001You're aware that's recording on Facebook. Just so you're all aware. Xander, we're on. Okay. right there. Welcome to the board of education meeting for Tuesday, March 12th, 2024. And we have our roll call. Silva absent. Bradley here. Stacy here. Here. Noble here. Limon here. here for everybody to please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by an invitation by Pastor Daryl Marine with Central Christian 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. Would you pray with me, please? Father in heaven, we come before you and acknowledge you as the creator, sustainer of life. We thank you for the blessings of life that you give us. And Father, right now, we uh just lift up
002this school district. Ask your continued blessing on them as they finish out the school year. I pray for everyone and the staff and the teachers and workers, the administration, Lord, that you would just bless them with wisdom and care and compassion. Thank you for the students and for all that uh they're blessed with. And I pray for all the workers and teachers who work with them, Father, that you give them wisdom and insight as they lead and teach. And just ask your blessing on all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Everybody's here being a little bit. Don't look at the fashion state. Uh the first thing I want to do tonight means everything means a lot to me but these two people hold a special place in my heart. Uh what they do for
003children and students every day all year 365 days a year sometimes nights sometimes weekends in fact often. Uh you can see them in their perspect respective roles everywhere you look. Um, I think that's why LA State Board of Education has these awards called those who excel. They're they just they they want to recognize people that go above and beyond. And while we have all kinds of people who go above and beyond in this district, which is really amazing, we really do have some outstanding teachers, administrators, staff, cooks, everyone. Uh, but these two u made it to the to the final those who excel. So, I really want to start with um we'll have Miss Linda Ames come up, please. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you. Uh like I said, she's going to be retiring this year
004and it's going to leave a huge void in the school, the high school. Uh I was a high school teacher myself. Did a lot of the same things that Miss Ames does and it's they become not just your students, they're your kids, your family. even when you make fun of them later in life too many. No, but that endearment, that ability to know to know the students even when they're grown and have those connections, it's just huge and it just means a lot to all of us and we are so proud that you were nominated and that you okay and that you are accepting the uh those who excel for 2024 for the Elder State Board of Education. [Applause] I think it's actually called the award of meritorious service. The official Thank you, Miss Thank
005you so much. [Applause] Um we had a we have two um they were also honored um in a lot of the local newspapers. Uh Mr. Mitchell put something out on our Facebook and social media about Miss Ames and also Mr. Charles Chuck. Now if you would come forward as well. [Applause] Also another person you this weekend if you were around I think you would have seen him in Kulage from I don't even know how many hours a lot a lot of hours uh and I well sometimes they may get stipens you hear those things but the amount of time that these people are coaches that people in here understand the amount of time they put in isn't anywhere close to to the amount that they get I mean their their dedication devotion is absolutely incredible
006so also uh the owner safe for vacation we nominated and Mr. now receive a meritorious award as well. [Applause] Come back up. Sorry. We should probably sit down this thing down. Well, you did. [Music] So proud of her. Just that way. Just a little bit. There you go. Talon, you're out of this one. You're good. All right, here we go. Really proud to have these two coaches and staff. [Applause] [Music] Okay, here we go. Okay, so we're excited. As you can see, we have a lot of young people here tonight. That's my favorite thing, right? I don't get to see as many kids as I would like on a regular basis. I was out there today. I tried to visit as much as possible, but uh I wanted to make sure when I talked to
007Officer Penny a little bit ago, we saw some he told us some news. Um so, we really wanted to make sure that we recognized all your hard work and what you guys have accomplished this season. So, we would like to recognize the Kulage Junior High School wrestling team, the 2024 Madison County Conference Champions with an undefeated season with an 11-0 record. Think about that. [Music] I need officer Penny and Steve Kenov to come up because I need you to explain a little more of this. We have Scott Penny as their coach and Steve Kenov also as an assistant coach. They spend hour after hour um committed to these kids and I want you to kind of explain it says 11 and0 with their wrestling. Can you give us a little explanation of that? Well, uh
008obviously we started with our conference record which I believe was 7 and0 and then we also have some non-conference school meets. Uh and just locally uh locally it is a very tough conference. Uh we're normally very competitive with a lot of teams which are you going to mention the teams or you can mention them. They're right here. So, well, I printed it all. So, I got them all. So, as far as for this year, uh, very tough duels with Alton, Jerseyville, uh, Roxanna Lewis and Clark, uh, Bethalto and both Edwardsville Middle Schools. And that's always a very tough rivalry. last year and I'll say this also in the Madison County Conference uh very competitive team has been uh voted in which is Vanalia and you're like they're not in the Madison County Conference but they're
009they are wrestling for more competition because they're a very competitive team. Last year we were 10 and one. We had one loss and that was to Vandelia who uh I believe went on to win the ISA state tournament. So, they're returning state champions. We avenge that loss this year and beat them for the first time and that was just another very sweet moment in this wonderful season that we've had. So, I'm very proud on a lot of notes. Uh, we've had the highest participation in wrestling that we've ever had. I've been the coach there for about a decade. So, we started with over 70, maintained uh about 65 the majority of the year, and I'm proud to say that we ended with 53 kids. And if you understand a little bit about wrestling, there's only
01019 varsity spots. So, it's difficult to keep kids interested once those spots kind of get locked down. I think we had our biggest team. We've had our funnest year and that's even in and out of the practice room and then we had one of our most successful years. Very proud to uh be a part of the team. Very proud of the work that has been put in and the kids that are here. Yeah. So this [Applause] program arguably has one of the best junior high teams in the entire state of Baltimore. If they had competed at ISA this year, I think they'd be definitely top three for sure. and maybe even one. Um, they're consistently just animals. Even if he has to move them around, they bump up and they still beat people. So, it's
011been a lot of fun to try to help out. I think that coach Jenny's probably very happy that he said he had 53. [Music] Well, um, I want to recognize them, but um, I had Coach Penny and, uh, Coach Canelo bring a smaller group because there were 53 of them. They will all be receiving certificates at their banquet tomorrow night. So, we do have them for everybody, but I had him bring a few. And so, we're going to go through them and have them come up and give them some certificates as well, so you guys can hang them up. Okay. Okay. Uh, Dummy [Applause] Barnes, London Long [Applause] [Music] Now [Applause] red Scott [Applause] Kilmer. East. Is it Tally or Tony? Tally. [Applause] Steven [Applause] Kenogal, Jackson Lynn, Colton Sterns, Xander Johnson [Applause] Adrien Mendes,
012[Applause] Omar [Applause] Mendes, Eli Miller, long. Did I say that right? All right. [Applause] Um, I also want to mention that since a lot of the junior highs I had to be schooled on this whole wrestling junior high situation, a lot of them don't necessarily go on to the IESA competitions. Um, so I do want to point out that several of these wrestlers saw major continued success through the Illinois Kids Wrestling Foundation. So, I want to congratulate all of them for that as well. And thank you all for your hard [Music] work. We look forward to seeing what you'll do next. Miss Kane, you want to get in the back there with them? Yeah. All right. Here we go. One, two, three. [Music] [Applause] You want me to pull them? Mhm. Start this first. Yeah.
013There we go. Not that this would be riveting for all of you. I showered. Congratulations. [Music] I always like to Thank you. [Music] I'm going to tell you something. [Music] yourself. Awesome. [Music] Thanks for returning everybody. I think Mitch will by the end of I guess uh section five the minutes. We have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the board of education held on February 27th. Secondly, I and uh six consent agenda uh which contains those items that are repetitive and routine in nature. Any member may make a motion to approve the consent agenda or request that any item be moved to section seven for individual discussion and consideration. We have a motion to approve second. Yes. As usual, once again, I have gifts which makes me very happy. I
014think it's just really cool that every time somebody uh well first I want to mention that Arby's National Chain um actually donated I mean there were several hundred right uh incentive cards for one free kids meal at the Grand Zoo location. They were we sent them to the uh kindergarten through fifth grade buildings to use in positive positive office referrals. So they're going to be hand those out but I just thought that that was expected really nice to do. We also had the First Assembly of God donated miscellaneous clothing items to pray for their kindergarten center. Those are needed quite often. They always tend to come through for us. And I hope I get this right. Mr. Terra's philosopher. Does anybody know? I hope so. Um, this is really nice. They have a new elliptical
015machine and cross trainer to the GCS weight room. Uh, we're very excited and very appreciative of all of those gifts to our district. Stacy, I No, I Lman. Hi, Lenny. I Bradley, I section 8A, retirements and resations. It is recommended the following retirements and resignations be accepted. Terry, cool junior high school science teacher, retirement, end of 2728 school year. Bethany Lang, 7th grade English language arts teacher, cool junior high school, retirement end of 2829 school year. Ann Mayhal, speech language pathologist, retirement in June 2029. Katherine Schneky, seventh eighth grade teacher, Lake resignation May 27 24. Lorie Wilson, second grade teacher, Marville, retirement of 2728. So second, Noble. I Lman. Hi, Vinnie. I Bradley, Dixie, I. Okay. 8B. Requests for leaves of absence. It is recommended the following requests for leaves of absence be approved. Michaela
016Campbell, cafeteria at the high school, effective 3124 to 5242 24. Marisel Luna, ESL teacher Briggs and Throart, effective 5624 to 1324. And Angie West, title teacher Mitchell, effective 41924 to 712. Second discussion roll. Noble. Hi, Lindon. Hi, Denny. Hi, Bradley. Hi, Stacey. Hi, Hi. Okay. 8 C. Requests for extensions to lease my absence. It is recommended request for extensions to absences be approved. Cynthia Desper special effective 7124. Hi, Vinn. I Bradley I Stacy I Noble I 8 D extracurricular resignations for the 2324 school year. Below you receive detailed information about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or to hold for discussion in executive session. GCS9 administration is recommending that the following extracurricular reservations for the 2324 school year be accepted. Nancy third quarter lunch duty third quarter lunch and third quarter. So move
017I Stacy I 8E extracurricular resignations for the 2425 school year. Receive detailed information about this item below. The administration is prepared to recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. The GCSDI administration is recommending that the following extracurricular resignations for the 2425 school year be accepted. Pat Baker, GCHS head football coach. So discussion roll. Bradley I Stacy. Hi. Hi. No. Hi Lynman. Hi Vinnie. Hi. 8F extracurricular recommendations for the 2324 school. You have received detailed information about this item below. The administration is prepared to make recommendations are open for discussion in executive session. Uh the GCSD9 administation Recommending that the following extracurricular assignments for the 2324 school year be approved. Penny Felt Mitchell third quarter lunch third quarter lunch duty and Katie third quarter lunch roll call I Okay G certified classified substitutes. standing received
018detailed information about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or to hold for discussion in executive session. It is recommended the following applicants be board approved as substitutes for the 2324 school year. Certified Erica Caldwell classified Kevin Belovich. Approval is recommended pending the submission. So roll. Hi Bradley. Hi Stacey. Hi. Okay. Um 8H policies. Um Tom, we need to read this one. What's that? We need to read this. Yes. The policy number. The policy committee is recommending approval of the following policies. Uh AP3 superintendent evaluation timeline. Superintendent evaluation process is designed to review goals established by the board and superintendent at the beginning of the evaluation cycle. Evaluation cycle will run from July 1 through March one of a given year with a monthly update from the superintendent to the board. Data to support
019the superintendent goal shall be entered into an online evaluation tool super eval that allows the board of education to see a consistent picture of what the superintendent has done while allowing the current superintendent to self evaluation. So move second discussion. I lin I Stacy. Hi. Current. Hi. Okay. Um 8 I1 the employment of two GCSD9 school nurses for the 2425 school year. You have received detailed information about this item below. The administration is prepared to make recommendations are the hold for discussion for executive session. GCS9 administration and the interview committee consisting of Dr. David Field, executive director of operations, Patrick Curry, school junior high school principal, Jason Baker, Wilson Elementary principal, Jeannie Burke, GCSD9 school nurse. They are all recommending the appointment of Miss Carrie Berg and Miss Brookenski as school nurses for the 242
020school year. Approval is recommended pending the submission of the required second discussion and roll call. Limon I Bradley I Stacy I Noble I okay uh employment of Kulage Junior High School science teacher for the 2425 school year. You receive detailed information below about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or to hold for discussion in executive session. GCSD9 administration and the interview committee consisting of Dr. David Keel, Patrick Curry, Megan Wedkin, Terry Coot are recommending the employment of Philip Whitehead Jr. as the cool junior high school science teacher for the 2425 school. Approval is recommended and submission required. Okay. Discussion and roll call. Vinnie. I Bradley. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Hi. No. I 8 I3. We're going to hold on that one until after executive session. That's under under 2C1. Under under 2C1. Thank you.
021Uh and then we will uh be back after tonight after 10. Illinois High School Association membership renewal for 2425 school year. GCSD9 administration requests permission to renew the Illinois High School Association NHSA membership in the 2425 school year. They're waving membership dues and any state series entry fees for action by the IHSA resolution 2425 school year. The attached membership in the Illinois High School Association confirms the Penn City High School continues to be recognized by the Illinois Board of Education and certifies that our GCSD9 board of education is voting to adopt and abide by the constitution bylaws, terms and conditions and administrative procedures, guidelines and policies of the IHSA for the 2425 school year. My membership renewal for this next school year must be submitted by June 30th, 2024. Approval is recommended. Second. Any discussion?
022Roll call. Bradley. I Stacy. I 10B. Purchase of two lots in the Don Legacy Subdivision for GCHS building trade program. GCSD9 administration requests permission to purchase two lots in the Donan subdivision from RLP development. The lots will be used for GCHS building trades program and are looking for homes previously completed and sold. In the past, we have paid for the lots after the homes were sold. We will not we will now pay RP development directly which will allow us to save fees associated with the title company. The lot 196 at 4829 Bailey Drive at a price of 36,500. um subordinated May 2422 lot 195 at 4825 drive at 38,500 was October 6, 2023 with a total due of 75,000 approval is yeah this for the newer board members what's meant by subordinated is that the
023board passed resolutions back on those dates to purchase these lots and typically in the past when it been purchased. The note is not due for two years because the the students build the house and then whenever the house is sold, we pay off a farmer who owns the lots. In this particular case, we want to pay the lots off early. So, we we've actually passed a resolution back on those subordinated dates to buy these lots. This motion primarily is to go ahead and make payment to go ahead and close out on the lots for various financial reasons to do that. Because don't don't we normally do one lot at a time? Well, we purchase because we normally have two houses. I mean, the houses are being worked on twice. There's two both at the same
024time in different phases. Yeah. Okay. This is a essentially a cost-saving measure for the district to do this when it comes to materials. In a nutshell, that's what we're doing. But this is given Zach authorization to go ahead cut checks and pay off the lots. You have a motion. It was a tie. So I'll do motion by Stacy. I All right. 10 C. Date change for April Professional Learning Day number three. Okay. Uh GCS9 administration requests authorization to change the date of our April professional learning day number three in April. The current date is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. The request is to change the date to Monday, April 8th, 2024. April 8th is the date of the solar eclipse. And this has been approved by the Ohio State Board of Education and we
025just have to change it on the calendar. safety purposes in order to we have kids that will be releasing at the time often. Yeah, exactly. We do have glasses for them. We will hand out on Friday. Also get some at the library. I know library cards eligible for up to five. [Laughter] Um second discussion roll call I I 11A a Freedom of Information Act request. We received three requests under the Freedom of Information Act during the period of February 21st through March 5th. Um the set of requests were received and handled by administration with some help from Mr. Um and then for 111B we have the leaison report from treasurer Linda. Uh yes. Uh the a leazison uh position that I have volunteered to do uh is really a way of communicating everything that's going
026on in terms of the current legislation, any bills that are coming that we need to be aware of as a board that might impact our district. And so when we are notified about uh a witness slip, then we fill those out and get them in and make sure that they receive them on time so that we can either vote for or against especially some of the mandates that are often uh piled high to uh really uh take away from many times uh the funs that we need for our school district. So, we have to be very cautious about what is going through the legislature and what's being presented. ISB takes very strong uh measures to make sure we know what's going on before it gets to the legislature. So, that uh that part of it
027is uh simply I will let everyone know when I get the information that uh We have to we have to be sharp and ready to go. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um and then see the multi-grade level schools update by administration. Dr. Harris stand. [Laughter] Well, just an update from from basically board office administration. So we were able to meet as a team on Tuesday, February 27th. That was our first day that we're able to meet and uh at that meeting was kind of come together and figure out what all we needed for moving forward. So we talked about gathering information uh things as building maps, looking at current grade level numbers for staff and students, uh current grade level programs with regular ed, special ed, uh ELLL, etc. Things along those lines. We
028went together what our current buses were for regular ed and special ed to make sure what our numbers were there. Um and then our student current enrollment by address. So we looked at all those things and we looked at some more stuff. But those are the major things we were looking at. Uh since that initial meeting we've been able to talk and look at possible and we're looking at two models right now. Looked at some of the information that you gave us as board as a board. And so, uh, the two we're discussing right now are a K6 model with a preK six at Prather and Griggsby. And then the other, uh, four buildings would house a K through six location. Uh, the other model we're looking at is a K4 model. And at that,
029we're looking at a preK through four to stay at PRA the way it currently is. Uh, so those are the things we're looking at when we start to gather all this information. What can we do logistically? Um some additional information that's being discussed and considered is we're looking at some uh programs to set up scatter plot maps. Uh so we can gather by address uh we can gather by program uh to try and decide how things need to look when we start to set our boundaries. Um, we're looking at current staff numbers and we're looking at current staff numbers K through 12 uh for the possibility of needing additional staff once we separate the the students out to K6 split or into, you know, between four to six buildings. Currently, just so you know, when
030we look at our split, when we just talk about our one, two, um, we have at least a minimum of two additional grade levels, two additional sections per grade level at our one, two, three, four centers compared to our kindergartner center and our 56 center. So, as we make splits, additional staff are going to be needed. Um, that's why it's important to look at our staff as we look for future hiring and we look at our buildings to make sure we actually have the space to be able to to handle that. Um, and then next week we're getting ready to go out to buildings to compare the building space to the maps that we currently have. I know being in buildings before where there's been a wall pulled up and that wall may be a
031temporary wall. We may need to bring that wall out in the future or we may need to add a new wall up. So, the goal is to have foots on the ground and be in the buildings comparing to what the maps actually say. Um, we did review some old information regarding K6 class size. Um, we we did find that students class size varied by grade level. So, even when we draw boundaries, just for example, we get our boundaries drawn. We might have a first grade class that has 24 students per class for that building. And then we look at our second graders, they might be a 28. And then you go back and you look at the fourth grade. Now they might be down to 21. So when we draw boundaries, we will try and
032capture into that and make it as equable as we can. But as know as students move up through, it's going to cause classroom sizes to look a little different. Um, also wanted to point out the last time we looked at that when we had K6 there were over a 100 transfer requests. And you might ask what a transfer request is because I don't think it well some of you may know what it is but it basically due to child care. So say my children stayed with my parents in the morning and after school and I didn't live in the same boundary line. They may request and say hey I need to be our kids need to enroll from there. And that would be something that was looked at to see if we want to sign
033that. I tell you at the end when we were still in K4 buildings transfers were denied. we stopped doing them whatsoever. Um, so that's something we've got to discuss and figure out what we want to do. Um, also looking at building times basically, so you know, with if we go K6 andor K4 with our current transportation numbers with with our drivers, we probably would not be able to start all K6 buildings at the same time. We just don't have enough buses to take care of all six buildings. So you might have three of them start at 8:00 and the other three start at 8:45. I know what would what would be improved was kindergarten through 6 all in the same building so those parents wouldn't have to deal with getting kids to different locations but
034we might have a difference in times um with that. So just putting things out there for you to think about and what we're looking at. Um I will tell you we're working on developing a timeline so we can kind of figure out where we want to be and when we're going to get there. Um, our hope is to have that late April, early May, uh, to get to you. So, there was a number of us that have worked on this. This is not on me. I was the spokesperson this time. That doesn't mean it'll be me every time. Uh, because there's some very smart people out in that that audience out there that have a lot of information they can share as well. I guess I drew the short straw today. So, um, anyway, just
035are there any questions? But we just want to give everybody an update. Great update. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Music] answer. Okay. And then with that uh we do need to go into executive session uh under 2C1 the employment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal specific employees as public body. Uh do we have a motion to go into executive session? Second call. Hold on. Noble. I lin. Hi, Jenny. I Bradley. Hi, Stacy. Hi, Cur. Hi. Okay, we are in executive session. It's the end.