001folks for the april 26 2022 board of education meeting the board of education has been in closed executive session to conduct an employee discipline hearing to conduct student discipline hearings and to discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body the purchase or lease of real property for use of public body the discussion of collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees no action was taken during closed executive session i would now ask that everybody join me for the pledge of god allegiance with liberty and justice for all all right do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda yes we do i recommend the board approve tonight's april 26 2022 open session board meeting agenda as presented can i have a motion second second any
002discussion all in favor by saying aye aye aye those opposed same sign motion carried we will now move on to public participation the board of education would like to note the following during public participation identify oneself and be brief any public comments received will be read during this time public comment should be limited to three minutes for our listening audience please note that during any board of education meeting the public participation board members do not respond and or comment to public comments all comments are referred to administration furthermore the the board refrains from referring to specific students or staff members by name and request that public commenters refrain from doing so as well the quest that you omit names is made to protect you from allegations of liber libel or slander from violations of the
003illinois student records act is not intended to shield an employee from criticism miss bradford do we have anyone wishing to speak to the board this evening and or do we have any comments to be read julie bolt good evening superintendent clark and members of the board my name is julie bolt and i have been a teaching assistant in special education for over 16 years this is the reason why i'm standing up here when will our students come first once again why is the fate of our program being decided by one person's decision again without input from the staff students or families making pie special ed has made a decision that will in turn cause our program to dissolve into the sea program since our move we have only been visited by one board member dr
004kevin collins-brown not one administration outside of this building has asked our input or checked to see how things are going in fact the sed staff had no clue what yesterday's meeting was about until the cta approached us on the playground and asked so who's staying and who's quitting where's the fairness in that to us and our kids that one program knew before the other i don't want to hear this is a staffing issue when we have able bodies willing to work to keep this program going and do what is best for the kids according to the dps website macarthur has two open sed teaching positions are you going to fold that program too seep themselves are down one teaching and two ta positions yet you want to fold our sed program and add seven staff
005enough of the negatives let me share some of the positives we have a student who has jumped two reading levels they enjoy reading they can do division now and have become more confident in their academics and in their selves our students are participating in specials and are eager to learn more about art our students have learned compassion and understanding they have become buddies and check in on other students in the alternative ed program as well as encourage them to make good choices they give high fives in the hallway and remind them to keep up the good work they help others get off the bus and to their classrooms again i ask you to please think about the kids and the progress they have made despite all the chaos and changes they have had to endure
006this whole school year let's continue to help them move forward rather than cause them to take steps backwards thank you tara hubbard good evening superintendent clark members of the board and meeting attendees my name is tara hubbard and i have had the privilege of working as a ta in the sed program for six of the seven years that i have been in special education to say the news during yesterday's meeting with mpsed is devastating would be an understatement it's gut-wrenching and heartbreaking despite the adversities our kids have faced with all the turmoil this school year they are for flourishing they were uprooted from one building and sent to another which has never happened and they are still flourishing they are loved and cared for by not just the sed team but the entire altead building
007staff and students from day one sed was welcomed with open arms and made part of the harris family rather than focus on the negatives let me paint you a picture of the amazing progress our kids have made since the move we have a fifth grade student who has moved to reading levels and is excited about reading she struggled with addition and is now standing in front of her peers doing division problems we have kids who whose behaviors who have diminished or significantly decreased we have one student who when he was upset would become non-verbal and crawl into a ball he now uses his coping skills and communicates when he is upset we now have yoga and a library a library that did not exist for any student prior to sed coming to harris students are
008excited to go to specials they enjoy art in pe and engage in the lessons our kids have built relationships something that is very hard for many of our kids our kids are happy and enjoy coming to school now everything we have all worked so hard on together is being torn apart by one person's decision a decision that staff kids and families input were not a part of as we weren't even asked about alternatives to keep the program open such as long-term subs which we currently have who are currently willing to continue the sed program serves as a middle ground between the the two i'm sorry a decision that i apologize neither of which will continue to help our kids if they are folded into the seat program the sed program serves as a middle ground
009between the two when a kid isn't quite ready to return to their home school yet they don't need the restrictedness of the seat program for the past couple of months we have been told we would be moving with alternative ed to garfield instead our program is dissolving into sleep with a possible revisit in the future so i stand before you again and ask if something isn't broken why are we trying to fix it and don't tell me it's a staffing issue because there is a nationwide teaching shortage our district alone has a combined 86 open positions 22 which are special ed 18 which are special or i'm sorry are teaching assistants however we have able bodies who are willing to work in scd to keep it running we work with a diverse population with diverse
010abilities and traumas given what they have already gone through this school year man this time thank you it's time to put the egos and bottom lines aside and start thinking about the kids ask yourself aren't the kids the reason why we went into education in the first place abby gunther good evening dr clark board as a product of decatur public schools i am appalled at the decisions being made yet again and have me questioning why i chose this district the very district that i started out at in the halls at muffley all the way to eisenhower where i graduated from to come back to and work to work for after this roller coaster of a year i work in the sed program and have for eight years now the emotional physical abuse we as a
011staff and our poor kiddos have taken this year is beyond ridiculous the feeling of being set up to fail is so very strong as i stand here tonight we were sold a bill of goods that semester when our program was moved from monthly to harris and not one thing was followed through with the lack of transparency and sabotage every step of the way is shining brighter and brighter i fear for our kiddos in their future now more than ever the progress and maturity some have achieved could all be for nothing with the second wave of trauma you are about to inflict upon them the merge of programs and dissolving of the elementary scd program is a mistake and is not in the best interest of the kids staff has stepped up how about the admins
012outside of our building do the same we were welcomed with open arms and supported by our new admins and staff at harris our kiddos feel safe again and are thriving they are starting to trust our support system actions speak louder than words correct pretty sure we have spoke loud all year when asked to for our kids have you can you tell me when the last time you all visited our room spoke with staff or students to see how they were and how they felt no that's a shame and yet you are the ones deciding their future our kids are heartbroken scared and feeling betrayed yet again by you this year we are done staffing is not the issue contrary to what is being sent home to parents as we speak we refuse to be blamed
013for this when the decision was already made by one person before our meeting yesterday there was no discussion to save it no sed parent no sed staff had input on any of these changes well that action sure says a lot to me kelly smith kelly snyder riley snyder thank you good evening dr clark and the board of education my name is riley snyder or mr snyder i'm the art teacher for the alt-ed program the scd program and the seat program and i can tell you i love the students from the sed program more than anything in this entire world and i would do anything i would go to the moon and back for them and that is why i'm here to stand up for them as an adult with autism i can't even imagine what
014it would be like as a child who may suffer from attachment disruptions struggles learning struggles making transitions or struggles beyond that to not only have to switch teachers but to switch to an entirely new program my sed students are some of the most creative and brightest students i know they are also children they are fragile they are not pawns on a chess board that can be moved around carelessly and recklessly our programs are not pawns on a chessboard neither we are people our students our people there is a quote that says students must maslow before they can bloom and that is not what this discussion is currently based upon or and this philosophy is currently based upon thank you megan fauna hello and good evening my name is megan fonner and i have been a
015part of this sed program for five years now in this program i have been both a teaching assistant and now a teacher i am here today to voice my concerns and advocate for my two students who are standing right here the decision made by one person from macon piet to dissolve the sed program is not in the best interest of the students this has been one of the most challenging years the students are finally in class learning after being remote for almost two years and the toxicity the students and staff had went through before the move to william harris since christmas break the students are thriving and learning i can only speak from my classroom but they are finally reading doing math and believing in themselves they are coping with their emotions developing relationships learning
016responsibilities and becoming leaders and motivators as an educator that's pretty rewarding as a district that should be something that you should want your students doing succeeding and excelling the district's mission is to educate all students for long lifelong success our vision is that students will become responsible caring and productive citizens of the society in a set and setting where students parents staff and community members share responsibility district leadership motivates people policies decisions and all the resources are used efficiently and effectively unfortunately all the progress and growth that that has been made is going to be taken away by solving this program and merging with seep the district is sending a message that the needs of the students do not matter the education of our students does not matter they are the most vulnerable population of
017students and are once again being tossed aside is this really the message we want to send to our students that their education does not matter on our district page for meet the superintendent dr clark's focus is on ensuring every decatur public school student can unlock their unique and limitless potential by dissolving the std program a program that is best fit for our students the mission is being unfulfilled with all that i'm asking that you look at the positives of the students and how much they have grown and overcome the obstacles that they have faced it is taking the students away from making from the amazing support system of the sd program and the william harris administration and staff the best option for these students what is the district going to do to ensure that they
018are going that they are getting the best support i can tell you that the decision that is that is made is not going to only hurt the students but put them multiple steps backwards i also want to make one thing very clear the staffing of the sed program is not the issue we are being blamed for in a letter sent to the parents from macon piett we are more than that's time lloyd davis and jaden how you doing this evening board i'm here to advocate for my child he's an example of this program i was informed by more than one reliable sorts yesterday that my child would be transferred to a different program see the director of macon pie scd voted for the scd program to close due to understaffment but there are plenty of
019vacancy for students expressed there are plenty of enough teachers this is not their job this is their careers i'm first to express that teachers love that these teachers love the kids they teach this has truly affected my child to be cut by the program because it takes all of the growth educational emotional characteristics our children have grew so hard to establish ripping away all the success these teachers ripping away all the success these teachers have taught our children to grow and work so hard for the director of the mega pi sed is throwing all this away with a countless decision over the past year my child has made has been bounced from school to school every time every time my child is glorified with joy to the regards of his success but every time the
020director of the mega pie scd has deliberately tore this away from him it's not fair to my child or any other student in the sed program over the past year my son has went from reading first grade level to fourth grade literature he's went from basic edition all the way up to numbers 20s in division these are huge strides for my child as well as excellent teaching from his teachers my child has strived so hard for success and he came home and expressed that he loves school his teachers in the school love him but their bosses hate the school and that's the students how do i respond to this the director of making pie scd the director has i mean she can't have children because she's throwing this program away that so many children have
021succes have succeeded with it's not fair nor right to the children it's not about the teachers it's about the children our children have due process rights regarding their iep the director of mega pie has failed to respect the legal guidelines regarding ieps the director of macon paya sed has informed staff that they have to either go to the uh seat program or look for another job which is unjust and inhumane to teachers that love these kids sometimes more than they love themselves how was the principle at sea first the change that the director of making pie had cut the program and destroyed the scd program before the staff's parents or sed program even new to where we could even demand answers or even request what was going on i've called the director of make a
022pie sed the special education administrator pike county regional superintendent oliver refused to call me how funny though two days after this meeting and after the decision was made the mega pie scd director is available for an appointment after she's created a disastrous decision for our children i'm a firm believer of advocating for my child good or bad so important people in this room some missing know how i advocate for my child this doesn't sit well with me if my child is going to be held accountable for things beyond his control and be forced to a program with nothing but the worst and the worst in the program and to mix my striving successful student and make him regret school i'm requesting either director of making sed i'm not done be fired or immediately resign or
023immediately resign from her position james lord she has abused her powers and privileges with no conscience or remorse her data is factual inaccurate sir she is quit she is a liar james lord you will see how successful these students are you are making a horrible decision director hi i don't know all of you and you probably don't know me but my name is james lord and i have two wonderful children and they all experience something that helps them in the sed program that they could not do anywhere else and i have seen it firsthand and i have dealt with the school boards before and i'm not afraid to do it again and i will continue to i am disabled myself and i should not have to be up here standing here to fight for my
024child's rights because somebody else wants to ignore them my children are the world to me and the children should be the world to you we place them in your care and your care is supposed to take care of our children and now we're up here questioning your care if you place your child in a daycare would you want that person to take care of your child the correct way or would you want them to make baseless nameless decisions without your permission basically what i'm saying is that my child has gone through a lot both my children have and i have gone through a lot i have been in the educational system myself locational schools seat programs like this do not work for sed children they require special care and it's going to set them back
025four or five steps my kid went into the vocational school not being able to do work not even being able to write he had his words mixed up backwards couldn't even deal with his own feelings when i placed my child in this sed program the short time he has been there and i do mean very short less than three months my child has exceeded in ways that i couldn't even imagine that people told me he could not exceed in and he has and i have dealt with the vocational systems myself and i know they do not work and also you all seem to forget the due process rights of our child and i don't like the fact that people can make faceless decisions without my consent over my child and my child's rights and i
026will fight for my child's rights and i have before i have gone up against the school board system with a lawsuit before and i have fought and i have won i mean people they may think parents are dumb and stupid when it comes to their children but this one i assure you is not and i will fight to my child's right to the fullest of my intent i also will stand for any child under that sed program whether they're mine or not even if they are not my own blood because i know what works and what does not work you guys say you can tell us what's best for our children what's not best for our children but i tell you only the parents and the teachers that deal with him on a daily basis
027can tell you what's best for the child and as that i take my leave james olson hello my name is james olson i was a person who was growing up in the sed program myself until they ended up switching out giving me a teacher's aid it helped a little bit but it wasn't doing as well as the program originally did for me seeing my son as we moved here to decatur he started going to durfee and they figured out after two years that the program wasn't working well for him so they gave him a teacher's aide at first and then they said hey we're going to move you to muffly around that time as he switched over to muffly it wasn't even a few weeks in and then they said hey we have to close
028the schools because of endemic going on and then i had to become his teacher from 2020 up into 2021 halfway through and then they started deciding on when the kids were able to come back and they had to keep pushing it back and pushing it back and that's understandable and during that time it was hard but the teachers did their best to make sure that he got his academics in order his the online meetings and whatnot they really pushed as hard as they could for the children even the teacher at the time who drove to each of the students houses that couldn't drive to the school itself to make sure that they got their paperwork there's a lot of people here today that have been a part of that situation as well trying to make
029sure that the students needs are met because not everybody is capable of doing the best that they can but they're trying all of them are trying and as right now hearing that this program is going to be fizzled out after seeing my son with his behavior they were planning on trying to put him and putting them in the seep because of his his disorderly conduct but after he got the help that he needed his whole entire behavior turned into a 180 he started working with the teachers at first he was academically hindered and then he academically flourished using this program and if everything has to be switched over to seep we feel as parents that it's going to retroactively discourage these children from becoming them better their better selves and even if we did try
030to have him go into public schooling which some of us do not feel like our students are ready for yet the other option is feeling like homeschooling which will end up taking a lot of students out of the school system and having them stay home with some parents who don't even who you know who have jobs where they have to spend that time to do home and maintain their business maintain their properties to maintain their homesteads a lot of people were discouraged in that situation during 2020 and 2021 if these people have to go through this again please please please do not make them go through this again it's already been hard enough and for having them to go through what they are i can't have it either christina bartley hi my name is christina
031barley i'm an sed parent i have seen my kid flourish in this program this breaks my heart this really does one person being in charge of making a decision for so many children not thinking of the repercussions that can be caused without weighing in the pros and cons without thinking about is this going to hurt these children or is it going to help them lumping them into two separate categories instead of having this middle ground for them is totally unacceptable this isn't okay you cannot be doing this to our children they are people they deserve a chance to flourish they deserve a chance to have the best possibility of education and i feel that it is totally unnecessary and unjust for one person to be able to make a decision for so many children and
032so many parents without discussing with it without our input without asking us hey how do you feel about this it's not okay you're hurting our children it's not okay we we can't stand by and let this happen all of us are here to speak on this and we want our children to flourish we want them to have a chance this program helps them have that chance please don't end it please keep it going help our children don't hurt them andrew olsen um my name is andrew danielson and my teachers are the best teachers ever please don't um not let them be with me for the rest of the school years um thank you that's miles courtney beckett courtney beckett good evening i'm no public speaker but this evening i'm here on behalf of my child
033who is an scd student he has made leaps and bounds he's had his ups and downs he does not meet criteria for the seep he also doesn't meet criteria to go back to his home school yet in mount zion but should he advance to seep will take so many steps backwards in what we have worked for so many of these children have outside diagnoses of autism adhd what have you i don't know but that doesn't mean they meet criteria for seep just to be thrown into that so i'm asking the board to reconsider and not allow this to go through so parents do have rights for due process and if my child's forced in to go to sleep i don't have the means to homeschool i can't so i will seek legal counsel and go
034on with a lawsuit against decatur public schools with all due respect i just ask that you keep the the sed program going thank you susie conway hi i'm susie conway a little bit um switch of direction here i'm not going to speak about sed um so good evening board good evening dr clark the purpose of my addressing you tonight is information only i'm not asking for action or anything like that if i were a member of this board i would want to know what's going on in our buildings and with our staff so to that point i work at cope academy as i have for the past two and a half years i'm sick and tired of feeling like hope is an afterthought the bottom of the barrel and perceived as the armpit of this
035district i'm sure other buildings feel the same way which is a problem but i'm speaking for myself about hope academy there are some things that have happened this year that make me feel this way one i feel like we are the alternative to the district's alternative school we had several students transfer to hope after other or from other dps schools when harris was not accepting students was this a coincidence we were only allowed four students into the prep academy when we had others apply and certainly others that deserve to go what were the numbers in the other schools i know hope was only allowed four for career week we were asked what kind of truck we wanted for touch truck day i requested a fire engine for our k5 k5 students and led to believe
036we would have a fire engine for two hours instead i was told we would have a trolley for one hour no offense against trolley i'll take it but it seems inequitable to me what other schools are getting what trucks um it might seem small to you but this is all about perception for us no worries by the way i got a fire engine for another hour and i have the dps bearcat truck coming out for two so no worries on that i took care of it today we did not have a bus for a career at richland we were supposed to pick up montessori on our way to the fair but somehow montessori got there without us again was this just a horrible coincidence our administration is doing the best job that they can but
037they seem to be overloaded and stressed with district projects that are not related to helping hope academy students this is not in the best interests of our students we now only have five certified teachers in our middle school i don't know if you guys know we have five there's a reason for this we've lost everybody else there have been other things as well but i can't remember them all i tend to move on and do the best with what i have in the here and now i want you to know i'm not alone with my feelings at hope i love working at hope academy i will continue to work there our students are just as important as any other students in this district and deserve to be treated that way our teachers and staff are
038just as valuable as other staff our administrative team are just as dynamic as the others we needed to be treated that way thank you thanks danielle and i may pronounce this incorrectly sarva or sarya sarver thank you good evening superintendent and board hi my name is danielle sarver and i am here to advocate to continue the sed program my son joined the scd program at the beginning of this year i would like to first tell you what i heard about my son prior to him starting the sed program at william harris he is disruptive to the class i worry about the other students when he is in class he isn't improving sas needs called he is suspended he may need medication he may need hospitalized we need you to come get him he is terminated
039from the program he needs a full-time teacher full-time teacher's aide and we added it to his iep but we don't have the resources to support him we don't have the support for him we can't get him to stay in the classroom long enough to learn anything he is falling behind in his class we aren't able to support him he needs more resources these are just a few things that i have heard about my child since the 2021-2022 school year he is a square peg that has always been stuffed in a round hole by the school system and it has never worked he was made to feel like the problem or an issue how would he learn or be successful in his education if we couldn't even get the support he needed at the start of
0402022 he was placed in the sed program at william harris where at bomb i left work up to 30 times within three months i've left work once for the sed program and when i did they didn't want to send them home where my son was said he couldn't improve he is improving he loves school he can communicate he asks for help he breaks through shutdowns has decreased meltdowns has become an entire different kid due to being in the sed program he is supported loved has a smaller class size more resources at his disposal trained teachers for emotional disabilities my son is stable i'm asking you to find it in your resources to keep this program for these children my son has an emotional disability in his iep and i feel it is neglectful to say
041we are shutting down this program he can go here or here good luck you aren't giving us viable options for our children our children have rights and they deserve an education in the setting that is most conducive to that finding the resources to invest in these children today will save you resources later the other programs and school settings do not work for these children and it is their right to be afforded an education i'm asking you to invest in these children please i fear that as they are absorbed in the seat program these children will face the same problems they had before going to sed such as lack of resources lack of individual help lack of care please do not do this please find another way not just for my son but for everyone's they
042deserve for us to fight for them advocate for them and provide them with viable solutions and an alternative education and the sed program is the solution for my child and many others i wanted to end this with a message from the teachers they say we just love him he is our kid he has been doing so much better guess what he did today one shutdown today but he came out of it bob my name is barbara mccall i'm a guardian and grandparent of a csed child at the beginning of this school year when we had our iep program i requested her be transferred back to the c program because i didn't think she was ready for the sed i was told she's already graduated that program it's not going to be beneficial for her anymore
043so now on the whim of one person apparently we're going to take her out of the program where she's thriving she is not i'm not getting called every single day i may have to go pick her up every couple weeks or have a phone call with her because her teacher is fantastic enough to get her on the phone with me when she's having an issue so i can help calm her down but we're going to take this child who's making progression and 35 other kids throw them right back where they were that's incomprehensible to me i have a this little girl is now telling her friend she's sorry she likes school don't take it away from her my son was a special education child 20 years ago they took his program away from me he
044ended up in prison for 15 years i won't allow that to happen to my grandkid the decisions you guys make as school board members and the education for these throwaway kits that most people in the system think they are that don't produce productive healthy happy kids she's lucky she's got a family lesser that'll support her that i'll fight for a lot of these kids don't you guys are supposed to be fighting for them so fight this crap don't send her back to a program that you guys told me she didn't qualify for no more because she has already graduated that program she's not ready to go back to regular classroom but she doesn't need that anymore what the hell good is it going to do to put her back there you're taking my grandchild 10
045steps back that ain't writing nobody's book and it shouldn't be writing y'alls and if it is y'all don't need your jobs that's all i got to say on it i have one to read jacob jenkins below you will find a statement i would like to read at the upcoming school board meeting but i also like to have a statement entered into the official record good evening madam superintendent members of the board and citizens of decatur i would love to be with you tonight however work has me out of the state for the week however i cannot let this meeting pass without addressing the internal culture and climate that is taxes for your black students teachers staff and high level district administration they will rather be without a job than continue to work in one of
046jim crow's last districts in illinois to the dps 61 elected board members of the district i say the district is a cancer and it seems everything it touches dies an african-american comedian once said bleach is great for whites but will destroy colors every day of the week this is the simplest term i can find to describe the current climate and culture however let me get back to the issue at hand i recently read julie fainz the former principal at american dreamers academy resignation letter in that letter she states flat out that she resigned because of overwhelming evidence that an adult in her building had abused a child in this district refused to hold that staff responsible it is deplorable that this district and all of its bureaucrats would rather sacrifice a high achieving principle then
047hold on abusive staff responsible the next time i would like to address can be found in today's board packet the next item i would like to address can be found in the today's board packet it shows that even one of your highest paid african-american district leadership would rather give up his livelihood than stay in this toxic racist jim crow district it is not common practice of the director of human rights resources to terminate his contract with two years of guaranteed income left it is time for this all white board to take a good look at the policies procedures climate and culture because the cancer is metastasizing and spreading fast i would like to leave the lawyers superintendent and the board members with this you can only pay off so many people hide behind so many
048gag orders and fire so many black staff before the whole house of cards begins to crumble thank you that's it that's all of it yes the board of education thanks every the public folks comments now move on to student ambassador reports are there any port reports this evening on a different subject um i i learned this evening that the i believe it's the dps robotics club won 40th place out of i believe 160 or 41st out of 160 in an international robotics competition uh hosted in houston texas so i think that they deserve a round of applause for that i know there hasn't been a lot of publicity but i think that's a very good thing upcoming events ap tests start for a sap students in in high school next week and they go into
049the following week also next week is the macarthur high school band and orchestra prism concert not prison prism prism um and uh that that's hosted on uh i believe it's thursday may 5th at 7 p.m at macarthur so any community members or parents who want to come out uh we're going to be making some beautiful music and for some of us seniors it's our last performance with the banter orchestra and the choir macarthur high school choir is doing a performance on at 7 p.m on may 12th so exactly a week later uh that's about all i have but that's what's happening thank you we'll now move on to board discussion is there anything the board wants to discuss this time yes um i we've talked about a long time ago we talked about a board
050retreat we've talked about dr clark you've talked about perhaps having work planning sessions um i don't think i'm not too concerned about what the title is but i think something like that would be very appropriate for us to discuss and try to set up and i think what we've heard a lot tonight the whole sdd program that kind of thing could be one of the topics i would like to see in this kind of discussions uh that we learn from every principal in in the school district and from every department head in the administration i think that's you know it's been a year since some of us started on the board and i think that would be still very beneficial there's lots for us to learn and just encourage us to work towards that not
051to decide anything tonight but i think in the next couple months maybe that'd be something to look at we've talked about this a little bit have you started thinking about format yeah so actually we've already started our own discussions about what we're trying to do to present to the board and then our first meeting with the entire um uh dps administration well not the entire the building principles for dps they're going to be meeting with us on the 28th i believe it is so we can hear some of their concerns as well and so what we're trying to do is look at the entire district leadership organization and get all that information ready to present to you and your workshop so going from there okay have you already set the date or not yet because
052we're still gathering our own we just said it was not something no no no no this is our one of our initial meetings so we've already started our meetings on how we want to present information to you good because i i think from what we heard tonight i think there's a lot of that's one example of a lot of things that we need to discuss in those kind of meetings thanks i just want to say really quick i just want to do a follow-up to our awesome student ambassador here i just wanted to acknowledge all of the eisenhower um high school students who were just recently inducted into the national honor society friday night i don't think any of them are here but i think they deserve a round of applause anyway so if you
053could pass that on for me to the student ambassadors at eisenhower that we all have congratulated them i would really appreciate that thank you so much anything else to discuss all right we will now move on to reports with administration i would like to call marquis stewart director of teaching and learning to the podium to present a summer school update good evening superintendent clark board of education i had my voice back i know we talked earlier my voice was gone so i have it back i want to provide you with an update i know i came to you all in february to give you an overview of summer school initially we plan to have 12 sites due to staffing student enrollment we've decreased down to five sites those sites are persian will be housed at
054garfield they will not be in the current building because of the construction all k-8 students will be at johns hill middle school that time will be from eight to twelve eisenhower and macarthur both will run from eight to twelve hope house life skills and essential skills students as well as macarthur and hope will run from nine to one and i forgot to tell you that garfield will run two sessions for pre for our pre-k students one session from nine to 11 and the other session from 12 to 2. we have been working with all departments this is a monumental task this keeps me up at night in summer school but i'm excited about it partnering with hr hr has done a magnificent job with filling positions we're just about fully staffed with the staff that
055we have available all schools will have secretaries all schools will have security guards as well except garfield there's no need for them to have security at this time we will also we partner with ashley and we'll have teacher prep academy interns who will also be a part of summer school in addition to that we have tas in all k-8 classes so you have a total of two adults in all our ka classes actually pre-k through eighth grade so we're excited about that the more help our teachers can get i think we're going to be successful in the end our enrollment uh just kind of give you overview of each site pre-k currently has 104 students that are enrolled uh johns hill will have 540. eisenhower will have 180 macarthur 220 and summer school staffing uh
056we're having the training on may 26th so we'll have all staff uh will be i believe eisenhower i will provide a training for them we have as of yesterday mail letters to parents because one thing we want to communicate with our parents so we sent them a letter yesterday an acceptance letter to parents so those parents know if their child has been accepted and today we mailed out letters for those parents who did unfortunately didn't get in however if we don't have students show up we have a waiting list so we'll then go to that waiting list to add kids as needed so just want to provide you with a quick update are there any questions i know there was um um i think a message had come out they're not doing smash camp this
057summer so how are we going to incorporate like those ideals for the more gifted students into the summer school program are they going to be in this regular summer school session so unfortunately unfortunately at this time we were not able to offer smash camp due to staffing we did have a montessori listed as a site but when we got down to staffing there were only four teachers and we needed more than four teachers so we are incorporating some of those things into johns hill middle school uh we're offering stem offering field trips so kids will get exposure out to that as well uh during the summer will a letter stating that be going out or some kind of a media release because i think some parents still are not aware of that so the letters
058again we sent letters out yesterday in today and that highlights those things what you just said is in the letter that you mailed so the letter we mail the acceptance letter it talked about the things that are going to occur during during summer school yes sir okay thank you oh go ahead okay i was just going to add one more thing that dlt is working on because we could not reach all the students we are working trying to get as much community input as we can so we're having a meeting a zoom meeting to try to see what else is going to be offered in the community and how we can partner to help some of our kids have those activities as well okay thank you all right i just had some questions just for
059the listening audience just to clarify a couple things so so initially for summer school there was a google doc or something that went out where anybody interested in summer school could fill out that google doc back i mean several months ago so parents had to sign up and skype just like they okay in skyward okay so there was a sign up where people could opt in for summer school when we thought it was going to be a more robust yes program and then because of issues beyond our control we've now had to sort of reel that in a little bit and reduce to five sites so the students that have been accepted into the program are these students that have been identified as needing some additional help and getting up to grade level or that
060sort of thing correct okay and so um let me see it's at all the questions that i had about that um maybe that's it maybe i just wanted to clear so that people understood what you know what the what the criteria was and what we're we were pulling from so there's gonna be a wait list for anybody who who didn't get in it and this enrollment is that pulled from those who opted in from skyward correct okay so but we also have a waiting list that we started after the skyward registration was done so we created another waiting list so those kids are now combined on their both waiting lists so hopefully well i'm hoping everyone shows up but if not we will definitely open up slots for other students okay that's great well i
061think i i'm glad to see that we're doing summer school again this summer to the to the fullest extent that we can i think it was really great um last year i i personally had a child who was really struggling and several levels below where he should be and and the program was really helpful for him and um so i hope that our students have similar success this summer and thank you for all the work you're doing on that everybody involved i just want to give a shout out to all departments again this has been a monumental task last year this time i was a principal leading at a school and now the district having to pull so many different people in it's been very cool just to work with various departments to see how
062the district works so i'm excited about that so i'm definitely thankful for each department uh being a part of this role i'm sorry on the letter that you mailed out just to clarify uh you you did say i think i heard you say um parents need to like accept the acceptance or this is just a letter you've been accepted yeah the letter says it tells them specifically they've been accepted okay so there's no we accept it we decline so they only turn it back the only thing else is in there if they decline then they have to reach out there's an individual they have to reach out to notify them okay they decline and then once they decline we'll go to their uh waiting list and then pull the next student off okay and again
063this was more called what reagan said for the listening audience so only return this letter or reach out if we as the parent are declining correct acceptance okay thank you for that clarification all right so um you mentioned that there are some students that weren't accepted um to know how many and maybe why we weren't able to offer it to everybody well we're not able to offer to everybody staffing uh that was you know a big part of this entire process so unfortunately we had a total uh the last i looked at a total of 1100 who had initially signed up by the march 23rd deadline and so uh after that we were able to go through and sift through uh the numbers and well of course we had to you know omit some students
064based upon staffing and i can't do uh math in my head so how many students do we have enrolled total so we have oh wow yeah all right so i'll just kind of put totally uh i would say we have a little over a thousand students enrolled okay so we're so we're close we're close but we still again the smash camp students uh unfortunately uh were not added but hopefully well again when i say hopefully but if students do not uh show up we would definitely look to add those students based upon where they are on the waiting list thank you yeah it's unfortunate it's like last year we were trying to get everybody to go you know and then unfortunately can't provide it this year are we doing two rounds of this again last
065year we did two rounds so no sir this year it will only be june 6 through june 30th okay last year there was a big decline i think between june enrollment in july yeah enrollment in july went down the second round isn't possible uh at this point i don't think so okay one of the things is what happened last year a lot of our buildings uh of course won the construction we had kids in there so it's hard for them to get building the buildings ready for day one so we took that into consideration as well uh but uh right now i don't think we're at a point where we can add a second session okay all right this is one of the reasons why we're reaching out to the community to see what's being
066offered as well can you let us know when you do hear something yes once we're finished we're actually going to create another uh sheet that goes out to parents online i believe is what maria said so not only will they have the information about what dps is offering but everybody that we connect with will be there what is being offered in the times and all of that as well okay thank you that's great we have really good summer programming in decatur so that'll be helpful i'm sure all right thank you sir all right thank you good night next report i would like to call lawrence trimble director of student services to the podium to present a first reading of the changes to the code of conduct and parent handbook for the 2020 and 2023 school
067year lawrence good afternoon board of education um seems like i've seen you guys before tonight so again to superintendent clark and to melissa um i am presenting to you the first read of the student code of conduct book just to kind of give you guys a little bit of insight how the process works we do disseminate the code of conduct book out to the different departments within the dps family and also we work through the discipline action committee uh with the discipline section so what's before you oh excuse me pardon me and then we consult with our our legal team so the changes that you see presented to you now are changes that are indicative of those recommendations just before we get started uh this is a part of our strategic plan in strategy two
068and results statements one and three so ensuring that we have um a book that guides the climate and culture and also the environment is a part of our district goals i'm not going to read all of these summaries of changes to you but i do want to highlight a few of them the complete changes were in your board packet but the tardy policy and attendance changes are included into the code of conduct book this year uh specifically because we needed to um kind of expand our tardy policy this year based off uh the numbers that we were seeing so that parents are aware students are aware and also staff are aware of the consequences of repeated tardies also as we consulted with our legal department there were changes to some changes to the school's student
069records sexual harassment policy the uniform grievance process as well as the some language changes to opting out for health education continuing in this line we added some plagiarism language into the general conduct we also did a preliminary [Music] update to the dress code and the uniform policy now we do i do want to make it plain that we are going through the uniform free month of may so we will gather that feedback as presented in a different presentation and make the ultimate recommendation because the uniform policy is board led so we do have to get your approval in that but we just did some updates also to the dress code there were some updates to policies that have been changed the search and seizure policy the bullying policy and then also we broke out some
070language for our alternative programs we removed the william harris suspension room which is going to be a change in the alternative program and many of the other changes that are in this section were changes that happened during the discipline reset so if you remember we moved some infractions to different levels we made some changes to some of the consequences in different uh levels as far as expanding um the alternative program consequence and whatnot so all of the other changes were already already in place but we're bringing them through to you guys now so that we can get official approval so after after this we take it back through the central office administration as well as gathering feedback from our principal administrators actually the principals have the book now and then also the discipline action committee
071meets again and we we go through the code of conduct book to make any final recommendations uh to to the book for you guys as approval and so the next time you see it will be the final product of what we would like to see to see approved after the code of conduct book is approved parents are notified during the registration process and of course the code of conduct book is available online as well i want to say thank you to the members of the discipline action committee they helped provide some invaluable feedback and thank you to our administration also and the departments who work alongside with me in this endeavor i'll entertain any questions that you might have okay all right hearing none i'm gone that will end our reports from administration we will
072now move on to roll call action items do we have a recommendation for the dismissal termination of a secretarial employee yes i recommend the board approve the dismissal termination of constance palmer secretary despa employee as presented do i have a motion second second discussion roll call vote mr dion aye mrs lewis aye mr taylor aye mr shiiter aye ms banks and dr collins brown hi 6i zero nay one absent motion carry do we have a recommendation to adopt a separation agreement yes i recommend the board adopt a separation agreement between the board of education of decatur public school district 61 and jason hood effective april 30th 2022 as presented the motion two moved second second discussion roll call vote mrs lewis aye ms banks okay there's a motion and a second on the floor for
073the adoption of the separation agreement dr collins brown after consulting with hr about this i will vote i mr taylor aye mr scheider no and mr dion hi 5i 1a one absent motion carry do we have a recommendation to adopt a settlement agreement regarding a vehicular accident yes i recommend the board adopt the settlement agreement regarding a vehicular accident between the force and decatur public school district 61 employee chris tennyson as presented a motion so moved second second discussion we'll call vote mr schneider hi dr collins brown aye mr dion hi miss banks mrs lewis hi and mr taylor all right six eye zero nay one ass motion carried 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
074hood director of human resources as presented the motion so moved second second discussion well call vote mr taylor aye dr collins brown aye mr dion aye mr shiiter aye miss banks and mrs lewis 6i zero nay one absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the employment of a coordinator of school health services yes i recommend the board approve the employment of laurie fraim for the position of coordinator of school health services as presented there a motion to move second second discussion i just want to go on record as saying i have dealt with this particular nurse on a personal level and i think she is probably the most qualified nurse that we could have found for this position so outstanding um my hat's off to her and i'm gonna vote yes whenever it's
075my turn there you go roll call vote miss banks mr dion aye dr collins brown aye mr taylor aye mrs lewis hi and mr scheider 6i zero nay one absent is miss frame present i would like you to come up [Applause] i'm a little bit nervous and then with that what's no pressure no pressure i want to thank you so much i'm so looking forward to this i'm being blessed with having a strong nursing department that angie wessel has provided for me and i'm so excited i have nothing more to say but thank you very much welcome board [Applause] do we have a recommendation for the 2020 athletic plans for middle and high school and requested funds yes i recommend the board approve the 2022-2023 athletic plans for middle and high schools and requested funds
076as presented emotion second second discussion i just had one question it's kind of a follow-up to two weeks ago when i was talking to um joe caputo about stephen decatur and they only could do the six lanes instead of the eight because of funding and this can be something we can talk about later but i just want to get it out there can any of the cares funding be used for the track so we'd have enough funding to get the extra two lanes so then they can have their tournaments and things like that at steve indicator i'll look into that in our senate update to the board okay so having said that is it should we table this or is this okay to vote on now hey marion pending that oh hi there it wouldn't
077be allowable okay because it it for uh cares it has to be like in regards to the pandemic and like loss of instruction okay so i don't see that falling under it at all okay thank you you're welcome but if it's a budget priority it's something we can talk about in the future i mean it's something or is it something where it can never be remedied once we've moved forward with this i don't know how tracks work i'm sorry i don't know if you can just go in no i really do think you'd have to like tear up the whole trip is this an hour and ever kind of thing i would have to look into that so that's right so let me go i'll go in and ask some questions and try to figure
078out what we would need to do moving forward but okay brian can answer probably the question about at least moving forward on this you can vote on and always come back in demand okay okay that i'll i'm okay with that all right where are we well call though thank you mary ann yes dr collins brown aye ms banks mrs lewis hi mr schneider aye mr taylor hi and mr dion 6i zero nay one absent do we have a recommendation before the career motion carry do we have a recommendation for the huddle agreement for august 15 2022 through august 14 2025. yes i recommend the board approve the huddle three-year agreement for august 15 2022 through august 14 2025 as presented emotion so move second second discussion well call out mr taylor aye dr collins brown
079aye mr dion aye mr shiiter aye ms banks and mrs lewis aye 6i zero nay one absent motion carried do we have a recommendation for the lease agreement between the board of education of decatur public school district 61 and the regional office of education number 39 roe yes i recommend the board approve the lease agreement between the board of education of decatur public school district 61 and the regional office of education number 39 roe as presented emotion so moved second second is this leasing the same buildings that they currently are is that just a repeat so i believe in oh you're going to come up and speak to that well thank you could you repeat the question i'm just asking if this is just kim you know continuing what we're doing or are we looking
080at a leasing a new or place um roe 39 will be leasing stevenson um they were in the tech academy okay um and so uh they have uh started to move over to stevenson at this point in time they're doing some renovations but this is a three year lease for stevenson with roe 39 so this includes both the futures and the milligan programs then i believe so okay it's not the regional office of education it's no yeah it's not their offices it's their school programs okay good thanks if memory serves stevenson wasn't updated with an air conditioner uh they were willing to move forward with window units they needed their own space and since it's not going to be occupied any point in time by the district they were more than happy to we we
081are doing an electrical upgrade so that they can put window units in in the classrooms but the cares dollars for that have been allocated potentially somewhere else yeah thanks welcome thank you roll call vote mr schneider aye dr collins brown aye mr dion aye ms banks mrs lewis aye and mr taylor aye 6i zero nade one absent do we have a recommendation for the flooring materials from macon pirate renovations william harris school yes i recommend the board approve the flooring materials for making pilot renovations william harris school as presented do a motion so moved second second discussion roll call vote dr collins brown aye mr dion aye mrs lewis aye mr scheider aye ms banks and mr taylor all right six i zero nade one absent motion carrier do we have a uh recommendation for
082the science textbook adoption yes i recommend the board approve the science textbook adoption as presented emotion so moved second second discussion i just like to applaud the procedures that were used to decide on the textbooks as you know and it came out with different vote companies for high school versus elementary and it was pretty strong leaning one way or the other so it was nice to see the staff really had an influence on that decision this is kind of sort of related does have a question about it what do we do with the old textbooks once we renew the textbooks because i know i think there are some parents who could use these older textbooks for like tutorial purposes at home to ask them marketing give those away to parents or anything great question we
083were just talking about that today because it's like i'm reading your mind so we are discussing that that was one of the options that we discussed so as we finalize that process i'll be sure to report and let you all know please do because i'm very interested in something like that we'll do where are we roll call vote mr taylor aye dr collins brown aye mr dion aye mr schneider aye ms banks and mrs lewis aye six i zero nay one absent we will now motion carry we will now move on to consent items does anyone have want any item pulled from the consent items to discuss and or vote on separately do we have a recommendation for the consent items wait first does anybody want anything no all right do we have a recommendation
084for the kids and items i'm sorry yes i recommend the board approve the consent items as presented which includes a minutes open closed session meetings april 12 2022 b financial conditions report c treasurer's report d resolution authorizing the disposal of surplus property e mtss contract with hanover research f job descriptions a director of human resources which is an update b director of safety diversity equity and inclusion which is new with a motion so moved second sorry discussion phone call vote miss banks all right mr dionne aye dr collins brown aye mr taylor aye mrs lewis aye and mr scheider aye 6i one absent motion carried we will now move on to announcements the board of education sends its control condolences to the families of donald harley henry walk watchter who passed away friday april 15
0852022. mr watcher was a former educator and uh retired superintendent of decatur of the schools for dps district 61. james william wilkerson who passed away friday april 15 2022 mr wilkerson was the father of kathy goffrey assistant principal secretary at eisenhower high school bonnie lee jones who passed away sunday april 6th 17 2022 miss jones was the mother of penny jones counselor at stephen decatur middle school and amanda cider social studies teacher at eisenhower high school mother-in-law of tom cider teaching assistant tim cider forgive me teaching assistant at eisenhower high school and wife of dennis jones long-term substitute we will now move on to important dates may 18 2021 2022 dps retirement celebration the devon lakeshore amphitheater at 5 pm dinner for uh from approximately 5 5 p.m to 7 p.m recognition of retirees will
086begin approximately 5 45 p.m please note if you have not rsvp'd please contact maria robertson as soon as possible at 217-362-3017 or email her it's just not here i'm not going to repeat your email address um may 21 um ms um macarthur high school class of graduate class of 2021 graduation ceremony at am 11 a.m macarthur high school sorry isn't it the class of 2022 2020 yes it is see that wasn't my fault my fault yeah the class of 2022 graduation ceremony 11 a.m uh macarthur high field weather permitting eisenhower class of 2022 graduation ceremony 2 p.m eisenhower field weather permitting please note rain dates if needed for each graduation ceremony will be on sunday may 22nd macarthur high school at 11 a.m eisenhower at 2pm public portion of the next regular meeting of the
087board of education will be at three at 6 30 a.m p.m i don't read out read out loud a lot obviously yeah tuesday may 10 2022 in the first floor board room at the kyle administration building do we have a motion to enjoy it i'm gonna call wyatt yeah i'll get it all moved [Music] good job thank you [Music]