001right okay you come to Okay g to figure that one out are we ready yeah on got it okay uh let me let me in advance apologize to everybody for the the delay this evening we just had a long session so um please excuse us and we'll move forward into the agenda at this point in time the board of education has been in closed executive session to conduct employee discipline hearings and discuss the 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 to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to
002the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for okay come on up we're going to muddle our way through this thing okay I'm going to administer the oath of office here and you'll just kind of repeat after me at the prompt okay fact of matter you all can just we'll just watch here I I no together let's just do this together okay I Lily Rano Solly swear that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of Junior board members now let's go on over here this is long to the board of education of decer Public School District 61 in accordance with the policies of the Board of Education I further swear that I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by myself and board members and others who
003seek a hearing before the board woohoo congrat ulations thank you look forward to working with both of you all congrats congratulations to you both do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do I recommend a board approve tonight's October 24th 2023 Open Session board meeting agenda as presented can I have a motion some moved second discussion Miss Bradford all in favor by saying I I I those oppose same sign motion carried there we go uh we'll all now ask Maria Robertson to come forward good evening president Clevenger members of the board new Junior board member that has left already sorry um and AZ Dr Clark and Miss Bradford I'm elated to share some DPS has yet another amazing staff member to highlight this evening the Illinois art Education Association named Stephen deer art
004teacher Miss Mary Linker as the 203 excuse me 2023 Illinois middle school art educator of the [Music] Year annually the iaea recognizes the top art design and media Educators for their excellence and service to the field the iaea awards and scholarship committee found Mary linker's professional performance service and Leadership to be exemplary in every regard and selected her for this recognition Mary is an active member of the iaea and the naea at the national level she has a bachelor's A Fine Arts degree in arts education from Southern Illinois University she earned her MERS in arts education from Eastern Illinois University in 2017 she will graduate with her Ms in curriculum and instruction from Eastern Illinois University in December wow this is her 15th year teaching art in DPS and her 10th year at Steven deater
005Middle School in addition to teaching art Mary is the Encore department head the art Club head and student council sponsor and also is their Cross Country Coach outside of her Steph D classroom Mary has also taught group art classes at the decar area Art Council as well as the Arts Council in monacello she also teaches private lessons and recently launched her own community art class business earlier this year she attended the teacher Institute at the national Humanity Center and National Portrait Gallery she is currently serving on the teacher advisory Council for the national Humanity Center and is part of the 2023 24 cohort of the 1619 project through the pzer center Mary's own artwork focuses on a variety of methods and materials but she enjoys watercolor and print making the most in her free time
006she enjoys playing Bard gains with her family reading art making and all things outdoors with her partner Aaliyah including hiking kaying paddle boarding camping and fishing she also has a snuggly Pitbull named Fort short for Fort Tim bras and she has a pretty awesome family Mary is well respected by her Steve deer colleagues and this is what her principal Jared lamb says about her Mary Linker is a true meaning of a running red we are so proud of her to be awarded the art educator award for the state of Illinois Miss Linker continues to look for innovative ways for our students to expresss in the area of Arts she goes above and beyond for our school community and we appreciate all her efforts and we are so lucky to have her as a dedicated Steven
007decater middle school art teacher board members and Dr Clark please congratulate or join me in congratulating our very own Mary Linker our 2023 Illinois middle school art teacher of the year amazing outstanding work congrat thanks I don't know what to say I I didn't expect you to read all that about me um you know this has been my only District I've ever worked for and I I love teaching art here I think we are moving forward with some good things with our art programming and I hope to see that continue and hopefully I can get more of our art teachers involved in these organizations because they're really wonderful so I don't know thank you so much thank you thank you congratulations don't take my feet on behalf of the board congratulations thank you thank you
008for all you do every day to make to make District 61 a better place thank you okay okay those are nice shoes I like them okay I thought it those are some fly kicks thank you congratulations okay Miss Linker I will say Miss Linker Miss Linker something's wrong with your mic Miss Linker is is it it's on I will say my daughter was very um excited to introduce me to you at open house and then she was very upset with me because apparently I took too long with her other teacher when we missed you so just so you know she sings your praises and I'm in the dogghouse right now with her still so I will be there and I'm going to surprise her so thank you all right our school highlight for this evening
009is the mighty Panthers of Eisenhower High School presenting tonight is principal Dr Missy [Applause] Rodriguez good evening superintendent Clark uh president cleverer board members as well as Miss Bradford um as always it is great day to be an Eisenhower Panther um for those that I have not had the pleasure of meeting I am principal Rodriguez and I leading EHS this year um along with my new administrative team um we are all new so we hit the ground running this year after feedback from our faculty and our staff we found it really important to set our goals and those were very clear to get students in class to get every student in class on time and to hopefully have a little bit of fun while we're doing that um so far we are off to a
010very positive start from this time last year we have raised the overall attendance for students at EHS from 85% to 89% right we still have some work but that's a pretty substantial jump um every subgroup of students with the exception of one currently has at least 91% or higher in attendance which is an increase from last year where at this time only one subgroup had 91% or higher in attendance um this is attributed to not just the administration but to the hard work of all of our staff our faculty custodians front desk um our taas making connections with students making students feel valued and where they would like to be we contact parents and we also have a little bit of fun in learning speaking of fun another aspect of EHS is our Athletics and
011the students that wholeheartedly support our teams in any weather I would like to introduce to you some of our Panther that have come with me tonight Panther hello some of you know me I'm Mrs cider or Amanda cider um myself and Karen Walker kind of started the panther in in 2020 when both of our sons were Eisenhower um students and um it kind of died off with Co like a lot of things did but we brought it back when we all came back and then these kids kind of took it to a whole new level we average about 40 kids in the panther Den um and they kind of wanted to come and talk to to you guys about it um Mariah she kind of put a little few words together so come on Mariah
012come on up from a g yes we just came from a game theme nights and you yes tonight was PE out so we're all kind of ducked out they still have their face paint on we literally just got out of the game so go ahead is it m hi everybody I'm Mariah Smith I am an Eisenhower cheerleader I've been cheering for two years next year will be my third year um I enjoy being a part of the panther Den because it's very fun to enjoy it's fun for all athletes and students to help support our team be there for the team cheer them on and it's a fun activity for everybody to participate in a school activity even if you're not doing any type of sports or didn't want to be a part of a
013sport that's something that you could be a part of with or without a sport or after school activities cool you go thank you for that yes so the good thing about it is all of the kids that are part of Panther Den are all kids are on level so there are kids that participate they go to class on time and maybe they're not in a sport but they're participating to support the school so and some of you have been out to games and you've seen the crazy the fun the atmosphere they get super excited they have posters and they're just having fun being kids and that's the best part of all of it I feel like it brings a lot of the athletes together with the students that don't particularly play the sports so then
014they get to become friends they thank them they go on the court they cheer and in in the central state aid and we've been a lot of places our Panther Den is one of the best student sections we've had and we definitely and these are some of the kids that come like I said we had a game tonight and they're still there some of the kids for the next game am showing sport to those teams that are playing now um but we do have great kids that come in and out because they're also working sometimes they take shifts but on an average they come to most of the games and we've even had other schools like Southeast has asked us to stay and cheer for them yeah so like we've even built relationships with other
015schools and other programs so that's really cool too um so and and like we've got football players and baseball players and basketball players you know here and and they kind of all feed off each other and you know it's just been a lot of fun and they're all just a lot of good oldfashioned clean kid fun back to what it you know used to be just having fun and being kids so there you go y it is amazing I can tell you I experienced it for myself during volleyball um shocked me because somebody said and I'm going to get the words right like we saw you miss that ball or something like that or hit that ball like you missed that all and all of a sudden this whole group was like where all I
016said I did not know this was going to happen and let me tell you it brought back the old days and I love it yes that's good we're glad I think we even sent kids over there to warn them like are you sure you want to and we did get up and go over so if anybody wants to come we'll get your shirt we'll paint your face yes we'll get you really excited get you really in yes get you really involved get you a poster all of that so cool yes thank you so much thank you and thank you guys for being you awesome awesome awesome outstanding can alums be part of the panther Den you know it you know oh no good job every everyone here we go one two three hands are Smiles
017awesome great job thank you all look forward to uh seeing you all cheer on the Panthers all year long um we'll now move on to public participation Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation Pres you don't have any tonight I was on a roll save you a few words okay we'll now move on to board committee reports are there any reports this evening from the administrator assigned to each of these committees there are no reports this evening from Administration we'll now move on to our Junior board memb any reports from our student bodies okay good afternoon everyone good afternoon or evening I'm aarian and my eisenh I'm a senior um I came to tell you guys about the last couple things we have at Eisenhower the past couple of weeks
018um rolling back to our last half a day uh the seniors from both Eisenhower and mctha had the opportunity to go to Richland for the uh college career fair it was a nice event you were welcome with Bingo cards and I thought we were going to sit down and actually play Bingo but it wasn't a bingo hall we had the chance to play bingo with their college reps from different colleges and learn about like scholarships and different programs they offer so if you went to him with uh like nursing who uh criteria especially in nursing and get like special scholarship from there you got uh something taken off your bingo card to get punched and then I was lucky to get the last blackout so they gave me a gift card and a uh nice
019blanket so I want to thank all the Eisenhower counselors and Mr Ingram for making sure everybody got there safely and had a good time another thing we had was our Eisenhower homecoming parade it was an awesome time to be outside just like we were being nauseous in the gym with the panther Den we were outside young all the neighbors around the Southside decator uh the neighbors are coming outside elderly uh even the kids having a good time throwing candy with them having knowing that high school is going to be a good time once they get there not no time soon but when they get there uh another thing we had was our our homecoming dance we had over 400 students attend and I I've been hear nothing but positive kids can't wait for next year
020uh lower classman can't wait to get the prom uh it just was just an amazing night to remember I want to thank Miss cider Mrs Walker and even Dr Rodriguez also for making sure it was just a lovely safe night for everybody to attend and thank them for also decorating because it really gave you the Hollywood experience thank you guys thank thank you isn't Eisenhower just the best class of 2014 we're GNA have an evening full of accolades here we go okay we'll move on to board discussion is there any are there any board comments at this point in time any issues that any board member would like to bring forward I would um just real quick ask that um the board policy committee uh check into our handbook to see what um the board
021policies are regarding uh what levels of discipline that we are expected to work on and because in a sense are we an appell at court or an original court so I would just like to get a report from the board policy committee on that is that in regards the students or staff both or both both yeah we I just want to make sure I understand what you're asking just let me write this down really quickly here and we're talking about the code of conduct book right no the board policy oh the board policy itself how we how we operate and whether or not we should be involved or it should just be a matter of the administration making decisions unless it comes unless the student or the staff wants to appeal to us got it
022okay got it I guess I would add Mr shider I'd like to take that one step further it's a that's a good thought I I'd like to also uh get our legal council involved in that as well and offer some guidance as far as uh the statutes and what the statutes uh provide for us thank you so yeah it's late and I didn't want to talk about what I was talking about last time but we're talking board policy um want to have board discussion about well this this is really loud um wanted to talk to the board to see what the board's take was on having um like if we ask Administration for something if a person asks Administration for something is that a board directive if an individual on the board asks administ and
023I'm tired an administrator for something are they expected to do it or do we need to come together as a board and ask the super attendant for something and have her have it happen if that makes sense to my knowledge when we first started um I know I was told that if we had any that is loud if we had any directives for the staff that we first go through Melissa and Melissa would um deliver our message to the appropriate person um so to I guess to address the elephant in the room on that one uh I'm talking solar panels um there was Al made a comment with two meetings ago right because we had the special meeting in between um that he had asked about solar panels and he hadn't heard anything back on
024it um I didn't know if that would be just asking about if one member asked for it is that to be taken as a directive to fulfill that request or do we need to come together as a board and ask Administration to do X whatever X is I don't believe a question is a directive a question is a question yeah I mean plain and simple it's like any board member can ask for something to be looked into I don't think there's any board policy against that well I guess that's my concern though is that um when something like that requires several hours of um work to be done to get that done you know um no the question doesn't mean the Administration has to do it the question is just asking if they would consider
025it and also asking if the other board members feel like that's a good idea to work on and if the other board members don't feel like it then it it dies do we have a current policy that addresses this a board policy not code of conduct I can look into your uh board policies they're all falling under section two and I I will review those yeah see I don't know if there' be a policy on it though because it's more of a or protocol I miss about yeah I mean you know what I mean because it's kind of a board administ relationship I think you're kind of talking about you know so um so I guess that's kind of what I'm looking for is like if I'm way off then tell me um if I'm
026heading in the right direction I guess looking for agreement that that's how we will operate that's that's what I'm looking for are you suggesting a gag order that is absolutely not what I'm asking and I sure sounds like it that's what you're suggesting that board members should not be able to ask questions what I don't want to do is have board members asking Administration for something that's going to take a ridiculous number of hours for them to do it costs a district money to pay employees to do something um if it's something that it's just a hey will you consider this and that that fine but if we're asking for a report that takes 10 hours for somebody to build well now you know however much money they make per hour times 10 hours we
027just cost a district and we might not be heading in the right direction with what we're looking for when we could just ask Melissa or um the superintendent for specifically or kind of more broad picture what we're looking for well I think that's kind of a gray area only because every one of us up here at some point has asked for data from a specific administrative person which in turn takes time we're paying them to do that um and for example there's been data I've asked for that I still haven't received but I mean so if he he's asking since we're talking about the solar panels so if he's asking someone to check into solar pan solar panels that's no different than you asking I'm just saying you because I'm talking to you that's no
028different in my opinion that's no different than you asking you know someone to give you data on a certain topic which they might not have today for example because we're asking for the data today so then they have to spend the next two weeks or whatever it is time at work or whatever looking for that data to present to give to you or us at the de meeting so yeah and I guess my take on either one of those is if the board comes together and says hey we want this then yeah cool um but if we're it could be even coming in and sitting down and talking to you know an administrator for 20 minutes a day every day I mean you know what I mean is it no I understand and again I
029wasn't I don't want to speak for Al I know I'm trying to get away from talking about Sol because that's I'm talking I don't know what he has asked but I just know if I have asked for something I don't say Hey you know I want you to spend 30 hours researching all this because we're going to do solar panels and I my impression of the conversations that he has presented is that's not that is not what has happened but yes um if I want to have a conversation with Dr Clark I'll email her or I'll call her and say can we have a conversation a two a two on two or whatever um but at the same time like you said yes if it was something that we all were like hey we were
030interested in solar panels cuz that's the topic we're talking about and we're all in agreement then yes I would expect if we say hey give us this information I would expect that we as the superintendent's boss so to speak would that would order would get followed up on but that's also the same though if I personally am saying hey I need that data that's why I want to table such and such a topic I want that data I figure that's kind of the same thing I don't need the board approval for me to get the data yes so again not knowing what the conversation was I know he's sitting right here I don't want to right beler this this topic anymore but I just I mean I get that but I mean um I guess
031we don't always since we don't have to get the data we don't always know how long it's going to take to do that whatever and that is true so that would be a communication between whichever board member and whichever administrative person that entails so for example if I'm asking Mr Al for something I would expect him to say okay I can give you that but it's going to take me 30 days 6 months whatever it might be okay well that's a communication that he and I are having so then he and I can continue to have that conversation but if I'm not hearing anything back then I'm going to say hey in a board meeting even hey Mr tally I've asked you to give me this data and you have yet to reply to me
032or you have yet to give me that data you did not tell me it was going to be 30 days so a difference yeah I don't like that because in hey Mr so and so you didn't get me this I'm calling you to the carpet in the middle of an open board meeting and by the way the superintendent is the board's employee not Mr whoever does that make sense I see your point so you're saying that there would be no directives to staff because we only have one report and that one report would then direct staff okay but let me just say for the record I do go through the proper Channel I'm just saying if you know that's what I would expect if I was dealing with someone so well I think it's it's
033important for all of us to to look at each other and say we're all on the same team yeah uh we're not like a basketball team that has five basketballs trying to play the same game with five basketballs we really need to have one basketball we need to be working together um our one employee is Dr Clark we communicate through Dr Clark and I I trust that everybody's trying to kind of stick to that because we have a responsibility as a board she has responsibility to guide our staff and guide what our staff does and when they do it and how they do it um you know it's it's kind of like a building project we approve the building we approve the big picture but we don't approve the means and methods by which the
034contractor builds that project and I view that as kind of a relationship that we have with the superintendent um we we give over overall big picture Direction which is where we should be and and then Dr Clark moves the organization forward so it good conversation um I think it's it's productive for us to talk about these issues rather than let these issues F and I'd like to add to that um you're right we do have the common a common goal but we are all seven individuals with uh and some of us might not always agree and that's okay cuz that's that's why we have a majority but what I would then ask of you then president clevinger is do not tell me how to vote on certain topics and do not tell me that I
035need to support the superintendent on a certain topic before I've even heard what the topic is I would prefer that you allow me to make my own informed decision when it comes to different topics that we are discussing yeah I'm I'm hope I'm not leaving you with that impression because I understand there are five different opinions but you can't win a basketball game with five people played in five different directions and you're right and I agree with that but I'm saying I would prefer to make my own informed decisions and not have someone call me and tell me how we were all elected for that okay any other thoughts okay now we'll move on to reports from Administration Dr Clark yes I would like to call Kathy HK director of make andaya special education District
036to the podium she's going to give us a brief update on the um essential skills program at Hope good evening everyone okay um you've had a little bit of a report and a press release so let me tell you that we just started the half and half we have a morning session and an afternoon session of our essential skills program to help balance the ratios of our existing staff to student and let me tell you I saw IEP goal work starting today day one it was really beautiful to see students were in their areas and teachers had their communication Boards out and they were making choices and it was the way I would hoped to see the whole program run we still have 18 vacancies at Hope in the special ed Department alone nine of
037those in the essential skills program we still working hard to try to recruit and fill those position but we do have a labor shortage so so okay did anyone have any questions I know you said you have a labor shortage do you have any applicants for any of those positions I had a couple applicants right after the newspaper article came out because I felt like that spurred the attention of people and I was really grateful for Valerie for writing an article that way um and I also had some interest this is kind of funny because the laws have changed with shortterm emergency approval for teach assistant that very day that we had to make that announcement we had 55 eyes an hour high school student at Mak pet helping life skills students go through the
038special Olympic exercises and I used that opportunity to have the counselers talk with them about maybe taking a job right after high school and then working towards um a field of Education as they were working full-time okay so and IEP minutes will still be met per their guidelines with this well the way that we've structured it is that we had conversations with every parent and because the parents agreed that they would change the IEPs to shorten the school day the IEP minutes are still the same percentage of the day gotcha but it's a shorter day okay yeah thank you you're welcome thanks thank you welcome any other questions yes um do we have a theoretical time frame that this is going to last I mean this is something that we see now and into the
039future well I mean I I have an exit plan but it has to be with whenever I can fill the position so without the applicants to really fill the position and the length of time it's taking since the labor laws have changed in the school district it takes much longer to fill a position because of the background checks that you have to take and the employment history review that they have to take with every candidate it just takes makes longer is there anything we can do to help parents whose schedules are just discombobulated because the kids are going to be free when the parents should be working or are working I mean is there anything you can I know that's not our responsibility so to speak but it it is the biggest concern that's come
040up is what do we do um when we have to go to work and a lot of our parents have asked what are the options and we have found that there's not a lot of community agencies out there that will take students of this level of disability they may take students with special needs but maybe not that level maybe the ones who need to be tube fed or um require position changes and positioning um so that is something that I'd like to work with Community leaders that to maybe developing more of those options for daycare this might be a bigger question than you can answer right now the number of students that require Services what's the trend been like I mean are we having more students that require you know per this level of support
041yeah the trend is definitely increasing um really what we're seeing is that the program um has made up a not just more students who can't talk and really don't have the same level of safety and awareness of their place and space MH um but half this student population is autistic and that's a way bigger percentage that we've ever had in this program it used to be exclusively Sever and profound multiply medically impaired and now that's only half of that population the other half is very mobile very uh Act and behaviorally outwardly challenging behaviors because they have no other way to communicate any other questions thank you Kathy appreciate thank you that will end our report from um Administration okay we'll now move on to our consent items uh does anyone want any of the consent
042items pulled from the consent agenda tonight no but I did have one I have one question or something needs clarified on letter D before we vote on all of them um if I can ask um deian or huh oh I'm sorry no this you said it's probably a Dean question yes letter d a right d a yes yeah that's what I thought Dean so on the um grades K1 and two and the TA the update when you have the toileting part the wording I just need it clarified for the record the toileting that's the voluntary position with the extra stien or something that's correct toileting is not mandatory every K through six and k through eight building will have two allocations I've created a process for principles that they will get in the morning as
043soon as the job description is finalized the people that are interested will apply Loosely to the principal within a five workday period and then they will be selected based on senority was which was all part of the bargain I had to send the job description today for those people specifically who choose to do toileting and get that compensation okay so the way it's worded in the packet um is a little misleading so can we vote on it tonight and then can there's two job descriptions this is the K12 specifically for that the other job description which is k1 instructional would still stand for people who aren't doing it no I understand I'm just saying in this packet the toileting part looks like it's part of the duties and that it's it is for the people
044that choose to do it right but that's not how it's worded is what I'm saying is there that we can vote on it and then so you saying clean up the language for the I don't want to have to take it I'm sorry to interrupt you I don't want to take it off the the board of the agenda up to you the way it we talked about it was that we would create it add the toileting in so that it was very clear that they would have training and it would be they would do it after training in bargaining we talked about right I understand all of that cuz I was I don't know how to fix it other than I guess cuz it doesn't have the I didn't see it in the packet anywhere
045where it says it's voluntary that's that was part of bargaining are there two different job descriptions one for there an older one for K1 instructional this one is specific to add toileting for K12 for those who choose gotcha I guess either way it's fine we've made it clear for the record that it's the voluntary position okay so okay okay appreciate it thank you thank you to you anything else um I'll be voting for The consent items because it's a whole group of things but I've stated before that I'm opposed to the teaching and learning strategist position being um opened up uh we've talked about this before ever since we've gotten on the board um I thought the board made it clear that this is not something we wanted but um uh if we do get
046to a point of um opening the position or asking to hire someone I will be voting against that because I think in terms of relative uh financial support for different um branches of the district this is not as important as what we need so if I can just clarify the update to this position is removing um a specific word and adding duties that already exist for people already in the position and when I came on board and correct me if I'm wrong Mary Brady this position was supposed to be identical to student services so that the schools and classroom teachers would have a behavior interventionist and an accademic interventionist oh then I misunderstood what this is okay so can we have an explanation what this position is this is something new then this no it's
047not new it's always been here but it was um new to us in terms of being explained I don't think we've had this discussed okay then Mary Brady would you like to come up and explain C can I just have a quick point of order um I know that there's been discussions about Robert's Rules of Order but in the past and how we conduct meetings but we're currently having conversations without emotion in a second and we haven't pulled any of this out so I this is just kind of a free-for-all conversation it's very important but if we're going to discuss an item shouldn't we have a motion a second and then put that into discussion I'm fine with that except Ste in that the Robert rules of orders I mean we're not particularly governed by
048those whether we follow them as a guideline right but but but in general yeah when you have a topic that you are discussing and it comes up and if we're and I don't know Luke are we legally required to have first and second on uh a motion and a second I believe the wording in your policy is that essentially that Robert's Rules of Order is a guide not strictly to follow it um I think you have to work in a way that the record is clear that everybody understands what's going on so certainly sometimes you can answer something with a quick question and move along other times I think once you're far a field it definitely helps to have a motion in a second okay thanks thanks for the clarification yeah and I I don't
049know I don't want to go learnning robbert's Rules of Order I I'm not pushing for Robert's Rules of Order Mr Dion I'm just trying to clarify for the record as we put together minutes and as we conduct board business that there is a clear A to B point from introduction of the item to an actual vote that's that's all I'm concerned about is to clarify that and I'm not against conversation I'm not against board discussion this is wonderful stuff I just want to make sure that a we are conforming with uh State Statute policy and conforming with making sure that it's easy for Miss Bradford to distinguish what we were discussing and when we were discussing it that's the only piece of this point of order so my suggestion on this particular issue would be
050that if there is more than a very quick quick question on something on the consent a agenda ask to pull it from the consent agenda then you'll be able to have a motion in a second on that individual item rather than sort of leap th leap frogging through the consent agenda thank you that was going to be my next question is with with regard to the consent agenda there are some more specific rules about consent agenda and how you deal with the consent agenda so and we do pretty Loosely deal with the consent agenda item so uh with that in mind Mary Brady hi so is there a specific question you have I can explain yeah I just don't know what this position so this position has had had when we looked into it had
051two different job titles and so we had this instructional specialist coordinator we no longer have instructional specialist coordinators coaches huh instructional coaches those in coaches but we had a instructional specialist coordinator who worked out of PDI it was an admin support position okay so when we were trying to find in because we needed to add in some language regarding the um career and college readiness and tech tech education programming as well as that um data collection related to the Workforce Development programming that was specifically what we were trying to add to this job is we wanted to make make sure we're supporting those pieces as well as supporting that academic piece so when we originally had this conversation we wanted to mirror what student services have with their um behavior intervention interventionists I think is
052what the job title is so this position um in 2020 was approved as a teaching and learning strategist coordinator we don't actually have any teaching and learning strategist we so there wasn't any any teaching and learning strategist to coordinate so we took that part off so that we can clearly identify our coordinators as those people who are DEA Representatives who handle our pilots and do that work within the teachers this provides support to the entire building the principles as well as the teachers on that academic side as well as some other administrative task so there these be positions in every school a eventually but at this point we don't want to pull any teachers from classroom positions because obviously we're short so we're being very strategic about what this looks like and trying to prioritize
053where these positions come from specifically this position is replacing a person who resigned in the summer from PDI Who provided the mentoring support our um uh high impact tutoring support report as well as um a lot of the other kind of behind the scenes things like new teacher week working with um halfday professional or halfday professional development plans and kind of helping coordinate some of those pieces so that Dr Gray and I can be out supporting the buildings more specifically than working on some of these administrative tasks so this position would would replace the person who just resigned okay and just so to be clear so everybody understands the reason that we're not filling these positions because we know there are going to be teachers that apply and I don't want to yeah so we
054don't want to create a higher vacancy rate than we already have so we really have to slow this down this is why it's taking so long yeah our goal is not to pull from uh the classroom I don't want I don't want to pull from the classroom in order to support the classroom I want to make sure that we have certified teachers in those positions so I guess my request would be when we're doing updates on some of these positions like this um that if you could maybe email us and and kind of explain it before we come here um I don't remember seeing it on my weekly update get in the weekly up there was we didn't get it to we didn't get you and I we apologize for that I think that had
055to do with just the timing there was a little bit of miscommunication I do apologize for that puts us in a bad spot it doesn't I I do apologize because I know it didn't end up in a weate so thank you thank you for that thank you do we have a motion on the consent agenda so mov second she has not um I haven't read so sorry Dr no it's okay had a lot going on I recommend the Board of Education approve the cons items as presented a minutes open Clos meetings October 10th 2023 and special open Clos meetings October 12th 2023 B monthly Financial conditions report C Treasures report D job descriptions a grades K1 and two instructional teaching assistant update B teaching and learning strategies update e job description Safety and Security a
056Le school security offic off update B Safety and Security administrator update C school security officer floater update D school security officer update now do I have a motion some moved in a second and a second discussion Miss Bradford Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr cleer Dr Collins Brown Mr shider Miss Banks and Mr Wetzel seven Z motion Carri okay now we're going to move on to roll call Action items and just for the record letter F consideration and action on possible termination or discipline of a custodial custodial employee was pulled from the October 24th 2023 Open Session Board of Education agenda do we have a recommendation on the adoption of a resignation agreement yes I recommend a board of educ ucation approve adopt the resignation agreement between Dr Derek Jordan and Decor Public School
057District 61 effective at the close of business day on Tuesday December 5th 2023 as presented do I have a motion so Mo second discussion Miss Bradford Dr Collins Brown abstain Mr shider I miss Banks hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Clevenger hi and Mr Deion 6 i0 n one abstain thank you motion carried do we have a recommendation for the consideration and action on a possible suspension without pay for a custodial employee yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the 3-day suspension without pay for Robin Anderson a custodial employee effective October 25th 2023 October 26 2023 and October 27 2023 as presented it motion so moved a second second discussion I just want to say I'm sorry if I just interrupted um I abstained on a and I'll be staining on B
058due to um I was not present for the discussions and I will be voting against this because I support the suspension but not the length of time any further discussion Miss Bradford Miss Banks I miss Mr cger hi Mr Reynolds hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider n Mr Wetzel n and Dr Collin Brown abstain five I one nay one abstain motion carried believe there were two two eyes two two n wait a minute four two and one who voted next Mr wet Mr Wetzel and Mr shider oh Mr wetel okay oh Lord I'm sorry it actually sounded it did I'm sorry 4 I 2 nay one abstain motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the consideration and action on the possible suspension without pay for a custodial employee yes I recommend a
059board of education approve the 5-day suspension without pay for Steven Collins a custodial employee effective October 25th 2023 October 26th 2023 October 27th 2023 October 30th 2023 and October 31st 2023 as present it have a motion so moved second discussion again I'll be abstaining because I was not present for this discussion M Bradford Mr cleer hi Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi Dr Collins Brown abstain Mr Wetzel hi Mr shider hi and Miss Banks hi 6 i0 nay one abstain motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the consideration and action on the possible suspension without pay for a school security officer yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the two-day suspension without pay for Johnny McLendon a school security officer effective October 25th 2023 and October 26 2023 as presented move
060second discussion Miss Bradford Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds hi and Mr Dion yes 7 i z motion Carri thank you do we have a recommendation for the consideration and action on the possible suspension without pay for a teamster employee yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the 5-day suspension without pay for Derek Brown a Teamster employee effective October 25th 2023 October 26 2023 October 27th 2023 October 30th 2023 and October 31st 2023 as presented motion so moved second discussion Miss Bradford Mr Wetzel hi Miss Banks hi Dr Collins Brown for reasons already stated abstain Mr shider hi Mr cleer hi Mr Dion hi and Mr Reynolds 6 i0 Nate one abstain motion Carri do we have a recommendation for the Personnel
061action items yes yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the Personnel action items listed in the memo from deian Hilman interim Director of Human Services I'm sorry interim Director of Human Resources and the human resources department as presented motion so moved second discussion Miss Bradford Dr Collins Brown all Mr Dion hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Clevenger hi Mr Reynolds hi Miss Banks hi and and Mr shider 7 i z n motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the Howard G Buffett Foundation donation yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the Howard G Buffett Foundation donation as presented motion some moved second any discussion I'm just curious as to why all seven of us are being required to sign this um Z is not we have a question why all s
062are siging kind of a thank you note for a $90,000 donation for equipment for the ACT Center that well that's not how it was presented to me it was presented to me that we had to sign it or he would not donate it um you know I I don't know the so I'm just asking I just didn't know why I was being required when normally on contracts it's usually like you know like a president and vice president or like you for example but I've just never seen a contract that come across all seven of us have been told to sign so I was just asking for clarification I wasn't trying to be rude well I first of all thanks for letting me come up um I I don't I can't speak for Mr Buffett but
063I as I understand it is an opportunity to for the board to acknowledge that Mr Buffett is giving you I believe $90,000 worth of equipment um at his at his donation okay that's fine that's just the how it was presented to me so I was just wanting some clarification so I appreciate that I think it's I mean discussion um no I think it's a absolutely generous I mean we'd have an A Center that's awesome um I what's the enrollment in there do you know over oh not off the top of my head 500 yeah waiting list I've heard stories that there are um private school students that are looking to get into the ACT Center um oh I'm not disputing no no I'm not I'm not I'm stating generally okay uh really long witted say
064way of saying thank you for this um I you know it's nice to have the a center but it's even um nicer to have uh equipment to use in the egg center it's pretty awesome yeah and this is money we didn't have to use worry about which Grant would come from damn right that's awesome sorry and I think the one thing that we we do have to to recognize it's it's about our kids yeah and about our kids future and helping secure our kids' future and this a Academy has done something that very few cities across the country uh have been able to even think about let alone accomplish so um once again thanks to me Mr Buffett for his contributions to District 61 and the future of our children yeah um if it were
065around whenever I was in high school I probably would have gone through with my um my my my dream at the time is to go into horiculture I went to Richland ended up uh taking it classes so I would probably probably be on a different career path not that I'm on a bad one but you know life might have been different if it had been there for me all right okay see let me get back to the motion here we've got a motion in a second discussion M Brad yes Mr clevinger hi Mr shider hi Mr Reynolds hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr Dion hi and Miss spanks hi 7 i z motion carry we have a recommendation for the memorandum of understanding between decator Public School District 61 and decator Education
066Association counselors yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the memorandum of understanding mou between decar public school district 6 1 indicator Education Association counselors as presented motion so Mo second discussion Miss Bradford Mr shider hi Miss Banks hi Mr Dion hi Mr Wetzel hi Mr cleer hi Mr Reynolds hi and Dr Collins Brown hi 7 i z motion carried thank you do we have a recommendation for the Raptor enhancement contracts yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the Raptor enhancement contracts as presented motion moved second discussion just a quick clarification piece um in the volunteer management system that's just for background checks or that's an actual in like a entire Vol volunteer Management program where you can track hours and all of that stuff it's exactly the the ladder it's a it's a
067u a a uh an application that will track the individuals their time and um and also there is a uh background piece that will be a deeper dive than what we do manually uh currently okay and will your office be uh responsible for maintaining that I am going to assume responsibility that was that was discussed with the it's right now volunteer management system is uh uh conducted by human resources I talk with the director the interim director and uh and then the staff that's responsible for so yes we will assume that responsibility with the rest of the suite thank you thank you further discussion seeing none Miss Bradford Miss Banks hi Mr Wetzel hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr Clevenger hi and Mr Reynolds hi 7 i z motion
068carried thank you now I'm going to be challenged here do we have a recommendation for the Moto Pro ion two-way security radios sorry for butchering that Moto Turbo Moto Turbo yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the motal turbo ion 2-way security radios upgrades as presented motion some second discussion so um are these um I'm forgetting my terms um will the users of these be able to talk to dpd dispatch or you know emergency services or yes there uh the the this is a a very uh good uh Progressive uh robust communication device it has the ability to uh be UHF which is the the regular radio system that we have plus it'll connect to WiFi and also and we're not going to give it to everybody but it also is Sim car capable
069which means that uh our leads Administration who be assigned these devices will have access where they can go ahead and do 911 however through Wi-Fi you know they can send out you know an alert to uh the the kada police department training first though training first now I mean I guess that's a good question um FCC licensed right yes okay um and then we as an entity have to be licensed not each individual right a good question want check on that I'll have to check I'm sure it's probably the case I mean well we have Towers so you know but I'm going to go I am going to check on it like my boss sorry I just thought of that any other discussion M Bradford Mr Dion hi Mr shider hi Mr Clevenger hi Dr
070Collins Brown hi Mr Reynolds hi Miss Banks hi and Mr wetle hi 7 i0 motion Carrie thank you thank you do we have a recommendation for the final site website and Parent Link Mass notification system uh it's a three-year renewal agreement yes I recommend the board of approve the finalist uh website and Parent Link Mass notification system 3year renewal agreement as presented motion so moved second discussion I didn't send it beforehand but um due diligence making sure there's we don't it's not a Greener pass you know not a better place you know yeah I sorry I kind of trilled off I didn't know who that ask yes we U Maria and I actually met last week with a different vendor but we did just switch to our new website using um Blackboard which is moving
071to final site um and they are doing a switch over for us converting all of our current website into the new Final site product so we're really happy with our new site and hoping to stick with it for a while so I would think three years is um pretty consistent with where we've been moving okay now is it what we had before or I mean it's a renewal right it's a renewal yes it's just a different company name final site acquired Blackboard gotcha yes any further discussion any other questions it doesn't do the phone calls right it does yes that is part of the um the parent link messaging system some stop and then restart sorry okay sure I'm not the only one that's hand okay don't big deal M Bradford Mr Wetzel hi Miss
072Bank hi Dr Collins Brown hi Mr shider hi Mr Dion hi Mr Reynolds hi and Mr Clevenger hi 7 I Zer n motion carried thank you Dr Clark has uh some comments here so I'm going to get in trouble uh but I'm going to say it anyway because she worked very hard for this and she's going to be embarrassed when I say this but our own Mary own scho is now Dr Maryanne scho [Music] [Applause] she did not want to do this so now this is your walk since you yes yes thank you for that good evening even thank you foring me I appreciate that thank you I wanted to do this because I don't know if you guys um know how hard it is to do your doctorate and have a child two kids
073and a husband all at the same time try it with four God bless you yes well also working and still working so yes I did want to embarrass you because you know what did a good job of that thank you very because you are awesome you did this and so I wanted to recognize that so thank you congratulations I'm going to go walk back to my seat thank you okay some announcements and upcoming dates uh the Board of Education Administration sends condolences to the family of Robert C Bob Moore passed away Sunday October 15th Mr Moore was a 1968 graduate of MacArthur High School and a retired physical education and science teacher from the decater public schools and I believe Mr Reynolds wanted to offer a couple of comments yes I got a chance to
074play golf with Bob and and socialize a little bit and I was uh blessed to be able to go to his visitation on Saturday and um I told his wife that we would be U mentioning Bob's name and and his his passing and she was very touched but she told me a story about him she said the the saddest day of his year was the last day of school he would come back from from his last last class and he'd sit in the living room and just kind of exhale and and and kind of just resigned to the fact that school was over and it it didn't make him happy he he was one of those people that I believe was a called teacher I I don't believe teaching is a is a job it
075is a it's a career and it's a calling and not everybody has it U but moob Bob Moore did and uh I think we were very fortunate to have him as a teacher for almost 40 years why don't you all to know thank you appreciate those comments uh some of the important dates to remember I'm not going to read them all for you I think that you can see them up on the screen um we have the November 11th Veterans Day holiday uh November 15th is a districtwide half day school for all students um November 20th to 21st no student attendance uh no school for students district offices are open please note that uh the annual turkey tournament is coming up so for those of you who can get out and watch that there's some
076really good basketball during that turkey tournament long-standing event um then the the Veterans Day holiday the 22nd 23rd and the 24th are the Thanksgiving holidays no school and district offices are clo are closed during that time period uh reminder there are some and some upcoming dates Multicultural events and upcoming Multicultural events and that concludes the public portion of this meeting the next regular meeting the board education will be 6:30 p.m Tuesday November 14th just a reminder there'll be one board meeting in November uh and that'll be at the Kyle administration building 6:30 p.m. do I have a motion to adjourn second all those in favor I I we're [Music] adjourned