09/12/23 Board of Education Meeting

001how's it going to see him [Music] again [Music] the first time only ours is not teachers [Music] thank you [Music] um thank you [Music] lyrics [Music] thank you so much [Music] foreign board of education has been in closed executive session to conduct a student expulsion hearing discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body and Collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees no action was taken during the closed executive session uh would now ask you to join me in the pledge allegiance to the flag I pledge allegiance of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all do we

002have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do I recommend the board approved tonight September 12 2023 Open Session board meeting agenda as presented do I have a motion so moved second any discussion all in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries we will now move on to our district highlights I would ask Ashley granted to come forward uh executive director of innovative programs and strategic planning and Lead this discussion there we go hey goodness worried there for a minute oh no I'm here I'm here coming in hot all right good evening everyone um thank you for having me tonight our first DPS proud highlight is Shannon here okay oh Shannon is here okay um in my department one of our goals is always um to expand our career Readiness opportunities for

003our students engaging them in meaningful Hands-On experiences we have a wonderful uh community that doesn't mind supporting through time and talent and treasure and so many of our students are able to participate in internships paid co-ops job shadow opportunities career exploration field trips so on and so forth so this year we are proud to add ADM Trucking as an opportunity for our students to participate in a Hands-On work experience they started this summer and now they have moved into phase two at ADM where they go to school half a day and then they report to ADM um the other half of the day to work during their senior year so at this time I would love to call up our business partner Shannon Jed Liska and one of our students that is currently in the

004co-op Mr Jeremy Hood from MacArthur High School to tell you briefly about their experience in the ADM Trucking Co-op welcome them please [Applause] I want to thank you for your time here today and thank you to Ashley and Leslie they've been great Partners within the Decatur Public School District they've allowed us to come in and speak to the students during career day and really get to know them and that's how we built the relationship and started the interview process we did select three students this past summer Jeremy being one of them he currently Works in our wash bay where he washes our trucks ADM has a lot of opportunities for uh just employment within the community what's great about ADM for high school students if they don't know if they're College ready it gives them

005an Avenue and a foot in the door to begin their career in addition ADM provides College tuition assistance up to 75 percent of your college tuition after you work full-time for ADM can be paid up to ten thousand dollars per year so for these students that might not have another Avenue you know to go to college or they don't want to take out a big loan this gives them an opportunity to kind of figure out what they want to do while they're making money I would like to open it up for Jeremy to talk about his experience here um and then if you guys have any questions we'll feel those I just first off want to say thank you guys for having me here this is like a big opportunity for me and my fellow

006classmates um when this was first brought to me at first I didn't know what to think because when I at first whenever I heard ADM Trucking I was going to be driving trucks at a young age so so whenever I got brought to uh orientation for the first week I learned a lot about EDM not only is it just Trucking but it's stocks uh businesses stuff like that uh selling trading it's really open business to a lot of different things so when I first got brought to this to uh ADL it was exciting but also I was very very nervous um it's a nice job the people there are really nice I love the work environment it's it's a great opportunity especially for me and then the benefits as well also play a huge toll

007on how I feel about it as well so yeah thank you [Music] [Applause] Jeremy has done a great job as well as all the other students that have come on board and we've not only allowed him to learn the job but have opened him up to Opportunities like this he's spoken on behalf of the Decatur Public School District about his ADM opportunity on the radio um he's been on Brian Byers we've had a career day that opened up um college students and high school students to come to our corporate cafeteria and he spoke on behalf of the co-op program we've had our female student tion being she was able to start on a newsletter and Branch out to different managers and work on communication skills and things that she likes to in her Avenue and

008gauge our other student he's done really well and it's kind of helped him get out of his shell and so just the opportunities things that you know they're learning Beyond just the day-to-day task I think goes beyond measure in addition ADM has presence in over 200 countries we help help feed the world we have over 42 000 colleagues so just that kind of exposure and opportunity and window that that provides I'm hoping that by introducing them in the trucking division my original goal was to like create more jobs than truck drivers but after this program caught wind I'm really hoping that other divisions within aedm really take it on and open up a lot more opportunities because we were only able to take on three students but if we could get other departments to really

009um see how successful our Co-op experience has been I'm hoping that they allow that opportunity for other students thank you all for coming all right our next DPS proud moment last year myself and our former HR Director stood before you asking your approval for a new pathway which was our DPS long-term sub to teacher certification pathway and we came to you once and then we came to you again and then you all approved for up to 25 spots to date 22 out of the 25 spots have been allocated and we're very proud of that and I'd like to call up Miss Kathy Briggs she has been an intricate part of this program I want her to tell her story about how last year she was a long-term sub for DPS and this year currently she

010is a full-time certified teacher at Montessori Academy for peace for language arts right all right Kathy breaks you make me smarter than I am all right so I actually started subbing with the district in 2019 and I saw the need because I saw too many of my children's classes getting split up amongst the building and it was creating stress for the teacher so um I got my sub license and started filling in where I could so then in 2022 um started subbing more filled in no wait 20 yes end of 22. uh filled in for a maternity leave and loved it and really wanted to decided that I need to do this more so when the 2023 school year started Mary Anderson at the time at Montessori said well we have an opening for a

011long-term sub and so I said all right well I'll take it but I was in PE so I said well I'll take it and see where this goes so I decided after several weeks Mary had said well there's no applicants this isn't happening like you're gonna be here for a long term so I was like sounds good I'm not sure I love PE I'll try it as long as I can well in the building what had happened was the art teacher at the time uh went and took another job so the art teacher position came open my bachelor's degree is in theater from Milliken University so I was like perfect this is where I belong so I went myself up to the art room and I was like this is it this is my jam

012this is what I'm doing so several other not several a few other people in our building had done the teacher ready program on their own years back and that is through the University of West Florida and so I was looked into it and I was like well this is good but it's a hefty price tag so is there any way the district can help me Ashley can we work on something together and so that's kind of how that grew so that actually I just got like a Facebook memory last week I enrolled in the teacher ready program last week last year so the first of September last year started that program took content area tests for both drama and art for K-8 I took content uh General Knowledge Test which included a math test that

013I struggled through when I tell you I struggled through it I took it twice so I got that done though and pushed through that finished my coursework in May which included like a culmination week so I had to be evaluated and observed every single day had to you know do all the lesson plans everything kind of like a condensed student teacher time but I also did a teacher ready has a program called field experience so you do your regular coursework then you do the field experience coursework if you are employed as a sub so you do that work as like your student teacher kind of thing so I did my culmination week at the end of May took my professional capability test which was actually a Florida state test so you have to kind of

014trick your brain to think Florida ways and not Illinois ways which is tricky sometimes and then I got my Florida license in July and then my Illinois license transferred the next week so that was where I am and so now I started the August school year as a certified teacher congratulations [Applause] any questions or comments so I do have a question oh I'm sorry we all do you want to go first you go first okay I was just gonna say you've lived through it so would you recommend it for other people who have who are thinking about doing yeah for sure dance program is very intense so I like that it's self-paced though so um I finished quickly I mean if you can you could stretch it out right I would I was cramming and

015that's through the support of my co-workers and my I mean our building fantastic helped me so much and so that you have to really really have a good support system um my husband was supportive as well and it helped that I was in the classroom doing the work as I was learning the right that helped a lot um but yeah I would recommend it if you have the grit and the determination to do it you're gonna do fine yeah and I just wanted to ask how was the process from did we have to go through any special licensing while you're in Florida to get you no so you just transfer the license actually D Williams at roh if you're listening to was like on top of it I mean she was like yep I got

016you and it was done literally the next week so yep congratulations and thank you thank you thank you okay let's move on now to public participation Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself and be as brief as possible comments should be limited to three minutes any public comments submitted to the board secretary will be included in the record please note that during any Board of Education meeting and public participation board members do not respond and or comment to public comments All comments are referred to Administration furthermore the board refrains from referring to specific students or staff members by name and request that public commentators refrain from doing so as well the request that you omit names is made to protect you from allegations of Libor or slander or

017from violations of the Illinois Student Records act it is not intended to Shield any employee from criticism Miss Bradford do we have anyone wishing to address the board this evening yes Mark gloss thank you good evening good evening hi my name is Mark glaus in 2020 I moved to Decatur when I saw a dentist lab school I instantly looked for reasons to not move to that neighborhood the school is old and decrepit there is no green space and it reminded me of the inner city schools I saw getting shut down in Detroit as I worked there for half a decade when somebody say is a beautiful old building what I hear them saying is they want their history restored to that I say your history is not my child's future according to the National Association

018of Realtors 2022 home buyers and sellers generational Trends report 31 percent of people across all generations are buying a home with the child under the age of 18 and Stow 23 percent of all home buyers use School quality in the neighborhood to influence their choice in their new home purchase I fell in both of these categories when moving to Decatur and luckily due to its proximity to Millikin University my wife convinced me to purchase a home in the West End I do not regret this I love the West End I have heard since moving here that Decatur has a reputation of putting Band-Aids on their problems and not look into the future I have heard how businesses are fleeing the town and Decatur is a dying Community instead of focusing on these things that I

019hear let me say this since I have moved here in 2020 new businesses have come and businesses have created new jobs for the community FedEx ground and a Innova feed the Atkins group The Mueller Foundry tcci and more I'm sure I'm missing there is a new tax increment financing or better known as Tif coming to the Milliken Heights area this will promote growth and development of both homes and businesses in the footprint of the dentist lab schools and the 2022 master plan to Park District States they are looking to cut back on resources and maintenance furthermore in a master plan they State the need for funding up to update Fairview Park they State the need of funding for a new playground infrastructure for upgrades of pavilions skate park updates Tennis complex resurfacing construction of new

020courts and lighting updates the basketball courts Trailhead Park improvements repurposing of the old ice rink building the school board and the community now has a chance to do their part in the future for Decatur let me share my vision of a brighter Decatur for tomorrow removal of both Dennis lab campuses creating Green Space within the city while building the new school oversea in Highway 36 where the old pool was at Fairview Park a purchase agreement between the school district and the park district has the potential to create a jewel within the city that would attract new home buyers to the area and one stroke of a pen we can help give the park district needed funds for a renovated Park while creating a beautiful School imagine Travelers on Highway 36 traveling by with pride as

021they are as they enter the city from the West School Board please do what helps the future and not cling to the Past get the district analysis create a plan include preschools for our future generations and build the crown jewels that the city deserves this will urge home buyers to move to Decatur and not the surrounding suburbs this will give up proper this will bring up property value and bring more money and revenue into the school district this will be the actions that change the Band-Aid calls I hear from Neighbors and I thank you all for your time thank you Michelle Mitchell thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good evening Board of Education my name is Michelle Mitchell I'm the president of Decatur Federation of teaching assistants I am grateful to be here on tonight I

022want you to know that we see your sign that say we are a family a family always needs support and what we are we are that support the teaching assistants are the support for the district we do not want you to continue to turn your backs on us telling us that we are not a part of the community and that your actions show that we are not worthy we are worthy of everything that we do and we want you to know that our students depend on us just like they depend on you to make the difference in everyone's life we are here to stay we continue to be here to stay and we want you to know that we are not going anywhere we are not going to suffer in silence and we're going to

023stand the test of time to make sure this District even if you don't feel that it needs to be what it needs to be but we're going to continue to stand here and make sure that this district is what these students need in order for them to have lifelong learnings and be able to take care of themselves in the future thank you Lee sutman [Music] okay um [Music] good evening I'm Reid sootman speaking on behalf of decaturvote.com the 2013 Health life survey for Dennis Labs mosaican campus revealed several cases of water damage and masonry damage maintenance requests received through foia show that some of this 2013 water damage and 2013 masonry damage was fixed six years later in 2019. note that I did not see a clear indication these damages were related to the unsafe

024stairs spoken about by a parent in August last year and revealed by Structural Engineers nine months later in May of this year either way it is concerning to see records that show water damage and masonry damage was not repaired for six years what's more concerning to me is the district's lack of meaningful response on this and all issues related to the maintenance history of these buildings I emailed Kent Metzger who understandably said that he doesn't have more information to give since these issues predate his 2021 employment so I emailed Denise swarthout and she didn't respond a week later I emailed her again and cc'd the entire board and superintendent that time I got a prompt reply that quote the district has no further information to provide I have received this kind of response or no

025reply many times I have previously advocated that you investigate provide transparency and Implement policy to Aid in future transparency I want to know are the dentist lab buildings structurally unsafe due to District negligence that's all I want to know was the district negligent was the district negligent Bill Clevenger has suggested looking to the Future not the past Alana Banks has dismissed my concerns Administration has stonewalled and misled me Administration has made misleading statements to the public which I've reported on in detail the board as a whole has failed to ask important questions has not initiated an investigation and has not shown any interest in finding out if there was negligence was the district negligent and why don't you want the public to know thank you that's all Board of Education we thank everyone for their

026input we appreciate that we we definitely look into all those concerns that are brought forward we'll now move on to board discussion is there anything at this point in time that the board members would like to bring forth yes I would like to have some questions addressed I'm passing out copies of what I'm going to be talking about I shouldn't say questions addressed these are questions that I don't have any particular position on one way or the other but I feel they need to be discussed at some point and answered at some point to move forward so I'm just going to go through each one and I if I hear that there has been a decision that's fine um has number one has it been decided that the new dentist location is permanent number two

027are the new modular classrooms intended to become a permanent fixture number three has it been decided that the new alternative education location is permanent number four is the Southwest part of Decatur still designated in educational terms as a neighborhood School number five is there a plan to convert the dentist school from a neighborhood to a pbl magnet school pbl being what they have been known for for the last few years project-based learning just to clarify number six is there a plan to develop a complete Dennis Middle School in relation to Athletics number seven has an acceptable location been found to build a new dentist school in the Southwest Decatur area and number eight has it been decided to not allow the chance of returning Dennis to its neighborhood District as I've said I don't have

028any strong opinions one way or the other I think one of the things that we will eventually need to hear from are the the parents the community in the southwest side to see how they feel after six seven months of of experience where they're moving and again I I don't know I'd like to hear what the whole Community will say a survey of the community that when I say the community I mean the Southwest part of the community that has been the neighborhood boundaries for Dennis I think a survey will be very important at that time until we know what those feelings will be I think it's not wise of us to ignore that there could be a chance of some people wanting to go back to the two schools and therefore I would like

029to see us take a vote at the next meeting on whether or not we proceed with the repairs of the two buildings that were referred to three and a half months ago and we haven't been discussing or we haven't made a decision because otherwise we're just putting this off and then we're really leaving no choice and I think also the other reason I would I'm very much in favor of doing the repairs is if if we have done something to let these schools go in disrepair then it's our responsibility to make up for that and to be accountable for that not just to let buildings Decay like Wilson decayed over decades so I am asking that at the next board meeting we have a motion to proceed on repairing those two buildings so I have

030a question do we have the final report from any or all of those engineering firms no um how many do we have at this point in time and I'm looking for two thank you so we only have two reports back is that what you mean by two or we have all but two all right go ahead it's here to support you I'm sorry I thought the question was did we have some middles from we have some middles from two firms to be looking at doing a structural analysis of all the buildings okay but they haven't started looking at that yeah we're still that's correct it's not been selection made okay so next up is the board will have to select which I'm sorry okay I kind of got ahead of myself okay and remember we

031said we wanted to bring you three yes do we have a time frame for that well the submittals were due last Friday and we had contact I'd reached out to like 10 or 12 different firms we had four callbacks with inquiries and of those four two submitted submittals how will we go about finding the Third will that just be up to whoever let me take it they have to find us okay so we we I believe we sent it off to over 12 12 or 13 different vendors that were capable of this and to Kent's uh comment earlier four or five made uh inquiries but only two so you don't need three but you have to have at least three if there's more than three if that makes sense and and I guess you would

032defer to that so we would like potentially to reach out to them bring them to you at the next board meeting yes and they would talk here they have to do that in Open Session they'd stand it here and explain why they're the they're the right group but we just didn't feel like there was enough time since we just got them on Friday yeah and started looking through them so they will be coming to the next board I mean we were going to reach out and see if they will come to the next board meeting but we want to get that from you are you guys ready to have them here at the next board meeting well I guess before we answer that I'm sorry for interrupting you you said you had I guess reached

033out to 12. specifically specifically sent to 12 that we knew of okay uh by rule you have to send it to anybody that you have uh have had any kind of Engagement with that has that skill correct and then Kent did his research to find um Statewide other opportunities um to to solicit okay is there any way we can follow up with any of those 12 minus of course the two that submitted I guess just to try to get a third or even a fourth well some of them some of them some of them did reach back out to me um and they said that Structural Engineering was not within their wheelhouse that's what they didn't they even though we had a business relationship with them doing architectural engineering services that wasn't their specialty and

034honestly of all the engineering Specialties there are in the Consulting field because Structural Engineering is the least frequent so so I reached out to some of the structural firms that I had known previously in my past and who had a very strong expertise in structural and they just simply didn't respond back so I I think we did canvas the area um you know Central Illinois region and I think even slightly Beyond but we just didn't have a lot of interest there's just not a lot of Structural Engineers out there okay that's fair so it looks like we'll just have the two then that will be presenting next well not next week but next week if we want to be timely and moving forward right yes um we should probably be in contact with these two

035first okay thank you so so moving forward the pieces the the pieces that we're going to need to make adequate decision making about the overall fate of buildings in the district and and this is just kind of off the top of my head it's first of course the structural engineering reports for each of the buildings second is our demographic information population decline um and then third would be the likelihood and cost correct and that's what we're looking for a firm to do or yes and as Mr Scheider asks he wanted us to prioritize Dennis of course and we would do that but yes that is exactly what we're looking for so the I guess to clarify that then the two firms they put in the request so is that for Dennis or for the entire

036thing that we're wanting to do so that part of the puzzle is kind of the building block it's for all the buildings in the district and it's a structural analysis the the long-term planning is not in the Wheelhouse of these two firms they just provide you the data on all of your buildings so moving forward if we're going to reach out to a firm or an expert to lead the the talk and the conversation on planning facilities down the road and enrollment Etc that's not these two okay but we need a farm to do that or will that be something that Mr Metzger does oh no we need a firm okay well said I'm not trying to give you more work but just wondering he doesn't have time so I just had another question I

037just was gonna kind of curious how um Dennis is doing since we had our late start and our agenda it's coming up is it yeah I mean okay I see the staff out out there I was kind of it's coming up okay well I guess I'll wait to hear we have had two quotes for repairing the buildings one one was like 1.1 million for the staircase I feel like the best word the best term would be estimates a professional estimate we didn't go out in solicit bids but we had two reputable firms willing to come in and give us an estimate I will say that a couple other firms said that they could probably come in and do an estimate they'd probably reach out to a certain uh another company do it for him and

038it was one of the companies that already put in an estimate but there's there's no quota or final bid but we have some idea we have a ballpark correct so what's the next step what what are we as a board think about doing repairs to a hundred-year-old building well we're going to wait and see what the costs are well what I'm saying is we've had two costs I don't feel comfortable putting a million dollars into 110 year old building I mean the whole concept of adding to adding millions of dollars to to buildings that are just so old is is against my better judgment I'd like to know what everybody else is thinking because it is stopping us from moving forward to the next level about what we're going to do to replace tennis and

039I know in looking at all of our buildings as you you've just pointed out we might have room for massaging our buildings and not need to build another building but I think we need to be moving forward on this unless we're looking at you know keeping these mobile classrooms for three years I would rather make for just me personally I would rather wait until we got back the reports on all of them um to make an informed decision but for me I'm willing to do whatever is best but right now I don't know what's best I know I mean I think regardless I'm sorry well I think regardless you're looking at probably a two or three year window for analysis repair you know rebuilding or whatever so I mean I understand what you're saying Mark

040and I agree with you we do need to figure out what is the long-term best solution and I think part of that would entail getting some estimates getting some bids getting you know crunching some numbers and encompassing kind of what Al mentioned I think we really need to get some input from the community that it really affects and serves um to kind of see what you know like you said you know like Mr glass had mentioned a specific location we would have to you know check into that we need to check into other pla you know there are a lot of different fluid factors into this and I'm with you I understand what you're saying but I I think yes we need to start laying out a plan but I think we need to get

041some evidence-based proof to support any decision that we make and I hear you I'm just looking for the board to offer those people that you want to survey give them options because they don't know the buildings that are available they don't know what our assets are like we do and so I'm saying if we can move forward on that that area I think it'd be yeah no yeah it'd be Illuminating for the residents of the area I think one one I'm trying to point out with these questions is that we are not offering them options if we don't repair these buildings um what where else are you you know people talk a lot about a new building where in the southwest end indicator is a good location for that we've been searching and searching um

042the current location at Garfield for Dennis um as a small location it's not suitable for Middle School athletics um Dennis has had that problem ever since it was made in Middle School in addition to K-8 it's not truly a middle school because a middle school includes Athletics I mean that's just part of it or it's not truly a middle school or a junior high so these things if we don't repair the building we're keeping our options closed and really and then you're saying basically you're going to keep the modular classrooms Forever Until something else happens that costs a million a year um you know I I just think these questions do need to be answered and if we don't repair these buildings then we are not giving ourselves an opportunity to consider that as one

043of the options right I agree I think that what what this Board needs to needs to do is go back and look at the history of school buildings inside the city of Decatur over the past 50 years because one of the things that we are grappling with is and I'm not trashing anybody but the inability for the district to make decisions based on long-term planning for the past 50 years if you go all the way back to 1971 when we put an addition on a building and then closed it down within uh within a year of itself those same consistent decisions have been made by this body however it's been made up and what we have to do is is we have to be the leaders here and say the district is going to continue

044to shrink and we're going to end up in a place and the real question is what can we support in 10 years if we only have 6 000 kids or 5500 kids because from 2003 to now we've gone from 10 300 kids to 7 500. from 1970 we went from 1970 we went from 22 000 now to 7 500. in 19 about 1970s when we built the vast and within 10 years before 10 15 years before that is when we built the vast majority of these buildings and I understand that we are all getting an immense amount of pressure to make Dennis whole to uh to make our alternative programs whole to make everyone whole and to move down this pathway based on a knee-jerk reaction without without information will put us in the same

045grouping as all of the other boards that have caved to public pressure and put us in a position that we're not making the best decision for our community sorry no I agree um and the knee-jerk decision that you're talking about um I agree with that it's hard to make a decision on what we're going to do with buildings that need millions of dollars worth of repairs and it doesn't fix the issues like no green space no track no court space no parking nope I come on the list is long um so making that decision in a vacuum is hard to do um the knee jerk reaction of you know let's just prepare it we've got we gotta provide something I think we did that with going with modulars keeping everybody together um I think that

046that I mean we've made a commitment to to spend that million a year and is I think is probably as long as we need to to fix it properly um I think that's where we're at I mean that's that's how I made the decision let's let's do it the right way even though it costs more um so we can we can keep everybody together and do the do the make the right decision I think to make the right decision we have to have the data to to make the decision and what we're going to do with those buildings um I mean I think we're between a rock and a hard space with uh with with Dennis uh either either building you know if we went with one of the two buildings I think we're stuck

047I mean it doesn't fix the other issues um so I think that's why we have to wait for this um and maybe be patient with what we've got until we get there I I don't I mean that's one thing that I've found frustrating on the board is that these kinds of things don't move as fast as I'd like them to move um they don't move as fast as I would make a move if they were happening to my house you know um but unfortunately I've had to have had to increase my level of patience and and well we move it two weeks at a time one thing I want to encourage with whatever decisions that we make is um community and parent involvement so this is my plea to all of you out there if

048this affects you as we do proceed with this we do strongly encourage and ask that you attend whether it be board meetings Town Hall meetings Zoom meetings whatever it is that we are setting up we do ask that you do participate you do actively participate because your input and your um your knowledge is valuable um and it is you know you know desperately needed so please okay let me try to put a little summation here to everything I think I've heard this evening throughout this discussion and I think one of the things that we we have to do is look to Dr Clark and our professional staff to give us a road map that takes into account the comments that were made here tonight because I do think that if we rush into something right

049now we're making a long-term strategic mistake um and I think that's critical that we not make that mistake down we have two buildings that aren't available to us right now and we have to make decisions based on not just the structural Integrity of those buildings but the long-term outlook for our community what are the demographics going to look like what's what what are we going to look like as a community down the road and that's got to be part of this discussion we can't just come to uh in my estimation we can't just come to a meeting next week and take a vote on whether we're going to repair Dennis school or not because I don't think we've reached that point in time as we Analyze This I do think that we can ask our

050staff to come back with at least a preliminary road map of how and when we're going to address these issues at least begin to kick that off at the next meeting I know it's a concern for everyone um so I I think that to ask that process to begin it's not unreasonable but I do think we need to look at more factors and just are we going to repair building I think we're we're way past that and if we do that we're not serving our community well at this point in time and I think we have an obligation to uh what I would say is do better will I appreciate your thoughtfulness um I think those were excellent points and I think we really have to take a broad-based look at where we are and

051how we're going to get to the next level for this district and ultimately at the end of the day what we do affects what our kids are going to get out of District 61 and how that's going to be delivered to them over the next several decades to come so I I hope I put a little summary to where we've been and what we might be looking at as we move forward but I think that we have to now look at our staff to make recommendations create a road map for us and then we can act on that on those recommendations in that road map but I do agree it's time to get moving what I'm concerned about when you talk about a road map is the similar situation to five years ago when the

052board uh did the Bold plan and um took a year and a half or so to decide which buildings in the meantime the students who were not having air conditioning in their buildings were still made to not have it while the rest of the district had air conditioning sometimes things can be done why you're doing a long-range plan and I think if we don't hold ourselves accountable for letting things go in disrepair it's a very sad sign of how we represent the community and we're also again I don't hear anybody hearing what I'm saying we're closing our options for what could be done for where Dennis is going to eventually end up and I'd hate to see us close our options and leave only one possibility okay I I would respectfully disagree with that I

053think we're keeping our options open rather than closing those options by taking a vote on a building so I would have to respectfully disagree with that any other comments I would like to in relation to what we've been talking about a little bit uh two and years and four months ago I asked when I first got on the board for a staff survey that still hasn't happened um the staff of this District have a lot to say there's a lot that they can give us information about they are in the trenches and we need to hear from them there are many areas of the curriculum of cell phone policy um I can't think of a another example I had in my mind at the top I had but um we're just not accepting that they

054can provide us a lot of good information because they're in there every day doing things and can tell us oh the other one was standardized testing um how that is well in my opinion has gotten just overwhelming and it affects the instructional time and everything um we've we've been assaulted by the media for our reading scores and yet we have not consulted with our staff who are working with the students and could give us some valuable information about what might be ways to work on improving that I'm not saying they have any one person has a perfect solution but if a whole lot of people say some very similar things we can gain from that and could lead to what I think we need some kind of summit on how we're going to address improving

055our educational levels of all of our students but the first step is at least to have a survey and there's different ways to do it but we haven't done any way yet and I'm very sad that we haven't and I would hope that we keep working on this idea it keeps getting put off two years and four months it's been put off so I hope we can do something soon anything else from the board uh just one quick thing for me um this is more of a I'm taking off my school board member name tag and I'm talking as a parent and I'm talking as a parent of um children who have some emotional problems and behavior problems and I just want to stress the importance of defta and rtas and support staff and I

056want to stress the importance of our security Personnel that we have and I want you to know that you are seeing you are valued ICU I value you I'm not speaking for anyone else I'm speaking for me as a parent not a board member um throughout my children's tenure here at DPS I've utilized security often I've utilized defta often for my children's special needs and so I'm just imploring everyone on the board when it comes to voting for the contracts that are coming up that you take some of those things into consideration so I just want you to know that you are seeing you are heard you are valued thank you very much do you want to add to that um I won't vote on a death to contract because you can take I don't

057know can I take the board member tag off my wife's a ta so um you know any any contract negotiations or contract decisions would affect me so I will not vote on defta and just add to that I mean I do see defta every day right so and thank you for your transparency on letting people know that you're you're yeah yeah I figure your relationship with that okay thank you you're welcome now we'll move on to reports from Administration Dr Gray Europe good evening everyone I'm here to talk about uh parent University we're going to have three sessions um the first one is going to kick off September 14th uh as you can see by the flyer we have some great topics that we'll be working with parents to make sure that they understand how

058to utilize Skyward we'll go over the standards-based grading in the K5 space and we'll have a phenomenal speaker come in and talk about keeping children safe while using social media such as cell phones and we'll have two more after that in November at Hope Academy we'll have one around organizing Community Resources uh preparing for the holiday season because it can be tough at times for our students and also understanding how to build positive relationships with law enforcement and the final one will be in February where we'll talk about preparing for our spring assessments as well as College and Career Readiness we'll be teaming with people to help students and families complete the FAFSA at that time as well so we're excited to interact with parents and provide them some excellent opportunities to get to know

059us better thank you so I had a couple of questions if you don't mind nothing major nothing too complicated number one the times for November 2nd and 22nd that's five to seven as well yes okay and then number two um this is more for clarification for community and public we as board members who have children in the district we can participate in this as well if we want since we are technically a parent I just want everyone to know that that's that we are allowed to do that yes okay I just make one yeah if a lot of you three or more end up in the same location you cannot talk to one another about business you talk to the staff right and again be there though you can be there again I just like

060to have all this stuff out in the open and clarified being transparent and then um can you just describe what this is just a little bit in more detail you said it's more of like apparent support so we can navigate so as you see the topics behind yes yes uh so using Skyward sometimes parents may have issues uh with Skyward so I have people there to support them and walk them through the process they'll do a presentation on being able to use uh Skyward from the parent side of things uh often parents may have questions about our K5 standards and how that grading actually work so we'll have people there to talk about the grading process for the K5 standards some parents do work second shift so will this be recorded so they can watch

061it say the next day or something I haven't thought that far here okay great question okay that was a really good question thank you all right just for you guys for our new board members I just want to point out we used to do parent University a long time ago and we're doing a different Spin and the goal is to engage parents that's our ultimate goal how can we bring our parents back into the school systems helping them to understand what we do on a regular basis and the roles that they play in assisting us thank you now to that end can you maybe tell me what light Refreshments are because I mean if there's food there I'll go but I mean if it's just a light refreshment so it's going to be uh finger

062foods and things of that nature right you will not get full whole grain taco shells whole grain Pizza do you recommend this back on track here if we have younger children just I don't technically have those but and we show up do you recommend that we find like child care for our kids or should we bring our children with us if no I bring them with them we have skilled presenters they can listen to kids talk and still present okay okay foreign thank you I'm the one I promise thanks now we'll move on to Ashley again to talk about extended day all right good evening again Board of Education superintendent Dr Clark and Melissa I am here to briefly give you an update on extended day which is our before and after school program but

063before I go into my brief presentation I would like to call up Miss Perry she has children who has have utilized the program since the beginning at South Shores Elementary School and she's going to give you a very quick spend on the program from the parent perspective good evening good evening I am so grateful for the extended day program this is my children's third year with this amazing program without the program I would not be able to continue working full-time as a single parent each day they are provided with a light Mill assistance with homework access to the library to enhance their reading skills they learn life skills art class to express their creativity and so many more activities all of the extended day Educators at South Shore School are effectively communicating with the parents

064about things they are working on and how to do things to improve I want to give out a huge shout out to Miss Cynthia and all of the other South Shores extended day Educators you have made a huge impact on my children and myself and the community thank you all right thank you again Mrs Perry all right extended day just a quick recap we are in our third year of this program it's offered before and after school at 13 sites across the district we target pre-k through 8th grade students and extended day is an extension of the school day to support our families I'm in a safe nurturing environment as Miss Perry said we provide a meal to the students we provide academic support and enrichment all during this time just looking at some data

065um my my team my awesome extended day team and Sherry Johnson um let Miss Leslie risby and the others on the leadership staff we've worked very closely with the wonderful data department just to give you some high-level data Trends um to show as we develop programming we always want to have measurable results so this is what we're able to highlight um for for example look at attendance students that attend extended day their School attendance is higher than students who may not attend extended day this is a positive for us right because one of the program goals is to provide a support for families Working Families that may need the extended day program during before school or after school or on a half day or a full day out so we are very excited to show

066this positive trend as you can see there's some data here positive data trend on the discipline referrals as well fast bridge for those students that attend extended day as well the next phase for my department and the data department is really working to drill down on the data so we can look at building specific data and have some positive Trends there as well to share out so you'll be able to track students absolutely that attend yes we work very closely with our principals in extended day we again it is a support system for the district so when we are in the buildings we are working with the principals on making sure extended day supports their buildings mission and vision that ultimately supports the district strategic plan and trying to move this District forward and so

067we surveyed our principles last spring and um on a scale of one to ten this is how we did our average range was 8.1 with 10 being very well very satisfied so we met with the principals we continue to meet with them to have that continuous monitoring and Improvement making adjustments making sure we're meeting the needs of that building by the specific principles goals we reinforce academics the reading and all of those things and we just want a continued partnership so that the principals feel like this is an extension of their school day and something that they can be proud of as well we also surveyed our parents they are Key Stage stakeholders in this program in the spring we had 204 responders overall 97 percent would recommend extended data family and friends this was

068very positive because you all know word of mouth is the um it's one of the greatest forms of advertising right if I trust my children or you trust yours and you're going to share the good news then that means that it's a trustworthy program as you can see there's some areas in Gray and for my team and myself we're going to continue to work on those areas of improvement and focus areas this year to ensure that we are continuously making improvements to better serve our families the best we can what's going on this year um we are very proud that we were able to launch at 12 sites the first day of school Dennis lab came online last week when they um came back to school we have been working all summer long in PDS

069and trainings trying to make sure our staff is modeling the and reinforcing what we're supposed to do so that the students have a consistent measure during school as well as an extended day so we had a lot of professional development our current staff we are looking at around 127 staff that includes teachers Tas other security parent Liaisons our high school teacher Prep students and just people in the community that want to work for district 61. so we are an economic booster in this capacity as you can see here families registered 1306. there is a demand for this program we do have a wait list one of the things we were really intentional about this year was putting a cap on the program to make sure we are doing being intentional about the quality of programming

070not quantity but quality of the program to best support the school and the district's needs so students serve just up until this point as you can see from the start of 8 14 to just last week that's the number of students we're serving per week academics we continue to work with teaching and learning on the academic component of this program teaching and learning along with the principals this is what we're focusing on during that time in extended day we are reinforcing sight words dulch and Fry so the same sight words and different things those students are seeing during the day extended day is reinforcing a lot of those things we're very grateful for our Community Partnerships in my department Innovative programs that that's what we do Community Partnerships we connect our students and so on

071half days full day out our partners come in and they're doing Hands-On engaging activities as well as they give our students an Avenue to come out and visit their sites as well thank you um do you do I have any questions at this time funding uh it's been funded by Esther funds right hey RCS who cares okay um what's that look like in the future and superintendent Clark on that um to see how we can continue to sustain the program okay we think we can yes we're looking at avenues so grants all of that so right now I think we're okay for the next two to three years I believe it is um I see did I see Marianne pop in oh there she is uh in terms of extended day funding uh how many

072more years do we have available to us so the official answer is the Grant in September 30th 2024 but there's a liquidation period so we're fairly confident we could at least extend it through that first semester okay all right I just hate to see a program that I mean proving positive you know I hate to see it unfunded you know so absolutely it's the wait list due to Staffing or funding the weight oh staff weekly based on enrollment and we try to watch the staff to student ratio to keep that lower we also look at space space and capacity within the buildings so as we continue to staff we pull and monitor that wait list the ladies are on that Weekly daily even and that's why I have to register weekly then I'm guessing absolutely

073they can register two weeks out but not the full year and I know that's some of the feedback but it that is why it's because of Staffing yeah when I was a contractor and did not have paid time off uh being able to roll my daughter in this program uh really help keep keep us in good financial position so I'm very appreciative of this as a parent thank you very much all right thank you for your time I won't be back up tonight you don't know that for sure uh the next report will be uh Mr days our assistant superintendent for diversity equity and inclusion give us an update on our resolution on racism update good evening [Music] Board of Education superintendent clerk Madam Secretary [Laughter] it is my pleasure to cover up before you

074and give a update on our resolution on racism so let's begin it's a lot of information it's impactful so again I would not read word for word but please follow along get my good side all right section one uh the Warrior by the Claire's I will read this because it's it's the start the boy hereby declares racism is a Public Health crisis that negatively impacts our students our families community and our staff the board hereby declares its commitment to establishing supporting and sustaining a culture of anti-racism district-wide so you can see our efforts we have some extensive efforts and initiatives in place and that are in progress a lot of our work started with first class Educators as far as their scope and sequence and dealing with Equitable strategies and inclusiveness and culturally responsive practices

075then you see our Partnerships with various Community vendors ALB artwork collaborative sessions with different Community vendors also which Falls along the section one is we had several schools Implement blackmail Summits throughout the school year there were some of the focus areas that we are currently focusing on many do some do not know that Illinois has instructional requirements that are required of our schools to actually teach teaching that falls under teaching and learning a line to historical contributions of ethnicity groups throughout time so we're focusing on that developing our Dei initiatives and then we have internal processes that we have looked at we had a racial bias form where we adjusted to just a bias form where staff community and students can have access to that online on our diversity equity and inclusion website we're also

076looking into adding hiring questions for all applicants that apply to Decatur public schools with the assumption that hey when they see this that they know that this is a priority for the district section two which is an area of development work in progress as you can see to develop a racial Equity policy to guide our District's Equity work so that's something that's in progress that we surely will have work and updates throughout the school year section three dealing with teaching and learning develop and revise policies protocols that are integral to culturally relevant content along with anti-racism instruction into our curriculum so you can see again curriculum and content we purchase racially and culturally responsive texts for our DPS libraries also when we were adopting the resolution on racism we developed a rubric where if we're

077adopting a program that we can actually use that rubric to see if the program is culturally responsive again the introduction requirements for the state of Illinois we've also adopted district-wide seven mindsets which is culturally responsive as well for our SEL program social emotional learning section 4 recognized Juneteenth as a district holiday recognize the second Monday in October as indigenous people's day and ensure our calendar is inclusive of import important cultural holidays but we've added a multicultural holiday to our calendar which is available on the website and we've also made that available to all the principals so they can share with their staffs in the district we do recognize Juneteenth we will be recognizing indigenous people's day on October 9th of this year definitely encourage all schools to celebrate that so we should see some exciting

078things within our schools focusing on Multicultural dates and days and we've also included that in every board packet where we have the days identified for each month we're sharing that with the principals and hopefully we'll see some celebrations throughout the school year on specific dates and days celebrating the different ethnicities traditions and her heritages within our school buildings section five teaching and learning recognize and honor the lives and history of local and National indigenous people and the impact of History their their history has had on their Heritage within our curriculum and strengthened board policies around races and offensive imagery in our buildings again you can see the efforts as far as adding District holidays and then our focus on the instructional units requirements and the development of Dei learning walks and pretty much the focus

079of that is the demographics within our buildings a lot of our buildings have good diversity so depending on the demographics that you have which majority of our buildings have multiple we just do you have a recognition acknowledgment of those demographics within your building throughout the throughout the school year or specific times of the year in section six uh conduct a conduct expanded mandatory diversity inclusive Equity culture relevancy and implicit bias training this training was actually done when the resolution on racism was actually adopted after that so I would recommend that we continue that ongoing we've also added some some trainings to the public works where all staff members have to engage in this training which we have lgbtqia plus so it's it's online courses that all staff members have to have to go through to

080have sort of like a so they know how to have an inclusive environment and strategies for our students my minority or diverse students again first class Educators work continuing their Equity work um 100 of principles submitted Equity plans and teachers engaged in equity work commitment with first class Educators and we have some sustainable some schools who have sustained that work even when they when they went after the initial year that they went with first class Educators which is what we want we don't want is to be a force theme because then it's not authentic we the ultimate goal is for this work to be sustained and ingrained in what we do in our daily practices section seven which this really shouldn't be a area of development anymore and I actually have the data for this

081so this is just opportunity for this to be more engaging but the information from this aggressively recruit and develop teachers and staff who reflect the diversity of our students so since the resolution on racism was adopted um since then we have we have definitely participated in numerous job fairs and not only just sending our recruiters but we have sent teams that represent the diversity that we have in the district if you want diversity you know you want them to come up and see the diversity and the commitment that you have in the building so we have in the district so we have participated in Virtual and in-person job fairs since the resolution of racism was adopted we have hired 178 total diverse hires or rehires of that breakdown we have one undesignated or unknown three

082American Indians and Native Americans for Asian four Hispanic or Latino and 158 black or African-American American so I think we are meeting we are making great progress towards this to hire teachers and staff that reflect the diversity of our students throughout the district [Music] um Section 8 annual report to the board to highlight successes inside and outside of the classroom as you all know every board meeting we are sharing the highlights and then they also go on wsoy to celebrate too also inform the community about the highlights that we have throughout the school year and then in section 9 and section 10 you can see uh revised discipline and safety system that protects the physical mental and social health of students and staff through culturally responsive restorative justice and also with our student services published

083student rights and responsibilities on every campus where school resource officers are assigned increased training for teachers principals administrators and so on but this is completed each year annually by either our director of student services and direct reference to the student code of conduct and a parent handbook updates 11 employee resource groups or the form Affinity groups focus on intentionally supporting and improving retention morale professional growth and opportunities you can see our diversity equity and inclusion Focus developing District we have we have developed a district-wide team and we've started meeting and we we are in the process of developing school-based teams where students are included in the process as well towards the end of last year I went around and talked to all students well not all students the top two grades and our elementary buildings

084and all students in our high schools and one of the survey questions was asking them were they interested in being on a diversity equity and inclusion team so we're following up with those students to make sure that they're still interested so we will have a diversity equity and inclusion team at each school with the representation of student voice our Affinity groups we've been in acquiring valuable Insight from our existing Affinity groups for example our gay straight Alliance which is at our high schools and our middle school and soliciting interests and other Affinity groups and basically you can look at Affinity groups as supportive groups a lot of clubs within school buildings are Affinity groups because they have a common interest and they support each other section 13 um this says to regularly report to the

085board and make public while maintaining individual student privacy the educational outcomes of students of color this is done annually in the inclusive data presentation completed annually usually done by the department of teaching and learning in conjunction with student services basically telling about the progress of our students academically and with student services as far as behavior and you know how the interventions working throughout throughout the district and in particular schools ongoing process on the board is the board expects policy recommendations outlined in this resolution again that is an ongoing process not just by one presentation or one designated time and then we say hereby determined that all formal actions of the board concerning related to the adoption of the resolution this resolution was adopted on August 4th 2020 and I think this may I think we

086gave a period a brief update before now but I would consider this an update on the progress that we've made towards resolution on racism which is important that it's not just you know sitting somewhere collecting dust so we are making valid progress towards meeting the goals and making sure this is a continuous and fluid fluid document and not just saying that we have a resolution on racism in writing and with that said that's it so any questions [Music] any board questions thorough thorough I always like that thorough thank you so much thank you all and and and I I do want to recognize one of the former board members who is in the audience who this work did start with Beth Creighton okay our next report uh we'll call will come from Kami Meador principal

087Dennis lab school good evening good evening good evening Dr Clark Miss Bradford school board members and audience I'd like to first introduce myself Kami Meador principal of Dennis lab school and beside me is Mr Keith Creighton the assistant principal and I just have to shout out and I'll get a little teary-eyed because this has been a long journey but I wouldn't have been able to do it with this guy right beside me the whole entire way we are small in numbers but I absolutely love this guy he cares so much for Dennis lab school and when he brought me on board on this journey I had no idea that this is where we were going to be or this is the direction that we were going to go but here we are and tonight we

088have some celebrations that we'd like to share with you tonight our students are in session we started school on Tuesday today was day six they are in their seats they are in their classrooms we have watched the shells go together with the modules and the moving and the transport and all many hands on deck in this District come together and make many things many hands made light work our students are here our teachers I cannot give enough shout out and warm love to our teachers who have come in during their summertime break they were boxing up they were unpacking they were moving things they were decorating they were patient and their classrooms look absolutely amazing in just a few minutes we're going to share with you just what that looks like before and then now

089what it looks like with our kids in session so just a shout out to those teachers that have done some amazing amazing and wonderful things and also a little bit of patience as we continue to rebuild as we go from a dual campus to one campus we are revisiting our sophisticated systems and so we've asked teachers that be patient with us but just like it says on the bottom there Monarch rise this is what we do we come together we revisit we rethink we replan and we rise um as we we've we've tweaked our arrival and dismissal time we have rocked that out today we did a few tweaks and changes we had everybody buses and car riders drop off at the front we have since changed that um yes it got a little it

090got a little congested um but I'm telling you what we have shaved that off in record time our front was down to 15 minutes and we were actually waiting for parents to come pick up today so it was absolutely wonderful our bus lines in the back um We are continuing to move forward with that and smoothing out making final a little bit of you know as the bus numbers change and getting that worked out and it's moving right along as we move forward our next steps are we are waiting for a few more things to be moved over and locating a few more of those items and so that we can then within our building modulars are up and running but within the main primary building we need to clean out and organize that and

091start our library space we are still working on trying to locate okay and find our speech folders and their items and our social work items so that we can get them housed in their space and get them up and running and then moving and forward with our music department we are still waiting for our instruments and our piano and some of those things like that so that we can continue all things functioning within the building but we are all here I would like to also shout out to Mr Kent Metzger absolutely love that guy too I just call him he shows up I don't know where he is but he's like Batman he just shows up on on a quick notice I sit down with him and I've shared with him an updated compiled list

092of all the things that we are missing all the things that we are needing instant needs or wants and the man just makes things happen so I shout out to Mr Kent Metzger and all the wonderful things that he's done we're doing in action those are kids in the modulars doing thinking in the classroom on the wall these are some of our amazing students that what is another wonderful thing is you have a dual campus we're now all on one campus and as we continue to flow in and out of the building what is absolutely amazing for me that happened with us today is some of the things that we have done with Bist our Behavior strategies and trying to work with our students we saw breakthroughs and things that we had started in the

093Dual campus and continuing to flow and happen in the new campus so it's very exciting for us um I would just like to add to we had two successful open houses I was really thankful the district and DEA were able to work out one before it was a much better attended and I think that was just a needed moment for all of our families I wish a lot of you could have been there I wish a lot of the people who put this stuff together could have been there uh to hear the families about wow this is so great they're so much better than I thought this is really amazing um because the rewards there for all of your hard work the agonizing decisions um and and to your point Mr Dion I think you

094solved that problem for us um we're gonna be okay and we need to change the narrative that we can't do our jobs or that the kids are getting some sub standard situation because they're in these modular classrooms um is it a perfect solution no but we're going to work through it that's where we do the best work is through creative problem solving um and we're going to figure out those things and we're going to be fine there for several years while we work to figure out those long-term plans for what we need um and the kids are going to have a great education and we're going to build Partnerships in that area I'm looking forward to reaching out to some of the the area businesses and things around there to build and do and continue

095our relationships with Millikin and the ones we started downtown and then those are just Transportation hurdles so we're gonna we're gonna figure all of that stuff out um and we're taken care of the kids are safe they've got great places to be the teachers are getting settled in uh we're adjusting to things and um we're going to be we're going to be just fine we're off and running and it was a lot of work to get to this point and and we we weren't we weren't necessarily ready of course but we could probably do another month and say we weren't ready but once the kids arrived you know we figured it out and and the kids are happy and they're ready to be there any questions [Applause] well I can tell you um the kids

096were so excited about being backed I mean they could not wait before you can even say hello they had already passed you up and was headed to the classrooms so um great job on everything kudos to your staff as well because you right you're right they did work hard to get everybody in and when it was time for the change to take place um even the kids because you know you have to walk from the inside of the building to the modular setups and we were explaining you have to walk this way and you have to come around this way and he would say with my classes over there I know but I need you to go this way and so just going through the processes and the routines were really great and the kids

097were just really excited and so that was great to see any other thoughts comments we appreciate all you've all done to make this happen and just the teamwork has been outstanding to make it happen and that's what you know as a board I think that's one of the things we really like to see is the whole organization pulling together to make something happen that's what makes us successful is the team thanks thank you thank you so real quick you did make a good point I I haven't seen the new buildings um would you be open to me visiting sometime anytime you want come on down you teach sixth grade ELA by any chance I hear this great Florida program for Subs to teachers what I do I think it would bore a lot of your

098students anytime you'll have light Refreshments well I would visit without like all right when's a good time okay all right email both of you either okay all right I will do that we'd love to have you cool thank you okay I think we have one more report here Dr Curry you really want to follow that no not really not at all um well done though by the way um first of all Dr Clark and uh Board of Education thank you for the opportunity and I want to thank Marianne schlotz the soon to be Dr Sloat for filling in for me last last time so let's talk a little bit about where we're at there's still a few tweaks to be made before now in the next the next meeting but I always like to lead

099with this a budget is a best guess in a moment of time that's really all it is there's a lot of moving pieces especially in a budget of our size so I'll review uh do some Revenue highlights um The District's eav increased this year by six percent that's the value of the property inside the borders of the Decatur Public School District but that included a 1.01650 state assessor applied multiplier so what that means is the state came in and felt like Decatur or maybe the whole County was maybe under assessed and that added about 13 million dollars in February to our eav now mind you I have to put the levy together and presented by the last Tuesday in December so in order to stay underneath five percent in a truth in taxation I ballooned

100up to 4.95 but unfortunately I was not able to capture all available dollars because we stayed under the five percent I captured more than would have come from the number before the 13 million was added but not all of it so I just want you to know that in FY 23 our eav was 715 million and change and in FY 24 was 761. and DPS the Decatur in general has a very a history of fluctuating eavs we've had a nice little run here the last couple years we'll see how long that will last our total tax levy for 24 was 37 million 500 000 and I don't have my glasses but some change cpprt is still very high across the state but it's not as high as it has been the last two years so

101according to the Illinois Department of Revenue there was a 28.8 percent reduction that was shared around all the states 6 500 taxing bodies so projected this year about 8.9 million Which is higher than it was three years ago but the last two years have been bumper crops for lack of a better term because 12 million and 11 million and that 11 million no one saw coming it just showed up one day and I don't just mean here I mean everywhere it was just a big increase for everybody Aldi do you have a question yes corporate personal property replacement tax often sometimes just referred to as pprt um in the 70s and maybe bill can help me with that I believe it was the 70s I was a kid then um they got rid of the

102ad valorem taxes on machinery and things like that and just created a formula for all the industry and such pretty close Bill 70s does that sound about right okay but Illinois oh you weren't you were you were in uh West Virginia or Pennsylvania okay rooting for the Pirates uh so anyway the one thing I do want to caution is it's been great 11 12 8. but everybody seems to just in conversation believe it's going to continue to slip kind of back to that normal of about five so I just wanted to make sure that we talked a little bit about that evidence-based funding did go up this year um we went from 59 million 100 000 and change to 60 million 100 000 and change and we'll talk about expenditures throughout the presentation but those

103are the evidence-based numbers uh I believe there's an article in the paper that talked about that that million dollar increase unfortunately didn't mention the four million dollar decrease in cpprt but that is a fantastic um Avenue for school districts like Decatur to obtain a lot more State funding than it did prior to ebf coming on board so education fun our tax levy increased about 1.2 million but were reduced cpprt in the Ed fund by 4 million some of the things that I'm not quite sure about just yet we've got four categories still awaiting salary increases vacancies are high when we have a sub we kind of can ballpark what that's going to cost but if if we were to get someone to come in and Christmas maybe with one year experience or 12 you just

104don't know so so we budget somewhere in the middle and outside of salaries the district has historically come in under budget so that's where we hope to to come in as well in the Ed fund buildings and grounds the revenue mostly comes from property taxes 3.8 million or so it's been standard to put some ebf into buildings and grounds so two and a half million this year and a million in cpprt of that 8.9 um one of the things that Mr Messer can attest to is the cost of energy is higher this year than last year and here's the problem usage is wise widely wildly unpredictable we know that whether it be uh the heat Dome that was here the week I was gone um or a cold snapped at last three weeks and we

105just signed a new uh uh was it about well no Mr Metzger's but it was it was a few months ago we started a new contract for natural gas but Electric's very high as well right now so over the last five years something to note is that expenses in this in this fund have outpaced what we can draw from the levy so we've had to backstop that with ebf over the last couple years Transportation this one we're still trying to nail it down 1.5 million in property taxes 1.4 million this year in evidence-based funding and a million in cpprt um 2.7 million ballpark is what we intend to get hopefully a little bit more from our state categorical payments which are which is your reimbursement model but we're almost at 5 million right out of

106the gate for our base payment to all town and then all trips over the base cost cost extra and so I don't have a really good number for you right now but I will next uh next board meeting for transportation um here's the one that is drawing most of my concern so the revenues for the imrf and the Social Security Levy are unlimited so technically we could um ask the taxpayer to pay a six dollar tax rate just on that Levy now that would be ridiculous but it's it's unlimited you're supposed to ask for what you need over the past five years the district has under levied versus uh under levied revenues versus expenditures to a tone of 1.3 million in Social Security and 3.5 million imrf which has controlled the tax rate okay so

107the tax rate has stayed pretty steady but it's reduced the district's reserves that were made up that were created at some point in time over many years so we are near um critical mass I guess in this in this fund so we'll we'll look at the slide on the right uh the column on the right because I backstopped last year's with 1.5 million but it's time to make a decision working cash we have about 6.4 million off top my head in working cash my recommendation is going to be to move 2 million into the imrf Social Security fund via board resolution if not at the next meeting if you guys want to discuss it more at the following meeting but I'd like to be able to build that two million dollar transfer into the budget

108and then additionally so that I don't have to come back for more money again from the working cash fund or the education fund I could could take it from as well I'm gonna for one year I'd like to Levy and this is a levy conversation for December but I'd like to Levy an additional 2 million in these in this fund these two funds and then under Levy in tort because right now tort's pretty healthy and so we're going to spend down some of their reserves anyway so we'd still be able to Levy for a million dollars in tour that's a different conversation for a different day capital projects the revenues about 2 million we get to keep every year in the one cent sales tax the rest goes to bond and debt payment and there's

109500 000 of cpprt in there the expenditures right now are the modular costs so those were unanticipated up until four months ago or so three or four months ago but when you see the budget which you won't see tonight but when you see the budget it's got a big red number at the bottom but that's on purpose we're spending reserves so we're spending some money we've saved to create to finish a project that I was handled when I got here Kent and I were handed the football complex and track complex at MacArthur it's coming along we hope to be able to play in it soon the unknowns are the decision whether or not Turf and track repair will be made this year we we talked about Turf last year decided to give it a year

110and get get the get the project built get them playing on it sooner but if we want to do Turf we need to do we need to make a decision in the next month or so so I'll be bringing that option with with me to September's meeting and then there's some potential roof work throughout the bill throughout the district the tort fund which is your your Insurance liability fund we purposely purposefully spending down a portion of the reserves um one example would be the new metal detection devices at EHS and MHS a significant purchase of nearly 180 000 but serves serves a a purpose of being mobile and being sensitive to the to the point that they need to be and potentially like I said earlier looking to Levy 2 million less um to bolster

111those those other two funds fire prevention and safety that's your health life safety stuff this is purposely spending down reserves again reserves that were built up for architecturally Approved work and state approved work and right now we've got some roof and window work in the queue for that you'll also see a big red number at the bottom of that but that's like if you saved all your money to go on a vacation and you spend it right you've been saving to use it that's that's what we're doing so the next steps continue to study and make necessary edits um this budget is big and we've we've found some ways to uh to to backstop some of the funds but I just want to keep keep looking around and I really want to drill deeper on

112the cost of Transportation uh then we'll hold a budget hearing on September 26 2024 prior to the regular meeting is that how is that correct Miss Bradshaw we'll do it prior to the meeting not during the meeting correct the budget hearing the budget hearing will be prior to the meeting some districts do it they stay closed in the middle of an open session a regular meeting open back up for a hearing Club that's I like it before I could win yes I do mean 2022. I got my mind on the liquidation period for Esser in 2024. thanks for catching that my editor missed that one um but uh the budget hearing includes more than just the budget it includes the evidence-based funding report and a projected fund balances and um cash balances as required by

113State Statute from June 30. um so and then we'll present the final budget for adoption in Open Session that same night and that's all I have thank you you're welcome any other important it was it was part of my presentation I was wondering about that your look is killing too man [Music] it's just two events I wanted to make sure that we show so we can support this on Friday September 15th we have our million fathers March we are encouraging All Fathers and father figures to walk their kids to schools drive them to school but be present with them and engage with them on Friday and that is a good segue into the next celebration Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15th through October 15th and let's please celebrate and support the Hispanic Heritage Month

114Festival this September 17th at Nelson Park pavilion all right thank you thank you thank you reports from Administration uh we'll move on to our consent items does anyone want any one item pulled from the consent calendar seeing none Rochelle I recommend the Board of Education approve the consent items as presented which includes a minutes open close meetings August 22nd 2023 and special Open Session August 29 2023. B Freedom of Information report C bills D out of line bills mobile modular units e fundraiser for Pershing Early Learning Center F fundraiser for Montessori Academy for peace G job descriptions that include Information Technology Network analysts slash network server support that is an update B Information Technology senior systems analyst update see Information Technology network manager update D secretary to the assistant superintendent update do I have a

115motion so moved any discussion Miss Bradford Mr Clevenger aye Mr Dion all right Mr Reynolds Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Wetzel aye Mr Scheider aye Ennis Banks 7i09 motion carry thank you we'll now move on to our roll call Action items uh do we have a recommendation on student 2324-0001 expulsion case yes I recommend the Board of Education authorize the issuance of a decision in the expulsion case for student number 2324-0001 consistent with the findings from the hearing officers report and that student number 2324-0001 be expelled from the Decatur 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 with no state for alternative education go Motion second discussion can you explain the no stay for the community's knowledge

116please yes yes so when the district expels the students without stay it typically means that they do not receive services from DPS for the length of their stay what we do is connect them with a program that we utilize call to sell a sellus yes and it's an online program that also provides uh core academic Services as well as social emotional learning uh for the history or through the duration of the expulsion during that time let's say for example this uh individual is a junior or graduating senior all of those credits will be transferred with this program and they could actually graduate with them if they're returning back to DPS the credits that they receive in the program comes back to us and we be and will be added to our curriculum and um number

117of credits needed for graduation and these are this is an accredited program so in essence this child will still get his or her education just not through DPS that is correct it is an accredited program that is recognized by the regional Office of Education thank you I think you got clarification not a problem thank you any further comments Miss Bradford Mr Dion aye Mr Reynolds aye Mr Clevenger aye Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Scheider aye Miss Banks aye and Mr Wetzel aye 7i zero nay motion carry thank you do we have a recommendation for the Personnel action items yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the Personnel action items listed in a memo from Deanne Hillman interim Director of Human Resources and the human resources department as presented do we have a motion second

118discussion Miss Bradford Mr Wetzel aye Mr Reynolds aye Mr Clevenger aye Miss Banks aye Mr Dion aye Mr Scheider aye and Dr Collins Brown aye 7i09 motion carry thank you do we have a recommendation for the contract extension for the director of buildings and grounds yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the extension contract extension for Kent Metzger the director of buildings and grounds as presented motion so moved second any discussion Miss Bradford Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Scheider aye Miss Banks aye Mr Reynolds aye Mr Wetzel aye Mr Clevenger aye and Mr Dion aye 7i09 motion carry congratulations I would I'll wait till you get there I would like to add really fast I didn't say when you asked for any discussion but can't you do a very good job so I just

119want you to be aware of that I appreciate your support and submit some trying times but I do appreciate everything you've done and try to keep you guys informed so moving forward I appreciate it very much thank you I appreciate everything you've done yeah right well thank you you're not ever bored at work are you pardon me you're not ever bored at work are you I have never been bored I can't see how we have a recommendation for the agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and sports continued contractual services with Franklin Grove Elementary School yes I recommend a board of education approve the agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and support continued contractual services with Franklin Grove Elementary School as presented motion summer discussion so

120I see that it's mainly Franklin Grove and Hope Academy do we have any data to support that this is effective and are we going to maybe broaden it to other schools so I'm just a reminder to the board each school has a they're responsible for their own climate and culture in their building and decreasing discipline at that the individual building so Administration and staff work together to determine what is the best fit for their building so we may or may not see PBIS at other buildings Franklin Grove is a continuation from last year so they reported last year and they'll bring another report again this year uh to kind of compare how things have worked out with them and then when we get to hope the principal Mrs Burks will talk to why she chose

121PBIS to move forward with all right and again thank you for the clarification has this service already been provided this is a continuation for Franklin Grove so yes so that's why they'll be able to bring you data you know here soon they've already presented I believe I'm going to get my dates wrong but they presented last year about how it was successful for them and so they'll present again and just three I also remind her the principal at Franklin Grove is new so um we're giving her the opportunity to learn all these processes and learn what is best for the staff as well and students all right thank you for that any further discussion Ms Bradford Miss Banks Mr Clevenger aye Mr Reynolds aye Mr Dion aye Mr Scheider aye Mr Wetzel aye and Dr

122Collins Brown aye 7i09 motion carry thank you do we have a recommendation for the agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and sports continued contractual services with Hope Academy yes I recommend the Board of Education approve the agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports continued contractual services with Hope Academy as presented do we have a motion discussion I didn't have a question that I didn't ask earlier I'm sorry um the differences in cost is that per student is that because the size of students that are in the program or it's due to the amount of time that they're going to be in the schools and the number of days out of the week okay further discussion Ms Bradford Mr Scheider aye Ms Banks aye Dr

123Collins Brown aye Mr Wetzel aye Mr Clevenger aye Mr Reynolds aye and Mr Dion aye 7i09 motion carry I'm gonna have Miss Burks come up and speak to how she is going to be utilizing PBIS foreign nobody's safe here I love you you said next year [Laughter] um I have a couple of data points that I was gonna that I'm gonna go ahead and share but we are um planning to be at the October or November uh board meeting to have a presentation for you all um so what we've been looking at was the first couple of weeks of school um compared to last year compared to last year for disruptive behavior for the first week we saw six um referrals written on students this year that has gone down to one through the use

124of PBIS last year in the first two weeks we had 10 referrals written for physical confrontation that's gone down to four um and for classroom referrals that were at 16 that's gone down to five so basically what what occurred is last year I had Mr cotton kind of just do some observations towards the end of the year get some observational data and talk to us um staff and students about what they would like to see change the staff overwhelmingly wanted to keep Mr Cotton's services so he is in the building twice a week and so he's providing the supports that are needed so currently we know which classrooms are maybe struggling and so he is actually in those classrooms giving some feedback as far as classroom management as far as it relates to PBIS and

125things like that and then having conversations with teachers around some additional things they can do in the classroom we've reorganized hope so that we have like a k through two band three through five and middle school band and so each of those areas has a PBIS um uh leader and so they have regular meetings about what the data is looking like for their bands setting up incentives for students um and then we come together at least once a month as a whole PBIS team to discuss what it's looking like at hope uh hope looks like and feels like a school and so I encourage everybody to come and visit um because you know you hear one thing but until you're there that's something totally different and so um Mr cotton I have a plan and

126so this is part one we will come with some data and then I'm going to ask you for something different once we come with that data questions thank you oh Dr Clark you have one nope I made a note to visit you so okay okay do we have a recommendation to award contract for materials testing for the new K-8 magnet schools yes I recommend the Board of Education award the contract for materials testing services new K-8 magnet schools as presented motion second discussion Miss Bradford Mr Clevenger aye Mr Scheider aye Ms Banks aye Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Dion aye Mr Reynolds aye and Mr Wetzel aye 7i09 motion carry I think you'll see on your screen coming up some of the announcements um that will be not on the screen tonight okay I guess

127I'm up yes sure the Board of Education we'll send our condolences to Mary a Tomlin Pratt who passed away Saturday August 19th Miss Pratt was a retired secretary from Decatur Public Schools Larry Morrell who passed away Friday August 25th Mr Morrell was the father-in-law of Paula Morrell a secretary for Decatur Public Schools uh we'll also send condolences to Donna torbert who passed away Sunday September 3rd Mrs torbert was the mother of Jeff torbert a maintenance employee and Roger torbert Jr a retired maintenance employee from the buildings and grounds Department condolence to to all those families um important dates to remember the district-wide half day will be September 13th uh September 29th will be induction into the Decatur sports athletic Hall of Fame uh that'll be at Eisenhower and there will be forthcoming information on that

128there will be a banquet for before and that banquet will be by invitation to inductees and their families and so forth for that event uh I think we we just saw the flyers from Mr days and the invitations to those events uh once again remember October 16th is the deadline for the required immunizations and physicals for the 2023-2024 school year that will conclude the public portion and the next regular meeting will be at 6 30 p.m Tuesday September 26th the Kyle administration building do I have a motion to adjourn second in a second