Special Board Meeting - 5/4/2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good. Okay, we're all set. Thank you. The February February? >> Yep. >> We're in May. I I am so far. How about 4th? The May 4th, 2026 special board meeting will now come to order. Mr. [clears throat] Loback, would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. >> Mrs. Mauk, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Ledoux. Here. >> Mr. Osting. >> Here. >> Mrs. Hill. >> Here. >> Ms. Becker. >> Here. >> Dr. Martelli. >> Here. >> Mr. Loback. >> Here. >> Dr. Bruno. >> Here. >> Thank you. So, we are gathered here today really with one purpose and

002that is to hear from some strategic plan consultants. Dr. McCue. >> Yes, for our first consultant, AASA, we have Jeff Korczynski. And he's going to come up, share a short presentation, and then there will be some time for Q&A. So, Jeff, come on up and please press the button. Green means go. >> Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to come in and uh spend some time with you today. Uh so, pleasure to meet everybody here. Um the little bit of um want to talk a little bit about what we're trying to do here today. Uh I know you've all had an opportunity to review the proposal that we had shared. So, I wanted to highlight some of the key aspects associated with how AASA could best support yourselves. Uh my name is Jeff

003Korczynski and I've been at AASA for a little over a year. Uh prior to that, I actually worked for a company called Battelle for Kids. And Battelle for Kids was the um the philanthropy arm associated with Battelle Memorial. So, uh we were a non-profit organization focused on education and supporting school systems. Uh originally founded uh through business development through the state of Ohio. And uh we then became an organization that helped uh school systems in K-12 um transition and support uh school districts around the country. So, uh ASA acquired uh Battelle about a year ago, and with that about 80% of our people moved over. So, with that um ASA is a uh organization that has been in existence for about 150 years. Uh we are the public education arm associated with um you know,

004focusing on education advocacy. We uh represent and work on Capitol Hill, so we do a lot of advocacy work, and then also professional learning for school districts around the country. We have approximately 11,000 members uh from around the country that are part of ASA. So, a little bit about um how we support uh school districts around the country. Um with the acquisition of Battelle for Kids, that gave us an opportunity to further expand our services at ASA. So, ASA had always gone very wide, providing a tremendous amount of uh services and support. However, this gave us an opportunity to go a lot deeper. So, many of the people that came over to our uh to the organization have been working with school systems uh for a number of years, and this allowed us to support

005them through um how we can transition, how we can support them, how we can provide them with level of support uh for their educators, but also for the change associated with school systems, and how to really invest and continue to grow the public education. So, one of the things that we do at um ASA is we have uh committed ourselves to public education. So, uh as an organization focusing on this for about the last 150 years, we recognize that with some of the changes going on with the Department of Education, there was a big void. There was an opportunity for us to somebody to step up. So, we decided that this was a great opportunity for us at ASA. So, what we did is we ended up developing and putting emphasis on the public education

006promise. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about the public education promise and why we think it's important and why we think it's an aspect that should be incorporated or considered as you're going through your strategic plan. Through the public education promise, this was work that we focused across the industry, across the education community, across educators, and really we performed a tremendous amount of research and conducted a lot of analysis. And what we did is we came up with five principles, which we felt were tremendously important for school systems to consider as they are supporting students and readying students for future success. So, the five principles were developed, they were tested, tremendous amount of research was conducted, and this ultimately became the way that a framework that we have introduced, and we are now

007committed to supporting this framework not only in the short term, but also in the long term. So, our approach through strategic planning, just to highlight a couple of the key points, is that we will kind of work through this through the lens of the public education promise. We see the public education promise as a more of a long-term framework. So, as you're thinking through strategic planning, we want to ensure that the work that we're doing is going to have a continuity. It's going to have some long-term longer-term vision. And when we start thinking about the cycles associated with the strategic plan and how the world's changing so dramatically, we're seeing districts coming back and saying, "I can't I don't want a five-year plan. I don't want a seven-year plan. I need something that I can

008pivot and adjust and be able to kind of cycle through, but I also want to have some continuity so that as we're working through this, we have an opportunity that we're still moving in in same direction." So, one of the things that we will do is we will look at the public education promise and look at those principles and that will then become part of the discussion that will take place to help determine how that resonates with the community, how that resonates with the group to determine what can be best incorporated and potentially how do we localize that specifically for yourselves. So, we're not saying you have to follow these principles to a T, what we're saying is we want you to incorporate it into the conversation so that you're taking some of the stuff

009into consideration as you're going through this. Okay? Second piece that we're going to do is we're going to leverage some of the past work that you've also done. So, the portrait of a student. Want to affirm this work. As the world continues to change and shift, we want to make sure that we're taking that into consideration and that we're also reviewing and making sure that that's still applicable as things move forward. The other piece that we're going to do is we're going to continually be focusing on thinking about the future readiness of students. And how do we best ensure that our kids are best supported and also supporting our teachers and our educators so that they can continue to deliver the level of education that we want for our kids and to best prepare them

010for the future. We'll also work through quite a bit of data analysis to help kind of substitute some of the assumptions with some evidence. So, we'll be doing that through some surveys, through some focus groups, through some system analysis, self-assessments, those types of things which will allow us to aggregate the information and be able to come back in and share the implications of this and what it means for the district. The other piece that we want to do is we want to make sure that the community is part of this process. So, they will be part of a design team and we will work through with the district on what that looks like and I'll talk a little bit more about what components of stakeholders could be incorporated into that. And the other piece I

011want to make sure is that yes, we have want to have the end result of what we're looking for, but the journey also needs to be very um it needs to be done in a way that's very collaborative. It's done in a way that we're making sure we're getting people's voices heard. We're getting people to understand the why behind this and how their input is going to help us be kind of co-creators of this work moving forward. Talking about the community voice and looking at what this potentially could look like, these are kind of some of the stakeholders that we will talk about and determine what makes the most sense for your local community. And what voices do we need to ensure that are part of this process? The piece I talked a little bit

012about is the the shifts of the landscape shifts that are going to take place and you know, we've all seen AI and we've seen some of the things that have you know, transpired, but if you start looking at some of the different categories of of changes that have occurred, we want to make sure that the individuals are really thinking about this and the implications to to school systems. So, when we start thinking about the shifts that the system might need to take, the shifts that the leadership will be taking and also the educators, the type of support that they're going to need as they start and continue to address these types of changes that are not going to stop, they're just going to continue and we need to make sure that we build a a

013an offering or build a service level that is going to be able to pivot and adjust with it. As I talked about this the affirmation of the portrait of a student, um these are some of the questions that we will be asking as we go through this. We recently did this with uh Lake Forest. So, we had conducted and and worked with them about 3 and 1/2 years ago uh with Lake Bluff and Lake Forest and we actually had about 150 people from their community that helped to develop their portrait of a graduate and that was a kind of a community-wide effort. We then came back in just about a month ago and we ended up conducting, bringing back some of those same members and talking about the affirmation of okay, what have we learned,

014what have we seen, what are the things we need to continue to push forward, and what are some of the next things that we need to take into consideration. And uh we had about 95 plus people who were part of this process. Uh they ended up coming back and saying that 95% of them affirmed that these are the right directions we need to take. Then they said we need to double down and we need to now be doing these types of things. So they were looking for how do we make sure that we're continuing to move in the right direction, how do we ensure that we have the support of our community as we're working through this, and then how do we ensure that they're going to be part of the support that we're looking

015for and some of that leadership capital that we need as we move forward. Some of the methodology that I talked a little bit about uh earlier in terms of the approach, but uh a couple things we're going to do. We're going to pivot and give you an opportunity to adjust as we go through this. So one of the things that uh we will incorporate as far one of the first steps in the process is that discussion around the public education promise. What does this mean to your community? How does this impact the way that you're going to approach your strategic planning? Uh do you see this as a framework that can be utilized? Do you see this as more of a long-term aspirational piece that can tie back into the operational aspects associated with that

016strategic plan. So we're going to have those kinds of conversations. We want to build support. We we um have the opportunity we can either do that with the leadership team and have those conversations or we can even extend that with the community and incorporate them into some of those conversations. We do it either way depending on what what makes the most sense for that local district. Do they want that full transparency and having the community part of co-creating, or do they would they prefer to do some of the legwork a little bit ahead and then pull the community in to then give them an opportunity to kind of chew on some things and think through some of these um decisions or discussions that that the group has already started to have. So, we'll work with

017you in that fashion. The discovery and the foundational piece are really where I talked about the surveys, the self-assessments, the interviews with the board, um the focus groups that we're going to be incorporating. All of that is to gather information so that we can make sure we make good informed decisions. The design team, one aspect associated with that is we're going to have kind of a paired two-day event. So, think of it as this. We're going to have, for instance, maybe on a Tuesday evening, we'll have a meeting with the design team, which could include, you know, parents and community and business, and we'll do that in the evening. The next day, after we've had those conversations, we're going to then meet with the leadership team or the team that makes sense within the school

018uh district, and we're going to then talk about what we heard, what we learned, what are some of the dis- decisions we want to make moving forward with this so that we can continue to move forward with work while it's still fresh in our minds. So, we'll be doing two sets of these during this process. Um in between, we'll also then be taking some of the information and forming writing teams, and part of the idea behind that is we want to make sure that there's full accountability for the development of the strategic plan and there's full ownership. Um we used to uh when I was part of Battelle for Kids years ago, we were doing this where we actually would do some of the writing and most of the writing, and we found that people

019then came back and said, "Well, wait a second. This isn't our words. This isn't what we've committed to." So, this became an a way for us to ensure that the district really has say in it from the very beginning. They have ownership and they have accountability associated with it. So, it really kind of drives that, but we provide um frameworks, we provide variety of different templates, we provide different resources to help us facilitate through those discussions, and then we go through several different iterations until we come up with something that we all feel really good about. And then we will test that back with the community to share some of the progress and gain their input and and feedback and reaction. Ultimately, that will be taken to the board for content, for review, and approval.

020And then once that is done, then it'll be professionalized. Um there are several supports and tools that we will provide throughout. I mentioned just a couple with some templates and some self-assessments, but one of the things I would do want to talk about is our continuity of delivery team. Because of the Battelle for Kids, one of the reasons that we have an opportunity to present to you is because of ASA, but also because of some of our team had actually worked with Jeff at Lake Forest previously. So, the individual who worked with him on the developing the strategic plan, there was a level of trust, there was a level of understanding, a partnership as they worked together through that process. Um we're fortunate that we have that same person, and we are dedicating that person

021to your organization. So, if you decide that you would like to move forward, we have that person who will be working with you. And continuing to support uh you as you move forward. Second part is the optional service around the EdLeader Promise. And let me talk a little bit about the EdLeader Promise. This is our network that is has been created directly associated with the public education promise. So, our commitment to the public education promise is these are the principles, this is what we believe in, but this is the way that we continue to build and fuel this work. So, what Think of it is this way. The public education promise is kind of the what and the why. The EdLeader Promise is how you do it. So, this is a group of districts from

022around the country that are together working together to collaborate. It's not about compliance, it's about collaboration and sharing and best practices. And we actually have an event in Chicago in October of this year, 2 and 1/2 days, where members will come together and share progress, share what they're doing and with the idea that as we build this, we can then share it nationally across the country to support other districts, but it also allows us to localize and work with districts. So, there's a lot of professional learning, there's superintendent roundtables, there's artifacts and tools and resources that are all part of this. And that's kind of our commitment to this work because we see that the world's going to continue to change and we need to ensure that we're continuing to support this work going forward.

023Uh from a timing standpoint, uh just to give you a rough idea, we were thinking that this work would begin somewhere in the September time frame with maybe some planning in the August time frame, which would then tie in nicely with convocation to be able to tee up and explain to the, you know, the educator teams and everyone, here's what's potentially going to be happening moving forward. We're looking for this for support from the education community and teachers who will be part of the design team and part of this process that we go through. So, we're seeing how we want to tie that into the cadence here. We'll have variety of different design team meetings, but ultimately having this uh finalized in around the March time frame is is our thinking, which would then tie

024in nicely to your budgeting for next year. Here is the numbers that we have and from a pricing standpoint, we offer two off, we have two offerings. We have ASA member pricing and then we have Ed Leader uh promise um member pricing. So, the Ed Leader promise member pricing, all of our district services are offered at a certain member price, okay? And with it, we also include a registration associated with the Ed Leader uh uh the annual event uh and some additional other services associated with that. So, just to give you visibility of our pricing and how that works. With that, I'm going to open it up for questions. >> Okay, board we've allowed a little bit of and thank you for sticking to the >> Okay, thank you. >> Very good. >> [snorts] >>

025Little opportunity to ask any questions before we transition to a second consultant, but let me throw it open if you have some questions. >> One is more of a a pretty clarification that I just didn't see. In your option in your pricing you had for the strategic [clears throat] planning you had to kind of spell that kind of what's included. This price covers but but in the options of graphic design, the narrative storytelling, launch and life cycle here, there's no really this is kind of like summary of what that includes. Could you kind of say what those things include? >> Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so the narrative and storytelling So, one of the things that we have found is this has been a service that some districts have come back to us and said, "Okay, there's

026so much change going on. There's so many things that are coming out in the public and and people are confused. Like our community is uncertain or the state is saying certain things, etc." So, really it's about proactively controlling the narrative. It's helping the team, it's helping the district to be able to take all of what's happening and us guiding you through a workshop so that you can come up with a consistent messaging around all of this work. So, think of it as that's our way of holding your hand, working through that with the appropriate team to be able to then have a unified consistent message around all of this work. Okay? And that's what we can conduct through that narrative and storytelling workshop. We also have the launch and life cycle communication plan. Some districts

027will say, "Don't need that hand-holding, but I'd love some resources. I'd love some assets. I'd love some tools. I'd love some of the this other information that will help us with our communications." So, we have developed some of that, so you can go ahead and we can provide you with those things. We'll provide you with assets. We'll provide you with those tools, etc. We just won't conduct that workshop with you. Okay? So, that's kind of how some of the things that we've done there. The um The graphic design uh uh that was an aspect where we have we have some districts who say, "You know what? We incorporated into our price, and here's what it is." And then other districts come back and say, "I don't I have the resource to be able to do

028that internally. I have a partnership with a local business that can support us." Or we've used students. >> [laughter] >> There's been some districts that have used students to be able to do that. Not as much in the you know, in the in the K-8, but more in the high school level where So, we basically said, "Okay, we'll take that out of our price. If you want it, we can provide it to you and support you, and we have the professional capacity to do that. But if not, and you have that ability to do it yourselves, then then we're fine with that as well." So, we're very flexible in terms of we don't want to say you have to have this and this and this. We give you some options, and depending on what makes

029the most sense, that's how ultimately how we move forward. Did that answer your question, Jason? >> Yeah, I think so. >> Okay. Yeah. Julie? >> I have a question. >> Go ahead. There you go. >> Uh-huh. Um in your the uh proposal you sent us, you didn't highlight tonight, but you mentioned the um public education promise, and there were kind of five things within that. >> Yes. >> And I wondered if you could talk just a little bit about two of them. Sure. One of them is the new basics, real skills for real life. And the other one was measure what matters, and I'm curious about Oh, you did have it there. My bad. I'm sorry. >> I I didn't spend time going through it uh but go ahead. >> Can you talk briefly about

030those two things and how you think about those two things? >> absolutely. Okay. So, thinking about the new basics, the real real skills for real life, is that the second one? Is that the one you were referring to? >> Yeah. >> Yes, okay. So, part of what we're helping districts think about is what is the evidence of learning and how do we best prepare our kids for future success? So, thinking about is it mastery of test scoring? Is it what some, you know, sometimes there's standardized tests that are have been developed and that becomes the sole measure for what is going to be successful. But then there becomes the discussion around, well, there's some really good test takers, but can they adjust? Can they handle? Can they adapt? Can they deal with some of the

031things that are happening in this world? And how do we adjust and how do we, you know, compete with AI? Because when you start thinking about that human factor, that's what we can bring, whereas AI necessarily doesn't have that. So, starting to think about what are some of those skills? What are some of those competencies and and attributes that we want to encourage and incorporate into our instruction, incorporate into how we how we're actually doing things in the classroom, how we're naming these things and being very intentional with these types of things. So, that is some of the discussion that we incorporate into that whole idea around the real skills for real life. Thinking about what it is that they're going to have passion for, what is something that is actually going to be valuable

032moving forward, and how do we ensure that it's not just something that you say, well, you need to be adaptable. So, we're going to practice being adaptable on the third Tuesday of this month. No, it's incorporated into the instruction. It's incorporated into what we're doing in the classroom. We're asking students to showcase. We're asking educators to think about how do I really intentionally have these conversations with kids to highlight and show show how important these things are and how I can work with the community and parents in order to develop these. So, it's it's bringing the emphasis to that and it's starting to think about other things beyond just the test scores. So, that's one piece. That ties in closely with the measure what matters because as you start thinking about it it it then

033becomes well, what is the evidence of learning? What do I want to see in kindergarten? What do I want to see in grade three? What do I want to see in grade eight? As we progress and then ultimately move off into high school. So, starting to think about the progressions of learning. What is somebody in kindergarten? What is somebody in grade two? How would they illustrate or showcase adaptability or persistence or you know, or collaboration or some of these skills and competencies. So, it's thinking about those things, but then is that a test or is that just being able to illustrate that? And then if you start thinking about is that do we want to start having things like capstones or courses where we have at certain grade um like grade three, grade five, grade

034eight, maybe there becomes some sort of an evidence of learning that is shared or maybe there becomes something that is done back with the community in a showcase. So, we've had a district who looked at this and said, "Okay, what I think would work for us is their board had asked the district to actually perform and deliver a state of the union." And they said, "Well, okay. Tell me, what do you want in the state of the union?" And the district, "Well, I don't know. You You come back and think about it and come back and tell us what you think we should talk about in the state of the union." So, the first year the superintendent spent about 45 minutes talking about this portrait work, talking about competencies, talking about these types of skills

035and how they were starting to work through this. Okay, that was the first year. The second year, she said, "Okay, I'm going to spend 5 minutes giving you a little bit of update on that, and then we're going to walk over to the gymnasium, and I'm going to have all of our teachers who are early adopters showcasing how they're doing it in their classroom. How they're tying it back to some of these skills and competencies, and illustrating that in kind of a showcase. So all of the parents and community who were there, they started hearing from the teachers. Then they took it to the next level, and they said, "Okay, now I want our students the next year to be able to showcase that, and to be able to talk through that." So again, it's

0365-minute overview, then they have the students showcasing that and talking about that. And what it became is it became a way for them to say, "Well, maybe we might even want to start evolving how we do our parent-teacher interviews. Maybe we want these to be a little bit more led by the students to give them voice, to give them ownership of their education, so that they have a little bit more say, they have a little bit more engagement associated with this." So it was it wasn't specifically you have to do this, this, and this, but it opened up their mind to say, "What's right for us in our local district?" And that's kind of how we try to work at ASA is we don't dictate you have to do this or this, but let's have

037those conversations, and as a combined group, let's come up with what makes the most sense for your community, what makes sense to them, but also what makes sense, and what are your educators going to support, and also what the tools and resources do they need in order to then accomplish those things. So it all kind of feeds itself, but that's part of the idea of the principal aligning it back to, you know, the other principals, and making sure that what we measure is important and also appropriate for what it makes sense for the local district. Yeah. Katie. >> time for one? >> Yeah, we'll take one. >> Um this question is specific to phase two, the portrait affirmation and community input. I was intrigued. There's information in there about you recently facilitated an affirmation session

038with two elementary districts and the local high school district. Because that's so you know, our kids are D41. We're not partnered with a high school. We go to a different district. Was that something that was part of their original strategic planning process? Is that something you suggested? How did that work? >> So, what happened is I initially was engaged with uh Lake Forest um when they initially started the portrait of a graduate. And they came to and the conversation was this is going to be a little different because it's three districts. And they were like, do you think this will work? And we said, oh yeah. >> [laughter] >> I think this is super powerful because now you're seeing the progression of learning and how each of these districts support each other. So, we that

039was one of the first ones that we actually kind of did in a combined effort. Um when that was created and built, there felt like there was a lot of support and that gave the districts the kind of the ammunition and the leadership capital to then proceed with certain things. What ha transpired was about, I don't know, 4 months ago, we were having a conversation with Lake Forest and it was, okay, how are things progressing? Um what have you learned? And there was some discussions that said, okay, this is what we think. This is what we believe. But then it was, have you heard any of that back through your community? Have you heard that back through some of the previous design team members? Have you heard from alumni? Have you heard from students? You

040know, that type of thing. And the answer was not as much. We don't know. We think it's right, but we're not 100% sure. So, then we said, well, how about if we work with you for a day. And in that case, we spent a full day. And we actually co-developed with them the agenda, the approach, what we thought would make sense. We had our communications team work with their communications team so that we ensured that we could really maximize the attendance, but also maximize the day. So, that we really wanted to ensure that this would give them the support that they needed moving forward, no matter what came out of it. Because we weren't, you know, we weren't 100% sure. So, we ended up facilitating that. The individual who we're suggesting to work with yourself

041here, she was the one who facilitated that at Lake Forest. So, we made sure that she continued to work with them because she was familiar with the district, she knew them, she'd done the initial work around the strategic plan, so we had that continuity through that as well. So, it was an extremely successful, very positive, and it actually has helped us recognize that this is something that there's districts that we haven't worked with, but they still need to reaffirm some of their commitments. And we're actually working with a district in Michigan right now who has developed what they call their strategic commitments, and they came up with four. There was a superintendent who took over. He didn't initially create these commitments, but his sense after a year of starting was, I'm not sure my team

042is buying off on these or that we're as clear as we need to be around these. So, we ended up going in and having some focus groups, having some conversations, and then generating some reports that helped them bring some evidence around what is the community saying about this? What do they understand? etc. So it's somewhat similar to this type of affirmation, but it was it was a little bit of a different approach, but the same type of results is what we were looking for is giving them evidence so that they can make good informed decisions. >> Jeff, we're going to take one more question. Do your best to keep >> Okay, sorry about that. >> That's okay. And you obviously want to communicate what you have to offer to the board, but Chris will give

043>> So I I want to reference slide eight where you talk about the major landscape shifts. >> Yes. >> How do you go about helping all of those community voices that you want to get input from to understand that education that they experienced is not the education we need to prepare students for? >> Yeah. >> And so how do you ensure or how do you educate folks around things like the science of learning or the pace of change or what the workforce indeed needs right now from us as a school system when it has never looked the way it looks right now? >> Yeah. So what we've done is we've been doing this for a number of years when I was at Battelle for Kids. Okay? And that has evolved and one of the things

044that we have recently done is we recognized that for us to stand up and lecture and say these are the four areas and these are the changes that's one way of doing it. But the reality is we need to engage in conversations with a group. And so what we've done is we actually developed spark cards. And we've taken and we've done some research on various different aspects associated with how we identify the you know, the workforce, social intelligence, science. And there's other change landscape shifts, but we aggregated information, we took facts, and then you know, what we did is we actually created these cards. So what we'll do is we'll actually use these cards in these engagements. So if I was having a conversation with you Chris, I would be given a card. You'd be

045given a card. I would read a fact off of that card. There would maybe three three different facts on that card. One of them is going to resonate, and I'm going to start talking about it. You're going to then talk a little bit about it. Okay? And with the idea of what are the implications to school systems? What does this make you think about? Okay? We're going to have a you know, a minute conversation, then you're going to read off a fact in your card. Okay? We're going to go have that conversation back and forth. Okay? Then we're going to I'm going to then move over and talk to somebody else. We're going to trade cards, and we're going to go ahead and have that. The idea is there's going to be some people in

046the meeting who are uncomfortable having conversations. So, we need to have one-on-one, do it in a way that gives them confidence, gives them the opportunity to have that voice, and then as that starts to occur, so then they have the opportunity to share, "Hey, these are some of the highlights. These are some of the things that I heard." Now with the big bigger larger So, it's doing some research, pulling this information, then giving it to individuals in a way that they can use it in an engaging way. So, they're actually doing something with it, and they're talking, and there's no right or wrong answer. It's more of what is your thoughts? What do you think? And what people come out of that is we actually have captured feedback after. And some of the ideas that

047come up are people are like, "Oh my gosh, I used to think this, now I think this." Because of those kinds of conversations. And it also makes people realize that when I was in school, the world was dramatically different than what it is today. And these are the things that are dramatically changing, and I'm wondering if school systems have kept pace with that change. And so, typically when they walk away with that, that then becomes aha. Now we need to move. >> Okay. Well, now we need >> Now we need to move. >> to move. So, Jeff. Thank you for >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for coming out this evening. >> Appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you. >> And Jeff's going to walk out our Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Board

048you can just kind of read here silently, reflect, take any notes. We'll wait for Jeff to come in with the second. >> That was a solid transition. >> Don't you think? >> It was a good one. >> I think so, too. >> Good transition. Ready? >> [clears throat] >> All right. >> The course Okay. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> This is live, right? >> Give us a second introduction here and then we'll get you started. Good to see you again, Karen. Dr. Kew would please introduce our guest. >> Okay. Our next consulting group, we have HYA and we have Dr. Karen Sullivan and Dr. Kane Osborn. >> Good evening, everyone. Is it on? No, there it is. Okay, thank you. All right, so good evening good evening, everyone. I'm Karen Sullivan and here is my

049associate Kane Osborn and we call ourselves your HYA associates because our goal is to develop the a meaningful relationship with you um and your constituents um and to better understand and be responsive uh to your community's values and your community's needs and what your district needs in this um strategic planning process. So, um our bios are in the uh proposal, so we're not going to go through that. Just know that we've both been leaders in this particular area of the state uh for longer than we're going to admit and um so we've worked in this area. We're very familiar with Glen Ellyn 41. Um I actually helped facilitate your midpoint review of your last strategic plan when I was as a consultant at the regional Office of Education in DuPage. So, I feel I have

050a little bit of background um history that um others might not have because of that experience. So, I enjoyed that experience here. So, we're going to take our approach tonight um to give you an understanding about our proposal, but to really hit on the fact that we tailor every step to your particular district's needs. So, there's no cookie-cutter kind of approach to this process because every community has different needs, and we want to be responsive to that. So, we're going to do a short really short presentation. Um you have an extensive proposal already in your hands. We want to make sure we have time for some dialogue and any questions. We don't want any lingering questions when we leave. And more importantly, we want you to get to know us and hope that you see

051us as as the folks who can work with you and your community in an authentic way and in a purposeful way. So, and then we're interested in hearing from you in terms of what's important to you um in this process and in this work. All right. So, um it Again, in the proposal, there's information about our firm. We're one of the oldest and largest um educational consulting firms. We have, you know, over 1,600 clients across the country. Um but what we think our strengths are are really about the understanding about the need to build relationships with the people that we work with. Um and we have a network of vast network actually of experienced professionals. So, if there's some research or something that we need, we have lots of folks to go to to get

052that resource for you. And then, I think this last one is really what we're going to talk a lot about tonight, and that's the ability to customize this process to really meet your needs um as being the most important part of the proposal. >> So, we just want to talk a little bit about uh why strategic planning is such an opportunity actually for collaboration. A lot of times people think it's necessary for the outcome, for the plan that it gives [snorts] you, but actually we see it as much more than that. Really it's an opportunity most of all for engagement with your community, for a chance to share with them who the district is, but hear from them who they think the district is, and to do that in a forum that is not typical

053for district community relations, whether it's with parents and guardians or community members outside the immediate school community. It's also an opportunity for learning. For them to learn about you as a district. Because a lot of times you'll get people in the room who are like, "I don't actually know that much about the district where I used to send my kids or I'm going to send my kids." It's a chance to educate the community, but also for them to educate you about what their needs are. And it's then a chance when we get to that strategic planning segment to develop a vision for the future together, to collaborate on that. So a lot of people that's what we think of most of all with the strategic plan, and that vision, mission, values, and actual strategy of

054objectives and goals. And it is at the heart of it. But it's also a chance to set concrete goals with the community. For them to be a part of that process so that when you you walk out the other side, there's mutual shared accountability about it. It's not just something that the district did, but that you did with stakeholders in the community and they're really invested in them in a way that sometimes is not the case depending on how that process is run. And then finally for accountability. Something I personally think high-performing communities, individuals, and teams actually want accountability. They thrive under accountability if it's structured the right way, if it's communicated the right way, and if it's built the right way collaboratively. It's a chance for this process to illuminate how the district can

055be accountable to the community, but there will be places in the plan where it will say what the district needs from the community in order to thrive and to say we agreed upon this in a process, help us be accountable for this. So, mutual accountability is something that comes out of a successful strategic planning collaboration. >> You're really good at that clicker thing. I'll let you do that. Good. All right. All right. >> That's what all those degrees are for. >> Yes. That's so we specifically want to build this process with you and facilitate interactions between you and community members, but also between community members. And we want to make sure that that part that part of the process is as each part is as effective as it can be. So, this means we'd have

056to spend a lot of time with Superintendent McKew about when and how is the best way to facilitate the engagement phase or the strategy phase and ongoing communications within your community. And you can make them we want to make the most of each of those steps so that we can make sure that we're being responsive to any specific community needs and values. So, an example might be in often in K-8 districts we don't see the role of students many times in or a role for them in this process, but here it seems that you're pretty it's pretty evident that you put a lot of student insights and things out there. You're really interested in that. So, we would want to make sure we have student voice in here in some way shape or form and

057that um you know, we're we're doing really effective in terms of communicating wise. I can give you an example. I actually just finished um some work in Schaumburg 54, a large K-8 district and we were like blown away by their student leadership group and how they contributed to that particular process and I think the board was as well. So, I would only expect something similar happening here in Glen Ellyn. >> Absolutely. So, you have this in the proposal. These are the four major phases that we outlined. And I'm not going to go over these, but this will kind of frame how we talk about customization in the subsequent slides. These are all important, but the level to which the depth we go for each of these will depend upon the customization that results from the

058conversations we have with you before formally starting. And that first meeting, the organizational meeting, is key. Um it's where we'll sit down and talk about these three major parts of the process, and we'll really break down what we would typically do, what we think might be a good strategy to do these things here, and then basically ask questions and listen to you say, "Well, maybe you want to reconsider doing it this way or this way, or we really need you to do X here." For instance, for engagement formats, whether or not to do a survey, what kind of data. There might be things you already have at hand that you've been thinking of that will really shape the specifics of the steps we take in that phase. And so, at that planning meeting is where

059we're going to sit down and really have that conversation, so that when we walk out and start executing, we're making sure that it's customized to what you've identified, because otherwise we could get three steps down the road and you're like, "Oh, boy, we I wish we had told them X. We would have We would have done it better." So, this is a key part of the process. >> So, the engagement phase is about telling your school community story via multiple paths, as we mentioned, whether that's interviews, focus groups, surveys, qual- qualitative data, some quantitative data, perhaps. And as Kane mentioned, that planning interview is when you're going to finalize a lot of those details. But one important question that you will want to discuss at the planning meeting is whether we'll be conducting this with

060a blank slate, or whether we'll be using what you already what you have in place um around your existing framework around vision, mission, pillars, uh values. So, you can start either way um using what you have in place as a starting point and getting community feedback, or you can decide that you want to be more open and be open to redoing any of those or just pieces of those. But again, that's part of that customization and that planning meeting where those are the things we have to talk about and make some decisions about. >> Now, I'll pause cuz one thing we didn't mention about that planning meeting is when we walk out of there, that could actually change some details in the proposal as to how many events we run or what kind of engagements,

061and that could just affect the price. It usually would affect it downward actually, not necessarily upward, with a few exceptions. For instance, whether or not you decide to do the research-based survey and some other things like implementation at the end, which we'll talk about. Uh the next phase is Is this me? >> Yes. >> Ah, it is me. Okay. Uh is kind of what a lot of people think of the most, right? We'll have a strategic planning team put together after consulting with the board and Dr. McHugh, and that planning team will be made up of stakeholders from across the community, including people who don't necessarily have kids in the school right now. And that team will look at all the reports from engagement, identify strengths and areas for growth, and then depending on what

062we've decided develop a new vision, mission, maybe a portrait of a learner for this district if you decide to do so, goals and objectives. And you know, the the key here again is um where do you want us to start to where do you want us to get, but I would say that one of the prides here is making sure we have everybody's voice in this part of the process, too. So, the stakeholder group is a real cross-section. I think we could also find a way to include students appropriately even in this phase uh if we planned it with your with your help. So. And this is the part that uh I think actually is the most important part of the process. Um not everybody always does, but I think action planning is because it's

063a real difference from districts who adopt plans that only sit on a website or a shelf and districts that adopt plans that actually have demonstrable action that they can point to that's resulted from what they said they were going to do. So, this part uh we can provide in the standard proposal, the templates and a process outline with a little coaching on how to do that, the action planning, or we can do a full one or two-day facilitation with the leadership team on the action planning. In the parlance of board district uh uh communication relations, this is dance floor work, right? But, it's very important dance floor work that still gets presented back to the board and communicated with the board and communicated with the community. And it's important because it'll have action plans with

064metrics, accountability, transparency, and it'll also serve as a great communication device about what is happening when in the action planning process or in the strategic planning implementation. >> All right, so we're concluding here just to let you know that um this journey we went to went to design with you and for you. Um but, we want to be flexible um so that we can be sure that we can adjust to your needs, but also which we didn't really mention too much about is adjust to any feedback we get. So, we may need when we get feedback from your community or other groups, we may need to pause and go back and say, we may need to rethink this. So, we have to be open to um that happening as well. So, and we're not done

065until you're satisfied. So, we're here. You have our standard proposal. We'll continue to we would meet continually with um uh Dr. McHugh uh to monitor the process and on the implementation piece, but we want to make sure as Kane mentioned that this isn't a plan that sits somewhere, which I don't think it will be after working here a little bit with you all, but that you know, it is like baked into your district leadership, into your communications, into your community, into the work that is done in your schools. >> Thank you very much. Hopefully we kept that short enough to leave time for questions and dialogue. >> You did very well in that regard. Okay, let's open it up. People are taking notes here. >> I'm going to ask my same question. >> Go right

066ahead, Dr. Montoya. >> [laughter] >> Yes, it's a >> So, when working with the strategic planning team, how do you help them envision a school district that is going to prepare students for a future that is yet to be determined? Because what many school districts districts have been doing and what their experiences may have been when going through school should be nothing about what we are now trying to plan students for. So, how do you educate folks? How do you enlighten folks about what the possibilities of what a school district could be, how do you help them with that? >> I'd say at least two ways come to mind right away. One, hopefully in the engagement process, we've engaged people in the community who are already asking that question and maybe even pointing towards that

067future themselves. You have a very accomplished community. You have people who are probably doing amazing things and living in that future almost. So, we'd hopefully find a way to tap into them either through surveys or focus groups or interviews or they're on the strategic planning team possibly. The other one frankly is to set the table for strategic planning team. We often do grab a set of articles and readings that we think will help them frame that work that you're talking about. So, it's not about just being really good at what we already do, or even better at what we already do. That's important, but what it what is next that we haven't yet foreseen? >> So, we leave some breadcrumbs possibly for some folks. >> Right, and maybe highlights. I mean, there's some spotlight places

068across the country that you can take a look at. Um that's always, you know, where in some cases that's especially staff. Sometimes that's where they get inspiration is when they see it actually happening in other places. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> But, I think that's the question everybody's having right now, right? >> Thank you. >> I think the student group you just worked with that you were talking to me >> I I I was telling Kane their big their top issue was artificial intelligence. >> Mhm. >> So, they were talking about, you know, what does this mean for our learning in school? What does this mean for our teaching in school? What's this going to look What are you know, what are the rules? Do we know what the rules are? What's this going to look

069like when we um transition into high school? Their number one topic was artificial intelligence. I thought that was fascinating. These were seventh and eighth graders. >> Anyone else? Then let let Well, let let me ask. Go back to that very beginning, and you went back to it, too, that planning meeting. >> Mhm. >> Uh uh out of that uh planning meeting, what would be the I mean, you wouldn't let us out of the room, or that meeting could not adjourn until what was established? >> Well, one of the things that we did talk about is do you want a blank slate, start all over, or do you want to use some of your existing pieces, your vision, your mission, your pillars? You have a portrait of learner. Do you want to use those? Do you

070want to use those as um to get reaction from your community, um and then go forward? Like if they say, "Hey, this is fabulous," then we go forward, or if they say, "You know, this could use a little fine-tuning." You know, those kinds of things, but you'd really need to know that if you're going to start all over or if you're going to use what you've already got in place. >> Cuz that changes our facilitation of a lot of that engagement, including survey pieces, too. But most of all, what kinds of questions we ask and how are we framing those questions. >> And And it's not that as we as we mentioned, you do we do have to listen to what we hear back from the community during the process. And we may have to

071go back and say, you know, people really want you to re-look at this portrait of a learner. We didn't think we were going to, but we're getting this feedback that that's important. And if you don't pivot and do those things, then people don't feel it's their process, right? That you're not being responsive to what they want. So, you've got to be able to switch gears if you need to. >> Yeah. We would raise our hand and let you know that. We wouldn't just push through if we were getting feedback that suggested something we had decided in the planning meeting wasn't going to be effective. Cuz that means everything afterwards is less effective. >> Right. >> And that would be That would be a big mess. >> Well, it's good to know that you're also able

072to be able to be flexible enough to pivot >> Absolutely. >> back and recalibrate, so. >> Yep. >> Okay. Anyone else? Ted? >> So, our our superintendent quite often says we can do anything, >> But can't do everything. >> everything. >> [laughter] >> So, as part >> I've heard that. >> How do you deal with um as part of this process where >> You know. >> All Here's all these great things that we want to include. How do you How do you help pair that down to the how you know, focus on on the top priorities? >> Well, I mean, you do have to do that. You have to figure out how to prioritize. So, I think you really I mean, there's a That takes some facilitation, but you do have to get to that

073cuz your superintendent is absolutely right. And it also it you just can't do it all. So, you do have to make some decisions or help groups >> Mhm. >> come to decide what is the most important, what do they value the most, um and what, you know, what they want to see the school district move toward. >> Yeah, I would say sometimes, uh you know, communities or members from, you know, cross-sections can be worried that somebody's getting excluded by not including a certain priority, but we I personally always try to go back to what was the data telling us on the influx about what the priorities are. And then we do try to have a facilitated conversation about what's going to happen if we try to include everything. Um a lot of Well, I'll say

074a lot of staff and a lot of parents, they can recognize that problem. Uh and I think when we have an honest conversation about it, we can then have what I would say a rigorous and and direct conversation, but a very good conversation, because ultimately I do find that uh teams feel better when they come out, even if they all, I really kind of wish this was here, I think ultimately they feel better that it's a plan that they can clearly accomplish and see being accomplished by the community, because they are also going to be our communicators and champions for that plan in the community. And so we do make sure that we're able to work through that and not just feel like, oh, Ted didn't like it, so we'll just not let Ted talk

075about it. No, we want to facilitate a process where even if you didn't get that one thing, you still feel good enough to go out and support this plan in >> Yep. Anyone else? Okay. Well, thank you both for spending the evening with us. Thank you. We'll let Dr. McHugh walk you out and >> All right. Thanks, everybody. >> Thank you very much. Have a pleasant evening. >> Okay. >> What else could be my question? Have you worked with any of the guys? >> He just gave you a big wink cuz he was laying on the bed. >> So you're trying to take it over? I'm on the peace >> No. I worked with him in laser. So when he left, we both left at the same time. >> [clears throat] >> poised They don't

076have a car. >> Good evening. >> Okay, now that our superintendent found you, brought you in the room, Dr. McCue, please introduce our guests. >> All right. Well, our next two presenters, Dr. John Burke, and Dr. Ken Wallace from Student Centered Services. >> Thank you. >> All right, good evening everybody. First of all, I'm a neighbor. I came down Geneva Avenue, about 5 minutes from here, so it was really easy to get here. I appreciate that very much. You guys being close to me, that that makes big difference. Last week I had to drive an hour, so this is this is way way better. So, as Jeff said, I'm Dr. Ken Wallace, recently retired from Maine Township High School District 207, ran the Maine Township High Schools, and this is my partner John, and we

077are from Student Centered Services. We formed this company a little over 2 years ago. Really to try to do things a little bit differently, a group of innovators that had experience in their own districts making changes, not just talking about changes, but making real changes to improve the lives of students, and so that really is sort of a a company ethos for us. Um In addition to myself, Brian Wegley, who's not here tonight, is one of our associates who will be assigned to this project as well. Brian is a recently retired superintendent from one of the Glenbrook districts, but he's doing an interim up in Wauconda this year and actually next year. They're bringing him back next year to do an interim and he does a lot of our strategic planning for us. And then

078our company is really current and recently retired superintendents, some business folks. We've got a wide variety of of skill sets in the company. We do a wide variety of services, but I'd say strategic planning is really our specialty. Then I want to introduce Dr. Burkey, who is a long-known innovator in the state of Illinois. >> Well, good evening, everyone. It's good It's good to see you. And I understand your whole evening is probably spent listening to strategic planners. So, we'll try to make this as short and hopefully as interesting as possible. Let me tell you why I got into this and why why Ken does this and why Brian does this. But specifically with me, I was a superintendent for 12 years. And when I came into the district where I was, they had a

079strategic planning process that was so involved and embedded that the administration spent time after time every month checking boxes, doing reports to the board, creating all of these documents. But what I discovered when I was a new superintendent was this plan wasn't actually making the district any better. And so, I when it came time for me to do my first plan as a as a superintendent, I I went a very different direction and really looked for a process that would really involve the community, would involve all the stakeholders that we have in the district. But most importantly, I was looking for a process that would really, truly change our district. I was superintendent in a good district, but it wasn't a great district. And I was really trying to take the district, as they say,

080from good to great. And over the course of my time there in the district I was in was Huntley. Over the course of my time there, we truly increased student achievement, narrowed achievement gaps among students, and really became a leading innovator in the state. And I can tell you without a doubt what was behind those changes was the focus that our strategic plan gave us. I can also tell you when I started out, we had board meetings that truly sometimes would go past midnight. And as you can probably guess, when board meetings go that long, there's a lot being done in the board meeting that isn't connected to the to the to the direct focus of maybe what it should be. And so, when we had the strategic plan, it also provided our board, and

081then our administration, and then ultimately our teachers and our staff the focus that they needed that they needed as well. So, now that I'm doing strategic plans for districts, I'm we very much created a process that's very similar to what I saw work as a as a as a superintendent. Now, one of the real keys to what we do is we really involve students. And I know a lot of strategic planning processes involve students and get their input, but they are not just window dressing with with what we do. They very much are active participants, and we want students student voice to challenge the adult voice. And I can tell you that they often do, and it it truly makes for a better product. What I would like to what I'd like to show you

082here, instead of just telling you how we use students, I wanted to show you how we use students. And this is just a short clip. Uh it's about a minute long. It's actually from a final board presentation that of a strategic plan that uh I did a couple of years ago. But here's what's unique is the final presentation is actually done by students. And so, you know, we as facilitators MC that and help the students with it, but they actually do the presentation. So, I'd like to show that to you uh now. >> on the actual strategic plans team uh and their work itself. And and to kick us off to talk about uh how their meetings went and their process and then he's going to actually do the first uh the first thing is

083uh Brady. >> Thank you, Dr. Brady. I'm Brady Surles. I'm a senior at Cary Grove. And uh we met six times from uh September to January. And this was about 50 people, teachers, administrators, students, parents, uh community leaders, uh just a lot of different stakeholders. Uh Ms. Mackle was at my table a couple times. I got to got to discuss a lot of stuff about um about the five different goals, which uh you're going to cover in these next few slides. So, one of the first of those would be um the the district statement for the district. And this is just a statement of what the goal of the strategic plans team breaking off into several smaller groups and trying to picture how we start a district and what we'll start to become in the

084course of the next five years and beyond that. And then we took this picture of all these different groups and tried to sum it back down into a single sentence, which became to be a destination district that provides students world-class education within an engaging and supportive community. >> So, um I I can tell you this was a this was a high school district and you saw high school students there, but uh we've actually worked in uh in in elementary districts such as yours and we're actually doing one right now in one of your neighbor districts in 89 where we have students uh as young as fifth grade on the team. So, uh they do not have to be high school students to add a lot to the team. >> Okay, the rest of deck really

085goes over a lot of the elements that were included in our proposal. So, we're going to go through this pretty quickly because we have a Q&A section and that's where we generally have the most uh most work to do. So, so one of the thing that's unique about our process is we actually start the process by interviewing each board member. And we do that in a lot of different engagements, not just strategic planning. And the reason we do that is because we hear things and I can tell you like with the 89 presentations, we get to the end, we go back and reflect on those initial notes that we heard from board members. Those are insights that often really really help drive the strategic planning processes. It isn't everything, but there are clear signals that

086come from boards that we think are important to include in the process. Obviously, stakeholders holder surveys in the district that we did that's actually much smaller than than this district. We had over 1,600 surveys. So, that's really important survey data that that we can use to inform directions. We include narrative sections in there that allow people to expand on some of the things that that that are important to them and we really do a good job of trying to distill down in that what are the really important things. Our plan team, as John said, our name student-centered services isn't isn't an accident. That is really what we believe in and that's why having students as a part of the process is important. Regardless of of what we think at the end of the day, these

087plans are aimed to do one thing and that is to serve the most important people that walk in the door here every day, and that's your students. And then we we take that very, very seriously. So, the student involvement is just John just showed you is really, really an important part of this. Um and then obviously we've we've run into some boards that have said, you know, we've got these particular groups that we think are underrepresented. They've got important things that they need to say. We just don't get enough voice from them. And so, we will customize as needed to make sure that we survey out obviously when we survey and and the and the composition of the team is designed to minimally reflect the composition of the district and the communities uh from which

088your students come. >> So, one of the things we that's really important about our process is we have one team for the strategic plan that will meet over the course of a semester, and it'll be uh six different times, and it's the same team. And what the value of this is is that they will really get to know each other, and they will also, aside from writing the strategic plan, they will learn a lot about your district from all of the various areas because we will have data uh presentations and engagement in several of the sessions. And so, what you get out of this as a district is is not just a final product. You truly get your community, including, you know, stakeholders within your district, but also external, that really get involved and engaged

089in helping uh plan the future of your district. And I uh I've had just many districts that tell me, and it was my own experience, that those benefits will really, really pay off as you as you go forward uh as as a district. >> And then our outputs. Obviously, we're focusing on your students' futures. Uh we present a 5-year road map, and that's what it is. It's a road map. Um isn't chiseled in stone, but, you know, it's it gives you a clear direction and signals for which to uh travel toward. And then it's designed to set the stage for annual measurable goals, and that's where the rubber really meets the road in a strategic plan. >> And then finally, this is not uh this is not a formal part of of of our engagement,

090but what I want you to know is what's really really important in strategic planning is is the implementation. And I will tell you that's where most districts uh if if they don't do well with strategic planning, this is usually where it is. Uh anybody can come in and help you write a a a good plan. Or not not anybody, but a lot of a lot of people could come in and do that. Um what we will really help you do though is one write a plan that will be implementable. As I said, we're not going to give you a plan like the one I inherited where it was really just about checking boxes. But we will help set your district up for for how to implement this plan. And this chart just shows again what

091we recommend, and not every district does it exactly this way. But from the plan that we will collaboratively write with the team and that you will hopefully ultimately approve, uh this would be a year-long cycle of where you would write actionable goals. And those have to be done annually because things change annually. And if you write a strategic plan that's locked in stone for 5 years, I I guarantee you will either have to change things or you will find that well, we just can't do that because this doesn't apply anymore. So, this is a a process that really keeps this plan alive and and implementable over over the five over for five years. So, with that, it's a high-level overview. I know you've seen our proposal, which has a lot more detail in it, but

092now we would like to entertain any questions that you have. >> Thank you very much, both of you. All right. Board questions, comment. Katie, please get us started. >> One thing that really jumped out at me in your proposal was about the realtor exercise you do when you're engaging the community members and, you know, saying if a real the realtor is saying if family's moving to Glen Ellyn, they have four kids, what are they really going to like about the school? I think that's great, but I also want people who maybe kids have grown out of the district, you know, we have a lot of residents who might not have kids in D41, we have private schools. How do you find those people and engage them and make sure it really is full community input

093cuz it sounds like you have a plan, but I'm very curious. >> Yeah, no, it's very important to have and what what we do is we'll we'll have recommended types of stakeholders that we should be on the team and ultimately the the district will choose who they are because you know who these people are, but we will have recommended groups of people and I can tell you on every every plan that I've worked on, we do have stakeholders that don't have kids in school and maybe, you know, maybe retired or or, you know, we we always want to have uh some people that are business owners on on the team as well. And so, we we very much try to have a comprehensive team because I think what's important is is for the the whole

094community to understand, even if they don't have kids in District 41, that District 41 and the quality of this district matters to everyone in this community and it is probably the reason a lot of people move into this community is people are school shopping and they want to be in a in a in a in a community with a good school district. And quite frankly, even if they don't have kids in school or they're not planning to have kids in school, uh their property values are impacted by having a quality school district. And so, I think everyone's impacted by that and we really, you know, stress that through the process. >> I'd add one more thing, too. Um one of the elements of our survey, there's various uh audiences that we will go after. One

095of those is community audiences. So, it's a broad-based, anyone in the community. But beyond that, to John's point, um I think as as what we have found with boards as if they identify that in particular as an area of concern, which which obviously, you know, bring them to the table, then those are folks that we could target for the entire team [clears throat] to be a to be a member of that. It doesn't have to be folks that are necessarily cheerleaders. Sometimes the most value is bringing someone who you've heard from about their property tax bill. Well, bring them in. Bring them into the tent. Make them part of the process. I think that's probably in this day and age still, hopefully, doesn't go out of style in terms of trying to build bridges with

096folks in the community. >> Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else? Dr. Martella, you I know you got a question. >> So, when it comes to working with that plan team, how do you help them envision a school district of the future that will prepare prepare kids for the future when that may not have been their experience going through the school itself? >> That is a great question because I think it's something that that we really excel in and I've got to I'm going to I'm going to go back to the board interviews to give you a concrete example of how we started out. So, when when one of the three of us we and we'll do, you know, we would do those interviews on Zoom and one of the questions is is going to

097be, "How do you want to see the school district improve in the next 5 years?" And when I ask that question to many board members in districts where things are pretty good, and I think that's the case here, uh I've looked at your data. I I know a lot about this district. I mean, things are pretty good. And I will have board members that tell me, "Well, I really I I think I I think, you know, I think we're doing really well and I don't know." And we will we I will push back and I will say, "Okay, there has to be something that you feel we can be better at because even if we're really good today, if we don't do anything different, 5 years from now, we're not going to still going to

098be really good because the world's changing and it's and it's changing rapidly. Both Ken and I and and Brian as well uh have extensive experience in in innovation in school districts and you know, all of us I know and and Ken and I talk about AI all the time and are are are very engaged in in in AI discussions because what I I actually think in education, we are missing the boat a little bit on our discussions about AI. We're having a lot of talks about about what students should and shouldn't be able to do, about what our policies are and I don't those are those are important discussions, but those are base-level discussions. What the real discussion is is a lot of our students in school in this building at Hadley Middle School today,

099a lot of them the the jobs that they may be preparing for won't exist when they enter the job force. And the reality is, none of us even know what all the jobs are that are going to exist then. We have to teach kids very differently today and it's it's just it's it's not as much about content anymore because we can get that uh we can get that virtually on the internet. AI can do that for us. We need to produce kids that know how to work with that and um so I I think that's something where we will really help educate and push the team. You know, one of the very first activities that we do and this is something we started maybe two years ago. I didn't always do this in strategic planning,

100but it's an out-of-the-gate activity where we ask all of the participants, we give them a new a newspaper masthead and we ask them to write a headline for what they would like to see Glen Ellyn 41 have a headline in the Chicago Tribune for in the year 2031. And and and and and we say we don't want you to be constrained. We want you to write whatever your biggest dream goal would be for this district and that starts to really get people thinking really broadly. Now, we also, you know, have to bring people to reality. I mean, you can't do everything and everything of course is funding permitting, but we don't want people to be held back because they're not they're not dreaming enough about where we need to go forward as a district and

101I again, I think that's even more important in a district like this than in a district that has a lot of apparent struggles. It's pretty easy to go in and do a strategic plan because anything you do and anything the district does is probably going to be an improvement. It's actually more challenging in a district like this because you do have to push thought and helping people understand that, you know, to your point that the world that that that our that our students that are here today are going to enter is very different than ours and the school that we knew as students isn't best isn't what's best going to prepare them for that. >> Yeah, and I I would say that the current engagement that we've got in a district down the road and

102it goes back to the initial board interviews. There was a couple of board members that are very much in tune. In fact, they have job specific titles that that put them on the edge of what AI does. So, that was really important information from the board right at the beginning. I'm reading a really good book right now that I recommend called Open to Work. It's written by the the two guys that run LinkedIn. Um and it's it's super super helpful, but it's the kind of information that we need to be thinking about right now. What we need more than anything else is to create learning conditions in schools that produce nimble learners, resilient learners. That's going to look a little bit different and so as short as I can answer your question, I think a

103good strategic plan minimally builds habits, daily habits that you can implement in schools that help build that type of a learner that isn't going to be reliant on rote memorization that maybe 20 years ago gave someone a tremendous advantage. Those days are are are shrinking and we need to need to be open-eyed about what that looks like. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Ted. >> I'm I'm interested in hearing a little bit about how you facilitate the planning process. Um the you mentioned here that there's approximately 40 to 60 people on the team. How do you get all the voices heard without some of the stronger personalities [snorts] um you know dominating the conversation? >> Yeah, we do. Um so, we do a variety of different activities and we do a lot of group

104work. So, during during many of our sessions, there is some there are sometimes when the whole the whole group is listening to the same thing or we're having a group discussion. But but much of the time, we have people in smaller in smaller groups. And uh what you described does happen sometimes that you get voices that are that are that are louder than others. What part of what we do as facilitators and you know, as we put in our proposal, there's three of us and you know, we we're guaranteeing as part of the proposal that at least two two us will be at every session. In most cases, all three of us will. It's just if there's a scheduling conflict that that it it that could happen where we're not all three here. But, I

105believe other than like one session in '89, we all three were at all of the sessions. And so, what we do is we actively move around to these groups, and we are very active participants. And, you know, we're pretty seasoned at at at bringing that out, whether it's whether it's students, whether it is just someone who is who's quieter and doesn't know if it's their place to be able to offer that. Uh so, we I think we're pretty skilled at trying uh at trying to do that to make sure that all all of the voices are are heard cuz some people are uncomfortable, and some people, you know, some people have been parts of processes like this where it's been, you know, well, we want to hear your voice, but not really. Like, you know,

106we want to say we did. And, we have to first make them comfortable, and first make them truly understand that no, that like your voice really does matter. And, the team really will write the plan. Now, we will offer our advice to the team. There's times when we will say, "Hey, did you think about?" But, ultimately, it's the team's decision. And then, we work a lot, also, of course, directly with the the superintendent and other, you know, designees that he determines. And, we will ultimately bring you a plan that we know is culturally going to work for for this district, and it's going to be good with you. And again, I'm going to know it's going to be good with you because we will have interviewed you out of the gate, and we we have

107a really good barometer then of where the board is. We've we've never brought a final plan to the board and had any of it changed. And, the reason is because we do all of that work along the way to have a very high comfort level into what what is going to work. Uh because ultimately, you are the governing body that has to approve the plan. And so, you know, it does have to meet your your needs and what you want to see for the future to approve it. >> The only other thing I'd add to that, Ted, is that we also establish some meeting routines. And actually John does a really good job of starting each meeting actually with student voice. So, he calls out some questions and so we actually model at the beginning

108of the each meeting making sure that we get student voice leading that meeting. And then we actually will coach groups cuz we break that big team into groups. So, we'll go around and coach groups to make sure that let's make sure that on a regular basis we're asking students cuz sometimes your students will be reticent. They won't, you know, defer to adults. So, we do some coaching of those teams just to make sure that and we do see that, you know, sometimes people come into these they have an agenda when they get in that room and and they won't let go of that agenda. So, we have to do some coaching to make sure that, you know, all voices are heard. It's not perfect work, but we we listen and and try to be nimble

109about how to do that. >> You know, it's not the question you asked directly, but but I'll but I'll answer this question. Is sometimes I get asked, "Well, how do you keep people engaged for six meetings for three hours each meeting? Like how how do you These people are volunteers. How do How do you get them to do this?" And I will tell you that we we've never had a plan where we've lost significant amount of people during the process. We end with the same team we started with other than, you know, there are people that'll have scheduling conflicts that can't make a meeting, but the reason is we keep it very engaging and I and maybe you don't want to use the word fun. I'm not sure they would all say it was fun,

110but it it it it will be a process that is very engaging that people look look look forward to and and they will and they will come back. >> We feed them, actually. >> And and and we do Yes, and we do feed them. Yes. Yes. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Well, look at that. I think we're right on We got right back on time. Okay. >> Gentlemen, thank you so much for the time. It was great to see you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we'll take another minute and Okay. Well, let's take a few minutes to offer some feedback and thoughts perhaps around elements of of what you heard. Priorities in terms of what you think are the important pieces to a plan maybe how you felt consultants did on those elements.

111Again, we're not making determinations here. We're going to put our thoughts together and we'll share those with the superintendent who will bring a recommendation forward, but let's take a few minutes. Turn your mic on, too. >> I had one and it was it was by the first present presentor and it's so I kind of had my nose and I could kind of push this one to Jeff um just cuz you had worked with him in the past at least and it seemed like I wasn't sure what the end product was. And that's why I asked that question as to price. And when I said when he asked if he answered it, I said I think so and I kind of said I think so cuz of the timing. I don't know what the end product

112is. I still don't know what the graphic whatever um the graphic package was and so I don't know if he's just if that firm was just providing like a narrative um or if there's some sort of presentable end product being presented or what have you. So it was very confused as to what the product was that was being provided. >> Yeah. For the standard rate, the end product it would be a document, but it wouldn't be pretty. For $8,000 or $8,500, they can make it pretty. >> Okay. >> Or we could make it pretty and not spend the $8,000. >> So we could spend five. >> do it for five. >> Well, no, but we do it for five. >> I'll make it look pretty. >> We're not negotiating. >> No, no, my point being

113is I I mean there is a cost. I mean you put Ken on it, you put whoever on it. There's an internal cost regardless, but um that's I just kind of I wasn't quite sure then he still didn't really answer it. So okay. >> The fellow that presented, Jeff, he's not the one that's actually going to be doing the facilitation >> Correct. He won't. >> last two presenters, those are the people that will be facilitating the process. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> There was a situation where Beth was, I believe, out of the country. Otherwise, she would have been the one doing the presentation because she would be our point person should we go with ASA. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Were you going to say something there? Sorry. >> Julie. >> I have more

114of a comment than a question. >> Yeah. >> Um I feel like the end product on all of them was a little vague. Like am I getting a one page two-sider? Is it a 15-page book? Like I'm not The third one did say in their literature that it was a five-page document, but overall I thought it was kind of vague. Like what does this thing look like? Is this an elevator pitch I can talk to somebody about in an elevator? Or is it, you know, it's like I got I don't know. Let me see page 13 here somewhere. So um I think more information about that would be helpful. >> Very good. Thank you. Amy, you're leaning in I think. >> I I feel like Bob wants me to say something. >> No. Do it,

115Amy. You seem to be leaning. Go ahead. >> Um I thought the first one who talked something interesting that I found about that was they were talking about um having like different districts that feed into so maybe in our case like 89 or 87 and I wasn't really sure how that worked, but I'm not opposed to having a partnership with especially 87. You know, obviously our students feed into there. Um and then with the third one I thought it was interesting that it sounded like they're making the community members and other people in their sessions write the plan. And so I think that in my mind offered a unique perspective as to how that product is going to be cuz it's going to be the voices in the group. Yeah. What what you got for

116me? >> Encouraged to do >> comments. Thank you, Amy. Jeff, when you worked with ASA, did they have a committee? Or did they just collect survey results, synthesize it, or did they have a committee of folks because the second and the third presenters each talked about a committee of stakeholders that are going to meet on a regular basis, and they may go through that survey information. >> Mhm. >> Um but [clears throat] it seems like they have a more in-depth process with the 30, 40, 50 people, whatever it might be on that committee. >> The committee was about 50 people for each district for ASA. >> Okay, so they too ran >> Mhm. >> that larger process. Okay. >> So I guess in asking and following that in this form, were we missing something from

117the presentation today from ASA? Do you think that Beth not presenting >> I think you missed seeing Beth's facilita- facilitation style. >> Yeah. >> I think you missed seeing how that would feel if she was in the front of the room answering questions. I can vouch for that piece, but I have connections. I have either observed or talked in the past or worked with people in all three of these groups. So I am familiar and I am comfortable with all of their work. I didn't bring you anybody who's not going to be able to do it. Yeah. >> Yeah, good. >> But when you said that the Beth is out of the country, it kind of like I I got to say that okay, that make make a little bit of sense, so. >> Katie.

118>> I think one thing that stuck with me, Jeff, is, you know, I've heard you say on so many occasions what is best for students, and and the third one >> Mhm. >> they were the ones they were the only ones that really talked about the students that much. Um and that's why we're doing this, right? So, that really really stuck with me. Um and I also know someone on the D89 board and I asked her. I was like, "How's it going?" And she said they were very happy. Their final report out meeting is in 2 weeks, which I think we have a board meeting that night. Otherwise, I'd be interested in listening to it, but I don't know. The student thing really stuck with me tonight. They were like the only ones that really

119went into it. >> Right. Yeah. Good observation. That's as usual, Katie. Thank you. >> Thank you. Others? Ted? >> Well, it's interesting cuz I I I my notes say that they mentioned the student voice in the second presentation, as well. So, um what And what I liked in the second presentation was emphasizing um the opportunity for engagement. Right? Even though it's sort of implied in in the other presentations. Um but um you're right. The I also have a note that says that that the uh third group >> [laughter] >> highlighted student participation, so I guess. So, um uh what I liked also, what I noted here was um from the from the the last uh last presentation was um that the strategic plan provides focus on what's important, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Man, you're taking

120all my notes. Well, good. >> Having done this multiple times, I think what's going to be most important, and I don't recall having notes on it from the first presenter, but I did on the second and third, would be the action plans and the implementation. The writing of the document, the soliciting the feedback, the synthesizing it down to something that people can gravitate to, all of those processes I think are going to be fairly similar. But the hard part is going to be do we have actionable steps that are measurable that we can ensure that we are moving the ball down the field in the way we want to and need to for the students. So I think those are the that's the biggest thing for me and which is why I asked the same

121question of all three of them. How do we get folks to be more forward thinking in what a school system should be doing for students? And and the implementation of that is going to be the hard part. >> And Chris since you did ask those questions consistently for with each of the consultants. I'm I'm just curious do you did you land somewhere in terms of that? >> I felt two and three were strong. >> You felt two and three were strong. Okay. >> quite sure if the What do they call them? The spark cards? >> The smart >> was what I was really going for there. You know, I mean >> Okay. >> But not having lived that I don't know. Maybe the spark cards do get to what you're trying to get to. But

122I mean when you when you They have a slide up there the first folks did around something along the lines of the science of of of learning or the science of education. What does that mean? >> Within the landscapes I think. >> Yeah, it was one of those correct. And so you know, maybe they articulate that more in the process. So they help folks understand you know, what it is we should be striving for when it comes to the science of learning. Um >> They had 20 minutes so it's >> Of course. >> Yeah. Yeah, there's limitations. >> Jay, your mic is off. >> Did I put that when you talk about that first one like what is this what is that? You know, the first one had we we had this member pricing and

123this non-member pricing and you can do this and you can do that. It kind of seemed like well, are you selling your strategic planning services or are you are are you here to sell us one thing and then continue I mean I understand people are trying to sell their services and I get that. Um but it seemed like this was more of a let's build on this, let's build on this, let's build on this where the other two were more this is what we're doing, this is what we're presenting. There's options included in this and obviously, you know, if there's something you want, you know, we would go this way, there's something you don't want, we go that way. Um where the first one was more like, "Hey, we can do this and we can

124do that. You can get this membership and this is form and, you know, this conference and that and that, you know." >> Mhm. Okay. Amy, did you have another thought? Yeah. >> Uh I did, but Chris kind of summed it up for me with the Mine was just on I know the third specifically talked about a yearly review and the second one also talked about, you know, reviewing and >> Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. >> making sure that we you know, move that forward in the implementation, but I think Chris captured what I was thinking very well. >> Very good. So, um there were four um items that seemed really important as I first of all read the proposals, but then listened to the conversations. Uh three items that were crystallizing as being really important in in

125in this plan, in this step. One was that the plan really was accessible, that it was clear, that it was understandable to the to everyone, and that it would invite participation, that people would feel incentivized because they understood it. It was close to them. It wasn't complicated. Uh that that would be really important. I would encourage the superintendent to look for that in a plan. That the engagement was as broad as possible, uh which would include where do you get How do you reach out to voices you don't normally hear from? Um I was pleased that the third group did raise it unsolicited um to talk about uh doing that. Uh that would be a second one that would be really important. Um I would suggest a third as Katie noted, I had it here

126that it was really grounded in uh the student experience. Right? Uh and then uh finally uh that the plan to Chris's point I think prepares the district for answering that question to go back to a a book study. I know how the this board just loves book studies um but prepare the district for what school could be. Which plan, which consultant could best sort of set us up uh to do uh to do that. So, that that's what I would encourage superintendent to look for in the plans. Yeah? Amen. Good. Yeah, any final any final thoughts before we then close this portion of uh the meeting and we will leave it to the superintendent to Yeah. Julie? >> I do have one last thought. >> Jump in. >> Um just I think it's we've talked

127a couple of them talked about measuring um the first one maybe talked about measuring what's important. Um and I think you know and I can't remember who did what. I wrote it down but I don't remember it in my head. Um some of them give you like a like a >> dashboard >> Yeah, dashboard kind of thing. Um something that you know, part of our job as a board is to monitor and if we have a tool that can easily be monitored that's very useful for us to do our job. Right, something that's not vague and nebulous but something that's like very specific um that really shows you know, what we're what we're trying to do here. >> Okay. Okay. Then, Dr. McHugh, do you have all that you need? Well, first of all, thank

128you for working hard to bring us three very competent, capable, and experienced groups of educators who who do this work. Uh and hopefully our assessments, our our feedback, our notes will be helpful to you as you make that recommendation. And just schedule-wise, do you anticipate bringing that recommendation at the next board meeting? So, it would be the next regular board meeting on May 18th. Okay. Very good. All right. Well, thank you. Then, let's move on to >> Is this a committee of the whole meeting? >> No, ma'am. >> It says that it's on the calendar. >> We we altered the um plan to turn this into a special meeting as opposed to a committee of the whole so that we could facilitate this discussion. I believe the district did change the calendar. >> says it's

129a committee of the whole meeting. >> Does it really? We It is online it still says that. That's a mistake. It It should not It should not have said that. But, you have time for public participation and you're certainly free if you'd like to make that, or you could send or you could send you could send your notes in to us. You could send emails in to us. So, you do have a couple of options. I'm sorry, that was not That is a mistake. That was to to be changed. >> Where was that announced that it was changed? >> I know it was this last couple of board meetings we did vote on it. We changed that. >> We changed the Yes, we did. I'm sorry. That I don't mean to >> Yeah, and I'm

130looking at the calendar and it does say special meeting on the on the agenda on the website. >> Yeah. >> Well, yeah, the board calendar was approved back in May, but on the updated calendar since it was voted on, as posted online, it is posted as a special meeting. Better pull up >> Well, we may be looking at contradictory >> [clears throat] >> places. That's our I'll apologize on behalf of the board in the district. That should should have been clear and it should have been unified. That's a mistake, but we are going to have public participation. You're certainly welcome to offer your feedback in that regard. Um we we will certainly take it under consideration. Okay? Now, members of the public who wish to address the board should complete a green form and submit

131it to Mrs. Moak, the board recording secretary. Speakers are asked to maintain respectful decorum and limit their comments to 3 minutes or less. Please note that all meetings, including public meetings, public comment, are live-streamed and recorded and become part of the official record. Um Mrs. Moak is here. Anyone who would like to make public comments? >> Stephanie Clark. >> Thank you. And Stephanie, we're using the screen and the clock is on the screen. I'll >> Before you start my time, I'll just say that um I thought it was a cow meeting, so I will my public comment isn't related to the topic tonight. I will submit a lot of thoughts. [cough] >> I appreciate that, Stephanie. >> board. You really should ask I mean we Erica Kraybill helped us facilitate. We made an amazing strategic

132plan for 2017 to 21. We presented it as it was so great. We did it all ourselves, cost $0. So, you have a in-house what you could resource you could use. Okay, my public I start the clock. Okay. >> Yeah, you can start the clock now. >> Here you go. >> Uh well, I lost 15 seconds >> Go ahead, Steph. >> Okay. Hi there, my name is Stephanie Clark. I'm here to address the special education review action plan that was shared on April 20th. I would like to applaud Dr. McHugh and his team for recognizing the deficiencies in our district and for conducting the review. The proposed changes in response to the review, particularly the return of the specialized programs and the parent collaboration group are going to be positive changes for D41. I'm thrilled

133to see that we are finally going back to the way things were in 2017. That might seem an odd thing to say, to be happy we're going back almost a decade. The review didn't mention it, but D41 had specialized programs before they were eliminated in 2019. We also had a parent collaboration group. A little bit of history will be helpful. In the spring of 2019, I was a D41 board president rolling off the board. I had huge concerns with Superintendent Paul Gordon and Director of Special Ed Laurel O'Brien eliminating these programs despite concerns from staff, board members, and parents. On April 8th and April 22nd of 2019 with the support of board members Buckholtz, Curry, and D'Ambrosio, I tried to lead a board discussion to get the admin to reconsider this action. And the reasons

134that I gave are the very reasons given for the return of these classrooms in 2026. I guess you could say that I was right. Despite protests from my fellow board members including Bob Bruno and Jason Loback. In the essence of time, I'm going to submit my written comments from then to be included in the minutes so they can be reviewed if you don't have time to watch the meetings. So why would we eliminate these classes? One word, consultant. We were working towards We were working towards better supporting students in our specialized programs when all of a sudden Gordon did a 180 and brought in a full inclusion consultant Julie Coston. Side note, Gordon and Coston wrote a book together after this. She spent about nine days a year in our district, charged us hundreds of

135thousands of dollars, and pushed for full inclusion. At the time the Special Ed Task Force was created creating inclusionary principles that Gordon, O'Brien, and Loback, the board rep on the committee, used to guide the elimination of these programs without sharing any data to support it. Thankfully, we've come full circle. However, I do have concern that some board members could get in the way of the administration. Julie Hill and Ted Estes campaigned on full inclusion and Bruno and Loback have been on board with eliminating these programs since day one. Loback has dozens of Facebook posts from the spring of 2019 alone pushing this ideology. At the last meeting, the only response from this group was to express their concerns about staffing costs. Um which I could see them trying to use as a roadblock. None of

136them recognized the failed initiative that they backed or questioned the return of a program that they advocated for eliminating. >> They have There have been signs over the years that it wasn't working. Look no further than the increase in the number of students outplaced to other districts. The number has more than doubled from 14 students when we had the programs to 30 today with cost jumping from 700,000 to over 1.1 million. Funny enough, Bruno recently sent a letter to the community stating, "I deeply believe we are one community, but until all of our children joyfully walk our school halls, we are not whole." Yet, he sat by and said nothing as a staggering number of students were outplaced. Loback promised, "When we mess up, we fix it." in response to the concerns about eliminating eliminating

137programs. Didn't he see concerns when some of his biggest supporters sued the district? One more sentence. Sued the district to get outplacement for their children? I share this concern with the hope that the remaining three board members will question these four if they try to guide you. Recognize that they're pushing an agenda and they did not do their due diligence to ensure due for D41 was doing best by kids. Thank you. >> Thank you, Steph. Mrs. Moke, anyone else? >> Jen Rapp. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. First of all, I would just like to express my disappointment. There's eight of you up there and six of you gave Stephanie eye contact and got off your computers. I teach as well, and I do not think that people should be online looking at their computers

138when we have public participation. That's just my personal opinion. Um I did think this was a committee of the whole tonight, and I'm very interested in knowing um the prices on the agenda. Um there's no links to the three presentations we saw tonight, and the first presenters did give a breakdown in price. The second and third did not, and I think that should be public information. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jen. Mrs. Melke. All right, thank you very much. All [snorts] right, then. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session under Section 2C1, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity. >> Motion. >> Can you do second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? No, I'm good.

139Roll call, Mrs. Melke. >> Mrs. Ledoux? >> Yes. >> Mr. Estes? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Ms. Becker? >> Yes. >> Dr. Martelli? >> Yes. >> Mr. Loback? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. The board will not be taking any action after the close session. Thank you very much, folks. Good evening.