001foreign [Music] good evening Welcome to our board meeting with that we will call the meeting to order Valerie please call the roll Mr breaker here Dr cross president Dr crawl president Mrs Layman here Mr Neely here Mr Roth president and Mr Rudd here with that please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all before we have audience presentations I'm going to read a statement on behalf of the board of education so on behalf of the board I want to take a moment to address an article that criticized the foyer contents of Michael Saunders email first of all employees are generally allowed to use their school email for some personal use as long as personal personal
002use does not interfere with their work we have reviewed our policies and employee handbook language and both make that clear the board has addressed the importance of neutrality that we require in our employees in a fairly recent policy that the board passed policy 682 States in part more Community Unit School District 709 is committed to promoting and maintaining the utmost respect for all of our students in the various ethnicities and ideologies that those in our community possess it also states it is a high priority and important goal of more Community Unit School District 709 to provide our students with the knowledge tools skills needed to successfully navigate our Global society as adults regardless of the world view they choose to adopt so it is our expectation that everyone in our district treats one another with
003respect dignity and kindness Michael Saunders has a long-standing record of being a very effective and fair-mounted fair-minded educator in our district showing kindness and caring to both his students and his staff we fully support his leadership at Grundy Elementary School [Applause] thank you this is the time set aside for audience presentation tonight the Board of Education will take this time to listen to any and all concerns but the board will not respond at this time if responses are required the board will attempt to respond in writing by the end of the next regular Board of Education meeting we have over 20 people signed up to speak tonight we will limit tonight's audience presentation to approximately 60 minutes and we will limit each presenter to three minutes speakers will be warned 30 seconds before their time
004expired expires each speaker will be called to the podium in order we ask that you identify yourself your name address prior to speaking the guidelines for Public Presentation are outlined in board policy to 230 which has been made available to anyone who is speaking tonight participants are expected to conduct themselves with mutual respect civility in an orderly manner according to guidelines outlined in board policy 8 30. with that Dr sander who is our first Speaker tonight we have Heather mcnikan and on Deck is Dan Beckler Heather and then Dan thank you well as they said my name is Heather mcbeacon and I do not live in your community I am a former paramedic and EMS instructor having taught in Western Illinois University for almost 10 years and then finished out my career the last 15
005years as a university webmaster where I began to be really concerned about the rise of stochastic terrorism online and extremism but mostly I'm here to warn your community I am a survivor of the Edmund V Hawthorne Board of Ed case that happened in Marengo Illinois during my junior high high school and college Years my father was on that school board and that school board had decided to insert religion into our Public School one of the good Christians that they hired to teach us was abusing myself and my classmates and we spoke up and then the community responded to talk about what a wonderful Christian she was we weren't believed we were treated like we were the problem and yet the board did act to try to fire her she became pregnant was not married at
006the time so they put in the firing documents that she was immoral and made a religious argument and that opened up a lawsuit that lawsuit went on for multiple years she won but there were no winners it devastated my school and my community she did the talk show circuit she was in all the tabloids there's a made-for-tv movie called cast the first stone out there and my family even though my dad was exonerated from not being a part of the conspiracy to get her to be fired at the end it didn't matter because we lost our family farm and then my mom got cancer and died and that Community never recovered I mean I I want the last children who testified that's still alive I didn't talk about it for decades but then in my
00740s some of the other kids in my classroom started dying at the predictable early deaths of traumatic child experiences so I'm here to warn you that if you do not attend to these rights violations even if you agree with them inserting religion into public school violates the separation of church and state even if you agree with the religion and you open yourselves up not only to liability for the school that could I mean a class action lawsuit could be filed tomorrow on what's out there um and then everybody loses you don't want your community to end up like my home Community uh the subject of of tabloids and out there on I mean I filed that for you to see what we would get and for a superintendent to tell me that I should just
008take it on the chin that they're allowed to do that I'm going to let you know as a non-binary person myself that constitutes a hostile workplace environment and your tech people could file a lawsuit a labor complaint against you all for that the other thing that I'll say is rights violations are different than normal mistakes you all took an oath to uphold the rights of these children so at this time because the superintendent and you Diane crawl on the school board and the principal who needs to be investigated for assaulting a child for the crime of hanging a pride flag poster in the school you need to step down I assume you are all good faith good-hearted people doing your best I also assume you don't know what we know and that you haven't been
009having enough conversations but you should know you can all be considered personally liable if you do not act to correct these rights violations and nobody wants that then you give up your band and your arts and everything good that's for resiliency for all the children this isn't about character and it's not about intention it is about harmful impact and rights violations take care of this stuff now before a lawsuit tears this school apart and then you all lose thank you Dan Beckler followed by I believe it's David fight fight yeah I'll let I'll wait mine okay followed by Sue Martin good evening I'm Dan Beckler uh I was a Grundy parent for seven years I told you it's about two years ago uh I've worked with I've been a parent volunteer I've worked with the
010PTO I've been a member of the PTO and I've been an officer with PTO for four years in that time I probably worked with Michael Saunders once or twice a week for those seven years uh never once did I see anything other than complete professionalism uh and my high regard as an educator I think there's a lot of uh confusion between the difference between morality and religion I think that what I've seen what I saw at Grundy was a lot of morals and ethics instilled into the kids I mean you saw that with the character Council board that goes out every month where the kids are selected for these qualities moral qualities which we will instill in our community just because that's the case that's not the same thing as religious destruction and I and
011I applaud the district statement I think that's right along we have no control over what emails we get in our publicly facing email accounts if we call it spam for a reason so thank you very much Sue Martin is up uh James Dryden will follow I like my community and I want to live in a peaceful and a good and a god-like community and that can be done by teaching Godly ways because good only comes from God that's right I want the school to be forced I don't want the school to be forced to teach gender orientation or the like to my grandchild or any other child may know what gender they are the gender God assigned them because God doesn't make mistakes God doesn't make mistakes he creates each person to do he decides
012I don't want them to be taught lies and deceptions and mindsets I'm sorry that so many believe these lies it is a lie a deep deception and a mindset that is being forced on us in these times that we live in I believe that many who are the LBG are in deep emotional pain just like this lady had shared they are deep pain they have been deeply hurt by their families by their friends by their childhood by growing up and been deeply hurt they do not know who they truly are or they um they do not know who they truly are as they don't believe in the gender given to them by God and I don't believe again God makes mistakes and for them in their anger and hurt to say that they know better
013than God who created them is really sad what is that grateful and this school system can have a choice our children are captured in a way because they must listen to what is being taught at school if I say to them and I take them to the public library I can decide what they want to read where I'm taking and what I'm doing but at school I cannot do that um because I'm not there I want them to be taught they're reading they're writing arithmetics all those things that they need but as the parent I'm responsible for their learning respect manners right and wrong Behavior learning to disagree respectfully the school system where I went which was here at Morton part of it and my girls went here was very good about listening and talking
014with the with the parents concerned and I'm very thankful for the teachers that we had for the principal and for the the superintendent that we had and I think we have a good system thank you for listening but I believe that is the truth [Applause] after James will have Bill Martin okay [Music] so I want to thank you for uh letting us speak tonight we still have the freedom to do that in our country so I appreciate that um it's kind of neat to be in this building this is the old Grace Church and uh in fact I've taught Science school right down here one time it's kind of neat and I I'm thankful that we didn't tear it out in the building that we used it for other purposes I know when Peoria they
015have a church that's Obed and Isaac or Obed and yeah I know there's a few churches that are now residents in Morton so I'm glad we're at least we we still have the buildings but it's kind of good to be back in this place I work at caterpillar and it's the best company in the world anybody else work a cab so I'm a purchasing manager of a global team and uh my job is to make sure that parts are made to our print they come in of the right forms and function so they sit on the machine and they work and we do that we follow the designs the design guide and we have some suppliers that don't follow the design guide when they don't do it it causes a lot of problems you lose
016a lot of money when we follow that good things happen you know and I was reflecting back I think a life a lot of our life my life at least is that way I found that there's a Creator design is designed and given us a guide to live by and when I when I follow that guy my life is in order when I don't follow it it's in chaos and I know this because I had severe depression one time because I was following my own place but when I followed the designer guide it works the designer says that we are all like sheep we've all gone astray each of us needs to be saved but the designer also gave us a way to get us back under and live under his guide and provide him
017for that and if you don't if you don't know what that means I'd be happy to talk to you about that after this being privately shared with you about what that means for the most part the majority of the people in Morton are aligned to that Designer guide that I'm talking about which reflects in the votes that we give to the board members and the board members choose the the people they want to hire I personally know Mike and Craig I used to be we used to study the design guider book together and uh we wanted to be better fathers better husbands we want to be better leaders I just ask that I plead with those that want to disrupt this great community what we have and how we vote works for us we'll follow
018them in the process so we just ask that you respect that okay Bill Martin is up next and Then followed by David Zimmerman thank you for this opportunity to share from their hearts my name is Bill Martin I live on queenwood Road in Morton I've been in the Morton area since 1968 when we made a big cultural shift from the farm in Indiana and I'm retired from the city of Morton worked there 44 years in two months I love this community and the word of God in the Bible it is written and it and describes in Genesis 1 27. God it says God created man in his own image male and female and God is a God that does stuff so well he never makes a mistake that's his nature and that's why he is
019who he is and so when people are described as oh you have a baby boy or baby girl that's what they are and that's but I honestly believe God wants them to be for their entire life I have a concern in this community about what we're dealing with and I ascends from the Lord It's dear to his heart and mind as well I'm out for the well-being of the children and I want to speak with sincere truth and integrity and ask you to consider this everyone here and I'm not being mean or anything but it's an honest objective question are you local and if you're not you probably don't really have a responsible voice to really try and dictate to our resident people here and the parents and the people that live in this community
020every day uh your own agenda of values I have no offense I'm not a troublemaker I'm and I'm not going to come to your city or your county or your school board meeting and accuse you and tell you how I think you should run things and call you any name that's not your own name that your mom and dad gave you it's just I don't want to be a man of Honor it's important I believe what that we sincerely value children and I noticed uh objectively I want to get to know who the lgbtq is that the website mentions uh anti-reproductive things and like that and I want to say tonight you know we really love children and we are really Pro children I'm concerned as a man of God and before the Lord and
021hearing what he had to say that that there's a serious side of my spirit that is trying to infect the school system here and I find that it's widespread it's a parasite spirit that in Jesus name as people of God we cannot allow that to happen all right we have thousands of us in Morton who believe and live this way because it's it's God's way and invites you to live that way I've got one quick thing here and I'll be done and as to the Morton Community but especially the school board members the Lord said I want you to speak this word for me a word of encouragement to you you said you've endured public slander and other words from other voices and places I want you to hear my word and he says this
022to you and I quote it from him he said the sodomites and you sing that because that's what he called them back in the Old Testament I'm not being mean as descriptive of what he says he says the satellites are a troubled people he said do not be afraid of their threats honor me trust me I will protect you and watch over the children amen amen ities oh good evening I'm David Zimmerman I live in Morton I really just want to say thank you for your service to this community yes thank you although easy or complex and you need wisdom and I do pray for you on a regular basis and thank you so much for what you're doing okay after West we have I apologize for this Jack Stevens Casey Jack Casey Jack Gacy
023present okay followed by Mimi Casey okay followed by Michelle Katie it's close Michelle good evening um just want to say just a few words of encouragement and to just share my support for the school board and the staff Mr Saunders I have two kids at Grundy five kids here in Morton and they love going to Grundy School the teachers the staff at Grandeur outstanding Mr Saunders leadership at Grundy School I've never seen anything like it it's a it's a powerful movement that brings the kids together it brings the teachers together and it's good for the kids it's good for my kids and I'm thankful for that thank you I appreciate the school board your responsibilities are very great and with great burden I'm sure you lose sleep that we don't at night and so thank
024you for that I really appreciate that I love my kids and I really appreciate the leadership and the community of Wharton work here and live here in a prophecy of course thank you thank you okay we have Michelle and Then followed by Ashley Reiner hello my name is Michelle Getty I come to you as a concerned parent an advocate I have three children my daughter attends Grundy Elementary my Seven Ten support in high school and my oldest graduated from Warren High School in 2022. I'm a combat veteran serving directly after 9 11. I'm a queer parent of two mixed race children and one youth in care I am also a licensed clinical professional counselor and clinical supervisor for a Community Mental Health Center leading in providing affirming care to lgbtq youth how can a peer
025student show up and live authentically when there is clear discrimination Happening by those in positions of power and authority knowing the leaders agree with and advocate for a group like moms in prayer contributes to a hostile learning environment where lgbtq youth feel unsafe and unprotected in a 2023 Human Rights Campaign study it is reported almost half of lgbtq Youth reported feeling unsafe in at least one school setting almost 6 and 10 lgbtq youth have been teased bullied or treated badly explored for at least one reason in priority here more than half of lgbtq Youth were victimized specifically due to their sexual identity gender identity gender expression among all lgbtq youth surveyed over half screen positive for depression two-thirds screen positive for anxiety three in ten screen positive for severe psychological distress a 2020 study found
026lgbtq youth are more than four times likely to attempt suicide than their peers a 2022 National survey by Trevor Project found 45 of lgbtq seriously considered suicide in the past year the Trevor Project does cite protective factors number one having at least one accepting adult which can reduce the risk of suicide attempts by 40 percent two lgbtq youth who found their schools to be affirming reports lower rates of attempted suicide I am asking the principal Saunders superintendent smuck and board member Diana Krall step down or be removed from their position within the school districts all three have had a hands in creating an unsafe space for teachers staff students and parents who do not hold their same beliefs I am asking that the leaders in this District provide a safe space for all youth to
027learn and grow I am asking the leaders in this District educate themselves on how their actions are negatively impacting our youth I am asking the leaders of this District to review in and participate in the human rights campaign's welcoming schools program which provides free training and resources to embrace all families create inclusive schools and prevent bias based bullying thank you whoa okay Ashley reinhardt's up uh followed by tomorrow wood mains hello my name is Ashley weinert and I live here in Morton I have grown up in Morton Illinois and I've always attended Morton schools My Two children attend Grundy Elementary School and I have worked for the Morton School District under Michael Saunders for the past 17 years I am speaking on behalf of the Grundy staff that are here behind me this evening as
028well as some staff members who were unable to come due to prior commitments and collectively we are parents of many children who attend this school as well please raise your hand if you currently have Grundy Gators as kids or you have in the past um we were shocked when we read the article published about Michael Saunders because the accusations against him don't represent his character or leadership in the workplace in any fashion in fact there are many reasons why we feel honored to work at Grundy not only do we have excellent academic achievement at this school that everyone under this roof tries to uphold the six pillars of character respect responsibilities responsibility citizenship caring fairness and trustworthiness daily Michael is a man of integrity he is welcoming of all topics issues suggestions or discussion the
029staff here in support of Mr Sanders in in support of Mr Sanders are in agreement that he keeps his personal views separate from his professional responsibilities always we have never [Applause] we have never seen Michael place the emphasis or value on religion or other social views we have never felt Michael Place obligation on prayer or personal beliefs we have never discussed religious or political views in the matter of suggesting preference Michael Saunders is an incredibly fair and honest man his positive leadership at our school is why we love coming to work every day Michael exemplifies positivity and fairness for every student staff and visitor that comes through our doors he is kind level-headed and unconditionally here to support everyone at this school and the Morton 709 community it does not matter what someone's personal religious
030or clinical views are we are here because everyone has different backgrounds opinions and Views that's what makes America the greatest nation on Earth it is a privilege to work alongside Michael any child would be lucky to have Michael as their leader we the staff here would like to reiterate that Michael Saunders is a man of High character and integrity he leads by exemplifying the six pillars of character that we model for our students daily thank you tomorrow is up followed by Josie Miller Joseph thank you so I've gone to church with many of you I have kids that graduated from Grundy Dr cross was our doctor um I have kids that are in the lgbtq plus Community I don't care who thinks what about that when they are in public school they have a right
031to know that they are supported everything I heard about Michael Saunders I would have said that about him because when we went to Grundy and I have grandkids that are going to go to Grundy I thought it was amazing I believe him subscribing to these hate-filled emails it is a disqualifier it is a disqualifier for the kids when you say that you are pro kids what about gay kids this is bordering hate speech when we hear that that the gay kids the oh they don't even you don't even know if lgbtq plus kids they matter it doesn't matter if if you believe they should be shouldn't be God's the maker your Jesus is not my Jesus we have different jesuses therefore it should not I'm sorry there is and he doesn't preach and hate and
032he doesn't make kids feel like they are flawed Michael yes he does okay we cannot interrupt renaming my time I'm reclaiming my time I would have said Michael Saunders is a good man as well he subscribed to hate emails period anti-lgbtq plus emails and when we say that it's okay it's he followed the rules that doesn't matter he cannot fairly what about the lgbtq kids that go there how can they know that they are being treated fairly or represented fairly they're not and in the United States of America we have to follow the Constitution I thought I was in Sunday school listening to some of you we do not have the same Jesus we do not I know him and I love him and he is not this hateful evil person that we're contained in
033these emails it is disgusting and I know that you voted for the school board and this is representative of who you voted for they do not Escape there will be a lawsuit it just continues it will be food personally these are people that I thought a lot of bigots there are bigots Among Us and as you all stand and cheer the superintendent defended a white straight Christian man in power what about the LGBT hold up kids what about the kids as you sit laughing is this funny children are pivoting suicide there was a teacher my kids one is in law school and graduates one owns a business in San Francisco I have successful kids that were in Grundy they are ashamed of Michael's emails they are shameful they are they are hate and you subscribe
034to it what if he subscribe to Muslim emails would you all be okay with that or the Muslim table instead of the Christian table well it's not acceptable none of it there's religious separation separation of church and state because your Jesus isn't mine and there's a lot of people that don't worship at all we need to have respect for the People speaking so while people are speaking we need to let them speak and be quiet and let them have their time thank you Josie followed by Kathy Shaw hello my name is Josie canaler I spoke here two years ago on this thing this year and I had a speech written up but I want you all to think about that kid that was sitting back there that kid is a student under Michael Saunders and
035do you not understand how hurt he was he walked out of here crying you guys say you care about the kids then why is there a kid crying about your decision I went to this I went through this whole school district my whole life and I as a bisexual have been targeted I got hate like I've had people threatening to kill me last time I spoke here all right people shoving me around my school why are we letting people be this awful to the lgbtq community why are you laughing why do not actually care about the kids why do you only care about the CIS white students in this community if you think that you're Christians for hating a group of people then you're not that's all I got you Kathy Shaw will be followed
036by Nathan Frye my name is Kathy Shaw my family has lived in Morton for 47 years I retired one year ago after 40 Years of employment with more District 709 with the last 20 of those years being Administrative Assistant to Michael Saunders at brand new school please I'm sorry my voice is not great tonight I believe that this gives me a very unique perspective regarding Mr Saunders interaction with staff and students Grundy staff provides a safe caring loving atmosphere for students and that begins at the stop at the top with the leadership of Michael Saunders Mr Saunders has always had an open door policy where both staff and students can stop by for a short chat or to share frustrations and a longer conversation he always amazed me that a quick Knock on his doorpost
037followed by a do you have a minute was always greeted by him turning his chair from a computer task removing his glasses and responding absolutely Mr Saunders gets to know his students and knows them by name that always bothered me terribly because I can't remember names he spends time with his students both in and out of his office those students sent for discipline were treated fairly but firmly Mr Saunders expects students to respect their teachers follow classroom rules and school rules every lunch hour he will be found in the in the cafeteria helping supervise lunch every day then he heads to the playground to play kickball with the kids and this is more than just a game this is a time-honored tradition at Grundy the kids love it so much so that we have a
038kickball Hall of Fame and it gets a little vicious out there sometimes Mr Saunders sets high standards for himself his staff and his students I believe that that shows his love and respect for all of us Mr Saunders is a man of integrity and faith he lives his beliefs but does not force them on Mr Saunders loves Grundy School his staff and his students he Delights in their achievements and he Grieves in their losses and that's with both current students and former students our motto at Grundy is once a gator office a gator Grundy school is very fortunate to have Michael Saunders as their leader thank you Nathan Frye and he can probably followed by Brian growth my name is Dean faith I live within steps of the school here my daughters are both grenugators
039in the second grade they have fantastic teachers uh last year we were blessed to be honored as the miracle family for the game ball run and uh so we've I've gotten to see a little bit more inside the school than what you know a lot of people get to see on a daily basis I was there at the pep rally and uh when Mr Saunders led the kids and their Grundy cheer there was no faking the excitement there was no um there's nothing in this there they they loved Mr Saunders and they wanted to cheer that cheer as loud as they could um and my girls come home every day gushing about how great Mr Saunders is how much how great he is a kickball that's one of the things they're known for there and
040I just want to let you guys know that as many people at there's a vocal minority that they post you know on some online rag about Mr Saunders but we all here know his true character right yeah foreign thing I'd like to address is we hear the word inclusive tossed around nowadays A Lot in this community we've got to be inclusive we've got to be inclusive I agree um we do need to be inclusive we need to love all the kids we need to care for the kids that's what I've seen in front of our teachers our staff and Mr Saunders um but what I am seeing a trend in here in Illinois is an increasingly exclusive environment we're seeing Illinois pushing out families like mine families like Mr Saunders my family and I moved
041to Morton because of the school district because we knew we had people on our board that we trusted because we knew the the staff was people that we could trust when we see values that are being pushed into our school by a minority that scares us as a community my wife and I have thought about uh homeschooling descriptions like these keep our kids in the school I'm happy to say that I'm a granny parent will be forever uh for a while until the girls graduate program but uh I just wanted to say that we are here in support of Mr thank you [Applause] see Brian will be followed by Ben Robinson Ben Robinson my name is Brian Groth I'm a parent in the district and resident of the community for 20 years those that know
042me know I have a hard time keeping that conversation short but I'll try to do so tonight uh I'd like to where I begin just set a couple things straight I encourage you all look at the for you okay and study the contents of it these are these are not spam filter contents they're inbox contents their subscriptions not spam if you look at it you can see subscribe to Michael Saunders unsubscribe click here the sheer Vine within this foil that is one month long with six terms in it is staggering and as the process went on I can give you numbers that were mind-blowing this person is getting a influx of mail that is beyond belief and I encourage you also to look up some of the organizations they have innocent sounding names but if
043you look at them you'll find they're not innocent organizations in fact I believe it's three of them are listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups and another one is listed by the American government or the Anti-Defamation leader as a hate crew take a look for you and look at what this man sees daily in his inbox I missed this issue at hand for two women as I assume some of you have it may continue to my first child a bright and wonderful girl did not suffer the level of bullying or discourse that my youngest did she's a go-along to get along type she likes to keep a low profile and that's okay my son on the other hand was routinely confronted with hateful speech and on occasions he was physically bullied beginning
044in the fourth grade it wasn't in the classroom of his favorite teacher Mr Stone it was in the lunch room the hallways the playground and the gym my son is not one to shrink away from negative comments about himself or others he has a deep empathy for those that are marginalized when he spoke out children would double down they recited verses from the Old Testament and told him he wasn't a Christian because of his acceptance of the lgbtq community they shamed him for Faithfully wearing a mask to protect the health of others they said he wasn't a patriot because he spoke up against a flag that was used by insurrectionists on January 6 and until recently hung in the hallway in the building across the hall I encourage you to look at the history of
045the flag Gadsden ran the largest slave trade Wharf in this country nearly 80 percent of the black Americans in this country came through that Wharf that's not the story that's presented above the gas and flag in that building it was an environment my son was educated informed and confident enough to handle Not only was sincere support from the adults in the buildings adults that true respect for his core beliefs diversity inclusion and democracy with the exception of a few Brave individuals that support was not there with the information at hand I think we're beginning to realize why Mr Saunders is there to prescribe a rigid ideology to staff and students he's not there to support everyone as the superintendent reports in fact he is there to hold children down because of his they challenge his
046worldview and Authority what's important to realize that that's a hostile environment for those that are held down it's also harmful those to see it's okay for an adult to do that it may be convenient to label trellon like my son is the problem Mr Saunders certainly did so I can assure you my son is engaging thoughtful and empathetic kid who likes to follow rules he was continues he was and continues to be highly functional in other environments ranging from the church youth group music camps Summer Park District musicals these are healthy environments staff with adults that really care I challenge you as board members toward an environment that is free of hostilities one that is richer and safer for all children in the district one that encourages true diversity inclusion and awareness one that respects
047the boundaries of The Establishment Clause and strips away the nationalistic symbols that dominate the hallways next door in my opinion the superintendent and Mr Saunders the Grundy principal have no place in that future [Music] that is up and will be followed by William Potter my name is Ben Robinson I live in Morton grew up in Morton I was homeschooled and apparently our kids are not in Wharton School District because even though we have important address we have um I was saying my name is Ben Robinson born and raised in Morton I was homeschooled my kids are not currently in the Warren school district because we happen to live in these courage School District even though we have an important address but being a lifelong appointment you know I find it concerning that we even have
048to have this meeting tonight you know to talk about this because we live in Morton for a reason because it's a small town because we have values because not because the Christian values but because it's morality like I don't understand that's what we stand for we stand for something and I'm thankful that everybody here is here tonight to stand for that because when ego prevails when good men do nothing but if the wall will stand and we'll all Stand Together the minority of evil doesn't have a chance and that's what we have to do don't back down but on the other hand the minority also does need to be loved as that young boy that went out crying tonight his you know our hearts go out to him because he needs help we he needs
049counselors and every child needs love but we should not be forcing down the Thrones of our children an agenda that is immoral an agenda that is against nature there is two there's two genders that's it male and female that's it we should not be encouraging our children in this false ideology we should not be forcing it down the throats of our children and turn our community into what we see so many other communities turn into there's a reason why you live in Warren because it hasn't happened here it's not going to happen here as long as we stand up as long as we need to understand so a patriot I've never once donated money to a republican campaign to anything I'd get probably 60 to 80 emails a day in my inbox not in my
050spam folder in my inbox that I deleted yeah it doesn't mean I subscribe to them somehow they got my email and I delete them but that doesn't mean you're subscribing to this at Michael Saunders I've known him here for a year and a half or two years upstanding man upstanding yes out there speaking against anybody he is an upstanding honorable man and I stand in support of him I stand in support of Dr slock I stand in support of our Morton board and I pray that we would all stand up and continue to stand so the warrant stays the same foreign [Applause] ER we must not interrupt each other when the speaker's speaking let them speak there's a lot of three minutes and so let's give them their time and not interrupt whether we agree
051or disagree so well thank you and good evening my name is Bill Hader I live on Forest View Road and Morton on Morton born and raised and my kids have gone and are going to Warrenton schools I want some more in the schools I just wanted to um take this opportunity just to thank the the school board and the principals the superintendent Dr smock the teachers and all the people who make the Morton School District so great um you have committed to educating our kids not only in the typical School subjects but in educating them on the values that we hold so dear and that is respect for others and their beliefs kindness character patriotism these are why we have a successful school district and why we have a successful community so thank you but
052um look um we don't have to defend your spotless educational record or the fact that we've always known you guys to be able to teach our children with respect and with neutrality and their and their beliefs you've always done that and throughout your professional careers as Educators we all know what we're here for tonight we get what's going on it's clear that there is an intense movement in this country to censor any belief or political position that they deem is unacceptable so if an investigation reveals that you hold the wrong beliefs you're going to be punished unfortunately tolerance and respect of others beliefs are no longer relevant principles in our society you must agree you must celebrate you must participate you must submit or you will be all of us will be criticized investigated harassed
053intimidated platform canceled maybe you lose your job you know maybe you'll have a lawsuit threatened against you possibly politically humiliated they're going to do their worst but someday soon I hope we'll get back to the fundamental principles of our democracy disagreement does not hate is until that day I beg each and every one of you to persevere we so desperately need people of character and integrity to run from public office believe me I'm acutely aware as state representative for this District how difficult it is to withstand the criticism the scrutiny and sometimes outright hostility of Public Service but we have to persevere because that's part of their strategy so thank you we support you we thank you for your commitment to our children stand strong because they're coming for all of us in the next
054persevere thank you [Applause] Kathy McNeil is us it will be followed by Russell's Edelman yeah I'm Kathy McNeil I've spoken at other school board meetings over time everything changes of the good for the bad I'm really sorry that so many of you feel so offended I mean you feel hurt and on both sides but anyway um so I would like to just address the facts and how many of you really think you know and understand the science in sexuality and why are you so hung up on it I mean when you when you include words from the Bible I mean there's a lot of words in the Bible but why don't we focus on the really nice good ones that Jesus wanted us to focus on love your brother you got an answer I'll hear
055it anyway uh about uh God doesn't make mistakes who's saying that nobody's saying that there's really some terrible things happening and happen throughout history I mean check out your history check out your Constitution um you know the separation of church and state is the first clause in our Constitution's Bill of Rights we call it The Establishment Clause because it says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion and really I'm not here to attack a person like Mr Saunders I'm sorry you're so offended by what you found in the newspaper article that's the media it's the first right and then it just to say and to inform and I mean I'm just here for that I mean when I've spoken in other school board meetings you know I don't want to sound like
056I'm an old lady hippie and you know I'm all about peace love and all that um and uh so I have a tendency to ask for people to be more united you know we're all human beings and all of us have our morality but isn't it based on your fellow humans isn't it based on the people around you and how they affect you and you affect them and I think that's really all we're trying to say here to one another all of us um I don't know enough about your history I've heard a lot of you compliment Mr Saunders and the other people on the board on in the school and I'm just sorry that you feel so upset about some people who've come in and asked you to consider the science of their children
057their bodies god is perfect but the world isn't is there any do I have any more time or when done thank you Russell Russell will be followed by Courtney Hines uh board members and um board members and Mr Saunders my name is Russell ottoman I live here on Greenwood right down the street from grungy schools we moved here in 2000 2020 we moved here specifically for the school district because of their high standards their high moral conduct the respect they show the educational standards that they set I just wanted to come tonight to support Mr Saunders tonight I've got two kids that attend Grundy one of my kids as a medical issue Mr Saunders has been nothing but accommodating my son loves going to school every day he doesn't feel like he's treated any different
058even though it's pretty apparent that he is we just really appreciate everything that he does one thing that was able evident tonight there's a lot of debate on both sides and you guys are between a rock and a hard place so really feel for you guys but just wanted to say that I really appreciate the job that you guys are doing I really supports you guys and Mr Saunders really appreciate the work that you do at the school and also the staff there they do a fantastic job never once and all my interactions with the school have I ever seen anyone discriminated against or left out a matter of fact they go above and beyond to try to make sure that everybody who does feel included and sometimes that's hard you know um kids in
059school they're working through things and sometimes you know those kids can be mean to each other but definitely from the staff and from the leadership at the school they do everything I can say from my standpoint they do everything in their power to really make those kids try to feel as included as they possibly can so I just want to say we support you and that's all our time is speaking and will be followed by Amy Peterson young adults and I can say that we had nothing but wonderful experiences we transferred from the Christian School here to Granby and my kids loved it um by one of my boys I got to know Mr Sanders more than I probably wanted to but he was very fair I felt like in a very supportive and very
060useful so I just wanted to thank you and thank you Amy is up and will be followed by Karen summer I'm Amy Peterson and I live in Martin Illinois and my daughter attended Grundy Elementary for seven years and my son had sent it for five years and I also volunteered a lot at Grundy and I can testify that Mr Saunders is kind to caring and respectful to all the students and the students parents the staff the teachers the district is all very blessed to have Mr Sanders as principal at grinding [Applause] Karen will be followed by Sarah Wenzel it's Karen summer president thank you Sarah Wenzel will be followed by John Mayer uh let's try again kill him kill him okay and John will be our last speaker a year ago and I don't have
061any any children right now that I'm 28 I'd like to have a child and based on our proximity of the house this is probably the school district that they would go to and um my boyfriend and I moved here to Morton because you know you guys know Morton's great um but there is kind of a dark Haze over Morton regarding lgbtq issues and we decided to move here despite that um so it is just really discouraging to see the stuff in the news and I want to ride that great line and say you know I'm not attacking anybody's character here I think that you know when you get into the business being an educator um it's a really really tough job and you go in there and you know that it's tough and you have
062a lot of care for the students because otherwise you just wouldn't make it in that environment um but I will say that having this come out and especially knowing the reputation that Martin already has I do support that there's an investigation into this I really hope that there is not much more to that um but I think that maybe that's a minority of opinion so I just wanted to come by and say that today you know I'm a professional engineer and so I also work a white collar job and regardless of where you stand on the lgbtq issues I think that when you enter that kind of profession and um you know in my work it's so much lower visibility than uh than being an educator and in the educational system but there are a
063standard of professional etiquettes and the stuff that's coming out in the emails was definitely not meeting the standards of professional etiquette that would be expected in any what color profession so once again no judgment here but I do support that uh there's an investigation and that we're looking into this thank you Mr breaker this is our last speaker good evening John Kilkenny you know as the saying goes more people want to be in the coffin than they want to be speaking to eulogy and I'm one of those so I you know here goes nothing my kids have they're in fourth and fifth grade they've had five principles they've moved that many times and we picked Morton and specifically Grundy for what we saw just in the bio and and Mr Saunders is nothing but nice
064to all the kids I've never seen anything if there's allegations of bullying I 100 know that he would follow through with an investigation and correct those actions on any children that are bullying I want to give you guys a shout out for for transparency and you know just hold the line you know nobody needs to step down nobody needs to do anything investigations follow through and you know keep the public Uprising what's going on what I actually came here for this is a horrible night to show up but you guys are selling land on Fourth Avenue and and speaking with Valerie you're looking to sell it as a whole and I don't have 2.7 million dollars at a minimum and I'm just curious if you would be willing to break it up into tracks 10
065acre tracks perhaps something more reasonable that somebody could afford if that's something you guys can talk about that'd be great and I want to challenge everybody here too that make it 10 of them here shows up to every school board meeting you know there's five people that show up at school now there's what 200 210 here so let's let's stand up for everything we we believe in not just one so thank you [Applause] Dr Smock and the board of education has listened tonight and we will be digesting the things that we've shared and developing a response from the board regarding these matters we will share that statement with the public at our next public our next board meeting but the administration board will have no further statement this evening so with that we'll move on
066to our regular agenda thank you that will start with the um thank you very much let's go [Music] upstairs yes yes foreign [Music] thank you I have two already years remember [Music] please right now all right now to the exciting part of the meeting so starting with our administrative reports all right well first of all welcome everyone tonight I know a lot of people just left but I just want to thank everyone personally for your attendance tonight I want to thank all of those that had the spirit and the boldness to speak up regardless of what your points of view might have been so that's that's highly respected and I think it's the spirit and boldness of that that was the foundation of our nation so just want to thank everyone who came showed interest
067and and spoke tonight so thank you for that um we've got a few tonight presentations we're going to start with Dr sander and the sixth day enrollment summary he's the guy that keeps track of numbers like the time and also the number of kids that we have so I'll turn things over to Dr sander okay I'm gonna just stand because I know it may be hard to hear in the background so um typically don't do that but I'll use my teacher voice The Six Day enrollment is a one moment snapshot of our enrollment on the sixth day of attendance okay so these numbers don't reflect our current it's just annually we do this on the sixth day and so um the the packet that I have it would be too difficult to display up on
068the screen because it's an Excel spreadsheet with many rows columns and so I gave the board a packet of this so on the first page inside the packet are the grades early childhood education all the way through fourth grade by classroom assignment by school okay so you can take a look at what the enrollment was uh by building by each grade level by teacher okay if you flip to the page after that we pick up the fifth and the sixth grade enrollment with totals on there and I'll hit all the totals here in in a short moment we also have on that page the seventh and eighth grade enrollment for the junior high and the high school by grade level okay so let's get to the totals so this year on the sixth day we
069had three thousand three hundred and ten students enrolled at Morton 709 now some of you may want to know what was our number that we were I reported out on last year it was three thousand two hundred and forty so that's 70 more students on the sixth day of the moment okay so if you flip to the next page in your packet uh the district had commissioned uh a study of our student enrollment um this is the exact same report that I used last year as a reference it's called the Cropper study and it's there so uh forgive me I'm colorblind I know the color on the left is green the color on the right uh blue maybe purple uh but we are in the second column of that report okay that's the 23 and
07024 enrollment data okay I just made note of that for reference so if you flip to the next page there's another small table of numbers that have a whole bunch of diagonal lines going across it those diagonal lines represent cohort data okay so if you follow the diagonal line back that goes back to the beginning when I started tracking where are what the student enrollment was for that grade level and I followed year by year by year okay there is a natural Trend here in Morton 709 because we have just wonderful community that has private school options and so I have to give a couple shout outs uh Mr Jacob at Bethel school and Ms Scholl at Blessed Sacrament School on the very next page to return it yet they provided their enrollment numbers well
071why am I referencing that here okay because you'll see that the trend over time by the time that we get to the high school we'll see a 30 percent increase in our enrollment numbers that's the transition of students that started off in private schools so like our freshman class this year Deidra has a large freshman class it has a 30 almost a 32 percent increase in cohort numbers when you track it back to when the students begin okay it's it's just good data okay it's not perfect data but it's good data so you can see kind of trends of how the enrollments have gotten bigger as the kids progress to the high school I want to point out that there's three or four The Freshman Class I referenced the sophomore class is trending at 15
072growth uh the junior class is at nine percent and the current senior class is at 16.74 growth over time so getting back to the elementary totals right below that column is we currently have eight or 1 687 students in well currently the six day enrollment was 1 687. that was that's two students more than what we had in the elementary last year okay the junior high is at 511 that's 28 students more than what was reported last year on The Six Day enrollment and the high school was sitting at 1095 that's up 36. well if you do the math you're like Hey we're short he said it was 70. we have four additional students on the six day enrollment that are at Morton Academy and that gets us to the wrong number of seven okay
073on the last page I gave a shout out to our uh two principals at uh two of our larger private schools I did also get the enrollment numbers uh from Solid Rock Academy their first day of attendance was today so I have those numbers I didn't include those in the report so they are also in there but on the last page is what I call the Morton Village School data okay that is all the students enrolled at the the three biggest schools in our village and so we have a total of as I report Out 3 310 students in work 709 schools and then when you combine the two private schools we're at three thousand eight hundred and fifty Seven that is up 18 over last year now I'm almost done I love this report
074because what you get to see is we've got a class of 307 7th graders in the village okay so I can't tell you the percent that we take in as they transition to high school but I don't know if deidra's uh class of let's see 20 oh man 2029 oh good grief man do we feel old is going to be the freshman class will be over 300 but you can pretty much guarantee it's going to be close to 300. the other point of reference that I want to make here is that if you look at that far right column look at grades one two three and four they're currently sitting at 273 282 282 and 279 respectively that's a that's a pretty solid band of students okay now if we follow this trend data somewhere
075along the line some of those students transition more to 709 so that is my six day enrollment report what questions do you have what was Crawford's guess oh that is on the page right before that so uh the one that has the lines go on diagonal the Cropper is the set there's a box to the right they had us at uh 3224. and we're sitting at uh the 3193 and the reason why that 3193 is different I know someone's going to ask Cropper doesn't include the Early Childhood or the speech only okay so that's the difference in those numbers so this is just kindergarten through 12th grade so we were off 31 students so they were close they were close yeah thank you next we have uh what I think is going to be a
076great presentation from Miss rivka about the MHS advanced placement scores from last experience this Ripka four Trends so for free but also just what the last five years have looked at and gave it kind of an overview about what AP looks like at the high school um and then why I think we're doing so great right now the spoiler alert we're doing great um so I I just sent you two documents one is this um presentation and then the other one is a full five-year Trend report I'm not going to report on out on every single um course that we offer and test that we offer but I'll hit the highlights um so these are the AP courses that we offer at the high school um we are really fortunate enough to have teachers who
077are qualified and have received the correct training for these courses as well we really have no barriers for kids to enroll in these courses they just have to meet their prerequisites uh something I'm really proud of because I'm in other school districts there's a lot of barriers to taking AV courses we have none just have to meet the prerequisite all of our AP courses are considered honors level courses I put the years in the French and Spanish there we've had a little bit of turnover of personnel but Madame bilyu went to uh AP Camp last summer so we're back in business with the French AP and then we will have Spanish up and rolling next year something to note and it's on the next slide here you do not have to take a course in
078order to take an AP so when you look at the five-year Trend report you'll say well hey we didn't we don't offer that course we still have students who are prepared and take the course or take the test and do really well on it so these are the AP tests or exams that were proctored and these correlate to the courses that we also offer so again you'll see some other tests on here that we don't offer those courses but we do still do the tests the minimum score to earn college credit is a three I'm going to get a little bit of the specifics there too and the test format is 100 digital now so it's all online um here is our school summary in our five-year Trend you can see we've kind of been
079on a natural upward progression in uh the total students so those are each unique students taking AP tests and then also the number of exams as well too and we're really on an upward Trend with almost 80 percent of our students scoring a three or higher on those tests as well too um so what does a three mean because that's kind of the magic number for um Mastery of the AP standards and earning college credit so a score of three will always receive college credit what type of credit it receives is is the the trick there so they may receive elective credit they may receive major credit um and an AP or college board has a huge list that you can look at what college your kids are planning to go to perhaps what tests
080they're taking and they can translate it for you I want to show you how complicated it can be as students counselors as parents to navigate this because I'm going to give you three different examples so the first one's at University of Illinois I'm going to use AP biology for all three of these examples so uh for the University of Illinois if you get a 300 AP Bio you are getting three credits and it's equivalent to the course of Integrative biology 100. if you get a five you get eight credits and that's um equivalent to the integrative balance 150 and the molecular molecular and cellular biology 150. so that's University of Illinois if you look at ICC if you score a three just a three or above you get three credits and you get um credit
081for biology 160 which is biological then I looked at Bradley University so private school and they have their own method of awarding credit as well too so it's super important when you get to that point where are we signing up kids for AP tests what do they need to get to get to get college credit that parents students and counselors are working together to get the right fit for our kids this is AP and we often get the the question what's the difference between AP and dual credit so AP you've got to score three or more on that test in order to get elective credit for it or to get credit for it sorry uh dual credit as long as you finish the course and you pass you earn credit for that course you're also
082starting your college transcript so it's important to do well on those dual credit classes too educators will say to a credit I have a lot more autonomy for how I want to have kids Master have kids show Mastery of these standards whereas AP is a very strict curriculum that is vetted by college professors and college board is pushing out to them so we are tied to that curriculum but as you see our kids do pretty good on it they do pretty well on the curriculum that's presented by college board so I'm going to talk a little bit about Trends here so this is our calculus a b and it's the longest AP course that we have had at Morton High School I think we've had it for 13 or 14 years we generally have one
083or two teachers that are teaching it they've been teaching it for a long time I think experience matters in terms of preparing our kids for these AP tests so you can see that bar graph with no numbers on it our kids averaged a 4.56 this year in AP Calculus so you can see we did well above the Illinois average and the global average for calculus and those numbers have continued to be strong for years as well I grabbed another one which was physics just because I knew Dr Teeter would appreciate this so our physics took a huge leap I asked Mr Young who teaches us as well too why do we do so well and he said we had a really great group of kids and Mr Young is also in his sweet spot with
084he's been teaching physics now for a while so he knows what the kids need to to be successful on this test so that was an average of a 4.15 for physics and then the last one is computer science principles our computer science program is strong um Joe Zeller has been teaching the computer science this might be year five for him um and his numbers remain strong and consistent as well too so uh he averaged a 4.31 but you can see his numbers have been remained pretty consistent I think 2019 and 2023 were tight with the 4.31 for an average there um so you can I just hit the highlights you can see the full report in your packet but um I wanted to share some of the feedback and the reflections with our teachers um
085I think it's important to note that college board does provide a tremendous amount of professional development and resources for our teachers and um and our students to test prep for AP as well social media has a huge impact because teachers all over the United States can share their resources and their strategies for getting kids ready for these tests for helping them Master these standards as well too I more than the ones I heard trust the process with the AP curriculum and it's it's not easy it's hard kids are going to struggle through some of it some of it's going to be productive struggle someone's going to pull my hair out struggle but it's trusting the process that we know what to do to get you to the end as well too um something that I
086I want to highlight on the test prep is most of our AP teachers host practice tests on the weekends for their students before the AP test um and that's that's their own time they're taking out out on the weekends to help our kids to get ready for it these are long tests these are solid three-hour tests it's not like you can just do it after school one day it almost needs to be on a Saturday morning to get our kids ready for it um and our teachers are doing that moving forward you know how do we continue to sustain this growth I think the news Personnel in our French and Spanish is going to be really beneficial to kind of seeing the end game of the AP and then being able to work backwards um
087there are some curriculum changes coming in physics one Dr Teeter can probably talk about those a lot more professionally than I can but there's also a continued professional development that our teachers really buy into they want it they ask for it we thank you we have the budget to send them to these places because they're usually week-long Retreats at a college somewhere we sent our French teacher over to University of Iowa last summer for the week-long retreat and then using the learning teams also especially in the science program or the science department there are big pillars that they um teach within the science curriculum and using those learning teams helps them to all be on the same page about how these kids are mastering their standards so that is my report I'm happy I've had
088any questions for Mrs Ripka just a comment it seems like rightly has higher standards than uoi might as well he's gonna think I'm playing favorites again okay all right nice job thank you very much thank you all right our third presentation tonight is by Miss Brown and Miss Bush they're going to be presenting the SEL standards you know with social emotional learning standards um it's sometimes hard to figure out what what do those contain what are those all about what else comes along with them and so I wanted the Board of Education to see exactly what's in those standards and really to see um that they're excellent standards the kind of things that our kids really need to know and learn and so I'm just going to turn things over to our team thank you
089I know many of you I'm Stephanie Brown I just want to take a moment make sure you know my co-presenter who's amazing hi my name is Morgan Bush I'm a school social worker at Friendly and Lincoln and I was a master's intern last year with the district at Jefferson in the junior high so thank you for letting us take some time to explain what is sel or also known as social emotional learning um I stole this quote because I think it encapsulates it pretty well it is a set of essential skills that when developed enables an individual to know themselves establish and maintain authentic trusting relationships with others and make responsible decisions so what do we mean by that all of this information that we're coming with today comes from Castle which is the collaborative
090for academic and social emotional learning this is an evidence-based and research-based framework and I just want you to take a moment to look at the five what we call competencies self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decisions keep those in your mind and I'm going to actually ask you to participate in a little activity so I just want you to take a moment to pick this or that which would be that cute little kitten so raise your hand if you're this okay now put your hands down raise your hand if you're that nothing yeah you are okay I have one more yeah it's gonna get a little bit more intense raise your hand if you are a this which is the cups okay raise your hand if you are with that okay now as
091you did that I just want you to take a moment to go back to the competencies or the skills and if you can look under the competencies there are some skills there and just think about what I just asked you to do that little activity which was literally like 15 seconds I just asked you to practice some of you might be looking under there and if I would have had you talk about it we could have communicated with one another we could have um managed our emotions nobody got mad at the Cardinals fans if you're a Cubs fan um I think you get the point there are actually 40 skills under the different competencies I provided this for all of you so I'm not going to read them all but I just wanted you to
092be aware of what they are and under each one of those you can see the different skills this is something that was very interesting to me this is a report card from 1933 and the reason I was not around in 1933 in case you're wondering but I went to my son's freshman orientation and they shared this this is a report card from Eureka which is where my family lives right down the road and they had found this in a vault and this is like I said from 1933 this is a report card and you can't probably see it very well so I apologize but it says on the top citizenship and then in the paragraph it talks about how there are skills that we need to work together as a community and the school and
093I thought it was very interesting because that was 90 years ago and so today I think why it's so important that we understand what SEL is is because it could be called character education it can be called soft skills and this it's being called citizenship so this is not new but I just really think it's important for us to remember and I thought that was a really neat visual to share um Dr Smock mentioned are standards this document is pretty long so I just pulled up a snapshot of it but this is what we're going to share with our teachers and you can see on here this is the grades six through eight and I'm sorry I can't see my screen so the learning objectives what we call Performance indicators which are really I can
094statements and then there are essential questions and so under self-awareness this is talking about how we can connect how positive and negative self-talk can impact our emotions and so if you're in sixth seventh or eighth grade then you can have a student and you can work with a student to say I have a I can do this I can learn this I might not know this yet that is what we do in school and this is just explicitly showing that skill [Music] okay so to tied a little bit into the district itself so last year's Master's intern I did some research on a standard-based SEO tool that Jefferson was using called Second Step they were new they were piloting the digital lessons so for those who are unfamiliar it's all completely online so it's pre-prep
095for the teachers it has videos worksheets guided lessons so it's very easy for them to to work with it's four units broken down into five lessons and so the lessons include growth mindset goal setting emotion management empathy kindness problem solving seeing a theme here um and so I wanted to see just how effective this tool was in Jefferson and for the students both from a teacher satisfaction standpoint and also just the students social emotional Wellness this is an example of the lesson of what the teachers think so um I have two graphs here you'll notice that it says Flags so when I when I say Flags I'm referring to the saber survey which is a survey that teachers fill out for each of their students grades K through six and it breaks down they answer
096a variety of questions and it gives them a flag either one for some risk two for high risk and no flag no risk in a couple different areas so social academic emotional that spits out a total Behavior score so what I did is I looked at the total number of flags for the student body at Jefferson the school year prior so 2021 and 2022 and there's three benchmarking time frames throughout the year there's fall winter and spring and so as you can see at the top left the number of flags for having risk in those behavioral areas those social emotional skills is gradually increasing now when we look at last school year when they piloted the second step program and the teachers were doing that consistently we can see that while we started maybe in
097a higher number of flags we are now on a downward Trend and so there's social emotional Wellness was actually improving based on common language the teachers were using discussion of the social emotional skills and competencies throughout the school the school year excuse me I also looked at did the teachers like it because that's important too right they have to buy and do it um so I asked them on a scale of one to five one being you know or zero being that they really did in grade five being that they did how easy they felt it was to incorporate in the third end of their week into their regular scheduled lessons and so the average amongst all the teachers is a 4.2 so I was happy to see that I also asked how easy it
098was to administer the lessons and got an average of 4.4 I asked how applicable the teachers felt the information was for their students did they think that it was something they needed to learn and I got an average of 4.2 I also asked how receptive the students were during their lessons and got an average of four I asked the teachers how realistic is this to everything else that you do because you do a lot um how realistic is this for you to administer on a regular basis and I got an average of 4.2 and then I was just curious I wanted to know an average range of the students that participated in the lessons how many you know watched the video they didn't have their head down how many filled out the worksheet how many
099raised their hand and asked questions how many chatted with the neighbor and I got 21 to 25 students in a class of almost 30. that was pretty impressive to see so this is just a snapshot of the scope and sequence of the Second Step digital lessons and the reason why I showed this is as you can see second step is fueled by Castle standards and so underneath each of the units it actually tells you which of the competencies the kids are working on each time that they are shown a unit or they've taught a unit and so I think it's just important to show that there are standard driven tools and content that are successful and that are effective and that they are being used in the schools we would also entertain any questions quick
100question first statement thanks for spelling it out Castle I would not have God collaborated so anyway good job for that second question average students 21 to 25 for the satisfaction from the Jefferson teacher were there 30 total students or was that 20 or 25 per class was an average year to five six to ten so on and so forth so forth up to 30 because some classes were a bit a little bit larger than others because all teachers K through six were able to fill out the satisfaction survey and so that was just an average number amongst the entire teachers and a monthly entire class that they felt that 21 to 25 students within their class were participating so every kid should participated right but not all every kid did um it's more so from
101an engagement standpoint so when I guess the participation can be used Loosely because everything is online I was more Curious at how many kids were engaged you know how many kids did their worksheet for real and not just wrote random things on it how many kids talk to a partner about what the video was about or what they were talking about and not just you know what they wanted to do over the weekend so it's more so how many kids were into what the discussion was into the lesson and wanted to talk about it more thank you so um the slide that showed the number of flags yeah he's followed during the year that the program going on um I really liked what you said but I only caught one of the reasons you had
102some hypotheses as to how that those flags were impacted by the program would you be able to say those again for me one was it gave the students and teachers a common vocabulary yes so Second Step uses common language when describing feelings when asking for help when utilizing those social emotional skills and so I think that it was beneficial that all the teachers all the students were using common language we were all on the same page when talking to students about their social emotional well-being so that was one of the things that I hypothesized thank you any other questions okay thank you ladies very well done thank you very much so those are the foundations that we're building off of those are things where we will be talking with our teachers about as we move
103forward and I just wanted the Board of Education to see what's really behind all the detail all right next in my report I just have just a quick review of the superintendent Committees of the board um facilities committee has been very busy and leading all the way up to a presentation and we'll see here in a little bit from our architect and they may convene again just to kind of put the final touches on some designs that you're going to see in a little bit so thank you for those on the facilities committee Jerry and Tim the policy committee is has done great work we're going to be approving some policies tonight with an action item but unfortunately we don't have any business for you in the next couple weeks so you're going to have
104to just take a little Hiatus maybe hit you again in October you think Valerie some more it's a never-ending thing so enjoy September yes enjoy your rest finance committee we had a great meeting not too often long ago earlier in August and we probably will run a presentation that we're going to do in our next board meeting by the finance committee prior to that presentation so we've gotten great feedback uh Miss Kowalski and I our CFO and we're going to be putting together our presentation some recommendations and options for funding I'll talk a little bit more about that later and we'll run that by the finance committee before we present that on the 19th of September so that's our plan for that and the extracurricular Mission committee did have a recent meeting and so Dr
105Santa you want to fill us in on how that went sure I'd like to uh we met last week um we have some homework assignments to to go through uh from that meeting um Mr Neely and Miss Layman were the board members that sat on that we had a good group of Administrators and teachers coaches both from the junior high and the high school some of the takeaways I'll kind of tie it back to the last two presentations I heard Trust From Miss ripka's present trust in the process and then uh uh common language in our last presentation and these are the things that this committee really needs to do we've got a lot of kids that are involved in our extracurricular activities we've got to have a Common Language those are the the tenets
106of success we've got to be able to trust in the process beginning with our earliest exposure we have sixth graders that are participating in IESA Athletics but then we also have a plethora of extracurricular activities the two presentations that were were given to the board I think that's that is uh one of the things that needs to be on the radar screen being able to report out on you know how we are doing as a program because it is such a vital part of what it is that we do we do things so well but it's also it's a good way to you know make sure that this information gets up channel to the board and that we also have have something that is is just and I mentioned it during the meeting communication is
107oftentimes the number one root of the things that when things go wrong and so we've got to tackle that look at how we're going to communicate better and just you know I have a feedback loop um you know kids kids can be quiet and so we've got to recognize that that when they're in the presence of their uh you know sports or activities that we've got to give them an opportunity to be able to communicate that and share that with you know their parents so that we can get that information up so we've got a lot of work to do anytime that you've gone through two handbooks and you try to take common language and mail them into one they see some heads shaking out there it's going to take us a little bit of
108time but we hope that we have a good product at the end all right the last thing in my report is about the land sale sale I met with our attorney today to go through the bid documents for that process so we're going to make those available we'll contact those that have already contacted us inquiring about the sale of the land and I would just say I know a gentleman came today and asked about that we are planning to sell the entirety of the property of 123 points something acres in its entirety and not breaking into Parcels as was suggested um unless we you know just decided later if the bid process failed we didn't meet the minimum bid you know maybe we would consider other options but we're our first shot at this is
109to sell all the property to one buyer to that question let you know that that's in the process so you're going to see in the Journal Star at some point in time you'll see three straight weeks of ads for this property and there's a whole stack of bid documents that were very well prepared um that people can come in and pick up read sign off on certain things and then the bids will be due on the 28th of September we'll open them no later than October 5th so we'll know at that point in time whether we have a buyer for the property and through that process from there so just want to let you know that was all in the works and that we were selling the property in its entirety okay that's all I
110have for tonight thank you any questions for Dr smile president's report just a couple things thanks to all the public who came out because tonight to give us their feedback so it's good to know what the community's thinking second of all thanks to whoever did the setup down here took some extra effort to provide this space and a short notice for us so we appreciate that we have an opportunity to work at the Pumpkin Festival tent September 14th from four to seven I think that's Thursday night um Valerie assumed you're coming unless you tell her different and then also there's a central Illinois Valley Illinois Association school board meeting on October 4th at 6 pm at Broadmoor Junior High in Pekin so we need to let Valor know if anybody's going to attend that so
111so I think she's been sending this out emails on there with the content of what that meeting is about so with that anybody have any agenda building items nope any other comments Tom you had yeah I just wanted to share with the board that the 24th and 25th I was attended the Casbah confirms the urban conference and they had a lot of great speakers many of the topics said we've been close to sel they really went into the importance of Engagement and getting kids engaged in activities they used a an approached though of focus and in every classroom and everything we do the importance of being focused on all of our kids and not letting them be able to slide by so it really takes work to stay focused on all the kids all of
112our students excuse me they also talked about the shortage of teachers Nationwide they talked about principal shortages they talked about a lot of superintendents that are getting burnt out and how important it is to have a coach for them even though they may say they don't need one but to make yourself a make sure that you offer a coach somebody that they can go and talk about issues that we're facing in our school communities and I think you work with other superintendents to do that sort of thing absolutely the mission of Cosmo though is to stay focused on building trust and confidence for public school governance and it's a non-partisan national Alliance dedicated to sharing resources and information to support and promote and strengthen State School boards it's so that ultimately our students our benefit
113benefits them remember the nsba it got very political and many of the states pulled out right now over half of the school boards or I'm sorry half the state associations belongs to Casbah over 50 percent of all of the students in the United States are partic are covered by Casbah as well on the 24th through the 27th I'll go to Washington D.C for the federal federal advocacy meeting we'll be meeting with um representative lahood and our two state senators we're going to be talking about increasing Federal Educational Funding the teacher and the principal recruiting and the Ida idea the need for more money there and individual with disability Education Act is what I'm referring to there the federal government puts all of these requirements on school districts and takes almost reams of paper to fill
114out all the reforms that goes to Washington for these to meet all of the compliance and but we don't get any funding to cover a lot of the activities that takes place there so we will be advocating for better funding for that and Broadband connectivity and cyber security and various e-rate issues so give you a heads up that we will be going to Washington thank you appreciate your efforts on that so with that we'll move on anyone else have anything move on to discussion items our discussion item tonight is about the MHS renovation project and phasing plan I've got Lee Garrett's here from teach architecture and he's going to do some presentation I just want to say a few things before as he gets rolling and as we get his presentation up and running so
115we've gone through several iterations of designs and I think we're on design nine although it seems more like 19. I'm not sure how the numbering worked there but um so we've done a lot of a lot of changes of mine there's something in in this world called scope creep where projects keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger because you keep thinking of well while we're doing this let's do this and sometimes you kind of try to apologize for that but I think you also don't want to have regrets going into a project you don't want to wish you had put air conditioning in while you were gutting the entire place you don't want to wish that you'd renovated a certain part of the building that doing it later eventually is going to be more expensive
116or more difficult you don't want to miss out on considering future phases of projects and then regret brand new things that you've just built that don't make space for a second phase so yes there's been some scope creep I guess is what I would say and yet I think we're getting it really narrowed down to an excellent plan we're just down to the final tweaks of this plan and I'm going to let Mr Garretts kind of catch us up to where we've come from and yeah we got here thank you so much for the opportunity and uh feel free to interrupt and ask any questions we'll work through this I thought it might be useful just to briefly give a little bit of history behind the project here there's been discussions about work involving the
117north entrance canopy things of that Lobby really probably earlier than 2015 but we certainly have uh you know back in around 2015 we were drafting plans that started to react to some of the programmatic needs for the high school most of those initially were about having a drop off area you know a small Lobby for you know for events serving like The Quest Gym and you know the the in particular the bathroom since you have the men's bathroom and then the women's bathroom sharing with Locker space those are largely the primary things that were discussed back then but over time you know there's been other needs programmatic needs from the district to look at so if your computer is at that let's say 20 20 21 we looked at some larger scale options that really
118just kind of were open-ended in the sense that we let the high school administration kind of give some input on some of their big picture ideas or things if any felt or needs to the facility those were just basic diagrammatic sketches that we put together which some of you've probably seen before and then that leads us really to this year where those are really you know open-ended the scope's kind of been narrowed down now um to something that's more tangible something that's more a reasonable step forward and so uh just a briefly like from from a scope standpoint where we started with these options and right now just have this uh it's really just a view of the whole facility and I'll make references to the different colors in a bit but um from a
119scope standpoint some of the main things that we've initially started up this year in our conversations were to go back to some of those initial programmatic questions the north entrance the lobby the bathroom situation but then uh we also uh also brought some of the other issues that the administer High School Administration has brought up through this process so renovating the locker room area uh the university Locker area improving the athletic training facility uh providing some a better location for referees through some of those events that they have so that they're not stuck in a room where there's they're a little bit more concealed from public scrutiny and then also things that like the concession stand it really is kind of a logistical nightmare kind of working through the West gym through the lobby back
120to where they do the current concession which has kind of been moved and it's just sort of set up I'm really just trying to address many of those issues and really through that process what we've done is kind of where we ended up now and just referencing this plan here anything that you kind of see is the orange that generally is an area that we're looking at as kind of this scope of work that we looked at initially through the process of you know talking with the High School administration and reviewing this we really realized that we needed probably a bigger picture process or something that was looking a little bit more master plan I think you know Craig you're talking about that that's where we're making good choices with what we're doing and that
121actually addressed some of them pressing needs that the high school have which we just heard from kind of the enrollment numbers that there's a real potential for growth in the high school for classroom spaces so we need to think a lot more big picture so um here what I'm showing here is a phasing plan the Orange is kind of the first phase which is what where we started and then from there I have kind of a second phase which is the green on the East gym and then the blue uh that's a kind of a later phase and these aren't identified as specific dates but just as a means of order and organization as we think about it so I'm going to go back to the more specific here and just to kind of update
122you on this plan and if you don't mind I might walk up there and kind of work through it so you've probably seen iterations of this at some point in time as you said we're on option nine so we've kind of made a lot of progress and some things have changed over time but largely just I like to start kind of where you enter into a building and uh and how we're addressing some of those programmatic issues so first one being kind of the lobby in the entry space so we're really we're trying to get a larger space that can accommodate more people because that's one of the biggest issues and then how do you get into the West gym so what we're showing here basically is the existing Lobby space which is pretty small
123which is right in this area right here basically we're demolishing the boys restroom and kind of this whole kind of area and then creating a larger Lobby and we have a dashed line in here just to give you some context that's the junior high Lobby space so just to give you if you've walked in there to give you an idea of comparison the second part of that is you know getting into the West gym you know there's just a single set of doors that takes you into there we're going to expand that and make you know the traffic into that space a lot you know easier more people to come through so we're expanding that by moving the stairs to the west and introducing a second set of doors um and that largely covers at
124least the kind of that that Lobby that Gathering area that uh it's severely lacking uh the next kind of component of the scope award was the bathrooms uh the concession stand in the locker area so what's being proposed is a basically a complete cut of the existing Locker Varsity Locker area all the way down to the training and the coaches Locker area and redeveloping that so we can get to a really the public restrooms away from the lobby space that are not part of the PE locker for the women's and then developing two uh Varsity Locker spaces that have you know have access from the gymnasiums but have sufficient size for what they're doing the men's locker room is you know set up for football you know and it's time more than enough space than
125what it means it allowed us to condense this and put this uh make it a little more Compact and efficient then with the extra space that we have from kind of creating the women's bathroom the men's bathroom here we're taking the uh the existing women's bathroom to shared with the PE locker room and turning that into the concession stand so we're trying to get some of those areas that where there's a lot of standing around a little bit further away from the lobby space and not congesting it where people will need to come through working further down their existing athletic training space really is just small if you walk through there storage is kind of lacking they use the hallways so we really need a better space for treatment for these student athletes so the
126current coaches office area that's being looked at as being a new athletic training where you have several taping stations whirlpools adequate storage just a better treatment location with the implementation of a different spot for the concessions and dedicated with some storage gives us actually some opportunity to open up some uh basically storage for the West gym right now the concessions takes up quite a bit of the storage space that's currently uh right back in this area so there's two rooms here we're going to ex blow that up into a bigger storage room put doors in so it's accessed right off of the gymnasium then as we move further down or keeping the maintenance uh staff in their current location just taking some of their uh similar space to create this Corridor and then infilling part
127of an addition in that courtyard and there we're developing an extra classroom and a which could also double as a film room and then a small little Locker area for officials and that kind of creates this athletic Wing that has a you know this Corridor which if you remember if you recall there's a small Corridor that cuts through the boys locker room so one of the things that we like about this is that it creates this Wing that the you know that that public is not supposed to kind of come through during game day it actually pushes that traffic out into the lobby and so it's really this only staff only being related things as we looked at some of the scope um looking for kind of more bigger picture we realized that we really
128need to think about how we can get more classroom space so that's why we introduced at least this one here for this phase of this project but how can that be implemented further so as we started looking at these options available to us um we really could see an opportunity where the north entrance becomes sort of a main entrance for the facility and so um that raises questions about how you know getting the offices there where can you create more um a classroom space and that's where those blue areas on the phasing plan came into play but to get that the current weight room can't sit in this spot and part of those larger phasing plans that we looked at in the past really looked at how can we utilize really the only empty space
129that we have available that's not parking is right here on the east side of the locker rooms so as part of that phasing plan we're trying to think like well if that's where some potential addition is to open up other space within the facility how do we get to that space really not desirable to use this a little inset back here there's a lot of logistical reasons for that but based on how the existing PE lockers are being utilized we saw an opportunity to basically plan for the future and get this Corridor basically to the exterior to that spot where it would actually have it gives you access from Dave you know to that potential Edition for that so as part of that we looked at renovating these um PE rooms and in the men's
130Beauty room locker room we wanted to get the coaches space or the staff space that's up here we want to get them into the locker space so we're renovating this area that's really just storage and a large shower there which is not utilized particularly underutilized space and basically give them a coach's staff coaches office with a locker room and then reducing the amount of student shower area that we have so have that there giving a little bit of renovation to the girls locker room similar here we already have the coaches and staff area here give them a uh a better utilized Locker area for them and then the students improving the kind of that shower situation right now it's just kind of storage a lot of shower heads but just under utilized so how can
131we better utilize this space and so renovating that to the bathroom since we got rid of the bathrooms up here we got to put them somewhere else and so renovating that shower area to that and so that's the basic phase one scope is what you're showing you know what we have here and it's what we're you know trying to accommodate for that phasing plan um so I think that generally covers that are there any questions about that phase the canopy entrance there yeah it doesn't show it at an angle but I think that's one of the I think in the previous design you've had that yeah it's amazing you can see that as a kind of a 45 degree angle there in the corner yeah that the early early designs that we looked at looked
132at potential additions on the side here with some storage and then having that drop off there so we're maintaining some component of that and this is this is still a little bit in progress but generally uh because we still need like our civil engineer to look at these things to better understand how to develop this but one of the things in those previous options we were taking up a little more space out here with those additions this is kind of keeping this fairly intact uh and not taking parking away uh and that's sort of what the goal was but yeah the bringing the entrance out further in the space so it's more recognizable it'll be more of a visual entrance recognized for me you know for athletic events or even if it would become the
133main interest to the high school okay so the orange on the North that's going to be a canopy that's covering part of the parking yeah that's where we're still in development but mostly it's like covering just the entryway and then possibly having some you know drop off along the you know along the east gym and it could be like airport style it can kind of drop off again this is where our civil engineer really would give us a lot more in input on kind of the development on that there's some logistical things that have to be thought through uh on how that kind of drop-off area would work so you envision it going that far to the east I mean like all the way past no stop I mean yeah no no what I'm sure
134the only reason I highlighted it is um just the way that this is developed currently there is part there is some parking here and so just to be able to get um you know if you're this is all one way and you have some drop off you want to be able to be able to bypass that so I'm just assuming that we're going to end up having to you know lose some of these spaces here and then further down there's an island that has to kind of get reworked so I'm trying to make a make some assumptions um without some input from a civil engineer at this point um but those are things that we'll address further um I would imagine that the canopy really is only coming down you know part way down the
135gym in this Apple Drive under is now what really we've been looking at but that still means it's the color really addresses maybe the area of the correct parking lot yeah yeah and it might just be striping you know it's not it doesn't necessarily mean it's repainted of that nature um just trying to draw attention to where some of that um so some of the other things that were brought up um now I'm looking at this phasing plan I think maybe bring a little more attention to it since we're improving a number of these things and the amount of renovation work that's going on here it really is an opportunity and time to look at things with the mechanical systems down in the center of the building right now this is all heating only now
136there's no AC other than just what kind of comes down to the corridor and so as we're developing a lot of this space that's one of the other reasons that some of the scope has pretty increased a little bit and we're understanding a little bit about how this renovation work impacts the project but then as we come to the east gym as we make make this an improved area how can the the high school administration really they raise these uh the question of well now that we have this space how can we better utilize the East gym and so as a as another step after that you know we're looking at uh ways of making this more of a secondary gym not just a practice gym so how many uh you know can we get
137bleachers in there the floor is original it's getting close time to replace that how do we reor you know redo the game wise in such a way to get more uh to get bleachers in there it's not conditioned right now it's time to maybe start considering that especially if you're going to use it for competition of some sort and that that would actually address some of the other concerns that they have about like the West gym for like volleyball for instance where the height doesn't quite meet regulation um whereas the East gym would have that ability so it gives a lot more flexibility to the staff on doing events and even doing competition events so it's basically what that's why we have that has green it's more of an intermediate phase and then the later
138phase so what we have here is uh the weight room space right here if this indeed um is looked at as a main entrance for the high school you know to have a secure entrance you really want your office as part of that to have a secure vestibule so we'd be looking at turning that weight room area into potentially the office space so that you have you have the best feel here with access into that you can control traffic through there by renovating that and turning that into the office space you have opportunity to create in the existing office space you know maybe three classrooms which really helps to open up some uh you know for the for the districts to be able to accommodate the growing enrollment it also is just a better location
139you know that's where a lot of your classrooms are you know kind of along that Corridor so it kind of hits uh with uh with those different spaces and then down on this end we'd have to find you know we're looking at space for um what that weight room could be has a good adjacency to the other to the locker rooms really this could be potentially looked at as maybe a two-story space you have the the wrestling rooms a wrestling room that's above uh the locker area is there it's really only used for that and if we're looking at an addition here and uh maybe it's maybe a two-story kind of thing makes sense because it gets more opportunity to utilize that second floor in different ways it just opens up more opportunity more options
140for you any questions about that but that uh as far as a potential schedule wise because I think that's kind of the critical item that needs to be thought through this is it is quite a bit of scope and a lot of area that's being looked at um especially when you're getting into gutting some of this Locker area and even this entrance area where you have some demo in an addition so what's being proposed here um is kind of what we show here is a March through September uh 2024 is just next year but generally just from a construction schedule kind of allowing the contractors to begin more in March for areas like the uh lot The Varsity Locker so it's kind of when you're completed with some of that Varsity Athletics you give them
141access to start doing the demolition work for that space during the school year and same with this entrance so there's some logistical things that the high school administration will have to work through to accommodate this but then allowing them to work all the way through to September uh you know up for kind of some of this work right here the things like the locker room renovation down here those of course would be maybe just the summer because you do need those Locker spaces for you know for your uh PE classes um so it's kind of some areas it's it's one contract for a contractor opinion kind of splitting up on what certain things can be done the reason why it's proposed this way is I think it's more cost effective um anything you split into
142several years just has cost implications whether that's inflation uh overhead on you know the contractor's part General conditions things of that nature just adds costs so if there's um you know it's and it just puts one one scope of work kind of together under one contract of responsibility of course the other phases just kind of fit into however the district that comes to tackle those any questions about that okay so the orange phase in terms of the footprint of ability it just changes the canopy entrance or the north entrance significantly yes not just for the canopy the Agro canopy is but well beyond that past the corner of the East gym and even Angley now that's an enormous difference in how people come into our building correct well now they're confronted with the narrow hallway
143they just immediately come into a very tight space and then the way you've opened it up to the gym there was a pinch Point always there so that's a change we also we're connecting this Corridor here which has some nice benefit to it and then the the footprint wise this in Bill Edition in the courtyard which just doesn't utilize my and then in the in the other face with the weight room that doesn't take out too many parking spaces and doesn't really interrupt the main parking area yeah it's right now it's just kind of staff parking really at this point um Paving you will have to think about how far you know when that time comes I'll just think about where the footprint that really would be right now we're going to showing it this
144way because I was trying not to cover up for the Frank's entrance I think that's something that we'd have to be sensitive to as we design as we would design that sure so potential net uh four classrooms academic space back from it a much better entry into our school equalized locker rooms we haven't had better Supervision in our PD locker room yeah that's something the administration with the High School administration I think they really wanted to improve any questions for Mr Garrett at this point okay the other parts of your packet really are just the budgetary uh piece of information trying to uh so I can help advise you on what to plan so I did a budget for each phase for planning purposes so this is Phase One and I'm trying and these are
145based off of square foot members just through conversations with different General Contractors that we work with or and contractors that have shown interest in the district's projects so giving me some feedback and I've taken that kind of different parts of the building is applied it likewise as we've gotten more information about what this project would look like so here I'm suggesting in budget of you know four million dollars for construction you know holding some contingency you know just to do the designs we don't the things we haven't discovered yet um I had the school's environmental consultant do some looking in at our kind of current renovation plan and give some feedback on um what how asbestos abatement might be affected or what would be necessary some of this project is over a tunnel space and
146so um that that would be would be a large consideration so they gave you that budget for consideration so kind of total construction cost 4.7 million um is is kind of what we're looking at right now and then the other the rest of it soft costs which are things that just the district needs to think about whether that's ffne that's just Furniture fixtures equipment obviously different projects have more of that than others but it's always good to have that as consideration any utility costs that you might have other professional service fees things of that nature that that's count with that softball so trying to leave you prepared at least for knowing what to budget and you're looking at each of these projects so that's phase one at the same time we looked at I dated
147budgets for the other phases these are based on kind of today's market you know Market uh value so you know you'd have to escalate I suggest around four percent just based off of what we see in the current uh costs for escalation or for uh inflation so anything that you do you take these dollars we'd want to escalate a four percent for each year essentially this is the base to the gym renovation so I listed here I broke out specific Scopes a little easier to do that so you can get an idea there are certain things that doesn't necessarily mean that all this has to be tackled at one time there are some things you might want to do ahead of time things like the uh you know the the eight you know adding the
148air conditioning or heating as part of that it would be that would be a really good one to do ahead of doing any kind of flooring replacement things of that nature so just kind of getting the idea there that's roughly you know a construction cost of million and if we're seeing soft costs and then phase three this one's strictly off of square foot numbers and I broke out kind of each section so what a wave room addition would be potentially if you did like the initial second floor I don't have any numbers from our environmental consultant for the kind of a main event we should plan that there'll be some basically renovate the office and uh and classroom renovation for separate broken what price per square foot did you use on renovation like sort of
149office in the classroom for example that's uh so that's I'm using 200 a square foot for the renovation I think that's probably pretty conservative but I do think things like that weight room area because there's different levels you know of floor levels around that area not sure exactly how all that would get solved I'm going to err on the side of always being a little more conservative we definitely need to do a phase one at some point in your future whether that be next year or whatever but phase two phase three can they be flip-flopped they yes um you know I think yes they could be I mean there's some things in there that as we work through the design of like phase one we might want to consider um you know if we're already
150doing mechanical stuff you know as part of this phase one job maybe like the the heating and AC makes sense to do even now for that East gym but certainly the rest of it could be done after you do the you know do phase three first right we want to be fiscally responsible as we do this but yeah you know there's no real reason yeah I don't know not between two and three um certainly not I do do think it is you know based on the way the phasing of that based on what has to happen for phase three all of that kind of comes together the wave room Edition the renovation of the the existing weight room to the office and those classrooms that's kind of I think almost it's almost like a package
151deal for that stuff so security would be improved we did phase three first and you'd have more classrooms if you did phase three prior to page foreign this would probably be productive smart I mean that we would need is before we go way down the road on this based on some of the enrollment numbers that we've seen would that drive you in any different direction on the plans we started this before we begin to see some of the enrollment numbers that you know with that's a that's a great question by the way if we were if we were going to see if we were expecting to see a very big spike in our high school numbers I think I mean this is looking at potentially four classrooms um you know we might want to consider
152other places to go we have thought about that too you can go south of the building of course they're on a small close to stamp size property you know in some ways for a high school the size of it is but there are places you could expand South into that parking lot for potential additional classrooms the concept of building up on the second story is another thought that we've had but I think in the timeline that that um we're operating under right now and really if you look at the Cropper report and that stays accurate we're not really seeing a big burst of enrollment so I think this is a conservative approach and uh I think it's a practical short term I want to say short term the next 10 12 years solution to some
153of the problems that we have right now since we're talking in terms of doing phases my concern was if you were expecting a bigger blip where would that fall from a phase download that you answered the question yeah and you know you know that's there's a lot of challenges with this property with this this board has decided to invest in the properties that we have I think this is a really conservative approach to doing that doing things in iterations step by step and uh next meeting we'll talk about how do you pay for all this and you know what can we do what funds do we have what kind of borrowing can we do to to fund these projects and how we how we go about doing that so that'll be our next meeting also
154in our next meeting will be kind of an approval of moving forward with this product with this project you know we have spent some money on this obviously through architect work and the time we've spent into it but to go to the next phase of getting bids documents prepared doing that in time to actually start a March Foundation uh well I know the difficulty of that with kids still being in school but you know I think we can we can strategize about that we'll need to get that approval going and get the final design set there might be some tweaks and how long can you tweak a design before you finally say that's it depends on the types of tweaks you're making and of course your frames here and there I I would expect that
155you know for the first you know three or four weeks that we'll have an opportunity to really invest in especially the entry part of it and getting that nailed down and that's where we'll probably see more tweaking I think the other parts are pretty you know can't imagine maybe making really large changes it's pretty pretty straightforward work and I think a lot of it makes a lot of sense well I want to come in the Morton high school administrative team on their constant work of looking at new designs and giving us their feedback and sitting at the table with us on our district office team Dr Teeter Dr sander Thomas kowowski also and our facilities team Jerry and Tim for all the work and thought that had gone into what we've got so far so
156in rockyship and there's oh Robbie is here yes he's been in all the meetings with us yeah so what's a four classrooms what's that add to the capacity say 100 probably in our capacity to enrollment I think you guys are around can you guys do 20 frontal horse games yeah I'm probably 100. and it's a give or take and then some of them are in study hall and gym so it's logistical things that are related to that okay any other questions foreign thank you very much thank you very much for your patience next we'll move on to action items set to emotion to accrue the policy updates as the reviewed and recommended and press issue 112. I'm in the form of Education crew the reviewed update and revised policies as recommended support any discussion Mr
157Rudd yes Dr cross yes Mr Baker yes Dr crawl yes Mrs Layman yes Mr Neely yes and Mr Roth yes next to accept a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented someone support Mr Neely yes Dr cross yes Dr crawl yes Mrs Layman yes Mr Rock yes Mr Rudd yes and Mr breaker yes we will have no closed session this evening so we will our next meeting will be September 19th at 7 8 7 P.M here at the admin building and then we also have a teacher meeting at 5 30 at Buddy Brown so looking forward to that so with that we'll accept a motion to adjourn so moved support all right [Music]