11/15/22 BOE Meeting

001who else known here both times your time out there yeah foreign I was in the parking lot are you doing your own thing congratulations he got the heart of the district Awards yeah I don't know they did that they started it during the pandemic and then now it's back which is awesome I think it's so uh Mr Randstad got it and so did AZ I think Maria's going to say something about tonight okay so we did not conduct an employee disciplinary it's a full house tonight when it's once everybody foreign oh it's showing it oh that's the account name oh the Wi-Fi are you ready but I did it I did it just four hours ago are we ready the board of education has met and closed executive uh to the session to discuss appointment

002employment and compensation of specific employees of the public body and Collective negotiating matters between the board and representative of its employees no action was taken during close executive session we will now move on to our district highlights I will ask Maria Robertson to join us at the podium to present information regarding our heart of the district good evening President Taylor members of the board Dr Clark and Melissa student ambassador AZ here I am excited to tell you that we have brought back the heart of the district award and this is a monthly recognition of a student and a staff member who are doing great things for our entire School community our district community and our community at Largemouth in Decatur we are very honored to have selected last month's winner I have a highlight video

003I'd like to share with you guys so you could see who our winners were can I have your attention for a brief moment please I have something that I want to read and share with you today it is about the heart of the district oh my goodness good evening good afternoon everybody so for those of you that don't know me I'm Dr Clark I'm your superintendent and I have a surprise for a young man in this room I'm going to read a little something without utilizing the student's name first this particular person worked at John's Hill over the summer to work with younger students during summer school and he was also working through the DPS summer school program monthly is known for having a heartfelt family atmosphere and he has truly worked hard with teachers

004to return monthly to that culture our school is completely fully staffed and I think that has a lot to say in education right now at the Eisenhower homecoming parade a young boy by the name of Owen karch a first grader was watching the parade with his family he saw this young man who turned to him and called him by name the little boy was so overwhelmed with joy he was like I think I've met a celebrity he remembered me so how awesome is that Mr Randstad goes out of his way to show appreciation to his staff and picks up whatever there is a need I've seen him take out the trash handling breakfast walking kindergarten to their destination he is a great leader this young man who I want to present to you now has

005been nominated is azarian Perry never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world indeed it's the only thing that has ever has so congratulations to you Mr muffley I mean I'm sorry Mr Randstad [Music] I wanted to make sure that this was presented to him in this room because I'm looking forward to more people just like yourselves as being the heart of our district [Applause] I would love to take credit for this but um the nomination that we received for azarian the mom is actually here tonight at the board meeting so miss karch you just want to leave your hand and just so as her first grader that um azarian impacted that day at the homecoming parade so it was really really neat to see that come around full circle

006and without even asking azarian is actually wearing his heart of the district lapel pen tonight so that's really great so continue to do the great things that you're doing is welcome to nominate a student or a staff member so just visit our website dps61.org heart nomination we would love to see more nominations come in so thank you thank you I will ask uh now ask Chrissy molenix principal of South Shores Elementary School to come to the podium present information regarding South Shores principal Linux wait for our custodian Mr Clark secretary Bradford and members of the Board of Education my goal tonight is to highlight all the great things that are happening at South Shores Elementary being the principal of South Shores has been a dream come true I'm truly living the dream I first want

007to tell you about my dedicated staff teaching is a hard job and this group makes it look easy they work together to do what is best for our students and our school I have three staff members who have stepped up this year and taken kids into their homes when DCFS has had no place for kids to go that is going the extra mile the T-shirt I'm wearing says Kicking It Old School and that has been our theme we started the school year off with our Welcome Wagon we rode the school bus into our students neighborhood and welcomed them back to school in August we had our annual back to school cookout and was very pleased with the great turnout we sold chances for students to win the right to put a pie in a teacher's

008face and the money that was raised went to a local animal charity in October we had our annual fall festival and once again another great turnout this year we brought back the Halloween parade the kids the teachers and parents all thoroughly enjoy this old tradition this Thursday we will have our 21st Thanksgiving feast and turkeys on strike play this tradition was started in 1999 at the time Mr Buffett had just come to town and he subsidized us we serve around 500 meals and by meal I mean a complete turkey dinner with all the fixings South Shores is fully staffed and I feel our climate has changed for the better we are constantly working on attendance today we had 32 34 students absent but are at our last half day we had 125 gone and that's

009not acceptable this year we have monthly attendance assemblies and students are given brag tags for perfect attendance we have a traveling trophy that is awarded to the class with the highest attendance percentage the fifth grade is currently in possession of the trophy today we celebrated Mr woods and Mrs Browning both had perfect attendance we have an attendance committee that is meeting regularly to look at attendance and brainstorm ways to change old habits and make going to school a priority South Shores excelled in Cross Country this year we had several students that finished in the top 10 for their grade level this year for the first time in many years we have cheerleading back at South Shores and over 18 girls are involved after school clubs are back this year we have an art Club student

010council and busy bees which is a cooking club these clubs are only possible because of the teachers who sponsor them this year we have reintroduced field trips that is what students remember about their Elementary School years our students have gone to the apple orchard the pumpkin patch the Zoo Chicago tomorrow all of the third fourth and fifth grades are going to the U of I to a basketball game and I guarantee you that for many it will be the first time that they are on a college campus last week we had a veterans program that was very well attended the students did an excellent job putting on the program and when it was over all of the Vets filed out to a standing ovation and lots of high fives it brought tears to my eyes

011academically my students are working very hard to make up ground that they lost during the pandemic we have structures and strategies in place and teachers are working harder than they ever have before I am so proud of my teachers and when I say teacher I mean any adult that comes in contact with my students I'm sure other principals might have a different opinion but I truly believe the a team is working at South Shores if you have not driven by the school lately you're in for a surprise the DPS maintenance department did an amazing job installing all new windows and doors this year our library is being updated and we are getting a brand new playground installed sometimes the little things matter and I need to brag that we have an amazing car line dismissal

012system we can dismiss about 150 students in less than 10 minutes I know many of you have heard of one church one school but at South Shores we are one school seven churches we are so lucky to have the support of New Beginnings Church of God Mount Calvary Lutheran Church Vintage Church South Shores Christian Maranatha Church Trinity Church of the Nazarene and Resurrection Church all these churches contribute to Our Success today Mount Calvary dropped off 350 hats that they had hand knitted one for every student a loving gift of kindness and warmth on a cold day but last but not least I want to give a shout out to my office staff without them I'd be lost and thank you Dr Clark for allowing me to lead this wonderful school and give back to a

013community that I love Macy is one of our cheerleaders and she has an invitation to if you are not do anything this Thursday our Thanksgiving feast and turkey's on strike Mr shorefighty is our Music Teacher and they'll be putting that on so we'd love to come there's no charge for anything and it's just a great way to see some really great people in Decatur so thank you thank you that was beautiful [Applause] all right we will now move on to our public participation the Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself and be brief comments should be limited to 30 minutes any public comments submitted to the board secretary will be included in the record please note that during any Board of Education meeting and public participation board members

014do not respond and or comment to public comments All comments are referred to the administration furthermore the board refrains from referring to specific students or staff members by name and will request that public commenters refrain from doing so as well the requests that you omit names is made to protect you from allegations of a liberal or slander or from violations of the Illinois Student Records act it is not intended to Shield an employee from criticism Ms Bradford do we have anyone wishing to speak to the board this evening and or do we have any sent comments that would be added to the record no comments to add to the record but I would like to call Sean Trail Williams to the podium good evening good evening thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak

015and let me say this is my first time doing this I know we got three business but I'll get through it my name is Chantelle Williams I am the grandmother and legal guardian of four grandsons two presently enrolled at South Shores the children were placed in my custody in the beginning of covet iPads virtual learning and kids in general was not an easy task last December their mother my daughter died unexpectedly the transition from temporary to permanent was scary it's been a long time since I navigated through the school system however I'm making it though my reason for wanting to speak to you all today is that with Thanksgiving coming I'm thankful for South Shores I'm thankful for the secretary who gives my grandsons the emotional support that they need when they walk through the

016door and she can see on their face if they're not doing good I'm thankful for the teachers I'm thankful for Miss Mullinax my first initial contact was during covet where one of my grandsons left his iPad at home he hadn't told me she knew it she brought it to him then my daughter died it was during Christmas break Miss mull next call is there something we can do for you is there something you you need it's it's always communication and I see the Improvement in my grandson's being in South Shores they come home they talk to me the communication line is open all the time whenever I go into the school never see Miss Mullinax at the desk I come up through a school where the principal was always at the desk my kids come

017up to school principal always at the desk Miss mullinix is involved she's all around the building so I am thankful for Miss malnex the teachers and the staff at South Shores for helping me transition with being almost 50 years old having kids in the public school system especially during time of covet thank you thank you [Applause] Megan Murray Megan murick good evening I'm Megan Myrick I will keep this very brief this is just basically for awareness I'm coming about the picture day company that we have contracted with for three years at this time um I know that I've been in communication with each of you about issues we had at the school where I work and also the school where my children attend but I did want you to know that I used Facebook which

018I realize is not a scientific method of doing a small survey and I got responses from the following schools letting us know that they're having the same issues that we're having as far as not you know poor and miscommunication delaying getting the pictures wrong children being sent to the wrong family all of these schools were the ones that were responded in a negative manner Garfield Montessori adsa Johns Hill Parsons hope Pershing Dennis Eisenhower John's Hill sorry I said that twice they complained that many times MacArthur Bomb Franklin Grove Stephen Decatur and muffley so definitely not 100 of all the pictures were wrong but all of those schools are having the same type of issues that we are so I'm hoping that we can kind of um look at whether we want to continue using this

019company or not because it is I know it's small in the grand scheme of things but I mean school pictures are important to a lot of people so it's something to definitely look at I don't think this company is equipped to handle what they've taken on with doing our pictures here thank you thank you Eric Pratt or point or Pat Peyton I wasn't even close [Laughter] to make you all for having me speak tonight my name is Eric Payton I have lived in several different communities Champaign County Macon County before Winnebago County and I have gotten so much support from South Shores Elementary School they're very good staff my wife and I are foster parents and we have one child with you know some behavioral issues and South Shore showed really good patience with him

020they worked very well with him the other child isn't you know she's good but I just want to tell the small and eggs and the staff at South Shore Elementary that I really appreciate the things they've done for him and uh anything I can do for them I'm greatly to do thank you thank you thank you Christina Carey [Applause] in the evening I am az's mother but I want to thank him for being there for all the students and being a good role model but I also come to speak on behalf of South Shores Elementary of the parents we are so thankful of all the staff Miss Mullenix they have went up and Beyond to help all the students through covet up till now with making adoptions If the child is sick they're calling are

021they okay is there anything I can do and it's not just with Mullenix it's the whole entire school they're all very caring and I just thought everyone should know thanks thank you [Applause] will Wetzel hi I'm a Wetzel and I know what you're thinking um I'm here to say mean things again but it's kind of going with the territory at this moment up there I see a group of uh I see a group group of people that are entrusted with the lives of 8 000 children in fact over the over the four years that you serve you'll touch the lives of ten thousand kids and the decisions you make now will follow those children for the next 50 to 100 years they'll also affect our community to put this into context my daughter just turned

022seven in May she'll carry her DPS education into her 81st birth 85th birthday in 2100. the effects of your policy decisions today will be felt uh indicator in the Decatur Community for long uh for longer than most of us in this room will be alive so that's the gravity of the situation that's the power we entrusted uh entrusted you when uh you were elected and with all that power to improve children's lives you bought you could have used acid funds to bridge the learning Gap accumulated over the two years uh two years of the pandemic instead you're going to build a school on property that you already gave away that you sat in back rooms that you refuse to engage the community in and for what your own egos the good news is that shiny

023new building will be there come 2100 unless that is it's built to the same quality as John's Hill if it is there in 2100 it'll probably look less like Dennis and more like Centennial or Woodrow but it'll be there the bad news is that the 10 000 children and their families that you lied to that you ignored and that you showed that it was okay to break the law 16 times have been abandoned a bridge a learning gap on their own and many of those children won't bridge that Gap and they'll carry that with them into the next grade into Junior High in high school into 2050 and into 2100. so maybe you should all stop arguing about flash cards and start acting like the public servants that hold the future of 10 000 kids

024lives in their hands that's all president thank you we'll now move on to student ambassadors reports are there any reports this evening good afternoon board um Amazon Perry I came to tell you guys that I Eisenhower today we had some juniors seniors and freshmen got the opportunity to go to the BOS Center to learn about trading school and the opportunities they could have outside of going to college would provide going to uh trade school and then also the sophomores got the opportunity to come out and look at the Heartland Tech Academy and see what the uh opportunities they got and I heard some good things about it uh from a student saying that she wants to be a nurse now just going today and getting a good look at uh the programs they had offered

025towards us so thank you guys for about that thank you very much [Applause] we'll now move on to board discussion is there anything the board wants to discuss at this time yes I um we'd like to mention that we had a company come to us at our the finance committee meeting that was talking about um how we could um use solar panels at no cost um the general idea is that the company would pay us to lease the land that we would put the solar panels on and they would pay for all the panels and handle all the state contract language which is extensive and then we would get 10 to 40 percent reduction in our utility bills so it's pretty much you can't lose there's no cost at all as I've said before I

026think it also it's very important that to show Decatur as a progressive community that we get involved with what's going on in the world which more and more people are using solar panels which is one of the cleanest energy ways and also you're saving money so I'd ask for the board to have a consensus to encourage our operations departments to set out rfps to hear from more companies so we have a choice to make between those companies and I don't see any reason to hold off on it because like I said you can't lose um there's no cost and money and there's automatic costs are there automatic savings and utility bills and a little money maybe not a whole lot from leasing the land um so can we get a consensus on that to encourage

027I mean I was in the questions I was in the finance committing as well I said there's I have questions and anything like this Devil's in the details but I'm not opposed to you know utilizing solar power to lower our Energy bill so if we can find the right fit for the district I don't see as long as the land options work as long as the lease options can be worked out in our limit on our benefit but a mutual beneficial way then I think it's worth exploring and I was just curious like are the so are we purchasing the land is that what you were no no we're not they're using our land where we have ins in some of the schools we have an a little bit of extra land you know where

028they could put in enough solar panels to make it worthwhile so no they're paying us to lease our land okay um and that would have to be no grocery what price and you know all these things happen to go but if we find out from all the different companies we can negotiate which one will give us the best deal that's the idea yeah I think it's probably something to look at so if we can work out internally whether or not there's any reason to not do it then let us know but if not then let's start looking at it so just to be clear the consensus is to move forward with investigation investigation I mean it's not rfps to I ask other companies to come and give us presentations and give presentations yeah I just

029want to make sure yeah anybody can get come yeah okay got it anything else discuss one thing I'm confused about again yet on procedure we talked at the work session and you Dr Clark said that you um are talking about setting a goal or establishing how many teacher assistants we would hire um it's not on the agenda so I can't make a motion like I wanted to make to say that the board would set a goal of doing this so how do we proceed if we can't make a motion because I would like to see this District if if the administration is in favor of this now I would like to see our board take a vote that shows that we definitely want to hire as many teacher assistants as we can I'm going to

030ask Dr Curry to come back to the podium do you have your paperwork I do not um Mr shatter and I spoke earlier we went through the paperwork the the question I believe is what's the next steps right as far as whether or not you're going to take action on that well I think they need to know all of the information surrounding what we were discussing so I had him to look at numbers so you'll have an idea of the number we're talking about and the cost behind and I have those numbers I mean it so excuse me uh the the depta contract currently has four levels of starting salary so what I did was I took those plus the armor I am our imrf piece and the insurance sometimes uh just kind of ballparking

031what this might look like a six and a half hour day 180 days which is a little different than we have several categories of death employees that work different hours and the average salary was all in was about 34 000 I don't know if you still have that document with you that I gave you yeah but I have about thirty four thousand dollars uh there was a 166 classrooms if I remember correctly uh and to staff all those classrooms which would be awesome but there we need a lot of people um uh and if we could get them that would be fantastic but that overall cost was going to be over five million dollars um but uh Dr Clark spoke earlier about a focus on K through two and we already have about 24 Tas

032in place that could be utilized in in the classroom setting only and then the difference would be um whatever that number is times roughly 32 to 33 000 and that's the average across all four starting salaries which vary from about 18.50 uh to I'm gonna ballpark it at 22.85-ish I don't have it on me but it's uh so I just divided by four and gave you an average and I think if we you know like you said and I said right from the start we we know realistically we can't hire that many people in the next year um I'd love to but it's you know it's probably not possible but so we're not really talking about the 5 million but somewhere between what we're currently spending in that um so I would really like us

033to move forward I think it's a great statement to the community and to all possible people who are interested in early childhood education to say that we're ready to hire you and we need you so I wish we could get emotion I can't make a motion because it wasn't on the agenda um or it have the administration put something in that framework for the next meeting so that we could vote on it so if I can get um well I think I said my reason I've not put this on the agenda is because it's the the concern that the numbers that Mike is talking about here even if we can't fill those positions we have essentially pledged that money to defta we've said that we're going to spend five million dollars on teaching assistance and

034my concern is that that's going to affect the bargaining that's coming up I appreciate what your ambition is out I mean I'm inclined to support the 30 teaching assistants that superintendent is putting forward here but if we say we're going to spend five million dollars on teaching assistance then I I believe in my limited knowledge of negotiations they're going to want that five million dollars in some capacity so we are not saying we're going to give five million dollars to defta we are saying we would hire as many people as we can that are teaching assistants they receive the money not defta and as I said this very little chance that we'll get anywhere near that number but to set it as a goal to work towards it and remember this is re this is

035going back somewhat to what we used to do just six seven years ago which was have a teacher assistant in every kindergarten and first grade classroom so we're returning to something of what we used to spend money on so it's not like a totally new idea and we desperately need it um I think that's got to be the key message here we're in a crisis those teachers need as much help as you can possibly give them and if we are not sure how much it's going to end up being but we have we certainly have the money right now to afford that and if you look at the budget you can see that for yourself then I think we need to proceed I want to there's a perhaps a misconception that I want to try

036to correct as the procedure so to actually direct Administration to make hires would probably require as Al suggests as Mr Scheider suggests a motion to vote to have a consensus as to what you want the administration to do you know to authorize the administration to move in a particular direction I think requires instead board consensus so I you know I don't know how you collectively want to handle this but there are ways around the agenda item if you want ways around the agenda item you don't that's fine too so so if I understand Mr Schneider's I'm just trying to give you options here if I understand Mr scheider's objective correctly it is that he'd like to have a General District objective to hire more teaching assistants I think what he's saying Al you can correct

037me if I'm misquoting you is he trusts Administration to make decisions as to where the limited number of people you might hire would be and he's nodding his head so that's good I'm not screwing up again where those people are placed I don't think that requires emotion and a vote and instead requires some kind of collective consensus even though it doesn't require it I think it would be an important statement to the community if the board would make pass a motion to that effect and also if we had a motion before us if there was any language that we weren't sure about or you know we can always amend it but if we don't have a motion before us we can't officially discuss it and so that's what I'd like to you know have a

038motion to work from so what I'd be concerned about now I'm speaking is legal not trying to facilitate a procedure I'd be worried about the language of that motion so as to not unduly restrict you if there are administrative decisions to be made in actually implementing what you intend and I'd worry about what effect it had on Mike and on Dr Clark you know who have to apportion you acknowledge you can't get 168's teaching assistants I mean so if you've got 20 you'd have to decide where to put those decide the administration like you said we trust them to do that well that's why I'm suggesting it might be you might have more flexibility with consensus you know it looks like they're already moving in that direction I mean I think you're your message has

039been received I mean I I was at the planning session too and I heard um what was being said the message is received what administration get there assuming there is consensus among all of you well I'm willing to you know support the hiring of Tas as long as you feel that's where the appropriate but I've had this conversation several times and it's not just a matter of an aspirational goal There's real bargaining consequences to this that if you you're making if you make a statement saying that we would like to do this that we would be willing to fund this at this level should we be able to find all these people that you've put that on the table and of a negotiating sense am I incorrect on this you've put the I mean you've

040you've started this this path so um I want to repeat something that was previously said I don't know when or where it was uh but I'll repeat it um Staffing levels are not a mandatory subject of bargaining and so a decision to increase the number of teaching assistants is at the board's discretion sure the the problem and I stood at this Podium once previously on this subject the problem with doing that unilaterally walking into a bargaining year which is in fact what you're doing takes issues off the table because you've done them unilaterally that defta may have a position on I don't we've not been at the bargaining table with definitely in three or four years I don't know there's been a leadership change in depth in the meantime I don't what know what their

041aspirational goals are whether they're aspirational goals are increased numbers in the bargaining unit or their aspirational goal might be we don't want to increase numbers in the bargaining unit we want to increase salary for the people that are here and those are in fact bargaining issues that will without any question arise in bargaining because they always have um and I expressed my concern that your you may be limiting your ability to resolve issues at the table by unilaterally doing things that may not be the aspirational girls of deftone that's my concern and it you know I'm just your employee I you know you get to decide what you want to do my job is to explain to you the possible consequences but as he just said um the number of employees is not currently the

042number of positions I'm sorry is not currently in the deficit agreement that's not something that's part of this negotiation um so uh I I also think it's just a matter of deciding what's the most important thing you know are we worried so much about the money I worry about negotiations are we worried about the education of our children which is the most important thing and when you have the money and I don't see any reason to hold off on adding those positions or setting the goal of adding as many positions as you can so would you be comfortable with doing the consensus or would you rather wait until we can put it on the agenda I'd find with a consensus if we can move this along because I've been working on this for months I

043guess so a couple things so is it the recommendation of administration that we do a TA for every K through to a classroom that would be my recommendation moving forward we will have to you know work through that it's not going to happen overnight but that will be the ultimate goal yes okay um which I I would support that absolutely um I guess when we're talking about 166 ta positions and the approx you know if we were to fill I I so you know just from my experience and background you know it's hard for me to um consider this only aspirationally I understand that realistically that's probably the case but I want to be able to be sure that if we were to say yes we would hire 166 Tas if we could that we

044can sustain that financially because obviously let's say we could hire 166 Tas we don't want to be in a position where we can't sustain that and then we're laying people off you know down the road because that would you know that would be a very bad thing for those those people and and for those classrooms and for our districts so so when we're talking about 166 Tas I think that's where I'm you know I'm assuming that for the K through two you've already done that financial analysis and and it that's part of the recommendation you know that this is what we can sustain and that sort of thing I would even be comfortable with um doing it in pieces so so as we fill these slots then we open that up okay let's now do

045three through five this is sustainable that sort of thing so I I don't I don't have any problem with that being the aspiration I just want to make sure that the financial analysis and sustainability is sound as we as we move forward with um you know that process but certainly I support K through two if that's the recommendation from Administration I would love to see that increase over time as as budget and and the finances allow for that I don't know one way or the other I don't have a problem with the tea in every classroom I want three Tas in every classroom I just don't want to throw a monkey wrench into bargaining that's my concern um just not for nothing 71 open teaching positions how much does it cost to fill those positions

046but those already are budgeted I know but that's what I mean I'm just like the but we're not paying that out right now right I mean quick math 3.5 million okay yeah so it's just um I wouldn't be in favor of making a broad statement of hiring people that we can't find right now I would move forward with the incremental of 6 or 30 but if there's a consensus to move forward with a statement of intent to hire 166 people you know I'm just that's not what I've ever said my statement was hire as many teaching assistants as we can nothing else I'm not concerned I'm not constricting the administration to where they go I would encourage Administration that if a person came and said I'd really rather work with fourth or fifth graders you

047know to get them hired go but I'm not saying that's part of the motion at all or the consensus or anything and I think generally the population the community generally is in favor of getting teaching assistance mostly in the younger grades um and that's what it was before certainly wouldn't want to move people from the current third fourth and fifth grade teaching assistant positions they're in um you know that's but I'm leaving that up you know my proposal is simply saying hire as many teaching assistants as you can and keep that as an open position that it's ongoing that we don't close teaching assistant positions we keep it open at all times okay I can do that that's that's what I would if we're gonna have a consensus that's what I want it to be

048understood if it's your recommendation go ahead okay because that consists from the board I'm fine with I I am fine with you hiring as many teaching assistants as you need um [Laughter] do not believe that we need all that we can get right well okay he said that's I believe that's the superintendence I don't think we all just I don't think any of us disagree with the premise no I think that it's fine I think we all agree that we need more grown-ups in the build we've had this conversation at length and I think we all agree more grown-ups need to be in the building and I think that Al's proposal allows for the administration to employ their discretion as we move forward but I also understand that the importance of saying this board is

049committed to hiring as many grown-ups Tas as we you know can get to come into the building so I understand what you're saying I think that we have I'm trying to be cautious about it I know I know I I can't help myself I'm the same way but I thought Dr Clark seems they got it I want to offer a thought to probably I'm out of turn doing it but I'll do it anyway um in any other context um would the board direct that there be four English teachers at MacArthur or 10 nurses I'm making things up at Eisenhower would you direct that there would be four strands of one through six at any particular building and I ask you rhetorically isn't giving a directive as to a specific number of employees as opposed to

050as needed yeah this is board work get see the right I mean and then the Staffing and situation is up to the administration so that's why I think that this allows yeah Dr Clark to use her discretion okay I think let's find out how do you feel I would like a consensus from the board to hire Tas as warranted moving forward granted there you go I don't care for the word is warranted what does that mean that sounds like you're limiting it in some ways I'm not limiting it that's why I said it that way I'm not limiting I just don't know why the word warranted needs to be in there it sounds like the chance to limit it if you can so why do we have to have that word and I I'm glad

051we're moving forward but I just why are we throwing a word in there to make to kind of take away from what I'm proposing I think maybe it's because if we if the budget would allow 7 000 Tas and we only needed 300. I mean we don't need 70 300 warranties yeah 300 warranty but don't you all agree that we need as many as we can right now and that's the whole message here don't we need as many as we can get right now then just say that this is the way that I'm stating but I think we also have to be able to allow for a formula by Dr Curry somehow so I think you know however we phrased it you guys seemed aligned a couple minutes ago we were aligned at some point

052about we'll not disclose the open position announcements of teaching assistants that will remain open at all times until we decide otherwise how about Dr Clark to anyone who applies and is eligible we will hire them well I was gonna say what if she has to bring it back to us to close it and say inspired this many and I feel like we need to and then we can have that discussion again is that I'm just saying let's not close it at all right now leave it open it up totally and say it's going to be open at all times who's in favor of allowing Dr Clark to utilize the language she has proposed I'm in favor I'm in favor it's not a vote I'm in favor let's hire some Tas all right there you go

053right okay perfect thanks let's do that all right all right anything else for discussion if I don't think I'd like to mention is I'm just very frustrated I have asked two or three times to have something on the agenda and the president or the superintendent has decided that it's not an agenda and yet in the policy handbook it says any board member can ask for an item to be put on the agenda period it doesn't say to be discussed at the executive committee it just says they have the option so I'm under well not understanding why when I ask for something to be on the agenda it's not put on the agenda because if there's something that's not there's no consensus to move forward with we're not going to put it up for a vote

054that's your decision who says there's not consensus that's something to be discussed at the next board meeting that's why I'm asking for it to be on the agenda that's called parliamentary procedure you bring something up you don't have a vote before you bring it up you just have a motion in a second and then you go from there now um I don't know why a president or a superintendent is deciding that something can't be discussed you're discussing it now but I can't make a motion by the rules that I've been told if it's not on the agenda because I have no direction from the rest of the board to put it on the agenda you're just one person but you have the direction of the policy handbook which says you are to put it on

055the agenda so you're making the decision against the policy handbook no I'm just going with what the rest of the board is indicating to me how can they indicate it to you when it's a meeting with just you and the superintendent the vice president how do you know what the other board members feel I asked them you ask every time I put ask for a thing on the agenda and they're all saying you don't want them if they have any interest in what you're proposing that's a very interesting parliamentary procedure I'm sure not sure that follows Robert's Rules of Order and I really wish we would follow our own policy handbook you're not following it that's why I have to keep bringing things up in board discussion because you refuse to let me have something

056put on the agenda so that the public can see that this is what's going to be discussed we're not allowing the public to see what's going to be discussed ahead of time and they might say oh I kind of like to hear what that's going to be discussed about so you're taking away that chance for the public also to see what's being discussed and you're also taking away the chance for a motion to be made and sometimes I've made a motion as part of what I want to go on the agenda that hasn't been allowed to be on the agenda either no comment is needed otherwise I'm just wondering why this happens all right is there anything else that we want to discuss all right we'll now move on to reports from Administration I would

057like to call Kim kurtenbach from bldd representatives to the podium to present an update on the American dreamer STEM Academy project Kim good evening how's everybody doing good morning we are excited tonight to share with you the culmination of the design work that has occurred to date for the new K-8 magnet school that's going to be located at the site of the former Oak Grove School and so you have before you um a packet that's even more detailed than what we're going to show you tonight but we want to go through at a high level of the overall design which I know most of you are very familiar with but we are at the end of the what we call the schematic design phase and so we are right on schedule with where we want

058to be with the overall project schedule there's been a lot of work that has occurred together in the last two months we've been meeting regularly with the building slash advisory committee almost weekly for almost two months now and so we've got a lot of great input there's been members of the American dreamer STEM Academy on that Administration that have had a lot of input into the direction they're very excited about where we're at right now and so we want to bring you up to speed with that overall design process where we're at right now and so we're going to share sort of in it so um what you see on the on the screen right now is the overall site plan for the uh the new building and so of course this is on the

059the site of the previous Oak Grove School which is the corner of North home park and West Center Street so there's approximately 10 acres that the district owns that the building will be located on and it's kind of On The Higher Ground there very similar to where the previous School is located it's directly adjacent um to the east of the 10-acre um uh Oak Park um Oak Grove Park which you're familiar with at the park district owns so it's got a nice adjacency as you can see on the top of the screen which is to the north there's a lot of green space available on this site we've located the building more towards Center Street again on the higher part of the ground our goal here was to our task was to get about 200

060parking spaces for events for evening events whether it be games or grandparents nights those sort of thing and so we've got the parking divided up on the east and west side of the building and so we've currently we've got about 200 106 parking spaces available for events that includes some of the existing parking along Center Street as well as 30 spaces directly adjacent to the entry there that's shared with the park district property and so really we've really tried to divide the vehicular traffic on the site the the goal is always to separate the Bus drop off from the parent drop-off so that at the at the beginning of the day or the end of the day we really try to separate the congestion there so on the east side which is on the right

061side of the drawing you see in front of you is the Bus drop off we've got space available for queuing up as many as 10 buses at one time and on the left hand side which is the the west side of the site is where the parent Car drop off will occur as well so you can see we're showing I think approximately 40 cars queued up in this diagram here dropping off at that main entry point they can queue up and even back out along Center Street because there's an off Street portion of that Center Street that's off the main two-lane traffic there so that traffic doesn't get backed up on Center Street but both of those entries the Bus drop off and the parent drop-off all come into the central Commons which you'll see

062in the floor plan which is kind of the heart and soul of the building so all those can be easily monitored all the kids end up in the center part of the building so again the well Damian will be going over here a minute the uh the floor plan but just to get your Orient on the site plan the the common spaces are toward the South or at the bottom and all the educational spaces are at the top of the diagram here or towards the north so they have direct access to the Green Space without having to cross over any of the vehicular traffic so we're going to jump to the next slide and Damian's going to walk you through the the floor plans you can go to the go to the next slide there

063do I click it click here oh yeah oh you need to tell me in the clicker the big one there you go oh and there's a is that a little and it works on the screen oh I was so worried about that uh back Perfect all right first time using technology sorry everybody um so as Steve uh started to talk about really one of the keys as you look at the floor plan is the overall organization where we've got the very public kind of um always on if you will spaces here to the South with the more contained educational spaces up towards the north that's a key consideration in how the plan works really to allow uh that during school hours as well as after hours functionality without having to really kind of jump through

064hoops for that that changeover on that south portion really what it's comprised of is our admin area uh here in the the yellow which is right off of our main entry access so visitors uh during the day would park here in the visiting parking come in be checked in through the admin before they visit the building the opposite side of that Commons here is what we're referring to as kind of our event Lobby that's where our car drop students will enter but also allows us that more Grand parking area to service for after hours events coming into the space and using that also in the event portion is of course our gymnasium seating about 500 Spectators in bleachers our band area as well as our music space and then the the main core of this

065is really the dining common Zone there what's being shown here is actually a tiered seating Zone it steps down from the the back this this whole area around is if you will 100 so the main level as you enter and then it actually steps down as you get closer to that band room what that allows it to do is that zone as well as the band that have the kind of dual functionality for presentations for performances all those types of activities but also being able to use it for a really great dining area throughout the day our kitchen area is here to the West which has some great access to outside with deliveries and all that but also to really easily support students at the North End as Steve was mentioning as I brought up

066before we've got our educational Wing we've got it really divided into three key zones this one is our K2 wing we've got our three five Wing here and then when I get to second floor in a second we've got six eight separated up at that second floor level each of these zones is really kind of self-sustainable in the way that they've got small group areas conferencing areas all those types of breakout and teacher workroom zones a special education as well as some Flex rooms at the K5 level we've got additional Flex rooms which would allow for that expansion as larger groups come through at the elementary level at the core here on the first floor we have our media center as well as our group's toilet rooms these are situated in this manner to allow

067us to really efficiently provide those bathroom facilities so for instance during the day the ones that are on this side essentially serve our K2 students the ones on this side serve our three five students but then during events rather than having a duplication to that there's access to that from our main area so again we're really trying to make sure we maximize our use of square footage for educational spaces as opposed to those things that we must have and we really need to have function but we don't want to give up classroom space and such moving up to the second floor area as I mentioned this is the six eight uh Wing so again really self-sustaining with the way that the maker space the science lab all those small group areas special education an extension

068of this area is actually this collaboration Zone which acts really is kind of an extension of that Media Center that's down below so this acts as a a collaboration zone for those older students that are able to you know kind of leave their classrooms proper and and work together the other area that finishes out kind of these upper story areas is the art classrooms they're located here for a couple of reasons um one is that they've got some great views to the north great daylighting as well as you're probably aware North Daylight's much less intense especially in art spaces where color is important it's always a plan the other is that this gives us an opportunity to provide this outdoor art patio area that allows that space to kind of extend outside for some some

069messy work and also just to you know take advantage of that that preview um two other things I want to mention and then um I'm going to pass it off to to Kim to walk through the exterior but administratively at the first floor as I said the main admin team is located here we've got our SRO officer right here visibility to the front as well as direct access and it's been a key thing we've talked about as far as access at the second floor because we've got our sixth or eighth graders there with the way that the administration team based on the the feedback we've heard from users we have our guidance and assistant principle located up here again visibility for both that Western traffic also direct access with those six through eight graders so

070they're not feeling you know detached if you will so really we've really kind of worked to kind of think through those resources so that students have what they need nearby with more of those shared uses are are what they you know either Traverse up or down downstairs for with that I will pass it to Kim that big green arrow thank you very much for the instruction well huh I get to show the pretty pictures some so what you're looking at is the view from West Center and home park on that corner as you're approaching it um North is to the I guess to the right there and so on so this is the uh the view from that corner it's also the location where the buses will drop off as well as the parent entry

071and I'm hoping that you guys can see it straight on where's the main entrance right there in the center that was something that was very important to the group the materials that we have on here will not necessarily be the colors that you see but it was important to have materials that will last a long time like brick so you're going to be seeing brick on a lot of these areas as well as kind of the structure of Precast and then the brick inlaid in there too yeah see I failed already [Laughter] so then on on the south entrance way from West Center basically you're you're kind of on the um the park side of of the school district property but this is where the parents would drop off again you can clearly see where

072the entrance is on here um the area that says DPS on on the right side that is the gymnasium that you saw in the previous photos uh the um the left side is the classroom Wing in there but again just showing that distinction of where that entry is um same thing with the materials um being brick around the yes yes um we also have a storm shelter within this building and that is that the gymnasium that's on the right side there as well as it will contain the locker rooms and restrooms so that is sustained for those two hours if there is an event of a of a storm and power loss as well so that'll house the whole student body of 600 plus all the staff number of of people yep and then as

073you're driving South on home park basically from the green side of the site um on the back there is this is the view that you'll see you can see where the buses are dropping off as well there is a hill that you're not necessarily seeing in here and we'll be incorporating how that playground and play areas for the school function in that back area one of the areas that was not mentioned in the floor plan was the outdoor outdoor classroom basically and that is pretty much right in the center you see a playground kind of set up in there um there's an outdoor learning area in here where we can have outdoor classes as well um so then going on the inside of the building I'm going to point to a couple things um on

074the center screen here but as both Steve and Damian mentioned we have you know kind of the main entrance that is visible from both sides the entrance where the buses are dropping off I don't know if you can see that or not is right there in the center what you see is blue on the left side that looks like Windows over there is the other entrance so it is a nice clear shot all the way through to be able to see um see who's entering and exiting additionally this area is the administration for that good visibility some exciting things that you're seeing in here are the um are the stage area that is also joint used as the as the band classroom with a movable wall that will close it off but when that is

075actually a classroom you can still have a stage area in front of that space as well additionally you're seeing that that second floor has a balcony seeing my little pointer there I know um right there yep I've seen this before thank you um that it's a good Overlook to uh when you are having a large activity in that space that you may want overflow seating or a great view from up there and there's also additional breakout spaces within there in this Commons core anything else you wanted to share on this the one thing I didn't mention plan but wanted to bring up was the key to all this was flexibility that we knew there were some ideas of the program that we wanted to support Hands-On you know active kind of Engagement but it was

076flexible so we weren't designing to just one program so a lot of these kind of breakout key areas are about that are about providing that flexibility for this program to grow as well as the next program that actually flows into it so I'm glad you mentioned those on the bottom and additionally you know as we talked about the public versus more private it's basically just beyond that that balcony area where you have a sound separation into the classroom spaces and then our gymnasium and storm shelter is basically behind the stage on the right side behind the band area well you're not going to be able to read this very well on the screen and and nor am I so there we go um but what this the stage that we're at right now as Steve

077described as schematic design and we're just completing that phase um this is the phase where we're just basically looking at the general um General size where the spaces lay out to basically determine the best way how that works this next phase design development which is um you know basically starting after this meeting is to kick it off with our mechanical engineers our civil engineers to then look at all of the building systems that go within this within this and further develop it um that we're looking to present back to the board a couple stages but 100 design development on February 14th at that time that's basically when we have figured out what systems go in the building what the colors are going to be you know any kind of myriad of what's happening with the

078design of this facility is set at that point then we go into construction documents where we put it on paper um to basically describe what it is that the building is how it's going to be built and then we prepare that to go out to beds in June so we're looking at June out to bed with award in the contract in August and construction starting in September of 2023 and being completed with occupancy in January of 2025 that does show an s or grace period in there in November and gives us ample time to move in some furniture in the in the process but basically the construction in that October um October January range so we're on schedule as Steve said um we're we're moving ahead and I mean really it has been awesome to

079talk to the Committees and you know Dr Clark has been leading a lot of those as well um but just that we've had good consensus walking through and it's made it a whole lot easier to keep that ball rolling do you have any questions for us a lot of them were addressed and they meet and we had a bldd I just again I want to reiterate that there's been some concerns about class the size of the rooms the this has all been discussed with the staff correct I just want to make sure that because that's one of the major feedbacks they have is that they're cramped in the rooms and the additions for say Parsons or South Shores I want to make sure that the square footage we're talking about here has been signed off

080on so I can speak to that too a little bit there's two pieces of this you'll remember we did a program we did programming then we identified that right now as a schematic plan you know it's almost kind of fat marker lines and some ways in design development first stage is getting into making it the buildable Dimensions which is where we drew up some of those so if you look at those and there's a number that's a little off those are being essentially the next step is to true that up as we get it more refined so yes we can be perfect thank you then I'm sorry February 14th that's when you say everything's going to be set right yeah that's basically the that what we call the design development yeah all the all the

081decisions are made colors selection systems and that's just the materials and that's what I want to get at you said decisions are made that's after that date we're planning on no change orders yeah basically what our goal is I would prefer no change or just past that I mean I desire that you know then we just it's our our team documents it on paper for bidding documents and there's not a lot of re-negotiating things that have already been decided because that's a progressive schedule we're right on schedule right where we want to be but we don't want to we want to avoid having to back up and lose time valuable time so that would be the goal that we get all this made in the next uh four months and we should stay right on

082track for what we've planned from the beginning this just gums up the worst but the thing is it's you know you just have to be like right on schedule with this stuff so if it's if there's any problems come February 14th we're going to lose time so those documents got to be right right right so we were very clear and from the very beginning about you know where we were in this process and we need to get everything out now because when that deadline hits it is exactly what it is nothing will be changed and that was our desire to make sure the board's on in agreement we're in the right direction heading the right in the right direction so we can keep moving forward with the schedule that we had put forth from the

083very beginning of the project so that was our Our Hope my only question was well I guess wasn't a question it was a concern but if there are actual like teachers on the committee my concern was the moving in during the winter time and I know we talked about that you guys made me feel a lot better about it um but I don't know if we brought that up too if you brought that up to the committee or not for the January move-in I know that's one of the things that I don't know Dr Clark wants to be the one we're definitely going to have a conversation with the board regarding your desire for the move-in I'll bring my car and move a few things if it's allowed oh I had a question about the

084um the band uh room that's uh comes from a musician is totally not my wife um it will be um the sliding door is that going to be sound proof it's yeah it's an operable it has the sound rating you can get different sound ratings but equal to a hard partition metal set drywall partition so it actually you can get very good acoustical treatment in that but still the desire was to Zone that noisier part of the building from the educational part so even if a little that spills out you're still in sort of the collaboration Commons cafeteria which will be somewhat of a noisy space anyway so it would be a sound rated partition okay yeah it actually seals when it closes seals to the floor in the in the in the ceiling and

085one of the things you may not be able to see from the 3D but that space is actually a taller space as well which assists with that you know you're going to have all that sound trying to get out you can actually actually the room a little bit so the design of that space in conjunction with the wall will be important for it to be a great bands in these two yeah a lot of acoustical wall treatments in the ceiling of the walls to make that space function properly as a band room too and help hold that sound in so members of the building committee is to be people feel that we got we were asked ask for I definitely think so but I would like for all members of the building committee to stand

086for me please thank you for all your help if anybody I mean if you guys have any input that you want to share now I mean if you guys want to come forward to say anything we appreciate your input your help on this you're not done yet no you're absolutely not done I have some comments too just whenever hello everyone members of the board so this has been an interesting process especially as a first-year principal to undergo I thought it would be super stressful but it has actually been a very fun process our team here has made this um a very involved process so when I pick members of the committee from our staff and our parents I picked staff who had the largest space the smallest space and no space at all so those

087existing on carts so that it would be a fair view of our needs so I still want my slide in there but um we have gotten exactly what we wanted from the very beginning they have listened and I don't usually have many questions because they've listened to exactly what we've asked for and requested so thank you so much this has been a great process so far and we're ready to move in tomorrow we'll work on it Reagan you got a few questions good good yeah so um like it was mentioned we the most of the board members had had the opportunity um to meet at bldd with some of the committee members and so I I just think it's important to talk about some of the things that we discussed during that meeting especially because

088I do think that there's a little bit of trepidation as we walk into a new building project of this size so um you touched on the classroom sizes so that's something that we heard a lot about um following the other Renovations and so just as we're moving forward um I don't know if we've I have not actually held up plans from the prior building to look at the square footage and that sort of thing but you know I know that um even when we're looking at furniture and that sort of thing until you put lard you know like sixth seventh and eighth graders in a room and and you know and you know so I guess I would to the extent we have not comp actually compared the square footage in those spaces um from

089the other Renovations just to make sure really that that's going to be a good size um space for for our kiddos of all ages um another thing that I know is a problem currently in this in the Middle School Wing at American dreamer is the number of stalls for students and so and looking at this um plan it I I see on the first floor that we have quite a few stalls for the for the kids if they go all the way down the hallway to more of that common space and if we're looking on the second floor it looks like there are four stalls you know in in the boys restroom the girls restroom and then we have two gender neutral restrooms so I imagine that that that that that has been considered and

090that that you guys feel that that's sufficient but I did want I just wanted to state that that's something that that we've brought up um so that people know that that's something that we're you know looking at um I don't see a ton of like Flex space like what we saw in John's Hill like sort of those little things to look down into the common area for those Gathering spaces but to the extent we have not asked John's Hill staff about spaces in their buildings that they would change or that they find wasn't useful to them or things that they wish they could do different with a building project or that sort of thing you know it might be helpful you know to just consult with a few people from Johnson to say hey I

091wish we could do this differently or I really like this feature about the new building and that sort of thing just to just to see and and I don't know what what specific design features carry over from there to here I certainly don't see a spiral staircase so that's something that we learned but anyway so just to the extent we consult with them just because they've had that happen recently and I think there were some features that they decided was it their most favorite and if we can you know avoid that I would just suggest that um I think that's it you know and I I guess when it gets closer down the path we want to make sure we have enough lockers and that sort of thing and and also I know that the

092volume from the common areas in John still is something that's still sort of a a problem and so I was really glad to see if you know it's hard to see on the projection but if you if you see the photo up close you can see doors from the common areas on both levels to where you're getting to the classroom spaces so so there should be a separation between the volume there and and that area so that's something that I was really glad to see as well so um anyway I just wanted to mention those things for the public that might be watching and listening and thank you for all of your work I enjoyed the meeting and I'm excited to see what the building committee continues to do on this all right thank you

093for your feedback I'm excited let's go build it yes we are all very excited so beginning in the beginning I was a little concerned about I I had I hadn't worked with you guys before um but concerned about what it might look like to work with you with work with bldd and then even see the plans but um I if I had to do over again I think it would have trusted you more and I say that because I did see things that were brought to you guys that you know what about this what about that and I see the changes on the plans and I think that's awesome I think they did a good job at taking the feedback and using that and putting it into the plan so oh there's one more I'm

094sorry there's one more thing I wanted to mention when people are looking at the plan they'll probably see that there are two kindergarten two first grade two second grade two you know two third grade but then when you go upstairs there's three six three seventh and three eighth grade classrooms but if you look at and so I said well why are we doing 222 and not three all the way across so if you're looking at the plan you'll see that there are Flex spaces built in on that first floor so that as you know as we need more classrooms that we have that option so that was something else that I wanted people to hear good thank you cool all right thank you very much thank you next report I like to call Jeff Dace

095assistant superintendent of p12 teaching and learning to the podium to present a magnet Lottery process overview Jeff this is Jeff's favorite annual presentation really good good evening DPS Board of Education superintendent Clerk um it's my pleasure to come before you and give an overview of the 2023-24 magnet Lottery process new this year we will be using um School met as a program that has that does lotteries for big small districts Nationwide so it will be a um some of the old systems but new program for the application and Lottery placement and wait lists simplify paperless and streamline you know I think you'll you'll like some of the features of the the program again this year it will be fully online interested families will submit only one application which families tend to like from the four

096or the three applications in the past for each student who is applying as it said the old old system we use the Google form new system we will use School mint you can find out more about our magnet programs on our website and one thing that this will clear up is last year we had over 600 applications that Google did not flag as duplicates so this will streamline that and help us out with that process again this year as I said one application per students parents will rank our three magnet programs in order of preference that fits their child's interests again first second third and our magnet schools our Johns Hill Montessori Academy for peace and American dreamer steam Academy again this year's sibling priority students applying to the magnet program who have a sibling

097who is a current student this year in the program will have priority in the lottery siblings still need to submit an application and let me say that again because this is a common Pitfall when parents are applying to the magnet lottery every year just because they have a current student in the school they feel as if if they have a sibling it's automatic but they have to fill out the application so those that are watching this presentation those that know people who are want to get into one of the magnet schools bottom line they have to apply if the school is not already if the student is not already in and does not already have a seat they need to apply regardless of what grade new this year in which we're all excited about are

098the numerous notifications that parents will get they will get notifications what they can get notifications by email text throughout the lottery process so when they fill out the application parents will have to provide an accurate email so they need to make sure that the email account they enter is accurate make sure the phone number is accurate in order for the notifications to work so you'll see right here some examples of communication that they will get when the application is submitted and when a student is put on the the wait list other Communications they will also get notification um offer of Admissions and if the placement has has been accepted so we know families will love being informed throughout of their status throughout the process so again when they when they fill out the application because

099another concern was which is one reason why we went to Google from paper is that they didn't know if their application was submitted or not so now throughout the process last year Google was able to give them a receipt but every step of the progress of the process they will be receiving notifications via email or text so it's extremely important that when they fill out the application that all of the information is accurate parent informational sessions so we know that this is a new process so whenever we have new we want to communicate as often as frequent as possible so these will be some parent informational sessions that we will have starting November 30th we will have it at the Decatur Decatur Public Library December then we will have two zooms Zoom meetings which parents

100have to register for December 7 2022 and December 14th so all of these are before the um the winter break and I do not see uh this slide does not have the time on it but it should be 5 30 pm so that was omitted from this it's on here but the parent if parent informational sessions all will be at 5 30 PM so we got to make sure that we communicate that and then key dates for the magnet application for the next school year 23-24 school year again application window will open December 1st 2022 and it will end January 31st 2023. we will run the magnet lottery in March of 2023 and again all throughout the process they will be receiving notifications and as always they can reach out for any questions or concerns

101but we encourage like I said if you're watching this presentation or if you know anyone who's interested in the magnet process and I'll go back to those dates make sure that they attend these informational sessions and schools the magnet schools will also have their own open house after these sessions starting in January so we want to make sure like for November 30th we'll give an overview but there will be representatives from the schools to also talk about their programs so those are three right there and then in January 2023 the individual schools will schedule an open house and tours for the parents to see the individual magnet schools and their programs and what they have to offer but again they need to make sure that they come to one of these informational sessions and I

102cannot reiterate they need to fill out an application for every student if they want to be accepted and to have the opportunity to be accepted into one of our magnet schools that's a overview of the new magnet process any questions we're from last year if you already have a student in the magnet school like if you have a kid going from first to second grade do you have to resubmit something or if they if they already have a seat they're they're good if okay like I would say you have a first grader but you have a kindergarten that's at home that you're looking to get into the school you need to fill out an application for that kindergarten student okay I was thinking last year we had to um like confirm our seat before the

103lottery or something oh we do okay okay intent to return Yes the schools will be sending that out okay but that's not handled through this application no okay it's not handled so they so they the people that are currently attending magnet schools there is something they have to do but it's not part of this process yes yeah the intent to return that that is a feedback to say okay these is how many seats that will be available at the school so if they intend not to return then we will open up that seat for the magnet Lottery process well remind them let them know because if they don't fill it out their seat's going to go back into the process right uh yeah it has been some discrepancy about that but we're we will when

104I talk about often and frequent communicate with them because we don't some you know we're all human so sometimes people forget but the schools have been diligent about reaching out to them so um we haven't had too many hiccups with that in the past as far as the open seats um so but yeah we want everybody to to fill out that intent to return form yeah I just don't want to give away somebody's seat who does intend to return but they didn't do the paperwork and then it's a whole thing yep and then that's when you get the calls saying um so yeah we want to avoid you know as many hiccups as possible but you know it's a it's a system we think is is better it'll give more communication um more status checks

105so we're happy with it but again it's new so we're going to communicate and we're going to monitor it and we think it'll be a good process from this year and going forward all right thank you any other questions all right all right thank you thank you thank you that will end our reports from Administration we will now move on to our consent items does anyone want or any item pulled from the consign items to discuss and or vote on separately yes I'd like to pull uh item e king um to vote on that item separately or just discuss that item both both I mean certainly discuss and then maybe voted but I mean yeah certainly to pull it to discuss to discuss but did you also want to vote on it separately it depends

106on the discussion okay Dr Clark we will just um come back to e okay can we move forward you have to do uh do we have a recommendation for the consent items absent e yes I recommend a board approve the consent items as presented which includes a minutes open close session meeting November 1st 2022 B bills c financial conditions report D resolution authorized in the sale of surplus District property do a Motion cell moved second second discussion Mrs Lewis aye Miss Banks aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion aye and Mr Scheider aye 5i zero nay two absent motion carry motion carried um do we have a recommendation for the item e job descriptions yes I recommend the board approve the consent item as presented which includes e job descriptions a elementary school counselors B middle

107school counselors C high school counselors see Safety and Security administrator E multi-tier Systems of support mtss facilitator so emotion someone to second second discussion I'm asked for it to be pulled because when you're dealing with job descriptions that we received just a few hours before right I just had availability a few hours before the meeting it doesn't really give us much time to look at them so that's one reason I'd like to pull it um because we didn't know we had to change our password till today um I'm sorry but either way either way I mean even we get something on Saturday we do have other things we do in our lives you know besides sitting and reading all the things we get and to read a very detailed job description take some time and

108I asked before if things like this could be mentioned at one meeting and then we vote on the next meeting the other thing about this is for d and e these are as I understand new proposed positions in central office I think it's time that we have an update on our organization chart of the central office to see how these fit into our central office I'm assuming that in Safety and Security we already have some people doing the duties related to Safety and Security and the same way with mtss so I'd like to see how things are being moved around because if we're concerned about Finance which we constantly hear about from certain people then why aren't we concerned about adding in positions that are going to be sustained and and I don't know what

109the salary level is that they're talking about when you put in a grade level I don't know what that means I would have to dig that up to see what kind of salary you're talking about so I for d and e underneath e um I definitely would like to see an organization chart before we vote on those job descriptions to see if we really want to add positions to the central office for a b and c which are the counselors those are positions that already exist so it's just a matter of updating the job descriptions that were previously held but for D and E I definitely would not want to see those voted on until we have an update on our organization chart as a proposal so this is not the first or the second

110time this has been brought before the board and in terms of the Safety and Security administrator the discussion was there was a job description that was developed that was for a director of safety diversity equity and inclusion that posted several times that we could not feel I explained to the board that I would be separating the two and that is what I have done in terms of the multi-terror systems of support facilitator we are still trying to feel the positions that were already approved by the board at PDI so if you remember the conversation was we needed more academic support and support support at student services we were able to hire the additional staff at student services we were mimicking the same type of support for academics so this has been discussed we're trying to

111get it filled I don't remember this ever being discussed in Open Session you had mentioned that you wanted to have those positions but it was never discussed by us and I think it's time for us to discuss them whether or not we want to fund these kind of positions like I said that perhaps are already being done partly by other staff members or at least we see how the whole organization picture looks because if we just keep adding central office positions it's not helpful to know how does that all fit into the big picture and I'm not getting the sense of I don't I don't see how it fits into the big picture and so just because you have mentioned that you are going to have job descriptions doesn't mean we've discussed whether or not

112we want those positions to exist so my thought is that as a board we hired Dr Clark to be the superintendent of the district I think that we should probably leave the hiring of positions to Dr Clark and her team um I sure as heck don't want to review every single application that comes in and get involved in the hiring process of everybody that comes to the district um I think that if these are proposed by her and her team then we should trust her and approve these things that's what I think these are job description approvals these are not hiring positions that's what it looks like and the the changes to the counselors I read this in the board packet these are prescribed by legal changes no so this has been a long time

113coming and meeting with the concerts all of them um I don't know if you remember the first time we had this discussion I also put it in the weekly update several times concert job descriptions had not been updated for so many years I can't even begin to even think about 28 yeah so we all work together during our meetings to do these changes and then all that was left was to bring it to the board for your approval DEA has been informed um and everybody has had input to work on these because it's just been a long time coming in terms of the Safety and Security administrator you're looking at her so that's something that I cannot continue to do in terms of the multi-terror systems of support facilitator that's Mr Dace you're looking at

114them he cannot continue to do this and and I will say as far as the multi-tiered systems of support facilitator if I remember Lawrence and Jeff this started a long time ago I mean even before this new board was seated that we were talking about how we really need to bridge the multi-tiered system support between student services and teaching and learning and so um so I guess it seems like this was really something that was housed more in student services initially but but we're trying to bridge that Gap here and I think really Dr Clark you were brought on when you were interim assistant superintendent to assist with this role and then so this is something that that we're needing to to fill as well and so I think there's been a plan in place

115for this this one for a while and I think even just touching on the brief conversation we had in the work session especially since this one is is really um intended to benefit you know academic achievement and student supports you know I would I would like to move forward um to the extent that we can on getting the job description approved so that hopefully we can get the position filled and I understand the Safety and Security position you had to split the job description because you're having trouble finding somebody that could fit the secondary issue part of the job so but I mean Safety and Security is Paramount in my mind when it comes to school so if this is something that you need I would move forward absolutely need it we're in the process

116of redoing so much and it is and I'm there counselor how you get from here to there whenever you're ready to do it yeah is either a motion to table or a call the question I know I can thanks man are you moving the table all right roll call vote no motion to it was a it was motioned by Miss banks in seconds yes okay and this is on letter e Miss Banks aye Mr Scheider um I will be voting no but I want to explain that it's all in regards to asking for the organization chart for d and e I'm not voting no against the counselor job descriptions MS aye and Mr Dion aye for I one day two absent motion passive uh we will now move on to roll call Action items do

117we have a recommendation to ratify a termination of a magnet special education District paraprofessional mpsed teaching assistant Alexis is this okay to say Alexis Jackson yes I recommend a board ah I recommend the board approved to ratify the termination of the making payet special education District paraprofessional mpsed teaching assistant Alexis Jackson as presented please note the making payet special education executive board approved this item during their November 2022 making paella special education board meeting the emotion some moved second second discussion motion carried do we have a recommendation of a one-day suspension without pay for custodial employee Robin Anderson that item has been pulled damn it you know killing me here all right now personal action items next before the record roll call Item B possible suspension without pay or other discipline action of a custodial

118employee was pulled from November 15 2022 Board of Education open Agenda session do we have 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 promotion Summit second discussion roll call vote Miss Banks aye Mr Scheider aye Mr Dion aye Mr Taylor aye and Mrs Lewis aye five I zero nay too absent do we have a recommendation for the memorandum of understanding between Decatur Public School District 61 and teacher ready provider yes I recommend the board approve the memorandum of understanding mou between Decatur Public School District 61 and the teacher ready program provider as presented the motion so move to second second discussion roll call vote Mrs Lewis aye Ms

119Banks aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion aye and Mr Scheider aye 5i zero na to absent motion carry do we have a recommendation for the estimated tax levy 2022 paid in 2023 yes I recommend the board approve the estimated tax levy 2022 paid in 2023 as presented and after the motion and second Dr Mike Curry Chief operational officer will present information on this item Summit second Dr Curry good evening thanks for having me up here again so there is a PowerPoint so lots of things go into a tax levy first of all it's a guess based on data that we have now that's not finalized until February so that's the important thing and a couple things to realize it is our as our equalized assessed value Rises our tax levy rate will decrease and if

120our EAB declines our tax Liberty rate will go will go up currently we've got a little bit of an increase but but as an example for a million dollar tax levy request on a 200 billion dollar eav it'd only be 50 cents but if it were to drop to 175 it would be 57 cents so we're always at the mercy of our EAB um as you see The Debt Service payment down there at the bottom I just wanted to bring to the board's attention that currently we're at 97 million until 2041 and um in debt service and 101 million until 2045 in all revenue bonds uh here's a historic historical sorry equalized assessed values as you can see I'm projecting a pretty decent increase based on what I'm getting working with the assessor's office it

121actually has gone down a little since last week is changing each week but currently it went down about a half a million dollars so that's still a significant increase over over last year I decided to leave the uh last year's information on there just to look for Debt Service so the the stuff that we're talking about in an FY for FY 24 which is what this is actually be paying for um 336 is the same one four one five four hundred is the same 2020b is up from one three seven two to one five twenty sorry about the missing comma there um the subtotal last year was 3.8 this year it's 4.063 there is an abatement that we'll talk about a little bit later that is outside the uh the other scheduled abatements the sales

122tax payments we're making will total approximately 4.2 million looking at the estimated Levy for 23 again these are all estimates um sorry the numbers may change I didn't flip my own slides here um as you look at these things at the top the 7.3 or 735 million dollars may still change the tax rates where it says maximum rate and there's a number those will stay the same the no limit rates may vary depending on our eav and I'm going to really have to dial in a little bit more on imrf we're waiting for our new employer number here soon and then where it says plus a balloon for those of you that might be new to the tax levy a balloon is an additional request that you only get if the eav is higher than

123you anticipated it doesn't really affect the taxpayers payments so we'll go to the next page so some extensions over the last couple years I want to note in 2020 there was an over extension of bond Levy and in 2021 there is a reduction because there was already a half of a basically half a portion of the The Debt Service in our account and so in 2020 we're back to what I would say would be normal Debt Service tax rate so the post-tax reduction in 21 due to the overloading going to the normal average of tax rates will be about 20 to 26 Cents which could be about 66 to 86 new dollars um on a hundred thousand dollar house just in that one particular fund so there is uh the district is going to Abate

124at least two bonds the 2020 C and the 2011 B are abated at about four million dollars there's an additional abatement suggested by prior Boards of 459 000 this year and then ongoing of 677 and change thousand dollars for the next 17 years so that that will have to come from operating funds or sales tax so looking at the outline for the next steps Administration recommends that you approve the estimated tax levy which you've done um also I'll be working with payroll I'll be working with the assessor and trying to figure out exactly what the best ask is plus a balloon and then in December I'll bring you a final Levy for consideration the one thing that I think we needs to be considered is whether or not you want to move forward with that

125third abatement the difference between the third abatement is a 4.92 tax rate versus a 4.98 tax rate the difference on a hundred thousand dollar home is about twenty to twenty five dollars in there in their tax bill um so but that's this is tentative we've got time to to make a decision I'll bring you two options in December and you can determine which tax rate you'd like hopefully I'll have a better number um but at this point in time that's where I'm at with eav questions when you say abatement that's a transfer no an abatement is where you pay a bill and not the taxpayer so for example the four million dollars of is an all is an ALT Revenue fund that's paid through sales tax so the district went out and bought bonds and

126the alt Revenue means if we can't make the payment the taxpayer has to pay that bill but we're bringing in that 4 million in sales tax money so we've already dedicated that to pay that bill but an additional abatement was suggested by the prior board but not mandated okay does everybody understand this can you just can you run through real quickly the pros and cons of the third abatement the third abatement would have to come out of operating funds and or sales tax money currently your sales tax money is wrapped up in those the big four million plus abatement that we already have for all revenue and the new MacArthur project so I think the math on continuing to handle the abatement is about 11 million over 17 years now you don't have to not

127Abate the whole thing you could Abate all of it you could not Abate any of it or you could pick a number in between when you decide what kind of tax rate you want to put forth um the previous tax rate was 471 the year before 4.71 cents the year before that was 5.28 cents the year before that it was 4.95 so we're getting back to normal that 528 was an outlier that 471 was an outlier it's roughly run between 485 and and 495 the last five or six years and you're going to come back to us with a recommendation I'll come back to you with options two options yep for you to choose cool in December and I'll keep you updated throughout okay thank you thanks we've got a motion in a second roll

128call vote Mr Dion all right Miss Banks aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Scheider aye and Mrs Lewis aye 5i zero na to absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the smart net renewal yes I recommend the board approve the smart net renewal as presented you have a motion some moved second who's second second discussion we're all call vote Mrs Lewis aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Scheider aye Ms Banks aye and Mr Dion aye bye bye zero Nate to absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the it Data Center Unified Computing system and storage upgrades yes I recommend the board approved the it Data Center Unified Computing system and storage upgrades as presented the motion summoned second discussion come on computer man roll call vote Mrs Lewis aye Ms Banks aye Mr

129Taylor aye Mr Dion aye and Mr Scheider aye 5i zero nay two absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the ongoing agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and support contractual services for Franklin Globe Grove Hope Academy monthly and South Shores yes I recommend the board approve the ongoing agreement with cotton Student Services LLC for PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports contractual services for Franklin Grove Hope Academy monthly and South Shores as presented through a motion submit second second discussion roll call vote Mr Scheider aye Mr Taylor aye Ms Banks aye Mrs Lewis aye and Mr Dion 5509 to Accent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the new educator for uh professional development service agreement with first class educator LLC yes I recommend the board approve the

130new educator professional development service agreement with first class educator LLC as presented the motion so move second second discussion roll call vote Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion aye Mrs Lewis aye Mr Scheider aye and Miss Banks aye 5i zero nay to absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the award of an architectural contract for DPS to uh 2023 Roofing projects to bldd for monthly Elementary and Parsons Elementary yes I recommend the board approve and award the architectural contract for DPS 2023 Roofing projects to bldd for monthly Elementary and Parsons Elementary as presented through the motion no moved second second discussion roll call vote Miss Banks aye Mr Scheider aye Mrs Lewis aye Mr Taylor aye and Mr Dion all right 5509 to absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the Decatur

131Public School District 61 FY 22 annual audit yes I recommend the board approve the Decatur Public School District 61 FY 22 annual audit as presented after the motion and second the Auditors will present information on the Decatur Public Schools district 61 FY 22 audit and the Macon paella special education District FY 22 audit please note each item will be voted on separately no motion some move to second second discussion with our Auditors right all right ready for me great well good evening everyone happy to present the fiscal year 22 audits for Decatur and making Pyatt um we have completed both of those Audits and issued uh clean opinions for both of those on the modified Cash basis of accounting which is what you guys have historically utilized we also issued our in the annual financial

132report which is what gets filed with Illinois State Board of Education and we'll do that after everything is approved at this meeting I'm not going to go through the documents in detail the numbers are kind of old at this point you know we're in November but certainly if you have questions I'm happy to answer those um there really were no changes to the footnotes or the statements themselves other than you know the numbers obviously are updated um there was one new accounting standard this year related to leases but since you all are on the cash basis you didn't have to adopt well you had to adopt that but it didn't have an impact on your statements so we also issued what we call an audit committee letter which kind of goes through all of our

133required Communications so it mentions the significant County policies and those are included in footnote one it mentions there were no alternative accounting treatments utilized by The District No difficulties in in performing the audits no adjustments made with the audit we did have one what we call past adjustment which is considered immaterial and was not made as part of the audit it is attached to that letter and it's very similar to what you've had in the past related to the labor cost we also performed what we call a single audit which is the audit of your federal funds you still have a considerable amount of cares act funding so we have to audit that and there were no findings with that and that's issued in a separate report um we issued a management letter and nothing

134that was considered to be a significant deficiency or material weakness and really nothing that was new in that letter from last year so I'll just kind of repeat repeat items so again um just would like to thank Dr Curry and his staff for all their assistance and happy to answer any questions you all might have so we're squeaky clean basically [Laughter] all right we have a motion a second roll call vote Mr Dion all right Miss Banks aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Scheider aye and Mrs Lewis aye 55092 absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the making Pie special education District FY 22 annual audit yes I recommend the board approved in Macon paella special education District fiscal year 22 annual audit as presented do a motion it's all moved second discussion I'll

135call vote Mrs Lewis aye Ms Banks aye Mr Taylor aye Mr Dion aye and Mr Scheider aye 5i zero na to absent motion carried we will now move on to announcements the Board of Education and the administration send condolences to the family of Penny Rutherford who passed away Tuesday November 2nd 2022. November 1st November 1st um Mr Rutherford was a lead secretary at Franklin Grove Elementary School Timothy Ray Dever who passed away November uh Friday November 4th 2022. Mr Dever was a retired assistant principal from MacArthur High School as retiree Mr Dever was serving as an assistant for the Heartland Technical Academy we will now move on to important dates November 22nd 23rd and 25th and 26th the annual turkey tournament for at Stephen Decatur Middle School November 23rd Veterans Day holiday observed in DPS

13661 no school and district offices are closed November 24th 25th Thanksgiving holiday no school and district offices are closed then the public portion of the next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be at 6 30 PM Tuesday December 13th 2022 at the Kyle administration building do we have a motion to adjourn second second all in favor say aye aye those opposed same sign motion carried we are now adjourned