001i would like to call the uh january 20 2021 virtual meeting of the fenton community high school district regular meeting to order uh mary may i have a roll call please yes ramirez here right we do have a quorum um i didn't hear patty or uh kit i think they'll be joining us again but let's uh christine um you can please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance all right thank you everyone um james could you please read our fenton mission beliefs and bison ways statements absolutely fenton mission statement to cultivate successful passionate learners through rigor relevance and relationships successful passionate learners thrive when we champion innovative teaching and engage learning school and home collaborate effectively we provide a safe secure and caring environment we infuse social emotional learning into academics
002and culture diversity empowers our learning community we prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibility the bison way students and adults at fenton high school create a safe caring empathetic environment where we believe in each other respect diversity communicate openly grow together and hold each other to high expectation to become the leaders and innovators of the future all right thank you james now we move on to my favorite part recognitions uh james if you could take that absolutely my favorite part as well the chicago bears continue to be impressed with fenton high school the two outstanding outstanding young man you saw last month decides to utilize their new connection and and they motivated a very deserving fenton teacher for a different chicago bears community outreach program as you'll see in the video mr george mccaskey of
003the bears ownership made a surprise visit to present miss kelly mullins with the chicago bears classroom champion award then you'll see a video from miss kate ward the division leader who works with miss mullins every day she will share a heartfelt congratulations that is echoed by everyone on our staff that i have someone on here mr george mccaskey who i'm sure you want to hear from more than me but we are both obviously nurse um i am from the chicago bears community relations department i brought him along to talk about a special program that we have so i'm going to kick it over to him okay thank you jackie and is it um principal i want to make sure i pronounce your name lazarovich is that how you say it yes sir that's correct thank
004you thank you very much for um allowing us to join this call so miss mullins the bears have a program called classroom champions and the whole idea of the program is to nominate outstanding teachers in the chicagoland area and we get uh nominations from all over the place from present students former students fellow teachers principals administrators parents and we're very excited about the program because it's just a wonderful idea um we think to honor these people that give so much of themselves um for our future leaders and um we got a nomination um from a couple of students at fenton high school and uh first of all i want to say we love your um school colors the blue is a little bit off but um i totally agree uh we really like it and
005um not surprised uh that the leaders of this initiative at fenton high school uh are football players for the bison program and i want to make sure i'm pronouncing their names correctly eric moreno mourinho moreno yes okay and nicholas ben noticed um a nomination on behalf of the football team and they said among other things when students are dealing with personal issues ms mullins makes it clear she will always be there to help support them provide any assistance needed it is not uncommon for ms mullins to extend assignment deadlines lend an ear to listen or open her heart to show her students she cares about them she has an amazing way of teaching that gives the students the responsibility which challenges them through in-depth class discussions and personal reflections it is truly an honor to
006have a teacher who constantly wants to connect with her students the student body at fenton high school is fortunate to have ms mullins in our lives and kelly mullins the chicago bears could not agree more and so it is my privilege to inform you that you are a chicago bears classroom champion congratulations wow thank you so much mr mccaskey this is really really gosh my principal told me we were coming in to nominate to even you know to meet with a student oh well we're happy to be here and jackie's got a little bit more information for you about the classroom champion program jackie yes so first of all congratulations thank you thank you your name was at the top of our committee list so it was a resounding yes from everyone um it was
007an incredible nomination so the young men who wrote it there's a reason that they won the awards they won as well so we just want to congratulate you and with that um you will be receiving a few gifts so you will first receive each flag in it we'll have a hat mug lanyards pens anything you need for your classroom interrupt your favorite team next will be autographed football from a current player you can present or you can put this in your classroom and your house wherever you want you can get a little play case for it but you will have um the next thing is you will be having a custom jersey made with your last name on the back that you can probably work with every sunday and last but certainly not least we
008know that teachers use a lot of their own resources um for the classroom and we know that it goes unnoticed a lot of times so you will be receiving a thousand dollars for your classroom oh you guys oh my gosh oh you will be receiving a check um a lot smaller but a lot more valuable that one and um you can use it as you wish for your students in your class congratulations hi it's kate ward i was so pleased although not surprised when i heard that the chicago bears had chosen kelly mullins as a chicago bears classroom champion as somebody who's worked with kelly now for close to 15 years i know that she has always put so much hard work and effort into building relationships with her students in addition to being a
009great historian it was gratifying to hear the words of the students in the letters that they wrote about kelly saying that she's a teacher who truly cares about her students and one who makes the classroom a fun place to be uh those perfectly sum up who miss mullins is who miss mullins is as a teacher the one thing i was a little bit worried about was being part of this surprise if you know kelly you know that she's very sharp and very observant i knew from the minute that i went to her virtual classroom with jovan that she knew that we were up to something and i'm just really happy that she was as happy with the surprise as we were and that she's still talking to me so kelly congratulations you totally deserve this
010i'm so happy that the chicago bears recognized you and that you were able to hear the way that students feel about you [Music] great job shout out to kelly mullins there thank you very good glad to see that thank you for that um and congratulations to uh kelly uh we move on to the public comments uh james do we have any requests for public comments we have received four public comments which dr benson will read okay um is a reminder public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker with a limit of 30 minutes to top it sam will read the public comments received in chronological order uh sam okay public comment number one greetings my name is emma butz i am a 2016 alumni of fentanyl and a member of the fender advocacy network
011fan and i have been working diligently to advocate for traditionally marginalized groups who have are and will eventually attend fenton high school we are going to continue to push the board of education to meet the needs of our highly diverse community we would like to encourage the work we have been putting into our efforts to enhance our community to be reciprocated by the board this may look like reaching out to fan to discuss goals and include us in the conversation to discuss the needs of our school our goals are as stated below we will advocate for traditionally marginalized groups at fenton high school and provide support to the previously mentioned community wanting to advocate for others we will provide a voice to those who have been silenced or discouraged by discrimination through various platforms we
012will encourage meaningful mandatory equity training among all teaching staff administration support staff etc we will encourage students to engage in workshops that address equity race and discrimination conducted by certified professionals we will actively address the question are the needs of traditionally marginalized groups being recognized and met we will discuss current relevant and evolving issues involving justice and equity that affect traditionally marginalized groups we will not be silenced we will not or we will be heard our community deserves to be held with high regard and pride continuing to dismiss this prominent public outreach would be shameful and cold let me leave you with this statement by sonia sotomayor until you have equal education we will not have an equal society thank you for your time public comment number two my name is jessica bango my pronouns
013are she her hers and i am a class of 2016 fentanyl um to be a diverse high school that yearns for equity and to at the same time ignore the discrimination felt on fenton's campus as an injustice to our community this is now our sixth month submitting public comments to you all and not one of you has reached out to work with us and address our concerns since then other alumni and i have become the fentany advocacy network we have continued the conversation by sharing stories that serve as testaments to discrimination and inequities at fenton we have shared at least 15 stories of discrimination yet you all display fentanyl as pristine and without fault you have continued to define fenton with empty accolades and misleading data yet these stories are very real they have happened
014they are happening there is no award fenton could ever entertain that could repress or hide the apparent ineffectiveness of the policies in place regarding discrimination as the board continues to be silent we recognize that our goals may not be met with the current composition of the board with that said i want to highlight the importance of the upcoming board election in april to those list scene and may listen later your vote is our voice there are new candidates who are running for positions on board in april they are each unique passionate and driven about transparency and conducting dialogue the community members voting in the upcoming board election for a multitude of fresh new candidates will be crucial to ensure that the public concerns are taken seriously and that action is taken with the community's input
015this current board has ignored us for six months and ignored a petition with 600 alumni community members signatures calling for the creation and implementation of a diversity action plan it is up to you to decide if the change we all wish to see can actually transpire with the current composition of the board to the current board we have not given up the unfortunate truth is that we have extended the invitation to you every single month your science contributes to the oppression of not only our group but all students past present and future it's been six months of submitting comments but the equity journey is everlasting thank you public comment number three the following stories are testaments regarding acts of discrimination witnessed or experienced at fenton high school which were collected by the fentanyl advocacy network
016these stories shared here and that past board meetings are first-hand accounts of personal experiences that had a meaningful impact on the writers who are sharing them please do not infer motivations other than a willingness to share nor assume the identity of any of the participants these stories are not intended to be accusatory or to imply individual biases these stories are intended to reflect the greater fenton experiences of the contributors these are all submitted anonymous anonymously i'm a lesbian student at fenton high school my girlfriend and i attended football game one friday night like we usually do we met up with friends and it was great at first and it got cold so my girlfriend and i decided to walk to my car to grab a blanket on our way back to the stands near the
017alleyway two male fenton students were circling around us on their backs yelling disgusting at us pointing to the fact that we were holding hands i just remember feeling terrified and angry my girlfriend saw the look on my face and she felt the hopelessness i did too as an lgbtq plus student it's already hard to try and feel normal as it is but it's hard to overlook the stairs whispers and hurtful comments that night is still stuck with me and discouraged me from feeling comfortable in public i'm afraid to simply wear tight clothes without getting told by another by other people someone said i look like a i don't have the confidence i used to have just because i what i wear can supposedly define who i am as a person i wear it because i
018know i look pretty i have struggled with mental illness for nearly half a decade now but this hasn't changed the difficulties i have had as recently as mid-december i am in extracurriculars and most of the administrators have been kind and patient with my struggles except one during a one-on-one i was told the administrator did not care for what was going on and they tried to make it seem like my lack of success had been a result of laziness rather than mental illness becoming more severe the environment of fentanyl is everything but understanding of mental illness and other health problems save for the teachers the counselors rarely follow up on students whom they know are struggling rather than empathizing with students struggling with body image issues or depression they look at them like aliens and pretend
019the students are insane for common issues in the modern day it's disappointing that the school with more access to funding than schools in chicago for example is managing to mistreat their students far more severely than the school with only one counselor for 300 plus students i was involved in the fenton team and it was an absolute struggle the team chooses to highlight and praise people who have discriminated others on the team and have also part taken in bullying online the problem has been brought to staff members and nothing has been done even after asking them to take action feels like the staff members don't really care about their competitors how their competitors feel but in reality only care about how well we do one time a male student was struggling to do something an extracurricular
020and a staff member proceeded to say something along the lines of you can't do it because you are male this was highly inappropriate for a teacher to stay to a student and definitely made others in the room feel uncomfortable and public comment number four from patrick escobedo president of the fenton educational association president wiedemann and members of the board greetings and happy new year from the fea we hope that this new year brings with it new possibilities for all of you for our fenn community and indeed for our country as a whole the fda was greatly troubled by the insurrection at the u.s capitol a mere two weeks ago we strongly condemn the violent assault on our democracy itself our association is a democratic one and we believe that the democratic process lies at the
021very heart of our mission as educators to see an unruly mob attempting to subvert the will of the american people was deeply disturbing and saddening in particular the use of hateful white supremacist imagery and ideology during the insurrection is something we fervently reject we asked the board of education to join us in unequivocally condemning the actions of the writers who assaulted our democracy and we invite the board to join us in deepening our commitment civic education and equity at fenton we strongly believe that education and equity are more vital than ever and we hope the board does too in the spirit of pursuing equity in a collaborative manner we invite the board of education and joining our association for a discussion of the podcast nice white parents we have been listening to the podcast and
022we will have our next meeting on february 11th at both 7 a.m and 3 30 p.m that day to discuss the topics it raises we welcome the attendance and contributions to the discussion of our board of education and hope to see you there we have to admit we are still somewhat disappointed by the lack of board response to our statements while it is nice to be thanked for taking the time to make and submit statements the deeper desire of the association and indeed one which should be shared by the board is for robust and meaningful communication between the board and its stakeholders the board as the body won't take the time to reach out and follow up with those that submit public comments may we suggest that individual board members take the initiative to make
023themselves available in our current remote learning plan all teachers have office hours wherein we set aside time to meet with our students to talk about class and work collaboratively on assignments we encourage members of the board to create a similar office hour space where staff students parents community members can make time to talk with board members and share concerns ideas and aspirations for our fenton community making such time would have i'm sorry making such time would send a strong message to your stakeholders that you value their concerns and opinions and we strongly feel it would make the board a more effective governing body happy new year again we hope to hear back from you on our statement thank you sam thank you for uh reading those um i would like to take this opportunity to
024thank uh emma butz jessica bango jamie menard and patrick escobedo for your input thank you all for the comments we appreciate you taking the time uh for fenton high school um now we move on to district 100 informational items james president wiedemann just wanted to also uh thank the uh public comments and all the folks that sent in their public comments we are listening um and um as one of the commenters said uh it's a journey to equity um real quickly a quick preview of district 100 informational item report we will cover covet 19 updates the metrics vaccination federal learning plan b equity report uh which would include equity through the lens of finance and budget uh we will discuss uh equity audit and our dell team and the action plans uh then we will
025discuss a training for all of our staff are are certified non-certified as well as their administrators in regards to diversity equity and inclusion training which will i believe uh will start in about a week or two lastly we'll talk about an educational omnibus bill and lastly a quick uh a preview of a negotiation update so first up is uh covet 19 updates our our priorities remain the same since march okay we the district has been doing outstanding uh in regards to the the three priorities that it's been like a beacon for all of our stakeholders our teachers our students and our parents and the rest of our community members it's safety and wellness number one number two learning and number three communication um i provide the board with the the metrics every week uh this
026is the latest metrics from the two page county public health uh department uh the two page remains in substantial community transmission level uh we are more substantial than last week um the trend arrows you see in orange are up um and and it's it's quite quite frustrating to see this uh week to week but i will do what i normally do at our board meeting here is just go line by line that first row basically is from the illinois department of public health uh department it's an orange there with their uh trend arrow uh uh which is up uh which is also considered substantial new cases for 100 000 per week we're at 330 per week uh which is up from last week weekly case count trend uh we are currently in year 2020 so
027we start off at week one last year we went up to week 53 so i'll re read that uh real quick so from week 52 to 53 there was an uptick of 28 and from week 53 to this new year week one on 2021 uh a plus four percent there uh we like that number there uh like everyone else here it's minimal uh really happy with that weekly youth count less than 20 year old um individuals case count per trend week 52 to 53 we signed an increase of plus 40 percent week 53 the week one for 2021 we see a plus 22 substantial uh with an arrow up uh the weekly test positivity for dupage is 9.5 which is up from last week i believe is what 9.2 which puts us in a substantial
028and our neighboring regional indicators is stable there at this moment region 8 has been moved and i i don't know why they didn't update this but yesterday we have had message from the governor where we're in tier 2 mitigation which really doesn't affect the school too much it affects mostly restaurants bars fitness areas and so forth and in regards to youth athletics uh the private uh sectors it affects them a little bit there so this is our metrics from from the uh due page next slide which we like to show here this is case uh covet case uh per per month per date as you could see that spike was in that november december and we're seeing overall overall uh a trend down which is positive okay trend down positive but if you took it
029relatively compared to the rest of the graph we know it's it's it's up that's why we have a positivity rate of 9.8 um in in due page um next slide please this is covet cases per age level from uh our youth uh basically from zero to 19 years old as you can see the red 15 and 19 years old are they usually track higher uh in regards to covet cases followed by 5 to 14 and our pre preschoolers at zero to four their cases are much lower than the other groups you see there here's another graph another graph if you don't like uh this is more of a bar graph in regards to age from zero to four from the far left highest from ages 15 to 19. kind of the same sort of infra
030trend that we've been seeing in that age group for the last couple of months now a little closer to home uh this is wood dale numbers last 14 days positivity rate is 8.92 set last seven days is 8.21 um above 8 and bensonville uh last 14 days is at 7.93 last seven days is at 7.8 uh before we went on our winter break uh we announced our community to the board that hey look we're preparing for a hybrid sometimes when we come back uh when it's safe uh when we're out of substantial and we want to know uh from our parents and students who would choose to go in hybrid and who who chose to go and remote um here are the scorecard as of today um we put two weeks of of survey uh
031we even extended a couple more days and we're accepting folks if they're coming in a little bit late uh if there are some um uh stimulating uh uh situation at home so right there you get it uh 338 families chose hybrid and about 1100 chose remote was this uh was it parent response or student response it was a parent response okay we needed to hear our parents thanks in regards to exciting news here very very excited uh as you know vaccination uh has landed in dupage uh both pfizer and moderna uh vaccines are here um approximately two weeks ago the superintendents of dupage was given a call from the dupage county public health and the regional office of education basically stating hey look we would like to distribute um vaccines at your site at your
032sites fenton being one of the most most most of the sites are high school uh uh uh setting up and we move aggressively to be one of the first hopefully providers um we did a lot of legworks a lot of phone calls in regards to that fenton has two partners as of today in regards to vaccination okay and that's uh jewel oscar pharmacy in bensonville and elmer's hospital okay those are the two healthcare providers that we have contacted and say hey look when you get the dogs we would like to for your agency uh to vaccinate our staff we are also joined with district two um bensonville and wooddale district seven so the three district the tri district uh will converge at fenton to receive their vaccinations for their staff really looking forward to that
033great conversation boy jewel oscar pharmacy invincibility is just outstanding shout out to them real easy to work with answered my question i answered their question in regards to that same thing with elmer's hospital just an outstanding organization very easy to work with so what are we waiting for we are wait basically waiting for uh the vaccines to arrive uh at the dupage county public health department which is basically um uh the hub that will distribute it to to the or the hospitals so what are the conversation with these two agencies the geological and elmer's you basically talked about facilities uh protocols uh agreements insurance coverage um that conversation continues um and uh and new things arises so i think the most important thing is identifying uh who will be our provider and identifying how we're
034going to get vaccinated the vaccine vaccination will take here on our campus um and we'll probably be in the fieldhouse more to come on that um we are just definitely very excited we believe this is a game changer uh for for many good reasons uh had a great conversation with uh the dupage county public health today uh just real quickly group 1a okay that's basically your healthcare providers in the hospitals and your long-term staff and residents are in group 1a they are being vaccinated uh daily um dupay county public health has reported they are vaccinating uh 1500 individuals per week in dupage uh there are approximately 58 000 um individuals in group 1a after group 1a is completed they group the public health department will move to group 1b which includes educators which includes us
035uh in that group um uh hot off the process uh our meeting today uh it was reported that they are tentatively they will tentatively start group one b january 25th so that's great news i think we have our ducks uh in a row here uh finding our provider getting our facilities uh ready for this to take place very very excited about that so as it develops i will continue to report to the board uh in regards to that uh in regards to that just another top another comment here we put out a survey to our staff basically asking who's interested in a vaccination and who's not so we have that that number to provide to our providers district 2 and district 7 are doing the same thing next slide real quick so what is defending
036the learning plan due to the covet dupage metrics communication transmission level of substantial phantom will continue to follow the recommendation of the dupage public health department and remain in remote learning uh special population as you know which includes kids with connectivity issues students uh our ells english language learners special education or students who just need a place to study are welcome to do their work here at fhs we have been doing this i believe since october and we do have students coming in for that we will continue to collaborate with the dupage public health department school districts uh and other superintendents um in dupage our staff obviously are teachers and uh we will continue to and monitor the cobin metrics uh when they come week to week any questions there you shout out again to
037our staff our teachers who's who's really supporting our students day to day you shout out to our tommy kobold and his crew for ppes as students come in uh to do their work and keeping our staff here safe from the from the virus whether it's disinfecting um and so forth so um just real happy of where we're at with that moving on to our equity initiatives from a financial perspective um just real quickly we all know equity is a journey right equity has always been a journey here and there's going to be some hiccups there's going to be some real difficult things to uh to to to overcome a lot of barriers but we are committed as a school district um our next topic is about uh equity uh so far we have uh reported
038how we incorporate equity in our professional development our finance our finances our student clubs curriculum and dean's department with uh restorative justice last last month uh this evening for mr uh chris martin our chief school business officers uh officer he will discuss how fenton practices equity through a financial perspective i mean here's the bottom line we can talk about equity but if we don't put our money for our mouth mountain where it's it's it's all um it's all talk so bruce speaks yours okay thanks for that introduction mr ontanko um yes i'm happy to report uh the equity equity initiatives from a finance financial perspective um so equity effect in high school uh how has fenton utilizes financial resources to support equity um and then i can also want to uh emphasize the fact that
039our annual budget is aligned to support the goals um the 2018 uh the 2021 strategic goals that have with an equity uh emphasis uh ingrained in that those objectives um and as we look at the objectives on this slide uh you know what we're charged really with ensuring the teachers have the materials resources and training they need to design an equitable classroom and we provide to provide access to programs and strategies that support the goal of equity and enable all students to succeed so those are the objectives that we feel that the charge is for us to continue the equity journey at fenton high school just to kind of re-emphasize the funding sources within the district we have low local state and funding federal sources federal sources would include grants as well and the breakout
040there the majority of our funding comes from local sources at 89 state sources are 7 to 10 percent and federal sources are 3 to 4 um what are we doing to promote equity in the classroom um you know this past summer was a pretty robust summer uh uh in an unusual summer uh as well uh given the fact that we likely kind of had a pretty strong idea we would be starting out the school year um a little bit differently than what we are accustomed to doing uh at the beginning of a school year and as we know that began uh in a remote setting so um we knew that we had to be prepared for that wanted to be prepared for that our professional learning and growth opportunities um were in in full high
041gear last summer um and there was a lot of activities going on mrs papa nikola i don't think she slept the whole summer so congratulations uh michelle to that and those initiatives and i think really the true winners of that uh you know training uh really uh teachers carrying that down to our students so and uh we did have some cares act money federal funding uh that came to us that to support that remote learning uh initiative for our our pd uh last summer uh experiential learning opportunities such as the boston stem trip and second story funded through title 1 funds our digital learning platforms for all equal opportunity schools which really emphasize access to rigorous learning parent involvement through the highlander institute which is a pretty unique and robust program for parents and then
042summer school bridge and extension programs and that grew last summer it'll likely grow even more this summer those those programs um continue on with the equity in the classroom student support programs sel which is our social emotional learning initiatives um which include ruler training uh castle partnerships to support that initiative restorative justice as mr antengu just said our deans presented that topic last month and um went into great depth about uh how we're uh handling discipline um you know issues with with students and how that looks so differently now and uh we feel uh feel we're really on the on the cutting edge with making some great progress there um bison time really is in essence you know a resource period for our students daily to get extra support from their uh teachers each and
043every day i think every day but tuesdays during a normal uh traditional school year but it's still happening even under these the setting we're in now uh bison buddies another support program our link crew which is new this year but it's really to support our freshman students transitioning into the high school so um that is kicking off uh it started preliminary work last spring and continues on this year um and then some of the activities and clubs that we support um and that are supported by our staff and board twenty eight uh six uh athletic teams and 28 clubs so a pretty good selection um i'd say a very good selection for students to participate in um throughout clinton high school throughout their academic career here um technology this is this is obviously a critical
044piece even more so i would say this year than than ever before you know mr batson talked a little bit earlier this evening about chromebooks read students we're on our eighth year of our program there so um you know a student a freshman has issued a chromebook on day one and then carries that through for his his or her four years at fenton um that device uh we think we have uh good solid devices that that are durable um if there is a problem with the device we have lenders so we don't we know how critical that piece of you know equipment is uh for learning and for students to to progress and for teachers quite honestly so we don't want anyone to be have downtime with it with the device that needed some some
045attention our hot spots so students can check these out to the library uh there are no costs so you know families that have difficulty connecting to the internet don't have internet or for whatever reason need to connect we have resources for them to uh such as hotspots to provide them internet access we funded offset uh that fund that expense with cares act funding again so we participated in a program with the regional office of education that that provided funding for that initiative and then we also just recently obtained some additional hot spots through t-mobile a program there um that was as a for no cost to the district so we're pleased to be able to support that as well e-rate funds i think you probably heard about this in in the past and what we
046do we're we're a recipient of uh funds from the federal government to support um network infrastructure and connectivity for kids students um so that really is what we've built our uh infrastructure with uh has been with e-rate funds so um another round of that will be coming i believe next year uh jim benson can speak to that i think next month more thoroughly on that but that that's a piece that is necessary we'll continue to build on a new program this year internet essentials program sponsored by comcast it's free broadband to qualifying families so um again families that are new to comcast that don't have access and don't currently have internet need internet they can get it free for a year there's an application process that they would file through the district but we sponsored
047that and and we're happy to do that um also a number of different software applications and these are just a few that support our educational mission we video padlet equate io near pod defined learning calendly all these things are utilized to enhance and support our educational mission and learning within fenton um and then we recently um uh were granted 50 laptop computers mr ontanka was instrumental in obtaining those and uh we were able to donate them to families that did not have the means or or a device that we were happy to provide to them so that was a great uh i think program and kudos to mr anthony for making that happen on the communication front uh what are we doing in terms of promoting uh you know our message out there and getting
048the word out of the programs and resources that we offered fencing uh the superintendent's message the weekly words that come out in in bilingual fashion um i i know great uh james and rick work very hard and getting that out every week and provided as much information as we possibly can bundle in that you know weekly package uh community newsletter letters across both communities wooddale and bensonville we continue to participate in that initiative and you know we have a pretty prominent role in that in both communities and and we're very happy to have that uh exchange of information with the other uh communities uh taxing bodies in the communities uh community newspapers um you know we're uh you know happy uh and i think we've gotten uh more so involved in publications and promoting the
049district and with the programs and good things that are happening here um on an ongoing basis uh a coat drive we participated in i think this is the second or third year um through the rotary i'm glad to be a part of that to uh you know pass new coats out to our families that are in need and students that that may need a coat um i know many of you are involved in the northern light food pantry distribution when we have food trucks here and whatnot i mean it's a great effort it's great to see people come out and distribute food it's it's unfortunate that the lions are as long as they are but uh there is a resource and and we're happy to be a part of that to assist with uh getting
050uh you know food to families that are in need of that um we also pretty regularly um uh you know email text voice uh to our families um and parents and and and staff to get the word out and share that information whatever it may be related to school information um the chicago bears is another communication piece we just heard about that a little bit earlier with mrs mullins but our students and staff were recognized through the bears and so that was a great recognition for fenton high school and a couple of other programs here um the b-pac program padres unidos polish outreach all those programs are supported with grant funds at fenton high school and then other supports um our bison cultural connection that's a 21st century grant that is a tremendous program it's
051it's really uh been uh spearheaded by a couple of really talented people to um promote and encourage and increase our participation um it's even as challenging as these times have been we've had good participation with homework help and assistance and sat support and all those types of things uh you know we some of the programs have been scaled back in the interim but that will continue to expand as we as we move forward such as cooking classes drama classes um field trips and things like that to expose kids to different opportunities um and it's just a really a great opportunity for kids to partake in all of our students have the uh access to that um to participate and that's that's funded through a grant um that is i think it's in its second year
052maybe third year this year of that um the other thing i know james is very proud of the fact and as we all are supposed that the meals that we serve to our community ever since this pandemic has kind of shut us down or tried to shut us down we still operate but in a different manner um you know we've been serving meals seven days a week and i know mr ontango was adamant about no we're not just going to do it on school days we're going to do it every day of the week and we've been doing that since march and that's through the national school lunch program and there's no questions asked when kids come in uh it's it's free to all of our families or our students um school-age kids and uh
053you know it's a great program and it's continuing to grow um which is which is a good thing the next two items the fee waivers and student fee analysis you know we're taking a look at those things and how we might better serve families and students with how we assess fees and charge fees and collect fees so we'll continue to evaluate that likely make some recommendations bring them forth and keep the board apprised of what the status is on on that and where we're going with what we recommend to go forward with that process and then finally portrait of graduate again many of you were very uh intimately involved in that process that was finished up i think last spring and uh that's in play i think starting now i believe right mr untangle so
054that's a that's a great program that i know he's worked very hard on making happen and then you know the building facility initiatives as the board knows the facility assessment uh audit is in progress it kind of got a little bit of a hiccup there with with things but that is continuing and will continue um and uh finally our safety security and accessibility so with with what's happening now with the whole world and the pandemic and whatnot um you know we think we've made some great uh improvements to the building uh with regard to safety security accessibility ppe supplies temperature readings protocols uh we worked very hard on that kudos to dr benson for putting that all together taking the lead on that so that's been a uh a challenge but uh i think we've
055met the challenge and continuing to meet it and then finally you know as as mr antego said at the beginning of the presentation equity you know it's never ending it's an ongoing process and um you know we are this i hope demonstrates some of that and and as we go on tonight with some other reports you'll you'll hear more about it as it uh it continues so um with that i i guess i'll turn it over to i believe dr benson and mrs uh papa nicolao unless you have any questions before we move on from me so i'll continue under with our equity report dr benson and mrs papanika will provide us an update regarding our district equity leadership team dealt in our upcoming diversity equity and inclusion training dr benson and mrs pickle uh
056papa niklau floor is yours thanks james so uh just to piggyback on what bruce was talking about we're very excited to have our first district equity leadership team meeting with led by dr yvette dubial for this semester and it happened occurred last friday very vibrant discussion really good participation about a three-hour meeting and uh really was able to kick-start where we're moving as far as this this leadership team which as you recall it's consisted of teachers um social workers uh guidance counselors and uh and administrators but a variety of staff members are involved in so it's a wide range of of viewpoints and discussions so very very very vibrant um so some of the things that were discussed were we're moving forward with establishing an equity action plan that's the term that dr dubial had
057mentioned um and so that's we're just in the beginning phases of that but clearly that's what we want we want a comprehensive plan for our district uh the the method the method of getting there is to basically break into what what's called the five systemic strands of equities kind of a well-known approach in the equity world where you kind of break down your organization into these five strands and uh dr dubial as she was leading us through the meeting allowed the group members to self-select so we have a nice distribution in these five uh strands and um you know we're looking forward to where that's that's gonna lead but this way what we have is we have uh a diverse group in each category you know working specifically in those areas is where it's going
058to lead to but when we talk about systems what we're talking about how can we advance equity in our policies our procedures our decision making so that's sort of an all-over encompassing view and for example i know james is in that that strand along with bruce jim batson um amongst other staff members but you know what are we looking at holistically then there's also teaching and learning where it's an equity driven pedagogy what are we doing instructionally what are we doing with our assessments are equitable equitable in our approach and so that uh is that strand uh third strand is student voice climate and culture pretty self-explanatory how do we get feedback from our students input how do we hear their stories and and how do we allow that to create the most positive culture
059that we can professional learning what kind of opportunities are we providing our staff and and we're already in the process of doing this and and uh miss papa nicholas going to explain uh in the next slide kind of what we're doing professionally so our our all of our staff can be developed and embrace equity and then finally we have family and community as agency so again how can we engage the community how can we engage our parents and so they can support our students and uh and our school district so those five strands again equally important there's not one that's more important than another uh and we got to focus on all of them as we as we move forward on this equity journey which uh dr dubio reminded us doesn't have an end point
060we're constantly striving thanks dr thanks bruce um that was a great intro to um you know i just have to say bruce is great at um ensuring funds that we need to do all of the work that we're doing and he never hesitates at supporting anything that has to do with equity so um when he talks about all of those things he's he's a key player in ensuring that we have what we need to make that happens i just wanted to mention that and then uh sam thanks for talking about the dealt process i think um part of that um you mentioned the strand of professional development um you know is going to be a whole action plan they'll be really deliberate um next steps they'll be very deliberate goals that we'll set and how
061to move forward um in the interim while we are developing those goals and action steps it was really important to set a a very solid baseline foundational understanding of what diversity education and inclusion means to us as an organization there's plenty of um staff members that have been through different kinds of trainings whether they've been in intensive trainings or they've just gone to a workshop some of them maybe review especially for our certified staff or certain members of our certified staff but some of us we do especially for our support staff um we are planning um a six-part training um one hour each training session they're going to be held monday afternoons um where we have it built into our schedule right after our systems of support dr dubial is going to facilitate this as
062well and um you'll see there's six sessions we have the dates set already the first one is taking place january 25th so monday is our very first dei training um the first one will be an overview of equity equity 101 we'll talk about some vocabulary what the languages behind this work will go into understanding implicit bias um in session two micro micro aggressions in session three social constructs of self positionality and spheres of influence in session four uh stereotype threat coded racial language in session five and then finally in session six bystander versus upstanders and um proactive solutions to incidents of hate so is this something that um if anyone on the board would be interested would it be something that we also could just um tune into and listen or is this something that's
063just for um the staff um dr dubio has a couple of different opportunities available some are for staff members some are for board members we've been working james and i are determining which ones are the most appropriate for each um you know each uh stakeholder group um i i don't see but i do think that james in a vet were talking about what to do with the board next so i don't want to overstep with that great question juliet i am in conversation with dr dubial in regards to professional development for for our board in regards to dei uh we haven't ironed that out yet uh and online for that as well so i will keep you posted on that but that conversation is taking place so that the board uh can have professional developments
064in regards to diversity equity and inclusion training so more to come there um thank you for asking that question i know you guys are all enter or interested in that uh so we will make that happen okay okay thank you yeah yeah this this um training in particular we're trying to target towards um our staff our administration and all support staff that's directly involved with students so although this is you know our first step in um training and there's obviously going to be a lot more along the way um even for different stakeholder groups this is the this one's a pretty big one and that we're going to capture you know over probably around 200 members of our organization um with this and um but you know as we work through the equity action plan
065we'll have a very clear and explicit manner of which we ensure that all members of the organization are trained appropriately and um you know with the right content and um with the right topics and and um approach so um yeah we're excited to get started um you know we we talked to our dell team was meeting a little bit before um dr yvette started working with us this last week and we said should we start this now should we wait till the action plan is done and they're like let's go let's do this our our staff is enthusiastic about this work they're excited about getting started and and you know we're passionate about it so we we hope to learn a great deal over the next few months here thank you michelle great this leads
066us to our next topic here is a educational omnibus bill i just wanted to make sure you're aware of it this was uh really supported by the black caucus as well as the latinx caucus this legislation passed both chambers and is waiting for the approval of the governor the governor uh we believe is going to sign this bill and so therefore we need uh to unpack it uh when when when when it is signed uh the provision of this bills include additional graduation requirements i believe one of the uh provision is a a foreign language additional curriculum requirement requirement events of black history month uh computer science standards accelerated placement program which basically if you take a state assessment and you exceed meet and exceed you are put in a rigorous class and also uh
067underrepresented teacher recruitment and scholarship so just wanted the board to be aware of this it hasn't been signed yet but this is something that the administration will uh unpack when it is approved next up is negotiation update just real quickly met with floss last friday we are ready to go uh schedule meetings on february 8th and february 12th all right thank you all uh now we move on to the consent agenda does anyone have any questions or anything they want to discuss regarding the consent agenda no i i'm sorry um question about um uh like the uh the speech team is still competing obviously um wondering um like how some meets um there's more payment for some needs versus others like um with elk grove versus willowbrook you know 300 versus 800 dollars like how
068do we provide that many judges for those meets that they get paid for those events petty you were getting cut off could you could you ask the question again um you know what i yes i will um we're the speech team is being still competing and i was just wondering why some why we're probably like eight judges for one meet and um versus three or four for another beat i mean like where that were the meats that big or that that different that we had to provide more judges or just i just kind of caught my attention all right i think i could answer that and yo bond you jump in here it depends on how big the meats are and how many individuals i'm sure that this virtually so each for each topic there
069should be a judge i'm assuming if it's eight one competition and three another competition it's really the number of students i believe that are participating you'll find any input yeah i know that's uh that that's exactly it so it's the size of the meat um that matters you have to bring so many judges um because obviously they can't they shouldn't be judging your students they need to be judging others so it's the size of the beat that goes into that and we we um we compensate our our own judges for that okay thank you oh if you could restate that where we're at with the consent agenda sure well i just asked if anyone had any questions or any comments regarding the consent agenda uh good question patty uh does anyone else have any questions
070president william i just wanted to remind the board the approval of the press policies the summary had that policy meeting we went through the 22 revisions of policies most of them are endnotes and uh law notes there uh that's why it's here in letter g uh we asked the board in december uh to have that first and second reading there and to be approved uh here at this meeting just a friendly reminder what that is all right thank you james um yeah if there's no other further questions then uh may have a motion to approve the consented agenda as presented so moved may have a second second all right thank you patty roll call please peyton howell yes garlic yes big girl yes regal yeah thing paul pond yes yes all right motion is passed
071we move on to the discussion action items the first one is the resolution uh operating preparation and publication of fiscal year 2022 excuse me tentative budget so we are moving on already to next year's budget uh james i'm gonna pass it to bruce uh yes you are absolutely right mr uh wiedermann it is time uh to uh seek authority uh formally from the board to begin the budget process uh for next school year the 2021-22 school year this is an annual requirement to officially establish the fiscal year and designate the administration to prepare the budget and publish it going forward so we're asking the board to approve the resolution to uh authorize that to happen okay thank you bruce uh any questions if not then may have a motion that the board of education adopt
072the resolution authorizing preparation and publication of the punitive budget for fiscal year 2021 to 2022. thank you marianne and i'm sorry who is second this kid oh okay kid thank you um world cup please peyton hole yes big guerrilla yes regal yes yes yes yes all right then motion has passed we move on to the food service contract amendment uh if you could take that sure there's another amendment um in regards to our food contract i believe is the lowering or price bruce has more uh uh concrete picture of this bruce on to you yeah thanks mr untangle uh yes that's right um this is number two as it states there um in october not that long ago the board approved an amendment to the uh contract our first amendment i guess as you would
073call that um and that's for a meal rate adjustment and part of their rationale for asking for an adjustment and increase was the fact that meal participation was low in production costs were exceeding the cost of what they were getting in return uh from the district for the rate the original contracted rate bisbee does allow for you to amend the contract you have to go through a process and this is the process so attached uh we've included that meal rate adjustment um form that the vendor completes and then the district would sign off on it submit that to isb to make it uh formalized and approved so uh but i'm pleased to report now that and and when we agreed to the price increase harper also agreed that if the pricing uh was uh participation
074increased their prices pricing went down they would lower the price as well so that's what we have for you the participation i'm happy to report has increased their costs have gone down and their meal rate uh will go down so in either case you uh even prior to the first amendment or this and this amendment our reimbursement uh is exceeding uh what they're charging so in both cases uh in this case it's a little bit more important than what it was the first goal so um it's just a process to to approve this um these quarterly but we're recommending that the board of proposed meal rate adjustment uh and we'll continue to keep the border price if there's any other adjustments hopefully if we bring any more to you they will go further down but
075right now it's good news that the operation was going down from them okay thank you bruce thank you jane um and if there are no other questions may have a motion that the board of education approved the attack group of contract amendment november 1 2020 for the meal rate adjustments as presented so moved a second second yes thank you juliet thank you kid can have a roll call please peyton holm yes regal team you're muted katie you're on mute she's frozen um i said yes oh okay thank you figueroa yes wiedemann yes all right uh motion has passed uh the next item is a discussion on the item regarding the review of the 2021-2022 sk school calendar year uh james please sure we started working on our 2021-2022 school calendar once again this is a
076draft uh draft that we just wanted to present to the board there's no uh voting in this case because there's so much more to do just real quick here at the tentative dates uh uh it's a start date of august 11th similar to what we're doing now and end may 19th similar for this upcoming uh end of the year winter break december 20th to december 31st same month and spring break is always the last week of march this year is march 28th to april 1. uh the state uh calendar requirements from isb is 176 student attendance dates so we gotta have to have those days and the next step uh before final approval uh by the board is feedback from our teacher uh from from our different association fea flaws and our building administrators once
077again that's a real overview of of of of the start date and date and the vacation there that's the most important thing just want to let the board know that we're working on it and we're going to bring it back uh to the board for approval when we see feedback from our association and our admin our building administrators all right thank you james uh any questions regarding the calendar okay then we'll move on to the committee reports uh the first one is the bensonville community foundation uh juliet or kit anything new there we have a meeting coming up on uh on billy thursday uh nothing new unless you have something to add uh kit nope just just that we've got a meeting coming up so we should have some to report next month okay great
078thank you uh the next is the finance facilities uh committee uh we had our finance facilities committee meeting today we covered building projects summer project the mid-year financial update is presented by bruce sam gave it gave us an overview of the building and summer projects chromebooks presented by jim uh stimulus funding cares act by bruce um organization was uh introduced by sam then including also the exhaust system seal coating and tuck pointing uh items also so those were the items covered in the uh finance facilities committee meeting today marianne i don't know do you have anything more to add i do not thank you okay thank you um the isb delegate uh march 20th is the uh two page division dinner meeting well it'll be a virtual meeting um it's if for the first time
079it'll be on on a saturday uh mayor timmons will send i believe she already sent the invitations for that so that would be a great meeting for us all to attend uh again that's on a saturday uh march 20th uh lend um james do you have anything on land right now we have a meeting leo and i have a meeting this friday morning at eight o'clock leo if you cannot make it i will represent uh the district for us uh but i'll give you a briefing it's the first council meeting uh first meeting for this new elected body okay thank you uh nedsec um leo we don't have a meeting until next month until next month okay and we've got upcoming things uh items next month and we'll be hearing on all right good um
080policy committee daddy or kid nothing new we've already done our policy updates and uh we voted on the policy updates today yes okay thank you uh next board meeting will be wednesday february 17th at 7 p.m um so if there's nothing else new we will move into closed session then may i have a motion and a second to go into quote session for the purpose of the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity however a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the
081local government wage increase transparency transparency act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with this act five ilcs 120-2 c 1 and collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees under five ilcs 120-2 c2 solute thank you mary ann may have a second second second okay thank you kid uh roll call please peyton hill yes yes yes figueroa yes regal yes wait a minute yes okay jim if you could let us know when we are in closed session all right you got the right wires connected okay then may i have a message emotion to adjourn come on perry emotion i make a motion that we adjourned the meeting
082thank you petty man please paul kid seconded i think okay thank you kid uh roll call please mary peyton hello yes jalawik yes figueroa yes regal yes yes okay thank you everyone uh stay safe have a good night and uh we will talk to you later okay okay thank you