001attention I'd like to call the April 26 2023 regular meeting as an offensive communities High School District 100's Awards supporter may have a roll call please here go back present Lewis Here red zinski Graco here here we had horn please join me in recite me Pledge of Allegiance congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one God indivisible with liberty Seeking Justice for All and again James grief our invented Mission beliefs and advice and white States our mission statement to cultivate successful passionate empowered Learners through rigor relevance and relationships our Fenton belief system successful passionate empowered Learners Thrive when we provide a safe caring and welcoming environment diversity equity and inclusion unify our community school and home collaborators one we Champion Innovative teaching and engaged
002learning with the state-of-the-art facilities we view social emotional learning into academics and culture we prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibility we immerse students in authentic life experiences the Bison way students and adults at Fenton High School create a safe care and empathetic environment where we believe in each other respect adversity communicate openly grow together and hold each other to high expectations to become the leaders and innovators of the future thank you James and Mary do we have any requests for public comments this evening was going to begin vagina thank you and just a reminder for three minutes thank you good evening my name is renzhana rajendran and I have been a teacher here at Fenton High School for 18 years a fellow FEA member who I'd like to tell you about is Linda santanello
003in our math department Linda and I actually have many students in common every year and what I hear from them is that Miss santanello really cares about her students she built a classroom space that feels predictable and safe so that her students can focus on math they know that Linda is going to help them build their confidence and competency in calculus her students are very fortunate to have such a dedicated teacher and I consider myself lucky to learn from her it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract top teachers and have a Collaborative Learning environment that can help us keep and retain the best teachers like Linda during this time of teacher shortages thank you so much for serving
004on the board and I appreciate your time hi my name is Rachel genteel and I've been a teacher here for five years in the social studies Department a fellow FBA member I'd like to tell you about is Kelly Torres uh Kelly's also in the social studies Department Kelly has transformed the criminal justice curriculum to Project based and as design projects that get our students working with local and state law enforcement collaborating with legal professionals and she even brought national attention to Fenton when students went on a podcast with a motivational speaker about changes they want to see in our correction system it's very important to me that we have a fair contract in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract top teachers and have a collaborative environment that can help
005us retain the best teachers during this time of teacher shortages thank you Mike Mitchell uh good evening my name is Mike Mitchell and I've been a teacher here at Fenton High School for the last 20 excuse me 23 years I'm a fellow and a fellow FEA member that I'd like to give a shout out to is Ms gen solucky from the special education department I've had the pleasure to co-teach with Miss lucky for the past four years she is kind patient caring hard-working and she cares so deeply about her students and she wants them all to be successful Mr Lucky has made me a better teacher and it really has been a highlight of mine here at Fenton to work with her therefore it's also important for me that a fair contract is in place
006before the start of the school year to continue to attract top teachers not unlike Ms salaki thank you very much good evening hello for those of you who don't know me my name is Larry anceloni I'm head of grounds and an employee of fentanyl for 20 years I've also been a Bensonville resident and taxpayer for 31 years I have two sons that graduated Fenton both on the athletic wall of Hall of Fame I chose to live in Bensenville because of Fenton High School with that said on Thursday April 20th 2023 at 10 45 a.m the athletic director division leader of PE Health driver education at Fenton High School sent an email offering kayaks and canoes to staff on a first come basis there were approximately 15 kayaks and five canoes one aluminum excuse me to
007many Fenton employees this was an inequitable and just short of a corrupt weight to offer these items a lottery system would have been more appropriate since many staff members including custodians groundsmen teachers are busy working and not checking emails on a regular basis in addition the assistant to the superintendent is believed to have first dibs and claimed four of these items if these items were not considered to be a diminutive value the ad and or other administrator would be required to present the intent of distribution of these canoes and kayaks to the board before the ad sent an email to staff please refer to section 4 operational Services Board policy 4-80 accounting and audits disposition of District property thank you so much I appreciate the board donating their time to Fenton High School thank you
008good evening my name is Kelly Mullins and I've been a social studies teacher here at Fenton for 16 years a fellow FEA member who I'd like to tell you about is ranjan over Gendron she was just up here ranjana is a top shelf professional she attends classes attends seminars and conferences on her own time and she regularly returns to Fenton and shares what she learns with other teachers she is well connected in the teacher community and she excuse me she uses her connections to find resources to our questions as teachers and to students questions many times over the years ranjana has coordinated with outside professionals to present to our students here at Fenton or via in person or via Zoom specifically her AP Psychology students have reaped the benefits of her dedication these are professionals
009our students would wouldn't otherwise have access to she has a tremendously valuable asset to Fenton having a fair contract in place at the beginning of the year is important to me so that we can continue to attract top-tier professionals like ranjana thank you for your time Stephanie Jackson good evening my name is Stephanie Jackson and I've been an English teacher at Fenton High School for 17 years a fellow FEA member who I would like to highlight is Chris casserton she's a special education teacher here nearly every morning I see Chris in the cafeteria working one-on-one with students and she demonstrates Limitless patients because she is dedicated to helping these students succeed with coursework that is often very difficult and very frustrating and she believes that they are capable of high academic achievement she's an invaluable
010member of our association and her students are fortunate to be able to work with her because she advocates for them always it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract and retain top teachers like Chris during this time of teacher shortages Stephanie downen good evening my name is Stephanie downen and I have been a science teacher here at Fenton for 18 years I am very happy tonight to put a spotlight on fellow FEA member Sarah degrazia in the special education department Sarah builds incredible relationship with students and is constantly buzzing around the classroom and building to help them during her free periods she's often found working in other people's classes helping read tests or helping students complete lab work you
011can find her in ISS often helping students that aren't in our classes during the day she's always using her free time to build connections send emails and help students make sure they are successful I feel very fortunate to work with her as a teacher who is so dedicated to helping and prioritizing students it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the year to continue to promote a collaborative environment to help us grow and retain teachers like Sarah thank you Kelly Laney good evening my name is Kelly leamy I've been a science teacher at Fenton for nine years and a fellow FEA member I would like to tell you about tonight is applied Tech Teacher Lauren lamp well I've taught five different courses in the last nine
012years she has taught 17. different courses often with two separate curriculum running at the same time in a single room at once that is what at the same time means on average she prepares three to four lessons each day in her most challenging years five or six at Fenton Lauren also prints brochures passes posters t-shirts notebooks banners and other marketing and Communications materials for our students projects events and Productions many of these projects asked of her at the last minute and she does bend over her back bend over backwards to complete them she works in her classroom over the summer to create the most engaging and up-to-date environment that she can she just cares about everyone so much it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of
013the school year to continue to attract and retain top teachers during this time of teacher shortage thank you hello my name is Christine K asterton and I have been a special education teacher for 22 years a fellow member who I would like to tell you about is a World Language teacher and the ESL coordinator Michelle Rodriguez I've had the privilege to observe Michelle's interactions with El students at different levels I've seen her provide both emotional and academic support she's always encouraged them to do her best Michelle also works tires tirelessly to help our El students prepare to pass the access test as well as well placing our growing population of El students with IEPs in the correct classes she makes it a point to get to know these students Michelle talks to them she challenges
014them and she provides them with the tools they need to be successful and she does this always with a smile the students don't just like her but they respect and trust her it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract the teachers and having a collaborative environment can keep all can help us keep and retain the best teachers like Michelle during this time of teacher shortages thank you thank you hi my name is Abra Millman and I've been a teacher at Benton high school for 17 years a fellow FPA member who I'd like to Spotlight is my fellow English teacher Tony oxen Tony is retiring this year after 33 years 33 years for 33 years Tony has dedicated himself to
015the craft of teaching I have spent the entirety of my career learning from him what it takes to be an educator patients is not equality but rather a highly honed skill through our time assisting students in the resource center I have witnessed his ability to find a student lost in an assignment and to expertly guide them through their confusion never breaking Pace or kindness to dialogue and collaborate with Tony on a professional academic level is the equivalent of making the big leagues for an English teacher Tony oakson is the standard his retirement is celebrated and grieved it has been an honor to call in my colleague and because of this it is very important for me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract top
016teachers like Tony and having a collaborative environment can keep us and retain the best teachers during this time of teacher shortages thank you done came good evening everyone good evening members of the board thank you for your selfless efforts in making Fenton the home of the Bison my name is Don I've been a teacher here at Fenton High School for 10 years a fellow FEA member who I'd like to tell you about is Scott Murphy he works in the special education and math departments what first struck me about Scott was his easy going personality and his great sense of humor as time went on when I observed him teaching I also noticed Scott's passion and dedication to his job when the lesson started he would put on what I like to call the Murphy math
017face which meant he was ready to get down to Serious math business with the kids I noticed his students too followed suit easy going and smiling one moment then seriously dedicated to the lesson the next to close about a week ago I was speaking with a student during bison time and he made a simple yet profound statement about Scott he said I like it when Mr Murphy teaches me math prays like that from a student doesn't get much better it is very important to me that a fair contract is in place at the beginning of the school year to continue to attract top teachers like Scott Murphy thank you [Music] good evening for those of you who don't know me my name is Sean Aguilar and I teach World Language I've had the honor and
018privilege of serving the Fenton Community for the past 23 years I have lived in Wooddale for 21 years my son Colin graduated last year and is a freshman at COD and my daughter Lita is a sophomore she will be honored with our state contest drama Champions tonight I love Fenton High School and I'm very much invested in the Wooddale Bensenville communities I'm here as a faculty member resident and parent as such I have a multi-faceted view of many of the issues we are currently facing before me tonight I see my colleagues my neighbors and the parents of my children's friends you have heard teacher after teacher asking for a fair contract and why that should be important while I will be retiring under the current contract everyone needs to understand that this situation where staff
019members publicly address the board of education is not normal during good faith negotiations the only public statement is when this elected body announces the final contract agreed upon by all parties at the end of negotiations what you see tonight is evidence of a breakdown in Communications and bad faith negotiations in the last 40 years or so having staff make regular public comments before the board has only happened three times once in the late 80s resulting in a complete work stoppage and twice during this current Administration many on this board and in this room witness the upheaval last time and know what I am talking about I'm asking this board to provide oversight and move forward in good faith before this Discord negatively affects our staff our students and our community as a whole the families
020in my community work hard and we support our kids and we trust that our elected officials ensure that our public institutions run smoothly we should be here tonight to celebrate our students successes instead of having to worry about how a potential labor dispute might affect our children's education thank you for your time uh next we'll go to recognition okay we are here to celebrate both contest drama and group interpiv contest trauma could make their way up this way okay so we want to celebrate uh contest drama directed by Dr Mike Mitchell and assisted by Amanda Baker and Jeremiah Barr this year's show Sylvia was a state qualifier for their acting but later the whole crew won a state championship that's right a state championship for drama technical performance yeah let's go just for a little
021clarification drama technical performance cassette design set management lights and audio and things related to that so great team effort by everyone here this is also the fifth consecutive year at Fenton here that we brought home a state championship in some [Music] for this um this meeting um anyway I think I was saying fifth consecutive state championship of some sort so we're very proud of of our bison Sylvia is a Broadway comedy about a man who adopts a dog during his midlife crisis and all the dog's Antics had caused friction between him and his wife and just to clarify it's not about me I picked because I picked up five dogs in the last several years but I want to make that distinction um but on the acting side Delilah Johnson earned All-State cast honors for
022a second straight year Delilah was Sylvia the dog so Delilah and Dr Mitchell is going to take it from here and I will be really really quick um I just again I just want to say it's really a pleasure to be here to celebrate and recognize our cast and crew it really is a full team effort to get an award like this um and I I do not want to forget to mention Jeremiah Barr and Amanda Baker both of which you cannot be here tonight kind of last minute things um but they are uh the three of us work together with all these kids and it it really is truly a team effort I know I've already said that twice um I'd like to do a big shout out to Ms Ray I know she's
023around here somewhere there she is uh for all yeah good ionies for all of her support uh I mean she she was she was great this year in uh her new role and that kind of thing so thank you so very much for for everything that you do as well as to uh John Aguilar who was playing uh parrot chaperone uh extraordinaire when we uh went down to state so thank you very much John uh for doing that we do have a couple of seniors uh from our tech crew that would like to just kind of say a few things as well as uh introduce the cast and crew so I'm going to give it over to Jessica and to Ariana I don't know if this is okay it does work um my name is
024Jessica Van Loon I am a senior um this is my first year in contest drama since I have planned to go into film and television in college um I'm gonna say a little speech um I remember the first rehearsal I had joined in which we got asked to make something we are excited about with Plato is something like a team bonding skill we do um I specifically may like remember like specifically my Play-Doh like creation was um lights Heart Like A Heart around people such as a team um while there was someone who also made a dog stairs and much more um and I remember us trying to find out like Dr Mitchell's Plato as well that was a great bonding moment as the year progressed so many of these things that we made started
025to come to life and it's something that would be forever looked back on the Sound and Music coming together Delilah playing the role of a dog and slaying it such as Lex also being the husband leader being the all the other rules um before I make it too long um this is one it'd be in my first year it was one that I will definitely look back on because it was such a great honor to work with a cast like this and inspire me to keep going with what I want to do in my career especially big things to our directories because without them and they're like hard work time commitment it would be they're the ones that make it work for us so thank you and on to Ariana her title hi I'm Ariana
026Hurtado I did lights for contest drama um contest drama is something I've been a part of for two years and each year I've grown in different ways I've had I've been given the opportunity through contest drama to make new friends and memories that will last a lifetime I've gone to build a connection with so many different people and strengthen friendships with those I already knew performing at state was such an amazing privilege but it was also a privilege to work with our directors who've devoted so much time and effort to this club and its success I will now announce the cast and crew of our contest drama Sylvia Lita Aguilar Natalia Alvarado Alex Cabello Delilah Johnson Lex mikulski Nina Nair Brandon Pauls Nathaniel Rodriguez Sarah Schaefer Natalie Sisto kaliana Smith parot thatch and Jessica van
027lewen thank you and now we could come forward to take a picture with the board things squeezing guys working on the Community yeah thank you okay next up is group interpretation please come forward yeah come on okay group interp also performed extremely weld sectionals and advanced to the state finals [Applause] Nicole Hendricks and Melissa Feinberg directed A rendition of the popular book Memoirs of an imaginary friend it's a story about an imaginary friend choosing to become real for a split second to save a boy that's been kidnapped while at State these individuals earned All-State cast honors Tara pabico Jocelyn Wade Sara Guerrero and Angel Santiago foreign s well hello everyone thank you so much for taking your time tonight to recognize our efforts towards producing stories and doing it in a way that is creative
028and fully empowers our students to make choices as we direct the show together too I just want to give a moment of thanks to Melissa Feinberg without whom none of this would be possible as well and she is a great alumni of Fenton High School too thank you and to Mrs Wright and everybody in the arc who would allow us to practice over there in the theater space for about three weeks as we organize to put our show together who follows a young boy on the autistic Spectrum Disorder who imagines an imaginary friend who has all of the qualities that he doesn't have in order to navigate this chaotic world that we live in and that's uh budo and he comes into our existence for that reason um so at this time I'm actually going
029to turn it over to two of our seniors who have been involved in group interpreter for multiple years one for four and one for three years and let them share with you a few of their thoughts about the process and their successes we also hosted the upstate 8 conference for group interp as well and that was a first for all of us so that was incredible to see these kids make connections with other casts and Crews from other shows too Tara popico come on up thank you hi my name is Tara papico I've been involved in group interp for three years and I'm humbled to be up here speaking about group interp in my experience I feel honored to have spent so much time working with our wonderful directors and learning so much from them
030they pushed us and believed in us and I can't thank them enough for growing helping us grow as individuals and as a group I'm also thankful for this very hard-working group of individuals Even after spending hours together for weeks we didn't let that pressure cave in on us we continued to push and create a beautiful show where each performance was always stronger than the last I'm really honored to be part of this group and to have this experience that I'll cherish for the rest of my life thank you [Applause] uh hello I am Angel Santiago I am a four-year member of group inter first I'd like to start by saying thank you to the amazing coaches we have um getting to the state level consecutively is not easy at all and um when our coaches
031saw at the beginning of the year that we would have three about three days where every single cast member was able to be there for at least more than two hours of practice because of other extracurriculars that they take a part of um well a lot of directors would have given up on that but our coaches did not and found a way to lose our lead for an hour or lose certain people of a show for another hour because they don't give up and they always face everyone else no matter what and I like to say a thank you to all of our cast members I know some people had to give up certain extra extracurriculars because they weren't allowed to participate or weren't able to balance everything together which gladly they they made the
032sacrifice and they were a true team player and the cast felt truly like a family and I was asked to read everyone's name on the list so thank you to Ariana Acosta Aldo Benitez Alexa Calderon Hamza Chohan Sarah Guerrero Rosa Guzman Santos Arturo Hurtado Jr suhedi Mendoza Garcia Terra pavicle Elijah Rivera myself Jocelyn Wade and especially Nathaniel Rodriguez who the day of our Fenton showcase was able to step in sacrificed a lot that day and went through a whole emotional roller coaster to step in and be helpful to his other family so thank you and thank you for these amazing four years thank you okay the board could come forward again for another photo congratulations again for the Excellence demonstrated next um it's a special moment I think for all of us also sadness just
033wanted to recognize the last four years from the heart here um where sustainability I mean and thank you for showing all of us this last four years as president the token of the board and the administration a couple of things um I have to say that I really enjoy my time working alongside you as a board member and a vice president I respect how open you are to opposing views and then considering them with that in mind as president it has made the board more transparent by making us feel welcome to voice I also want to thank you for your hard work towards a referendum and your countless hours spent with the community to help inform them your work and ideas for the Fenton Foundation will make a difference for our students for years to
034come and I'm so happy that you're going to continue on the board president so that we're not going to lose you and part of our offensive unit and then on a personal note um one of the benefits of volunteering is that you get to meet people that are really cool and interesting that you might not have met otherwise and I guess you're one of those people to me so you'll be missed you thank you okay um okay I believe you get to wait until the end oh yeah there is more people waiting online [Laughter] I just gotta say two words uh great job great opportunities and uh good leadership and I really appreciate what you have done because uh e-openops a new a newer point of view because fentanyl was totally different and uh since
035we are coming together as a board believe me we were strong and I'm not gonna say that I'm feeling that we are losing you because you are part of the community and part of the community I believe you can share your responsibilities with your neighbors students co-workers because it's a big challenge to be here sit in front of everybody and say Yes or not because we are part of the community thank you very much Keith [Applause] I don't know if to thank you or because you encouraged me to speak up to a strategic planning when I was merely a parent filling in for my wife I never knew that I was gonna shine a spotlight on me and here I am today sitting on the board and uh I definitely appreciate that environment of being
036able to speak up regardless of the difference of opinion and at the end we still be good you did a great job in fostering that environment [Applause] okay thank you for being the first person to contact me when I was elected on the board and I had no clue what I was in for but you kind of softened the blow and I appreciate you and you you've done an amazing job as board president and um bringing us together as a team and a board and I'll miss you but not really because like Juliet said it is still a part of the community and also um having um you show me what it means about Dei I had no really no clue I mean and that's the truth so I appreciate uh what you've done and
037keep your phone on because I'll be calling you but thank you so much and uh you've done a great job thank you [Applause] going at the very end after all of these is hard I I have known you not as long as the rest of these folks here but um through their inspiring words I can see the kind of leader that you are you're the leader that we needed here I'm sad to see you go but I'm looking forward to seeing you lead the your next sorry the uh Foundation there we go that's the word I'm looking for and continuing to be a servant leader in the community be missed but thankfully you won't be far thank you for everything sir thank you okay uh I guess the the first thing that comes to mind
038is gratitude and optimism you know leading is never a burden it's a privilege so so please take that as a privilege that you're here um and take your power lightly what I mean by that is when you assume power you Empower others people and you bring voice to people that normally won't have a voice and I would say that in in the principles I I try to follow is the sustainability you know it's not just about climate change it's about relationships you know how do we sustain healthy productive relationships sustainability is more than just the climate and then diversity equity and inclusion is part of that the only way you can have change through that is if you live it and what that means is in my mind is if you um if you see
039differences they're not the enemy it's an opportunity you know when because you look at blind spots and you know you might have blind spots you don't know the other person has those differences might have that answer for you so just keep that in mind inclusions just making sure people feel like they belong all that's just lived through us right now so thank you so much everybody um I value the FEA I value all the stakeholders the community members thank you so much for this privilege I will not be far and the work will go on thank you guys so let's get to more board business yes right okay yep let's go ahead to attend a board business and exchange of power so let's go with James thank you kid uh next up is naming of
040president pro tem board members is there any one of you that would like to sit in as president pro Tem I nominate Juliet I accept okay so it's Juliet Rego acting as Pro Temp go ahead Miss Regal uh we will now adjourn uh seeing seeing die in other words we are closing this part of the meeting call to order I would like to call the April 26 2023 regular reading of the Fenton Community High School District 100 board to order may I have a roll call Rego here paid here Kovac president Lewis here radzinski Figueroa here and I think no we don't have to okay present habit oh we have a quorum acknowledge receipt of certified election results the official campus and Abstract of votes cast at the 2023 Consolidated School Board election held April
0414th 2023 and certified by dubage county clerk Gene casmirik has been received and accepted by Fenton Community High School 100. the final winning results listed in order of highest to lowest votes received to fill our four board positions are Juliette Rego re-elected to a two-year term ending in 2025 1968 votes received Jerry Lewis reelected to a four-year term ending in 2027 1437 votes received Reid Goodrich elected to a four-year term ending in 2027 1346 votes received Leo Figueroa re-elected to a four-year term ending in 2027 1339 votes received next item oath of office all newly elected board members please stand up let's all read the oath of office together a copy has been provided on your desk Escape but we'll do it all together again that's right so where it says name of course you're
042going to insert your name okay so we'll go ahead and do it all together Juliet member of the Board of Education that is just 100 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois assets hearing before the Lord while respecting the privacy of students and employees foreign [Music] School District s [Music] framework [Music] of student achievement in all conditions affecting the education of our children foreign [Music] [Applause] the next item is board board officer nomination election of President would anyone like to nominate a president for the board happy Leo after me okay I would like to nominate uh Kerry like the second denomination would anyone like oh um all in favor of Carrie for the office of President raise their
043hands it is unanimous vote Kerry is now president yes thank you all right anymore before proceeding on I'd just like to say that I'm grateful to be elected to an honored to serve alongside of you as Educators and that I truly value and hold up in great regard to work you do for this community and just as a profession as a whole and I hoped going forward to do nothing but progress that in all of the Endeavor systems we have here going on so thank you next item election of Vice President would anyone like to nominate a vice president for the board Nate Juliet Rago for our vice president of support I would like to second that nomination candidate receiving all in favor of Juliet for the office of president vice president raise their hands
044real estate so there's this is unanimous Juliet is our vice is Vice President of the board [Applause] I'm very excited to continue on as vice president and um I really enjoy this position and I'm I'm really grateful to be able to continue on in this in this in this way think it will be it'll be good the next item election of secretary would anyone like to nominate a secretary for the board all right secretary I'll second all in favor of Leo the secretary for the office for the officer secretary raise your hand it is unanimous Leo congratulations [Applause] thank you guys because this is a it could be a minor responsibility but in the meantime we got to get together as bored and I really appreciate your vote and I believe and I truly believe
045that we can work together to solve any any decision any problem because we are seven we are not one plus our community I believe they're not gonna leave us alone thank you all right next item board committee appointment the first board first committee Bensenville Community Foundation doesn't understand kicked and John Ken and John I'm sorry myself and John yes yes okay um board Finance facilities committee I missed I would like to stay on with that as well as as well as John board policy committee I would like to be on that that's what I so Juliet is Kate Kent yeah Illinois Association of school boards delegate that would be that issue myself North DuPage special education cooperative one position and one alternate Leo I must have died but uh I'm gonna need someone who can
046alternate with me because I'm not always be able to make it great would you be what yeah thank you okay thanks Leo and Reed thank you legislative education network of DuPage County lend one position uh typically that's that's typically me but we should assign a board member um as well as a representative as a representative would anyone like to well if you're that position I think that was you in the past yeah Leo it was me would you like to continue to be in that spot is on Fridays usually in the morning and sometimes I'm not able to make it uh Fridays is a busy day in a work I usually attend and what I do is usually update Leo for that position uh for for the information that's you want I can continue but
047uh it's going to be many days that uh I do not mind I'm usually there okay okay I'll keep you I'll keep you and the board posted last committee diversity equity and inclusion de Ike [Music] two co-chairs I like to remain it was kit so that position is open can I make a recommendation sure I'd like for uh Leo if you would consider it I don't know how many uh I'll go for it you can count on me okay so that's Sylvia Leo thank you discussion action items gilbane debate contract may I have a motion that the Board of Education approved a construction management contract with gabane Building Company as presented so moved second discussion sure earlier this evening we reviewed the construction management agreement uh contract at the financial facility meeting we went through
048the process of uh how we went about choosing and selecting a company to do represent us we've narrowed down to four companies we are recommending gilbane contract building building company for the the agreement to contract to honor that um the uh and they would oversee obviously the water mitigation work in any other future projects that may be happening as well their fees are listed in there as well as their contract and uh it would it is underway now there is a proposal also or a fee for the pre-construction services that they've been working with us for over the past year and that's that's listed as well at a twenty thousand dollar cost and I do want to say when the when the board gave Mr antangle authority to enter into a contract um we're asking
049for basically ratification tonight pending attorney and insurance review by our Insurance Consultant that has been completed we've met with them myself our attorney our Insurance Consultant along with their representatives um so we the contract tonight has been vetted by all those parties we're in agreement with it and we're recommending that the board ratify this contract as presented any question roll call Regal yes Figueroa yes paid yes Kovac yes Goodrich I'm Shane Lewis yes motion passed next item storm water detention system bid they have a motion that the Board of Education approved to bid from Storm trap LLC in the amount of 619 643 dollars for storm water detention system work so moved second yeah storm trap submitted the lowest responsible bid so moved second discussion uh just briefly we again reviewed this earlier this evening
050as well this is for the structure that will be contained the water for the water mitigation project that will be basically buried underground adjacent to the football field and this is kind of the first leg of the stormwater mitigation work that will be completed but we wanted to order this early to get it in um so uh one firm that basically produces these products did bid on it they were the lowest bidder and we're recommending to approve this it is less than the estimate at 619 643 dollars um and gilbain has vetted this contract contractor they've worked with them in the past and they are recommending um to accept this bid as well I'd just like to know that this storm water project is going to do a lot in protecting our current building especially
051with the water things are coming in no with a structure of water is can be very damaging we're planning on doing a lot here and this is a huge part making sure that this is still a viable building broke off Rego yes yes Quebec yes Goodrich abstain Figaroa Yes Lewis yes motion pass our next items field Turf proposal may I have a motion that the Board of Education approved the proposal from field Turf USA Incorporated for the installation of track surfacing and Synthetic Turf in the stadium field and the amount of 1 million 131 thousand and 21 cents so moved second discussion good evening just a recap from several of the conversations we've had this is the track surface and the field The Stadium Field surface materials uh like the previous bid this is sort
052of in our best interest to order this now for lead time purposes so that we have this material in when we need it during the water mitigation project these are surfaces are being replaced primarily because they're being dug up as part of the water mitigation project and so we therefore need to replace these surfaces as part of the project so um this is uh this was through the source well uh Consortium so uh uh they had already prepared this material so there for your review thank you questions any questions can you get a roll call Regal yes go back yes Goodrich I've seen Figueroa yes paid yes Louis yes academic life skills program classroom modifications they have a motion that the Board of Education approved the proposal from Larson Contracting Incorporated the classroom modifications in
053the amount of thirty eight thousand two hundred and ten dollars I'll take this one just real quickly these are two rooms uh rented by netsec North DuPage special ed Cooperative the reason why we're modifying these two rooms is because of student population growth and student population needs um as you all know nedsec uh rents our room every year fifteen thousand dollars per room so a total of thirty thousand moving forward which will help pay for these modifications and can you just tell us how much they rent the room how much they um pay for those rooms yearly it's yearly for moving forward is thirty thousand per year okay okay good so the total cost is what just short of thirty nine thousand dollars yes but you're gonna get thirty thousand dollars a year for it
054correct okay second roll call Regal yes Goodrich yes Figueroa yes Hade yes Kovac Yes Lewis yes and B resolution of appointment to d-a-o-e-s board of directors may I have a motion that the Board of Education approved the resolution to appoint Michelle papanikolo the director of post secondary Pathways and Career Tech education at Fenton's representative for the DuPage area occupational education system has presented so moved second this one is as you guys know Deus really is tcd okay that's where we send our students for automotive fire cosmetology basically basically your CTE classes vocational classes um why Michelle pop and Nicolo because that's in her job description and we would like to recommend that she continue filling in as a board representative for Fenton High School roll call Regal yes Figueroa yes Hade yes Kovac yes Goodrich
055good Shane Lewis yes motion pass F resolution appointing School treasurer may have a motion to the Board of Education approve the resolution appointing School treasurer as presented and that I think that'd be you right yeah that is that's the recommendation um search for so per board policy two colon 110 uh states that the Treasure of the board shall be either a member of the board uh who sir who serves a one-year term or a non-member who serves at the board's pleasure uh it has been the practice of the of the school district to appoint the chief School business officers School treasurer um should the board appoint the school the chief School business officer of Treasurer the attached resolution will need to be acted on and that resolution is the appointing uh of the School treasurer
056and this would be for the 23-24 school year starting July 1st 2023. motion so moved second [Music] Juliet Juliet roll call Regal yes Figueroa yes hate yes Kovac yes Goodrich yes Louis yes motion pass item jeez next item is discussion only the topic is health insurance renewal fiscal year 2024. Bruce yes sir as Mr Lewis pointed out this is just a discussion so no action necessary um but I just want to kind of give you a brief overview of our health insurance renewal for 23-24 school year and that coincides with our fiscal year so this plan year would start July 1st as our fiscal year does as well we're a member of the educational benefit cooperative and the intent is to join school districts together to increase their purchasing power for the advantage of getting
057more competitive pricing the EBC as it's referred to is established in 1984 began with eight school districts and has grown to 122 school districts today and we've been a member since 2009. um each member the one I think this is a key piece in a way it's been popular with school districts who belong to it each member retains the ability to create and change their plans the HMO PPO or dental plan a life plan as they so choose which is often required by the nature of collective bargaining agreement so we have that ability and and we do make that design as necessary within our constraints we do offer three plans three medical plans we have one PPO plan and two HMO plans we also have a dental plan through them as well the dental plan
058of PPO are self-funded the HMO is funded on a Cost Plus basis and life insurance is fully insured there's a banding formula that was created to make it an Equitable means based on your experience what your rates would be so there's two components that go into that I won't get into group detail with that but there's the paid client claim loss ratio and the pool average rate increase in short the PPO medical claim loss ratio we are above the average so we're at 118 percent our loss ratio compared to the pool average of 108.2 percent so what that means is the band the middle of the banding formula is 10.4 percent and that's based on you know that 108.2 percent we're just a percentage above that our average has been as I said tracking about
05910 points higher than the average and the pool average was 10.4 and our PPO rate would be 11.4 percent uh the HMO plans um we're again trending uh by 102 or 110 rather the pool averages 102.3 percent uh that brings us to an eight and a half percent increase compared to the pool average of seven and a half and then the gentle were right in the middle of where the pool fell uh the pool average was 95 we're at 102 so A 2.6 percent increase for dental plans and then the life insurance um is is guaranteed and will been unchanged through 2026. um every year then during this time we communicate this information the rates to our staff of course we do offer and have an open enrollment every May so that'll begin on Monday
060and it'll run through May 19th so staff have the opportunity to change plans add plans you know move from one to another what what have you during this open enrollment time so there's no uh you know trigger that um you know a life event that would have to happen in order to make a change this is the one yearly opportunity they have to make that change and just some numbers to share with you current Insurance participation in the PPO plan we have 90 members HMO plans are 71 and then dental plans uh we have 170 participants and then if we compare this year to last year um again the PPO is increasing 11.4 percent uh the HMO 8.5 and the dental at 2.6 percent last year uh it was a little bit less with the
061PPO at 6.5 the um HMO was slightly more at 9.7 and the dental was 3.7 so uh the two HMO plan and dental plans are down compared to last year and the PPO plan is up um so that is the overall view of the plan happenings for our insurance program for beginning July 1st any questions on that just to reiterate Blues PPO it's up in percentage however HMO to HMO and dental part down compared from last year correct thank you Cruz what is our forecasted total cost increase that we're going to be paying out um assuming folks you know you're small amount that will be changing between HMO and PPO what's our forecast yeah you know I had that answer uh can I give it to you next time it it I had it and
062I don't know why it's not on my sheet here but uh it's it's a I'll have it for you at the next meeting I'm sorry about that but you know it's funny but great question but I'll I'll or Mr untangle will email it to everybody but yeah so there'll be a slight increase how's that yeah I like giving Bruce homework okay yeah this this is this a yearly increase thing it's just a matter how much uh typically what since I've been here we did have one decrease actually um during covert they were very modest increases because a lot of people were uh deferring procedures electric procedures in particular um so the last two years it's ramped up a little bit more because people are actually going to the doctor now having procedures um so that
063that's kind of what where the trend is happening right now um but there have not necessarily but more increases than decreases I would say for sure programs have any sort of uh I know them as be well but do they have any do we have that as a part of our offerings we do and Mr herbilio do you want to expound on that a little bit he's having a good time running that program yeah so uh we resurrected the wellness committee this year coming up for example we did um biometric screening this year that has not been done for for a while because of covid um we're doing various activities so we do have a committee we meet monthly um actually doing like a happy Teacher of the week the last week so just any
064anything we can do to boost morale boost health health awareness we're doing stepper's challenge every every month various activities we're going to continue to try to grow that going into the next Square awesome yeah that we're getting back onto those sorts of things so thank you for for doing that and we do have an insurance committee which Jose and I I guess we kind of co-chair that but there's a representatives from each uh work group that are on that committee as well fantastic thank you we've won uh no questions uh consent agenda do we have any questions and or comments regarding send agenda may have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second roll call Regal yes Hade yes Kovac yes Goodrich abstain Figueroa yes Louis yes District 100 informational items
065thank you Mr Lewis first up as you can see in our agenda is one of my favorite part of the board which is highlights students and learning as you could see next slide please we have made a conscious effort folks to highlight students and their learning here at Fenton as well as their other supports let's go back from the bottom of work work our bottom up here in August teaching and learning was the was the focus for the school year in September we presented to you to graduate class of 2012. where were they going did they go to four-year two-year College trades and Military and so forth in October we presented the state report card November Fenton courses what we are offering here at Fenton December mtss which is multi to multi-tier uh support system
066which is basically intervention folks who are not being as successful as we want whether social emotional or academic in January we provided information about our incoming ninth graders from Woodridge as well as Bensonville in February highlighted College and Career pathway with Michelle papanikula or dual credit or tcd program and career Pathways in March we highlighted Student Activities in special education and tonight we're going to talk about school counseling services in our ell students first up is Dr karanda to talk about school counseling services [Music] good evening here for this opportunity to talk with you about who we are and what we do photographed here as our school counseling team we have eight counselors or six generalists we have a college and career as well as an SEL counselor and I'm glad we get the opportunity
067to talk about this tonight because it gives me a chance to very uh publicly think and highlight our administrative professional staff today is national Administrative Professionals Day and so it's nice to be able to be able to thank the people in our office who work directly with us Kimberly Lund our administrative professional in our office Beth Damascus our registrar Pat Scott also works with a lot of the DLS and helps us out in our office and then Chris bone and assists us with our community service so our thanks on behalf of my team for all the work that they and all of the Administrative Professionals in our district do it's a great day to celebrate them for that and I'm glad we have that opportunity here tonight so talking a little bit about what we
068do as a School counseling department our mission and vision are clear that successful passionate empowered Learners through rigor relevance and relationships and we're Guided by ethical practices and the vision that Fenton students will be resilient and engage self-advocates who contribute to diverse Global Community the work we do as a research based and data driven and we are associated with multiple professional organizations including um the American and Illinois school counselor associations and the Illinois Association for College admission counseling and for that one on the iacac Paul Welsh one of our team members is in Springfield now for their conference he's the president-elect going forward to that Statewide agency or that Statewide Association so we're very proud of that as well and the work that Paul does with them as well for our service delivery as a
069counseling department as as aska described we have some unique things that we do within our our school we have individual student meetings those can include meeting directly with counselors about courses information their their High School experience four-year plans and so on we also have as we do some larger scale group grade level meetings I put four examples up there one for each grade level of what we do we'll go into bison time we'll meet with our student groups and we go through various things so for example staff introduction to the ninth graders career interest Explorations with 10th graders and so on and then building wide we work through course selection with all the students and we build a master schedule around that for the next school year so that all students have schedules coming in
070one new thing we have this year within our department is our College and Career software program called School links that's a new program we're using it will be we have two grade level class groups with it now by next fall all students will be on School links in fact yesterday we were in with our counseling team in the biology classes with our freshmen getting all the freshmen rolled onto School links getting them to start using it and so on and it's a great platform for a variety of things that that freshmen can do with their four-year planning college career interest exploration and then when into you know junior senior year talking through financial aid and being able to get on that platform looking at schools and colleges and so on it's really a very um
071uh a broad program that you know brings a lot of features to us that we've kind of had piecemeal that we're kind of pulling together now so we've been working on that and we'll continue with that into um into the fall also we do a um just to highlight a couple of other things so if we do a senior survey at the end of the year and an end of year report and uh one of the things we do with that we gather a lot of data from the seniors before they leave and then again we we're very data based in what we do so we create an end of your report and so um we're meeting with those students next week in their bison times to get that started last year is the class
072of 22 so just some data points that these are samples only there's there's a lot more to it but for example in the class of 22 82 percent of students indicated they will continue their education after graduation 67 percent of them uh reported that they were first generation college students and the class of 2022 was awarded approximately 1.3 million dollars in scholarships so we we pull a lot of data into that report and we break it down by even Wood Dale Ben's Blackhawk students that we can kind of even see and communicate with our Sunday schools some of the things that we do so you know we do we do a lot of that for database things as we move forward and go throughout the school year some of our other departmental functions um we
073have we do grades and Records school registration advanced placement testing uh where again we're in professional associations and activities and also um you know we work with our students who are registering families coming in through the McKinney vento homeless act students who are you know for example they may be doubled up on their own might be migratory and so on so we work through the act and all of the parameters that we have with that to make sure that their primary goals their education we get them in so that we can make sure that we're providing that with them so again our office we have a very broad range of of things that we do and our counselors are involved with students in all of those items one of the largest pieces we do in
074trauma and Crisis Prevention and response this is also one of the most unknown things because so much of what we do is confidential that a lot of it is not necessarily brought about and discussed we talk about it in the team but if it's confidential we don't even talk between team members because we have laws that guide that as well as the ethics and so on so we protect student confidentiality and all the work we do but a lot of it as listed here are some examples of some of the things we work on so we're part of a Student Services overall group I work a lot with Rich Watts our director of special education he and I work together and then we are a large Student Services Group with social workers counselors the Dean's
075office the health office school psychology and so on so we do form a very large Student Services Group and then safety is our primary responsibility and our primary goal with our students we've got a lot of training on safety we've had a lot of that over the last 12 years here as well and safety is um you know it's a facility safety physical safety but also that has broadened a lot over the last few years into you know online digital things like that where um it has really changed the context of a lot of the work we do um so we we work through a lot of that and then also uh mental health safety is a large part of that as well and so we want to make sure that the students know what
076their resources are that there are trusted adults in the building where they can come if they need help how to reach out to us if they if they do need that and that's a 24 7 thing as well so our team does work anytime we get something we're immediately on it we're calling each other we're intervening and we're stepping in so we do a lot of that kind of work as well it's a huge part of what we do and we collaborate a lot we run student groups with based on student needs um James Mr old mentioned earlier about a multi-tiered system of supports we have tiered systems of interventions and supports we do within our groups and we work a lot with again the social work special ed department and so on to make
077sure we're supporting our students so there's a lot of work that our counselors are doing and our team is doing that we do that one thing I'd like to highlight one of them up there the signs of suicide we do that we coordinate with Kate ward in the social studies Department our student services team will coordinate and go in through What's called the signs of suicide or the SOS programming we go into intro to social classes with our freshmen we communicate we we work together as a group on that this is usually in August September beginning of the school year we communicate directly with parents letters resources explaining exactly what we're doing with their students in those freshman classes we go in and we make sure that everyone knows and the freshmen see who are
078the resources for their needs if they need anything and we like to connect with them directly face to face in smaller groups of about 26 students so it gives us an opportunity with our counselors social workers to go indirectly and do that there's an opt out for that if parents want to opt out of that programming they can certainly we communicate that all well ahead of time and we do a lot of follow-up and then we follow up with students as needed sometimes immediately depending on what the you know the needs are or what is expressed so our team goes in and does and does a lot of that work and we want to make sure that we do that especially with the freshmen really early on in the year as part of our you
079know kind of interact action with them an introduction to them so that they know you know what it is they they can do and need and that we're there to support them if if needed we also have a lot of Outreach engagement and Partnerships the picture you see here this is from our day of service a couple Saturdays ago this is at Fisher Farm we had a lot of students come in and go to various locations they went to Redmond Park and did some things as well community service is a big part of the schools culture I would say as well and we work with our students on that I ran a report today just to see what the current update was I calculated it twice to make sure I was reading it right um
080our current cohort of all four years of students about 1430 of them I calculated the total number of hours currently in the database for community service for all four of those classes and it's roughly about twenty two thousand seven hundred hours that that that four years of students has done in community service so it's really quite remarkable and astonishing number and a credit to the kids for getting out there and doing all of that it is a graduation requirement but we find a lot of students go beyond what they're required to do so it really is profound and it helps out a lot of you know the local organizations that you know really need the help and do do come to us and ask us and a lot of students go and seek that out
081as well so we're very proud of that and that that you know that they do those things especially with that astounding number we also um through our Outreach engagement and Partnerships we do a lot of evening events many of you have been to them incoming 9th grade parent night we do a lot of work with our Center Schools with their eighth graders we were there for course selection we met with their students so that their students can see our team we presented and then we met in and meet with them on their course selections parents can you know come in and meet with us as well on Saturdays and in the evenings to do those course selections we also do FAFSA nights financial aid nights and workshops we do College and Career visits we do
082College and Career Fairs Explorations parent nights and then presentations to parent groups Padres polish Outreach and then with our Center Schools the pictures you see there is something new this year one of our counselors maricelia Villa talked with our team about a resource she had called hope Paws that she brought in so right before final exams you see our two therapy dogs there in our office with Miss London and a couple of our students we brought that in for final exams they met with classes we went into certain classrooms we were in the hallways we were in here in the ark students were coming up petting the dogs and it really changes the dynamic of everything around you when that happens it was very very well received we heard a lot from a lot of
083people why weren't you in my room that kind of thing so it was nice to have that and then they were back today this morning we've had early morning AP study groups because AP testing is starting next week so we came in they came in at the organization was kind of they came in at seven this morning and we met with the students we came into the rooms that they were studying in and they were also able to get into our Zero Hour health class we were able to meet you know student councils having me passed by that room and kind of got to interact with them so it's a really fun way to do something like that and it really does you know as part of what we do in our mission in the
084office of making sure we take the edge off of things and help students through whatever it is that they need including pressure points like exams AP tests and so on it's really one of the one of the things that we're you know we're very proud of and that we you know we started doing that this year it really is a quite remarkable thing see and it's been a pleasure to work with them so far and I look forward to continuing that with them so again we do a lot more I think the than what's explained what would want to give you kind of an overview tonight of some of the things that we do again a lot of it is unknown and confidential a lot of it is right out there in public and we're
085very proud of the work that we do um I've known the Counseling group for 12 years in my various roles here this is the first year directly with them and I've worked with them on teams for those 12 years and so on it really is a privilege to do that a lot of the work that our counselors do is very thorough and very delicate and most people don't know about it I get to see it every day and I do see the impact it has immediately on students and it really is a very humbling thing to see I'm proud to be a part of that team and I'm very grateful to the professionals on it that do this work thanks for the chance to talk with you about it tonight sure we do yeah we
086have um they're uh we have a digital program that we can use for act and sat we have a couple students in it now for the SAT part right I'm sorry I'm looking over Miss Brady because we were coordinating that for testing um so our Edgenuity program that we use for our credit recovery on some outplacements we do have that program offers SAT and ACT prep and is available to all students I don't know that we've directly offered act we've done a lot of sat because that's the one we do but it is something that's within the program and I don't know we've been asked a lot about that but we can we certainly have that available to students yeah we also had sat study groups for your charge for kids with very sessions uh
087this this past year sure all right okay cool that's important work as you know behind the scenes uh folks our students come um are very unique with unique challenges I was just cranking out just real quick here's my math skills he said 22 000 service hours that came out to 916 days of community service that's 2.5 years humongous okay next up we have uh uh Mr uh Lorenzo Rubio to talk about Els English language Learners in our night hi good evening everyone can hear me um thanks for having me I've been looking forward to sharing uh some highlights from our multilingual division with you guys tonight um it's El and World Language it used to be right we've we've decided to frame it as multilingual division here at Fenton um so we can go to
088our our slide here with our first photo oh I have it I'm sorry right so there's our reframing multilingual division um Fenton I think uh our our new vision here in the multilingual division is that multilingual education is essential in building an equitable and accessible School experience for all of our students right every every school district is going to say that they're there for educational Equity but you really have to look at how they service and educate their language Learners to to see if that's the case so we'll start with with saying that the vision moving forward and is that fencing Bensenville and Wooddale were a multilingual Multicultural community and so Fenton should be a leader in educating its multilingual population so we feel like we've been doing that and polish our polish parent group
089will highlight at the end we've got our last meeting coming up this this week as well but that's further evidence of that too not every district has such well-attended uh parent groups right oftentimes it's the case that school districts are looking to involve their multilingual parents and we don't have that issue here in our community uh and so we're we're gonna we are and we're gonna continue to be a a regional and state leader in educating our multilingual students so how are we doing that this year um we we started something new we we held our first ever multilingual student Summit it wasn't just us we did this in collaboration with uh two districts three schools that are uh nearby that share a lot of our population Your Community High School in Elmhurst Addison Trail
090and Willowbrook uh but I want to highlight that Fenton was the leader in this event right it was our teachers uh Mr Herrera and Mr Vargas that were leading all the students there in Icebreaker activities it was our counselors Mr Kano and Mr Welsh that were giving uh sessions on financial aid it was our AIDs that were helping organize it it was our amazing bilingual coordinator Miss Michelle Rodriguez that was organizing the whole thing pretty much and our mcss coordinator and a social worker Maya Weyland and Edith raynaga that gave presentations on relationships uh trauma and uh even a special session for our Ukrainian students which we've seen an uptick in this year so there were in total four schools 120 plus students 12 different languages represented why did we do this it's often the
091case that there's other conferences like this for students but very often it's the case that our language Learners get excluded from them right and it's usually because of a logistical thing you know it's just really hard to present something like this and have it be accessible for students that may not be solid in the English language so our vision here was to create something like this that would be accessible to our students regardless of their language level and it was a big success we had sessions like I said in Spanish mostly but 12 other 11 other languages it was the first time we did it we hope to continue to grow it Bensenville Park District lent us a space and was a great collaborator as well so we we hope to grow this but this
092is just one example of how Fenton is getting out there and being a leader when it comes to educating our multilingual students and the other schools that were there they took note of that right they saw that we took the lead in that here's some more pictures from it the kids got to get together there was a Guatemalan a traditional dance that was that some of the kids performed um it was really cool to see for example some of the our ukrainians did we have a population of about uh 10 Ukrainian students that we've gotten this year there was one from another school right who was in awe that we had nine or ten right and they've already connected and they've exchanged uh phone numbers so that's really cool to see how else are we
093doing it something that was in place um long before uh you know I started here at the sealed by literacy this year we just wrapped up testing we had approximately 50 Fenton seniors give up uh some of their time on testing day a day where they were not required to be here and take this test to see if they qualified for the Sila by literacy we had Spanish we had a number of Polish students or students take it in Polish French German Ukrainian Russian and even Czech our results are coming in but we've got about I know at least 40 students that have earned either the Sela by literacy or the Commendation towards Acela by literacy that's important because increasingly colleges and universities give course credit for the Seal of by literacy it gets uh
094printed on their transcript and uh their diploma and they get to wear a medal at graduation once again highlighting that we're about like we value your multilingualism it isn't just something that you come with and uh but it's really about learning English year no here it's it's valuable how else are we doing it this year we this is another thing that we're launching uh we've actually got one of our students going on the trip with us Dominica is over there she stayed for the whole board meeting I don't think I don't think she knew she was gonna get a shout out here I think she was just interested she might be a future board member who knows uh but we've got 20 students who are going to be spending two weeks in Rockville Germany from
095June 15th to the 30th good multilingual education is Meaningful Multicultural experiences you're an early you're learning a new language that's building a bridge we're going to have we've got a partner School lined up uh they're named leibniz gymnasium they are hard at work right now pairing our students with families in their Community they've had uh meetings in the evenings and I know there was great interest and they're really excited about some of the things that they're going to show our students about their region they're planning on taking us to the Black Forest which is nearby down to Lake Constance we'll fly into Zurich it's exciting throughout this whole process it's been important to me and the team to make this um an experience that's accessible as well so because our students are staying with host
096family peace we've managed to keep the price down uh relatively uh relatively well compared to some other programs right so our students are currently fundraising and that's going well and we've also gotten a very gracious donation from the Bensenville foundation so thank you uh to those that are on on the foundation Miss Sylvia hayde and Juliet Rago thank you so much I the kids are very grateful for that and just to highlight too it's an exchange that means we've got to reciprocate so the great Hospitality that our German hosts are going to show us I hope that we've got some some amazing Bensenville and Wooddale uh hospitality and in store for them too our German students they're excited to come over here too uh they've asked questions about maybe going to a football an American
097football game uh seeing they're going to fly into New York I think for a few days and then come to Chicago um one of them wants to play football uh and so they're going to be in our community walking through our Halls October 28 to November 11th so hopefully an email will go out to me to the the school Community asking if anybody is gracious enough to host one of our our partner schools and we'll I'm sure we'll have lots of ideas for things to show them around our our community um but not aside from just the the the big exchange that's a big event right we had 20 students there was a wait list for that um but we do it every day too in our classrooms uh French German and Spanish classes this
098is just one example our French Classes they've got a French pen pal letter exchange they're actually interacting with students across the globe in France a few of them got Pokemon cards right from France that are all in French um it's a good connection so again good multilingual education equals meaningful Multicultural experiences you don't have to go to Germany to do that we're finding ways to do it here in our classrooms as well and I'll wrap up the school year is winding down but we've got some good things on the horizon as well I mentioned our parent groups are really strong and again another example of our multilingualism and multiculturalism in action uh we're excited about next week our final uh parent group meetings will be held on Thursday so we've got or it's going to
099be a celebration of Polish Heritage we've got a dance group lined up we're going to have a Polish dinner that I'm excited about and then Padres unidos will have their their meeting their last meeting of the year as well right after and of course our cat mess is going to be scheduled for next uh Saturday as well another example of how we celebrate our multiculturalism thank you [Applause] what are you more excited for fourth or May 5th May 4th I mean I I'm excited about everything but May 4th if the tiebreaker is the food right [Laughter] oh no you mean May 6th uh the kermes day uh oh sorry now that the fourth is uh we're doing polish Heritage and then father Sunil is the same night the sixth we're celebrating Cinco de Mayo I
100guess but that's on a Friday I don't think there's anything scheduled that day the kermese is the sixth so we've got the fifth is that sandwich day in between annual cameras will be celebrated on Cinco de Mayo oh that's a tight I'm sorry that that should be Saturday the sixth yeah you can't make uh you I don't think I can pick I don't think I can pick yeah our German students will be there they'll have a our German exchange students will be there they'll have a table um we we're we're expanding the kid mess too we're gonna have a number of uh organizations there with tables um so we're excited about that thank you all right thank you so uh next up is our Equity report via video [Music] hello my name is Mike barago
101and this is your Equity report let's kick off this report with our commemorative observances and holidays foreign women's history month was filled with celebrations International women's day was the highlight of the month in partnership with Bensenville District 2 we hosted a young women's Leadership Summit focused on empowerment 8th grade students from Blackhawk joined us in the auditorium to listen to women leaders about their experiences as professionals a big thank you goes out to Dr Yvette dubiel Dr Katie McCluskey Alan Ward and Miss Leah cortado for providing invaluable insights to our future leaders that were sitting in the audience a huge thank you goes out to the Bensenville rotary for supporting the program and lastly a shout out goes to miss Bray and Mrs Schwarz of Bensenville District 2 for helping make this event happen Ms
102Montano and student members of our brave Club hosted a lunch and learn for staff on April 11th the learning event provided important insights into the experiences of lgbtqia plus Community especially those who are students staff who attended learned about the positive impact of acknowledging pronouns and how it's simple or minor gestures that adults can do to show support for the community and become a more inclusive classroom the National Day of Silence was on April 14th the yearly event is a national student-led demonstration while lgbtqia plus students and allies all around the world and the country Take a Bow of Silence to protest the harmful effects of harassment and discrimination of lgbtq plus people in schools our brave club and allies kicked off the day with a peaceful sit-in staff members and students acknowledge and support
103and supported the event by dressing in Black on April 19th we hosted the first annual fast attack learning through experience is powerful and the fast-a-thon is a way for staff and students to learn about the experiences of students in our school who fast during Ramadan the one day fasting concluded with a celebration of iftar or breaking up the fast where we ate dates and other traditional food big shout out to our students and Miss rajendran for helping with the planning and for the student-driven presentations that help many of us learn more about Ramadan that's a wrap for Equity report until next time have a nice evening thank you Mike next up is our principal Dr Benson to preview our student code of conduct okay so thank you very much so every year we have what
104we call like a code of conduct committee that meets they have several meetings uh throughout the winter and spring and so next board meeting we could go on the next Slide the next board meeting uh I'll present in detail um basically what you will approve I hope because then by by the end of the May board meeting then we need to get ready for that the new handbook that obviously you know the students get in the fall but it takes the whole summer to put together so much like we do press policies for board policies that you review press also comes with a recommended handbook and so we reviewed that thoroughly this year I'd like to thank Jason made on Pedro Castro for their leadership with the committee uh there will be pretty simple adjustments
105to the school handbook uh when you look at it there's a couple Illinois statutes where now we have five mental health days that students can access throughout the school year and also one day for a Civic event that they can attend whatever that Civic event may be so we obviously have to update the handbook for that we also are changing some of our language when it comes to attendance tardies detentions those types of things just simple rudimentary type changes and also we're going to be talking a little bit about restorative practices which we are including in our handbook it's important that we highlight that concepts of restorative circles restorative groups so that kids can learn from one another through through if there is some sort of conflict and then also our in-school Intervention Program we
106used to call it ISS or in-school suspension we've changed that to in-school intervention because we want that time to be valuable where we can push in services for kids and hopefully get some supports if for some reason they're in in school intervention so again next month we'll have the whole list of everything and then ask for your your approval and any questions you said five mental health days and one Civic yeah Civic event day I don't know if that's really well publicized but these are Illinois statutes and so it's sort of one of those things that we should include that in the handbook just from an awareness standpoint they're they're pretty specific on what a Civic engagement what qualifies for that and right exactly yeah yeah it's not like not like a baseball game that
107doesn't count I have to make sure right the Civic well well there's only one so um but uh no there's ways that that we can ask for some verification or something if needed but the mental health dates is something that we have implemented and some students have access that when they've needed it so well you kind of answered it on the Fly there that just a little mandated by the state so there's really not a lot of options at this level exactly and so it's sort of perfunctory what we'll be doing but we'll still go through it anyway and I don't think that there's anything that's you know earth-shattering uh sometimes these committees meet and then there's a topic and it's sort of a Hot Topic and then there's usually a lot of discussion but
108you'll get your opportunity next month I don't anticipate anything out of the ordinary though on the Isis about um I know when I was in school it basically meant that you were thrown into a room to be sit down shut up and do nothing all day I take it is that what we do here or are we doing a bit are we doing something better than that I'm hoping well yeah we're that's exactly right that's why we're calling it more of an intervention and we are working on that uh you know it's one of those things that you know during covid and uh some of those years there was less in school interventions um as as we call them but there's a need for that as as in you know for whatever reason for attendance
109reasons or some sort of classroom Behavior Uh so we're we're looking to review our curriculum in there and make sure that it is valuable time things like are you accessing your uh Google classroom and interact with teachers I think we just even heard earlier that that some teachers will actually go in and and check on their students because when they when they're in there we're not talking about uh when we're talking about next year we're not talking about super large number of students but uh I think it's going to be important that that we utilize that time when when they're they're there so so they're productive candidates yeah exactly yeah and I was also hearing all this great stuff about the the counselors and the counseling that's offered there I didn't know if they were
110engaged in in this program if you guys were going to be looking yeah that when I when I I should clarify when I say push in so a lot of times what happens is you'll pull kids out for some reason but lack of a better term it's sort of a captive audience right so you're there so why not have the different service professionals go in as needed so it makes more sense to do that than than to take them out um so that's what we're looking to expand upon that's right exactly thank you Dr Benson moving on to foia's we received two foyers this month uh one from Smart procurement and one from local Labs it's a summary local lab is a public records company local Labs is constantly collecting public records from federal state
111governments as well as local governments departments and administration of all sizes their clients include the largest media companies in the U this is all from their website they are requesting copies of our mission statements we provided to them and that has been resolved so that's all good next you want a smart procurement smart procurement is a company that works for the government agencies to aggregate purchasing data and make it accessible to the community of agencies for better purchasing power this is also from their website they requested information regarding our purchases orders for this last quarter they do this every quarter so this is normal uh protocol for us so those are the two for us Mr Lewis that's the end of our informational items committee reports Bensenville Community Foundation um so as was stated earlier
112Sylvia and I went to the bensville Community Foundation and one of the many grants that was requested from Fenton was for some money for the kids that are going to to Germany and we had asked for anywhere between five and ten thousand dollars to help offset the costs um and they uh were able to give us 7 500 which was wonderful we were very excited about that um what they're asking in return is for the kids to please send a video when they return that we could put up that they could put up at the um support well I think at the poor building then also on the Village website so that they can kind of show what what they did with that money and and all the fun places that they went and so
113as a sort of thank you so we were very very excited that they were willing to uh give Fenton and the kids that that amount of money to offset those expenses so I would be very excited and it's important that we make sure that we do that because um you know they've given grants and when you don't come back and share with you know what you've done is makes it difficult to come back again and ask so we have to make sure that our students they'll probably love to do that so yes I'm sure and I think it's good for the kids to um to to Dominica agrees she's right there again round of applause for her still being here huh very good for the for the give of of what has been given to
114them by our community so that's good for them also um there is a grant in or not a grant a scholarship that kids here at Fenton uh in the tune of 750 it's the Fred Lewis scholarship so and that is given by the Bensenville Community Foundation I still think there may be time for kids to go ahead and still fill out that scholarship application so I'm sure the counseling department has been helping kids with that if they need to so but you must be a participant in music in order to receive that scholarship very good I see Dr coranda over there writing that scholarship down thank you Dr coranda no did you shout out to Sylvia and and uh Juliet for working with other taxing bodies what folks know just to reiterate the compensation of
115the Bensonville foundations are taxing bodies usually board members and it's just another exemplary way of how we work together with the village Dominique is going to remind Mr Rubio when they're in Germany because we want it in German and in English uh for the thank you in a nice video thanking the vegetable Foundation as well as the taxing bodies as well as the city of of Bensonville I think that would that would do it a nice two three four minute video would be fantastic once again thank you and did you have anything else yeah I'm sorry no no that was fine okay do you agree quick question um was that a grant with any stipulation for need space disbursement or is it just a at you know however we see fit was it was it
116was to offset the cost of which one are you talking no it was just to us at the kids expenses so however it is seen fit to do that awesome thank you nothing to report with the exception that we have a new member of the Dei committee no no next morning maybe next year not next year now next month probably is going to have something all right uh board Finance facilities committee you want me to review that real quick so earlier on at six o'clock we had a finance facilities meetings there were five important agenda items so I'll just go through them real quick the stem Wing projection rendering was uh explained by our architect Str as well as the debt certificate timeline process with Bruce Martin and Rob Grossi what is this all about
117uh the boards gave us the green light pretty much to move forward that's a stem Wing uh project and next month they will take a vote in regards to the death certificate up to 32 million dollars the third item was the guilty contract which was approved this evening your brain contract is the construction manager that will take the lead for us uh uh in regards to the water mitigation and the stem Wing project then there was an update with the water mitigation update there were two uh items there to storm water detention system bid which was approved this evening as well which is basically the big tank that goes underneath our Fields including our Stadium there to uh uh to try to resolve our flooding uh our flooding issue here at Fenton also we purchased
118a field Turf proposal which was discussed at six o'clock and approved at the seven o'clock meeting here uh basically you were having a new uh turf field for soccer and football as well as a new track surface as well now once again this is just not extracurricular okay it's also academic for our PE classes our band just walking around for our students whether they're regular special ed students or ell students and we're opening it up to the community as well and lastly we talked about the academic life skills uh classroom modification these these are for our Ned sex special ed students their population is growing and they need a larger facility thank you James board policy committee nothing to report I asked to be delegate I have nothing to report I didn't forget this time
119just like to say thank you to kit and Juliet for their service to this land real quick nothing to report from last month our next meeting is this Friday at 8am and I will be attending and net Center oh we got a busy month uh April we got our operational board meeting like usually we're talking about insurance we're talking about negotiations and I was part of it so it was hard it has been settled down I cannot say anything until Monday but it's wonderful to be part of that team great next board meeting new business our next board meeting Wednesday May 24th 2023 at 7 pm was a tentative board Finance facilities committee meeting schedule prior to the regular meeting at 6 pm next closed session may I have a motion and a second to
120go into closed session for the purpose of the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint loss 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 local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed it shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with this article 5 Illinois CS 120 2c1 also for the purpose of collective negotiation matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salaries schedules for one or more classes of employees Article
1215 Illinois CS 122 C2 so moved second roll call Regal yes Kovac yes Goodrich yes Figueroa yes paid Yes Lewis yes foreign but back in Open Session I moved to adjourn emotional a second to adjourn you got it already got it yeah second in a second yeah yeah motion pass ES Figueroa yes okay yes abstain okay Lewis yes you really want me to push it no I wanted to say yes motion path good night