Fenton High School Board of Education Meeting March 17, 2021

001i would like to call the march 17 2021 regular meeting of the fenton community high school district 100 regular board meeting to order before we start the meeting i would like to say it is great to see everyone in person and that we can have our first input in person board meeting since the start of the pandemic this board staff and administration is continually committed to the safety of of all students and staff as we continue i'm sorry of all students and staff in the continuation of learning here at fenton high school mary may i have a roll call yes gallery here peyton hello here figueroa here rhaegal here ramirez here ping pong pong here we demon here okay we have a quorum uh if you could all please join me in reciting the pledge

002of allegiance i pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you uh james please read our fenton mission beliefs bison way statement sure mission statement cultivate successful passionate learners through rigor relevance and relationship successful passionate learners thrive when we champion innovation teaching and engaged learning school home collaborate effectively we provide a safe secure and caring environment we infuse social emotional learning into academics and culture diversity empowers our learning community we prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibilities our bison way students and adults at fenton high school create a safe caring and empathetic environment where we believe in each other respect diversity communicate openly grow together and hold each other

003to high expectations to become the leaders and innovators of the future thank you james uh we move on to recognitions james if you could take that sure um so good to see some of the members of our speech team here um and uh uh mrs feinberg here as well we're gonna give it to doc uh mr uh uh kambic uh to facilitate this recognition good evening uh miss hendricks could not make it today but i wanted to sing her phrases she's one of the best um [Music] one of the highlights of my time here is working with the speech team and this is glorious tonight we have some outstanding students who represented fenton with uh extreme honor they went downstate and performed very well and i'm just i can't sing their praises enough this feinberg

004and miss hendricks are an awesome duo and uh the way speech works is there are individual events that you can win and then everyone's performance is tallied up make your team score so for us we got a champion in one of the events and then the same person won in another event it's a double champion and i'm going to pass that off to ms feinberg to explain the rest thank you i hope everyone can hear this through this i echo mr panvik said miss hendricks is uh the best and i wish she could be here tonight uh but i'm happy to stand in her place um before i introduce the students i do want to say um a few words usually speech team were very focused on the words but um i would like to

005uh talk to you guys about some numbers that i think are really important um first it's important to understand what these students had to the journey they had to take in order to qualify for states first they had to place in the top four of our regional and then they had to place in the top three of our sectional which is the most difficult sectional in the state statistically um 28 of the 42 entries from our sectional uh advance to this uh to the state final round so the final round of competition at the state final competition so 28 of the 42 entries to put the quality of our sectional competition into perspective three out of the six sectionals across our state saw fewer of 10 saw fewer than 10 students qualify into those same

006final rounds so basically our sectional qualified three times at least three times what no three times what three other sectionals combined did it's it's really it's so competitive and i can't stress that enough so even getting to state is such an arduous uh such an arduous journey um out of the 167 schools around the state participating in speech and the 67 schools that were represented at the state finals fenton placed seventh as a team tying with two other schools downers grove south and southland college prep dgs has a coaching staff of 10 and southland college prep has a coaching staff of nine the average number of coaches on the coaching staff at the schools placing first through fifth is nine fenton has a coaching staff of two um it's also important to note that ms

007hendricks and i are so proud of the diverse group of student voices represented on our team and by our state qualifiers as 75 percent of our state qualifiers over the last five years have been people of color our students tackle material exploring issues and struggles faced by many underserved and underrepresented communities and ms hendricks and i sincerely believe the world is better for having their messages and voices amplified throughout our community something we always try to impart to our students is that they are part of a legacy competitive speech in illinois has been around since 1941. in those 80 years sentence speech has produced 14 state champions with five of those state champions occurring in the last three years clearly our program has achieved great success in recent years and our students have been able

008to benefit from the lessons imparted by the teams that came before them for this reason i want to take a moment to honor our 2020 state qualifiers students who were unable to be recognized last year because shortly after the speech season wrapped the pandemic began chris lara a sophomore last year i was a state qualifier in poetry reading junior ian ting pelpong and senior jesus amador placed sixth in humorous duet acting jesus amador also placed fourth in original comedy and senior malian ting po pong took first place in original oratory uh something that hasn't been accomplished in that event by a fenton student since 1979. we are so proud of these students and their accomplishments just as we're so proud of this year's state qualifiers this year's group of students were faced with the challenge

009of virtual competition well it was definitely different than in person competition and not always easy these students as well as the rest offend speech team rose to meet the challenge and never back down even when it felt overwhelming or frustrating their success has been hard fought and it's that fight ms hendricks and i admire and revere so much so with that said i'd like to introduce our our state qualifiers uh first we have evelyn perez a state qualifier in special occasion speaking next we have alexander pizzaro a state qualifier in original oratory uh next we have carolina rosas a state qualifier in dramatic interpretation and she also placed six in the state for humorous interpretation and then finally we have our state champion our double state champion carissa lara carissa placed first in informative speaking

010and first in poetry reading she is fenton's first double state champion since 1994. thank you all for letting me letting me address you and giving the time thank you so much congratulations yes thanks so much for that we're very proud of you thank you so much and congratulations very good right we move on to public comments uh mary i'll go by this list yes we have we have speakers this evening yes okay um then we'll have the first oh that's right okay as a reminder public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker with a limit of 30 minutes [Music] so we can have our first speaker joan john hit good evening my name is joan hitt i'm a music student at fenton i can only assume now that you have grown tired of hearing

011from me it has come to my attention that fenton is not offering ap music theory music production or trouble choir next year i had met with members from administration a few weeks ago and they had mentioned that there weren't enough enough students taking these classes but then they had also said that there's no specific number of students set for classes to run but then they had said that their oh my bad after following up with questions they had said that the reason classes cannot run is because it does not fit the budget then in efforts to make this decision seem justified they had said that when classes are taken off for the next year a lot of thought goes into taking classes away they had said that they look at years of data if that

012were the case then i would not be bringing this up last year there were 38 students in trouble choir this past year there is 34 now scheduled for next year we are not running with 10 students but treble choir is not the only class that has been hit with a low number in the past year corral was at 50 students next year is at that is a 19 student difference concert choir is currently at 61. next year it is at 36 that is a 25 student difference trevor's choir difference is 24 students much like the rest of the other cool classes music classes across the country have taken a hit during due to the pandemic kids sign up for these classes to have fun to perform on stage and to sing with their friends but

013now kids are dropping this because they did not sign up to sing at home if math or english classes were an elective they would be hit with the same issue i have sent emails to the majority of you if not all one of you reached out to me and assured me that elected classes will be brought back in future years ap music theory has been denied for students to take for three years now i am fighting for all of these classes because it has shown me that if a class goes away it is less likely to come back not everyone here is speaking but if you support the music program please raise your hand so i'm asking you on behalf of my present self my future self my peers my teachers and the alumni please

014make a change for the better for us we've lost so much during this time do not take three more things away from us if not now then when and if not you then who thank you [Applause] next up we have melissa toe [Applause] good evening president wiedemann and members of the board can everyone hear me okay great my name is melissa toe and i am a school counselor here at fenton and the chairperson of the fed and education association's equity committee the members of the committee would like to communicate the followings to the board we look forward to working with the board's sdei committee and thank mr tinkel pong for bringing it forward in response to mr wiedemann's words after the public comments at the february board meeting the community and fans specifically seems to

015be looking for action engagement and change on behalf of the board rather than continued professions that equity has always been a priority of the district we support this and respectfully ask that the board engage with the community on this issue and strive to pronounce group names correctly as well such as lgbtq in response to mr batson's technology equity initiatives presentation at the february board meeting we believe equity and technology is more than partnering with outside initiatives or programs using government grant money already earmarked for technology usage or passing along laptops donated by outside groups we respectfully ask the board to seek direct input from teachers students and families about their technology needs in response to mr martin's financial equity initiatives presentation at the january board meeting we believe financial equity is more than just supporting

016charity organizations partnering with outside programs or using money already earmarked from the government for initiatives like chromebooks this committee has shared with the fenton administration an extensive presentation related to socio-economic equity issues at fenton that fea members have observed we respectfully ask that the board review this presentation as our administration and exec board collaborate on these topics in response to the board's lack of engagement on current events as they relate to equity we are disappointed to hear the silence of the board and condemning the racial undertones of the capital riot and their silence and supporting black lives matter in our community in response to the board's lack of acknowledgement of black history month we are disappointed to hear the silence of the board and honoring black history month we request that the board view the

017staff video titled quotes from black americans that change the lives of fen staff members and promote black history in sentence curriculum year long we are very concerned about an apparent lack of equity in the demographics of students returning to hybrid instruction in direct opposition to the cdc's school reopening guidance health equity considerations after studying the demographic statistics shared by the school with the fda we have come to the conclusion that students of color students who qualify for pre-reduced lunch and female students are under-represented in hybrid learning however iep and lep students are not underrepresented we understand that in addition to an email survey iep and lep families were reached out to individually is this why they are not underrepresented we have the following questions that we respectfully ask the board to look into as the

018school re-surveys families this week what is the plan to address these inequities what is the plan to reach out to families whose students are struggling academically or socially and emotionally to prioritize their return to hybrid learning what percentage of families did not reply to the initial online survey last semester and we're therefore defaulted to remote what is the demographic makeup of these families our emails and all call our text notifications requesting responses to the survey equitable for all of our families what else can be done to reach families who do not reply to the online survey may i finish about 20 more seconds sure go ahead thank you finally we are very disappointed in the lack of diversity in the principal candidates and the decision to only open the position to internal candidates if the

019board is truly invested in equity and inclusion it should seek to follow dr dubia's recommendation in the district equity audit report to increase diversity among teachers and administrators with a focus on people of color thank you john razinski i want to start off by saying good evening to the board members and the staff and all the parents and students in attendance thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak i want to acknowledge the hard work of the board members i understand what it's like to be a volunteer and to be an elected official and i know it's not easy unfortunately you're where the buck stops it seems like uh yesterday two years ago i was standing before the board or the board at that time basically about to say the same things again preemption

020present perception is reality the preception to the public to the parents and to a lot of people is that things are moving very fast and that people aren't being listened to i've watched the board meetings for the last four months and saw very minimal action very light agendas and extended executive sessions i'm happy to see no executive session tonight i know it's necessary and i know how it operates from my previous slice i also have to say the same thing i said two years ago why is there a rush for movement 30 days away from an election where four members of this board are going to change i congratulate the principal on his movement i wish him well but again after that go an earlier statement what is the rush the public heard about this

021change just over a month ago no outside candidates were reviewed this is a major decision this is major for the school the students the board for everyone what is the rush we have the year to finish out in the summer if the person that is being selected is the most qualified cancer candidate and he very well meet maybe then he can stand on his merits what's to say the next people aren't going to say the same thing there could be up to four new board members they are being saddled with decisions tonight with multiple contracts that they're going to be stuck with i said this two years ago it made no difference that is what's prompted me to take action personally and put my money where my mouth is and try and run i don't

022know if i'll do any better i may do worse but i'm going to give it a try i'm telling you people in the public are not happy with the lack of transparency and communication back to the parents the taxpayers and the students i'll cut it short at that i'm not going to beat a dead horse but i couldn't sit quietly and not say anything you all have a good evening good luck with everything thank you uh next is stephanie sobuziak hello good evening thank you for having me i am here for tony um i am alumni graduated in 2000 i was part of band part of choir swing choir musicals plays um cheerleading a whole plethora of other things um the biggest thing that i can tell you tonight is that if it weren't for

023trouble player alone i would not have been able to be a part of the choir program my freshman or sophomore year because i was involved in band as well i understand the need for cuts i understand the need for students to join but as joni did point out there is no limit on how many are supposed to be in it at this time and also we've been in a pandemic for a year these kids they take choir like she said to be a part of a group to be with their friends to enjoy what high school has to offer for them um if we sit here and we take these away from them what are they going to have are we going to take away football are we going to take away basketball are we

024going to take away track what's next every kid excels in a different way every kid goes to college for different reasons um some want to be music teachers if you take away this ap music therapy if you take away trouble choir you're taking away these kids opportunity to grow in what they love high school is when you have that opportunity um so again i say please reconsider this these programs are needed again i go back to if it weren't for trouble choir i would have had to choose band or choir i wouldn't have been able to do both um so please give these kids these opportunities don't cut these programs um because as joni also said once you take it away it's super hard to get it back in these rooms we've seen it over

025the years as many programs have left and they don't come back um so give these kids these opportunity next year when they're in a real school year again praise the lord and let them have it not to mention i do still live in wooddale my children will attend fenton and i don't want them to lose this opportunity to have these music programs that were so great as i studied under mr lewis and mrs casey and i love them um and miss them dearly um and please just reconsider this give these kids this opportunity there's so many here right now there's other in swing choir practice right now despite the pandemic with their masks off working their butts off for this program for the school for what they love thank you very much thank you next

026is kelly mullins good evening president wiedemann and members of the board i am kelly mullins i'm a social studies teacher here at fenton high school i'm also a member of the district equity leadership team and i'm also on the equal opportunity schools committee first i'd like to thank the district and the board for the meaningful banner in our front entrance the banner which reads hate has no place here and only unity and inclusion is wonderful i'm proud to teach in a school that prioritizes inclusion this seemingly small gesture had an immediate impact on me as a gay teacher and i know that as more students see it they will feel welcome i like the message that this sends to people visiting fenton about fenton's values and about how we celebrate diversity here at fenton however

027i believe the recent principal search process does not follow these values of diversity and inclusion several years ago i was involved in the interviewing of a new social studies teacher i volunteered to sit in on summer interviews and ask candidates questions along with the department chair at the time she shared that there were over 200 applicants for the position i recall interviewing four people that day both internal and external candidates the interviews took the entire day although we did not do it with this higher it is also not unusual for interviewing candidates to be observed teaching lessons in their own classrooms or to be invited in defendant to teach lessons and be observed teaching our students the process was thorough and the benefits are that we have an incredible team of social studies teachers here

028about three years ago i was involved in the interviewing of a new division leader i volunteered to sit in on summer interviewing and to ask candidate quest candidates questions along with other members of the division several other division leaders and our principal i recall interviewing five people that day both internal and external candidates the process was thorough and the benefits are that we hired an excellent division leader most recently i was asked to be involved in the interviewing of a new principal i did not volunteer because i believed that that process would be above board and thorough i have since learned that we interviewed fewer candidates for our principal position than we did for the social studies teaching position we also interviewed fewer candidates for our principal position than we did for the division leader

029position and we also did not seek any external candidates this despite our district's vocal commitment to equity and the recommendation of dr dubial in her ecwid oddity excuse me equity audit report to increase diversity among teachers and administrators with a focus on people of color it's an injustice to our students and community to deny them a thorough and wide-reaching recruitment and interview process focused on equity in this case how can we say we did that thank you for your time right next is hannah caesar [Applause] hello my name is hannah caesar i am a music education major at elmhurst university and i am part of fenton's graduating class of 2020. um i would like to address the music classes that are going to no longer be offered to students next year i've taken every single

030music class that fenton has to offer and i knew from the very beginning that i want to pursue music for the rest of my life so treble choir was a class where i knew i was able to go and truly be who i am with no judgment the experiences i gained in trouble choir were different than the experiences i gained from any other choir throughout high school i noticed treble choir to be a safe space where students who were new to choir will be welcomed with open arms without having the pressure of being in a super large ensemble like corral or concert choir trouble choir is a choir where students with troubled voices could really advance their skills before they moved on to concert choir when i signed up for music production i thought i

031was just signing up for a fun class to take my senior year where i could apply what i already know musically to a new genre of music music production introduced me to the music software that i had to use in college due to coven making my classes online while i was in music production i noticed the majority of the students in my class were not in band or choir or any other music class and it was their first music class that they have taken at fenton which introduced them to the music community while i took ap music theory my junior year ap music theory helped me make my music understanding like raise up a level and that year i made ilmea district choir and ilmea allstate orchestra for bassoon while in ap music theory i

032would help tutor my classmates who needed extra help and now that i'm in college this class has helped me place into our advanced theory class where i also tutor other students in my advanced class and students who did not place into the advanced theory class ap music theory has made my college level music theory class feel super easy and while i have not addressed some of the like we have not addressed some of the topics that i learned in ap music theory yet in my college level course um so i reached out to some of my professors and they gave me some statistics on music classes for schools in the area so in the chicagoland area music students have received around 9.5 million dollars in scholarships with of those students receiving 50 000 or greater

033in scholarship rewards going to college of the three high schools that they served surveyed students continued to college in 62 different majors ranging from biomedical engineering education nursing and business students from these schools music programs represent over 100 different universities and colleges including seven different big ten schools many studies have been conducted to prove that music helps students do better in school in all subject areas removing these classes will limit can i read the conclusion dude like it's just like sure go ahead all together these classes have shaped me into the person that i am today i always knew i wanted to major in something involving music and without these classes i feel i would really be struggling in my college level classes these music classes have taught me important skills that i didn't have

034the privilege of learning in my other classes i was able to hold leadership positions tutor and develop an understanding of how to work as a team which all of these skills that i'm currently using in college and will eventually use as an adult in the workplace thank you xavier pete good evening my name is xavier pete i am a proud graduate of the class of 2015. today you all vote on the contract of a new principal someone that is to lead the students teachers and administrators in this building i believe that this decision and process of finding a new principle was rushed and done with partiality there was no ex there was no external search for a perfect candidate to fill this position there were only three candidates and one was told not even to

035interview which further makes me think that this decision may have been predetermined which would infer partiality towards certain applicants not to mention that there was a new not to mention that there is a new board that will be elected into service april 6. why would this board vote and leave a school in community with someone they will not oversee why not leave this decision up to the new board i urge the board to table this decision until the new board is in place and they can make an impartial decision lastly i am also an alumni of the finn choir program an amazing program i may add and i'm prepared to know that two now knowing three choral classes are being cancelled and i find that astonishing because most of the people on this current board

036have students and children that went through choir and banned here the staff member that leads this program has put their heart into this program and they deserve more support from this administration especially seeing as the reasons behind the cancellation of these classes aren't valid there wasn't enough kids but when asked how many kids needed there isn't a minimum the irony in all of this is that this administration canceled an all-girls chorus in the middle of women's history month the school deserves better the children deserve better thank you for your time next up is talia anguiano [Music] hello my name is talia angano i use she her pronouns and i am a 2013 fenton alumna and also highly concerned with the cuts that have been made to our district's fine arts program it is no secret

037to many in this room that i was an avid choir kid throughout my time here i did choir i was in musical swing choir i literally everything that had choir after its name that was just there and the music program and its leadership were absolutely pivotal in my development as a student and choir was a place that i felt safe being vulnerable i felt seen i was challenged and holistically celebrated and i know this rings true for many in our audience this evening i think we can all agree that our students have been through a lot over the past year and to take away something that is so treasured due to low enrollment is incredibly disheartening low enrollment throughout a pandemic and remote learning is to be expected and i would hope that district administration

038would give their employees a bit more grace guidance and support throughout this difficult and unprecedented time i call on you all as board members to think about what major cuts to a music program says to our students and parent supporters who believe in the magic that comes with music while i was a student here our school school principal at the time was an avid supporter of the choral program he was truly at every single concert production in class final performance that you can think of as a principal should be with that in mind as you all navigate through this new principal appointment i encourage you all to think about how equitable and transparent this process really was was the process ever extended outside of the district for more diverse candidates and perspectives and as we

039realized this evening it was not and was there ever an extensive vetting process set in place our students absolutely deserve a principal appointment that will show up to concerts sporting events and remember their names my principal remembered every single student's name that walked through these halls and that is not an exaggeration he also pronounced students names correctly might i add my name is pronounced taliangano by the way i just wanted to throw that out there considering the speedy timeline this process and my perspective from my perspective has not been given the gravity that it needs to spend time to search for an expansive diverse pool of talent the start of the school year is a ways away and there is absolutely time for an intentional and community engaged search i hope you all are truly

040listening to the concerns of our community members and especially our students this evening and the call for open communication and transparency in the administration's recent decisions budget cuts and processes there is no need for a reuse statement from board leadership to at the end of public comments this evening to thank us for our time i think at this point in time where we're all feeling right now is folks here listening and from wherever they're at right now deserve answers to questions that come directly from our district's leadership thank you next up is sylvia hyde good evening everyone my name is sylvia haid and i'm here in support of the fenton music department i have had six children graduate from fenton high school i have my last one who's graduating in 2024. one of my children

041benefited greatly not from the music department but from extracurricular activities here at benton he lived in a very dark place during his time at fenton suffered from deep depression the basketball team was what he was a part of the extra curricular activity and it assisted him with dealing with those dark places and i ask that you really consider keeping the music department intact fully no none of the classes canceled my son survived depression while he was here now i'm not saying that not having that activity in his life caused him but he lost the battle with depression and took his own life not three short years after he graduated from fenton high school so i ask you to please consider that when you consider taking away these extracurricular activities for the students they are these

042are things that you're passionate about these are things that assist them with dealing with depression and they're going to come back here a lot of the students who did not have any problems with depression they're going to come back here after all of this with some issues and i ask that you please consider that if nothing else that's all that i have to say tonight but i just want you to understand how the importance of the therapy that music it's a benefit to those children so i ask you to please consider not cutting those classes thank you [Applause] thank you um i would like to thank joan hitt melissa toe john rozinski stephanie so sobuziak kelly mullins hannah caesar xavier pete talia angriano and sylvia hade for your comments we appreciate you taking the time

043for the benefit of fenton high school i'd like to once again reiterate and make clear that each and every board member here is unequivocally committed to and has always embraced inclusion diversity equity for lgbtq plus students students of color undocumented students low-income students and students with disabilities this board and district's commitment to students from traditionally marginalized groups is impressive in breadth and depth i would also like to address uh the music department the music department is not being shut down rest assured the arts are and will always be supported at fenton high school this is a very important facet for fenton high school again i would like to thank everyone who uh spoke and who came uh and and said their comments here we truly appreciate it next we move on to district 100 informational

044items james sure next up is defend equity report uh so far we have reported how we have incorporated equity in our professional development such as anti-racism and anti-bias professional development uh how we live equity with our student clubs curriculum our dean's department of restorative justice equity through finance and pers uh perspective and equity and technology with dr batson last month with technology this evening we have a special guest dr dubio uh dr dubiel is online jim confirmed that uh with us this evening we are happy with her work with our staff with dealt with the board members regarding equity diversity and inclusion this evening she will provide the board an update regarding dei which stands for diversity equity and inclusion training and dealt the district equity leadership team after that she can answer any of

045the board's questions that they might have take it away dr dubial we cannot hear you oh now we can't hear you yes a little louder please okay can you hear me yeah can we turn it up jim hello check check perfect okay echo good evening everyone thank you for having me my name is yvette dubial and my pronouns are she her and aya and i am excited to share with you excuse me an interval update regarding the systemic equity work that fenson high school district 100 has engaged in please note this is an interval update it's not a usual update usually it is actually suggested that we present at the end but per request i'm happy to provide an interval update before diving in it's critically instrumental that we have an understanding that when it

046comes to systemic equity there is no final destination this is a process and organizations essentially the goal is to have critical transformative shifts it takes time but it never ends the work is complex pervasive and power based authentic equity does not occur overnight it would be a very harmful misnomer that it does at the same time in no way does that suggest we don't have urgent shifts to make so what will uh what i'm about to share with you is where fenton high school district 100 is currently in their process for transformative shifts we can go to the next slide okay so equity action planning first let me applaud district fenton 100 often times districts would be very interested in an equity audit and then as you can imagine sometimes it ends there and districts

047sometimes invest time and money energy and resources to conduct the audit but there's not always a consistent follow through fenton 100 has not done that they have ensured not only that they have read the audit i know that they're in a process i'm still adopting many of the recommendations but they're now very interested in the equity action planning and the equity action planning is a very intense comprehensive laborious process so i'm going to share that process with you and they're deep in it right now as a reminder to the work that has been accomplished during school year 2019-20 there's a district-wide equity audit that report was presented to you in the fall um delts had and i apologize in case folks don't recall delt stands for district equity leadership team so that's a team composed

048of a district staff personnel and so they reviewed the findings we had an opportunity to answer questions and then board also reviewed those findings and then in spring 2021 we reconvene dealt now what the work is is the action planning when it comes to an equity action plan i'm going to now refer it as an eap we love our acronyms and education when it comes to the eap what's going to happen is the eap that's being created for spring 2021 is what the district is working to roll out for 2122 and then they do it again spring of 2022 and then spring of 2023 it does not go away this is how we can ensure equity stays at the forefront we are critical and we are authentic in its practices and its pedagogy and its

049resources and its other actions so we keep it at the forefront we ensure that our equity action plan is measurable that it is aligned with the work that we currently have in place then we can ensure accountability and they're very transparent in the process that equity action plan is not one plan we can turn the slide sorry but five plans the research is clear there's not one thing you can do to advance equity so we have a framework we have an accountability framework the accountability framework is called the five strands of systemic equity so we need measurable actionable systemic plans regarding systems some of those plans regarding systems will have to do with policies procedures hr practices dress code finances the second strand is teaching and learning curriculum assessments instructional programs academic programs culturally responsive

050practices student voice climate culture the strand that strand would have such actions anything to do with student voice extracurricular activity discipline and behavior seo trauma-informed practices and the climate and culture among faculty fourth strand is professional learning there is no end to professional learning in the continuum of equity it is truly a continuum it becomes much more complex in the transformative social justice expectation than we have as a society to disrupt the socialization that we all receive and then the fifth and final strand is family and community as agency we cannot do this work alone we must have partnerships with our parents guardians caretakers community members to advance equity in looking at the five strands of systemic equity couple of things to acknowledge and point out each strand is equally important they are numbered for

051ease of reference it's not because they are in order of importance at minimum in creating an equity action plan the district must ensure one goal that is measurable accountable transparent there are uh it's research based in each of the strands so in other words you receive five eaps one eap under each strand now under each strand you can have multiple objectives a reminder that what the delt is doing right now is creating an eap for 2122 and oftentimes what happens in the brainstorming and they get some suggestions of what that could look like some research some data considerations that are quantitative and qualitative it is really critical to have a mixed method approach in identifying some of those goals of what we want to carry out in 2122 there's also oftentimes uh a very um

052excited uh perception of wanting to do a lot and i couldn't share that excitement more but oftentimes we know that there are barriers that are in the way to do everything lack of time money is often going to be associated with some of these transformative shifts lack of personnel what is important for the adult to know the board to know the district to know the community to know this is not going away so the goals that get established in the strands could be inherited from year to year and what's important even though 2122 may not be anywhere where we want we should see progress in 25 26 30 31 and uh it does not go away and we can we should be able to see the trend if we are true and authentic to the

053process of the eap making sure that we're progress monitoring and making sure that we're accountable and transparent to the work so our team we can go to the next slide where we are at currently um so far the team has had their first draft of the eap where they're identifying their goals and now they're in that process of how do we measure it what is the progress monitoring going to look like we've only met i believe two or three times our next steps again for spring semester um they go through a couple of drafts that's expected that's part of the process and one of those uh really important pieces they're all important but one of the critical pieces is an adult as mentioned before is comprised of staff members and the reason that is critical

054and that is important and that is a very strong recommendation are for two reasons one dell is gonna have to have access to confidential student records so there's laws behind that and two because of the requirement of how much time is required to get a lot of this work done well we can require staff to make sure they carry out the objectives as opposed to volunteers that being said there is opportunities and there will be that's part of the eap to have advisories at the community level and at the student level this cannot be where staff owns the equity process this very much is grounded on equity work it would perpetuate inequities if we didn't have student voice if we didn't have community voice so part of the process um in the two strands of

055student voice climate culture and family and community as agency they are working to establish what would that look like that equity advisory and what could that how can that look like what could that process be and then provide an opportunity for people to join and continue to do that continue to have that mutual conversation that bridge and that partnership in the work that we're doing regarding equity for the district um so that's where we are at currently um the goal is to complete the eap at the end of the spring semester and then the team will be presenting to the board um what was finalized what are the objectives for 21-22 and then the goal is in 21 spring of 21 22 right 20 yes 2022 they share what has been accomplished what may be

056carrying over because it's a long term and perhaps what are some new objectives and the idea is to present twice a year to be transparent in that process and to be critical you're not going to perfect it it's much more dangerous to say we're going to perfect the equity you cannot perfect equity because of the transformation with social justice and so when people are challenged when districts are challenged to do better i welcome it it has to be that's part of the process is we have to do better we have to be vulnerable we have to be consistent in this work so know that this is the expectation is twice a year to present to the board on where they are at one of the other things just to share before turn it over to

057any questions is um the district has also expressed interest in professional learning for all staff so i do host several different professional development options from the public sector to um educational entities and so the district is partaking in a series called equity anti-bias anti-racism and it's all staff so what we have conducted so far yep so these are some of the topics and let's be clear in no way even though it's a a six hour series in no way is that enough i teach at the university and there's still not enough right this the work never ends but what is important is that we're going to walk away the idea is that we're going to walk away with some common language we're going to walk away with the criticalness of this that the continuum continues

058after me it needs to and i know it started before me and that's fantastic this work this development is constantly evolving we're talking about human humans humanity brain the brain function the biases that we all have cognitive dissonance our behaviors our relationship with each other this work never zen and frankly because we are in the humanities field first before education we are expected authentic equity transformative equity is expected that we continue uh developing our capacity in this work so for the a few hours that i was able to have with the staff some of the topics that we've covered is what you see on the slides i i'm not going to read them to you you can certainly review them to themselves but quite a bit of content i think in a short amount of

059time and there's never enough time everybody wants to be in front of teachers and and it's a limited amount of time but i i appreciate the time i have been in front of them and if we go on the next slide so there's two sessions left and those two sessions alone and i i noticed that there's two bubbles that i repeat i apologize for that inclusive language um and the uh the next two sessions left will encompass these topics and again i won't read these to you but you can review those or you could ask questions if you like about that okay and then the last slide is any questions dr dubial is the um the uh class that we're taking that the board is taking on saturdays is it the same that the um

060the staff administration is getting in the school it's very similar it's not identical it's been eye-opening yes thank you dr dubia we talked about transformative equity and how uh humanity transformed what does that exactly mean in layman's term yeah transformative equity well we can think of it transforming a lot of research would say we have to deconstruct or abolish a lot of what we're doing in school and because we're not going to hit unfortunately there is no reset button where we can really start from zero but we can be transformative and that transformative means everything needs to be evaluated and analyzed with an equity lens from everything from from our resources our allocations to academia our board policies our strategic planning our wrap around service every staff member should have the foundational pieces regarding equity

061and then have an opportunity to self-select regarding the equity continuum when it comes to learning because people are very different places some people are very nervous some folks are well versed and uh veterans in this work this is transformative this is changing the culture and climates of an entire organization where equity becomes second nature where we're desegregating data on a continual daily basis we are very familiar with our data and not just the hard numbers but the qualitative we're being purposeful because we know data is great but also data tells a very limited story there are situations of inequities occurring in our classrooms in our school and our hard way all the time that is not documented anywhere so we are ensuring that we are very purposeful in gathering that on a regular basis that

062requires transformative shift that requires transformation among people first changing minds changing hearts understanding that this is in no way some type of political indoctrination which is probably not a surprise oftentimes a misnomer for this work and it's not this is about leveraging historically marginalized identities and the intersectionality of those identities and how they have never been centered and so that transformation takes time because we have inherited an education system that has been designed in many ways to be inequitable and it's not exclusive to education many public sector organizations like healthcare housing employment criminal justice systems and education have not been designed centering historically marginalized identities and we've inherited these systems and structures and as a result we have to be transformative in that work [Music] any other question by the board in fact you know

063i'm a fan of yours we love what you thought you teach me something every day every time i listen to you and we appreciate that and the district is moving in that direction so the interval communication here so we'll see you again in june is that our plan there is that the date or is it july oh oh for the board presentation i thought it was may may okay we'll have mary timmons still take a look at that there's no more question thank you dr dubio we appreciate everything thank you so much next slide okay uh just real quick uh let's see last sunday fenton quarterback fenton quarterback another vaccination event in the village of bensonville uh we had um here at fenton obviously we village of bensonville park district library district 2 saint alexis

064and idph which is the illinois department of public health we're all working together to get about 1500 individuals vaccinated the target of these events were to vaccinate our hardest to reach community members in bensonville that's our brown folks uh those are folks who are who are stuck at home because we know there's a disparity in the float in regards to who's getting the vaccine and who's not getting the vaccine so there was a special effort by illinois department of public health reaching to schools like fenton saying hey look how can we get more of the hard to reach folks vaccinated we delivered 600 individuals from bensonville were vaccinated with their first dose in the morning of last sunday they are scheduled to receive their second dose on sunday april 11th fenton will continue to quarterback

065this event he said wait made that distinction because later on in the afternoon illinois department of public health same sunday quarterback and fenton defendant team with the running back and fullback at that time together we vaccinated 900 more individuals that needed their second dose these individual individuals were not residents of bensonville but were also part of that hard to reach population in total at the end of the day 1500 people were vaccinated so that was a big event really great feedback from our community uh here in bensonville and i want to thank again the village of bensonville the park district library the library uh district 2 saint alexis and illinois department of public health uh that uh mr kambic has created a video in regards to our vaccination efforts just wanted to say to uh

066the board and you guys know this so far we have vaccinated we have provided 8 200 vaccinations here at fenton probably the largest in any high school in illinois as you folks know we were the first to vaccinate our staff as well as our feeder school we were also with the first high school to incorporate our our our our communities both in bensonville and wooddale to get their shots out so we're going in our third event our next project is we would like to be the first which doesn't mean you know it's a competition but it's the competition that we need to have is to vaccinate our kids when that is available do you think that there'll be another um another uh round of vaccinations given our our school will be a site for another

067round absolutely we have become basically the vaccination site the one i'm really targeting and reached out to joel oscar and some of the other uh vaccine providers we would love to vaccinate all 1500 of our kids if they if they choose to that would be the next big one now if i d ph or or uh jewel oscar reach out hey look we got two thousand three thousand vaccines for one seed uh which is the next group to be vaccinated of course our are and i'll show that in a minute there is a need for that in our villages good question thank you let's show the video [Music] thank you [Music] so [Music] button [Music] first mr kambic mr kambic thank you for doing that that was fantastic it was truly a um this these

068three events were really uh incredible event uh it goes without saying it's saving lives uh reducing the suffering uh in regards to this pandemic and we're just really happy to be part of it so if you would like to volunteer april 11th help us out give us a call all right next slide now we go to covet metrics right right after that beautiful presentation we talk about the virus all right uh juliet i think this is one of your question here how much is the demand still in dupage these numbers are in due pace so the population in dupage is about a million folks right only 12 about 13 percent have been fully vaccinated okay fully vaccinated uh basically 13 or 1 100 so we still got a while ago um uh i think there's

069some good news coming out there uh there was a metrics that you know hopefully by the summer uh everyone will be vaccinated we'll see the key is we have to do our part right the key is to be open and do our part now once again we're telling the public i know this televised vaccine is just one mitigation we need to continue to wear our mask especially when the kids come back we need to continue to wash our hands we need to continue to disinfect we still need to continue to social distance and so forth so those mitigation still continues and will continue until we're over this pandemic uh real quick just another great uh uh set of data for bensonville and and wooddale uh and particularly bensonville do you guys remember last couple nine

070months two months about six months ago seven months ago in november december we were ranked number two or three in dupage as one of the highest cases bensonville right we are now 15 okay because we're taking those mitigations the vaccination process which is great we're basically here we used to be up there right i don't paid attention when i was presenting or putting a report but that's pretty good okay that's pretty good we still got a way to go uh the goal is to uh continue to decrease that number we know our our families are helpful with these uh uh efforts that we are doing this is the the metrics we continue to watch because it's important we're still in substantial okay uh but as you can see here there's a lab and minimal we

071are going in the direction there was an uptick a little bit so continue to wear those masks and wash our hands uh last year was a 3.2 percent it's back to 4.6 we need that to continue going down continue going on and i think vaccination will help [Music] let's see next slide yep there is thank you now in regards to policies henry illinois department of public health bisbee the illinois school board of education march 9th they released another public health guidance for schools okay then two days later they revise it some more so uh if you remember this continues to be a moving target in regards to their guidance and that's understandable because this is a pandemic we do not we cannot predict the virus and how it reacts uh when it involves people but

072the five points here that i'm going to get over it still stays the same okay it's the 3w stays the same wear a mask watch your distance or social distance wash your hands okay in a nutshell we're gonna click and do things to keep yourself healthy and take your vitamins and get exercise and get rest and yeah yes absolutely vitamin d and vitamin c and yes there are things that can help to keep yourself healthy that's correct um so the three w's are still there and contact tracing is important so if someone has the covet virus we follow our same protocol and and we continue to disinfect and clean our classroom in a daily basis so that's that that requirement stays the same with the new guidance from the idph and isb here are some

073new ones if you haven't figured out already i haven't been watching the news they we want to open up okay with the vaccine i think it's a game changer we want more kids so the government's opening up whether it's restaurants schools and so forth we're going to focus on school here are some changes here number one students at increased week of severe illness or who live with people at increased risk may they change the word may it used to be must be given an option of remote instruction we're going to continue that at fenton number two social distancing for in-person learning is now defined as three to six feet for students and fully vaccinated staff mind did you see the word fully vaccinated we need to unpack what that really means for fentanyl okay but

074that's remember it was strictly six feet apart six feet apart now they're saying three to six okay three good news here in regards to graduation that's just two months away outdoor events such as graduation follow the phase four outdoor seated spectator events guidelines okay what that means to me and principal jovan here lazarovich means that we could basically have a graduation in our football field six feet apart with all of our seniors class of 2021 and have limited limited uh uh spectators perhaps two to three tickets for the parents we need to continue to look at those metrics i believe by when it's when it hits may there's going to be another revision but that's what we're thinking now also indoor events such as indoor prom should follow the phase four here's the big one

07550 people or 50 of the capacity it used to be just 50 50 per space like today 50 here now they're saying 50 okay we're also thinking about prom we're looking at different places to uh to have prom where uh actually this friday we're going to white pines golf and take a look at that it's it's airy uh go ahead good how about the field house uh i've been actually meeting with our juniors and our senior classes for probably about a month now to start to organize some of those so uh yeah we're definitely looking forward to some prom events some senior event towards the end uh we also have we're planning uh a movie uh movie event for seniors we're gonna get mr ontango on the grill because we know he likes flipping the

076burgers um and uh we're gonna do that on the football field we're trying to secure a date uh for that as well but we're working with the company to get that so yeah we are looking for ways to to engage our seniors as we as we kind of go out but prom is definitely one of those there was a senior survey that went out for our students uh asking about what they would like to see out of prom a formal event non-formal event uh here at school so yeah we've been in conversations and and definitely listening to student voice on that so very good someone said uh the field house i don't think our seniors want to do promise whoever said that they want to be somewhere a little bit fancier uh and and and

077they got my vote as well um lastly capacity limits to in-person learning associated with activities lunch pe are now determined by the space ability to accommodate social distancing versus a set capacity number percentage so if we want to do lunch at school it's six feet apart instead of 50 okay that's a game changer right before we couldn't do lunch we couldn't serve lunch it was a grab and go we need to still unpack that okay okay it's gonna get interesting school schedule updates as you know last week okay march night we started our hybrid program approximately 50 of our kids 50 approximately 50 students attended per day okay kinda low okay we knew it was going to be low because we took that survey we asked folks a couple months ago who would like to

078come back in hybrid and who would like to say remote approximately 70 percent said they want to go remote okay 50 students is much lower than 30 that we were expecting this week when all hybrid students that chose hybrid should come um only students came per day we want that number to go up and i think some of these uh changes this revision um will will assist us okay next week or even as early as this friday we're going to send out a questionnaire okay encouraging part of questionnaire and for informatives to encourage folks to come to school right um but it's it's gonna be the parents choice okay uh we're gonna ask are you interested to move from remote to hybrid two days a week okay two days in person per week and for

079the people who are already here two days in person per week we're going to ask him would they like to go four days a week okay so we're trying to rev it up what are we planning for the summer 2021 we are planning a full in-person summer school like it was pre-pandemic time okay planning things could change as you know okay we don't know what's really going to happen in june but that we are planning we are under um uh in talks and planning with with sam yovan and the rest of the admin team what are we planning for fall 2021 we are planning for a full in-person return back and fall again once again we're planning we don't know how it's going to look we're assuming that the vaccine will continue to spread and

080we will make that happen there is a real push as you know whether state or federal to open up school fully and encourage folks to come back to school foia we received a foia from the pro-public chicago tribune law enforcement okay uh we gave them the data they needed they were requesting information pertaining to the involvement of law enforcement at fenton from 2018 to 2021 specifically how many arrests referrals and citation also asked for the gender and race and ethnicity of students involved we are not the only school they're asking all schools pretty much in due page uh in regards to what is the role of a police officer how many arrests and so forth so this we've seen this before it's not particular hey look you know something's happening at fenton anything i think

081they're trying to come up with a story and they do these for us any questions there okay we want our kids back you know that we got to encourage our folks back um uh we're gonna put out that survey um and it's it goes without saying like i got a call the other day hey look i chose remote i want my kids there tomorrow yes come on let's go could you come tonight you know so those those things are are important so uh we are being uh nimble and flexible we want we want our kids back unfortunately what i'm also seeing what um principal is there but you're saying as folks move from remote to hybrid there's also the reverse right folks from hybrid want to go back to remote so we got to kind

082of figure that out we got to encourage folks but i think as it gets warmer being a a kid myself a couple years ago playing sports extracurricular when it gets hot outside uh i think there's more uh social uh influence to to get back to school a couple years ago 40 years ago thank you for that games yes um i i can't help but think that um you know how how this pandemic you know kind of post post pandemic life that we're going through kind of like how we went through 9 11 and flying that it was never the same um and i don't know how this is going to look in terms of state laws and guidelines and all that but i i would i would think that in in terms of a district

083um we we could if it uh if there's if there's a case for it you know once we you know we've got a lot on our plate i understand um but one maybe item to put on the list would be a post pandemic uh situation where there is a repeat of this you know maybe two years later a year later that we we consider um how we can be more prepared for it and i think we've done great you know as far as just um improvising and and being in the right place at the right time of what we do you know the best we could um but learning from this reflecting on what we've gone through what what could we do may be better if anything particularly in the remote learning area you know

084the remote learning 2.0 or whatever we did there i i'm just kind of thinking out loud here sure no we do reflect on that twice a week that's a great point uh we had a conversation with uh michelle papa nicole now what have we learned from this how could we make school better um what happens if this happens again hopefully is another 100 years um uh but but we are ready what's what kind of schedule should we have it's it's very interesting and reflective as well uh right now we're focused on in-person summer school i think that's a good start for rp hey look we're going in person okay we we have enough space during the summer because there's you know most kids don't go to summer school we want that to happen and that

085should catapult us hopefully for a in-person uh false start that that is our hope i think that's the number you saw it earlier uh whether it's vaccination and the trend going down um got a question michelle this might be for use um what about kids who might be struggling now with classes is there going to be anything for them to be here present in the summer are we doing any um reaction we're actually already starting to address those credit recovery concerns that we're doing right now [Music] yeah we're gonna have a menu in the summer as you know the care is at one two and three called esser there's money for us uh um both the state at the federal level wants us to set up programs for learning loss especially throughout the pandemic so

086we're gonna have our traditional summer track to what we normally run but there's going to be also enrichment to um uh to address that need within our student population and we got money and resource to back that up as well so we're looking for that uh bruce and i have been watching our our bank account our school bank account when the federal government uh will start um delivering that monies and we can start planning and programming appropriately okay thank you thank you could could i ask a quick question too i know like typically in the past like um a counselor would talk to kids about like college not their typical counselor but like somebody else would talk to them about college choices i don't know which counselor that would be obviously that was is not

087happening i think maybe it was its junior year or something like that um that obviously probably didn't happen this year so um with students so are they trying to catch up with kids about talking about college choices and that kind of thing for some of these juniors or seniors yeah so those conversations haven't been halted in any way on our end so we still have our college and career counselor and she still is available and hosting meetings with students and families at times and we actually the way we designed our schedule this year we had a really dedicated bison time where sometimes that bison time happens during the day and they either want to go to resource or somewhere else they had dedicated time and developmental counseling having it happening in a more strategic way

088than ever before so they had a lot of face time with students during bisontime counselors and they continue to have all those individual meetings about college and career preparation so i i'm not sure that um you know that's been lacking in any way unless access to students has been lacking right like their ability to um you they reach out they say come on let's make an appointment and then if students aren't you know responding to that in some way you can't just walk down the hall and get them so there'll be some action planning on their end to ensure that when students do come back they have those meetings but yeah we still have our college and career um counselor and we still have all of our counseling developmental uh curriculum in place and all

089of the same advisement that we would typically have okay do you have a junior i do okay do you feel like he's getting um i'm not sure i mean maybe he's not reaching out you know i don't know if that comes at junior year or senior year but you know it could be also him yeah it's rachel george as the college career i just remember that with the other two i don't recall that happening this year with him or maybe it happened at senior year i don't remember but i thought it happened junior year but it could be him yeah they've tried to really stay on par with what they've done um typically so we haven't seen any major adjustments in their programming for to that end what we see the the changes in is

090what our our colleges and universities are looking at and looking for and us kind of keeping up with that and ensuring um there's an understanding of what the qualifications for acceptance are going to be now that we've been living in this pandemic and what's different about you know not having sat scores and sometimes things like that so and the universities have been doing a pretty good job of staying flexible and and opening up requirements much further than how they have in the past so hopefully we see more students accepted than usual yeah okay think you know the important takeaway on this is that you know we we all know that this is a fluid situation it's a situation just as when the pandemic started that this is the first time for everyone and now as

091we're coming out of the pandemic going water in person i think the important takeaway is is that we all know we all recognize that we have all the processes in place to adapt to you know as we pointed out as far as how many students are are going hybrid how many aren't and then and that we can adapt and adjust to those numbers as they change you know in the next it would be the next couple months and i think we have all the processes in place we know we know how to react and uh and how to move forward so uh thank you for that another question so like you said that kids probably want to get back and socialize because weather's getting nice and you know then the sports are picking up and

092we have football and so if they're participating in the sports are they required to be here for in it's going to be that's going to be very hard to enforce um and it's we got to respect their their decision on that one at the at the parent level okay the only one last item is is that going back to the vaccinations i just wanted to take the opportunity to say on behalf of this board i would like to take this opportunity to recognize all our staff who insisted in the continuing vaccination effort for our community community this past weekend we continue to receive messages of appreciations for fenton's prominent role in the in the vaccination effort and this includes collaboration with other school districts i just wanted to read a quick letter from from one

093of these school districts dear james and district 100 board of education members on behalf of the dupage high school district 88 administration and board of education we would like to thank you for the graciously offering covit 19 vaccines at your clinic to the district 88 community with some of the highest case counts in the county we have been anxious to access vaccines to produce the need to protect protections to our staff to safely return to school we know the vaccines provided by fenton help to ensure this with our partnership with your partnership over 200 vaccines were provided to the district 88 staff and associated elementary districts addison school district 4 district 45 in salt creek salt creek district 48. thank you for your continued leadership support and partnership in working with district 88 community we

094look forward to opportunities to support one another in the future thank you gene barbanetti uh interim superintendent dupage high school district 88. uh now we move on to the consent agenda um we move on to the consent agenda does anyone have any questions regarding any items on the consent agenda i get my answer i just like to add for the extended employment you see that every year we need certified staff here during the summer to prepare for the upcoming fall uh school that includes counselors special ed teachers social workers and some of our our coordinators there to do that work so that our school year uh starts in the right track so that's what extended employment i always get that questions from year to year um and that's just a practice that we have um

095and other school districts has it too so it's a preparation these are the teachers we need in in school to prepare for next year you may have a motion to approve the consent agenda is presented i'll make that motion thank you sorry you may have a second i second thank you kid roll call please peyton howe yes galwig yes figueroa yes rhaego yes ramirez yes yes yes the motion has passed the next item is the adoption of rollover fence and education association contract for 2022-2023 school year james sure last november uh fva uh communicated with me stating basically that they would like to roll over the contract uh for 2022 2023 i brought it to the board and would like to make that recommendation to the board this evening and have it approved with that

096may have does anyone have any questions regarding that then may have a motion that the board of education adopted one year rollover of the fenton education association contract for the 2022-2023 school year so moved thank you juliet thank you marianne for that second roll call please peyton howell yes figueroa yes regal yes ramirez yes yes yes yes motion has passed next item is the 2022 bus drivers salary increases james board we've been in discussion this for a couple months now through it throughout our meeting uh we would like to make that recommendation that the board approved the 2021 2022 bus driver salary increase to 1.5 percent any questions may have a motion that the board of education authorizes the superintendent to make adjustments to bus drivers salaries for an overall amount of 1.5 percent adjustments

097will become effective in the 2021-2020 fiscal school year i'll make the motion thank you mary ann may have a second second thank you leo roll call please peyton howell yes rhaegal yes ramirez yes yes galway yes figueroa yes wiedemann yes motion has passed next item is the 2021-2022 will salary increases james similar to item a and b we have continued conversation with the board in regards to the at will seller increase of 2.3 percent we would like to make that recommendation hope the board provides that uh approves it for the 2021 2022 at will salary to increase at 2.3 percent any questions may have a motion that the board of education authorizes the superintendent to make adjustments to ed will's salaries for an overall amount of 2.3 percent adjustments will become effective in the 2021

0982022 fiscal year so move thank you leo may have a second okay thank you mary ann will call please peyton howell yes ramirez yes ting po pong yes galway yes figueroa yes rhaegal yes wiedemann yes motion has passed next item is the 2022 administration salary increases james sure similar to items a b c continued conversation with the board in regards to an increase for the administrative staff here at fenton uh of an increase of 1.9 percent uh we would like to make that recommendation of hope that the board approves it for the 2021-2022 salary increase of 1.9 any questions may have a motion that the board of education authorizes the superintendent to make adjustments to administrative salaries for an overall amount of 1.9 adjustments will become effective in the 2021-2022 fiscal year this will not

099include administrators who are on who are in who are in their retirement track so moved thank you patty may have a second second thank you leo roll call please peyton howell yes team paul palm yes galwig yes figueroa yes reagan yes ramirez yes wiedemann yes motion has passed next item is the associate superintendent principal employment agreement james sure we recommend to the board that dr sam benson is our new fenton principal associate superintendent sam's experience skill set and attitude stood out during this interviews the search included four rigorous rounds of interviews which included fea floss bus drivers at will parents community members administrators and board members sam's performance during the current the current crisis cover 19 pandemic was strong his strong relationship with the staff and board and will allow him to hit the ground

100running and commence his transition immediately like tomorrow this is a win for fenton sam's professional highlights include sam has been a key player regarding our success these last three years at fenton which includes the following covet crisis planning safety and wellness learning and students achieving including the graduation rate of 94 percent 98 freshmen on track in a balanced budget for the last five years to name a few sam has built a positive report with the fea sei seiu flaws and community members and leaders of the community like the mayors like the park district directors he has 20 years of school administrator experience both at the building and district levels currently as an assistant superintendent at fenton for human resource and operation at fenton community high school district 100 his responsibilities include coordination of human resources

101operations safety and security master scheduling and sectioning and professional development for our staff he was the director of student services for dupage high school district 88 oversaw special education programming disciplinary practices guidance programming and safety and security for the district he was the assistant principal for seven years for people personnel service at willowbrook high school oversaw special education guidance and dean's office as well as pbis which is a social contracting program and rti response to intervention basically what do we do when students are not succeeding he was the director of the deans at willowbrook high school for two years dean of students at lockport township high school school central campus for four years lastly my favorite he was a social studies teacher for nine years and a head coach in three different sports with that

102we are excited to recommend sam as the next principal associate superintendent of fenton any questions may have a motion that the board of education the associate superintendent principal employment agreement as presented so moved thank you patty may have a second i'll second thank you jackie roll call please peyton howell yes dalwick yes figueroa yes rhaegal yes ramirez yes ping pong pong yes we demand yes motion has passed the next item is the certified president i'd like you to know that he wrote that all himself too so okay dr benson would you like to say a few words sure first off i'd like to thank the board this evening for appointing me to this position it's an honor and privilege to be next year's principal here at fenton i'm looking forward to hit the ground running

103as james described in the next few months as i listen and learn to everything that's going on here and and learn as much as i can to prepare for a seamless transition to next school year i'd also like to thank those who participated in the interview process whether it be staff parents board members as they did this on their own time and i really appreciate them taking the time to hear my vision moving forward so thank you again thank you dr benson the next item is the certified staffing plan for school year 2021 2022 james fantastic slide up next slide thank you we do this every year okay the theme for tonight is stability stability okay it's about 111 ftes okay just wanted to point out four things number one staffing plan three four important

104points the staffing plan remains stable for the last uh a couple of years no you changes which is fantastic okay which is fancy and quite frankly we like it that way the staffing plan is the number of staff or ftes full-time equivalent so when you see a number there that equals to one staff so 1.0 equals one staff which need which we need here at fenton to keep the learning going at at school next school year okay the staffing plan is dependent on student enrollment course requests course course requests and student need next year we're uh we're expecting a little bit of increase of of of our student enrollment um for that and then we see a projection of a decrease in uh in student enrollment so we'll continue to dive into that see what

105the real numbers are um again our staffing uh our staffing plan remains stable at 111 approximately 111 ftes which is approximately 111 staff members certified staff um just to point out a couple of things here if you see here for example if we look at esl bilingual we know there's been an increase in our population with esl bilinguals so you'll see it increase a little bit throughout the years there another one is special education we've seen that increase as well uh throughout the year so we we we make those changes in regards to the ftes but in general if you look that number there 110.8 it's pretty much stable throughout this last two four five five years there that is basically our staffing plan there any questions on that could you expound on the mass

106i know yeah because you you did answer my question but i could you expect there was a programmatic change we basically moved away from our traditional math program to integrated math starting next year one two and three so for example uh we used to have algebra one regular then there was algebra a and there was algebra b now everyone is going to take um mathematics one so with it with because of this everyone is going to take it even if not every well it depends which math level you're okay okay um so it was a structural change which forced the fte to go down there as well as student requests you'll want you want to expand on that a little bit uh yeah sure when you moved to integrated um we got away from those

107sections that were at 17 or 18 kids um so we were able to to place students into kind of their level specifically and then within the math integrated program we're doing not just an algebra but there's a geometry portion to it there's uh an added portion as we move students to try and scaffold them to get them into higher level courses mathematics is one of the hardest ones to get more students into ap and within the integrated we really feel like students will have that opportunity to excel at different levels so again why the staffing is where it's at is because we don't have those kind of splinted sections of students now that are in like uh we used to have algebra 1a algebra part 1 part b um they're now all in that math

108one uh section and then the teachers are able to through playlists through differentiated opportunities which we've been doing with our instructional coaches able to meet those students where they are okay and that's also tied into evidence-based learning with math always for for whatever we do for there yeah the other part to that too and we we don't claim to be an sat school i mean that's not something that we do but the sat really focuses on algebra as part of going forward so within that out within the math one two and three there's much more focus within algebra as the students move through the through that curriculum so yep okay thank you then any any other questions it may have a motion that the board of education approve the 2021 2022 certified staffing plan is

109presented yes on motion thank you marianne may have a second second thank you leo uh mary roll call please peyton howell yes figueroa yes rhaegar yes ramirez yes ting po pong yes galloway yes wiedemann yes that motion has passed we move on to the auto shop exhaust bed uh bruce that's yours yes yes this project was identified last year and further discussed at the uh january 20th this past january facility uh finance committee meeting and it includes the replacement of the outdated exhaust system in the auto shop area now that is currently in place and it will really result in a cleaner safer environment throughout that area it will be funded through a state matching grant statement maintenance grant that is will be covered 50 of that will be covered by this grant um our

110architects obviously have worked with us on this um str they are recommending acceptance of the low bid from sea acetely heating and piping contractors for this work we did receive seven bids they were the low bid and we're requesting the board to act on this recommendation tonight that was the lowest bid or just one of the lower bills that was the lowest bid yes thank you bruce was any of that covered by karzak money or is that the state not this um there will likely be future projects with karzak money but this project is a combination of local funds and half of it from the maintenance state maintenance grant okay great do we do anything with this um heating and piping contractor i'm like do we have any like anybody local in bensonville that um

111i don't we haven't used them here to my knowledge but they're they've done work in schools they've been vetted by the architect in terms of their work they provided a bond uh for their performance um and they've you know vetted um they've guaranteed that they understand the bid and the work involved in completing the work all right thank you bruce any other questions we have a motion that the board of education approved a low bid from c esotely heating and piping contractors inc that includes the base bid and alternate number two for a total cost of ninety thousand one hundred seventy six dollars for the auto shop exhaust replacement project so moved i'll second thank you juliet thank you jackie uh roll cup please peyton howell yes rhaegal yes ramirez yes ting po pong yes

112gallowing yes figueroa yes wiedemann yes motion has passed we move on to the notice of non-renewal and dismissal sam i believe that's yours yes this evening we have five licensed staff members that we're not going to be renewing for next school year and of note they're all probationary licensed school employees okay thank you any questions may have a motion that the board of education approved the resolution and non-renewal and dismissal notices as presented salute second thank you patty thank you marian roll call please peyton howell yes ramirez yes ting po pun yes galloway yes figueroa yes rhaego yes wiedemann yes motion has passed we move on to student chromebook purchase jim good evening uh we're bringing forward the motion to approve our annual student chromebook purchase as you may remember a number of years ago

113we changed our process where we purchased chromebooks for incoming freshmen only and they retained those chromebooks throughout their time here at fenton we also included things like accidental damage protection and extended warranties so that we didn't have to worry about the the maintenance and service and the students didn't have to worry about being charged for repairs on those chromebooks since that time we've been purchasing the dell two in one chromebooks through a consortium purchase the illinois technology learning consortium they actually go out and build products and provide pricing that's uh competitively priced throughout a number of different vendors our typical vendor for uh getting these through is cdw cdwg they've been great partners they actually do some prep work for us on these before we receive them and um the only uh change is last

114year uh we did this and this year we're doing it again is we're moving this process up typically this would happen in the may and june time frame but because of the pandemic the there's been a significant shortage in chromebooks uh for example last year we i believe we did this in april and we got them in just in time to be able to distribute to the freshmen uh we were aware of that so uh i wanted to act quickly last year we're aware of a a potential shortage again this year and we had budgeted this is all part of a budgeted dollar amount so we're purchasing them now so that we ensure that they're here and and ready to go for the freshman over the summer when they show up um the good news

115is the the pricing has remained pretty stable the entire time and uh we're actually purchasing a few less this year we had a couple more than the students count that actually showed up last year so we have some extras and so we're recommending 370 so our purchase this year is actually being reduced by a few thousand dollars so i'm happy to answer any questions i just would like to reiterate how wonderful program this is to every kid that steps in fenton gets a chromebook we've we're kind of normalized and that that's just a normal thing it wasn't eight seven years ago this is a huge thing this is a game changer for our students especially when you have 62 percent low income free and reduced lunch just wanted to make sure that's in front of

116us to always remaining and to maintain it for that many time where we use title money um for this initiative we know that uh access to the internet uh is part of the learning process access to the knowledge what's there on the internet and different sites are critical for our uh 22nd century uh students to to thrive so just wanted to reiterate how wonderful and and this program is and to continue to push for it i'll add just briefly to that i believe it was kit that earlier said you know encouraged us to reflect on what we've learned from the pandemic and our response to that i can tell you as we started on this process uh we quickly realized that the fact that all our students had chromebooks that we had before the pandemic

117started passing out uh wi-fi hot spots uh having our our teachers and our uh purchasing the instructional uh technology that our teachers needed and having our teachers work within the google classroom we set us up really pretty well to make that that quick pivot where i know a number of my colleagues struggled to get devices into students hands and they were scrambling during the spring of last year trying to make that happen so the one lesson we did learn is some of the things we did worked out pretty well for us it wasn't perfect but it really put us a step ahead so i think this is a great program that's uh very valuable for our students so on the hot spot thing because everybody's covered anyone that needs a hot spot has a hot

118spot we actually have gotten several waves several groups of those and we have plenty of extras so that if other students need that uh we have that capability so we and we were fortunate enough to be able to use some some grant money and some funding to do that so at no cost to us the mantra is patty is that you got a device and you got wi-fi that's the mantra you know i'll i'll say something too i think that's absolutely right this is such a valuable uh resource for our students um you know just kind of a plug would would be ideally would be like a municipal wi-fi uh where our our twin cities wooddale and bensonville were able to provide um you know public access to that just anywhere you go i think

119ideally that would be amazing um just a plug i shared that with you i brought that up to the both mayors uh kid so we're working on it if a a city in germany do um leverkusen or and dusseldorf can can provide wi-fi for his entire uh 8 million population we can do that as well so there's there's a lot of challenges but definitely any anything else any other questions no this excellent program excellent jim thanks so much thank you okay you may have a motion that the board of education approves the fiscal year 2021 purchase of 370 dell model 3100 two in one chromebook computers from cwg for the amount of a hundred forty nine thousand eight hundred fifty dollars wow so milk thank you patty maybe a second a second uh thank you

120kid i think it thank you um roll call please peyton howell yes ting po pong yes galloway yes figueroa yes reagan yes ramirez yes wiedemann yes motion has passed next item is the food service contract renewal uh 2021 2022 uh bruce yes thank you mr wiedemann uh harbor management manages our district food service program and the contract does allow uh for harvard to yearly extensions that are allowed by to increase by the consumer price index and this would be the second extension uh and would run from july 1st 2021 through june 30th of 2022 and we can do these yearly extensions up to four years so we're we've been our second year if the board agrees to do this um we are recommending to renew it with arbor for the next school year as mentioned

121uh it would increase by the consumer price index which is stated in the contract and it's 1.4 percent is what their contract would increase by um in addition to that there's also a fixed fee allowance that's included in the contract when which in essence is allowing arbor to recoup the wage differential paid to employees for the due to the minimum wage act mandated by the state of illinois so the our staff well they're not our staff their arbor staff are part of an seiu contract that contract is uh actually the wages are less than what the state mandated minimum wage is um so the state allows the contract bidder provider to build back that uh amount that difference that wage differential to the district so we get a monthly bill from them on our invoice

122um that breaks down the cost and the labor involved in the cost associated with it so i just want to make the board aware of that that's a cost that's passed on to us as well um but it's within their contract provisions um and that's an estimated amount there that's in this um in the write up of 8 700 and that will vary based on uh the labor needs and the number of days but that's a that's a pretty close number and ultimately the goal of the program is to break even in the food service program when all expenses are factored in so we're asking the board to take action on this extension tonight bruce can i ask you a question sure have we been providing lunches breakfast for students if they do they come

123in do we are we delivering them yeah no great question um and so we've deviated a little bit from the contract we're still under a federally funded program but the state we we have a uh you know a uh updated contract that allowed us to make this kind of deviation which basically is kind of a universal free program so all students and this is not just unique to benton but every country district that participates in the federally funded program um so our students are given breakfast and lunch daily and it's a grab and go type of arrangement so and this has been happening since last march through the summer and then through the end of this year the program is in place through june 30th we don't know if it'll be extended or not arbor's

124managed that for us on our behalf we bring those contract revisions to you to approve in the past um but yes they uh students and actually the students receive meals seven days a week so they get a meal bundle um when they come in they get a multi-pack for three days one day and then the next day when they come in or two days later they get a four-pack but they do have to come to the school to get it they yeah they do we don't deliver them they do come they can drive up in the afternoon for students who are remote and then students obviously who are here take their meals when they when they leave for the day okay thank you sure and jackie just to add to that too i know bruce

125knows this number we have given approximately 200 000 free meals to our students and if they want more they could have more coupled with our food for families that i know patty and and paul and the rest of the board have supported throughout this year one of our priorities during the pandemic as you know is safety wellness and feeding that's my favorite part as you know so uh we got to share that to other people so we're very proud of that can't have kids go hungry that's right has um the bundling of the meals has that been more labor-intensive than like if they were just serving meals do you know how how is that um actually labor has been reduced by them because it you know there's just not as much required to you know

126produce you know uh prepared meals every single day so um but it's so that those costs have dropped somewhat do they do that on site or they bundle them all everything's done here on site yes and it's pretty much all pre-packaged right except for maybe a sandwich or yeah yeah now it is with the meal packs um oftentimes they're frozen and they have to be heated up at home and whatnot but but they do include a you know a breakfast and a lunch um each day of the week okay cool any other questions okay thank then you bruce a motion that the board of education approves the contract renewal extension commencing july 1st 2021 through june 30th 2022 with arbor management inc for the provision of food service management and an increase in wages due

127to the minimum wage increases that are mandated by the state of illinois i'll make a motion thank you jack can we have a second a second thank you marianne uh mary roll call please peyton howe yes galway yes figueroa yes rhaego yes ramirez yes ting paul pong yes wiedemann yes motion has passed now we move on to the sdei committee uh james yes at our last um board meeting uh in um in february uh board member uh ting pao pong uh recommended that we have a discussion and a vote in regards to the sdei committee um and he will make that presentation now i believe there are handouts kid that everyone should have so i turn it over to you kids okay uh thank you james and thank you president wiedemann um i you know

128just think thinking about what we've gone through the past uh months with comments have been made but also the work the positive work that we've done already through the district um you know i felt like maybe this would be a good alignment for the board to have an sdi committee and did some research on it um now when you look at sustainability um first of all just that s it's the ability to maintain a certain level or rate um you know it also includes how how we treat other people how we treat ourselves how we treat our resources how we respect our surroundings and environment um you know obviously you look at diversity it's just basically the quality the the practice and quality of including or involving people around uh with the range of social

129and ethic backgrounds equity um the quality of being fair and impartial and then inclusion the practice of or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might have otherwise be marginalized so when you look at and reflect on our strategic planner values here at fenton it's clear that we we each believe in that the reason why maybe the purpose for an fdi committee is to allow the board to um you know celebrate address field issues uh that are related to our district's sdi it would be in alignment with our administration with delt it would be in alignment with our faculty and [Music] i'm being presumptuous here but i'm sure our students also have a pretty good awareness of those issues as well so i think in all um i'm hoping that

130you know our my board members here agree um as far as meeting frequency um it doesn't have to be frequent um i'm proposing every four months so three times a year and the number of members that are required would be just two um or you know we could call a special session if needed the concise purpose of the committee well okay so the first would be to allow the board to address and field issues related to sd district sdi or uh celebrate uh for example our our equity report with the dr dubiel the fact that we're one of the first districts to do that um if you know for example if when you look at the finance committee um you know bruce would report to the finance committee and then we would report back to

131the board there could be an opportunity where delt would report first back to the sdi where there's a discussion and we would report back to the board as well so i think it's just a point of contact first to to address anything that might be relative to um sdi and then be able to report back to the board questions does anyone have any questions um yeah i do i so sustainability you see the ability to maintain a certain rate or level of what the ability to maintain at a certain rate or level of what are you thinking yeah um when you look at sustainability for example it's essentially the ability to keep a certain level um keep your excellence again social sustainability there's economic sustainability so when we look at our our finance our fiscal

132uh financial planning um we're we're looking at okay um on the finance side you know how do we continue to be fiscally responsible sustain our facilities right so um in terms of sustainability it's tied into a social justice sdi it's interconnected um for example um you look at a um you know a catastrophe that happens typically these catastrophes affect um you know more marginalized groups or people of color or also of low economic class so um it if you look at um as look at dei it's it's interconnected it's it's there's an intersection there um will we tackle a lot of sustainability issues and maybe not but we can't ignore that it's interconnected okay just to clarify kit the the the just just so we understand the purpose of the committee is to vet and

133filter and address issues regarding diversity equity and inclusion related to students correct yeah absolutely so they so so that's the the purpose of of the committee yes but now with the sustainability aspect of it that broadens the the the whole you know i mean there's a lot in sustainability there could be um you know so again um there may not be issues related to sustainability in the topics but to ignore that inner connection um in my mind um you know would limit will limit our conversation you know if you look at again um climate change or or if you don't uh think there's climate change then you look at catastrophes in in in in weather um whether it's a flood whether it's you know bad weather snows things like that and typically it affects um

134marginalized groups so for example you know maybe um there's there's an issue where you know snow snow is hitting a certain community here in bensonville right and uh we want to address some type of equity issue with that not necessarily would be related to you know the sdi committee but it could be and maybe that's something that the board would want the sdi committee to to look at um but but it is more weighted towards the eye but but again um the the sustainability part of it i think is interconnected um so it would only be sustainability as it relates to dei not yes as we know the sustainability i certainly don't want to broaden that scope um but you know to have that piece would be i think uh fitting i i don't want

135to broaden the scope to be everything right that's that's not the person and that's what i'm asking i mean yeah and i think that would be the uh board's concern sure is to um yeah because other things are yeah it's a pretty general subject i mean it covers a lot of turf the whole sustainability thing it can it can i think i think the the point i want to make is that um you know we want to keep it simple and concise we want to make sure that we don't exclude anything that's tied to dii and we want to stay in our lane so for example with finance with um uh dedsec with the been to the community foundation um you know we always have these gray areas where we interconnect but typically it's not

136going to do that but you know again if the board looks at and go okay well maybe this is something that sdi committee should look at then then that's going to be on you know the the choice of the board to do so for example you know when we when we conduct a a policy committee um you know we have an agenda and it's usually defined by a source right so uh you know if if there was an agenda that the the board deems as a an sdi uh topic then then we would we would uh put that on the agenda and then discuss that on the committee so the board's going to govern what goes on your agenda yeah absolutely it's just like if uh again it's the dynamic of a committee of a

137board so um uh for example um you know the comments that came through right within the past few months um you know we could have you know if we had a committee just decided let's let's really have the committee look at it and have the committee research and see what what there is we need to get done if anything and then report back to the board um i think that's a pretty good example of how how to uh you know get the benefits of the sdi committee i don't think you want it i don't i don't think you want the sustainability to get in the way of the diversity equity inclusion part of this is i do not yes and i think it's you know that's sort of getting you in the weeds here i

138think so i don't think that's the main part of this really because it so um i'll leave it up to the board to decide if um we vote on this or when we vote on it if if um you know di would be the better committee you know as a theme then let's vote on that i think that's why we're deliberating right about you know how delt is staff because of um you know the work that needs to be done yes yes so but she mentioned also about um like advisories at the community and the student level student voice yes right so could that be something that a dei committee could tie into or or report to let's say the deal let's say hey look we're thinking of a student voice and we could go

139to a dei uh uh i you know a report saying hey look this is how we're doing um promoting student voice and reporting it to for example the dei committee which is going to report it to the board okay it wouldn't so it would be a separate entity it wouldn't be like student voice could be a part of a dei committee i think we've got to people remember this is a board committee with the board committee right so there wouldn't be a superintendent or principal that would also sit in on it yeah we would provide you the information yes or other administrators or feedback from dealt feedback from student council feedback from what what yield is dealing with family community parties needles um polish outreach pta um clubs activities so that's the kind of stuff

140that would come to dei is that what you're thinking kit yes okay so that's i mean that's what i was just gonna say i i can see the dei portion because it's concise and and i think it's clear at least at least it's clear in my mind and how that would relate and interact with with administrations or other groups coming to to the uh committee with that specific person with me it just gets a little fuzzy with the sustainability part it's not as clear then so are you recommend recommending sorry i can't talk that the board vote on the policy and remove the sustainability and just do dei is that what i'm understanding here we could move ahead with a vote for i think just dei or with sdei include the sustainability we can move

141with afford with either votes or we can table this item to the next meeting i just want to go back real quick and what i heard from kid too is that he's saying like let's say there's a delt report and dr dubial has that um by biannual report it doesn't report to dei committee it reports to the entire board right let's say we want to have a a turf field for example and it's going to cost so so many millions of dollars it's not going to and we want to use sustainability sort of stuff doesn't necessarily have to report to the dei it reports to the board kind of like what we're doing now i hope that's clear right we want a turf field sure why not i would i if if everyone's in agreement

142i would suggest that we could move forward with a vote on dei at this point you feel comfortable with that yeah um i think i think um i would be comfortable with what the board agrees with um so this is something that um i wanted to bring up and propose and um you know if we're if we're uh in the direction of a dei committee um i think that's a really good start for all of us so thank you okay i think i think that right now would be the better way to go otherwise the other best course would be just to move this forward and table it but i think we should go ahead and amend uh amend that motion so you would have to change the motion right so we will yeah so

143we will change it the subject is dei committee that's mayhem i'm sorry as presented right may have a motion that the board of education approved the dei committee as amended as amended i'm sorry you're right as amended so moved thank you juliet may have a second i'll second it thank you marianne uh world cup please peyton howe yes figueroa yes rhaego yes ramirez yes yes galway yes wiedemann yes the amended motion has passed now we move on to committee reports uh the first one is the bensonville community foundation uh juliet and kit i don't know if there's anything new um we have a meeting on thursday uh next thursday next thursday next thursday do you have anything from your last meeting that you can think of i think we talked about it at the last

144meeting yeah we did we we've updated there's no new business uh since the last meeting we had here since the last one okay i would like to report to juliet and kit that we have submitted the application for that that's right yeah there was a submission from our district from uh uh our uh mr antenco on um our ap fees to be to be uh a grant for a free and reduced lunches right i think we'll be taking a vote on that right the next meeting at the next meeting so okay all right thank you the next is the finance facilities committee meeting the only item i know of is we will have a committee meeting in june i think we would like to put push that up a little bit um after talking to

145sam and and bruce as you know the summer season is coming we need to uh have some projects for the summing uh upcoming um summer work season uh we have not found a a month yet but we're looking more likely may and june in may rather than june that makes complete sense okay we'll look at may instead of june for that committee meeting marianne i don't know if give anything further that i do not thank you with that okay thank you um next one is iasb delegate um all the board members should have received the link for the march 20th virtual dupage division of the iasb spring meeting uh which is this saturday morning if you don't have if you're a tent if you are intending to go to that meeting you don't have the

146link let me know so that's this saturday and the only other thing is a reminder to all board members to file their statement of economic interest you should have always seen that link also it's it's pretty simple to do that filing if you have a problem on that one let me know and those are really the only two items i have we have one more uh paul did uh president wiedemann doesn't know this but the president of the illinois association of school board uh provided me with a letter um with a certification of appreciation to president wiedemann in regards to his time as a dupage illinois associate uh board member outside of being a board member here at fenton heals also part of the division of dupage that plans that activities for for other board

147members like the one on saturday he's giving us time uh and we just want i just want to you know uh commend you uh for your giving up your time from away from family and making uh dupage a better school system and it's so many programming it offers so thank you paul a great thing thanks so much thank you thanks again thank you okay another surprise that's good um the next item is lund anything new online i've attended a couple meetings with lenders a lot as you know uh election took a couple months ago there's a lot of new legislation out there which includes the omnibus uh legislation that we have to dive into which in a couple years we have to add uh some graduation requirements to our programs here at fenton so we're

148trying to piece that out together but a lot of new legislation that the illinois assembly is trying to go through we have another meeting this friday okay and netsec i'm sorry but james who was there i was unable to attend sure netstat stands for you know as a north dupage special education cooperative we had a meeting um last friday similar to our staffing meeting dismissal um next year's work and so forth it was a very successful uh kind of like our our board meeting this evening their next meeting would be next month all right thank you and the policy committee i don't we have we have none scheduled right now unless petty or kid no no new business there's nothing new there it's just gen yeah okay um one last thing i wanted to uh

149give an acknowledgement and recognition to uh julia rego board member julia rego who suggested the sign that was put up in the hall with the uh hate has no home here she had made a suggestion the dell team worked on it and i think it's a great addition to to uh the middle of our school but uh thank you juliet it all started with you thanks so much all right um our next board meeting does anyone have any other new business or anything if not our next can i sure glad so i don't have any business for you guys so don't worry about it um so i i just want to point out the work that james did for the vaccinations i know we had it up there as a thank you but the work

150that he did and the time that he spent um and the emails that i got at 2 30 in the morning explaining what's going to happen for the vaccinations thank you for that um but i think i know we said a thank you but he's really been under appreciated for the work that he's done and if you take a look at surrounding areas and even these bigger districts they can't get the work that's been done by james so um i think it's important to recognize i know we gave the thank you at the end for him him and ronak but uh you know i i will i'll speak for dr benson here when this all started he and i were like is he nuts what is he doing and he persisted and he made phone

151calls and he showed up at people's offices and um i think that restraining order has been dropped right so that's good but he really pushed to to vaccinate our staff to make sure that they can come in for our students he definitely pushed to make sure that our community is vaccinated i mean you know we often talk about that the superintendent is kind of the politician of the school and um and he was he was really a servant leader in what he's done so i i just want to say thank you personally for what you've done so thank you james thank you a lot order but i just want to mention well that's okay thank you john for pointing that out again it's very well deserved yeah thanks again james thank you um right so

152our next board meeting is wednesday april 21st 2021 at 7 p.m uh may have a motion and a second to adjourn i'll make a motion too john uh thank you mary ann they have a second second thank you leo roll call please peyton howell yes reagan yes ramirez yep team pop home yes galloway yes figueroa yes wiedemann yes motion is past good night everyone stay safe thank you for coming and have a good night it's great to see everybody thank you yeah it was great to see everyone again yes you