001Good evening. We'll call the uh Brandon City Community School District board meeting to order for July 27, 2021. Thanks for being here, everybody. Uh roll call please. Stacy here. Vinnie here. Kenogal here. Karn here. None here. McMasters here. Wire here. We'll have the pledge of allegiance followed by an invitation by Pastor Carla Ross from St. United Church of Christ. Thank you for being welcome. And if anyone does not wish to pray, they may step out at the in the hall at that time. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for calling dedicated school district staff, volunteers, and community leaders to serve in a new school year. May
002their dedication be a blessing to the children and youth. May the joys of life and learning be shared in every circumstance. Yes, there is joy even as everyone is impacted by the CO 19 pandemic and opinions are varied for the welfare of school and community concerns. Guide the decision makers so that reputable informed wisdom is best applied. Inspire respect that listens to input, considers options, and works with outcomes whether in agreement or not. Some students come from difficult life situations. Family support may be limited for many reasons and school is the first line of help and direction and of hope. Some students may be pressured by self and family to do and achieve more and more. Open our hearts to compassion and our actions to understanding that stress affects everyone including caring staff. Life changes.
003We experience both joys and difficult losses like the death of dedicated staff, friends, and family. But we know you are with us always, oh God. Continue to bless our school district as we offer our best efforts in the upcoming school year and in all that we do. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Okay, next on the agenda, pastor, thank you again so very much so much. Appreciate it. Next on the agenda is public comment. Uh those and we've got a couple here. I'll read those off just momentarily, but uh before anybody comes up for public comment. Again, we would ask that you keep your comments to five minutes or less. This is not a spot for debate. This is for your opinion and any prepared statements or otherwise that you have. Uh so this will
004not uh and please don't expect response from the board at all at this time. We do not even have this on the agenda tonight for any discussion about uh probably what you're here to talk about tonight. So um and I think Tom, did I cover everything? Yeah. Okay. Very good. Uh with that uh we have a couple of people who let us know ahead of time that they wanted to come up and talk and uh and I apologize if I pronounce your name incorrectly here, but Ari sendas Tyler Did I get a question? That was better for lunch. It was better. Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you guys. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yes. Thanks for hearing me again. Um, thanks for allowing me to talk. I wasn't really planning on speaking again because I
005know I talked to you guys last time, but a lot of parents reached out to me, so I'm sort of sort of was nominated to do this, but um, just to refresh your memory, I'm the parent of an incoming kindergartener and I teach in the Belleville 118 school district. And, um, what I'm going to read to you right now are just some of the comments that parents messaged me. um and told me in person um and I have permission to use all their names. So um disregarding the masks, uh Kim Lfield said, "My foster child has an IEP for chew toys. Um since she can't chew toys with a mask, um she chews on her mask and her lips became so raw last year that they scabbed over. Um she probably ate more germs than
006a necklace chew would uh would let her. Um and her mom said she played a lot with her mask and she wasn't allowed to wear a shield. Um, Vanessa Keller said her child is hearing impaired and reads lips and depends on facial expressions and cues to understand. She said, "Try learning in an environment where you can't hear and only see half of someone's face." Cindy Yates Kimberlin said, "My 5-year-old is having anxiety about starting school and to force her to wear a mask on top of going to school and being away from me for the first time is unreasonable. It's hard enough to make her wear it in the store for a few minutes, let alone all day in a classroom." Chassity Davis said, "My daughter has anxiety and the wearing of a mask fogs
007up her glasses, making it really hard to see as well." Um, Stephanie Borth, my six-year-old nephew, started getting severe headaches during school. He was missing school due to headaches. Doctors couldn't find a thing wrong. Their only explanation was lack of oxygen, lack of the proper amount of oxygen due to his mask. Megan Thomas says she has a son with sensory issues and two sons that wear glasses. She said it's very difficult for them to learn and focus. Um, Annie Ward, my son has autism and needs to see facial expressions. Lori Whittington. Um, one day of wearing masks, my seven-year-old has had trouble. I've tried everything. Different sizes, materials, you name it, I've tried it all. He tells me all the time he can't breathe and they hurt his ears and they're in his line of
008vision. Um, Sarah Harper just said her daughters just chose to stay home because the masks were just too uncomfortable. Um, the following are from District 9 teachers who wanted to remain anonymous. Um, the kids constantly play with them, chew on them, just making them completely ineffective, pull on them, blow their nose in them. Um, a teacher said, "I felt some of my special ed kids were more focused on that than learning." Um, another teacher said, "It just overall makes reading teaching reading harder." One example example is just seeing the s sound and overall the masks are just really hard to teach with. Um, I love this community. I think we have a really good community. I have so much pride in granite. Um, I think we've all experienced going to the store. Some people wear
009masks, some don't. Everybody respects everyone's choice. Um, last week my son attended a Bible school with 200 kids and volunteers. Some of the kids wore masks, some of them didn't. None of the parents complained to each other. They all just understood where each other was coming from. And I don't know if you guys have kids, but if yours are okay with wearing masks, that's great. Um, but not all of us are that lucky, which is giving us a lot of anxiety. Um, it's the same when I go to the Brown Rec Center down the street. Some of the kids wear them and some of them don't. Everybody just respects each other. Um, so you can watch the news and it might seem like this issue is so divisive, but in this community it's not. People
010just understand each other. Um, I just don't think the school district should dictate when to follow the CDC guidelines. I stated last time 60 minutes of physical activity is the recommendation for children. Um, it's 300 minutes for adults. So, think if you followed the CDC guidelines last week on that. Um, I don't even know if kids get 30 minutes of daily PE at school. Sugar is a known suppressor of our immune system, but um, some of the school's breakfast contain more sugar than recommended for an entire day. What makes a difference um, in my experience teaching is handwashing and staying home if you're sick. And I would work with you guys to promote that because I think staying home is the most important thing if you're sick. Um, I was reading the board code of
011conduct from the district website and the first sentence states, "I will represent all school district constituents honestly and equally and refuse to surrender my responsibilities to special interest or partisan politic groups." So, if you guys really want to follow this duty, please make masks optional for these kids. Um, I want them in school and I never thought as a teacher I would be considering homeschooling, but it's a serious consideration. um just because I can't um subject my kid to getting in trouble every day for not keeping a mask on. Um I don't want to homeschool him, but they might be the best choice for us for now. Um just think about these little kids. I don't know what you guys do for work all day, but you know, here in an office, you have the
012chance to take off your mask. If you are retired or work remotely, you have the chance to take off your mask. So, I challenge you guys to go home tonight, tomorrow, put it on, keep it on for six hours like these little kids are supposed to do, and don't touch it, don't mess with it, and just think about these little tiny people that are going and learning for the first time. So, I just hope that I've shown you guys another perspective from people in our community. And thank you guys for listening. Thank you so much. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate it. Thanks. The other individual we had was uh Mr. Thomas Moore. Thank you very much, sir. My name is Tom D'vor. I'm an attorney in uh live in Bond County, Illinois. We have offices in
013uh Madison County as close as Glen Carbon. I've had a few parents reach out to me, ask me to come speak to you. I've spoken to another uh school district or two in the area, and I was pleased to do so. As we all know, there's a political tenant to this and there's a legal part. The politics of it in your community are not for me. I don't live here even though I was born here. Uh and so that's between the board and your constituents. I would only say that the interesting issue as for children is that statistically speaking, the chances of them getting seriously ill and passing away from COVID is so close to zero. It's zero. So when they come to your school and they're going to be required or not required to
014put a mask on, when they leave this school, they go do whatever it is they're doing with their parents. I've watched it. I've witnessed it. I've seen it across the state. So, so ask yourself whether putting a mask on them really is going to keep them safe. And that's a decision for you to make with your parents. There's all a big conversation now about this new CDC updated recommendation. And I'd ask each of you to ask yourself if you think it's a coincidence that for the last year, year and a half, this decision-m has been at the state level and all of a sudden they want to delegate it to these local school boards. Do you think that was a coincidence? In my humble opinion, it was not. It now has these local school districts
015having to deal with this issue. But this new CDC guidance doesn't really change anything. Before it said if you're fully vaccinated, you didn't have to wear a mask indoors. If you didn't, they recommended that you do, but really it's up to local control. Now, they're updating it, interestingly enough, because school districts across this country are making a decision. Well, we recommend that everybody, regardless of vaccination status, wear the mask. We recommend it, but it's still local control. It's still your decision. The the the breadth of your decision-m is what I wanted to talk to you about. But it's really it's up to you to call this within the parameters of what you think is best. Politically, for your parents, legally, this is what I have to say. You will all find it interesting that there
016is precedent in the state of Illinois that deals with the ability of a local school district to put conditions precedent on the ability for children to walk in this building and be educated, which is a constitutional right. There are some thresholds to your discretion, but you do have some. And the case that's almost exactly on point. Do you know what school district in 1918 was it? This case Granite City. Kid you not. It's the Haggler v. Lner case counselor. And it was a 1918 284 IL547 Granite City School District based upon a resolution passed by the board of health during the smallox pandemic created a condition precedent to come into these schools and it said back then it was vaccination. Now we're talking about masks. Medical intervention is in and of the same. You had
017to have a vaccine to walk in that school and to become educated. and if you didn't have the vaccine, you were temporarily not allowed inside the school. And a bunch of parents sued the school district and the board of health and said that that was an unlawful exercise of discretion. And you know what? The school district won in that case. They won. And what the Supreme Court said is that wait a second, if this was a blanket rule across the board, that's tanamount to lawmaking and the legislature makes the laws. But in this circumstance, this school district made an emergency decision, a temporary emergency based upon a resolution of the board of health that said, "We have a real identifiable emergency in the community." And that temporary power that you were wielding was administrative in
018nature and not legislative. And as a result, it was not seen to be an abuse of the school district's discretion. And it relied upon some cases that came before it that delineate between a legislative act or an administrative act. Legislative acts would have been an absolute bar. You can't come in this school no matter what unless you've had a vaccine because we think it's best. Supreme Court said that's legislative. But since there was an actual resolution passed by the board of health saying we've got a real emergency in our community, smallox 30% mortality rate, people are passing away. We create this temporary measure. Court says okay. You now have in your county the board of health taking the opposite position that they took in this case where they're saying they're recommending to you make mass
019optional. Your board of health, they're the experts in health, not school boards. And so I'd ask you to consider if in fact your board of health has passed a resolution making it asking you and recommending to make it optional. Can you infer from that that there is a public health emergency that you should wield this emergency power or is your board of health saying we don't believe that an emergency exists from a public health perspective because if not we wouldn't be asking you to make it recommended. So I believe based upon the president in Illinois and in the unique position that this school district finds itself that your board of health has taken a position on this matter that it would be contrary to the Supreme Court president to say we're going to wield this
020power on an emergency basis to create create this condition president because you don't have an identifiable public health emergency according to your local school your local board of health. Last issue I'll leave you with is quarantine. Every parent of the state, every school district, my children graduated from college or high school going to college. They got quarantined four times last year, a kid gets test positive in school and every kid within an immediate surrounding area, sometimes miles apart, your kid can't come to school. They get a call from the superintendent or they get a call from the school nurse or get a call from the board of health. Your kid can't go to school. I knew back then that that was problematic, but I said, "Okay, I'll pick my battles." But now your Illinois State
021Board of Education has passed a resolution that says kids must be in person. They must be learning unless they're do not have the COVID vaccine. And and it's bolded, there's an order of quarantine against that child. An order of quarantine is a real identifiable legal document that's issued pursuant to 20 ILCS 2305 that says in order to quarantine any citizen of the state, child or otherwise, you have to have consent of the parent if it's a minor or an order of the court. There is an emergency provision that gives the board of health 48 hour emergency authority, but then they have to go to court. But that order of quarantine I believe should be significant going into this year because parents are a lot more uh let's call it uh interested in this topic than
022they were a year ago. You all know that that that if they're if parents are going to stand firm and say the resolution of Isby says you have to have an order of quarantine. I don't consent get a court order that could be problematic for school districts when they're trying to tell a child you can't come into the school because somebody has said so. a phone call. I called them quarantine calls last year. A quarantine call is not an order of quarantine. And I believe that's something that the district should pay attention to as a year continues. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. I do want to say this is a no way a response because I'm going to forget about this by the
023rest. I know when we get on with the agenda, probably most of you are going to leave, but if you would please spread for us, we need 20 bus [Music] drivers away because honestly, honestly, all this goes out the door if we can't get the kids to school. It's a real concern right now. We Please spread that. If if you know of anyone anyone at all that's that's looking to drive a bus to help us out, we're going to need it. And and signing bonuses, too. Signing bonuses. They teach you how to drive it. They teach you what to do. So, central Correct. We're not busy enough. Yeah, exactly. Sir, again, any other public comment? Oh, I'm sorry. Any other public comment tonight? Excellent. Thank you all for being here. You're welcome to stay the
024whole meeting, please. Appreciate that. Thank you guys. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Moving on. Item number five is minutes the approval from the July 13, 2021 meeting. So move. Second. Any discussion? Motion on a second. Okay. Vinnie, I none. I McMaster. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Wilms. I who was the motion second on that bill motion Eric there second. Thank you. Item number six consent agenda and what we have tonight is the bill list on that consent agenda second by Eric seconded by Bill. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. W. Hi. Item number 8A. Retirements and resignations. Mr. President, it is recommended the following retirements and resations be accepted. Lonnie Swanson, first grade teacher Wilson, retirement effectively 2526 school year. Cynthia Vesper, special ed teacher,
025retirement from Bron City High School, end of the 2526 school year. Paula Hmel Wilder, fifth grade teacher. Criggsby, retirement schedule for the end of the 2526 school year. Dian Lob, kindergarten teacher at Prather, retirement end of the 2526 school year. Alexandria Lov, special ed teacher at Griggsby, resignation effective 71621. Jordan Moff, science teacher at Coolage. Resignation effective 71621. So move. Second. Motion by Bill, seconded by Linda. Any discussion? Roll call. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Wsby. I. And regrets with all of those, right? Eight. Uh, item 8B, request for leave of absence. Mr. President, the board has recommended the following leans be approved. Tony Dodd, special ed teacher, Pula Junior High School, effective 8:1621 to 11821. Lisa Resser, researcher. Thank you. I'm sorry. Research teacher at Griggsby from
02681821 to 111021. Hannah Bush, ESL teacher at GCHS. um reading from 8:1621 to 11821 and Hander Bristol. This is teacher at the high school effective 11821 to 13122. Second motion by Eric. Thank you. Second by Bill. Any discussion? Roll call. None. I McMasters. I. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Kern. Hi. Wire. I. Item 8 C. to rescend recommendation of the Koolage STEM teacher. Mr. President, the board due to Justin Carpenter declining the offer of the 2122 STEM teacher at Koolage Union High School, the administration has requested rescending the recommendation. Some move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I Wsmire. I. Item 8 D. Employment of the Koolage Junior High School science and STEM teacher for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board you
027received information below about this item. Administration is prepared to make these recommendations. We recommend that the following two candidates um be recommended for hire. Robert Bzonius recommended for this junior high STEM teaching position and Melissa Feberger for the recommendation for the science junior high teaching position. So move second. Motion by Erica, second by Linda. Any discussion? Roll call. Stacy I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Wire. I. Item 8E. Employment of the Granite City High School English teacher for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board to Chris Hutchkins. Move to administrative position. Um, the opening for the high school. It's a department for the the administration is recommending Ashley Richie for the position of high school special education. So move second. We'll give it to Talon. You got it. I'm
028closer. Any discussion? Sorry about that one. Roll call. The motion is by Stacy and then a second by Curran. Uh Vinnie I. Kenogal. I. Curran I. None. I McMasters. Stacy I item 8F employment of the Granite City High School math teacher for 212. Mr. President, the board the administration is recommending the following candidate, Miss Natalie Rushing for the high school math position. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenogal. I. Kurrin. I. None. I McMasters. Stacy. I Vinnie I Wai I item 8G employment of the Granite City High School special education teacher for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board the administration is recommending Tracy Hill for the special ed position. So move second. Second. I think Talon beat you just by quick draw. Any discussion? Roll call. Currin. I none I McMasters Stacy
029I Vinnie Hi Kenobyl I Wilms I item 8H resend the appointment of the Granite City High School extracurriculars for 2122 school year Mr. President the board the administration has recommended the resention of the following appointments Mr. Chris Hutchings GCHS English department head and Mr. Bill Carpenter, GCHS assistant football coach. So move second. Motion by seconded by Talon. Any discussion? Roll call. None. I McMast. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. Woman. I. Item eight. I the Granite City High School Extracurricular. Did we? I'm sorry. No, we didn't. Extracurricular resignations for 2122 school year. I'm getting myself. Mr. President of the board administration's recommended the following extracurricular resignation be accepted. Mr. Steve Bruceio, GCHS, assistant cross country coach. Salute. Erica. Any discussion? Roll call. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Curran. Hi. None.
030I. Wolsmire. I. U. Item 8J, the uh extracurricular recommendations for Granite City High School for the 2122 school year. The high school administration and board administration has recommended the following extracurricular for the 2122 school year. Miss Melissa Kimell for the play three position. So move. Second. Motion on a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Stacy I. Vinnie. I. Canobyl. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters I. Item 8K. Uh, Koolage Junior High School extracurricular recommendations for the 21-22 school year. Mr. President, the board, myself and the Koolage Junior High School administration is recommending the following extracurricular positions for the 2122 school year. Mr. Bill Carpenter for the assistant football coach. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Dr. Linda. Any discussion? Roll call. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Stacy. I. Wilms. I. Item
0318 L. Uh, Koolage Junior High School extracurricular recommendation for baseball coaching position for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board, the Koolage baseball coaching position has been a voluntary position for three years for the teachers collective bargaining agreement 743. We are requesting that it be placed on the extracurricular salary schedule at club level A for one head coach and club level B for one assistant coach for the 2122 school year. Some second motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenogal. I. Curran I. None. I McMasters I. Stacy I. Vinnie. Hi. Woman. I. Item 8M, elementary ex extracurricular recommendation for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board, the special education administration superintendent is recommending the following extracurricular for the 2122 school year. Miss Marcia Dods, department head early childhood. Miss Ian Mayal, department
032head speech and language. Miss Christy Lebet, department head, social work psychologist. Miss Karen Hatch, lead therapist. So moved. Second. Motion by Erica, second by Bill. Any discussion? Roll call. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. I. Kenogal. I. WSA. I. Item 8 N. Employment of title one AIDS for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board with a rate of 1275 per hour for those without a degree and $15 for those with a degree with a certified for a degree. Title A work only when students are in attendance. Um, the following list is recommended for approval. Gloria Sharp, Betty Joe, Mayor, Ruth Lupret, Nette Cochran, Paula Ward, Lisa Mink, Dana Howland, Britney Lindsay, and Melanie Williams. So move. Second by Erica, second by Talon. Any discussion? A great list of ladies. Roll call.
033None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. I item 8 is the employment of three full-time custodians. Mr. President, the board the administration are recommending the following three candidates for full-time custodians. Mr. Rodney Hayes, Miss Tanya Pulley, and Mr. Rodney Samson. So move second. Motion by Eric. Second by who you give it to? I gave it to Stacy. That's motion. Second is to Vinnie. Okay. Any discussion? Roll call. Masters. Stacy. I. Vinnie. I. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I. Wilms. I. Item 8P. Employment of certified and classified substitutes for the 2122 school year. Mr. President of the board, it is recommended the following applicants be board approved as substitutes for the 2122 school year. And as much as I would love to read all 100 plus of these because I am
034forever grateful to them, there is a list provided to you here. Wonderful. Second motion by Bill seconded by Eric. Any discussion? Roll call. Stacy I. Vinnie. I Kenogal. I Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Woman. Hi. And thank you to all the substitutes. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Item 8 Q, employment of payroll specialists for the 21-22 school year. Mr. President, the board administration is recommending the following candidate for the payroll specialist position. Brendan Rosenberg. So move. Second. Motion by Bill, seconded by Linda. Any discussion? I will say welcome aboard Brendan because uh we definitely need to be in this position. It's been a long time. So comment. Roll call, please. Vinnie, hi. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Wilms. Hi. Item 8 R is approval of volunteers for
035the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board, the administration respectfully requests board approval for the following volunteers for the 2122 school year. I also want to say again that we really appreciate that these teachers and these people are getting involved on a volter basis to help our students. So with that being said, Aaron Mueller for the GCHS gay straight alliance, Amy Panel, GCHS Thespian Club, Tim Wilson, college head softball coach, and Ed Connelly assistant. [Music] Motion by Bill, seconded by Erica. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenobyl I. Currin. I none I McMasters Stacy I Vinnie I I and that was a hall on all those item number nine is old business we have no old business item 10 uh a under new business is actions of the region one board okay the city administration is requesting
036ratification the following actions of the region one board on July 14th 2021 uh the information is presented in front of you just looking for recommendation. So moved. Second. Motion by Linda, seconded by Zach. Any discussion? Roll call. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Wilms. I. Item 10B joint agreement 2122 tenative budget resolution and publication of notice in the newspaper. Mr. Sh, do you want to explain that? That's just an annual thing we have to do. the new board members. This is just put this is just allowing us to post it in the paper and uh sign the resolution so we can put it on display for 30 days. Um it's just housekeeping. We'll have this in our budget presentation coming up. It establishes the uh fiscal year July 1st
037through June 22nd and u again the public hearing will be established at the next meeting in August. Thank you both of you. So move second. And I guess discussion under this. Zach, I want to be clear. There's a joint agreement and there's also publication of notice of the newspaper that follows that. So could you and the first Yeah. It's just it just shows you all of what we've done. Okay. And and this is this is for region one. The next one is Granite City. It's the same thing. I just had to do I just did them both at the same time. Tom's going to talk about that. Again, the the statute requires that we provide notice of at least 30 days prior to the hearing by publication in the fellow news Democrat, which is our
038nearest local paper. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. I didn't catch you. That was Zach. Hopefully, you did. Yeah. Motion by Vinnie, seconded by Kenobyl. Very good. Um, roll call, please. None. I McMasters. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. Wilms. I item 8 C district 9 budget 2122 resolution and publication of notice. Don, this is the same. It's the same thing. The first one was for region one special ed. This is for community unit number nine fiscal budget setting fiscal year. So second motion by Erica, seconded by Eric. Any discussion? Roll call. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I Curran. Hi. None. I WSME. I. Item eight. I'm sorry. 10D is property tax appeal board. Uh request to intervene on appeal proceeding. And and Dennis that's D and E
039goes together. E is the resolution for D. We just need to pass the resolution to intervene. Approval is recommended. Okay. So move. Second. Motion by Bill, seconded by Talon. Any discussion on this? Tom, anything you want to talk to this one about? No. Again, this is just another warehouse. I think we're up to probably eight of them now have taken the warehouse owners have taken to the property tax appeal board in Springfield and we have appraisals and they're coming in right on line with what the board of review set the evaluation at. So, everything's moving as it should. Very good. Any other discussion? Roll call. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Wire. I. Item 10F is recycling of uh computers, printers, etc. The district is requesting permission to recycle
040the following equipment listed below by asset type and serial number. Items will be scheduled to be picked up by a certified recycling company. We just have to list I'm sure Tom knows all these things. Yes. And for the new board members, this is a requirement by statute that every time you get rid of district property. The city has to do the same thing, you have to do it by a board resolution. You just cannot, the district cannot just throw away taxpayer property. It has to be approved by the board. So approval is recommended. So move. Second. Motion by Eric, seconded by Linda. Any discussion? Roll call. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. I. None. I McMasters. Stacy I item 11 looks like under a freedom of information act there was nothing there this time. Uh item
04111B summer school report. Yes. I I asked uh both uh principal Bratton and Principal Harris to bring some information for us about the successful summer school that we had this year which was really needed. So I really appreciate them coming tonight. They different grade levels they represented in summer school. So they're gonna I guess Jeie's going to go first. just good evening. I just wanted to take the first opportunity to say thank you. Summer school was a wonderful experience so far, especially having two sessions at Prather. So, we're going to start um with how we did at Prather. We This was the first year for prek summer school. So that was super exciting and as you can see we targeted just mainly we tried to focus really on those skills that they need to get
042to kindergarten those foundational skills in the prek. So as you can see we had 59 students attended June with attendance was 83% daily average 63% students attended in July excuse me with an average daily attendance of 77%. Um, as the kiddos worked, you could see improvement of 50 56% of the areas of letter identification and concepts of print. You could get the books in their hands and they they could feel them and touch them and they were already knowing the letters of their name. So, we really got a really great start with those prek kids. That was exciting. It was very wonderful. Very exciting. Just before you move forward, are do you delineate between preK3s and preK4s or was were they all just kind of like your data set? Yes. For the for the first
043session, there was a young a few younger ones. For the second session, it was just mainly the four-year-olds going into kindergarten. You're welcome. Oh, you're very welcome. Um for kindergarten, we kept with the theme all K preK through two of those foundational skills of the letters and sounds. We had 69 kindergarten students in June and our attendance was great. We had 91%. It was wonderful. um 46 came um for the July session and we had about 85%. So it's come on a daily basis. It was great. Um once again letter names and sounds we improved by 78% and phmic awareness just knowing what the sounds are and hearing them and how to put them into the words. Um and story comprehension skills through the roof 82% from pre to post. So getting the kids in
044and reading was wonderful. uh math students increased knowledge of number identification and counting both wrote counting and meaningful counting one to one correspondence counting we saw improvements of 85% just principal Brandon how how do you how do you judge the improvement piece or is there a pre Absolutely absolutely we had pre-assessments and post assessments we use I the I ready curriculum for both reading and math and then we also use the Illinois snapshot of early literacy oh you're very welcome Same with the first grade. Um we had 51 students in June and their attendance was 83% and then in July we had 33 students and they were there 85% of the time. Um reading as far as phonics we started in first grade they take it a little further. Now they can they start blending
045the words together and they um start reading full sentences and more fluency type things. So with all of those phonics skills, we saw a 72% increase in skills from the pre-EST to the post- test. Story comprehension also showed an increase of 68%. Um, we take it a little further each grade level of course with math as well. So not only being able to rope count and identify the numbers, but what to do with them. What do numbers mean? So place value. Um, and then getting into your basic operations of addition, subtraction. they rocked it and they 65% improvement from the pre-EST to post test. We had kiddos that um weren't really even sure what to do with numbers. They they they barely had number and letter identification down and they were going out understanding how
046to do basic addition. So, it was it was great to see. And then second grade, we had 23 students in June and 74% average daily attendance. 19 students in July with 79% attendance reading. Um once again we're back to those phonics and um skills more diagraphs and and a little harder but we saw 60% increase. So they they were working very hard story comprehension skills. Um this is where our ready reading really helped. We saw 62% increase from pre to post as our second graders as far as math skills um also showed a 63% increase. Um, one of the greatest things about summer school, the the number data, the academic data is wonderful. We saw we saw growth across the board, but we saw relationships and we saw social emotional growth. We saw kiddos uh
047we had a kindergartner that had been remote all year and for the very first time walked into a school building July. Um, that was huge. That is I mean he just that transition into what next year will look like. he had an opportunity to learn what school was. We've had students um that continue to get services as well, but once again, just not having so much exposure, having this transition time um have difficulty getting off the bus and making it to classrooms. We have a student um through physical therapy that now can independently get off of the bus and walk to his room every morning. He's ready to walk in to kindergarten. So we we've seen some really really heartwarming moments as well as academic data growth. So it's been a wonderful experience. Just seeing
048that student you referred to was there that day. She pointed him out. He literally couldn't get off the bus and in two weeks the shell was opening lockers, walking up and down the hall pretty much being your typical and it was and she told me that I just couldn't believe it. So just having them in the building and just learning those basic skills was just amazing to watch. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeie. Thank you so much for So, we didn't have all the newbies in my building. Uh we started as low as third grade, which is pretty young, but they at least probably came through the schoolhouse doors before. Um and then we had all the way up through seventh grade for our regular education program. And then also going on in
049our building, we had the uh fifth and sixth through 9th through 12th grade all ed program, which is ran through Lake as you were all very aware well of. um that went on there during summer school as well. So we did also have some students who had been remote the entire uh school year that came to us for the first time. Um and so that was a big part of what we were targeting in summer school. And so third grade uh 20 we only had one session which was the June session and so that went all the way up until July 2nd. And so 24 students attended uh third grade with an average daily attendance rate of 83%. I would like to point out that out of those students, out of those 24, 12 had
050a 90% attendance rate or higher, which I thought was good. Um, students showed an increase of 42% on the I Ready diagnostic growth report, the report, the the test that Genie had kind of already mentioned. And so with the 21 of the students attaining full growth goal, uh, the assessment measured fluency, reading accuracy, and words read per minute. Um the students for math showed an increase of 15% on the I Ready assessment with 4% of the students attaining the full curve goal. The assessment measured addition, subtraction, multiplication, fluency, and regrouping problems. So that's kind of some of the stuff that Jean's already talked about, but you see as we build on that as we see the different assessments. In fourth grade, we had 22 students attend summer school with an average of 83%. And out
051of that um students that attended, we had 11 of them with 90% or higher attendance rate, which was really good. It was great seeing them come off the bus every morning with their I know you can't see them smile faces, but you can see their eyes smile. You truly can see their eyes smile. So, it was great. Um students showed an increase of 129% on the annual growth. Um which was really good with 78 of 78% of the students attaining the full growth goal. Uh the assessment measured fluency, reading recovery, expression, comprehension, and then again words read per minute. Um for the math, the students shown a 19% increase uh with 20% of the students attaining the full the full go growth goal. Um and addition, subtraction, multiplication, fluency, division, and word problems were all
052measured there. Um that 129% Dr. Keel and I were talking about that. He's like, "Okay, that 129 is really high. What does that mean?" So what? So we were just, you know, concerned. And so basically what that is is that's that's measuring a typical growth for a student at that age. And so we might have some students, as Jeie mentioned, with some of those first graders that didn't recognize any letters. So we have some students that are testing in at math at a kindergarten level at third grade or at fourth grade. So when they tested, they attained more than one grade level. They grew up to almost third grade. So that's two grade levels from where they started. Two to three grade levels above from where they started. So that helps that data go to
053129. When you're talking about 22 students, such a small sample group of students, a 333% increase is going to bring that increase up to that 129. So that's just some information for you why that 129 shows there. And so you're like, why? How did that happen? I just say something. I went into a third grade classroom. They were doing math with Miss Caran. Carican. Oh, is that third grade? Car coic coic third grader or fourth grade. She's a third grader. I went in there and I didn't leave till an hour and 10 minutes later because the kids wouldn't let me because they couldn't wait to show me everything she had taught them. You know, everything she had taught them. They were showing me how they counted with knuckles, how they were showing on the number
054chart. And just the excitement that they wanted to teach me what they've learned and what she showed me was just absolutely. She was teaching them all the tricks of the trade. I remember and they couldn't wait to show me. Um, so the next is fifth grade. And so 25 students attended summer school in June with an average rate of 77%. Thank you, sir. Um, let's see. I think I have that for you as well. There were uh 10 students with a 90% or or higher attendance rate for that. Excuse me. Teacher responses. Uh, this is a little bit different. So this is going to be some teacher responses on their end of summer school session progress reports. So a little bit different data here data here for you. Um so it indicated that 92% of
055the students showed academic improvement. Uh the I read diag diagnostic report results indicate further growth is needed. However though 26% of the students are first grade are one grade level below. 30% of the students are two grade levels below and 44% of the students are three grade levels below academic competency. So you can see that yes we're making gains but they're still more needed. Uh the assessments measured fluency, high frequency, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension of literature andformational text. I do want to note that where the academic gains were not made 50 those students where they didn't have any gains, they missed 50% or more of the in sessions. So they missed a minimum of 10 days. Uh so that shows why it's important for them to be here with us. Y that's good. So with
056the math again with those progress reports indicated again 92% of academic improvement and then the diagnostic reports uh showed that 16% of the students are below grade level uh one grade level 28% of the students two grade levels below 56% of the students three grade levels below academic competency and again measured multiplication division decimals area and perimeter. So, as you can see, these skill sets that they need to have, especially in math, are getting more difficult for them. And I think that's where we start to see that higher grade level below. So, it math really does build. Um, sixth grade students, we had 18 students attend summer school in June with an average daily rate of 81% and eight of the those students achieved the 90% or higher attendance rate. Um, again, I hit the
057summer school teacher reports for this progress reports. 80% 83% of the students uh showed academic improvement with the diagnostic report results. Again, further growth was needed. We did however have some students above grade level. Seven students tested above grade level. Uh seven students were approaching 14 students were below 1% one grade level below. 26% two grade levels below. And then again, unfortunately, here's our highest number again. 46% of the students three grade levels below. Now, let me remind you though, this is 18 students. This is not our entire district population. This is a sample set of students. That's a small sample set. So, just remember that as we're going over this. Um, the assessments measured uh fluency, high frequency words recognition, vocabulary, comprehension of literature, andformational text. Okay. With math, again, we're going to start
058out with the progress reports. They indicated 83% of the students showed academic improvement. And then on the uh diagnostic report results showed further growth was needed with 20% of the students one grade level below 8% two grade levels below and then 72% three grade levels below. And then the academic measurements um least common multiple greatest common factor fractions unit rates ratios and long division. All right. Before you head into the secondary portion of the presentation. Yes ma'am. So clearly you're painting pictures of great growth over the course of the summer. So if you had to name like three, I'm going to ask you to be very specific, but what are things that we could take away from this session and implement in the classroom? Because yes, these are small data samples, but I would argue
059that they're representative. They Oh, no. I agree with you. Yes. And so you have these percentages of students that are three grades below level, but you still had some success over the course of a month in these cases or two months. So what can we learn from this and apply during the school year? We've got to have small group instruction. We see that we've got them in their specific groups. In every one of these classrooms, there was a teacher and there was a parapro in there working with them. When I walked in those rooms, there's kids down in groups sitting on the floor. They're working in those. So, our RTI model has to be addressing those significant areas so we can see and these reports which I'm sure you did as well. Not only did
060do the teachers have access to all the reports that show where these students gained and then still need growth, they we also scanned and put in every one of their progress reports. We put it in their Skyward and so those teachers when they go up to the next school year, they can see that as well. So, we have everything in there to give them knowledge. Those small groups are really going to be where we can identify where your need is and say mine and yours are the same. So we're in a group with a specific someone and Genie might be with somebody else because she has another area that she needs and we can all catch back up and then get to the main lesson. Yeah. So I mean you said you know small group
061instruction but also data informed instruction. Yeah. Oh, without a doubt. And that's what we have here. Yes. Thank you. Yes. One more question on that. So we're talking about 18 to 19 students per class roughly. Is is was there one instructor? Two instructors. Help me out there. So, so with this sixth grade group right here, there was So, this also includes the alt ed portion of that with that. So, there was an aled class there with the sixth grade, but for I think for this sixth grade teacher, there was one for the regular ed. And I believe he had about 15 or 16 students. We tried to keep all the classes under 18. So, for the most of these other previous, there's been two teachers for each grade level. So, you're looking at max 10
06215 students. And what was the hours of the day for teaching? How many hours? So, we were there four and a half hours a day. Uh, we served breakfast and we served lunch. So, there was that time frame in there, too, which was great in of itself to have lunch at the school. I I mean, I know we were in the classroom, but it it was a great opportunity for me, and I'm sure you used it the same way. That's when I would really get in those classrooms and make those connections with the students. Really try to utilize that. To follow up on your point and to your question a little bit too though, just because those class sizes were smaller does not mean that that cannot happen in larger typical classrooms like Exactly. Without
063a doubt. You can do a small group instruction. The differentiation can without a doubt correct approach is no you just got to identify what their needs are. So then you can address who needs what, not just to everybody, which is why when you put the data into Skyward and you do it into a brace, those things will be so important and that's a process I know that we're looking at starting and being more better about doing that. All right. Thank you. No problem. Let me take a break before. Thank you. Oh, it's we've got we got we got seventh grade and then I'm going to hit real quick because I got to I got to tell you about the alt ed high school because it's it's really I got some good stuff there. Um, so
064I'll hit I'll hit seventh grade real quick. It's it's the same type of stuff uh that we've talked about. 56 students though, you see we have an higher amount and they had an average of attendance of 72%. We had 17 of those students with with 90% um or higher attendance rate. And all of this was based on teacher assessment in the classroom. And so we had the pre and post from there, but you can see those numbers. I won't read all those to you, but it's the same type of situation where they do they do show where they have grade level expectation, uh where they're competent in grade level, and then students exceeding expectations. And you can see that those numbers are moved around a little bit in reading where and then the same situation
065in math. Uh 44% of the students developed and are emerging. That means they're almost to grade level, working to get there. 35% at grade level and then um 21% exceeding grade level. And again, that was put in there. This last one is the alternative ed. And so we had 9th through 12th grade whereas Mr. Dew had all of his at the high school. And so we're really going to talk about credit recovery here because that's what that was about. We had 17 students attend the summer school in June, which this is really good attendance rate. I'm going to be honest with you. For 77% of of our students, uh that was a great attendance rate for them. Obviously, we'd like it to be higher. Um but we did have at least five students that got
06690% attendance. So um there was 16 of the 17 students who attended passed a minimum of one course. Um there were two students like I who passed one course. There were 10 students who passed two courses. There are two students who passed three or more courses. And there were two rockstar students that actually passed four courses. And so that really brings them back towards credit recovery. Um, and then because of this, because these three students that I'm getting ready to mention, they did not come to in-person learning uh during the entire school year. So, I told them they were wanting to get back to the regular ed setting. I said, I've got to see you with your peers and how you react with them. So, they came to summer school. They were really good, very
067well behaved, actually model students for the for the building. And so, three students were able to meet their goals and they were able to return to their home school setting uh for the start of the next school year. Actually, we uh Mr. Dw and I did those re-engagement meetings uh today at the high school. So, I got to give some tours. So, it was really good. So, all in all, with ALED, we ended up having um three here and we ended up having a total of seven students throughout the ALED program. They were able to re progress back to their their regular school setting. So, it was a good uh good year for us out there this year. Okay. Terrific. Fantastic. All right. Thank you for your guys time. I appreciate it. Fantastic. the high
068school will be doing a presentation on the 10th question. Great. Thank you very much. I couldn't appreciate it more. Thank you for that. Uh item 11 C is the ground city cafe step program. This is our special director Mickey Watkins and Kelly Hutchkins teacher at the high school. They have done some amazing things with this program. I can't wait for you to see this as well. So, I really wanted them just to tell you. Do you have any pictures of what the cafe it looks like at this point? Um, we don't have actually photos because it's just a blank room right now. They're pretty They're pretty They've got a little wiring finished today. Today I went in and on the um support beams they have the wiring students and then the kitchen is wired except
069for the stove and they were working on my classroom today. It's pretty exciting. So, I'm ready for this. We're very excited. So, Superintendent Ken asked us to come and just give you a quick update on um the progress of our cafe. And the first thing that you saw was our logo. So, we have um our logo was called the ground city cafe. And thank you. And um I want to give credit to um a Granite City High School alumni, Bryce Griggs, who um put the logo together for us. And I'd like to give credit to Lucas Hudikings for coming up with the Grand City Cafe. We wanted to make sure we were playing off of the GC. So, he came up with the grounds with the coffee grounds. So, Grand City Cafe. Um, so that's
070the logo that will be painted um on the wall in the cafe and that we will also use for um some of our promotional things. So, um the purpose of the cafe was to create an onampus training opportunity for students um because they really just need some of that support for employment skills before they get into um real life work situations in the community and the skills that they can gain here would be transferable job and life skills that will be functional for them. This will be prep prepare our students for transition into entry level positions in the workforce after graduation. Our students will have their food handler certification uh which is good for three years and that's a minimum certification that you need to work in any fast food or restaurant business. You have
071to have the food handler certification. Um also this will help to foster peer-to-peer opportunities between our general education and our special education students. I think a lot of times there's just a lot of separation and so we're trying to bring everyone together. Um, also to help improve our school culture and morale by providing the students and staff with an inclusive and central gathering place. So the whole concept is not only are we going to have the the cafe kitchen area where we are making the um cookies and the coffee that we'll be selling, but there's going to be an entire um almost like a food. Yeah. almost like a student union. They go to the atrium area at the high school which you haven't really utilized well prior to this and they're doing some decorations
072and putting tables in and charging station. So, yep. The wire that's what they were talking about. The wiring for the charging stations was just completed today. So, they had like the double outlets with the plugs for USB cords. Uh so they can put their um the teacher reserves the commons area to hold class in there. then the kids can plug in their computers and then be ready to go. So really when I've seen them in action and we and we've implemented these in other schools and um seeing them in action and really utilizing the space for educational purposes um it you truly won't believe the difference it makes in some of these kids' lives. Um, so just a quick history. Um, in February of 2020, the board approved, um, moving forward with, uh, making of
073the cafe. In March of 2020, obviously, we had an extended dismissal due to CO and everything came to a screeching halt. Um, in August, our planning resumed and in April, um, there's a curriculum that has been approved. We have a curriculum that will be implemented. It's not just total work skills. Um in May there was a class created so that the kids are actually taking a class they're earning credit. The class is called work skills in action. Um so they will be participating in that and that's where they will be getting the majority of their curriculum. Um so right now we have um some students who have been um identified. We have five juniors and nine seniors. We're kind of keeping it small in the beginning so the whole thing is not just so overwhelming
074for everyone. Obviously, we want this to grow, more students to participate, but we kind of needed to keep it manageable in the beginning just to get it off the ground and everything up and running, kind of work out some of the bugs. Um, and in May, we also met with um Ford uh design company. They're the ones who do the hotel equipments, the food service equipments. We had a meeting with them to go over a design space that's going to work for us. And in July, the construction began. So, um, we've been working very closely with our, uh, director of buildings and grounds. And, um, he tends to go the other way when he sees me coming because he knows that there's going to be there's going to be something else is coming whenever I'm
075coming to his office. Mr. McCulla, too, helped you with some of this to our food service. We have a whole list of people that we're going to give credit to because um this isn't just a one or two person operation. This actually this takes a whole team of people and collaboration for us to be able to to get this off of the ground. Um so on the next slide is um a sample of the this is one of the blueprints that Ford um actually helped provide us. Um, so this is the um they gave us about four or five um different blueprints for us to choose from. Um, and I think, you know, and I'm thankful for them because they really helped us to kind of make the maximum use of our of our space.
076Um, we did have to keep in mind that we needed to make sure that we were ADA compliant, that we had enough space. Um so we had to do some working around but within this space um just quickly there will be a refrigerator in this space um work tables um in the corner that's um we're keeping with the Madison County Health Department u compliance because we have a prep sink and then we have a handwashing sink and then we have a free compartment sink which is a lot for um cooking frozen pucks of dough. Um but um we want to make sure that we are following all of the health department and health life safety rules for ISBY as well. Um and then we have another workspace and we have a um industrial oven with
077the doors that open this way. So it is more accessible for all students when we go instead of having the doors that pull down. Um and in the front there where it says items number 12 and 10. Oh, it's kind of covered up on the screen, but um there's going to be a pass through cut into the wall so that we can actually have a serving counter that's going to be cut out for students. Um so that is where we are currently. We have all of our um all of this has been ordered. Also, we need to um get it ordered because everything's taken a minute to get here just like everything else. So, Kelly's going to talk more about items. Um, like we mentioned, I did go in today and the electrical work is
078near done. Um, the floors have been marked for the plumbing, which is really exciting and I I do believe that everything is on order, although we are not looking for a grand opening until at least January um because of the equipment delays. Um, so what we're working on at this moment is getting with food services and Chris Mcola to order the remaining equipment, the smaller scale things such as the cookie sheets, the cooling racks, the oven mitts, aprons, things of that nature. Um, our coffee supplier is going to be Renokco and they are going to provide us with the brew machines for free. Um, their stipulation is that we use their cups. Um, and those machines will be serviced and they've actually already been out one time and met with Eric so that way we
079can make sure we have the wiring and the plumbing correct for those to be installed. So, um, I've been talking with Dez there. That'll be coming up. Our fall semester is really right around the corner. So, that's our next big step is to get the students in and to get them learning. And what's really exciting, it's scary to me at the time at this moment because there's a lot of unfinished business things on, but what's neat is because of that, the students are going to be able to participate in the opening of a new business. Um, and what a unique this is just a unique experience that this group of students we may not be able to replicate this exact moment again. Um, but I'm really excited for them. And within that set of students
080that were mentioned previously, it's a smaller group, but the seniors that have room in their schedule are going to be allowed to take the class for two hours. So they will actually have double the exposure to this business opening. So that's really exciting for me. Um, they're going to help. The curriculum has of course been approved, but they are going to help me with the job descriptions. They're it's going to be studentled and I'm going to really try and step back and only guide. Um we have an outline, but they're going to be able to define what job duties are completed by which person. So that's exciting. They're going to help with inventory list to create the list on the shared Google Drive. Um they're going to help us prepare the space and organize all
081of the supply and the inventory. and they'll be there to place that first order, which is exciting as well. Um, really cool. I know. The ownership I skipped over the they're so we mentioned or Mickey mentioned prior that they will be safe food certified. So, we're going to use like the industry standard is serve safe and so that is where we're going to begin the training. Um, there are other options out there which is nice because serve safe is rigorous and so that's going to be what we're aiming for, but there are other options out there if we find that we have students that are struggling. Um, let's see. I think that's it. The next on the next slide talks about we're going to use this as a process for getting students more involved in
082their education. We're going to have evaluations that we're going to do quarterly, but from those quarterly goals, we're going to write weekly goals. And I have here so we have an evaluate the monthly evaluation and then also the weekly evaluation. And so those um these evaluation tools are going to be based on the Madison County ROE employee evaluation which is actually created by Mickey in conjunction with the rehabilitative counselor from the Illinois Department of Human Services. So, this is the guideline that our county is following. So, we're going to implement that in our building as well. Um, the intent is that during this fall semester, we'll have some sort of soft opening. I'm hopeful that we will have enough equipment that we will be able to have teachers place orders online that the students can
083then deliver to their classrooms. Um, hoping we can work out some kinks that way. With with I know I a coffee drinker. This is going to be an issue. So, um, and then in January, if all goes well, we'll have our grand opening where the students can come in before school and get cooking and coffee. Um, I'm not sure, we've mentioned this in our original proposal that was approved some time ago, but we will the cook the Otis Buckmeer offers a line of cookies that are nutritionally compliant. Okay. And I've been informed that they are delicious. which I have not tried outside, but I've been told that the brownie something brownie brownie cookie is amazing. Just don't tell the kids they're 51%. Yes. Um and then of course the coffee is going to be black
084coffee and we will have um approved sweeteners, right? Half and half. But they also Renco said that one of their more popular sellers for the the younger students is flavor tea, which is not sweetened. It's just flavor tea. and you brew it through the same brewing machine. So, um we're looking to offer those as well. So, and this process has changed from the beginning. Initially, we were going to this space was going to be for both the cafe and the business department store that they're going to be opening. But we quickly found out there's not enough physical space for both of those items. So, u Miss Mo from the business department, their inaugural year will be 22 23. Um, and we're she's they're still trying to identify the space that they're going to use, but
085we do have some ideas. A great spot just the walls. Yes. Yes. Beams, would have been a perfect speak of support beams. But yeah, but there's some other ideas and I know that she is she's excited because she has intents of having my students work next to her students and have some peer-to-peer learning going on. So I believe she will be busy with the cafe as well. So do you guys want to talk about how this is being paid for? Yes. So all of this is being paid for through funds that were generated through the step contract that we have with the division of rehabilitation services. So the first handout I gave you is a copy of the work evaluation that is a real evaluation that is used in real world um for students with
086disabilities to receive services through DRS. And with that we're going to um write goals from that and have students identify goals and identify where they feel they need to work on things as well. The second handout I gave you is a pamphlet from um the division of rehab services that describes what the STEP program is, the secondary transitional experience program. Um, and so we have a contract with the division of rehab services to provide those services. So they pay us money, we service the students, and Kelly Hutchings um has taken advantage of every single opportunity that they have had for us to even obtain extra funds. We had an opportunity to service the students um through the COVID times and so we were able to through that as well. We were able to obtain extra
087funding with that as well. Um, of course it also started with um Stephanie Foreman when she was doing this and she was um collecting the money and getting the outcomes of the students working. Um, so all the money that we earned from it are from um our staff working with the students and them being gainfully employed within the community. So once they reach that outcome then that's when we obtain the funding for it. So all of this whole thing has been 100% funded through funds from the self contract. I'm sure some conversations have already taken place in regards to like the impact on the rest of the community, positive impact, but also having been at the high school, you know, grab and go coffee, coffee everywhere. Um, one cool idea, you might have already thought
088of this, might be as you're launching this business, you can also help them become even more like civic-minded and create agency where they can influence the greater context. So, they could help create some guidelines or rules in in collaboration with, you know, Mr. Du or whomever. and then they could see that play out in the school as well because they need there needs to be more talks of sitting down. Right now we're just again we were kind of backed up backed up from co and so we want to just open in the fall semester but it just can't happen with all the other construction needs that are happening right now. Um, so like she said, we'll do a soft opening um the fall semester and then we'll have a grand opening um slated for fingers
089crossed slated for January um with that and we'll make sure everyone is invited to that as well. Um yeah, the students we want them to have a lot of ownership in this because it really only becomes successful no matter how much hard work we put in behind the scenes. It's the kids that are up front and it's the kids that are actually the ones who are are interacting and earning learning those skills that they need to work with the customers. Um, so the more student buyin that we have and it becomes their cafe and they take ownership of it and then it be spreads out into more school pride. Um the amazing thing that I've seen come out of these cafes that we've had is the relationships with our students um that they're building with
090their gened peers. That's been the most and I think what's most important is to remember is that the gened um students would upon graduation and upon um exiting college they become employers. and for these students to have the unique opportunity to see their peers working um and being successful at what they do and maybe that might just spark a little something whenever they are employers and they're looking to hire individuals as well. So that's been one of the better outcomes that we've seen. And while it's not, you know, publicly available, we have a coffee shop in Granite City again, which I'm thrilled to hear. Yes. We cannot be open to the public. I just want to I want to point out that we are incredibly fortunate to have Mickey. She was what was your title
091at the R? Um transition specialist. She was the step specialist. She has set up multiple cafes such as and led them through to their success. So to have her here and to be able to do this for us, I just want to say job Kelly so much. The kids are going to love it. We do want to give um credit to um everyone who has been involved as well. Um Mr. Dew, the high school principal, Nikki Petrillo, assistant principal. Mr. Smith, God love you. Director of buildings and grounds. Um Chris McCulla, supervisor, food services. Um Christy Mode, business department chair and co-op coordinator. Um Stephanie Boyer, special education coordinator. And of course, Kelly Hutchkins is the step coordinator. Great job. Thank you all. Can't wait. Great job. And I'll tell you the soft skills alone
092teaching that is just is so needed especially today. So we appreciate that. And then I see and I'm sure you all have already envisioned all the potential spin-off of this. But oh my gosh, budgeting and owning a business and a board creation, something like that. I mean, they're trying to hold me back a little because I'm I know. Don't hold her back. No, I know. But I told her right now we just need let's just work on some of these. So they'll be involved in the budgeting. They're going to be involved in counting money and making deposits and keeping, you know, so it'll it just keeps snowballing. But um like I said, I there's a lot of things I want to jump forward with, but we need to kind of I think it's back up
093a minute. That's a good model for opening a business. Lots of big ideas, but you need to slow down. Great. Thank you both. Thank you so much. Very good news. Great job. Item 11 D, E, FG, and H I believe are all forformational purposes. That's the activity fund statements for June 2021. The bank reconciliation statements uh and the memorial fund statements all for June 2021. Treasury reports uh for cash on hand for April and May 2021. Any discussion or anything on any of those? All for information again. No approval necessary. And that takes us to executive session and a whole lot of different list of items there. But we do have two items on the executive session agenda tonight under 2C8, which is uh school building safety and security and security procedures and student safety.
094With that, I will entertain a motion. Did I miss anything by the way? Regular session here. Okay. No, it's good. just came. It just came to me. That's really pretty. I will take a motion to uh go into executive session. So moved. Second. Second. Or that second was by Linda. Motion by Talon. All those in favor? I And the time is 7:17.