. >> Mrs. Perie >> here. >> Mr. Roth >> present. >> And Mr. Red >> here. [clears throat] >> Pledge. >> Yep. 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. With all board meetings, uh, I like to begin a meeting with a little note of gratitude. And we have a group here that I'd like to share my gratitude to and with. Um, it's pretty awesome when we have our high school students that not only represent uh the village of Morton, but central Illinois area. They also have been recognized and done a great job being represented across the state and regionally
002but also nationally. And so with that um my gratitude goes out to all the students and the parents and all the volunteers and the coaches and and everyone associated with these programs that have helped uh our students achieve this great success. And with that, I think I'm going to turn it on over to Mr. Herman is [clears throat] going to get us uh started here. >> All right. Well, thanks for having us here tonight to recognize some of the wonderful successes that some of our different programs have had. Um the first one that we're going to talk about tonight is our high school boys cross country team. Um had a really successful season this year. Um including being the conference champions uh for the seventh consecutive year in a row. They won sectionals and then
003went on to take fourth place at state. Um I have coach Zeller here um with representation of some of his athletes that I'll invite to come up so that um he can share a little bit more about the season in greater detail and some of the successes they've had this year. So here's coach Joe Zeller. Thanks. >> Um hello, my name is Joe Zeller. Uh I have the privilege of being the uh boys and girls cross country coach high school. Um tonight we're recognizing uh these three boys who all placed in the top 25 um earning them all state uh honors at the state meet this year. Um as it says uh Byer was number 23rd, Maxwell Carter was 21st and a March was 17th. Um those places are really cool. I think maybe the
004thing that might impress you slightly more. I'll tell you the times they ran. Uh so Keith Buyer he ran 1446, Max Carter ran 1445 and a margin ran 1442. all are running PRs on that day at the state meet. Um, as Mr. Herman already told you, they were conference champs. Um, they are part of, yeah, quite a tradition. Um, seventh in a row. Um, they've won that thing. A cool thing about this year was that, um, so nine individuals from the conference are all conference um, selections. Um, the varsity boys this year took six of those nine spots um, which is pretty cool for them. They were also sectional champs. They got fourth to the state meet and their season culminated um at the Nike cross country regional which for the first time they got
005to the championship race this year um which is a regional that includes several states from from the Midwest. Um yeah they uh you know as individuals obviously performed really really well but I think they'd all tell you that our focus was the team this year. Uh when we finished this year, um this is the first time that I'm sure pretty much any team has ever had three guys under 1450 and then did not earn a state trophy. Um afterwards, and I know he's going to hate me telling this story, but I ran the Keystone right after the race and he just had this disbelief of I can't believe he ran three guys under 1450 and didn't get a trophy this year. And then I saw him about 10 minutes later and I asked him how
006he's doing. He said, "I just don't understand how this could happen." And um and you know, I agreed. I couldn't I didn't understand either. But the funn thing was is that we walked away from State I think happier than we did last year um after getting a second place trophy. Um and I think the reason why is the boys know that they they did their best. Um they're also they're focused on the process, not on the outcome. Um, and so it's not just about how we do at the end of the day. It's about everything they did to get there and they're proud of themselves and what they did and what they did as a group. Um, I would also tell you that these boys, they are all in on the program and what they
007need to do to be uh, great athletes. Um, just the volume of miles put in alone. I can tell you right now, winter gets kind of challenging to put miles in. One of these boys uh, is in bowling currently, which means that he's waking up at I don't know what hour to do his miles in the dark before school every day. the doubles that they do, um, all those things. But I can tell you that one of my favorite things about cross country is that volume of time that they get to spend together and to develop those relationships. Um, because at the end of the day, they're really they're doing it for each other. Um, and because of that, you know, not only are they focused on um, becoming great athletes, but they're focused on
008becoming better people as well. Um, some of these guys, the upper classman here, uh, were even part of our leadership group that, you know, they had to get up for meeting at 6:00 a.m. uh, once a week during the cross country season. Um, and it's just about bettering themselves so that they can be better uh, teammates um, and better leaders and better representatives on the team um, because they do care about the teammates so much. So, I want to thank you guys for um, giving us the opportunity to recognize them as having accomplished some great things as athletes, but also just being better people as well. So, thank you. [applause] Congratulations. [clears throat] >> Okay, next up, Mr. Herman. All right. So, um, from here we're moving on to the Morton High Girls Swimming and
009Diving. Um, I have with me here this evening, um, Ava Ray, who has had a really successful, um, diving career here at Warren High School. I had the benefit to go to, uh, watch her, um, in state last year, um, when she made it to state last year and then again this year. Um, and it's been a pleasure seeing how she's, uh, represented Morton High School and the success that she's had. Um, as you can see up here on the board, she holds this is so first of all, we co-op with Washington. Um, which is a great opportunity for our students to have access to to a swim team. Um, so these records would be the co-op um between our school and Washington. Uh, she holds the school record for uh the most points for
010six dives, the most points for 11 dives. This year she took first place at sectionals and um made it to the finals in state and took 14th overall in state. Um, and I think something a little different when you hear that about swimming than some other sports is that it's not broken into separate classes. So 14th and state is truly the 14th best in the whole state no matter how big the school is. So um on top of that, Ava's been um on top of her studies as she stayed here um at Morton High School. She's excelled in the classroom as well. Um and uh because of that we are uh decided that we are going to nominate her um as one of our school nominees for the IHSA all state academic team this year.
011So um on top of that she's committed TO [applause] And on top of that she's committed to dive uh next year at the University of Nebraska Omaha. So, hey Maria everybody. [applause] >> Thank you for Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Okay. And our third recognition, our third recognition is for the MHS marching band. >> We're going to bring them in >> and they're going to come in and join us here. Um, as you know, the marching band makes up a large population of students here at our school. So, we don't have them all with us here this evening. Um, and in a little in a little while here, um, I'll turn it over to the directors and, um, have them share who do they they did bring with them and why. Um, but our band
012puts in tireless hours, um, starting in the second week of July, um, all the way up until just recently when they made it to grand nationals, which is um, why they're here this evening to get recognized. Um, throughout the season, they also won Illinois State University's band competition for the 20th year in a row. Um, they went to the Bands of America in St. Lewis and took first place in their class for the third year in a row. Um and then um advanced and uh had a successful um turnout at Vans of America Grand Nationals, which I don't want to take all of your talking material from you, but um I'm going to turn it over to our directors um Andy Embi, Katrina Fitzpatrick, and Luke Schaefer to come up and share some additional highlights
013from their season and let us know who they brought to represent them tonight and um and why. So, come on up. >> Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for recognizing our program. Um, students work so hard. We wish we could have brought all 170 of them, but I don't think that would have been comfortable. Um, but we are very proud of the students. Um, they've put in so many hours and this season was uh the heat was a little relentless for us and then by the end of the season we had a little bit of rain and things to work through. But we're very proud of uh how far they've come and how hard they've worked. Um we have a lot of student leaders within our program. We lean on them heavily throughout the season.
014We brought with us tonight our four drum majors. These uh are kind of our left-hand people that kind of help keep things going. Uh always in front of the program guiding, conducting, you name it. So we have three seniors this year. We've got uh Taylor Rice. We've got Rachel Clawson and Gavin Benture. And these three are our seniors. And then we have a junior and Kylie Wolfer. So that these are OUR [applause] you know along with recognition. We we really appreciate it. But we also want to thank you for your support because we do have a lot that we ask and that we do out there on the field. So it it does take your support to do all of those things. our wacky ideas from lifting kids up, flipping them, and then turning the
015blue band blue and white, you know, which was a little controversial, but all of those things really helped, we think, take the program to the next level. Um, so we ended up attending uh six competitions this season. Um, seven if you counted our uh field competition where we had 15 bands. Our band boosters take kind of the lead on that. And it's been it was a great competition. Um, our first contest was at Washington, uh, where the band placed first in their class, won all the captions, and were the grand champions. On September 20th, we went to IBC for their first competition, won first place, and grand champion again, all the captions. Um, then we went to Illinois State University, and this was a big year for us. Uh, this was our 20th consecutive uh,
0162-way championship. uh made finals and placed second to Oallon, but the kids had an amazing show that night, so we're very proud of them. Uh went on to Bands of America in St. Louis. Got there and it was pouring down rain the entire day. It was held us off for quite a while. Um but we ended up winning our class there and then we placed 12th in finals. And when we get to Bands of America, we're starting to get on the national level with some programs from across the country that are some big powerhouse programs. So for us in central Illinois to hang and to do as well as we did, it says a lot about the program and the kids and their hard work. So um then we went from there, we went to
017the Illinois uh marching competition down at the University of Illinois. We won our class and we won the governor's trophy. So that was the first time in how many years? >> 2016. >> Yeah. So it's been a while since we've been there. And funny story, I received a a card in the mail at the end of our season last year from uh some guy from Streeter and he said, you know, congratulations on the great season. It would be awesome if you would come to U of I and face the formidable Mohamd Seymour. And we did. [laughter] And it wasn't part of the original plan, but the kids were successful. It was a great day. Um and then from there, we ended the Grand Nationals in Indianapolis at the Lucas Oil Stadium. We ended up placing
018third in our class, made semifinals, and again, if you would have just seen the scope of the bands that were there, we're just really proud of where everything came. So, again, thank you very much. I'm going to pass it off here to Katrina. >> Thank you. Um, thank you for being here and also I kind of want to reiterate what Andy said, expressions of gratitude for the administration approving us to do this is the biggest show we've done in the history of the band program. So, thank you for the support. Big thank you to the parents who put props together, took props apart, sewed uniforms, fit kids. So, a big thank you and a thank you to the band staff for everything that they did this season. So, thank you big time thank you to
019the students for seeing us through and pushing the props around the field. So, what was great is we brought four other students with us. We've got Ben, Joe, Gage, and Riley. And they were um selected to march in the Bands of America um honor band Rose Bowl parade. So they were just they're Pasadena two weeks ago and now we're here in back in Morton and what was really and what was really such an honor is they represented our school so well on the national stage. And I got off the plane. We're we're in Pasadena and there's a band director from Fresno, California. He walks up. He goes, "Morton, you're the flip side, right?" And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, here I am all the way over in LA and someone walks up to me from
020California goes, "Oh, you're the flip side." I'm like, "Yes, yes we are." like let's talk more about it. So anyways, so I'm very proud of all the students, very proud of the drum majors and the students who chose to spend like really a week of their Christmas break in band camp. So So very proud of the program and thank you for having us here tonight. Thank you for the recognition. [applause] Thank you. >> Just did a little [laughter] think overall. >> Thank you for always supporting >> [clears throat] >> Thank you everybody. Congratulations. [laughter] >> Should we move on? >> Yes, let's move on. >> That's fun. It's always It's always fun when you do that. The excellence is great. Um district. >> Now it's time for audience presentation. I have been informed we don't
021have an agenda related audience presentation. So we will do the non audience uh presentation later. We'll move straight on to reports then. >> Okay. Uh I can't start reports without just saying I I mean I am smiling from ear to ear when we see this. As I look out in the audience, this is what we do all the jobs for, right? This is what we do this for the success of our students. And uh even though I didn't make it to a uh swim meet at this year, I didn't um I've been to cross country and the cross country meet when you see in Illinois we are very well represented represented nationally. Illinois cross country runners perform at the top in the nation. And you see the the the group of kids that leave the
022boxes and they push their bodies to the limit for 14 minutes over 14 minutes is I get goosebumps. And then everyone every time I watched our band play I got goosebumps. I mean to the point where it's almost like you get choked up like I I couldn't carry on a conversation. That is just outstanding work. So, I I thank the army of volunteers that helped make that happen. So, great uh greatly appreciate it. Getting into the reports, uh before I hit on uh facilities, I do want to just make a note like finance. Um a month ago, two months ago, we had a representative, our auditor came and at that time the financial documents were not complete. So that is in the uh consent agenda as a as an as an action item saying that
023the board is accepting those final reports and so they're all in there for you as well. Um I I just want to sp spend a brief moment. Um I don't have any fancy pictures because the landscape hasn't changed much. Um they've been busy at at the high school on phase two. They had 38 peers that they had to drill. Okay, to give you an example, these things, I think they're three feet in diameter, and they go anywhere between 30 and 50 feet down. This is the soil. Um, the soil compaction wasn't to a point that we could just do normal foundation and footings. And so, they did these peers. And so, uh, they've got all of those completed. And so, the next thing that's going to happen in the project is something that's called concrete
024grade beams that rest on the peers. Okay? and that that will establish the foundation for the structures that are being uh put in there. Also, they've uh blocked a couple of tunnel openings and so that's a good thing. Uh in the next week, they're probably going to fill those tunnels, those uh voids with something called flowable fill. And so, um so they're making progress on that. We've had a couple of challenges. one being that um multiple times there's an electrical service that that feeds the lights out in the parking lot that was hit hit again. um they were really quick at uh getting that reestablished. But um hopefully that is all uh resolved and then uh next step after they [clears throat] get all of the uh you know the footings and the uh the
025grade beams in place then you'll start seeing structural steel um show up on on site and that'll be [snorts] exciting. So everyone has a task. Do whatever it is that you need to do for good weather. Okay? because uh the concrete work is so weather dependent. And so, you know, the forecast this week is good, but by the weekend, you know, as long as the contractor is close to 30, they'll be out there working. So, um also today, uh we had um with or this week, the Morton Junior High School has a lot of summer projects and here are the items that are are being listed or that are that we're looking to accomplish. STEM labs uh redesign on the library. Um room 111 is a terrace room that you walk into the room from
026the back and you're at at ground floor and then it keeps on dropping down. So we're looking at leveling that. Um and then we've got some asbestous management. So um so ideal environmental and Lee Garrett's our architect and the junior high team. We all met last week. Had a really good meeting. We've got some we've got some options that we're moving forward with um as far as uh science labs. It's going to be really exciting. So, you know, the the general concept of that is right now we have one lab that uh the eighth grade science teachers or seventh grade science [clears throat] teachers have to share. So, both classes can't be in the lab at the same time. and what they're going to get a after the construction project is fully functioning classrooms and
027labs so that they can be doing their things simultaneously. And so had a really good meeting with the uh eighth grade teachers. They provided a lot of good input uh to Lee and so we're excited about that. Um on a side note, we're keeping our fingers crossed that all the drawings and documents will be ready to go by February 9th. So, that's going to move along and then um those will go out for bid and then we'll have facilities committee meetings to review that and finance and hopefully the bids come in um and we can get that project started completed during the summer. Okay, moving on to uh safety. Um I got to give a shout out to Kate Ryman. She is just knocking it out of the park uh with the Raptor. On January
0285th, after a nice long Christmas break, we came back. We kicked off the second semester with a you know all staff assembly in Bertha of Frank and Kate arranged um a representative from Raptor to be uh virtually there and did a a great uh job training the staff on we we had some hurdles anytime you're doing electronic training. Um, at the time, [clears throat] not everyone could access the Wi-Fi and get the app uploaded, but I think we've overcome that. So, I took some screenshots of my phone. So, what you can see there is what the app looks like. And so, um, that's there. They they did a great job covering it. They recorded the presentation so people can go back and, uh, see how how to, um, initiate something. So basically, if you've got
029that app or it's on your iPad, you can initiate a drill. Okay? You can initiate a real response. Um, actually for the drills, that's our admin team that would be able to do that. So, um, in the event of an emergency, we talk about starting the stopwatch. That is the measure of success, how quickly we can get someone on site to assist. And this just, um, accelerates that response time. Okay. Um, also, so when we're looking at this, um, there's something on there called a team assist, and that is also a useful, um, so you click on a team assist. What could that include? Uh, it could be a fight somewhere in the building. Uh, it could be medical assistance is needed in a classroom. So, someone can initiate a team assist. Um maybe uh
030one of our our admins or or principles in a single you know administrative building is doing an observation. Um they can ask for the you know request the principal to come to the office and so it just accelerates the communication on that. Um sometimes we have students that decide that they're going to walk out of school and so alopment and so that's one of the pre-built features on the team assist. Um, and then for drills, I I gave you a screenshot of that. So, what you can see here is like, you know, Grundy could initiate if they're doing a drill, they can use this app to kick off like a [snorts] lockdown drill or a shelter in place drill or an evacuation drill. And so, that's something that we're going to fold in. Most of
031our schools have all of their drills done for the year, but next year as we um using Raptor, we'll we'll practice that. So, um, moving on, other items, we had four FOYA requests since our last board meeting. Uh, the first one was Christopher Mills. That was employee directory information. Sean Durban had a communication uh was requesting communication with the Chicago Phillips game on 112622. We had Sherry Reed, I believe that was also for like purchases. And then uh David Ao um uh just uh last week had submitted a foyer and that was involving paint painting and leadbased paint and so Kate did a great job getting those fulfilled and so those are posted on our website. Um, just a couple other points here. Board site visits. Uh, we've got one coming up in February, February
03217th at Student Support Services and that will be in this building and Lindseay Franklin and her team will be, uh, facilitating that. Um, we're going to talk about policy. Um, but we did have a section of board policy. That's the board policy review. That was section five and 52 [clears throat] 570. But uh in in discussion items and then in the consent agenda, we had a large list of policies and and so I'll give credit to where credit is due. Diane and Cristiana put in two days worth of work, not full days, but uh partial days going through a lot of board policies and we'll get to that here in a in a few minutes. But any questions about my report? Okay. It takes us to committee up. >> All right. So committee. So uh
033since we last met I believe uh policy the extracurricular [clears throat] um also give a shout out to policy. That was heavy. It's a thick stack. [clears throat] So >> it was I have it right here. Anybody want [laughter] it? >> So appreciate you guys drilling through that. Is there any big high points or concerns that you want to uh bring to the rest of the board? >> Are we going to we're going to go through this a little bit? Right. So yeah, I just have a couple of notes. Most I want to say there was almost 50 separate policies that we reviewed. Most of them 40 plus were uh just going to be consent agenda items. That's where it's uh press puts out continuous improvements. What is that? That could be uh things that
034are legal reference updates, changes in the law, so a citation changes or some minor language. It really doesn't change how we interpret the policy or any procedures that we [clears throat] do. It's just it's just updates on that. And then we had a few items that we're going to be discussing. We had four and uh that will be in the discussion section. So >> Diane, do you have anything? >> Um just to explain and appreciate um Dr. Sanders idea in this, you know, as we're going through so much policy, we Cristiana and I have questions. How does this work? What does this cover? And then in deciding this time with so many what should come to the board as far as a discussion and action versus consent. Um, sometimes it was just information that I
035was like, it's good that Cristiana and I know this and she said this too, but I was like, I would like the whole board to know this. The policy is really not changing, but it's something that I feel like everyone should know or be reminded of. And so, Dr. Sander put that in our weekly update. So some of those consent agenda policies are kind of covered in spirit that way without them having to become a discussion item that you actually policy etc. So that was kind of something new that our committee hadn't discussed or done before but I thought it went well but I was expecting that. So, um, in the future it may not be necessary, but just wanted to share that. And, um, and yeah, any of the questions you guys have about
036policy, we'll try. >> I found my soulmate in Cristiana. She likes [laughter] to read them, too. So, >> I do. I literally read this whole stack. A lot of it is just like reference changes or like number, you know, just like little annotation type things. So, it's really is a little misleading, but there is some important things in there for sure. So, >> and we're going to hit every policy in a two years, right? So, cuz this seemed like we hit I mean just me reading a little bit. >> I mean, it did hit a lot. Yeah, >> that was a lot. >> So, good good job. And there are some takeaways like there's a policy that we're going to comment on um you know involves the board attorney and you know I've read I've
037read that thing you know a handful of times and then it's like now you read it again and you catch something with it. So we got more that we'll talk about in discussion items and with the consent as well >> and then extracurricular update. I I'll make a couple of comments and and so so we have um Amanda and Wes sit on that committee and we met right before Christmas break which it seems like it was last year. [laughter] >> Honey. >> Okay. Tough crowd. So I Yeah, I will say this. The junior high uh feedback comes primarily from parents in the surveys. The high school feedback comes from uh our students. There's a formal um survey that goes out to our student athletes. And then we have a feedback um mechanism on our website
038that any parent can go on there and they've made they made comments and so that was very wellreceived. I would say the responses this year were were wonderful. When I say responses, the number of people responding was was fairly good. Um, we had quite a few students. I I don't I didn't [clears throat] write down the number. I want to say it was for the fall season over 150 maybe. Um, across all of our programs. So, the response was was really good and the feedback that we received was mostly positive. I mean, it was it was really uh for the junior high and the high school um a good read to go through that. There were also some areas uh that are definite areas for improvement. I'll give you a couple of them that came
039back from the junior high feedback. So, our junior high uh baseball and softball, you know, they play their games at park district facilities. And so, busing, transportation, trying to get the kids out to um their practice facilities after school um lends itself a challenge. and that's going to fall on us and the transportation >> uh to see what we can do, what options we we can come up with to improve that process. I can't make any guarantees. Um currently, you know, I we don't like if we had a bus and we had a bus driver that could be dedicated to that, it wouldn't be a problem. We'd just pick the kids up. But, uh trying to get enough qualified drivers is is difficult. trying to allocate a bus for that um is also a challenge
040and so our kids are riding route buses and so then that delays the kids getting out there. Okay, so that's one of the things that we need to look at. Um feedback with players in midseason, we've saw some pockets where that was taking place and it was incredibly wellreceived. And so that midseason feedback, you know, just like our our students in the classroom, you know, getting that feedback on where they're at is really important. Um, another area was [clears throat] program consistency among all levels. So, varsity level all the way down through the JV and freshman level is just maintaining some consistency. You know, if there's an expectation at the varsity level, is that is that being shared throughout all the levels? And then um the the one of the last items that just kind
041of added on there, I'm going to bring it up is um the emphasis on summer travel sports and the potential impacts it has on student athletes. And you know, I'll raise my hand because I'm I'm a parent of kids that were heavily involved in summer travel sports. And boy, if I could hit the rewind button, go back, I would try to deemphasize some of that because um you know, and namely it could be baseball or basketball, you know, sometimes and I and I've read some things from pro aletes that just said, you know, it emphasizes giving kids breaks from their specific sport. Um, now I don't know about cross country because I see those kids out there running all the time, but that's like they're just getting miles. they're not like competing at a high
042level. So, I think that's the asterisk in that. But, u anyway, so I don't know, Wes, Amanda, anything else that you'd like to add? >> No, I um I do I I appreciated all the feedback we got and actually every year it'd be great to see, you know, those numbers continue to climb and that continuing to be communicated and that trust be there for the students to to keep providing that feedback. I think sometimes think, oh, the feedback's just for when it's negative, like if I've had a bad thing. But honestly, I feel like it's just um it's super helpful to like read through that and reflect and if everything was all rosy, there would be no reason for surveys. We all have something to always work on. >> And so, I think it's even
043the coaches appreciate knowing like, oh, this is something I can maybe focus on this year or maybe just be made aware of. But um in general, yeah, I was really happy with the amount we had provided back >> and the improvements we saw in maybe some areas. >> Mhm. Agree. Yeah. Positive um with the increase in numbers of surveys, also positive with some of the good feedback. Um there were some things in there that need to be addressed and those things will be addressed as well. Um but we just talked a little bit too about not just player development but coach development, right? And that's a an important piece for us to be able to share um for the the AD's principles to have that information to share with them so that we can retain
044some of the best coaches in the state of Illinois. Um so I was encouraged with our time together. So good. >> Y >> All right, that's it from committee reports. >> Awesome. Um well talking about midcycle update. So in February um super 10 eval right we are doing the super eval I [snorts] think in February uh >> we'll go to close uh after that meeting to do a midcycle update just wanted you guys to be aware that's coming down the road not I think there won't be a lot for us to do in to going into that meeting but then after like that's when stuff will start being available on super rebound so that will be coming up and then uh last thing I had in terms of our updates is just smart goals right
045so there sitting there. There's a final draft in there. Um, everybody's happy. Please need tweak. I didn't see any tweaking going on. So, no concerns otherwise. >> Let's do it. Let's do it. >> Okay. >> We'll put that Valerie. We'll put that as a action item on the February report. >> All right. And then, um, agenda building. Anybody have anything for agenda? >> All right. Um there being none, we'll go to discussion items. >> Okay. The first one um involves uh changing some contract language. So it's anou memorandum of understanding. Uh our business crew last year identified like a year ago that we were going to have a three-w weekek window in August, September um where there was uh not going to be we typically do our payrolls on Fridays, every other Friday, but there
046was going to be [clears throat] a three-week window this year the way the calendar fell and the Fridays fell. And so um so we sat down with the MEA and brainstormed some ideas. And so uh the idea that we're bringing as anou is to shift from 26 pays so every other Friday um to going to 24 pays. So that'd be on the 15th and the 30th of every month. And so then it's standardized and everyone knows when they can expect their you know deposits in. There will be some challenges with it. I'm I'm just going to tell you, you know, anytime you make a shift from 26 bays down to 24. Uh there's been other districts in central Illinois that have done that. And you know, we our plan is to communicate this with all
047of our employees shortly after we get this thing approved um at the February board meeting if it goes through that. So, um, to communicate with them, give them some planning tools. Um, Hannah and her business office would be happy to sit down with people and say, "All right, this is what your pay is going to look like." Because they're going to get more money per pay, just less of them. Okay? And so, that's uh coming up. We've built in what to do if uh the 15th or 30th is on a weekend or February. So, that's included. So, this is the first uh review of that. Um, I included in the packet the the change in the language and so this will sit as anou until the next round of bargaining and [clears throat] then both
048sides will will pull that into we'll agree to pull that into the contract. Okay, if that's the intent of both teams. Any questions on theou? >> I'm assuming good with it and guess behind it. It's what they prefer. >> Yeah. And I think when when there's a three-week gap, then there's all sorts of questions and you try to get prepared. And so I the feedback we got from the MEA was, "Oh, this was great because then it takes questions off of their plate." And some of them have worked in other districts where they just where the payrolls were on set dates. >> And so that is advantageous. And so it really helps out, you know, our business office to plan accordingly that way. So good question. What other questions on that? >> Why the end
049of the month and not the first? >> Uh it's just they grab something. We took some suggestions and and I think it's what people have have grown accustomed to. So maybe they've had the 15th and the 30th. >> Neither here nor there. It's just, you know, >> because there's always a first of the month, Sar. >> Yeah. And I said there's not always a 30th of the month either, >> right? But they at least addressed it. So >> yeah, >> that was my first. Yep. >> It's how you >> I will say for first and 15th or something the basically last business day >> there from a just a business office perspective and I've got my business brain in there so thank you for the pause. Um, our fiscal year ends June 30th and so
050having a payroll that goes to June 30th allows us to make sure that our our numbers are accurate because what we can't do is miss something that should be reported in the one fiscal year and gets caught in the next fiscal year. >> So I think that was [cough] the impetus [clears throat] behind the 15th and the 30th so that they can close out their books with a clean payroll. So >> that makes sense. Okay. [snorts] Um, the next one, press policy 120. We've talked about it. There were four additional uh policies. I'm going to give you just a real quick update on these. These are for discussion. And then there are two exhibits. The exhibits really aren't for discussion. [clears throat] I'm just going to point out what they are and why we're talking
051about them, but they're something that just needs to be signed off on by board president. So first one is 2150. This is on committees. The policy as we're reviewing it um it it lists board standing committees and the policy committee was listed there. And so uh I reached out to um my IASA field service director. She's my mentor. And I said, "Hey, can you explain this to me? um should should this be in there if we use superintendent committees? And she said, Joe, I would pull that from your I remove that from your policy. So, if it is a board committee, then we really need to follow OMA, Open Meetings Act. So, that means we need to post agendas 48 hours in advance. You got to go through all the things like what we're doing
052here. And she said if you have superintendent committees, I would just strike that. So that was the that was the item on on why we're discussing. So I think I'll pause. Is there any other comments Diane Cristiana about that one? >> No, I think you explained it well. >> Mr. Smok um clarified that with the board last year I believe that we really don't have these committees and this was something that going through this policy Dr. Sander identified oh this is just in the policy but we don't have this committee it isn't what we have been talking about as the policy committee so once I realized that I was okay with taking our committee out of the policy [laughter] And it wasn't to say like that we couldn't ever add it in there. Like it
053was just one of those things that it's like, well, we just don't have it right now, so why have it in there? It's just >> kind of silly. >> And then um one of the takeaways from this is uh Valerie is I don't know if you've done this already, we're going to list the committee members on the board page, the committees that you serve on. >> I wanted to wait till the meeting was over. >> Okay. And so that that's going to be a takeaway from this is for the public. They want to know who sits on extracurricular. They'll see that on our web page, okay? So that they know who to reach out to for what. Moving on to 4170. This one is on school safety. Um there's been a lot of talk last
054this last semester about school safety and this is one that the board uh kind of pulled themselves to to discuss. Um, so there's some uh there's some language up front and number five references communication and it states it states a clear, rapid, factual and coordinated system of internal and external communication and that's where it stopped. And what we are proposing to add is not limited to parents, communities or first responders. And so, you know, what we're trying to share with, you know, the lessons learned is that we need to be prompt or clear, rapid, factual, and coordinated system of communication. And I think we've grown over the last semester, and we're just adding that additional language to that policy. >> I like it. >> 7150. Um this is a uh it's a change in policy
055title or the the name of the policy and it also added some additional uh information in here. So uh it was titled [clears throat] agency and police interviews but due to legislation they changed it to agency and law enforcement requests. [snorts] Okay. So that so instead of police interviews, law enforcement requests and that's that's struck and changed um throughout all of our policy documents that reference police interviews. Then there's a section in the policy that you'll see um in the board copy that says procedures will and there's a total of seven items. Now press recommends the first five items are for board discretion. You know, you can choose to accept those items or you can not accept those items, but six and seven are part of the law. Okay? And so, we have to approve
056number six and seven in the policy. And so, um, as I read through these and I I even went back and I looked there in our existing policy, some of these terms, um, I'm going to point out just a couple of them. And our my recommendation as a superintendent is these are the things that we do and they're really not like give you an example. Procedures will recognize individual students rights and privacy. Yes, that's obvious. We recognize students rights and privacy. Um minimize potential disruptions. As I look at our admin team out there, that's what they do on a daily basis. They minimize potential disruption. And so our recommendation and for conversation discussion tonight is items one through five are obvious. I don't think that they carry any weight and so why bother even putting
057them in there. The other two are part of uh you know statute comply with state law including but not limited to and then it lists and then manage reviewing and authorizing requests from law enforcement law enforcement agents attempting to enter a school or school facility in accordance with the requirements of the statute. So we have a great relationship with our Morton Police Department. We follow, you know, we've got a great agreement, the SRO agreement. we follow the guidelines on there. So our recommendation is shift six to one and 7 to two and have that be and so that's for discussion. And we felt that those were nice ideas, but in order really to prevent policy bloat as much as we can, um, and since there was no legal um, import in the first five, um,
058making a policy that kind of mandates morally right things, um, especially when it's covered elsewhere in our policies, it seemed unnecessary. doesn't mean we won't do those things. >> You want a thumbs up? >> Well, this is discussion. It just, you know, we'll bring it back next month as an action item, but yeah, if you if you're okay with it, >> I thought it was in our handbook anyway. >> Yeah. Yeah. And the handbook [snorts] is an extension of our board policy. Okay. Okay. So that is that for all intents and purposes is a legal document that we have to follow. Okay. I'll move on to the last one on the policies 7180 and that is prevention response of bullying, intimidation or harassment. They included a definition on artificial intelligence and under bullying they added
059posting or distributing sexually explicit images. That was new. underneath cyber bullying um they added uh unauthorized digital replica and then later on they defined what digital replica is and then the unauthorized digital replica and how that would be and that's all AI generated you know that's that's going to be our new our new world with AI you know is that factual or is it not um and so the policy covers that So it allows us in the event that it was unauthorized and it causes a disruption that we can discipline for that. Um we have two resolutions. Uh one last the last press policy they changed the um expense for reimbursements by board members. It had been $250 and they upped it to $1250, but the policy the the resolution didn't that change wasn't made
060in the resolution. So that's that's an exhibit. So that doesn't need any board action. And then the second one was the resolution to prohibit sexual harassment that was signed off on and approved by the board in January of 20 and we're in January of 26. So we've exceeded the five years and so that's why it just needs to be approved. And those I think are in the consent agenda for or just need to be signed off on. >> They're already done. >> Okay. >> Back to policy 7180. I just had a question and um because that is a major one that would affect students like how is that communicated? >> Good question. Um so one of the things that when we have changes like this and especially if it's language change that needs to go
061in the handbook >> and uh so we have um our team is on the ball this year. So we are tracking potential handbook changes. We started in the fall listing those things in there and so I went ahead and we put that this 7180 so digital replica and cyber bullying and AI is in for the review that will then go to the to a committee discipline committee and then that comes to the board as a recommendation and then after that then it makes the handbook and then it's you know it's communicated via that way. So, I'd love to say that, you know, do [clears throat] we we can highlight those things. You know, it's in the handbook and everyone signs off at registration that they've read and understand the handbook and I know we're all
062parents of kids in the district and and so, but if there's >> read it all, >> if if there's something that we need to emphasize, then, you know, I'm looking at Kirk because a lot of these things happen um at the high school and maybe trickle down to the [clears throat] junior high a little bit. But, you know, I think Kirk and his team, you know, they cover expectations, you know, first week in the school. Um, I'm getting a head nod. So, I >> So, what you're saying is is this won't go in into effect in February. So, you could have this scenario play out, let's say, in March. >> Oh, yeah. >> And it's not in the handbook. So, like what's the in between? >> But it's in policy. Yeah. >> So, it's in
063policy. So, then how are they like, well, I didn't know. not that they don't know what it's I mean, >> right? And that so >> so it's almost like when he puts out his monthly email, it needs to be in there. Hey, this has changed >> as a highlight so that way the parents and the kids get to see it. >> Yeah. And some of these policies and and that is a fantastic question because if it is effective now, >> right, >> then we need to communicate that out now. >> Yeah. But then I also sit there and I go, man, this is kind of conflicting because we have our handbook approved before the school year. >> So I got to do some homework on that. I got to figure out when that the effective
064date of that >> because it is changed. And are we going to use that? >> Wouldn't it be effective as soon as you >> they approve it, right? >> We approve that then that is policy. some of some of the things in there say go into effect uh July 1, >> you know, and I need to look at that. But if it is in the policy, I'm I'm outside of being able to notify him, why would you not want it in effect? It seems like a reasonable [snorts] thing. >> Oh, yeah. I'm not I'm not saying that we would >> it should be in effect and you notify that said policy is in effect in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, that's it. >> There was a case in Texas like two years ago and
065this came up and the school was there was no policy and so like it was just kind of like they didn't know what to do and it kind of dug out and there was like well how do we discipline this? Where does this land? Well, I guess what I'm afraid is if you do boot it down the road then how do you discipline for that? This policy um also expands um the accountability that students have for what they do on their personal digital devices even outside of school. And so I think it would be really helpful for parents to know that no longer is the school only looking at what your child is doing on their device from 8 to three. Um because this policy does say that posting any sexually explicit um media even
066if it's AI generated if it affects another student or has the likeness of a teacher, student, staff member, um that that student regardless of when they posted it and with what device is going to be falling under a school discipline. >> The educational environment. >> Exactly. And just, you know, I think we've really [cough and clears throat] as a community felt like 8 to three the school district we're giving you responsibility to monitor our kids and discipline them etc. But, you know, parents have to realize now, yikes, you know, this is maybe an extra area of oversight they might want to discuss with their students because they can't protect them when that digital world is going to be there tomorrow 8 to 3 or next week or next month. So, >> well, and maybe this
067can uh not just be the high school, but just kind of a blanket 709 thing. I mean really because you know there's all ages that children have phones now >> and um don't always know what what they're doing on there. Um so it's just maybe one of those things that just needs to be all of 709 that needs to know. >> Yeah, I agree. I mean in the high like the principles like of the high school and junior high especially could maybe reiterate that you know like emphasize that but um also just coming from you as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you Amanda. >> Okay. We're going to move on to the next is discussion of school calendar for 26 27. You should have a copy uh paper copy because um Dr. Sanders said that
068would be so helpful to have a paper copy in the board folder. Um and so the calendar is developed by a committee of teachers and administrators and then comes to you for review and then hopefully approval in February. And actually this calendar was created by last year's calendar committee. So I might be like the fullback of calendar committees. I had a fully developed calendar that I just had to share with a group of people that had already developed it and said, "Do you still like it?" and then [clears throat] bring it here. So, um, the calendar is essentially a replica of this year's school calendar where our school improvement, our full days for teachers are the first day of the first semester and the first day of the second semester. Historically, we used to always
069have it the first day of school and last day of school, but we've changed that for this year and continue that. Um, as most of you are aware, but some of you may not be aware, we do have to work hard to balance our semesters, uh, mostly for the high school, which, uh, driver's ed is a big one. Uh, but there's other courses that are offered first and second semester. And so, you want the amount of time to cover curriculum to be somewhat equitable. I look through uh historically some calendars and I know there's a difference of uh six days between the first semester and the second semester, but that's pretty common. Uh you don't want [clears throat] to get much more different than that. Um Christmas falls really late in the Christmas break that
070you know from when Christmas break starts. And that was something the committee talked a lot about not wanting to uh you know like not go on Christmas break until Tuesday or Wednesday to get closer to Christmas. They like having the full two weeks and full three weekends. And so that's why that kind of um is the way it is. Uh we try with that first Wednesday of every month because of some of the holidays and stuff to move it around so you don't have so many broken up days in one week. And so that's why there's some uh variation there. Uh and then of course um as you look, spring break is tied to Easter. Um I believe that's a true statement. It is a true statement. >> So that's why you only see one
071spring break and not a spring break and then a Good Friday and Monday after Easter. Um the last day uh if there's no emergency days for students would be uh May 21st which would also uh because of the way we do our calendar that's a half day and that would be our teachers last day as well because their full day is full day in services back on January 4th. Um and I think that's kind of the high points of the calendar. Are there >> is there on that first week of March the March 3rd and the 5th is that fifth because of that agreement? >> The fifth is the end of the grading period. >> Okay. So that's a half day for the students. But is it a full day for the teacher? >> It
072is. Okay. >> Correct. All the all the half days are full days for teachers. >> Yeah. Um, >> and I got a bunch of thank yous for making the parent teacher day this same all throughout the school. So, >> good job on that. >> Again, I'm just the fullback that was already just get it by you guys. [laughter] >> And I want to say remember because I I feel like six days it's a whole week. But isn't there more testing that happens towards end like some of those you need extra days in the second semester? >> Correct. All our state testing >> testing and stuff like that. So it looks like six days but it's not really six days because some of those days are not really correct >> instructional days anyway. >> Yeah. The
073ACT suite is offered at the high school. >> Yeah. We talked about that last year as well because that was >> Yeah. >> Question you have. >> Yep. Uh, I'm sorry. >> That looks good. >> Just kind of as an FYI, um, we are meeting, the calendar committee is meeting next week, I believe, and we should have a 2728 calendar to bring to you as well. I know that's something that um, families have had an interest in having that much advanced notice. So, uh, hopefully, uh, we will get that to you in February for review and then that one could be approved in March. So, >> that's exciting. [laughter] >> Wouldn't you like that far in advance? >> [laughter] >> Uh, >> can you put all the policies we have to review on each one
074of those ones as well? That'd be beautiful. >> I would love to. >> Right. Concerns about the calendar. Anyone? >> Good job with >> the highlights, too. >> Okay. >> Couple years ago, the highlights didn't work very well. [laughter] >> We need a new color printer, Jerry, and I like it. >> Take advantage of it. I need all the help I can get with my old eyes. [laughter] >> All right, so everyone's good for the calendar. >> Right. Action items. Do I have a motion for Board of Education to permanently transfer $2.5 million from the school district's working cash fund to the school district's capital projects fund to assist with the funding of capital improvements? So move >> just a couple just a couple of comments on that. So working cash fund is fund 70.
075We have nine funds. Um you can levy for working cash revenue to go into it. And you can also issue working cash bonds. That's how money ends up in the working cash fund. You cannot spend out of the working cash fund. You can't pay for things out of the working cash fund. You have to move it. And so that's why this board action, the resolution is on the agenda as an action item. Um, so we're moving that to be able to pay for some of our projects. >> And I was reading those mostly asbestous was did I read that wrong? I don't have it open right now >> for the bills on the [snorts] projects. >> Yeah. >> Oh, this is also for, you know, the Morton High School phase two. >> Okay. >> So,
076we're moving that money on over there. I think the on the the one in Jen it says partial abatement. It's abatement of stuff. It's not abatement of asbestous. It's ab >> Oh, that's where I so you can either loan the money out of working cash, which that's probably what triggered it. >> Yeah, >> because there was no thinking. >> Boy, that's a lot. >> I hope that we're done, but Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Anyway, thanks for the age there, I think. Yeah. Okay. Valerie, please call the role. >> Mr. Red, >> yes. >> Mrs. Layman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perie, >> yes. >> Dr. Crawl, >> yes. >> Dr. Cross, >> yes. >> Mr. Onus, >> yes. >> And Mr. Roth, >> yes. >> All right. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the
077consent agenda as presented? >> So, move. Support. Please call the role. >> Um, I have just a discussion or a comment. Um, I noticed that our band is going to stay all night in Poria for a Poria Civic Center event and I know we have several other school association events at the civic center. Um, while the extracurricular committee didn't mention any specific feedback for cost and student fees, the band fees are exorbitant in my opinion high compared to a lot. And so, um, you know, I just would hate to see our district have a precedent where when there are events 15 miles away, we pay for hotel rooms and substitutes if at all possible. You know, that sort of thing. on review of the um agenda for this event. It appears that um a rehearsal's
078been scheduled until 10 p.m. So, I presume that's why onsite was requested, but I did notice that and hope it wasn't um something the board would see often. Anyway, just thought I'd >> Yeah, >> I thought we'd brought this up too for the >> students um skills does its reason um >> because they start early in the morning. >> They start early and then they have there's time during the day that they need to have a place to go back and do stuff. And so I as a logistical thing I was reading I'm like well I agree the first time I read that we proved that like that's silly but there was reasoning behind it. assume this there's some something like that in the >> I was like well you know if we hire or
079we send a bus and a bus driver you know okay how much does that cost versus rooms and of course I trust you to do the homework on that but just you know just because we have the money and people sold t-shirts where it doesn't necessarily mean we should consider the civic center overnight trips frequently in my opinion. But >> anyway, >> thanks. >> All right, please call the RO. >> Mr. Roth, >> yes. >> Mr. Onus, >> yes. >> Dr. Cross, >> yes. >> Mr. Red, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Layman, >> yes. >> And Dr. Crawl, >> yes. >> All right, we have mo Oh, nope. Um, now is time for non-aggenda audience presentations. And we did have one audience member that requested to speak, but I do not
080see her at this time. All is one up there. If you sort of walk out there real quick, [clears throat] >> I'll fill in some time. So on the consent agenda, we did have a donation um of $2,000 uh by the Morton FFA alumni and supporters. And then also in the consent agenda, there were a whole list of policies. Uh there was one on the board attorney and this is the one I alluded to earlier. I've read that and I realize it says the superintendent, assistant superintendent and the board president can contact the board attorney. But we sometimes have our building administrators. We have Lisa Kowalsski that also has to contact the attorney. And so we put uh language in there that says superintendent his or her design doesn't meet as well. I think so.
081And then one of the other ones uh was involving how we handle uh sick leave uh sick days, vacation days, holiday. And so the holidays have changed. You know, for example, we have election day. And so we struck the number of holidays that are listed in the in the court policy and then also accounted for how we're doing leaves like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. uh the employees have typically 12-month employees had those days off but they weren't mentioned as you know days off and so uh we accounted for that. So >> thanks for bringing up the donation. We typically try to do that. >> Yep. >> I know it was FFA for FFA. So >> alumni for FFA. Okay. >> So no presentation >> presentation. Okay. All right. Then do I have a
082motion uh to enter close session for the purpose of personnel? >> So moved. >> Go ahead. >> Support. >> Please call the role. >> All right. Mrs. Perty, >> yes. >> Dr. Crawl, >> yes. >> Mrs. Layman, >> yes. >> Mr. Roth, >> yes. >> Mr. Red, >> yes. >> Mr. Onus, >> yes. >> And Dr. cross. >> Yes.