001Yeah, now I did. It was really fun. Quick trip trips before me. Oh, we used to eat dinner. That was the highlight of it was fun. Now we're good. It' be good if you have the output on. Okay. In my case, just turn the computer on. So, okay. We'll call the Granite City School Board meeting of April 26, 2022 to order, please. Roll call. Stacy absent. Vinnie here. Canobyl here. Curran here. None here. McMasters here. WSM here. Forbes here. We have Thank you. Uh let us please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by the invocation by Pastor Carla Frost from St. John's United Church of Christ. I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
002Let us pray. You are steadfast in love, oh God, always ready to receive our prayers. Tonight, we begin our prayer lifting to you the life of Jamie Kindle, a beloved, kind-hearted, funny, totally dedicated elementary teacher who touched so many lives in her 27 years of service. We now mark her death on April 17th and honor her life with a moment of silent reflection. With gratitude for Mrs. Kindle's commitment to education, we ask you to bless all who continue to work in and for education in our community. Inspire them to inspire the minds and hearts of all with the joy of learning. Guide the decisions made tonight and daily for the respectful benefit of the greatest good, whether easy or not. May kindness be the norm. As graduation approaches and special events, activities, and sports abound,
003may sensible safety prevail and celebrations reflect hopes for the future. Thank you for receiving this and all our prayers, oh God, and granting us your compassionate peace now and forever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much so much. Not easy to follow that. Pastor, thank you so much. Um, thank you for being here tonight. Well, it sounds like she was a wonderful teacher and we're remembering Christy Dawson. Been a little over a year now. Christiey's birthday would have been the 30th of April. So, she was a member of our congre this week just to honor her. I have one at home, but I didn't wear those on Thursday. So, I feel Yeah. So, she was a great loss for both. Yes. It's it's difficult and yet we continue to move forward for the good of
004the community as they would have wanted and in their spirit. Both of them were very kindheart guarded and love children. So and they would they would be with you as you move forward for the good of all the school community and the the whole community and area. That's what they would want for everyone to work together. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thanks for being here. We appreciate that. Uh at this time um we'll move forward with public comment if anybody here tonight for public comment. I don't think we received anything. No. Okay. All right. Hearing no public comment. Um have a few awards to give this. Uh we're going to start with uh there were some testing issues. Um, principal Dew told me about some of the state scholars
005we wanted to recognize. I know Lawson Kimmel could not be here tonight. I think he is out of town, but I wanted to make sure that he received his certificate of achievement for the Illinois State Scholar. So, we'll make sure we get this to him and his family. I just wanted to make sure he was recognized as well. So, congratulations. I do believe right Mr. Warrior. Yes, he was the Mr. Warrior. Right. Okay. Okay. So, next I'm going to come out here. We are going to talk to uh Jamie Pamad if she would come up. Who was named the 2122 Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association Class DoubleA Coach of the Year. So, come on up. And just so you know, there are over 200 DA school teams that she was named coach of
006the year. So, that's like a really big deal. And this is your third regional win, correct? So, I want to talk about the regional win as well. The giant plaque. Look at this. Scholastic class 2A regional champs. Lots of Max. Rio member of the team. I was not. Oh, I was going to make you come over here. He does so many other things like I've done. But that is incredible. Do you want to name the members of the team or some of them or captain? Our captain is Lily Reiki and she's played all four years with She's amazing. Jaden Wing. Um I put you on the spot. Logan L has played all four years as well. Lexi Coun and Shane Teamman joined their sophomore years and they were both big assets to the team when
007they joined. But yeah, they've all done fabulous. It's gonna be really hard to have a banquet at the end of the year because I've grown so attached to them. Well, I was a scholar bowl coach, too. And you spend so much time with them, like we were just talking about how they have dinner either before or after. You you talk to them through it. You sit back and go, why don't they know the answer to that in the back? It's very stressful sometimes. So, I did that for 10 years. So, I know how hard her job is. And so, it makes that award even more important. So, we I know they didn't give her one, which is not right. So, we had to make sure we did something as a district, right? So, this I
008know it isn't big. Maybe I'll get a bigger frame. But this is uh to present to you as the on the 26th day of April as the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Tom Durban Class LA Coach of the Year. I'm going to drop that. There we go. There we go. One, two, three. One, two, three. Cool. Thank you so much for being there for the kids and I know they adore you so much. Thank you. Great job. I have an important goodness. Okay. I want to make sure I read this correctly here. Right. Okay. Um we wanted to talk about something that happened um in the Grand City High School cafeteria. Mr. Dew, do you want to come up too? Maybe. Principal Dew is going to come on up too. you know a little more
009about this than I do. You want to give the scenario and lead up to it for me? Yes. So, uh during lunch one day, one of our students was uh choking uh on some of his meal and was in need of some care and he walked directly over to our school resource officer, Officer Cave. Um and he could tell that he was struggling, choking. Officer Cave uh performed the Heinewick maneuver immediately immediately on this young man and uh it was a I think just one thrust and he was able to clear his airway and the young man is uh doing very well. It was very appreciative and just knowing that you're there and you know how to do those things. I mean I know it doesn't seem but if you think about what might have
010happened had you not been there. So we want to call you up to give you our express our gratitude for you. Officer Cave uh not only during this time but he is at the school and really has positive relationships with the kids and we're supposed to move because the photographer told us then Mr. Wy is in the He just does a great job um at the school and we couldn't be more thrilled to have him there and we're really proud of you. Thank you so much. So there you go, sir. Thank you. There you go. Thank you. All right. Here we go. Can we get a picture with this girl? You just stole that. Sorry. No, that's great. Let's have the whole family come up. I think everybody should come and we'll get out of
011the picture. Family is Look, they miss Did you miss soccer practice? She missed soccer practice. But this is a big deal, right? There needs to be a photo. Family photo. Oh, yeah. We can kind of Okay. Okay. So, thanks for all that tonight. We couldn't great job. Thank you so much. Wonderful. He does a great job. And Miss Tamat, wonderful job as well. It's it's just it's it's great. It's great to see. I think the fact that the students recognized the importance of him as well as your position and the fact that anyone can learn that if they if they learn uh during these sessions that they're going to have. So, it's just it's really important. Thank you. And you being there and knowing that he had a place to go means everything. So, we
012really I can't tell you that how much we appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. They don't Okay. All right. Minutes. All right. Moving on to the minutes. Approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of the board of education on March 22nd, 2022. So move. Second. Motion on a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie. I. Noble. I. Currin. Hi. None. I consent agenda. We have items on the consent agenda. We can pull any of those off if anybody wants to talk to about them individually. Would like to say that we uh have had a very nice gift from the Vasich Meat Market. Right. Uh Pete Nach, he was a former board member. He is always supportive of the school. We just I know his daughter does work here, but he would I think I
013could call him and he would always do something to support the school district. So, we really appreciate that. He uh donated the hot dogs for our ESL parent engagement night. So, I just wanted to make sure we recognized him for that. Very good. Uh, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So, move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Henogal. I. Currin. I none. I am passers. Vinnie, I. Item 8A, resend retirements. That's right. Okay, good. Uh, Mr. President, the board it is recommended that the following retirements and resignations be rescended. Miss Carla Fininkis, physics teacher, GCHS, resend effective 2324 school year. Approval is recommended. So second, you got that today? Yes. Okay. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Curran, I. None. I. McMasters. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. Hi. Wire. Hi. Item 8B, retirements and
014resignations. It is recommended, Mr. President, the board, and the following retirements and resignations be accepted. Although with sadness, all these people are great assets to the district. Carla Fininkis, physics teacher, GCHS, GCHS, end of 2122 school year. Olivia Salanic, PAR professional appraiser, retirement 43022. Randall Anderson, custodian at Coolage, retirement 63024. and Melissa Ray, secretary in attendance, GCHS, effective 6322. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. None. I McMasty. I current I And item 8 C request for leaves of absence. Mr. President of board it is recommend that the following requests listed below for leaves of absence be approved. Summoned. Second motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I. Curran. I. None. I. Wsar. I. Item 8 D. Request for extensions to leaves of absence. Mr. President of
015the board, it is recommended that the following requests for extensions to lease of absence be approved. Karen Urade, fifth grade teacher at Griggsby, effective 4322 to 62622. Renee Weedner, PAR professional at Prather PreK, effective 31522 to 91422. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I. Canal, I. Curran, I. None. I masters I item 8E extracurricular extracurricular I'll try that again resignations for secondary for the 2223 school year. Mr. President the board we are recommending that the following extracurricular resignations be accepted for the 2223 school year. Miss Christy Mo GCHS business department chair Alan Kirgan uh Kula Junior High School assistant wrestling coach and Katie Parker GCHS hockey club sponsor. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Penny. I. Henogal. I. Currin. I. None. I. McMasters. I. Item 8F. Extracurricular assignments for the
016GCHS uh for GCHS for 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board, the Grand City High School Administration is recommending the following extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. Earl Clark, assistant girls trap coach. Some moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Kenobyl. I none. I McMasters. Hi. Finny. Hi. Woman. Hi. Item 8G, extracurricular assignments for GCHS for the 22 23 school year. Mr. Mr. President of the board, the Granny High School administration as well as the board administration is recommending the following extracurriculars for the 2223 school year. Mr. Bruce Frank, driver's head, department head. Kyle Thompson, assistant football coach. Bill Peasy, assistant cross country coach. Eric Hill, assistant athletic director. Lindseay Dittle, hockey club sponsor. Kendra Bristol, business department chair. Second. Yeah. I'll speak up later. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Uh Kern I. None.
017I McMasters. Vinnie. I. Kenobyl. I. Wasar. I. Item 8 H. Certified and classified substitutes. Mr. President of the board. It is recommended that the following applicants be board approved as substitutes. Yay. For the 2122 school year and hopefully next year. Uh, certified Miss Katherine Henderson and Miss Megan Lily. So moved. Second. I'll figure it out. Any discussion? Roll call, please. None. I Vinnie I. Canobyl I. Currin. I item eight. I um Yeah. Do we want to go to a report of this before we actually go to do you want to have Mr. Matthews talk first? Yeah. Um actually we'll have him start when we talk about the intermediate schools teaching. Okay. All right. Very good. Uh so item 8 I is employment for the 22 23 school year for Kulage Junior High School 7th grade
018language arts teacher. Yes. So the interview committee consisting of Patrick Curry, Mike Dowy, Christristine Novaches Caberna, and Laura Oblovc held an interview for the seventh grade ang language arts position at Kulage for the 2222 school year. They are recommending Brian Wilser for the Kulage High School 7th grade language arts teacher position for the 222 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. McMasters. Hi, Vinnie. Hi, Kenobyl. I Curran. Hi. None. I Wolsmar. Hi. Um, do we want to have him do it now? Yes. Keep going. We could we could do it now, but it really has to do with the more of an elementary positions. But, um, we'd like to have Mr. Matthysse. Um, are you online, Mr. Matthysse? Hi. Um, we Let me tell them a little bit. We uh are instituted
019a new interview procedure um this year or little sort of a process. Um it includes uh different people. I'm going to have Mr. Matthysse explain. I had my ED team which I'm going to talk about later in the presentation. Um they developed this interview process. We worked on it together and they implemented it. So I'm going to have him explain a little more about that right now. So what we looked at is kind of a structural change into the way how we traditionally did interviews in the district. We found ourselves with kind of a blessed situation where we had nine openings for teaching and we had over close to 50 candidates apply for jobs. We wound up with 47 applicants. of those what we did is we had we solicited principal feedback, ed team feedback
020and feedback from the superintendent and got down to 24 possible candidates. In the past, what would happen is that each of those candidates would then have to go to each school site and interview with a hiring team. What we did is we centralized that process and brought the principles to central office. So if a candidate was interested in interviewing for a first and second job at both Wilson and Maryville, also a third and fourth job at both Froart and Mitchell, and also a fifth and sixth position at Gregsby, they could come down and have all three of those interviews within the same block of time. So they would go from hiring committee to hiring committee and sit down and do the interview with the building principles and one member of central office. Um that is
021a change that happened in the past several years ago. We made a change where it was a tier it's a one tier system now where they interview with central office and building leadership. So in order to prevent these people to have from having to travel from building to building that was the way that we did it this time. Uh we solicited feedback afterwards from the principles and the participants and everyone seemed to really appreciate the fact they could just come one time and do it all at once. And then speaking to the positions that you're going to hear, items four and five that will be coming up in a few minutes. Uh the elementary positions, um most of the some of those are replacements, but some of those positions are also class size reduction positions
022to try to get down the class sizes at the first, second, third, and fourth grade level as kind of a co intervention to help teachers have smaller class size and be able to do more small group instruction. And the interventionist position you're going to hear about is a direct result of teacher input and the data indicating that those are the students most impacted by COVID and learning loss. So we have this golden opportunity where we have all of those students in one spot for a year. So these interventionists their target is to improve reading levels at those grade levels. We're very excited not only about the process but about the opportunity to do these these types of thing to help our kids in the district. I'm just thrilled that we are able to do this.
023That grant funding has really helped. It is for co be huge. It's just a really big deal. We're hoping that uh we may have some more coming up as well. So, thank you Mr. Matthysse and my whole ed team for being involved in that. I spoke with several of the candidates uh as they were coming and going. I mean, they were sincere in saying this is wonderful. Sometimes they would have one interview. One girl said she had one interview and then she was like, "Well, I could change that up. I didn't really answer everything I wanted to." So in the second one she was she was able to improve upon her first interview and maybe even on the third. So I think that opportunity and to be in front of different people at one time
024it makes it much less subjective in the hiring process is very transparent. They rate them uh and it just went extremely well. So thank you Mr. Matthysse and team. Fantastic. And thanks for coming up with this new process. So that's that's great wonderful. I think the word is out to our school district. Yes, they were happy to come here. That's what Miss Mogga was saying. I had several candidates say to me, "I've heard really great things about the district and we I really wanted to interview here." So, that couldn't have made me happier. So, um just just knowing that people wanted to come here having almost 50 in a in a with with a teacher shortage to have never had never has. I mean, it's just fabulous. So, I'm really proud. You should be really
025proud that um we're doing so well and that people want to come into this district and help. So absolutely great job all around. Item uh 8 I-2 is the employment of Koolage Junior High School seventh and eighth grade STEM teacher or teachers teachers two for the 22 23 school year. This is all part of the new electives that we've been able to reinstitute at Kulage Junior High School which I'm very happy to be able to do too. Uh Mr. Mr. President, the board, the interview committee consisting of Patrick Curry, Mike Dowy, Kristen Kavach, Nvatas Cabverna, and Jennifer Duko held interviews for the Kulage Junior High 7th and eighth grade STEM teacher positions for the 22 23 school year. We are recommending Dennis Holland for the seventh grade STEM teacher position and Brian H a Rer
026uh for the eighth grade STEM teacher position for the 22 23 school year. I know they were very excited about these two individuals. So, approval is recommended. So, moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. McMasters. I. Vinnie, I. Kenogal. I. Curran. I. None. I. Wsmar. I. Item 8 I3 is the employment of Kulage Junior High School 8th grade art teacher for the 22 23 school year. Mr. Mr. President, the board, the interview committee consisting of Patrick Curry, sorry, Kristen Damaches Caberna and Jennifer Duko also held an interview for the Kulage Junior High 8th grade art teacher position for the 2223 school year. Uh we are recommending Ann Machulki for the Koolage Junior High 8th grade art teacher position for the 222 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I. Kenogal. I.
027Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. I item 8 I4 is the uh the teachers here that Mr. Matthysse was referring to earlier of some of them. Um this is the employment of elementary or intermediate school teaching positions for the 22 23 school year and there are nine of them. Yes. Uh Mr. President of the board, the interview committee which we talked about consisting of Mark Low, Jason Baker, David Keel, Karen Robert Robertson, Lisa Arbor, Kristen Deachas, Caberna, Jodie Batson, and Steve Matthysse request a board approval for the following applicants to serve for the 2223 school year pending the submission of their required paperwork. First grade teacher at Mville, Kim Bailey. Second grade teacher at Mville, Heather Bowie. First grade teacher at Wilson, Caleb Brittick. First grade teacher at Mville, Megan Busy. Fourth grade teacher at Mitchell,
028Heather Key. First grade teacher at Wilson, McKenzie Meadow. Sixth grade teacher at Griggsby, Angela Russell. Third grade teacher at Frohart, Lauren Smith. Fifth grade teacher at Griggsby, Ashlin West. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Just a quick little I've taught some of these students. They were outstanding students. And one of them um Miss Bailey, I'm going to brag on her for a second. She taught my son how to read in prek and I'm thrilled to see her as a parapro now coming into it's really neat that she's moved and I think that that's really this is an outstanding group of really excited it it we're really excited the interview committee couldn't wait to come down and and tell you so it's really yeah cool thank you wonderful process uh no more discussion
029roll call please Kenobyl here I I'm sorry I'm I'm so excited Yeah. Curran I I none I McMasters I Vinnie I item 8 I5 which is the employment of Granite City High School social studies teacher for the 2223 school year. Mr. President the board the interview committee consisting of Mr. Steve Matthysse Mr. Darren Dew Nikki Petrillo and Mr. Vince Willerat respectively requests board approval for the following applicant to serve as a high school social studies teacher for the 22 23 school year pending the submission of the paperwork. Uh Miss Mallalerie Glass. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Curran. I. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Item 8 I6 which is the employment of Granite City High School physics teacher for the 2223 school year. Mr. President, the
030board the interview committee consisting of Mr. Darren Dew, Miss Mickey Watkins, Mr. Tim, and Miss Amy Heath held an interview for the GCHS physics teacher position for the 2222 school year. We are recommending Chad Alexander for this position for the 2222 school year. So move. You got all that. Any discussion? Roll call, please. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. I. Kenobyl. I. Curran. I We have no old business tonight. We have quite a few things under new business. Um item 10 A is breakfast after the bell opt out hearing authorization. The administration is seeking authorization to notify the state board of education and Illinois and publish on the district's website notification of a public hearing on June 28th at 5:00 pm and the regular board of education meeting regarding the Granite City School District opting out
031of the breakfast after the bell mandate for fiscal hardship reasons. Um it is concurrent with the public act 990850. Um there's a timeline. We authorize Isby the meeting on April 26, May 24th. We have a cost analysis presented to the board of education and June 28th we hold a public hearing and pass resolution to opt out of the breakfast after the bill. Mr. Suri, do you want to talk about how this is a regular um annual thing that we do? Yeah, we just do it every year. This is just to start the process. Uh we'll present a report to the board next meeting in May and then we'll hold the hearing in June and opt out. Um this does not mean anybody will not get breakfast. It just means we do it before the bell.
032Yes. So I guess from the timing perspective, Mr. Suri, is that at 5:' or 6 o'clock during the regular board meeting? Oh, it's at six. I'm sorry. Agenda item. It'll be six o'clock at the regular board meeting. So perfect. Good catch, Mr. I have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. McMasters. Hi. Vinnie, I Kenobyl. Hi. Curran. I none I Wire. I item 10B is contractual vision itinerant orientation and mobility training services. Mr. President, the board in order to be compliant with federal and state mandates in regard to individual education plan services, I am requesting that we enter into a contract with region 3 special education cooperative to provide itinerant vision services and orientation and mobility training. These services continue to be provided by Miss Ella Nickel. This additional contract with
033region 3 covers the itinerate vision services as well as orientation and mobility training in which Miss Nickel is not le licensed to provide these additional contractual service will be charged to the IDA part B grant. If you have any questions I know uh Miss Watkins could answer those move second motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call please. McMasters I. Vinnie I. Kenobal I. Curran. I none Immersark. I item 10 C is a memorandum of understanding with Shnook's market uh for the STEP program for the 2223 school year. Before I start this, I I really thankful that Shnooks is allowing us to participate with them in this. It really gives these kids a great chance to do something. So that being said, Mr. President, the board, the administration is requesting approval to enter into a
034memo of understanding with Shnooks Markets, Inc. The parties to this MOU will collaborate to allow training opportunities at the Granite City Shnooks location for individuals participating individual students in the Granite City High School's pre-employment training program, also known as STEP. The purpose of this collaboration is to offer extensive pre-employment training in positions that Shnooks and most supermarkets do hire. Theou specifies roles and responsibilities of the parties as they work in collaboration with the students. The Grand City School District will designate staff to Safar participants to support participants in this free training program. Staff salaries will be supported through the IDEIDA part B grant funds. Approval is recommended. So move. Second. Great program. We just wonder. Any discussion other than again to thank Stokes. I know I just think that they are really good uh local
035supporters of school districts and wherever they are. So we really appreciate it. Wonderful. Roll call, please. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Wire. Hi. Item 10D is creation of a job coach position. I'm not think I'm going to read all this. I'll read the beginning and if you have any questions, I know that Miss Watkins is online. I I think this is a really great thing. The special education administration is requesting the creation of a full-time job coach position for the special education vocational training program. Similar currently, this special education program has one part-time coach position to assist the vocational needs of our high school students. With this creation of the city of the ground city cafe which is located in the high school and the expansion of the vocational training
036opportunities both on and off campus like schnooks they have identified the need for a full-time job coach. Um it will be in addition to the part-time job coach the qualification additional responsibilities are listed below and once again this will be paid for out of idea the ID IDA part B grant funds. So move second. It's really cool. Super motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Kenogal, I. Curran, I. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. W. I. Item 10E, school calendar for the 2223 school year. Okay. Um, Mr. President, the board, three possible calendar options were provided. You can see them attached. uh local 743 teachers and certified local 98 custodial classified and local 4956 secretaries have voted and the recommended calendar was C. Um professional learning days will continue to be provided to
037our staff with training and ongoing education with district-wide focus. Additionally, it helps our staff to earn CPDs necessary for reertification. We adjusted these days through a waiver with the Illinois State Board of Education to specify a full day of PD instead of the traditional half day. We feel it will allow more time dedicated to professional development. That was part of the uh how long it took to do this. But we found out today we were granted the full day professional development. So we are very very excited. I know as a former teacher being able to spend a day focused on what you need to learn versus having to have kids in the morning and try to to do your professional development after it's very difficult. So, um, we have recommended calendar A for the 21
03822 22 school year, but we're doing that to better align our our calendar with the surrounding districts calendars. We looked at all of those so that the spring breaks were at the same time because a lot of our teachers live in surrounding districts. So, we were worried a little bit about um being able to find subs. Also, we're it's really important. I'm trying to keep a consistent third Monday of August start so that all parents and people in the community always know that it's that third Monday in August when school starts. So, when they're planning vacations, they know that that that that's the time. So, that is the reasoning for that. Um, just so you know, and I did speak with the unit president told them ahead of time that we were going to be
039doing it. So, just wanted to recommendation remains calendar. recommend calendar A calendar. That is correct. So move second. Any discussion? So the only real difference is the spring break and starting a week earlier. The timing is just want to make sure I wasn't missing something. difference really. And then it it just it just makes it consistent with all the we all all the superintendents talked and shared their their dates and so we're trying to do that because um teachers are living everywhere else and it's just more convenient for families and we have a sub shortage. So if someone did have to take off maybe during a different district's week then it would be more difficult. I love the idea of doing the third Monday every August. So yeah, consistent so everybody can play, everybody knows
040and and I think that that's very important. Teachers start then students start the Wednesday. So that was the reasoning behind that. We spent a lot of time on this. Uh I appreciate the union's involvement. We didn't we're not trying to overdo anything. It's just that it works much better for the district. I think we have a motion on the second. Yes. Roll call, please. Uh Kern. None. I McMasters. Hi Vinnie. Hi Kenobyl. I Wire. Hi. Item 10F. And there's a bunch of these folks. I'm sorry. We're trying to get through. Um purchase of network switches with ESR2 grant funding. This is exciting. We have ESR grant money which is made to do things that to do remote with co things. So authorization is requested to purch purchase 20 new network switches with SR2 grants. The
041new I don't even know how to pronounce this. Maybe you do. Moroi. Moro. Thank Thank you. He's our tech board member. We'll replace network equipment that is 10 to 15 years old. The equipment will align all of our network switches to be on the same Moroi cloud platform and will improve infrastructure and network transparency. Due to availability and supply chain delays, the devices could take 75 to 170 days to arrive at the order is placed. The selected vendor secure data is in bold below. Um do you need me to go through all those? I don't I don't think you have to. Price above includes network switches, power cables, small form factor pluggable. I should have made Tyler read this. Pluggable transceivers, and five-year licensing. Uh, secure data was the lowest bid. Approval is recommended. So
042move. Second. Uh, hey Brad, are you there? Brad, are you there? Brad Smith. Yeah. I just had a quick question. Um, after the five-year licensing is done, is there a is the intention to renew another Moroi license for X number of years, or do you think you'll get new equipment at that time? Or is it too early? Yeah, if the equipment isn't end of life at that point, um, we would renew licensing. Okay. Cool. That's all I got. Just brief report by Is that right now? So, it's after the job coach position. Okay. Okay. Think we're good. Thank you, Brad. Appreciate it. Very good. Uh, and that quote uh amount was $105,460 for those keeping track out there in the audience. That's correct. Any additional discussion? I don't know anything about this stuff. It's a
043reputable company. Yeah, it's substantially lower. So, I just want to make sure we're still getting what we need. Yeah. Fabulous. All right. Good. Good. We have a motion on the second. Yes, we do. Okay. Very good. Roll call, please. Uh, none. I McMasters. Vinnie. I. Henobyl. I. Curran. I. All right. It's so good to be buying new things, right? So, speaking of replacement things. Yeah. Speaking of Speaking of not buying things, or or trying to repair and keep things going. So, we would say appreciate Mr. Smith doing what he can here. So item 10G is the purchase of a replacement backhoe. Uh we respectfully request board approval for the purchase of a used backhoe from Herb Equipment Company. The backhoe we had was completely unrepaiable. I saw and we had to scrap it. We did
044get some money for that which we dealt with in former um meetings. A used backhoe is the best choice at this time when prices are so elevated right now. Everything is exorbitant past what it should be. So they were able to find good job Eric Smith, our facilities director. Um, one from Herb Equipment that's in really good condition in Mitchell, Illinois for $33,4. I think you have a picture in your packet. It looks pretty good. I beauty. I know. Doesn't it look nice? Yep. Okay. I don't know anything about it, but looks It looks nice, right? As long as it works. Is this good, Eric? That's like the yellow convenience. I know. Approval is recommended. Company second. Second by Erica. Erica. Any additional discussion? Roll call, please. Uh, McMasters. I. Vinnie. Hi. Canobyl. I. Curran.
045Hi. None. I, and Wire. I. Item 10H. Uh, Granite City High School Cooling Tower Repair. Yes, we are seeking approval from the board to repair the Granite City High School Cooling Tower to make it run more efficiently. It is not doing so. Now, there are areas that it's not cooling and it's just the total cost for the parts to do this are $30,51. So, move second. Any discussion other than to say again, thank you, Mr. Smith, for handling all this stuff because these are things that just have to be done and staying on top of it and making it work efficiently and have needed to to be done. So, I'm happy. Can I ask you a question? Sure. Is it an air conditioner? Mr. Smith, are you there? Yes, it's a cooling target for the
046air conditioner. Uh that keeps the building cool. Uh that cools the the water that actually flows through all the unit vents and that that cools the water. So if the water's colder, it has cold air. Right. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Roll call, please. McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I All right. Item 10 I is the Granite City High School bathroom partition replacements. I do want to talk a little bit about this, but due to the recent vandalism and abuse of the bathroom partitions at the Granite City High School, we requesting to to replace all toilet partition from MG Products Company for a price of $49,52. But I want to say um Mr. Depwin and and the monitors are really trying to get a handle on this, but it's hard. these
047I don't know if it's I'm not exactly sure if it's these online challenges and maybe Max could speak to this like is that what's happening? There's challenges online that Yeah, I've seen different videos on TikTok of people just trying to get really just famous for doing dumb dumb things. I thought this was over with. No. Oh, it's never going to be so and I and I think there's we've had uh soap dispensers removed but I know they caught they got one person most recently. Um, but we have had I know people have said that we've had monitors kind of scoping out bathrooms, but that's why it's not they're they're just trying to hear, you know, because you can hear when things are going on, especially if the door comes off, right? Well, yeah. And then
048they're taking like they're flushing taking the toilet paper holders off, the soap dispensers off, which we just bought new ones, and the replacement is up to 60 days because the supply chain. So, they are working on it, but it is a difficult situation. I find it hard to believe that this type I mean How many bathrooms does this cover? So, oh, it's it's Mr. Smith, are you there? Well, actually, Mr. Depucing, there's probably at least five or six. Yeah. And I believe when Eric and I spoke, the plan was to uh handle all the bathrooms in the high school with new partition. And this is for this is for the whole building above the cafeteria also um and the main building. Uh most of those are in need of repair from the years of abuse,
049right? And uh there there's quite a few. I don't have the exact number of stalls that we have ordered. Um we had a salesman here and we went through all the bathrooms with him and uh he measured everything up against this quote. I I think I would just like to appeal to the students out there that, you know, this is your parents or family's tax money that's going to pay for these things. And I really wish you could be famous for being on the Scholar Bowl team or doing a presentation on the school board or some other reason other than tearing up the school. Uh I just want to put that appeal because we're going to spend this money and we would hate to see that happen again. So um that's very nice of you.
050I think this is ridiculous and I want to know like I mean I know it's hard to pinpoint but should responsible parties be found can we hold them financially responsible an obligation or something and I know like obligations but like they're in high school this is they know it's wrong and we are doing that and it's a life lesson you mess something up you're going to pay for it and then they can't get their default right they're on the what's that list called what's wrong obligation until that obligation is cleared you stole the toilet paper while they're school. You're awesome. Like ridiculous. I'm sorry. As a high school teacher, it really offends me. Like that. I mean, this is where I think he it's good to have a student on the schoolwork. Like, do you
051is this something people talk about? Do they brag about it? Is it something they It's like a one-time thing. They think it's funny for like a tiny bit of time and they try to get famous from it. And I don't know if you guys remember like the um there was the controversy I think like two years ago with the like the bad smelling like spray that people did. One of the students I found on TikTok doing that and then what do you know his video got taken down anyway and it it's it's not funny. Think of it everywhere else the money can go. How many other clubs are wanting to wait on this and think of how else you can improve your school other than tearing it away. That's a great point. As a millennial
052sort of when I choose to be I would like to say I love Tik Tok. I love YouTubers. In the words of one of my favorite Tik Tockers/ YouTubers, get better role models. Find better challenges. This is we shouldn't even have to be talking. No, we shouldn't. It's another thing too is you could hurt yourself very badly with this this kind of structure. Yeah. And I mean there could be blood on the floor, right? We could find the door down. Maybe we could follow the trail. We could follow the blood trail. All right. I move to approve the the Thank you. repairs even though we shouldn't have. Second. I have a motion in a second. And I will just add to that. Thank you both for jumping in or all folks for jumping in on
053this because it it really is uh it's heartbreaking. I mean the time associated with this you you've taken it's not just the money here. the $50,000 or so, which is a lot, but it is taking the facilities director's time, uh the principal's time, everybody's time associated with this, and it's something we shouldn't even have to bring up here to board meeting, but we do know. Um, so again, I just implore you and also, Mr. Depu, I'm sorry that you and the staff have to take time out of your day to focus on this kind of stuff. I appreciate that, and it's unfortunate that we have to, but it is part of the job. And the bathroom can't be used until it's repaired. That's correct. You know, so that cuts down on the ability for people
054to to use handle themselves correctly. Then they have to suffer because Exactly. That's exactly. We're having to close the one in the cafeteria, I think, for a while because we can't get soap dispensers or the partitions. So, one of the boys bathrooms in the cafeteria is going to be closed probably till end of the year because we can't And then there was a toilet issue, too. They flushed things down. We've had to periodically close restrooms throughout the building which is very depending on the circumstances. I can't imagine the manhour estimate. No. Dealing with this stuff. Oh, because the custodians are dealing with it. You're It's just Oh, good. Max it affects students too. Like just having a place to rest. Like I'm I spend a lot of time in the robotics room and the bathroom
055upstairs close to it. Um like today I walked all the way down to Mr. the one by Mr. Lake Ox room because that one seems like it's um I shouldn't have said that because now now but I would hope that so Mr. De now you know where to go standby on stake out right we're going to stake out that bathroom. How's that Max I tried to There you go. Protect protect your That's terrible. I hate to say that, but there's a lot of it's just want to use the restroom and they don't want to go during like certain hours of the day where a lot of kids are in there messing around and it's just it's annoying, right? It's irritating and because those kids those same kids could turn on them, right? That's sort of
056an issue and make problems there. It's great. There's better Tik Toks to be made. There are a lot of Look at all the stuff you can do. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Yes. Roll call, please. Vinnie I Kenobyl I Curran I none I McMasters I item 10 I no I'm sorry J move on uh is Granite City High School upgrade to the fire alarm detector. Did I miss a page? Fire alarm detectors. I'm sorry. Up up up update to a fire alarm detectors. Thank you. This is really important. They have been out of date for a long time. So uh Mr. Mr. President, the board, we request board approval to purchase 180 smoke and heat devices that have exceeded way exceeded their life expectancy. Mr. Smith did a great job um going
057through and making sure where those all were. They must be replaced to bring our fire system up to date and to code. Total cost for the devices is $48,000. So moved. Second. Any discussion? You said they're long past their life. Like how do we catch those or how didn't we catch those? Sorry. Um, don't we have a fire company that's supposed to check those things? They do. They're they're inspected. But, um, every year, but the device itself, the smoke detector itself is only rated for a 10year lifespan. Otherwise, it needs to be retested. So, they function. So, with the buildings we have, every year we're going to be replacing a building detector. And this is some of them definitely exceeded the 10 years. Correct. That's correct. These some of these were since the renovation in
058'94. So, we do have a company that comes in and checks all the fire the actual system. Yes. The fires alarm systems and yet there have been some that have missed just the devices like they come to check on if things are working but somehow they missed the devices. Yes, Mr. Smith. Yes. Well, the devices aren't checked like that. No, the devices are just checked to see if they're working. They're all working, but the problem is is they are past their life. Yeah. So, there could be a possibility that they don't work. And it's because And if they don't, it's because of the years that they've been in service. So, what we want to do is eliminate the risk of a faulty device by just replacing a whole building every year. That way, we're on
059a 10-year schedule for each building, and we have up-to-date devices. That's what the manufacturer of the devices recommends is 10 years. And that's part of his five-year plan on maintenance and things. Yeah. This is sort of similar to the ones in your house. Yep. Like a lot of people may not know. They're only good for generally seven to 10 years. Thank you for the PSA report. So, yeah, he knows nothing. I think October is fire prevention week. public service announcement. So, we should have a public service announcement in October. He expect that. Okay. A nice one. I'm just glad he knows that. You know, I'm going to go home. I have never checked. Do we have a motion? My grandma was trying to sell central hardware, which if anyone around here, you should never get
060a smoke detector that still has a central hardware tag. Yeah. Because it got destroyed in a tornado when I was in high school. So, I'm so Okay. Uh, Kenobyl I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters I Vinnie I WSMA I item 10K is the Granite City High School gymnasium roof fall restraint system once again another thing that needs to be fixed uh Mr. Mr. President of the board, we are seeking board approval to purchase a fall restraint system for the roof of the Granite City High School gymnasium. This will help all the HVAC technicians, carpenters, etc. to be 100% tied off to prevent falls. Uh total cost for the system is $40,480. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Currin, I. None. I McMast. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. Hi. Winsmire. Hi. That safety is important. Thank you very
061much. Item 10L, Koolage Junior High School cooling system upgrade. Mr. President, the board permission is requested uh for board approval to upgrade the entire cooling system at Koolage Junior High School. By upgrading the controls and replacing the chillers, their actual chiller replacements, we can balance the temperature better and keep moisture out of the building, which was some of the cause of of the stuff coming off the walls and stuff, right? Um our HVAC technicians will also be able to see if all the units are running effectively and see if valves are open or closed, etc., which would prevent issues happening. Total cost to replace the defective chillers and upgrade all the controls is $75,532. Approval is recommended. So it second any discussion. I don't question doing it. It's quite an amount. So like budgetarily with
062it. Yes. Um Eric and Zach, this is something that had to be done, right? And we do we had budgeted money in for that. Correct. Yes. Zach has this in uh some ESSER money that we're going to do. We We're going to approve this tonight. We won't get these chillers probably until Oh, maybe this fall. Maybe this fall. Okay. That's why we're ordering them so early. Yeah, they are funded. I should have said that. They're funding for air quality. It's a big number, but uh certainly something that needs to be done. Mhm. We'll save one one thing that we've always had problems with in the system that was put in is we never had isolation valves between the chillers. So if if one we have two chillers, one runs and the other one is off.
063And whenever that other one is off, well, come to find out, we had cold water running through a chiller that was not running. So what it was doing, it was warming our water up that was actually trying to the other chiller was actually trying to cool down. So we were losing efficiency there and our temperature wasn't getting low enough on our water and that's where we're having a lot of humidity and other issues in that building. Will this also save um with the efficiency of the new chillers just in the power bills and things like that? We have an Amron uh Amarron is kicking in I think uh 60 or $80,000 in on this project or something. I I have to look back and I should have had that prepared. Yeah, because we're putting in
064a new unit. The extra money also has let us knock out some of the big projects that um we normally would have had to peace meal through. Um, so this is a huge ease for budgeting every year because we can start doing some of the smaller projects as this money runs out that are easier to budget year to year. Um, tell asked, "Was there a bid process for this?" Yes, there was. Um, what we what we did, we went with train with this. Now train will go out. This is their estimated cost. It will not cost any more than this. and then they will go out for bid and find contractors to actually do this. That's like Griggsby's bid came back a little less than what we had approved originally. So, we're going to do
065the same thing with these. There will be uh they're taking care of all of the contracting. They're like our architect that we have uh signed on with. They're taking care of all of that. Okay, great. Source of supply and they're also a source of supply so we can keep everything the same throughout our district. That's right. That's correct. I have to put you on the spot real quick. Um, we use Esther all like we talk about Esther all the time, but for people that might not be familiar and there have been questions like what's going on with all this co relief? What are they doing with it? Could you give us like a quick several sentence synopsis to to address that like with the air quality? We said Zach or Eric. No, Zack and the
066air quality. We're we're doing quite a bit with air quality. We did Griggsby. We're hoping to get Coolage and a couple other elementary buildings done for air quality. We've bought a lot of technology um network upgrades to handle the increased bandwidth. Uh we're looking at buying the next two rounds of Chromebook replacements um with ESR. We have also put in a lot of afterchool tutoring uh stipens for teachers for additional tutoring for additional academic support. new teachers. Uh we have we are adding in some interventionists next year. Uh we had hoped to get them in SR2, but we just we couldn't find them and it was too late in the year to get them hired. Um we've kept we have added some additional staff to reduce class sizes while also insulating us from hire or
067for hiring because we have a lot of turnover going on. So, as we evaluate numbers and move through, we've got teachers already here that can fill positions if the shortage continues, we have and that will also help reduce class sizes as of right now um to try to make up for the gap that CO has caused um any any learning loss. Um and then and then we've also bought some custodial supplies with it, some cleaning machines, tons um excellent. Thank you. And then and then Esser 3 will kick in here coming up too and that'll help the salaries and that more if we a lot of that is that is a lot of SSR two and three. Esser one really went to Chromebooks pretty much. It's been really good for us. Well, I like I
068like the idea of the air quality in the schools for our kids and also the the clean cleanliness uh and sanitation of the buildings. We bought a lot of equipment. Eric did a great job. We have a I'm going to talk about some of I won't steal it all. My little presentation is going to talk about that. Sorry. No, that was great. Okay. So, we are on item 10L which is the high school I'm sorry, Koolage Junior High Schooling System upgrade. Do you have a motion? Yes, there is. Okay. Motion on a second. A roll call, please. Uh, none. I, McMasters. Hi, Vinnie. Hi. Canal. Hi, Curran. I I just promised to get everybody out of here by midnight tonight. So, that's so nice of you. Let's keep that going. 10 M is the Granite
069City High School update uh temperature or HVAC controls. Yes. Again, this is board approval. We are seeking to upgrade the HVAC controls at at Granite City High School. This will help with the efficiency of the heat pump unintent. I know what that is. uh so we can balance the temperature troubleshoot and help the units run more efficiently. Total cost for this overall upgrade is $105,324 also out of Esser funds. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call please. McMasters I. Vinnie I. Kenobyl I. Curran I. None. I WSME I. And more improvements to the Granite City High School building. So item 10N is tuck pointing bid. Yes. Permission Mr. Mr. President, the board is requested to award Scott, Inc. uh the Granite City High School tuck pointing bid 11-22. This is an ongoing project we've been
070doing to eliminate the water intrusion. There's been holes. So, tuck pointing is necessary. You've seen old buildings. You can see where the the moisture comes in. Aunt Inc. was the only bidder for the job. The total cost is $153,170. And isn't there part of that covered uh Zach or Eric with the a different grant? I forgot what the name of the grant is. Zach or Eric? Yeah. Part of this it's part of the school maintenance project grant. Once we hit a 100,000, we put in 50. They put in 50. That's right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Move to approve. Second. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. McMasters. I. Vinnie I Kenogal I Curran I none I Wire I and I don't know how he's going to do it but with all these projects he's got
071going on now we're talking about item 100 which is purchase of a garage 1947 Adam I am very excited about this if anybody's been by the old board house today the property there is an old lumber yard building that is way talking about fire alarms being passed there it is way past its time I think it's not safe it doesn't I there are holes in the ceiling It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Okay. So, I'm going to ask for permission is requested for board approval to purchase a garage for the 1947 Adam Street location. This will take the place of the old Yumber Lumberyard AV building that is scheduled to be torn down sometime soon in the future. We'll purchase the garage to store equipment, vehicles, etc. The building size, which I think you have a picture
072uh with your packet, 40 by 100, and the total cost to purchase and put up is $78,83. and approval is recommended. So move second. Very excited about this. Any discussion? Um I know we've talked about this. That's okay. We've probably talked about this since I've been on the board. This like specific area as far as the property as a whole like the building. What what is the building being used for things like You mean the actual actual old? Yes. They're actually uh all the crafts and all the maintenance has been relocated there. Um I have purged it of anything historical. They have a lot of and brought it here. They brought it here. So, we have things but they're using it for um areas are areas. Eric, you could actually probably speak to this better
073about what other areas are used for in the board office. That's a great question. Yes, we have a lot of storage areas. The old building had the old lumber yard that we're going to uh tear down. It had storage rooms everywhere. Everybody had a little cubby hole somewhere. So, what we've done, we've moved the painters over in the old um HR department. The um carpenters are in the center of the uh board office with shelving and all their tools and nuts and bolts and different things and different hardares. Uh labors are in another section and maintenance has a large section. They're in the actual the old superintendent's office uh with their storage area. We're we're looking into whenever we get time probably taking out a couple walls open and opening up the old uh board
074room itself to make it more of a saw shop to where we can have our tools like our table saws and and jigsaws and other things at and we can have all those mounted in that's coming in the future. And a lot of that um the carpenters and stuff had things in our gym here at the board office which we have Eric's done an amazing job which is now a professional development center. Uh if you have a chance to we're going to have some things uh meetings and things there. It looks amazing. So it's nice having all that out there as well. So Eric, I wanted to ask uh what about the water that used to be a problem at the board office especially in the superintendent area. That was a city issue. That was
075whenever the sewer would back up down there. There was a combination sewer. So, it was storm water and sanitary together. Um here recently, they've repaired a few pumps, lift stations, and other things and repaired a few uh uh sewer brakes down there. We haven't had an issue since the building was cleared out of the administration. The city's done a great job, I think, too, handling some of these issues across the Yeah, the water company has purchased the sewer, so uh they have larger pockets than our city has, so they've really done a lot of repair. Okay, great. Great. Thank you. We do have a motion. Fantastic. Thank you. Uh roll call, please. Uh Vinnie, hi. Canal. I Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters I I and back to education uh summer school proposal for Granite City
076High School. This is exciting. Uh so Mr. President, the board we permission is requested to offer a Granite City High School summer school program. Classes will be housed at GCHS and the cost will be $100 per class which will be reduced to $50 a class after the su successful completion of the course. So it gives them an incentive that if they finish the class then they don't have to pay as much. Maybe we may be able to work even more with that with those refunds. We'll see. That would be nice. So, summer school is scheduled June 1st, 2022 to June 29th, 2022. In-person online courses will be offered. There will be no transportation provided by the district. I will say that u the high school administration did an excellent job last year kind of changing
077that up and doing some different things with classes, offering some more credit recovery. I think we had a a pretty good group last year, amount of students. So, we're looking forward to being able to do that again this year. Great. What was our numbers in summer school last year? I know. I feel bad. I don't know that. I believe it was well over 200. It was a lot. And the And it might have been more than that. And the grade level anywhere from all grade levels, 8 to 12. Really? Yeah. Incoming freshman all the way through to uh seniors that graduated in the summer. So, thank you, Mr. Depute. Thank you. Thanks. Move to approve. Second. Who got that one? One second. Uh, current. I heard it. All right. Very good. Roll call, please. Kenobyl.
078I. Curran. Hi. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Wire. I. Item 10 Q. Student board member advisor for the 22 23 school year. This is exciting. Um, uh, Mr. President of the board, upon review of the applications, interviews were held with the committee consisting of board secretary Zack Nun, board member member Erica Benny, superintendent Stephanie K, and GCHS principal Darren Dew. That it was a really hard choice. I mean, we had three candidates. It was It's always great to see all these kids, why they want to do it, what they have to offer, and all three of them had amazing interviews. The committee recommends though Caitlyn Linger for the role of uh student schoolboard member adviser for the 22 23 school year. I think she'll be next meeting, right? We will Max will pass the
079torch. Yeah. And I think she actually starts in August. She starts in August. Do we like Do we do that? That's what we've started. Do we do it in August or do we do it in check? Okay. We'll have to check that. Sorry. But he might not be here in August. So, we don't know where he's going yet, do we? He does. He did not tell me. You did not. Oh, I haven't heard that yet. Have you were saving that? Oh, well, no. I mean, I got a I was there Saturday for our fighting registration. We didn't get to have lunch this week. So, like I said, for those out there, Missouri SAT is working. Yes. That's so exciting. Great. Um, I'm very excited that Caitlyn's going to be on the board next year. Um,
080I've seen her around school and she's a great speaker and I know she's been on the speech and debate team with my sister and I've heard nothing but great things about her. So, we're excited what she has in store. Great. It's an invaluable asset to the board to have a student board member. and like to to to be able to ask them questions and to see their opinion on things and he's going to do a really really cool um presentation tonight as well. So I just wanted to also thank Mr. Willerette for spearheading it and giving us three good applicants. He makes the decision harder every year. I know it's true. Makes it hard. It is true. Summoned second. Second by Miss Kenobyl. All those in favor or I'm sorry. Roll call, please. Uh currently
081I quicker none. I McMasters I Vinnie Hi Kenobyl I WM I item Oh jeez what are we on 10 R phase one sports facility update um I'm going to let Bill Mr. McMasters Dr. McMasters speak to this in a minute but I'll do the this part first. Um the administration would like to recommend the board of education authorize them to negotiate a contract for architectural services for phase one of the sports facility upgrade. items will include the GCHS girls softball field and fencing and walkways to the facilities. So, um I'm gonna have Dr. McMasters give a little background just very briefly. The uh that's the exciting part. I hope you you all heard that we're ready to go forward with the uh girls softball the softball field. We're also ready to go forward then with
082fencing and and walkways around there. And uh this just past week or so uh we had a meeting the construction committee uh with President Wilms Meyer uh Superintendent KN also myself and uh district attorney Tom Skoolie and the supervisor of facilities management Eric Smith and Greg Williams and uh with SNM Wilson uh we interviewed three architectural firms uh that are going to give direction on all this And they were AIC Incorporated, Paragon Architecture, and Cortigan uh Clark. Mhm. Yes. And it it was one of those wonderful situations where you have all three of them were terrific. All three of them would do amazing work. All three of them have had some experience working with our district. Uh the one we interestingly unanimously when we were all done probably gave each one about an hour to
083present work they've done. Uh when we looked at the one who has a really high on time on budget record and also it never hurts that they're the best price. uh you put that all together and it was like you know you have three great ones but this is just a little greater and um but it was a unanimous decision by the board and so that they're recommending that we uh use Paragon Architecture and go forward with them and uh we're excited to see that project get started very quickly comment Mr. Yeah it was great process and I appreciate uh Mr. McMasters. It was a just it was wonderful. I mean to go through it I thought very well done um putting the RFP out there getting them in for the interviews. So I thought
084it just a great job and all all of them as he said all of them were very good. Uh so it was a tough decision but um we think Paragon's going to do a wonderful job for the district. And I wanted to thank uh Mr. Zack Shere too for kind of handling the RFQS and doing all that too. The contract will be brought before the board of education for consideration approval at probably the next meeting or so as well. Authoriz authorized negotiation for it. I'll second that. And then I just had a question. So we're authorizing the negotiations and then will the next meeting probably be like approving the actual design and every like the details of it or like what's the timeline like? That's a good point. You want to talk about doing that
085a little bit better? It's going to probably be a couple months. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it'll take a little bit of time here for the design uh to go through, but um certainly I think the intent is for next by next meeting that we've got a contract or an agreement in place with the architectural firm and uh we negotiate the price then the contract price. We pick them on qualifications and then we negotiate the the price. So, you might scope has to come into it and and all that kind of stuff. They didn't determine how long that's going to take to design all those things. It wasn't so long that long ago that superintendent can shared an overview plan of the the direction we want to go and the architects all of them I think
086said the first thing they would come in and take a hard look at that plan sometimes even there there's some tweaking uh but this was like the very first phase to get started this whole project exciting uh that's about as far as we're asking them to right now take leadership for right now we're not saying the whole project is yours by any means we're saying we're ready to But this is we're ready to have a contract. That's right. With them, I think with us and Wilson over overseeing uh the construction management and helping us through this process, which they have been excellent at is what I would like to add as well. Thank you. It's going to be an amazing campus when we're not excited for the city. It is. Do we have a motion?
087Uh yes. Motion by Vinnie, second by me. Very good. Roll call, please. None. I McMasters. Vinnie. I Kenobyl I Curran I and even more exciting maybe uh item 10S Granite City High School multi-purpose fee um after a lot of research a lot of discussion a lot of going to other campuses and looking at it and making sure IHSA was on board and uh other school districts conversations. Um, the administration would like to recommend tonight that the board of education authorize moving forward with the contract with ATG Sports for the installation of a multi-purpose turf field at Granite City High School. So move second. That's great. Any discussion for discussion? Can we talk? You want to hold the picture up? We want this. That's awesome. Yes. Yeah. That's exciting. You can't put that picture. I know.
088Look at Max didn't know. So what do this? So I think what's important just flash that up there for everybody. What's important to understand is that it it it will work for so boys and girls soccer. It will work for football. It'll have the band can host competitions uh which brings in money to the district as well. It can maybe bring in some new sports as far as lacrosse. No one's listening to me now because the pictures are lacrosse, girls field hockey. Um there will be rain outs for the soccer team. We're also going to take the old the soccer field now and make it even better as a grass field. So, there will be two two places um if they want to play on grass, they want to play on turf. It just allows
089them to not have to not have to give up home games due to uh flooding and things like that. So, we're very excited. This is obviously a substantial investment. Can you talk a little bit about how we're paying for this? Yes, I'm going to go ahead and bring that up. Okay. Thank you. Um, the Illinois State Board of Education informed us about two weeks ago that there were some coding errors with the evidence-based funding process in Illinois. So, they owed some of the school districts quite a bit of money. Um, in particular, over $700,000 to our district. So, we already had kind of Mr. SH had already kind of put some back to do this but and also ATG came out and they are currently had time had the resources available and the money came
090in it it seemed to be the right time to do this. Um, uh, we're looking forward to being able to have a great relationship with ATG Sports. And that coding error was all I mean, oh, there's 100 192 districts were affected. Anywhere from $10 to a couple million dollars. Um, there's over 800 school districts. So, uh, that that's we were pretty excited. It all seemed to come together at the right time. So, we're happy to be able to uh to do this for the district. Yeah. And I I'll say it again, not to belabor the meeting here of the discussion we've already had um as a board member, one of the biggest complaints that I've heard since I got on here was the number of soccer games that have been cancelled because of the condition
091of the field. And when it rains and it's it sits low, it's just it's it's a bad place. You got to cancel those games or move them someplace else. And we have no facility here on the campus in order to move those games to that is in a playable condition. and to have uh senior night move to another facility when our seniors can't even, you know, really celebrate here their their senior night game. Uh that that is just a we talk about an embarrassment with some of the district facilities downtown. Uh this certainly is when we can't do that. And I want to call out especially Babe Champion, huge community supporter and what he's done. Um because Babe Champion has has uh really I I think got the community to to get behind this and
092start this whole process. And so really uh hats off to Babe for what he's done to promote and and I'm so happy and pleased and I really wanted to call him today, but I knew I could before this board meeting. So he's going to get a phone call in the morning. But uh it's it's huge for him and and uh and the whole community for something like jump on my soap box again real quick. not as a board member, as a citizen of this town and someone that grew up here, we're getting nice things. Let's take care of it and show pride in everything that we're getting. That part of this bid does include uh a ram scraper, I think it's called. It's actually a thing that they pull behind that actually cleans the turf,
093brings the turf um little fibers. Thank you. Back up. So, it lengthens the the time of the turf. Um ATG makes their own turf product. They people are available, which is shocking. Um, we hope to have them start in June and finish by August. So, uh, we are pretty excited about this and we checked it is all regulation. Collinsville has an identical field, actually a couple of feet less wide than ours and they use it all the time for this. So, it it's it's heavily needed. I was a baseball and soccer player. I played JB for two years. Um, and really on the soccer field, it's a it's a good field, but the grass and the just condition of it was not the best. And I will have to say like uh whenever like the
094boys and the team wanted to go practice or play against each other, we found ourselves going to other fields and like we went to the Edwards turf field just because of the condition of the field and the bounces the um holes the and also the football field as well and this combines it all together and it's going to be I wish I wish this happened. come up and it will also allow us then to fix the grass field and put it to the condition of which the Gene Baker field deserves. So, uh that's very important as well. So, we're happy. This is like extreme makeover. I know it's like extreme makeover GCS9. Yeah. It's his last year unfortunately, but he's going to be happy to reside over this. Right. Right. This is one of the
095most exciting things since I've been on the board and I think just everything going on with sports with coolage soccer being started and being a success. You know, now they can play games on this field when there's no one else there. They can play on the other soccer field and just a lot of exciting stuff happening. Um, just one question is so it possibly could be done by August, right? Yes, that's the construction. I know there's no way to like really go around this, but with the supply chain issues that are out there like in the country and everything going on, is there any worry that like we could be at a situation in August where things are delayed and football season starting, soccer season? I've spent a lot of time talking with uh the
096person from them. This is why the urgency, like I said, all kind of fell into place. Um the construction company they use is available. The turf is available. Uh it it's kind of fell together perfectly, right? Fell together perfectly. So that was a major concern for me uh to make sure that that wouldn't be an issue. So they they they includ just one more thing about that. Yes. We talked earlier. This is where money can go whenever you don't spend it destroying bathroom. That's right. I wanted to say that but I really am glad you did do even better. I'm so proud of that. Well said, Mayor. Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. Z. Uh, McMasters, I. Vinnie, I, Kenobyl, I. Curran, I. None. I, LSAR, I I I on this. Absolutely. Yes. Fantastic. That
097is the end of item 10. Now we're on item number 11. But these are quick. Oh, yeah. Okay. Uh, reports and other communications. So, we have a uh item 10 or I'm sorry, 11A, a student board member. Max is going to give us Wait, aren't we on freedom of Is this Oh, did I mess it up? Freedom of information on is 11 C. Oh, never mind. Never mind. It was my fault. Okay, that's right. So, the floor is yours. And I think we have it all set up. Chris, are you ready to help them out with that? Give me a second here. Okay. During the transition, can you formally announce where you're going? Yes. Um, I'm going to Missouri S&T. That's Missouri University of Science Technology in Coral, Missouri. And I'm really excited to go
098there. I just did my red um my advising registration Saturday. And I will be starting off in mechanical engineering, but also dual enrolling in aerospace engineering as well. And then I also plan to be trying to get my teaching my teaching certificate while I'm down there. And I'm really excited for the future there. And it's only an hour 45 minutes away. So perfect. Enough to be away but not too far. Exactly. So I'll still be around. I know. And I'm very excited that you went to teach. He's expressed that to me several times. Um and just be able to have that option. I think we need to look more at those kind of things in the future for teachers being able to find ways to get them into schools, especially secondary without a long process
099that requires them to. So I I'm just thrilled that you're able to do that. Congratulations. Very excited. So, now we're ready for this. So, we've been working on this a long time, right? Can you ask your staff there to make sure they can see his presentation online? Um, everyone at home, can you see this presentation on your screen? Not yet. Mr. Sh, I can. Okay, that's good. Thank you. He's worked very hard on this presentation, too. So I think has a lot of valuable information as well. Twitter should be on. All right. So um I spent the past year Well, first off, my name is Maxwell Forbes. Um, I'm the I'm a my current GCHS senior and I represent the GCS United School Board as being the student support adviser for the 2021 to 2022
100school year. And what I've been working with all year is I've been working with uh counselors, faculty, teach teachers, um, and most importantly my fellow peers. And I put together a report on really a student's path. And I'm exploring a lot of what drives a student to take certain electives. And I find electives important because they lead in the future career choice and which affects life-changing decisions. And I wanted to explore this vast topic after hearing uh peers complain to me about schedule issues fitting and classes not being offered or other issues. But I don't want to take up too much time. So I'm going to go to the next slide. All right. There we go. And to give us some survey background. So in January 2022, I emailed a survey to the entire student
101body. It asked a plethora of questions um related to elective choice. I collected 423 responses which were almost evenly split between students on an accelerated course path and students on a standard path course course path and a lot of data was collected but I'll get to that later and why okay so this is a little map of what I want to talk about first I want to talk about why I find elective choice important some survey results I have an analysis on it and then also my conclusion and first off why I find elective choice important elective choice isn't just choosing classes based on easy class loads, friends, or credit. I believe a path what what path a student picks for their high school course heavily impacts a student's decision on what they do past
102high school, whether that is college, trade school, or a future job. And personally, elective choice has elevated me to where I am now thanks to um the business department. I am certified in Premier Pro. I'm certified in Adobe Photoshop and that has led me on to do other things I wouldn't be thinking of doing as a freshman. But um I one of the main issues I found about life of choice is that once I started getting into these classes as a freshman and sophomore and I kind of started directing towards college and thinking oh I want to be an engineer. I know I want to go into this field and a lot of my friends and peers were like you know how do you already know what you want to do? It's like I'm still
103exploring stuff in high school. And that's why I found out a lot of students aren't experimenting with their um schedules for their future career path and oops. All right. So, here's my survey results. So, I'm just going to go by the charts, the graphs a little bit, but um I split the questions between students on standard course load and students on accelerated course load. And the first question I asked was what department are you taking classes in currently? And what I found is that all students are taking business classes or tech classes evenly and but where it splits is that students on a standard course load are taking more vocational classes, family and consumer arts classes, but students on accelerated course load are taking more science, social studies, and fine performing arts classes. And my
104next question was, what determines your elective choice? why do you choose to go into these certain electives? And that's where I found that students on a standard course path uh determine elective choice heavily based on personal interest and students on an accelerated course load determine elective choice on based upon increasing their GPA or college prep more. But the termination based on career path stays the same exact percentage at 21.9% which I found interesting is that after taking their group path um the exact same and so um the next question was directed at students on an accelerated course load. Would you consider taking other classes if they were offered accelerated? And the main part of the main reason I asked this question was to see if students in on the accelerated course load were taking classes
105because of its credit increasing their GPA and that's what and that's if they really determined what they chose and only a small percentage said no at 7.3%. an overwhelming amount said yes or maybe and it shows that students are open to taking other classes but a huge part of that is whether it's accelerated or not. Mhm. And so my next question was offered as a follow-up question to this to the same accelerated course load students asking oh I got you here too. Which area would interest you most? And what I found is that this was split pretty evenly between departments. You have your ups and your downs. And but before I get to analyzing that more, I want to have some important notes on this other graph in the bottom right where I cross cross
106reference some data. This isn't um a question I asked students. It was a combination of questions that I asked before. First with what department are you taking electives? And then also the chart on the left, which area would interest you most? With these questions, I was able to eliminate answers for responses who currently take business class. Well, for example, if a student is currently taking a business class and they say they would take a business class if it was offered accelerated, um it shows that they're already taking it whether it's accelerated or not. But for example, if there was a student that doesn't take a business class, but they say they were it would interest them to take a business class if it was offered accelerated. I know that that accelerated credit is holding them
107back or not. This finds the answers from students where core status makes a true line on if they take it or not. And what I can see here is that students on accelerated course load evenly want other classes that accelerate credit, but interest for students not taking a class because of its status prefer to take vocational or family and consumer sciences classes more. And I saw a huge drop in fine performing arts classes which I'll get to later based on some key findings. But um let's analyze that. So first my key finding was students taking fine performing arts want to take it whether it's offered accelerated or not. It's not holding them back from taking the class and but that also falls with a band. It falls with Spanish and Spanish is not required for
108some but if you want to go on to a four-year college a lot of colleges recommend having at least two years under your belt and students taking band as a class take it out of school no matter what. And so the accelerated status or not is not holding them back from taking the class. But uh my second key finding was between both groups elective choices evenly taken into consideration on career path. But they separate when it comes to increasing their GPA or college prep versus their own personal interest. And my third finding was that vocationals and family and consumer science classes have a large interest for accelerated course students that they that currently don't take it. And yeah, so what I find this is because there's not a lot of accelerated options in the vocational
109program and the family consumer science program, but when you look at the data from the past charts, it shows that the business and tech classes were even. Students that wanted to take it, if it was acceler, and it shows that there's a good balance between those classes, but not currently in the vocational and family consumer science department. And there's my conclusion. Students want more accelerated options. Two things. Under current stature, this could inflate the Victorian student body or we would need to re-evaluate which classes are offered the accelerated. And my next point, well, I was asked to find a solution for this and a possible fix. And there's a lot of things you need to take into consideration. Do you add more accelerated classes or do you make classes accelerated based on if it's a
110core curriculum class? But then um what Miss Ken and I found when we were analyzing a lot of data and is that a good possible idea is if we limit accelerated credit to courses related to state testing which is your ACT or SAT that is provided through the school. And what does this achieve? It keeps what qualifies a class for accelerated credit fair. It may boost test scores because those classes will be accelerated and more engaging towards the test. And it leaves electives to truly be electives. Instead of debating on taking a class based on its credit, a student can evaluate their decision on based on the class material. And isn't that what elective is anyway? And so I just want to end this with a quote from one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Lakeok
111who actually kind of inspired me to go into engineering at Missouri S&T and he preaches this to his students a lot and people that are just asking him about taking a class should I would you recommend and his big point is that he wants to expose expose students to potential career choice so that they're able to make a decision when it comes to determining their own career choice. So he's not trying to convince a student to go into a certain class. He's not trying to convince a student to go into a certain field of study either, but he wants to give that student a fair chance before they go off into college saying, "I wish I tried that class so I could see if I was interested in it." And what what's important about that
112is it shows that you you've tried it. You know, you try the class and you're not going to regret not taking it. And under the accelerated um career path like course path a lot of that is restricted if you're willing want wanting to boost your GPA for colleges or if you want to be that validictorian. So um I just want to say thank you and for anyone online my email um what yeah but Elon Musk right now but My email is maxmax3d.xyz. I'd love to share data with you guys. Um, if you're interested in seeing my slides, um, I'd be willing to send a copy of it or talk further on this subject and because I have a lot of data. It took a while to process a lot. You did such a good job.
113I love it. So, I think that having solutions too, Max, talking about an elective is truly should be should be penalized for taking something you're interested in because it's not it's accelerated. And sometimes people answer is that you want to accelerate right we had this discussion but maybe the answer like you said is to even the playing field and and have and let them allow them to do that so it's an interesting concept Mr. Well, it's interesting because Max and I have talked a little bit, but u I have a group of teachers, department chairs, a subcommittee that is actually working on this topic currently because with our sumakum uh and what courses they are choosing to take in regards to their GPA. We're looking at all those options. So, this fits right in with
114what Max has put together. And I am interested in seeing all of your data. He's got lots. No, we we are working on this currently because uh there's a lot of decisions that are made by students and a lot of factors that go into that like Max said. Uh and so we're looking at the big picture and what changes we might be able to make whether it is limiting the number of accelerated courses that a student takes or adding accelerated options just a variety of things that we're looking at or making some adjustments and determining sumok all of those types of things. So we're just looking at that in the big picture. So, I appreciate what you what you do. And I think one thing that was interesting that I think it got you, correct
115me if I'm wrong, they got you kind of started on this. I was watching a robotics thing in there and I think it was your sister who actually said, "I really wish I could take one of Mr. Ligh's classes, but I can't because of my trajectory of class." And and you were we were both like, "Oh, what did I kind of That was last year." Yeah. And the other thing that factors into that is she's in the band. And so that restricts it even more. And there's a ton of things that go into it, but bottom line, there's a problem with students not being able to um explore different experiment with their um electives. And a lot of students are just kind of just chasing increasing their GPA as much as possible. But right now,
116colleges are looking for a more rounded student. They're taking test scores differently how they used to. They're looking at what you do out of the classroom as well extra activity wise and for example I have a lot of friends and like I was driving home with one of my friends one night and he was just like man I don't know what I'm doing it's just you know and I asked him I was like did you take what what kind of electives did you take because this is whenever I was putting together the survey and then that's where he was just saying that he was just choosing whatever accelerated option was available and part of the scheduling issue that we currently have at the high school kids can't take a class that they want or or
117want or don't want is we have a decent amount of accelerated classes. But the problem is is those accelerated classes are hard to fit because you have to have a large amount of teachers to teach it. But then you also have to schedule around all the other accelerated classes. It's not as easy as it looks. It's like dominoes, right? You push a whole bunch of them. But the fact that you asked and looked into it and brought this like right now are going to affect what they're doing at high school. So, I I'm extremely appreciative of you doing this and and taking it so seriously and coming up with not only the data, but to analyze and come up with possible solutions. So, I just enjoyed working with you and watching you evolve, too. Yeah,
118it it was a fun project and um I still like looking at the project and everything. And one of the things um I was going to do, but whenever I was down in Missouri SMT for St. Pat's weekend, didn't it happen for Oh. for, you know, some reason. But, um, they celebrate a little bit around St. Pat. But I went down there and there was some GCHS um, graduates that are in engineering and it's different on how they get there. Um, Noah Brinker was one of them. He's a graduate from last year. He found that he wanted to do engineering through the robotics club. And then you also have Lee Coyle. Um, he graduated the year before that. That's currently at S&T. and there's other students that way and in the future I hope to
119kind of ask them questions and figure out you know what kind of drove you in this way to go into this or you know has robotics helped you coming into these classes did you take any vocational classes going into these classes like for experience and whatnot and I feel like that's the future of this and figuring out how well we're preparing cla preparing students that are going into different um departments you're so right and what a way for us to plan what to do with student curriculum than hearing from students. Exactly. I mean, another part of the survey that I didn't put in here was it did ask them, you know, what class would you like to see at the high school? And there was hundreds of responses. I was surprised to see that list.
120I would love to see we have that. Is that part of your data? Um, it's not with the data right there, but No, what you said you still have. Yeah, that's But big things like ASL was one of the biggest ones, but people wanted more like classes that would relate to more premed students, right? And there were other um students that wanted more upto-date classes. For example, coding. Um, we have a job. No, we have an HTML class which is kind of your web page kind of coding, but students are looking for a kind of robotics coding wise or they want to see a robotics class to figure out how to design different things that isn't after school in a free kind of environment but instructional teaching. And um, but another problem is you got
121you have to find the teachers forum, right? And if you try to condense classes and you know you don't have a large amount of classes because of accelerated credit and taking up class space and hour space then you know you can start to try to fit in other stuff but it's it's a big it's a big vast issue um and there's you can always go deeper with it but um it's something that I feel needs to be looked into and brought to the agree And I think you I mean you you kind of opened a can of worms with this of course which good one to open but also thinking in terms like you brought up a couple times during this presentation what's really preparing our kids best for their success and their next steps
122and you know I could see a whole branch of this and I don't know if we want to create another position but you have like student board member ameritus who's alumni and then you're talking to other alumni and we're getting that kind of data from them as well. Um I was a kid that was in the honors track. I did band in Spanish. I had no other elective ever and I really wanted to just take a cooking class ever. Like never I got to. So I didn't have any life skills when I got I remember you talking about this in our interview for this position. So it's really cool to see it like totally come to fruition. You did a great job. Could you talk a little bit more about like why it is how
123not taking an accelerated class affects your GPA? It's basically like it's weighted higher. Correct. If you take So basically what taking an accelerated class does, we are on a 5.0 scale. And if I'm correct, taking an accelerated class puts you well, if you get an A in the accelerated class, you're getting a six. So you're getting above an A. And then if you get a B, then you get an A technically in a standard class. And if you get a C, it's a B. But I think it drops off when you get a D. And that affects your GPA because you're getting all these six and six and six and that's where your valictorian your valictorian mark is 5.6 six and your other marks. And so whenever you're not getting a six and a six
124and a six, then you're getting fives, maybe fours, it pulls you down because um you're not getting that boost of GPA from taking the accelerated course. And that Alyssa Perry um she's a good friend of mine who's in robotics and actually started taking vocational classes because of robotics and Mr. Lakeok, but she was talking to me today just um having to speak of it, but she was just like, "Yeah, my GPA has gone like way down since taking these vocational classes, but it's what she wants to do." And she went into Mr. Leok's class and immediately she went up to the vocational class and she's excelling in this class and knows what she wants to do in college and she actually wants to come back and fill Mr. Lock's shoes as teaching in a shop
125position. Oh my god. Well, and as you mentioned earlier, like I've actually been involved in some college admissions things at my alma mater and GPA, yes, you want to have a good GPA, but if you have a kid with a decent GPA like she probably has, but then you see she's been taking these other classes, we look for people that are set apart, you know, like what makes her different than all the other top GPA kids. And so I think that's a very valid point you made. It's wellrounding the student. Yeah. Talk child approach. And also your children, like I know you're high school, you go off to conquer the world. You want to be till you're a child, but you are. And like we shouldn't be saying like make all your decisions based on
126on on that your career. Well, and here's another thing too. We want kids to start high school with this excitement, right? They are going to have choices and know and they'll they you know it's it's going to be something that they're looking forward to. They've got all their rudimentary courses under their belt. Now they can make choices. And that's where I kind of started in eighth grade. Um we had projects where we would look up and figure out what kind of career path we might want to look at in high school. And I was really excited about going into um high school as a freshman. But as a second secondary honors student um my mom and dad can talk on this. There was no room. I had to I had to take American history accelerate.
127I had to take Spanish. I had to fit in all these core classes. And I didn't have any elective choice for that year. And I really would have enjoyed taking a video game design class and maybe looked at programming or taking a computer concepts class that would have um prepped me for Excel and Docs and Word and PowerPoint sooner than later in high school where I was just like, "Yeah, this is this is what I want to do." And then now because of these electives, I'm making videos on my own. Um doing different graphic design work. Actually, the reason why I was in at Missouri S&T's campus for St. Pat weekend is um Lee Coyle alumni. He's a sophomore at Missouri S&T. He's on the St. Pats board and he reached out to our film
128class and he actually paid my friend Ryan Deonia and I and they funded our high like some like Ryan and I to go to St. pads, spend the weekend down there, get experience with filming, and it was fun. And I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere close to thinking that I could do that or want to do that. And it prep for college as well, but it's also fun stuff that you enjoy in high school and we have to look at an overhaul. It's not an easy process like Mr. Pew saying, but it has to be something I think sooner or later now that we're with remote options and things that maybe we can look into sooner than later. to see a high school sort of overhaul. It's hard when we're used to doing
129things one one way, but I'm all about changing things. So, I I love that you brought this more to our attention and with [Applause] I got to tell you, I appreciate the research. Great job on the research of all this and just the interest having the interest to do it because a lot of people don't have that patience. does a great job. And then Dr. McMasters and I will offer to be your agent if you want to go for speaking tours. I already talked I get that first. I already Come on, Max. I'm first. Right. Well done. Well done. I really couldn't have done it without the support from the district. I can't help I can't count how many times uh Miss K have sat down and brought Popeyes or McDonald's. Everything he liked. I'd
130bring him lunch. We would talk about it. pulled me out of lunch and warrior time and we talked. Sometimes it was hard leaving the classroom and I was a little late to finish class but I would take it. It was okay graduate. The counselors were open to talk about this. I started off at the beginning of the year talking to some counselors talking to students talking to teachers um talking to department heads. I went to freshman um orientation night, I'm pretty sure, or was it freshman registration and I was there talking for like an hour and a half to the department heads by the front door and it was interesting. They were interested in what I was doing for this and they were giving me feedback based on their experience as a department head and
131finding students that were talking about this. I really found a lot of people that this has affected. a lot of people are interested in it and I really hope that we can make some progress to you know make every student happy. I think what's interesting too, I'm just throwing this out there because I'm a qualitative person. For him to know that anecdotal information is important where he's his brain sort of map sort of a little bit. I think he appreciated learn through this process how that information can back up a lot of the quantitative. I think that was something you learned through this which I thought was really interesting. Just had to throw that out there. Great job. Well, as board members, we're proud of you, but I I can only imagine. So yeah, so
132whenever I went down to Florida, the whole entire way there and the whole entire way back, we were just debating and shouting, shooting down each other's ideas. That's great. Like solutions and he was telling me like this is great. A lot of support and wonderful is what made the project. Yeah. The interested in what your son is doing. Be very proud. Thank you very much. It's always it's always parents that make it Oh my gosh. really go or or some caring figure. Yes, exactly. Well done. Thank you for raising such a I know. Grandpa will be proud too, right? Appreciate it, Max. Uh item 11B report on the state of the district by It's going to be quick though. How do I follow this? How do I follow this? Max, first thing this over. It
133says state of the district. Is the camera? Not yet. Be right here. You don't need a mic. Probably not. Teacher voice. Can you see if our staff can see Mr. Shy? Can you see the presentation on your screen? I can see the presentation. Just make sure that Chris flips through on his computer as well so we can uh see the slides. Thank you. Does she need the mic or something? Zack, just let me know after the first one when she changes it if it goes. Okay. Okay. It's not going to go. It's it it's not in present mode on this one. Okay. All right. I will I will I got you. I will just start talking over time. Mostly what I wanted to do tonight um starting my job in July of 2020 in the
134midst of the very beginning of COVID and all the responses that we had uh everything I planned to do, everything I wanted to to do start with high school and do curriculum issues were kind of put on hold. Uh not kind of, they were put on hold. But I wanted to spend a few minutes about right here in the beginning was what were the CO 19 effects on our district? what you know by each department. I'm not going to make this long. I'm just going to briefly go through how certain things changed for each of us in in the board office in particular. Uh as a superintendent role, I oversaw all COVID responses in the district. So that went from everything from buying the sanitation and so dispensers in every classroom to making sure Chromebooks
135Chromebooks were available for everyone, making sure we had technology help lines, making sure there were hotspots for students, making sure that teachers had some guidance as to what kind of remote education that they were presenting. Uh I mean just food distribution, could could we could we maintain that somehow through the buses? What about uh the academic materials? Do you have a way to get those back and forth to students? It it it seems like that there's one thing, but there were so many different things to manage throughout that time period. It just and so having to deal with um having a team was super important. So human resources for example at all of their time they became a response to COVID all staff COVID requirements all guidelines all leave all insurance um staff recruitment everything
136they had to refocus on instead of regular hiring and regular procedural things they were completely changed over to staff to staff responses um staff isolations time off who had I mean who who was gone How are we going to cover them? Do we have substitutes? It was nonstop and it was just something that that refocused their attention to something completely different. Finance. Um Mr. Shuri did all of the Hesser M management. Everybody's buying and ordering things. He's making sure it's all working on the finance side. He's going through and making sure it's all coded correctly and put where it's supposed to be and making sure we're spending the money accurately. Um he also I have to point out is the finance director but he also was responsible for developing our COVID dashboard. And I I
137hope that you know most districts in the area did not have a real time COVID dashboard. And by that I mean daily there was information inputed into that. Human resources put staff information about COVID positives and and isolation. nurses were putting information into this and it was on a daily basis and he developed that whole program for that um as our finance director just want to throw that out. Not only was he doing all that, but he managed to do that for us. And I think that was a very good way for our district to be transparent about what who was positive, what were the percentage rates by building so people could see all that. It seems like you would see that every day and it looks effortless, but it wasn't. Someone had to build
138that. Someone has to put the information into that and that was a daily update except for the weekend. So, Monday a little bit. So, I think that that was very important. A lot of districts had some information, but it wasn't real time. So, um, curriculum and learning, uh, change in instruction and learning process completely, right? We went from in-person instruction to try to figure out what remote looked like, what was best, what were the best practices, how do we do, we know it's great to be in front of kids and to try to engage them. How do we do that through a computer screen? of getting the computers, ordering the computers to make sure we at least had those because for a student to not see their teacher and to not have some interaction with
139them was not going to be okay for me. I really wanted to make sure that K12 students had computers, which we were able to do, and that we we learned and worked with the union and our teachers. Oh my goodness, they really rose to the occasion. Um, being able to film videos, um, have their what they're how to do things. Uh, it's not an Elmo. What's that called, Max? The thing where you could see if somebody's writing or the math teacher is doing something, it shows up in the screen. The document camera. Document camera. Thank you. Well, look at that. Document camera. So, like they could do they found ways um to to engage their students. They read stories. The PE teachers were phenomenal. They would do um some of the things and they'd watch
140the kids do it and they would walk or they would run or they would do jumping jacks. One parent I talked to said, "Do you have to have them do calisthenics? It's so noisy but but at least they were doing things. They were very creative. So just trying to have you know uh Mr. Matis and Miss Nashas Kerna trying to make sure working with the teachers and how long do they have to be on screen? Uh how do they do grading? How do how does Google Classroom work? Um it was incredible. Uh so that was a total change a complete change in how we addressed that educational operations which usually deals with alternative ed and testing and assessment those were all put on hold uh Dr. Keel oversaw all the ha health and safety student
141side of everything. he had to manage, you know, the nurses. And I I can't explain to you if one person in the district, one group of people, their jobs changed more than anyone else, it was this, it was our um it was our school nurses. They went from seeing students in person for cuts or study aids to dealing with COVID symptoms to trying to put that data in every night, huge amounts of paperwork. We hired uh Dr. Ke hired new people to come in and help do that. So there was just a lot um dealing with supply chain issues, ordering PPE for teachers and for students, having masks for students on buses when they went back, making sure teachers had had what they needed in the classroom as well. It was just it once again
142a total shift from what their original job description is. um facilities. Another example, they went from focusing on they did do building repairs is that during this time, but trying to get all the safety stuff in, buy the equipment, get the scrubbers, make sure HBAC systems were working, make sure ventilation was okay, um building isolation rooms for crafts. I mean, there was just so much work that our custodians and our crafts did during that time. I just have to give them such kudos. And Mr. Smith really organized that well even with supply chain issues. I know I ordered the um I guess the sanitation systems like in hospitals where you foam in foam out in the classrooms. I ordered those even the May before I stop start started my job. I ordered those in May
143and the computers were ordered prior to May starting as well because I knew that it was a long return on those so that we had those all installed um by that fall and were available for students. It was very important. um communications. Um that new position started when I did I hired uh Mr. Mitchell the board did to uh make sure we controlled our own brand right but it couldn't have been better timing with co he disseminated all vital information to all the families uh managed the website put important information on social media about transportation worked on recruitment everything we needed to get out to parents we had to do so having someone who was dedicated to that was huge to our district I think we did an excellent job I'm going to brag on
144them we did an excellent job in this area of getting our information out and and it was once again we would be doing other things with kids and but he focused his attention on I will talk about we had a transportation issue this fall where during because of COVID we didn't have drivers and so he spent seven weeks of his time running a recruitment uh program uh because we didn't have a lot of it going on on the other end so uh he did a great job will you be my bus driver you might have seen those I was on news stations begging for drivers um But it helped. Every time I was on the news, we got anywhere from we had like 20 25 calls for applicants the very next day. So, you do
145what you have to do. I love doing that, but it helped. Uh, student services, registration, transportation, academic material distribution. We kept the bus drivers employed. We used them to distribute food, academic materials. I didn't want them to leave and we already still had a problem. And I wanted them to stay employed so when we did have students back, they'd be available to drive. was really important registration trying to do that during co uh trying to get students in we had remote registration it was really difficult uh they did an amazing job with all that uh transportation was new also to Mr. survey. So, that's something we all learn together. We know more about transportation now than most people, and maybe we didn't want to know, but we do it now. Uh, special education, oh my
146goodness, worked within the guidelines to address student needs, right? Remote IEP meetings, uh, remote instruction, how do we meet those individual education plans with those students? Um, OTP, you know, trying to get that stuff remotely. Those people were amazing. Actually did stretching online. uh synchronously with with teachers and with those people working with them. Um it was absolutely incredible. I don't know how we we did. I mean it might have sure probably suffered some but the extent that they tried and made those things work was really admirable. I'm really proud of them and technology. Does that move up a little bit? I think this is really important. The fact that we were able to get the computers in I can't thank my technology staff enough. um getting them in through GSER funding. We were able
147to buy them. What's the bottom line? Let's see. Um and continually um supporting that. We used in-house people. Um we had tech teachers who were remote. They weren't there. Uh so they actually we had hotlines for parents, for teachers, for students. Um we had our tech teachers, grandparents, right? Tech teachers that man hotlines that went into the weekend hours as well. You could call them on a hotline in the evening and get an answer and a response to your question on how to get on to Google Classroom or why isn't my Chromebook working. I think that the teachers wow and having a video library of how to do things and some of the teachers made made videos because they knew how to do something that maybe someone else didn't know. It was absolutely amazing. Um
148they just continually continually managed um everything. The new technology, the hotspots, Mr. Smith making sure that all that worked. Making sure any family who needed internet connection had that. We didn't have, as far as I know, anybody who wanted one got one. So, we were able to provide that internet connection, not only with a device, but then they had a way to to get online, too. So, I'm just really proud of of the way, but we did change. So, pretty much we all developed into a COVID response team. Instead of a board administration team, we were a COVID response team. uh we shifted within the educational systems. We worked every day with ISBY, Mass County Health Department, Illinois Department of Public Health, even the CDC with regard to the CO mandates, which by the way,
149Illinois Department of Public Health would change pretty much every Friday, sometimes about 5:30 p.m., so we couldn't really get to it. Um, so we never knew. I was constantly on the website looking to see when the changes are, talking to our voyers, making sure we had somebody. Did I read that correctly? Does that mean I can do that? Or was it five days? Is it 10 days? just I my brain it was conditioned um to deal with those issues um navigate the everchanging appetite guidelines that's what I'm talking about remote instruction then they would have things they have to be on this many minutes and this has to be this many where they're interacting with students this many when they're not so just trying to get that with the union and they were wonderful let
150me just tell you local 743 couldn't have been better about negotiating and working with us to be do what's best for kids that's another thing that was great we uh created and oversaw building care teams to address students social emotional wellbeing as well. They even went door to doors. The student wasn't logging in and we didn't know why. They would go um keep a keep they would keep records of that. They would get kids to to log in. They would contact parents. So students we might otherwise have lost which was easy to do when they were remote, right? They they really went out and actually tried to get them and talk to them and bring them in. And so many teachers were a part of that and really went out and did that. I can't
151I can't just can't say enough about that. And I think one of the most important things I did because I was constantly trying to oversee all this from sanitation machines to transportation to guidelines to I uh decided to develop a dedicated education team to better address student learning. It was something that that's my heart this curriculum and student learning but I couldn't do it well enough. I needed a team to do that. So next slide. So the members of that team um executive director of educational operations and alter alternative ed is David Keel, executive director of special education region one Mickey Watkins, co renewal and innovation coordinator Steve Matthysse and executive director of curriculum and special development Kristen Nvajas Caberna their goals I turned over and we so we talk we talk as a team
152um I meet with them regularly but then they meet separately and deal with these issues and come back to me with any questions or any developments. is working extremely well. It allows me to focus on big picture issues and then their expertise are in these areas and so it's working really well. Um pre all the way from preK12 student learning, we're working on that. We're looking like with Max's thing fits perfectly into this. We're looking into ways to better engage students into what they think is relevant. That's so important right now, I think, especially because all the information they need is a Google search away. So what we need to do is facilitate um that type of learning, right? We need to find a way if if maybe we're not the best at coding, maybe
153that that teacher is facilitating even with students helping teach other students about that. I think that that's something they're looking into building consistent, relevant, researchbased academic and social emotional instruction. We did bring a Rethink Ed remote program in to help with some of that, but I think our social workers were incredible in that, helping with students, making sure they got what they needed. We're trying to use relevant things for kids, research base. These are things that I'm trying to do consistently across the district um that maybe wasn't happening before. Um plan effective and collaborative educational professional development. We got word today, I said that we had full day professional development last year. We had to plan that, go through a process with Isby to do that. Um, we're trying to find things that the the
154teachers actually want. Like instead of having everybody to go to go to something on, I don't know, Spanish speaking something, say we have um all the elementary PE teachers meet and talk about a goal they want to do, right? All of the the music teachers, elementary and secondary, can meet separately to focus on goals and standards that are important to them. So, trying to find things that are more relevant. We're planning that for next year. We're very excited about that. They've they've been working on all of this to create and hire new and innovative educator and administrative positions. We have interventionists now. We have a care team specialist just to help address academic effects of CO on both staff and students, right? So, you know, just trying to make sure that we're we're hiring enough
155people to lower the class size, which helps with a a staff member who may be overloaded with 30 kids in the class. Now, if they have 26, it's a little easier to manage. I mean, I was a high school teacher, but I saw in the younger grades, class size is so much more important. It's harder to corral 26 kindergarters and there's 26 juniors, right? There's a big difference in class sizes. When you look at the leverage, some of John Hanny's work, class size is not as important at the upper grade levels. It K3 is huge. The leverage is a lot bigger. So, we're trying to focus on those lower class sizes at those lower grade levels and interventionists. Um, to build a system where all student data is addressed and used to develop interventions at
156all levels. What I mean by all student data, attendance, right? The care seat is was there trauma? Did something happen? Did they have members of their family die of COVID? Was there was there something that happened that we need to know about that whole child? I think that's another thing you sort of addressed. We we their their grades are one thing, but you know, you need to to reach a level with kids and relationship with students and and and try to look past just oh, they didn't turn in their work. Why didn't they turn their work? I think so trying to change the culture to be less punitive and more caring is really important to us. And this group is so behind that. Um I just love that. Um and then just the job refocus
157on the district staff. I mean building administration principles trying to then his job once we implemented. Okay, here's the guidelines. They need to be online this long and they need to be putting these videos out. How many teachers do you have? 100. Hundred. So he's trying to go through with his four other administrators trying to go through making sure people are following guidelines, talking to parents that are complaining, trying to to making sure everything's working right. So his job of just day-to-day management is now completely overtaken by also color related things. School nurses, like I said before, seriously, I think their job changed and was more stressful than anybody in the district. I'm just going to say that. I am so proud of how they stepped up. They volunteered at vaccination clinics. They've done paperwork.
158Uh they've I mean the hours they've put in have been amazing. We've tried to get help for them, tried to get people in and having just the work they did for the the dashboard was amazing. So I can't say enough about our student nurses. If you see one out somewhere, give them a hug, do whatever. Buy them a soda. I don't know. But they deserve it, okay? Because it's crazy. Um custodial. Oh my goodness. So they went from having basic work and then they could go do something else to making sure they're wiping handles down. They're spraying rooms. If a person was diagnosed had a COVID identification, they'd have to go into a room and clean everything top to bottom, making sure vents were clean, everything was clean. It just a complete change of focus
159during this time period. Um the crafts, they built isolation rooms. They were they were doing all kinds of things. They also did some cool things when kids were remote. They painted, they they did maintenance things we haven't been able to do. So they were incredibly busy, too. But once again, refocused on things for co the technology team. Oh my goodness, that's the in-house tech line again. We had in-house experts and I think that was important for our teachers going onetoone having their peers being able to teach them and help them. It's not as humiliating maybe to say I really don't know what that document camera how it works, right? or what's Cammy? I'm not sure what that is. I think it's really important that they could call somebody they already knew, right? And then grandparents
160and students would call about loginins and um parents would say this isn't working and they walk them through that on weekends in the evenings. Um co money was was used to pay those stipens and those overtimes. We couldn't have done that without that. So, I think it was that's another thing we did that I don't think a lot of other districts, as far as I know, implemented was a tech hotline within the district um during off hours. That was huge. And just having our our directors just making sure hotspots were working, getting just distributing distributing the Chromebooks. Um I know Karen uh Robertson, the new uh program principal, she developed a plan for that. It was amazing. We we did a great job for that. We lived and learned through stuff. But so anyway, those
161are what we did in co I just felt like I think people needed to understand how much our jobs changed during that time and how refocused on this hate safety health um best practices during a time that I know people use the word unprecedented but a time that we had never had before. uh and so it was huge but something's good came out of co right um new technology to move our students into the 21st century with their peers across the country I recently went to a two-day seminar conference I led um a social emotional talking at a superintendent conference in Chicago and I got to speak with superintendents from all over the country Washington Texas Alabama it was crazy but it was the best two days I think I've ever spent for professional development
162because I learned that everybody was facing the same things. Staff shortages, financial issues. We were lucky honestly um the way some of the things were handled in Illinois, the way we got our money quickly, the way the grants were managed, it was much easier for us to to to do that. So, um devices now for support staff. We learned that it wasn't it wasn't as effective for e-learning days if we didn't have our our secretaries or maybe our pair of professionals. So now they're able to get computers as well. Our teachers all got new computers. Um, nice ones. They didn't get the Chromebooks. They have Dells. I think we have some teachers here. I wanted to make sure they had something that because you can't expect them to teach remotely if they don't have any
163equipment they need to do that as well. So that was something we did too. I think the teacher growth and technological approach to instruction. I am blown away at how advanced our teachers are now. And our kids. We didn't even need to take all the classes that we had for technology for kids are completely outdated. They're so far ahead now that they have we're revamping what they're doing. They're working with robots now. I know Liz Eert and Jen Smith have got a grants and they have robots and all the grade levels are going to be working with those. We're very excited about that. We have these learning days. We did a good program with that. We're going to work on tweaking that a little bit too for next year. Um easier homebound instruction. You know,
164they can whip up open the computer and they can talk face to face with the students. They don't even have to go to a home or to be somewhere to join them. So, that's been really good. The re-evaluation of all district curriculum and systems, effective and equitable interview and hiring processes, which Mr. Ramp has talked about tonight. More teacher collaboration in developing the curriculum. Um, the ED team has been out in the buildings. They've been talking about small group instruction. How does that work for you? What kind of interventions do you need? What programs do you like and dislike? We're still doing that. Developing consistent district procedures. We had a lot of building by building situations, right? When I first got here, parents would call and say, "Why are we doing this here?" But my
165students not doing that there and it would be the same grade level. So trying to to have a a consistent approach. We're working on that right now. Trying to scaffold um movement towards a more scaffolded approach to district curriculum. Talking to people, bringing in the stuff that they teachers actually want and focusing on standards, core standards that are important that students need to get to the next grade level. So, and you know what? I think a more comprehensive understanding of all the health and safety of everybody in the district, right, in the face of another health emergency. We learned so much. I'm sure there's more we have to learn, but I I mean, just out in the big picture of trying to manage it all on behavior, sanitation, PPE, local communication. We uh Dr. Keel
166and I met with local pediatricians so they understood what our guidelines were. They didn't know. We walked in there, they had no idea what the busy requirements were for for schools. So, we shared those with them. We had monthly meetings with them. Um, it was great because if they a student didn't have to wear a mask, it was kind of a huge ordeal. So, we talked to them, they understood that. Having those communications with the community members, the stakeholders is very important. So, that's something else that we did. I think those are all very important. And what's next? What's on the horizon, right? Um, new building and grounds improvements, HVAC roofs, sidewalks, right? Parking improvements in front of Coolage. We're taking the bus traffic off of Nanaki Road. We're putting it into the front. Things
167that have been problems in the district for decades. We're trying to address the new bus company hopefully to deal with some of the issues. being able to recruit more drivers. Um having air conditioned buses, new buses, um new GPS, everything on the buses. Every driver has has a tablet which has uploaded their location. If they pass a stop, it beeps at them. There's all kinds of And there are 20 23 buses that are going to be getting for the fleet. um new food service menus, menu items and procedures. Working through that, trying to make sure everything's safe and sanitized, getting new products because I people complain about grab and go, but the supply chain was so limited for food service, being able to get certain things. He'd get a call the night before they were
168supposed to deliver carrots or something. They'd say, "We don't have those." So, he would have to figure out what he was going to serve. I mean, we just wanted to make sure that kids had food. Um, it might not have been the most perfect thing, but but what we wanted to make sure we fed them. Um, I think it's important new sports facilities. Um, trying to address needs. Um, I know that girls softball was the only sport that wasn't on our campus. Um, athletic director Mo talked to me when I first got here how important that was to try to do that. So, that's one of the first things we addressed. um being able to have this church field to utilize not just for sports, for band, for other things in the community, being able
169to have that for us and have that pride in our community and the consistency of playing conditions to um from other school districts to ours. Um it just improvements in district communications. We have a new website. We have an app that parents can get to. It's just so much quicker for them to be able to get information out. Social media, uh we have a presence on there as well. Uh, I'm going to be starting to do I did a little video tomorrow. I'm going to do another video. So, with new things. So, I just think that just trying to be transparent as much as we can with everything going on. Trying to make sure the community knows what we're doing and why we're doing it. Um, and also more collaboration with community and business partners,
170you know. Oh, well, there's a uh Grant City, Ponchune Beach, Mitchell, Six Mile Library District has been amazing. GC Park District, America's Port, local businesses. I know America's Court in particular has let us do had the vocational kids have came in and had tours of businesses on site there. They've been to Icon Mechanical. They've done a lot of things. The library district has been great for disseminating information and providing places for people to go. Um just upon Beach Mitchell just talking to those officials about how the roads work, how are the bus routes going to be, trying to open those lines of communication. The city has been great. the the sidewalk that was put in, trying to to find some new ways to collaborate with them as well. So, just making sure that that we're
171touching all our bases. And most importantly, we've already done five-year plans for our facilities. We're working on that, but we're going to start into a strategic planning phase, a fiveyear strategic plan. Uh hopefully being able to start sometime this summer. Probably takes sometime takes up to six months. It involves stakeholders. we have an outside group that comes in and facilitates that so that we can actually have everything we're doing into a set plan that can continue um in the right path over a long period of time. So, so the momentum keeps going. So, I think that is awesome. Yeah, I think that's just really important. But most importantly, I couldn't the district couldn't have done any of these things without this pro progressive school board. I I I'm not just saying that because of my
172bosses. I just feel like they are so open to change and reform and they're supportive of it. And I just want you to know as a community how much they give of their time, how much they they they ask questions and make sure everything is what it should be. I I you know, and so for their support of moving forward, I couldn't thank them enough as well. And the community for having the patience through CO and everything else to get us where we are now. I am so excited about the future and what it holds and how long it'll move forward. So that that's pretty much the gist. I just wanted to give a little background about what happened for the last two years. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. [Applause] [Music] I dare you to
173say is that it is all there is. I know I could have went a lot longer. I cut it down like I wrote down some that I was going to add to I'll probably also I don't know my on we're going to post some of the information to some of this PowerPoint on uh the website as well. Great. Wonderful. Great. Okay. Fantastic job. Really I I think on behalf of the board here just incredible this you guys have been and we appreciate the kudos on on from you to us but the same thing right back at you because honestly it is a great team here. It is. It's just phenomenal. You've been a great leader. That's a great word, though. Team. I I I I feel like I couldn't ask for a better group of
174people to to understand what we need to grow pride in the district to do to do better for by our students. I mean, that's right. I know it sounds corny, but the only reason any of us are here is for our students. That's right. That's why no one would be here. And so, we have to remember that. And I try in every decision I make to make it always to think about where the kids are in that. So, thank thank you so much. Call COVID 19 what you want, but it was a huge distraction. Oh, and and just a huge time uh commitment on behalf of everyone. And I think you did a great job there laying it out as far as what happened, what took place, and that sort of thing. But it's it's
175so good and refreshing to get back now to teaching the kids in the ways that we know and new ways. And thanks to to people like Max who were able to bring yet ideas and new concepts to us. and now just to be able to focus again on maintenance and and improve the district and everything. So fantastic. It's pretty exciting time now in GC, right? So yes, absolutely. Moving forward. Agree. On the trend upward. Appreciate that. We seem to be better than Well, you always can improve, right? There's always room for improvement. Fantastic. Uh so continuing on, um item 11 C is Freedom of Information Act requests. Does that mean there's two of them in there? There's two. Uh, we received one request under the Freedom of Information Act during the period of March 12th,
17622 through April 19th of 22. First request was received on March 16th from Timothy Oliver of Sycamore Learning. He requested the following information. Student names, student grade level, students name of school and parents email addresses. The second request was received on April 11th, 22 from Michael A. McCall Delgado of Amalgamated Transit Unit. He requested the following information. current contract between the district and first student bus company for the provision of student transportation services including all agenda amendments, attachments, exhibits and extensions. These are all handled by administration. Great job, Mr. Mitchell. Thank you. Fantastic. And that is there for information only. Items 11D and E are disciplinary uh actions with students. We will hold that for executive session just momentarily. Item uh 11F is district activity and memorial fund statements for March of 2022. that is
177therefore information only. Um, and with that, I will entertain a motion to go into executive session for student disciplinary matters under 2C9. So moved. Second. Roll call, please. I, Curran, I. None. I McMasters. Hi. Vinnie, I And time is 8:22. Uh, and we are in executive session. And we appreciate everybody being