001I would like to call the August 21st 2024 regular board meeting of the F Fenton Community High School District W board to order we will skip the first item on the agenda as it is no longer needed may I have a roll call F here Goodridge here hay here Kovac here Lewis Here razinski Rego here we have a core please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all s please read our fening mission beliefs and vice and way statements fent Mission oh sorry the Fenton mission statement cultivates successful passionate empowered Learners through rigor relevance and relationships fent and belief statement successful passionate empowered Learners Thrive when
002we provide a safe caring and welcoming environment diversity equity and inclusion unify our community school and home collaborate is one we Champion Innovative teachers Ing and engage learning with state-of-the-art facilities we Infuse social emotional learning into academics and culture we prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibility we immerse students in authentic life experiences and 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 expectations to become the leaders and innovators of the future next item is recognitions Julia good evening we're still playing a little bit of catchup uh with our recognitions so um we are recognizing some students from last year but we're excited um that they some of them are
003here to join us this evening a few of the students graduated already some transferred out others are busy at swing choir auditions so we have a few with us not many um but we do still want to recognize them for all of their hard work we're proud of their accomplishments and we want to recognize them so first up we have Michael marosek Michael come on up Michael is a senior this year right all all right so Michael's a senior we're going to start um by recognizing and thanking Michael mosic for choosing an Eagle Scout project that enhances the look of Fenton High School and the experience our students have every day Michael is part of Boy Scout Troop 47 Michael donated two benches for the Fenton cafeteria Courtyard where students can sit during lunch periods
004and enjoy relaxing nature created and maintained by the Fenton Garden Club he also donated excess fundraising money totaling $310 to the Garden Club for their future learning and beautification activities Michaels started raising money to buy the Benes last summer some of his activities included selling Crispy Cream Donuts at Jewel with great support from the village of Bensonville Bensonville Police Department Bensonville fire department Boy Scout Troop 47 and Bensonville and Wooddale residents as well as family and friends Michael also coordinated a used sneaker gym shoes collection at the Bensonville tree lighting ceremony First United Methodist Church and here at Fenton to recycle the materials for a modest profit this Eagle Scout project United our community around the betterment of students at Fenton High School thank you Michael for sharing your achievement with our school Community thanks
005Michael do you guys want Michael can we take a picture up front come on over here Mike come on Scout leaders Maya you come right around over here around yeah yeah so why you step yeah good I saw a lot of students today it was a nice day already on the benches so we're excited for that still right in the middle here oh you can come on in too sir we'll take a picture for you you guys got to be in the middle okay that's right I'm not going okay we know how to man around that yeah okay you're good yeah not do that okay sorry can't you okay no we're good okay one more sorry got it okay sorry slide to the other side the other side okay go right there sir thank you
006fantastic all right you so [Applause] much no problem thank appreciate recogniz congratulations next up we have have speech um Fenton had another strong showing at the ihsa speech state finals two recent graduates Advanced to the ihsa state finals and placed very high Alexa Cerone was the sectional Champion for informative speaking and Pros reading she then took second in state for informative speaking Sarah Guerrera Goro sietta was the sectional champion in original oratory and later took second in state as a reminder in speech the ihsa does not have the different divisions based on school sizes like they do for our Sports programs come one come all and Fenton is always leading the way our speech program is a perennial competitor at the state finals and we are proud of the many hours they devote to the
007craft to craft their work Sarah and Alexa both graduated in May but we still congratulate them and thank them for a great performance so congratulations to them next up is group interpretation group interpretation performed extremely well at sectionals taking second place in the group inter turp category and advancing to the state finals you can see the picture over there Nicole Hendricks and Melissa Feinberg directed an adaptation of the book play and movie titled every brilliant thing it's a very serious story about mental health where a child journals 1 million reasons to live in hopes of convincing their depressed and suicidal mother Sarah Guerrero Getta and Alexa Cerone and freshman Alonzo Romero were recognized with all state cast honors Sarah and Alexa both graduated in May but we still congratulate them and thank them for their
008performance as well as Alonzo congratulations and finally we have our contest play again the pictures back there we've got some of our group with us tonight uh we've got Lex Lita Max and Noel who have joined us so finally tonight we're recognizing the cast and crew of contest play directed by Dr Mike Mitchell and assisted by Amanda Baker and Jeremiah bar this year's show the lifespan of a fact was a tense comedy about a new copy editor being asked to proofread a famous writer's essay only to find fact ual errors and stretch truths in almost every sentence the main actors banter over the need for absolute truth in every detail versus the use of artistic Liberties Nate Rodriguez Lita agular and Lex molski were recognized with all state cast honors Nate Rodriguez sorry Nate Rodriguez
009graduated in May but we still congratulate him and again tonight we have Lex Lita Noel and Max with us tonight congrat congratulations anybody want to no okay we're going to take a picture all right come on up no we get another one yes that's right re I'm going to start charging for you your nice Booth pictures with breed conrat right thank you congratulations congratulations thank you you guys you may come ular in yes oh yeah definitely they drive everybody around that's right going all the way in yeahp to state every John does right yeah see there we go all right we go congratulations congratulations how we [Music] do oh that's group interpretation no yes yes it is contest PL cont contest PL just turn it's a new it's a new title now contest PL read
010just turn the page one more what the page this thing this right here camon do we have any public comments tonight yes we do we have one Larry andone as a reminder what yeah public comments good so public comments are limited to 3 minutes per speaker with a limit this evening of 30 minutes total as a reminder please address staff members and students by title and not by name to protect their privacy hello my name's Larry angelone you guys probably very familiar with me and probably tired of me being up here um but I'm concerned about a few things um we have contractors that come on our property all the time uh one in particular is the gas company they come from underneath the railroad tracks over there from 83 and occasionally they come on
011the property and it's too wet they leave ruts and they get stuck sometimes but usually all it takes is a phone call and they'll send a three or four man crew out there with the dirt and they fix the problem but I told the director be uh of grounds and I also told the ad that this happened several months ago and neither one of them picked up the phone to call them now I've been told that I have to fix that problem and we don't have any dirt here but I was told I could get it from Mitch and I asked who Mitch was and Mitch happens to be with Gil Bane gain also did damage to our property in the middle of our Cross Country course because it was a staging arrow for gra
012uh gravel uh uh Stone and dirt when they cleaned up all that mess they never fixed it the way they found it there are deep rivets and and tripping hazards the one of the baseball diamonds has still a pile of stone on it and now I'm told I need to clean it up after Gil Bane we had a contractor and I'm assuming they were gilban subcontractors that put up our scoreboard they backed up a semi and they backed over where gobain had already fixed the around the asphalt and they left deep ruts and I'm told now I have to fix that because the contractors are not being held responsible we have a fence pole a fence company that came in and put fencing all around our Stadium they pulled up all the poles put up
013new fencing and nobody filled the holes for the poles and now I'm told I need to do that as well I don't understand why if you guys were having a contractor at your house and they left it like that and they didn't complete the job why AR we making them be held responsible I don't know if this is a personal punishment to me to make me do this stuff or if it's some other reason I don't know the guys that laid the wiring from the pump on our Stadium to our scoreboard dug a rut to lay the wiring in there and never covered it up I don't to me if I was hiring a contractor and they left it like that I would be infuriated I would not make the grounds crew fix that mess
014and now we're going to have a cross country meet in less than two and A2 weeks we're going to start having football games and now it's imperative and now we're rushing to get this stuff done I don't think it's fair there and I'm not even sure if our little ground crew between maintaining all of our practice fields and everything else is going to be able to get all this stuff repaired and fixed and I'm just bringing it to the board's attention and this is just going to be the start of things that me coming because I've asked the board to contact me with my concerns and nobody's called me so I'm not just saying this is a concerned citizen I'm just saying this as an employee I'm saying this this is not right it's just
015simp simply not right you I would not do this at my house and we shouldn't be doing here on this campus and I'm sorry uh that's just the way I feel and I'll leave you with this a quote from Toby Keith who recently died of stomach cancer which is also what my son's dying of and the lack of compassion here but he says that um he's a man of his conviction call him wrong call him right he brings his better angels to every fight you may not like where he's going but you sure know where he stands hate him if you want to love me if you can and I'll leave it at that thank you for your comments our next item is informational Sam okay thank you so we're going to start out tonight
016with a safety update from our very own Dr Eric Canda good evening uh thank you very much uh a couple Fridays ago on August 2nd uh the Friday before school started uh we participated with the Bensonville police department and Fire Protection District um in a in an exercise a full scale exercise of an active shooter scenario here on campus and uh we're we're very fortunate to have strong strong strong Partnerships with all of our local law enforcement um first responder fire Emergency Management agencies and we have for many years and um this has been in the planning since last fall and it was a culmination of of of a variety of people and planners um on this group that put this together so on Friday August 2nd we had uh some of the statistics that
017are there so about 37 police officers 25 fire and EMS and then we had um officials from Fenton and District 2 we also had um approximately 25 student volunteer role players some Community volunteer role players um and then we also had facilitators and observers as part of this exercise because it's being used um through some uh State forms uh that have to be kind of evaluated and so uh we were we were glad to be uh uh involved in working on this with the police some fire departments I know uh most of our administrative team was there I know Leo was there John was there as well and um it really was uh quite a learning experience a lot of people got up early on a Friday and came in for this the Salvation Army
018had their canteen outside and were doing breakfast and snacks and u a lot of equipment um was stationed at dear Grove the park district was very instrumental with that as well and then we had about you know 10 observers from different agencies come with us as well and coordinating all of this together uh was again quite quite a bit of work and as you can see from some of the pictures we simulated the active shooter scenario we used um in a square around the cafeteria of hallways we kind of made that the zone that we were going to use as the school and so we had role players playing the part U of various injuries in the cafeteria hallways as well as we used five classrooms and here in the ark as well and so
019as this exercise kind of got underway it started with um firing some blanks in the hallways that prompted 911 calls to go out from the building so people in classrooms and such were able to call 911 The Dispatch Center the ACDC was a was was handling those calls and then dispatching and from dear Grove they would dispatch and they would wait what however amount of time it would take itasa to generally get here and then they would come and so officers began responding directly to the building you can see from some of the pictures um and you'll see different colored vests like the green vest those are evaluators kind of you know um taking their notes and such and as this progressed wal more police entered the building they were following their protocols on their
020radio channels there were those of us that were controllers and evaluators moving around kind of seeing how things were going we had an observer area and you could see how everything progressed and the fire department would also come in often times with the police and they would take room by room the people in the rooms and out they would assess injured and we had injured uh fire departments would help the injured out get them on stretchers put them in ambulances go around U the block really and then come back to what was our um our Hospital U that we had in place here we um had three local hospitals as part of the planning as well so that they knew what we were doing and they provided input on what we would do and how
021they would handle this as well so this was a many many agency uh collaborative effort as we kind of put this together and then instituted the exercise one about um the exercise itself was about an hour and a half it was about 3 to 4 hours of of time on that Friday morning and um one a lot of the outcomes the purpose behind it was to measure our effectiveness and then evaluate where do we need to make changes so that all the agencies together um could talk through that so next week we have our after Action meeting for the planners that were on the group to put all this together to kind of go through step by step and see where do we need to connect where do we need to maybe sit down and
022and re-evaluate our own procedures at Fenton our administrative team had a meeting right after as well immediately following exercise we spent about 30 to 45 minutes talking through some things that we saw as positives and things we can improve so we are in the process now of using a lot of that information and then we'll take the meeting next week um with all the agencies and see what we need to do together um as we collaborate so again a very large scale um exercise that was put into place and we've participated in a few things along the way um over the many years I've been here 12 years and and it's interesting that picture of um in the bottom right Don Schultz on the left in the blue shirt is our Emergency Management agency director
023and then Brian douly on the on the right um our deputy chief at Bensonville when I started here the first safety meeting I had those were my the two people that I met with and since then over a decade they have been the same people we have worked with that entire time so that level of consistency and their support has been unwavering the you know all this time and we talk to each other nights weekends during the day whenever we need each other we're able to call and everyone answers so it we're very fortunate that they used our building as well because now we have officers and fire from local agencies around us who are all been in our building through a crisis situation it helps everyone become familiar with our building our layout our
024procedures and it helps us learn from other perspectives so that was very very helpful I believe as well so again this is the scale of this was very large and we were glad to be a part of it and uh we'll continue to evaluate and work through that um you know as we proceed forward and make uh various changes and updates to our own safety planning that we will then roll out as our team in conjunction with um you know District 2 and then we have an annual review meeting we usually do that in July we put it off at their request um it'll be in mid-september where we sit down with all of our local agencies and we're going to invite our uh collaborating school districts as well so that we can all talk
025safety planning because if something happens here um we're associated in the county with something called do smarts which is D page and then U Mutual aid for schools so if something were to happen here we can call that number through at the county and the County Emergency Management agency will help us put something out to other schools where if we need extra social workers or we need administrators or we need people that can help us maintenance Crews to come in and help us with an emergency so when we have this annual review meeting we want to talk kind of a little more globally with our local uh Partners as well to see how we can each assist each other so this has really been a a great exercise for us as we evaluate and then
026make changes um as we proceed forward so I appreciate everyone who volunteered who came and was part of it um some people sat in a room for almost an hour just waiting for something to happen and that's just you know that sometimes that's the way it goes as part of these things happen so we're going to be doing a lot of that as we proceed forward on our planning just a real quick shout out one of those people locked down in the room was our very own Leo figuroa so thank you Leo Columba for joining us uh with Jose and I we had a lot of time together in the lockdown but we were able to see uh outside everything that was happening it was a really a great exercise where they can practice for
027these scenarios and it'll affect their planning moving forward I also like to thank John rinsky who had a contingent from Metra there was also at the exercise and uh so anyway thank you for taking the time go to the next slide how was this initiated again they uh I believe in the fall the police department as they're doing one of their um multi-year uh U not recertification is the wrong term but they have to up their certific they contacted us and said we'd like to do an exercise and so between them the fire department and then Fenton we kind of put that together and said let's all collaborate on that and then they invite other agencies in and um they they did one of these in U District 88 at Addison Trail High School I
028know um some of our folks went I know a lot of us were observers at that one I think that was a year and a half ago and then when they were doing the one in Bensonville they said let's use what they did and look at some of their feedback and some of what we got from that and then that's how that started getting planned than okay um another update we have we've contracted with bore Consulting rich wasaki is the gentleman in the picture there he was actually um he came to this as well as an observer and he sat with us in our debrief and was able to give us some uh very constructive feedback a former uh uh police detective and he has now this consulting company so we're doing a number of
029things with them as well as part of our overall safety and support uh they do um we can use them for incident response uh trainings for staff for students and for parents and community members um educational programming and so on so uh that's been a great partnership so far we've had a lot of conversation with Rich he has wonderful insight and ideas and so um he's very happy to talk any time when we're talking about possibly making a change what do you think on this what are we not seeing and so on so there we're going to work with him a lot um in September and early October on Cyber safety for our students so on um September 3rd from 6:00 to 8 so not next week the week after we're doing a a parent
030Community event with him where we're going to do an evening of cyber safety and that's going to be conducted in English Spanish and Polish um so we He's Able you know uh to help us accommodate those needs so that we can work with our parents and Community then we're going to work with the staff later in the month of September on many of the same things but more staff directed and then we're going to have assemblies uh with our all four grade levels of students October 1st and October 4th so we'll talk to the parents first in the community then we'll talk to staff then we're going to go to the students and we're going to take feedback from all those meetings and kind of layer them into the next and so he and his
031team are going to help us with that and really help with cyber safety um for our students so that they know you know how to how to be protected for themselves and then also for parents to see what can parents do to help understand and ensure the safety of their students um in the cyber world so that's been a great partnership so far we've had a lot of conversation with Rich and his team and I know that's going to continue on throughout the year as well so that that's been um extremely helpful and again he brings a lot of good insight that's been a great partnership along the way as well and then um our our last one is flock so as you come in and out of the campus you may see these um
032devices on poles they're at the two main entrances we've got one back by the bus um the the the bus fenced area and then one on the student lot and these are uh security camera license plate readers so they read every plate that comes through we were on that system looking at it it's quite fascinating how it works and and really what you can get from it and it ensures that dangerous individuals if they come onto campus that um the law enforcement is alerted so God forbid the guys walking you got a problem yeah um and if if a car is flagged off of license plate or vehicle is flagged um our school resource officer is notified and then Wooddale also um has a system so we have accounts set up that way so that
033law enforcement is alerted immediately um so they know that some a vehicle is passing through on the campus either on the roadway parked to the lot wherever it may be so our SRO gets notified of anyone that's flagged and then we can also go in and research on our end and it gives us flexibility as well if we need to maybe um look you know a license plate if we have an incident take place or something that we know who was here coming in and out if if anyone has questions on S is a school resource officer I'm sorry our Wooddale police officer that we have here in the building oh okay yeah as long as it's somewhere police is in there they y you you said that the roadway so that means the road
034in front of the school is also being monitored they have uh not uh I'm sorry not across the school but the roadway that kind of transits past to the bus area so yeah as it as it transits out and then so it's it faces inward from the entrance towards the staff parking lot and then also at the bus uh fencing that that parking lot area so anyone who transits that roadway and then anyone who is leaving the staff parking lot and then coming into or out of the student parking lot on the other side so there are four of those so that is that correct bensville would I believe both use the system as well no oh the road I think he's referring to yeah it's it's ours I know up until I think from
035from the houses past it's considered our roadway because it's our property so uh that's why I think that's where we came yeah okay how many you how many of those things you have there are four of them on the campus and how much a month I don't know we we did a a set fee I think it was it's been a while 12,000 something like that yeah it's a set fee so it's not a monthly fee um we have a commitment for 3 years I think yeah 56,000 total yeah something like that right so that's that's the commitment uh I think what what Eric was saying is uh Woodale and Bensonville the all had these throughout the area so we're sort of linked up with them obviously and as part of the the safety initiative
036yeah and and overall safety we do participate in our uh we have mandated drills so we'll do three fire drills our tornado drill our law enforcement drill and then bus evacuation drills the bus evacuations start next Friday I believe here so we do all of those mandated drills as well and we always have our partner agencies the people we were talking about they are they are present for those drills to give us feedback and to help us understand where we can make changes as well so we throughout the year we also continue on with the safety pieces and do those drills and then we look we have a Safety Committee we look for feedback and so on so it's a really comprehensive safety and uh support plan that we have and uh think it's more
037robust every year [Music] yeah okay all right well you can see one of our big points of emphasis is safety but certainly we also are emphasizing communication and support and uh Kate Ward and we'd like to welcome Stephanie Jackson here tonight have done an excellent job leading uh these initiatives whether it be through new teachers teachers all staff uh we're off to a great start to the school year so they're going to highlight that yeah we're really excited so um one of the things that we highlighted last time it was something new that we tried it was uh the brainchild of our assistant principal Julia Bray she had this great idea of trying to make sure that students and I think more so what we realized is parents having a little less anxiety about coming
038back to school so we had sneak peek night on August 5th it was just basically an open campus from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. um it was our first shot at it we weren't sure how popular it would be but we had 75 to 80 families that showed up most of them just anecdotally were freshmen um and they had a copy of their schedule they were able to walk around on their own we had link crew members here so um some of our upper class students to show them around if they wanted to but many of them just kind of wanted to figure it out for themselves uh we also had uh popcorn we had petas for them we had Spirit Weare for sale and the feedback we got from the parents was just they you
039could tell the parents felt so good about kind of knowing where their ninth graders were going to be so I think the kids liked it but the parents liked it even more so um our team is already talking about how we can build upon this for next year but I think this is something that's really important for you know bringing bringing our new students in and any student can come we did have a couple transfer students that come that came and we did have a couple of Juniors and seniors who just wanted to come in and like figure out their schedule before the first day so it was a real success um and for our Institute days I'm going to turn it over to Stephanie okay it was on okay all right I'm pretty loud
040but um so for the two staff Institute days before school started the first day we had certified staff only and the second day we had all staff present um on day one we went over building priorities um which honestly from our standpoint has a lot to do with attendance at this point we're looking to improve those numbers we're looking to improve all day attendance but also single Class Cuts um and in that same vein as uh we talked to the teachers we reminded them of the grading uh committee that updated the policy in the spring and a smaller group met in the summer to finalize the language so there are few changes for teachers there um the gist of it is that students who maybe decide to take an extra lunch um and maybe they
041miss a math test as a result of taking that extra lunch um they will not be able to make up that missed work because of that choice so that was a change to reinforce the attendance um changes we're making um and then with Back to Basics in the classroom we talked to the teachers about how safety I mean Eric just got done talking to you about safety which I think a lot of people think you know like security and security guards and locked doors and things like that which are all important but we really talked to the teachers a lot about how what they do in their own classrooms really affects how safe and comfortable students feel and a lot of it is quite honestly like simple things that they can work on right like
042having daily routines so that kids have a sense of predictability they aren't anxious about what's going to happen in class because you've established these routines um being consistent having high expectations and rigor so that kids are motivated when they're in your room and that they understand the urgency to be in your classroom and um also just being able to give feedback to students in a timely manner so that they know what their grade is um if when grades are a mystery kids get anxious right so I think making the teachers feel empowered and realiz how much they control on a daily basis for students as far as safety and then on day two we had all staff and Christian Moore came in as our keynote speaker he was kind of had a non-traditional past I
043would say um yeah he he had a ton of energy one of the first things he told us was that you know he had had a lot of trials and tribulations in his life and that uh he's a special education student who really struggled with getting himself together and getting his life together together um but that he had kind of the surrogate mother who taught him how important resilience was and his main message was that it's totally natural for people to have negative emotions and feelings but it's your ability to be able to channel that into productivity and into um positive things in your life and his angle was more about how like if we can get students to understand that how much better their lives will be but after looking at a lot of
044the staff feedback it was pretty clear that a lot of the the adults in the room appreciated that message as well and I spoke to him a little bit when he was done and I said to him I'm like I think a lot of adults in the room probably needed to hear this right now and he said I hear that all the time so that was the the keynote speech basically for everybody and then right after that Abby Rogers from our I think it's our special education Law Firm yeah she spoke to the staff for about an hour um for mandated reporter training and through that training it was made abundantly clear that everyone in this building has a duty to report in that situation um and she will be back later in the year
045to talk about bullying and harassment she also uh trained the admin team about a week and a half before school started on title 9ine so that and then teachers had time to work in classrooms people had time for meetings things like that other commitments that needed to happen during those two days but that was uh basically days one and two how how many staff were present for the mandated reported repter training approximately yeah so everyone was invited um and I think we could look back at the sign in sheets but it would be close to 220 so it was teachers certified staff bus drivers support staff um per so everyone was there MH these were required dayses for the staff to be there correct yes and no one was unclear about their responsibilities with the
046Mand rep training coming out of that no no and that was one of the reasons we wanted an attorney and uh to come in and and spell it all out so we thought that was very important for everyone to hear yeah and the feedback from the staff overall I mean was really good on both days it's kind of hard because people want to get into their classrooms and get ready for the students but we know that this stuff is important also and everybody you know Christian was super engaging as was Abby and I everyone really appreciated both presentations so it was good yeah first day of school we're already a weekend it seems like the first day of school was a long time ago already but um it was a great first day so right
047now our current enrollment is sitting at $ 13.99 that can fluctuate a little bit in the first couple of weeks because you still have some kids moving in and moving out especially with CPS not in yet they start next Monday so that sometimes affects us too um but our average attendance has been good on track so far so for our first 5 days we're averaging at 92.5% so we're you know feeling good about that but know that we still can improve but overall um kids are coming back and I I think one of the things that we're hearing from teachers this year is that the kids seem ready to go this year you know sometimes it's like you come back to school and it's like everybody's sleepy but we've heard teachers saying that kids seem
048engaged they're putting their phones away when they ask them to so um it it really is a nice feel we had our uh we're doing bison time assemblies with each class today we started with the freshmen and they were the most attentive freshman group that I think we've ever had they actually were clapping and um just like really lovely so we're feeling good we're excited um and things are going well we're in the middle of a Spirit Week um so we kind of did some low effort to get the kids in um so neon was one day we had hats and sunglasses today well down second that is why I'm wearing a hat I'd like to thank president Lewis wearing one of his and I have sunglasses too and Karen back there wearing her favorite
049hat even though she's a Yankee fan that's okay it's her favorite hat but anyway we have a lot of fun with spirit week and I figured at some point we should explain why we have a hat I noticed that you know what that hey Sam I think as much as I love the F hat I'm curious what oh well there you go this is this is more for the winter months uh I didn't want to sweat here today but this is another of my go-to hats your bison hat a bison hat yeah I look forward to uh the Bison hat in the winter okay we'll see Julia brace yeah I somehow I think Spirit week's corespond to board meeting weeks I I I can't prove it but it sure seems like thank you another uh
050I think we're trying for the first time that we're excited about is we're combining an all staff back to school night so kind of welcoming our staff back and this year we're combining it with the stadium gr uh Stadium opening so kind of a soft run uh with our football scrimmage so it's this Friday night you're invited uh we're going to start at 4:30 there's going to be hamburgers hot dogss we're going to have some chips um and some games so that staff who bring or kids in the audience uh some face painting some games things like that try to just create a welcoming atmosphere and also make sure we get a crowd out there uh to support our football team also while they're with scrimmaging so this goes from the hot dogs go from
0514:30 to win 4:30 to the kickoff is at 5:30 so probably till about 6 4:30 to 6: yep just checking I'll be there read I'll save you a couple hot dogs tomorrow we have our involvement Fair during all the lunches so um again Julia Bray coordinates this it's really nice that we do this so early in the year that we want to expose our students to as many clubs and activities as possible early on especially our freshman but really all of our students so that they know all the wonderful things that we can get involved we're really encouraging our kids this year that the more that they get involved the more that they feel comfortable at school so that's really been a big push for us us this year so we're excited about that tomorrow
052and then we have our Stadium home opener our first varsity football game what we're going to do is we're going to have a ceremony where we are going to open the stadium for all teams that play in the stadium so they will all be recognized not just the football team so soccer teams track and field um girls flag football uh will also be recognized so we'll start with an opening ceremony at 6:15 um and then the kickoff will be at 7:00 we're excited that we're going to be able to offer free admission to everyone uh to really try to get more people in everyone's invited we're going to have some prizes and giveaways I think Miss B was working on some rally towel rally towels things like that to really you know get hope we
053don't have the rally hopefully we take the lead Right Way exactly so you can see we're being really thoughtful about planning some community building events this year um making sure that everybody feels welcome in our new facilities and at Fenton in general um and just trying to get more get people back yeah so obviously the board's invited to that uh somewhere around 6:15 this or so uh will get organized and recognized the board and other dignitaries from from The Villages so looking forward to that will it be after this kind of grand opening laoa that we're going to do here that we're going to then open the track for evening use for the community I don't know when we were planning like doing that we're going to wait till the construction was done or how
054that was going to go I was just curious I know we kind of committed to that a little bit just didn't know we were planning on taking that off yeah I think with the construction right now we hadn't thought about implementing that right away the other thing we would we would want to have is some sort of oversight like a security person out there just in case someone's jogging and they have a medical issue or something so it's a good thought I'm glad you brought it up we'll probably need to put some more thought to how to pull that off and when's the best time to pull that off yeah I thought were letting it get so late on that you know follow on that right but likely once the construction is probably better spot
055then we'll be sa with the community sounds great looking forward to it okay so that's a lot of fun stuff now we're going to transition to Jennifer Smith here tonight uh one of the two attorneys from franic that has been conducting the independent review and so without any further Ado we'll turn it over to Jennifer for an update thank you yes I'm a partner with the law firm of franic PC the Board of Education retained our firm to conduct an investigation into sexual misconduct concerns and the districts related policies and practices our process has been to one review documentary evidence available including the full scope of electronic and paper records two interview individuals with relevant knowledge both current and former employees as well as other individuals with information and three to Benchmark the actions taken
056against best practices for the point in time and information available we have been given free latitude to obtain all information that we believe is pertinent all individuals have been Cooperative with our request for information we have made substantial progress and I am confident in saying we will be in a position to provide the board with information that can be used to protect your educational environment um to keep it free from sexual misconduct at the conclusion of the investigation thank you for entrusting me and my firm with this responsibility any questions want say thank you for your diligence and uh GL they'll be a bring this to a close here soon so thank you thank you thank you okay we don't have any other so we're ready to continue next item is consider agenda may I
057have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so move second roll call figuro yes Rego yes paid yes Kovac yes good Rich obain Lewis yes motion passed next item is the I SB press policy recommendations may have a motion that the Board of Education approve the March 2024 and the June 2024 IB press policy recommendations as presented and discussed at the policy committee meeting held on July the 24th 2024 so Mo second any discussion roll call figuro yes Rego yes hay yes KC Yes goodr Yes Lewis yes motion passed committee reports does anyone have any committee reports so uh the bville Community Foundation that last month um we were able to uh put a lot of money to where it needed to go so that was good I do know thatv show up
058out there sorry showed up out there but there was one ask for for funding that we didn't get we weren't able to get to um but u i did follow Sam after on that so we there but otherwise doing well and uh looking forward to the next one and that's it uh we had our meeting last Monday and uh it was a good news uh we had the new PLC Learning Center and it was the opening house back in Thursday I was there and I checked the facilities and believe me it's humongous really beautiful and I love to to you guys to go and see it so not not only me as you know a delegate I would like to see everyone of you there to check the facilities and you going to be misiz
059how do we do that Leo I'm sorry how how would we go see the facilities okay uh it's easy we can contact our our the director and tell them when we can go right Rich Watts has been there also our director special education so we could certainly set up a time to go over there and and take a look I would love to do that same here okay you know I know there was always concern with the amount of spend on that um with what you've seen and everything you feel like we're getting over paying for over there definitely and besides that all the money that is not expand there it returned to the school to the district so uh yeah and actually at the last meeting 300,000 not not just Fenton so don't get
060too excited but 300,000 was coming back to districts we haven't seen what our portion is but it just that's typical yearly procedure 300,000 what again 300,000 money is money returned from that sec to the co-op District customary there's usually refunded exactly yes so that's customary exactly fantastic but it's not 500 no it's not all ours uh I can Pi you the number nine School District that is going to get of that money yeah thank you that's great we also held a finance facility meeting earlier today where 2024 25 budget timeline was discussed um our B system was reviewed and update was provided on this progress and we also as a board administr took the time to view the summer projects and also and also the stem project and where is set at this time I
061will say that I was very impressed by the vro update I don't know if any of you remember what it was like in there but you can smell the 70s not have that then see Bright Beautiful um acoustically in a much better spot and uh I know we got some little more work to do in there but I'm very excited to see see that go forward I'm hoping that this encourages more folks to pick up an life B me want to pick up a trumpet it was also good to hear the Stu well one student in particular um excited about the improvements yeah our next our next board meeting is Wednesday September 25th 2024 at 7 p.m. with a tentative Finance facility committee meeting at 6:00 p.m. prior to the regular board [Music] meeting May
062I have a motion and a second to go into close session for the following 5 Illinois CS 1202 C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees offensive Community High School District 100 B 5 Illinois CS C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one more classes of employees C 5 Illinois CS 120/2 C1 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an NA action is probable of imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting D 5 Illinois CS 120/2 c21 discussion of minutes
063of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes or the semiannual review of the minutes as mandated by SE 2.06 second we're close session do we have V or anything no okay mind e e e uh at least when I tested in my house the water is like 6.27 pH which is below the uh required pH to prevent blood Leach and water L one it's at 4.38 five is children couldn't break it 15 is May I have a motion and a second to go back into open session so move yes two roll call fig yes Rego yes hay yes kovak yes uh good Rich yes LS yes motion pass p and Open Session um may I have a motion and a second to adjourn
064all in favor say a thank you and good night don't go away you need to sign by the way signing yeah great with the sound system today yes the sensitivity is great