04/23/24 Board of Education Open Meeting

001e e e okay I think we're ready to get started tonight uh the board of education has been enclosed executive session to discuss the appointment employment compensation disci performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body the purchase or lease of real property for use of the public body and Collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees no action was taken during the closed executive session now like to ask everyone to join me for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do I recommend the board approved tonight's April 23rd 2020 for Open Session board meeting agenda

002as presented motion so move second any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I those opposed the motion is carried we'll now move on to District highlights Maria good evening president Clevenger members of the board Dr Clark and Melissa I am pleased to share this evening's school highlight as muffley Elementary and here to present is Principal Paul [Applause] Ranstead right off the bats all right good evening Dr Clark hi president cleer Board of Education um I would like to start with a shout out uh to buildings and grounds Kent meter um we are we're going to be able to use our playground on Thursday so uh students and staff are uh really looking forward to that so thank you very much for getting that taken care of it's pretty awesome um we are um

003committed um to Bringing unique and diverse experiences to our students uh we spent a lot of our time and our committees our teams um strategizing coming up with ways to enhance uh those opportunities and and efforts and so I I would like to talk about all of our teams and committees but I'm going to really showcase and highlight our parent Community engagement committee and talk about a number of the things that that they've designed for each month um on our half dayss um with with trying to provide or increase our Partnerships with our community and our parents Al also coming from a lens from the diversity Equity inclusion um focus there as well so you'll see um all right Maria you coached me up so there we go it worked uh the big green button

004so just to share our vision and Mission uh we we do strive to make sure that we're um promoting and creating successful citizens out of our students in a diverse society and then as you look at the mission statement um a positive learning environment really is the focus of kind of where I'm um drawing our attention this evening on our next slide it just goes into uh who is responsible for these particular events that we've uh had a great opportunity for um my days at Eisenhower we were talking about unplugged and getting students away from their devices and just bringing some experiences that don't need to sit there with the iPad and slide left and click right and all that kind of stuff so uh I really want to tip my hat off to our

005facilitator Libby Kirkland our Taskmaster Joseph Krauss our notaker Jessica Meer timekeeper Kim de cesso other members uh tresa James and Ashley Robinson Ashley was going to be here this evening uh she was out and she's still trying to collect her voice so kind of said I'll I'll go ahead and and handle this but um would have like to have had her here today as representative of the team uh but they work we have committee meetings uh once a month they work really hard even Beyond hours as you see on the right there they're responsible for the development and implementation of our events scheduling those things making sure it works in the day um securing Community Resources supplies and activity preps they spent a lot of time getting things ready for that day uh Publications uh

006and then staff Communications so uh it it's a great effort um to get this accomplished I know the the highlight of it is coming here real soon um so on our half days uh went from Grandparents Day to indigenous people's day trunk oret treat Veterans Day so I'm going to inste this slide I'm going to start to show you the rest um it does have some images and I'll just give a brief highlight on each so excuse me we started in September um and again that unplugged concept how do we get away from devices we went Old School Grandparents coming in Blast from the Past excuse me so it was it was recessed like we used to do it and so um we had Hopscotch and jump ropes and uh we actually had games on

007indoors just prepared in case of inclement weather um but it was a great day to get our grandparents in and and do PE or recess like like back in the day excuse me just some other pictures there uh you know the hula hoops came out and it was just a real good time to see everybody uh celebrating having a good time early in the school year uh when we had great weather uh moving into October uh indigenous people's day so here's the efforts too for that Dei uh diversity Equity inclusion aspect of things I do feel that muffley has done a great job of this uh for a number of years um highlighting and focusing and bringing awareness uh but this particular day you can see few images there uh students were um provided an

008opportunity to uh conduct and practice pow powwow dance uh they there was a crafts of brown uh Brown Buffalo hides and then ultimately all groups were able to work on a dream catcher uh during that time obviously there's instruction that goes along with these things U but you're getting to see the highlights uh there as well uh moving on uh so into October uh you see uh the trunk Retreat map that's up there on the top right the award uh that went out to the teacher voted uh best trunk uh it's a two-year running recipient they like to brag and um but they did a lot of sales um on their their uh their display um as kids and teachers were coming by and and it seemed to work for them uh but you can

009just see a couple of snapshots there uh again lot of effort to get that accomplished you know not a lot of reaching out to families I think we had 27 cars um which is up from the year before uh so it's definitely due to their efforts uh with that that team great Veterans Day assembly uh you can see just kind of the bottom picture there of who kind of attended and stuck around for the picture there at the end uh one nice part is our students contribute to the presentations it's not just a veteran speaking or or whatever but our kids actually had a part of that uh from you know first grade where you know they were holding signs and and and saying various parts of that uh to actually uh some uh factual

010information provided uh from some of our older students uh during that event uh so it was a whole school assembly fit everybody in the gym um we had a uh almost an L-shaped worth amount of chairs that had veterans uh that had attended uh that that assembly which was pretty fantastic uh December so we have tried trim the tree uh in the evening um it was it wasn't it didn't quite go as we maybe had hoped uh so we did try to bring that into the school day uh where you know a little more students can experience that that maybe weren't being brought back in the evening um it didn't necessarily have the same um parental involvement as we would like still invited to attend and participate plenty of volunteers to help um but again

011I you know we want to get our students those a unique experience experiences and then also trying to work our magic and bring our families in as well so we'll continue to build on that sorry back I got it see I did it so you can see on the bottom left volunteers are there actually one teacher is in that picture but um definitely we had a you know a parental force that was present uh got into January so Year of the Dragon um students uh ended up uh making um a lantern and a dragon craft uh again just bringing that awareness the announcements during the month um tie into that and give historical facts and figures those types of things um so you can just see a little bit more celebrating and honoring recognizing on

012our half day there in January February was a little more challenging um we had a lot of test prep to get get on the way but we had our Mario Kart theme um so we started the kickoff with a game uh you can see all the Mastery skills on the bottom left that were obtained uh in preparation for that um assessment uh and we did uh manage to have a uh fairy tale ball and our uh one of our partners East Park Church provided a a heart there for the Valentine's they could punch into the cup and in the cup it had a nice treat so another uh great partnership that we have there U but then that fairy tale ball you just see a few images there it was great great night um it

013looked like a middle school dance you know everybody's kind of on one side and they weren't sure to sure what to do yet they they eventually got out there and had a had a good time um we had some younger parents they they wanted to to have a little different music I think than the fairy tale fairy tale ball kind of music but uh they're like what what kind of dance is this this is an elementary school dance so they had a good time definitely had a good time uh got into March so we um uh they coordinated with the decer obedience training club and pet partners uh we do have therapy dogs that are coming in and reading to one of our second grade classes you see her uh on the picture on the

014left and then you see the obedience training there picture in the middle uh and so uh they had an opportunity to listen and hear you know how safely to approach an animal um to you know seeing them train and all the details that it takes uh that's just anexample but they had you know large to small dogs um a lot of interaction there and so another uh great partnership uh with those two organizations uh created Again by our pce and then tomorrow we're getting into Earth Day uh granted that was Monday but um our half Day celebration here we're working with the gardeners a Master Gardeners with the University of Illinois um and just kind of bringing that a concept into mind and into play uh we don't have any images or anything yet but

015those will be on our Facebook page um before long uh so we're looking forward to uh one more event here to to celebrate and highlight some of what we do at muffle any questions good job thank you than you thanks all right thank you very [Applause] much okay we're moving on to our public participation part of the agenda well um Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself and be brief comment should be limited to 3 minutes any public comments submitted to the board board secretary will be included in the record Miss Bradford do we have anyone wishing to okay please note that during any Board of Education meeting and public participation board members do not respond or comment to public comments All comments are referred to Administration furthermore

016the board refrains from referring to specific students or staff members by name and requests that public commentators refrain from doing so as well the request that you omit names is made to protect you from Al ation of live or slander or from violations of the Illinois school student records act it is not intended to Shield an employee from criticism Miss Bradford do we have anyone wishing to address the board Mavis Bradford good evening Dr Clark in the Board of Education my name is Mavis Bradford and I stand here before you today as a brand BR new certified teacher thanks to your approval and support of the teacher ready program so nervous I began my substitute teaching career nine years ago at Eisenhower High School when the application requirements included holding a bachelor's degree many people

017are unaware that the teacher ready program is above and beyond earning a bachelor's degree this specific program focuses on instructional design and lesson planning how to provide a supportive learning environment instruction delivery and facilitation of content assessing learning continuous professional Improvement and professional responsibility and ethical conduct it also includes fieldwork assignments related to my experience in the classroom along with multiple professional observations from an administrator or a teacher Mentor authorized by teacher ready within our district and let's not forget the state required content and professional exams taken by any wouldbe educator from all different teaching programs across the state as Educators we know that learning is not limited to a traditional classroom look at the work we achieved during remote learning the teacher ready program is an online educational alternative hoping to fill the Gap

018in a nationwide crisis as teachers continue to leave the profession and new teachers can't graduate fast enough I am very grateful that DPS has invested in me and the teacher ready program to give me the opportunity to finally become the certified teacher I have practiced for the past nine years I would like to thank all of my co-workers and mentors over the years who are my best resource for teaching and unmatched by any how to teach textbook or class out there a special thank you to Mr Sergio Raina who completed all of my observations and the paperwork followed up with teacher ready I can teach anywhere and every day I choose DPS so I thank you for also choosing me thank you thank [Applause] you that's it we appreciate those comments um board thanks everyone

019for their comments now you've gotten over the nervous phase you're ready to go uh we'll now move on to board committee reports uh Dr Curry there go ahead you go okay I was going to just say there are actually no committee reports but they're going to be the solar reports coming up oh my apologies the finance piece that thank you correct so um first of all that's a hard speech to follow so thank you for thank you for that hiar um first of all good evening Dr Clark Melissa and board of education at the request of the finance committee it's I've been asked to provide an oral Financial update each month so as of March 31st our cash Investments um and that includes obligations total 96 m551 th000 so if you pull out your happen

020to have your treasurers report it might make a little more sense the One Fund that we always talk about is the education fund so the education fund totaled 49 million in change at the end of this last month March at the end of February it was 48.2 Million so that's a net gain of $1 million from month to month at the end of uh March 2023 the Ed fund total $ 44.6 million which is a positive gain of $4.5 million from March to March as of March 31st we re received 70% of our budgeted revenues so not all of it we're more than 34s down the road but at the same time we budgeted for some things we weren't sure we were going to get um we didn't spend all of our exra money so

021we didn't get all of our exra money just yet and we have expensed only 60% of our anticipated budget expenses so we're under in both um but we're we're under in our anticipated expenses the next topic is cppt or replacement tax corporate replacement tax um is a tax levied on corporations when their property tax piece went away uh at that meeting that I was recently I went to a meeting last week and the the the feeling in the room is that we'll see a 25 to 30% reduction in property replacement tax both this year and probably next year because we've had a Boom coming out of postco as the economy grew people were buying things companies were making more profits so everybody was receiving more cppt last year we received about 12 million this year

022we are at 6.8 or so and we have two payments left and we're hoping to reach 8 million this year so um that would be about a 25% U decrease um and then my last update is one that everybody likes to hear about is County facility sales tax that's the 1 cent tax um as of April um we had received $5.8 million from the cfst we have two payments left and we're hoping for about 1.2 million which would be $7 million that $7 million is allocated to two different funds 4.5 million go to our alternative Revenue debt Bond on payment and that's about 4.2 million and then the rest is for capital projects so we're hoping to bring in about 2.5 million to do with as we see fit for capital projects um and right

023now there's only two things in the capital projects um pipeline the modular payments at about 620,000 a year for the next two and a half years and the new Turf project uh with track at MacArthur for $2 million and we will hopefully be at the end of this year sitting on 7.5 million in that fund so the asked the question had been asked to me to bring if there's anything new and exciting or um Earth shattering and the only thing really to note would be the fact that cppt has been really good to us for the last two years is coming back to normal which is six to seven million okay one quick question and I may have missed it you said March 2022 to March 2023 23 to 24 23 to 24 thank you

024thank you uh we'll move on to board discussion there are a couple of items uh before we open it to board members a couple items that uh we'd like to talk about with some follow-up information so Kent could you come up and uh follow up on the solar panels and our playground installation updates good evening board uh so as as far as the solar uh panel projects going um n has been given you know to go ahead to move forward with placing that request for proposals out there on the street and defining the scope of work and so forth so um I don't know that I know the date when we expect those bids back in so I will have to check on that and get back with you on that so so that's what

025we know about the solar uh right now at this point so any other questions on solar and was there any other discussion from the board that was needed for um in order for us to know next steps what I think the biggest thing is I mean I don't know if it's we need to have a bigger discussion about it is uh where it falls into like the facilities you know plan that we're looking at um I think well I mean o Grove that's a huge question mark for us you know um and then whether the board saw a fit for some of the proposals for the properties in the district um you know meaning do we agree with those locations as being desirable locations for the solar panels so me I'm asking them because I

026question I I don't say it because I have an answer you I guess point of clarification is is this being factored in into the overall facilities plan that we're working our way through the build the locations that we are most interested in putting solar would be buildings and locations that are in um currently being used and currently in sufficient or in in the kind of what's the word I'm trying to think of they're not in disrepair at all there'll be buildings that are going continually be used just for clarification so what we went through is we went through and looked at at each site individually and determine what limitations there may be on a particular site some of those limitations may be with the outcome of the master plan is is there a distinct possibility

027you know that for futures usage or not yeah and so we didn't want to move down a a road on something that may come back these are all buildings that were you know 99.9% continue they're going to be the inventory of and quite useful for the district that's that's the criteria because these are 20 year to 25 year agreements correct and they had the they had the the the best land and placement for the facility or for the solar panels um well I guess two two concerns I have let me put it like that um the Dansby site that's the proposed location is on currently L currently owned by the park district one uh the second one I don't know what the board feels on the proposed location for the panels at Hope Academy where

028was that location I don't remember um I don't know that was Condit and so if if you're standing in the front door looking out it would be to the uh to the right um and the green pasture just out to the right so Northwest Al so to the left which which door you can the front door the main front door I don't West door the west door this way uhhuh yeah there's a big open space there and spoke with the principal in that field seldom used just we worry about vandalism on yes that is a that is a priority and a concern of the the contractor not us that's all them that's how the PPA Works cont they handle all that these and and they can be vandalized anywhere I'm aware of that correct um

029but they would be replacing any vandalized solar panel regardless of the number of times yeah go ahead just so just to clarify so the reason the way this is structured is they will be the owner maintainer and ultimately the disposer of the array so anything that would happen is during the course of it whether mowing the grass you know maintaining wild flowers whatever they choose to plant around that so so forth they're responsible for that any hail damage um graffiti whatnot that's their responsibility gotta and just to clarify we haven't take action to go to bid yet yeah right that' be next that'll be next next board meeting at the earliest to go to bid say that again I thought you just said the bids are he he misspoke he misspoke so we need to

030approve that we're going to you needed to have a discussion tonight as I understood it so uh we have not asked them to go to bid yet because we also want to see how the facilities uh survey shakes out here in the next month or so but they're ready to go to bid whenever we're ready to ask them to I think the biggest question that I have then is just that that Dansby location with the um with yeah the 100% offset that would be there if if we were able to put those solar panels there I believe it was 100% offset wasn't it well I mean with um us not owning the land correct if we're able to put them there it would be 100% offset y but I mean would that affect the request

031for proposal if yeah the proposal is going to be based on whatever sites the board so chooses to have bid right so if I'm just making this up if there was a reason um to not do hope I don't know what that would be then we would exclude that from the bid because we don't want to put out a bid and then say oh sorry we're not going to do that one because whoever makes the bids uh make creates their bid uh package based on what they see in the in the scope all right other questions okay you good will thank you will yeah I'm fine okay okay that's it everybody okay well all right let me just ask you talk you talk about mowing the grass and and maintaining these areas is it possible

032for building and grounds to have a contract with these people that we could be employed back to take care of that kind of stuff that we normally would do anyways uh my my initial feeling completely without thinking about it is we have so much grass to mow I'd rather not mow around that structure so if they if they accept that responsibility more power to it because we you know on this time of year it's hard to keep everything mowed anyway when the rain's coming the Sun's shining and everything's green so yeah we'll we'll kind of let them do the hard stuff we'll do the the other more aesthetic things do they they fence these off so the general public can't climb on these yes I think they said at least a six foot fence maybe

033a 7ot fence now is that part of the The Proposal then we Define what the security would look like or yes okay okay all right thank you moving on to so I've just got a few pretty pictures to show you so so obviously continuing discussion about the playground installations and I'm just going to show you the progress we've made now and we're so I want to I want to give the opportunity to give a shout out to my guys so the manufacturer had an opportunity for us to go to training formal training at their manufacturing facility on how to do this and you know with anything once you're trained you're much more efficient and these guys have been working very hard and they can they've got they now they're into your Rhythm and of course

034you know with they're over with learning curve so they put these together pretty quickly now and they look fantastic so um so the upper leftand corner photo a little bit far out for that screen at this range but that would be hope as you can see we need to reestablish better grass but absolutely beautiful um so we just completed the contractor just completed the POR and play uh surface which is that greenish within the white concrete boundary um D DP DPS staff did everything else and uh I think it's just quite an attractive addition to the campus so that's hope um the one in the lower rightand corner is muffley Elementary School um so the sometimes the footprint of the concrete changes a little bit from sight to site but all the play structures are

035identical from from sight to site so um all the kids have the same opportunity for play regardless of the site they're at um and again you know it's just a that appealing white concrete versus that green play surface is just beautiful with the play structure um the upper leftand corner then is Franklin Grove a little bit closer you can see how everything just kind of all comes together in a nice seamless finish looks very nice and then the lower right hand photograph is muffle so you'll see that I'm sorry South Shores thank you thank you for pointing that out just get rolling um so you'll see that kind of horizontal two bands across there that's where they have the drainage um material put in they have some of the holes board uh we got pulled

036off um because the contractor finally got here to um imp installation of the poor employee surface is weather dependent has to be a certain temperature and maintain that temperature the material wouldn't set so we kept getting delayed so once they got that in there our guys remobilized to the ones that had the POR and play done and they hung the last um play items so that they could finish that up so they pulled off of South Shores then we're working on also the emergency generator for the data center at the tech Academy so they'll they'll be giving back to muffley soon to start actually erecting the play structure and then concrete rib around the outside and then the contract is already in place for the PO and play on that surface um these are the

037other play structures were s which are sitting in the parking lot across the street for the other four buildings um John's Hill Parson's bomb and Dansby and the con our people will be installing the play structures in the playgrounds for Johns Hill Parson some bomb the contractor bror Russo will be installing the one for Dansby um but we ordered as part of our um grant funding with our grant funding so we have it on site and ready for them so that's uh the pretty pictures and that's the update on where we're at do you have any questions you know what the time frame is for those last three um that are the DPS employ so yes as soon as we finish um South Shores and get that going then we'll move to um John's Hill

038um then to Parsons and then to bomb thereafter okay um B bomb's going to be last on the list we should get those completed this summer but bomb has two pretty modern play structures already on the campus so um John's Hill has zero and Parsons has one which is not nearly this nice so um and then we we'll have to let another contract for them for the poror and place poor and play surface on those playgrounds as well but that'll be done by a contract do we have a certified playground inspector on staff now we do not and I was just I I had gotten some information just a couple days ago on uh getting people certified so I'm looking at getting um a couple folks sent we have guys who have trained in it

039and who are doing those um but we don't not we do not have a certified person right now we had a retirement uh few months ago and I think he was our only certified person okay one last quick question um John Till do you know where it's going to be put yes trying to think of the site so it's going to be setting where the old building sat so at the top of the hill gotcha try to keep it away from traffic and so forth and close proximity of the building so that seemed like the most logical sort of flat spot to put it right any other questions okay thanks Ken thank you thank you now there any other items aboard would wish to to discuss at this time I do I have several here

040and and I I want to First apologize to the administration and the rest of the board and the community for um my late notice about some of these things and and just in general um dealing with a new full-time job for the first year I think a lot of people know can be um time consuming and I apologize sometimes I'm not keeping up on what's going on as much as I should so I just want to um address a few things real quickly here um that I haven't sent in writing to anyone I did submit um to all of you board members the four win-win ideas last fall um the solar was one of them and I'm glad to see we're moving ahead on that um the school Improvement days were discussed uh the other

041two haven't been discussed much one of them was I was at a elementary school last year where they were having a SE second picture day of the year and that struck me as kind of strange um it just seemed like another day that of because picture day is kind of mess up instruction um and I've also known for a long time and being an employee in the district at times that uh pictures a lot of times are like two or three years old and so I know it's difficult to have enough staff to get the pictures in um uh in Skyward um so why would we have a second picture day so I just feel that dropping that second picture day it saves an instructional day it saves staff a lot of time um just

042something I would recommend not a huge cost difference but just something to save U staff time um and and also improve instructional time and the other thing I had brought up uh the fourth win-win I had mentioned we didn't really discuss it much was the amount of standardized testing um as I said the high school uh testing in the fall is totally voluntary the state doesn't require it I think the nature of standardized testing um has gotten quite extensive as we want to try to find out more about how students are doing but at the same time we are um developing students who uh get very tired of standardized tests and by the time they get to Middle School even they're burnt out um and I'm not just saying that my opinion I've seen it

043I've seen records of it um because that's part of what I do in my job um when you see students percentile scores drop by huge amounts you know they're not really trying and so I think burnout is and a very important thing to be concerned about uh with standardized testing because if you have burnout you don't have accurate scores um they don't mean anything and um staff can't really use them to talk with students because they're not meaningful um they don't make the district look too good either and I don't think that's a major reason I'm questioning that but that's just that's what comes of it so um burnout is a huge thing um The High School uh especially by that time high school students are especially burned out I don't see any need to

044do the PSAT twice a year um it's not even recorded in Skyward for anyone to use um and I have not known of anyone does use those scores much at all um of the staff the amount of time the staff has to do to re workk everything in the building to get ready for a testing day is is immense and so I think um it'd be wonderful to reduce the amount of time that staff has to spend on that um but then also I think I mentioned this before too you're talking about um little kids starting with standardized testing the fast Bridge we do three times a year um the whole purpose is to find out how much they've improved and I think that's a wonderful thing um but if you did first and last

045and not the middle that would start reducing the whole um burnout question um it also takes a lot of time and I've seen this in action also for elementary teachers to try to handle that standardized testing um because when you're dealing with little kids it's it's a little bit different than just having a high school class classroom that you organize and you say start and that's it um so why I call this win-win is because reducing burnout saving staff time improving scores um I think these are all win things and I think we should at least maybe set up a task force of um different layers in the school district to be on that task force to discuss this um I certainly don't know what is the best way to move forward I I'm very

046concerned and I see problems with it but I'm certainly not one to say there's I know the solution to it so I really would hope the district would set up a task force to really look at the nature of what we do for standardized testing how much and go from there my final comment is about some things I saw briefly and I I'm again apologize for not knowing for sure but um in terms of how we hire um administrative staff and what we do what we expect in terms of the amount of time they need to be trained um I just am concerned that we kind of assume automatically that anyone we bring into the school district uh needs to have someone with them for a few months to guide them into what they do

047and in some cases that perhaps is true a person who hasn't had much experience in that field perhaps but when we bring in people that have had several years of experience in the field that they're being hired into I don't see the need for us to have what I would call overlapping positions um I think we need to show more respect for the person we're hiring and have them take over the job that's why we hired them that's why we think they're going to do a good job so those just my feelings in general about the whole overlapping positions concept thanks Al any any other items for discussion from the board tonight okay we'll move on to reports from Administration uh we have Clinger and Associates with us tonight um Kent are you going to

048kick this off or how are we going to for our third rendition of our buildings review yes so tonight we have Kyle hannel from kinger again and he's going to present the next four buildings this is the third in the series more to come so thank you Kent H good to see everybody again today tonight um the four buildings we're going to be looking at are four buildings that I myself uh did the site visits and the visual inspections while while I was out there uh alen lucans uh also from cleaner Associates he did the quality control of my reports and the presentation here so the four buildings are the bomb Elementary monor Academy for peace muffley Elementary and South Shores Elementary the first one we're looking at here is Bomb Elementary it's kind of

049located uh on the east side of town here out by the airport the original building the main portion of it was built around 1975 and it just has one small addition that's in that uh northwest corner there that was built in uh 1995 the addition was very similar construction to the original other than its foundations were shallow like strip footings instead of deep foundations this is the uh main entrance um on bomb and it was actually modified back in 1978 but it was only like five years after it was originally built so that's probably what everyone would recognize as that entrance there so a little summary of of what we found after doing our structural evaluation is um the high priority recommendations for this school we actually don't have any which is a good thing

050um the low priority recommendations that we found we got brick veneer tuck pointing and expansion joint repairs around the outside brick veneer we got a courtyard brick wall uh that has tuck pointing repairs needed there's a exterior wall and sofit painting repairs uh we're recommending uh or there's roof ballast and membrane wall repairs were a recommendation or roof balance and membrane repairs and then there's interior masonry wall tuck pointing we'll see more of them in photos I'm going to highlight next here so this is also on the front elevation just uh just down from the entrance as you can see in these two photos it's really just highlighting some deterioration of like the sofits and the paint on some of the wall panels that are in um some of the curtain walls that are in

051between the the brick veneer portions it's kind of got like a recessed area where uh the windows and doors are recessed back from the the outer edge of the roof nothing major more cosmetic than anything uh this is the courtyard um wall that I mentioned is is one of the minor things so I couldn't verify if it has like a a foundation that goes all the way down to frost below it and that could be the the reason for some of the deterioration because if it if it doesn't get down to frost on its foundation below it's going to move a little bit with frost heave throughout the years but it's not retaining any soil or anything it's just the wall to kind of it's kind of round shaped if you know this area and

052it kind of has a little uh like Courtyard inside it and it just has areas of of brick cracking and some efflorescence and and things like that that are in need of repair uh these are a few examples of some of the brick veneer um deterioration we found there's some lentils above some of the doorway and window openings that have pack rusted and and kind of pressed up on the bricks at the corners and then there's some Expansion Joints where the expansion joint sealant material is missing now um the good thing about these walls is this bomb Elementary School all the structural uh supports are actually on steel columns and beams and and steel joist so the exterior masonry walls and the brick veneer is really just for like taking some lateral loads and and

053to to have a outside building shell a few examples of the roof here so we we timed it decent to have some rain before one of our trips and you can kind of tell some areas that are low and pond in water it's not quite getting it to the internal drains there uh if we got enough water it would but whenever it's shallow like that it allows water to sit it's going to try and find holes if there is any to try and leak down in and then the the lower photo just shows there's some brick deterioration on the upper uh portion of parit wall at the edge of one of the roof areas there right at I think that was right at an ex uh kind of an expansion joint from an from uh

054like a a a spot where you don't have a brick veneer to where it's a curtain wall these are a couple of examples of the Interior masonry walls that's got some um cracking in it um it's probably due to lack of expansion in the the one multi it's like the in the the photo on the left of the masonry wall and like the multi-purpose room there um again it's not a loadbearing wall just helping with lateral uh bracing of the building and then the other one's some brick that comes off of a header near a corner of one of the interior walls just minor tuck pointing would help the next the next school we're looked at is the monastery Academy for peace also located over on the east side of town by the airport uh

055main portion of the building uh originally built in 1966 uh the north uh wing of it is two stories the South wing of it is one story um on the south Wi on the west side is actually a gym so it's kind of a higher roof there but in 2004 they built additions to both the northwing that was a two-story Edition and the South wi that was a gym Edition and locker room Edition um these the the upper picture is the the entrance that's over on the east side of the building that it's got like a new canopy there I think was done around 2020 and then the lower picture is the north side which looks like it's probably the former entrance because there was like a turn lane and stuff in there um but

056it's you're seeing a portion of what some people may recognize as what used to be more of the front of the building another executive summary of this building is again no high priority recommendations which is which is great uh low priority recommendations uh there's there's a lot of brick veneer tuck pointing and expansion joint repairs for this building on the exterior brick veneer and then you got exterior wall opening lentil repairs again um exposed steel painting uh repairs for some of the main structural columns in the original building are actually Exposed on the outside too the brick stops and starts at each side of them then you got exterior wall uh with missing uh trim that needs replaced you got roof bance and membrane repairs and internal masonry wall tuck pointing repairs again a few

057a few examples of the exterior brick veneer that has an expansion joint with just sealant that's it's deteriorated and and old and in need a replacement and then again it's it's they've done some repairs at a few of these corners but then um there's still areas that are in need of tuck pointing where lentils have um been allowed to to pack rust and and get a little expand and push up on the brick a little these are the structural steel columns in the original building that are exposed in some places um some places and and on the new additions too these are covered with like metal panels so you don't even see the steel um but what's exposed here is it's starting to rust get surface rust on it so we basically recommend getting that

058clean C up and probably covered up for the future some examples of the roof um where it's pwned in water and in a lot of different places and then also up on the gym it had some wrinkles in the roof where it's kind of bubbled up underneath there so um even though they're flat roofs the gym portion actually had gutters on the north and south side of it and while we were up there we found like three or four balls that were actually wedged in the gutters that it's the gutters are big enough it just must be a game for the kids to try and kick the volleyballs and kick balls up onto the roof but um there was no interior like permanent ladder to get up on the lower roofs so we had to

059use like a ladder from the outside um so that could be like if maybe if maintenance had a a ladder to get up there maybe it could be part of their plan to to check the gutters and things a little more often but just one observation there a lot of the other schools have it like in a in a Jan or closet or boiler room or something to get up on the roof just some examples of not surprisingly after you see that roof there is roof leaking um that you can see evident in some of the some of the ceiling panels um now there is a water pipe near that one so I'm not 100% sure if it was roof or not but it could be from that pipe penetrating the roof too but our

060next school we looked at is muffle which actually was highlighted earlier uh in your in your meeting um this is located kind of on the Southeast portion of town original building 1956 it quickly had an addition built on the North side in 1961 that has a basement below that it also had an addition in 1970 on the Southside and then in 2020 it had an addition on the east side that included a pre-engineered metal building and a one-story kind of Timber Frame structure uh this is the front elevation that you'd probably recognize um the executive summary it only had one high priority recommendation there's an exterior retaining wall that's in need of some repairs it's leaning it's on the it's on the front side of the building the West Side uh near the North End

061low priority recommendations again brick veneer tuck pointing exterior wall opening uh lentil repairs roof leak and sealer water sealing water damage repairs and then interior uh masy wall tuck pointing pretty similar to the other buildings and again it's similar type of structure it's got steel structure on the inside that's supporting the structure and the the Ming walls and brick veneers just for the lateral supports so this is the retaining wall that I mentioned as a high priority item so it was laning out of Plum about 3 in over four feet so that's like close to 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch per foot which is what we'd consider a lot for a retaining wall um and then the guardrail above it was was starting to pack r at the base so it's it's a minor

062safety thing but if someone was really leaning up against it or something something you never you never know so that's why we deemed it a high priority it's not affecting the building it's just affecting potential safety of people playing out by the retaining wall um some examples of the exterior there's some there's some lentils causing uh cracking and spalling of the brick and then uh the foot on the left it's like a you can only see the bottom flange but it's a beam header that kind of runs continuous along the wall with the brick being a top and a bottom of it and it's it's expanded from pack resting um this photo is there's an area on the North Edition where it has a basement below and windows for the basement and the grading just

063it's it's not low enough below the window or the window's not sealed enough it's allowing like water and moisture and mud to kind of leak in underneath one of the windows and then these are just some examples again of some some ceilings we found with water moisture issues these are some photos of interior masonry with some minor cracking in it um some of it's from just probably lack of uh Expansion Joints or it's it's going to find a weak area between Windows and Doors to try and crack but um similar it's it's not anything of major more cosmetic than anything and then the last school we're talking about here is the South Shores Elementary School it's on accordingly the souths side of town here um it is original building 1956 six it quickly had an

064addition in 1958 on the the Northeast side there and then in 2020 a really small timber frame type of addition on the East side this is kind of an overview of the the entrance there along the side and then a zoom in of kind of like where the kids would go in uh executive summary high priority recommendations there's one joist bearing um on a masonry wall in the multi-purpose room which is really the multi-purpose room in Auditorium is the only spots that have loadbearing masony walls similar to some of my past reports where the boiler rooms had some issues uh this is a similar issue where the joist bearing on the CMU is causing some spalling uh we'll see it in a photo later and then the low priority recommendations brick veneer and chimney tuck

065pointing roof membrane repairs again interior Ming wall tuck pointing and then there's some interior floor tile abatement replacement might be needed um there's some wings on the exterior walls that um there's it's more for decoration I think when they design this building so they just air on both sides of them and sometimes those don't do real well with weathering when they can get moisture coming in on both sides um there's no interior on either side there's exterior on both sides so we saw quite a bit of cracking in a lot of those um there is kind of a a roof overhang that comes but it's everything's still it's bearing on steel behind it so it's more cosmetic than anything this is a chimney that was there that had a lot of cracking and de deterioration

066and E florescence that goes up above the lower roof kind of near the um the multi-purpose room and then there was an area um of some membrane cracking near the expansion joint between the 1956 and the 1958 editions there you can kind of see some cracking in the uh exposed membran portion these are just some more examples of uh infilled or not even use louvers or Windows anymore that the there's still a steel lentil embedded in the brick there that's that's pack rusted and CA some of that brick to crack and then this is the Once the photo on the left there um is where that joist is bearing on a wall and that's like the middle divider wall between the multi-purpose room and the um Auditorium that's starting to have some spalling and cracking

067there and um well it doesn't appear to be like a safety thing for like the actual joist itself we just don't want a piece of that to come down you know fall down on something there so the right photo is just some cracks that are in the I believe that one is in the boiler room um some interior cracks these are some examples of some of the condition the T there's tile in the multi-purpose room that are that are deteriorated and and um have portions missing and then there's actually this tile also in a lot of the office area kind of where I came in that was deteriorated so I'm not sure if it's been tested for any aestus or anything for the broken up portions but it could be something that they need to

068look into maybe replace in the future that's I'm done with the four thing four different schools we're reporting on here we still do have like approximately 11 schools left so we'll hit those in in following um board meetings but we're just trying to hit a few at a time just so that you can get your mind wrapped around each of those ones but if you have any questions on the four I just guess let me know I I do um I'm concerned that you don't have the the roof leakage as as a potential major issue how do how do we find out or know whether these roofs need to be replaced or is I mean is that what your department will do or when when I'm saying like priority wise so the the condition of

069the steel supports the metal decking and the steel bar joist were still in good shape even where there might be portions or locations of of uh leaks so when I'm thinking of like what I consider high priority for structural is like something that could affect like the structural stability or the the so when it comes to like something like cosmetic or or what it be costly to do I I I'm not trying to rate it on like how expensive of a repair it would be I guess guess for our for our reports if that makes sense yes it does to just kind of give you a larger look at Roofing so Roofing is one of the larger ticket items per building that we have so we have 1.7 million square feet of roof and uh

070so it's a very significant impact on on the budget so what we've been doing in the last what three two years I've been here and then some some before that we've been doing about2 and half to $3 million wor the roof work per year and we we're trying to get them all into a rotation so that we're we're looking at the the life expectancy of that roof warranty issues and so forth and we're either um replacing those when they come around or doing some restoration type work to extend that warranty and things of that nature so some of these more like incidental things that Kyle's poting out it's great because we can send we have a roofer on staff we can have them go address these particular issues um but some of those bigger projects

071then are just coming into the queue um but on a side note Mike and I Dr Curry and I just sent spent two hours with the architect looking at Health Life Safety reports a lot of this information was in those reports as well and then my staff and myself have spent a lot far more numbers and number of hours and that reviewing those Health Life Safety reports which are you know moving through the process right now and again they identified almost almost every item that's been identified by the kinger report has been touched upon by the health Life Safety so um starting to put together those kind of numbers as to you know what what kind of expense we're having timelines and things of that nature outside of these more you know potentially bigger structural

072issues one one more question some of these original buildings built back in this you know the 50s and so so they're 68 years old is there a rule of thumb that we should be looking at that says how long these buildings actually will last and I'm saying this because I I think we're looking at Dennis was a 100 years old or something like that his 80 years 90 years what what is there a rule of thumb that we can rely on it'd be it'd be heavily dependent on the the structure itself so like the four that I presented tonight they still have really good like guts to them they're steel framed on the inside so a lot of the things I pointed out are like the exterior needs some work to keep its shell to

073keep it uh waterproofed and things but uh it could go for a long time if you kept up on maintenance on that I don't know if they have like when when we when they probably designed this did they have a set hoping for a hundred years I know Bridges designed for certain you know 50 years 100 years is the Hope but it's they tend to last as long as they're maintained I'd guess thank you um I don't think this applies to what you're doing U but Kent's there anyway so um just because we're talking about bomb tonight um so I'm going to go off a little bit a year ago when we talked about um three of the elementary schools I think one of them was bomb was one of the ones that didn't have

074the final step of security and that was going to be done in the summer and and you and you made it clear that all the buildings were secure but there was that extra step which I don't even understand but um and then the dentist thing happened and so that you know the maintenance people were you know doing that so is that something that's going to be possible this summer for those three buildings sorry Kyle well I would I have to say it's not in the queue right now for summer um because of the master plan we're looking at and all those other there's so many variables in play and for consideration that um that that one's not under the radar right now I mean because we're taking administrative um means to make secure makes sure

075sure gosh can't even talk make sure that you know visitors are being escorted and letting in when they're you know so forth and ready so there's there's a Manpower issue there in play that's assisting with with the security of the building besides just relying on the doors so we we've kind of taken that as our first approach right now for security on that building I guess one thought I have a question Kent on our as we work our way through this facility the overall uh facility planning process and our look into our facilities um I would hope that there's a way that maybe you can develop a rolling formal uh facility management plan that keeps us that keeps us and future boards um alert to potential issues that might be coming up and when we

076talk about roofs they're of course a big part of that rolling plan so is there a five to 10 year Rolling plan that can be developed simultaneously with the process we're in now that will help staff um address through the budget process with the board annually our our priority lists and stay on top of these better stay on top of these issues yes so at my previous employer I I was instituting just that um and putting that in one five and 10 year Horizons since doing some costs and some escalation of costs so there was a planning aspect to that and um since arriving at DPS there's been so many other issues to deal with that that to to to start to catch we we are catching up on preventive maintenance and those kind of

077issues so yes that would be a goal that is something we definitely want to take on matter of fact when we looked at the Strategic plan that was one of my goals was to implement a Facilities Management plan so we could do that that gives you a strong tool to be able to work from then but we have we're generating so much great information now with Klinger's report and and the input from the community and the health Life Safety reports and everything it's it's those are just tools in the toolbox to help develop that master plan so a lot of lot of pieces coming together here so it'll be good thank you um we really have 11 left all the buildings remember so we had 25 total that we looked at so I think we

078so a lot of those are support buildings you know you think about schools have our buildings um do we know ones are coming next or we um I I I've given a list I don't have that list memorized right now so okay two more meetings then of this what's that two more meetings of analysis two more two more meetings of of presentation I think we got six coming up at the next one and then I think five at the very last one well that's what I was wondering I mean Kyle Building and Dennis if we were hearing those last or um kaleidoscope and and Mosaic will be in the last one the building we're in now will be in the next next one okay yep just refer to an email that he sent me so

079the next one will be Harris which is the special ed building right now uh Eisenhower John's Hill b& uh B&G uh the warehouse and PDI and then the final one will be MacArthur Kaleidoscope Mosaic um b& and another b& building and the Kyle k is in the last yeah we can bring the Kyle last sorry I had it moved up here it will be in the next one I think yeah this one it'll be in the next one Kyle will yeah okay okay and then this is for you Ken that's a lot of Tuck pointing do you think you'll ever catch up oh tuck pointing um it's it's a task and um it's a Time process and you know we we we we just added a gentleman to to our staff who is Mason yeah

080so you know we're going to we're going to go from one one crew to two um but it's just a timec consuming task but it's it's critical I mean and that's Kyle would ATT test you know people put up a masony wall and I think it'll last forever but that's not the case it takes continuing maintenance so I mean one of the things he's not touched upon but something I would like to do is start to waterproof the masonry and create longevity in in the masonry from Simply applying a waterproofing material so that's what that's what's happened to a lot of your embedded steel lentils which is kind of the the worst causes of it is water's like the the mortar joints gotten deteriorated and then water's gotten in and then those have gotten rested

081and pack rested so yeah they'll they'll definitely want to focus their tuck pointing on brick wall openings and then um corners and Expansion Joints yeah okay okay okay thanks thank you thank you okay moving on to our next report Dr Gray good evening members of the board superintendent Clark good evening I will be walking you through a brief update or overview of our assessment uh schedule and kind of update and speak about a couple of the data points that we go into our assessment and then later in the school year uh after we received our final data probably um August or so I'll come back with a full report on how we did as a school district this year as it relate to our standardized testing so as part of the District overview I want

082to talk about the different windows that we test in um what we use for kind of our internal reliability as it relates to uh students making any gains academically is our fastbridge assessment fast bridge is given from uh grades K through 11 we use it as a universal screener for English language arts and Mathematics and we use that data to determine whether or not students are growing it also helps Target with appropriate supports uh so we know if students need diff additional help uh as it relates to reading and math as part of the fast Bridge uh assess ment is given three times a year we have a fall assessment that's given August uh 23rd to roughly September 15 uh the winter assessment is given November 29th through um December 21st and uh we in

083the process of uh starting the uh spring assessment which will be um April 29th to uh May 17th as part of the fast Bridge assessment uh the students will take um it'll concentrate I'm sorry on on the reading on on the math and reading piece uh grades 2 through 11 that consists of about about 30 questions that they'll have to answer as part of that assessment uh K uh one is given oneon-one that way the teachers are able to talk with the students and kind of read through the assessment and better understand their uh their um ability level um and it all so takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete the assessment so we have a time frame of knowing what it takes uh there's also a writing assessment component given to grades 2

084through eight and it looks at a couple things like the Mastery of the mechanics are people able to uh spell use punctuation and so that's been part of a three-year roll out and we're in year two of that so it's going to help us really focus on that writing instruction and they're given a writing prompt that takes approximately 4 minutes so it's not a long time to go through a writing prompt the assessments that's required by the state is the Illinois assessment of Readiness and uh it's given once a year uh we're in the process of wrapping up that window which was March uh 4th through April 19th and then we have the Illinois Science assessment and that window runs from March 1 to April 30th so with the Science assessment uh there's three sections

085and about 32 questions that students are uh answering and again that's part of our state report card and it's going to help us for accountability so that's what the state is measuring for our accountability in terms of the uh uh grades that would take that test for the science is going to be uh grades five 8 and 11 um the illino assessment for readiness those are grades 3 through eight and we're looking at English language arts and math again and that's our uh accountability measure again for the state and how we get our grade the other assessment that students take that's required by the state is going to be the uh PSAT and sat and the there's a fall assessment that we give as a practice so we have an understanding of Baseline that where

086students are kind of where they're at and we usually use the window of October 2nd through October 31st so it's a practice opportunity so students kind of can get understanding of what thing the things that they're good at teachers can use that to give them problems practice throughout the school year and kind of help them get better they also can log on to uh college board and see their assessment there and kind of get an understanding of where they are uh the other thing that students can do is they can create their KH Academy account and that's going to help with the math piece so they can get additional um assistance in math so there's um the last part that we give and again this this is the big one for the state accountability when

087we give the assessment in March so it's going to be March 28th through April uh 26 we're get ready to fall into that assessment window now and the students also have to complete uh essay which is part of the graduation requirement so we start to look at some Trend data with fast Bridge as it relates to reading uh we're looking at students that scored the 50th percentile so you can see in Pockets that we definitely have some success uh when you look at the line across there uh the norm line of kind of where everyone else is fall and you see that we have uh we have pockets of success and and uh we have places that we're still working on quick question when you say the 50th percentile so that so like if we

088looked at the kindergarten data that would mean 30% of students are above the 50th percentile yes okay and that here's our um data for math what we typically have seen is that uh from the um from the fall to the uh winter assessment that there is a dip and as we continue to look at our Trend data from Winter to Spring there's always uh Positive Growth so students are probably coming back to school getting acclimated to being in school may not do as well but then when theyve get when they get into the Rhythm and start to close out the year we see them do a little bit better on the fast Bridge as part of the uh writing assessment we look at total number of words written and then there's also the correctly spelled

089words uh so in grades two through eight uh we're looking at this writing assessment to help us understand uh one uh can our kids really write and then secondly we start to look at the spelling piece now um last year uh in the fall second graders was not tested so that they weren't part of that when you see the in the little blank up there because we didn't test them in the fall uh so with the Illinois assessment for ready this uh what you see is in our data um in the year 1819 um as it relates to the uh math piece that uh we was at 133% and then the 1920 year that's when Co hit so there was no testing uh at that point in time then you see the drop uh from

090the 21 from the 20 to the 21 school year of 5% then we're gradually moving back up 21 to 22 6% and then uh 22 to 23 7% so we're still fighting to get back to where we were and that was for the English language arts uh in terms of math again uh when looking at the trend data you'll see that in 1819 we were at 7% uh 1920 again that's Co so we weren't tested that year uh then again we're fighting to get back to where we need to be so and then Illinois uh Science assessment uh you see it in the 232 uh 2223 school year at grades five uh at the fifth grade we were at 19% 19.4 then 18.2 uh then there's a a slight drop there and then eighth graders

091they showed a little bit better uh 18.3 than 19.5 so there's a slight increase now the odd thing about the Illinois assessment for science is that uh after the 20 after the 2021 school year they changed the test so now I'm not able to have Trend data because it's not the same test so we wouldn't be able to compare apples to apples on that in terms of our uh PSAT scores and sat uh there's been incremental growth um Eisenhower went from 23 to uh 28 uh in evidence-based reading and writing from the fall to the spring and then in math we you know we didn't have any growth there um MacArthur went from 27% to 31 uh in evidence-based reading the math and then uh they had a slight uptick in math they went from

09211% to 133% but what you is that across the state there's a slight uptick um so we're trending in the right direction not exactly where we want to be when you look at the ninth grade class uh when you drop down and look at the 10th grade class you'll see that the trend is kind of the same we went from uh at um Eisenhower we went from 27% to 33 so there's a slight uptick there and then in math you see that there's another slight uptick from 5 to 7% um the car the 31% to 34 and then um in math you see a a you know it's a nice little jump from at least uh single digits to double digits to 133% what's ebrw evidence-based reading and uh writing so there's the the writing

093component and uh what you see is that we're we we're scoring at about a three which is not that far from the state which is at a four we would ideally we would like to be at a solid five but again I I think with everything that we have in place our students will get there so the U sat is just our Juniors and you see the trend data there um we're moving in the right direction uh there's still some work that needs to be done uh you see early on uh when we look at the evidence-based uh reading the writing we're at about a 22% then you see there's a uptick to 24% uh in math you see there's a 9% but we drop a little bit to eight uh then and watching the

094growth at MacArthur uh you see a slight downtick from 29% to 24% then another slight down tick from 12% to 8% so again uh I think that we have all the right people in the right places um as we're looking at our curriculum and uh making sure that everything is alive for our students to be successful and the positive thing is that we're just going to keep pushing forward making sure that they have what they need to be successful so there are some highlights and looking at the data um at American dream of bomb and Parsons you see some growth there in their fact fastbridge reading uh bomb muffley and MacArthur you see some growth with their math as it relates to fastbridge and then on the Illinois assessment of Readiness American dream of bomb

095monor and Parsons you see growth there so we are experiencing some growth throughout the district on the uh PSAT and sat uh ninth graders you see that there is some growth in ela of uh 4% % uh 10th grade there was growth in um Ela and math at U 6% and 4% at both schools and then for the 11th grade there was uh growth in ela at Eisenhower about 3% questions do you have a ballpark of um based on current trends how long it will take us to return to pre-pandemic numbers we're working on that I can get that to you kind of um as we kind of map out where we would like our goals to be and the benchmarks that students would need to hit so I can get that prediction to you

096well I think looking at the trend lines um pre- pandemic is still well uh I'm not going to sugarcoat it dismal um you know when you you highlight and say that 29% % or 50 50th percentile or better that means it's 70% or under the 50th percentile I that's not I I'm not proud of that how do we fix it um at this point I don't think I agree with Al let's stop testing the numbers horrible um and I mean it's not anything we don't know I mean there was an article that was written about it you know about a year ago um kind of a catalyst for some people to run um which is a good thing um how do we fix those low test scores what what would be the benefit of stop

097testing I I say that in I say that tongue and cheek okay I because I I want to see these figures you know it's not something that we're proud of but it is something that gives us impetus to exactly yeah Dr R you say you know we've got things in place to to continue the upward trend is there any changes that you're recommending or any you you're going to add to these programs well I think um you know we're we're study adding support in uh I'll give you the example of where we we met with hmh to make sure that when teachers don't understand or need some additional with uh support with the curriculum that we have coaching involved from hmh directly and then we've also trained our coordinators to support teachers in the classroom

098when they may have uh curriculum questions on implementation so we're the biggest thing that we're doing right now is making sure that we're wrapping support around everyone so they have what they need in order to go out and teach and make sure that we're able to reach each and every child so I might have missed it in the presentation but I'm going to ask the the testing scores um students don't get any accommodations correct when they are doing their testing no not true if there's a student that have accommodations then the counselors have to put in those accommodation forms and they will get them for like for all the for all those testing so so I guess answer my question so the so the low test scores don't reflect like students cover under like making

099pie for example who might unfortunately it doesn't so they do get accommodations to take yeah if you have accommodations it's just us being able to work with the counselors to make sure that we get those accommodations in so there's a timeline where we have to submit those accommodations for testing and Kathy would have to really speak to the different test for some of her students that um that don't take these type of tests okay so and that's something that has to be approved by the state if I'm not mistaken okay because I apparently I'm wrong but I thought I was told that um this the tests are standardized and you don't get accommodations for these tests which I thought would reflect why the scores were as low as they were but and I was told

100that by an administrator in the district so artificially follow up and give you so I was just so my point was I think the the scores aren't as valid as we think because they could actually be higher if you took out you know like the special ed students and those receiving accommodations who aren't using the accommodations to take these tests but if they are getting the accommod then that's a whole different story and I was misinformed by that person a couple years ago when I asked this question one other time so like for an example an accommodation would be additional time um correct but when having test right to you things yeah yes but when you're talking about a reading test that's something different because we're testing your reading so I can't very well read

101the test to you right I understand that so that's why I'm asking are they using accommodations if these are students who need accommodations because if I need an accommodation but I'm taking a test without my accommodation my score will be lower so that's why I'm asking to see if that is factored into some of these scores I will follow up to make sure does that make S what I'm asking okay yeah I I understand your question I'll will follow up to make sure cu cu my original question a couple years ago was if we could separate that data and then get aggregate data for accommodations versus students who don't receive accommodations to see if the scores change a lot right if it any significance but okay because if that's possible and then the scores go

102up that would totally be a different um conversation okay I can look into that all right so trying to figure out how to frame this question but in the overall we we see one part of this which is the academic success part if if we were to gauge the district istically what other quantifiable data should we be looking at as a board like the overall health I don't want to say key performance indicators but like from terms of students would that also be discipline what things would should we be looking at to see once the tide starts to turn maybe we see that indicated and we have less discipline incidents or to try to actually see if the ship is starting to turn Bas uh outside of just this testing data I can come up

103with some key in basically what you're asking for is key indicators uh basically for our success like you know we'll see a decrease in suspensions we'll see a increase in attendance we'll see an increase in test scores when we Monitor and do fast Bridge we'll notice that our trend is upward and yeah and the reason I bring this up is because I understand that the academic piece is huge to this especially in the community that's that's what we hear over and over and over and over and over again is these academic test scores have to change right okay but there has to be more to that and there has to I just feel like there has to be a bigger picture for understanding for our community because not only do we have the academic side

104but we have everything that goes with that between teacher vacancies and all of that but I just don't necessarily understand well enough to be able to give people a full picture and I don't want to create over overwork but just something to present that says you know here's how we're doing academically here's how we how we're doing on other things that actually show if the district's working or not so we can actually make you know value based decisions on moving forward on certain programs I mean I I don't want to speak for the rest of the board I mean does that make any sense no it does um I that's one thing that came to my mind is um you we're using the standardized tests um I don't know how many times I've heard other

105adults and I've before I was a board member I even said it myself don't you know to my own kids don't worry about the standardized test it doesn't count towards your grade or anything so you know how does that play into the testing that you know the scores that we receive um can we do better as a district in in marketing sounds funny but marketing the test you know stressing the importance of those tests and and how it affects us um is that the only way that we know that we're doing good you know yeah so when you talk about that there's a couple things that come to mind uh uh I know long ago uh when I worked with little people we used to do like in Michigan it was called the meat so

106we would do meat rallies getting students excited about taking the the standardized test let them know you know you guys are going to you know knock it out the park you're going to do well get them excited about it and that's definitely some things that we can look at you know create an atmosphere where students feel like they're going to be successful once they take this test that they're ready for so basically that student confidence piece yeah because I honestly believe and if I didn't I do apologize um and I'm sorry if I offend anybody by this comment but I really honestly believe as a parent whose kids have probably done this a lot of these students don't even take these tests seriously they just answer exactly you know what I'm saying it's like oh

107I got to take this test okay ccccc you know and so I mean I and I think obviously the scores are reflecting a downward Trend or whatever but I mean I don't I don't feel the scores are accurate B B on what I'm seeing our district produce okay I know we have a lot of behavior problems in the school I'm I'm not even talking about other schools but I think a lot of these kids that we um that we talk about that have some behavior problems they're not taking these things seriously because they're not taking their academic seriously I know some of my kids have behavior problems and I also know that they have taken some of these tests on Su dayss and they're like the first one done and I'm like how are you

108getting done with this test in 20 minutes and it's a three-hour test you know I'm making up numbers here but I mean and I think honestly In fairness to everyone in this room that's what we're looking at with some of these scores and I don't know if there's a another way to get this this data like we are we were saying let's not test because in a way it's not an accurate tool to define the outcome if that makes sense what I'm saying but I know we probably have to do the test but I I really feel the scores would be higher but I think a lot of these students are not taking them seriously just my that's just my thought okay thank you well I think this is a kind of a discussion that

109U I think we as a board have all been looking forward to or these substantive discussions of academic performance uh one of the things that I would say with regard to test scor is uh of concern to me is if you drop back on the first couple of slides with the K through three learning and I I don't think K through three necessarily blow off testing they haven't quite reached that point yet but I think those scores are pretty indicative and I think those scores should concern us all um we can talk all day but I think we're we're way past the time for talking it's time for Let's do and we've we've got to do an increments it's not going to happen overnight but this is really the future of decar it's it's our

110future Workforce it's our future leaders and if those scores in the early Elementary years reflect where we are we really have some work to do so I think the time is now not tomorrow but now y any other questions thank you thanks for the discussion thank you thank you do we have any more reports that ends our reports from Administration okay we'll move on to the consent items anyone want any items on the consent agenda pulled tonight seeing none Dr Clark I recommend the Board of Education approve the consent items as presented which includes a minutes open close meetings April 9th 2024 B Financial conditions report C treasurers report D Illinois Elementary School Association IESA membership 2024 2025 e Illinois High School Association ihsa membership 2024 2025 for Eisenhower High School and MacArthur High School

111job description a certified school nurse professional education educator license update G Lamar digital billboard renewal H resolution authorizing the release of surplus District technology I renewal of audit do I have a motion so moved second discussion just one one question on under roll call items is salary increase for non-union nurses have anything to do with this certified school nurse PL is it totally different totally different okay thank you okay Miss Bradford Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr clevinger hi Dr Collins Brown hi Miss Banks hi and Mr Wetzel hi 7 i z motion carried thank you we'll now move on to our roll call Action items do we have a recommendation for the Personnel action items yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the Personnel action items listed in the

112memo from Monica wils Director of Human Resources deian hman interim Director of Human Resources and the human resources department as presented we have a motion so moved second discussion Miss Bradford Miss Banks hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr Wetzel hi and Dr Collins Brown I 7 i z n motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the district leadership team contracts yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the district leadership team contracts as presented do I have a motion so moved second discussion Miss Bradford Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Clevenger hi and Mr hi 7 i0 a motion carried do we have a recommendation for the salary increases for non-un nurses and

113Outreach employees yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the salary increases for nonunion nurses and Outreach employees as presented do I have a motion so moved second discussion how many do we have of this how many do you know how many we have for C for um the nonunion nurses and Outreach employees all all encompassing about 35 ballp Park okay any other questions for discussion M Bradford Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Clevenger hi Mr Reynolds hi and Mr Dion hi 7 i z name motion Carri do we have a recommendation for the athletic guides for middle and high schools yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the athletic gu from middle and high school as presented do I have a motion so mooved Kevin

114you are on it tonight do I have a second I want this done make second any discussion Miss Bradford Mr Wetzel hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins br hi Mr shider hi Mr cler hi Mr Dion hi and Mr Reynolds 7 i0 n motion carried do we have a recommendation for the Promethean act active panel yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the promethian active panel as presented do I have a motion so moved second discussion just a real quick question what's the life cycle on these what's the life cycle on the Prometheus board go anybody any one of you thank you sure I would uh I don't know the exact amount but they do I would say somewhere in five to seven years maybe longer it just depends on if they how long

115they decide to support them usually they'll announce that ahead of time uh but not when they initially bring out the product so they don't they might not declare a date at this moment in time so and and so the district doesn't have a life cycle policy on these devices I thought you meant the like the manufacturers no no no no no I'm sorry they just I should have clarified we usually go by those guidelines because when they stop supporting them they stop giving security updates and that makes them more vulnerable and then they also don't tend to fix things that go wrong with them so when they declare them into life we declare them into life thank you you're welcome do we have these on a um I'm sorry like do we have to change

116them all at the same time or are they more of a staggered like does that make sense what I'm saying like we buy them all at once they're going to all go right have the same uh right now we bought a large batch initially I think this is kind of adding a few more so they'll probably be on the same uh life cycle because they're the same model as the panel 9es okay they have a operating system on the active panels I'm not sure what the operating system is on them yeah you mentioned security updates so I didn't know if it was like Windows embedded or well I'm not sure but every device uh they provide security updat just any network device can be uh have particular vulnerabilities and they just want to make sure

117that as they discover those they keep giving software updates we update these promethium boards a lot so we have a a management interface that we can do it remotely we kind of click a button and they all update overnight and it kind of makes it very efficient so we they do release quite a few updates and hope they come back up the next morning right so far so good thank you thank you you're welcome any other questions Miss Bradford Mr cleer hi Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr shider hi and Miss Banks 7 i z n motion carried do we have a recommendation for the new educator professional development with first class educator yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the new educator professional development with

118first class educator as presented have a motion so moved discussion Miss Bradford Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr cleer hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Miss Banks and Mr Wetzel hi 7 I zero n motion Carri we have a recommendation for the school library refresh for 11 elementary schools American dreamers STEM Academy bomb Elementary Dennis Lab School Franklin Grove Elementary hope Academy John's Hill Magnet basur Academy for peace muffley Elementary Parson Elementary South Shores Elementary and Steven decater Middle School yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the school library refresh for 11 schools American dreamer STEM Academy bomb Elementary Dennis Lab School Franklin Grove Elementary Hope Academy Johns Hill Magnus School monore Academy for peace muffley Elementary Parson Elementary South Shores Elementary and Steven Decor middle school as presented do I

119have a motion so moved second discussion so this quote per purchase not to exceed 25,000 and all of these are over 25,000 what what does that mean so in order to ensure that we get $25,000 with their books they had to quote us more than $225,000 on all of the purchases it's because of the way the manufacturer and the Publishers make the books so we can get the quantity that we need so they over quote it and then they make sure we only get the $25,000 worth of books okay and we'll make sure of that too yes yes oh no thank you but do they decide what books you get or don't get there was a there was a whole list of books and so it's just really what is available at the time from

120the publisher in the quantities that we need but there these are all books based on diversity equity and inclusion and so they sh they're a pretty diverse group of books so we should get most we're requesting okay so even if you don't get your favorite book that you want you'll still get one of the same topic or genre okay I got it yeah and so we're authorizing $275,000 worth of purchase correct okay right thank you M Bradford Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr cleer hi Dr Collins Brown hi Miss Banks and Mr Wetzel hi 7 i z name motion Carri do we have a recommendation for the e-rate network equipment purchase for Ellsworth Dansby Junior Magnet School yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the e- rate Network equipment purchase

121for Ellsworth Dansby Junior magnet school as presented do I have a motion so moved second discussion so this is the this is the internet system for Danbury is that what that is he will explain explain the E rate thank you Maurice sure thing um this is for all the connectivity for the building so if you think about a classroom has a access point you need that that access point travels to a network switch and a closet and that network switch connects to another switch that goes to the outside internet so it's just making that the building has the connectivity it needs thank you you're welcome any other discussion Miss Brad Miss Banks hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr Wetzel hi and Dr Collins Brown hi 7 I

122zero name motion carried Dr Collins Brown you bad a thousand tonight I'm back yeah some announcement ments uh for upcoming well we we have some condolences before I get into the announcements uh Riley Snider passed away Wednesday April 3rd uh Mr Snider was K12 art teacher indicator Public Schools uh Beverly henden passed away Saturday April 6 2024 U Mrs henden was the mother of Laura Marino third grade teacher at Johns Hill Magnet School and the Mother-in-law of Jay Marino assistant superintendent of support services and Katherine D Brown passed away Sunday April 7th Miss Mrs Brown was a retired special education te teacher and an active substitute for the making Pate special education District she most recently taught at Robertson Charter School our condolences go out to all those families uh we have Administrative Professionals Day

123on April 24th and on behalf of the entire Board of Education uh we want to say thank you to all of our Administrative Professionals and what they do day in and day out to ensure the success of our district uh year in and year out um the 26th we have the dps61 Elementary art show at the Madden Art Center uh the MacArthur High School prom is the 27th and then we start May and the secondary art show at the Madden Art Center is May 3rd May 4th is the Eisenhower prom uh May 10th is the DPS retirement celebration at the decater club uh doors open for that at 5:15 we'll look forward to seeing all all of our upcoming retirees there that evening um the MHS class of 2024 graduation ceremony boy that's rolling around

124fast um 11: a.m. on the field weather permitting um that's at 11: then at 2:00 p.m. same date uh Eisenhower class of 2024 graduation ceremony will be on the field weather permitting last day of school May 28th but remember Dennis lab school June 18th will be the last day of school for for um our Dennis lab school students and I think with that I will say that our next regularly scheduled board meeting will be Tuesday May 14th at 6:30 p.m at the Kyle Building uh do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second second any discussion all those in favor say