Regular Board Meeting - 1/26/2026

001get started. Yeah. >> All right, we're all set. Look at everybody. Everybody's here. Yeah. On a cold cold winter night. Thanks for coming out and staying warm with all of us. The January 26, 2026 board meeting will now come to order. Mr. Lo, 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. >> All right, Mrs. Mo, roll call, please. >> Miss King, >> here. >> Miss Leman, >> here. >> Mr. Malay, >> here. >> Dr. Martelli, >> here. >> Mr. Rusty's >> here. >> Mrs. Leau, >> here. Miss Becker, Mrs. Hill, Mr. Lobach >> here, Dr. Bruno >> here. Thank you very much.

002All right, we're gonna get started this evening in a little special way. Both a combination of some celebrations, recognitions, and maybe a little PD on behalf or for the best interest of the board. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. McHugh to facilitate. >> Yes, we're excited to have our legal team from Francic here today. They're going to introduce themselves, tell the board a little bit about what kind of work they do to support the district, and then if the board has any questions, we'll be able to engage in a little Q&A. Um Todd, are you going to kick this off? >> I will. >> Okay. >> Todd, >> you want me to go to the >> Okay. Okay. Uh Todd Falner. Um, I have represented the district for about 43 years. Um, and uh,

003it's so long ago that I've forgotten the exact date that uh, that I was hired by the the board in the uh, early 1980s, but uh, I am most appreciative of the opportunity to have served the district for that period of time and uh, and continuing to some degree. I'm uh I think finally reached the age and I'm sure my colleagues would agree that it's it's about time for me to start to uh ease ease back a little bit and I'm I'm doing that. >> For the record, the team is all shaking their heads doing this [laughter] >> but uh we wanted to take this opportunity to um you know really introduce that transition. We met with with Bob and with Jeff uh talk about it uh and you know my colleagues will introduce themselves

004and tell them a little bit about themselves. Uh but I'm uh I'm a graduate of uh this district and Glenard West uh as is my wife. Our kids went here and our grandkids are here. Three of them anyway are here. So obviously I have a deep and very fond attachment to uh uh to this school district and appreciate the the time that uh that I've been able to work and assist. Um I think that's I you know have done over the course of my career pretty much soup to nuts uh as as you might expect with uh you know this this number of years of experience. Uh but we've uh as time has passed our co my colleagues and the firm in general has uh you know tended to have attorneys focus in in certain

005areas and you know that's is part of the team approach that we have been bringing to the district for a long time and you know we'll uh continue that with a very very solid teams. I think you'll you'll see tonight uh one of our colleagues who is uh has been working with the district for some time. Brian Crowley is uh has a pretty severe cold and figured it would be better for everybody if uh he wasn't here tonight. But Brian has assisted the district uh for many years in the the business area, property questions, and uh uh working with Nancy and the staff uh on FOYA issues and open meetings act issues as well. And uh you know, we would anticipate that uh that Brian would continue to provide that, you know, focus on that

006uh that area. I I do want to say though that that each of my colleagues um is is well-versed in you know a broad spectrum and so you know we we bring both a particularized knowledge uh to the district but also sort of the the the overall sense of of what it means and the kind of issues that the district uh faces. So that that broader knowledge is taken into account as we uh you know as we work on a particular problem. We try to be uh very um uh you know anticipate issues uh try to work with with Jeff and the board to uh solve issues and problems at the lowest level possible. uh litigation. Sometimes it's necessary, but uh usually it's it's not it's expensive and at the end of the day it's

007it's often not productive for anybody uh even though we most often prevail. Uh so we we you know try to anticipate and address problems early and find good solutions uh to those problems. I think with that I'll first >> Great. Okay. Well, I'm going to stand up just so I don't miss out on on half of you from where my angle was here. I'm Jennifer Smith. I'm one of your team members that um we wanted to since this is um a transition from Todd. I thought it might help help to frame our transition is what we're we've learned from Todd that we are going to continue because we're we're not looking uh to shake things up. We're very honored to have been mentored by Todd in in my case for, you know, close to 20

008years. I feel like um he's served the district well and I hope to um take the wisdom that um he's uh brought in that mentorship relationship and support the district. Um, so one, um, kind of legalistic, but I think it's important thing that Todd has taught me is the importance of process. Um, it, you know, it's not a flashy answer when you call and we say, well, have we wor have we looked at your policy? Have we gone through the steps? Have we followed the law entirely? I think through legal process, you as a board will get the information you need. So when it finally when an issue comes to you, all the steps have been followed, the eyes have been dotted, the te's been crossed. At some point, you as the board will make

009your decision, but I want to make sure you get the right information. You have um uh there's there's no procedural hang-ups when we bring things to you. So I feel like that is part of uh what to Todd has really you know when I go down to his office and say here here's the situation it's often he's been you know make sure dig in don't skip a step if anything overdo it on the process you're you know the district will be well served and and I'll make sure that you're well served with that approach going forward um we do work as a team I want to introduce and they're going to introduce themselves what Nikki and Caitlyn um we have each other on on speed dial and frankly Todd still I I've had to restrain

010myself a so I do check myself do I really need to bother Todd from you know sailing or whatever amazing things he's and sometimes the answer is yes and I just still call him and I will call him uh if needed for you but um uh we are a good sport to each other too so I'll turn it over to Nikki >> say what areas you do first >> oh what areas. Um, I'm a I'm going to be a bit of a generalist. I am more in the people's side, whether it's students or employees. Um, so I'll support both Nikki and Caitlyn more. So with Brian, I'll just um, you know, be a sounding board more than a fountain of, you know, substantive knowledge, but I think the three of us really focus on um,

011your people and supporting your people. >> Hi, good evening. I'm Nikki Baser. I was actually trying to figure out what I haven't learned from Todd. It's the list is sort of endless. Um but one of the things I talked about actually at his um we're going to put this in quotes his retirement party at our firm was um one of the things that I really admire about Todd and and try to emulate is just how calm he is as an attorney which I think serves a huge um benefit to the district. Um I think approaching everything very calmly, methodically as Jen said. um you know we are here to try to help you solve problems. I will say that my best days are when somebody calls me when administrator calls me and says like I'm

012dealing with this really stressful issue and I can say let me take that off your plate and you can get back to the hard work of educating students and I can help you navigate through this really complicated thing in a calm and and sort of deliberate process. Um I've told I told this story at the party which um Todd and I were um dealing with this we'll say rather aggressive and somewhat frustrating opposing council um at a meeting with some administrators and I you know we Todd in his typical fashion responded very calmly and very thoughtfully to every sort of crazy thing she was saying to us and when we left the room one of the administrators turned to Todd and and said I I don't know how you do it Todd I don't know

013how you stay calm in the face of of that kind of barrage and he turns to the administrator and he said well Greg I'm seething on the inside, which I thought was just perfect. Um, so I am really honored to be a part of uh the District 41 team. Um, I've worked with your district on and off over the years and I I really appreciate the opportunity to do so here. I for your district and typically focused on labor and employment issues. So, um, the adults in school buildings is really where I focus, but um, having been the general counsel of the state board of education, I really have kind of a broad spectrum of knowledge. So, I've dealt with policy issues, student issues, student data privacy issues, um, o open meetings act, FOYA sort

014of runs the gamut contracts. So, um, as Todd mentioned and Jennifer mentioned, you know, we are able to help in and and interchangeably in some in some cases and we certainly offer um, our support to each other as we offer support to you all. So, appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself and to meet all of you and I will hand it over to Caitlyn. Hi everybody. I am Caitlyn Atlas. I have had the pleasure of working with Todd only for a few short years. I just joined the firm, I guess it's about four years now. Um, and I Nikki kind of stole mine. Todd, number one, is always calm, cool, and collected. You can approach Todd with the most off-the-walls situation, and I have, and he doesn't get rattled at all. Whereas sometimes I have

015a tendency to be like, "What is going on with this?" Todd's just flat all the time, doesn't get upset, doesn't get rattled by anything. So, I've taken that into my practice or at least tried. And Todd is always willing to take a call, even in his we'll continue using quotes, retirement. He is always willing to answer the phone for clients and colleagues alike, which I think is a great quality. Um, my practice is mo mostly students in special education issues. So, student discipline, um, student rights, student residency matters and enrollment, McKini Vento, homeless matters, special education, everything from advising behind the scenes. We have a difficult meeting coming up, all the way through potentially due process, which we usually successfully try to avoid, but as Jennifer said, sometimes litigation is necessary. Um, I also practice

016a lot in the area of Title 9, so I've had the pleasure of training your administrative team on Title N. I promised David that I would not go through our full three-hour Title N training with everyone tonight. Um, but a lot that kind of spans both on students and personnel and then just general policy advising related to students and special education matters. So, pass it back to John. >> Great. Well, we're happy to answer any questions that you might have for us. Um, and and happy to be here. Well, first of all, uh Todd, thanks for bringing your teammates, your your your colleagues, your mentees and and and friends uh uh to the district uh and certainly to introduce them to uh the board uh this evening. So, thank you for taking the time. And

017it's and it is really quite nice uh to hear colleagues talk about their relationship with you and things that they've learned from you. And as someone who's known the law firm for uh for quite some time and in a different capacity, I have high regard for the professionalism and honest work of of all of the folks there. Uh so I did want to give people an opportunity if they had particular questions about u any of the areas of expertise or any comments uh I wanted to make sure that the board had a chance to offer some thoughts. I certainly have a couple of big 5,000 foot thoughts but before spouting them off any feedback comments >> 5,000 foot thought. Um, so >> by the way, he's the attorney on the board. So you >> on

018the board, not the board. I said on the board, [laughter] >> I just want to clarify on sitting, not advising. Um, 43 years. I was six [laughter] when you started representing the district. Um, and now my youngest child is what, eight? So that's a long time. You you've been representing us for a long time. I've been on the board now for what, I don't know, >> a minute, a few years. And so obviously you've been representing us that entire time. Um, one thing I've always appreciated about Tob's representation of the board is is his availability. Um, he's always walking in whenever we not just when we need him, when we may need him. He he he's always available. what you know 8:30 9:00 you just see him walking in walking in the door because well

019I thought you might have some questions that you wanted to go over with me and and you know as Bob said as an attorney that that's what I hope to be for my clients as well you know I I you know you sitting here at the sports field all time your best ability is your availability and having you available to us for for questions and answering them um and and not just a you know an educ educated, thoughtful, legal way, just just in a personal way that that people could understand. Um, I I appreciate your service to the district. I appreciate your your advice to to us as board members and we're, you know, Thank you. >> Anybody else? Ted, are you reaching? You're pondering. You have that quizzical look. Yeah. >> So, I don't

020really have a question. It's more of a a a statement, observation. >> Grill them. Well, [laughter] >> I I've been on the board >> slightly less than than Jay has, but um this is my first opportunity to actually have a lot of interaction with legal counsel. Luckily, I haven't had the need for that in the past. >> But what I really appreciate is how um Todd and everybody else at the firm lays out things versus when you say advice, right? It's not really here's a recommendation, here are all the possibilities, right? Here's what'll happen. Here's something you could do, but here's the downside to that or here's the upside sort of thing. So, in working through these problems that come up um it it helps us get clarity um and the answers to our questions

021come in layman's terms, which is nice. Um, and so it helps us reach reach a consensus amongst ourselves in terms of what's what's the right path to take. So I appreciate that. >> Good, good, good. >> Yeah. Anybody else? Chris, you're hitting the button. >> Todd, I just want to say thank you for your service. You don't know this, but I first listened to you speak 21 years ago over at the old McDonald's campus as a young administrator for Shamberg 54. you and your colleagues would present there for a full half day or full day, whatever that was. So, it's been a long time. Thank you very much for all that you've done and to the team, welcome to all of you. We look forward to working with you. >> Thank you. >> How about

022that? Nice. Yeah. Anybody else? No. [clears throat] So, a question sort of a big thoughtful question. I don't know if there's a a a correct answer or just one answer, but as you think about the upcoming school year and your work with us, are you looking at paying any special attention to some emerging area of education, law, or policy? Nikki just made a face. [laughter] I should ask her to answer this question. She'd be a terrible card player. [laughter] um is something that you know will that's likely to be on the agenda that school boards will have to be attentive to. >> Yeah. I mean ever since co I feel like we've been in unprecedented times in ter in terms of your relationship with your community your relationship with other governmental entities whether that's the

023federal government law enforcement. There's been a lot of unprecedented challenges in all of those areas and um we're learning with you and advising with you. We try to bring the experience we have counseling, you know, we represent many many school districts. So, we hope that everyone can benefit from, you know, we learn from our clients and then bring it to other clients because these are not things that necessarily there's a pure legal answer. I mean the questions that we get asked now are are shocking and you know in some are I ne I never thought certain things would happen. So um we're trying to be flexible and support you. I think you know ultimately like through the process of COVID we thought our clients you know benefited from um the approach that we took and

024we try to take each new challenge that that way even when it's something unthinkable and I'm sure there will be unthinkable things uh to come that's sort of the times we live in I don't know >> yeah I was e I would echo that I the face I made was sort of in relation to I think the scrutiny on what school districts are teaching, what's happening in your classrooms. Um it, you know, it's just we're at a level that's very very different. Um the guidance we're getting from the Supreme Court is very different than what we've seen in the past. And um the community attention to what is being taught in classrooms, how um what your teachers are posting inside and outside the classrooms, all of these issues, I think, have been present, but what

025we're seeing is just sort of an acceleration or or a um a heightening of those issues. And I think that's definitely dubtales with what Jennifer is talking about um you know sort of the postcoid world and and the what we're seeing in terms of of attention to our classrooms. So I see that as an ever emerging and um issue that's becoming more and more complicated. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anything else board? We good? Yeah. What do our student board members think of all these legal people here? Yeah. gonna grow up and be >> anytime. [laughter] Well, we're thrilled always to have our our student leaders here at our meeting. Well, then with that, because we don't want to keep you here uh too late tonight, I'm going

026to turn to the the superintendent who's got a Oh, you Todd, please, we just move the mic over to you so you can speak to it. >> First off, I'd like to thank everybody, my colleagues and the board for the kind words. Um, secondly, one of the as I've approached retirement and I'm, you know, this far away, but and I think I'll stay this far away for a while. So, I'm I'm not going anywhere. I have a lot of institutional knowledge particularly of of this district and Glenbart as well, who's been a client almost as long as as 41. Um, so, you know, I'll I'll be here. But one of the most satisfying uh aspects as I wind down my career is to see how my colleagues have stepped up and um really taking us

027as a firm steps beyond you know where where I am right now. uh and it's just been most gratifying and that it leaves me with a huge amount of confidence that you will be served uh as well or better than I've had the opportunity to serve you over these years. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Dr. McHugh. Well, this was both a transition and a celebration of you and uh I think I speak for the while you are the board's attorney, it's typically administration that's interfacing with you. So, on behalf of all of our fine cabinet folks sitting um at that back table, this is a terrific team and I've had the opportunity to work with each of you. Um you're truly fantastic and we are in really good hands with you.

028Um, I had a year and a half to work with you and I want to say thank you to a superintendent who was new to Glenn Ellen, new to the D41 community, the five communities we serve, new to the superintendency, and to come in and have you running point for legal counsel to take this young pup under your wing and help me understand um, not just some of the the dynamics that a superintendent grapples with and not just the legal implications but also the optics, the politics, the the best way to do things to have the best outcomes for our community because that's really what we want. We want to do what's best for kids. Um, and I can attest everything you said about him picking up the phone. Um, you were always patient with

029me. I hope you weren't seating on the inside with what I was saying. Um, but navigating everything from transportation, we spent a good year and a half navigating through that. And I just really appreciate your knowledge of this community. you said 43 years as our counsel. Um, indispensable to me coming in and learning the ropes. So, I just personally wanted to say thank you for that for all those years. >> Well, you can't leave just yet. >> You could, >> but [laughter] no, no, no. I never miss an opportunity. Uh and and like was expressed, I'm not exactly sure how retired Todd is. So I I offer these thoughts with some trepidation that he's not exactly done. U but I got to thinking, well, in Todd's 43 years of serving the district, what exactly has

030he done? You know, like what's he done? Right. Really? Right. And I thought, well, I got a little bit of a list here. maybe I could share it. So, um, he's provided legal advice on matters related to educational law, student rights, and employee relations. Todd's attended more than a few board meetings, offered countless advice on procedural matters, assisted with parliamentary rules. In fact, we've even named a few after him. Offered regular guidance on agenda preparation, resolution language, and written board communication. He's attended way too many meetings to count and participated in a plethora of phone calls at all times of the day with at least at my count eight district 41 superintendent. At least eight. Do I have that right? >> Yeah, that research paid off. Um Todd has also represented the school district in

031administrative hearings and legal disputes. He's reviewed and drafted nearly all contracts, help with property deals, assess documents from small to large related to district operations. He's worked for and with at least and I I would have needed NY's help on this, but I don't know how many hundred school board members, right? Or school boards every two years, right? 43 years. Figure that out. That's a lot of school boards. >> 22. All right. See some Jay's good on the math. And he's helped 43 years of school board members be better school board members and at least one school board president. Um it's very grateful to Todd's guidance. He's expertly ensured District 41's compliance with a boatload of everchanging, complex, and sometimes inscrable state and federal education laws. He's assisted in reviewing and updating hundreds of schoolboard

032policy, rules, and regulations. And he has advised on a multitude of personnel matters and participated in numerous rounds of collective bargaining. Now, it would have been a shorter list to note what he hasn't done, okay? But I thought it was important to get that on the record. Yet, as impressive as Todd's record of work for the district is, I think the true measure of a person's contribution is greater than the sum of all activities. The essence of a person's lifetime of service is to be found not in the individual net positive outcomes of each activity. Although with Todd there far many there there are great many to celebrate but in how the person helped to build a whole out of many divergent parts. Tard's record of achievement is not notable because in over four decades

033he helped to forge an educational community in district 41 for thousands of children and parents. Now he's never taught a class here anyway. Never led uh a school building, never managed the school staffed, never swept a school floor, and never cast a vote. But you can't appreciate any of those activities and how they continue to give life to District 41's community without acknowledging the good work of attorney Todd Faulner. Therefore, to sum up Todd's legacy, if anybody ever could, let me close by reciting these few words from Ralph Waldo Emerson. to leave the world a bit better. Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded. And for all this and more, the school

034board thanks you, brother Todd, and wishes you, your wonderful wife, Sonia, two kids, and five grandchildren much joy and well-being. Thank you, Todd. [applause] >> But I You're blushing inside. >> I'm blushing outside. >> Thank you very much, >> Todd. On behalf of the district 41 school board, staff and administration, we'd like to give you this >> great [applause] picture. >> So, we'll say good night. >> I think they want to get a photo of you, then we'll let you go. She looks >> a great sheaches. Sure. Her >> didn't I never feel bad when Todd had to walk in like 8:30, 9:00. I knew he just come over from a few blocks away. No. [laughter] But it will change. >> We want to put clothes up front. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Where

035are we? Okay. >> Hey, Jack, you got to follow [laughter] Jack. Dr. McHugh, we've got a something to do with the kindergarten center. It's on my agenda. >> Well, this is another celebration of of sorts. We invited Jack Hayes from FQC to come. And as the kindergarten center is up and running, thought that you could kind of close it out for us on the completion of the building. >> All right. Well, thanks for having me. I know he's already out of the building, but we really wouldn't be here without Todd. I mean with the way this project started with all the difficulties that you all know about um he was instrumental in all of that. So we appreciate his help as well. Um so as a wrap up on the kindergarten center appreciate being here

036tonight to thank you to thank Eric and Dave and the collective team at district 41. Um the building was occupied on time even though we got a three-month late start on it. So, uh, it was a collective effort on everybody's part and I'm happy to report that the project came in under budget. Um, just slightly under budget, which is great. And, um, you know, we're at the final closeout phase. So, um, punch list is done, wrapping up closeouts, O& and M manuals for Dave and his team, and putting all the warranties in place and making sure that during this one-year warranty phase, the first year warranty phase, that if anything pops up, Dave makes us aware of, um, our superintendent Jeffs on and makes sure that we are ready to to help the district resolve

037anything that that might come up. But um the building is in full operation and uh we appreciate everything and the opportunity to work with you all and the team here at District 41. So any questions? >> Yes, Amy, please. >> I more of a statement. I have a kindergartener who is at the full day kindergarten center and she is wholly convinced it is her school. She is a koala and is ecstatic. loves slide Friday. >> Oh, >> half days. They're no good. There's no slide Friday. >> Oh. >> So, thank you for your work and it really has made a difference in the lives of many, many kids. >> That's awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. That's that's uh great feedback. >> Anyone else? Yeah. Well, I all the feedback we've [clears throat] gotten uh is

038that people love being over there. people like teaching in the facility and and kids really seem enthused about the space and it really does reflect on how the the space itself, the building, you know, the the three-dimensional quality of where people grow and and learn and and and find joy really matters. So the trades people, right, uh the engineers, the architects, they're actually helping our educators do their work in in the building. And it's a it's a real testament to the importance of that physical structure. And now, you know, it'll start to it'll start to develop a lot of experiences and memories. Uh it'll and they'll be embedded in those walls. So, thanks for the good work of your team, Jack. >> Yeah, I and I I'll echo that back. Um, I saw that in

039the tradesmen and trades women that worked on the job. There was a sense of ownership that they were part of something special. And so I think you all have a lot to be proud of because we've done a lot of work for D41 over the years. And uh, this project itself kind of just stands out as something really special and and it was kind of evident even through the construction phase. So it's it's it's a fun project to be part of. >> Good. Good. Dr. McHugh. >> Yeah. I'd just like to personally thank you too, Jack. your leadership throughout this project really helped this thing open on time. Um, our men in the back, Dave and Eric, um, meeting every single week and when they said, "Hey, we think there's a problem or this isn't

040being done right," you were responsive and your communication with them is a huge reason why I think it it finished on time and under under budget. So, thank you for your leadership. >> Appreciate that. Yep. Appreciate it. It's been a it's been a good collective team effort. >> Very good. Thank you, Jack. >> All right. Thank you for >> coming here this evening. >> All right, Dr. McHugh. >> Yeah, I've got one more. >> Anything else? >> One more. >> Ah, something else. >> One more. Celebrations come in threes. >> By the way, he's not in the >> celebrations come in threes. >> Except when the celebr the the celebrate walks out at the absolute worst time. Good thing we're not streaming this live. >> Should we should [laughter] Anybody got a good joke? >>

041Well, >> story to tell. [laughter] >> I was going to say, how much does a pirate pay to get his ear pierced? A buccaneer. >> I wonder if for the sake of time and our uh packed house audience here. Um why don't we move on with the presentations and we will come back for one more quick celebration. >> All right. >> Uh so Eric, can I kick this to you to introduce? Yeah, absolutely. I get the uh the pleasure of introducing Allison. Allison Kmen is with Lockach and Aean. She was uh I think the lead of our audit team this year and her she's here tonight just to present the audit to the board and answer any questions you guys may have. >> We'll celebrate you. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Um >> plotting an

042audit. >> Yep. very um just want to start by going and thanking um both Eric and Lauren who I don't believe is here tonight. Um really without them we can't put this together and they were just so helpful. Um anything we asked for they did their best to give us um very timely so it was just overall a great process. Um so thank you so much Eric. Um, I'm going to be starting, if you're following along, on page 12, which is the independent auditor's reports. Um, just mentioning here, it was a clean opinion, no issues. Um, on page 16 is where you'll find the MDNA, and I would highly recommend reading this through in detail if you haven't already, just because it really is the financial overview of the whole year, and it goes um

043in in very good detail. Um, next on page 31, we're going to start with the balance sheet for just some highle information. Um, the general fund, which is made up of your education, student activities, TOR, and working cash funds, was actually 70% of your total fund balance, which is about $21.8 million. Very healthy fund balance there with your total fund balance being about 31.2 million. Again, very healthy across the board. Going to the income statement which is on page 35 again your general fund um which is made up of those same funds. Um there actually was a net decrease um in fund balance of 19.9 million. Most of that is attributed to the transfer to capital projects of 29.3 million. And then in total all of your funds had a overall decrease of 16.9 million.

044again mostly attributed to the ongoing capital projects. Um the notes to the financial statements are on page 38 where you can find capital long-term debt footnotes and such. Um just for your information, the budget starts on page 108 and then we're going to discuss just super briefly the management letter which is a separate document. Uh I just wanted to highlight on here that there is one new current recommendation which is listed as IT security awareness and monitoring of emerging risks. This really is not saying that the district has done anything wrong. It's more of an FYI as security um just becomes more of a risk to everybody. Um so there are some things listed that we believe would help the district just be aware of. Any questions >> in the manage I think it was

045in the management letter I believe you highlighted some cyber security concerns. >> So um that's what the current recommendation is going through. So you didn't do anything wrong. Um it's just we're alerting all of our clients of these issues just because more and more you'll see scam phone calls, emails, and um there the comment itself goes into more of um like data backup recovery and things like that just to make the board aware of the risk that we're seeing and the issues that we see across the board. Um so it's just an FYI. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Hi. Um, one of my questions was in the management letter there was the new sort of recommendation about the cyber security stuff and then there were I think two recommendations for prior years that

046were repeated two or three. >> Um, and I forget the exact language. It was like mentioned before and we're still working on it. Um, what sort of is the status of those? Is it does it sort of come down to priority? And maybe this is a Jeff question. Does it come down to priority and time when we get to these things? Is it something that you guys outline, but maybe in the grand scheme of thing, it's more important to look at other things first? Um, what what are your thoughts on those? >> So, for example, the first one is a capital asset policy. And so, here we just noted that there wasn't like a formal policy in place. So, this is just um I believe we we might have already in previous years, as you

047said, it's a it's a prior year recommendation. um provided uh like a template or something, but that's just more of a timing when you guys get a chance to put that together. Um because it would obviously have to come to the board and get approved and such. Um so I know that this comment will, you know, it's it's really just a recommendation from us to have one in place. It's best practice, but um it we will continue to work with with Eric and Lauren to get something implemented. I know that there was a little bit of turnover for a while. Um, so I understand that, you know, some things did have to be put on the back burner a little bit and it's not a concern of ours. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >>

048Please. Jeeoff, were you going to say something? You just shut your mic off. >> He He looks ready. >> Did you want me to elaborate a little more on both of those issues? >> Thanks you, Jeff. I thought that was a great answer. >> Okay. Okay. Just briefly, we are working on both of those issues. And in fact, uh, one of them, I think Eric, we're in the queue with a third party and we have been in because a lot of districts are in that same boat. So, we've been waiting in the queue, that's the capital >> appraisal >> asset remedy. Is that correct? >> Yeah. And just um, for everybody's knowledge, I I believe the company you're speaking of, which has a very long waiting list, has about a two-year waiting list. So, we're

049very understanding that there's only so many companies that um do capital asset appraisals. Um, so we're just kind of as soon as you can get in, you can get in. We understand. >> And I believe the check writeoff policy, we're working with the state treasurer on that as well. I think some of these they take, Eric, they take longer. Is that correct? >> Yeah. And the check writeoff policy is kind of an interesting one. Um, we're trying to connect with the people that have, you know, that are the payes of those outstanding checks to avoid sending the money to the treasurer. Uh, I think it'd be a little cleaner and and maybe easier for those individuals to get the check directly to them versus sending it to the state. I can tell you that I'm

050personally trying to get some stuff from the state from a personal matter and it it has taken me over two years and I still not been successful. So, I'm a little I'm motivated to try and catch our payes before we send it to the state. But, we certainly will do so. We've been in contact with them. We know the steps and we're about ready to do it. We're just kind of given a last effort to try and reach those pays before we do. So >> that makes sense. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Very good. Anything else? No, we're good. Well, now yes. >> Let's celebrate. >> Let's do a little more. [laughter] Come on. >> We're celebrating. >>

051Uh the celebrity did not realize that we were celebrating him, which makes it that much better. Uh this is a celebration of our assistant superintendent for human resources, Dr. David Bruno. Uh we have an organization in Illinois called IASPA, the Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators. It's the state human resources organization. It nests under a larger one. And uh our very own Dr. David Bruno has been selected as the 202526 IASPA Personnel Administrator of the Year. A [applause and cheering] you look at that. >> Yeah, this uh this this this award is a big deal. In my former life, I've played a HR person for a district and uh one person a year is represented and it is a huge deal. The official description is that this prestigious honor recognizes IASPA members who demonstrate exceptional

052leaders leadership skills in personnel administration, actively contribute at the local, state, and national levels, skillfully manage change, and make a meaningful impact on public education. In my opinion, the reason that David won this award isn't for what he just does in district 41, which is terrific work. It's what he does for other districts as well. There are districts across the state that tap into him for his knowledge and expertise and he so willingly shares with them the wonderful things I think we have going in district 41 and then supporting basically the HR profession at not just our local level, our state level and I really feel like our national level too as you've been presenting there and as you take over as president of this organization. Uh we are thrilled that you won this award

053and we're uh we're grateful to have you here in District 41. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Well, that that was very kind. Thank you. Was not not expected or not needed. Um I think I told Jeff like when when we found out that I was the recipient of the award, um I told him I was just I'm super thankful for District 41. Um I get to be the HR person I want to be and get to do things that, you know, you allow us to do and have fun with it. and we're in just an amazing environment where we get to support staff, students, and [laughter] community. So, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for working with with this team here, this cabinet who puts up with all my antics and all that, but you know

054what I mean? At the end of the day, it's it's it's an award. It's nice, but um it's because of all the great stuff we're doing here that people see. And so, I I get to share that across the state and I got to share it across the country this year, too. So, that was really fun. So, thank you all for allowing me to uh be the HR person that I want to be and am. So, thank you. That's it. [applause] And and and David, you know, I don't know whether the award included the pyro technics of an opening day uh at school and that whole uh shebang. But I will say in all sincerity when I've had the opportunity to talk to people in similar positions or in positions of superintendency or other c

055at other school districts around the state uh very often uh they acknow when I say Dr. Bruno and they meet me and they go wait a minute is right no not that one darn. [laughter] Uh but they always smile and they say, "Boy, you really got a good one uh in that guy and you prove it every day." So, thank you, David. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. The one thing I people always say is like like, "You really love your school district." I'm like, "I do." Right? Being born and raised here and giving back like but you really love it. I'm like, "I do. I love everything we do here." So, it it makes the job easier when you love what you do. So, I'm very appreciative and blessed to be in the environment. So,

056thank you. >> Very good. All right. We got a little more. Yeah, sure. Okay, take it away. >> All right. Well, we're gonna invite Dr. Bruno and Dr. Webster up and they brought some friends uh to talk about all the work that has been going on behind the scenes uh looking at the Hadley schedule. >> All right. Do you have the the clicker? >> All right. So, uh tonight we're going to talk about the Hadley schedule, where we're at. You've heard a little bit um throughout the last two board meetings from Dr. McHugh about what we're doing with the staffing or what we're doing with the schedule for Hadley. And tonight we want to kind of share where we're at with it and some ideas. Uh I'm excited. We have a bunch of teachers that

057are on the committee that are going to present different slides. But um I'm going to turn it over to Steve. Steve's going to lead the conversation and then Chris and I are going to jump in. Uh different teachers when they come up, they'll introduce themselves um and what they do uh for this this committee. But it's super exciting to share this today. So hopefully you enjoy and have lots of questions. Uh before we get into it, I just want to tell you the we put a committee together that represents every grade level, every curriculum area and also representation from the electives. So we made sure that we had a wide range of people, staff so that we can get everyone's voice. So we started with this. We had a lot of interest. We did a

058selection process because we had so much interest. We came down here. So, everyone on that list has been at every meeting uh as we've been trying to solve this um this kind of question that we have and this why that we're going to talk about next. But before we go further, I'm going to turn over to Steve so he can kick it off. You want to kick it off for us, Steve? And then we'll go to Stephanie. >> Hi buddy. >> How you doing? Good evening. Thanks for having me here tonight. uh you know, as the outgoing principal, there were a lot of there were some questions about why I was on the committee. And actually, uh uh Todd right there had a had a really good kind of triggered that about that institutional knowledge.

059Um I've been with the district for 13 years, been the leader of this building for 13 years. We've had several schedule changes. So, I'm just honored and proud to be part of the group um to kind of weigh in um as to what not only historical perspective, but also just, you know, what what we've been through and and where we can go. Um big credit to uh Dr. Webster, Dr. Bruno for giving us that that district office kind of that that 30,000 foot um view as well. So, we just put together a slideshow kind of talk you through some of the major uh changes and major points um that we're looking at as a committee. I'll jump in in a little bit and u we kind of get into some of the details about uh

060some of the ideas that we have on that. Okay. >> All right. Hello everyone. I'm Stephanie Cyster. I teach sixth grade science and math and I'm the science department chair at Hadley. When we first came together as a committee, we knew we needed a shared vision, something to ground our decisions and to guide our work. Returning to this purpose helps ensure that our schedule truly serves students, supporting their academic success as well as their social and emotional growth. >> We didn't practice because it's been a busy two weeks for us. So, >> yeah, that's you, Tracy. [laughter] >> I know. Sorry. >> I'm not going to say who I am then. [laughter] Just kidding. Uh, I'm Tracy Guerreri. >> What? >> I know. I'm Tracy Guerreri. I teach um science here at Hadley as well,

061and I'm also our association co-president. Um but just to kind of give a little bit of background on the process of how we got to this point of presenting something to you today. So there uh Dr. Bruno put out a call for membership kind of a like application process so to speak. So, anyone who was interested in being a part of that committee filled out that form and then basically went through it and looked for making sure that we had representation from different subject areas, different grade levels, all the different roles that people play within the building to make sure lots of different voices were heard. And then a survey was sent out to students, parents, and staff. Um that survey feedback came in. We looked at all the trends and patterns um things like

062that. Reviewed it, really reflected on everything, which was very interesting, which I think someone's going to talk about next. Um and then from there, we kind of looked at different options for schedules and some people came together and presented some different possibilities. So, we looked at the different possible schedules that came forward and kind of checked them to see if it would even work and kind of pros and cons of each one. And then that brought us to today. >> All right. So, um, as Tracy just said, um, we definitely wanted feedback from the people that were living the schedule, the students that were living the schedule. We asked the students, the teachers, um, and the parents for their perspective. Um, and these are the themes that we we got back. And it was very

063very interesting because in all three of the surveys, the themes were resonant. They were very strongly related across all three of those um surveys. It was there was common consensus really about what they were looking for. Um, so the ones that we had the most consensus were there was a desire for a dedicated intervention or study hall period. um a specific period during the day for that to occur. There was also um adjusting class period length. Um there was more time being requested for our explorer uh courses um and shorter period of time for our academic courses. That may seem strange, but our academic courses were are 60 minutes of academics and a 20-minut back 20 um which is for intervention time. Um right now we have um an AB schedule for social studies and

064science. So the quarter is split in half. half of the quarter they go to science students and the other half the quarter they go to social studies. There was a desire to change that to science and social studies every day to move away from that AB schedule. Also there was um wide consensus on making world language optional as an exploratory um primarily from students who were like in music band and orchestra those types of things that were not allowed to have an exploratory because they were kind of world language and um the band or orchestra track really procluded them from um taking another exploratory. So kids wanted more choices and parents and staff actually thought that was a wise choice. um increased passing periods so kids had more time to get from point A to

065point B. And interestingly, one that we didn't see coming was additional daily recess and outdoor time. Um getting kids to have more just more downtime. So those were the themes that were very specific to students, parents, and staff. There were a few that came up that were staff only. Um they wanted us to reevaluate the advisory period to see if that time was well spent or if it could be recaptured to be used in a more meaningful way. Um eliminate the co-eing model. And again to go back to the prior meeting, this isn't the special education co-eing model. This is a the different model where we have gened teachers providing interventions for students in other content areas, not special ed co-eing that remains in place. Um make lunch a regular period. And they also asked

066for us to review staffing, teaming, and department structures in general just to see if there was a better way to um implement those. So when you look at the uh different models that you see there, the one on the left is our current schedule. You'll notice that like on literacy and math, it's 60 minutes daily. Uh but then down lower, you'll see something called intervention extension. That's the back 20. So that allows our literacy and math teachers then kind of in an 80 minute block they do 60 minutes instruction and 20 minutes of intervention. So it's all about reallocating the minutes uh at different types of schedules. So the the big debate is one how much time do you give to each subject and then the second one is what happens during that time of

067course. So math and science uh sorry social studies and science you'll see is in 80 minutes. So it's only half the quarter. One of the big themes that uh that you saw there was trying to get social studies and science to meet every day. That was that was a big uh a big ask. Um under the current uh model with world language being mandatory, students come in and they have one there's only one choice left. They're going to take their PE class, they're going to take their world language class, and then they choose between um the art, facts, drama, STEM uh rotation, or they choose uh the band, orchestra, and choir because that's really all the time that's that's remaining in the day. If you slide over, you look at uh schedules B and C.

068Since I'm on that, let's stick there. So, notice that two options uh becomes a choice. So, whether on the far side, you see it's 45 minutes and in the middle it's 42 minutes. really by by loosening up some of the requirements on world language, we can uh get more to a a schedule where students have a choice between different options. Um that being the STEM rotation, the music rotation, uh world language, and those students who want uh some sort of enrichment extension that would be available as well as that uh intervention uh study hall period that you saw. So, uh, right now we are just kind of comparing the the BC versus the A. And if you go back to the slide that, uh, Chris just went, uh, Dr. Webster just looked at, you know,

069adjusting class period length was came out of the survey, you can see that B and C do that. Uh, flexing our world language program to allow more choice. That happens in schedule B or C. uh extension period available to everyone that happens as well and as well as daily science and social studies on there. Um so you can see there's some flex with the time and the and the passing periods uh 3 minutes and then uh depending on where the students end up at lunch and what time of day there could be some flex uh with that as well. I think when uh when you start to reallocate minutes down there at that total core and structural minutes uh you know Hadley has high expectations and we've done amazing work with the minutes that we

070have. I'm super proud of of the staff and where we are um in providing middle level education and we do that at uh with 203 um core minutes a day. Right? So then you look at the 224 and the 228. So again, that's just uh moving minutes from that back 20, shifting them around so that they end up in different places such as a longer uh science or social studies period um or and a longer um exploratory STEM uh language intervention period. Okay. So we will come back for questions as you're as you're processing through this. All right. I'm Kelly Gosswish. I teach sixth grade math. Um, so looking at that table is a little bit overwhelming. Just to highlight a few of the key changes that we see. Um, there is a change in

071the minutes in the instructional blocks and the electives. So electives will get a little bit more time in their schedule and cumulatively science and social studies will also gain some minutes having gone from the AB to being every single day. World language is going to become an elective for students. And then that also leads to the third bullet point which is that our band and orchestra students will have a chance to be in electives if they choose or world language if they choose that which having had a quarter change today and students talking about their different electives. Um I know those orchestra students will be excited about that. Good evening everyone. I'm Dina Sabara. I am the positive behavior interventionist and restorative practices teacher. Um and uh real quickly before I talk about the benefits

072for kids, I just want to say again that I want to thank Dr. Bruno, Dr. Webster and Karen because they did a lot of work and their time in helping us with this. We really really appreciate it. So, thank you so much. Um, now back to our benefit for kids. Um, science and social studies daily. So, if you can just give me a minute to kind of talk about how we went away from that. Several years ago, we had adopted the NGSS standards. And when we did that, obviously those standards are very rigorous. We only had 42-minute classes and we were really struggling for students to get the most out of understanding and grasping those concepts in 42 minutes daily. So that's when we talked about how can we change this to where we have

073our students longer for longer blocks of time in science and social studies because social studies also was adopting new standards as well. [snorts] So, um, that's when we came to where we are today with the AB, um, switch. Um, so I just wanted to make sure everyone kind of understood where we were. But now, um, with the options that we have now, we figured out a way where we could have science and social studies for our kids every single day, which will help with the consistency of their learning. Right? A lot of times um you know after four and a half weeks I'd come back and you know they'd forget some things. So the consistency will be really good for them. The other thing is we will have more opportunity for supports and enrichment and

074we know that that will just help enhance their learning right and then also for the kids where Bobby G will explain a little more about this. So when kids do need supports to help them then it's not like well I have to give up something you know to enrich in my experience here at Hadley so because I need a support right okay so that >> hello I'm Bob Yuzetti one of the assistant principles at Hadley you know a couple of facets that we wanted to talk about one is obviously going to be new and one's a carryover what's new um when we talk about more choices for electives in the past and even currently um our students have to sort of make a decision whether they want the quarterly exploratory classes or whether they want

075to take a class within the fine arts department such as band or chorus or orchestra. So when we kind of analyzed all of the survey data um the responses especially from our students we saw that there were students on both sides going down both paths that actually like the opportunity to maybe take both in the same school year. So, some that are in exploratory wanted the opportunity to maybe take band. Some taking band or orchestra wanted the opportunity to take a quarter quarterly exploratory class such as art or STEM or cooking. So, we're excited about the fact that we might be able to have that be a reality for next year, as soon as next year. Um, and then when we talk about something that we are doing currently that we're still going to implement

076when it comes to electives, it's giving the students the choice and the agency and the control of their schedules to pick classes that they have an interest in. So something that they can really get involved with, something that maybe they can even bring into high school and partly possibly into a career. So we like where we're at, but we like where we're where we're going with that, especially that second bullet point with more opportunity to choose more classes. So, >> so before we jump into questions, I think this is our next stop on our journey of discovering what we're going to do with the schedule. Um, as you saw, we did staff, students, uh, community. We'd love to hear board of ed. If you have questions and all that, we'd like to answer them. Um,

077because after this then our our next step is to kind of bringing it more to conception and making sure the numbers fit. this plays into staffing and what staffing looks like, what's the impact because we we need to ask the students what what they would want to take in the electives and then how does it all to go together. So, I'm opening up for questions. Our our team is here to answer them and they'll come up. Um if there's any questions, we would be happy to take them. >> Jason, please. [clears throat] As you know, I I had the same question that or cons concern question whatever that I had last time. Um, and I'll start it with a kind of a a quick story that I understand where you're coming from regarding the fine

078arts, foreign language, and electives. We just registered by eighth grader for classes in high school. Um, she wanted to take choir, and she said, "What about X, Y, and Z?" She said, "Well, you're kind of limited because you want to do choir, so so you're kind of limited." Um, and she she had that same experience here. Um, and I understand that, you know, ma making for language an elective does open up opportunities. Uh my question slash concern is when we implemented flesh in the elementary um we were putting that focus on a need you know a a district this the point of emphasis for our district is that we want to push um the importance of foreign languages um the ability to speak foreign languages our kids started in first grade and and so that's

079just I understand the realities of of choice and opening up schedules, but I also I I have a my problem with that is what does that do to how is that going to funnel down? What is our what does that say about our commitment to flesh? Um and it and even if we answer no, yep, we're still committed to flesh. Um I I I don't know that we are. I I just don't know that we are. And and I'm not saying that making for language, you know, an elective is a bad thing. That that's actually not I'm not arguing that that whether that's good or bad. I I don't I I don't know. That's that that that's not my feel. But my my real main concern is what are we we we had made a

080statement saying this is what we value. We we we value bilingual kids and we and we want to give our kids from a the ability from a young age to to become billet law and and so I question is that commitment still there is that is that something that the district still feels as an important core element of of of the education and I don't know if anybody can really answer that but that's that's really what my that's what I struggle with this is can I can I just say something please also Jay um I I share The concern as it relates to this schedule though I just assume talk about this schedule and talk about flesh at another opportunity because I see the work that the middle school staff that what they've done here

081how it meets the needs of the students how they've been responsive to the student voice how they are acknowledging instructionally what needs to be happening in so science and social studies all of this for a student coming into Hadley. I get excited about. I think this is steps in the right direction instructionally for our kids. Um, but it does beg the broader question that Jay is asking, which is what role does Flesh now play? I don't think I don't think that's a question for our middle school group to be answering. I think that's a group for Chris and our elementary group to be answering. So, as far as this conversation is concerned, um I think it's a fair point to bring up. I just don't know if this is the opportunity to address that. >>

082No, and and I just say I don't know that it necessarily is the right opportunity, but I think and we're just here to discuss it tonight. >> Yeah, let's give them a chance and then maybe we'll learn something. >> Yeah. I mean, you're bringing up a good point, right? Um but from my perspective, from our perspective when we've been speaking that we are still committed to fles if you needed to hear that out loud, we are still at this point committed to fles. This is not a decision that's looking at dismantling the world language program as we know it. Um, kind of from my perspective, what it does is it provides we the students that are still wanting to that experience of of being fully biliterate, bilingual by the time they're in eighth grade still

083have that opportunity, >> right? That that opportunity is still there for them. We're not removing the ability for them to do that anymore. We're just broadening the choices for students. um our students even if they choose not to take a language um at Hadley are still going to go be going to West far more prepared for a foreign language because of their flesh experience um than all of other feeder districts that go to West. they'll still be very well prepared for to be successful in a foreign language and they can still be on track for the seal of biiteracy in their junior year if they choose to go down that route whether they take the the three years of foreign language at Hadley or if they take a break to do some exploration that um

084Mr. Gazetti was speaking about. I mean that is the purpose of exploratories at that age is to give them a chance to to to play and explore and look at things they might not have considered um to kind of broaden their horizons. And so even if they take that time while they're at Hadley to broaden their horizons a bit to kind of hone in more on what they're interested in in high school, they'll still be on a solid path um towards that biiterate um member of society that we value here at D41. >> Jay, did you want to then we'll move on? >> I do agree that it isn't the right this may not be the right place to have that conversation, but I I just but I just asked that question because I actually

085100% agree with what you say. of a one of my older sons. He developed his love for cooking for Mrs. Crumbs class and you know he's now 23 years old and he's one of the few of his friends that that legitimately know how to cook a meal and um like a full meal. He'll help by the holidays and he developed that literally from these exploratories. Um at the same time, you know, I remember him going and speaking to a dual language class in Spanish about one of his trips to West that he went to Ecuador and he did the whole presentation in Spanish. They're like, "Wow, you really can't do this." Um, I've also have have kids that are a fine art. So I just but my question is more it is it really for

086this group and I but that's just my overwhelming question is that what does that say? And I'm not saying what what's right or what's wrong. I just I'm just more posing that bigger question as to from a high you know you know from the balcony not not not the dance floor. What is what does it say about our commitment? And and if it says that our commitment may be a little bit different that not necessarily bad. I mean, but it's just I think we have to identify because I think it's important to let our fifth graders know that, you know, this is what we this is why is important. This is what their expectations are and and it's fair to say, hey, you still have the option to continue that. Um, then I guess I

087could have like like a smaller questions as to what offerings or languages would it be would less number of kids taking flu languages change the >> sure language options available? But I don't I don't even know that you'd be able to have that answer right now. >> Dr. Martell, did you have one final thought on this before we move on? >> We're not. >> No. >> Oh, yeah. No. What? No. What? No. No. What question? >> I think why why people are gathering their thoughts >> another time. >> All right. Another time. >> I think why people are getting their thoughts. I think what what you just said is is what the staff talked about in all the meetings, right? Knowing that if you want to make changes to a schedule, things have to change.

088and what how what is the impact? What does the board think about it, right? Those were conversations that we had collectively as as a group knowing the commitment we've had to language. And so, um, there was a lot of discussions, right, and making sure that you capture the whole child and doing what's best for all kids. And we want to do that, but we only have so many minutes. And so, it it makes it challenging when people are asking you to make changes when you only have a finite amount of minutes. But I think I want just to say yes and because this is how this whole group feels as well like we're on the same page with you >> Amy. >> Okay. [laughter] So I had the same concern as Jay about the flesh

089and one of my questions was and I'm not super familiar with the Hadley schedule so forgive me on that. Um when I was in middle school foreign language was one of our electives. So it's my understanding that as a student you get to pick I don't know three four interests. Is that true? Okay. What if is there a world in which foreign language is one of those if you're interested in drama foreign language and cooking? >> Yeah. Yes. So Steve you want to help me kind of point it out here. So if you look here I'll walk over here. This is where it says two options. So in like schedule B and C, what we're showing right now, two, >> this is there. Pick two. >> Okay. But what if I wanted to do music

090and exploratories? >> Pick music. So you have a bandon orchestra student. >> Right. Right now they would be in world language is their other one. Now they can say do we want world language? Do I want to go into you know arts, facts, drama and STEM? Or is there also a need for extension problem based learning enrichment >> invention extension? >> What's that? >> What is that one? >> Yeah, intervention. Yeah. Do you want to elaborate? >> Sure. >> Or someone else. >> Somebody else. >> You're killing it. You're killing it. [laughter] >> Okay. So, I am I'm I'm really jazzed about the intervention extension time. So, I'm really happy to talk about this. Um, so the intervention extension time does one of two things. So, if you are um a student who um is

091not quite there yet and needs some scaffolding, it provides time during the day to get that intervention that you need without you missing the core or or having to miss an elective or those types of things. Um it's also a really awesome time. So, perhaps you don't you don't need intervention, perhaps you're right where you need to be or you're above where you need to be. Um that provides extension time where we could do things like inquirybased learning, PBL, right? um things that are connected to the content area, that enrichment time. So, so both for our students who might need a little bit more to to get to where we want them to be um as well as our students that are already there or above where we want them to be. It gives time

092for both of those groups of kids to um to really get something enriched. That's why we call it an enrichment time because it enriches the education for them. Um, I'm very excited to be able to bring back hopefully a time when we can refocus again on the inquiry standards spec specifically for science and social studies, but back to the problem based learning and really having a quality time and a dedicated time to do that. >> Okay. Thank you very much for explaining that because in my head it was more of a study hall and [snorts] that is not >> and that is one thing that we have had very uh specific conversations about that if you end up in an intervention extension it is not a study hall. >> Okay. Is it an extension or

093it supports? This is not a study hall. And we had a lot of conversations in our last meeting as you see the head shaking, right? That it is not a study hall. That is not what we want to go back to 1990s and have large group. If anybody remembers large group back then here, that is not the the goal of it. The goal is extension or supports. And the other piece with what Chris did so nicely when capturing it is now students that may may see a lot of success in a fax program or in a music program, they're not being pulled out of theirs to get their intervention. They're actually being successful and then being supported. So hopefully from a social emotional side, we see add value to this. >> Would that be more

094of a structured intervention extension time or more similar to what they kind of put in place at Glumbard with their Glenard hour? I go >> speak to the >> I because it started with the year after my kids left but I knew they changed the schedule to add some but it was more free form for kids to be able to go ask questions. I just Googled it. That's >> yeah it was structure it have interventions like from the MTSS process would have structures and facilitated by classroom teachers. Good question >> Katie please. I'm [snorts] trying to rein it in over here because and leave my personal situation out of it, but I have two sixth graders. So, we went through this very recently and it was about a year ago when we had the introductory

095meeting of okay, we're going to Hadley, we need to choose >> fine arts or the exploratory. Is this working? >> Yeah. Um, and it was just such an interesting thought process for the kids to go through. And I felt like they were so young to be making this decision because they had only been doing music for half of a school year. And I there's just there's so much to learn. Um, and then I think about, you know, reading this book that we're reading for the book club, what school could be, and it talks a lot about how like >> reading, you know, or literacy m they're not the only things. There are kids that are going to excel in other areas and they need those opportunities. And that's what I really love about this. That

096being said, I totally see. I mean, one of my questions that I emailed earlier today was like, well, if someone doesn't take a foreign language at Headley, does that set them back going into West? Are they at a disadvantage? Um, so I have a lot of thoughts on it, but overall, thank you to this entire team that worked on this. I am thrilled to see this, I think. And it also like answers a lot of student feedback. back. I mean, I don't want to steal any thunder from our student board members, but um I'm very interested to hear what you guys say about this because I feel like you've said similar things. Um and I just I really appreciate you looking at it. Whatever happens, it I'm can't even imagine the amount of work that

097it took. Um and then one final thing, is there daily recess in either of these schedule B, schedule C? There's not. There is not. Is that off the table? >> I I don't I would say it's not on the table. It's not off the table. It's still like in the bubble there. But when we look at the minute day structure, like creating that is next to impossible at the middle school. >> Can they get outside? Like what does it look like right now? Maybe got Dina. >> So um >> Dina, you want to step up so that we can capture you? Thank you. >> Hi. So what we um try to do is during lunch we um because lunch is 30 minutes. So when about 15 minutes into it, that's all really they need to

098eat. Um then what we do is we take one section per day and they can go outside. Um unfortunately we only have the gym open during seventh grade lunch. So the seventh graders now that it's so cold out, they're able to go to the gym every day. were still rotating, but um we know the elementary goes out 10° or higher. So, we we taught the kids that they can bring their coats up and if it's 10° or higher, we'll let them outside um and then we'll release them first so they can put their coats back. So, we we are trying to do something to get them outside at least once a week. >> Yeah. And I think too the longer passing period that gets them moving a little bit more too. So >> the fresh

099air I think really helps. >> Thank you. >> I do want to just I noticed that Evan showed up. Evan is our representative from world language. He's also department chair. Um he asked if he could say just a couple things real quick about this topic because he's been a voice from that department. So I'm gonna let Evan speak. >> Hello everyone. Evan Prisy, uh world language department chair. Thank you for your time. Um I noticed a lot of folks were really excited to talk about world language. So thank you. Keep that up. Um uh one of the the questions that uh my colleagues have had was you know what does this look like for our department? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? Um are we going to be employed next year?

100Right? Like these are the kinds of questions that naturally spring up first. >> Um when we started looking at it, what we realized is this actually is is something that really helps our students. We've noticed that um a lot of our students are very successful in world language but then there are also some students who say like man I really wish I could be you know in fact right now or I wish I could be in band or orchestra music right now and so even though our students are finding a lot of success um when I get to co-e in a different classroom or I get to judge the um the cake decorating or the brownie bake off I'll see some of my students in there and I'm like oh my goodness goodness, I didn't

101know you were a professional chef. Like, this is incredible. The the amount of just high skill and energy and interest that they can display in other classes is phenomenal. And so, when we were talking as a department, um what does this look like for us? What could it look like for us? We were actually pretty excited because it gives students the opportunity to go um potentially do more things on top of world language that they get to do. instead of looking at world language as a barrier, it can be um something that allows them to go even further. Um and so it just we we see it as an opportunity for students to continue to learn and grow. Um and depending on what it means for um how we can continue to build out our

102schedule if it gives us more opportunities to make um more kind of explore type courses instead of how everything is sort of structured right now with our current curriculum track. Um if we can build in more uh explorebased courses uh then that can give students you know just another way of learning the language. So opening up more opportunities, giving students more choice. That's something that we're looking forward to. >> Good. >> Can you elaborate on what explorebased? >> Pardon? >> Over here. >> Sorry. Can you elaborate on what you mean by the explore based choices? >> Of course. So um as of right now, all of our members in the world language department, we have um the curriculum that we teach out of and so we are kind of like a unified department. Um the

103idea behind that is wherever you go in the building um we are all more or less doing the same thing. Of course we're individuals and you know each class is slightly different. So more or less on the given day if you are in a sixth grade classroom you will see the same idea. That way any student that comes through Hadley we know they're getting a really high quality education. um when we potentially open up the idea uh the option for more kind of explore base language courses instead of saying this is the sixth grade curriculum maybe we're opening it up to saying something like well maybe we're doing uh something where the students can learn more about you know the the western hemisphere or you know languages in Europe or um something like that where

104it's not the same exact thing that everyone in the building is doing. It gives um an opportunity to open up a section of how can we explore language learning in a different way than we've been doing. So um that might be more useful for certain student groups, whoever they may be. Um it just gives us an opportunity to start thinking what can we do for the kids? What can we do differently? How can we do things um just in a in a way that we could maybe try to improve, continually improve? >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. I had another question, David. >> Please, Chris. >> So, the differences between schedule B and C, especially for that executive functioning advisory piece, there's a big difference in minutes between the 12 minutes and zero. >>

105Um, and then there's this plus five to first period. So, I'm not quite sure how that all works in. So, >> help me differentiate between those two components and where that P2 piece starts to come in for the SEAL component for the middle school students. >> Great question. I'm going to have Steve come up because we've talked about this a lot because of what you're seeing. So, Steve's gonna explain it >> and I think Chris, if you want to jump in, but >> yeah, thank you Dr. for that question about where does the uh social emotional learning and coaching come in for our students. What you see here quite simply between the two is in schedule B it's a uh right now we have nine minutes. So let me just back up to what we

106have now. Nine minutes all your children show up they show up to Hadley uh they report to advisory it's 9 minutes there's a threem minute bell and then they go to first period we're able to shove quite a few things into that nine minutes but one of the feed you know one of the strong pieces of feedback we get is it's also a very limiting nine minutes to to do much. So this year for the first time we did a schoolwide executive functioning uh approach. We've gotten some pretty good feedback on just a little bit more of a focus and more intentionality uh has been helpful for that. So schedule B simply takes that idea and um I got to thank my friend over there uh who worked diligently on on schedules like this. We're

107able to set aside 12 minutes. So a few minutes increase over what we have now versus schedule C is actually those minutes aren't there. They get redistributed through all the core periods and there are some minutes left over and so we tack them on to first period because we know that historically first period's always a little little more, you know, we have students showing up late. We have our pledge of allegiance. We have some announcements. There's always a kind of a catchall there. So really that is the different uh between the two and that schedule B I think has a more uh intentional this is what we're going to do um what we can do uh for seal and then the uh schedule C buries uh you know spreads out those minutes elsewhere. I do

108want to say that we we use a program called P2 positivity project. um that is our version of the second step that happens at elementary. >> And so all of our departments our our students even with or without that advisory period our students do receive um instruction. Uh each content area about I would say probably on a fiveweek rotation they give up 15 20 minutes of core time and they instruct um our students on whatever the um the program and the lesson is there. So, I would anticipate that continuing uh regardless of where that 12 minutes or 9 minutes ends up. >> Good. Thank you, Steve. Before you step step back, just uh I had the same question, a little confusion about schedule C, but the the the difference as Chris notes between B and

109C and even A uh is substantial because the advisory is limited. I mean it's gone as a and it did come up in the feedback I think from staff that was questioning so a dramatic change u and I'm just wondering is the feeling that it really isn't creating enough positive change in terms of social and emotional reactions composure character and you can do it in the way that you just said that you can do it just as effectively in 15 minutes every so many weeks because you had to have weighed the pros and the cons and I'm interested in what you found. And by the way, you have you have support. [laughter] She's sneaking up on you. >> I don't know if I have the right answer. But I think um >> you know, we

110have so many great students in this building. So right now our focus is on executive functioning and so we check the homework calendars, we clean out our emails, we see if there's any tech concerns, but in my advisory for example, I'd say 95% of those kids are doing awesome. So one of the things I know the committee talked about is during that intervention period, could there be an executive functioning class and could students be put into that class to help them? So those kids that truly need it would get the help that they need. And one other thing that I don't think was really said is and as a committee we talked about how the intervention classes should be a little bit more fluid. You know, they're not just put in something and then they're

111stuck there all year. If they're showing gains, maybe they could move to an exploratory or maybe they would be put into literacy intervention instead of math or to that executive functioning. So, I feel like there's just a lot of opportunity with that. And I still think the SEAL lessons will be woven in. And that's really what I think middle school kids benefit from if they're doing well with the executive functioning. And I think even still, like, you know, they come in at 8:15 and most teachers are building those relationships with their first period class, you know, as they greet them at the door. And they're still hopefully going to be feel welcome if they don't have that 12 minutes to start the day and they just have that extra five, for example. So, >> okay.

112All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Do you want to ask the students what they >> Well, before I definitely want to hear from the students, but I I but I I do want to ask about the renewed emphasis on particularly social studies. Uh and Adena gave us just a little bit of history. We you had it there pulled back a a real focus on new standards and literacy and math. And now and th this does seem to align with a lot of literature in the education field about hey we pulled too far back from social studies and we so I'd like to hear from you what your what was sort of the compelling reason and I mean and I know parents were asking for it so I'm wondering from your perspective why you felt

113it was important to get it in there daily either and I know Tracy probably knocked the science question out of the box right but I I was particularly interested in the social studies. >> Yeah. Um I think I I mean for for me and I and the social studies people that I've talked to, it's really exciting for us because it's giving us more time than I've ever had in my 19 years here to be able to tackle our standards and social studies as well. And it's I mean these I had all three of these lovely people right here and they can probably tell you >> we had to rush like we're always going so fast and for them they're amazing they can handle it but now you know we could probably extend even within the

114core classroom and I know with social studies it's like it's like storytelling in social studies right like it's a it's a story of our history and now they'll be able to do some really interesting kind of go beyond a little bit as well and just kind of as Dena mentioned four and a half weeks the kids are amazing but you take them away for four and a half weeks and they come back like today was our first day and I'm like what do you remember about cells they're like um they're in your body [laughter] you know so we have to do a little refresher and then I said what did you learn in social studies about the constit institution that there's forms of government, you know, so it's like they it's hard. You take something

115away for a month and and you're forgetting where this way we'll have that consistency and the time and it's just I think it's just really exciting looking at our standards and being able to say we're really going to be able to tackle these now. So does that answer your question? >> Yeah, that's f it's helpful to hear that. Thank you. And with that, how about our student board members? Your reflections, your thoughts, concerns. What do what do you see? >> Just move the mic in front of you and turn it on when you >> um Yeah. So, for the science and social studies thing, I think that's really good because it um just makes routine more common. And um as for advisory, I think that advisory is really important because >> it's like a good

116time to get set and ready for the day. >> So I think we shouldn't get rid of that. >> Thank you. Appreciate you saying that, Joseph. Chloe, >> for Spanish and like language in general, I have one concern and one comment. Um, I feel like my main concern is that maybe for whatever reason kids won't like flesh in elementary school and then they won't have the interest to go into Spanish at Hadley. >> Mhm. >> Um, and then my comment I forgot. >> Well, we can come back to you if you remember it, Chloe. If you remember it, we'll come back. >> Um, I have a question and a comment. My comment is is I think the daily science and social studies idea is fantastic and I think the um more like you were saying

117the remembrance of the material and also my question is the back 20 under the um intervention and extension is that talking about the math and literacy I know that that that the intervention was different but will that be included in schedule B and C? No, >> the the back 20 wouldn't. What it would happen is is that we would have an actual 42 minutes for that for students that need it. >> Does that make sense? >> Okay, >> I finally remember what I was going to say about Spanish. Um, if kids like since there's the option that I don't think that kids like if you're not doing good in Spanish or like world language, then I feel like you wouldn't want to do it. And like usually I feel like kids who aren't doing good,

118it's from a lack of interest. And if you're not interested, then you're just not going to learn. >> So you like So you you're concerned about, as Jason noted, what message it might send to elementary school students in terms of learning foreign language. But on the other hand, if you're not enjoying the class or you're not taken to the class, you're saying they're probably not performing so well. And then the class becomes a burden for them. Yeah. Kind of a tricky needle to thread. Okay. Yeah. Great. >> I think your book discussed that by the way. >> Yeah, it does. >> But but to be clear about I'm not talking about in about like my comments are I want to be clear my comments really bore on a much higher level. >> That's right. >>

119It it's not my comments aren't about what >> what's happening on a dayto-day but it's what's what what's more happening system. like what what is our overarching belief as a light which is a district that that's more of my question >> and I think that's worth a conversation >> I don't think it's worth a conversation right now but I I don't want anything I've said to sound as if it's an opposition I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying and I think that is a fair conversation for us to have as a board >> okay to be determined that or to discuss is there anything else Amy another please >> all right these are kind of more I think for student board members, but um I know I've heard from students who when they're trying to

120choose the band, orchestra, music versus the um exploratory track for the exploratories, they're concerned that they won't get the ones they want. Have you had that experience? Is it typical that cuz I know you have to like choose however many you're interested in or whatever and that weighs on their decision of well maybe I don't even want to try if I'm not going to get the electives I'm interested in I'll just stick with band or orchestra. Um, yeah. So, if I remember the form correctly, I think it's from what I remember, I think it's your first choice, second choice, and so on. And I've never had the problem of getting something I don't like, and I don't think that's a problem for many. I've never heard of something like that. So, I don't think that

121that dictates people's choices. >> Anything else, Amy? >> I do. I have one more. >> And this one's, I guess, kind of for everyone. I heard some feedback with it being a sip day Friday um about the length of time that you aren't in classes at Hadley and that it's just so short and the question I was asked was is there a way to like set it up in blocks? So, I I don't even know how many class periods there are, but let's say there's 10 for the sake of easy math where in your first SIP day, you'd have 1 through five and do those longer and then the next have six through 10. And so, you get a more focused approach to those classes instead of only having whatever 11 to 13 minutes. And

122>> the from what I was hearing, the student I was talking to was saying like, "Well, it's really kind of a waste of a day cuz I don't really get anything out of it anyway." >> Yeah, it's it's great feedback. Um, we haven't talked about it specifically, but I think it's something to explore. >> Yeah. I just wanted to share that that was feedback that I had heard and >> yeah, it's like a half a day of a half a schedule and then flip it the other way. >> I've done it in different ways in the past. >> Yeah. I mean, >> that's the joys that we get here is like we can make those changes based on that feedback. So that was good. Um >> often times when we're in person, teams will do

123events like team awards or um they'll have assemblies, spirit assemblies for whole grade level. So I feel like with it being e-learning, we just ran >> Oh, right. >> schedule. I don't feel like it's always >> I do remember in the past there having like Hold on. >> Yeah, >> I know they they've done different things in the past. I don't I remember in the past having like different blocks on SIP days that you'd have um one 4 7 9 11 and then the next SIP day you'll have two three eight whatever. Um, so I and I I remember different uses of SIP days and different schedules of SIP days throughout, you know, my kids times at Hadley and I think those days always evolve and >> yeah, I would agree. >> Yeah, [snorts] >>

124I I think next steps or is there any other questions? >> We've kept these teachers out past their bedtime. I want to make sure they are fresh tomorrow. Closing thoughts and then we've got to get our teachers home to get some rest. >> Chloe, you want to last? >> Katie had something. Let then let me ask Katie and then Chloe, you'll get the last word. I'm actually maybe going to Chloe. Um Chloe, you said something at the December meeting when we just touched on the Hadley schedule review about how you wanted to make sure like this if foreign language were to become optional, it wouldn't have any impact on your teachers. You really felt for your teachers and it's something that really stuck with me. Um I've thought about it many times since that meeting

125and Chris and I looked at each other and we're like, "She is so smart." Um, and the I'm so sorry I didn't catch your name, but the head of the department when you were up here talking about it, you said, you know, >> you guys have had maybe the same concern like are we going to be employed? And I think I'm hearing >> you can teach other things. I don't know how all the certifications work. Um, but is am I correct? Like let's say there isn't as much of a need for a teacher in a certain foreign language area. Can they teach something different next year? How does that work? >> Yeah, great question. I know it's a silly question, but >> uh this is why we're starting now because staffing and all that is

126what we're doing now. Um I think I'll say and I think Steve and I have this conversation all the time is we want to make sure we have the best and the brightest in front of our kids >> and if things change and staffing or sections change and employment changes maybe for a group and someone has to come or go if they're the best and the brightest and they're can do other subjects then let's have that conversation. We don't want to lose someone because of reductions like that. So we definitely look at license and placement and fits and all that when we make those decisions. But it is when you make changes like this, that's why we have to start now because it's going to take quite a few weeks or months to thin this

127out and see what it looks like on a staffing side. >> Okay. >> Which we have some deadlines at the end of the year that we have to hit if we're going to make any changes. >> Makes sense. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> You're welcome. Last word, Chloe. >> Uh my comment was going to be about home room and the advisory time for me. This might just be me cuz this is kind of an uncommon experience. For my first two years, my home room has always been like what I would consider typical like people are socializing. But this year, for whatever reason, it is dead silent for most of the time. Um, >> which I feel like that would be a benefit of having schedule C where it's like just extra minutes added on

128because I feel like that would avoid the awkward just silence for like cuz like for the first little bit we like do the pledge, we listen to the announcements. Sometimes we go over like the written announcements, but after that it's just like seven minutes of silence. >> Wow, that sounds >> appreciate your honesty. [laughter] Seven minutes of silence. That sounds pretty good. >> That's a good one. All >> right. It already is lovely. >> So, next steps for us, just so you know, as we wrap up, I know the teachers want to want to get home and get ready for tomorrow. Um, our goal is in the next two weeks that our committee will be coming back together taking your feedback uh and bringing that to the table with all the feedback. So, if you

129have more feedback, please let let Dr. McHugh know because he joins us for these. Uh, and then we're going to kind of make some decisions and start moving forward and laying out the groundwork of what would this look like if we brought it to reality? How where are kids going to go? Where will sections go, teachers go? That's a big question in in some of the departments and and how does it all come together? So, if you have feedback, please let Dr. McHugh know. And then we might come back in a month or two with a kind of final final. Um, but we got to make sure all the pieces fit. >> Okay. >> Dr. McHugh, anything? >> Thank you to the staff that came, not just tonight, but for all the work that you

130have put in there. Steve, that's you too. Your dedication to this still. Bob, David, Chris, Karen, everybody who's been a part of this. Um, my name was last on that slide for a reason. It's because when you put all these people together to look at the data, and I do want to remind everybody, students, staff, and families filled out a survey. We're going off of data that people told us what they want. And this team has done an unbelievable job of getting can't get it all, but a lot of that in there. So, thank you for all of your efforts. >> Thank you. All right, I guess they're now able to class is over for them. They can go home. >> Uh yeah, you're welcome. Thank you for all the time. And I know you

131took the the you took the assignment very seriously. You can tell that your intentions uh are are quite focused on children and you're dealing with tough uh topics and you're looking at making change that you think will be uh positive. So please don't take any um curiosity on our part or questions on our or our part in any uh kind of negative way. Uh we want to provide you with the kind of feedback that we think districtwide you you will benefit from. So thanks for the evening and they are dismissed to go home with their families. Yes. Okay. We'll give them a minute to transition out. I think we can go with the public participation because nobody should take long and I will then introduce uh public participation. Members of the public who wish to

132address the board should complete a green form and submit it to Mrs. Moch. The board recording secretary speakers are asked to maintain respectful decorum and limit their comments to three minutes or less. Please note that all meetings, including public comment, are livereamed and recorded and become part of the official record. Mrs. Moch, is there anyone who would like to make public comment tonight? Seeing none, then we will move on to our reports and we lead off with the superintendence report. >> Can we put the threeminut timer on for me? >> Ah, you want to talk bedtime? Three minutes. >> Okay. Uh this is a robust report, but I'm going to move quickly at the end. If you need me to go back to anything, we absolutely can do that. Five topics tonight. You'll see them

133right there. Uh that picture on the left uh is uh Hadley International Night, which was a wonderful opportunity last Friday, I believe. Let's start with transportation. Um, as many of you know, we have a new bus company. First student started January 5th and for a midyear transition. Eric, have you ever done one of those midyear? No, me neither because normally you don't do that because it's starting the school year for the first time. It has been a very good start. Not perfect. It's been bumpy. We appreciate uh all of the staff, obviously, some of our Hadley staff members here for working through the kinks. But what we have seen is an improved level of service over what we had before with Safeway and a responsiveness of first student to fix the problems as they arise.

134We do have a bus tracking app called First View which is now up and running. Still working the kinks out with that. Correct Eric? >> Yeah, just one thing to add. There are still a few buses that don't have the technology required to participate in the app and First Student knows that they're working on it but that does impact you know a number of buses still. That last bullet point, continue making adjustments. I feel like every day there's adjustments that continue to be made. Eric and Shannon and your whole team is doing a great job. Our building leaders and secretaries and admin assistants, everybody is working through that to hear from parents if something isn't going right. But first, student is being responsive. Those are words you did not hear me say last year. They

135are being responsive. They are making improvements. And uh we're in a much better place transportation wise. instructional technology. Uh the last time I talked to you was in December when I said I would be meeting with the uh it's called CIT, the continuous improvement team. Tracy and Dina, does that does that sound right for acronyms? Continuous improvement team. It's basic I know I'm the chairperson. Still the new guy after a year and a half. Uh it's basically a group of staff members representing all of our buildings, all different grades. We also have administrators on there. Dr. Bruno pops in to listen to what's going on. And um I thought that going into our January meeting, I knew exactly what the staff was going to say. Um and it wasn't. I heard something different, which is

136it was good to hear that then. So um just to let you know, instructional technology, there will be a number of changes that came out of our engagement that we've done. The first one happened. All kindergarten Chromebooks are now staying at school. It was already happened with full day kindergarten. We made that change for dual and half day kindergarten. 6 through 8 are going to continue to take their Chromebooks home. That was loud and clear in the surveys from students, parents, and and staff. 1 through five is where it got a little bit interesting because survey said keep Chromebooks home one and two for sure and maybe even three, four, five. And when we brought that to the staff, there were some things that came out about use at home that caused me pause to

137to keep moving quickly and go back and get more data. So, I have more data about how Chromebooks are being used at home to bring to our February meeting where we'll discuss further. And we're also just uh discussing recess and rewards because that was something that came out of the committee the whole meeting. Why are we using Chromebooks at recess and why are we using them as rewards? Um, I think our staff was a little more aligned on there, but we still have questions. If we say no more Chromebooks at recess, how do we support staff in doing that? And what does that mean for rewards? There was even a lack of clarity of is Cahoot is that considered a reward or is that considered instructional technology used to quiz? So, more to come. We

138have a meeting in February. I will update you at the February board meeting, but just know we will be making changes I foresee throughout the rest of this year. And then the bigger question is all of the ways we use instructional technology in class. What's the bang for the buck for all of that? That will be a much longer engagement that will be done with all of our staff members. As we see, it's beneficial for this, not as beneficial for that. We'll want student voice in that, too. That's the long game of this. But we will be talking instructional technology at every board meeting for the rest of this year and into next year. Safety update. just didn't want you to think that when uh we talk about safety that it's going into the void.

139Scooters and ebikes, we heard a lot of that at the beginning of the year. U I met with um police, village, park district, uh other districts, and we will be uh looking at possible changes for scooters and ebikes come the spring. So, I expect to have a follow-up meeting soon on that. I just wanted you to know that's still on my radar. Something else on my radar at uh we heard public comment at the kindergarten center board meeting from a few people who lived over by the Geneva Bloomingdale intersection. We fixed a few of those issues or at least they're better. The lights when I just drove by today were flashing at the appropriate time on there, but there were a lot of questions about student safety in that intersection. We have been in contact

140with the village who said that's all the county and Eric, I think you reached out to the county, had some difficulty. Um, I talked to Amber Quirk who's the regional office of education superintendent for DuPage and she put us in touch with somebody at the county. She said they're going to listen because they're going to want to know about these pieces. So, we have that person's name, Eric. We're going to connect with that person to see what can we do because that intersection we know um is dangerous. And in fact, Bloomingdale Road now that we have a building on there is something we want to look at too. The county is who can help us. And I just wanted you to know we're continuing to work this issue. This wasn't a oneanddone. We heard you

141and we're not going to do anything about it. >> Jeeoff, can I interrupt you for one second? I do have to say last week I was running a random errand on I don't know Wednesday during lunch and I was driving by Churchill going east. There was someone pulled over by a policeman right in front of Churchill. Coming back 30 minutes later going west, the police car was sitting and hiding on one side of the street. Don't speed on Geneva. First of all, don't speed ever. Don't speed there anymore. The police are on this. They are pulling people over for speeding. They're pulling people over for being on their phones. They have heard us. They are responding to us. >> Thank you. >> And it it's I think it is 20. Like it's slow when I'm

142in there. I'm just creeping along and people are buzzing by. But you know what? You keep getting pul pulled over, it's going to stop. So I feel like our efforts we've got a ways to go, but this is uh this is extremely important. And I want you to know that we we're on it. Special education review plan. A boy Molly and trying to go lightning round here. This is so big of a topic, but we're just going to give you a taste of where we're at right now because one of the questions I heard was, okay, there was that big report at the December meeting. Now what? And I'm going to engage our very own Molly Victor to help me share. So here's the next steps. Now that Molly and I had a chance to

143really digest where do we go from here? Well, I don't know that I can talk as quickly as you can, Jeff. >> You can just talk normal. >> Okay, great. Um, so, right, Jeff talked about we got that big long report, long presentation at our December board meeting. Uh, there were 11 recommendations that came out of Dr. Frost's report. Um, we put them into the four categories that that she um offered them up to us. So, planning for logistics, communication, special ed instruction, and then professional development. Um, to address all of those in what's left of this school year is an insurmountable task. Um, so Jeff and I sat together and and really put our brains together on what are the things that we can make some movement on now. Um, really in looking at

144what's best for our students. Um, and we put those into two major tasks. Um, what we want to focus on for the rest of this school year is expanding the special ed continuum. Um, there's a variety of tasks that go into that, but right now we're in the process of looking at individual student needs across grades and buildings and really looking at how do we support all of our students in the individualized way that they each need and and deserve. when we started thinking about it, the expansion of the special ed continuum, those five uh recommendations fall under that bucket. There may be others that come out of it, but we know for certain those five will be addressed as we're thinking about expanding the special ed continuum. The second task in there that uh

145we felt was important for us to start looking at um is really expanding or I'm sorry establishing a a student services parent collaboration group. Um that really addresses those two bottom uh sections on that that previous slide looking at uh communication and then professional development. Um again there may be other things that come out of that group but we know for certain those four recommendations are going to be addressed um through developing this parent collaboration group. What we are not looking at specifically right now are the three uh recommendations of data submissions, MTSS process and eligibility determination. That's not to say those things won't come up during the two major tasks that we're focusing on. Um, and that's not to say that we won't address them in the near future. We just don't have immediate

146plans to look specifically at those three recommendations. >> And I feel from my lens, the MTSS process since I've entered this district is continually being reviewed. Both you, Molly, and Dr. Webster have been doing so much work with that. Our building leaders have been doing that. So I don't want you thinking that MTSS is is lying and we're just ignoring it. We are continually working on that and I think as Dr. Williams comes in and you pass the torch Dr. Webster to her, she also has outside experiences with MTSS. So we will continue to work on those as well. >> That's it. Uh last topic and then we will take questions in the action items. The discipline disproportionality plan is one of the items and we were flagged on ISB's discipline list. We weren't thrilled

147about that. That's not a list we want to be on. Um but we want to take this as an opportunity to what can we do to improve. So our focus is going to be to reduce exclusionary discipline in the I believe in the report it gives ideas about how we're going to do that. We need to submit this to the state by February 3rd. Maybe. Does that sound right? >> Monday. >> Uh by Monday. And uh the timeline though for doing this is the rest of this year and also this will spill into next year and this will be a collaborative effort district and at the building level. I don't think I made it under three minutes. Um Molly that wasn't because of you that was me. But board members questions you have about any

148of those five topics. board. Any thoughts about and >> Yeah. Well, just a quick thought. Um just as your the what Molly said about special education and what you said about MTSS. Um one of the questions not necurring comment that I heard from parents regarding the special education review um was about MTSS and the differentiation between the two. that question is MTSS of a special education or is it not? Um, and I don't actually actually know that answer. Um, but I think just kind of like identifying that as to what that is because I do think it's true. I mean the the time that I've been on the board, I know that there's been a ton of work just gone into TMTSS and I would say that it really a lot of that work does

149fall outside of special education, but at the same time the work is still in special education. So it's kind of it's it it but it's kind of like your kid in college is kind of like MTSS like he's still your kid he's still part of but then he's on his own but then he comes home so he's kind of like you know like it's it's in that gray area and but there it's a little bit of both and it's hard to answer. So like putting out there as to and it's kind of the same for eligibility as to eligibility is what eligibility is and I think that's really what the hard part is is that we don't really determine eligibility. We what determine whether or not a student falls into the eligibility of a criteria.

150>> Yeah. >> And I think that's kind of that hard part. Molly and I are right now arm wrestling with our glances to see who gets to answer this. I >> Well, it's not even an answer. It's more of a question than what came up. >> Well, so Jason, I think you bring up a couple of really great points. Um, I think MTSS and eligibility determination. Uh, I don't want to predetermine what our parent collaboration group is going to talk about, but my guess is those are going to be some of our first topics for capacity building, right, of of understanding what is that overlap. Is it general education? Is it special education? Is it sometimes one and sometimes the other? Right? I think when I looked further at the the data from Dr. Frost,

151one of the things that came out was just a general confusion. Um, and so my hope is with the the parent collaboration group that we can band together and come up with some topics for us to learn together. um and then get that information out to any and all who need it. >> And that was going to be about I'm glad I went where I went first because my next comment was going to be about the parent collaborative group. One of the the other comments that I got was like, is this just going to be a parent group as to communications? And I said, I sure as hell hope not. Um and I said, and I looked at some of the board questions that came in today. One of them was about, well, we've done

152these special education reviews in the past of what have we done? Um, and we've actually done a lot in response to special education audits in the past. And I think some of the most important work have been done in collaboration with parents and staff. And so I think some of those five points that you hit are some of the kind of like, you know, you know, they're quick hitters, but also going to be long-term hitters, but some of like your immediate needs that are going to go on forever. Um, but having having a ongoing group with parent involvement that isn't just limited to acts because I think it's important you say that like I don't want to limit what the those parents are going to say that this is what's going to come out of

153it and that's great. Um, but I I I think it's important that we establish that we have a broader range of parents, you know, for make sure we have participation from all the different builds. I'd love to see, you know, have a little bit of staff involved because I think looking back at the work that's been done in special education, I think that's where a lot of good solid work came is when we had that commitment and participation from across the community. >> So, when I I'm going to take this one too, Jeff. [laughter] So, when I shared with Jeff what my vision was for this parent collaboration group, um it is exactly what you said there, Jason, right? I want to bring together staff and parents and I want them to help me drive

154the agenda for these meetings. This is not me saying these are the things I think you need to learn about or these are the things I think [laughter] we should communicate about. This is uh a a truly collaborative group figuring out how do we learn together but then how do we share that information with people who aren't able to be a part of the group or don't think they need to be right now but maybe six months later it's relevant information for them. So I want to do both of those things but I want to do it in partnership with our parents and our staff. [snorts] >> Very good. Thank you. Okay. Jeeoff, I just want to say thank you for your continued due diligence on that intersection at Church Hill. >> I know I

155shared with you after the PTA meeting that parents were still bringing that that point up and so I think it's just good that you stay on top of that. So, thank you for that. >> Thanks. And I will say we I think our team back there um even more than myself. So, I will accept it on behalf of our team that um Yeah. Thank you. >> very good. All right. Time for board reports. any school board member with a board report. Ted, please get us started. >> So, um, last Thursday, um, had the pleasure of taking a tour of of Lincoln Elementary, courtesy of, um, Dr. McHugh. And, um, there were two two pieces that stuck out for me. Um, we got a little peak behind the curtain of the command center as uh the

156trigger was being pulled on on doing the e-learning day for Friday. And so, um, Dr. McHugh showed me all this stuff that was all queued up already. So, they'd already spent a good portion of the day before trying to get all the ducks in a row and everything. So, it was actually kind of it was actually kind of fun. Okay, now we we do this and we let these people know we do, you know. So that was kind of fun. But the highlight of the tour was I got to see under the sea tag in PE class where there are two octopuses made out of um uh >> uh pool noodles, right? And they go running around and they're tagging the other fish in the in the gymnasium and it was darn cute. So that

157that was so thank you very much for the tour and the a little bit of behind the scenes stuff. >> Very nice. Well presented, Ted. Anyone else? Yeah, please Katie. >> Yes, I attended um a meeting with the PEP committee earlier this month and um Erica Nelson who is the chair of the PEP Foundation. There was a woman named Becky Park who worked very closely with Erica for seven years. Um, Becky sadly lost her battle with breast cancer in December. I never had the pleasure of knowing her, but just reading her obituary and hearing what everyone on the pep committee said about her, um, such a wonderful woman. And one thing I thought that was really neat, her family in lie of flowers, they set up the Becky Park Memorial Fund, which is now part

158of um, what PEP overseas. It's one of the funds. So, just thought it was really important for the community to know that and know that's out there. It was such a neat way um for her to be remembered. I um mentioned about driving down Geneva and the police. So, never speed on that street. Uh I attended this as a parent and not so much a board member, but the Hadley sixth and seventh graders um were able to attend a dress rehearsal of the Chicago Symphanetta in December right before the holidays. Amazing. What was funny about it is, you know, I'm in there doing the chaperone thing and this text shows up on my phone. How are you enjoying the concert from Dr. McHugh? And I'm looking around. I'm like, where is Dr. McHugh? How do

159you know I'm here? And I just this man is everywhere. So, thank you for coming. I didn't even see you. And like, what is happening? Are there cameras in this place? But it's such a neat experience for the sixth and seventh graders. And they were so well behaved. So, I don't know what Mrs. Almus and Mrs. Tribby said on the bus ride over there, but they were fantastic, and it was such a cool thing to be a part of. Um, and also thank you, or lastly, thank you to both Julie, who's not here, and Ted. When the beautiful audit report showed up at our homes last week, I looked at it and I thought, "What the heck do I do with this? What do I, you know, it's so large?" And so, I reached out

160to both Ted and Julie and they both um really pointed me in the right direction of what to do and I really appreciate that. So, thank you. >> Thank you for acknowledging your acknowledging your board colleagues. Thank you. Very good. other board reports. But Amy, >> I attended the Forest Glenn PTA meeting. Um, and they said next year they're looking for a new president and treasure. So, if anyone is listening and interested, please reach out to them. Um, they have a brain fuel book club that they do every year and signups have begun for that. So, if anyone has a child at Forest Glenn who's interested in signing up, please remember to do so. They also have their annual adult fundraiser coming up on January 31st. Tickets are available, I believe, through January 30th. No

161tickets will be sold at the door. They had their science fair on January 22nd. I was unable to attend, but I've attended previously, and it's always been fantastic. They have an art fair coming up in February, and they also need volunteers for high interest day on April 24th. Thank you, Amy. >> And yes, no. Good. Go ahead. >> Just quickly, I didn't have anything specific I attended to, but I was getting ready for work one morning and watching WGN News, which I typically do, and all of a sudden, I hear our George Georgina. She's a wonderful band orchestra teacher. And I don't know her last name because I always say, "Hi, Georgia. How are you?" um um mentioned on WGN News for providing a cello for um a returning cello player that needed a cello

162for to perform in the area and it was just nice to hear just a little shout out to just some of the work and contributions of the arts that the district does and so thanks Georgia for you know continuing the work that you do. >> Yeah, that's nice. That's nice. Anything else? Yeah. Then I let me just close briefly by um and seems apppropo and given the rather extensive conversations that we had around the Hadley schedule and the impacts on on world language that I had the opportunity to spend some time at both the Hadley and the Abraham Lincoln International Night. Good to see Abraham Lincoln putting that together again on cold nights. Good turnouts. uh lots of lots of world food u certainly lots of world language uh and a lot of world culture

163on on display uh and that's a I think it's again a real testament uh to the district it does speak something positive about the value of of of of being a global citizen and appreciating world culture so those are two nice events uh to to attend and much appreciated for staff and building leadership who were in that building. Long day. Uh but there they were. Uh it's a great place for them to be. Okay. Students, board reports. What do you got? >> Um so although seventh grade didn't have anything too exciting individually, um all grades tested um math testing for math and literacy. And today was the start of quarter 3 which swapped science social studies for those who are in exploratories. Got to go in their new exploratories and of course PE and house

164swapped. Um so map testing. Um the sixth graders are preparing for IR. I think that's a schoolwide maybe even district. Um, I'm pretty sure, I cannot confirm this, but I'm like 85% sure that the sixth graders are doing piloting for science and social studies. Um, this is another like Hadley wide thing. Um, but if anybody reads five Rebecca Codle books, which is like Rebecca Codle is a reward that books can receive. Um, if you read five of them, then you get to go to a baseball game with our librarian here. Um, and then >> wait, our librarian will take people to a baseball game if we read five books. >> I'm pretty sure it's during the school day. I >> And you get to miss school. >> I'm pretty sure. I actually don't know. >>

165Well, it's outside learning. [laughter] It that's what it is. >> Either either she or the board president will take the kids to the baseball game. [laughter] >> It's a baseball game. I I don't mind driving. If can Eric, can I drive one of the buses? No, [laughter] >> do not let the Bruno drive the bus. >> Great. >> And then busing is going very well. Um I'm pretty sure maybe the buses are even arriving early [laughter] or at least maybe my bus. Um, I missed it like three times, but I think that's just cuz my bus time got adjusted and I wasn't used to going so much earlier. Um, and then another thing at Hadley, we um there's a culture club that recently started. Um, I haven't attended any meetings yet, but I'm very excited

166for that. >> Oh, nice. >> So, 8th grade had like an incoming freshman Glenard West curriculum night. Um we went to Glamour West and checked out course and class options. There was international night. Um eighth grade or the whole school had map testing. Um yeah and um I just wanted to share something that my classmates told me. Um they said that the new dismissal procedure kind of clogs up the halls a lot especially by the bus lanes. Oh, good to know. Take notice. Thank you. Anything else? You're good. >> Oh, one more. Chloe, >> I didn't even think about this, but the new dismissal procedure, it's interesting. I feel like it's the eighth graders who have strong opinions on it because they have to leave five minutes after the sixth and seventh graders. Um, that's

167about it. [snorts] >> Ah, okay. Yeah, interesting. Thank you. I appreciate the time you put into your leadership roles. Thanks for bringing that to the board. Uh, okay. Then we have a few discussion items that we want to get into. And Eric, I think you're going to facilitate each of these. You maybe we start with the budget calendar. >> Yes. Um, as you guys know, this is an annual thing that we do. Um, school code made school code mandates. as part of the budget development process. We present to the community a budget development calendar. So, that's what you'll see attached to tonight's board agenda. It's very kind of high level, just kind of illustrates the different steps we go through and the months that they occur. Um, only thing I would add that isn't really

168explicitly stated on this calendar is this is a 12-month process. As you guys know, most of our capital planning happens in the fall. So, um, just keep in mind this is a requirement the state, you know, makes us go through each year, uh, to provide this calendar. So, very straightforward. Um, happy to answer any questions. >> We understand. Thank you. And now you're going to bring us back to the kindergarten center. >> Yes. So, next topic we wanted to bring up tonight was some kindergarten center enhancements is how we've kind of labeled them. Um, now that we've lived that space here for a half a school year, uh, slightly more actually, um, a couple things have kind of risen to the surface as, uh, improvements we think that are going to best serve students in

169the long run. Um, and specifically, they are the addition of some student bathrooms on both the first and second floor of the building. Um, if you recall when we were planning the building, our focus was really on getting as many classrooms into the uh, square footage limitation that we were dealing with. So, we we went with that 12 classroom design, kind of hit that goal of maximizing the classroom space, but what we wouldn't what we didn't prepare for was kind of common space bathrooms. Um, each classroom has a bathroom in it, but we did not build student bathrooms in the hallways. We built staff bathrooms in the hallways. So now fast forward to the first year that we've occupied the building. We've realized that during lunch and during PE or activities in the m multi-purpose

170room on the first floor, often kindergarteners will need to go to the bathroom during those periods. Makes perfect sense. Um so that would be one of the enhancements that we're proposing and it would be to construct both boys and girl bathrooms on the first and second floor. Um importantly, this will not encroach on existing classroom space. Um the second floor bathrooms would be part of the lunchroom. There's an ability for us to kind of add a rectangle, if you will, um with two bathrooms on the second floor inside the lunchroom area. And then on the first floor, we'd actually capture some of the existing PE storage closet. Um if you recall, that's a very large um kind of storage area, and there's a way for us to add two bathrooms within that storage area. So,

171those are the two bathroom solutions we have for the first and second floor. Um, the second item that we've realized is really a dire need is we need more spaces for small groupoup um, instruction and kind of breakout spaces for students that sometimes our special ed team would need to use. Um, because right now there just aren't a lot of small groupoup spaces. um with the number of staff we have in the building that are supporting our students, those spaces are frequently occupied and we need more space to do uh those small group interventions and meetings. So the solution we came up with came up with um is to basically create small spaces in the second floor flex area. So what's there right now is kind of a library space and a meeting space. And

172what we would do is we'd use some of that space kind of in again in a rectangular shape to add to small group rooms. Um again doesn't encroach on classroom space, but it does provide those needed small group areas. That's kind of the description of the project. I'm going to take a pause here and see if there's any questions on that and then I can talk about just the process. Amy, >> I just wanted to make a quick comment on the bathrooms having a kindergartener. It is a complaint I have heard from her that she has had trouble when she has to use the bathroom during lunch or recess. So, overall, I think that that's a good addition and will be helpful for the students. >> Yeah, and it really highlights I'm glad you brought

173that up. This is not something that really we expected, but it is very evident. Um, each day both on the first and second floor. In fact, on the first floor, there are blue arrows in our hallway that direct kids from the NPR into the nurse's bathroom. So, um, very much a daily pressing need and that's why we're proposing is is a good long-term solution. >> Jay, sure. >> Yeah. I just I want to come I remember back about go back however many years and we started talking about this project and talking about the number of classrooms and I was questioning well can we put I was one can we put more classrooms can we put more classrooms and there's a lot of push back as you know we need to make sure that we re

174we maintain space for changes in the future um and this is why you were talking about that as as to you know we don't know what's going to come we don't know what our needs are so um I know that this is you a change that you're putting out now as to oh this is something that we're seeing that we need but this isn't a new thought that that that you and your team had. This was when this whole thing was being planned you're putting out there is that there's going to be these kind of changes but we don't know how this I mean because you repeatedly said we don't know how staff and students are actually going to use this building and we need to maintain flexibility so that we can structure this building

175to fit how it's actually used. >> That's absolutely correct. We use the term we wanted to live it. We wanted to live it for a while. We wanted to operate it with kids, find out what the kids need and then make these enhancements as you know that information came forward. >> Y I and frankly I think that it's a good practice and I'd encourage the whole team to continue to listen uh to the staff over there and learn from the student experience. Take that in. Give them a give them a strong voice because they're the ones that are living it on the ground. uh and they're the ones who will probably identify other twists and turns. Uh and I'm glad you're responding uh to what you've heard coming out of the building. >> Absolutely. So,

176and then just a quick note on the process. So, as Jack Hayes mentioned earlier, we are still, you know, operating with these contractors that did the work of constructing and finishing the building. Um we've not yet closed out all of those contracts. They're still open. So, the most efficient and I believe timely solution to get this work done this summer so it'll be ready for the fall is to do contract change orders for existing contractors that built the building. So, what that would mean is we would go through each of the trades that are going to be required to do these bathroom, you know, additions and also not additions to to add bathrooms to the building. I'm going to word it that way. It's not an addition. Um, and to add these small group spaces

177would be to contact the contractors, give them the schematic drawings, request quotes from them, and then do a change order to their contract so we can proceed timely to get it done this summer. Um, where we are at in that process is, you know, along the whole time we've kind of looked at these enhancements, we've worked with both our construction manager and our architect that helped us build the building. Um both of them gave solutions kind of ideas and different ways we could go to kind of accomplish these enhancements and having kind of set on a path the next step was to give those solutions to white and company our architect and say now draw the specific schematics we need to go get formal pricing from our contractor friends. Um that is commenced early January.

178We've been given a deliverable date of February 3rd I believe for those drawings. So, that will permit us to get the information in front of our contractors in time for them to hopefully give us a price for the February meeting. That would be our goal is to bring uh an action request to the board to approve or authorize those change orders at the February meeting. That is a tight time frame. Um I'm hopeful we'll make it. If we do not make it, it would be the March, I believe, 15th meeting. We'd bring that report to the board for action. So, it's kind of a synopsis of how this solution would work. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. And there's one final topic, and that is the board policy manual, uh, which will also include

179our board policy committee, Ted and and Chris. But, Dr. McHugh, >> Ted, do you want to start this off? So, [clears throat] so we've been talking about this for se several months now because uh the policy committee has met several times on this, but really the work started even before then. There's been an effort on to ongoing basis to review all of the policies against um the current press stuff and try to take out anything that we didn't need that was that had been specialized. And some of those things had been in there for 20 years and no longer apply. Um, so um, so we've been doing that and I don't know whether that somebody had the ulterior motive to to know they were going to be go going to this new platform, this press

180plus platform, but regardless, it actually makes the changes less. So, I spent a bunch of time this last week actually doing a side-by-side comparison, which was not easy to do either on a 400page document. Um, and most of the changes are really pretty minimal there. There's a bunch of stuff that was removed that really was just duplication of stuff that was contained somewhere else. For example, our um uh part of our uh strategic plan was duplicated into the policy. Well, uh there's no reason to have that in both places. Um I I work at software development. We talk about bit rot when you keep copying the same piece of code from one place to the next to the next and then you make a change over here and you forget the other places it goes.

181But there were also several other exhibits and things that were just copies of whatever the um statutes were. So all that stuff has been taken out. Um there's there's some formatting changes. Um we added um recognition that we have student board members. That was a nice nice addition. Part of the exercise too um uh was um staff reviewed it. I don't even think it was a an AB comparison as part of the review. Uh, was it or was it an AB? [laughter] I thought maybe it was a blind, hey, let's go down the whole thing and here's the stuff that's unique to us. So, there was some of that. The one of the most recent reviews that we did was um in the press packet and and press is this um service that we subscribe

182to from IASB and in several policies there's alternative phrases that you can choose from or add or whatever. And so we went through all those >> and we and in every single case we picked the one that was the same or as close to the same as what we already have. So those kinds of changes were pretty minimal. I called out two policies that were drastically different um in the uh premeating questions. I don't know uh Dr. McHugh, if you want to touch on um 430 and uh five uh 185 um uh on your answers there >> what they are too. >> Yeah. So um 430 uh had uh had to do with investment policy and 5185 had to do with FMLA. Yeah. And the content of this changed from in in terms of press's

183language. We were updating to align with press's language. It wasn't uh it wasn't something that we were looking to change. But in aligning it also fits what we're doing. And I think that was our big question as we looked at what we were doing is does our policy match our practice? And then if it doesn't for some reason then we were going to take pause and in looking at the entire policy we found that for the most part everything was aligned on there and some of the changes in the law uh we needed to adjust policy but but we were on board. So yeah, the FMLA language in U was replaced and that was really updated to better align the model policy with best practice administrator administration under federal FMLA rules. So there's that federal

184piece to that one whereas 430 was aligning it with the public funds investment act and the Illinois Sustainable Investing Act. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. So, um, and I know this was probably overwhelming and I apologize that I I was down so far down in the weeds. I didn't really warn people that, hey, we've already been through all of this. So, um, the other thing is if we find a mistake, it's really easy to fix, >> right? It's not like this is cast in stone. And in fact, the packet that you have is missing a policy. um which I did a sidebyside eyeball compare. It has to do with um concussions in um school sports. Uh it doesn't look like it's changed from what we already have. So obviously that will be included. So

185um anyway, that's that's it for for discussion. If anybody has any questions about it, I have other notes for myself, but um uh we'll be voting on it at the next meeting so that people can kind of digest it and everything. It doesn't look like, hey, we're rushing uh and trying to, you know, do our due diligence on it. You know, I before uh Chris, did you have any supplemental piggyback add-on to Ted's >> other than the majority of the work was already done by Jeff and Jeff's team prior to Ted and I even looking at these policy changes. So, I know they did a lot of very heavy lifting in preparation for the committee meetings that we had with >> Yeah. >> with the Illinois Association of School Boards members. One area, Ted, Jeff,

186Nancy, or Chris, we did note that we did formatting uh uh a change to how we handle technology. >> Jeff or Ted, do you want to speak to what that change was? >> Yeah, probably to me the most substantial change that's really more formatting than content content former. Well, currently we have a section 9 for technology and what we found is um most other places don't. Technology is woven in. So what we looked to do was embed our technology policies in the other sections which for the most part was pretty seamless. Wouldn't you say Nancy on that? Um but that was the biggest change in where it's located. Now it's embedded within instruction sections section six and it's it it's it it's has a more natural feel to where that is. Um overall though with

187press you're going to be able to search for things so easily here instead of going to every individual you got a policy you can search the entire board policy just with the click of a button. Um, and when you say that I did the work, Chris, ahead of time, >> you said and team, I'll say the team with a little bit of me. Nancy Moch has spearheaded this thing. Pretty much every week for the entire fall you were working on that. And then our cabinet friends read through the policy and gave their input. This was a tremendous lift. and then the two committee me members. I mean, the amount of time that you've spent and then Ted, even the deep dive you've done here, this really was a Wii effort on this and because of

188that, I think our policy will be more accessible to our community, to our board, to our staff. It's going to be really positive, but uh yeah, it was a lot of work to get here. >> Yeah, sure. Most important things that turn out well do require a lot of work. Nancy, thank you again for getting everybody together, keeping it on track, getting it done. and Ted, Chris, thank you so so very much for the effort. It's good to see the policy committee helping to to drive uh the change and then bring it uh to the board. That's how the committee should work. All right, then we will move into our action items [clears throat] and the consent agenda. Are there any items board members would like to be removed from the consent agenda to be

189considered separately? Hearing none. Then may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes employment recommendations, leave requests, resignations, and resignation with retirement as noted on the personnel report, donation and gifts, freedom of information act report, the investment schedule, monthly revenue expenditure summary report, school district payment order, summary of bills and payroll, treasurer's report, the fiscal 25 audit, December 15th open and close session meeting, meets the review of close session meeting minutes, close session audio for destruction, and the district discipline disproportionality plan as presented. >> Motion. >> Need a second. >> I'll second. >> Second from Ted. Uh, roll call. Nancy. >> Mr. Lobach. >> Yes. >> Miss Becker. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leau. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rusties. I'd like to thank all of the PTA organizations for their very generous donations.

190Yes, >> Dr. Martelli. >> Yes, >> Dr. [clears throat] Bruno. >> Yes. And there you go. Um, we did it again. I think we need to introduce someone who's joining our team. >> We did it again. We did a good job this time. >> Yeah. Well, I have the distinct pleasure of announcing our new Hadley principal, Dr. Rebecca Becky Gabrena. Uh Becky comes to us as the currently principal of Kenyon Woods Middle School in U46. Prior to that, she was the principal of Markwart Middle School. And before that, she was in uh district 15 for 20 years. Middle school science teacher, assistant principal, principal, and uh now you're just a little bit further south at Hadley. Uh Becky went through the gauntlet, the the interview. I'm going to say it. You won't say it, but

191I will. You went through the gauntlet. um a number of from the the screening phase through multiple leadership teams, parents, toughest group of all are students. Uh and um really what what resonated most with all of these groups that were involved in your selection, you're student centered first and foremost, what's best for kids. And that uh to us here in D41 is the single most important thing. Um greatness is is a word that we use, but we really have a high bar. These kids, these communities we serve deserve greatness and throughout your career, you strive for greatness. Your collaboration, you want to work with people and we are D41 is our hashtag because we value collaboration. That's a huge strength of yours. I could go on and on, but uh you wowed us throughout the

192process and we are so happy to welcome you as the new principal of Hadley Junior High. [applause] >> Well, I'll keep it short and sweet. Um, thank you so much. >> Is your mic on, Becky? Is the green light on? Ah, there we go. >> I'll keep it short and sweet. I just wanted to um thank you all for giving me this opportunity. Um, being in the community right down the road for quite uh the majority of my career. I've had intersections with Hadley in the community and every single one of those intersections have been uh extremely positive and my ability to come here and be able to work alongside you guys to do uh great things for for Hadley and the district is um it's like a dream come true. So, thank you for

193having me. >> Welcome. Well, thank you very much choosing us. [applause] >> Please, [laughter] >> David. We have to get ours. Is it >> around? >> You got to see this wag. >> Thank you, Becky. >> We look forward to your tour. Thank you. [applause] >> I noticed there was a stocking cap in there. Good choice. [laughter] >> Yeah. Come in handy. Yeah. >> All right. Then we will move to uh we have a recommendation and that is to uh vote on that's the 25 26 27 school year calendar. May I have a motion to approve the 2627 school year calendar as presented? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Got a second. Any further discussion on that calendar? All right then. Roll call. Mrs. Mo. >> Miss Becker. >> Yes. Mrs. Leau, >> yes. >> Dr.

194Martelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Resties, >> yes. >> Mr. Lobach, >> yes. >> Dr. Bruno, >> yes. And that motion passes. Thank you. And that was our one action item for tonight. We'll move to the board governance uh part of the agenda. Uh and uh Julie's not here. If Julie was uh she would be um giving you a little update from the lend meeting that she attended which uh summarized what looked to be the hot button issues uh in education in the next or the term of the general assembly that uh I think the house is now in session. So both bodies are in session. And so there was a summary there. Uh, and one of the items that was mentioned there, but that Julie had also communicated with me about was that under the

195uh, legislation uh, that Congress passed that went under the moniker the one big beautiful bill, there was tucked into that bill uh, an option for individual states to opt in to a national voucher program, which would of course allow money um, uh, tax dollars to flow through a scholarship fund into private schools. H and in order for this to happen really the power is is embedded solely within the governor of a state. So the governor can choose to opt the state in uh or to keep the state out. And so this so I have in with Julie support worked on a letter that would go to Governor Pritsker uh that would express the board's consensus uh to not opt in to a private school voucher program but to leave public tax dollars uh within the

196public school uh system. Uh the board's had a chance to take a look at the the the draft letter uh with some feedback um uh that I got individually. Um I think a little clarification to one paragraph. uh it doesn't change the substance of the paragraph, but it just makes it clear uh we're talking about some past practice in Illinois that affected scholarships that came to uh private schools and and what they did with those uh scholarships. So the the letter is remains opposed to voucher plans uh uh and to maintain a high level of public commitment to funding public schools. So if the board is comfortable with this and we have consensus, then I will, as we've done in the past, I will have Nancy prepare this letter on the appropriate letter head and

197we will send it uh to Governor Pritsker. I expect school boards across the state are now in the process uh also of doing that. I think the governor is probably going to get a lot of letters uh that are going to read similarly uh to the letter that I've drafted here. Okay. Any any questions? We're good. Are we good? >> We're good with this. Yes. All right. Very good. The only other thing I have here is and I don't have it with me. I should have remembered to bring it with me. Just one more reminder that we will have our district-wide book discussion on on what school could be and given the lengthy conversation we had tonight really a beautiful conversation uh around Hadley's schedule. I think it's really apppropo that we dive into that

198discussion and that will come up uh at a at a committee [clears throat] of the whole meeting coming up here in February uh very soon. So, if you haven't finished reading that book, uh >> you told me we had a couple weeks left. >> You do. Pour yourself another hot cup of cocoa uh and uh uh finish reading the book so we could have a great discussion about it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Any other items that anybody might have in this? Yeah. >> I had one quick question on the >> um as I was reading it, it was talking about cutting an additional 300 million in funding for public schools. Is that in general or is that if the state were to opt into? >> Well, the the letter references what was done previously with a

199statewide voucher program that was called invest in in kids. >> And so it's referencing what the total dollar amount was in that program which sunset it. there there isn't um a figure that projects because nobody knows exactly what the total there I think there is a cap on how much you can donate in terms of u uh the the tax break that you get uh there is a reference to a significant funding cut that would come to Illinois schools uh based on the federal government's education budget there's a cut that could come and that would be an additional $300 million So that was okay. >> Yeah, that was related to the uh bill coming out of Congress. >> Okay. So essentially what this is saying and our position is we've seen cuts to the public

200school system already. Should we be in favor of opting into this program, the public schools would expect to see further cuts to their funding. And we are saying as a public school, >> we don't want any further cuts. were already underfunded. >> We certainly are. Okay. >> I think districts statewide uh could use additional funding uh and public tax dollars should support public school. >> Okay. >> Thank you. That clarifies it for me. >> You're welcome. All right. Then we will move to our upcoming meetings. Uh and that committee of the whole meeting where we will discuss what school could be is on February 9th uh right here at Hadley. at 6:30 and then our regular business meeting will be February 23rd again back here 6:30 at Hadley and then we have the March 16th

201regular board meeting. All right, then we will adjourn to close session. may have a motion to adjurnn to close session to confidentially discuss section 2C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees in section 2C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the school board has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the school board finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. Need a motion. >> Motion. >> Jason motions. I need a second. >> Second, Ted. Any discussion? All right, Nancy. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Lidda, >> yes. >> Dr. Martelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Estis, >> yes. >> Miss Becker, >>

202yes. >> Mr. Lobach, >> yes. >> Dr. Bruno, >> yes. Thank you very much. And the board will not be taking action after the close session. So, good night to all of you.