03/19/24 Board of Education Open Meeting

001e board of education has been enclosed executive session to conduct student discipline expulsion hearings and to discuss appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body and Collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees no action was taken during closed executive session I would now ask everyone to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands na God indivisible [Music] andice do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do I recommend the board approved tonight's March 19th 20124 Open Session board meeting agenda as presented have a motion so moved second any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I those oppos Ed motion is carried we'll now move on

002to our district highlights hello good evening president Clevenger members of the board superintendent Clark and Melissa I am excited to share with you our first of three highlights this evening the first one you'll hear from our students we have a um senior at Eisenhower and a junior ises that right senior from mathur Jade Flor I'm so sorry Jade I'm not forcing another school year on you they are going to share um an experience that they had at a student conference yes [Music] seniors good evening board directors District leadership and superintendent Dr Clark a selected few of us were very fortunate to be sent to Orlando Florida last August to attend the ultimate life Summit the ultimate life Summit is created by the CEO of the curriculum seven mindsets we spent a week in Orlando learning

003about the seven mindsets and creating bonds with people from all around the world each day of the summit we focused on a different mindset we attended lectures that went into detail about each mindset these lectures informed us on how we can play a better role in our community and allowed us to open up and really connect with our peers mindset number one is labeled everything as possible this means to dream big Embrace creativity think positive and act and adjust the second mindset is Passion first where we focus on our strengths explore our interests take a stand and be authentic the next mindset is we are connected this means to embrace everyone maximize positivity relationships build your dream and lead with value our next one is 100% accountable where you own your life overcome your life

004limitting your beliefs focus on your energy and grow through your life the next one one is attitude of gratitude this is to treasure yourself be more grateful think forward elevate your perspective the next one is live to give where you stretch yourself make a difference receive gracefully and create a legacy and the last one is the time is now this means to embrace every moment get in the zone let yourself be vulnerable and act with purpose my favorite mindset is the time is now this mindset in the lectures they were really explaining to us on how it is actually never too too late to chase your dreams my favorite part of uls was the lifelong friendships that I made we all still talk to this day and we talk every day we join group calls

005and it is the best friendship that I ever made and my biggest takeaway is the idea that everything is possible the way that the lectures were held and the guest speakers that we listen to truly made me believe that the Impossible Is Possible the mindset that stuck with me the most is we are connected because coming together as a blended community of people from different states and countries full of different customs and cultures we were told to happily Embrace and celebrate our differences not only that but we were surround we were learn we learn to surround ourselves with people that will push us in the right direction not hold us back from what the world wanted or thought was greatest for us we were told to strive to the greatest and maximize our potential my

006favorite part of the trip was talking amongst my team after every breakout section we had meaningful conversations about the mindset at hand and if I could go back to the group of bright Minds I was blessed with I would in a heartbeat the way I felt at ease and was able to be vulnerable with the people I only knew for a couple of days was truly eye opening my Summit guide Noah only further made this experience better and he genuinely was the most underrated guide overall throughout the entire trip he always made sure I and everyone else in my group were okay my biggest takeaway was how we all managed to be a family despite how different we all were it also made me more aware of the privilege I had and what I should

007do with that privilege it pushed me to want to do more with my abilities and to better my craft at whatever I do to inspire others I encourage myself to draw every day I encourage myself to write every day I encourage myself to read every day I better myself every day because of the ultimate life Summit the ultimate life Summit is a gathering of students and Educators from all over the world world who come together to explore how to live their dreams through the seven mindsets they experien the summit through empowering workshops inspiring speakers Hands-On games and activities and a unique life plan it allows them to identify their dreams pursue their passions and make a mutal difference in the world some people might not feel that they have control their lives but when you

008really Embrace and take on these mindset it's say that I have complete control over my life I have upgrade sound system in the board everything is step by step every single mindset has a framework for you to follow today you can start practicing these things and you will feel better immediately the way they're interacting and the way they're respectful of the different I'm just to see them by they sh changing they understand that this is a place they can be free allow to get we came from all over the world and I've learned that I'm a maximizer that I bring the best out of a lot of people that I'm around now as a human being we're capable of doing so much more and we limit our mind due to our belief and where we

009come from and we should never settle and always aim to achieve more I've learned to dream bigger and try to do more than I set my own mind to it helps me to understand the world and to also myself in a different perspective and it has helped me to grow and be able to achieve new things and be able to implement it in my daily life the mindsets are like a lifestyle and they are to key to you be able to live your ultimate life what are you willing to sacrifice to walk in your purpose and what does that look like when they leave the program it's a completely different person that's one of my favorite things to see how they grow and how they change I'm taking notes like crazy woman CU I plan

010on bringing it back to New Jersey and just really blessing my organization with [Music] we only have 24 hours in a day we can only do so much with our time until we learn to work with for and through others our life will forever be limited as a group man their thoughts were just out of this world and I learned so much from their experiences their creativity their perspective which is so rich so deep so meaningful so purposeful so intentional it's something that you had to experience I've never seen anything like it we can't wait to continue seeing right in front of our eyes all these challenges going on around the world without teaching young people these mindsets and that's the last mindset the time is now take action if we can help plant the

011seeds of potential in young people and watch them grow the world is a much better place learning about the mindsets changed my life forever yes that was nice to conclude our presentation we would like to thank you guys for giving us this amazing opportunity we had an absolute blast and I don't know about you but I would not mind being s again thank you guys thank [Applause] you um presentation for district highlight I would like to welcome back principal Rita Ellis from American dreamer STEM Academy and she is going to tell us about the great things happening over at dreamer so real quick can I ask if that video will be available we can watch later off you know yep I can show you the YouTube link that's okay I didn't know I mean can

012we make it public not our I mean it's on YouTube Welcome Back hello everyone president Clevenger superintendent Clark Miss Bradford and all members of the board I am here to talk to you about the amazing shake and event that happened at American dreamer Sim Academy that was led by Mr Ben steel who's the 4 Youth Development educator with the U ofi extension and he also used to serve serve as a middle school math teacher in our building so we were able to connect back with him to benefit our students so a little bit about um Middle School at American dreamer we were originally a k to 6 building known as French Academy and then when we moved into the new building we added on seventh grade during Co and then we were when we came

013back from covid we were fully K to8 adding in eighth grade so what we noticed is that it is difficult to integrate middle school if you don't get the integration correct um you will be operating as two separate buildings with elementary and middle school and that first year we noticed a lot of issues with that so in came the wonderful idea that Dr Clark presented on adopta school in April of 2023 and Mr Steele was there and we both have been to Ron Clark Academy to visit that is where the idea was born this is um a competition that happens uh based out of Ron Clark Academy at Atlanta and we wanted to mimic it at American dreamer Mr seal came out to the building um a couple times a month and worked with seventh

014and eth graders focused around leadership so they learned different skills they talked about different projects and the culminating project was the amazing Shake soft skills contest so you could check with the herald and review there was a awesome article um where our kids just shined and I'll tell you a little bit about soft skills so these are all the skills that are necessary for our students to succeed what we find is in eighth grade some of our students are able to get a work permit and so they are having to go out and interview and they're not ready yet I mean 14 15 years old is Young but if we don't prepare them then it's very difficult for them to land a job and be successful it's also everyday skill skills it's in our standards

015listening and speaking every day so some of the skills that we wanted our students to work on public speaking leadership interpersonal skills and Stress Management so here are some pictures of our amazing Shak so we had volunteers from the community come in and set up stations some of our stations were giving a toast accepting an award having a formal dinner dealing with the angry customer at a fast food restaurant um Paparazzi and getting pictures taken care of you uh taken of you and so the students went around to all of the stations and were scored by the Community member at that station so here's an example of our scoring sheet and students were able to see at the end what their score was and these were all of the different communities that were involved D

016I'll never forget uh Melanie shelling from State Farm saying that she was so impressed by our students that she would hire them right then and there if she could my favorite was when the students had to give a tour of the school and um just to hear how they felt about the building from their perspective was very interesting they came into the office and it just gave a boo to being able to understand how they see the building and share that with someone who may not know anything about us so our winner was a seventh grader named Miss tyia Singleton who's actually very shy um she wasn't excited about the culminating project at first but she really shined and said she was so excited that she participated so we hope to go bigger bring in

017more um Community organizations maybe go to another location one of the big things while the event was going on is we show the actual competition that was going on from Ron Clark Academy and one of their stations was having to go around someone in on the airplane because they're already seated and they don't want to move and I'm an adult and I probably need to work on that so the kids were really interested in that so we're thinking of maybe reaching out to the airport for next year's event so um hopefully on the radio uh last week I did a shout out for some Community engagement to get some more people involved so we can go bigger and expose more students good job thank [Applause] you all right our third but not least um presentation

018for our highlight is the king be from monor Academy for peace principal Nate talent I did not give my ti myself title the king bee just to make that clear I appreciate app it um good evening Board of Education president clevinger superintendent Taylor Miss Bradford and Community um here to talk to you a little bit about monor so um this year we added a new member to our administrative team so um it's led by myself uh Nate talent and then Pam Helm is one of my assistant and we added Ben West this year um so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about kind of what we've been doing this year green button no triangle triangle wrong triangle the big one gotcha all right I can I can lead a school I just

019can't run a run a run a clicker here um so first thing I have on here is just some of our Community Partners this is something that we're kind of growing um there's a lot of pieces to monor that coming in new to this building um that I just had to kind of learn and figure out kind of some of the things we're doing so um right there you'll see a list I'm not going to go through them necessarily but those are a list of our current Community Partners um one of the things that I'm working on this summer is reaching out to some new people and trying to figure out some uh opportunities to meet with them to that way we can start to grow some consistent Community Partners pieces a lot of times

020I'll get people that reach out to me they want to do things in the middle of the year it's tough to just kind of figure things out so we'd like to get things a little bit more consistent more on a consistent basis to get some schedules going that we can keep from year to year um I included some data here and some of this data is positive some of this is a little less positive um and if you look over there um I have commendable school to targeted school we were a commendable school and we've recently moved to a targeted school which means our academic performance has actually gone down a little bit um and so part this is also looking at how our monory practices are relating to the data that we're taking overall

021in education and figuring out where those things go and monory looks at the whole child and everything that we do in education and raising children not just the academic piece but also who of who the person is and if you look at the second piece of data there that is our referral data which would be discipline data and you'll see the data from last year down there in the corner and if you look the blue part is offenses so those are referrals that need to come to the office that they need a little bit of assistance from the office to assist with that the green are more office referrals so these are the things that are handled within the classroom where students are working through problems with their teachers we're still documenting the data and

022if you notice there's about an 80 20% kind of there from last year as we move into this year we can see parts of the monary curriculum really pushing through this is where a lot of our infractions where they need assistance from the office for us to be able to work through discipline problems they're handling that a lot more in their classroom and that's part of what the monstory curriculum is doing not only working on those academic pieces but those social pieces now we want to make sure that we're improving both of these areas so that kind of leads me to some of my next piece um in my building I have 103 total staff and I was kind of looking at how many years of experience of teaching experience there are I have three

023admin in my building but between the three of us that's three brains working on a problem uh we're trying to work on ways to include everybody so I have over there a over a hundred years of experience within the building last night I actually sent an email to my staff I totaled up the amount of years they gave me total up to 480 years of teaching experience within my building um and so our goal this year was to kind of capitalize on that so we sent um we tried to send a contingent of teachers to some sort of monory event just to kind of make sure that we're keeping fresh with what we're doing and then bringing back new information or information that has to do with the monory community so in these pictures you'll

024see the three teachers that we sent with uh both my administrators as well to this conference they came back and brought several materials and they actually ended up presenting at our last half day um I was going to give them about an hour and they said they actually wanted the entire half day to be able to present so we let our teachers kind of work with each other um and in the middle there um every school has committies and teams that they work with so this is something we wanted to develop and kind of make unique to monor something that we could grow from year to year we have a leadership team we started to look at other pieces that we needed to improve education within the building um so we have a mental health

025team that specifically looks at the mental health of the building if we have a crisis with a particular student or a particular classroom um their goal is to figure out how we're going to handle those pieces and also anything that we can bring into the build willing to help improve those the honeycomb committee does the same thing except they're looking at more of a positive aspect and how to look at the mental health of teachers because if my teachers are feeling good about their job if they are comfortable what they're doing they're doing a lot better in their classroom they're focused on those things and the last piece there is taking all of those pieces and finally get into monu how are we doing things excellent in monor I have over a hundred staff members

026eight at every level until I get to middle school and everybody does monor but they do it in their own kind of way um and so we're kind of getting that to a point where we can collect all that data and make sure that we're holding everybody accountable making sure that we're keeping things up and making sure that all that data is reflected as well um so here you'll see just some pictures of our staff doing things in the in the building and those four pictures in the middle you'll see people reading and one thing I want to point out about those is my teachers do incredible things they are always in the classroom they're always in front of kids but there are also lots of people in my building who aren't necessarily directly in

027front of kids but they're always there and they have a relationship with the students in my building um and so if you notice all four of those people I have my behavioral interventionists one of my secretaries my um nurse and that's my custodian actually they're dressed like WN the Pooh reading a wiy the Pooh book to the to the students um we also had some really great staff accomplishments this year um Miss power won uh she was recognized as Rotary Club teacher of the month um on the side there uh Miss pritz she beca she got her national board certification and the middle of there miss Joiner she was named let see if I can remember this seven Brew hero of the month recently so um my teachers are are doing great things in the

028building but they're also it's important to recognize I think they're being recognized outside of the building for their Great accomplishments and the great things that they do both with students in the building and outside um this is just a list of some of our school events um we're trying to increase and be a little bit more consistent on some of the things we do we want to make sure that our students have a sense of community um and a way of coming together a lot of what we do in monor is very independent kind of keep them a little separated want them to become independent people and work in their small communities we also now recognize we want them to be recognized that they're part of a larger community and they're contributing to that so

029um these are just some events where we tried to get everyone together to do a few things we went to a movie we had a big yo-yo show and we had a huge um staff versus student basketball game recently so those are just some pictures from some of those things and these are just some pictures of students doing great things in my building uh in the corner there you'll see older students working with younger students um I've got in the corner there where it looks kind of like glow there my uh music teacher and when she put on on her October concert they did a glow concert they turned off all the lights turned on black lights and they all had costumes and things like that so different things to try to get them engaged

030into learning and if you look in the bottom corners there um those are my middle school students um really getting into some lessons they're doing one was a cooking lesson the other one uh that young gentleman there is exploring magnets and working with different things so um we've got some really cool learning that's going on in the building and I just wanted to kind of emphasize that and these are just some student accomplishments that we've had throughout the building are eighth grade girls volleyball they won their regionals and our elementary boys basketball they won the city tournament and we sent several students to um the spelling be and one of our students qualified as one of the top 10 participants and that is all I have for you any questions I I I have one

031question would would you say that your uh trajectory on math and reading is on an upward slope that is the goal right um I would I would like to say that coming in for this for this year at this point in time looking at the data um we have some growth to do with those pieces um now monory always addresses those pieces traditionally we've always been successful with those pieces um and so right now it's trying to look at okay why did we see a dip where is that where is that happening and how can we utilize our monstory materials and our monory methods to address those pieces um a lot of times the monstory curriculum is very Broad in some of those aspects and again it's it's pretty previously and historically proven to be

032very strong in its in its way of producing on tests um but I would like to say yes but uh I'll let you know in a couple years as we as we work on it and get it up there okay thank you yeah any other questions thank you we'll now move on to public participation Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself be brief comments should be limited to 3 minutes any public comments submitted to the board secretary will be included in the record we have none pres we have none so we can dispense with that portion of the agenda here this evening and we'll move on to board committee reports there are no committee reports this evening from Administration and now we'll move on to our Junior board

033members any reports from our Junior board members well we're really proud of what you all accomplished last summer at that conference you all did a great job represented District 61 really [Applause] well cler I forgot to get a photo of that highlight do you mind if I really quickly get a photo that's probably a good idea thank you come oh okay will senior smiles parents want their picture thank you okay we'll move on to board discussion um I think we're going to continue our discussion uh from last week um that Mr shider brought up and I think we have some uh further information on that so with that we can get that discussion started and Al hopefully this will answer the questions you had or the proposal you had we put together some information about

034um the difference between the number of student attendance days and teacher contract days um required teacher days this is as it relates to um professional development on our half days so ISB requires 176 student attendance days those currently include eight district-wide half days approximately once a month on Wednesdays these half days do count toward full student attendance days so students come in the morning they're there for three three hours and then teachers have uh PD in the afternoon so again those count toward full student attendance days the DEA contract then has that teachers will work 180 days so the difference between those those four days days extra days that teachers are in session that we don't have students include one teacher workday in August one building meeting day in August and two parent teacher conference

035days one in the fall and one in the spring so that's where the difference is currently between the number of days students attend and the number of days teachers attend so if we removed those eight half days and added four days we would be four days short for student attendance of course those full days would count as teacher days but you would be 4 days short so we just want to reiterate that we cannot impose additional days on the unions um I have spoken with the DEA they are not at this point willing to um forgo their teacher work day the meeting day or the two parent conference day so what we would have to do in order to meet the requirement of the state is if we got rid of the eight and did

036four half days we would have to the only option we would have is to attempt to bargain with each of the unions and add the four days um there is a cost up there for just DEA only for one day is approximately $350,000 that does include the TRS component of the payment be clear I never asked for more days I was asking to replace eight half days with four full days mathematically that's the same thing so if you I never please don't say that I asked for more days I never asked for more days so anything about more costs for days nothing that I asked for at all so if you I understand what you're saying and I'm I'll try to explain it one more time if you subtract those four days from the left

037column you are four days short for students and we're per is so if we don't have the kids come on the half days and we only have teachers come four times for four days you're only at 172 rather than 176 which means we're obligated to have kids here for 176 in order to have kids here you have to have principals and teachers and taas and security and the secretaries that follow that so that would mean that you would have to bargain with each Union and attempt to either take away with the DEA those four days which they are not willing to do in my preliminary conversation or you would have to ask them to add four days so in the past we did add one day and I will tell you it took several months

038to bargain and make that work and make the calendar Balan by just that was the day that we had the 181st day for a full day of professional development does that help Mr shider no I'm I'm not saying uh subtract 180 176 from 180 you get four days those are the extra four days for professional development 176 student days would not change so I days are already occupied I don't think you're listening to what I'm saying um and so I'm sorry that's we seem to have a different communication I you know and other districts do this so how do they do it those four days are already occupied currently do anything extra uh or teachers to do anything extra I'm asking for the exact same amount of time but rearranged in different way so that

039we improve our attendance and I in order to rearrange that teachers would have to give up their work day their building meeting day and their two parent teacher conference days that's the four extra days that teachers are currently in attendance when students are not in session so those four days are already occupied by building meetings teacher workday and parent teacher conferences I you know I think that should be open for a discussion I also know some districts who Pay Teachers extra to come in for professional development during the summer I think that's something our district should think about also do that we need to think we we need to think about how to do things in a different way and not just automatically assume that the way things have always done is the best way

040to do it and that's what I seem to be facing anytime I say something oh that's not the way we've done it we can't negotiate that so I would ask that we keep a little bit open mind to try to reach the goal of improving attendance in this school district which hasn't been addressed at all in responses to what I'm saying okay thank you thank you for this information though it was great any further discussion yes um kind of two pieces I'd like to CL um I need some clarification on um as we have all of these expulsions and a lot of the question I'm sure that all of my fellow board members have had is why are you expelling these students okay and you know I don't necessarily have an answer because I don't

041know what the limits of student confidentiality is so asking an open session if you can answer Dr Clark what's the primary reason that uh the majority of these students are expelled uh the primary reason that we're bringing them before the board is the heinous acts that are unfolding so this is not your typical fight these are three four five sometimes seven sometimes eight kids on one individual which is really a concern because it can cause some severe bodily injuries and I don't want to go into great details about what we know that is happening when those students are down on the ground but it is not pretty so those are the types of things that we're bringing to the board for um expulsions thank you and the second question is there is a graphic floating

042around on social media that displays two years of suspense supension data uh one and I I don't have it in front of me that says uh something like 1900 suspensions last year and then a decrease this year and then if you f and I did some math and I wish I had my Excel projection but it looks like there is a drop in that um are the two Cory where we have more expulsions and less suspensions or is there a shift going on with our students I think it is a direct correlation so what I've been hearing when I'm meeting with staff is that what we are doing is working we have less than um half a percent of our student population that comes before the board right now um our fights are decreasing so

043I am familiar with this um data that went out and there was a decre decrease I believe it was something like 1900 to 2000 in uh last year and 700 this year that is a major decrease our kids are feeling safer um we are working really hard to change the climate and culture and we can't do that by allowing the heinous acts to continue to unfold um when I talk to my students I've had a few sessions with them even on video they are proud of the fact that they get to go to school every day and not have to worry about walking around a fight or um being challenged in some way in fact they are even engaged in helping with the climate and culture so I can say that I do believe that

044we are making a difference because that data is starting to show that and then we have two of our people right here that we can even ask and and um that data was that provided by the district through some means or where did that come from because there was no when I saw it several times there was no context yes so we received a foer and then the Foya uh was sent to the individual that individual then shared it with other individuals um and so we do uh intend to share even more data regarding what we are doing discipline wise um just to kind of give an idea of what we've already already done there have been 11 videos that went out to basically uh tell students look there are people that you can talk

045to make sure you do that I even started breaking them down so that the elementary gets a verion and the high school gets a verion instead of the same video um there have been about 11 maybe even more rooc calls to family reminding them please make sure you get in contact with us so we can deter some of the behaviors their behavior interventionist there um are building level incentives to try to deter behavior um we had parent universities to help families negotiate some of the things that they can do I even had a police officer present at one of the parent universities to assist them you just you have to show up we have to have more parent involvement in order to see the major difference that we are searching for um and I can

046go on and on about the list of things that we're doing um as a district and even with with those students that we do expel just so everybody is aware again we are providing ways for them to still be educated and um does a district like collect information of why things happen like specifically uh when we come into these expulsions or these large suspensions things like that yes and um unfortunately I can't sure there because it's in closed session but we do sit down and talk about the wise okay thank you M so just to piggyback on that conversation um I did relay a message to Dr Clark earlier that I'll share with everyone else that I've had um some faculty and staff in the district reach out to me and say they do feel

047safer this year so as unfortunate as it might be that we are expelling students um and like I said at the last meeting I don't take these lightly it breaks my heart that we have to do it but other students are feeling safe faculty are feeling safe staff are feeling safer so I mean it is having an effect so I'm hoping that next year will be better but you know safety is utmost importance right now absolutely the students cannot learn looking over their shoulders for an incident to unfold thank you thank you any further discussion I just like to thank will for bringing that out in Open Session you know I'll all I'm trying to do is I get lots and lots of questions as we all do and um I try to be open

048and transparent and what I and also if you've heard me over the past few years I I'm very much don't want to break any laws or anything like that so that's my that's always my concern is protecting Stu student privacy at number one so but I appreciate that thank you Melissa thank you uh we'll move on to reports from Administration um Now call on Kent meter good evening board um Carper Brian Carper from Boren Russo is going to provide this presentation but uh he is out of town believe on vacation and he's not due back in until later in the week so uh stepping up and taking uh the opportunity to do this so you have that do I just there we go okay all right me so uh this is update on the new

049Dansby building uh here's a a rendering and uh of the building um so Brian's been doing a fantastic job of photo documenting the progress on the on the project so these are some uh drone photos that were taken of the facility um so you can see things are moving along quite well uh most of the structure is up they ped a lot of the concrete floors and roof decks and things of that nature so uh there's even some uh angle bracing there on the exterior of the pre-cast panels I think that's most of that if not all that's down so get a little age on this Photograph um underground utilities are in uh are being installed and you can see some of the structural steel laying there on the right hand side of the second

050photo on the upper right um this is the The View on the left is inside the gymnasium it's going to be a magnificent um gymnasium it's a ihsa uh size gym and then you can see some of the other site work taking place on the exterior this lower right hand photo is the uh entrance off of um I never get the name right home home home park thank you I want say home wood I thought that's not right so uh um so that's looking back at the building from the northeast corner of the property and again you know weather's been great for Central Illinois and so things are moving along at a nice Pace um fresh concrete on the left um that's the kitchen area so you can call the piping the plumbing piping windows

051are going in uh building is now being partially heated um still some fairly large voids but they're they're heating that so they can keep moving forward with the concrete pores there's a view of the commons area this will be the cafeteria and U so the irregular shape on the in the foreground is the lowest level of the seating and then in the background is the uh uh stage area and the upper portion is the mechanical mezzanine so what you're seeing in the upper part of the photograph is the roof deck over the commons area it's be a nice space u concrete floor being poured on the left um guys doing some touchup work on the pre-cast installing Windows on the right right and pouring floor on the right upper right hand side so that's just

052a kind of a quick thing keep you up to date but um suffice to say the project is moving along at a very nice Pace uh contractors are all motivated I think Bor Russo is doing a fantastic job of keeping materials rolling in and and keeping on us to make sure we're keeping up with our part of the process and paperwork and I think it's it's everything is going very well thus far so any questions if not thank you very much thank you Kent thank you again I encourage everybody to go by because it looks beautiful Kent are you or Mike going to introduce our next portion of the meeting here as we welcome Clinger and Associates to do um the first part of our building assessment I think we've all been waiting a while

053on this and looking forward to hearing this report welcome back Kent thank you it's been a while um so I just a brief refresher um the board gave us the authority to go out and and contract with cler and Associates to do a structural analysis on all the buildings in light of the happenings at the dentist campuses um so this is going to be integrated into their larger plan as we move forward to determine feasibility and and uh and um the master plan for the facilities moving forward so with that I'm going to introduce Kyle hannel he's a structural engineer with kinger and Associates and he's going to go through the four buildings you see we're going to do this in tranches so that we don't um just completely bore you guys to death um

054with this so take a little pity on the board so there going to be a series of over the next um four or five board meetings we'll do four to six buildings at a time and Kyle and or his and or his staff will discuss particulars with each of those buildings and then eventually we'll get them all covered up so all right thank you thank you yep thank you for that introduction um so like you said these are four that we're presenting here we've already made site visits and all 25 buildings that are included in our uh contract here so um I'll get you started with the first one which is uh the AL alternative education Tech Academy building it's kind of located in the middle of the city here at 300D Dorado so this

055building um it is really consisted of three different portions a 1918 coch building on the south and then the middle building is 1936 they call it the Cadillac building and then an addition even after that a 1965 Cadillac building to the north so these are just a couple of elevations so that people might say hey I recognize this building you drove by a few times probably uh the left's the north elevation the right is a South elevation of the building so here's an executive summary of our findings so I'm just going to point out some of the the items that'll be in our report for high priority recommendations the the larger Coke building uh it's got a water valve floor access door that needs replaced it's it's like a pack rusted floor plate on the

056on the ground that people have to walk over top of it's also got um water infiltration problems that are in the basement of the coke building so in basement of a portion of the coke building and then it's got some basement steel framing repairs that'll be needed that's in that basement with water infiltration problems uh the lower priority recommendations there's repairing and and possibly removing or repairing exterior paint coating on the brick buildings there's tuck pointing of the brick and waterproofing of the building shell and then there's repairs to uh deteriorate interior walls ceilings floor coverings so I'm going to go through just a few photos that really highlight just some of the examples of what we've saw at some of these buildings this is in that basement of the coke building due to the

057the standing water in there and the photo on the left is a a pack rusted base of a steel column and those columns support beams the beams support floors of the first floor above so it's been sitting in water so long it's got pack rust and it's it's going to need repairs or replaced on the right side is is a I think it's a sump pit but the drain's full of debris and it's not functioning as it should right now so this is a drain that's out in the alley just east of the coke building that I think it collects quite a bit of water from uh the parking lot to the East and we found that there's an opening in the pit so you can see on the right side you can kind of

058see daylight through the photo there's an opening that pit that leads down what's probably an old um maybe like a coal shoot or an opening that water's getting straight into your basement of that coke building and that's where a lot of the water problems are having affecting that building um these are just some examples of some water leaks we saw near like interior roof drains in a couple of portions of area that have some deterioration from past water damage the the roofs out there were replaced or actually repaired uh a few years ago so a lot of the water damage to the ceilings and roofs are past damage that we're just now seeing because we're looking at it um the photo on the left here is that uh water valve access cover plate that we're

059showing and or that we talked about earlier and then the photo on the right's just a location of some missing tile on the floor here's some examples of uh the backside of some of the parapets that extend up above the roof line we found have some deterioration to it and they had some Coatings that are starting to wear off that were probably you know really old at this point that are that are weathered and allowing water to get into it and some of the capstones there they they're starting to separate and allow water down into the parit wall um this is showing a few pictures of the the C building and and then even one of the CAC building where portions of the building have been painted with some red kind of barn red paint

060in the past and then these photos are showing a few areas of water damage from like a missing down spout cover and some water getting back behind the gutter and it's showing some some line blooming or some people call that efflorescence there it's it's just water's getting into that wall a lot of times it's from the connection of where it is to the roof um these are few examples of deteriorated tops of the parit walls so some of those on the left side's a clay tile that the grout underneath them's either damaged or deteriorated letting water in and then the one on the right is just those are capstones that go on the top of the walls at the at the edge of the roofs that the sealant between deteriorated letting water get down between

061them uh these are some examples of the it's a lintle it's a steel lentil above a doorway that's gotten pack rust uh damag just from being unpainted and and water getting into it and it's leads to the foot on the right where it's the pack rust is expanding trying to lift up the edge of the windows of the doors and it's cracking the brick wall uh these are just some examples of some interior things they're somewhat minor but there's water damage to the floor or to the ceiling panels and and a few of the windows and then there's some cracking above some of the interior doors a few more examples of um the exterior paint COA with some failures to it and some some faces of some of the brick are trying to pop off

062cuz because moisture and water can get behind that that painting on there um and it gets if it gets cold it'll freeze and pop the face of that brick off and then the foot on the right just showing some steel for an infield area that's that's rusted over the time and again it's trying to crack the masonry above it so the next school here that we looked at it is the the Garfield School it's at kind of the South side of the town it's 300 Meadow Terrace Place and the next three schools we look at are going to be very similar in age they're all 1965 they all look very similar in shape here so a lot of the photos and some of the comments are going to be similar on the next three buildings

063here um this is kind of a elevation of the front side of the building so people may recognize which one we're we're talking about here um executive summary is the high priority items we found in the Boiler Room there's some Joy bearing um masonry pairs that are needed um they're starting to pop off some of the Interior face of the masonry where they're bearing and then on this school there's some exterior steps with guard rails that are need of replacement the low priority recommendations that'll be in our report is talking about tuck pointing of portions of exterior wall brick veneer um some roof ballast that needs uh repair some membrane that could use repair to prevent future leaks and then interior masonry wall tuck pointing so again we'll show some examples of some photos these

064are um interior photos looking at the masonry and and all three of these next Schools they're they're called stack Bond masonry block to where they don't stagger the the joints of the masonry so when you get a vertical crack in it or you get a horizontal crack it'll just follow that mortar joint right up uh these are the stairs I mentioned as a high priority because they have welded at the or they have failed at the weld at the base of them and um they're also missing a few anchors at some places so just for the safety if someone's trying to really use that handrail this to secure that they need replaced um example of a few areas where the exterior windows they've got uh lentils Lou for the louers down below that there are

065starting to to deteriorate and need painted or repaired and it's popping some of the mortar out uh this is the roof this is called a Bast roof so it's a flat roof with a membrane and Bast above it and we saw some areas that's pool and water cuz it's it's not sloped or the maybe the bow has gotten thin in areas and so pulling water over time could lead to possible leaks in the roof in the future and then they had a had an edge or two that was missing the B near the edge and so that that uh exposed membranes getting kind of alligator cracks and some things that could lead to some some leaks in that roof to wall joint there this is in that Boiler Room so uh photo on the left

066you can kind of see some crack in the masonry but the photo on the right if you look at the right hand side where the joist Bears there's kind of like a piece of of masonry that you can kind of see leaned off um if I use my laser pointer it's this area right here so that's like the in inner um shell of the masonry block is trying to pop out and sometimes that is like from just inadequate Joy bearing to where it's it's putting all the pressure on the outside not Distributing it over like a bearing plate that would get it over the full wall but the back side of that wall will be either the the multi-purpose room or in some of the the next three buildings it's the auditorium room so there's

067the wall there continues up but then it's you'll see the cracks not only on this side but you'll see it on the inside of the the auditorium multi-purpose room so the Stevenson Elementary School it's kind of on the north side of town if you look at the areal it's very similar to the the last school um it's at 3900 Neely Avenue Vue executive oh this is the front elevation of it for the Stevenson the executive summary is similar it's got the Boiler Room joist masonry repair problems similar to the other one um low priority again it's tuck pointing uh it's got some roof ballast repair problems this one has an exterior roof ladder and some lentils that need um repaired or painted and then similar interior masonary wall tuck pointing so this is that boiler

068room and it's got similar you can tell where it's got some it's it's almost had possibly some repairs of the the Block in the past but it's starting to crack even around some of those repairs very similar to the other school um examples of the roof and then in the right photo there's a pedestal on the outside of the auditorium wall because it's a taller wall and it's got some deterioration at top of that this is the roof access from the lower roof up to the upper roof and then it's just it's rust covered and and the anchor bolts going into the wall are pretty Rusty too and the photo on the right's just showing some um it's some penetrations to the roof in the boiler room where the hoods are very severely um um

069surface rusted and then like the screen that keep like varmits and birds and things out is is falling out of it uh kind of a zoom in closeup of some of the window sills that the sealant needs replaced on them and then a similar uh Louver with some some resting in brick um cracks on it these are some examples of some of the cracks in the wall the M multi-purpose room and then a few EV uh some evidence of leaks in the roof of the multi-purpose room a few more examples of cracks in the in on the interior side of the masonry um of where some of the beams and some of the edge of the doorways so where some of the beam um bear I think this photo on the right's up in the

070mezzanine of the mechanical room above the kitchens and then our our last school um a little different on this one the middle portion of it um the original 1965 building it's similar to the other two buildings we just covered but uh it has a 1992 Edition on its west side and on its right side on the on the east side it's got a 2020 Edition that 2020 Edition has like a lower classroom area and then it's got an actual like pre-engineered metal building gym on the north on the north side of it there this building uh located at 2400 North Summit Avenue over on the west side of town this is just an elevation um of the the kind of front corner of that uh executive summary similar again it has the same Boiler Room

071Joyce masonry repair problems um on the low priority recommendations most of them are the same the two different is there's an exterior slab that's in need of leveling and then um there's an exterior ramp and stair that's in need of some concrete repairs and then there's an interior floor uh covering and warping and cracking it's actually in the new 2020 Edition portion of it so these are some photos these are of the stage area at the back of the auditorium it's got some large vertical cracks in the masonry some of them stair step as you get near the corners uh this is a roof um of the main 1965 original building it's it's pooling water in the middle of it just the ball isn't kind of sloping it to the interor ior drains all the

072way and then it's got some areas where the trees are so close it's it's leaving tree branches and things on the roof and it's grown Mosser where some of those trees are kind of laying on the roof in areas uh it has a it has a pack rusted well not Sur it's a surface rusted ladder to get from lower roof to Upper roof again and then the right photo is just showing some cracks at the corner of the brick there this is the foot on the left is a um it's an expansion joint which is good um but the expansion joint has some deterioration in it and that's on the 2020 Edition side and it's just allowing water to get into into that sealed joint and then the right side is from the 1965 building

073it's got the same problems as we've seen on the other schools um they have some um different type of blocks instead of just straight masonry blocks in areas these glazed blocks but they have they stack Bond similar to The Masonry and they're like for the interior walls these are near the kitchen and they've got similar um cracking in the heads of at the doorway areas and at the vertical joints of the wall intersections the the photo on the left is the 2020 Edition Corridor and it's got some warping in some deteriorated tile um it it appeared that it wasn't really water damage it appeared that it just might have been a either a construction um non-level floor when it when the concrete below it was poured or Poss possibly maybe backfield underneath it wasn't wasn't

074done perfectly correct to where the floors got a little wave to it and then the photo on the right's just showing an area in the bathroom of the original building it's got some tile missing in it uh this is that ramp that's over on the West Side ramp in St the handrails been replaced in the past and then they they did try and repair the concrete at a few of the new um post bearing areas but then there's a few that have gotten worse and haven't been repaired and it's trying to pop the concrete off there that's a kind of a summary I'm only showing you the bad pictures I'm not showing you everything that was great you know and for the most part those three buildings are in the the three that are similar

075are in good shape it's pretty minor stuff other than those Boiler Room joists and then the other building the the first one alternate or alternate education tech building it is in worse shape than those other three but the ages of it in and the size of it's so much larger and it's got its own issues that are quite a bit different than those others but if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer what I can um with the history in the past year when you say high priority when does that need to be fixed yeah um nothing that I addressed in these four buildings are probably like need to be done immediately I'm saying like it'd be good to get them in like a year or two time frame yep the low priority

076is is low priorities because they're more cosmetic so like safety isn't a concern on anything but it's just kind of like a cosme iic some of those low priority if they don't get repaired eventually it can lead to um further deterioration will the next step as we work our way through this will there be an estimate for all these individual repairs attached to so our portion of it right now is to give you a structural evaluation of all 25 of these buildings um we are it's not in our scope currently to give you cost estimates for our repair recommendations although we are provid in um repair recommendations in our a our reports we're just not giving like details or estimates as part of this currently K might be able to speak up for thank you

077piggy back onto that so just for give give everybody a point of reference so the tech Academy for instance um under the Bold plan was scheduled to be closed and and you taken out of service um and that was in 2017 so so we're still it's a still viable building for the district and will continue to be for be so for quite some time yet so the other three buildings um for instance um so um Franklin Grove DPS is put a lot of money into that new windows you saw in the photograph um so forth Stevenson you know was also part of the Bold plan to be taken out of service and it was and now it's being it's a rental um to the Roe for the futures of Milligan program and and also you

078know Garfield we know what Garfield that was kind of our Lifeboat for the dentist buildings so um there's been a you know allocation of funds has been done appropriately and accordingly to try to to hit those buildings which were most critical to the to the Endeavor of the district and so as we I've been in front of you many times asking for approval for riffing projects and so forth you know we have a program where we're taking on um roof Replacements and so forth as time and money allows and so forth so and these were down on the list but we but we are aware of those things but ultimately the intention here is to take all this data and place it into this larger um study of all the facilities and there going to

079be a lot of different parameters come into play as to what affects the viability of a building makes it more or less viable and so on so forth could be curricular use student population demographics All the Above So at that point maybe some I'm not saying about these specific buildings maybe some of these buildings become less critical to the long-term mission of the district and at that point the actual costs may become a little less critical um because we know that that's not a direction that we want to go in but cost will become a factor at some point you know if if for all other reasons everything we need to keep moving forward with maintaining these abilities so to answer your question is just Kyle's firm has not been asked to give us a

080quote and we may go back to them at some point it's it's going to be one of those issues where we're Gathering more data to try to provide us with the decision making tools that we need so um cost may or may not become critical I mean at some point we will be looking at a magnitude of cost type thing you know if it's a $50,000 project or a $5 million project we already kind of have an idea of that magnitude of cost um and it will come to play but right now um that's not on the table right now but it may be very soon right so I do have a question um the Franklin Grove extension was prior to my tenure on the board so I'm not familiar with what company or agency

081did did the um construction but is it in the contract at all that they are liable for some of that and I'm not putting words in your mouth but it seems like it was some shoddy work um because it's only four years old and it's already in need of some repairs so I mean is that contractor at all liable for some of those costs is there a warranty so typically um unless there's an extended warranty typically construction warranties are one year from the date of substantial completion and so that onee date of substantial completion is obviously well behind us now having seen this tonight I'm a little taken back by this I was not aware of this I think we'll probably look into this in a little more detail and figure out um put some

082thought into it on our end as to what actually transpired there um as well not use them so um yeah I mean I I wouldn't want to bmer somebody in Open Session right now but right now that firm is not working with the district on projects so right cuz my other concern is I I would only guess that same firm was responsible for some of the other additions like with mule and do we know it's not a big deal at this I mean it's a big deal but I don't need to know all the information right now but just something to think about yeah as we move forward with yeah we're definitely cognizant of those things and I appreciate the fact that Kyle brought that one forward as a little disturbing that's very concerning so

083and and with these four I'm sorry if I interrupt any with these four buildings they're safe to have people in at this moment okay they're safe yeah I think yeah I think I see where you're going with this can we afford to get to the point where we're making the decision do we replace or to repair or take off fine can we afford to do that or do we need to put money in it to fix it now so that we don't have another K I understand where you're going but I think in from a Contex ual standpoint we have to have budget numbers if the board's going to consider this and consider the whole big picture there have to be numbers associated with it so we can engage that decision making process with numbers

084Associated so um I don't know how my fellow board members feel but I I think we should be looking at um at least talking about um what the cost would be to add the numbers to this decision making process no I absolutely agree but for instance so we we've also had conversations with BL and they're doing our health Life Safety so they've also identified some areas that need to be worked on let's say in the tech Academy for instance so so there's cost associated with that so Kyle's influence is a very small portion of that so moving forward as the other pieces come to play we'll start to look at those kind of numbers because I have a I have a number in my mind what the tech Academy may take to you know make

085it completely viable um but what Kyle has presented to you is just a tip of that Iceberg as well I mean I I apologize for I understood it in the meeting that why asked several questions because I wasn't understanding it that Kyle's firm is going to give us the list of what's needed and then we take that information and we're going to give it to the second firm and they're going to come up with the cost is that correct so in essence Kyle's firm cannot give us a cost they could if we wanted them to but what they're going to do is what Kent just said they're going to give us the structural piece overall piece yes and then we're going to put numbers to everything now who we decide that's going to be that

086individual I'll work with Kent and Mike for that piece of it that information then goes to the facility facili fa facilitator to put the overall picture together okay so to just kind of draw a picture we're going to move to this the point point where we have a committee of folks working on this and the facilitator is going to be bringing information out and he's going to look at firms a b and c and d and say okay what do you contribute to this process and what do we need to be concerned with and at that point then they will be given a task to come back probably and then say okay here's what it'll cost to do the structural work this is what it'll take to fix the HVAC this will take and so

087on so there's going to be all these pieces of information coming together so that's the way I I tried to slip away from the whole cost thing but it's a it's a bigger a bigger picture we're right what we're really embarking upon is a a huge um effort to really do a comprehensive look at everything across the district so and we will make I'm sorry we will make sure that you get the overall picture because the ultimate goal is to provide you with everything you need to make a decision not peace meal right let me I just want to add one more thing um Kyle's firm's done a really good job for us thus far there was one of the very first buildings he walked into he called me like halfway through it he says

088hey there's an awning out here I don't like the way the bolt looks it's holding it up here and I sent my guys out and they took that awning down so that we didn't have an in immediate infinite you know potential failure so that communication is key then at the tech Academy for instance our guys are like hey we need to have something looked at so I Kyle called Kyle he was kind enough to come over the next day he got up on the roof with myself one of the guys we walked around he pointed out these things because we didn't want to be in a position where we're looking at something that had an imminent danger of collapse so we brought him in so it's been a back and forth interplay and so anything

089that's come up that we felt was you know potentially dangerous we've addressed it amongst ourselves so that's good thank you thank you for that thank you thank you any further questions so our next meeting we're going to get four more buildings um he said four to six I can't understand why we don't do them all at once and and and just real quick uh will these studies be posted on that on our web page or that is the desire of the board and I think that the plan is after all of them are done for an executive summary plus full summary to be submitted to the board okay um but I I mean I don't know currently they're in draft form we're getting them as as you as you're getting them and so we haven't

090even gone through them yet yeah thanks so that's the end of our reports from Administration okay let's move on to consent items does anyone have any one item on the consent calendar that they want pulled 8 5% Group LLC curriculum and training I'd like to pull okay I just like I'd like to ask some questions about it when we get to it so president Clevenger did you just want to have the questions addressed before we start that would be fine you f are you okay with just addressing the questions right now yeah okay let's do that thank you I have a weakness about what we're doing with curriculum because it's my first year on the board we did a phonics program for Parsons a year ago one of my issues with these with the curriculum

091is is followup on what effect did it have how did it help us what what were the weaknesses with it and and stuff like that so do you remember when I came in January and I talked about how our data is improving for Parsons this is part of the I would contribute a lot of this to what we're doing with phonics and the 95% we um over the last 3 years have used 95% and have used title money to ensure that we continue the program and that's what this is for is to continue that core tier one direct phonics instruction it this will purchase it for the next two years for my building with the growth of the core just the core from the first semester it it's impressive I've been at Parsons for 5

092years we started by focusing on tier 2 and tier three we did that a second year and we weren't seeing growth so with last year's title money what we purchased was The Core Curriculum so it's tier one everybody in our building is getting grade level phonics instruction and it is direct instruction so there's no wishy-washy it is this is how we decode a word these are the sounds it is direct instruction for 30 minutes every day and and we saw I met my goals in January for the first time in five years and it is also following okay so so I do attribute that to the work that we're doing with phonics and that does not replace our reading we still do hmh for comprehension and those skills so this is just a 30 minute

093period of day that we focus on reading words learning how to read words site words decoding words morphology vocabulary um it's just made a huge difference in what our instruction looks like in the building and in fact the 95% group is going to be coming and doing a brunch and learn if anybody would like to attend on April 10th they're bringing in people from other districts to see the work that we've done in our building right so it's just been a huge huge change it's a big game changer for us and we're hoping that the end of the year data will be just as good or better of what we've seen in the first year but this purchase will continue that work that tier one Core Curriculum over the next two years and it will

094also it's also going to be adding in a very structured crosscat component for our special education students H that is going to help them and it what it does when we do it in tier one we use the same kind of curriculum for tier 2 tier three and our special ed everybody's getting the same language so everybody from kindergarten to sixth grade uses finger stretching they use the same language they open close syllables short you know same hand s signals and that type of thing so we're just doing a very concentrated effort on teaching our kids how to read and how do you feel about this ISL learning subscription we're going to be approving this will be something new for our building we have not utilized it we have been using I ready for our

095fifth and sixth graders and we've used Mobi Max in the past but I do think it's an opportunity to do independent assignments to students who who need a little bit of extra okay I was impressed with your presentation in January yeah we've they've come a long way it's and anybody is welcome to come we do the Core Curriculum in the mornings typically between 8 and 10:00 you'll see it anywhere in our building so anybody's welcome to come out and see it it I when I walk by kindergarten and they're taking words apart and they're writing they're writing sentences we just met with kindergarten teachers Monday and their kids are writing small stories they're writing sentences they're going to spend the rest of the year journaling and learning how to take what they've learned to read

096and put it into their writing so it just is it's been a fabulous change for our building um Miss bra Miss uh Brady just as a reminder for the board what is tier one what is tier two what is tier three or if you want to explain it because you're doing it so either way we can so tier one is our Universal instruction that is what we're doing for everyone across the board tier two breaks it down to students who are about 20% of our students that need a little bit additional help tier three would be that lowest five to 10% of our population and then special education are those students who have additional needs that we can't meet through the other tiered instruction so you hear that a lot in academic and Behavioral just

097so you know because it's the same philosophy and when we get figures showing your trajectory that includes every tier yeah well because that testing every kid in our building is tested on the same data that you see so whether they're a tier two student with tier only tier one that that's all they need whether they're a student who's in tier two tier three you or special education in our building um are tested on the same test they all take fast Bridge they all take I they're they're tested in the same expectations okay thank you thank you thank you thank you ladies one one final thing on this ISL like I like I said on not not not for you really well what what I'm what I'm concerned about like she makes this comment that says

098this will be our first time having this curriculum I I would like to just encourage our our staff to do followup and to do tracking on what effect these things have so withl part of this is professional development that goes into it we have looked at the data for the past couple of years with EXL and determined that it was best to roll it out to everybody across the district so we really have kind of informally piloted that program as we've moved forward and we have tracked the data and seen good growth moving forward because it's really more um specific skill-based so like our overall data we're seeing slight Improvement but we're trying to get some specific skills for students who aren't maybe necessarily at grade level and so it's building up those skills so

099that they can get to grade level so we can see those bigger growths that's great and as a reminder we are going to start sharing the academic data with you as it comes in so it will be three times a year if I'm not mistaken that's correct yes so we will have um a report coming probably either late April early May that's great am I on top am I right about that okay well it'll be more it'll be more may to June because we have to wait for the results to come back okay but we're talking quarterly or some something yeah it's every it's three times a year it's the beginning the middle and the end of the year so we'll be sharing that information with you okay now that we've deviated are you comfortable

100leaving that consent item in place I'm feeling so much more comfortable okay good deal okay Dr Clark I recommend the Board of Education approve the consent items as presented which includes a minutes open Clos meetings February 27 2024 and open Clos meetings March 5th 2024 B bills c financial conditions report D Treasurer report e 95% Group LLC curriculum and training for Parson Elementary School do have a motion so moved second discussion hearing none yeah okay could could could Mike come up and just tell us our overall Financial picture how it looks and well that was a big question unknown today um um well I didn't print a copy of the treasurer's report but um somebody wants to give me theirs I can help you out a little bit you know I went through all the

101bills yes that's so much fun how take about three hours yeah I'm joking I did that once I've done it I mean we go through it I'm sure you do I just you know any anything notable that you'd like to bring up about our finances uh nothing nothing extraordinary I think right now we're in uh uh for today we're in a good spot but you know things are going away eser dollars are going away cppt is going away um so but but right now I I don't lose any sleep over where we're at today I do lose sleep where we might be in 24 months um but I can't I can't really forecast that to the to the penny so those are my concerns but right now I feel like we're in a really a

102really decent spot with um a couple funds get nervous about you know imrf and Social Security we talked about before we made those adjustments and then onm is always um Teeters on whether or not we need to add more money every at the end of every year for the work that we're doing around uh the district thank you mik you're welcome thank you Mike thanks for the curve okay Miss Bradford Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Clevenger hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider I miss Banks I and Mr Wetzel I 7 i z n motion carried thank you we'll now move on to our uh roll call Action items uh do we have a recommendation on student 2324 d37 expulsion case yes I recommend the Board of Education authorize the issuance of a

103decision in the expulsion case for student number 23 24-37 consistent with the findings from the hearing officers report and that student number d37 be expelled from the cater Public School District all events property and activities of the district for the remainder of the 2023 2024 school year and all of the 2024 2025 school year through the first semester of the 2025 2026 school year with no state for alternative education please note student number 23 24-37 sorry student number 2324 d37 can return on the first day of the second semester of the 2025 2026 school year parents will be notified of the first day of the second semester 2025 2026 once the calendar for the 2025 2026 school year is approved parents will also be notified of other educational options available for student number 23 24-37

104During the exposion period do I have a motion so moved second discussion um I because of some things that I learned during the hearing for this particular student as I've said before I think sometimes we don't uh look at these situations and differentiate some people's situation different than others um I totally support the expulsion but I I'm not in favor of the length the time or the no stay so I'll be abstaining any other discussion Miss Bradford Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider abstain Miss Banks hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Wetzel I Mr cleer hi and Mr Dion hi 6 I Zer nay one abstain motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation on student d38 expulsion case yes I recommend the Board of Education authorize the issuance of a decision in the exposion

105case for student number 23 24-38 consistent with the findings from the hearing officer's report and that student number 23 24-38 be expelled from the decer public school district all events property and activities of the district for the remainder of the 2023 2024 school year and all of the 2024 2025 school year through the first semester of the 2025 2026 school year with no state for alternative education please note student number d38 can return on the first day of the second semester of the 2025 2026 school year parents will be no notified of the first day of school of the 2 semester 2025 2026 once the calendar for the 2025 2026 school year is approved parents will also be notified of other educational options available for student number 23 24- 0038 During the exposion period do

106I have a motion so moved second discussion M Bradford Miss Banks hi Mr Clevenger hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr Wetzel hi and Dr Collins Brown I 7 I Zer motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the consideration and action on possible termination or discipline of a probationary security officer employee yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the termination of T taada Duncan probationary security officer employe effective March 20th 2024 as presented do I have a motion so moved second any discussion Miss Bradford Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr cler hi Mr Reynolds and Mr Dion hi 7 i z a motion carried do we have a recommendation for the Personnel action items yes I recommend the Board

107of Education approve the Personnel action items listed in the in the memo from deian Hillman interim Director of Human Resources and the human resources department as presented do I have a motion so moved second any discussion Miss Bradford Mr Dion right Mr Reynolds hi Mr Clevenger hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi and Mr Wetzel hi 7 i08 motion carried do we have a recommendation for the employment of a Director of Human Resources on a minute the same no I just turned too fast okay I'm sorry y'all yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the employment of Monica wils as the Director of Human Resources as presented and she is so moved second do I have a mo okay discussion Miss Bradford Mr Wetzel hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins

108Brown hi Mr shider hi Mr Clevenger hi Mr Dion hi and Mr Reynolds hi 7 i z motion [Music] [Applause] carry Dr Clark would you like to introduce our new director of human resour I'm so excited yes so Dr Monica wils will be our new our director we are so pleased to have you here we are looking forward to an amazing 50 years with you so please take this time to say whatever it is you want to say thank you so much I promise to be brief so I will start out by keeping my word okay um to the Board of Education Dr Clark um to Dr Curry deian and the entire selection committee thank you so much for the opportunity to join this great District I look forward to working with the talented and

109passate people on the HR team and across the district as we support the outstanding staff who educate care for and make an impact on the lives of students and families let's do great work together and let's continue to make a difference thank you so much thank you [Applause] welcome Dr Robinson we didn't get a chance to have you come up and introduce yourself a little bit and let us welcome you so um for those of you that were not here Dr Robinson uh came to us he is our uh director of tnl for the secondary level and we are so happy to have you as well thank you all to the board and uh Dr Clark it has been a pleasure uh to be with uh such great Educators and passionate people who work in

110education I thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to working with you you all for 50 years yes all right today is my 13th day and shout out to Mrs hman for all you guys thank you and welcome to both M hman we couldn't have done it without you and you're still not going anywhere she's off to Mexico tomorrow oh do we have a recommendation for the iPad refresh yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the iPad refresh as presented do I have a motion so move second discussion it's a good price on iPads I mean from from a technical piece and having headed up uh iPad buying this is a this is a good price okay thank you m Bradford Mr Reynolds hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr

111shider hi Miss Banks hi Mr cger and Mr Dion 7 I Zer name motion carry thank you do we have a recommendation for the iPad refresh cases insurance and white glove service yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the iPad refresh cases insurance and white glove Service as presented do have a motion so moved second discussion M Bradford Mr cleer I Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr shider hi and Miss Banks hi 7 I Zer n motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the PC refresh yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the PC refresh as presented motion still moved second discussion Miss Bradford Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Clevenger hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Miss Banks

112and Mr Wetzel hi 7 i0 n motion carried do we have a recommendation for the math curricul curriculum adoption for grades K5 and grades 68 yes I recommend the Board of Education adopt the math curriculum for grades K5 and and grade 68 as presented you have a motion so moved second so discussion you're here to tell us oh you're here I am here hello good evening again welcome back thank you so I am really excited to be up here today this has been uh a work in progress for the past year I want to thank our 66 pilot teachers across K8 who participated in piloting three of our programs and I want to also give a special thank you to Kelly Murray who really was the force behind this she is one of our amazing

113curriculum coordinators and Jill hubard when she came in in August really supported Kelly in this process as well to give you a little bit of I thought there was a timeline I guess it'll get there so we piloted three different uh curriculum options Big Ideas of math and you which is what we're going to recommend tonight Envision realize and mcra Hill reveal how did we get to that point well we started with six vendors last April and the teachers who were piloting came in looked at all six vendors and determined what vendors they wanted to go with what they thought the curriculums were going to provide so in August we were so I'm sorry so in April we were able to narrow it down to the three and then August we provided professional development and

114training for those pilot teachers on the curriculum that they were going that they chose to Pilot we did followup from August until February and they're continuing to use those resources now and January the pilot teachers were brought in to prepare in-person presentations at Johns Hill and then at that time it was determined that no teacher who was piloting Invision could even recommend it so we made the decision to not share with the rest of the staff because if the pilot teachers couldn't recommend it we didn't see a point in moving forward with it so then in February we presented to all of the teachers virtually all the K8 teachers virtually and then gave them a week to come and look at the curriculums review the materials and then vote on what they wanted and overwhelmingly

11585% approximately chose Big Ideas and so I am super excited to see that number because when I came into the district six years ago and we got go maath K8 there was a lot of push back of this isn't what I wanted this isn't and when I went back to the old board presentation it was 39% of the step had chosen that because I always thought well they wouldn't have not listened everybody Big Ideas and envision tied for the exact same percentage and so I think there was some other factors that went into why they chose it so I am very excited that2 out of the 165 teachers vote um eligible voted and 103 chose um Big Ideas so you will hear K5 it's called math in you and then 68 is called Big Ideas

116and when it moves into the high school as well it is Big Ideas the only thing we're talking about though right now is our K8 we'll get to the high school a little bit later the K5 has spiral Brown teacher editions digital access and full class sets of for of workbooks that have full color for the students they have student practice books and a class set of manipulatives as well there are hard uh cover teacher editions for 6 through eight chapter resources digital access for both teacher and students class sets of hard cover textbook journals student journals review handbooks for some skills and Rich Math t task books so they have a lot that come along with it this also does I don't think that my SL says it this also includes professional development for

117the next two years um that I have scheduled out but it is inclusive for the entire six years of the program that professional development so we can consistently make sure that the teachers are being trained on what they need to be utilizing and then having that followup moving forward so as we hire new staff we're not losing anybody in the process I went through that really fast because I talk really really fast but does anybody have any questions well I I want I was going to ask and I just saw at the bottom because I didn't read fast enough that this is a six-year plan then it is a six-year plan so we looked at both a threeyear and a six-year option six years was more financially feasible or not I mean um not feasible

118you saved a lot of money so yeah we saved a lot more money by going with the six years versus the three years and this was a really big process it took a year for us to come up with this and so to look at it again in three years was kind of a little bit overwhelming to us and we had conversations with Dr Clark about it because there is a concern if this doesn't work after the first year we do have that option to go back and work some things out and not be able to do it on another note this is the same curriculum that they use in the high schools the high schools I'll probably be coming back to you here very soon with what they want to do they don't even

119want to Pilot another curriculum they just want to update their current curriculum so we will have a consistent curriculum of math k12 and so I'm really hopeful with this that we can see really big gains with what we're doing with math is mcra Hill really that outdated it is really that outdated I know because you would have said you would have said like 15 20 years ago that's where we would have gone but no it is this is through singage um learning is who the curriculum is it and it's there's some really cool things but it is direct instruction and it doesn't necessarily always focus on facts and here you'll see me coming up with um a program at the next board meeting about working specifically on that fla fact fluency so we can also

120build up those skills as well along with the bigger math ideas I'm very pleased with the six as opposed to threes to provide stability for the teachers that they're not thinking about are we dropping this in two or three years you know um and maybe it won't be the best but at least they have a long term to really look at I also want to significantly applaud you for a fantastic process you went through to involve so many people and keep checking to see how it's going to go um I'm sure you'll towards the end of the six years do a similar process to find out how the teachers feel about it you know I think that's wonderful and so we do have a cycle um it got created a couple years ago about what

121we how are we going through and updating our curriculum so we're staying in focus and so we actually reviewed it just Monday to make sure we're on target with all of our curriculum updates um thank you for that also Mr shider because they did work really hard in that backwards design concept too and just to go back to you I had my braw when I was teaching so so I great um I I kind of have a big question so if you have a smaller one well we it kind of goes along with what Al said um this really interesting process have we done that before we we have this was very similar to what they have done in the past probably not so full scale because the last time we rolled out a math

122curriculum it was focused primarily on K5 because it was the first time I believe in many years and I can't quote how many years that was that we actually were purchasing a math curriculum so it was kind of done on a smaller scale and then halfway through it somebody said hey 68 wants to participate in it so we really made sure we made that conscious effort in order to have at a K8 program this time so we could be completely consistent K8 and how much does curriculum impact student achievement it can have a huge impact on student achievement because when we talk about that tier one instruction this is what the basis of that tier one instruction this is what we're doing for all of our students all of of our students should be exposed

123to this curriculum at grade level and when they're exposed to the curriculum at grade level then they're able to achieve you might not understand it quite as well if you are working below level but when you see that on one of those standardized test you are at least familiar with what the question is and what that concept are the curriculum is the backbone of what the teachers are doing they have the standards but this aligns with the standards in order to guide that instruction you use the term direct instruction direct instruction so and Mrs Kiton had also used that term as well that is where I'm explicitly explaining those steps to you we're going to talk about let's say 10 and how to break down 10 so I'm going to look at you and give

124you examples of 10 blocks and we're going to break that down and we're going to build up to get to 10 so we're going to have explicit direct instruction okay then I had one other thing um talking about digital access for the teachers and for the students I don't know how many times um I'm trying to in the past I've had to relearn a subject so that I could help teach my kids you know what I mean like uh I don't know I know relearning fractions whatever um does that digital access is that useful at home can can parents tap into that to or am I stuck trying to find some free trial of something you know what I mean it doesn't necessarily translate into Family Access because it really is what the students are

125able to access in their platform I believe through clever and Google although it is probably screaming at me somewhere I hear I feel like people telling me to stop I'm not quite sure how it and all those accesses work at home no I'm not going to answer that question that would be me at home I'm spending $30 a month to get photo math so that I can use it to you know use AI to find how to do a math problem you know let me say this where the digital access really comes into play for at home is let's say we would have to go to remote learning again please let's not but if we did this would allow the students to on their iPad have access to all of the curriculum that they had

126in the book plus a little bit more I just think about the yeah I the calls for Parental involvement but then how do we get the tools to the parents to help with what we're doing and I can reach out to singage and find out if they have that Family Access piece but right now I don't have that answer but I can follow up with that cool okay thank you mayor all right no problem thank you so this price we're paying is it cover the whole six years m Bradford Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Clevenger I and Mr Dion I 7 I Zer n motion carried do we have a recommendation for the ISL learning subscription and professional development yes I recommend the

127Board of Education approve the ISL learning subscription and professional development as presented motion so moved second discuss question I have a question how it interrelates with fastbridge I mean I knowl I've seen students when I was a sub teacher kids would DOL every third day or so in this in this so EXL can be comes up every once in a while too and so I just you know I'm not opposing it's just I'm I just interest in how so EXL can be used as an intervention so when we're taking our fastbridge data and we're looking at those supports that those students need we can utilize EXL as that tier 2 or tier three intervention so then it correlates that way because we can assign like a specific standard and a specific skill saying that's what

128you kind it's individualized yeah so theel is more it's it's super individualized students more so yeah I mean not totally but more so yeah more so because we can Target it and it's even for the tier one students like if I have a student who needs to Excel and I need to maybe because I'm my classroom I've got this group of students who's struggling but I've got this group of students who may be excelling they can go on to expand some of those skills through iel because it's individualized the district I was subbing in was giving rewards for anyone to improve doesn't matter where they started so that they would improve during because it's leveled for where they start thank you Miss Bradford Miss Banks hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi

129Mr shider hi Mr Wetzel hi and Dr Collins Brown hi 7 I zero name motion carried do we have a recommendation for the monor materials and supplies for monu Academy for peace yes I recommend a board of education approve the monory materials and supplies for monory Academy for peace as presented motion so move to Second discussion M Bradford Mr shider hi Miss Banks I Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds and Mr Dion 7 i z n motion carried thank you we have a recommendation to extend Menard's blanket purchase order for the buildings and grounds Department yes I recommend the Board of Education approved to extend manora's blanket purchase order for the buildings and grounds Department as presented motion some moov second discussion is is there an inter internal like

130request before they go out and buy stuff Bernards or is it just one no there is a a BL this the original blanket purchase order which by policy used to be statute um is set at $225,000 so we set it at $249.99 try to stay within that yeah um unfortunately um cost going up we're doing a lot of work and unfortunately some of our other vendors locally don't make it conducive to sell things to DPS and so we end up finding ourselves going back out there because they we have what we need and they're willing to sell it to us by our conditions other questions M Bradford Mr Wetzel hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Mr Clevenger hi Mr Dion hi and Mr Reynolds hi 7 i0 motion carried okay

131we'll move on to some upcoming dates and reminders for everyone parent teacher conferences March 22nd no school for students our spring break week uh March 25th to the 29th no school district offices are open 25 to 28 our Good Friday holidays the 29th no school and and the district offices are closed as well um April 11th Community enrichment summer sign up event for students and Family Resource event that's at MacArthur High School from 4:30 to 6:30 the 19th is observation of Casmir palaski holiday no school for students in district offices are closed um I think you can see there were other well they're not up there so there's a multicultural flyer for upcoming dates uh if you have questions uh contact Mr days assistant superintendent for diversity equity and inclusion our next regular meeting of

132the Board of Education will be 6:30 p.m. Tuesday April 9th 2024 at Kyle administration building do I have a motion to adjourn so move a second all in favor say I I those oppose say