CCSD46 Board of Education General Meeting Nov 18th, 2020

001here strack here lacroix here okay next is new business uh first is approval of the policy committee meet uh minutes of 10 21 20. i'll make that motion weedman hi lacroix hi and hi okay second item on the agenda is uh press plus policy updates 105. okay i'll just share very briefly that i will be turning this entire meeting over to mr chris woke our director of human resources because all of the policies are really fall under the heading of hr and as chris will explain to you there's one policy to be spoken about briefly and then all the rest of the policies are all directly related to a change of law so he'll explain that law and then we'll go through the policies that it affects okay mr woke saw you thank you dr

002glickman um thank you board for attending tonight's policy uh committee meeting um as dr glickman stated uh we have one policy that we're going to talk about standing alone um that does not interact with the other ones and then all the other policies that we'll talk about tonight and review um are aligned with one federally uh federal law that has been adjusted so all of that policy revolves around that one law so um we're going to go out of order here so if you're following at home and you have your board your policy packet i'm going to ask you to turn to page 12 of 30 to start that policy number is 5220 addressing substitute teachers this is a policy um the only change in this policy is one date change where they've changed it

003from july 1st of 2020 to 2021. um this uh due to the sub shortage across the state um they've made izb has made an adjustment to how many days a sub can work within a total um in trs and uh from 100 days to 120 days um they're extending this out due to the continued sub shortage so it's pretty straightforward just one change due to the sub shortage okay any questions regarding that one so now we're going to go back to the beginning and start with policy number two two six zero um but prior to that like to just give a brief overview um all of our policies all of our remaining policies are going to be dealing with title ix which was created in 1972 to address discrimination based on sex in 2018 the

004department of education proposed new regulations for title ix to address the previous administration's guidance regarding sexual harassment new regulations were passed in may and went into effect in august of 2020. while we have always had policies and procedures in place to investigate sexual harassment these policy updates are specifically to address the change in title ix it's widely believed that the next administration will take action to reverse these policies but for the time being we need to operate under the current law what do these new rules entail first off there is a revision to policies and procedures and how we investigate with that comes new staffing determinations for investigations and assign different roles to different individuals first role that would be we would we'll be talking a lot about tonight that's well you'll see this name

005throughout is our title ix coordinator this is the individual or individuals who will be in charge of title ix and who will take all complaints the second rule is the investigator this person as the name says will be investigating any complaints and this person the investigator can be the title ix coordinator third role that we'll um be involved we won't talk much about but is involved in the investigation process would be a decision maker decision maker cannot be either of the two prior roles and finally the fourth uh position would be a role would be the appeals decision maker and that individual cannot be any of the prior um roles also included will have to be required uh requires training for all personnel involved in investigations and the grievance process which um dr glickman paul

006lewis heather lorenzo and myself have all gone through with our law firm and then a publicate we will also have to public uh publicize all information and trainings on the district website and handbooks which we've already begun to publicize uh some of our training procedures on the district website as all this law took place everybody had to have this implemented by august 15th and it was a last minute scramble so a lot of law firms offered trainings and i took one and to satisfy that since then we've had more trainings and we will continue to have more trainings as we go along so now on to the policies wait but first let me ask any questions regarding title ix and the new updates or the new law changes nope okay just wanted to make sure

007um our first policy we'll look at is 2 260 uniform grievance procedure um what this does is a lot of legal uh changes some wording changes but the biggest thing in this policy would be the addition of the title ix coordinator um talks we'll also take a look in this policy already the pre-existing policy we have a non-discrimination coordinator and a complaint manager um which would also be dr glickman currently is dr glickman and myself so moving forward we're looking to continue that um and then one of the there is a mandatory question to answer in this and that is the non-discrimination and title ix coordinators need not be the same person does the district's non-discrimination coordinator also serve as the title ix coordinator as i just mentioned we will we are considering we would

008suggest recommend going with the default that the nondiscrimination also serves as the title ix coordinator okay questions no so we're going to go with the non-deprivation coordinate services both right correct okay um the second policy is a new policy and if you have all the policies printed off i'm going to ask you to turn to page because this was put at the back of the pack um so if you're if it's just flipping through pages you won't find it until the end um title nine sexual harassment grievance procedure policy two two six five lays out all of the process for conducting interviews um conducting information our investigations taking complaints appeals process interview process all of that this entire investigative process is laid out in this procedure in this policy this is also this is what

009we had the training on this is going to be when we do cross this if and when we do cross this bridge um we will be doing so with our attorneys because this is not something that we would go off on a loan on so um i i'd go through it um but there is there's a lot there's three pages is three pages of process um that talk all about the investigations and who's going to be doing it and um definitions um regarding sexual harassment and complaintant and everything along the lines um that and this is all laid out in the law i just wanted to jump in to mention that even if there hadn't been this change in law um if we had a sexual harassment complaint we would be using our attorney anyway

010so really there isn't significant change regarding that um you know that that's something the school district does not want to handle on its own okay with this new policy also comes several questions for the board to answer um some are very straightforward does the district employ an assistant principal yes does the district employ a dean of students yes those are the easy ones um will the district use a live hearing during the grievance process um the answer no is our is the default um with this law post-secondary organizations institutions are required to have live hearings where accusers are people who have been accused of sexual harassment can face their accuser and do so with representation the default here is no because elementary schools middle schools and high schools are not required to do so and

011speaking with our attorneys on our training this is the reason for this would be so that kids are not having to face question line of questionings from attorneys okay i'm good with leaving it as no yeah and then the second question is what standard of truth has the board adopted for policy two two six five preponderance of evidence which is the default and clear and convincing evidence these are very legal these terms um i'd be happy to read through them yeah why don't you yeah why don't you read those um i'll just read through this whole paragraph because there's a lot in it um required question four and then the citation which requires the title ix sexual harassment grievance process to state the standard of evidence that it will use to determine responsibility of the

012respondent the standard of evidence selected must be applied consistently to formal complaints alleging title 9 sexual harassment regardless of whether the respondent is a student or an employee this policy uses the preponderance of evidence standard not clear and convincing evidence standard preponderance of evidence is standard use is the standard used in civil cases it means the greater weight of the evidence not necessarily established by the greater number of witnesses testifying to the fact but but by the evidence that is the most convincing force um see none it cites um black's law dictionary um preponderance of evidence is the standard used in sample policy uniform grievance procedure clear and convincing is a high standard requiring more than preponderance of evidence but less than proof of burden or proof beyond a reasonable doubt it means evidence indicating

013that the thing to be proved is highly probable or reasonably certain like another law citation uh consult board attorney regarding the appropriate standard for the district so the recommendation is the preponderance of evidence correct because it's a lord [Music] i'm just making a note for myself and and sue is too you know okay thank you for taking care of that i don't often work with someone taking notes um the next policy policy 510 equal opportunity equal opportun employment opportunity and minority recruitment that will be on page um five and we're going back to in reporter um what this does is this uh it's a pre-existing policy it adds in um the line the non-discrimination coordinator also serves as a title ix coordinator which we are going to now see throughout the rest of our policies

014um it also adds in some of the information about uh office address and email address which we've already had on our policies for the coordinators of the complaint coordinators and then also some legal updates questions on 5 10. moving on to 5-100 staff development program on page 8 of 30 you'll see that there's a large portion that has been added talking it this is in regards to the training of staff and invest those who serve in the investigative roles um so you're aware we already have um the state already had a section of a mandatory training for sexual harassment and we do that on a yearly basis through our what we call safe school modules it's a program that we use to address some of the mandatory trainings so i believe i should have checked

015this but i believe it was in every other year but due to the importance we decided to make it every year um so we've already addressed this but we first i foresee that this being adjusted based on the new federal law for title ix in the coming months and before we start the next school year also in this policy talks about like i said the school personnel who are designated as a title ix coordinator investigators decision makers and um uh informal resolution facilitators that we all undergo um a specific training so we've already begun that we've gone through our first training and we will continue to receive training on all of this new this new federal law and then uh legal references again questions on five one hundred all right um next policy up would

016be five two zero workplace harassment prohibited um like i said earlier we're gonna see this a lot the none the big edition would be the non-discrimination coordinator also serves as the district's title nine coordinator also updates to um office address email address adding in making a change from making a complaint to making a report or complaint which is in line with the language used within the law also a big thing at the bottom of page nine you'll see any district employee who receives a report this is a change a big one in title ix is that previously it was any supervisor who received a complaint now it's any school district employee who receives a complaint must must report that complaint and bring it forward so kind of like a mandatory report we're all mandatory reporters

017across everybody within the school district now everybody is in essence a mandatory reporter regarding sexual harassment um the next page on page 10 continues to go on there's also a very large section that has been added all of this also reverts back to the investigation policy 2265 which was the new policy and addresses other policies throughout the more citation moving back and forth throughout our policies so um while there's it's a large new section or a new large new section um a lot of this is addressed already throughout the policies any questions regarding 5 2 0 no but we do need to move along okay sorry short on time so um what a little bit sure uh 710 mutual educational opportunities um the legal reference is an ad of title ix um there is a

018question to be answered um does the board want to incorporate bisbee's sample district policy and administrative procedures policy recommendation into this policy the default is no yes let me read this to you so you understand iasb will replace gender identity which would be the default with gender gender identity which is not traditionally associated with a student's sex assigned at birth gender expression um so it's adding more into what we would be taking into account besides just gender identity it expands upon that so in other words people would be held accountable for harassing people for a wider range of definitions or a wider range of um concerns is that right that is correct okay so we have to decide well the the yes the yes part would would um align with what our previews hi how

019are you thank you more directions thank you nice to see you transgender doctor hello dr davis how are you yeah i would think yes we fall because we're good all the other things we've done towards this here we are that's my opinion weeks are a blur we're mid-november oh my gosh i thought we're still marketing these last years um 7 20 which is page 20. um harassment of students prohibited um it's a change in the title um [Music] um what he did for all of them related to this law and you can go through that change in law does that make sense to the rest of you awesome congratulations you shared that way okay good evening yeah and then just obviously for those mandatory questions nice to see you gentlemen mark what we was everybody

020saying in policy maybe you know perfect i got some benefits i feel left did an email come up so that they were the district office but can see that if you didn't pick them up that night then they were going to be dropped off there then i missed that part okay shoot well i have to when i go to sign the minutes i'll get mine i'll do a swap there you go grab mine too if you think about it hey jim yeah we'll do please hi lin i don't think we're in here we are okay so christy did did you do a collar swap in the last 24 hours i did okay so i'm not going to okay as i mysteriously all my grays have disappeared magically well i will never call that out i

021will never call out the latter part who am i it's amazing how that can happen in just 45 minutes i changed mine there we go i see thumbs up and we're on okay good evening everybody this is community consolidated school district 46 board of education meeting for wednesday november 18 2020 and we are holding it remotely um in order to abide by five illinois uh cs 127e uh i is the board president of determining that tonight's board meeting will be held remotely due to kovac 19 pandemic based on my decisions on the following the governor the governor's kovalev 19 disaster declaration contains of it remains in full force in effect throughout the state of illinois and an in-person meeting is not practical or prudent this evening because of the coveted 19 pandemic i have confirmed

022that all board members participate in the meeting this evening can hear one another and can hear all discussions during the meeting we have arranged for board members of mor i'm sorry we arranged for members of the public to contemporaneously hear all discussions during tonight's meeting uh through the district's website and uh youtube channel um i james wiedman the board president is president in person at the gms library at the lrc which is our regular meeting location all votes taken this evening will be done by roll call votes as required by the open meetings act a verbatim recording of tonight's open session meeting will be kept and made available to the public on the district website and any person wishing to make public comments is able to submit it through the the google documents set up

023on the web page so with that being said like i need a call to order and roll call sue disappear she did what if she lost her internet there she is so sorry i was having a hard time getting into this so i'm here okay so i need a call to order in a roll call windmin here mac here here lacroix here miller here man here here okay that establishes our quorum uh next would be approval of the agenda within you should also have the updated personnel amendment to so moved second miller hi greg hi jack hi whedon hi braden hi lacroix hi oh i think he's frozen and okay good uh for public comments there is a google doc on our website for you to fill out if you need so we will uh

024read off the public comments at the end of the at the meeting uh next would be board reports anybody have any board reports i do someone else go ahead uh not so much a report but an acknowledgement so if you want to go first christy um okay i just first wanted to say thank you for park school for doing the t-shirts it was a nice surprise to get those and appreciate the effort that went into that and then wanted to let you you guys know i was able to attend the family university in on november 10th i believe and hats off to heather lorenzo and the mental health team because that was it was really well done very informative and i enjoyed it um and then the last thing just so the rest of you

025know i've had a chance to talk to a couple of you but not everyone the strategic planning facilitators are meeting with christy braden and dr glickman and i tomorrow and if there's anything you want me to listen for christy i'm not going to presume to speak for you but i'm sure if you want to email me or both of us or whatever if there's anything you want us to listen for it would be good to know that going into it i'll be listening through a community engagement lens um i wanted you guys to be aware of that that's it all right so uh piggybacking off of mrs miller i too wanted to say thank you for the t-shirt so wearing the sporting the stronger together t-shirt as well so i'm really grateful especially to the

026park campus for adopting board members as part of board appreciation week and just also for the amount of emails and cards that have come through expressing gratitude um for the board so know that it's appreciated um it's not lost on me and you know that's two-way um you all the staff the administrators here in district 46 um has really made this journey for me over the past year uh super awesome and easy to transition into so so thank you all for that acknowledgement it's appreciated also i wanted to share that i had an opportunity to attend the opening meetings act gray areas training as well as pandemic rules so i'll be getting something out to the board um in short order um but it was a really well done presentation that i plan on forwarding

027it out just to make sure that we're aware of blind spots as it appears that we will be in this virtual meeting mode for a longer than expected sustained period of time so more to come with that thanks thank you and jim i also i had a board report i wanted to report out on the uh how the votes went on the delegate convention for the resolutions there was a little bit of a misunderstanding i think i just wanted to explain that i think many people are under the impression that the delegate convention where those resolutions would be considered was going to be coterminous with the i'm not sure coterminous right word but at the same time as the um the triple i virtual convention it was not the delegate convention was actually this past

028saturday um so i just want to report out on what happened and it was like i said before when i agreed to be the delegate i find that the parliamentary procedures of this are fascinating and i'm kind of a geek for that stuff so i really enjoyed that but if you recall of the 12 resolutions the resolutions committee either recommended adoption or did not recommend adoption for those resolutions that the committee did not recommend adoption what happens next is um the submitting district has to either file or appeal or they don't file an appeal and if they don't file a timely appeal then the resolution isn't even considered at all at the convention and that's what happened to a to a handful of these now if there is an appeal filed by the not the

029committee the district that puts forth the resolution then an initial vote is taken as to whether or not we should even vote on the merits of the matter so that came into play a couple times too so i think if i could real quickly just go one by one on all the resolutions for clarity's sake i think that would be helpful uh resolution one had to do with the loan program the resolution committee recommended not to adopt and there was no appeal so we didn't even vote on it it just it just didn't get enacted resolution two was on gun storage there was an appeal taken and then the initial vote failed to reach um a vote on the merits at all so that was not also that was also not adopted resolution three was

030on the school report card there was no appeal to the committee's recommendation not to adopt so no vote was taken on that four was interesting because that was the one where they they recommended not to adopt but they did um offer some alternative language so there was an appeal received the committee's recommendation not to and adopt and there was a vote taken to vote to proceed failed however there was a vote for the new language which was passed so that was adopted with the new language which i think if you remember it was um it was to make the language a little bit more flexible and not as stringent i think is the bottom line there and resolutions 5 six and seven both passed or all three of them passed resolution eight on local control

031pandemic was um recommended not to approve there was no appeal so it wasn't considered i think i think many people thought it was redundant to resolution seven which was also a local control pandemic topic and then resolutions nine through twelve uh passed okay anyone have any questions about that nope no questions thank you jason thank you thanks for catching that and for pulling our votes together so quickly appreciate it okay um i do only have i do only have great english um i have one thing that i participated in the audit phone call with the auditors uh the other day it's about 15 20 minutes of a conversation with the auditor um just kind of going through the end of the end of the audit type of questions that they have for us so that

032was done they do anticipate finishing that up uh hopefully soon so we are on schedule with that at this time okay anybody else have anything else anybody else banned a thousand for english today okay um next would be the superintendent report all right well i'm going to start talking about metrics i'm not sharing slides today about metrics but as we know cobia 19 related health metrics continue to rise in our community according to lchd executive director mark fister in one month our rate of new cases has quadrupled in lake county and hospitalizations are increasing back to where they were in spring and then of course you know that yesterday the state and the illinois department of public health announced that all regions in the state will move to tier three mitigations as of 1201 am

033this friday and those include limiting social gatherings to members of intermediate household only as well as restrictions on retail personal care health and fitness centers hotels manufacturing bars restaurants meetings and events recreational activities theaters and cultural institutions the purpose of these mitigations is to limit indoor gatherings where the fire virus can easily spread from person to person and then due to all of this and as announced to our community yesterday we are um we have closed all of our offices they will all be closed as of monday we are strongly encouraging the instructional and school office staff to work from home while still allowing them to choose to come into buildings with very limited staffing following following all safety precautions previously shared our custodial and maintenance staff will continue to work on site following safety

034precautions and our tech staff will provide technical support from home and through a rotation at the isc which is where that team is housed so that students and staff members can get their devices serviced in a timely manner so that we can keep learning going we don't know yet what all of this means what these rise and metrics means for our return to on-site learning using our previously shared hybrid approach and we'll have to continue watching the metrics so any any questions or comments about any of that do we have a sense of i know we have said january um do we have a sense of when our next decision point should be so that we're giving everyone enough time to manage the implications of that decision i'm assuming it's going to be coming up

035here soon huh yeah well our cabinet was talking about that just today noting that we have got one board meeting in december um so um you know and that's a month away and a lot can happen in a month so certainly you should imagine that there will be some form of conversation about this topic at that board meeting um so um we um school district that have announced a january return date have been purposeful about having that date be um at least two weeks after war break um so that people are corn clean if they have chosen to travel and i will note that in yesterday's um weekly bulletin from our state superintendent that was recommended um but again for direct recommendations they're not requirements but and and the last thing i'll say about that

036is that we continue to move through all of our planning so that from a systemic and a logistics point of view our school district is ready to open in january if it's possible thank you any question other questions about this yeah i have a question yeah about the custodial staff are they um isolated enough that they are also safe even though that they're they're in the buildings how does that work wow so um they you know they follow very um careful protocols and i i'll let them jump in on this as well um you know in many cases they are able to um be working in separate parts of the building i'll note that their work is necessary for things like um loading loading the buses for food service in fact i met with mary

037whirling today and she talked about how um in order for the food service program to move forward there needs to be at least one custodian every day helping that food team um and they need at least two people every day or excuse me at least two people on the two days a week that they are loading the buses uh but adam what else would you like to share about our custodial maintenance team uh so my thought process within it is is that they can truthfully stay separated in the buildings on each side of the buildings and have their own sections to take care of continuously preparing for our hopeful eventual return come january um and not not have to interact so much and if they do they they are definitely social distanced enough to where

038it should not cause an issue all right thanks appreciate that any other questions okay well as you know we recently had pack up pick up it went very very smoothly um i think uh paul lewis and chris woke and i oh and heather i think as well we were all able to get out to various schools to see how things were going just blown away by how quickly everything moved um it felt smooth as silk and just kudos to our school teams for making that happen you know the teachers who selected what was going to go in those packets the um amazing um you know the office staff that was putting things together we had because you know we were purposeful about using that day as a remote learning planning day so that parents could

039come and go without needing to worry about caring for their kids during learning the kids were just in the car and waiting you know and we were able to use psrp our support staff um our teacher's assistants for the most part helping with that as well so that really went very well and then we had kind of an addis added surprise bonus that day it wasn't that long ago that we were talking with all of you about the purchase of chromebooks for staff for our teachers new chromebooks so that they could have a second device to use for remote learning significantly positively impacting their ability to provide excellent instruction for kids well as it turned out they came and the tech team was able to turn them over by what did you say chris by

04010 o'clock that morning is that right the morning i'll pack it pick up and then so staff were able to come and get their chromebooks chris you want to add anything to that sure they are they arrived late wednesday afternoon and we always started unboxing and enrolling the devices as quickly as we could and and as dr klickman said we were able to offer devices to any staff members that were were on site that day so that we could save them a trip and and save any possible exposures and all of that by getting that done as quickly as possible you know and this is really a perfect example of this tightrope that we're constantly walking where we're trying to do so many things to keep everybody safe while also forwarding all of the initiatives

041that we have promised let's put it that way and that we know we need to do so our tech team for example we only have one person now who will be you know they're rotating i mentioned this earlier at the isc we need somebody there so that families can drop up off a chromebook that isn't working and pick up another loaner so that learning can continue right we can't just make it so that oh well your chromebook isn't working there's nothing we can do for you we need a plan for that um we've told all of our texts we might have to call you in now and again if there's something we need people doing more people on site otherwise work from home so we're really walking that line of trying not to pull people

042in unless we absolutely need to without battening down the hatchet they say that right so much that we can't get the work done so that's what was it was just great that we got that done on thursday um a reminder that parent-teacher conferences are coming up next week and report cards go live tomorrow and hopefully everyone understood that information that came out um i've lost track of time friday i want to say was information about how those report cards are coming out um mostly lastly i guess i wanted to uh mention board appreciation week um tamika made a comment that yes absolutely we've been trying to make sure our board knows how much we appreciate you i want to do that publicly and i have to tell you i have been just thinking and thinking

043about what to say because this year is a here like no other um i've been thinking about your board service like a marriage now hear me out because it's not forever but it is for better or for worse right and i'm gonna say for many people you may not have felt on a daily basis like it was for the better um it's been rough and we know it and and you know everyone in the school district deals with the rough but everyone but you knows that it's their job so you know the rest of us we do it because we love it but it is also our job but for you board members you just you offered you just said yes um and and stepped up and said i will do this thing for for

044the community um i can't imagine a time that it would be ever harder for board members so i just wanted to thank you from my bottom of my heart but really for the entire school district for weathering the storm with us and and keeping on keeping on so thank you and we wish we could enjoy cake right now but we cannot okay and lastly um next week is thanksgiving we won't all see each other um uh you know we all have different ways that we're celebrating and and lots of sadnesses and i'll share i just you know i've canceled a trip that i was a driving trip that i was hoping to take to see family because we just can't do it we need to stay safe um but whatever it is that you're doing

045um i hope you will take some time for yourselves breathe a little bit be thankful for the things that you have and also as we just spoke about for the things that you are and that is it for the superintendent's report okay thank you uh next would be committee reports do we have a community engagement committee report we do um so let's see wanted just to highlight every school is doing something with community building um park obviously did the t-shirts and each one has something that they're working on so i can't tell you how exciting it is to hear those plans and how they've come together um just really really glad to be working with our team steven i think he would both of us have talked about that multiple times so wanted to share

046that out with all of you and there are three initiatives that are continuing that are more district-wide the first is the little seed library they're continuing to distribute native seeds about 200 seed packs were packed from seeds harvested at woodview and have mostly been distributed and they're they are connected to a qr code and so abby pedrozinski is trying to create a map with some scouting groups of where these pollinator gardens are popping up so i wanted you just to let you know that that's still going on the next thing is it looks like a lot of our schools do dine and shares so they've decided to try to put together a schedule of dine and shares and to adopt local businesses and restaurants to make sure that we're really supporting the sponsors who can

047consistently support us so that's in the works right now we've also become aware of that the avon food pantry has apparently run out of food and so all of the different schools have decided to start collecting food for the avon food pantry and the drop off date will be november 28th or 29th from 10 a.m to 4 p.m there will be bins under the awning at park school and if you just drop food then volunteers will be transporting that food to the avon food pantry on giving tuesday which is uh the first week of december so again the drop-off days are november 28th and 29th and then just a point of clarification in the minutes and at the last meeting i indicated that woodview moves you had a 45 percent student engagement it's actually 43

048percent so amazing that they were able to do that but i incorrectly stated the number and wanted to make sure you knew it was 43 not 45 and that's it okay uh equity and inclusion committee yeah so the equity committee met last week and we sorry i'm pulling up mr lewis's amazing minutes here to make sure i capture everything so we spent um a fair amount of time just reviewing our current reality with an equity lens so the conversation ranged far and wide around you know elements of remote and hybrid learning that may unintentionally cause inequities and and making sure that we can um kind of address anything that comes up so we we talked about the camera issue um talked about how the adoption of backgrounds and blurring for cameras is helpful and the

049committee did feel comfortable with the district recommendation to require the use of cameras given that students can now have a little more privacy if they want or need it on camera um we just you know we we talked about the um just various elements of the hybrid plan um you know just thought about different populations of students that might be impacted either by remote or hybrid learning and you know what we can do as a as a district and as uh and staff can do to make sure that uh we're not leaving anyone behind i on a personal note i was just struck by we had quite a few building principles on that committee call and uh one of the things i was really struck by was how much our building leaders are doing to

050reach out to families to go to those families and say how are things going how can we help what can we do to help your students be successful so just a huge shout out to our building leaders um you know this is not just sitting at home and directing via zoom they're out in the community and it's truly appreciated especially from an equity perspective because i think you know there is a concern there certainly of you know students being left out or left behind as we stay in remote learning so huge huge thank you to all of you then uh we also did an edred update i'm not going to go over particularly what was in that update because it's content that we've covered in our open sessions before but uh paul both paul and

051i are on a on subcommittees of the ad hoc equity and inclusion uh uh committee of edred which was great because um we were able to talk with legislators about the impact of some of the equity legislation that they're proposing at the state level and we felt that it was very very effective way to have a dialogue about the impacts of some of those uh very well-intentioned pieces of legislation uh the other thing that i will bring up is that there the the most recent ed red meeting featured a presentation from ralph martieri on the implications of the fair tax not passing in illinois and i i highly recommend dr glickman i think you've sent it out to the staff highly recommend you watch it um highly recommend that all of our board members watch

052it because there are some really concerning implications of not being able to shift the burden of our school district's budget from our property taxpayers to people who make quite a lot more money than anyone and grey's lake probably makes so just something that i think is going to be affecting us in the long term as well as the short term and we should all definitely watch it especially as we come to the tax levy discussion in any further budget discussions just so we're informed by what those implications would be and let me just look and see if i'm missing anything paul uh the only other thing that i'm super happy about is that wakanda school district has is forming an equity and inclusion committee and i know uh dr mack uh has pointed them in

053our direction for best practice and mentoring and so we're just so happy to provide that and also that another school district is moving in that direction with that focus so thanks for making that connection for us stephen paul and if i missed anything please i don't think we did but i just wanted to um comment on two two things one um just a point of clarification i shared the um ralph martieri um presentation with with the board and with all of our administrators i didn't send it out to the staff as a whole yeah i just wanted to make sure you knew that i mean there's not there's no reason why i didn't but we hadn't been kind of in that conversation yes and i meant to say i meant to say district leadership and

054regarding the um a comment regarding the um the cameras on this goes under the heading of funny not funny perhaps so soon after i sent that message out i had teachers asking me questions that i didn't fully it took me a little while to understand what they were asking well what they were asking was well do the kids have to have their cameras on but can they can't do they have to be in the camera well and then i came to understand what a lot of them are experiencing particularly with their older students is when they tell their kids to put the cameras on the students do and then the cameras point at the ceiling so because students are crafty right so perhaps it should have been cameras on faces in that's kind of the

055new thing we're talking about but we're going to have the um schools deal with that directly with our with our students so but i was amused kind of a little bit so just just an insight into that it might also be that they're very self-conscious and it's hard to focus on the lesson and and see themselves not that i would know that or have anyone in my house that i may have heard that from but just it's an fyi yeah we we do know and we also know and you know part of this change is the ability for teachers and students to work together to make exceptions as need be but the generalized plan is camera's on and basis and thank you for the the martirie presentation i've heard him speak a few times and

056that was really helpful to hear that um so i appreciate you sending that thank you that's great good all right i think that's it for that presentation okay um next is the consent agenda so i need a motion to approve the consent agenda for tonight strap okay next we're moving on to the action items now the first action item tonight is a motion to approve the lease of 370 macbook air devices from apple financial sys services in wayne pa for a total of 294 121.52 cents so moved second all right information will come from mr bipont i don't have much new this is just the official lease paperwork from apple uh we compared uh leasing terms with uh another financial institution and apple was able to offer us offer us a better rate it's a

057four year lease on the devices so again as we've talked about before deferring the first payment to july of 2021 so just able to get the devices in in our teachers hands sooner while still maintaining the previously planned payment schedule there any questions on this no questions mr vipein just again kudos for for uh being so fiscally uh diligent and applying that rigor to make sure that our our budget wasn't averagely impacted for for uh this year so thank you of course okay weedman hi miller hi mack hi nash hi brayden i lacroix hi okay next is a motion to approve a resolution for the estimated 2020 tax levy do we want to go through the presentation first and then uh do the get the motion going would you like to do that everybody thumbs

058up okay so we'll go through the presentation first okay good evening um it is my pleasure to present to you information on the tax levy for 2020. um i'll keep my presentation to less than 90 minutes just kidding um so mr bipon will help me with the slides so let's dig right in um tax levy 2020 the timeline so this evening we're going to ask the board to approve the resolution of estimated taxes and we must do that no less than 20 days before you adopt the actual tax levy which which we will ask you to do on december 16th also this evening we will ask you to schedule a public tax hearing tax levy hearing now truth and taxation requires us to publish a notice sometimes called the black box i'm sure you see

059in the newspaper the big heavy border black box and hold a public hearing if our tax levy is 105 or more than the previous year's extensions we are not going to reach that 105 threshold however i believe it has been passed practice for district 46 to go ahead and hold a public hearing and it has always been my recommendation to the board to do so as well because it gives your taxpayers an opportunity and a venue to discuss the tax levy before you approve it once we approve that in december and file it with the lake county sometime next spring and in lake county typically it's the last week of march during the 15 years that i worked in lake county i think there was one or two times when it was in early april

060but typically the end of march we'll receive our extensions because they will have then received the final equalized assessed valuation of the property within our district so they'll provide us that information they'll calculate the tax bills and send those out and then the dollars that we are living for in december are those revenues we'll receive for the fiscal year 2022 which begins next june 1st 2021. so we really work way in advance for our tax levy revenues next slide please so what is the tax living why is it important the tax levy is the amount of funds the district is requesting be generated through property taxes we levy dollars you don't establish the rate you can simply levy dollars illinois school funding which christy braden kind of spoke to this a little bit is heavily

061dependent upon local property taxes throughout the entire state uh in district 46 property taxes represent about 60 percent of your total revenues so the tax levy is very important to us next slide please so you've heard of tax caps but really what that is is what we call ptel which is the property tax extension limitation law and what that does is it limits um the amount of dollars we can receive from one year to the next to the change in the consumer price index or five percent whichever is less i've never seen it reach five percent the law does not limit the property owner's individual taxes by that cpi the reason is the pta limits the revenues that the district receives as a whole throb for all properties so every year you have some new

062construction some homes are assessed higher than others so the the limit is not on individual taxpayers it's on the limit for the district as a whole now p-tail uh calculates what's called a limiting rate which will be the ultimate tax rate applied to the tax bills in a formula and i've defined here some of the variables of that formula so the eav which is your equalized assessed valuation of your property typically approximately a third of what the assessor determines is a fair market value the cpi's consumer price index and it is the change in the consumer price index for the previous year so for the 2020 levy we're using a cpi of 2.3 percent which is the increase from december 2018 to december 2019 in the consumer price index the rate which is the tax

063rate applied to the tax bills for every one hundred dollars of the equalized assess valuation and for last year uh your tax rate for district 46 was uh just under five dollars and twenty cents it was five dollars and eighteen cents um new construction seems pretty simple uh what piece of vacant land one year next year there's a home or a building that's new construction uh in the p-10 formula but it can be if it's a very um substantial remodel that can be assessed as as new construction as well next slide please this is the illinois department of revenues um just for your information uh definition of p-tail and we're certainly not going to read it but i did highlight in the second paragraph uh a couple of a sentence that i felt is important

064and that is for the individual taxpayers the p-tell allows a taxing district to receive a limited inflationary increase which for us will be 2.3 percent on existing property plus then we get new revenues for additional and new construction and of course if there's a voter referendum approved rate increase allows you to go above that cpi amount next slide please okay here's the pitot formula that i was referring to again i have the same definitions on the on the left side if you can refer to them so here's what we know for this year's p-tail formula we know our prior year's extensions that's extensions meaning the tax dollars we are actually receiving for the 2019 levy which we are receiving for the fiscal year 21 that we're in we know that the cpi increased by 2.3

065percent so last year's extensions are increased by the 2.3 percent that is a divided by then the 2020 eav which we do not know today less new property which we do not know today i divide that amount by 100 and that will equal the limiting rate which is applied to the property tax bills next spring next slide please any questions so far okay so here's the rig or the uh the p-type formula again but with district 46 information so we know that last year our uh equal our extensions are 29.2 million dollars and so we're increasing that by 2.3 percent so we're just under 30 million 20 29.9 that is divided by uh this current year's eav which we don't know but we're estimating at 740 million less new construction which we don't know but

066we're estimating at 810 000 divided by 100 which is just under 7.4 million ultimately that would give us a limiting rate of about four dollars and five cents on all operating levies for this next year debt service is not a part of the p-tel formula debt service which is tax extensions that we receive to pay our outstanding principal and interest payments on bonds the district does not levy for those amounts when bonds are sold the debt schedule or amortization schedule is filed with the lake county clerk's office and they automatically extend those taxes every year so the district meets its principal and interest payments so we don't have to levy for it the county automatically will add those to property tax bills and extend those for us any questions here okay next slide chris thank

067you jane i'm sorry this is um to make a lost connection so i'm just through the phone here um on the prior slide where refer to the operating um fun levees how many i guess funds roll up like are there additional line items that roll up to the overall yes they are and that's um funds that you hear us talk about i'm sure during the budget and things like that education operation and maintenance transportation mrf social security um torque all those things that that roll up based on your total is your total budget with the exception of bond and interest payments okay okay sure thing okay um so the total tax rate so um this past year your total tax rate was um four dollars and 10 cents and by the past year if this

068was property tax bills that were generated in spring of 2020 um was 4.10 cents for operating but with debt service the total rate was about 5.19 so for this year we're looking at a total rate once we add debt service also we do um levy for imrf for seed all as do all cdl member districts and that only is about a half a cent on the rate in district 46. so right now we're kind of estimating next year the total rate to be five dollars and 12 cents that's our best estimate and that's if everything comes to pass with the eav and the new construction amounts next rate next slide please chris thank you okay so next steps it's again a review of the calendar but this evening you'll be asked to approve the resolution

069of estimated taxes december 16th will have a hearing if the board so chooses and will approve the 2020 tax levy which we will then file on a very timely manner no later than the last tuesday of december next slide please this is just some historical information um and i did a five year average i don't know how important that is i kind of do that for myself i just find it interesting but if you look um at the change in the eav which you'll see in 2014 year it was 535 million um currently this past year it's at 714 million and i've given you the percentage change from year to year um there's there's not a good trend in this five years it's a little bit a little bit volatile but the estimates i received

070from the assessor and from lake county ranged from two and a half to three and a half the assessor indicated two and a half three and a half percent increase this year lake county told me 2.6 so for these estimates these are optimistic estimates because i'm i'm using three and a half percent increase for these estimated extensions so that 740 million dollars represents three and a half percent increase on last year's ea eav plus 810 000 in new construction if you look down below or i've just kind of singled out the new construction again it's it's not a it's not a good trend but with covid uh with this year we're we're estimating that a little bit low but again that's what lake county has provided to me so i think for all intents and

071purposes uh for the estimated extensions it's a it's a good number to use um ultimately you'll see we're looking at 37.6 million dollars total extensions with debt service um 30 million dollars for operating funds and a 4.5 tax rate for those operating events but overall total of just under 5 dollars and 13 cents jane i have a question for you you bet so for your new construction do they give you a list of what's considered new construction in our never no just just just a total within our district 46 boundaries and i typically in in the years that i i worked in lake county um it was hard to get a new construction estimate in october early november um so i was quite pleased that they gave me a number at all but let me

072our goal for the levy and we're going to look at let's look at the next slide and i'm going to speak to this the goal for our levy is to capture every dollar that the district is entitled to under p-tell so the extension estimate that i'm giving you which i think is an optimistic extension estimate is less than the amounts in the resolution of estimated levies because if if last year's extensions were ten thousand dollars and next spring we find out what our eav is and our our extensions um are going to be now limited to thousand two hundred dollars if we levied ten thousand four hundred we're going to get ten thousand two hundred because that's the maximum we can we can get we could levy a billion dollars we're gonna get ten thousand

073two hundred dollars but if we only levy ten thousand one hundred we're only going to get ten thousand one hundred we won't get the other the other hundred dollars we have coming and then the next year's petal formula is going to be based on that lower extension amount of ten thousand one hundred so it will will never get that hundred dollars back does that make sense to everybody i'm sure you've heard that before but i just make it make it as clear as i can so my only fear was the with the new construction it seems like it could potentially have been low than what i was looking at if i asked if they had a list of properties okay no they do not provide that information at this time but let me tell you

074for the levy amounts which the the levy about the resolution and that can change from the resolution to the final levy that that's adopted in december it can change but for this estimated levy i used a four percent increase in the eav and two million dollars in new construction okay to come up the levy amount so i i bumped that up just in case because we really don't know um and since last year's uh new construction was just under four million um and they're giving me an 810 estimate i know covet has some effect on on things but i don't know how much and i you know i i you know your district um as far as construction goes much better than i do um but i i feel like two million dollars in the

075formula will be sufficient for a good tax levy estimate so that's why on this chart i'm showing you last year's extensions of the 37 million projected extensions based on that three and a half percent increase in eav and 810 000 in new construction of 37.6 million but we're going to levy and this estimated resolution 37.8 but it you know we can make that higher in the ultimate certificate of tax levy that's approved in december but i i feel comfortable that with this we will capture uh all dollars under p-tail okay and the other thing is jim last year um your total total eav went up less than three percent so for 2019 from 2018 so this year using uh you know four percent increase um i'd like to think is is more than it will

076actually be when they give me a two and a half to three and a half percent estimate okay are you comfortable with that yeah i i understand your explanation and everything i i'm going to do a little my own research too on the new construction but just as my own uh my own brain works this way so sure that's no problem i'm not second guessing yeah i just feel like that's fine that's absolutely fine no problem jane i have a question tamika so along the vein where mr whitman was going uh do we know how the assessor is projecting the new construction values so i know there's not a list but do we have an idea to the base that they're projecting it from no and actually the assessor didn't give me that amount lake

077county gave me that amount the assessor only gave me um his best estimate of the increase over the previous year as the two and a half to three and a half okay so historically and this is more so just i guess for my education understanding um is this really looking at the amount of like construction certificates filed with the county and i'm truly i'm sure permits are a part of that okay all right thank you sure hey janus jason lacroix hi there it doesn't sound like at any point in the process if we feel like we maybe um undershot what ptel would allow us we have a chance for recourse right now once you once you approve the levy in december that's that's it okay because i know we've been very cognizant of making sure

078that we capture every dollar and it i guess with jim's additional research plus what you're saying to me if we feel comfortable that we won't forego anything then that's good yes and you know if if the board if the board has some thought or concern that uh this levy is too low we can increase the levy like i said we can levy you know 50 million dollars we're still only going to get what p-till allows us so if if the board feels uh would feel more comfortable with increasing the levy a little bit that's not a problem the the the estimated resolution that you approve the c this evening can change those males can change to a final certificate of levy in december i'm not ex to be clear i'm not expressing any uncomfortability you

079know i want to make sure yeah i'm hearing loud and clear that your mind is in the same place that ours is there okay very good to make sure that we're capturing all that yes that's that is most certainly our our ultimate goal thanks gene sure anybody else thank you thank you jane okay um all right so uh we went through the presentation uh so now we need a motion to approve the resolution for the estimated 2020 tax levy so moved second okay lacroix lacroix sorry there was some commotion in my house i wasn't sure if you said my name brayden hi strat hi miller i mack i mean hi and now hi okay um next is a motion to schedule public hearing on the 2020 tax levy issue so moved second so your text

080should be uh sorry right go ahead jane we should specify the date and time so 6 p.m on december 16th yes 20 20. so that'll be before the regular board meeting perfect okay mack i rayden i lacroix hi miller i nam i and weedman aye okay next on the agenda is a motion to approve the copier agreement with proven i.t of tinley park illinois for 30 copiers and service as part of a five-year agreement with an annual cost of forty thousand three hundred ten dollars and sixty-four cents can i just ask a quick question before we vote um i'm curious we first of all thank you chris for saving us two thousand dollars that was that's fantastic i just want to make sure that we're not giving anything up um with the cost savings we're

081not making it harder on our teachers or on our staff could could you speak to that just a little bit certainly the yeah we so the district currently has three different copy releases for our fleet and our print center across the district the print center lease is up in june or it comes to an end in june so we're not touching the print center at this point we're just focused on the fleet of copiers across the district and those two leases come to an end in february and march in just a couple months we submit or we we sent out a request for quotes to our three current vendors that the district has current leases with and received two different uh quotes back from those two of those three vendors and um apples to apples

082compare obviously we set the the minimum requirements the number of devices and all of the specs that we wanted on our end which those minimums up the the quality and the the devices themselves from what we have currently so there would be no no less devices in our in our buildings and actually better and more efficient features on on those devices so certainly not giving anything up i think the the cost saving simply comes from consolidating the leases and and moving towards one consistent vendor and potentially a little a little more competition helps and then the five-year five-year lease and beating that um that extended period of time uh committed to it helps on the cost savings great thank you and just one more just i'm curious do you know and it's fine if you

083don't but i'm just curious if you know are they energy star are they energy energy-efficient copiers or do they even have energy-efficient copiers that's a good question that i do not know the answer to okay no worries thank you chris for saving us some money appreciate that thanks any other i i kind of gave a good spiel about those or the next two action items the first one is simply just the the agreement with the service provider and then the next action item is the the lease and the as as mentioned the five-year lease on those devices with american capital any other questions on the exciting world of copiers no all right did we have a did we have a motion in a second i lost track no i'll make them no we did not

084second i actually did have a question um request if i could sure sorry no worries couldn't get off meat fast enough um chris i was just curious if there are any rebate programs that are out there that we could explore um as a result of covet 19 recognizing that um schools will be doing you know a lot of virtual print and and packaging and getting documents out to students so um maybe a little bit more so than if they were actually on-prem just curious if there's any programs um available as a result of clothing that we could potentially tap into that's definitely something that i can look into one of the nice things about these this upcoming lease is that we it we pay for what we print in in obviously we're we're covering the

085cost of the devices and the service but then beyond that it is just a per click some of our previous leases have had a built-in minimum that we have been paying at a minimum fee regardless of how much we have we have printed which which has been um frustrating during the the last eight months or so but going forward that will not be the case on on these two new leases or on this one new lease excuse me good deal thank you okay i guess i should ask this for last time but any other questions no okay so we had a motion by me and a second by who was jason right okay matt hi brayden hi direct hi miller i lacroix hi weedman hi and nash hi okay uh next would be looking for

086a motion to approve the copy release with american capital uh lyell illinois for a total of oh wait did i get this one already no 201 553 20. so moved second chris do you want to explain why there are two action items that's a little confusing and i know you maybe you can provide that information for us certainly and i learned something new in a conversation and obviously working very closely with with jane and and mary on both or on the leasing of this then this whole process but because these are two contracts with two separate vendors the the contract with proven i.t and then the contract now with american capital uh legally the the board action is required on two separate contracts since we are entering into two different contracts so although uh to

087our end users in the buildings it just looks like new copiers it is it is requiring two votes tonight okay anybody have any questions see none uh so we can vote miller i nash hi grec hi braden i mack hi weedler hi and mccroy hi okay next would be looking for a motion to approve a roof bid from oak construction summit illinois for 425 thousand dollars mr weedman thank you very much so just a little background going back to february of this year uh the board approved for world architects to go out to bid for us for the replacement roofing over at metal view and the repair of the roof over at park campus uh back in april we put the project uh the replacement roof at metal view on hold and uh the repairs

088over at park due to coved um so that we can further prepare the the buildings for the possibility of on-site return um we went ahead and got the approval to go back out to bid for it and on wednesday uh october 28th we opened up the bids and we received eight different bids on it um and found no discrepancies within any of them uh but we went with the lowest bidder which is oak construction for the price of four hundred thousand dollars with an alternate of twenty five thousand dollars um and the alternate is for ice and water shield since we have ice damming throughout the building up in specific eaves and up up front normally you'll have the ice and water shield around where your gutters come so that no water builds up and

089backs up through its uh protection and um for 425 000 the complete roofing will be done over at wood view and the repair is over at park and this also is not to forget that we did get the grant from the state for the school maintenance 50 50 grant so for uh 50 000 that we pay the state will also pay 50 000. uh the timeline of it is for to be started in june after school uh is out granted we go back hopefully and with a completion date of the end of july so that we can go ahead and do complete cleanup and punch out and ensure that there's no leaks after reviewing all the bids and consulting with woold and checking all references we recommend that the board awards the construction contract for

090the lowest bidder to oak construction for 425 thousand dollars um and be it the board approves the bid and awards the contract to hold construction for metal view and the repairs at park campus do we have any any questions on it oh um just it's a quick one does it does that is that roof suitable for solar panels if in if we decide to put solar panels on the other buildings in the future at some point do you know so i don't want to open mouth beforehand uh and put the cart before the horse but from prior stuff that i have read and looked over yes it would be um and i know that i have had conversations with uh performance the company that we have dealt with um and it was kind of talked

091about prior so it will be suitable um anytime you look to go put solar panels on a roof obviously it's suggestible that it is a new roof um so absolutely okay great thank you okay so i'll make the motion to approve the bid second yeah yeah hi um you could also perhaps answer any questions so i don't know mike is there anything that you wanted to add um to any of these topics i just want to give you that comments um no i adam covered um everything that that i would say i would uh definitely back him up on you know his recommendation uh to approve the bid um i think you got a pretty good um you know the price is competitive so um there's no reason to not move forward okay all right

092thank you mike we we appreciate that you know benefit of having one of our architects here tonight so i want to give them a chance and and certainly that question that you asked christie about um the ability to put solar on in the future that was one of our you know that was a that was a conversation last spring so um i believe it was um considered in the beds as well thank you great thank you hey nicole nash hi brayden i miller i matt hi rack hi wiedman hi lacroix hi okay uh next is a motion to approve a one-year subscription online subscription to lexia learning of center elementary school and prairie view school to pay to be paid out of the title one grant for a total of twenty three thousand eight hundred

093dollars good evening everyone um so you may know that the district receives um some grant funds from the illinois state board of education one of those grants is title one and title one provides grant funding to districts with high percentages of students from low-income families to just help make sure that all the students are meeting state standards and the goal of the grant is really to provide extra instructional services activities materials and support to those students most at risk of not meeting academic standards so while the grant is funded based off of low-income population the goal is to provide support to the students who need it most and so this year we received a large amount of grant funds due to the carryover from last year typically the district doesn't always get all of the

094carryover funds that they don't spend just because of how the federal government works the grant but due to covet 19 we were able to receive all of the dollars that we did not spend last year so in addition to the 2021 allocation we received a good portion of last year's funds as well so after talking to teachers and talking to administration at both of our title 1 schools which are avon and prairie view the need came up for maybe some additional online resources for literacy so when we started looking into what those could possibly be lexia learning the core5 program came up it has great reviews external reviews um about me how it meets all of the standards for our students and how it meets standards for how we want our teachers to be teaching

095so we are bringing this contract to you tonight in hopes of getting this approved so that our teachers and students can begin using this resource this year it is a completely digital resource so it will be able to be used whether we are remote or whether we are on site okay does anybody have any questions for mrs woodruff okay um i do jim i just wanted to confirm hi miss woodruff um that the that this program is device agnostic right so we wouldn't need to be running on certain operating systems or um or or certain updates or models i know it's a lot of tech language that mr viper can probably open in better than me but i just want to make sure that this is agnostic to the the age or operating system absolutely

096that is actually one of the questions we always ask our vendors to make sure that we do have the right technology for both students and staff and this program is completely web-based so it will run on an apple device it'll run on an android device it'll run on whatever device the students have available to them and the teachers as well fantastic thank you okay can i have a motion in a second so moved second second miller i is now nash yes i'm sorry nash i strat hi brayden i mac aye weedman hi and lacroix thank you okay the next is a motion to approve the termination of employment for martin callix a probationary employee of the school district effective immediately so moved a second hi brayden hi drac hi miller i hi weedman hi and

097nash hi okay um next is unfinished business nada okay uh then we're going to go to new business and that'll be our first look at board policies and this will be mr wolk yes good evening everybody um prior to tonight's board meeting we had our policy committee meeting um we have several new uh policies that we'll be bringing to you next time for approval um just quickly go through um [Music] an overview of them um i'm going to go out of order because there's a reason rhyming reason for this um one policy stands alone amongst amongst all the others with the rest of the policies being addressed um together under a new federal law so i'd like to pull out [Music] the substitute teachers policy number this was a simple date change due to the

098continuing need and shortage for sub subs across the state um just expanding um for another year the number of days that they can work within a school district or as a sub um all of the other policies uh are addressed um that you'll see with you tonight are addressed um under the new law change of title ix just a quick quick overview that title ix was created in 1972 to address discrimination based on sex in 2018 the department of ed proposed new regulations for title ix to address the previous administration's guidance regarding sexual harassment the new regulations were passed in may and went into effect in august of 2020 while we have always had practices uh policies and procedures in place to investigate sexual harassment these policy updates are new specifically to address the change

099in title ix is widely believed um that the new new administration will take action to reverse these policies but for the time being we have to operate under the current law so what do all these new rules entail there is a revision to policies and procedures and how to conduct how sexual harassment is reported and how sexual harassment is investigated um there are staffing determinations for investigations identifying new roles of individuals for individuals to take one thing that is common throughout all of these policies a few searches that read through them you'll see title ix coordinator referred to many times and that was a new new title new role that was put into our policy and it is um then addressed through all of our policies that were introduced tonight um investigator that would be

100the person who's going to be investigating um and just a quick overview this can also be the same person as the title ix coordinator we also have to have a decision maker and the decision maker cannot be the investigator or the title ix coordinator and then there's an appeals decision maker and that individual cannot be any of the three other roles makes sense that they have no knowledge of what goes on um it also this new these new rules require training for all personnel involved in investigations and the grievance process which we have gone through um dr glickman mr lewis heather lorenzo and i all uh worked with our attorneys on and then this new rule also requires us to publicize all of our trainings and information on our district website and in our handbooks

101which some of that information is already up on our website but we need to approve when we approve these policies they will also go up on the district website um so it's kind of an overview as i mentioned a little bit earlier i've mentioned our attorneys at no time would we enter into an investigation regarding sexual harassment without informing our attorneys and with their guidance um so it's it's a new law and we would always even prior to this change um we would always contacted our attorneys if this was a case um we went through the policies one by one that was kind of a general overview a lot of them all reference each other um and there's a lot of legal modifications throughout each policy any questions no i don't have any questions um

102if you just um there was one of those some of those had mandatory questions that the policy committee had agreed on could you just go through those real quick yes um and policy two two six zero the question that we need to address is the non-discrimination and title ix coordinators need not be the same person does the district's non-discrimination coordinator also serve as the title ix coordinator we're going to go with the default yes non-discrimination coordinator will also be the title nine coordinator and we have two individuals that will take that role dr glickman and me um a new policy which was is brand new um it's two two six five title nine sexual harassment grievance procedure this one is kind of the crux of the whole um the whole package in that it lays

103out how we would conduct interviews or investigations um first two are pretty easy questions and then we get into ones that we have to that are a little bit harder does the district employ an assistant principal yes does the district employ a dean of students yes um number three is will the district use a live hearing during the grievance process with the default being no what this is is the law states that post-secondary school or institutions are required to offer live hearings um or elementary high schools are not required to offer live hearings um what these are are um for the lack of a better word um investigation or uh lawyers getting to question um the either the accuser or the accused um not a situation that we feel is we want to put our

104students in um they are allowed a hearing but it would not be in front of people and the person that is either accusing or is being accused and then the fourth question which standard of proof has the board adopted for policy 2265 the default i'll read these to you but the default is preponderance of evidence and the other option being clear and convincing evidence so preponderance of evidence is defined as hold on let me find it i moved i lost it um it means the greater weight of the evidence not necessarily established by the greater number of witnesses testifying to the fact but by evidence that has the most convincing force that is cited in black's law dictionary um clear and convincing evidence is a higher standard requiring more than preponderance of evidence but less

105than proof beyond a reasonable doubt it means the evidence indicating that the thing to be proved is highly probable or reasonably certain so it would be our recommendation to go with preponderance of evidence which is the default chris am i understanding this correctly if there's a sexual harassment case is it incumbent on the victim if you will to provide preponderance of evidence that he or she was abused i i'm that seems to go contrary to it seems to put the the burden of proof on the victim as opposed to i make it harder for them which seems strange to me so there is yeah therein lies the part of the reason why it's anticipated that um this may be overturned by the next administration okay and by administration this is a this is federal this

106is the federal law not this administration yeah not the not the elected sorry this is a federal law preponderance of evidence is actually the lowest standard that that you might choose between because right yeah i'm just um like i said i'm i'm baffled by that but thank you okay i'm also gonna be hearing correctly keep in mind that it's the school district's responsibility to investigate right so you know the the duke bridge is collecting that evidence okay okay well while we may not agree with what the current administration have put forth as the new law we still have to update our policies to follow the new law yeah and just to i'm not suggesting that district is all called as it is at all culpable i just wanted to make sure i was understanding correctly

107okay yeah i think we're all on the same page with that yeah thank you all right um and then the last question um [Music] that we need to answer uh is under policy 710 equal educational opportunities does the board want to incorporate isbee's sample district policy and administrative procedures policy recommendation into this policy well let me share with you what that is so you know um the default is no um it does not change anything the other question the other option is yes and what this will do is that iasb will replace the words gender identity with gender gender identity whether or not traditionally associated with a student's sex assigned at birth gender expression so this is a more encompassing statement because doesn't just go to gender identity but um is more encompassing of what

108this our board and our school district um wants to uh include in for our students and our staff um some more inclusive definition and our recommended our recommendation was to put in the isb uh language uh to work alongside with our equity and inclusion um work that we have done in the district in the past we wanted to keep consistency with that we felt that adding that statement in would work well with that with that policy that we've been doing thank you jeremiah i got floss would have a dog behind me drinking so does anybody have any questions for chris on those or any questions on the questions that we had to answer as a policy committee we were okay with those answers for us okay all right um so we will vote on those

109at the next meeting which would be in december to adopt those next on the agenda is the discussion of the iasb resolutions which jason actually covered in his board report i don't think we need to rehash those then we are up for topics for future agenda so at the next meeting as you said jim um we'll have those policy approvals we'll also deal with a few financial matters we'll have the public hearing for the tax levy at six o'clock um and then the approval um we will also have a presentation of the audit um so we're glad for that um and so there'll be a presentation and the approval of the annual audit for fy20 um we also expect to be able to bring you a mid-year report on energy savings um with performance services

110coming and sharing information so that will also occur uh chris will be presenting the seniority list which is just business as usual um and then um earlier you know the question came up about you know conversation about return on site and hybrid um we certainly expect that there will be some conversation at this meeting i i think i i would like to engage with you all right now as to what nature of conversation you want to have and by that i mean this we've already approved the plan so we're not you know we we know what we're doing the question is when are we doing it and when we um when we left off so to speak um we understood that we can't enact or we won't be enacting our hybrid plan until the metrics

111so allow um so you know my question to you is do you want a um a formal timeline brought to you for you to vote on or do you want there to be an understanding that we are waiting until the metrics are at the place where they need to be and that will bring for bring in our students in that three-week um um scale in using the groupings that we've already agreed on so that that's really up to you board in terms of um how you want that presented well it seems to me there's going to be a long runway for when the numbers start turning around and getting back to a place where we're comfortable doing that so i'm not sure we need to agree on a date right now right it sounds to

112me like there's a little bit of time is anyone else reading it differently than that i'm reading i'm reading it the same way jason sorry but the only thing is you know with us already approving the plan is it a matter of just waiting for the metrics to get in and then they tell us then the have the administration let us know when they're moving towards moving forward in that plan that is actually us having to approve the date to go back because they're not going to go back unless the metrics are there so you know let them just okay this is when we're planning on going back based on the metrics now and we're going to ramp it up from there i don't know if we need to actually have a vote on a

113date of to go back in i think we just leave that up to the administration and we move forward from there right so it's going to be an earlier of such and such date or when the metrics allow and then rely on communication good continue good communication between the administration and the school community does that work for everybody yeah okay does that work for you lin yeah it's great um particularly because we only have one board meeting in december and one in january and you know we we don't we don't just don't know what information we'll be bringing although i would agree with you jason it certainly does look like a long run up um based on where the metrics are right now it would take a big turnaround it would it would um so

114those are all of the items that i have for the next meeting i don't have a list for you right now for january but are there other topics that um either for the next meeting anyone thought we were going to be having or anything you wanted to ask about for the future i do not have anything all right that did not okay uh are we going to have a closed session tonight we are not okay so next is uh public comments did we have any public comments mr wolfe i do not have any public comments at this moment okay all right uh the next day we'll entertain and motion to adjourn so moved second lacroix hi nash hi miller i mark hi hi weedman braden hi all right thank you everybody um tamika i sent

115you a reply email you