02/14/23 Board of Education Meeting

001question foreign probably you're already usually oh my gosh Melissa you're on it you were supposed to get name tags the first day mine's in my glove box I don't want to start without them thank you I didn't say nice shirt all right the board of education has been in close executives session give me more Fred no I want that too but I need a second [Music] and close executive session to discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body legal counsel for the public body pending litigation discussion of collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees for the record the board member spread Spanish joining via audio for closed session no action was taken during close executive session I would now ask everyone to join

002me in the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all yeah for the record board member Fred Spanish has joined via audio for Open Session do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do I recommend the board approved tonight February 14 2023 Open Session board meeting agenda as presented can I have a motion so moved second any discussion all of everybody saying aye aye those opposed him sign motion carried we will now move on to our district highlights I would like to call my Robertson director of community engagement to the podium to present and or introduce our district highlights Maria good evening President Taylor members of the board

003Dr Clark and Miss Bradford we have highlights to share that will make you most proud of our DPS family kicking off with a historic achievement for the first time ever in school history the Montessori Academy for peace has an IESA sectional championship title our 7th grade boys basketball are here to be recognized for this honor so we'll go ahead and have them come forward I'm going to go ahead and say their names you guys right there we have Braden Atkins yeah Marshawn Boyd camarion Harper Jake Highland Jenkins Landon Patrick K.T Thomas and Olay with church so these are our teams [Applause] [Music] [Applause] two team members that are not here tonight but I do want to mention their names Jordan Chapman and Bryson King this team is championship team sorry it's led by coach Robert

004Sangster and Coach Calvin green they're also here this evening if they want to make their way up [Music] so the seventh graders was the second overall seed in Regional play beating Robertson Charter in a close one but they came out on top with a 53-52 win advancing them to the sectionals against Devlin ultimately beating those Panthers 49-45 the bees were State Bound for the first time in school history and although our team was defeated in the first round of the state tournament we are very proud of this young team and their outstanding 15 and 5 record this season [Music] [Applause] that you're here with their plaques showing their Regional and sectional win in a team photo there board members and superintendent Club please join me in congratulating our class two Sorry Seven to a sectional

005championship team from Decatur Montessori Academy for peace Montessori program for the great Administration for working with us they took care of things in the classroom and for their confidence in us to handle things in the court and for the commitment of the boys on the team we started out zero and three whoa whoa but here's how it goes in life it's not how you start it's how you finish [Music] we also have interim principal Nate Talent here tonight to support the team I like to have him come forward and we'll do a team photo parents if you're here please come forward with me and you're welcome to take a photo Park you want to join the team there you go ahead um a little bit there we go [Laughter] thank you okay congratulations go ahead

006all right our DPS school highlight is Parsons Elementary presenting this evening as principal Holly could send you will share some exciting educational experiences taking place at Parsons good evening board President Taylor members of the board Dr Clark Mrs Bradford in our community I'm so excited to take the opportunity to share highlights from what's happening at Parsons it's been a while since we've gotten to do this and as you know Parsons has kind of grown over the last couple of years so I'm going to see does the clicker work oh I went too far so at Parsons when we merged a couple of years ago with Stevenson we did create a vision statement to guide what we're doing at Parsons and we really want to empower students to be independent and adaptable and to be you

007know good humans and responsible citizens and so we have guiding values that guide what we do at Parsons each day and how we plan our professional development and how we plan the goals and experiences for our students are based on these guiding values our current stats so over the years we have added a couple hundred students at Parsons so we are at 431 scholars in our building and these are our current demographics we are a very diverse population which makes our school an amazing place to be every day so part of the things that are happening at Parsons is that we have adopted the classroom Learning Community which was presented by Dr J Marino last year and so each of our classrooms has a class Mission a vision statement they create their own ground rules

008and students sign off on those things at the beginning of the year and throughout the year they discuss what makes a quality teacher quality scholar and what the work expectations are you know what quality work looks like each of our classrooms have data walls the classrooms each have a classroom goal for academics that they're tracking based on a standard and they each also track behaviors so if if they're having a difficult time with transitions the class may say Hey you know we're going to work on this and they set a goal and then they track that goal each of our Scholars have data folders in the building and so we can move forward here which leads to our goal setting so 100 of our Scholars have at least one reading goal in the building that

009they are tracking personally they each have a math goal that they are tracking personally and then as I said classrooms are setting and tracking whole group goals which is a few examples you know kindergarten all hundred percent of their their expectation was that they would all recognize lowercase letters by October or November and then they adjust those goals and they work on them and track them together some examples of a few math goals that were happening in our building that they they track as a group and then they adjust and it kind of ties all into our school Improvement plan so if the goals are in the classroom they're on our school Improvement plan with strategies on how they are working towards them and then Behavior goals are one of our third grade classes wanted

010to reduce transition times to less than one minute and they tracked every time they transition they timed it and so they kept track of how long it took them to transition from the carpet to small groups or and it was really they they were excited when it's like oh when we looked at our data last week we made it under a minute for three whole days every time we transition so it was good to see them working towards making a difference for themselves in their classrooms oh and then once they have their goals we have started a success spell a couple of years ago and when our Scholars meet their goals those personal goals teachers turn their names in on a weekly basis and on Thursday morning we announce those Scholars and they come down

011and ring the success spell and if you are ever out and about and would love to see something fun show up at Parsons about 7 50 on Thursday mornings because the kids are like ecstatic to come down and ring the bell and then we post all their pictures on Facebook and it's it's wonderful to see our families and communities like bragging about their kids and celebrating that their kids were down to ring the success spell it's been a really a great Energizer for kids to accomplish what they said in the classrooms and then we've you know in part of that we've been celebrating our students growth um we're trying to get to that 50th percentile in fast bridge and on those States assessments but in the meantime we have a lot of kids that are

012growing so we celebrated in January by presenting our students medals for their growth so we for gold medal they had to score 30 more 30 or more points on their fast Bridge from fall to winter 20 to 30 points more to get a silver medal and then a bronze medal if they score 10 points or more so we gave out 263 medals to our to 206 of our students and we had 109 students who were above the 50th percentile in for the December fast Bridge so we are just celebrating our students growing and so this is our list of our kiddos I wanted to share all these amazing Scholars and then we are also honored as you know when we want we want our community to be part of what we're doing in our building

013and we have some awesome Partnerships this year uh First Christian Church has been a long time partnership with us at Parsons we hold our holiday concerts at the church and they also support our building by providing t-shirts and gift boxes for our our classrooms at in December but they also volunteer and work in our building on a regular basis the members of the church we've also partnership partnership with simp this year for a girls Empowerment Group called our young Queens Empowerment Group they've done some amazing things with our students and as celebrations they we just they just took a trip to Chicago in January they have another a couple more trips planned for the year but part of being allowed to go on those trips and be part of that organization our young ladies have

014to meet Behavior expectations homework expectations and grades and and they're rewarded with some amazing opportunities to see the see the see our state and see our community so and so it's been a great partnership for us and then ALB artwork is doing our brilliant boys Art Club it's an arts and culture Club that's focused on using art as a therapy for our young African-American boys and they have grown so much and I hope I'm going to do a little peek into Thursday night but they're presenting their works on Thursday evening at our celebration that we have planning it's been and we've watched these young men some of them had upwards of over 25 referrals last year and have none this year so they are really that in order to be part of this they also

015have to have good behavior work completion and they have um strong gentlemen to be role models for them each they come twice a week and work with our kids and we've had other organizations Cancer Care Grace Baptist Casey Circle K and Aarons have all contributed to our building this year so it's just great to have Community being part of our building yes sir the picture that you have of the artwork is that from the Milliken yes we presented at the legacy of learning dinner it's going to comment on that you were done but since I brought it up go ahead that was I was so mesmerized and taken by those projects the artwork that those kids displayed I I thought professionals had done it yeah and for them to be Elementary level for them to

016be Elementary level kids I thought that was professionally done they've learned and grown even more since that time and then the history of the pictures that they I mean I made every kid you know explain to me what they drew and why and so they did a very good job and that is a very very great program to have so I'm very excited that you guys so we were funded by the those Decay the foundation and Macon County supported us this year we are working towards trying to do long-term funding for this program because we think that it has made a valuable impact on our fifth and sixth grade boys and we would like to see that continue on into the next few years so it has been it's been it's been off like I'm

017gonna have cry because all of these things make such a difference for our kids and to see community members come in and really pour into our kids it's just an amazing experience and I think it gives our kids sense of Pride that they are important enough and that the community is willing to come in and do these things with our kiddos and it's it's just an amazing experience it's a great program so well I appreciate that it's a out of the box thinking with Mr Burton and I met about a year ago he actually came in and did professional development with my teachers first and then it kind of snowballed into conversations and it's what led us to where we are today so I was so excited when I saw that because I remember that

018night and I remember speaking to those boys right there in particular and the joy that they had and the excitement it almost actually almost made me cry too because I know one of those boys in that picture yeah so and it's not just general ed students so in both of these programs our cross cat and our special ed students are participating in both of these programs so it's across the board that our students are benefiting from it so leads me to my last slide on Thursday evening we will be celebrating the founding of Parsons Elementary School and the legacy of Judge Parsons that evening there is a host of events happening in the building from a Parsons a judge Parsons scavenger hunt where you get to go around the building and find out facts about

019Judge Parsons to those young gentlemen will be holding their art show for the evening so they will be sharing their art their art is going to be for sale because part of this program is teaching them about entrepreneurship so the money earned from their art is going to go back to them so that they can reinvest in in their artistic abilities and where they want to go next so we also have Miss Bobby Parsons is coming to speak and her son will be reading the founding speech that judge Parsons read in 1967 so we just have a host of events that are happening in the community is welcome to come we invite board members and we hope to see just a good Gathering of people celebrating Parsons you know one of the things with covet

020is that when we merged and we went through the name change and we went we re-adopted Parsons we didn't have the opportunity for a grand opening and we really do want to celebrate our Legacy and the amazing work that's happening at Parsons so you know come join us on Thursday evening from five to seven and our choir is performing there'll be drum circles there's going to be lots of free stuff happening and that is the end does anybody have any questions and before I go I have to do I do have to do a shout out to my staff because none of this would be possible without an amazing group of teachers and Tas and staff members that come together to allow us to do all of these things absolutely [Applause] alrighty I'd like to

021call up the district's Director of Human Resources Mr Jason Fox to the podium he's going to present our next highlight okay so very excited to talk about what we have happening tomorrow night so um Ashley back here she and I spent a lot of time talking about how to get more people involved and hired within the district and we talk about all the time all the options we have for people to become teachers or to get involved in DPS and then as we talked about it we realized people probably don't know all the options that are out there and what the district will do to help them be a part of our district in various ways and so we came up with this idea to build your own career with DPS where we are going

022to bring in multiple universities we're going to bring in all Town Aramark all of our unions are going to try to have people representatives there to help us they're all helping us set it up all helping us get it together and then we uh once we had the idea we asked Maria and Denise to get us something to look good that we could put out there and so they put that together so tomorrow night from 4 30 to 6 at MacArthur High School it's getting a lot of traction a lot of people have called and wanted more information and you know are going to be there so we're very excited about the opportunity this brings to bring more people into DPS in all of our areas of employment so is there any questions we can

023answer for you is it in the auditorium or the gym so it's going to be in the auditorium there is a home basketball game tomorrow night so we're going to be doing this and then hopefully that Crowd Goes right on down to senior night and supports the team so thank you all right thank you thank you final and last highlight is um something exciting that Mr Day's assistant superintendent of teaching learning will present good evening Board of Education superintendent Clark On Cue as you all know we've been continuing The Tick Tock apparent homeschool connection videos so this is the one for January February release date is coming up next week so we wanted to show you all January which has some academic and test prep information short video so we can play this one this

024time the district has a lot to offer that's what makes our district great hi my name is Terry Dyson I'm the assessment administrator for Decatur Public Schools State Testing will be here before we know it this short video will provide you with some information to help you and your child be prepared for State assessments there are three state assessment and accountability measures that are taken by students in our district the Illinois assessment of Readiness or iar is taken by students in grades three through eight the state determined window for iar is March 6th through April 21st the Illinois Science assessment or Isa is taken by students in grades 5 8 and 11. the state determined window for Isa is March 1st through April 28th for these two assessments more specific information about when your child

025will be testing within the window will be provided by your child's School finally PSAT is taken by students in grades 9 and 10. students in grades 11 will take SAT test day for all students is April 12th the Illinois assessment of Readiness and the Illinois Science assessment are computer-based the students will complete these assessments on their iPad iar tests the students on English language arts and math it is made up of five sections three math and two English language arts Isa tests students on life physical and Earth space science Concepts there are three sections to this assessment PSAT and sat are taken on paper this assessment also tests students on English language arts and math there are two sections of each math and English Language Arts students taking sat are also required to write an

026essay these assessments serve as our state accountability measure according to federal law all districts must administer State achievement tests districts are required to administer the assessments to 95 percent of the eligible population data from these assessments can be useful to parents as well as the state district and the school using the data parents are able to determine if their child is making progress the data also allows parents to see if their child is moving towards being career and college ready the state district and school use the data to modify instruction and to ensure that all students have access to supports needed to help them be successful there are some ways you can help support your child in preparation for State assessments to support English language arts you can read with your child be sure to

027incorporate fiction and non-fiction books and ask them to tell you about what they are reading another thing you can do at home is to have your child write many of our students struggle to get ideas on paper you can have your child write about what they read or write a story that they made up the more children practice writing the better they will become in the area of math flash cards to practice math fact fluency is an easy way to boost their skill level math facts are the basis for many math concepts you can also engage your child in real life math problems such as looking at prices and the budget when grocery shopping or measuring when cooking many of the problems on state assessments are word problems based on real life situations putting children

028in real life situations will help them connect when they see these situations on their assessment writing is also a large part of the math assessment students need to be able to complete the problem but also explain their answer finally Khan Academy is a free website that has many great resources for English language arts math and science it even has a section specifically for sat preparation as we get closer to testing time be sure to discuss the upcoming assessments with your child to help them feel more comfortable explain to them that the assessments will be challenging but encourage them to try and do their best the day before testing be sure they get a good night's rest and eat a good breakfast in the morning the day of testing I am hosting two parent informational meetings

029to review some resources tips and to answer questions there are two dates available March 1st and March 9th both sessions will be held over Zoom if you are interested please visit www.dps61.org backslash iar to sign up thank you for your time if you have any questions please contact your building principal or join us for the parent informational meeting all right so tank we thank Terry Dyson for making that video I think it's helpful resources for our parents that they can assist with the students so it's all coming together now the internal assessments as far as our district-wide assessment fast Bridge which has formed our instruction to work on the needs of our students to prepare them for the state assessment which is iar and is ISA and also PSAT and sat so I do have

030some updated numbers one thing we were a little tardy with the January video however we already have quite a number of views on the January video not not as many as we want but hey you have to start somewhere this is our first year of doing this so we were we checked on February 9th and today February 14th so as of 4 30 today we had 52 views of the January assessment what that tells is we have some people that are that know about the site and they're going back frequently to check for updates because we we had not even played the January video at the board meeting in December the winter break we had 41 views for thanks the thankful measuring we had 16 views for the November video for a thankful Journey for

031October 54 views and back to school website September video 61 views so although you know with a population of roughly over 7 500 students we definitely will want more but you know this is a start and we have to you know continue to build up the village with the homeschool connection so that's the January the February video is will release next week and that will focus on activities during spring break because even though we're taking spring the Ia the state assessment window opens before spring break most of the schools will assessed after the spring break so we want to make sure that students do not suffer a loss and their parents are still supporting that academic growth during spring break thank you all right we will now move on to our public participation the Board

032of Education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself and be brief 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 or public participation board members do not respond and or comment to public comments All comments are referred to Administration furthermore the board the board of friends from referring to specific students or staff members by name and a request that public commenters refrain from doing so as well the request that you omit names is made to protect you from allegations of libel or slander or from violations the Illinois Student Records act it is not intended to Shield an employee from criticism Ms Bradford do we have anyone wishing to speak

033to the board this evening and or do we have any comments that would like to be added to the record no comments to be added I would like to call Elgin Hawthorne III to the podium thank you ladies and gentlemen of the uh education board board of education I'm Elgin Hawthorne III uh I am a concerned parent and a concerned grandparent I have the unfortunate uh task of informing that on Tuesday February 7th I have a granddaughter that attends Johns Hill School um after school she asked a teacher which I will refrain from naming uh if she was to go on the bus or to aftercare teacher and responded by saying I don't know and just leaving it out there for her to take a while I guess so basically my granddaughter got on the

034bus to which she was left outside in the cold for approximately 20 minutes now granted this is uh not a nice neighborhood that she lives in she lives in Wabash and she was out there uh in the code for for approximately 20 minutes by the grace of God there was somebody that knew my daughter and was was able to contact her and she was picked up so of course there was there was major concern about this uh a Facebook post was was written written and um and there was numerous responses so with that response there was a meeting held the following day at the school with the teacher and the administration with uh my daughter Brianna during that meeting this teacher was not remorseful whatsoever she was only concerned about the Facebook post to to

035which uh I understand that teachers have a lot of responsibilities and things of that nature and they could be over overwhelmed at times I can understand that however this teacher did not show any remorse did not apologize her only concern was of course the Facebook page and and it was she stated that her job ends at two o'clock now we all know that a teacher's job does not end until the students are in the care of the of the school or at home safe there's no there's no time clock that you punch at two o'clock we all know that correct so with that like I said her concern that was one of her statements was she was promptly corrected by another official that was within that meeting uh so with that being said instead of

036being a caring teacher she turned into a Karen now sir I'm sorry that's yours I will I mean I appreciate this we have to be fair let's just hear me out yes sir we have to hear me out everybody hear me out hear me out now um sir they tried to take the we can't let you continue on indefinitely we will look into this I I guarantee you but that's your time we cannot give you more time okay okay okay yeah thank you very much thank you thank you can I get your uh phone number [Applause] good evening my name is Leah Evans I'm here to finish the speech that I started at the last school board meeting because of your three-minute limit which I think is ridiculous I'm going to start exactly where I

037left off you were violated by the state's attorney general for violating the open meetings act 16 times and seems as though you are continuing now your actions are leading the way for other staff not to be accountable for the actors how can you expect the staff parents and students to do right if you don't when will this District start doing what is right for our students we need to make education a priority to do this there must be accountability and transparency the proof is in the pudding it starts at the top there must be documentation of what is being done otherwise you will never know what is working or what not what is not working and the problems will continue problems are solved by getting to the root of the problems figuring out what is

038working well and what is not solving problems sometimes requires changes not changes made just to please any particular group when problems are not solved they will get worse if you keep doing things the same way you keep getting the same result I know Kobe was hard on all involved and we have a difficult student population to deal with however we can't blame all of the failing student achievement on covet the problems were here long before covet and long before Mr days came here as well all shareholders need to own their part of the responsibility to solve the problem blaming each other will not only make things worse it would only make things worse my next concern is we keep hearing in the community about what he just talked about and you cut him off about

039teachers putting kids and I know I was a teacher putting Kids In Harm's Way and was caused by Nexus other teachers that are supposed to be there to protect them from these incidents the latest one he just explained I'm not going to go back over a 70 year old child was left out in the cold for 20 minutes lastly on tonight's agenda you are updating some job duties without highlighting what is being updated or what is being eliminated the diversity and equity and inclusion duties is a new position implemented and how is it being updated if it's being implemented I'll leave you with this a lie will catch the elevator to get to the top of the roof the truth will take the stairs the LIE may get there first but the truth will eventually

040catch up the lies and wrongdoing need to stop everything that is done in a school district should be to help educate the students that's your time to prepare them for life I'm sorry I might mispronounce this name but is it Gavin noblet and Lucas Hood I'm sorry Gavin that's right Gavin and Lucas uh hello DPS members I'm Gavin Noble a senior Eisenhower High School as an upcoming graduate of Eisenhower High School and would be valedictorian I would like to propose reinstatement of the recognized class striking at graduation to include valedictorian and salutatorium these Top members of this class have worked extremely hard these past four years taking AP and dual credit courses while also being involved in athletics School organizations and the community undoubtedly this is a large test to complete and still maintain top

041academics upon graduation our dedication to our education challenging ourselves and ultimately leaving with accelerated gpa's deserves recognition from our school board although equality is important when hard work is performed it needs to be recognized many of us could have lacked commitment to our grades but we didn't and there's no way you cannot honor them DPS is all about wanting to become better and promote better students but hide the great the hide the great students they have all other high schools do it around town so why can't we my name is Lucas Hood also a graduating senior at Eisenhower in support of Gavin's statement as would be salutatorian I believe that Gavin and myself and future graduates should receive recognitions for a constant and continued academics over the uh four years in high school while the

042Suma Magna and laude system does give more people the opportunity to be recognized I believe that could be used in accompaniment as uh well as the titles of valedictorian and salutatorian thank you thank you thank you I don't I don't see any student ambassadors president so we will move on to board discussion but at this time I would like turn it over to Superman Clark as she would like to share some information with our students families indicator Community George Clark thank you board president I wanted to take this time to speak to my parents and to my students at this time last night I received a very long email from one of the staff members and it was very concerning so I'm going to say this to my parents we the staff and administration at

043DPS need your help we are experienced experiencing some issues in our schools right now with some gross disruptive behaviors and some fightings and it needs to stop our goal is to educate our children and we cannot do that if they are being disruptive in the school we don't want to suspend your children but we will if that means keeping our buildings safe so again I'm asking my parents I'm asking my community members I'm asking my churches I'm asking anyone that has a connection to DPS help us help our kids we have so many great things going on in DPS but we continue to be overshadowed by the negativity and that is unfair to our kids that are doing the right thing over and over again 95 to 97 of our student population never even had

044a referral don't go to the office unless they're trying to get more information about academics or college and that is what school is supposed to be about you come to school to learn you come to school to enjoy your friends and you come to school to learn how to be good productive citizens and that's that's what we expect from all of you so at this time I'm asking everyone to please talk to your children let them know that we're here for them we care about them and if they are experiencing any type of issue or dilemma in the community that they feel would come over into our school settings reach out to us so we can help you there is a better way to resolve your issues thank you for letting me have this time

045thank you Dr Clark is there anything else the board would like to discuss so we have an election coming up you noticed yeah um so I was kind of brainstorming for after the election um I know that we have um some mandatory trainings we have to do that's like bare minimum as board members uh what I'd like to propose and I mean we don't have to you know put anything on the calendar yet but um maybe some additional training in-person workshops here um I want to find out other board members if they thought that would be a good idea a worthwhile investment of our time specifically I think board governance was one offered by the ispe is also making meetings matter I think that they could help us I think It could only help us

046improve so I putting that out there for you guys thoughts you know well there's mandatory training predivided by isby but there's a wealth of you know uh expertise within the community and board governance and I think that yeah um I do know Bruce nins provides a specific training for board governance I think that would be beneficial if the rest of the board felt that it was something they wanted to partake of but it I've always felt that the more training the better yeah I think the one thing with Bruce nibs brings to the table too is he has trained so many people in our community that our community can relate to Bruce nims's Training so they have a feel for what we're be how we're being trained what the material is I I don't think

047it would hurt us to do both of those trainings but I think Bruce is very relatable and I think his training has been like I said through so many people that at at the end of the day it creates that relationship with the community and the numbers of people that have been through it are have now become significant so it's it's a point where as we re-establish rebuild that Community Trust and credibility I think that a training with Bruce would be a really positive step in the right direction for us to to take part in that yeah I agree I'm in alignment with that as well yeah I think Morgan I think perhaps also um some board professional development within also and working with our Central admissions staff a little bit more this summer to

048um to help us as well as the new board members yeah and I would also recommend I know that it's been a turbulent couple of years but I would recommend that you sit down at an open meeting and four five six hours whatever it takes and really hammer out like as I've spoken about before the Big Ideas the things that where you want us to go you provide the direction they provide the action but it's without you they don't know where they're going so yeah there's kind of those kind of meetings where you sit in a room together and think what do we want this District to look like 5 10 15 years from now are invaluable so that almost sounds like a like a working session like so open like it has to be

049an open meeting because well I mean no no agenda with decisions on it so you know we can get rid of a little bit of the you know second and motions they said governance is hard work yeah and to to be productive as a governing body takes time effort energy and you have to be committed to the process and there's got to be that mutual respect between the staff and the board and we may not always always agree which we probably won't always agree on things but at the end of the day we have to come to consensus we have to respect each other as board members and then we have to convey those wishes to the staff and then the staff operationalizes that policy that the board sets for the direction of our community

050for the next three five ten years yeah that's something we need to think about too is you know strategic plan but that's a different different conversation but um yeah I mean I just want to get some ideas you know I don't know well let's start talking brainstorming you know I mean just like this I mean conversations like this don't I don't it's hard to collaborate you know of course whenever we're but I also would recommend that just make sure that everything is scheduled properly for training yeah and they're the required training obviously but you know it's it's something that can get back burner if you don't keep an eye on it yep excuse me poor president I'm not gonna allow I will not allow for any board member not to take the mandatory I don't

051think you would so there are there are mandatory training and Fred knows as well which is the open meetings act and then you have the professional development training and then para training those are mandatory it must be done at a certain amount of time and I would always let you know that but there are additional trainings that the Illinois Association of school boards um that they have as well yeah all right um I'd also like to First thanked Human Resources I had asked for the exit interviews um and the staff who put together the synopsis did a tremendous job and lots of detail I was very pleased to see it I am disappointed that we are not allowed to see the specific exit interviews I think in the future I would encourage us to look

052into seeing if we could have a waiver at the end of a exit interview if the employee because I I know employees personally who would like to have board members be able to read their specific statements and if we were allowed to if we'd put a waiver on that exit interview that would say this is okay to go to the scoreboard I think that would help because summary is nice thing but I think sometimes to get the real guts of feelings about what's going on in the district it would be nice for us to see the specifics um another topic I want to talk about is reduction in force I talked about this last year in these times of huge shortages I hate that terminology um to me we're talking about three different things one

053is a situation where we absolutely do not need that position anymore that's where reduction in force is a term that's appropriate but there are hardly any of those situations I can't imagine we need every teacher we can get we need to every teacher assistant we can get all employees because so I mean just everything um in some cases we need to transfer I wish we would just call it that and not give the the term Riff to people which is basically sounds like a pink slip and scares people into thinking I may not have a job next year I think terminology is very important and we don't want to discourage anyone from staying in our district so I really encourage us to use that terminology of course the third is if we are not renewing

054people for whatever reasons and who have a non-tenured position that's another statement itself so I I just hope we can at March 7th we're talking about who we are sending slips to and I hope it's very clear the difference between transfers and those where it's a reduction in force I also think us board members should know what specific positions are being said that we don't need anymore because like I said I can't imagine that there are that many so at the one of the next two meetings if there is a position that we feel that the district feels is not needed anymore I would like to see that list of what those positions are finally in relation to that many many school districts in the state are starting to advertise General positions not saying specifically

055where they will be hired but just saying we need these teachers we need whatever and then Human Resources works with them specifically so I would really like to specifically where they would be positioned um I would realize the human resources start doing that as soon as possible for the next school year otherwise we get behind the Ball Game On hiring people because they don't see the positions until later and if we just make it a general statement it's not conflicting with Union policy that I understand we are just saying we need and the list of people I know for sure we need elementary teachers instructional teaching assistants elementary school counselors and I want to bring that up because if you haven't read um there's a national Mental Health crisis among young people this is discussed

056everywhere um covet did affect that the return to the idea of going to school on a regular basis is something that's being fought everywhere including our district and elementary school counselors very hard to find I understand that totally but you can't get them unless you advertise and I think if we really push for that early also social workers for all students of all ages a lot of our social workers are hired in the special ed Department of the administration but we need them everywhere all grades high schools everything the high school counselors the middle school counselors can only do so much in terms of mental health because they have so many other duties to work with so that's something I really think we need to look at very quickly so that we get ahead of

057other districts and are not asking for these positions to be filled much at later than others specifically I think also foreign language is an area that um the state is saying we're going to have to have two years of it in a few years I think everybody kind of laughs at that because there aren't enough foreign language teachers out there to do that but the whole idea a counselor advises a student when they're starting school if you want to get a four-year University degree every University recommends two years of foreign language they don't all require it but they do recommend it we have to tell students in our high schools we don't have enough teachers for you so you can't take foreign language that's very sad and I understand it if you can't find people

058but we have to try and so I think it's important to advertise that as soon as possible and I mentioned the Mental Health crisis also if our high school counselors have to do so much administrative work they can't deal with those mental health issues as much and I have asked for this before we need to provide as much clerical support for those counselors so that they can work with the students on a mental health issues that need to be worked on thank you so I've got a question about the last thing you talked about um through the I'm asking I genuinely um the guidance counselors are they do they deal with some mental health stuff too or do they refer to somebody or guidance counselors are certified through degrees that they have had mental health

059training the nature of High School counseling though is that and at the younger you get um in Elementary School counseling it's much higher percentages mental health Middle School a little bit less in high school less because of the academic the pl planning for the future financial aid all those other things get involved and our district just keeps asking our counselors to do more and more and it takes away from the time for when there is need and a lot of times you cannot meet um with a student every week a whole bunch of them because you just don't have enough time and so you try to refer students to Heritage or places but they're understaffed I mean it's just it's just a really big problem and I'm not saying that there's an easy position but

060yes um counselors do meet with students about and especially if they have time to get to know them and develop that rapport with them the students then feel more comfortable in coming to see them when they have that kind of issue but if they if the counselor hardly ever has any time to talk with a student except in a group can't develop that report okay doesn't a counselor have to be very careful with the licensure there's a licensed professional counselor in MSW there's PhD type counselors and there's a guidance counselor at a school and to delve into counseling doesn't their doctors are fully certified to delve into counseling there's no there's no limit on what they can say so you can do the same thing that uh MSW yeah or okay I'm interested to hear

061that yeah I'd like for staff to look into that for me please I mean I'm licensing I'm in my 25th year of counseling and I have never hesitated from talking with any student well maybe you haven't hesitated but I know there's licensure issues out there the licensor doesn't do doesn't it is not needed to be able to talk with students about talking counsel are two different things professional counseling is a different topic is a National Counselor Jason I'm certified okay my sister is another step it's like so as a hospital board certification as a school counselor you can counsel kids in a variety of areas however what you're talking about is certified for mental health counseling those lines so there's definitely a separation between the two high school counselors can walk along those lines but

062when it gets to a certain level then they do a referral um that was my point we have to be careful about those lines in today's litigious Society we have to be careful about those so I'm laughing because uh I don't think I can't a student who is really hurting really cares whether you're licensed or certified if they need to talk to you about something they want to talk about it if they don't feel comfortable talking to you about it they'll go to somebody else and a lot of times you'll see the high school counselors stay in the room when the you know assessment counselor comes in and goes through that because the student does have a relationship with the counselor so that person stays there then to comfort the student but then we bring

063in someone who has additional licensure or experience to help get the needs that that student needs so you know a lot of times they start with the counselor at the school and it grows into the counselor who has the more advanced degree the more advanced experience to get them the help that they need but what's also important is this is an interrelationship of Duties a counselor is talking to a student about academic things about planning for the future and sometimes those personal problems those mental issues are affecting those things so you can't separate those there's all I I usually would look at my self evaluations in seven different areas and they all are related to each other so you can't just separate when you're talking about one or the other and so it's a part

064of the job and and um it's just I'm all I'm saying is uh there's more mental health needs now there's more needing to call parents and talking to them about why aren't Aaron's coming to school there's just you know and I found such frustration when I was a counselor in the district I just didn't have time to do it um because of all the administrative things so uh it's very frustrating not to be able to do those personal issues dealing with the parents you know getting help with them and everything when you don't have time so that's why I'm asking for the district to consider it's not making the counselor's job easier it's helping them to do more what they need to do to help more counselors come through the regional office or do they

065come through your office they go through our office okay so yeah okay thank you the msws so they're usually through an outside third party okay so in the like say what now okay all right all right just trying to find out who's slamming the door it's the wind okay all right is there anything else the board would like to discuss all right we will now move on to our report from admins reports from Administration I would like to ask bldd representatives to join us at the podium to present facilities update on the new K-8 Magnet School hello hey hey excited to get back with you guys and a group of us here from bldd um just to publicly share what we've been working on with the building committee here weekly and sometimes even more than

066weekly um let's see so um first of all as you recall uh when we did the programming basically we're around 81 000 square feet we're at 81 000 about 500 or so so right in there with that regarding the spaces that we're going to be in the building and the and sizing them appropriately even though we went up in the classroom sizes that we originally planned for the efficiency of this plan helped that out so I did want to point out just a couple things regarding the plan but we will try to keep it brief here as well so on home park side which is the right side basically if you remember the site plan the buses will drop off on that side there's also um visitor parking on that side once you go into

067that core area in the middle basically can I do the spotlight there there we go um this is the main entrance for that bus drop off Lane that's basically on home park if you can see that there with the administration right inside the door on the opposite side on the left side there is basically where the parent drop-off will occur and come into that opposite side also you know within nice view of that administrative area as well on the on the park side regarding kind of how this plan is divided we've talked about this before but along that same spine north of there are more of the classroom spaces a few spaces that we wanted to point out in there include some additional flexible flexible classrooms so there's additional spaces beyond the typical classrooms that

068have been assigned also you'll see a small grouping of um little breakout spaces in there and it is really hard to see this on there um no no it's yeah no no no no it's it's just the way being against the backlit surface it's not gonna small small breakout spaces are throughout those areas so that you can pull students out into the Hall have some of that visibility but then bring them back into the locations um also within those classroom spaces and all and near the gymnasium you'll see individual restrooms in there that are gender neutral restrooms that have been placed throughout the building as well as in the administration area as well all of the core areas kind of south of that dividing line are more public spaces and that's where you can see

069like the gymnasium Commons area where the cafeteria is working at performance in the band area that opens up into a stage as well as the media center going on to the oh yes sorry I just wanted to point out one of my favorite things on that one there um so you've got the bottom part of this is the the common areas and then the two like rectangles that are off to the sides left and the right those are the educational areas and um can you talk to us about the separation sure sure yeah they are unless I'm getting ahead of oh no that's all right I was gonna just try to talk a mild minute here so um they are zoned off so that during um you know an act after school activity perhaps that

070you don't want people wandering in those hallways um there are doors that separate those two areas although you do have access to the restroom so that you can um you kind of see them on either side flanking that Media Center there um but also it's a good sound barrier between uh you know when there's activities that are happening in that core Central Area like uh you know when they're using it as a cafeteria for example during the day that both here and on the second floor as well that you can kind of Zone that off um for sound as well as restricting access into those areas but each each separate area can function independently of the other even with those doors shut so you know you have your restrooms in each of those areas and

071then your core breakout spaces other things that are important to you know as you mentioned L with uh mental health um there's there's various spaces scattered throughout the building many are in that Central core with the Care Room social worker and guidance counsel those sort of things are in that kind of core area but then there's those breakout spaces within each of the classrooms winging on the second floor as well that you can also have those services for the students in here on the second floor is similar the classrooms that are up here are are primarily for the um the middle school students with the exception of there is an art class there are art classrooms in the top right corner there along with a patio that you can basically go outside and on that

072second floor and do work out there just a few more spaces on there again with um the guidance counselors upstairs there's an additional principal's office up here so there's good visuals it's going to be a lot easier to see some of the plants that we have here right afterwards that you also have in your packet this is the presentation that I'm showing is what is in your packet with the exception of we talked about what design development is inside of there and that's the phase that we're at so I would like to just pass it on to Carson here to show you a few photos a few images inside and out yep so I want to talk to you about um the exterior design the exterior design of the building and the interior design the

073building and so the what we heard from the board and from the community was we want it for we want this building to have Timeless materials both inside and out and have a form that can last for for Generations so that was that has been our goal and uh we we feel like we've accomplished that so what you see on the extra of the building this is actually looking from the corner basically I'm we're standing in the in the in the Southeast looking towards the site so this entrance the the entrance this would be the bust off off entrance and also the visitor entrance and so from an exterior standpoint we want to make sure that you know where to go we want to make sure you know where the front door of the school

074is so the the element that you see is in red is intentionally designed as a portal or a place of entry and so we want to make sure that that the building immediately says this is where you're welcome to come and this is where you you need to need to be and get information um some of the other things that we wanted to include was lots of natural light into the spaces that were appropriate so the large windows that you see at the entrance and each of the classrooms uh so each of every every one of the classrooms has a window of some sort for natural light but also the large public spaces have large Windows to make sure that that those areas are warm and inviting and very sort of transparent this is a

075view from the north um looking to the South and what we love about this View and about the plan is this is the academic Wing that that Kim uh mentioned and those academic wings are open directly into this wonderful Green Space and place based on the North side um again we have introduced this is the north side of school or the South side of school north side North Side are we looking North you are looking South what is the north side um so this is the view that you would be coming from the north as you travel down the street on yourself so again we introduced the sort of uh fun elements if you will that basically tell the public that this is a school this is a place of inspiration this is a place

076of fun and engagement something that that the kids would be proud of and and be excited to be part of so this is this is a wonderful connection from the academic Wings directly to the Green Space so the kids will not have to cross roadways or parking and that's a very intentional part of the design this is again a view a little bit above ground uh look at sort of a bird's eye view of that North Side you can see a play Space um a designated play space with a designated uh play equipment there's also an outdoor uh classroom space that's just beyond that and also in this view you can see the art patio if you will um from from from this view as well the our pattern you mean on the second floor

077on the second floor you can see it there too I don't know if I can get this thing right there um which is which I think you know uh is is a wonderful feature not only is it for art but it also could be for a science class it's just an outdoor space that is controlled that uh that your your students and your teachers can use their imagination um in a strong way this is a view looking front you're looking you're you're you're standing in this in the South looking to the Northwest if you will Northeast excuse me I guess right and so again when you see the entrance that that Kim talked about in terms of this is the parent drop-off area the gymnasium is to the left I mean to the right you

078see that large space as well and then you see the academic Wing to the left so uh we're going to go into the inside of the building so this is again the idea of creating uh inspirational appropriate space for all ages we recognize that from this from the smallest child to the oldest child that's going to be in in this building they have to be really it has to be relatable so this is the large basically the living room of the school if you will so this is where uh where performances can take place this is where dining takes place this is where drop off and pickup takes place this is where after school study takes place so it's a large open space that will be designed appropriately for for all of those many many

079activities as you can see his visibility is wonderful in the space even from the upper level you'll see a view here in a second that you can look down from the upper level into that space and it's also viewing into the stage if you if you see what you see in the in the in the foreground there this is another view so you can see the opening of the the band room which doubles as a multi-purpose space so it becomes a performance stage when you want to have a performance it's closed down and functions as an enclosed Band Room when when that's appropriate again we've introduced some uh some some some some places on each floor the first one the second floor uh where where those types of activities again very open and transparent very

080functional uh very flexible space this is a view looking out one of those windows to the north you're looking to the north into the green space beyond this is one of the classroom corridors this happens to be the for the little kids uh these are breakout spaces they're there are intentionally designed breakout spaces outside the classroom what we've what we've understood is the activities that happen uh outside the classroom with breakout space and one-on-one connection with counselors with teachers with staff are really really important spaces to have and so you have the traditional classroom but adjacent to that is these wonderful breakout spaces as well another view looking at that again introducing some fun colors to give give the space some some life this is a view from the from above that shows those breakout

081spaces this is a typical classroom this happens to be for the littler kids because these are Cubbies uh each of the classrooms are designed with storage and and support pieces that that match the age group that is appropriate uh for that particular class type of classroom this is uh one of the one of the exciting spaces this is what we call a maker space it's a highly flexible room that is a space where there's Hands-On learning and teaching so that this space is more about learning with your hands learning with um you know just by being creative um you know us being Architects this is the kind of space that we would we would dig uh and so it's a space that's highly flexible it's kind of operable partition that allows for for it to

082open up to the hallway uh so it it really can allows teachers to use their imagination on on any type of learning circumstance again uh uh uh we introduced some color in this space to make it uh warm and inviting and so that's it about the interior and exterior building Steve's going to talk about the budget yes so as Kim mentioned earlier I get the fun stuff right so as Kim mentioned earlier we are at the completion of what we call the design development phase and so that's basically we're a little over halfway through the design process and so to date we have just under 200 sheets of drawings developing the design that you've seen these are the pretty pictures but behind all that is all the documentation that gets this thing built ultimately at

083the end and bid through contractors and so at this point in the project this is when we do detailed cost estimates based on again these are estimates I want to emphasize these are not bids but these are detailed cost estimates from Material quantity takeoffs um on everything we know about the project everything that's been put into the design at this point everything we know will be yet to put in the design and using then market conditions based on what we're seeing right now unit cost for that and so this is what we call the total project summary so it's kind of condensing the total all in Project costs we're right now just under 37 million dollars and if you recall back um back in last November before we'd even put a line on paper at

084the end of the programming phase we had determined that this project would be somewhere around 80 500 square feet was our goal we're right at that as Kim said 81 500 square feet and we're tracking at that point our our preliminary project budget with not a line being drawn was right under right at 37 million so we're tracking very well with that the the the uh as you can see near the top of that we talk about the the detail construction cost estimate our building cost and site development costs we're estimating right now at around 31 million dollars and we have a whole backup estimate that we share with the building Committee of how we got to that number at this point in the design on top of that we've included two and a half

085percent um design bit contingency for those things that we may not have yet have thought of during the design process and to handle any irregularity in the bidding climate when we go out for bids and then we're also carrying a five percent construction contingency for anything that may come up during construction that's a a pretty average uh percentage to carry for buildings in you know Greenfield sites and so that all creates the construction cost and then also in this project is all the design architectural and Engineering fees the technology budget um the Furnishings all new Furnishings for the project as well so you can see that total project budget were estimated right now at just under 37 million dollars the list at the bottom there represents a few additional things that the boards could consider

086when we opened bids in June and I'll get to the schedule in a minute so one of the things the the district has already secured is a grant through Esser funds of four hundred thousand dollars for other playground equipment so that will be bid with the project but funded outside the project with this additional 400 000 Grant the district has already secured and then we've got four currently four additive alternate bids that the board can consider depending on how those numbers come into create additional upgrades to the project if they choose one of them is to go to all concrete Paving on all the parking Lots versus asphalt we're estimating right now that's around a two hundred and twenty thousand dollar ad if the board chose that again the actual numbers will know a bid

087date we've got another alternate to go to another level of of a roofing right now we have in the base bit a single ply membrane fully welded roofing membrane Roofing we're using a lot of school projects but we could also go to an up a built up roofing system you have on a lot of your schools right now but it is a premium it's we're seeing it right now cost about an additional ten dollars per square foot so you can see for this size structure it equates to close to six hundred thousand dollars we estimate and then the last two alternates are related to if you're familiar with the site there's a piece of pavement that's adjacent to the new parking lot of this for the school but it's owned by the park district and

088so that's currently an asphalt lot it's got some cracking in it um not it's not bad shape but not great especially compared to right next to a new lot would be put in there so alternate a3a is to Mill that down a couple inches and put a new asphalt overlay off over it the other option a3b would be if you want to just say we're going to go with the concrete parking option in alternate A1 and we just want to remove that asphalt lot and put it in all new concrete and that portion so that everything on that side is concrete so just gives you as a board some options on bid day and so that's our project budget this kind of relates to the project schedule which you have seen many times before but

089we're right under that design development phase you can see February 14th we are at the completion of the design development phase moving into what we call the construction document phase which is about another four months that's where we take all the design decisions that you see in those pretty pictures that have been made in conjunction with the building committee and the administration and document those for bidding purposes our goal has always been to go out for bids for this project in mid-june to receive bids in mid-july and to bring those to the board at your August 8th board meeting for ideally approval to move forward with bids and get a contract awarded get the contractor on site in the ground just as soon this fall as we can one of the things we share with

090the building committee is that we are trying to see if during this next four months we can compress that in any way by a few weeks just to get in the ground get out for bids earlier get in the ground earlier we're going to certainly look at that with our team and see if we can shave any time off of that but the goal is to start construction in late August early September and we're anticipating about a 14-month construction schedule so that's a lot of information I know but I want to bring the board up we wanted to bring the board up to speed with where we're at and see if there's any additional questions you all may have as we move into this next phase of construction documents I think it looks great um

091good I'd like to thank the building committee as well as bldd and the administration for all the hard work they've done on this uh I see we have our American dreamer staff with us checking them up [Music] hello Board of Education Dr Clark um Mrs Bradford um this has been a lot of hours a lot of meetings every week but every time I would come back with something I didn't like or a little change that would be fixed by the next meeting so I feel like it's um greatly embodied everything that we've asked for um we went and visited the international Prep Academy in Champaign and so we were able to see some of the things in person that needed to be tweaked I remember there was an issue with visibility visibility in the Commons

092area and we got to see it in action with the kids there and so we made some tweaks to that so I'm really excited um it's hard to be in a space that we no longer fit we were ready to go right now but just to see the work that bldd has done and not really experiencing that before has been totally eye-opening and I'm so excited for our school community and the Decatur Community to see this awesome school for us thank you thank you any questions yeah well I mean I know I mean we're building ourselves a world-class building here I'd like to see something on the programming that we're putting together for we need a world-class program to go in here so I know you've been working hard on that I know that you're

093putting together talking to professional development course development things like that but we'd like to see exactly what kind of a stem you know program we're putting together here absolutely all right uh I would like to ask Denise swarthout Chief communication officer to join us the podium present a new Decatur Public Schools district 61 upcoming website launch Denise good evening Board of Education if I can connect my laptop real quick so I can show you what our new website looks like [Music] it's not coming up it's the website live now it is not the website goes live Friday you might just look any different I don't we tested this earlier it worked perfectly there you go it's family of course once in a while that actually is about it all I know Happy Valentine's Day to

094Maria well can you just skip to the next one and while they're fixing that yeah if you want to move on we can go to the next presentation whether you guys can be connected all right so while we get that sorted out we'll move on to uh Jason Fox Director of Human Resources join us the pudding to present first reading of the new school calendar oh okay okay this one's mine so okay uh so we uh we're actually gonna present two school calendars so the next two years since we're past the halfway mark it's time to start thinking about next year right so uh we basically it was Dean Hillman Denise and Maria and I sat down and really worked on it we also got a lot of input from the district leadership team and

095the union leadership so thank you to everybody who had a say in this as well I guess I should be moving this along huh okay um so each of the calendars includes 176 instructional days which is required by the state has 180 teacher work days contract days in there there are two teacher work days before the start of school in each of the each of the calendars as well as eight half day professional development or School Improvement days so the 2324 calendar just some highlights uh the first staff attend this day would be August 10th students then would come on August 14th we of course we have Labor Day on September 4th we would have our first half day on the 13th now indigenous peoples today we actually are going to use a waiver for

096that particular day and use that day off for an opportunity later on so we'll do that on a couple of holidays as we go the state allows that so that we can work those into other holidays and give our give the kids and staff a different break okay and then we have a second half day in the first quarter as well second quarter no School parent-teacher conferences on the 20th again if you see uh Veterans Day there we're going the students attend on Veterans Day and then we observe Veterans Day then on November 22nd so that Thanksgiving break this coming year would be the full week of Thanksgiving would be off we would have a half day then on November 15th and again on December 13th and then winter break in December is the 22nd

097through the 29th okay the winter break also then continues January 2nd to through the 4th so winter break is a little bit longer and actually extends into that first week of January instead of the the last two weeks of December it's more of that last week of December first week of January um and you can kind of see the additional holidays there and then Pulaski Day that's another day where students attend and we use that day later on to extend the different breaks so fourth quarter um parent-teacher conferences again we have spring break in there which would be March 25th through the 29th again we're able to use some of those days we get waivers for to extend that break a little bit longer and then you can see Memorial Day on the 27th so

098what does the this look like it looks like 44 days in the first quarter 42 second 48 in the third and 42 in the fourth so we try to balance it out as much as we could to get those 176 days in there um so any questions on that 2324 calendar the way we presented it can you go back to page maybe looking at the text at the bottom right so we currently have an agreement with uh DEA to use e-learning days as a possibility instead of snow days that expires and so that'll no longer be a possibility moving forward that expires this year okay okay so that's what that text is is that we if we use a snow day we add it on at the end Okay so and that's final that's final

099right yes okay okay so the 24 25 calendar uh we'll move it through I don't need to read all these to you guys but uh very similar um August 8th all right feels really early but in order for it to work out and kind of keep the dates the same August 8th the first staff attendance day August 12th will be the first day the students attend okay again we're going to skip indigenous people's day and move that in and use it later um for an extra holiday there so uh in the second quarter you kind of see the same thing there Thanksgiving break is the 25th through the 29th and then winter break would start on December 23rd and winter break then would go through January 3rd okay again Pulaski Day we're going to use

100later and then in the fourth quarter you look at high school graduation to be around May 17th last day of student attendance would be May 22nd with Memorial Day holiday then on the 28th so that would look very similar 44 42 48 and 42. so any questions on that one you said who was helping you put to this together um is there a kind of like a law sometimes laws go through public comment time period is there something like that for the staff of the district so what we did is we talked to the union leadership and get their feedback on it DEA always sits in and gives us feedback uh despa defta they all have feedback on that I'm talking about individual staff members being able to comment on it so that's why we

101do this this is like the first reading and then if someone looks at it and has comments they can come to us and absolutely share that with us so that's why there's a first reading and then you actually adopt the calendar at the next meeting so I am concerned I said this last year I think we're just taking away too much of the warm days of summer away from students it's just when is it going to end I mean you just keep going earlier every year it's got to end sometime the sports calendar every five or six years moves back a week we don't seem to be doing that um when are we going to do that we just keep going earlier and earlier and it's like uh I just just getting ridiculous how early

102we're starting my goodness and I don't see the need for high school graduation by May 17th um you know so I I just don't understand at what point are we going to stop this movie net earlier and earlier when it gets to be July 4th I mean at some point it's got to stop so it's like when are we going to move it up a week again what is the county for the creek or what's accounting for the creep why is it moving forward um well to try to keep the calendar on the same days and keep 42-44 and keep the semester ending before Christmas and as Christmas moves around we have to move the calendar around to keep that semester it's difficult for high school students you know they have to take exams after

103the after the break so we try to end those quarters before the break so that we can do that so depending on how the year moves around the athletic calendar does the same thing it moves get creeps creeps creeps and then it'll move back so as we look at this then we can look at that as well our school calendar creeping earlier in the year you know over the last I don't know 15 or years or so you know what what driving me you know well I can say uh my experience in in previous District as well is people always wanted to be out before Memorial Day and so that was always a goal is to end school before Memorial Day because that was kind of the start of summer and so in order to

104do that we've also extended the number of days that are required by the state so they've added you know it was 175 just two years ago now it's 176 and as they add more days and people still want to get out at the same time or approximately the same time that causes that or start date to creep forward we've also added in more teacher work days school districts have well those aren't student attendance days so in order to get your 176 days you have additional days you're adding on so yeah I get that but thank you I I do appreciate the uh the effort to create longer break period you know at Thanksgiving and playing great to uh to allow for more family vacations and family activities also makes it easier for forcing parents to

105schedule their time to to avoid having the single holidays that just are all there out there by itself but I appreciate that I think on the other hand when you look at this day to take a different perspective on it um when you're looking at summer employment our young people who are looking for summer jobs and then are going to go back to school in the fall and they participate in extracurricular activity it gives them a leg up on the summer job market I know in my previous life we hired about 400 seasonal youth out there and for them to be able to come to work train and then open the facilities come Memorial Day weekend was a real Plus for the young people because they got that they were generally getting two to two

106and a half full months of work experience there as well work experience earn a paycheck and then go back to school and participate in those extracurricular activities so I think there's real benefit to getting out at that mid-may point it gives them a leg up in the job market that's fair you mind going back one more sure um well I guess the uh the cat the December of 25 . yeah 20 25 sorry oh so okay so is that what you're on no there's no decision okay okay December 24th I don't have December 25 on there okay because that's why I was confused okay all right all right thank you very much we got it all right we're the welcome it's worth it back to the podium okay this is the first look at our

107new website which launches this Friday this has been a months-long project that we have undertaken in the Communications Department to totally revamp our current site pull over all of the relevant information get rid of outdated info or anything that's no longer relevant to our school community and create a brand new website that we are hopeful will be much easier for our school Community to use for you to find the info that you want with fewer clicks and just condensing all of the info into fewer pages so you can easily find what you need so I thought I'd just do a brief overview of the most important things that you all look at like I said this launches Friday and we're told by our website vendor it sometimes takes 24 to 48 hours for it to

108show up across the board because of caching things on your individual devices so hopefully by next week everyone will be able to see our new site so across the top you have the navigation band I know what all of our board members are looking for our board packets and information so that would be under our district and one of the new features of our website is these easier to use menus instead of clicking down through several menus you have all of the Hot Topics right there at the top so under Board of Education all of your pretty pictures are underneath the board and then board meeting dates and docs that is where you will find all of our board meeting documents finance committee documents all the documents you need another feature that we have added

109to this website is our monthly foia reports so we have all of that information categorized by every six months that Melissa puts it in the board packet we are also putting it on our website for everyone to access as well as information on how to submit a foia request to Miss Melissa to Denise we also are trying to make it easy for people to find information to apply we are hiring if you didn't hear that earlier so we want all of the info that our applicants would need to be easy to find that is info for applicants info for substitutes info for new employees we're trying to make everything available that you can find very easily another thing that one of our board members asked for previously was more information for parents to do at

110home activities in practice so that is now a category under academics we are working with our teaching and learning Department to come up with refreshed activities that families can do at home we have our tick tocks video series here we also have packets and info that you could do perhaps during spring break with your kids while they are at home to keep learning at home when it comes to students and families we have hopefully all of the information that you would need to um get for your student for the school year we have the dress code the bell times Health requirements school registration a new feature that we have added on this website is about Safety and Security with our new Safety and Security administrator we have a lot of frequently asked questions about our

111schools and what that looks like in the individual schools when it comes to security so hopefully we're able to answer your questions easily There community we want you to come and volunteer in our schools so it's under the Community tab how that how to make that happen and we also have our engagement page which has been existing for quite a while but it's something that we hope to put more use into we want your feedback well we want you to engage with us we just posted a share the love campaign we want you to tell us what you love about your school what you love about your classroom and your teacher throughout the month of February um let's see on our home page we have some highlights at the top of new things that are

112coming some of the big things that folks are looking for across this band in the middle here facts about our schools did you know we are the fourth largest employer in Macon County we want people to know all of the accurate information about our schools we're featuring videos we have our social media feeds and we have an upcoming events tab across the bottom where you can get info about calendar events that are upcoming and another cool feature of our new website is that it is completely responsive so this is what it would look like on your mobile device all of the pages are responsive so it doesn't do weird sizing and things when you're looking at it on a mobile device or an iPad or any other size device so that is what I have

113just a quick overview for you um like I said this launches Friday and we are sending out info to all of our staff about some of the features that they will find one thing we did move is the staff section to a staff intranet where our staff can find all of the info that is essential to them specifically we have all of our employee benefits info our contracts our staff forms important links that they would need our PD calendar so all of our staff can see when we have professional development scheduled we're working with PDI to make sure that's populated and accurate um this has been a labor of love and it has taken a really long time to get here but I'm really excited about where we are we are also launching websites to

114match this for each of our schools that is going to be a slower rollout the first one that will launch is American dreamer it will launch with the main site on Friday but then we will be doing each School individually I would like to say on a one week every week we'd be launching another one that's my goal so hopefully we'll make that happen any questions about the new site how does it populate down to the individual School sites because I know I mean in my real life I update several websites and it's hard to keep the information current but I've gone through them sometimes and I find enrollment prompts for 2012. and one side was looking for information on a um a parent teacher that asked me to get in contact with Fred Richard

115sure that's one of the reasons we have done this switch manually we have not just taken all of the old info and dumped it into a new pretty template we're going through every single page on our main site and all 17 of our school sites and taking the information and manually populating the new site to make sure it's current and relevant that we are not just dumping over old info how many pages total thousands that's why it's taken this long no no I agree yeah yeah is there is there is there a review schedule like somebody who's just reviewed 10 pages today and just check them for errors anything like that okay because that's what I mean that's what I do at work I was just like we've got 30 40 50 pages like in

116like one I'll do it through I was like just take top 10 pages go through them condensed the information um we the goal is for it to continue to be current that there's not a whole lot of updating that our principals are gonna have to do because eventually it will be up to them to keep the um web pages refreshed on their individual schools so the idea is that there will be as few pages to maintain as possible okay what's our quality control features that are going to make sure that we get updated the information is accurate who's posting on it by the way who designed the website was that in-house no do we have the third order we have a third-party vendor Blackboard that we work with they did the web design Maria and

117I worked with them very intensely for about six months it's just a national company that we use okay yeah because I think that's the biggest thing is like calendars everywhere that aren't in match I mean we just got an email about that like where where um graduation dates listed and information and then like stale information mismatched information right exactly the goal has been to streamline yes she does have a calendar it's a Google Calendar now so they are integrated so anytime a school principal would update their Google Calendar it automatically updates on the website that's a new feature that we've implemented um so hopefully that will help streamline the process I was really glad to see the corporate look yes yes I think it's important to just to have those those features when we project

118ourselves to the world uh it's important that we incorporate those features into the material that we send out there to the world absolutely we want to make sure that people are seeing our best foot forward when they Google DPS and they find our website and that's the first thing they come across so we want to make sure it's fresh and current and a lot of people I mean I don't know I pulled up the page on my phone the the current page and you know look like something straight out of geocities you know so it's nice to see this you know responsive and work with small screens and is there going to be a brand standards book so that people can't just all of a sudden decide to reimagine what it looks like yes we

119have been working on that since I since I got here so um that's something that's been in the works um we do have one but I think it's gotten away from using it very strictly and I think that's important that we need to protect our brand and make sure that um everyone who is using our logos that the logos are consistent that we're not using clip art that we are presenting ourselves professionally so that everyone who uses our website are any media that we present is professional can you even get clipboard anymore thank you very much thank you all right I will ask I'd like to ask superintendent Clark to present first readings on the following scoreboard policies policy 4-150 operational services facility management and building programs policy 5-330 educational support uh Personnel sick days

120vacation holidays and leave policy 7-30 students student assignments and introducing transfers attendance areas Mr luck thank you so on page one of uh policy four colon 150 operational Services uh one of the changes is under the title standards for managing buildings and grounds and what has been added is that vacant school buildings that are sole property of the district and have not been repurposed for future use will be demolished within three years of its vacancy prior board approval is needed for all Renovations our demolitions are permanent alterations to buildings or grounds when the total cost exceeds twenty five thousand dollars including the cost equivalent of Staff time and the purpose for this update in this particular policy is to just be a good stores of the community so if we don't want to close a

121building and then the building sits up for years and years and years and nothing is being done with it so we should be working to either sell property refurnish I mean repair purpose the building or demolishing the building so that is just a statement in there to say this is what we will do if if these things weren't happening okay my laptop died um the language on it is this say School Board school buildings or school buildings okay I was just wondering like if we ever move out of this building would this be included in that so we we do own this building so I would say yes this building is included in that so I can and the reason I brought this language is because if if there's any tweaks that need to be

122made I can do that and have it ready before you approve so I can add the words vacant school buildings or buildings owned yeah or just School District school structures properties whatever anything else so that was the only change to four colon 150 I will make that change before it is approved and um update that for you uh five colon 330 educational support Personnel so one of the things I started doing is asking questions um because we talk about how can we bring people to DPS what is it that people look for when they come to DPS and the one thing that keeps coming back to me is family so when I was looking at the holidays that are given to the staff here in DPS I noticed some inconsistencies so for example and I'm

123going to go through these in uh from beginning to end but I want to start with Christmas you get the day after I'm sorry you get Christmas Eve you get Christmas day but you don't get the day after Christmas and so you have a lot of staff that take off work during that time because they do want this time to be with family so as I started looking over the data I noticed that we would have anywhere from 284 to 330 staff members absent during that time frame because this is a special time for them so I want to try to do more uh in terms of benefits so that when people look at DPS they see that yes we are part of a family and we do recognize that people want that time so

124some of the changes that I would like to see made is um we automatically get New Year's Day I would like for the board to approve New Year's Eve we currently have Abraham Lincoln's birthday in our policy but it should read President's Day so that is just the update we currently have spring break which includes the Friday before Easter I would also like to add the Monday after Easter we already have election day all I did was remove the year because it's election day so whenever election day occurs that's when we will have it we currently have Thanksgiving day I would like the day before Thanksgiving day as well and we currently already have the day after Thanksgiving and again we currently have Christmas Eve Christmas Day I'm also wanting to do the day after

125Christmas so that's four additional days that will be added in terms of this policy that any uh District employee that would typically get these days will still get these days plus the ones I'm recommending and these are already non-instructional days right there are already non-instructional days concerning School how does that work with current right now what's up Brian so keep in mind that there may be bargaining implications to some of these changes uh also the election day observation the way the statute now reads election day is only applicable to the last election day 2024 has not been designated and statute meaning the statute says 2022 election day it doesn't it doesn't go on and we don't know that there's going to be a 2024 probably there's going to be legislation to make 2024 Election Day

126a holiday but it isn't there now just be aware so with me just saying election day is not enough I have to put a year to it yeah so could I suggest maybe call it national election day so so the reason you can do that Fred um the reason I jumped up and I'm the reason you have election day off now is because the state mandated it and that obviously has an effect because you're paying some employees for a holiday that didn't exist before the state did that if the state went back and said that isn't a holiday anymore I you know I don't know that you'd want to declare a holiday and paste that your decision I just want to make sure you have the information to make the decision that's all so can

127I arrange the verbs to reflect what you just said yeah or you can leave it the way it is I mean I just you have to have the information in order to make the decisions if that situation arises then we can just amend policy later my point was that there are a lot of election days right primary election day either School Board election day and I'm sure you don't make all of those okay you really mean like National and midterm elections is it just the presidential election yeah okay okay yeah it's just the presidential and so I will redo language and then I'll have you review yeah so here was the point I was trying to make and I want to make sure everybody understands so the minute you make something policy it what's going

128to happen is you're going to get assuming the union doesn't object to the pot to the holiday you created you're going to get a bargaining proposal to incorporate whatever you did in policy into the contract be aware and then it's going to be out of your control to fix it um and so I just gotcha I want you to understand perhaps we should just leave the election day out until it's decided by the legislature okay okay oh we do that because then we can always amend the policy once if they do that which they probably will but it'd be better not to have it there you know can you maybe email us all those changes that you want and then we can maybe give you our input reveal again yeah just send them out it

129seems like you're giving us a lot of dates and we're all kind of running together I just had some administrative questions about personnel how many vacation days and this is really getting in the weeds here for this conversation I can follow up on this conversation later but I need to understand how many vacation days at what intervals people get vacation days are people carrying over vacation days now is this just going to create an additional problem of carryover as we move forward so I think we need to look at that whole sequence of events and how the system Flows In order to be able to in order for me to be able to vote on something like this I'm going to have to understand better what the vacation policy is for non-teaching staff non-bargaining unit

130staff and how many vacation days they get how those are accrued how many are people carrying over and what effect does this have on the carryover process from year to year to year because sometimes a good deed can end up being an administrative issue that's really hard to correct down the road and I'd rather see us take the appropriate action on the front end than to have to come back a couple of years from now and address that on the back end okay got it and that is a lot of information and I can get that out to you if you want to meet 101 or with me and Mike even I can do that as well but I have that information for you that I can get out that's great well I think we

131don't like to see it just draw it up so that was the only change to five colon 330. uh seven colon 3-0 students um underneath student assignment at inter-district transfer so with all of the issues that had unfolded with the magnet schools we talked about doing a um updating our policy not just for American dreamer even though that's where I'm sorry the Montessori Academy of Peace because that's where the issues were but for all our magnet programs so the change to this does just strictly say the magnet schools and all the schools names have been taken out but what it is stated is that families that enter the lottery for one of the district's magnet schools and have been selected for enrollment will remain in a magnet school for the duration of their continued DPS

13261 education career so what this means is if I got enrolled in the Montessori Academy of Peace as a four-year-old 4K then I don't have to worry about doing anything but the necessary paperwork like the intent to return that is needed every single year and so I will just continue moving on and we know there's only going to be so many slots available at 3K and 4K because we cannot over populate the um kindergarten so just making sure that is clear the other thing that has been added because these are our magnet schools students that display gross disruptive behaviors after appropriate interventions have been provided may have their magnets that is revoked and placed in his or her home Attendance Center immediately the family would have to reapply the following school year and be selected

133through the traditional Lottery process so what this means is I can be in one of my magnet schools and do something truly egregious and have to be removed when I apply again the next year I'm taking a chance on being accepted because there are other people applying as well with that one if you if I had three kids going to a magnet school and one of them was in that situation it would have only apply to that one and then also The Sibling rule doesn't apply for them if you have a sibling and you and let's say it's three of you and the oldest gets removed you just don't get to come back because you have siblings there you are removed for a reason now the other piece that's in there and everybody knows it

134but I'm going to say it anyway there must be room in the grades requested there must be room in the grades requested so even with siblings you still have to have room in those grades in order to be so you know to go into those grades even with your siblings the other change was the high Mobility I'm going to let um Mike talk about that piece Dr Clark Mrs Bradford and Board of Education the first read for the high Mobility portion in working with transportation coordinator Kimmy Taylor one of the biggest problems we have is the fact that currently if you are in school a and you move to school B's boundary you are allowed to stay in school a which that does that will not discontinue but transportation is provided and what that does

135is that makes everybody else on that bus late as well because that bus is now going off for lack of a better term off a route to pick up a student farther away and then when that bus is late then the tears are messed up throughout the rest of the day or after school so um in conversation with Dr Clark who can can allude to what the previous intent of the policy was the fact that respective students have fulfilled the main minimum requirements for transportation will be afforded Transportation at no charge that that that language right there makes the district liable for picking up students out of out of Route status for lack of a better term so we're looking for next year to take that burden off of the driver because there's very few

136drivers but also then getting kids to school on time instead of making a Bus full of kids off schedule because of an outlier if that makes sense yeah how many kids will this affect um I don't know at this time and we would have to look at how many kids it would affect but just out of History so you would know the goal was stability keeping a child in the school to the end of the year and parents were always told but you would have to continue to you would have to provide transportation because if you go ahead on and send them to the new school then if they're outside that 1.5 mile radius then they will get transportation and so parents would choose to transport for that stability purpose yeah right now I assume

137you've one student that moves affects the entire bus load of kids and no changes would take place until not until next till next till next August so that but that is the the proposal okay so those are the only changes for this policy the um well the last of the chances all right are there any questions on this presentation all right we got a lot of these signs so the last one I would like to ask to Dr Mike Curry chief operations to join us in the podium and discuss the supplemental abatement hello again um so supplemental abatement is something new um in 2019 2020 a prior board completed the sale of bonds and made a suggestion that all future boards Abate an additional two cents every year um this would be a supplement I'm

138using the term supplemental because there's really no other because it's not required so the supplemental abatement would be on top of the already scheduled 4.25 million we're abating already in this current year and would continue until 2045. um you probably already know this but a no official board action was taken back then so a previous board cannot obligate future boards to make the the two cent abatement so I just thought it was my duty to let you know that you have an opportunity to make this abatement or not to so because this is the first year so one of the things to think about is what that two cents looks like so to the um taxpayer two cents off of their tax bill will probably be a six dollar to twenty dollar savings for the

139individual taxpayer but in order to reach that two cents um reduction currently just got some really good news actually just yesterday that hour or on Friday that our eav went up because of a state multiplier that was added at the last minute of 1.0165 which is really helpful but still we're looking at 720 to 740 million dollars in eav and so that two cents abatement would probably cost about 145 to 200 000 of operating funds so something from the Ed fund something from working cash something from the sales tax fund so um not abating um is an option and abating is an option it doesn't have to be too sent it could be one sense it could be nine cents I wouldn't recommend nine cents but um so this Levy this supplemental Levy conversation is

140going to happen every year for until 2041 it's going to be an option of every board every year until there's some action that either says to to take it forward or to to stop having that conversation so um I'll take questions in a second but whatever whatever happens after we have this discussion during action there'll need to be a motion if the board so chooses to approve a supplement supplemental abatement of X dollars so does anybody have any questions on the supplemental abatement I'm not I can't speak to the why because I wasn't here but I can answer questions about costs and Loans can you walk us through that number again like a three hundred thousand dollar property yeah sure so uh the the typical example when people talk about tax leabies a hundred thousand

141dollar home but in this in this environment of the way home sold last last year and the year before I would say that it it's it's fair to talk about hundred thousand dollar homes to three hundred thousand dollar homes and so a two cent reduction on a tax bill um for a hundred thousand dollar house is six dollars and sixty cents uh three hundred thousand dollar home would be twenty dollars roughly a year uh this for this particular Levy season that two cents would make that that kind of difference and and just the other side of the coin that 150 to 200 000 is three to four years of any one individual teacher from year one two and three potentially four that you would be losing from your Reserves that help yeah does anybody want

142to discuss this or just think it over before we vote on it and I can come back up during action if you have other questions any question conversations we have an obligation we have a debt obligation we were left with a debt obligation and I I think we all have to kind of look at each other and say how are we going to take care of our debt obligation or do we continue to kick this can down the road or do we solve our debt obligation a little bit sooner and uh we we take an action to do that um I don't necessarily like the way the can was kicked down the road but I also understand that obligation and I with that I'd recommend to the board that we address that issue our our

143rate our final rate Mike would be what you know that yeah that's a guess that's a guess let me clarify something before I answer that question paying this abating this or not abating this will not affect the time frame in which you pay off your debt um this is just taking a burden off of the taxpayer of six to twenty dollars I mean somebody may obviously have lower or or higher rates but the guaranteed or the required rate on the previous eav was going to be around 58 cents we are currently Ball parking around 55. so we're already under that required required rate because our eav has gone up does that help you 490. oh you know you're talking about the overall right now our component of the composite um we are looking around 498

144but we just got a like I said we just got a multiplier um having not had a multiplier before I reached out to Josh Tanner uh usually everybody's multiplier is a one um this year was like a 1.016 and just waiting to see how that's going to affect the Tiff Zone that could come the the aav could go up and then that two cents could come down on what we would have to pay but the rate on the taxpayer doesn't change two cents is two cents on your house right right whatever your property you own two cents is two cents on the math right does this only affect homeowners no well that's who it affects most the most yeah that's exactly who anybody that owns property within Property Owners yeah so value of your property

145divided by three for residential times two cents for one hundred dollars a v80 yes well depends how you do it if you do it or you can do it by point two cents percent which is already takes the zeros out for you everybody understand this yeah I understood so what they're basically saying is that this is not raising taxes this is just not artificially lowering them and well said actually I mean that that nailed it right there not artificially lowing it lowering it and taking on um taking something out of your Reserves it affects the way you operate the district long term and as times get tougher your reserves will be there yeah long-term Reserve health is something that's viable to every District or vital to every District's success down the road all right well

146as I said this is a presentation first reading if anybody has any questions that pop to their mind please don't hesitate to reach out to no it's tonight oh you're both voting us tonight never mind that's okay just the deadline to add an abatement to a tax levy is February 28th so it's this meeting right our February 28th no more planning never mind yeah [Music] it doesn't make any difference to me we get a discussion now how does everybody feel about it I agree all right then yeah let's clarify the voting process right so so when the item comes up on the agenda coming up we vote down there's no motion yet well I mean you know we don't want anybody to be confused Mr Brown can give you a couple hours we'll take action

147on that is there a motion to Abate in the in the action item to the roll call is roll call action item so the on the motion to obey the the vote is no vote no so if you do not wish to Abate the two cents you vote no sorry yeah so we're voting something down and remember if the tax rate becomes an issue down the road whoever's in the room now or whoever's in the root in room in five six seven years can choose to to artificially lower it to support the taxpayer when that time comes all right we'll let you know when the time comes all right we will now move on to our consent items does anyone have uh I want an item pulled from the consent items to discuss and or

148vote on separately I would just like say on Section D discussed just so I know a little bit more about it oh yeah the long discussion of it but I'd like to hear more specifically what it is enter government or agreement to join the schools of Illinois public Cooperative sipc come on again we're not going to do a recommendation and stuff first no you should have discussion okay so you just want to discuss it you don't want to pull it out here discuss okay so we read the section first and then we can discuss we have a recommendation for the game yeah okay do we have any um okay do we have a recommendation for the consent items right read them and then we'll discuss yes I recommend the board approve the consent items as

149percented which includes a minutes open closed session meetings January 24 2023 be Freedom of Information report c monthly bills D intergovernmental agreement to join the schools of Illinois public Cooperative sipc join the Bible National purchasing cooperative F accepting a gift from the Community Foundation for the impact 100 grand for American dreamers STEM Academy G accepting a gift from A.E Staley Jr Foundation H amendment to donation agreement with staples the office Superstore LLC I job description a virtual speech language pathologist M making Pie special ed J job descriptions assistant superintendent update assistant superintendent of diversity equity and inclusion update assistant superintendent of teaching and learning update Chief operational officer update director of buildings and grounds update director of community engagement update you have a motion second anybody thank you all right no discussion okay cooperatives okay

150so um good evening board um just for clarification just for transparency it's it this the discussion applies to both the sipc and also the by board line item there so essentially they're the same so oh this applies to vote so during the finance committee we made a presentation on the opportunity to participate in this purchasing cooperative and as I've stated in the the cover letter there it cites the statute Illinois statutes by which this is allowed to take place so essentially these Percy cooperatives are established and they have essentially vetted the best pricing available on a particular item so what we're doing is we're having an opportunity to to join these cooperatives we have no commitment to use the cooperative and we have no cost to join as well so what we're going to do

151is we'll use this as an opportune to seek out pricing from them to see if that's preferential to the district those those that that pricing could be significant um in in a very fairly large percentage so that's the nest that's what we're asking for is the opportunity to seek out this pricing and see what see what if anything we want to do with that thank you very much that really helps us connect the two yeah that's right Brian's got some that's all I needed we can go ahead yeah I'm sorry to jessalyn Brian so I don't know anything about this but what I'll tell you is the the 10-20.21 which is the provision on bidding contracts has a provision in it which says that you can you can join a purchasing Cooperative if in fact

152it's approved by the by isby there's a short list of purchasing cooperatives that are approved by isby since I didn't know anything about this and I'm going to get in trouble again um if this isn't on that list there's potentially a problem I will tell you there's a difference of opinion about these purchasing cooperatives I take a conservative View if you were to check elsewhere you'd probably find a more liberal View I got to cover myself yeah so all right should we table that one or remove that one from the items until we know more information foreign to be fair you should approve it but if you're going to listen to council and he he has a long history of of um knowledge then you should table that one piece um but personally I believe

153you should approve it we talked about this extensively in finance did the uh we're in favor of moving forward with these These are basically discounts on everything that we need for office School operations and to to be fair to Brian he has stood up and made this point yeah doing his job yeah I mean begrudging him that are there other Illinois school districts yes part of this yes okay I was at a I was at a meeting for uh csbos in Chatham on last Thursday everybody in the room but one was in a Cooperative either one called tips which we are still looking at as a possibility for the sipc so if we get in trouble we're not by ourselves so what do you say correct you're not by yourselves what I mean as it's

154been stated we don't we're not required to utilize these things so if at some point some case law moves through the court systems and decides that these are not okay then we would simply discontinue use right correct and we're not we're going to use them as necessary so I mean if there's there's some latitude within the understanding of the law until that law is solidified by case action then we can do you know what we need to we do what we want fair right just so just for the educational the the package which is in there for sipc actually lists the other school districts in Illinois who are participating in this so just to give you an idea of of the number and of the of the other school districts and the quantity of them

155and also whether or not they're in the area that's if you might find it helpful it was a huge number two pages and three columns each the the major reason for coming to you is the logistics piece of some of the things that we're not able to get the the the uh the co-ops seem to have more access to particular items so does this help with like um you know supply chain you know um yeah yeah I mean that that's part of the hope for sure okay buying furniture for new schools things like that well that's one thing yeah I hear you so again I just want to make sure I I have no position on this obviously you get to do what you want to do I want to make sure you've got full

156information so the bidding statute normally requires you to bid so that you get obviously competitive bids and the legislative presumption is as a result you get the lowest price this is an exception to the bidding statute the presumption is that in fact these bidding cooperatives will get a lower price without bidding right that districts are so I absolutely acknowledge that their districts doing this what I'm cautioning you is that the bidding statute is there to protect the public and the you know if a person who wanted a bid doesn't get an opportunity to bid reads the statute and sees it's got to be approved by isby and it isn't approved by isby you've got some exposure How likely is that I don't have any idea I you know I agree that there are districts doing

157this for sure Mike and I have discussed this I know that I asbo is promoting it I asbo as the business officials organization I know that there are other law firms that think this is okay I'm trying to give you full information you decide what you want to do with it gotcha thanks Brian all right are we ready I just wanted some clarification on um I and J because we voted for that speech language pathologist um agency or something so I'm not sure why we're now we're talking about a virtual and then if Dr Clark could just clarify the updates on these job descriptions for us please so um as I discussed with all the job descriptions I am reviewing all of them making sure that they are current so we've had some job descriptions

158that had not been updated since 2010 2012 2015. so I'm going through every single one to make sure that they are current um and then if there are some changes that need to be made I'm making sure that I make those changes I also let the staff know that there are going to be changes so they can review it and then I'm bringing them to the board okay but you've not made any changes as of right now no right now this was just the um just for clarification purposes nothing has nothing has been changed well it will be because you've already approved it but yes nothing right now has been changed and this is just a third of them I'm going through every single job description from level 13 to 20. and then Kathy thank

159you Kathy now the virtual one is actually an attempt for me to recruit from a group of people who traditionally don't have the ability to come on campus to work and maybe our stay-at-home moms or have are in the front that they're moving and then they could still work for uh instead of trying to pay a contractor to do the same exact thing so this is an addition to the contracted service that we voted okay the contractor that we're using still hasn't produced a person okay yeah so this would replace that contract is what it will yes even better thank you all right roll call vote Dr Collins Brown what are we voting on now okay well I the whole consent group I can't vote Yes for all of them because some of my voting

160no so so that's what we can pull it out and vote on it separately then right okay but we've already had at the beginning yeah yeah when Andrew asked if we wanted to pull the vote on separately no one said anything yeah so if you so now that's why I didn't know I was voting on them separately at this point because Sonos have talked about so many different things tonight so we'll have to all abstain we'll have to because I want some of the stuff table and I had questions which ones you want to have a discussion on the ones you want to have table well it doesn't matter I'll just abstain I'll abstain he's already set up staying several times yeah okay okay um Mr Spanish all right Mr Taylor aye Mr Scheider aye

161Miss Banks aye Mr Clevenger aye and Mr Dion aye 6i0 nay one abstain motion carried we'll now move on to a roll call Action items to a recommendation for the personal action items yes I recommend the board approve the Personnel action items listed in the memo from Jason Fox Director of Human Resources and the human resources department as presented the motion someone second discussion roll call votes Mr Scheider aye Mr Dion aye Mr Taylor aye Dr Collins Brown aye Miss Banks aye Mr Spanish and Mr Clevenger aye 7i09 motion carried for the record the next roll call action item the agenda previously stated award bids for roof repairs at muffley elementary and Pershing Early Learning Center and it now reads award bids for the roof repairs at muffley elementary and Parsons Elementary Schools please note

162the board packet at muffley elementary and Parsons Elementary School's information do we have a recommendation to award bids for roof repairs at muffley elementary and Parsons Elementary School yeah yes I recommend the board approve and award biz for roof repairs at buffley elementary bid at package a and Parsons Elementary bid package B schools to top Quality Roofing as presented do you have motion second discussion roll call vote Mr Dion aye Mr Clevenger aye Ms Banks aye Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Scheider and Mr Spanish all right 7i09 motion carry do we have a recommendation to purchase a used 2016 Ford F5 uh F250 pickup truck yes I recommend the board approve the purchase of a used 2016 Ford F-250 pickup truck as presented the motion second discussion we seem to be purchasing

163a lot of vehicles I was gonna say yeah all right have we got any of these vehicles I think that might be it so a while back you purchased uh some trucks some new trucks and vans um well the Vans were put we were take we were on we were the last to make the cut and then we were cut um so those kind of sort of went away then we went out and purchased some necessary trucks the Vans came back as an option we cut the cot we cut the number from the original ask to account for the new trucks those are actually coming at the end of this or are they coming in March Kent they're coming tomorrow but exciting what the Vans are coming tomorrow the Vans are coming tomorrow the trucks

164are already here and and already in play this truck is for the teamsters who need a new vehicle and so this will be added to their Fleet and we were able to find a used truck and we have this truck we do not have this truck the truck is waiting for us we put a hold on it of 500 and Dan Hayne found it in Mattoon for us so this is very much needed for the teamsters um so for future could we get updates on this of these purchases so like if we purchase Vans and they don't come in you did I mean if they're executed you we we mentioned that last time and that's why we bought the trucks um the Vans I mentioned at one point in time we were back on the

165schedule can you just put something in the weekly update to say that if you know something that if it hasn't gone through that we you know just at a two-month interval just say something that's approved fell apart do this unseen circumstances or something like well I guess there's a good question are we waiting on any other vehicles I mean we got some coming tomorrow yeah we should be caught up actually now correct except for some of the ones you can't if you're running a chop shop I swear uh it's a very complex thing so originally prior to me coming here before Mike was here there was a order placed for 12 Vans I believe uh eight of those were to go to maintenance and four were to go to Transportation um the four will go

166into Transportation work uh passenger vans the ones going to maintenance for cargo vans so uh then Ford put the kibosh on the entire order they said it wasn't going to happen we came to the board asked for approval to buy used pickup trucks which we did then we after that takes place we got notice from Ford that they are going to go ahead and manufacture the cargo vans not the passenger vans so we had an opportunity to buy eight uh cargo vans we paired that back to six because we'd already acquired to pick up trucks to take their place and the we still have no word whatsoever on the cargo vans it's just like in the future if something falls through if it doesn't move forward because it looks like we're starting a dealership here

167there's no because we're purchasing truck after truck after truck you're welcome to what do we maintenance trucks for a ride what's our inventory how many vehicles do we have what do we have yes a lot a lot I mean in the maintenance department they're probably 30 to 35 pickups bands and small pickups and and large heavy trucks so it's it's a significant number okay so then why do we need this one uh because some of them are they're aging quite aging some of them are almost Beyond repair some of them are not roadworthy that we have at this point so we have a we have we have very nice vehicles and we have some that are incredibly poor condition okay if you see some of our vehicles on the road yeah there would be no

168doubt in your mind that we should be turning our Fleet a little bit more regularly but we have the passenger bands correct yeah we have no idea when the passenger vans may arrive and full disclosure this purchase was authorized by the board like nine months ago for this for the teamsters to get a new truck yeah I remember yeah it's just timing it just keeps coming not here yet so we're just questioning where we just found one we just found one all right roll call vote Mr Clevenger aye Miss Banks aye Mr Scheider aye Mr Spanish Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion aye and Dr Collins Brown aye 7i 09 motion carried do we have a recommendation to increase teacher ready participants from 5 to 10. yes I recommend the board approved to increase teacher ready

169participants from five to ten as presented emotion motion just second second discussion I like to see a successful program roll call vote Mr Spanish Mr Clevenger aye Ms Banks aye Dr Collins Brown aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion yes and Mr Scheider aye 7i zerone all right yeah this is the abatement question the information was shared and discussed with the board members during reports from Administration regarding the supplemental abatement is there a motion from the board members for the social uh the supplemental abatement for a specific amount to uh no I mean I think it's stated as two percent correct it's blank all right I thought there was a motion in the agenda no so do we have to make a motion to Canada so I make it so I can make an emotion to

170to not have an abatement yeah I think that's the way to okay so I move that we forgo do not have a supplemental abatement for do I need to say the year for two thousand yeah two two tax Libby 2022-2023. do I second second discussion the motion sorry do you have it written okay the the motion is to not Abate on the tax levy for fiscal year 2022-2023. yeah supplemental abatement so discussion to not Abate so if we don't want to artificially lower taxes yes so now we will be voting yes that was the discussion you had in the pre during the previous discussion when that wasn't what was said before yeah it's not what we talked about before but we're working with the way the motion was worded before but it was the substance

171of what you wanted to do all right so the way the motion that I have made it says that we are not abating which means there will be no reduction artificial reduction in the tax levy so if you are in favor of increasing operational funds by two percent on the Ava 100 100 then you vote Yes um that's not what your emotion is President I'm sorry Mike do you want to come to the podium what you have made a motion is to not abate not partake in a supplemental abatement for 22-23 tax year so if you agree with not abating you will say yes if you disagree with that and want to Abate the two cents not two percent two cents you will say no and that's in Melissa's right is exactly the reverse of

172the way it was yes that's why I'm telling them it gets you the same result you just and Brian why I didn't I pray we were we were not going to get a motion right okay does everybody understand s the motion in second on the floor is to not Abate so we will not yeah to not to not Abate do not so no yes I agree to not abate yes so there's a motion on the floor by Miss banks in a second it was seconded by Mr Scheider a bait Miss banks no oh I'm so sorry yes I'm sorry I heard the last minute you had me all the way and at the last minute I'm sorry that's okay this is gonna be on YouTube voting yes so the motion on the floor is to

173not Abate so if you do not want to Abate you will vote Yes and if you rather Abate you will vote no I do not want to obey okay so I'll say it again so it's emotion on the floor by Miss banks seconded by Mr Scheider to not Abate Miss Banks yes Dr Collins Brown Epstein Mr Taylor yes Mr Scheider aye Mr Dion aye Mr Clevenger aye and Mr Spanish 6 I zero nay one abstain motion carry thank you very much should not have been that difficult no I will now move on to announcements the Board of Education Administration sends condolences to the families of A.D centers who passed away Monday February 6 2023. Mr Sanders was the father of Samuel Sanders school security officer in Stephen Decatur Middle School we'll now move on to

174important dates February 15th district-wide half day for all students February 20th President's Day holiday no school and district offices are closed February 28th principal uh principle for a day March 6 Cosmic Polaski Pulaski holiday no school in session school is insect is in session yes sir March 10th parent and teacher conferences no school for students March 13th through 17th spring break week no school and district offices are open the next public portion of the next regular meeting with Board of Education will be uh at 6 30 PM Tuesday February 28 2023 at the Kyle administration building do we have a motion to adjourn so move second all in favor say aye aye aye those opposed the same sign thank you fresh and carried we are now adjourned