DPS109 Board of Education Meeting 04/18/2024

001e e e okay good evening I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Board of Education tonight April 18th 2024 we're also streaming on the dps109 YouTube channel I'll call the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. can I have a motion to approve the meeting's agenda all in favor I the next item on our agenda is what's good in 109 Mr steckling all right we have a packed house today because we're trying something for the first time we'll get to that in just a second this is what's good 109 where we talk about all the great stuff happening around our schools I think this is our like biggest Standing Room crowd sorry we'll try to make this quick for you guys um we had a really cool opportunity to challenge collaborate and

002create memorable moments for all students across the district just a few weeks ago with the total or near total solar eclipse uh put together a little highlight video and really appreciate our staff compiling all of these pictures and video clips across all six of our schools went about as smooth as it could uh really cool experience and really glad that we leaned into it so check that out on our social media feeds if you have not seen that yet there's a lot of faces in there so go home and check for yourself we also have a really cool thing that is just coming out now and will be up on our website here really soon um this is a new video featuring some of our staff members talking about why they like working at DPS

003109 this is Prime season for hiring for people figuring out what their next step is so we spoke to somebody from each building about their experience at 109 they talk about the professional development the camaraderie how supportive this community is packing a boardroom like this really nice video look for it on our website it's up on our YouTube channel right now I wanted to give a special thanks to Dale Fischer who helped guide me through the process Marcy fa Alex dejon John Wolf Nina Burke Miriam tomman and Helen zor who all gave a few moments of their time to be in that a really nice representation of every building people that have different roles working with different age groups and it's a really nice glimpse into what it's like to work in 109 we have

004our first recognitions of the night talk about rising to the challenge when I say your name stand up these are our Young author contest winners and second place finishers across the district so for Kipling we have Madison and Emmy I know not everyone's here four South Park Shay and Avery for Walden Autumn and [Applause] Emily for Wilmot Aubrey Caruso Kaylee Lucy and Sydney and then for Shephard nelini and Nora and what was really cool to see putting this together we've honored this group of students before there are some people stand up if this is the second time you've either gotten first or second there's a bunch of you there's like three or four of you right at least there's one in the back so we have some repeat uh students that have been successful in

005this before so way to go so let's invite up here in just a minute the stars of our show tonight we had a big event that I kind of talked about a little bit at the last board meeting the Westside Classic this is going to be loud here for a minute it was a loud gym I think Mrs Joyce was there and could agree with me uh and Mr gror doesn't know I'm showing that sorry to him um a really fun event that happened last month featuring Caruso South Park and Wilmont in a charity volleyball match and the best part about it like I told this board last month was how involved the students were so we thought for the first time in this what's good type of presentation let's bring two schools together so

006come on up here Cooper Kylie Genevie and Jonah from Wilmont and Maya Mia Harper and Ari from South Park all right face the board we're going to be talking to the board there we go there's a lot of you you can spread out fan out here all right so you each have your assigned question they went in and added a lot of their own notes uh some of their teachers are here too that are going to help kind of fill in the blanks so Jonah Jonah where are you there you go let's start us off how did this event start um the event started and has been going on for many years started as a fundraiser between just Wilmont and Caruso um a couple years ago South Park was added and it was just a

007way to have some fun and give back to the community all right Cooper right behind you there how did you guys raise money for entry we collected $5 for every admission and whether you were part of the event like or not you had to pay the $5 and if you wanted snacks they were $1 to $3 it was a pretty good deal because those were like some full-size concessions you guys had too right yeah all right filling in here miss Rosenthal you get to talk about the charity aspect of it who did this event benefit um so this event for this year um benefited the Bounce children's Foundation which is a local charity that helps um children who are um chronically ill and their families and every year we pick a different charity so last

008year it was PA for Patrick which is just another local charity um that helps you know those with the meent who have uh sorry suffer from mental um health and match them with an with dogs or with pets okay very good let's pass it on to Genevie you really wanted to talk about the bracket the competition fill us in so first um South Park and Wilmont played first the winner AKA Wilmont played cruso the loser matches 1 and two played South Park versus Wilmont the winner of that advanced to the championship AKA South Park versus Caruso kuso won the championship making them the winners of 2024 and we're okay with that right even though you guys are South Park and Wilmont we're not sad about that too much okay fine all for charity Mia how

009did you make sure that your fellow students knew about the event and got excited about it let's Mia you want to get to the front a little bit so they can see you um so we made signs and then like some people from like different classes hung them up and then we had a big pep rally and then um a bunch some people from student conso talked about it um and then we um made stuff for like the announcements um so like everyone knew about them and then some people in student console made a video with the district which um spreaded the word and then um um Miss Macky like emailed some teachers and then they told their students so a bunch of people knew about them and then Dr F put it in like

010the Friday Focus all the parents knew about it I got to say Communications is my job you guys did a really good job spreading the word about this those posters were everywhere it was super cute and it was you guys did a really good job publicizing it so Harper tell us about this pep rally I got to see the pep rally the pep rally was led by students anyone in student council who wanted to talk led the assembly and we got a representative from bounds to come and she gave a speech and then we taught all the cheers from um South Park and like we like practiced them and then we gave them information about like rules and the time they need to be there and then we did the starting lineup for all the

011teachers it was very cool it paid off too in some of the video clips South Park was really loud you guys were organized yeah uh Maya tell us what kinds of jobs students had at the event at the event students ran concessions and bake sales they also ran the scoreboard and um Kylie sang the national anthem and some students talked and kids from South Park did the halftime show and made signs and made up cheers to to do in the crowd so Kylie she called you out there there you are what was it like singing in front of a room full of people first time you've ever done it nerve-wracking it was very nerve-wracking cuz I have never done this before but it was a very nice opportunity and I'm very used to being on

012a stage where it's much darker so it was very nerve-wracking and I um was very focused and it eventually paid off you did not and I'm add in a curveball but you're expecting this we talked about this how did you get this job you they didn't just say Kylie Go sing We had a email that we could fill out about your top three jobs and the moms in charge of Team give um went to our fifth grade music show and the talent show so they went off of their information okay awesome Ari now we talked about this every every time you plan an event a project something right you got to talk about how can we do better next year what could we have done differently so tell us some of the notes you guys

013have I think we should start the dance pushing earlier I also think we should have a another volleyball match um I think we should have a signal or buzzer to get the crowd quiet so we can continue playing I think we should have more organized cheers yeah it was hard to get a full gym of like excited element KS quiet you guys had to try a few times all right Cooper you've got the biggest job of the night how much money did we raise in this whole thing do you remember yes we raised 2,798 for the Bounce children's Foundation from Admissions and snacks awesome and that's a look at what's good in 109 is there any question questions for our Future Leaders here event planners does this give you any ideas of what you would

014like to do in middle school with leadership um I want to be on the student council there too because I like like planning stuff and talking in front of the school that's great the Middle School needs you guys to step up as Leaders good job I I want to help like do more fun things like this maybe like like be part in other events kind of like the Westside classic like I want to continue like to help kind of like spread the words so maybe like the like paper they put up in like the Stalls or like the school newspaper maybe to like help keep spreading the world word very cool anybody else any other questions I have a question yeah go ahead how was it decided which organization was going to get the benefits

015from the the event like um like student council at my school um we had like three options between um different charities and then we all voted which one we wanted to do and what was the thing that made everybody the majority pick this one well I I don't really know for everyone else but I know for me when I was in third grade I had like a whole unit where I studied bounds so I wanted to do that CH to like help support that charity now anybody else any other comments from our from our leaders up here all right thank you guys oh President we got anything president I just wanted to say you guys did and amazing job and I'm very proud of you all you did you did great and you should be

016proud of yourselves all right thank you guys so knowing that we had so many of them they've all got their certificates ahead of time so if you want to go get those whether you have those or your grown-ups have those let's take a big group picture up here let's do all of my Westside classic people first and then young authors we will have you guys follow Mr I just underscore go ahead Dr Brett I just we can underscore the um real commitment of our staff at willm it's our philanthropy club team leaders um Miss Rosenthal and Miss Scher who are here miss Macky help coordinate this from the student council lens at South Park and then our parents who lead these organizations they put in a lot of work and so these kids they let

017it but those adults behind them really made it happen so I just want to say thank you and acknowledge them as well [Applause] all right let's have you guys stand up right here get close to the board Miss sher's gonna take your picture and then parents she'll jump out of the way so you get a shot too it's upside [Laughter] down okay stay there hold on parents might be taking pictures hold on all right thank you guys can we have our young authors switch out with them [Applause] please that's okay we'll have you guys all up there together young authors go ahead stand up there they're not scary go ahead great job guys congratulations you going to go get them okay all right again look at Miss Sher up here with the big camera hold

018on oh yeah all right hold on for parents hold on hold on look at all of them all right last call parents thank you guys so much all [Applause] right all right we are going to move on to the superintendent report you are free to stay but we usually give people a little break here if you want to head on out how are you good thank you to make oh my gosh I'm myter okay you know where to unless you want us to I know I said is there anything that Kelly doesn't do yeah okay the next item on our agenda is the superintendence report Mr Simi all right well now that everybody's uh flooded in to see this I'll I'll take off so as Eric mentioned earlier the best thing that happened in the

019past month was question was the eclipse and like to thank Daniel Arnold and all of our staff for embracing this rather than shutting down school as some districts did I mean it had every kid in the district that wanted to be out there was out there some of them I'll show you a video in a second some of them thought that the eclipse was going to come and get them you'll see a little bit of that and I figured out in a real hurry because I won't be able to talk I want the audio to play because audio is the best part of this um I figured out in a real hurry that as cool as it was to watch the eclipse it was cooler to watch the kids watch the eclipse so oh that's

020sick sick this clean oh my God yeah it's so do cool was the word of the day and there are just this unconstrained Joy there it was just really really fun to watch the kids watch this this all happen so really glad we did it and definitely the best part of my my month another really great part of the month was two terrific musical performances I encourage the board to go and see these especially if you have little kids Kate I think you were there with yours there is not a bad seat in the house and it's astonishing how many of our kids can really sing and really dance and do other things I leaned over at some point to somebody and said are they all this good and like yeah we just have really

021a lot of super talented kids Cruz in particular with a new Auditorium is really the first chance we got a opportunity to to Really utilize that so uh Shephard had theirs as well so just lots of excitement from both of our middle schools really great to see that and then uh we had our sixth grade family night just was that last night I think it or Wednesday or no Tuesday Tuesday it was and uh again making good use of the auditorium and then at Caruso and then at shephard I had our new principal Rob wegley was able to make it to the meeting as as well so big opportunity for him and for parents to see uh the new building leadership as I mentioned Rob wegley will be the new principal at Shephard his dad

022was the superintendent uh in the district where uh Sam Curts if you know Sam Curts um he's one of our former administrators so D's a former superintendent Rob has got a really promising future I knew him from an earlier life he is going to work really hard and he is really terrific with kids and uh parents and staff like really really solid also Anne pesqui comes from CPS she's got a really extensive special ed background so uh Steph Stringer is really excited to to see her come on board as well and finally we have our uh kindergarten registration lots of exuberance you can really tell when the par parents bring their kid in whether it's kid number one or number three uh and we have a lot of registrations going on but if anybody knows

023anybody that has a kindergarten we want to get him in because we want a staff now rather than later in the year oh it's not the final thing the final thing I think is Staff appreciation so whether it is at preschool or if you're a classroom a that does baking or if you're a classroom teacher a coach uh or a music teacher in in the district there's a lot to celebrate uh all around will'll never be better than our staff and we are really fortunate to have so many dedicated staff members and on a more somber note wanted to make sure and put on everybody's radar uh Memorial tribute to our friend and for colleague Moren witer a lot of work has gone into coordinating with with the family thank you to Eric and Cat

024for that it'll be on May 23rd at 4M where we get to honor our friend and colleague Moren and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you any questions for Mr simik okay that brings us to community participation relative to matters on the meeting agenda the first period of community participation is for items related to tonight's agenda and the second period of community participation near the end of the meeting is open for all matters if you wish to comment please fill out a community participation form located on the podium and hand it to Rebecca Rudd we'll call you up one at a time to the podium to speak and please limit the length of all comments to no more than three minutes is there anyone who would like to address the board no okay the next

025item on on our agenda is our informational items 6.1 uh Freedom of Information requests Dr flippy yeah there's one in your packet it was uh seeking some information about our copier or lease and a number of invoices associated with that any questions any questions for Dr philippy okay the next item on the agenda is our technology update Dr bik I can't get the sound to work right hello everybody thank you for having me in the opportunity to present to you today uh as we look ahead to the 2024 25 school year I will focus on our plans for strategically investing in it uh that cultivates and fosters a love of learning in our students by making purposeful it Investments we can help create a dynamic learning environment that empowers teachers and supports our kids today

026we'll explore various IT solutions specifically designed to achieve these goals um all right I first want to acknowledge uh the structure and individuals that will make up the IT department uh Deerfield Public Schools has worked closely with a company called net56 to provide the district with Managed IT services for the better part of the last 20 years we currently have a multi-year contract that provides service desk services to faculty and staff help desk services for students and both Network Administration and system administration services for the district as a whole our help desk field technicians are the on-site tech support for our buildings and are truly the front lines of support for the day-to-day it operations to support both Kipling and South Park we will have Mr Logan FIS Mr Fenris is approaching his one-year anniversary

027with the district supporting both Walden and Wilmont we will have Mr Francisco Guzman Mr Guzman recently joined the net56 team and has been doing a great job to support Caruso we will have Miss Lana BK Lana will complete her second full school year with the district in June and we are extremely lucky to have her uh supporting Shephard we will have Mr Matthew Amil Mr Emil started last school year with the district in June and uh we are approaching a one-year anniversary with him as well um and then this past school year our Our IT department was also lucky enough to formally welcome aboard Mr Ron low Mr low is an instrumental component to our it Department among the many supports he provides to a number of people he is also primarily our technology services

028manager and our Skyward database manager although we Encompass both of these responsibilities under a single job title of technology specialist um the positive impacts that Ron has made is immeasurable uh I will also continue to lead and support the overall technology posture of the district the first topic I want to highlight if I can get this all right the first topic I want to highlight is the internet connectivity across our locations uh starting with the beginning of this school year the district was able to leverage two separate internet service providers to help create an optical optimal Wi-Fi environment for the upcoming 2024 25 school year we will continue with this model high-speed internet Empower students to conduct in-depth research access online educational materials and engage in Interactive Learning platforms with faster internet speed students can

029download and upload assignments quickly collaborate with peers in real time and leverage multimedia resources to enhance their understanding of complex topics these factors contribute to improve grades increased engagement and a more comprehensive learning experience moving forward we will continue to leverage internet service from both the Illinois Century Network and net 56 and we will continue to see the reduce costs all right the next topic is an update on the district's completion of our new wide area network also known as Wan uh the goal of the project was to install roughly 5.63 Mi of new fiber in a ring shape around the village of Deerfield each school would then Connect into that ring with Services going in both directions to avoid possible disruptions the district could then move away from using the public utility company's wide

030area network services this project was completed in August 2023 and we began using our new Wan almost immediately a few benefits we are now seeing are more security control so public WS can be susceptible to security breaches and unauthorized access our private wian offers us the most control over who can access our Network and ultimately the data that travels on it this can be critical for helping to protect sensitive student and faculty information also for performance and reliability our public W the public W can experience congestion during Peak usage hours leading to slow internet speeds and disruptions for students and staff our private Wan provides a dedicated connection with guaranteed bandwidth to help ensure smooth online learning and access to educational resources the cost of this project was roughly $1 million and it was covered

031entirely by special funding through the Illinois State Board of Education and the Universal Services Administration company now that we are leveraging the new an the district is also experiencing a month-over-month cost reduction of roughly 77% ongoing cost should continue to decrease after the initial 5-year term of the contract with the completion of this project the district is more secure and has increased our we access options both both now and into the future while also lowering our current and overall long-term costs the next topic is focused on a project that is rooted in improving the security posture of the district in collaboration with the Deerfield Police Department we were able to implement a districtwide two-way radio system that integrates directly with the local Police Department dispatch Center this strategic initiative is aimed at enhancing communication and

032response capabilities between our two organizations ultimately fostering a safe environment safer environment for our student staff and the entire School Community a district-wide 2-way radio system enables immediate communication between our school staff and the local police department in the event of an emergency allowing for quick and coordinated responses integration with the local police department communication Network facilitates real-time coordination and ensures that both parties are well informed and connect swiftly and cohesively our implementation of this new 28 radio system is a proactive step toward creating a safer and more secure educational environment for our kids all right uh next topic the next few topics um are around making device purchases for our students uh the recommendation I'm going to put forward tonight aligns with our on toone learning device refresh schedule that's outlined here uh the

033overall cost for this request is bigger uh than in past years due to the need to refresh devices across four cohorts of students so kindergarten all of our kindergarteners all of our first graders all of our second graders and all of our fifth graders is what we're talking about for next year last year for example we were focused on refreshing only one Cort of student devices the fifth graders and our Middle School instructional Labs all right so the first purchase um is focused on replacing Chromebook devices for grade two students and grade five students the Chromebooks purchased for our second grade students will be used for 5 years and the Chromebooks purchase for our fifth grade students will be used for four years some of the benefits of the new devices that our students will

034realize or bigger screens uh faster CPUs we're going to double the Ram from 4 to 8 and a more Ro more robust Wi-Fi connectivity so the new devices use wii6 uh protocol that increases the number of streams from uh 8 to 12 these provide higher connection speeds more pass for our devices to communicate over our Wi-Fi network the next topic is about refreshing iPads for our kindergarten and first grade students across our elementary schools the majority of our Kinder kindergarten and grade one iPads have been in use for roughly 5 years the iPad is a fantastic learning tool that supports our Young Learners in several ways iPads come alive with educational games singalongs and even simple coding apps there's Trove of apps specifically designed to develop foundational L literacy skills the iPad is touchcreen is

035perfect for little fingers and little hands drawing apps letter tracing games and simple puzzles are all crucial for future writing and drawing abilities and in today's world digital literacy is essential the iPad introduces Young Learners to basic technology skills in a safe and controlled environment they can learn to navigate apps use touch gestures and explore the digital world responsibly based on common technology refest cycles of four to five years for iPads and feedback from our elementary it field technicians and considering the learning needs of our kindergarteners and our grade 1 students today and for the upcoming years I believe it is in our best interest to prioritize an iPad device refresh our plan is to purchase 595 new 10th gen iPads to replace the existing kindergarten and grade 1 devices um as the current elementary

036iPad devices are returned they will either be inventoried uh to support learning needs across the district or sold on the open market to recoup value from the original purchase the current rate for these devices is $60 to $80 a piece depending on their condition so when we uh sell these we expect to return roughly $35,000 of value back to the district when they're when they're sold um we would not need to replace the Elementary kindergarten or grade one iPads again until at least the 2029 2030 school year all right the next topic is refreshing iPads for our elementary school teachers across the district the majority of our faculty iPads have been in use for over seven years these devices were initially purchased alongside Apple TVs to provide a layer of interactivity to classroom instruction the

037iPads have since become invaluable as a secondary teaching device iPads can replace traditional paper textbooks they are a great substitute for document cameras and can share learning content via our virtual learning environments iPads are used as a secondary teaching device that offers teacher instructional options for more interactive lessons these interactive elements are better able to grab students attention and make learning more enjoyable which leads to increased engagement and participation to support students with disabilities teachers can leverage their iPad to provide access to assisted Technologies like text to speech or speech recognition software this promotes inclusion and participation in the learning process for our most vulnerable Learners based B on again common refresh cycles of four to 5 years for iPads feedback from our it uh field technicians and seeing the increased cost of device repairs

038I believe it is in our best interest to prioritize an iPad device refresh for the elementary school level faculty our plan is to purchase 260 total 10 gen iPads to replace existing devices for our Elementary School faculty and then as the current elementary iPad devices are return they will either be inventory to support needs at the middle school or sold on the open market to recoup value for the original purchase uh the current rate for these devices is $50 to $75 a piece depending on their condition when uh we get all of them back and sell them we're expected to return between1 and $115,000 back to The District in value uh some assumptions here though are that we would not need to replace the Elementary faculty iPads again until at least the 2029 2030 school

039year but we would look to refresh the Middle School faculty iPads for the 2025 2026 school year all right the information on the screen um this is uh the information is provided just because this has come up um in the past from the board uh about what a 5-year device refresh projection potentially could look like uh these are our only projections um and with how fast technology advances change it's hard to get an accurate prediction of specific costs but from a you know looking ahead perspective these are the groups of devices that we would try to Target to refresh over the coming years all right thank you again for letting me present is there any questions about any of the information that I've shared um I'm really shocked that you didn't ask me to present

040on the WAN because of my extensive knowledge of what Wan is um just one quick question and I want to thank you for this presentation it was really helpful and you clearly have a very Broad View on the tech needs of the district and you're very proactive and I appreciate that thank um for the elementary teacher iPads do they also get a laptop do they get two devices from the district that is correct yes okay and then just instructionally they're used in just very different ways yes depending on the subject that the the teachers are are supporting it it varies so math teacher uses the iPad differently for example than the language teacher but um they're used extensively throughout our our teaching and learning right and like literally use they're not just like sitting on

041a counter and like they're part of the daily yeah I think it would be dependent certainly the extent of use based on the teacher but many of ours use it to create mobility in their instruction while still referencing or still referencing technology displays around the room so we have certain digital tools for example that they can use on their iPad and interact with student devices or the technology systems okay that was just my question thank you thank you I got one walk me through uh just I'm was trying to follow this graph the the Chromebook for the kid that's getting it in second grade next year right so it's that kid gets it he keeps it in third grade keeps it in fourth grade or she and then it's the fifth grade then it's replaced

042with because they get new ons in fifth grade correct what happens to that that Chromebook yeah so um if we're just talking about the second grade cohort next yep um when the device finishes its third year of use in 2627 we're going to repurpose it to the class of 2037 the following year they'll have it for their third grade and their fourth grade year no I got it no it's cool and then after that they'll get their new device in fifth grade which will be theirs for the rest of their time here at the district is does the math work out that then each Chromebook gets a lifespan of five years is that sort of start with the second grade it goes It goes three grades and then it gets repurpose for two grade correct

043so um we we focused on the fifth grade uh grade level band as our uh refresh every year so every fifth grader theoretically would get a new device in fifth grade they keep for four years uh the second third and fourth grade we decided to stick uh use those devices for up to five years so because of the fiveyear cycle of the devices and the three grade levels how that kind of shakes out over time um is how we got is how we got [Laughter] this thank you thank you I needed this out like 10 more years um no no there's a link in in the board Journal yeah it goes out quite a bit so thanks for doing this and I like the planfulness of it um but so I have a question about

044it though I remember a few years back um hearing about the need to buy more technology and the technology we were replacing was like shockingly old it's like eight or nine or 10 like it was old um I'm trying to understand the urgency of spending the money for replacing some of this so I think you know in the case of the staff you mentioned the faculty is using iPads that are roughly seven years old correct yep and some of the kids I think you said the majority of their equipment is I think you said four or five years old five years old yep so let's call it five years old so the that's let's call if the majority is 60% how old is the other 40% is it older than five or younger than five

045um when I say the majority I'm I'm talking about um there may have been a dozen or so devices that were purchased after the original purchase the vast vast majority it's virtually all five five years old yes right thank you um and I think that is typically as you would know better than I would sort of the recommended time to REM replace it but I'm just curious experientially from The District's actual experience is the technology changing at a rate that is exceeding the capacity of the [Music] iPads is the media getting so much more robust that the ram is in fact chugging you know or the processing rate is chugging or is the amount of the the daily life of an iPad is so uh grueling that they are wearing out I just like to

046know like besides the kind of recommendation from an actual utility perspective is there anything wrong with the stuff we're replacing so um from a rubber hitting the road kind of perspective um our iPad devices right now we for example would like to uh upgrade our Wi-Fi network to wpa3 compatibility um our Fleet of iPads for our faculty and staff cannot handle the latest uh wp3 protocols so for example in that kind of a scenario we're holding back upgrading network uh configurations because our devices can't function on it so it's just kind of just an example from like a little bit of a a we're kind of being a little bit restrained in terms of what we can do because of of some of the limitations of the devices um from a student perspective um uh

047the biggest thing is as our kids are doing more media as our kids are doing more video uploads as are doing more seesaw uploads downloads um what we're learning is that uh the latest Wi-Fi protocols I mentioned we're going to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 protocols they do present a significantly different uh speeds for our kids to do it as well as just Integrity of the connections um I'm thinking about Kipling I'm thinking about one of our second grade teachers who uh from time to time has occasions where the students can't upload all at the same time in the classroom through seesaw something is glitching out and she has to deal with kids moving around or you guys do it first and then we'll wait a second and then we'll come back and then the other

048half of the class does it like those kind of things um is a disruption in my mind is a disruption to the typical flow that they would do and and that's tied to the capacity of the internet SL WiFi connection speed like the capacity of the the WAN and you're saying some of the hardware that that we're replacing most of the hardware we replacing isn't compatible with that upgraded Wan is that uh not not the WAN but the actual U SS like the Wi-Fi configuration that we have so our our Wi-Fi networks if you were to look on your devices and see them um we have uh ssids that we would like to move to um and we we we're we're kind of and these don't play nicely with them correct correct uh right now

049the the students are using iPad 7th gen models and the 7 gen models are still taking the latest I iOS update which is which is great uh typically historically Apple's been on a 5 to six-year cycle with their devices of which they will release an iOS update and it won't update anymore uh when that happens we run into the issue our apps that we've used won't update to their latest versions because the O iOS won't handle it and then at that point we start thinking about what we cannot do or what we can you kind of pull back which is all right thank you thank you so much for all this information um let's see um I have a few questions I think um regarding the the WAN maybe I should ask Kelly um you

050mentioned um the sort of if I can recall your graphic U sort of the circle around the town yes um so you mentioned that and I understand the sort of the hardware of that right the logistics the the fiber of that who's servicing the actual internet that's going like is that wanrack like where's this you also mentioned this the cost going down so is the cost going down from like a service standpoint and the million was for the actual Hardware to accommodate for the service so if that makes sense absolutely yeah no it's it's a I appreciate the question so prior to um installing this new wi we were leveraging uh AT&T's um okay W Network and again just s rubberhead in the road it's the the wires that go from the telephone poles around

051and connect all the houses that's what we were running on okay so we were like piggybacking on to TT is fiber coming in and now we have our own dedicated exactly fiber so now um we working with a company Rand WRA the last couple years of they've physically installed fiber lines throughout underground and couple poles by Shephard our own uh our own network so as we uh change and share data across it there's nobody else on it except except for us so when we have our 24 strand fiber um I think the example I I used was um in terms of speeds in terms of Integrity of the the network in terms of privacy of data that's shared it's just us there's nothing we you know no one else we have to to consider now

052that's just the the connections between our schools uh our internet service providers are um ICN Illinois Sentry Network and then net 56 so they are actually bringing the internet service into the district and then from there we transport it across our our win okay okay um okay that makes sense um [Laughter] and then um thank you for explaining that um so I can see how you know the costs will go down in regards to you're now just paying for the the ISP the internet service provider services and that's going okay y um my next question is um going back to obviously the cost of refreshing is it seems significant it's a large number um and the more I thought about it and even thinking of the cycle of my own personal devices in my own

053you know company's devices and one of the things we pay attention to is great the hardware looks fantastic but it's the security that's and the Cyber threats that we're constantly thinking of and I think sometimes it's really hard to place a value on those than you see an insurance bill in your like oh yeah I I can see you know why we go down these roads to to um make these large purchases so while I understand it's very large I think um what we also have to consider is the backend and that security and that cyber risk having the newer software allows probably for a lot more safety in comparison to the devices we would be currently yeah yes it keeps us on the latest standards for all of those security configurations yep all right

054um I don't think I have any more questions one other question and if this is the kind of question that's it's security related so if it's kind of question you're like ah we don't really like to talk about that okay just say so okay but with respect to the 2-way radio communication who on the staff has one of those will it be every classro or just how widely dispersed will those things be and again if you don't if you want to demure on the answer that's it's okay um we have a little over 200 uh 200 radios across the district um all of our administrators um were issued a radio as well as uh I want to say uh roughly 28 or to 30 per Elementary School and roughly 22 to 24 per Middle School

055um in terms of who specifically has them uh we worked with our our building principles uh to make sure that they had the resources or the radios they needed to fit whatever the workflow was for the building so um I you know the first round of purchases was what we had requested from the principales and right now we're kind of seeing how that's evolving and how that's you know how that's playing out but in terms of you know who has them it's at this point what the principles have requested and what they needed that's that's what they have so with the 2-a radio over on that topic this allows people in the district to communicate directly to police and fire and emergency responders in general how many districts in the state have this capacity right

056now uh as of today I only know of one other um we're we're in a a short list of schools that have committed to something like this um and the more I feel like I've been talking to other districts um bragging a little bit um I am seeing more and more districts uh acknowledging that wow that's really that's really something special um and I and it seems like more motivation and more is picking up from them to consider the same thing okay and on the slide with the WAN um there was a dollar there's not a dollar figure there's a reduction number so if we were spending $100 a month on Wan now we're spending $23 what is the rough ball it's a ballpark number that we were spending on W where we realized the

05777% % reduction um uh so from a cost perspective we were um I don't have the exact number how it was I want to say it was in the uppers of 60 to 70 something thousand um a year we've cut that down 77% whatever you know that amount is it's it's been a significant reduction yeah significant real real money and a final question uh can you Define the maximum minimum for us please that we'll take the best we can the best we can I I have a couple of questions does anybody else have any questions um so do the teachers have um the not the kindergarten and first grade teachers but all the other teachers they have um their own MacBook or whatever their preferred laptop is and then do they also have iPads and

058Chromebooks um they do have iPads uh Chromebooks is typically a classroom device uh but yes they do have access to a Chromebook as well okay so they can use whatever whichever they whatever works best for the lesson that they're presenting it okay because I I recall talking about how it was important for the teachers to have the same device that the students were working on so yes exactly that's why I was I was just a little confused but they use the iPads also even if their students are using um Chromebooks correct yes okay um and then you know you did a great job um spelling out what the long range plan is for um purchases and I just want to confirm all of that is included incorporated into our budgeted numbers every year right correct

059yes U Mr Dr philippy does a great job of keeping me in line than that yes so none of what you've talked about tonight is outside the parameters of what's been budgeted correct that's all I have anybody else [Laughter] Siri I did think of a question um technology has changed so much like you look at 20 years 10 years 5 years two years last year do you find that our staff and admins are really receptive and feel good about the training they receive on our Tech tools do they Embrace both the Chromebooks and the IP ads or you know do we ever get feedback that hey this Tech is great but I maybe don't know how to use it or I'm not using it the way it should like what is the kind of knowledge

060around tech for our staff well uh Kate I got to be honest with you um this is my third year and the first year was still at the end of the covid and it was I'm watching it's an interesting uh interesting thing because from a faculty and staff perspective when we were going to co um all reserves came off and teachers dove in to to Tech um and I was kind of excited about that aspect of it I was like oh this is going to be great um but yeah after you know few years of being all on Tech um it has this you know first year first couple years started to uh shift back a little bit to wait a minute we love some of the things about traditional teaching that wasn't TCT you

061know so we're in this uh kind of feeling and kind of moment of there's been some amazing things with tech and at the same time I really want to reconnect with my kids in in person I want to make that connection with them so from a tech perspective uh our district is really pushing still and we're really doing some amazing Innovative things with with tech in the classrooms so to to answer the question in terms of you know do they feel comfortable do they feel supported I haven't heard many people that have been like hey I can't do this because I don't know how it's been like let's go let's go let's push let's push you know so it's an exciting thing for me but I I other than just the excitement that the teachers

062are having I I haven't really heard of anything that they've said they you know are are deficient in something it's typically been like I want to learn more about that cool thing that we're doing over here and here and here so no excellent point like Co really FASTT tracked every got to figure out how to log in and turn on you know all the tools so good call but thank you yeah absolutely one thing I I know I was doing something for work and I think I was doing a presentation and my second grader said to me mom do you need some help and he offered to help me and I was like just you know like sure come teach me what you know so it was just such a fun moment you know to

063see him come and like just show me his skills and I was pretty impressed you know it's like you can research this and do this and I was just really amazed so well you know so I think and that's really probably coming from that teacher is really pushing that down to them and him coming home and just being so confident to say I can teach you this too it's great it's awesome that's awesome thank you very much for all your work the next item on our agenda is 6.3 updated intergovernmental agreement for share director of School Safety and Security Dr flippy yeah we are nine months into uh our collaboration with districts 106 and 112 and our share director of Safety and Security and we have learned quite a bit about uh each of our

064districts I would tell you one of the things that we learned most was that we all embarked on this journey together thinking that we were going to be identical uh in our needs and our outcomes and we are not uh and that is okay uh it doesn't mean that uh we are uh any less prepared than our peers in the other districts but we just need different things um and one of the things that we've come to a conclusion about is that we need different time uh from solve um than we currently have allocated so in the current IGA uh for this year it is 20% of her time is directed to banic bur 40% to Deerfield and 40% to 112 we are recommending that we shift that for next year to 10% to banic

065burn 10 to uh Deerfield and 80 to 112 um and uh the IGA uh reflects that we will continue to be the employer for purposes of paying salary uh Etc uh but then we bill out to our peers in 106 and 112 uh to recoup the cost associated with those percentages um and of course um just changing uh the percentage of time that she's dedicated towards working in our district where she's chiefly focused in an advisory capacity um you know uh doing training with us and then reviewing safety protocols procedures Etc um we still have our full-time school resource officer who is here in the district every day that the district is in session where does solve base does she have an office somewhere she has an office in each district yeah and we'll continue

066to have some space any questions uh the next item is 6.4 summer work for 2024 bid results and for buildings and ground facility Dr philippy pass the clicker so the costs are going to reflect correct okay the top button not the arrows okay all right well we we had to do a slide deck for this uh I'm not touching any buttons I I swear to God so John before you go to the actual content this is where I do have to tell Tim I took one look at that and I swear I saw skylights and I realized later they were solar panels and I love the green energy but for a hot second skylights and look at how many they are and I thought that was like some prank from John to Tim those are

067not skylights those are uh solar which we will touch on but uh the second half of our uh summer 2024 work is a bit more exciting than the ceiling tiles and carpet tiles were replacing uh so we thought we had to do a proper slide deck for you so that you could see what we are looking at it is the buildings and grounds facility uh that will be situated on the Caruso campus um so we will talk a bit about uh how we got here and what the purpose of the new building is uh we'll give you a sense of the site plan so overlooking the Caruso campus where we're situating it why we're doing that and what revisions will occur to the site as uh a result of the addition of this facility we'll

068get a chance to look at some different uh renderings after Tim comes to the podium and explains the floor plan and the flow of the building uh and then we'll look at bid results uh and of course answer any questions that you may have so yeah you you got to come up to the microphone so that uh folks on YouTube can hear you uh so the purpose of our new facility here the 2023 Master facility plan in addition to identifying uh plethora of needs across the district uh really found first uh that uh in the purpose of buildings and grounds uh our team that supports the facility operations of all seven buildings in the district that their space was really inadequate they are housed currently in the uh now abandoned wood shop uh at Shepard

069Middle School uh and because they are at the wood shop um and they're in that space uh we have a third issue there number three which is we have some parking congestion at Shepard so we've got uh our four District vehicles and then the personal vehicles of all of our uh Department staff that are at Shephard and they're at capacity and so we frequently getting compl PLS from our neighbors uh or different areas in the village if we're parking on the the south side of the property that we interfering with uh the flow of traffic in the neighborhood and that we're interfering with operations um and then also um our band and Orchestra space and uh Fitness space are not on par with what uh students at Kusa are receiving uh so uh it was

070uh not too long ago that we did a cosmetic refresh of our band and Orchestra spaces at both middle schools um and then when we did the um uh renovation of the Caruso Auditorium we took advantage of the work that we were doing uh to bump out in two uh different directions at Caruso which allowed us to add quite a bit of square footage to the Caruso band and Orchestra room and right now uh students at Shepard are really shoehorned into a space that is not adequate for the size of the program so what moving buildings out and grounds out will allow us to do is repurpose the the space that they're currently occupying which is much much larger than the current Bandon Orchestra room so we can move them into that space and then

071we can take the space that is currently the band in Orchestra room and we can turn it into a fitness center so that they have a dedicated Fitness space just like the students do at Caruso I pushed the button there you go uh so here we have an aerial view of the existing site plan at Caruso uh so in the southwest corner where that blue box is uh that space currently is an open native planting area um and that is if you're at the Caruso property that's really tucked in on the west side of that is the highway and on the south side of that is the elevated portion of Deerfield Road uh so what we are proposing to do is uh build our buildings and grounds facility in that southwest corner with a revised

072site plan that would situate the building towards the front end of that current native planting area um and then if you look at the south portion of the property uh everything from uh where the building uh the south end of the building moving all the way to the east all of that parking lot is going to get uh reconfigured and rebuilt because if you've ever been to Caruso on a very rainy day you will note that Lake Caruso begins to form on the south end of the property and creep towards the school well we're only going to exacerbate that issue by adding all of this non-permeable structure uh in the southwest corner of the of the lot so we're going to take advantage of doing this work to alleviate that condition so uh Tim correct

073me if I'm wrong but what we're going to do is all of the parking lot there is going to actually be elevated uh from where it currently is and then that sale on the south end of the property will be configured with some additional drain tile so that we are draining uh much better than we currently are yeah that's correct we're raising the parking lot and lowering the soil see yeah you did a good job of filling me in the other thing that we're going to be doing is uh on the uh as part of all of the work that we're doing um in and really to to beautify the space is on the south uh and uh moving up to the West End of the property because we're taking out all of those native

074plantings we're replacing native plantings along there so you'll see a number of shade trees that are going to be going in um there is a little historic village house that will be uh unchange that will be left there uh and then we're going to just kind of back fill in with Native plannings and as you approach and drive the drive up on uh the main entrance of Caruso uh should look a lot nicer than it does today when we're done with this project Tim why don't I let you walk through kind of the flow of how the building is going to work it's a real basic design the main entrance to the building main people uh Personnel entrance to the building there's on the east side where the double doors are shown into a secure

075vestibule where you have your uh our admin's assistant sitting there office space along the north side main conference room right on the east side jump through that from the desk base and everything else for the guys we have uh the next compartment there would be District storage for individual storage for each building um each department will have storage there or capabilities of storage the farthest west is parking for the store uh vehicles and storage for general maintenance items that we'll have to keep these buildings running so one of the things that Tim was very purposeful in working with our Architects and the design phase uh is that leftmost bay um and we'll see it on some of the renderings allows us to do uh to back a a full semi in right a full 53t

076semi can get we can take deliveries from a full 53t semi now to that building so there's the main entrance uh into the building there's that uh the uh door all the way on the right correct correct correct that that will be our main loading dock for large for large deliveries and then the back uh South Side uh on your left there um is set up so that they can have exterior storage so when we're doing some of these summer projects where we're securing HVAC equipment far in advance we're able to put it back in there where it's secure fenced off or we can store palletized Salt stuff like that for the winter months and then on the back the non skylights uh on our solar panels um the entire uh building was designed to

077leverage uh what we're able to generate from uh solar um and there are two um rebates available to us so uh we're eligible for a federal rebate and we're eligible for the Illinois shines program um which makes the payback on install ing these solar panels somewhere in the 11 to 13e range so the cost that you see in the bid results is reflective of uh us paying upfront purchasing the solar panels uh the full installation um and then we're able to apply for those rebates that we'll capture back um either later this year but most likely in the next fiscal year uh so we put the project the bid and the uh winning bidder was uh just over 3.5 million Construction Inc uh our architect archon has worked with this firm uh in the past

078um and vetted uh their bid um and they have everything captured in their bid so we are recommending that the board uh approve uh construction of the new buildings and grounds facility at just over 3.5 million questions for John just a quick one and obviously buildings and grounds is currently at Shepard on a school campus but with this being at cuso on a school campus there's no concern about traffic flow during the day you because you mentioned the semi- TR but that doesn't seem like a usual occurrence no that would be that would be a rare occurrence we would schedule deliveries around the school day amazing so the most part it's just the buildings accounts Vehicles correct okay thank you would it be appropriate to think about the cost associated with reconfiguring the school as

079part of this project and how much would that be uh so uh the look ahead for next summer um we did a three-year look ahead with the finance committee when we um uh proposed kind of laying out some of the work in the first three years of the master facility plan right now our look ahead for summer 2025 sits around 12 to13 million um and that's inclusive of making the renovations at Shepard middle school but it's also taking uh potentially taking a big bite out of some of the HVAC uh work that needs to be done uh at Shepard it's an open question whether we want to pursue all of that next year um we'll convene the FDC to take another look at that as we get into the summer months right now our architect

080is working with the end users in the building to talk through scope of what uh we would end up designing and what that would look like rough ballpark estimate of just uh tackling uh that corner of the uh building at Shepard uh that's freed up by moving buildings and grounds out is probably around 4.5 million and as we're thinking about the overall facilities planned for the whole District both the work being done in both of these middle schools would be part of their future we wouldn't have to be the these would extend into the future for the life of these buildings because we're these we're talking about refreshing the buildings the middle schools doing anything ention in the in the 20-year Master facility plan is to keep our Middle Schools in service for the next

081two decades yes and so this is sort of part of that correct other questions I have a couple um so I'm assuming that we're using the land bank that we have with the park district for the property we are yeah okay um and does that impact the that square footage impact our potential use of land bank for other projects it pretty much depletes the existing land bank so we're uh at about 20,000 is our balance and this is going to take us down to about 4,000 remaining in the land bank describe that yes so the there's a unique relationship between it is very unique to Deerfield in that um the uh District owns um the property on which the the buildings rest out to the drip line with the exception of Kipling's property we own

082the property around Kipling um and then the history between uh the um 109 in the park district is such that a number of 109 facilities were closed uh and then they were reg greened and when that occurred when the the district Gave Over the the land upon which those schools sat then that square footage went into a land bank that the district was able to access in collaboration with the park district to expand the footprint of our facilities so we've accessed it a number of times over the past two decades to make additions at Shepard for the benefit of adding in um science labs at Wilmont for adding in the GMA um at Caruso most recently for pushing out the auditorium because we are putting this new facility on what is Park District property we

083will deplete that square footage of what we've added from the land bank and then um we go through kind of like a real estate closing so to speak to memorialize the exchange sounds like we're getting low on that number how will our facility plan that we have moving forward that it sounds like it might it it may yeah um it can it can influence how we uh renovate expand or replace uh facilities that'll be a conversation that we'll have to have as we as we move forward we might not be able to expand Footprints as much as we would like but can do other go up you can go up Y which doesn't impact the land bank um you answered the question about the renovations at Shepard um and as far as parking at Caruso

084I understand you you're going to redo the the lot which thank you because Lake Caruso is never very much fun but are we going to have the same number of parking spaces for parents or less or more we are actually we are actually adding uh 11 parking spots staff I mean okay yeah we're actually gaining 11 spots okay that's all I had anybody else is it ant this is 242 it's this summer right oh it's 23 245 okay so it all going well this would be wrapped up before students start not there's no impact for students to uh it's not impacting the student school so we're we're outside of the school we'll get the majority of all the heavy equipment and everything be done long before uh schools comes back God I should have rewarded

085that that was my fault guess parking specifically like as teachers and kids access the building there won't be disruptions in that end of things parking will be complete by by the start of school thank you so you could even start construction before school's over right correct correct we can start construction and we can carry on into the school year the exterior of the building and everything the goal there is to have it completely finished by the start of the school year so pending board approval we will have uh work uh commencing before the end of May okay corre any other questions very exciting be done in time to have my name on the plaque [Laughter] right we could put the wood shop back your name we all get our names on the pl I propos

086Mike and I were laughing about this when I was getting the tour and going to um Shepherd how we have these great big plaques for all the board right like if they opened up a new wing and I was like wouldn't it be cool if instead of like our names on a plaque we planted trees or created a garden or did something that was giving back to the school um so I'll throw that out there now we have a long time to go on that but can we put a on the tree we can we can always vote about it but I'm just putting it out there okay um the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda uh which includes 7.1.1 Personnel 7.1.1 point1 resignations and retirements 7.1.1 point2 leave of absence 7.1.1

087point3 employment of certified staff 7.1.1 point4 employment of educational support staff 7.1.1 point5 employment of at will staff and 7.1.2 bills for payment can I have a motion please so moved roll call Dr dornfeld hi Miss jaamu hi Miss Joyce hi Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner I and president Montgomery I motion carries 7.2 approval of contract for associate principal can I have a motion please so move second roll call miss jacku I miss Joyce I Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi Dr dornfeld hi and president Montgomery hi motion carries I like Eric you're you're a little slideshow yay welcome uh 7.3 approval of 2024 25 administrative contracts can I have a motion please so moved second roll call Miss Joyce I Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner I Dr dirnfeld hi Miss jaamu hi and president

088Montgomery hi motion carries uh 7.4 for approval of regular meeting minutes from the March 14th 2024 meeting and since Mr qu is not here he does not have to abstain can I have a motion please a moov second roll call Miss Joyce hi Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi Dr dornfeld hi M jacku hi and president Montgomery hi motion curies 7.5 approval of closed session minutes uh meeting minutes for March 14th 2024 can I have a motion please so moved second roll call Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner I Dr donfeld hi Miss jaamu hi Miss Joyce I and president Montgomery I motion carries 7.6 approval of special meeting minutes from March 22nd 2024 and Kain can I have a motion please moved second roll call Miss Bonner I Dr dornfeld hi Miss jaamu hi Miss

089Joyce I abstained I wasn't in the meeting right yeah that's your that's your vote okay thank you um Mr Morrison hi president Montgomery I motion carries 7.7 Treasures report can I have a motion to approve please removed second roll call dror dirnfeld hi Miss jaamu hi Miss Joyce hi Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi and president Montgomery hi motion carries 7.8 policy final reading policies 7 colon 60 7 colon 190 7 colon 270 7 colon 285 and 7 colon 290 can I have a motion please no moved second roll call Miss jaamu hi Miss Joyce hi Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner I Dr dornfeld hi and president Montgomery I motion carries 7.9 approval of Summer work for 2024 I need a motion to approve the contract for summer 2024 renovation work which is being awarded

090to ha Builders no oh this is the ha Builders yes ha Builders as the lowest responsible bidder in the amount of $999,000 can I have a motion please no moved second roll call Miss Joyce hi Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi Dr dornfeld hi M jaamu hi and president Montgomery hi motion carries uh 7.10 right there's a type um yes sorry forgot the zero yes okay um approval of fiscal year 2025 fees can I have a motion please no moved second roll call Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi Dr dornfeld hi Miss jaamu hi Miss Joyce hi and president Montgomery hi motion carries 7.11 approval of isbe final school calendar submission for 2023 24 I have a motion please move second roll call Mr Morrison hi Miss Bonner hi Dr dornfeld hi Miss jaamu hi

091Miss Joyce and president Mony I motion carries thank you uh the next item on our agenda is committee reports do we have any committee reports don't all look at me but I did um all right true north update and I'm going this is going to be a very uh collaborative True North update so uh Mike if you be willing to just take 30 seconds to share a little bit about the inclusive schools principal cohort pilot are we yeah because I think you probably would have more than I would on that yeah so it's a really I think interesting idea that uh TR North came up with which is to invite Regional principles assistant principles or principles uh administrators in general into a group uh to collaborate on this is what it looks like to implement

092an inclusive uh a set of inclusive practices uh and there's a wide range of different people it was an idea that was hatched uh sometime last year um and uh thrown out to variety of different people to vet it and it's I think been a really uh beneficial thing so the work that you see here in 109 that we I think is very easily take for granted and other districts is quite novel and at the at the early stages and so they're trying to bring people in so first to expose them to what the work is and then also to provide guidance on and opportunity to collaborate on okay so these are this is where you are now these are the next steps that you can take and uh to try to expand uh the

093number of districts in the region that are doing the kind of work that 109's been doing for some time so shout out 109 uh and then Danielle if you would be willing we had a special guest at our true north meeting uh I heard that heard it went very well it went exceedingly well it was really just before I turn it over um the true north board which I'm assuming you saw when you walked in is large uh it's you know 18 member districts plus three superintendents plus all the administrators so it's a very big boardroom um it's not often that we get to see member districts coming in and making presentations at True North board meetings and I it was really impactful I think a lot of people walked away going like we need

094more of that at our meetings because um traditionally some viewpoints of districts is oh true north is where you send students right I send my student to True North and and the reality is is that a lot of the work is services and collaborative Partnerships and so Danielle and then Kelly from 28 us Services director there came in and I'll just turn it over to you just to kind of encapsulate what you guys shared but it was really great yeah we were invited to share really the work that our districts are doing with True North in Partnership around professional learning so it wasn't about students students being sent there for services or receiving Services um I was able to share on behalf of behalf of District 109 the work that we've been doing this year

095with true north and the Maryland Coalition for inclusive education but I also spoke um directly about additional Partnerships such as the work that we've been doing with them in partnership with Lake Bluff around safe and civil schools work that we host in District we have some coaches that come and support our coaches at the elementary level and we're looking um to expand that just slightly around inclusive practices we're also um going to partner with them in the upcoming school year we have I have worked with Lindsay their director of profession professional learning there to develop a customized uh series a three-part series that we will be doing with our goal three strategic plan teams uh to really focus in on the foundations of inclusive practices the roles and responsibilities of General Educators and special Educators

096in inclusive classrooms and how Universal Design for Learning plays into that so we've really um constructed that to mirror the work that we're trying to accomplish in our strategic plan so um that's a little bit of it I feel like I shared more but uh that we we do a lot with them and I think we've um had some expanded PD Partnerships over the last couple of years and how much PD you ask Daniel that's a great question um they provide the uh board member representative and you probably get this too right so I'll just share it on your behalf uh the professional learning and coaching summary so for 23 24 school year for district 109 uh as of 331 400 staff members attended um professional development through True North which is fantastic and then

097we I think we use like a point2 coach at this point that's what they listed um so yeah I think it's really informative to hear about these ways in which True North can partner with districts to build capacity in districts and then to network districts between each other like you mentioned Lake Bluff and the principales cour cohort like learning from each other and and growing with each other so thank you for coming it was fun seeing you and then lastly just a financial update um on positive note uh Alyssa Hughes who's the csbo of True North who's really just fantastic um presented the fy2 preliminary budget and uh they pulled lovers and worked magic um the uh tuition and Service rates uh less than 5% increases for 23 of the 24 major budgeting centers and

098again um that's you know traditionally for programs so like if we used NSA or if we used Arbor Academy if we don't use those then we won't see any impact um it also includes nominal increases to membership of 3.7% and a 1.4 increase to PPE property plan and equipment and no increase to professional learning so well under that kind of 5% threshold so all consider considering considering some of the financial prospects they were dealing with with some districts reducing usage in services and programs they've managed to they they unloaded quite a bit of FTE which was hard for their staff and hard for them but it had to be done um and they did a good job with the budget so that's up for Action next month and um that's it any questions any other

099committee reports we have a finance committee meeting next in May and I think that's the only one that's scheduled right now right the only committee meeting okay um open Community participation this period of community participation near the end of the meeting is open for all matters if you wish to comment please fill out a community participation form located on the podium and hand it to Rebecca Rudd we'll call you up one at a time to the podium to speak please limit the length of all comments to to No More Than 3 minutes would anyone like to speak okay uh the next item on our agenda is board superintendent other you have anything Mr simik yeah I'd like to introduce the district and the community to Donnie castens he uh was in Round Lake and as

100part of the due diligence that we do one of the most important things if not the most important thing that we do apart from student safety is hiring and doing background checks and in this case we had uh three candidates that uh uh Tim broor had identified as finalists he sent those to the uh the names to the leadership team and then Dale happened to know one I happen to know uh another and doing some some background on uh on the candidates we were able to to use our contacts to get information and Donnie was the uh the the colleague uh who' been working with him that uh that I knew and uh so before he went into the interview uh Mr Bor had the benefit of really extensive background checks that he had done

101but also the ones that I had done in Dale and um so Donnie was a teacher a really good teacher came through the teaching ranks uh he was also like single-handedly the person that shephered the Ono one uh computer initiative through the district um they he uh was reduced in Round Lake because they've had a substantial drop in the student numbers and they had to have a corresponding uh reduction of administrative FTE and they really really sorry to see him go and one of the first things you want to know is hey if you were hiring would you hire uh this person again it's like absolutely we really hated to lose him and the superintendent was going out of his way way out of his way to Conta districts and I learned that he was

102a finalist in a number of other districts and so Tim interviewed on Friday and the Word was look if you like a candidate you uh time is not your friend you need to offer fast so I appreciate the board's flexibility in getting Donnie's contract on this agenda uh immediately we he was offered the position accepted we were able to move that along one of the things that I was also pleased to hear is uh uh man he's he's not only really really motivated he's just really smart and flexible he said that about four different times is that this is a you're getting a real blue chip uh assistant principal here so feel really good about him appreciate that and again uh for uh both Danielle and for Joanna because uh the kids that uh they

103both serve there any number of kids that really had a lot of anxiety about the eclipse and some are a lot more challenging to to get outside and to navigate and experience like that and the fact that the district really embraced that he wind up being really really memorable experiences for kids and you want every single kid that wants to be there to be able to participate so there's a lot of work with some of our kids on the on the tals as it were and uh super gratifying to see it take place so thanks to Joanna and Danielle and all the staff that work with our kids I also want to thank everyone for their work on the eclipse I think it was amazing that you were able to um incorporate every student that

104that wanted to participate um and to make it a real learning experience and it goes to our um our uh Vision about going beyond the classroom and it's uh really it was really a great um experience for them so thank you for all your work on that um I also want to thank Eric and Cat and Kelly for um your work on organizing the tribute to Moren for next month um I tasked Kelly with trying to with sort of organizing that and heading that up and I appreciate I found really capable people to hand it there you go the mark of a true leader right um so you know obviously it's a a sad event but I appreciate all the thoughtfulness that went into it and um you know I'm glad that uh the family

105will be there and um that we'll be able to um pay tribute to Morin um thanks RJ for uh your Tech update very thorough as usual and um for putting up with all of our questions about the WAN and other things um being being married to someone who is very techsavvy I know that it can be very frustrating at times to deal with people who are not um so I appreciate your patience um and uh finally last but not least um thanks to uh John and Tim for all your work on the um buildings and grounds facility it's been a long time coming and um it's uh um it looks like it's going to be a really a really great asset to the district and game changing for the students at at Shepard as well

106so thank you for all your work on that anybody else I have one thing some time back it might have been a year or maybe even two we engaged a firm to come in to review the school the district's policies and practices with through the lens of inclusion and is there what's the ne what has become a that yeah a lot Danielle's going to be chopping it the bit the jump in we've broken into is it five committees right so we have five different committees Eric uh has one on Communications uh Joanna What's the title of your uh committee School culture School culture Danielle yours is curriculum curriculum and instruction I have policy and Dale has uh recruiting retention and Dale is actually at a a 3-day session on De eii Recruitment and Retention in

107uh in Dallas right now for that so each of our committees have continued to meet um uh the policy committee met four times I'll let others speak to it uh uh but we have steadily progressed and I speak for my committee we've gone through all of the district policies that anybody on the committee wanted to look at which was 35 or 40 different policies looked at the mission and the vision looked at student data and then uh We've uh set a calendar for next year to continue that work uh some of the work that we'll be doing we'll be looking at uh what sort of should we have a policy of some sort and then also uh there's a number of potential uh changes to policy that will then work their way through the policy

108committee and then be declared publicly I don't recall though a sort of formal synthesis and summary of findings coming back to the board yeah that would be a good presentation for us I think to update the board but we can do so briefly now we did a we did a presentation there was a present about the equity audit by yeah forg maybe I'm going down a different path I'm sorry have I just forgotten I don't know she did she presented it she did like two years I it's a long time ago but I she came in and presented her findings I'm answering that and then she's done she hasn't come like there's been nothing else since then or as far as reporting to the board or as far as what the work they the work

109no I would say actually like our goal three teams so she presented I believe was it last winter her findings and then I know a lot of our gold three teams as part of the Strategic plan work that's happening in buildings started this school year actually reviewing the findings of the audit to determine um some of the steps and the goals that they would place in their strategic or sorry not their strategic plan their school Improvement plans to move forward this year I know also to the committee work that Mike is referencing like on the curriculum and instruction we had we actually also reviewed Dr fur's audit and the findings um as part of that process in our initial meeting and that helped Drive some of the goal setting that we were doing as well

110um around like review of the culturally responsive teaching and leading standards um some professional development needs within the district that came out of her findings Etc so I think it definitely has been referenced a ton what we decided also at the time that she did the initial is that we would keep we would do something similar like on a threeyear cycle oh it's three years it is a three-year cycle so we're we sort of we developed data that we were tracking to monitor improvements based on the data she had us collect initially for the audit um so we're doing it a little bit internally so we don't have to gather it all at that point in time um we're looking at it annually but I would anticipate engaging someone from the outside to look at

111it again well the spirit of why I'm even asking is I'm kind of wondering to myself well you know how do how's it it going what kind of progress and I was like well it seems like a good Baseline is the report that the woman that that her team put together after some extensive work and interviews and I was like I don't remember those Baseline numbers maybe did we get those B but I know it was a long time ago so I was kind of feeling like it kind of feels like it's time for the next cycle of Baseline numbers so I just kind of that's why I was ask I was kind of wondering like where are we on that but it sounds like maybe there's a presentation coming up or something well I

112I first I want to say I was answering we had other Consultants come and work with us on Dei specifically and I thought that's what the question you were asking so I was answering a different question so uh we had uh Elise fura and Connie uh I'm trying to remember the other um uh person's name uh come in and uh they did uh that was my I think it was my first year here that was in 21 seems like it's about time for yeah it is about time for her initial report was in May of 2022 so on that threeyear cycle we would be revisiting it next spring Y and we have done uh we also Danielle you reported in one of the board updates on on that work MCI is certainly an extension of

113that work uh but it's definitely not forgotten and we are really really leaning into all of that work um and probably the the clearest example of it is the mcie work that we're doing so expect that next school year thanks anything else okay can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor hi hi thank you thank you all right