001okay hello everybody uh welcome to the Granite City Community Unit School District number nine Board of Education meeting for Tuesday March 11th 2025 uh can we have our roll call and Declaration of Quorum Benny here Bradley here Silva here curan here Stacy absent kogle absent l here and miss coch here okay um and with that if everybody would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by an invocation by Pastor Stacy Wilson with GC First Assembly of God to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all father we just thank you for the opportunity to come together as a community and to look at what is best and needed for the school district we thank you for the men
002and women who serve on this board those who work in our district to make our community better and to teach our children God I pray that you would bless our district that you would bless the teachers all who work in our district and that you would help every decision tonight be made with families and kids of our community at the Forefront we thank you and we praise you amen amen thank you thank you okay and with that uh we'll move on to public comment and I do believe we have uh Grand City High School teacher Kenny Jackson who would like to address the board on uh the students use of cell phones policy in the handbook right ahead thank you good evening uh welcome back and happy Tuesday to you if you have those cell
003phones earphones or earbuds please put them away you know we don't need those in here we have two much uh math to get to today this is how I start my daily classes uh at gchs thank you for my time I'm Kenny Jackson and I've been a math teacher at grany City High School for 17 years and the reason I asked to speak tonight is uh to ask the school district to adopt and enforce a no cell phone or smart device policy for all gcsd9 schools over the years I have changed my classroom policy on cell phones ranging from allowing students to make the decisions themselves to what I currently use which is no cell phones allow during my instructional classes the reason I now use this policy is based on much of the research
004that is coming out about how negative cell phones are for our kids I would like to share a brief summary of some of the research that is out there and these thoughts and ideas are some of the same thoughts and ideas I share with my students when they want to discuss cell phones with me in the book hold on to your kids the authors discuss the importance of attachment and how this is the basis of how we should interact with our kids attachment comes first and then we can offer guidance support and discipline the the problem with cell phones is our kids is that they become attached to anything and everything imaginable on the internet and they are never disconnected from their friends so us as parents and teachers have a more challenging time making
005that connection with our students and kids which leads to all sorts of problems in the book stolen Focus the author discusses how cell phones have caused us to not be able to slow down not focus on one thing at a time we sleep less we read less and that allow free time for our minds to wander and and how tech companies are in the bad business of stealing our time our focus and our attention when our students have free time to themselves they have an instinct to grab for their phone so they can fill that space with mindless activities on the internet as do many adults on veritasium's YouTube channel there's a video that I show to all of my students at the beginning of the year discussing the importance of boredom the title of
006the video is why borom is good for you in short he discusses that ultimately when we decide to grab our phone to save off boredom we are making a choice not to discover who we are or imagine who we might be in the Netflix movie The Social dilemma the tech companies are discussed and how their apps developed in a way to seal our students ability to set the phone down the algorithms are programmed in a way to feed us more of what will keep us scrolling sending us endless notifications that hope to grab our attention and keep it and worse of all lead our students to be influenced by all sorts of negative factors in Dr Jonathan Heights uh he's a social psychologist he just put out a brand new book called The anxious generation
007his four basic points are that there should be no smartphones before high school no social media before 16 phone-free schools and far more unsupervised in play in childhood Independence Illinois sb2 2427 has been introduced uh for the state of Illinois to introduce a cell phone band to be placed in 2627 school year it's similar to the language we already have in our handbook so the question is whether not whether we have a cell phone policy it's whether it's enforced and adhered to thank you thank you I was about to say whose phone's going on I didn't realize we had that timer thank you Mr Jackson okay up next Lori I think I might hand it off to you oh yeah yes I'll take care of this one okay coming around all right I am really
008proud to do this one um the City Board of Education and administration would like to recognize the following froh heart elementary students and their custodian for being so courageous in a time of Crisis and I'm going to invite these three people up first and then I'll tell you what they did so that is uh Anna muton Brighton price and Mr Rich Wilson and here comes their principal Miss Julie come up families in the back scoot up come on up this is your time for your kids to shine so come up and pict come on up get pictures come on up guys okay I'll read what I have you can that okay okay on February 14th so that was Valentine's Day right okay uh a student started choking during lunch Brighton tried helping by hitting the
009students back several times at the same time Anna went and alerted Mr rich rich Wilson then performed the heick maneuver twice and dislodged the food successfully we're so proud of these three Heroes for their quick thinking during a stressful situation that would have scared me to death yeah that would have been one of my afternoons right there we're just really proud of these three individuals because during a time of emergency we never know what to expect and what kids and adults may do so in this situation it was a life-saving um act so we're just so proud of all three of [Applause] good job yeah I put my head down [Applause] I got it really all right so I am honored to present to the wrestlers the wrestling coaches you know whatever but um wrestlers
010so I'd like for Audrey Barnes Demi Barnes and then coaches John Vinnie Mason Baker and to come up [Applause] please gcsd9 Board of Education administ would like to acknowledge the following High gr City High School wrestlers who qualified for ihsa girl World State wrestling tournament on Friday February 28th 2025 and Saturday March 1st 2025 held at the mossinger motors arena in Bloomington Illinois not only are these ladies strong and talented they're also sisters so it's a family thing uh first we have Audrey Barnes she is a 10th grade student and member of the wrestling team she finished sorry I'm reading a regional Champion sectional runner up she finished her season 31 and N record so congratulations not to be outd done by her sister we have Demi Barnes um Regional I'm not reading their weights
011because I don't think a woman should have to read her weight um Demi is a ninth grade student so freshman so we have a freshman and a sophomore State qualifier which is even more impressive she wrestles uh for the wrestling team obviously she was Regional runnerup sectional runnerup and finished her amazing season with a record of 32 and [Applause] seven so congratulations to the coaches to the wrestlers to their families I can attest firsthand what a sacrifice it is to be a wrestling family it's a lot and the season never ends so congratulations for your dedication I guess I'll let the head coach say something got something uh thank you he's my husband in case people don't know thank you uh both these girls wrestled very tough uh also Audrey was our was our School's
012first ever Regional Champion for Grand City uh and both girls were our first ever sectional finalists both finishing second and uh they had a great year uh we're looking for a lot of good things because we're have both of them together for the next two years together and we'll have a third year with with with themi she goes through we're look for um a lot even more success from them and being leaders for our not just our girls wrestling program program but for just our wrestling program overall for both boys and girls [Applause] just the girls awesome [Applause] okay thank you everybody and with them as they're taking some photos in the back uh if anybody would like to leave after that you're more than welcome to we're now we're getting down to the business
013of the board meeting so but you're welcome to stay right there they go sounds like a plan you're going to be all by yourself Denise okay and with that um do we have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Board of Education held on February 25th 2025 so moved okay roll call Bradley Silva Curran I uh linaman hi Vinnie I okay um next is the consent agenda which contains those items that are repetitive and routine in nature and any member may make a motion to approve the consent agenda or request that any items be moved to section s for individual discussion and consideration do we have a motion some moved second okay and discussion yes I do have a comment I would just like to uh thank Miss hbert uh
014she actually graciously donated one of the original Granite City Senior High School uh plates uh and it's got the information on the back of it we're actually going to display it here outside uh the uh student service area so we just wanted to say thank you for that we appreciate it yes thank you very much um okay roll call Silva hi curan hi linaman hi Vinnie I Bradley okay and with that uh section 8A resend retirements and resignations it's recommended the following retirements and resignations listed below and on the gcsd9 website be rescinded second okay roll call Pan I linaman I Vinny I Bradley Silva hi and 8B retirements and resign it's recommended the filing retirements and resignations listed below and on the website be accepted so moved second okay roll call linman I Vinny
015I Bradley Silva hi Cen I and 8 C extracurricular recommendations for the 2425 school year you've received detailed information about this item the administration's prepared to make recommendations hold for discussion and executive session the GCS 9 Administration is recommended the following extracurricular assignments for the 2425 school year listed below and on the gcsd9 website be approved so moved okay and I'm going to take Erica's Thunder here and let everybody know that this is all lunch duties fourth quarter for fourth for the fourth quarter thanks [Laughter] alen um okay uh roll call Vinny I Bradley Silva hi heran hi linaman I okay um 8D which is uh an employee termination we are going to hold that for executive session um so we will under 2c1 and uh for 8e certified and classified substitutes it's recommend the
016following applicants listed below and on the gcsd9 website be board approved as substitutes for the 24 2 school year so move roll call Silva i curan i linman i Vinny I Bradley okay ahead here uh 10 a Illinois High School Association ihsa membership renewal for the 2526 school year the gcsd9 administration requests permission to renew the Illinois High School Association membership for the 2526 school year for the 2526 School term ihsa will not require payment for membership dues or state series entry fees per action of the ihsa board of directors approval is recommended so moved second roll call this is exciting curan I linaman I Vinnie I Bradley Silva I okay 10B alternative educ education and K through 12 summer school proposal the gcsd9 administration requests permission to offer a k through 7 summer school
017program at Lake School students attending the alternative school program at Lake ESC will be offered summer school as well all programs will run Monday through Friday with students hours from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. students will receive breakfast and lunch daily summer school will begin on Wednesday May 28th 2025 and then on Wednesday June 25th 2025 all classes are in person and busing will be offered permission is also requested to offer Granite City High School summer school program the cost will be $100 per class summer school dates are the same as above iners and online courses will be offered courses will offer be will also be offered to incoming freshmen there will be no Transportation provided by the district for high school summer school approval is recommended so mov second discussion roll call linaman hi
018Benny I Bradley Silva I Curran I okay um 111a Freedom of Information Act requests yes we received four requests and they were handled by Administration okay and uh with that we'll go into executive session uh do we have a motion so moved second okay roll call Vinnie I Bradley Silva I curan I linan all right okay 618 yep