MCUSD Board Meeting October 17, 2023

001[Music] uh Welcome to our board meeting we'll Now call the meeting for order now please call the rooll Mr breaker here Dr cross present Dr crawl present Mrs Layman here Mr neie here Mr Roth and Mr R here please join me in the pledge of allegiance iedge alance 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 there's now time for audience presentations this is the only time set aside for audience presentations the board of educations will take all presentations under consideration and respond to the latest by the end of the next regular Board of Education meeting please limit your comments to five minutes participants are expected to conduct themselves with stability and respect and follow the

002guidelines outlined in board policy 8:30 we will be maintaining that it will be 5 minutes a hard five minutes so um Dr sander I think you got some cards so if you want to start calling names I do Mr breaker uh Timmy woodmancy is up first and followed by Nathan Fay sorry okay um I'm Tamara woodmancy and I'm GNA be speaking on behalf of Brian growth who is not here tonight uh we are both Morton residents so we've seen a sampling of hate and extremist organizations that Mr Saunders subscribes to through his work email that arrive every day in his inbox superintendent smok wasted no time in telling Grundy parents that it's okay to use School resources for personal matters as long as it's done after hours well let's talk about something that happened during

003work hours then a student at Grundy entered principal Michael Saunders office during work hours in the 2223 school year the student noted that Mr Saunders had Firearms displayed on his computer screen with a title modern cowboy load out a formal complaint was filed with the district and the investigation confirmed what the student saw and indicated the content was likely from the website classicfirearms.com which Mr Saunders also subscribes to nevertheless the superintendent contended that there was no violation of the students rights or board policies because it did not occur in an instructional setting but rather in Mr Saunders office so apparently in District 709 it's okay for a staff member to use School resources during work hours to look at firearms on their computer screen and expose a young child to it I can't imagine anyone

004that would tolerate such behavior from a School employee apparently when that School employee is a close personal friend of the superintendent it's not a big deal but it is really a big deal a very big deal this is an elementary school For Heaven's Sake put yourself in the shoes of a child or subordinate that is exposed to weapons by the person who has charge over them how would this register with you for someone who has experienced gun violence it would be traumatic for someone who has been assaulted by the principal they may wonder what comes next for someone who want wanted to voice a grievance they may think it's dangerous to do so for someone afraid of the principal it only intensifies that fear for someone looking for an excuse to waste limited resources and

005intimidate and Bully others they have found someone in leadership to be their role model this story and others like it will resonate Beyond these walls if you don't take Swift action I restate my request for the removal of principal Michael Saunders superintendent Craig smok and the resignation of board member Diane crawl and on my own behalf superintendent Craig smok had family members in the audience laughing at the board meeting where youth were traumatized in September which he has failed to explain much less apologize for Mr smok's emails have been foed and requests for these public records have been met with resistance is it likely that Mr smok has bigoted anti- lgbtq plus subscriptions as well we'll find out soon Mr SMU has a documented history of failing to address bullying and rights violations and opens

006this District up to potential lawsuit there is no place for bigotry within Public Schools where kids need to feel safe equal and protected where all kids deserve the same Level Playing Field and no bias Mr smok needs to resign at the last school board meeting a Christian pastor was invited in to lead us all in a Christian prayer this is a violation of The Establishment Clause and every school board member there violated the Constitutional requirement of religious neutrality in public schools as board members you rejected investigation and dialogue about member Dr CW's promoting of her religion instead offering support to her what about those whose rights were violated you are not running a church end the abusive coercitive religious indoctrination in Morton Public Schools follow the law allow the comprehensive human sexuality curriculum to be

007taught those that don't want their kids in it keep them out of it parent your own children 20 second not other people's children again I restate my request for the removal of principal Michael Saunders superintendent Craig smuck and the resignation of board member Diane crawl okay Nathan is up and we'll be followed by Megan B good evening tonight I'd like to start out by uh stating first of all to our the members of our uh community and schools who are LGBT I want you to know that we see you we care for you we love you and you're welcome here in our schools and in our community a community is not defined by a group of people who all agree with each other community is a group of individuals who can care for each other

008and work together in spite of their differences and disagreements the problem with the leftism Uhn synonymizing dis agreement with hate is that there is no way for a community to truly Thrive if you hate everyone that you disagree with as a Christian there are many beliefs that I don't that I don't agree with yet I still love the person who holds them there are even others in the Christian Community who I disagree with and I love and care for them so if you're LGBT and you're hearing this my struggle isn't with you I'm here to expose the leftist agenda that these activists are actually here to promote if you're listening carefully they've already said the quiet part out loud M mein and just this last speak speaker stated the last time that they are looking

009to add comprehensive developmentally appropriate human anatomy biology and sexual uh uh curriculum to this uh to the school she's referring to what's better known as C or comprehensive sexual education this is the sex education curriculum that is designed by none other than planned parenthood so you you know it's got to be good uh this curriculum among a host of other issues actively promotes sexual exploration and other atrisk behaviors to Children this curriculum not LGBT individuals is unwelcome in our school system also last meeting a few quotes were cited from a website called freedom from religion here in the United States we have the freedom of religion not the freedom from religion the first amendment was written to protect IND individuals from being persecuted by the government for their religion or personal beliefs it was not

010written to keep you from being offended by anyone who dares to to hold different beliefs than you we have seen in the past where the freedom from religion leads in other places in times like Cambodia or uh the Soviet Union the freedom from any belief or person group always leads to Dark Places Saul Alinsky is a prominent leftist activist from the 70s who wrote the Bible for a Le activism called The Rules for Radicals in it one of the rules reads accuse your opponent of what you are doing to create confusion and to inoculate voters against evidence of of your own guilt this is the tactic that they are using Miss MC mein could probably tell you this since she is a full-time paid activist for the left she seems to have been ever since

011she was let go from Western Illinois University for using her uh school email to promote and to send out emails for her C causes I'm guessing this is where she uh got the idea for her foyer request we also heard a gentleman on September 5th accus unfounded and and untrue mind you of Mr Saunders of assault yet later that same meeting the same the gentleman stood up and put his hands on another speaker that he disagreed with which is actually legally assault and battery they accuse us of hate they curse us they make fun of us and call us idiots and bigots because of our beliefs if you want to stop bullying you might start by taking an inward look at your own movement the sentiment expressed last meeting you wouldn't want your precious School

012District to be sued if you don't fire these people and adopt our agenda sounds an awful lot like you wouldn't want your precious business to burn if you don't buy our fire Insurance these are no more than two bit Mafia tactics that are repurposed for our modern lawfare and cancel culture they keep pointing to instances of bullying and blaming them somehow on a principle because of his Christian beliefs or on a board member because of the beliefs because she believes in the power of prayer both of whom I know personally would go to the mattresses for any child they knew that was being bullied regardless of their beliefs or sexual orientation we live in a fallen world and if you are looking for a community or a school completely devoid of bullying you are looking

013for a Utopia Morton overall is a kind and caring Community bullying does not define Morton no more than violence murder drugs Define Miss mcm's community of Poria M mcmein rails against our school board for allowing a great principal who H also happens to be a Christian to keep his job meanwhile in her own Community there were children murdered by gang violence less than a month ago 20 seconds and there are so many other students who experienced violence and and insecurity on a daily basis in district 150 yet our issues in Morton seem to be more pressing to her that's because the issues in district 150 do not fit into her agenda they have already because they have already adopted that agenda when a speaker last meeting said that you can find another school that fits

014your uh beliefs better I don't believe he was saying that you should get out of Arts rather I believe he was pointing out that there are plenty of schools who choose uh to choose Thank you Mr thank you thank you Megan boom is up and we'll be followed by Amy Peterson I'm not ready at this time thank you okay Amy Peterson and we'll be followed by Dr fiser good evening my name is Amy Peterson and I live in Morton and I have a a junior um at high school and um I just want to say that I have known Diane call for the last 14 years and we I got to know her because our kids both attended uh the school same schools and um so I've gotten to know who she is um and

015what her character is and I know that she is kind she is gentle she is softspoken uh she is humble um she's generous with her time she travels to foreign countries and provides Medical care for people um it it is just a blessing that she is a part of our board and I'm so thankful for her service and her um just giving of her time and energy to be a part of board so I'm I'm thankful for and I wanted to share that with you and I also would like to say that I have had a meeting with Dr smok um that um about an issue that one of my students had with medical um challenges and I found him to be very compassionate excellent listener I could tell that he sincerely cared and um

016he also then helped Advocate uh advocate for my son and so I thank you as well for being um a wonderful um giving wonderful service for our district and I'm just thankful for the whole school board I think you all do an excellent job and uh we really appreciate you okay Dr Fisher is up hello so uh I wanted to start off uh by reminding everyone of a couple of things that there is a difference between personally attacking someone and holding them publicly accountable for their words and actions so no one's calling an idiot no one's doing any of that we're standing up here and saying hey this person did a bad thing and we all saw you do it and we think there should be consequences for that action and you can be a

017good person and do bad things and there should still be accountability for those actions so I'm going to start tonight by holding some people accountable several of the board members seem to want to talk a good talk last board meeting reassuring us they don't want children bullied they want the neutrality policy currently in place in forest and they just don't understand why are they bullying the black and gay kids baloney I just baloney to that unless there's been some serious transformation on your parts in the last couple of years that's crap the kids learn this Behavior by watching adults like you they learned it was acceptable to discriminate by watching you Dr cwl seven years ago you stood on the birth Auditorium stage and you spewed hateful false information about lgbtq youth I was there

018you painted them as confused used and broken and undeserving of dignity and the right to use the bathroom that aligned with their agender and yet after modeling this Behavior you're wondering and surprised why the youth are following your misguided lead Tom Neely voted in favor at that meeting of humiliating and discriminating against transgender youth Kim Johnson was a teacher in the Morton School District until she resigned in 2021 many of you served on the board during her tenure when there were student complaints a hob phobia and racism dating to 2009 that's 12 years 12 years of complaints that were pushed under the Rook she literally told a room full of students if you're gay it's because you weren't wanted in your parents wom and not a single person on this board publicly called her out

019or condoned her for that when previous board member Bart rinkenberger made astonishingly transphobic public statements not a peep from any one of you your silence and your inaction make you complicit if anything it makes you more guilty than the children doing the bullying because at least they don't have fully developed frontal loes yet you have been however having given ample opportunity to do the right thing protect these vulnerable children and stick up for their rights but instead time and again you've continued to provide affirmation to the bullies by making it very public that you share their views you support their actions so if you're wondering where they learned this behavior that and that this was appropriate it's from watching authority figures like you nothing can make that more clear than your support your blanket support

020of principal Saunders so for some reason I you still don't seem to understand why that's a problem so I am going to ask you all to please use some active listening years you at home too and do a thought experiment with me everyone in this room or everyone on this board is pretty openly Christian right Christians at home please join me as well in case you didn't know the Taliban wants you dead they want you like super dead so if you can imagine being eight or 10 years old and walking into a school where 95% of your peers are members of the Taliban the principal is a leader in the Taliban he actually has a Quran on his wall in his office and if that isn't making you uncomfortable enough to imagine going to school

021in that environment you soon find out he has subscribed to tens of thousand of emails talking about how Christians are the devil don't deserve to exist and it's his religious duty to wipe them all out do you feel safe I want you to really imagine that being surrounded in school every day by people who publicly hate a part of your core being something youve all said is part of your core being even if the whole school board who by the way in this scenario is full of his Taliban friends reassure you he's a good guy and would never hold it against you that you you are a Christian how could you not still fear for your life every time you walk down to be alone in that principal's office because that's what the gay and

022black kids are currently experiencing every day at Grundy school I want to loudly make this very clear principal Saunders is not owed employment it is being principle is not his constitutional right black and lgbtq children do have a constitutional right to safely attend public school and it is impossible for them to do that when the person in charge them publicly actively hates who they are if it hasn't been made obvious by now no one sitting on this board or in this Administration is qualified to objectively analyze the problems happening in our district much less come up with an effective plan to address them so the first thing I think you need to do is put down your own biases hire a knowledgeable expert outside Council to analyze the district and propose an action plan the

023local AC ACLU chapter is happy to help you with this next start doing your jobs and actually address these constituents that are coming in here week after week to bring their concerns it's in your own bylaws to provide a public response by the next board meeting and yet you have to do that even once I proposed an amendment change four weeks ago and there's been no response to that I emailed each of you a copy of the affirming inclusive schools task force report which literally has a chapter for school boards on how to make more inclusive policies I offered to sit down and discuss you with it and not a single board member even gave me the courtesy of a response so let's start by actually responding to those statements thank you Dr Fisher all

024right I think that is all of our speakers that I have thank you with that we will move on to administrative reports Meg's ready to talk Megan y has not spoken I she is ready now oh okay hi my name is Megan Bond thank you very much for your time and the worlds of Dr Ashley Fisher next you should get an anonymous Reporting System that's evaluated by a neutral third party all that talk last time about how no one utilizes the bowling hotline do any of you know where those hotline complaints go if a student or family were to go to make a complaint right now about principal Saunders discriminating itum who do you think addresses that complaint ding ding ding principal Saunders I don't even know what to say if you can't see the

025problem in that system there are now multiple available phone apps that allow s excuse me that allow students to not only immediately video record instances of bul using their phones but they can anonymously submit those recordings and complaints to third party doign need to investigate and make recommendations for interventions pick a reporting system that not only protects the students but results in actual corrective action next let's hire someone who doesn't subscribe to hate groups and let them be in charge of our young children I can't believe that ones even this one is even still for debate if I'm being honest then if you really truly want to show that you care about the black and lgbtq community in this town give up your board seat give up your board seat and assign a BL black

026gay or trans Community member to the board it's in the bylaws that the board can assign whomever they like to an empty board seat so give them a seat at the the table and let their voices be heard lastly each one of you have actively played a part in teaching the children of this District how to hate so take ownership of that and teach them how to be understanding and supportive instead propose age appropriate safe space training in each of the schools Dr fiser will do it for free and if you don't want her doing it she has contact certified who will do it for free so there you go you are now very publicly been given several tools to fix the problems that seem to be stumping you so Dr Fisher wants to make

027it very clear that if you continue to follow the same path of inaction that you have chosen in the pth if you continue to remain complicit in the persecution of marginalized children through your silence then the next black gay or trans kid that tries to kill themselves that's going to be on [Applause] youall all right I conclud st how we'll move on to an administrative report starting with the superintendent report okay this this past week we've had a couple safety drills pretty extensive safety drills we've had uh one at Ley Brown that involved a lockdown and an evacuation and um earlier today we did the same at Morton Junior High and Dr sander has a report and just tell us a little bit about how it went okay um it's been a it's been a

028very busy uh week uh just practi to seeing our response plan in the event that we have a situation that requires us to go into a lockdown and so um I shared I I typed up what we like to call as an after action report after you do a drill like this you go through and you identify the things that worked well and and then you identify the things that we need to improve upon so um I've got copies of that uh and I believe they're out in the board folder uh for you to review um the lety both drills were absolutely fantastic the ly Brown drill we did uh hard lock down evacuation and we also um we exercised a reunification it was a small scale reunification but it's a it's a good practice

029to try to establish that muscle memory in the event that um something like this would happen and so uh you know a couple of Lessons Learned uh both the admin teams both at Ley Brown and at Junior High did a commendable job prepping for this I do have to get a give a shout out to um Faith Waterfield and her team at lety Brown they were they were just spoton with everything that they did from uh going into the hard lock down to the release from the police getting on the buses and then um going to the uh reunification location and then actually we had five parents that that participated intoing the reunification process I believe that their entire exercise lasted about 1 hour and that's from the time that it the stop whatat starts

030from when they get the all call um and so a lot of just great suggestions um that uh that came from that um the junior high they did their exercise today uh and I think they were about an hour and a half total time um that's pretty amazing when you sit there and think that you've got 600 people that are going to be evacu go into lockdown be released one classroom at a time get onto a bus there were 10 buses lined up transport them out to Grace Church get them off the bus into Grace Church all accounted for and then turn around and then reverse it get back to the school and so that lasted about an hour and a half and so uh couple of the big takeaways I I talked to Sergeant

031Smith with the Police Department Officer row they both recommended that in in the event of a real emergency having a uh check-in spot for parents coming to do reunification at the at the beginning of the facility not all the way up to the building but like having a site you know where you turn off the main road into the facility what would that entail we need to have like shelter cover um if it's cold possible heaters and so that get is thinking through who could we reach out to to get you know um some sort of shelter facility so people could check in parents as they on here um as Mr rud knows who's done a lot of these type of uh uh exercises in in the military um communication is always key and and

032I will tell you the communication worked really well we tested a couple of things um from the early notification coming to the district office to the district office executing going through like making sure that all the other buildings knew that we were going into that one building was in a lockdown to simulating Dr smok sending out a swift reach message to everyone it's just all of the little things that you need to do in a short period of time to keep the advantage on the things that we need to do to get kids safe with um their families and so it was it's been a busy week uh I give kudos to to both staff and our transportation um the churches that provided relocation sites that's huge because we got to be able to get

033six seven 800 kids maybe a thousand people into a location so um we're building our resources we're going to continue to test this we'll pick two more schools next year and continue to just improve upon this process so I was I was told to pass on the message that one of the the ladyy Brown went to the hall that our church has and they the couple church members that were there could not have been more complimentary than Mrs water Miss Waterfield and the admin team the teachers especially the students said it was amazing how they just sat and Rose and they were reasonably quiet and everything else so they were happy to participate and they were be they were impressed so I was instructed to pass along well thank you and I want to emphasize

034that we're constantly looking for locations because situations May dictate that you know our original facility may not be available and that's what exactly happened and so we had to use the fellowship hall at uh the apostolic Christian church and so so we took something that was a problem turned into a great success now we've we've expanded our capabilities of where we could go and and do that and the staff there were just absolutely wonderful um to work with us on short notice and and I would say it was a successful operation on that okay wellos to do sander if you can't tell this is his area of passion one of his many areas of passion and he did a great job or organizing it and and uh fulfilling it so thank you for all your

035work as well thank you a few updates for committee work we had a finance committee meeting not too long ago to go through the levy that's going to be presented tonight so thank you for that from the finance committee policy committee we still haven't seen the the latest um press policy release yet we're anxiously awaiting that is that fair to say still waiting uh one thing I'd like to add to our docket is review of our public comments policy um I want to take a look at them uh see if if we there's any changes that we need to make or things that we need to say differently in our policy so we are going to take a look at that as well um you know there's there's a lot of I probably I would

036say mystery to that process and what you know what we're allowed to say and do what we're allowed to let be said and uh I think it's a good opportunity for us to educate ourselves on that and look through our existing policy make sure we're actually meeting that policy and seeing if there's anything we can add to it so uh that'll be on our docket as well uh facilities committee still needs to meet to go through the 2024 capital projects so will need to get that going so that some of the projects are pretty major they need time to go to bid and get good prices back and and uh competitive bids so um really need to kind of get that going I know one one project that's not a mystery and we saw today

037some of you took a tour of Jefferson School and you saw half the wing the completed flooring on all three floors and next summer our plan was and we're going to continue with this plan is to do the other half of the wing and that's a full ASB bestus abatement it's a major project but you you could see the outcome of of half of it hopefully you got a chance to see that today um so we that we know that that's on the docket and we're we're definitely doing that but there's some other projects that would add up to the typically it's around $2 million that we budget each each summer for that so there's other projects to consider and to get those things rolling so at some point in time we'll get together and

038think it's you two gentlemen and we'll and we'll make that meeting happen and and uh present kind of what's on our mind for that okay uh negotiations committee is another thing we still need it's not as urgent uh that's a springtime thing but we'd like to get at least our team figured out and get um some dates on the calendar so that our teachers can prepare for the negotiations process and I think that concludes I know uh you still got um the extracurricular Mission committee is still planning meetings and maybe have no updates yet but that's still something in the works do have a meeting that uh we're trying to get scheduled for next week to bring the committee back together and look at some of the work that has been done um and hopefully

039uh that'll be that'll be the next step we'll get a little bit closer getting some finished products done so okay uh this week is parent teacher conference week for um just the upper class or the secondary so 7 through 12 so we're doing it differently this year we'll see how this goes we have different dates for 7th through 12 as we do for elementary elementary is not till November 9th and 10th so we're trying this out that was something that's been discussed at length with our teachers elementary teachers prefer later conferences where they have more time to kind of experience the students and see what they capable of and testing and different things so just a reminder we've got split conferences this year for the first time and uh we're looking forward to seeing if

040that's a good a better way to do it we think so so that's Thursday and Friday for set grade 7 through 12 November 9th and 10th for elementary school also just want to remind everyone that this Saturday it doesn't fall on a school day this year but the Saturday is Veterans Day and many of our schools will be doing various uh assemblies or celebrations or recognitions there's all kinds of different levels of things that are happening recognizing our veterans you may know this already that Patriot Day is a very big day in most of our elementary schools in particular where we introduce veterans and and first respond responders and um so we we still do also for Veterans Day recognize the veterans and you'll see a lot of that on our mares and different video

041recognitions and things that we do in our schools and I just want to take some time out to thank our veterans uh in our community uh all of those that have served and just really appreciate the sacrifice involved with that and I also want to thank those at the table so we have Jerry Rudd and Tom Neely and Dr sander all um involved in the military and we just want to thank you for your service so thank you thank you today um I know a few of you were able to attend the 95th uh anniversary celebration of Jefferson School Mrs Wyman did a fabulous job organizing that she had her plate full today of various things also hosting the board meeting which also went very well thank you and just appreciate the Jefferson staff um

042and Miss Wyman and all the work that went into that presentation and also our board meeting dinner tonight uh in that I just want to just say a few things about it um the it kind of gave me an opportunity I got to speak at that and it gave me an opportunity to kind of recount what the boards the last few boards have done with Jefferson School going from a position of potentially retiring the building there was talk about possibly retiring it really not that many years ago I would say 15 to 17 years ago and how we've kind of turned that corner and decided to invest in the building and restore it instead of kind of put it to rest so and I think the community sees I know you can see from the

043outside even many of the things that we've done from air condition in it many years ago which that was not the easiest building to air condition but we did that pretty well for the most part new windows and window lentils I don't know if you recall not too many years ago what it looked like and what it looks like now interior door frames and secure entrances in an old building like that we're always doing Roofing work we've done brick tuck pointing uh there's a new bus lane that's it seems like it's been there forever but it hasn't been there forever um it's really nice bus lane in the back playgrounds of course the PTO very involved in assisting with some of these upgrades like the playground the electronic sign and even they've got other projects

044in mind along the way um lockers talked about the up updated um flooring that we just did and the project yet to come on the other Wing uh updated primary Wing restrooms cafeteria was remodeled there's outdoor seating there's probably many things that I've left off the list millions of dollars and I didn't add up didn't do the total sum of all that but certainly millions of dollars of work and it just um I think we see the Pride that's in that building and I just uh wanted to take some time to talk about that on this 95th Anniversary so kudos to the board this board and even previous boards have made that made that decision I think it's really paying off um people love that school no doubt about that so just want to share

045that with you we have we have future plans again the other wing of flooring and paint and trim and all of that um but also there's a plan for Outdoor Learning space to be created there I think the PTO is going to help with that and the gym floor we were on the gym floor I think that's the original gym floor from 1928 and we had issues with steam pipes leaking underneath it there's some warping you may have seen that when you walked on it so at some point in time we're going to get that on our docket as well and and look and see what we can do with the gym for so anyway kudos to miss Wyman Jeff RBC did the whole stage setup we had live music and uh just was a

046great day so thank you and that concludes my report thank you to the president's report um as Dr smok mentioned we had the chance to have a a board dinner at Jefferson's school so thanks Mrs Wyman I still think your games are rigged but that's me just I'm just a little bitter but uh and I I took a self-guided tour prior to the meeting I just noticed I told you Mrs W it's amazing how neat and tidy the hallways are and they're free of clutter and it's for being the oldest school in the district it does not show so and my sad reality is is I realized when I did the math is I started attending Jefferson grade school in the first half of the 95 years not too happy about that but it is

047what it is um we had a couple board members go to this Central Illinois Valley IB meeting Jerry and Tom went last Wednesday I believe so I don't know if you two have anything to share on that or any takeaways or babysitting Craig the whole time whatever uh well my two cents are it was a it was a good meeting to go to if you guys get a chance to go to the regional meetings I would definitely go um I think there's like three around here I try to make one of those three I always learn something new this time I learned that there is a library at the iasb so that was interesting to know and uh anyway they they just give tidbits of information and there's a couple breakout sessions that that helps

048um I attended the negotiations one and there was a new Schoolboard one so it was very uh very well put together and Tom was a a guest speaker so we are we're big time because of Tom and it's coming to an end but I did get a new responsibility and I'm going to serve on a committee it's the 2030 committee there was the 2020 committee um and I think there's going to be about 13 school board members and picture this 40 superintendents um so it's going to be a big group but we're going to look at student safety student achievement funding some of the Mandate issues it was pointed out and this one shocked me if we were to comply with all of the state mandates on what we teach it would take 15,000 hours

049of time on the part of if I got that right that's right and there's only 9,000 hours in the school year so my math isn't very good but uh I don't think that works out that's why we're spending so much time talking about mandates in Springfield and Washington and so but I will be on that committee there's three meetings and uh we'll see where we go with those issues 5500 bills that were sent out to the the legisl yes and then over a thousand of those bills impact public education and some of them are pretty silly for instance this this one was brought up at one of the meetings that I was at but a legislator one of leading one of the leaders in the in the house proposed a bill mandating toilet paper in

050all of the restrooms in the Chicago public schools because somebody called and complained instead of picking up a phone and calling a janitor doing whatever they write a b I mean just giving you examples of some of the craziness that goes on so I don't want to take I probably taking too much time but there's a lot of craziness thank you for that um just more information will be coming on our the the Illinois associate School Board member the meeting that's coming up in November or less probably a month away or something like that pretty close so um and then anything for a agenda building this evening uh agenda building I want to make sure that everybody knows what it takes so good job Dr sander what it takes to do these emergency response exercises

051I was a big part of that too in the military have a lot of passion for that but the biggest thing is and this is why you got the right person for the right job there is you have to make calm out of the chaos and if you don't practice and this is why you you know we have to make sure that we practice it gets very chaotic and hopefully Lord willing that we never ever have to use it but you have to practice it so call out the chaos is is really what what those exercises are about so that's why you're a good person for that job yeah thank you for sure anything else that we'll move on to discussion items our first thing is the levy so miss Kowski or CFO will come

052forward and ly presentation seems like we just discussed the budget not too long ago now it's some love he sees picture down okay uh so as Dr smok just said I feel like I do the budget then I do the budget again so quickly but obviously this one's a rough estimate what we think what we could be looking at um for the next year so the first thing I usually go over with you is just our timeline of what we're looking at today I'm presenting to you November I'll be um asking you to approve um and then in December actually having the public hearing um and then the final Levy approval in December and then of course I have to turn it in the last Tuesday of December um this is the the basic information

053information I always provide every year and how it's always calculated I have a big spreadsheet um that I do everything in um I think a couple of you have sat down with me before and gotten a little bit detailed uh as as far as the different equations and calculations that are done in order to come up with what we do but essentially it's last year's um extension CPI new growth and then we get this year's extension so it's a it's a pretty straightforward process but a lot of calculation so the highlights what does this year or next year's um Levy look like or this year's Levy that's going to be collected in next fiscal year um the total increase in Levy is a little over 2 million and that's without the bond and interest um

054Levy factored in of that um the total increase in salaries is 1.2 million now that's an estimate of course um I don't know exactly what that number is going to look like but that's my my ballpark and again with the insurance um is my ballpark too um if you remember we had 20 18% increase and then a 9% increase in the last couple years I'm putting 15 there I don't know how close I am on that but um you know I'd love to say it's going to be 3% but the way things have been going with Healthcare in the recent years um 15 is probably a closer number um our overall tax without the bond and interest Levy is 4.99 whereas last year without it it was 5.29 so obviously going down um and then

055the capital projects include the roofs that we've talked about um the high school locker room renovation that we've were going out for bid for um but payments towards the Morton Academy and early childhood education are budgeted to come from the bond and inses fund actually it's technically the capital project projects fund but uh regardless um it's it's factored in a little differently and I'll show you that a little bit later in the presentation we're assuming our evidence-based funding will be reliable like it has been um and around the same amount um each year it's been a little different uh as far as the tier funding that's increases but it it varies but it's not a ton could be 25 to 90,000 depending on where we fall and um what kind of money the state has

056to to divy up to us um the CPI is we're utilizing is 5% the actual was more like 6 and a half% but since we're tax capped we can only use that five um the E is given to us by the tazwell County Supervisor of Assessments and they are very very very reliable um not all school districts can say that um or not all counties I should say can say that but ours tends to be very um spot on on usually so I I feel very confident in the numbers that they always give me um my new property is at 8.2 million compared to 11.4 last year and so then our total eav including new property is a little over 700 million um compared to 652 last year and that was a 99.5% increase so

057our total CPT I'm going to keep it at that 2.78 if you remember that was my budgeted number for this year and we got that nice little $500,000 extra um notification and what we're anticipating um but I can't Bank on that again this is such a big who knows what's going to happen um but I I feel confident with going with the 2.78 so that's where where I'm landing with that um this factors in some salary increases including like minimum wage increases um you know all all the the different factors factored in again this is a guesstimate as well because we don't know exactly where that's going to end up um expenditures in onm are based on half the completion of the hike uh the high school locker room project in fy2 24 and then

058half next year so I've kind of factored that in and then again just stating that the health insurance costs are budgeted to increase that 15% the amount of um projected increase for the Ed fund alone is 1.6 million and again even within there it's primarily salaries and healthare um for those increases um and then the overall tax rate 4.99 without the issuance of bonds with the issuance of bonds we'd be looking at 5.1 which is obviously still lower than last year's what did I say that was 59 29 29 that was without the bond and interest Levy so it was like 5.4 something I believe just so you know this is just a picture of what our new property look like over the last 10 years um obviously much higher back in 2013 to 16

059then we had some drops from 17 to 21 and then last year and this year still sizable increases or reasonable increases and then this is our eav over the years Trend M definitely good Trend and then this is our Ed fund expenditures that I am budgeting again this can change this is just the first time you see these numbers but hopefully I'm I'm fairly close on all of this um you know looking at uh the salary increases are thrown in there that increase in health care um seven and a half% and the other benefits uh and then all other expenses with a 3% increase as you can look down and compare like the budget in 24 for purchase Services versus the estimated Levy for 25 it's only a $28,000 increase it's a very small number

060for those other areas um but definitely something that I think that we can stick within uh this one is the building fund expenditures um that 4.8 million in the capital includes some of the high school phase one expenditures and fi25 that I mentioned um but again it does not include the Morton Academy or early childhood expenditures or construction that we've talked about um that's factored in in another place it hasn't been decided but I have put it in there as a placeholder just in case that is the direction that we go that does not affect our Levy though or change things for our Levy and then this is the one big picture of everything Pine of put together and like I mentioned earlier a couple of you have seen this spreadsheet and when you click

061into my cells lots of factoring goes on goes on in the spreadsheet um but a few things to point out to you um the eav current year new growth increase um is 1.67 and then the eav current year over previous year increase is the 9.48 or n n and a half% that I mentioned earlier um as you can see the overall rate technically is 49883 I put 4.99 on the other page but that's actually what it ends up as the bottom portion is what I present or provide um to uh request what our Levy actually will look like um those numbers aren't always exact because I typically balloon them a little bit as I am suggested or that is suggested that we do so that we don't lose any of the eav that might not

062have been captured by Taswell County when they gave us their their estimates so it's just rounding that's involved whenever I do turn it in just so you know and then this is the actual FY 25 proposed tenative budget um keep in mind that the negative uh amount in the Ed fund shown there that 1.8 million that is due to me moving the cppt money from Ed fund to the omm as well as the movement of the interest income from oh no I missed the city sorry I go back do I have to exit out two pages away you have it in board folders You' like to look at it there yes indeed thank you um so as I was saying that 1.8 is it is due to the movement of cprt to omm from the

063Ed fund as well as the interest income um that we talked about um at the last time I presented to you again that can always change too if we get more cppt maybe we won't have to take the amount that is typically allotted to the ad fund and it can stay there and we can put the remaining amount or the additional amount in the onm um multiple things can happen another thing that could happen is depending on the project and the timing of payments and and how that all works out perhaps part of it can go into FY 26 you know so there's lots of movement here that is unknown at this time um but then if you notice the capital projects um fund which is not not something you normally see on this page

064I don't normally have that CU it's typically zero or I have them for a few years now I have factored in if we do the issuance of bonds what that might potentially look like for FY 25 and as you can see all of the days and reserves are still at a healthy amount so we're still above that 180 that is required this is um the the um page that everybody seems to like those top two lines that red and the green those that's our revenue and our expenditures so of course it makes sense that our Revenue expenditures tend to be very similar um there's a couple years that we had a lot of Revenue and not as much expenditure that extra cppr team money that we had coming in and we didn't expect it and

065we didn't have plans for it um but then now we're spending a little bit of that money for the projects that we've been doing so that's kind of why the red is is higher than that green um the blue line is the reserves so as you can see as our Revenue went up so did our reserves obviously it's going to follow lot in suit with that and then the orange line is the levy itself and then the purple one is the salaries how much longer the minimum wage will we be dealing with that is that a couple f25 yeah so um January of 2025 is the last official increase for that any questions can you back up a couple slides to the spreadsheet of numbers this one or the one more this one so the

0665.87% you want to explain that what does that mean I know so so that is the increase from without um the bond and interest Levy that is the increase from last year to this year and what that that number that percentage increases and that's over five so we can only Levy 5% more than we levied last year but that's above 5% because of New Growth new new property so the actual Levy difference is 5.87 almost almost 6% but we're capped at 5% of last year's Levy as an increase even though the actual CPI is 6.5% so inflation you can judge for yourself what actual inflation is versus what the CPI is calculated to be yes so I just wanted to make that point that in a pel County uh or pel District that we're Limited

067in that way regardless of what happens with inflation we're limited by 5% but that number is above 5% and that's explained by New Growth correct yes yes and keeping in mind that when or if um CPI ends up at zero that's zero growth for the district if that day comes um that it hasn't been that low since I started here I think the lowest I've seen was 1.8 I think um but I did see in p last years because of course I go back and I look at all the the older years and I think 0 2 I think I saw at one point and then one of the years a negative I believe so um obviously it's not always like this any questions I can't help myself so even though the the rate's going

068down if you're assess value is going up more than the rate went down the taxes will increase so just you're is lower but your amount could be higher yes yeah any other questions so next steps approval of the levy yes so in November um I'll ask you for the approval of this and then in December it will be the hearing and the final uh Levy approval yeah okay all right thank you very much all right next up we have some policy discussion as um we said at our last meeting you know there was a lot to digest in terms of policies and I'm trying to boil this down as well as we can um so we had distri uh employe use of District email um and we had some conversation about that I just want

069to kind of give you an update of where that's at so right now uh we are looking at new handbook language I think I shared one varation of that with you but that's even been edited since you've seen it tomorrow we're going to be talking about new handbook language um with our administrative team and kind of getting their input in this as well and then I'll bring it back to you and say this is what we're planning to put in the the employee handbook and you know the gist of it is to encourage our employees to use private email addresses for things that are majorly private issues um and a few other considerations that we're going to put in there I don't know that we really necessarily need to have a policy change on that

070but you might as a board might decide no we want something in our policy but we'll start with handbook language and then we'll go from there and if you want something stronger we can certainly entertain that as well so still hanging out there with that I'll we'll get you a draft as soon as we kind of have our administrative team look at it as well any any other comments about that before we move on to a different topic I I did like to draft okay a start of it anyway okay I think that'll help um in a lot of areas all right I like the emphasis on um improving ours our staff's understanding of their roles as public servants and and not really trying in any way to limit their expression or freedom but to

071educate them further on the what we as a board talked about what we expect those accounts to be used for and then the education on um just it's not a private email account I just think was really well worded and we want to emphasize the fact that you know they they're using their District email account there could be things that could be devotes that are that are private that they don't want divulge we also have language that we really haven't talked about much at this table that we want them to use the district email accounts for district business we don't want teachers using private email accounts to talk with parents or students and that's that's not a good situation when there's there's a system in place where we can't account for what was said or

072can't look it up so we really want to encourage our teachers and staff to also use the account for school business and not use a private account account for school business so that was part of the emphasis in that language as well reminds me that reminds me of when um the legislation was updated um to really include some of teachers communication and really things that I think just make the relationship with students more casual it increases a lot more liability for our teachers and so as we look at this email policy you know we want teachers in their email during the day and I know my children really appreciate when they get an email back from their teacher in the evening and that may be something our community may have to deal with if our

073teachers start separating out a lot of their um just routine emails from their school email accounts our students and parents just may not get that turnaround time um so just trying to think about both sides of this as we're looking at a policy change what are our intended consequences and our unintended consequences right that's a great that's a great point and some some of our employees may need to figure out how can you toggle back and forth between two accounts in our system because if you need to check on a doctor appointment at lunchtime you know is it easy to toggle back and forth in the Google system that we have so that might be some training that we need to to look at on how to do that so yeah maybe our leadership team

074or principles can give us feedback on if you know how we can help staff you guys do a great job with that thank you any other points you want to make about that okay moving on to bullying harassment I think last time we spoke we weren't necessarily looking for a change in policy that's very well laid out in a lot of different policies about discrimination bullying harassment and the lack of Tolerance on that and the process and the timelines there's actually new legislation that we have in policy to reflect that but what what I think I did say at that time was I'll ask our administrative team how it's going even though this isn't data that with numbers what is what does it look like out there recently so I asked him a few questions

075in the last leadership team meeting and I said you know how does it look like there's a surge is it more than it's ever been are we seen a spike in it and they said we're not seeing a surge over these last few years it it's been very consistent it's it's always been in schools it still is and then I started asking questions about what kind of things are we seen and um one of the points that administrator made or several made was that a lot of times what's being called bullying isn't actually bullying it might be harassment or name calling or disagreements or complaints or different but bullying really has three main components to it there's a power component to it where one kid has power power over another maybe he's older maybe he's

076bigger maybe he's more threatening maybe there's some Authority aspect to it um that there's a certain purpose behind it it's there's a I want something out of this um I want to uh make you submit in some way and that there's a pattern that it's a repeated situation so that's really how we're looking at bullying so a lot of things that people might be calling bullying we don't necessarily Define that as bullying but that doesn't mean it's right we still address it it's harassment it's mistreatment or disrespect but that was one point uh that was made clear in that that conversation they said a lot of it involves name calling to point blank a lot of name calling back and forth which we've seen in kids I me know one of our goals is to

077teach kids how to respect one another so this is part of that process unfortunately where there's discipline involved and discussions and trying to curb that and uh grow our kids to a level of maturity where they don't do that anymore but we we've got kids of all ages so you know we're going to schools have always had that and we're going to continue to have that and address it as it happens uh they they indicated you know investigating these things sometimes is very tricky because believe it or not kids are not always honest about what they've said or done so that's always a so we have a complaint an allegation but then you have no corroboration or Witnesses and so there's a lot of frustration that can be involved in that that doesn't mean you

078don't address it it just means that there isn't always consequences You Can't Always Get to the bottom of it they said complaints often involve friends or the harassment is actually Mutual it's a back and forth but then one kid says well I'm going to complain about it but it's actually there's been Mutual things going back and forth between two students so that was one thing they mentioned um and in all that we tried to solidify as we concluded that conversation solidify that um you know what's important is that we're always acting on this we're always taking the complaints we're always looking for it we're trying our best to get to the bottom of it we're doing it on the timeline that's required and we're doing the communications that we're required to do with parents on

079both sides of the issue so that both sides know within 24 hours about the complaint how it's being addressed and that it's being investigated so so bottom line maybe maybe it's not worse than ever maybe it is a lot of these things that isn't exactly bullying regardless of what it is our job is to address it as quickly as possible in a community unate with parents as quickly as possible so just wanted to share that with you there was a lot longer conversation I kind of boiled it down but those were some of the points that were made yeah do we have good coverage on the playgrounds when kids are out there no not in terms of like so if you go to a playground right now if you were to walk over to Grundy

080during lunch time you're going to see three or four monitors which you're going to see kids everywhere on the playground so is there an adult that's within earshot of all those kids no way that's probably never going to happen here or anywhere oh anywhere yeah for sure so that's not just Morton that we probably have more coverage more supervision than other schools actually but to cover that kind of territory that kind of acreage with kids all over and and what they're saying and yeah you're never going to do that so you know but kids also need to learn to play together and work together and we'll deal with the fall and they always do every recess there a couple different concerns that happen and they address that and that's really part of the learning process

081with kids is having that opportunity to have unstructured play have concerns with one another and then you know as needed have an adult address them that's actually to me a very healthy process so that's what we do so um that's a little bit I just want to kind of catch you up to that conversation I'm not recommending any changes to policy but if you think of any certainly we will entertain those I have a question uhuh um to the um audience remark is there a different process for a student to report a bullying harassment um for a fellow student versus um for a faculty staff bus driver you know more of an adult how are how are those complaints handled that's a good question so all complaints should be handled one of two ways we

082have a hotline form which maybe not too many people know about or access it's really maybe not the best way really to but if someone wants to be maybe they're at home and they don't have access to an trusted adult that might be an Avenue for them we just at least wanted to provide an online Avenue that's not what mostly gets used mostly it's um a student going to a trusted adult that could be a teacher it could be the Principal or another administrator and that's that's what we would do for any case of harassment whether it's another faculty member or um a student we would want a student to start with a trusted adult to report it and then we would that trusted adult would take it from there into the proper channels so

083really I think the process is the same um and it's for students to feel comfortable to to trust an adult with that information and make sure they do that right away or a parent sometimes will be the one that reports that okay and then I just had a quick comment if you'll forbear with me um just because I think it echoes our board sentiments from the last meeting's discussion um there was an now outdated example in medicine where surgeons would say well if I haven't taken out you know so many normal appendixes this year that means that um I'm not taking out enough of appendixes and the point was that missing an appendicitis would be fatal and so as we look at our bullying system and the number of complaints we're getting I would rather

084us have more complaints where as you described well-trained faculty and staff members evaluate the situation and and downgrade it to not fatal than us not having the actual cases reported so I think it is really important that even if one student a year used our website bullying button that button I think should still be there because as many Avenues as we can provide for our students to find safe supportive people we want to do and our goal is not necessarily to reduce the number of people concerned but rather to find that maybe it's not as serious so we are finding the serious one thank you I'm sorry I couldn't say that more efficiently um well put yeah we definitely prefer over reporting to Under reporting or you could have just said that yes I like

085the way you said you're not limited to 5 minutes okay thank you for that uh a couple other so the the next two things are a little more in depth um but I'll try to expedite those conversations so it's use of buildings is another one how do we use our buildings who do we let use our buildings one of our board members had an email today asking like how are our buildings used like who comes to our buildings and uses them now that aren't School related and so I did kind of a cursory thought and asked also Carol Lou Who who's in charge of processing this I said have I forgotten anyone in this list so pto's obviously use our buildings the scouts Boys and Girls Scouts use our buildings Park District and their Affiliates

086like heat and different soccer organizations associated with the park district um use our buildings for free we also use their facilities for free so the softball field the baseball field soccer field and cross country there's a lot of things we use the park district for so we have a mutual agreement with the park district on they're using our facilities for free just as we use theirs uh we have non-park District sports like there's a soccer uh group that's not affiliated with the park district they use our facilities they rent that though parents rent our facilities for birthday parties especially I mean mostly at the elementary school not necessarily high school or Junior High uh the Tri County Tennis tournament was hosted at our tennis courts Morton Fine Arts Association uses birth the Frank Performing Arts

087Center and that Center also gets rented for many different purposes I didn't even begin to try to track on everyone that uses that dance studios have used our facilities um we we've had adults rent the gyms for basketball in the morning had that uh we have not had a church rent our facilities in a long time but we did for for several years going way back and of course we would have to do that on neutral CR criteria you don't tell a church no but tell another business yes it's it's it's a completely neutral uh decision so churches can use our facilities um but we've not really had any other adult groups that I can think of that have rented our facilities like some organization or political organization or anything like that that I that

088I that's come to my mind uh our fire department and police have used our facilities pretty extensively this summer with uh Fire Department using Lincoln School for drilling for their purposes while our students are not there so that was in the summer police have used our schools for uh active shooter uh training again not when students are in the building so we've let those uh organizations use our buildings so you know whatever I mean I think that our policies for public use of our buildings are are where we want them the alternative is pretty Draconian it would be nobody gets to use it but us and I don't think that's how we want to live with our communities supporting and paying for the schools and you know it's a taxpayer we're a taxpayer paid organization

089we just looked at the Levy right we know how many millions of dollars taxpayers put into our school district so I think I feel like we're in a good spot with that and we allow you know the question mark is who gets to do it for free and who doesn't and those are sometimes tricky things uh governmental agencies that we have um you know agre agreements with like the park district I feel like that's solid that's a solid rule for us we use their facilities they use ours we don't charge them they don't charge us so other than that I I feel like we're in the right spot here we open our buildings to just about anyone we do charge rent for those that are using it for their private purposes so um I don't

090think we want to stop that from happening so and we don't we don't really have problems once in a while something will get broken you know we've got cameras we often identify hey this happened the organization pays for it we really have very minimal issues with as much as our buildings get used any comments about the use of our buildings are we in compliance with the law governing access to our buildings Yes yes again we could decide to close it all down I I wouldn't want to begin to do that the the law also addresses what students can do students can have their own uh groups and they by law at the secondary level so like high school level they can have their own non School sponsored groups they can they by law it's called

091the equal access act by law they can use our buildings our classrooms they can have meetings in our classrooms and they do we have a diversity Club at the high school we have a fellowship of Christian athletes Club at the high school those are not School sponsored clubs we have a faculty person there to supervise them but they are not part of the club they're not they're not supposed to be leading any any part of the club they're there just to make sure okay everything's in the room it's way it was it's left the way it began no one's you know there just for student supervision so that again is done on a completely neutral basis and so students are allowed to use the um the school facilities for students leg cloes so that's that's

092in compliance with the law also and we do not charge them rep by the way for that so um so the next topic and the last Topic in this series maybe is the most complicated one uh is the dissemination of materials when how do we allow people to disseminate information that's not school related and that is a complicated process um we've made decisions and these decisions are apt to change if you wanted to change them we could move forward to change them but I'll try to be as concise as I can on this so if you read through some of the forms and the things that people have to go through to get things distributed you probably started to get a sense of how we do this we we reserve our district email our websites

093and our electronic signs almost entirely strictly for school sponsored things so that would be things that are actually related to the school like PTO is an affiliate of the school but other groups that might meet aren't karate club wouldn't be we don't have a karate club if students formed one and they wanted to meet and do something we wouldn't put it on our Marquee we wouldn't put it in our district email or on our website so that's kind of the line we've drawn up to this point so what about the other places like what about school announcements and those kind of things that's when it gets more of a grayer at um and I'll be happy to answer any questions I'll say a few things and I'll I'll let you ask questions but um so

094we we do allow some so in terms of the district email websites and electronic signs you might see some things that aren't exactly School related but they're Community related or governmental related for example you might see something about pumpkinfest like I think literally in um I think during the Pumpkin Festival we had something on our Lincoln Market ke that that was the pickup location for the bicycle ride that they the Pumpkin Festival I don't remember what it was called but because that was a chamber oriented thing for our community we put it on a marquee to help people guide them to where they're supposed to be so there are those governmental sort of things like Library the chamber The Village the park district where we might utilize those systems to advertise something that they're doing

095in association with us uh but commercially we're not going to to allow any kind of commercial oriented things there you probably noticed that we have two levels of approval for distribution of things one is General Distribution basically they give them to us and we pass them out to their T target audience could be on paper it could be electronic there's an electronic backpack on our website that we can just put things right in and um parents can access them electronically a lot of it is is done by paper so General Distribution is actually Distributing the information to the targets students or staff by handing it out and getting it to those people the next level sometimes we won't approve that and the next level is that we will post and provide it so that means

096we'll advertise that it exists but we're not going to hand it out to everybody and people who are interested would need to go pick it up at the location that it's at usually the main office so we would allow a poster to go up hey if you're interested in this go pick up more information we would advertise that on our our announcements so like to kids we'd say hey you can if you have interested in this thing you can go pick up information about it this gets to be sometimes a gray area um we we look at what is the audience is the audience Discerning adults or are they impressionable children so that's one of the things we kind of look at the other thing is is this simply a commercial or is this of

097some kind of actual benefit to kids and I'll give you a couple examples um one that always comes up every year Bradley camps so Bradley University is going to host a softball camp now that's a profit organization right Bradley University and they're going to try to make money off of kids to do a softball camp but our kids might want to go to a softball Camp right so that might be the kind of thing we'd say okay that's kind of a commercial entity but our kids could get some benefit we wouldn't distribute it but we would post it and then we provide it to for whoever's interested that's the kind of call we would make on that and these get greater than this that might be obvious to you but they get gr are like

098well when there was Family Video when there used to be remember when we used to rent videos I don't know if you remember that they used to do a thing where if you get an A on your report card you get a free video rental and so you can go in and show your report card you got three A's you got three free rentals that's I mean that's a total commercial right but yet our kids get a benefit from it you know and they get to brag about their report card so that would be one of those cases where like you might mle that over a while like is the benefit equal to the commercial you know and those are the kind of decisions that Joe gets to make now I made those decisions for

09915 years so there there's these gray areas in some of these things and you know to say that we always make the exact right call you know sometimes it's a judgment call so the Family Video thing we would say yeah we'll let you put a poster up and if people are interested they can get more information about it or the poster itself might tell you the whole story like go to go there and get that so um I know that's a lot of me talking I thought I'd give you maybe some time to ask some questions or maybe give you some scenario are and maybe maybe you had a chance to look at the forms and if you have questions about what they say and how we kind of deliberate all of that be happy

100to talk more about that broke wor us out good that's my goal I don't think it's broke my comment last meeting was is that the importance of these being implemented is much more important than changing the policies the implementation I mean just making the staff and the admin realize that whether it's the posting and the Hand distribution materials think it through it's easy to be nice and say yes but that may not be the right answer and buling yes it's everything is serious needs to be looked at proven till it's not and so and at this point if anybody still wants to use their personal email for personal use after this they need to we don't it needs more than a policy to tell them not to because this should be clear evidence that it's

101just better not to so that's my take on it okay other thoughts and and these get by the goalie there are times things get distributed they weren't supposed to get distributed so there there's humans in the system and errors have errors do happen on this I just want you know that that happens we correct them when we see them do we still periodically review the rent charges particularly berth of Frank yes that's something we review on a regular basis uh Miss Kowski is involved in that process considering you know what does it cost to heat that place and have a custodian there and what's other places renting for and so we do a review of that probably not every year we used to hear about it and I just haven't for a while so okay

102not that we need to but all right that was the only reason I asked the question last year we last year we reviewed it yeah okay and mistakes do happen people are people and they're going to make poor choices and as long as those mistakes are you know accounted for and I don't think that we need to publicly say what we do as long as they're accounted for yeah yeah all right so we're keeping all of those policies and practices as they are all right thank you for that long discussion appreciate you looking at all the materials well all right next up we have teacher evaluation changes and extra duty position changes so Dr sander you're up okay um so the evaluation committee met on October 10th and we looked at an agenda that had

103basically three different categories of uh discussion items the first one was Law changes really kind of ties our hands to it but um the information that I brought was uh in August AUST um the governor signed into public law um changes that uh were made in regards to um tenure so tenure used to be four years to make tenure you could get accelerated tenure if you had three consecutive excellence and then there was this thing called portable tenure which didn't get used very often that law has changed so now um new employees to a district can make tenure in three years accelerated tenure goes down to two years and the portable tenure and I just went to a a legal seminar on this the the language for the portable tenure is a moot point um

104and so it's it's convoluted it would require you to bring your last evaluation from your previous District you had had to have been tenured in your previous District bring that excellent evaluation well if you're an excellent teacher in your previous District most likely you're going to be excellent excellent okay and the law says you can make tenure in two years if you're excellent excellent so the whole portable tenure is just kind of a m point and so that's what the the legal said they're like we don't we don't have any rationale for that so that was one of the big rule changes the second uh rule change was um it it it's kind of a a minor um it's the uh date at which uh the deadline for issuing probationary teachers nonrenewal notices and it

105used to say 45 days before the end of the school term but every District was different and so they they actually picked taex day April 15th as the hard deadline so that's uniform across those um those notices uh nonrenewal notices would have to be umed by the person by um April 15th the third law change was in your final year if a teacher is in their final year they can request to have their in they being evaluated in their final year they can request to have it waved and basically what the waiver is is that they would just choose to use their previous evaluation as their official um uh evaluation score for their last year so that those were the three uh Law changes uh that have taken place um the admin team last May

106uh was looking at kind of our evaluation process and so we discussed at the leadership team um the pre and post observation questions and so one of the meetings we sat there and and went through all the questions both prepost I think there's about eight questions for each um and we really condensed those down uh we and we made them more applicable to what were our initiatives are now like standards based uh classrooms and and that so um some of the questions just were just general um and we're trying to be more specific with that and so we brought that to the committee we had really good conversation and so um the committee agreed to go ahead and move forward with those changes that will take place next school year and I should have said

107all of the Law changes they're in effect right now for the 2324 school year pre and post observation questions will go into effect next school year and then the last item is just a running agenda item that we do every year uh we have to annually approve our parah joint agreement so when the par law came into effect they wrote in there that you have to uh have a a system to determine which grouping your teachers are so are in there's four groups and that is used for The Honorable dismissal list in the event that we would go through a riff and so group one group two group three group four uh as you go up in groups that's the mo most secure position and so they gave districts the uh ability to um adopt

108what the state had recommended or come up with some you know if you had certain caveats you know for group three placing you know teachers in into a different group that committee could do that so the two years I've been here the committee looks at it and goes yep we're make we're not going to make any changes so that I think that's just a continual process on that so that is the summary of the evaluation committee this is the discussion on that um the next step in that process is we'd like to bring that back to the board at the next meeting as a official action item um so that we can uh move forward and get these changes put into place so what questions do you have so these are just reflecting the Law

109changes this is a part of the negotiations process so we are negotiating with the teachers through this process not that there's a lot of things that we can decide to do or not do but it does require the board appr board's approval because this is a negotiation process the administrative team is doing that on behalf of the board through this evaluation process just want to explain the formality of that and why the requires the board's approved positive April 15th is nice just because it's not never moves it's April 15th that's a good that's a good point it is any idea why the law felt that the last year's evaluation could be waved any is there a benefit in retir reement or do those evaluations follow you it really doesn't follow you you know once you're

110retired you're retired um I just think it's more of a convenience thing in in the entire process um the amount of time to do evaluations uh you know if you have someone and this is just Joe's subjective opinion on this you know you've got someone that has worked 35 years hopefully they've been excellent in last you know 10 15 20 years may be longer I think it's just one of those you know hey we're going to we're going to write this on in there and they can choose to wave it um it'll be interesting to see if anyone doesn't wave it but uh anyway legisl heard the legislators heard the outcry about the time intens intensity to this and if you recall we made a change in the evaluation plan where it used to be

111every other year teachers were evaluated now it's every 3 years that's a result of that outcry of the the time and effort that goes into this process this is just one more way of cutting a little more time out of it because why are we why are you evaluating a retiring teacher what are you what are you trying to do to improve when you know that's a March thing and their their time with us is about over so yeah okay so the next Bo me will have the approval of that uh as an action item and what about extra Duty positions okay with the extra Duty positions uh the the committee met on October 3rd and we looked at um two different groupings first grouping I'm going to talk about is all things that were

112academic related and so there were two proposals that came on the academic side of the house and the first one you're all familiar with is the skills USA I would say that is a uh good uh practice on how to bring a new activity on board um so Mr McFarland Mrs Beard have done this this is they're going into their third year so uh they really haven't been compensated for their you know previous work when an idea comes on up it's always a good opportunity to see you know hey is this going to catch on is are the students going to buy into it um I think that they've checked those box and so uh some of the information I put in here on this um year one they had 18 students year two jumped

113to 59 they're expecting about 77 last week they were in the middle of getting students registered for um skills USA uh let's go back to last year there was 19 students that competed at state two qualified for National for the national competition um we are one of three schools that were recognized as a chapter of Excellence program and so that's all attributed to the work that um Mr McFarland Miss beard and you know the high school staff Jamie adolphson she is the administrator that oversees the careers in technical education um that's what the skills USA is I it is it is absolutely phenomenal I'd hate to you know quantify and say that could be one of the most exciting High School events when you see that many kids from the state competing in so many

114different areas it is just absolutely exciting to see the amount of work that goes into that and it's it's all the trades it's police it's EMTs it's hair styling it's it's just absolutely phenomenal to see drone playing drones was one of the most interesting things and if anybody got a chance to see that or see video of it a a net cage about half the size of this room where kids are flying drones and trying to get them to land and pick up things and different obstacles and competing with other schools on that it's incredible yeah uh so that that was a recommendation that came from the committee um it's new so we didn't have any current thing to go off of and so when we looked at the amount of hours and I don't

115know how quick I can put my hands on it they're they are both putting in hundreds of hours and it really is a year-long activity and so the committee had great discussion on that they looked at um a placement in category h of our extra Duty so category H is the 13 to 20% um and so uh that's anywhere between you know $5,000 to $8,200 we would naturally if this is approved by the board give them the credit for year one year two so they'd be coming in as a year three and get placed in that range so um I can go on to the next one if you and then I can pause and we can take questions about the academic side so if that's okay um the next one was the junior high

116special education position um that is currently in the contract as a category B which is a 3 to 6% and the title for that is that's the Special Education team lead so the junior high has team lead positions um and it's for you know the four different teams and I think there's PE and the red team gray team uh Green Team white PE special ed and Encore so those are all the team leaders if you look at where special ed was when that was probably initiated in the contract Special Ed fit that you know exactly what everyone else was doing since then the duties and responsibilities associated with our special ed person has grown and I would say exponentially um they are responsible for doing a lot of planning managing case loads IEPs and so

117um the junior high staff grabbed the high school special ed Department chair and compareed to the duties and responsibilities with what they're doing now the the junior high is really kind of the pivot person they've got you know four to five you know schools that they have to reach down to with sixth graders and sit in on all of those meetings and get the information take it for two years and then hand it off to the high school and so uh the committee did have really good conversation and discussion on this one there is also a junior High department head position but when we looked at the duties and responsibilities they almost reflect what the high school special ed department chair or coordinator is getting paid and so that was the recommendation it's moving that

118from a category B from a 3 to 6% to an 8 to 13% and uh that that's that's one that just is it's an evolution over time additional duties responsibility um with her special ed staff um do you have any questions on the academic side on those recommendations okay oh man the next one I almost need uh a visual board because last year we added um competitive oh man I I think it's competitive Che no last year was competitive dance this year we're adding competitive cheer to the mix and so what we were looking at here is on the athletic side there's six categories here between can I just give you a little bit of something before you yes so when we went through our Title 9 um uh issue part of that was to

119survey students about their interests and to increase female Athletics if at all possible if there was an interest in it in that survey there was a high degree of interest for competitive dance and an apparent interest in competitive cheerleading although when it came to it there there wasn't an interest there maybe I think people said I'm interested but didn't follow through when they had a meeting well now the sentiment has changed and that's what's led to competitive cheer so that was an original part of our survey our title N9 survey that we were reaching out to kids and asking this question particularly females and while we're now reacting to that because the interest has changed they said there was an interest but there wasn't now they're is an interest is that a fair way to

120say it it is okay I just want to give you that history so there was uh Varsity dance fall and the way we do uh our set up our dance and our cheer is that we have basically you have the opportunity to be in two different teams the fall and then the winter um and so we do have Varsity dance that performs at football games um and so we're looking at a change between four and 6% for the fall Varsity dance and 2 to 4% for the JV dance for the fall um then we've got four categories of cheerleading that uh was also discussed and keeping in mind the cheerleading is building on on the competitive cheer that they're going to move and and participate in the competitive cheer series The competitive cheer is extra

121events that take place on weekends so they're doing not only are they doing um basketball games Home and Away uh but they're also going to be going to competitions and those competitions aren't always just right around you know Central all white sometimes they're uh up in the northern suburbs um sometimes they're down in St Louis and so just with the addition we're looking at um The Proposal was to to move Varsity fall cheer from 6% to 8% the JV from four to 6% and then the winter cheer there's a bigger um there's a bigger increase because of the additional competitions that will take place during that winter season and so the the proposals to go from 8% to 12% and then 52% to 10% okay all that being said the changes for the Athletics because

122they're flat percentages they're not in a Range would go from $112,000 to about1 18,000 so you're looking at about six and a $6,500 increase for those activities and so that was on the um athletic site now that will match up closely to what the changes that we adopted the board approve last year um the biggest discrepancy between cheer and dance if anyone's asking well why is you know Varsity Cheer get 12% that dance is is not as much because the dance team just performs at home games only okay and they typically do a sideline and they do their halftime routine year is they're they're going on the road with with the athletic teams and so their number of events is is significantly more throughout that throughout that time period so so that's what the committee

123is bringing forward and as Dr smog said um you know this is the time to ask questions if you need more time to look at this and you have additional questions that come on up you know please forward those questions on over to me I'll try to get you the answers as fast as I can but um you know between the two um we're looking at close about $220,000 of what I would say is new money um I would say 10,000 of those dollars are almost 11,000 is for a brand new program so questions so the percentages applied to a base salary is that correct it's not their salary right we maintain an extra Duty base separate from what our entry level teachers made they so [Music] but I just have a question what's the

124expectation to these coaches when those things kind of tend to overlap I feel like with dance last year if I remember right there were times where maybe they had like a dance competition on a Saturday and so they didn't perform on Friday at the game so like where we're saying we're paying them for both is that the expectation that they're at all you know that's a good question um it's a scheduling thing and so we got to have an awareness of that right um and then make that kind of determination you know if if you can avoid it that would be great um I'm going to have to get with Mr Jones and kind of look at the the forecast with that um with the competitive both Dance and Cheer the amount of practice time

125that is required to get prepared for the competitions that that goes up significantly um it's way different than just your normal sideline and and doing your cheers and and stunts right you know during a basketball game no I totally understand that I just didn't I hope that in the end it doesn't take away from them showing up at the stadiums and being a part of that and even if it's not coin like even if it's not at the same time but just saying like Hey we're doing this this weekend instead of this sure if an event happens on a Friday and a Saturday are they going to be at both or is it a oh we're going to go to one or the the other does that make sense it it does and I don't

126want to put the expectation too high but what's been what is what's been communicated I guess that is a really good question and you know I'd be an advocate there's you know it's an exciting time for our students in our in our community members when they're at a basketball game and you have the pep band that's playing and you've got you know the cheer and the dance that are doing their things it is definitely something that is missing when one of those components is not there I totally agree but it might be a cost of doing this in that like you said there might be conflicts right and in the you know cheerleading has changed over the years it used to be very much the mission of the supportive group for the team and now

127they're their own team right you know so there is that kind of a transition into they're into their own competitions now and there might be some cost to that but we're going to try to minimize that for the reasons Dr sander just said it's a great environment that they help create so we always add yeah do we review to see if any of the extra duties are updated themselves you know what uh that is another really good question I know um Mr wheen and I have talked about um you know when when you memorialize something in a contract uh you know being able to be flexible if if there's something that doesn't get filled you know then it doesn't get filled we're not you you know we're not paying for something uh like that and

128as things change you know like the skills USA you know three years ago that hadn't even been on the radar screen and then you have something that comes on like that um and then you sometimes wonder you know if your student body stays the same you know is is something else ramps up is there going to be less interest in in one of the other things and so uh we did talk about that um as far as like possibly linking you know instead of putting all of the different activities you know because there's there's about three pages of the different groups that are listed there um is there a better way to kind of capture that and make that more of a flexible document and so I think yeah just do your point just say

129that there's Limited number of students and they can only be in so many places and we keep adding things or there other places that we don't need the help and still want to support the kids but you also we have a budget exactly just out of curiosity why is there a fall and winter for Morton and Dunlap but the rest of the schools just have a I think it's it's whatever the schools had have always done um you know I talked to Mr Jones about that I think one of the nice things things about having two is it provides flexibility uh the other schools that have just a cheerleading squad that's their cheerleading squad they make they cheer at home football games and then they go and then they cheer at you know the basketball

130well that's a that's a long long season and and I think maybe having the flexibility to have both maybe allow someone to participate in a sport you instead of you know if that if you've got someone that's going to go that would love to cheer for football but they're a basketball player or cheer for basketball but they're a volleyball player they're going to have to make a choice and so um I'm kind of on the fence on that one I I I really see the value of having both um it sure is easier from a budget standpoint when you just have one because there that's that's what you have but then also you're kind of limiting your pool you only have one so you can kind of see both sides I like that explanation if

131it gives a girl a chance to cheer at one time and still participate in a sport I like it yep you know not all school districts add positions in the middle of a contract we're in a three-year contract it's been our practice to add things that the administration felt was needed like skills USA is a perfect example so as competitive cheer so I just want the board to know that we enter into this agreeing that these are needs and then we go through the process of trying to determine the compensation based on what other jobs there are and how they pay and the responsibilities and time commitment and try to do the best we can and not just taking whatever a teacher might be requesting but to really do that evaluation so that's gone into

132this and I want to also note that um you know as we enter in negotiations in the spring we're going to bring these numbers to the table what have we added since the last contract how much money is that and we're g to you know there's a reasonable expectation that should be acknowledged by the teachers and that this Money's been spent this is what we've added and that is going to be part of the conversation that we have in negotiations process so I think we do it well I think we add things when we need to add them and this is for the students benefit but we also don't want to forget what we've done in the midst of the beginning of a contract to the end of it so just want to let you

133know that we're going to be doing that uh survey study and figure what have we added what has that cost us since the beginning of this contract so any other questions on that very timely we feel we're on extra Duty hang in there we're almost there all right so those both those top both those topics will come back to the board at our next meeting uh for your approval since we'll be ping people do those positions I think that uh concludes our discussion items okay action moving on to action items Val I'll correct your typo do I have a motion for the Board of Education to approve Mr Jerry r as the iasb assembly delegate and Andrew Roth is the alternate oh he took he a here breaker That's a classic move MO that was

134quick not classy classic he's watching at home we're fine done thank you okay so was that Dr cross and Mrs L ne ne all right Mr Ney yes M Layman yes Dr craw yes Dr cross yes Mr breaker yes Mr red yes we will not ask Mr Roth if you're watching Andrew yeah just goes to show that is we have a presentation on this or just no just a appren there might be something Miss ki do you want to speak to U the next action item about issuing bonds yes so um Steve Adams from PMA is here to answer any questions you might have in regards to the officience of the bond thank you Steve for being here and a long meeting so appreciate you being here no problem any questions for Steve Ste we

135authorizing him to go out to receive to issue bonds you want to explain the process yeah not a problem uh I appreciate it uh this is your resolution of intent to issue working cash bonds so this starts the process uh to get the to go through the approval process for the for the working cash now what will be uh done after this is there will be a what's known as a bond issue notification act or Bina hearing uh which you open up the floor for any comment uh and then uh come I believe I'm I'm doing this trying to do this for memory in December there will be uh a parameters resolution ution so it will set highend not to exceed numbers for the actual issuance and then the plan is in early January to

136actually issue the bonds so it's it's it's a process to get to to where you're up to ready to sell the bonds and this is just teeing the ball up for that uh whole process right now so this is multiple step approval yes yes yes perf and the issuance says not to exceed 6,000 but that the limit is based on our 6 million 6 million I say 6,000 6,000 6,000,000 whatever's on the paper uh 6,000,000 so so so that but the actual limit is there's a debt limit there is a debt limit uh this is nowhere near your debt limit uh this is based on the numbers that uh we we've gone over scenarios and looked at and uh it says not to exceed the the issuance will probably be somewhere south of there but

137when you're talking working cash especially with approval you want to build in a cushion if you will uh because it's easier to come back down off that number if you would have to go higher you would have to go start the whole process over so that's why we we've we've put that little cushion in there uh you know just to allow for any changes that might happen between now and January but the the intent is to be south of of that uh $6 Million number what's our limit to the nearest million yep 14 uh no how you talking limit or cash B limit uh for for working cash I I I apologize I don't know that off the top of my head but I can look that up and and get that to Lisa it

138was in it was in your presentation last time I believe yeah I know and I fine no worries I was a lot of sleep [Laughter] got because I wasn't trying to go up to that number I was trying to utilize our fund the best way I could any other questions we have a motion to accept the resolution declaring an intent to issue not to exceed 6 million working cash fund bonds and directing that notice to of such intent to be published in the manner provided by law all once so move support further discussion call the rooll Mr neie yes Mr red that was me support oh I'm sorry I met Dr cross yes we look and sound alike it's fine Mr red yes Mr breaker yes Dr crawl yes and Mrs Layman yes thank you

139Steve for all the all your work appreciate it do I have a motion to uh approve the corrected asent consent agenda I'll move that board of ucation for the consent agenda correcting the date of the minutes approved to the October 3rd support [Music] you that's Mr red yes Dr craw yes Mrs Layman yes Mrs Mr Neely yes Mr breaker yes and Dr cross yes with that do I have a motion to inter close session for the purpose of negotiating a and Personnel Dr cross yes Mr red yes Mr breaker yes Dr crawl yes Mrs Layman yes Mr Neely yes our next meeting is November 14th at 5:30 in same location so with that we'll take 5 minutes to tear down [Music] yeah