001here. Kenogal here. Curran here. None here. McMasters here. WSMER here. Forbes here. Thank you. This time we're going to please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence and the invitation that will be given by pastor pastor Jared. I pledge algiance 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. And a moment of silence today for officer Tyler Timman from Beach. A true loss to our community today. And again, please just take a moment here to keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. So, I'm Pastor Jared Cororsine from Unity Baptist Church here in town, a proud supporter of our school district and thankful to be here. Let's pray together.
002Heavenly Father, in Psalm 23, you you have this powerful line. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. And your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Lord, today for our community, Granite City, Pontoon Beach. Lord, for officers, for their wives, for many of us who hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight. Lord, we lift up a community who mourns and we pray certainly for Officer Timman's family. Lord, we lift up his wife and many others who are grieving in a profound way tonight. God, we pray that the work done tonight at this meeting that it would honor you. Lord, that we can continue to find a beacon of hope in in the change in in the forward progress that
003we offer for our children and Lord, for the future of our community. So, we pray tonight that you would help us to turn to love instead of hate. Lord, that we would trust you with justice, that we would look to your rod and your staff and not take it up ourselves. Lord, we pray that you would help us to walk faithfully and to take care of each other, to bear your image and to be a great community. Please bless all that happens tonight in this meeting and with these board members and those who've come to share in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much. Thank you. We do have uh public comment first here on the agenda. Um like to welcome and recognize Stephanie, you want to take this? Yeah, I would love to.
004Um at this time, we're going to recognize our Granite City High School marching warriors for this success this season through as um Mr. Roberts is called the bandmic. I love that last night. We used that last night. I think that I've been watching them since summer. Uh practicing. I've never seen a group of young people and adults work that hard for that long to to continue to improve every time I watched them perform was absolutely incredible. Uh the robotics team who supported this project, Mrs. Heath and Mr. um and all the students Ava and the rest of them who who have worked with the band. The collaboration was amazing to watch. Um they came together and I think that's what made this particular performance so special and so unique as well. So um I'm going
005to call them all up here um to come up and be recognized. Everyone who's here from the band and the robotics club. Okay, we'll start with the students. Right. You want to bring your You got to bring the trophies. You got to bring the trophies, right? Our student board member, also a robotics member. So, so on October 23rd, coming up here, come on up. Come on up. Make a big line in front of me. I'm not important. You guys must put that right front and central. Why? Why are Mr. Heath and Mr. Tell them everybody? And by the way, let me mention this too. The Grandparents Association have to be some of the most hardworking. Also, concession stands, any anywhere the band kids are, they are they're supporting at all times. It's it's really incredible
006to watch the dedication and how much support you all have for these these young people. I think it's just amazing. So, on Saturday, October 23rd in Champagne, Illinois, the marching warriors won the marching Illinois marching band class 5A state championship. Uh, also this was the fourth time in the last five years the Warriors were crowned 5A champions. I mean seriously, do we even count last year? I don't think we can count. So really you have consecutive ones. I say we just say that, right? Uh they also picked up this one best visuals, best music, and best general effort. I don't think it gets better than general effort, right? I mean that's just everything, right? So joining uh with us tonight is band director, Mr. Wyatt uh Roberts, assistant director, Miss Kman, and uh Miss Amy
007Heath, who's the sponsors the robotics team with Mr. Way, right here, which we're sad, right? And then I want to introduce um some of the members that are here tonight. We have Maxwell Forbes, the member of the robotics team. We have now I'm gonna Traya Tris. Traya, that was close. Tris Dustin, why they call you Sky? Right. The drum major. We have Ava Hoppy who was Ava is also the name of the robot just so everyone knows. She's the one that drives that around and does amazing. We've only ran off a couple times, right? We have six, right? Uh my freshman over here. Are you the freshman? Is this you? Fred Sushi. That's cool. Sounds pretty good. And Jonas, there's your name. Jonas, uh Jonas, uh he's a drum major as well. So, uh I
008really want to congratulate them. I just don't think I can say enough positive things about how how hard this whole group. How many members are there if I were to include everybody color guard that uh right now 115. Wow. And if any of you have a chance even in the summer I got to go up in that big tall what do you call that? The tower. The tower this summer which was really cool because I'm watching them like you know you think you could see them doing their little things but when you're up there it's amazing. They're just going all directions and they're playing instruments while they're walking and walking up ramps. I wouldn't have fallen but uh it was really impressive and the color guard was amazing and the Xmachina was the theme and
009so they did robotic movements. They had the robot which also progressed performance to performance just the things that the robot did that they programmed. So I'd like to give you and some of you guys a chance to talk as well. You want to say anything? Um it was a very great season. I know speaking on behalf of the seniors especially, it was very great to be able to have an opportunity to do this once again. We got our freshman season and our sophomore season and then junior year we didn't really get to do anything. So being able to go back on the field was like just amazing. Um it was a great season. Um we obviously we did pretty well and I I think with ourselves we can agree that we improved a lot. I
010honestly didn't expect to get to the point where we did this year coming out of everything, but it it went very well and I'm very very excited that we were able to do so well and have so much fun. So, thank you all represents. So, this one right here is our caption award for general effect. That's just like the whole the whole everything just being generally amazing. We have music um that's musical stuff and then visual with the you know visual which was really cool if anybody got to see that with the costumes and the flags. I mean it was just really fun to watch. It was truly a performance of everyone and and we have the big one. Hold it up. Hold it up for for a picture. Mr. Here we go. You got
011to have way up. I say you just hold we'll get together and we'll take a group photo. Right. Maybe you guys can hold uh No, we kind of hang over here. I'll hang right here. Okay. Can we get Can you guys get a little bit closer for just a second? Really close. Hold your breath. All right. Here we go. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. All right. [Applause] [Music] Oh, thanks for letting us do this. Well, I mean really they're like amazing thing. It's awesome. It's good time. And uh you have just How long have you been? I think a thousand years. He's really old. Right. I'm really 28. I think this is my 27th year. Wow. So, thank you for your dedication. And Miss Heath volunteers again. She does everything also.
012She should get that trophy that says general. She's sort of like that person at the high school, right? So, we're just really proud to have such wonderful dedicated professionals with these students every day because they really help make this happen. It was I hope there can be more collaboration among groups like I think that was um hopefully a platform for not just band and robotics but for other groups to come together and try new things. Great idea. I mean, isn't it wonderful? We learned a lot. It was, you know, it was fun to watch. It was. Yeah. And so I watched all the performances later and watched them grow and it was fun. So you guys did an amazing job. [Applause] We as a school board greatly appreciate this because you make us all so
013proud. Makes our job so much easier when you all are out there performing and doing very well like you are. So thank you. and uh just continue what you're doing. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Do we have any other public comment tonight? I do know we have one person addressing us in executive session tonight, but if there's anybody else here for public comment, but I don't hear. Okay. All right. Very good. We will move on then. Uh approval of the minutes of the September 28th, 2021 board meeting. Second. Motion by Erica, seconded by Bill. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I none. I Miss Masters and Wai. Hi. Yeah, I'm sorry. So Stephanie reminded me that you all have to stay for the entire meeting. I didn't quite understand her. She said go ahead
014and say no. We do have a long meeting time. You all are welcome to stay and maybe become future board members. [Music] But we totally understand if you have to leave. So don't feel guilty getting up right now. For real. You can get up to work. Item number six is the consent agenda. Congratulations. any item we can pull off of here if anyone has any discussion. Otherwise, I would entertain a motion for approval of all the items there with the understanding we've had some very nice um You want to go ahead and do that real quick? Sure. Um we were fortunate that Dr. Tertan um came to the district and wanted to donate some lots of property to us, maybe some future development. I'm not really sure, but he was so kind. Uh just just
015wanted to donate them for us for work. So, I just thought that was great. He came in. I got to meet him. a wonderful man's given to the community for years. So, I just wanted to recognize him. Uh Denise Ransom also gave a donation to Maryville School for supplies that they they needed for a classroom. So, I just wanted to make sure I seconded by Erica. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Kenogal. Iran. Hi. None. I McMast. Woman. Hi. Uh Vinnie, sorry. Hi. Uh item number eight, retirements and resignations. Mr. President, the board is recommended the following retirements and resignations be accepted. John Kindle, crafts administrative office, retirement effective 11:3021. Star Lindsay, Parrofessional designation 102721. Up approval is recommended. Second motion by Erica, second by any discussion. Roll call. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Vinnie. Hi.
016Canal. Hi. WS. I item 8 B. Request for leave of absence. The administration is prepared to make recommendations to approve or hold for discussion in executive session the following positions. Um The lease of absence be approved. So Stara Lindsay pair professional poolage effective 92021 to 121321. Sean Paulville athletic trainer for paternity 11821 to 13122. Scott Fandry uh counselor 11:1521 to 2722. Caitlyn Johnson Matthew Chulage 11221 to 21422. Approval is recommended. Whoever you want to give up by Linda, second by roll call. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. Hi. Curran. Hi. Wai. Hi. Item 8 C employment of a high school secretary. Mr. President, the board of review committee is recommending Britney Mendoza for the high school secretarial position or hold for discussion in executive session. You have received detailed information about this administration is
017prepared to make these recommendations. The delivery committee consists of Darwan Sher Lamb and Christa and they are recommending approval. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mcasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I Wolsmar. Hi. Item 8 D. Granite City High School. Extracurricular resations for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board of administration is recommending the following individuals extracurricular resations be accepted or open for discussion executive session. We are recommending the following people be accepted designations. Whitney Sykes Rogers, GCHS head basketball coach, and Greg Vaughn, GCHS assistant girls basketball coach. So second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Penny. Hi Kenobyl. Hi Curran. Hi Nun. I McMasters Wilson. Hi. Item 8 E high school extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. Administration is recommending the following individuals the 2122 school year for [Music]
018extracurriculars. Candy Parker, working lawyers. Kyle Thompson, assistant wrestling coach. Greg Bond, head girls basketball coach. Approval is recommended for the 2122 school. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call any i. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Wai. Hi. And I'm sorry Eric. I didn't understand what you were saying there. I was abstaining from the wrestling one. I'm not doing any business with my husband. It works best for our marriage that way. Thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it. Item 8F is Koolage Junior High School extracurricular for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board administration is recommending Alexandria Miller for the Koolage Junior High School assistant girls volleyball coach for the 2122 school year. Approval is recommended. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I Masters. Hi.
019Vinnie. Hi. Wire. Hi. Item 8G. Elementary extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. And there is a couple of them. Yeah. I just want to point out I'm not I don't think I need to read them all. No. Do I need Mr. Jones? Do I need to read them all? Uh the administration is recommending the following individuals for elementary extracurricular for 2122 school year. I do need to add though that um the Starbucks cup markup is no longer included in this list due to the she has hit the 6% cap. So I just wanted to make sure second motion second. Any discussion? Roll call. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. Hi. Wai. Hi. Item 8H is the employment of technology support specialist for the 2122 school year. Mr. President of the board due to
020the increase of devices during CO in particular Chromebooks and the increase in the need for additional tech help in the buildings with devices and users. Uh the administration is recommending Albert Hazen the technology support specialist approval is recommended move. Second motion and a second. Any discussion call please? None. I McMasters. Vinnie. Hi Kenogal. Iran. Hi W. Hi. Item 9A is uh sports facilities information by SM Wilson. Sure. Um I have Kristen Newurn and Matt Jim Hy. We referred to in past meetings uh that we contracted with SM Wilson to do a sports facility assessment for the Gran City School District. We are really excited to bring some much needed improvements to our district's sports facilities and looking forward to some potential upgrades to school buildings and grounds as well. We are here tonight to talk
021about the first phase of this project and what future improvements could look like when our finances are available to continue work on a timeline. The plan is in preliminary stages and our various sports improvements are being placed into an overarching master plan for the GCSD9 sports complex. They are being prioritized by cost, maximize student athlete usage, time to completion. Christian and Jim will be speaking to the first phase of this overall plan this evening. So, I'm going to hand it over to them. makes the most wherever you want to go. Chris, if you would like and try to get the slides in there, too. Maybe if they stand there. Oh, yeah. I'm going to suggest they put them on the other side of the table. Chris, can you put that on the floor? And anyone
022else? Sure. Can If I get that little slide also is trying to take my job here. How are we looking? Framed [Music] and please let me know if I'm not uh projecting. That's not it's not often uh times that I don't project enough for people to hear me, but let me know. Um yeah, Chris, can we since they do? We're sorry. So, just introduce yourselves and your role first. Yes, definitely. So, here you're talking to our staff and here you're talking to the community. Okay. Hello. Hello. Hello. First, just want to say thank you so much for uh giving us just a few minutes tonight. I know you've got uh quite the agenda ahead of you, so we will be brief. My name is Kristen Newburn. I am the director of client development for SM
023Wilson, and I oversee our education market pursuits and um the client advocacy efforts uh throughout our projects. And Jim, do you want to introduce yourself? I'm Jim Huie. I'm director of project development at SM Wilson. and I assist with logistics, budgeting, uh procurement, everything pre-construction related. And um like we said, we're with SM Wilson. We are a general contractor and construction management firm celebrating our 100th year in business this year. You might be familiar with us because we were, you know, born and raised in Granite City. Our yard is actually still here just a few miles down the road. Um, so this is we consider our hometown to be granite city. Uh, so we're just thrilled to be speaking you to you today because of that reason. Um, we are have been around a hundred
024years, but really in the last 20 or so. We have built for dozens of different school districts uh, in Illinois and Missouri. We have built over 6,000 classrooms and uh put in place over1 billion dollars worth of education construction in the region. Right now we are building more than $250 million worth of construction um in the public K12 arena uh just right here in this region. So very excited to um be building for schools. It's a really great time right now to be uh planning and um building for different school districts. So, we're excited to be here today. One reason, prefacing all of that, um one reason that we have been so successful in um developing our client relationships with school districts and then uh having so much success in repeat business is the fact
025that we prefer to be part of the process with you as a partner. well before construction starts. So, uh that really is where Jim has played such an integral role uh with our district clients and that's really starting from a planning perspective through the funding and uh design efforts and then yes of course through and after construction. So wanted to just tell you a little bit about uh the facilities plan that we have been working uh closely with the district and uh board leadership with Granite City. Um really this is that first part that I was talking about the planning process. So why have a contractor come in and review your facilities, talk through your uh needs and understand um what the overall uh picture should look like at the end of the day. Well,
026we in addition to talking to you all are building millions and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of school projects right now in real time. So we have um a finger on the pulse of what construction costs nowadays and if you have heard anything about construction costs nowadays it is it is a moving target. Um so having that understanding knowing those real time uh changes that helps us uh to give you a very accurate estimate when it comes to budgets. It helps us to plan from a constructibility standpoint that if we know what your goal is in 10 years, we can help you with right now this phase one, what should that look like so that it's easier down the line to uh plan, fund, design, and build those next steps. So that's really the
027purpose behind this really this uh the square one facilities plan that we have been working closely uh with your leadership team to develop. So, now that I've set the stage and uh prepped you on the overall concept, I'm going to pass it to Jim who's going to talk about the real stuff. Um, and so Jim will tell you a little bit about phase one. So phase one we we came and visited with uh facilities and with the the board and basically did a general analysis of the entire complex what was existing what was not existing uh where we had gaps where we had uh maintenance needs everything was on the table. So, we revisited we visited football, baseball, uh soccer fields. We even looked at hardcapes, uh how people go from one parking lot to
028a field. Uh how the community when people come and visit, how do how do they interact? Uh does it make sense to build a facility upgrade on one side of the campus if it alienates that population from the other? How do we build more of a collaborative community area that when you're hosting athletic events, people can safely come visit, cheer on your favorite athlete, and and most utilize it to the best of of the students, the coaches, even the public's uh ability. So, we identified uh for phase one uh to relocate the softball field uh that's currently across the road in the park to bring them back home necessarily uh and and put them next to the baseball field so we have more of a a community with all of our athletes. We also looked
029at the hardscapes on how do you connect to that softball field uh in the safety fencing and also we looked at just some general maintenance issues uh with runoff uh storm sewers. We don't want to build anything that we're going to have to rip out in five more years. So we took all that into account. We kind of came up with a schematic uh design. We came up with a a cost uh rough budget at this phase in time. And then we also came up with a narrative on how we would sequence that work. Uh so that way when we can plan in the future uh how that construction project would be uh jump to the next slide. We also looked at as a so you're not focused solely on athletics. We also looked at
030some athletic or some academic op options. So Frotheart Elementary, we also looked at that uh complex and said what can make this a better learning environment for students and staff and parents. So when we analyzed that facility, we looked at there was a need for a possible multi-purpose building uh to reutilize the existing gym that's now being used for uh classrooms, but to build a building uh to I believe it's the north side of the complex. also to better utilize the site for safety reasons for uh student drop off, student pickup. Uh as it relates to buses, uh we looked at the cafeteria. Uh now that because of COVID and for spacing, lots of classrooms are being reutilized. How do we spread out students? How do we better utilize existing parts of the facility? And
031then we talked, as I mentioned with the buses, safety improvements. So when students are being dropped off, we're not having cross traffic between buses and and uh cars. And then also once we build uh the possibility of that multi-purpose, how do you connect the campus as a whole so we're not uh going from school property to the adjacent church? How do we collect the students and make sure that they have a safe learning environment? So really this is just an introduction to that first phase that we talked about on the athletic complex and tying it into the fact that we are looking at this as a comprehensive plan. So instead of maybe just the the oneoff pieces um and you know we like to call it in uh in our office the band-aid fixes right
032but really looking at it as a whole picture and then figuring out what each step looks like in the process. So very excited to be here tonight. Would entertain any questions or discussion that you all have for us now or at any time uh following. Um I just want to point out too when they did the the Fearart Elementary possibilities that was included in their uh facilities assessments. They did some sports stuff as a general overarching facilities plan, but they also had them when we talked about maybe potentially switching to multi-grade level schools. Throwart is a central location. It'll be something that you know, that's going to be there as one of our central schools if we make that if and when that happens. So, I have them just look at that. Those are all
033dependent on financing and funding and how we can do that. So, those are all part of the the pri prioritization of what we're doing and financial as I talked to you about usage. So, um we had them do that. They've been amazing at going in and looking at things and thinking of things that that I think when you're looking at it sort of and you've seen it all along, you don't see things. they've been really good at at presenting ideas um and things as an overall project. So I just wanted to point out that that's why the pro hard part is in as well. And secondary, you know, we're looking at initially which we have funding for the softball field that they're secondary projects which keep in mind we don't necessarily have the money right
034now. We're looking at anywhere from one year to 10 years depending on district financing. Maybe we can look towards donations, things like that, collaborating with some other community members. Um looking at potential um soccer field upgrades. Um test box area upgrades. Uh those are the areas we're looking at as well, but that's a little further down the line. So, I just wanted to to give that introduction and they started with phase one and that's what we're going to be moving forward with at this point. Uh we'll have them come back and do maybe more of an overall thing when we meet with the financing, see where we are. Um but they've been great. I'm sure they'll come back again if they need them. They'll be involved along. So, thank you so much. Question. Well, superintendent,
035I I really think the community is going to be excited because it isn't being done peace meal. There is an overall grand plan and some of it probably won't be completed while I'm still alive. But we are it is such a visionary thing to decide that this is our front porch to our community and this is what people see as this grand campus and it is going to be so beautiful and I know you've had in mind that it not be done peace bill but that we worked a real plan and I think kudos to you that perfect. Yeah, I I I would echo that bill. So thank you for saying that. I you know this was really brainchild of Miss push pushing this forward and doing the planning effort because uh there were and
036it shocked me but there were a lot of things that were said going through this process with Kristen Jim and others um from some of the staff saying hey if there was something that was needed we just went out and built it without much thought about where it goes and so you don't think about the people movement you don't think about the parking or getting them there or drainage or the utilities that are running underneath the ground and all that sort of thing so uh this and taking it Now, working with what we have and making the best of it and and shifting some things in some locations, I think is fantastic. And I love the idea of pushing forward with an initial phase in this current budget year because we don't have the money
037to do the grand thing all at once and don't have all those phases laid out yet, but there are some very simple and and cost-effective things that can be done here immediately to start that process. But it begins. They're excited. I'm excited. when we just being able to to make those improvements like Bill said, just the the vision and wanting to be proud of our complex and our school and we have great athletes, great families, great community, and this is just one more way for people to see that when they come to town. So, I know I had just a real quick question and I know I know it's been brought up a lot in the past from various people and I know it's not on phase one and but um when they bring up
038turf, everyone wants turf and all that, but um just and I know there's drainage issues you got to plan and all kinds of stuff. Um, but like on the new softball field, which is a part of phase one, would that be installed with infield field turf or would that be I I'm just curious since it's a new that's a new project. For right now, the design they we haven't come to that conclusion yet. Basically, like like Dr. McCain said, we're weighing both options. There's a turf option and then there's a grass option. Okay. So, that decision could be made based on what do the athletes like to play on better. I know my daughter likes soccer. She hates playing on turf. But then it's also got to be weighed against what's the overarching budgetary of
039maintaining a turf field. But so right now we've just gone out and kind of organized and gathered information and presented it. We haven't gone through full design yet or the full bid out of those components. So that would probably be like a next a next phase that we could possibly do next spring. I think since this has been in committee to begin with, Stephanie, I think it would be nice to give the entire board that itemized list of all. I think they should all maybe get that and then it'll answer really his question but a lot of other questions in the priorization um talent because you know if we're looking at adding if we can do grass somewhere where it's good then we can save money to be able to add turf where it where
040it's maybe more addressing the student usage like if a soccer field which is boys and girls potentially field potentially lacrosse. They're serving a lot of student athletes with that field. So, looking at those are the types of things we've been we've been discussing. So, as we get the finals, you will all have all of that. So, I'm excited about the uh procart plan. Uh the church sitting right next door and the bus situation. Uh that that really that really is something that needs to be uh carefully planned out. And then fact, the fact that a hight traffic area on Johnson Road back and forth. You know, it's been it's been extreme. I have to hand it to the staff that are keeping everything under control and they've worked out a time by minuteby minute procedure
041to get kids out and on the bus. But yeah, at some point we have to look at that. Yes. Well, really the credit goes to Superintendent Can I mean she made sure that that was a priority because it's 100% about student safety at that point. And you're absolutely right. There's no world would a nice shiny flashy, you know, new building be a substitute for uh if we we did not account for that student safety first. So, and we looked for social distancing. Uh hopefully there isn't another pandemic, but you never know. So, I'm looking for areas where we can separate students. They could have assembly safer room for quarantines, a larger nurse area, larger office area. Those were things I was looking at. If we do our when we go looking That's a centralized school.
042So, I just had them address that as well. Initially, what's the what's the timeline like as far as like getting this approved and like getting started on the first phase of it? I think we're meeting with contracts that is going to next to send you a meeting with they have a contract person Mark will be meeting with Mr. Suri and Mr. Spoolie about moving into the next um phase. We had some of this money kind of placed softball. So, this really worked out with the drainage and because if they do the softball fill the drainage, we have they have to look at the the soccer field. Like all those things go together, which is why I wanted an overall vision overarching plan for this. So, but yeah, we're looking at that being quickly be done.
043Is it is it fair to say, Stephanie, not to put you on the spot here, but maybe by next meeting we could have a an overall facil plan for the athletic fields that could be shared with the board and the public. Most definitely. That was our plan. Great. So, this is the first plan and they'll have I think they have most of that finished as well. So, I think that we'll be ready to present that. I just don't know about a timeline for completion. We're looking at phases of different things, but you can see where we want to end up. I said before, you know, we got to get Bill out there, right? So, I know that's the plan is to to show that. Um I sure we I'm positive we can have that and
044I and I think the beauty of that then is that if there's fundraising opportunities that community to get involved any of these items could be accelerated. Oh my gosh. So we might be showing it as year five or year seven or year 10 if the school district goes through its normal budgeting process. But those those things could be accelerated and if the community gets behind this I would love and and donates money this this could happen a whole lot. We have some great community supporters out there that we know of right now who are all behind this idea of sports improvement. So, if we can collaborate with them, that's the whole plan, right? We have some great uh organizations and individuals who push for this type of thing and it needs to be a collaboration.
045I think that that's the most important thing. We're doing this for the students and the community. So, I love that idea of fundraising towards helping this project move along more quickly. I think you've got everything simple. pool under the gymnasium. Oh yeah, just like it's a wonderful. Can you do that? I like it. Add it to the list. Yeah. No, don't add that toation is way down there, Kristen and Jim. Thank you so much for having [Applause] and same thing goes for you. You all are welcome to stay. [Music] Thank you very much, guys. I appreciate it. No. Uh, item number 9B is a resolution for public hearing for 21.2 school year e learning plan. And I think we need to suspend the the general meeting here. Mr. Jones, we do need to suspend the
046meeting. Correct. Right. Um I'll take a motion to suspend our board of education meeting public hearing. So move second. Motion on a second. Roll call, please. Masters. Vinnie. No. I Curran. Hi. None. I So we uh have suspended our regular meeting and now we will hold public hearing for the the 2122 school year. voting language. Oh, you want to turn over? Yes, Steve. This this is just something we had done everything else. We just didn't do I apologize. We didn't do the hearing that was required by the regional office of education. If you have any questions about the plan and you've already seen uh Mr. Mat is here to to answer anything you may have. Steve, would you mind just say a few words? You want to do a quick overview? Uh yeah. So, the
047e-learning plan is basically it's a review of things that we have in place. A lot of it is technology we put in place as a result of the pandemic. Um the e-learning plan itself does not serve as it serves as a way it doesn't replace the traditional emergency day. It's used in addition to a traditional emergency day. So we still have the option if something happens that we don't have the technology in place or power for example a blizzard that makes travel treacherous but we still have electricity we can use this in place of a traditional snow day. But in the event of something like a tornado like what happened this weekend in Missouri, you know, and we don't have power in large parts of the city, we can still use the traditional emergency debt.
048So, it's really just another option for us to continue to educate children in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Yeah, it's not it's not a remote learning option. No, this is strictly for emergency days that we can use this for fun. And we can still use emergency days, too. just gives us two options instead of just saying school is canceled altogether. And what's really nice about this, we had one before which was pretty non efficient. We we added every they did an excellent job of adding everything that we've been doing and putting it into this plan so it's relevant. We appreciate you all. Any comments or questions for Mising? So, I will uh accept a motion at this point to um close out the public hearing and go back into session for the school. So, move
049second. Roll call, please. Vinnie, hi. Canal. I Curran. Hi. None. I McMast. I do need that. We are back in regular session of the school board meeting. And at this point, I will take a motion to approve the 2122 school year e-learning plan. So move second motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. W. Hi. Thank you all for that. Appreciate that. Item number 9 is a train HBAC information. Uh Mr. Smith, are you online? He was at the high school. No, he's here. We had some sewer issues at the high school. So, let me address. He's on. He is. Eric, are you on? Can you maybe unmute him? Yeah, I have to unmute him. Yes, I'm here. There we go. I know you have
050a lot going on, but briefly jump through this. Thank you. Yeah, what this is this is this has been an ongoing project. We've uh started out with getting pipes inspected to to figure out what we need to do at Griggsby. with this with Griggsby already being partially a trained uh school has trained products in it doing the heating and uh cooling. What we're wanting to do is just further this and just go with train for u uh the chillers and and events in the building. And what Train is going to do, they're going to engineer this. They're going to see the construction part of it and they're also going to put this out for bid for um contractors to actually do the work and they will oversee all of that work to ensure that their
051products are put in properly. And Eric, I recall the piping uh inspection looked fine in that building and this is just going to be upgrades over time to the the systems themselves. That's correct. It's going to get uh all new units throughout the building, new air handlers inside the gymnasium, um insulation um on pipes that uh were needed and new piping in some areas. And also the office area is uh looking like it's going to have its separate heating and cooling system to try to get away from all of the old pipe work that's behind the plaster walls that we're constantly having problems with with leaking. So, uh if once we can get away from all the older system and get get this all in there, I think we'll be uh better off. And train
052does guarantee us that we will save money with this one with their product also. Very good. And really the the request tonight is to move forward with train uh to handle the engineering work on a going forward basis and and that decision really is because there's primarily a train system in place today. That's correct. That's correct. That's correct. Any questions? Anyone? Happy to take a motion to move forward with this. So moved. Second. Motion by Linda, seconded by Talon. Roll call, please. Current. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Wilms. I Eric. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, Eric. You go back to that fun work. Item number 9E, administrative residency policy. uh you have in your packet and as we discussed back in June, I believe it's the June meeting um
053we are continuing to struggle with trying to find uh individuals and we uh for the jobs uh certainly on the teaching side but now on the administrative side as well and um have I think a list of eight or so coming up in the next two or three years for retirements and as we're trying to hire the best and most qualified. Uh we we've been looking at toying with and uh as other school districts are hiring from outside their boundaries. Uh what was in your packet or what was provided to you was the residency policy that would allow that to happen for us and um at this time I entertain any motions. Summit second motion on a second motion by Zach, seconded by Linda. Any discussion? Yeah. Um I you know my hesitancy is uh
054one I know that you know we received an email this afternoon um that shows some of what has been done uh to attract others. I know with our upcoming administrative positions, many of those are uh well, they're they're administrative, but I guess what I'm getting at is that in terms of things that we're doing to combat some of this is like having job fairs in that colleges, that's not where we're going to be recruiting administrators. Um, and and I don't know that we've had enough time to really see if any other recruitment strategies to get people into the city um have actually been done yet. I I just don't think we've had enough time to see if that works. Now, ultimately, maybe it doesn't work and we've got to move to this anyway. But since
055the last time we've talked about it, I don't know that a lot has really changed in terms of what we've actually done to recruit administrators who don't live here to come inside. So far, it seems like we've done the same thing. And with one in particular, the most recent was uh the uh assistant principal position at the high school. We did get 12 people to apply who had residency. Um there were, it says 17 total. Three were out for residency and two did not return residency. That left 12 that we still had, which was a pretty good turnout for that position. And that's without dropping the residency requirements. Um I I just and another part of that is we actually have an example on our own board who unfortunately isn't here tonight. Um I and
056I don't know how he would vote. Let me say that too. Um but who had said the last time that while not a teacher, he is an example of someone that recruiting directly worked. Um, Eric Stacy moved here to be on the police department after someone said, "Hey, why don't you come to Granite City?" And he and he's been a pretty good member of the community. He's obviously he's on the school board now. He's done a lot with the police department. He's been promoted from within there. Um, and I personally I I think it's too early to make this vote. And I realize we have a couple positions coming up, but based on our last assistant principal position, you know, it seems like we that could be replicated here um in terms of a lot
057of possibilities from within our own district or maybe, you know, somebody who's willing to move here. And that's, you know, it for now, but that's my own feeling on it at this moment. The only thing I would like to say, I haven't put out on this, but there is a website. This is what I wanted to let Chan know. Um, it's the IASB job bank which all educators go on to. I could pull that up if you I mean I thought maybe it might be good. I'm sitting here listening to you so you can see how that works and almost if you would go to Can you go to ISB and it comes up to job bank. Would you all mind that if I go to show you and I wanted to do this before
058I want to just kind of wing it now but I was just sitting here thinking you know what this is a good idea. impressive. Okay. How do I get to somebody else? I'll just Okay. So when I taught at SIU and I had student teachers, um this is the first thing we pretty much teach them in an admin school too. And if you are in education, you just wouldn't, you know what I mean? You just wouldn't know this. So um if you're looking, you can list as an employer, you can post here, which we post, we post every position um on this on this job site on this site. So right now if you are going to look for a position. So right here you can look instructional administrative non-certified support staff school service personnel.
059Let you choose. So we're going to choose administrative. Um and then you can also then apply. You can do um location. Let's do that one. So if you want to do a location, it's going to drop down and we're going to do it by county. Doesn't like me. Okay. and say we want to do say you're going to move to you're going to work, you know, at the mill. Okay. So, you win a job in Madison County, but you're willing to uh maybe go a little bit further. Maybe Belleville. I don't know. So, I've done that and then I can go to St. Clair. Sorry. Probably a faster way to do this. There wasn't. I just thought of it. So, okay. So I did Sinclair and Madison County and right now here's the only administrative
060job in the both counties and every single school district does this. It is it's just it's just what you do. Um they're also listed on regional office of education sites but generally we send we always send them there as well and individual district sites have things as well. So at this point oh here's another one. Sorry there's assistant principal at Alton. So what you can do you click on one of these and and it gives you basic information. It'll give you information on what the duties are, who you're directly responsible to. Um, this is always available questions, sour benefits, how to apply, email address, and we are working also on um streamlining our our online application so that you can it's submittable. At this point, we have it online, but you you can do everything
061but submit it. So, uh Mr. Parker is working on that. But it gives you an idea. I mean, you actually anything on here you can you can find. How do I get rid of this over here? Is that it? That's ours there. So, um, if you want like I can't find a little line on the side. How do I Okay. So, if you wanted to do and you wanted to include let's just I don't bond count. Okay. And then we're going to search again. So, evidently that didn't make a difference. So adding bond county there weren't any. Now if you do it for even non instructional let's go for instructional in those counties. So I have you know violin siu east alton most of the time higher ed isn't on here but in this case
062I they are that's kind of unusual. Um Missouri also has one of these sites and what Mr. Parker and I we were in the process of finishing up this is that they actually allow other states to to put them on here. So we're doing that right now. Um, that's not something we knew because Illinois doesn't do that. So, we're putting ourselves on the Missouri side as well. Um, a lot of the the uh instructional certificates now are reciprocal. It used to be you had to take certain classes, so they're reciprocal as well. I just want I don't think anybody would know this. Sorry, I just thought of this. Um, but it's just an idea to show you, you know, how anybody in education in fact you can also one last thing you can do. You
063can set um what's that called? an alert. So, for instance, if I'm looking for an admin job, you can anyway, you can send an alert and what happens is like I still have mine on there for superintendent. So, I get every alert throughout the entire state of Illinois, of which there's probably over 150 in the last five months of superintendent jobs. So then you so if you're looking for an admin job and even if even if you're in Kentucky, you can set that alert and it will alert you when there's a job and what district and when the application does. I just thought about maybe it'd be good for you to see. I'm not trying to sell anything. I just wanted and I mean there are efforts for like national recruitment and national searches, but
064usually those are like specific like national search for superintendent and it's extremely expensive and it's not feasible. So I mean There are some other recruiting options I think we could look into. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Um, ultimately for me, it comes down to I want the most competitive pool possible, right? And residency ties a hand behind her back regardless any way you look at it. We very well may have the best candidates in our district, but how do you test that if you don't open the pool to include as many people as possible? That's where I stand on that. Part of me thinks about, you know, we've never we've never done an expanded search as far as I'm aware, you know, for some of these positions. And now that we're starting
065Missouri, you know, I think that's great, but that also then leads to, you know, there's a lot of people from who aren't from Missouri and Illinois who won't search our sites. Can we post to other states? Can we expand that, too? Some states allow, some don't. Exactly. What I find interesting people look Yeah. people look especially um you look around different regions um also it's happening more frequently it's a little less vetted but like you can you catch your net why LinkedIn and if starting to become more national bases and it's much more costefficient than like hiring a search I mean there's consultants and like search organizations but you're talking multiple thousands of dollars for one position and that's a waste of money in my opinion. So I try I just wanted you to know
066that's out there. I think that's useful to share people in education know that not most I would Eric would all every I mean when you graduate from a program a teaching program administrator from them they tell you how to find jobs and they direct you to that website. So anybody that's in education I just I just felt like you know what I didn't show them that I just thought yeah I think just personally I'm still at we've never tried some of this new recruitment. We've never tried it, but we will be doing that. Well, I know that, but what I'm saying I'm just saying to see if there's anyone who is willing to come in in the big search. Yeah, we want the best. So, we have all of these people uh that we can
067look at as well as anyone who's is living in this this community who wants to compete with them in in an interview, you know. Right. I think you bring up valid concerns and most vocal that have been right here are actually in the field of education. So like and I'm not diminishing what you're saying. I was talking with my aunt like what's the big deal? Why don't you just you know like um so I think we just have a different kind of perspective on it, right? But I think coming as a father, a citizen, someone that isn't familiar with recruiting and hiring practices and education as much. I get where you're coming from. Yeah. And and part of me it just it goes back to it's something we haven't tried yet with some of this.
068Um, the way I see and we do have two coming up, but is it my whole thing is it valid to look at this in another year and if it didn't work, oh, okay, then I vote the other way. But with people leaving education, I feel like time is of the essence to me and I'm worried now. I mean, if someone's going to leave, they're going to leave. But just like we have problems finding bus drivers, teachers, administrators, it's going to continue to happen. Speaking as a very stressed out administrator myself, I question myself daily if this is what I want to continue in their job. I think personally I have I have to see Kalen has a point well taken. I agree. We had uh we have no urgency that's changed. We have one
069position Don Strat who's retiring at the end of this calendar year. Till that the next person is the beginning of the next school year. Nothing has become so urgent that we have to decide when we've not tried some of these other things. There are we've not HR has really not changed how it pursues candidates at this point. We've not tried some of these things. We've also at this point it just seems to me we're asking to a community that it's so visionary what we want to plan for our community. We haven't given up on Granite City. It's a desirable community and and we don't have to necessarily say give up the residency requirement when we've had no trouble up to now and until we see it is a problem we cannot get tremendous candidates why
070would we just give that away but my understand we're getting candidates Mr. Matis is now I saw in the the the message came out is going to plan a program to help train in community candidates that are already part of our district. We have some methods we can do but we have not yet tried and there's no urgency. So I have to kind of agree with Helen here. We have one candidate at the end of the year that has to be replaced. Obviously I really think Mrs. Batson probably does 90% of the she can easily fill that spot. But the next candidate is the beginning of the next school year. There is no urgency to throw that away until we let's try some of these things. Let's get Mr. Matthysse's program. Let's try expanding our
071searches. Let's get HR to do a few things differently. And if we have any problem then filling that position, I would be the first to say we have to give it up. Not that we even want to. We have to end it. But I don't see the urgency now when there's only one county to fill at the end of the year and not another one till our next school. We should be searching for next year. Well, I agree with and it's at least at least two of those positions that we did have problems filling weren't actually what you might consider education positions and they were only posted on education sites. No, we didn't. Did we did LinkedIn then? For personal color, I think. Okay. Okay. Um but that's that's at least better because would have
072told us that. Sorry. But um but again that was you know those were positions that we probably could have put I guess we could think of figure out what the problem is because this does not shut down the interviews of candidates from this community. It just expands. They will be coming in. Maybe we could expand our search and see if we get candidates that want to move here. I think the point is to target people possibly from say states that pay their administrators 40,000 less than we do and say hey it's a viable option to come here. Do you have examples of states that have $40,000 deficit compared to what we pay? And well, my understanding was you have some administrators in states like s some southern states, some southern districts, Oklahoma, other places. I
073was just trying to think like what's the targeted response list because we can't we can't recruit in all 50 states which I don't know you're not expecting. I'm saying you pick those areas where you you know most of that is public well all of that is public information. Well, they may come but they still will be vetted through our interview system and we are looking for quality That's just it. I mean, you can't just accept anyone who's willing to take Exactly. So, some someone who has is coming from another state. It is doesn't mean that they are going to uh No, but somebody coming from across the river doesn't mean they're going to be good either. But that's exactly why we have this excellent interviewing situation now where our superintendent is part of the interview.
074And not only part of it, but in she has the ability to to identify those those qualities that we want to put in these buildings. Right. We're both looking to expand the search. We're just looking at doing it different way. Linda, we totally agree. We're not going to lower our standards of who we want to hire. We don't want to do that for a second. We want the best we can get. I'm saying, but we have not demonstrated we can't get them and have to give up residency first. I I think part of it too is teachers, right? So So we look at some of those administrative positions and teachers generally sometimes are those who applying for that next position. Principal, assistant principal, that sort of thing. School code, you all know, but maybe for
075the public, school code does not allow teachers to have a residency requirement. They can live anywhere they want. And that's what we're seeing more and more here in this district. So what we've done is limited that pool of candidates by trying to say that that residency requirement, you've got to move to Granite City to take that position. And a lot of people, as we've heard from Jim Parker in the past, a lot of people have said, "No, I'm not going to do that or they'll they'll drop the application or they'll back out of it or won't go through with it because they find out that they've got to move for one reason or another." Not might it might not be that they don't like Granite City. It might be that they've established their roots in
076another community, raising their kids, have their kids in the school district, and just don't want to upgrade and come here. Um, so again, I think back to Erica's point and Linda's point is to be able to create that pool of candidates, the largest pool possible so that we get the best individual for that job as we're going through that. And that's that's really what this comes down to. Yeah. I think going up what Dennis said about teachers. I I've said this before but you know if you're a teacher and for whatever reason if you're not living in Grant City because like you said you have a family somewhere else your kids are in school somewhere else even we've struggled to get teachers as many districts have. If you're a teacher thinking one day I want
077to go into administration I'd be less hesitant to take a job in a district that it has a residency requirement if I know that's not something I'm going to make my family do is move to Granite City. So I think it it's kind of a trickle down effect as far as where it affects us. Um, that's a detriment. Yeah, I I think Talented Bill made some really good points. I do. I think even if we did the best possible job recruiting and got great candidates in district, which I know we have, I still think we should change this policy because it's about making the entire pool the best possible so we can recruit in district and do more on recruiting and getting people from other states. But I also think eliminating the residency requirement is
078just another piece into that. Um, and you know, like like he brought up the the assistant principal position, and this is just hypothetical because the person we hire is is great for it, I think, and doing a great job, but three people pulling out for residency, I mean, one of those three candidates, three seems like a small number, but that could have been a groundbreaking candidate, you know, hypothetically speaking. And I think anytime we're taking a chance of losing talent with taxpayer dollars that we're paying them, I just I think it comes down to the best use of the taxpayer dollars is to pay the person that's best for the job regardless of where they live or anything like that. And that's what I said. Yes. And I appreciate all the comments here tonight because
079I think that's fantastic. I do want to make one point that the the residency requirement uh policy does exclude the superintendent. So, the way that it's written today. So it does include it. So should we approve it? The superintendent is still required to live in Granite City. Yes, correct. Better way stated. So thank you. Clear on that. Yeah. Also, I've seen a couple of some confusion. Board members are required just by statute to live. Yeah. They're elected office. I've seen people saying you're changing in so people on the board can move and that's not something we would even have the power to do. Bring that up as well. Appreciate that. Once again, I'd like to say obviously we all have strong feelings on this and I just appreciate that we have space that we actually
080engage in the debate on it. I like that we disagree. Appreciate that. We do have a motion and a second on the floor. Um at this point I'll be happy to take none. I McMasters. I'm going to have to only because I don't think we've demonstrated the urgency to change it and I don't think We've demonstrated that we've tried it up other ways that we cannot fill these positions yet. And so at this time, I don't see the urgency. So I'm going to have to vote no. Danny, hi. Canal. Hi. Karen. No. One's not. I got it. Thank you very much. And again, very good open discussion. I appreciate that as always. Can we continue to receive updates regarding recruitment, things like that? I was just going to say everything that we do talent especially
081on recruitment I just I have I'm sorry I had thought of that before but um I'll let you know about the Missouri site. I'll send you guys those those links too so you can see those and other things. I'm excited that we'll have inerson job fairs um looking for diverse teachers as well. So I'm definitely trying to improve that. Mr. Parker is on it. Um we've already went to one um job fair and got a couple for some hair pros and things like that. So anyway, so we're looking forward to including all that. I appreciate your comments on that. I do love this process because at the end of the day, we own this together. We are a team and it's not like the country is so divided where they can't come to a compromise
082and a majority makes a decision. That's how that works. And so I love that part of our process. At the end of the day, our board decided to go forward and I'm okay with that. Um I think that's a good a healthy thing. We will own the consequences of that for better veterans and worse together as well. Yeah. But I I have great respect for each and every board member on this on this team and uh listening to you, I have such great respect for everyone. All these comments and all these opinions and and the ability to to talk about it, I think makes us all stronger. So appreciate that. Thank you all for that. Item 10 A, uh, new business. We have Cameron information on an easement request. And I think this is just
083in the preliminary stages, but we just kind of wanted to give you all a heads up. Is this on the lake school? Yes. Um, we, Eric Smith, um, Tom Skully and myself met with some Amar real estate people. They're looking to put in a new uh, yes pipeline at the corner of 162 and Mville Road where Lake School is. So they have right now a preliminary drawing of taking in about 33 acres on that area. Uh we sat down, met with them and told them uh some we needed some things worked out first. We wanted some safety answers. So right now we um gave them a counter offer asked a bunch of questions and we're now at the point where they're going to get back to us. So they have a timeline for the end
084of the year. So I think this will probably be ready to brought to your attention at the next meeting if not then the December meeting for sure. So we needed a lot of things answered. Uh so they took away with them at least 10 or 15 different questions and a different count offer on how much and I was a little concerned by this one too but I understand this is a replacement line. Yes for one that's already in existence today. So that's a good thing. More more efficient better materials. We had a question about release valves. That was one thing we asked. So, we asked a bunch of questions and they're going to get back to us and all that will be presented when we have those answers from them. Thank you. Appreciate that update.
085Uh, is there any action taken on that? No, no action needed at this time item in that'll be back probably next month or the December meeting. Uh, item 10B, server room equipment SR one grant fund. Uh, Mr. Smith, are you there to address that? Brad, yeah, I'm here. There he is. Okay. Do you want to address that for us, please? Um, so what this is is it's a piece of equipment um in our server room which contains all the storage um for the entire school district um pretty much every process that we run. Um this is the storage for all that for Skyward AIA finance HR all of our databases um different network processes for where where server information is stored. Um so overall the the piece of equipment that we currently have we purchased
086in um and we are looking for to replace it because it is end of life um at the end of November. So and importantly uh the esser funds can be used because we have grown with our computers as a result of the co and remote learning. So it's directly tied to that. So we can use the funds for that. Yeah, it's it it's tied to uh infrastructure upgrades too, network and infrastructure upgrades. And there's a new uh digital grant for this year too that that we will have coming as well. Yes, that's correct. Brad, is this uh also uh a a safety issue for uh I'm thinking of the uh the Post Dispatch article uh about Missouri and the fact that their teachers uh social security numbers were exposed and they were the uh journalist
087was accused of hacking when he simply just went into a public uh operation operation. of the uh service and uh and found out that these these things were available and easily easily hacked into. So these are upgrades, Brad, that could help firewalls and such. Uh any kind of storage upgrade for as as far as security is better, the the newer is better. Um so overall I mean this isn't a direct security device but it can improve security techniques that we have. So, okay. Well, one of one of the things that I noticed in that article was that Missouri had uh I guess their school district had not uh eliminated former employees names and social security numbers as as well when they u retired or left the district. And that's where the one of the biggest
088problems happen. We have that we have that uh automatically taken care of, don't we? Yeah, I believe they had those posted somewhere on a some website or something. I I don't know all the details to that. They literally had it embedded. They they had it embedded in public code. So, it's a slightly different thing than what Brad is dealing with. Theirs was a big no no going back years. that no matter what technology they had, somebody screwed up. But um it Brad is right though that like what yeah software always helps with security and that but the nature of just getting new hardware there are some attacks that can happen because of hardware issues and just by nature of having new hardware you do see security improvements. Great. So nice to have a techie also
089on the board too. Thank you. Thank you Brad. Appreciate that on Talon as well for the for that and Linda for the questions. Uh we do need an approval on this one for second by Erica seconded by Linda. Any additional discussion roll call please. McMasters I Vinnie I Kenoval I Curran I none Immer I. Thanks Fran. Appreciate that. Thanks Brand. Item 10 C is approval of the audit. We'll have Zack. Yeah Zack do you want to uh just a brief overview. Yeah, they I emailed the board members a copy of the audit and you have some uh I think Wednesday you have some on your desk. There's the region in the granite city. Um we got quite a few items removed that had been lingering in there for probably 20 years. Um we've got a
090few more to get work on as we go through. uh basically with activity accounts because they switched some stuff with the AFR the state and we kind of need to bring that under our umbrella and finance a little bit. Um we'll be working on that through January, December, January and hope to have that process um and procedure updated. But uh other than that, the audit was pretty good. Um told us what we already knew. Yeah. And I Zach and I appreciate you uh addressing some of those items that had been in the past. So that's that's good because this thing is cleaner and cleaner all the time and I appreciate that and and uh and certainly on a going forward basis continue to address it and Linda is shaking her head yes because we met
091probably about a year ago at this time talking about the the audit last year. So Zach works really hard uh to do the right thing for the district and he eliminated a lot of things and works every day. I have to give him those. Well, and he was very welcome. He was very welcoming to us when we wanted to come in and have a meeting with him regarding the audit and the and the recommendations that the auditor had given over and over and over years years and again over over each year. Uh and it was just simple things that could create a problem, right? So, thank you, Zach. Thank you, Zach. We appreciate it. The approval is recommended. We also have we also have Christina and Jacquwin if anybody would be auditor but uh it
092was a it was a good audit. Great. That's very good. Shane, will we need a separate we have we have the region one audit and the school district audit. Do we need separate uh motions? Be cleanest if you had each one theoretically you might have a difference in the roll call vote or what have you. Very good. Thank you. Uh so I'll take an approve motion to approve the region one audit first. So moved. Second. Motion by L is seconded by Erica. Any discussion on the region one audit? Roll call, please. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters and Wilson. I. And I'll take a motion on the Granite City School District. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Currin. Hi. None. I McMasters one side I
093very good appreciate it Zach thank you and thanks to the uh the uh auditors for standing by as well we appreciate that item 10D uh temporary construction easement at Kage yes this is kind of exciting Associates is requesting a temporary construction easement to replace the Koolage sidewalk from Feeling Road to the parking lot entrance which is pretty much non-existent at this point this will be completed at the city's expense. So, I want to point out I really appreciate that that there I mean I know it's a city sidewalk but it's mostly used by students and we so appreciate that collaboration with the city and this easement is just during construction. It'll be restored properly after the construction is finished. So, yeah. And I want to thank a the mayor for taking and Brad Evansson for
094hearing that that sidewalk was not in good shape, was low, was flooding, was crumbling in bad shape. So, thanks thanks. It was great. I think we appreciate that. Where exactly is settled at runs adjacent to Namoki? Just like on the front there across from Is it across from Dairy Queen? That's what I thought. Just they couldn't walk pretty much there where the practice football field right practice football. So moved. Second. Thank you both Erica and Linda for the motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Kenogal. Hi, Curran. Hi. None. I McMath. Hi, Vinnie. Hi, Wilsma. Hi. Item 11, uh, reports and other communications. Sure. There is a for you request. We received three uh requests under the freedom of information during the period of September 22nd, 2021 through October 19th, 2021. The first request
095was received on September 29th, 21 from Jamie Jordan uh data research partners LLC. She requested the following information. A copy of a listing of all grant city unit school district 9 employees first and last names, email address, title, position, primary campus, department location. The second request was received from Ashley Strand on October 5th, 2021. from Del. She requested the following an agreement contract document and invoices for the awarded bid from the year 2016 school transportation account P1295968 and she wanted to provide the date of the contract's latest expiration. The third request was received on October 6 from Zoe Yelson from Smart Procure. She requested the following information. Any and all purchasing records from 60821 to current. The requests were handled well by our administration. Fantastic. And then you also have um in your packets treasures
096report cash on hand July, August, September uh and several of those and activity fund statements and bank reconciliation statements and Zach is happy to give a four or five hour detailed every one of those. he is. Um, but with that and I don't guess we need any approval for that. And that takes us to executive session. Um, with exceptions under five 120-2 open meetings tonight. We will be going into executive session for student disciplinary matters which is exception 2C9 and student safety 2C8. And I am happy to take a motion to leave exe or leave regular session and go into session. So move second motion by seconded by Talon. Roll call. Curin. I. None. I McMast. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. WSM. I. And the time is 7:22 going into executive