001I should have said over there. Oh, you try. I'm not sure. [Laughter] It's lucky we're not the same. I got a minute till that's the official time over here. All right, the magic hour of 6 o'clock is here. I see the kids jumping up and down. There's a magician coming in now. Great evening everyone. So wonderful to see a huge audience here this again this evening. So uh we've got a full agenda and a lot of great awards to give out this evening. So we'll get started with roll call please. Mr. Stacy here. Vinnie here. Kenobyl here. Curran here. None here. Bryant here. WSM here. Lang here. Thank you, sir. We appreciate that. Uh we will start with the pledge of allegiance. If everyone would stand, please and and stay standing for the invitation given
002by Pastor Brian Harris with Lee Church. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's pray. God, I thank you today. I thank you for the opportunity that we have to be here. God, I thank you that you are directing us and guiding us in everything that we do. God, I ask that today as we go through this ceremony with the students, that we honor them and we let them know how excitingly special they are to each one of them to be able to have this a wonderful opportunity today to receive these awards. God, I pray that we would be guided in all of our steps, God. That we would walk in
003a way that we look to you and know that you are guiding everything we do. Thank you for everything you give us. We praise you today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Harris. We appreciate it. Okay. Next up is public comment. Is there anyone here this evening to give public comment to the school district? Anyone? You have to give him like three times. Anyone? Anyone? Very good. Hearing none, we will move uh on to um some special awards. I'm excited about all those. I don't know if any of you noticed walking in that I wanted to compliment our district students, the artwork that is up and down the hallway. Um, coming in the Mr. Rushing brought in some things from the art students. We're going to try to do a revolving
004situation. We have a new band picture by the restroom. We're just trying to to incorporate some more. Well, it looks outside the bathroom. Everybody goes there, right? So, anyway, we really wanted to put a lot more uh district representation. So, there's a lot of stuff you'll find throughout the area. So, we're pretty excited about that. So here we go. Okay. Okay. The first thing I want to talk about um to recognize the following GRC high school senior students who were named as the 2023 2024 Illinois State Scholars. Um the state scholar program is awarded to high school seniors based on ACT or SAT rank and test scores. Uh six semester class size, unweighted class rank, and grade point average. This is a really outstanding academic achievement and the district board of education administration would like
005to recognize their academic success. This is an ongoing thing the whole time they're in high school and it really requires a lot of discipline and hard work on these students. So I really don't want to undervalue how important this is. So when I read your name off you can come up and get your certificates. Okay. We do some pictures. So I will start with Lauren Finlio. Did I say that correctly? [Applause] Okay, we got there. [Applause] Sydney Chot and get pictures too if he wants to. Emily Garcia Barrera. Did I say that correctly? Emily's not here. Congratulations, Emily. when it's hail. [Applause] It's kind of a long way around. Good job. [Applause] Payton Hatfield. [Applause] I can make some disparaging comments about a few because this is one of the last times. It's off my
006head in the morning, right? There you go. Congratulations. Great job. I tell the kids that every this is every time we have something, we only have so more for Mr. because he's retiring. So, we we try to find things to do. Greatly appreciated. I know it is. Ivan Hernandez. [Applause] Good job. Congratulations. Maddox Kennedy. [Applause] Kaylee McElroy. [Applause] Here we go. Here we go. Perfect. Thank you. They were [Applause] even Clara Nipper. [Applause] Kylie Pman, [Applause] Christopher Taylor, [Applause] Alex Weaver. There he is. [Applause] So, we're talking about how long it takes you. I'm sorry. [Applause] You know, I kind of feel like I'm related. [Applause] I hope I said his last name right. Chloe, is it Widell or Wedell? Widell. Widell. I did it right the first time. Mom, too. She beat Mr. Mitchell.
007I know. [Applause] just makes me really happy. Daniel Wilson, I mean Daniel Wilson, sorry [Applause] and Carly Wright. [Music] [Applause] Uh, okay. Uh, so we finished those. Great accomplishment. I mean, I seriously it's all four years of a lot of hard work. So, they really they really did a good job. So, one last round of applause. Uh, now I'd like to recognize a very special young woman. Um, what to say? I even know how to pronounce her name correctly, too. So, it's pretty good. Um, we have a student who has been named drum major for the 2023 Troopers Drum and Bugle Corp. U, Mr. Roberts, would you like to come up and kind of give us a little more info about this? Sure. He knows much more than I do. Although, I know it's really
008important, right? So, I'm sure you all know what a marching band is. Uh this is very similar to a high school marching band only. It's professional and they don't have woodwinds. They have brass, percussion, and color guard. Um students from all over the country go to audition for these drum cores. Uh Sky was one of, I believe, over 20 drum majors who auditioned for this drum core um and made it had to submit video auditions and go to actual auditions and camp weekends and try out against all these people, several of which who already had drumcore experience. Um, so we could not be more proud of Sky. This is our first uh drum core drum major that we've ever had for Granite City. So, wow. So, let's welcome Triscaya Augustine up to see us, right,
009which is a beautiful name. Nice little thing. We'll have Mr. Mitchell take some pictures. She has taken video. All right, here we go. Look at mom again. Hold on, Mr. Hold it. We got two Mitchell taking pictures here. We got a mission there. Okay, thank you. [Applause] This is such an exciting night. There's like so much incredible uh good news about Granite City and so many things we accomplish and this is just another example of the dedication devotion you see in our teachers for our students in this district. Um I'd like to well the St. Louis Post Dispatch teacher of the month for January uh 2023 was Miss Sarah Cororsine. Look up. Uh she teaches at Wilson Elementary. She'll receive a $250 Target card, but more importantly, she'll receive our respect and our admiration. I'm
010kind of choked up. She does so much for for kids in our district. I watch her in the building and see her with some of some kids that can be challenging and she's just amazing with them. So, I just want to have her come up and recognize her here in front of the board. [Applause] It's just such an honor to see our teachers recognized for the work they do by other people as well, like we know, but to have someone else. And you were nominated by a parent, correct? I have I don't know. They didn't tell me. They sent me the nomination, which is even kind of nice, you know, just to know that someone thought enough to do that. I think that's amazing. We're proud of you. And um now also very proud of
011of this also a young woman in our administration. I said young woman. Yes, she's younger than me. That makes her a young woman. So, uh, there are only they, the Illinois State Board of Education recognizes an early ele childhood teacher of the year, an elementary teacher of the year, a secondary teacher of the year. Did I miss 15 categories, but but as far as the major categories, there's like three major categories that they picked from all the nomination of all the teachers in Illinois. I mean, we're talking tens of thousands of teachers. Okay. So, uh, Miss Bratton, you want to come up? Honestly, the thing that said you guys might want to think about it. You know, writing up people for awards, people that deserve in your building and the amount of time it takes
012and the dedication to put these things together is timeconuming in itself. Yes. But it doesn't seem like a job when you're doing it for someone like this. So, if you want to explain a little bit about how you put it together, what time to do the nomination? Yeah, absolutely. So, the state board um seeks out nominations and as soon as I saw this, Marcy immediately came to mind. Like Miss K said, it's not hard to look at a process when you have such a good muse. Um even sitting here tonight, it's a perfect example. The students are coming up receiving awards and she remembers which ones are from prek. So, that shows right there her dedication. That was my prek kit. That was one of mine. I mean that shows that her love never goes
013away for the children and they're the first and foremost. So the nomination was my pleasure and it it was it was welld deserved. So we are very proud of Miss Marcy of and we had to keep it quiet that was very hard. So the state was like okay we're telling you but you can't tell anyone else. Like it was like 3 weeks and we were like okay and they said you can't tell anyone like we weren't supposed to tell them right. So we were all very excited and then we could tell her and then we had to keep it a secret another what a week and a half. So, we told her and they had a video call with the state superintendent. Um, and it was it was really cool. We didn't tell her. We
014kind of kind of made a ruse to get her there. We always told her she was going to have to do a video at the last minute of which she panicked. We weren't really doing that, but we made her see. Mr. Mitchell was in on that, too. So, we kind of made her think she was going to have to do that. So, uh, there were 500 applicants just for the early childhood teacher of the year. So, uh, they just recognized her this weekend right in Bloomington at a at a dinner award ceremony for family none. And I know that you went her sister went somebody there went to. Um, so I want to present Miss Marcy Dots as the prime the Illinois the Illinois State Board of Education Early Childhood Teacher of the Year. received
015this very important pin that they told her she had to wear everywhere she went, but she represented the district. So, so, you know, we had to point that out. And I know she's probably receiving a lot more important things and things you got, but we really wanted to try to do a nice plaque and try to do something a little extra special for you. She is also, what I forgot to say also is she is among 15 candidates for the Illinois Teacher of the Year, which we have never won one. We've had a national one for Disney, but we have not had an Illinois teacher of the year in general, but 15 in the top 15. Her process is not over. She still has to go through one more interview and the final announcement for
016the total teacher will be announced in April. So, here's your wonderful, you know, we're so proud of her. So, we're so proud of you. Thank you. Marcy read about your award and he said, "Good job, Miss Marcy." Interview, right, Chris? There was our interview. There was an interview. Well, funny part about this is it so they have all these other older kids and they asked for videos of children talking about the great things. Well, she did three four-year-olds. You got some good ones, though. Yeah. He said Miss Mercy has a nice smile, which she does. So, it was a little more challenging to try to get them to to to say, but uh we're really proud. We're really proud. Okay. So, thank you everyone for being here tonight. It's always nice when we can do
017such wonderful awards for everybody in the district. So, great job. This is the customary time. We give you a minute or so. If you want to leave, those with a burning desire to stay, please do. Especially the kids. Thanks everyone. Congratulations. Hey [Music] lady spread out. And they used our video call at our reception as like the big thing. Yes. We sat with the state superintendent and the um school the seat. Yeah. the seat at the board. They asked to sit with us. It was wonderful. All right. The room cleared out a little bit. I thought they were all here to participate in the board meeting. Uh, so we have of the minutes of the January 24th, 2023 board meeting. Any Oh, wait. motion. Kenny, good to see you, Zach. Yes. I none. I Brian,
018hi. Stacy, I uh consent agenda. Anything there that we want to pull out? It's the Treasurer's Report bill list and gifts. And do you want to mention anything about gifts? I mean, they're on here. I just think we had so many this time, which is another really cool thing to see. Uh Dr. Mark Herring came and did a presentation at Brohart, brought toothbrushes and everything. We're going to see if we can hit him up for another school as well, but he was a graduate here and I think that that's really um Calver Life Church uh did a great job. Gave some amazing stuff to Maryville School for recess, indoor and outdoor, and the kids were so excited uh to get all those things games and what else? Walls, jump ropes, wheels person. I'm trying to
019think. There was uh tons of it was just indoor and outdoor. I mean, there was just we want to thank Pastor Mark and his wife Joel for that. Uh the Amazon warehouse gave us um hand sanitizer, which you know, you still use it, right? We have that. You never know. And sweet treats from the heart. Uh uh Miss Survey called and asked them if they would do something for our student of the months and they offered to give cookies as well as chocolate covered creations were terrific about offering to give things to our students which I I mean that just says a lot. Their support of our students is just wonderful. And also the uh First United Presbyterian Church closets of hope uh Miss Bev Scrogggins brought in stuff for us at Prager. What did
020she bring? Clothes. Tons of donations for clothes for We need the little for the little ones for extra. go into details but they need extra sometimes. So I just think it's amazing how many people stepped up. All we did was have she called and two people of course we'll do that. So and before we had Seabolds our Duke's bakery also doing the same thing. So I just and Chris Humphre as well. Oh Chris Humphre oh Chris Humphre actually just called us and asked if we would want some and he brought personally a ton of hand sanitizer which is very nice as well. Move to approve. Second. Second. Excuse me. Motion a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. No. The eyes have it. Um, recommendations of communications, human resources. 8A. Okay.
0218A retirements and resations. It is recommended sadly the following retirements and resations be resed. Miss Lis Arbor, Principal Mitchell, uh, effective end of 2425 school year. So move. Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Curran. I. None. I, Brian. I, Stacy. I, Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. W. Hi. Item 8B, retirements and resignations. Yeah, it is recommended that the following retirements and resignations be accepted. Lyn Lam, fifth grade teacher, Griggsby, end of 2425 school year. Robert Weathers, Estonian at Lake, retirement end of 8327. Lucy Arbo, principal at Mitchell, retirement end of 223. I think there's two. We were the other one. Oh, never mind. I'm not paying attention. Just Okay. Shane McClendon, assistant principal of Grizzby, resignation effective the end of 2223. Michelle Cooper Paul retirement end of 2526. Second grade teacher moved second.
022Any discussion on any of those? I would like to thank them all. Roll call, please. None. I Brian I. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. Hi. Curran. Hi. One time I item 8 C requests for leaves of absence. It is recommended that the following requests for leaves of absence be approved. Ronda Nolan second grade teacher at Wilson effective 12423 to 42823. Miss Connie Pat Marov special teacher at Coolage effective 13023 to 42423. Miss Tracy Brody fourth grade teacher at Mitchell effective 31623 to 6823. That was Teresa Copper, Monitor Coolage, effective 3623 to 52923. So move. Thank you. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Brian, I Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I Curry. Hi. None. I item 8 D. Requests for extension to to leave. It is recommended that the following requests for extensions to lease of
023absence be approved. Miss Lonnie Swanson, first grade teacher Wilson, effective 1523 to approximately 8123. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call please. Stacy I. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. Currin. Hi. None. I Bryant. I item a recommendations for the 22.3 school year. Right. They're for uh lunch teachers. GCSD9 administration is recommending the following extracurricular recommendations for the 2223 school year be approved and they are listed below. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call. Vinnie. I none I Brian I. Stacy Immire I. Item 8F is certified and classified substitutes. It is recommended the following applicants be board approved as substitutes. Yay. For the 22 23 school year. Certified Mr. Brian Gibbons, Jordan Jackson, Amanda Mcichael. Classified as Meralda Cortez, Dylan Persona, Alyssa Shelonberg, and Renee Vansel. We're very happy. Thank you so much. Thanks for heeding the
024call. We appreciate that. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Kenogal. I. Currin. Hi. None. I Brian. Hi, Stacy. Hi, Vinnie. Hi. Wa. Hi. Uh, employment item 8G1, resend breakthrough prek pair professional recommendation. Yes. You'll receive detailed information about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive SE session. Due to Kimberly Jackson declining the offer of the 2223 Prather PreK parent professional position at Prather Attendance Center, the administration has requested resending recommendation. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Curran. Hi. None. I Bryant. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. WA. Hi. Item 8G2 is employment of seven custodians for the 2223 school year. You received detailed information about this item. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or for discussion in executive session. The employment uh
025GCSD9 administration and the interview committee consisting of Jim Parker, Eric Smith, and Pat Curry are recommending the employment of the following custodian positions for the 2223 school year. Brian Jacob, Brandy Johnson, Craig Jordan, John Millian, Terresa Phelps, Terry Russell, and John Wiser. Craig Jordan is being recommended for the next available program position. Um, Jacob was a sub, Randy Johnson was a sub, Craig Jordan is a sub, John Million is a sub, Terry Russell is a sub, Terresa Phelps, I think, was a fulltime cook, and John is an second motion on a second. Any discussion? I guess just one question. So they these going in order then. Is that how these happen? They were just alphabetical order is what they were listed here. So So it's bringing all seven on at once. Yes. Uh all of
026them but Craig Jordan. Craig Jordan. We have an individual that is um finalizing some paperwork to possibly uh quit retire. And uh once that's that's committed then that Craig Jordan Right. That's the way that right now we have that many openings. That's how many custodians have retired. Wow. Big turnover. Yes. Everybody's doing a great night. Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh roll call, please. None. I Bryant. I Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I current I item 8H1 is employment of Granite City High School assistant principal. Uh you 2324 school. You have all received detailed information about this item below and previous correspondence. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in executive session. the GCSD9 administration and the interview committee which consisted of myself, executive director human resources Jim Parker, the new GCHS
027principal Tim Mcristian, Dr. David Keel, Miss Christristen Delashesa, Miss Vicky Watkins, and Mr. Steve Matis for all recommending unanimously the appointment of Mr. Marvin Battle as an assistant principal at G City High School for the 2324 school year. You'll be placed at category 7, step one on administrative solid schedule. So move second. Motion second. Any discussion? And roll call, please. Bryant. I. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I. Curran. Hi. None. I Wire. Hi. Item 8H2 is employment of GCHS. You received detailed information about the item. Administration's prepared to make recommendations are hold for discussion in executive session. GCSI administration interview committee consisting on Denise Algright, Chris Hutchkins, and Steve Matthysse are recommending the employment of Miss Bailey Frank as a grant senior high school math teacher for the 2324 school year. Approval is recommended pending
028the submission of the required paperwork. So move second. Any discussion? And roll call, please. Stacy, I Vinnie, I none I Brian. Hi No old business tonight. Uh, under new business, uh, 10, item 10 A is Wilson Elementary Education Center tuck pointing bid. I will read this off and if you have any questions, we can ask Mr. Smith. The GCS9 administration requests that the board of education award inc Wilson Elementary Center tuck pointing bid number 11-23. This is a project that will eliminate water intrusion into the brick. Staff, Inc. was the only bidder for this project. Total cost of the bid is $238,970. Approval is recommended. So move second. Any any make you say something? Yeah. Can you just say real quick how much of the entire building? If you've been in Wilson school, there's corners
029of the building, especially the library. It's water's coming through. So all that's going to be fixed. They're the only bidder. But is this in line with what you were looking for? Yes. Uh in fact, Stat was one of the uh only biders at the high school on one of our jobs and we had a different one uh come in. But for the timeline that this job has to be done, Stat was the only one that was able to do that and and they did all the high school. They've done all of our and and the cost is similar to what the high school. Yes. And actually they are waterproofing the building once they're done. They're putting on a spray waterproofing with this. Very good. I think we had a motion on a second. Yes. Okay.
030Roll call, please. Vinnie, I Kenogal. I Curran. Hi. None. I Bryant. I. Stacy. I. Wa. I. And spending some more money here. Wilson. Uh, item 10B is the Wilson Elementary Education Center sidewalk. uh their GCSD9 administration requested the board of education award Bron Construction Services to Wilson Elementary Center sidewalk due to low bid specifications. Groupon construction was at $64,932 that's excavating was at 70,950. This is definitely needed with the summer project that he's going to talk about a little bit. You'll see how important this and approval is recommended. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Kenobyl. Hi. Current. Hi. None. I Bryant. I. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. I. Item 10 C. And a third project at Wilson this summer is the parking lot asphalt bid. Yes. Uh the GCSD9 administration requests that the BOE
031award Chris Brothers Asphalt Inc. The Wilson Elementary Center parking lot asphalt bid due to low bid specifications. Chris Brothers asphalt was at 124,700. St. 178 350. This is going to change the whole approach at Wilson School in the morning, drop offs, allowing that parking and bus lines to come in in that neighborhood. I think the people will be very happy that we're doing that. Makes it safer for kids. They can come in right off the buses. So, approval is recommended. So, move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Currin, I. None. I Bryant I Stacy I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. Hi, Lumac. Hi. And moving over to Griggsby for a project parking lot asphalt bid there as well. And you're going to see all these cool things in his presentation. I feel like that's still in the
032thunder a little bit. Uh the administration requested that we want Chris Brothers here to be an immediate school parking lot due to low bid specifications. If you've been by there, you can see where we did tear out trees in order to put all that up. Um Mr. But then I have the plan that once we have all this done this summer we will be replanting trees because I make him in certain areas um replanting ones that have been coming out and things like that. So just know that even though we have to do this for progress but we will be replanting trees aesthetically in certain areas. So um the Christopher brothers asphalt bid is $233,000 estimating is 38,100 and approval is recommended. So move second. Any discussion? So So I noticed Chris Brothers is the
033was the last person too, not a I mean I don't how big No, Chris Brothers actually makes the asphalt uh that everybody is going to buy. Okay. And one thing with all of our bids, we make sure they're uh Illinois Department of Public Transportation bid specs are on our asphalt so we're getting topofthe line material. So they won't have a problem getting both of them done this summer. Okay. All right. Roll call, please. None. I Bryant. I Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi. Kenobyl. I Curran. Hi. I item 10E is that be also sidewalk project. Right. That's in the inner area and up by the office. Correct. Office front. That's up front. So, uh, the GCSD9 administration requested that one Groupon construction services, the bricks be intermediate school sidewalk concrete bid digital low bid specifications. Construction Services
034came in at $72,247. Stunts Escalator came in at $76,400. There is an alternate. You want to explain this alternate there? The alternate um whenever I show you the slide, it's it's a uh area between the the two entrances to where we're going to have a large concrete pad for the kids to congregate on or bus drop off or pick up. It'll be a large concrete area instead of mud and grass because you know how that is with the pickup area. So that's what that is. So approval is recommended. So move second motion a second. Any discussion I guess are we plus 38. Are we accepting? Yes. Oh sorry construction services 38,992. So that's estimating 45,300. Yes. It comes to a total of 111,239 is total. That's the entire front. We're accepting the question. Can I
035ask is that is that on the left side of the building on the back end where the kids go in for the dance? No, this is all out front that horseshoe shaped area. Yeah, this is all and the entire front of that building will all have all new concrete. Okay. And the lighting already looks wonderful there. If you've been by the lighting is amazing, too. Mr. Smith does a great job. Roll call, please. Bryant. Hi, Stacy. Hi, Vinnie. Hi, Kenogal. I Curran. Hi, Nun. I seems to be facilities maintenance night. So, purchase of a cargo van. If you've seen the old cargo van, they would really understand. Probably should just put a picture. You've seen it. We're still running. Uh, our fleet of maintenance vehicles is aging. That's a nice way to put that. Um,
036we are requesting permission to purchase a 2023 Ford Transit 150 cargo van. Vehicle inventory is scarce after calling several dealers. Mororrow Brothers Ford, Inc., give us a price on a new 2023 Transit 150 cargo van. We requesting the board approve the purchase of the stand from our brothers, Inc. at $50,540. Did we uh have any other that was I whenever I called Weber, they told me good luck getting one and I I think whenever Talon talked to me, I had uh I had a request in already for a van and whenever Mororrow Brothers got a hold of me and said, "Hey, we have a van." I said, "We'll hold it." And it's in the right price range. Yeah, it's it's in a state bid. So approval is recommended. So move. Second. Any other discussion? Roll
037call, please. Stacy, I. Vinnie, hi. Canal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I. Bryant. I. Woman. I. And item 10G is a district local economic development high impact tutoring grant. Well, before I read this, Dr. He loves when I send him grant opportunities. Where is he? He loves when I say, "Hey, can you look into this one?" And then he does it and he gets it. So, how wonderful is that? So, uh the Grand City School District received $157,000 grant to be used towards an afterchool tutoring program. Forition is requested to offer this to select students in grades uh kindergarten, first and second grade. Grant funds will be used for teacher salaries, busing, and curriculum for the program. This program will begin hopefully in March and end in May. The brief synopsis, it's offered to select kindergarten
038for second grade students. Students will be selected based on data from ISIL, title, teacher, and attendance data. No more than five students per teacher, which I love that it's a small group. 25 students per building, not grade level. Total students number of students served each building will be 25. And IEP and ESL students will be served in the program as well, which is a nice per you want to add to this? No. Uh, it is a grant that it's not just for this year. So, it should be ongoing. So, You know, this district does need an after school tutoring program for sure. And it wouldn't be successful if we didn't offer transportation. I think a lot of parents want some help for their child, but they just don't have transportation all the time because they're
039running other kids and things like that. So, um I think it is going to certainly benefit a good group of kids in kindergarten, first and second grade. The hard part now is trying to put it all together and you know, the state gives it to us in like February, right? And then we're trying going in the summer. We do have student teachers that can actually if we if we don't have enough of our teachers, student teachers can't get paid now thing. And I think I have to point out that Mr. Survey and Dr. K work very closely on trying to figure out the the transportation because it's not that easy. They have to be available when the buses are available. So, they did a great job. Yeah. No, but I'm excited about it. I think
040I think it's going to be great for a long time. So, so approval is recommended. I'll just move second motion a second. I'll just add this is huge. because we have so many students that are really struggling especially coming out of COVID and and not just getting it yet and this is a great opportunity to get them caught up and start and we're hoping that's also going to, you know, hopefully reduce some of these kids who would maybe end up with an IEP, you know, receiving special services. If we can get them early, get them, get them additional, you know, basically lengthen their school day, uh, then I think it would be beneficial for that as well. So, we're excited about it. What about when we pull it off here? And it'll be much better
041next year. Oh, sure. Than it is what we're going to do for the next two months because we'll be a lot smarter by then. I have time to plan and to give us all that money in February. You were like, "Okay." Yeah. I'm not going to spend all that, but I will spend all next year. We were very happy. David, can I ask a question? How much interest does a classroom teacher have in terms of suggesting areas of concern that they have with the child with the student? Yes, they will have input and so will the title teachers also. Um the title teachers, you know, really have a lot of good data with the ISIL test at that grade level, kindergarten, first and second. It's really good test assessment because it's one to one. So,
042it's really the best test that we give in this district and it's from the state. So, but it's it's a teacher who sits down with a child. So, it's a onetoone. So, there's there is no better assessment than that. So, um so that right there gives you a whole lot of data. They've already done that in the fall and they do that in the mid year also. Um, so they have some good data to look at there and then look at some of the CLA uh classroom teacher data and then talking to building principles also and we'll make a list of those students because some students will be able to attend and some won't, you know, because you're always going have to have more because some parents may say we're not going to be able
043to do this. It doesn't work for our schedule, you know, those types of things. So, but we're we're hoping that we can get some kids in there's also flexibility built in like where they can graduate out of that basically. Yes, absolutely. Sure. And we'd hope to do that maybe a quarter semester or something like that. Absolutely. With summer school, you know, you could really Well, a lot of these kids, especially this age group right now postco, like there's so much just basic exposure that many of them haven't gotten or just that quality one-on-one interaction. No fault to the parents necessarily, but that's going to be really great. If you can get a teacher with five kids, that's huge. Yeah, that would be great. And those grades are often left out when it comes to tutoring.
044I see the early those are important years. Absolutely. That's the foundation. So thank you. Roll call, please. Vinnie, I Kenogal. I Curran. Hi. None. I Brian I. Stacy. I item 10H is uh aled and prek through 7th grade summer school proposal. Okay. Permission is requested to offer a prek through seventh grade summer school program. PreK through third grade classes will be housed at Prather Elementary Center and grades fourth through 7 will be housed at Lake School. Students attending the alternative education program at Lake will be offered summer school. Also, all programs will be Monday through Friday. Student hours are 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Students will receive breakfast and lunch daily. Summer school is June 1st, 2023 through June 29th, 2023. All classes are in person and busing will be offered recommended group. So moved.
045Second. Any discussion? And roll call, please. Canobyl. I Curran. Hi. None. I Bryant. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Wire. Hi. I have a question real quick. So, is this more like targeted like for kids that need summer school or can I I'm looking for something for my son to do but it is it's targeted for like Yes, it is to answer your question. Yes, it is targeted for those students. Again, we're looking at that same data throughout the year. We're looking at the end of the year ISIL test. We're also see to watch that student growth. Um, and a lot of times, you know, teachers teachers have a big impact on that because they send those names to building principal also because we look at attendance, we look at a lot of different things, um,
046on that, you know, so if you got a new kid that came in February or March and they're behind because maybe they came from another school district or something. So teachers really look closely at that a lot. So item 10 I is high school summer school proposal. Permission is requested to offer a grant high school summer school program. classes will be housed at Koolage Junior High this year due to that HVAC installation at the high school pretty much the whole summer. I talked to Miss Petrol and we kind of talked about they need some kind of incentive. It's $100 per class uh will be reduced to 50 after the successful completion of the course as the goal is to get them to come and there has to be some something in it for them and
047so be summer school is June 1st 2023 through June 29th 2023. It'll be in person with some some online courses. There'll be no provided by the district of the high school. Approval is recommended. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Karn. Hi. None. I Bryant. I Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi Kenobyl. Hi. Hi. $50 a class is awesome. Item 10J is the Illinois School District liquid asset fund resolution. I'm going to read this and then I'm going to send it to Zack. GCS is I got that explanation, but GCSD9 administration recommends that the BOE approve the following resolution to invest in the Illinois school district liquid asset fund. This is just reauthorizing and updating our paperwork as it was updated. You've been doing this, Mr. Split. Zach, how long? The We haven't used the account
048in a while, and the account predated my predecessor for who was on it. So, they asked for us to just redo all the paperwork as an option and approval. They're already on our approved designated depositories. They just needed new paperwork, which is right here. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? My only question is there's four signature lines here. Do we pick any of the four board members to sign this or does it matter? Sure. Excellent. Roll call, please. None. I Bryant. Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I Curran. Hi. Wilms. I I'll start passing it around now. There you go. Item uh 10K is the FY23 PDM rates. I kind of brought this to Zach's attention because we are so behind on our what rates we had for lunch especially with all the raises and food and
049cost. So the GCSD9 administration recommends that we approve the following 2023 PDM rates for meals allowances when traveling. These rates are uh the pdium rates for the 6204 zip code based on the US General Services Administration website. So we're just going with what they suggested. So breakfast is 13, lunch is 15, and dinner is 26. It's just in line with GSA. So move second. Any discussion? And roll call, please. Bryant. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I item 10 L is a Chromebook purchase bid. Right. Also again with the dig. Uh the GCS9 administration request that the board of education award the following Chromebook purchase bid 623 based on low bid specifications to Jera will purchase 1500 Chromebooks for first and 9th grade students with digital funding for the 23 24
050school year. These devices are necessary to keep us on the four-year replacement cycle and to continue with onetoone services for students due to availability and supply chain delays. We are requesting the order toward the devices as soon as possible. Trafer's quote was 272 Price per device at 1500 devices is 48,000. Uh how do you pronounce this? Just shi Yeah. Uh as 49406 per huge difference and 95 not the price includes the device, the chrome license, the 4year external damage warranty and the white services to pre-enroll unbox and bulk ship devices. Approval is second. Pretty big difference. Are we getting up like is there any quality loss in this? No, this was for the same model across the board. So, it's it's it's probably buying power of the winner. Do you think they'll be ready for
051next school year? Yes. Yeah, that's how much it all about to like finish your cart like as soon as it over now. No. Brad's gonna have a conversation with his wife. She's not in California. Roll call, please. Mr. Stacy, hi. Vinnie, hi. Kenogal. I Kern. Hi. None. I Bryant. Hi. Wire. Hi. And item 10 L. We're getting down to the end of it here, folks. Hang in there. Disposal of AB equipment. I think it's listed below. The GCSD administration requested that again we approve the following request to disclose the equipment that is old, obsolete, broken or too costly to repair. I don't think we need to uh use uh we spare some of them until a couple went out and approval is recommended. Second any discussion say I I oppose. No. Very good. Speed it
052up here. Item 10 N the school calendar for the 2324 school year. I have a little explanation on this too. The GCSD9 administration requests the DOE approved their recommendation to adopt the attached calendar option calendar A for the 2324 school year. Members from teachers union 743 review both and voted about half half to recommend the calendar option B. The reason we went with A, we made some modifications that they liked in the calendar B. So we changed the last day to a half day, gave one another Monday. We did make some changes to to kind of go with what they wanted in the other calendar. So it isn't like we would know we made some changes. So I think that everybody will be happy with that calendaring calendar. Calendar 8 is recommended. So move. Second.
053Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed? No. Very good. On to reports and other communications. Freedom actually. Okay, we'll start with that. We received three requests from the Freedom of Information Act during the period of January 1823 through February 21st 23. The first Tom They were all handled by the administration. Yeah, they were all handled by the administration. There were three of them. Approval is recommended. We don't need approval. We're good. Okay. On to presentations. Mr. Smith is going to present uh the facilities improvements that we're going to be doing over the summer. There's quite a few. We're pretty excited. You've got a preview of some of them when you're improving asphalt bids and such, but he's going to go over some of the things we're going to be uh doing in
054the summer this year. Take it away, Mr. We're getting there. Can we make it? You don't have this memory. Can you put it on the presentation? Well, if you hit Windows P, it may let you Yeah, we're on the wrong screen here. Brad, I think I think this is going to do it. Yeah, I think this is going to do it. Well, we don't have to do it. Where's your your presentation mode? Promise it's swapped cuz it's showing it needs to be the other way around. Eric's looking right at you. change it to my department. Okay, here we go. All right. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Thank you. Uh, one thing we're going to do this summer, uh, one of the things is going to be the coolage lift station. Since we repaired
055the sewer line from a broken sewer pipe for year, many years, we're finally going to replace the, uh, pumps. Uh, sidewalk at Griggsby parking lot. You can see the picture to the right. This is kind of a rough sketch of, uh, how much asphalt we're going to put in front of the building. And you can see up against the building the concrete pad that uh is the alternate to where the drop off area would be so kids could go either door. Um we're hoping to be able to stack maybe 60 70 cars in this parking lot. Uh so that'll get a lot of vehicles off of Cargill Road and still have parking. Um Wilson parking lot you can see in the right that is the entire front of the building almost is going to be
056asphalt. The two big oak trees unfortunately we are going to have to cut down. Um and the sidewalk is between the yellow and red line that is going to be an 8ft walk from the existing city sidewalk all the way up to the building 20 foot from the building. Uh so there can be bus drop off and possibly parking in the center to where the where the teachers park now could be a parent uh drop off for their kids. Um so they're actually everybody is off the street and still have room for buses. Uh Frohard uh we have uh the roof purchased. It's actually in our uh building uh down at our warehouse on Adams. Uh that will be this summer. uh intercom at the high school. Uh we have a very old intercom in
057there. Half of them work, half of them don't. So we are going to update with a care hog system. So it integrates our whole district together. So uh if there's a call that needs to go out from the board office, it will be able to go to all buildings. Uh tuck pointing at Wilson. This is just some of the patchwork around the building. This is original mortar that's in this building. uh very little tuck pointing in the past. There's a lot of moisture that uh goes into this building. So, we're going to correct that. Uh high school HVAC, which you've already approved, this is actually going to start a little sooner than what we thought. Um we're looking within the next two weeks to have contractors uh nights at the high school. Um they're going
058to start nights to remove ceiling tile and start running some duct work. uh doors throughout the building. We we've purchased prox readers in meetings past almost a year ago. Some of them have been purchased, but whenever we get those, we're going to have new doors for those to go on, and we have a lot of bad doors in the district that still have to be chained during that night. We're going to get rid of all those doors and replace um playground fencing. We're looking to fence some of the playgrounds um for the kids for safety. uh like Wilson's for one um is kind of dangerous with a alley right there on the side. So, we're going to take uh take some fencing down that and around the playgrounds high school lab. This is one that
059um we were kind of hoping to get in a little sooner, but it might be a little later. Um, the reason is, uh, with the HVAC work that's going on in the building, we're going to have a lot of conflicts, I'm afraid, and with the contractor who or the individual who makes this um, the counters and countertops and everything. Uh, they are scheduled already for this summer. So, we're kind of looking maybe towards Christmas, but that's still going to be tough on scheduling because I what I'd like to have is all the old HVAC equipment out of that building. So, we have a fresh uh fresh plate for them to uh actually install the new lab. And how old that lab is? It's both labs. This is the biology lab and the uh upstairs science
060lab. So, um if we're unable to do it this summer, we'll definitely have it next summer or this year, I should say. If we're unable to do it Christmas, that's that looks like our time frame. We have a very short window. Um, and if we're unable to get that, this will have to happen next summer, but we're trying to uh get at least if it doesn't happen, we'll be on schedule. Uh, security door at Griggsby, if you've been in Griggsby, it's a real close little entrance area there. Uh we're going to move that door into the office a little bit, have a seating area out there for parents, have a pass through window so that uh there can be communication instead of through a piece of glass. Um Griggsby painting, it's actually ongoing now. Um
061we're going to redo all the lockers, paint all the lockers. We've already started on the classrooms. We have a painter at night uh that's doing that. Um, and so this summer we should have uh the interior of that building and exterior painted and parking lot ceiling. Uh, we'll be doing that this summer. This is Mville. This is one we did last last summer. We're going to continue doing that with our parking lots and try to keep up on some routine maintenance. Playground mulch. Every playground needs it. There isn't one that doesn't. They're all in bad shape. So, those will all get their proper depth of mulch this summer. Thank you. I'm just happy about his power. Just saying. I wouldn't call it his. [Laughter] He runs around all day. There's something to be done all
062every day all day. understand push so many things that need to be done and I'm glad this be a busy summer lot of great projects should make parents and district very proud next presentation thank you let's have I'm going to introduce white she uh I don't know if you would still probably go over here where I can see um she's going to give a little background on herself but um since I started uh even starting July 2020 I knew and I was talking to Kristen too and knowing uh that we had a lot of programs going on a lot of things going on in the district that were a little bit just so much to to know and to do and we realize now that we actually have some time to think about things other
063than sanitation and all those types of issues staff sickness and student sickness I was really excited to to go visit her uh at Collins when she was doing a presentation. So, I'm going to let her do most of her introduction. Um so, you're going to see she's been doing a means assessment for the last five days of the district, gone around to all the K4 schools, talk to teachers, talk to principles. So, she's going to kind of give us some feedback. So, hopefully we could bring her in. She's going to save us some money on a lot of programs that are overlapping and uh see if we could do a proposal we'll have next time to see how we're going to bring her to the district. We're really fortunate to even have her be here.
064So, she's busy all over. So, take it away. I take the red eye to California tonight. Um, I wonder what I'll look in the classrooms tomorrow morning, but that's okay. Um, thank you for having me. My name is Donna White. I come out of the state of New York. When people say they're from Illinois, I know that many of you can um relate to the experiences I have. People say, "You're from Chicago." That is what happens when I say I'm from New York. I grew up on a farm in upstate New York, almost to the Canadian border, and so I lived in a town much smaller than Granite City. Um, so I'm not from the city of New York. I want to apologize if the first time you heard my name was on a Facebook
065post. I made a statement that was misrepresented in my own view, but I did make it and I should not have because basically I was not hired to come here and comment on your school construction or configuration. I was hired to come to talk to about your kids' level of literacy and what we can do to change it. So, I want to make that very clear. My website is donnajwhite.com. I would like to invite anyone in the room um that sees anything there, any of the books that I've written, teachers included, and I extend that to your whole district, whether you decide to hire me or not. Um I am more than happy to give any of my books away to a school that brings me in to speak uh in digital form. So if
066you write to me at that website and say I want you can't teach a class you can't manage I will send it to you at no cost to your district. So I tell people on the road I have three jobs. I'm a mom. I do consider that my first job. How many of you are parents? And I'll tell you that if everyone took care of the kids who lived in their houses, our jobs would all be easier. And so I put my the kids whose lives I will affect most are all grown up now unfortunately. But I know that people that are in education give their lives to other people's kids. And so very important role. My second job, I am a certified teacher in New York State. I have been for 30 years almost.
067Um in my state, we keep our certification no matter what we do. So I'm lifelong certified, which is scary. Okay. But um and then I am privileged to speak on a national stage. So I work as a consultant for years. I was being picked up at an airport and speaking at reading conferences. I've spoken in every state in this country except for Hawaii. If somebody has a relative, help me out. Okay? So, I can say all states. I work as a consultant because I wrote a book about managing and working with kids. Um, it took me on the road for the uh International Literacy Association, which was a great time. I've worked for ASCD, the uh Association for uh that wait a minute, something in curriculum. It's not standards. I'm so used to all of
068the acronyms, but ASCD is your national organization um for supervision and curriculum development. I am privileged to work with Illinois's division of that. How did I get here? So, I was working on a stage and I got a phone call in 2015 from an ROE, your regional office of education, not yours. It was actually the one in St. Clair County saying, "We need help in East St. Louis." I never stepped foot in East St. Louis in my life, but decided to give it a whirl. That was an experience I I was not um perhaps prepared for. I had to be escorted to my car at night out of the schools, and I wasn't used to that. That's not where I grew up in farm country. But I decided to stay and I spent five years
069in East St. Louis. We now have three commendable schools. I'm not going to claim any. The teachers did that. If I played some small role as their reading consultant, I'm pretty thrilled. But I spent five years with them. From that work, I spun off to Collinsville, Belleville, and you can see how long I've been with them. Last week, I told Belleville, it's time to cut me loose. I have now trained their um instructional coaches to a point where they don't need me anymore. And she the superintendent said, "We've never had a consultant that fired herself, but that's what I need to do at this point. They are ready to fly." And I'm proud of them. Sparta, I've been with them six years on and off. My topics include classroom management, literacy, data, student and family
070engagement. That's where my my expertise lies. These are my other contracts right now. California, Nevada, Ohio, and Oklahoma. My heart is classroom management. I am the kid that nobody wanted in their class. I was actually thrown out of school three times in my education experience and then went on to write a best-selling book on classroom management. So, I don't know. Only in America. Okay. And while that's my heart, literacy is my passion because too many of our kids are falling through the cracks and we can't allow it to happen anymore. So, we are in a really cool place right now. Even though we have bad news, 65, some people say up to 67% of our fourth graders do not read in the nation, not just in K City. You may even be a little above
071this, read below grade level. That's unacceptable. And the amount of money that we have funneled into title, into special ed, into RTI, raised to the top, no child left behind. How couldn't this be happening to us? And so, and we know my chance of catching you, and I can teach kids to read, and still my chance of catching you if you get to fourth grade, not on grade level, is 8%. It's a heartbreak. So we look and say reading is the skill and is the path by which children travel to all other subjects. I knew a little guy recently who said to me I hate school Mrs. White and I said you always love school. He said only because of math. And now why does he hate school? Because the math problems he can't read
072any longer. So he loved math until he couldn't read them. Reading is that skill. So I want to share some data because I don't want you to take my word for it. I want to show you that this is a school, one of those that was listed in your area with the same types of students that you service. This is our beginning of the year scores this year. We have far too many kids below grade level. We're beating the national average, but not by much, guys. Okay, this is us midy year. Midyear. I am proud of the hard work and dedication of the teachers who have dug deep to look and say, "What do we need to do different to get better results?" This is the first grade. You can see the second grade. We're
073really good at moving kids who are above and we've been working at this. This is our uh third year. So, we had more blue to begin with, but we definitely have to eliminate more and more of the red. I'm proudest of this with the teachers who teach third and fourth because we have no idea that we are challenging those teachers with a task that isn't really doable. We are sending you kids and expecting you to teach content. You are now content teachers three, four, five up, but you can't read. So how are you going to learn the content? So we know that this is huge for those teachers to be able to move them when everything surrounds I have to teach content. I can't also be teaching a child how to read at the same
074time. So, third grade. Um, I love data that's on the money. This is I'm going to share that this is Belleville because you don't know whose class this is. So, this is a Belleville um school. I work in 118 and they are using a systematic um phonics approach that is explicit and the results we're seeing are very encouraging. But every teacher, how many teachers sitting in the room tonight? Anybody be happy with that line down at the bottom where you go from a child that didn't know it up to a child that has mastered it and only in several months? Because we t we gave them the tools to absolutely look and say, "What do I need to change today? I'm not going to wait till the test in March. I don't have time. I
075need to know what to change today." So data is very important to me. I'm proud in Belleville right now. We just did our data walks two weeks ago. I spent 10 days in that district doing data chats with teachers and administrators. We have several schools now with no students outside of the ones with IEP in the red at the first grade level. That is huge because it means we won't send you to third not reading. That's the bottom line. So, they're doing a great job. One of our biggest accomplishments in a different school district will have been our ability to reduce special education referrals. That is huge because it allows us to keep whoop to keep our resources with the kids who need the most, the kids who really need them, a place where we
076often can't intervene. So districts close to you have had great success. They want to share. I reached out to Belleville. I said, "What if a team came up and wanted to visit and to see how we put this together? Collinsville, would you let us come into a classroom that's using a program that they might be considering?" Because if you think a publisher's presentation ever comes here and says, "You might not want to buy us." Okay, that doesn't happen. So, we need the people that are using it. And that's the teachers, the people that have to administrate these programs. And so, um, so I went out to visit your schools and I went out to talk to teachers and I believe I ended up hitting 78 or close to it. At first I thought class size
077was going to be a concern because one of the buildings started talking to me about class size and you can see that turned out to be like not really a big deal. But what did turn out to be a big deal? 69 of the teachers that I spoke to wanted to talk to me about curriculum, wanted to understand, I'm working hard every day, but I'm not getting any results. So, what's going on? Some teachers wanted to talk about assessment and data and then management, classroom management. Kids don't have great social emotional skills right now. So, what are we doing in those three areas? Collaboration with title. Yeah, we talked but it didn't seem to be as concerning to people. So, let's start with this one curriculum. Okay, as a national consultant, you come in and
078you want to know first line of defense. So, our first line of defense is your tier one curriculum. It is set across the nation. I'm going to give Grin City a little less should be able to I'm going to go with I'll take 70. 70% of your kid children should be able to be successful with tier one curriculum without a teacher killing herself to find extras. I asked teachers, do you have that? I didn't get one yes. Not one. So that's where I would start. I would look to that. You cannot intervene at tier two and tier three if you don't have a strong tier one coming in. So then I began to think, what do teachers know about the latest science? Now some of you may have heard about the science of reading. This
079is going to explode. If you have not heard about it and you're a podcast listener listener, there is a podcast called Sold a Story by Emily Hansen. Hanford, I'm sorry. Emily Hanford. She talks about how we ended up here. She's an investigative journalist and I think she's blown up education like Watergate was blown up. She basically had a fourth grader that couldn't read and wanted to know how this could happen in the United States. And so she went looking for answers. We now have figured out that the science that would have shown us best practices just never made it to us, the people who were teaching. See, because neuroscientists don't talk education language. Cognitive sciences don't talk education language. So there's been a a kind of a disconnect between the way we know the brain
080reads and the way we've been teaching. This is so big in the United people are going to tell me this is another shift on it'll go away. Trust me, it's not going away and you'll see why in a second. It's not going away. There are states legislating now and you're coming up on it. And so the truth is this is the first time that we've said what we do really doesn't work. If 67% of our fourth graders can't read, we're doing something wrong. And so the science is not a curriculum. So if somebody says you we need to get that science of reading curriculum, there is no science of reading curriculum. There are people that are approved within the scientific field to present a way to teach. So science of reading was one of my
081questions. The readingleague.org is a nonprofit. They have no skin. Kind of like I don't know anyone in Granite City. I have no skin in this game to say nice things about somebody or not nice things about somebody. The reading league doesn't either when it comes to reading. They are nonprofit. You have a your own chapter in Illinois. We have our own chapter in New York. And that's an awesome thing. They're offering us guidelines because they're saying, "Don't invest your money in the wrong programs because when the state legislates, we have to be ready. We have to get in front of the eight-ball." The truth be told, there's no excuse for poor outcomes anymore. We'll tell you, as I read this and went to visit Dr. uh David Kilpatrick out in Courtland University. I couldn't believe
082it when he told me, "Donna, the research shows up there's only 5% of kids who have such severe cognitive impairments that it would make reading very difficult for them." 5%. What does that leave then? You mean 95% could learn to read? Yes. So, let's break it down. 95% of our students, it has said, and some of you are these people, that 30% of you would learn to read without anybody teaching you, you would pick it up by being exposed to print and oral language and all of a sudden be a reader. But that's still going to leave us with this 65%. 50% need great tier one instruction and 15% need more time and support. Not a ton of more new things, more time and more support and learning the different things. So, which states have
083already passed science and reading laws? It's on its way. In Illinois, it will come. And so, New York's not out here either. I can't believe that Mississippi beat us both. I mean, that's just, you know, something not right with this. But the things that they're looking at are things like PD, but the two that jump out at me are, do we have the right assessments and are we teaching with the right materials? And if a state's going to come in and say, you can only use the approved materials that have been have been selected according with the newest research, then you want to make sure that you didn't waste your money on something that didn't um come in that way. So, I asked your teachers. I needed them to self assess. And they were super
084honest with me. Some of them, I know you were probably wondering, "Oh gosh, I hope she doesn't say my name." And I promised I wouldn't, and I won't. They self assessed. What do we know about the newest research in science of reading? 11 teachers gave themselves a zero. Three of those teachers are brand new out of a local university. Shame on the university that they have not traded that and they have not flipped this yet. We've known about this for a couple of years. I know the pandemic slowed us down, but we certainly should be more on the bandwagon. 13 teachers gave themselves a 1, 17, a two, 11, a three, and you've got almost threequarters of your teachers between a zero and a three. They need PD. They need support. They need to understand
085not what it is. How does it apply to my classroom? Tell me what to do tomorrow. Don't tell me about the theory and everything. Tell me what I can change to make it better for kids. And so you have a couple I met one that I thought I'd take her on the road with me. She's got this. But she has spent oodles of her own time and money educating herself. And so we do have to look at that. Your teachers are exhausted. I didn't meet one that said, "Give us a few more things to do because we don't have enough to do every day." Not one, believe it or not. down. Not a one. They all said, "I'm tired. I'm beat up. Done. I work really hard and I get no results. I don't know
086what to say because I'm doing the best I can with what I have." This is what you have. I found all of these programs in your building that are in the worldle on the right. Some of them good, some of them a little scary, some of them really old, some of them definitely not aligned with the newest signs that we know. And so, how could you not be tired if you were a teacher out there going, "Just give me something that works. I'll take this, this, this." Wonders was your basil series for reading. But Wonders is also a few years behind. It always took major hits for lack of phonics instruction, which under the new science, your teachers are shaking their head. Yes. But under the new science says that's the path forward, but that's
087where it's weak. And the other weakness was writing. It was a nationally known thing that wonders kind of were weak in both of those and it's imperative that we identify what should we be using is it working and how do we keep using that or take it away. I said to many of your teachers if I told you I could make your job easier and I could also raise your scores would you follow me? And most of them said yes. And I said okay now I got bad news though. I'm going to take the program you love most. will you still follow me? Some hesitated, but they said if the scores go up, I will. Okay, they're des they want that for the kids. So, let's look at all children can learn. What do we
088know about a brain? If you are gifted or talented like some of us in this room takes one to four repetitions to learn something. So, I'm going to teach you something. One to four times, you're probably going to gain it. Typical student needs to hear it four to 14. All those times I was a teacher and said, "I have said this 10 times, honey. I was far off of what they needed." Okay? That's what I decided. A struggling student 14 to 40 and a learning disabled 40 to 200. If I have all those programs, I'm never going to get the repetition that I need to ensure that you are successful. The next one was assessment and data. I began looking at, okay, how what are we using to drive our instruction? When a teacher says
089to me, it's a lot, Donna. We have a lot of assessments, and I do use it, but I don't always get to it. It tells me it's not easy enough. It's not quick enough for a teacher that's already overburdened to say, I need to press a button and know how many kids in here need this skill. And so, we begin to look and say, what are our assessments and data? There's a lot of them out there, guys. These are the ones I heard about. Some old, some aligned with programs that you owned at one time. 23 out of 73 of your teachers told me none of the above help me. You know what? I know what they need or I have self-created something. Which is great, but guys, we can't report that. And it's, you
090know, when it's our opinion, we still have to ask where's the data that supports that. So the assessments, we have to look at those. The third one, I get it. You guys have rooms full of kids like me, okay? And I was tough. And so when I wrote you can't teach a class, you can't manage. I wrote it from the perspective of the kid that you couldn't manage instead of someone who thought we should manage classrooms this way. The reality is lots of what we do actually create more behavior issues for us in classrooms. And one of the things that will drive kids to misbehave most is not being successful. You give them success. We all behave in places we want to be. When they don't want to be here, we ought to be questioning
091what's going on. So I wrote the um Essie built social emotional behavioral learning progress monitoring system for Illinois. I have shared it in California in Nevada. I wrote strategies. Again a teacher in this room if you're you know want those activities you just write to me. I'll send them all to you. So the other thing is making students accountable. See the teacher can work her butt off his butt off. I can't make you learn. I can teach it, but I can't make you learn it. So, where is the accountability? I feel like students need to work harder than the kids. And right now, the teachers are working harder than the kids. I mean, the students need to work harder than the teachers. And that's backwards right now. This comes down to are students motivated? Are
092they held accountable? And what kind of discipline is in place? And I don't mean what can we do to them. Please, we have to stop. What other consequence can we give them? Many of our kids live in a place none of us would last a day. I can't imagine we can do something worse to them than that. So I would say instead, what can we do for them and how do we turn this around? So, I'm going to use the example, and it just happens to be Star Data in Ohio, but I was in with a seventh grader, and between August and December, his score went down down significantly, 40 points. I called him in, I had a data sheet, and I said, you know, can you tell me what happened here? He drew his
093he filled it in and he goes, Oh, I went down. Yeah. So basically what happened is you came to school and we made you less smart. What are we gonna do? He goes, "No, you didn't, Mrs. White. I didn't really I didn't sleep the night before." Okay, but babe, you're in an RTI class where you tell me you're bored all the time. Taking a seat from a student that needs it based on data that we got from this. I need you to tell me what you can do differently and set a goal for this. We need to invite our children. I gave the sheet to many of your teachers. They tell me they want to try it. Make a data folder. Invest in them. So I said to him, "What do you think you can
094get back?" You went down 40 points. He said, "200." I said, "Okay, that's not reasonable, babe." Okay, let's get the 40 back and add a few. I said, "Maybe like 20, 60." He goes, "63. Let's write it. 63 points we're going to go up on the progress monitoring we were doing at the end of January." He wrote, "I will sleep the night before under the things I will do to help meet my goal." But my favorite was number two. I will actually try. His data coach reached out to me last week and said, "I don't know if you have a few minutes down at a FaceTime, but someone's looking for you." And she said to me, "Tyler went from an 865 to a 1068." And I said, "Tell him I'm looking for him." Okay. He
095wanted to tell me that he had a chance to have superintendent uh lunch with the superintendent. He turned it down and said, "No, I want to talk to Mrs. White about it." So, sorry, superintendent, but no, this was actually in Ohio. We have to get them invested in their own data. They have to know why we do it, why it's important. We've overassessed them and by doing that, we've made them think it's not important anymore. So looking at that while we are waiting around for change and others to step forward and be the hero. We don't realize all of us in this room and in a school we are their superheroes. We're it. We're all they got. So we have to do it right. My proposal I think I would love to offer my services.
096And trust me, you know, I have nine now. I Stephanie caught me at the right moment in a career where I was releasing two. I would love to be a part of your district and looking at how do we get the right curriculum so teachers are not working too hard that kids are working harder than they are. What do we do with the assessments we have? How do we train on how to interpret that assessment so I can use it tomorrow? So elementary core curriculum should be a focus right now. If you follow the research, you have Michael Hagerty's work in phmic awareness and that's awesome except for it's from 2004. So Michael died a decade ago, Dr. Hagerty. And I would say that we probably need to look at something more current in his
097line of um he left it to two women who have done a wonderful job bringing it forward, a review of the assessment and perhaps telling our teachers why they exist because I too need to know why it's important. If you tell me we're getting another assessment and it's simply because we have to report to the state to keep our funding, then we need to know that. So, we know the value of each one. But if you're telling me you gave me an assessment to drive instruction, then I need to know how to use that to drive my instruction, prioritize and provide professional development. I probably am one of the for few consultants and I really believe that the districts that I named hired me because they were like so you do management too reading management.
098Yeah. You do data? Yeah. We just hire one. Okay. So I do do a lot of the professional development myself and I want to work in the classrooms. No teacher wants somebody to come tell her how she could do it with kids unless I'm willing to climb in. I I got to do that in one of your rooms. See, a little boy came in the other day in the K center and uh he handed the teacher the note and the teacher said, "You don't have a fever, hun. So, you're probably okay. Why don't you just sit down?" So, he sat down with the group and about five minutes later, we all went to the tables to do something and you heard every kid scream. You turned around. This child was sick everywhere. And the teacher
099said, and I said, "You take him. I'll take the rest and we'll call the custodian. So, I actually got to show I'm a hands-on person. I You've got to work with the people that work with the kids, not the people that direct it, the people who work with the kids to help them to figure the quickest path forward. And I'll I'll leave you with this thought um that yes, parents may have the greatest impact on how their children come to us, but in the end, don't forget those parents know that we have the greatest impact on how they leave us. And it's our job. My how I set up my goal is would I allow that for my child? Would I want my child in that class? Would I want my child to be treated
100that way? Would I want my child to have to struggle in learning the way this child does? And if the answer is no, then we have to do better. And when we know better, we do better. So, I'm happy to send you a proposal if you are interested. If not, I am thrilled that you had me here. And um you know, Granite City is a cool little town. Uh like I said, much bigger than the one I grew up in. And I was thrilled to be a part of. Everyone has been super friendly here. um and very open arms. So, thank you for having me and if I I hope our paths cross again. Thank you. [Applause] Thanks so much, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm gonna go catch a plane. Thank you. It's okay.
101I get all the way to California without a computer, I'm going to be in trouble. Thank you. Thank you very much. Be careful. Stay quiet. Thanks. Have a great Thank you. And attendance center evaluations committee report. Um I can lean into this one. We've been working uh very hard. Talon, Curran, and Erica Vinnie are on this committee uh with myself and we have been working for probably the last year and a half on trying to give information out, trying to get plans on what it wanted to look like. Um, they worked again today on some things we met yesterday. Do you want to fill them in a little bit on So, last time we gave an update, I ran it. So, I'm going to let talk a little bit and then I'll just chime in
102as I see that. Oh, okay. Yeah, we met yesterday um the three of us and uh Brady was in there uh to assist with, you know, when it comes down to moving away an attendance center model. You have to evaluate all the different schools, where they are, how close they are to one another. Um, how we're going to have to split the district again in terms of who goes to what school, all that stuff, which you're never going to make everybody happy when that comes uh to pass. But um we did look at a few ways to do that. Um we're looking at several different options. A lot of it's based around money to be honest. Um, in terms of how we can make this feasible, uh, the good thing is we're we're it's being
103planned out, you know, well in advance. Uh, we're getting ready to uh, show the public a lot of this data, too, because we want to be transparent. This is transparent. You know, I say as transparent as possible, it sounds like it could be not transparent. Not transparent. So, we want to be transparent on this. Um, and Uh it's just looking at you know like we said I mean the normal stuff that people think of uh one thing I think I we mentioned this at the last last time we spoke about this but again we don't have enough schools to return to what people remember from the 80s and the early 90s and certainly prior all the school closures that happened in the 80s. Um, so but we want to get close to that and uh
104this doesn't necessarily affect our bus numbers. That's a common thing you hear, oh, we're going to spend less on transportation. Not so much because we don't have enough schools for that to be possible anymore. Um, so again, you know, some of this has to we've looked at some construction plans, um, preliminary stuff, you know, drawings in terms of if we need to add on to a few buildings to make this possible. And I don't know if there's anything you want to fill in. Yeah. So, I mean, we're looking at a variety of options given the schools that we currently have and what multi-grade levels can be in there. So, first thing we need to do is we're preparing all of ourselves, the public, and the community for this is get rid of the idea of
105a neighborhood school. That is not going to happen. I live behind Wilson school. I might not send my kid to Wilson school if you know how this all works out. So like that is not on the table and it's not necessarily the right thing either. But what we are looking toward is using what we have and what kind of investments we can make in that. I mean close your eyes for a second and think about when's the last time we got built a new school in this town. Never since I've lived here. Yeah. So, you know, we could look at building a school, but that's going to cost a lot of money. We can renovate some schools. we can make some changes and work with what we have. So, by being fiscally responsible, we're trying
106to see what we have and how we can maximize that. The newest schools we don't own anymore. Yeah, that's one way to look at that. We sold also we're very we I mean, we can be very honest. Helen and I definitely want to get back to multi-grade level centers some form or fashion. As a educator myself, that's something I strongly believe in for lots of reasons. But you got to do it in a smart way. We don't need to create a whole bunch of other problems by trying to solve one. So that's why this process is taking a long time. I mean, we literally need to go through buildings and you know, I know like that's been talked about in the past and we did that. We need to do a more thorough job of
107that this time and we need to really see what we have because what the last thing we need to do is isolate or exclude a whole population of children because that's not going to solve anything. And so we're doing this carefully and consciously without trying to raise taxes because nobody's trying to get their taxes raised, right? So there are options that will come up financially that we've already been exploring bonds, things like that that aren't going to raise tax payer taxes at all. And in fact, I don't know if any of you know this data, but Miss K can talk more than I can or Zach can because I'm not a financial person. I just like to spend the money. Um, but we're like debt free. Almost debt free. Yeah. I mean, in my head,
108debt free, but yeah. And if you compare our debt to other districts in the area and beyond, I mean, any pick any district, we're like way low on debt. That's right. Exactly. We also have one of the lowest tax rates in Madison County for school. So, you know, it's not going to come without a price tag. We don't know what that price tag is, but we're working really hard to make sure that that is as low as possible because we're not trying to get ourselves into a financial position where we got to close schools again and we got to lay off people and all this other stuff. So, I mean, that's all I really wanted to add to that. But, so really kind of think, you know, get rid of the idea of neighborhood schools
109because also even some of our schools that currently exist, you can't walk to school. You don't walk to Griggsby. Excuse me. There's like two streets that can walk to Griggsby and I still wouldn't recommend it because Cargill Road, I drive crazy down that road. I know the rest of it. So, make sure you first I think what she's trying to say is that we're trying to look at trying to look at every aspect of this and not to make an impulsive decision and and make we'll have when it comes time when we have plans we're ready for them. We'll definitely be put out there. Correct. We're going to, you know, we want to do this the right way. And this is not a political response to say, "Oh, we're working on it. It's going to
110take some time." No, it's literally going to take a year and a half at least. And we're working on it. A lot of people don't know that because why are we going to We don't want to make promises we're not going to keep either. So, we're trying to educate ourselves and do our due diligence by examining the district, examining what possibilities are out there and to make sure we're not operating with blinders on ourselves because I have a set of idea. I was just joking with Brad yesterday because I was like, "Well, this is what we need. These grades here, these grades here, these grades here." And then he talked me through buses. I'm like, "Yeah, okay. We got to get them to the school." So I think there's so many things that determine we're
111it's not just okay we're going to do this but as someone that's grown up in this district that has taught in this district that now has a child in this district I really like the process that we're working with because I feel like we're going about it in a smart way with a future focus instead of trying to put band-aids on a situation or piece together a lot of stuff. So that's what we have for now. We'll be giving more consistent updates as it goes. But do some Yep. Was that good, Tom? Anything else? And I mean, if anybody if anybody has questions, you know, feel free to reach out. I'm easy to get a hold of. Um I think Eric Eric is easy to get a hold of. I'm never um because yeah, that's
112another thing too. Shockingly, a lot of people don't ever ask a question of any of us sometimes. So it's like and I've told people you know we are going back to the neighborhood schools as close as we can. It's never like she said it's not going to be what it right. One part I want to mention that we talked in detail about last yesterday is whenever we have information to share, we want to do it in a transparent like an actual transparent way where we can get information out to you, give you some time to review it, then have some town halls and talk, get some feedback where you're educated coming to that and not being like here's what we're doing. Sound good? Great. Let's do it. Yeah. Okay. So like that's going to slow
113it down a little bit too. And also we want feedback from people because you're the have to take. I mean, I'm I got to take my kid to school, too. And we'll figure that out. And so, it been here long enough. No, great job. Good update. Appreciate that. Thank you both. Um, that's all for presentations. What a great evening. I know. We do have session. Okay. All right. Um, I think that's everything on the agenda. We've had taking us right up to executive session. So I will entertain a motion to go into executive session very briefly. So move. So move if it's brief. It's brief. Second. All those in favor say I. I.