001welcome everybody to the gr City Community Unit School District number nine Board of Education meeting for Tuesday January 14th 2025 our first of the New Year can we get our roll call and Declaration of cor Benny here Bradley here Silva here C here Stacy here no here lman here and here all righty and if everybody would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by an invocation by Pastor Eddie Bradley with lifeo church I Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands Nation God indivisible andice let's pray heavenly father as We Gather here for this school board meeting we begin with our hearts full of gratitude for the opportunity to serve our community teachers students and their families we acknowledge your presence Among Us and thank you for guiding
002us in our mission to provide nurturing and educational Excellence Proverbs 35 and 6 teaches us to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding and in all of our ways acknowledge you and you will make our path straight we dedicate this meeting to you we ask for your blessings on it may all we do bring glory and honor to you in Jesus name amen amen thank you um up next we have public comment I don't believe we have anything make sure there's anything out there okay um and then uh if I could I would like to call coach Amy panel Davis assistant coach Regina brgh and Captain Haley wise up to the front [Applause] please with my microphone here hello hello well I guess I'll kick this
003off with uh the Board of Education and the administration would like to recognize Grand City High School debate coach Amy panel Davis who was named the Southern Illinois debate league championship's 2024 Coach of the Year wowow thank you for your countless time and hard work that was granted every student uh the that granted every student the opportunity to participate in debate these past few years giving them the confidence to find their purpose your influence will continue to Ripple through the lives of your students helping them to become not just better Debaters but better people congratulations thank you very much and actually if we Haley would you like to say a few words um first I would like to thank the board for letting me speak here today and then also thank them for letting me
004stand here to honor Miss panel Davis this year's debate coach of the W has been dedicated to Amy panel the debate coach at Granite City High School who has devoted her time to ensuring that high schoolers have the opportunity to participate in an activity that allows their voices to be heard her Devotion to support debate has granted students the chance to fall in love with everything debate has to offer and has changed countless young lives in the process Amy panel is a coach who believes in every single one of her students and through her work has permitted students to believe in themselves the way she believes in all of them the past few years that she has coached at grite City High School whether it has been helping students prep cases driving students to tournaments
005or simply just offering words of encouragement she has been there every step of the way her selflessness dedication an unwavering belief in her students have left an unerasable mark on the Granite City High School debate team and the broader debate Community her contributions to the debate Community extend beyond the walls of granet City High School she has become a true friend to other coaches and a symbol of what it means to lead with heart and purpose in this space the lives she has touched are richer Fuller and more capable thanks to the care and guidance that she has given them every young debater can always count on Amy panel to celebrate their accomplishments and the courage it takes to Showcase their talents Amy panel has not only been a debate coach to everyone around her
006but a friend a teacher and a mentor it doesn't matter if you are her debater her opponent her friend or a stranger you can always count on her to show the same level of compassion and kindness she has made made countless dreams come true and has encouraged so many to live their lives in their trest form Amy Mell has not just taught every student how to debate she has also taught them to lead a fulfilling life to their heart's desires and to show compassion for the world and while anyone can teach academics it takes a very special person to teach our children to not just grow but to be able to love and appreciate the world that be growing she has cultivated a nurturing environment where students feel seen heard and valued for who they
007are her leadership goes beyond the fundamentals of argumentation and rhetoric it is about instilling confidence teaching perseverance and fostering a sense of belonging that they can bring with them into life and not just their tournaments so we thank her for everything that she has done for not only her students but for high school debate as a whole she has been able to give opportunities in so many ways to so many kids thank you Amy pel for granting every student the opportunity to participate in debate thank you for believing in every single one of your students and thank you for teaching all of us that we have all have a purpose in life and that we are all capable of so much more than what we believe ourselves to be and finally thank you for everything
008you have done you are an inspiration to us all to live a life filled with helping others and promoting kindness thank you very much Haley I'm going to hand you that Award right there and Regina would you sing okay okay good well thank you and again our 2024 Coach of the Year Amy penel Davis thank you guys [Applause] congratulations yep all right next up uh could I have Mr mcchristian and Miss Petrillo students if I uh mispronounce your name I apologize up front so uh so the I I'll call up the students after I read this uh the Granite City School District number n Board of Education and administration would like to recognize the following students named the 2425 Illinois State Scholars for their outstanding academic achievement as announced by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission
009so as I call your name if you'll just come on up uh Trenton Kutz Lily Rose cochrum Molly she not here oh there she is Molly h Bailey Hanks reys Kaminsky Elijah KB Savannah [Applause] kajawa I guess Savannah's not here she didn't hear me butcher her name uh Clon Miranda Gomez Dave Patel Evan Peters Noel [Applause] Richie I got that Emily sagio Fred sansushi did I get that Faith tis Noah vicory and Emma [Applause] Wing you guys want to say I know somebody wants to say something we're just really really proud of these kids and just a little explanation of what Illinois State Scholars are the it's a recognition of being in the top half of their P of their class at the end of six semesters of high school in combination of how they
010perform on State Testing and so um these are our top performers and it typically is the top 10% of kids in the state of Illinois so we are very very proud of our Warriors here that's a lot of people [Applause] here got to get a picture sque yeah two lines two lines squish in short people in the front you go put Mr I don't want to be congratulations stand up we want to see [Music] you on yeah photo [Applause] con yeah thanks for hanging around everybody and seeing the the fun stuff but if you would like to leave you're more than welcome too but we'd love for you to stay and see how all this stuff runs this place is about to me out please no really you're welcome to say congratulations Miss pel congratulations
011students wonderful job that is great great honor and look at that oh my gosh but this good though cuz look all of our kids everybody was still being here what we were able to sit everybody in here this is perfect yeah not having to move it out them in the hall we wouldn't have been able to it would have been parents would have been standing side to side yeah this is good man all two students and with the way sickness is going around right now R through the all these people out let him finish up take a drink and we'll get going okay that's good okay we'll go ahead and move on with uh section five the minutes um and can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting
012of the Board of Education held on December 10th 2024 so move second okay um and I guess uh roll call Bradley I Silva I curan I Stacy I Nole I Laman I Vinnie I okay um number six is consent agenda 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 of the items be moved to section seven for individual discussion and consideration uh do we have a motion so moved second second and for discussion would you like yes I I just like to thank reles farm for donating 30 pumpkins to the Granite City High School uh for Richie they did a painting contest throughout the high school so we just appreciate all the things that reles farm does for
013our district and then also prayther held a camp out uh and they did that for students that had received an incentive for perfect attendance for a month and so a few people weren't able to be there the Irwin family and Mr Pat Harris were invited since they weren't able to come they gave a monetary donation they pretty much paid for everything that was uh provided at the camp out and just s by aware it was a camp out inside the gymnasium uh it was not outside and it was a great event that held on so it was really it was really good I was wondering when I got the invite are we really going to be outside in December but it was inside so it was great so thank you it's a lot of fun
014y all righty um yeah go ahead and do the roll call Silva I curan hi Stacey i kogle i linman i Vinnie I Bradley I okay um 8A retirements and resignations yes it's recommended the following retirements and resignations listed below and on the gcsd9 website be accepted so move second okay roll call cin hi Stacy hi Nole I linman I Vinny I Bradley I Silva I okay 8 B requests for leaves of absence it's recommended the following requests for leaves of absences listed below and on the district website be approved someu second okay roll call Stacy I kogle I linaman I Vinnie I Bradley I Silva I curan I okay 8C requests for extensions to leaves of absence it's recommended the filing requests for extensions to leaves of absence be listed below and on the
015district website be approved so move second roll call kogle I lman I Benny I Bradley I Silva I curan I Stacy I 8D extracurricular recommendations for the 2425 school year you've received detailed information about this item the administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session the gcsd9 administration is recommended the following extracurricular assignments for the 2425 school year listed below and on the district website be approved some move second roll call linman I Vinnie I Bradley I Silva Ian I Stacy iog I okay uh 8e employee termination you've received detailed information about this item the administration prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session we are recommending the termination of Tyra Jackson approval is recommended so moved second roll call Vinny I Bradley I Silva I curan
016I Stacy I Nole I lenman I okay 8f employee termination 2 you've received detailed information about this item the administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion and executive session we recommending the termination of ree Weider so move second roll call Bradley I Silva hi curan I Stacy hi Nole i linaman i vny i 8 G1 employment of five 4-Hour Union Cafe workers for the 2425 school year you've received detailed information about this item and the administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion and executive session the gcsd9 administration and interview committee consisting of Dr Adam Garrett executive director of human resource resources Chris mola Food Service supervisor and Lisa cochrum human resource Specialists are recommending the employment of the following candidates as 4-Hour Union Cafe workers for the 2425 school
017year Kelsey AR rosamina thank you Taylor cample uh Alyssa ja Walken Kristen clear and Brandy web approval is recommended [Laughter] did you get a second okay roll call Silva I curan I Stacy I Nole I linaman I Vinnie I Bradley I okay uh 10A the cartwheel Services agreement the gcsd9 administration is recommending enter into a contractual service with cartwheel to provide additional counseling service to District students in conjunction with gcsd9 social workers students are referred to gcsd9 by VI gcsd9 social workers on a 7 to 10day turnaround time for services and have access to cartwheel data to help monitor progress in District cartwheel Services include licensed counselors to provide a one to one evidence-based therapy uh Psy psychiatric evaluations medication management and wraparound services for student for families as well as a variety of bilingual
018counselors that cover 15 languages cartwheel services are provided remotely from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. as well as weekends through summer months a tri a trial contractual period recommended to run from February 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 that includes up to 75 student referrals grades p prek through 12 for $37,500 to be paid with local funds approval is recommended so move second okay I do have a question discussion yeah go ahead uh So within this time frame what if we go over the 75 do we have to go back and like we we just ask them for okay yeah all right okay I just personally I really like that it offers the the 15 languages just that is a really great part of this this service okay uh roll call solo I Cen I
019Stacy I kogle I linaman I Vinnie I Bradley okay uh 10B gchs 6th hour assignments spring semester 2025 the gcsd9 administration requests the approval of the following sixth hour assignments for the spring semester at Granite City High School Chris Harrison and vinil Lett so move second okay roll call Kin I Stacy I Nole I linman I Vinny I Bradley I Silva I okay 10 C event worker pay proposal the gcsd9 administration is requesting the following event worker proposal current pay for workers at Granite City High School school events is $37.50 per event these events range from football games basketball games tournaments dances Etc we would like to suggest raising pay to $40 per event as it stands event workers are paid 3750 to work a JV and varsity basketball game that takes place on the
020same night technically these are two separate events and we are asking for event workers to receive $80 $80 for working both events it is difficult finding event workers and we're hoping that by increasing the pay that this will allow us to have more staff for bigger events if approved we would like this to take start to take place on January 1st approval is recommended so moved second can I ask a question go ahead um would that be uh for away also that person would travel to an away game this would be for home event workers yeah okay thank you okay any other discussion okay roll call Stacy hi Nole I linman I Vinny I Bradley I Silva I curan I and 10d vision 2030 resolution let me know to take I brought the cheaters for
021this one the gcsd Board of Education Administration request approval for the filing vision 2030 resolution Illinois Vision 2030 whereas public education plays a defining role in ensuring educate equal opportunity for children in Illinois and throughout the United States and whereas it is our Collective duty to ensure that every student regardless of their demographic or Geographic identity has equal access to qu to a quality public education and whereas we believe that strides need to be proactively made to face challenges and continually improve our public education system and whereas there have been three areas of three areas identified as an integral part integral and improving our public education system future focused learning shared accountability and predictable funding and whereas future focused learning should address promoting future-driven skills that allow for more College and Career exploration enhancing student
022safety and well-being attracting and retaining high quality and diverse educator pop line and promoting curriculum and instruct flexibility to meet the unique needs of local communities and whereas shared accountability should address reforming the Illinois assessment system to to be a timely and useful measure of student proficiency and growth over time reforming the current accountability system to provide local flexibility for identifying Educators that create a more holistic view of Student Success and reforming the Mandate process to ensure implementation procedures that promote flexibility and Local District decision making and whereas predictable funding should address protecting the integrity and funding of evidence-based finding formula strengthen strengthening public education through pension reforms and establishing an equitable funding source for Capital and safety needs and whereas it is imperative that any education Improvement proposal for comprehensive change must be developed
023and supported by not only the education Community but its collaboration with families communities business and others whose priorities reflect the best interest of the students now therefore be it resolved that the gcsd9 Board of Education joins with the Illinois Association of school administrators Illinois Association of School Board of school boards Illinois principales Association Illinois Association of school business officials Illinois Association of regional superintendent of schools superintendent commissions for the study of demographic and diversity Illinois Alliance of special education administrators and the association of Illinois Rule and small schools in supporting the vision 2020 I'm sorry 2030 education Improvement policy and be it further resolved that the gcsd9 Board of Education urges the Illinois General Assembly to approve the necessary legislative changes to implement the recommendations under the three-pillar of Education Improvement as contained in the
024vision 2030 policy approval is recommended so moved second discussion I was getting that one a lot you know um I don't know if Facebook got that you better read it again oh one more time roll call kogle I lenan I Benny I Bradley I Silva I curan I Stacy I all right uh 10 e the gchs baseball field the gcsd9 administration is requesting approval for the new Turf baseball field at a cost of $2,467 th000 through atg the project includes orienting the field by 180° and construction constructing a bullpen with four pitching rubbers new dugouts a press room and storage facilities Additionally the project will feature 100 seat elevated bleacher system with flip down seats designed at an angled frame for optimal viewing the new baseball field represents the final steps in completing the sports
025F complex with the budget established by the Director of Finance and superintendent of schools approval is recommended so move discussion I I do have some questions um the I noticed that there is a uh concession stand on the building there is that where they're going to buy tickets to go into like the baseball [Music] field we're looking at extending parking lot at some point in time uh and in that parking lot uh we'll have like a little ticket booth there so they'll come from the parking lot into the complex where that concession stand or that little building between there is shown that's a little smaller than what we're looking at uh I was in uh contact with a contractor a local contractor on getting some pricing on a larger um uh concession stand with locker
026rooms so that will come later down the road uh once we get some prices finalized and figure out exactly how our layout's going to be and once we get some pricing and and that brings another question if do we ever have like say a soccer game and a baseball game going on at the same time you you could you could and so they could buy tickets either at the front the main entrance what we have now or at the little ticket booth to get in yes okay I was just wondering about that because I you know with the parking lot being bigger that's going to be awesome for people and what that will do that that will increase the parking for the softball field so that baseball field park that's across from Emos that's going
027to get destroyed during all of this construction so we're looking at squaring it up maybe leaving that just for busing and then have the parents and Spectators all go to the parking lot uh that will be coola just parking lot it it will just be an extension great it will open up an entrance for all of our events yeah I mean think of graduation we don't necessarily have to come in one location now we could have people sitting in other Gates and have different things and coming in different ways cuz people are currently having to walk all the way around I know people park in that lot right now and have to walk all the way around for the football and soccer games right so those are the things we could look at with this
028definitely that's awesome this this price just includes what's in the picture far as the uh concrete shown the the bullpen and the uh field itself our lighting we're still in discussion with a lighting contractor and through atg through their contractor but one thing we're looking at is to get the same type of LED lighting that is on all of our other fields and get that 25e guarantee from musco so we're still in negotiation with them to try to pin down a price so we'll probably come at a later time with that because the lights that's on the uh um the cell tower we're wanting to abandon those in place uh we don't even want to use those anymore we want to utilize the poles we have and try to redesign the lighting that we that
029we we have existing okay great and um this is going to finish up the security out there for all of our grounds and these fields are used by coolage and high school every day for PE every day as well so it's not just for baseball yep every day right perfect great I just wanted to clarify that wonderful so just to clarify the only thing that we're looking at Beyond this right now are a concession stand concession stand locker room lighting and that parking lot extension parking lot okay y all right uh there will be we're looking at depending on how much fencing uh once we get this complex fenced in we're looking at replacing the fence that is behind the uh um bleachers on the football field uh parallel to P failing Road replacing all
030that with black fabric to make everything match so once we're completed with this we're done at the high school okay ER what's the timeline I'm sorry I was just about to ask yeah yeah what's the timeline sometime in October oh really yeah okay October November somewhere in there completion or beginning or both completion wow we're looking to start demo uh we'll do the demo inhouse far as the old seating uh the old uh dugouts we'd like to start that during the baseball season we're in talks with the baseball coach and the athletic director on that to see how soon we can get in there and start our demo because we're at June 1st uh to have the contractor in there starting this project wow those are discussions we've been in having with uh coach SMY
031and AD mode so talking about those different timelines trying to figure all that out perfect good good things are happening roll call yeah lman all Vinnie I Bradley hi Silva hi curan hi Stacy hi kogal hi all right you can be loud about it there we go I see coach SMY back there smiling so the can't be uh 10f the curriculum committee report yes the gcsd9 curriculum committee held a meeting on December 13th 2024 the committee understands that they cannot hire additional staff nor can they Implement new programs without board approval um you have received the report about the agenda below and all the notes from the curriculum committee in previous in a previous update the committee has agreed on all the items and request board approval approval is recommended we need to approve a
032report or we just take the say that again we need to approve a report or we just so you need to approve so approve the recommendation theend y so moved second okay any discussion I just want to say this is like 20 years in the making we have been on a fiveo scale that's been so disorienting to students when they're trying to get into colleges when everybody else is on a fourpoint scale thank you thank you thank you to the curriculum committee thank you Kristen and all the administrators of the high school fantastic job I'm so excited my son who graduated 22 years ago said thank you Mom finally they changed it so excellent job one and all thank you so much yeah all righty roll call Vinnie I Bradley I Silva I curan I
033Stacy I noogle hi linman I okay and then um yeah 111a Freedom of Information Act requests yes we received one request and it was handled by Administration okay and uh 111 B our uh gcsd9 student board member report by gchs senior Lily Rose [Music] cochr all right hello I'm Lily Rose I'm the student board member for this year and I'm a senior at granny City High School and I asked my fellow seniors this year what their future plans were for their graduating class and this is just the statistics I got back and a cumulative report of what it is so this is our first statistic this is what the senior class decided what they're going to be doing after graduation as you can see the leading the leading thing was a four-year University and the
034ending was military and Community College as the last place but overall we have a nice full round that's the end of that section on to our next one psychology and health profession was the obvious leading um we have some cool ones in the end archaeology was very interesting music is cool teaching because we're a school board um there's some cool ones yeah yeah very interesting instate is definitely more than out of state um which I guess because Illinois is cool we like [Music] Illinois most people have applied then not have applied which I'm guessing is probably the people who were not going to college and have not and have not been accepted if you did not apply you were not accepted so they kind of go hand inand so you kind of could expect that
035one um scholarships people really did not apply to scholarships which I'm not too sad about because that's more money for me um but you probably should apply because they do make it easier but I'm not too sad about that one guidance counselors need to hear that um receiving and not receiving I guess the people who did end up applying were receiving them which is very nice there you go dormant commuting I think this one's pretty interesting if you're in state I guess they want to stay on dorm to get a sense of Independence rather than fully leaving so commuting dorming interesting this one's kind of hard to understand the schools that have applied zero is people who either have not applied to college or not planning going to college and 1 two and three three
036is three plus so if there's more than three colleges and each dot represents uh 10% yeah so that is where we're at um I think this is our last slide for college the leading miners were business I think just business but there's some interesting ones as well on here paramedic interior design psychology psychology is really interesting I'm taking a class like that right now this semester and I really enjoy it so I definitely understand why you would minor in that so it's pretty interesting art always cool wish I could draw but there you go some cool ones yeah that is the ending section of the University portion and we are transitioning into trade school the major one was electricity I mean there's some other ones but I guess uh culinary arts and electricity were definitely
037the major ones which is we need lighting so fair enough Welling as well well par legal is very interesting I could definitely see cos pargal very cool the ending section of trade school onto military the leading was Air Force my dad was in the Air Force so I definitely agree with that um army was second and then Marine Corps in Coast Guard were last place with navy somewhere in the middle I tried color coding not great um active duty was definitely I expected that it's like more of it's a full-time career that way uh Reserve we had one person do Reserve so not as quite as popular the job portion um most people do not have a job lined up and I'm one of those sadly um you should probably work while you go to
038school makes more money that way so I probably should apply somewhere don't know the written responses was the most creative portion for me so that's like where I had the most fun with it um this is what I had a survey and people had a short paragraph written response and the words that were the most used in that I filtered and these were the first six words that came up so they're the most used and I made them kind of match the word like scared's a little scared why it's typing out so yeah that's what people are mostly feeling right now and these were I had everyone submit about one or two sentences of what they learned in high school and I have two slides of these and I'm going to read a couple that
039were my favorite but these were definitely the ones that stick out of me out of the 107 we received so give me a second sorry okay so life is not always easy be nice to teachers they help and I they're trying to butter you guys up obviously um don't know about that I'm joking I think they'd appreciate that do not be someone you're not you'll find friends regardless which I think is definitely true um I think it's nice everyone is so positive which I was not expecting I'm glad everyone's looking forward to their future and what they've learned so that's really nice those are some nice ones I thought they are I'm really glad people put the time and effort into truly responding fully and nice was nice this was my other this is our
040last slide of information if you look for it you'll find kind people are truly all around do the things you enjoy you choose your present and future so choose something that makes you happy choose peace they're all yeah that was the last of the 12 that I chose out of the 107 responses we received Have you shared this information I have not receed I have not re shared it again yeah one more SL for the junior I have an ending slide and that's my conclusion thank you so much guys that was really good thank you thank you thank you very much thank [Applause] you okay up next we have uh 111c our Illinois Association of school board iasb liaison Report with board Treasurer Linda kogal well the uh most current thing that uh will be
041coming up is the end the end of February uh they will have uh a district uh what they call the uh programs that they they offer for all of the Liaisons um that's what I will be going to and hopefully maybe taking another uh another person with me um but I learn a lot going there and I like to share it when I come back so thank you thank you m all right thank you very much good you're my buddy um next we do need to enter executive session tonight um the exceptions are noted under 5 ilcs 120/2 open meetings um first will be under 2c1 the appointment employment compensation disciplined performance or dismissal of specific employees of the school body and 2c2 the uh collective bargaining matters between the public body and its employees
042or their representatives do we have a motion to enter executive session so moved second okay roll call Vinnie I Bradley I Silva i c i Stacy I Nole i l hi okay y