001What are you doing? All right, everybody. Welcome to the of education meeting for Tuesday, October 24th, 2023. Um, let's go ahead and do a roll call. Oh, she's not here. Silva here. Bradley here. Stacy here. Curran here. Kenogal here. Lman here. Vinnie here. And Forbes here. We have a form. I love that. I thought she was asleep there for a second. She's on the couch. She was like, well, she was looking down. So it looks like someone is zooming on her music. She has a If everyone would please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by an invitation by Pastor Jared Baptist Church 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. Before I begin, I
002want to let you know that this Thursday is the 2-year anniversary of Officer Tyler Timonss's death. And so, as we begin our invocation, I want to invite you to share a moment of silence with me on behalf of him and his family. Let's pray. God, we come to you tonight asking for your help. God, we have many kids in this district. We're so blessed to serve them and see them succeed. God, we pray for their welfare, their well-being. We pray tonight for the kids who don't get enough hugs. God, we pray for the kids who so desperately need the care of their teachers. God, we pray that you would continue to instill within every student in this district what it means to have a bright and successful future. And we pray tonight that everything that
003takes place in this meeting would be to that end in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Now for public comment. Okay. uh approval of the minutes of the regular meeting on October 10th. So move second recogniz if it seems a little like deja vu. It might be. But what a good one it is. Cynthia Cochran, please come up and let us recognize you again. She's going to be famous. Um, I just I just can't believe this really. You're just amazing. Thank you. Uh, we'd like to recognize Cynthia Cochran, a Prager Elementary Education cafe cook. And she's not just a cook. If you've been over there, she's there for the kids. She loves on the kids. It's amazing to watch her in action. Um, those kids will come up. anything they need. That whole group
004out there is just I got a email from a teacher even saying that she lost her contact the other day and they were all helping her trying to find the contact. So, um this group was really amazing, but Cynthia in particular um we've already recognized her for helping a student once doing the Highland River. They were chas muffin and she literally jumped into action and knew exactly what to do. Saved that student and again she has done it and this time what was it? What was this? Is this a muffin or son? This one was a bacon. Oh, that's right. This was a muffin. And the fact that she knew and was there and knew what to do is is just astonishing. I mean, you never know what could happen in the time that you
005had to identify if a kid's choking, they can't reach out and let you know. And they're kindergarteners. So, I am just we're so blessed to have you in the district and have your quick action and your care and concern for those students. So, I just wanted to tell you thank you. It's amazing. [Applause] She can't have all she can have relief. We wanted to thank you principal. You want to say a few words? Yeah, absolutely. Just like Mrs. K said that Mrs. Cochran knows the students and she she knew the student in particular and she she keeps special eye on all of them, but today it was the extra special eye that that was the the touch. So, we we absolutely thank her and couldn't do it without her every day. It's amazing what they
006do. Thank you. Kids know her name. It's just really amazing. So, thank you. Yes. That's what it's all about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Applause] Are you going to start saving the dislodged items? a little rack up there. Seriously amazing. I'm just so proud. Now we had some move. Second. Second. And then uh any discussion? Probably not. Roll call. Bradley. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Currin. Hi Nogle. Hi Leman. Hi Vinnie. Silva. I um next is the consent agenda which is those items that are repetitive and routine in nature. As you can make a motion to approve the consent agenda or request that any items be moved to section seven for individual discussion and consideration. We have a motion. So move discussion. Right. Once again, I get to talk about gifts. Um, it's not
007just it's one, but I still can't get over that we have so many people in this community that are willing to give back. The United Methodist Church of Christ, um, the women's group in particular donated all majority of the items they needed for the Mitchell emergency buckets that we're using for our safety program. Um, do you want to talk? They bring it in or Sorry. Did they bring the stuff in? They did. Yes, they brought in water and granola bars and duct tape and all kinds and they're still working on getting more items because they had the list and then they brought them all in. Right. Right. That's just incredible that they even asked and were able to do that. So, we're very appreciative once again to make sure Stacy. Hi Curran. Hi Kogal. Hi
008Lenamman. Hi Vinnie. Hi Silva. Hi and Bradley. Hi. Okay. Section 8A rescended retirements and resignations. Uh it's recommended that the following retirements and resations be rescended. Miss Amy Heath, science teacher, GCHS and effective 4425. She's close to my age. That's hard. I've known her my whole life. People allious media center GCHS receiving an effective end of 2425 as well. We have a motion. Second discussion. Roll call. Currin. Hi. Nogle. Hi. Lennon. Hi. Benny. Hi. Silva. Hi. Bradley. Hi. Stacy. I. Okay. Um 8B retirements and resignations. It is recommended that the following retirements and reservations be accepted. Miss Heath, science teacher, GCHS, retirement of 2324. Paul Matious, media center, GCHS, retirement 2324. Paul Ward, title one parent professional, retirement 122123. And myself, Stephanie K, superintendent of schools, retirement effective 6:30. So move. Second. Second. discussion. I
009just want to say that I'm gonna try and do this without you. I have been blessed to be able to come back here where I'm from and graduated and be a part of this community again. It's it's truly been an honor. Uh a lot of extenduating circumstances going on right now. I never would want to leave. I uh feel very connected to the students and the teachers and the staff and the community. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to work for you and I will work very last that I'm here and anyone needs after. Just want to thank you for that opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to follow up with uh it's a very difficult job superintendent. I don't think I knew exactly what was involved when I got on the board.
010I'm still sure I don't know the dayto- day exactly. Uh don't know how you could unless you've done the job. But Stephanie was hired shortly before I was first appointed. and uh she's been easy to work with in my opinion. Uh and I'm just grateful that we had her for the time that we did. And uh thank you very much. I'd like to say something also. Stephanie has been the most incredible hardwork that I've had the pleasure to work with. And uh I can only say that she has given her all to this community and I just am going to be at a loss for her. Her kindness, her generosity, her care about this community, her care especially about the children. She is so so much involved in children and I can't say enough uh
011for the way I have uh known her and respect her and I will always carry uh a little bit of Stephanie can with me whenever I go into a classroom and work with children. Thank you so much Stephanie. Okay, roll call. Kenobi, Linnaman, I Benny, I Silva. Hi Bradley. Hi Stacy. I Okay. Uh 8 C requests for leaves of absence. It is recommended that the following request for leaves of absences be approved. Stacy Bell professional of page effective 11323 to 2524. Richie Scurval P teacher Mayor Bill Wilson effective 102623 to1824. administrative assistant 1242324 move second discussion roll call Linnaman I Benny Hi Silva I Bradley I Stacy I Curran hi I Okay 8D requests for extensions to legal It is recommended the following request for less of abser 11923 to 11524. Second discussion roll call
012Vinnie. Hi Silva. Hi Bradley. Hi Stacy. Hi Curran. Hi Kenobyl. Hi and lamman. Hi Okay. Um 8 E extracurricular resignations for the 2324 school year. You have proceeded below detailed information on this item. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. The GCSD administration is recommending the following extracurricular resations for the 2324 school year be accepted. Daryl Davis, GCHS assistant football coach. Mark Wilson, Coolage head football coach. Second. Okay. Discussion. Roll call. Silva. Hi. Bradley. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Currin. Hi. Snow. Hi. Linaman. Hi. And Denny. Hi. Okay. 8 M. Extracurricular recommendations for the 2324 school year. Below there's detailed information that you receive about this item. We are prepared to make recommendations are hold for discussion in executive session. The GCSDI administration has recommended the following extracurricular assignments for
013the 2324 school year be approved. These are all uh second quarter lunch duty for Grisby and second roll call Bradley. Hi Stacy. I Curran. Hi Kenobyl. Hi Lynaman. Hi Denny. Hi and Silva. Hi. Okay. 8GB certified and classified substitutes. You receive detailed information about this information. This item the administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in session. It is recommended the following applicants be board approved as substitutes for the 23 204 school year. Brook Batson, Holly Crider, and Vicky Hardy. Uh, approval is recommended pending the submission of second. Okay. Discussion and roll call. Stacy, I. Currin, hi. No. Hi, Lynman. Hi, Vinnie. Vinnie, you're on mute. She's an I. Silva, hi. And Bradley, hi. I'm sorry. I didn't know terrible. Okay. 8H1, the employment of one safety, social, emotional, and behavioral monitor
014for the 2324 school. Hello. You've received detailed information about this item. We are prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. In GCSD9 administration and interview committee consisting of Dr. David Ke, Tim Mcristian, Christy Mode and Connie Patterson are recommending the employment of Gerald Dean Hardy as a safety social emotional behavioral monitor 1 for the 2324 school year at GCHS. Approval is recommended pending the submission of the fire. So move that second and okay. Any discussion? And roll call. Current. Hi. Canal. Hi. Lenamman. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Silva. Hi. Bradley. Hi. And Stacy. Hi. IMRF. Yeah. 10A IMRFitted service credit. The administration is requesting the approval to grant prior IMRF admitted service credit for Randy Bailey, Kenneth Wilson, and Brandy. Approval is recommended. Mr. If you could just It's just clean up for
015sub. They worked over the 600 hours, so they qualified for IMRF, so we're just cleaning it up, right? But we need board approval to it. So, it doesn't cost us anything. Roll call. Canoval. Hi Leman. Hi Vinnie. Hi Silva. Hi Bradley. Hi Stacy. I and Curran. Hi. 10B. The request to intervene in appeal appeal proceeding at the property tax appeal. PTAB WPT Inner Park Drive LLP. I know school probably help us out this way. The GCS9 administration request that the board of education approve the attached resolution so that district attorney Tom School intervene in the property tax appeal board with regard to the appeal by WPT inner park drive LLP at 5620 to 5628 inner park drive grant city Illinois 62040 do you want to it's just the same yeah this is one of the
016warehouses out in Pontoon Beach and they're anytime that they're requesting more than $100,000 reduction of the assessed valuation which is $300,000 in market value. The taxing districts are entitled to know. And the reason it's important for us to intervene because a big warehouse, some of those warehouses out there pay anywhere from 300 to million dollars in property taxes each year. And if they get a big reduction on that, it doesn't mean that that amount goes away. It means that the residents of Granite City or at the school district have to make up that reduction through their property taxes. So, it's good that we fight this to keep the taxes low. And a lot of times whenever we do this out there, we're joining in with the other taxing districts like Metro Sanitary District in this
017case and the ones that Edward School District comes down and it is in that area as well as well as the city. We combine resources to get appraisals to fight this. So, that that's why we do it to help one keep property taxes down there and it's very beneficial. school district and approved. So move. Second. So move. Any more discussion? Roll call. Liman. Hi. Benny. Hi. Silva. Hi. Bradley. Hi. Stacy. I. Curran. Hi. And Kenobyl. Hi. Okay. Uh 10 C. GCHS soccer field alternates. Discussion slash approval. At the board of education meeting on Tuesday, October 10th, the base bid was awarded to ATG in the amount of 1,299,000 for the GCHS soccer field trip. This bid did not include the alternate items we listed below. Um I could have uh Eric Smith comment. I've had
018him look at these alternate bids and we have some discussion points for you as well. So Mr. Smith Yeah. Um alternative one is uh to flip the field. So basically the uh the um bleachers would be on the west side of the field so the parents wouldn't be looking into the sun and it would be backed up to the football field. Uh this uh price that's given here is for to take down our old bleachers, get them handicapped uh up to date and uh uh move. My opinion is those bleachers are in pretty rough shape. They're missing a lot of parts to do that. I think this price might be a little low. I know this is their bid, but there could be some some other stuff. So, we're right now acquiring pricing on new
019bleachers. So, this this price may go up just a little bit. Um, far as the concrete flat work, that's from the football field to if we do flip this field to the front or to the edge of the soccer field. So, to go from football field to the edge of the soccer field where the bleachers are now will all be concreted by the football field. So where the where the press box is, where the big warrior press box, that will all be concrete there and bleachers will be setting on that. So there won't be dirt in between those the soccer and football field. Eric, I'm guessing in our picture it's lit. Uh that picture is I guess that's only what I had. wanted you to have you could No, I just wanted to make sure
020that uh one thing with that concrete price, uh we're going to have a a prejob before they start any any work out there. And one thing I want to make sure is that they're able to access the lights on the soccer field because they have to have a big boom truck in there to get uh to get up to those lights. So, we're getting pricing on possibly doing LED lights that are guaranteed for 25 years or having the pad in that area thick enough to support the weight of the vehicle that's going to have to uh uh change the light bulbs. So, that price may vary a little bit. Um still unknown there. Uh but it should be real close though. Um and to extend the turf, that's basically where the sidewalk is now. that's
021along the south end of the uh soccer field. That's behind the goal. That's so close right there. So, we're going to take that sidewalk out, move it outside the fence area because if we flip this field, um uh no spectators are going to be walking across the field. It's basically going to be players. So, we're just going to extend that turf out to the north and south side a little bit. And then our sidewalk will still connect to the football. Um, other than that, the one thing we are also kind of looking at is again that old press box kind of an eyes sore. It's in need of a lot of repair. If we do all of this, maybe we look at tearing that down. I'm also getting pricing on another um press box that
022is close to the one that's on Failing Road. That's on for the football field. It's on the Failing Road side of the field. There's a press box in the bleachers. Looking for something to that effect that can split soccer and football on that side that we can utilize and get rid of that old press box because the roof isn't very secure anymore. Um it's leaking. Uh we've already stopped the access for up on the roof because of the safety. Um and there's a lot of tuck pointing that needs to happen in that. And so that's something we're looking at. So, we might have a few more pricing far as new bleachers and maybe a press box. Also, I have a question here. Yeah. The the sidewalk that goes from the soccer field over to Koolage,
023what what part of Koolage does that connect to? The parking lot or just building it? That connects to the building itself. Um what they did they use that for um kids to be able to come on a coolage that maybe uh uh wheelchair or or just a nice on a wet day they have a sidewalk so that sidewalk will put back so those kids can still walk around that soccer and football field. Okay. I just wondered I didn't know if it went to the trying to remember if it went over there by the parking lot. It does go all the way to the parking lot. It goes to the parking lot. It does. Yeah. That's what I was wondering because I thought that would be good. access perfect. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Guess the
024question is do we vote to accept all three alternates or do we need to break them out individually? Well, yeah. That's a board decision. Whatever you guys What is I guess my I guess my question before we even start I I guess I have a few questions. Um you said like the the bleachers that will be in addition to these three. No no 133 that they have for the bleachers that's to take take down the old bleachers move them over to that west side and put them back together and put them back together. I'm I'm thinking pretty close to that number. maybe 2030 more thousand we can actually have brand new bleachers up to date new stuff that and doesn't what we have require retrofitting yes it does there's a lot of retrofitting in that
025that those bleachers are well over 30 years old they they were out on the baseball field whenever that was the soccer field we had tip to cut grass so that would be something we can't change well yeah that's what we can't really vote on that I would almost changing. Yeah, I would almost uh uh the concrete work there could be a little addition to that. I I think this would be that we're either going to flip the field and take on some of these prices or we leave it as is. When you say we take on some of those prices, the board the district we do some of the work. Uh far as the bleachers go, we might end up contracting that. are not contracting uh but getting the bids on those ourselves. Okay. We
026have a new bid the concrete work uh for the time frame. I believe the contractor needs to do that. That's where the prejob's going to come in. There might be a few thousand dollar difference on that price for the thickness of concrete. Okay. Um the extending turf alternative three that's a set price if we're going to do this. So we can vote on that one. You can vote on the other two is close. Is two going to be two is close but it is not an exact amount. I I need to talk to them to actually have that exact amount. All right. And there again, in the future, we're we may look at lights depending on because I'm supposed to meet with the lighting company out there and they're going to give their recommendations on
027what they're how much space they're going to need to get out there to those lights because I don't want to have this field built and then we can't access the lights. Okay. I think we just vote on three then. Yeah, that's what if you want to. Yeah. So, uh, do we have a motion to approve? Yeah. Do we have a motion to approve alternate three to extend the turf 6 ft north? Before we get a motion, Tom, what what's what's ATG's time frame as far as starting? I thought they were going to start. They're they're basically going to start. We're supposed to have a prejob. Uh, they haven't even uh scheduled that yet. I talked to them last week and end last week. If if if we do the alternative three, that's basically give telling
028them that uh we're probably going to do the bleachers. We're going to do some of this other stuff because we are doing the alternative pricing compared to what their flat bid was. That's what I'm saying. With with three, does it assume that you're doing one and two? It's pretty much doing that. We're going to be doing one and two. Some version of it. Some version of it. If they change, we may have to come back for price next week. We could get you guys the numbers. We could just wait on all three of them until next month. I mean, you guys could prior to bringing this to the board, there was discussion within the school budget about budgeting for this, right? So I mean I think we could you could pass the motion the motion
029subject to whatever amount that was budgeted for for this field. In fact okay that's good. That gives him some wiggle room. Okay. Because all this my understanding is that these alternates are within the budget that was set. Yes. So and what is that? Yeah. Do we need to considering we're still negotiating prices and stuff like that? We really don't want to get into that. Okay. Well, they could they could send them these before so they can not on Facebook live, but we could I could do a poll and let them know all these information. Get them not to not to be non-transparent just to make sure that you have the new updated information and you have those prices. I think you have to know that. I think that that is reasonable. If we're trying to
030get the best price, we don't. But at some point uh yeah that's why we have to know a price before we is is any of this the original bid you're we're talking about you know is any of this in a different form in that original bid that we're just these are just things we're adding on they're just going to do the field everything would be left as it is correct I got you okay I just wondered if they had included something of a different version say something new bleachers versus moving. I think that's a given. I think those bleachers are in bad enough condition. Let me ask you this. I'm not giving away any secrets here. We would you have that information tonight if we went to executive session to talk about I know it
031right now. Can we talk about that since it's kind like a negotiation? Are we allowed to talk about that? Okay, then why don't we hold this for Okay, sorry. [Laughter] See you guys later. Good thing I ate business. So then we're on 11140. We received 140 requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the period of October 423 through October 1723. It was handled uh by administration. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Zach. And with that, u do we have a motion to go into executive session? Second under I say 2C1. Uh and 2C8 is 2C8 and then 2C1 is appointment compensation. Okay, we have the motion. We have the second. Rolla. Hi, Bradley. Hi, Stacy. Hi, Curran. Hi, Kenobyl. Hi, Lenman. Hi, and Vinnie. Hi. Okay. [Music]