OTHS School Board Meeting 1/22/2026

001H >> corners. >> Hi >> Leau. >> Hi. >> Is >> I >> Johnson I RTOR >> I >> Brown >> I and everyone would please join me algebra and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Yeah, we've got a few things to go through tonight. Um, so we'll look at some facility improvement, community feedback. I think it was a survey that uh Dr. Jack will present. Uh, Mr. Graham's got some uh information on education goals and our our forward KPIs. Uh, Mr. how has an update on enrollment, attendance, and uh absenteeism. Um we'll get a little bit of a look later tonight at our 2627 school calendar. Um not nothing we're voting on, just a discussion, but uh we get to look

002at that. And then we have a special report tonight um on intervention from Miss Schroeder as well as Cartwells is here to show student survey information on on our food. So, floor is yours. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. I wanted to follow up tonight on the results of the community meeting that we had in December as we're discussing our long-term facilities planning. We did put out surveys following that meeting. Uh we received a total of 322 responses. 42 of those responses were people who used the QR code that was physically at the meeting and then 280 responses survey link that was sent with a link to the YouTube recording. Of that, 187 identified as parents, 50 students, 59 staff members, and 22 community members. So, some pretty good um participation there. And I'm going

003to share with you the items that were identified throughout the entire process that were then given in the survey for the respondents to consider in terms of their importance. So we took those themes and asked them to rank from most important to not at all important um in each of the identified areas. And the order that you'll see them in tonight represents the order that had the most most important or very important responses um from all the respondents. The lighter the blue, the more important people thought it was. So when you see that really really light blue on the right there, that indicates a most important response. When you see the very very dark blue, the sliver towards the top, those are people that respond and that's all important. So again, people answering most important

004are very important. We received the most answers in terms of importance on secure entry. Uh so great decision to move forward with that Milburn security project this weekend. Uh secure entry here um has more fidelity with the exception of the Panther Dome access that uh is is is open as soon as you come into the building. Next was right sizing the undersized classrooms. We see over 75% of respondents viewed that as most important or very important. Next were the hallways. Again, just under 75% addressing the hallways. [clears throat] Next were advances in career and technical education. Next was parking. Again, we're hovering around 70% there thinking it's most important or very important. Then the special education alternative at risk spaces. Then right sizing the science labs. Um this is lower than right sizing all. Uh

005when I I just wanted to make a note when we talked about this part is uh my interpretation um of that is not that science was viewed as less um less important than the other classrooms but just that the respondents viewed all the classrooms being rightsized as important. Again take from it what you will. exposure to daylight, [clears throat] then the cafeteria, then student support services and offices, followed by gymnasiums and large meeting spaces. Now, we're going toward more of just around 50% of respondents calling it most important or very important. Then, additional classrooms and storage the instructional media center, departmental adjacencies, which means English next to English, science next to science, etc. And finally, the music practice rooms and adjacencies. So again, this is just one piece of the puzzle um but some good

006feedback so that we can understand what stakeholders view as important from those identified themes. Our next Oh, I'm sorry. Then I'll share with you here too. The last question asked the respondents to rank their preferences on how we would move forward [clears throat] with each of the scenarios that FGM created. So, uh the first choice is represented to the left of that orange or copper color and then the last choice is the blue um with the middle being neutral. So, of the linked survey that was sent out, so these aren't necessarily people who were physically at the meeting. They could have been at the meeting, but they didn't answer the survey the night of the meeting. Um, [snorts] the first choice was to improve the facilities with our current grade level structure, meaning 9th grade

007is at Milbour, 10th through 12th at Smiley. We saw very similar responses about having two grade levels at Milbour and two at Smiley. Then again, not too far off are all grade levels at Milbourne with specialized programming at Smiley, such as, although this could be fluid of course, special education, CTE, athletics, etc. Uh, a little less support of having all grade levels at Milbour and essentially making Smiley obsolete. And then we didn't see much support for the question that was added after the meeting of two separate independent 9 through 12 high schools. Um the reason I mentioned that these are people that responded to the link that was sent out is at the meeting we only had the first four options there. So improving with the current structure two grades at each specialized instruction at

008Smiley or everything at Milbour. But there was it was brought up that night why don't we have the option of the two independent high schools? Um, so, um, that was added before we sent it out to the public. From for those that attended the meeting or scanned the QR code at the meeting to answer the survey, that's 41 responses. Um, it's it's a little bit different where all grade levels at Milbour was the most supported from those that were physically there. Again, a much smaller um a much smaller amount of respon respondents here. Followed by all grade levels at Milbour. than improving the current grade level structure and two grade levels received the the least amount of support. Um so I think it's interesting to see how different those responses were based on whether they

009were physically hearing part of the discussions or whether they just received the survey after the meeting and maybe did and maybe didn't view the actual meeting before responding. Our next steps will be taking all of this data that we've been compiling for close to a year. So we're looking at the facilities assessment from the architects as well as all the stakeholder feedback which we've been collecting since last spring and then of course best practices as they relate to what ISBY recommend which is also part of that assessment. We'll be also then reviewing our available financial resources just because we say this is what we would love to have. how we need to make sure we can afford it or at least make a financial plan to incrementally make those improvements. Uh then narrowing that long-term

010vision. Again, we had about five scenarios that were presented um based on the feedback, the assessment, financial resources. Um how can we narrow those five and turn them into something like one or two so that we can decide a direction we'd like to go in long term? And then finally, create a shortterm aligned with that long-term vision. Again, we want to know where we want to go long term, but what can we do now that's aligned with that? So, those will be the next steps that will be discussed in detail at retreat. Um, that's almost all I have for you tonight, but I did want to mention Mr. Brown mentioned that we'll be talking about the the school calendar. It is there for your preview tonight. Uh the expectation is that the board would then

011approve of a calendar next month. Uh calendar committee uh met in December prior to break to kind of discuss priorities, what was important and then came back together after break to finalize the proposed calendar. You will see some differences from what occurred in past years. One being that um I think it's on a Monday um which is pretty typical. we come back for a full institute day and then we have the first day of school. That first day of school has always been a full day of school. This calendar proposes that it is an early release day on the first day of school. So, it's truly more of an introductory day with allowing some more teacher work time in the afternoon. And then the biggest change is um for years and years we had a

012I believe it was uh Thursday through Monday spring break. Uh this year we extended that a day. Next year the proposal is a entire week-long spring break and it actually ends up being an entire Monday through Friday week along with Good Friday the holiday prior to the break. Um we have met with the other area superintendent and they met with their calendar committees and all the committees are in support of this change to allow for a full week spring break. Um the week for next year is proposed to be following the Easter holiday which is not typical of how we address spring break here. Usually we have it leading up to Easter and then the day after. However, where Easter falls next year and we put it the week before it creates a really long

013stretch of time with no breaks in the student attendance. So the committees again, not just ours but also in the feeder schools felt that the best approach to get that week long done next year and to make sure that student attendance days were more equally distributed is that we would do that the week following um Easter rather than week four. That of course would change because Easter changes every year. >> So I saw that D90s align with us. >> Yes. >> But Shiloh and Central are too. >> Shiloh and Central I have not seen theirs but they but they have communicated that theirs is as well. I've heard that from Okay. >> Can you What's the big change? I've been >> the week, >> right? What's the big change in now um staff and and

014everyone is >> sure because we've been talking about it. We almost tipped and went there last year, but there's a couple things that go into it. One is next year is one of those calendar years where even that additional and we give up Pilaski by the way as a holiday which lots of Illinois schools have done but we haven't. So next year we give up Pilaski as a holiday at the beginning of March uh so that we're not adding on as many days at the end but also next year has a very late Memorial Day and Memorial Day is usually kind of a marker for we really like to be done by Memorial Day if all possible and even utilizing all emergency days we would still be done before Memorial Day. Now, um, Olivia McGee,

015who's one of our calendar committee members, looked out several years, and it's achievable to keep that before Memorial Day and keep the week long spring break for years to come. I think it was always desired, but not at the expense of coming back after Memorial Day. >> I would assume too, and again, I'm making an assumption here. I don't know if this is true, but that um, you know, having e-learning now as a consideration, uh, it increases the likelihood of use utilizing all five emergency days that need to be made up. So there's not as much risk of going out to all five days being used. >> I was told for years that the staff did not want to be long um spring break that they thought the kids would not uh come back because

016it was so towards the end of year and really want to participate the rest of the school year. So that that's not the field anymore. >> Sure. So I I can't speak to years ago um exactly what that rationale was, but I know that last year when the committee met, there was a lot of interest in that committee in exploring the weight loss option. Um but it just it wasn't worth that expense of perhaps going so far uh into the end of May. Um and it was the consensus of the committee that the week long was desired this year. Last night, D90 shared a survey that they did with their the teachers [clears throat] and the teachers were highly in favor of a week long spring break. >> They really [clears throat] wanted and D90.

017>> Yeah, that has always been. >> Yeah. Last year, Dr. Ruby shared with me that her that that the committee at D90 really wanted that week long, but ultimately um supported, you know, where we just added that day. And we were almost a week this year. We're one day short of a week. It's just not a Monday through Friday. So that just solidifies that. So I just think everyone's on the same page that it's >> so this year >> the days off following Easter, >> correct? >> But that's not a guarantee. Next year it could be the week before. >> Absolutely. And I think probably more often than not it would be the week before Easter. This just happens to be a very early Easter next year. Yeah, it is March. >> Okay. So I

018just wanted to share that with you uh before we preview the calendar. Any other questions about we get to that agenda item, just let me know. Thank you. >> Mr. Graham curriculum. [clears throat] >> Good evening everybody. So, I just wanted to share a a recap of our semester one data that we talked about in education committee uh this month. So, just as a reminder uh in education, we have five district goals. Our district goals are are supported by strategies and programs that we're running throughout the school year. Each district goal has key performance indicators tied to them, which is how we measure our progress in those goals, and each of those KPIs have a target of where we want to be. So, that's just a reminder. The process we go through is called the

019continuous improvement process. We are looking right here at the very bottom, which is collecting and analyzing some data, and then we look back and start making sure our plans are working and our data is moving the right way. So I'll just share with you where we've ended at the semester point as kind of a prediction of where our caps fit into the end of the school year. Um for academic achievement we have four our grad nth grade on track our ACT college credits and for school culture we have four chronic absent extracurricular participation behavior data and survey data. So, at a midyear, again, we don't have final data for most of these. Um, in 2425, our grad rate was at a 7-year high of 94 and a half%. Our target for that year was 93%,

020we kept our target there because that is considered perfect by the state. Um, at the midyear, we have 90% of our uh students on track to graduate. We have 7% on a watch list and we have 3% that will not graduate from the current class of 2026. So, um we can know that the counseling department is working with these watch list students every week. They've developed plans with these students in in semester 2 and we know that we will get the majority of those students in the watch list because that's what typically happens. So we are our grad rate is looking good on track to hit that target um based on who's on track right now. [clears throat] Next one is our ninth grade on track um which again is defined as a freshman who

021ends the school year with five credits and does not fail more than a semester of a core class English, math, science, social studies. Um our nth grade on track last school year was 90.6% 6% which is just shy of our target of 91%. So we maintain that target at 91% and I can share at the semester we had 51 freshmen who failed one or more classes meaning 91.6% of freshmen pass all classes. You do not have to pass every class to be considered on track. So based on that percentage we are ahead of last year's uh number at this point. ACT results. We do not have any midyear data um because this is a once a year exam and so I just shared last year's data there. Um I can share that we've had multiple

022teachers this year attend professional development on the ACT and brought that back to their departments in English, math and science uh to work on that uh incorporating into the curriculum. Next one is a um a new KPI that the the education committee set because our previous in in this area was a percent of students enrolled in blank, a percent of students in CT, a percent of students in dual credit, percent of students in music. Um and so we realized that those numbers cannot grow at a certain point. You cannot grow both your CTE and your fine arts enrollment forever because students have to pick their classes and they only have a limited number. So we wanted to switch that to something numerical and not percentage based. So we want to look at the number of

023dual credits earned, the number of AP exams passed and the number of CTE certificate tests passed. And I gave you the four-year data history of that there. All of these have been trending upwards over those four years. And at the midyear it is also looking like the trend is to continue to move upwards. Um the biggest one you see is that CTE certificates. Um so that's an industry certificate that you could get from a variety of classes in computers and industrial um all over the place. And the DODIA grant that that department has is focused on increasing those certification tests that we offer to our students. So it's it appears to be working very well. This is the last year of that grant. So we expect to see it go up again. Next one is

024chronic absenteeism. I think Mr. How has more attendance data to share later in the meeting, but uh our chronic absentee rate last year stayed flat at 21%. We had a target to drop it down to 19. Uh we did not hit that target. Currently at the midyear, it does look good with about 16% of students considered chronically absent in the first semester. That's missing 10% of a school year. So, missing nine days in the first semester would make you at 10%. Um, that looks good, but we do know that semester 2 attendance is historically worse than semester 1. Um, and so I I don't think it will end at 16%. It does look good. And Mr. How has more coming, I think. I believe. Um, extracurricular participation, the target this year was 75%. At the

025midyear, we had 56% of of students in a club or a sport. And we know that semester 2 spring sports are the biggest season and so we do know that number will grow. Behavior data also looks great. Um we have a measure of the percent of students that never were excluded from a class because of a discipline issue. So that's either a class suspension, which is a one period of ACR, an ACR all day, or an out of school suspension. 81% of our students last year never received this and at the midyear 90% of our students have not received this. A lot of our behavior uh progressions reset at the semester. So that is good that this number uh is at 90 and can stay relatively high through the rest of the year. Uh student

026survey data is the last one. Uh we had a survey that the DODIA school culture grant uh put out to students last year where 57% of our students agreed that they feel like a part of the school. It's a belonging survey and 57% of the students feel that we wanted to increase that to 65%. We did our connect day activity around that and so um and we've done advisory activities as well to support this. We are giving the survey this year this month actually. So we'll have data very soon on that to see where we're at this year. And that is all. Any questions? >> So data [clears throat] looks good. You know, you got a second semester coming, some headwinds on some of the data like you said for attendance. What's working though? Our

027data is improved. How do we know that this isn't just uh other factors moving the data and what we're putting in there, our investments in the students? How do we know that that's working? >> We can't know exactly. Um but we know that the programs that we're doing are new. And so we're doing new programs and seeing better data. And so that is the way that we feel it's moving in the right direction because of our programs. But I don't know that there's truly a way to just narrow it down to exactly what program moves exactly what data because we do programs like the um the connect state data is meant the connect state program is meant to move multiple of these um from student belonging to extracurricular participation to attendance. So it's it is

028tough to narrow that down to one program moving one number. And [clears throat] do you think that maybe there's an opportunity to use like the state average and the widening of our separation from the state average maybe as a success of some of these programs? Like I said, so if you look at chronic absent, the state average has been declining by roughly about the same amount. We're a little bit ahead >> of how the state average is declining. Right. >> Right. >> So demographically in the state of Illinois, we're moving. we're on trend. How do we break that trend in a positive way? How do we measure that? I I would really be interested in that type of data as well because this is all positive. I don't want to take away from from from

029the great work. And I have no doubt that actually our great work is impacting this in a positive way. But I do think we should make sure that we're pulling out the noise as well. Um maybe there's an opportunity to use the state average data and see like trend breaking report instead. >> Okay. Yes, we can definitely look at that. Any other questions? Okay, >> thanks Mr. Graham. Good trends pretty much everything. Miss Gray finance. >> Good evening. I am presenting financials on the month of December. um revenues for December was $9.7 million which is 80.9% of the annual budget which is compared to 2024 of um 5.3 million which was 80.4% of the budget. So though the amounts are different, um the trends for the percentage year-over-year are very comparable and the difference um

030primarily is due to the property tax distribution and when the funds were received and the increase in the distribution which was three a little over $3 million which is shown on this last page. On the expense side, we received five point we expensed $5 million in expenses. um which is 47.3% of the annual budget compared to um 2.9 million in the prior year which was 48.3% of the budget and that difference was primarily due to bond payments last year were all paid in the month of November and $1.6 million of the bond payments were paid in December and all of the bond payments have been made. Um this is just a list of the property taxes that were um the funds that were received in 2025 and that shows the 30.3 million that was received

031this year compared to the 27 million in 2024. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Good evening everybody. We're going to start off with uh last Wednesday night was our eighth grade parent night at the Millburn campus and we welcomed the class of 2030. It was kind of hard for me to even say that. Uh I was laughing because 2030 sounds insane, but we welcomed the parents of the class of 2030 where all the parents learned great things. course selection, course placement process, graduation requirements, registration, and then new this year, every department chair came and gave a a really brief presentation on the classes they offer uh to promote their departments. And it was very wellreceived. The department chairs did just a phenomenal job of of trying to keep it brief but yet showcase their department.

032It was it was a really great night there. And special thanks of course goes to Miss Lugie, Mr. Hatton, Mr. Graham who organized this this this big night and of course all the department chairs who came that night and gave two different presentations. So it was just a very good informational night to make uh parents feel comfortable uh sending their son or daughter to toward campus next year. >> I just want to add I attended that event and it was spectacular. I was so very proud of the uh department chairs and the presentation that they made to the eighth grade parents and um to Eth and Miss Lie uh for putting it together. It was just very professionally done. It was right on time. I mean, it ended on time. Uh the department chairs were

033very informative in the five minutes that they each got up and spoke. I just thought that if I was a eighth grade parent, I would be more educated in what departments do, what activities they had. So, I just thought it was a fantast by by the school and I uh I thought it was fabulous. So, thank you. I'm pleased to let everyone know. I thought they did a really good job >> and thank you for attending. It was nice to be there. And the school counselors, just so everybody knows too, starting um at the end of January, they go out to all the feeder schools to register all the eighth graders. That's a big undertaking that they're getting ready to do. And so, uh it's just it's a lot. It's a lot for them to

034do and we have to really commend them on that. Okay, we're going to look at some data here today. The data you're going to see today is is kind of a real 30,000 foot view of our of our attendance data. We're not going to get in the weeds uh real specific things. I'm going to get to that later throughout the semester. But what this first data is going to show us here, if you remember, we have different codes for our absentees, our absences, I should say. The first one are absence that's coded E. And these are when I say excuse, what that means is a parent or guardian called in. Okay, they called in. We know where that student was. If we look at uh the data from 22 to 25, it's all the fall

035semester only. Okay. Um the really good numbers there. It's been reduced as you can see from roughly 6,400 in the fall of 22 down to 5470 this past fall. Now we move over to the code of A. And again, what that means is everybody tends to think this is uh not excused, but what it means is just unresolved. a parent did not call in, okay, on these. This is where the numbers really jumped up for some reason. And so what I what I'm going to look look at these numbers and why why this is the case going from 1,700 last fall to 2167 in the fall of 25. So this one's this is the kind of the outlier here that I'm going to look at in more detail and figure out why this is the

036case. If we look at that's the code B, that's our mental health days. And again, it's it's gone up again. Um, we're now at 1,794 and a half days. And oh, by the way, what these numbers mean is that's 1,794 days, okay, of mental health days used. And a day is considered when a student misses five or more class periods, okay, that's considered a full absence of a day. And then total our total absences um it went up just a little bit from the previous year but the the four-year trend has gone down which is good news but still not good enough. Okay. And so we are are are asking our faculty, our staff, the public for any type of ideas to um to try to improve our tenants. And as you can see, it's

037it's it's gotten better, but we need to do a lot better job on this. Any questions on this slide? Okay. Um the next slide, this one is students with nine or more absences in the fall semester only. Okay. The difference between this one is it's all absences. So this includes uh medical absences, this includes out of school suspension days, medical homebound days. And so um on this one comparing from fall 22 to fall 25 back in the fall of 22, there were 444 students that had nine or more absences, which was eight at that time 18.6% um rate. The fall of 23 was 472 students at 19.3%. Fall of 24 was 422 students at 16.9 and it's been reduced down to 399 or 16.1. So that is some real good news there with that chronic

038absenteeism rate hopefully is going to continue to go down. Any questions on this? No. Okay. And finally, always do with the enrollment. Our total enrollment as of this was as of yesterday was 2470 compared to a year ago um was 2516 questions. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, [clears throat] Miss Schroeder, um, is you've got a presentation on intervention. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm Beth Schrader. Um, I'm the alternative education coordinator and the chair of the student support services department. Um, I am new to this role and fortunately am following uh on the heels of Mr. Alex Prrenal um who uh led us as we this really was a brand new role um alto together last last year school year um with respect for your time um I've included some of the information um

039that he presented to to you a little over a year ago um just for reference in my presentation but I will be skipping over a fair bit of it. So um please feel free though to slow me down if you need any clarification on any of these points. Um our department and program um all begins with our SOS um our student staff offering support teams um at both campuses um whose membership is made up of those that are up up there on the screen right now. Um the Milbour team ma meets uh every week uh at the beginning of the school year and and honestly even through this second semester as well just because nth graders we're just kind of getting to know those students and when we want to make sure that um that

040we are identifying the students that might need extra support um early on at Smiley campus uh we meet bi-weekly. Um students are identified in a number of different ways. Primarily it's through uh referral forms. um teachers and and other staff members are um uh will um submit referral forms electronically um in most cases, but then we also have counselors, social workers, administrators who bring students to the meetings as well to to our attention. Um and that's kind of our favorite way to to uh receive those referrals uh because we want to make sure that we're wrapping them up with supports before we reach the level of where we're seeing them on reports. So this past semester um in the fall we had 73 total students who were referred. Um the SOS teams discussed these students.

041We made sure they received the supports that they needed. Um and then occasionally we collected additional data uh teacher observations um assessments that we might have needed in order to make uh placement changes if necessary. Um and some of those supports um we really kind of start off our starting point with uh our advisory uh supports that we provide. So through the academic assistance center, the math tutoring lab um with those um are where we begin and then again as we kind of continue on down even social work services um to the placement changes. We really rely a lot on our uh student school counseling department to help us to make sure that all those go quickly and and smoothly and they do a great job of communicating and facilitating those changes for us. So

042again, um, our primary kind of focus and and the first level of support that we provide through our department um is the academic assistance center or the AAC. I'm not going to go through all this background information, but the main things that you'll need to kind of um know about the AAC is that students are recommended to um the advisory AAC um by the SOS team members. Um but then any student at all um is avail or welcome to attend before school or after school um at any time. Um so our uh when it comes to our Milbour um academic assistance center, we uh hear the results of of the fantastic work and hard work and dedication of Mr. Jack Bren Brandon and Mrs. Marcy Dobs. Um they are two instructors over at the Milurn

043campus who also teach our support classes over there. um and and our members of our our uh SOS team. Um as we look at improvement data, what we're looking at here is primarily um student really the way we count them is any student that has um improved by at least 5% or more in a core class that they've been recommended to attend AAC for. And so you'll notice again lots of great improvement that's happening there. As same thing uh we can see at Smiley. So, as you can see at the Smiley campus, we have Mrs. Brianna Bastik and Mrs. Tomatada Pendergrass who are fabulous teachers there. Um, they offer fantastic support to the students in all three grade levels. Um, and and also teach the uh support classes, ES essential study skills classes and our

044members of the Smiley um SOS team there as well. Um, we seek out feedback from our students in the AAC so that we can identify areas of growth. um we're always kind of, you know, looking to make sure that we're providing the supports that they need. And so we provide a student survey. And as you can see, most of them feel at least like they get a pretty solid level of support um from the the AAC instructors. Um but one particular [clears throat] survey question in particular that caught our eye um was uh this question about why um some students maybe can't attend the afterchool AAC. And uh you'll notice the kind of the royal purple on the right hand side. It's a little hard to see here, but um basically they're saying that they

045have other commitments in many cases after school. So we know they have work, extracurriculars and things of that nature. So one of the things that came out of one of our SOS team meetings and idea um was that we kind of offer up uh before school hours. Um this is something we've done a long time ago in the past um and we we decided that hey maybe now it's time to bring it back. So, we actually surveyed students again to um gauge their interest, then pilot piloted um the morning hours between um uh Thanksgiving break and the winter break. And now we're going to continue that to offer those hours and just kind of collect attendance data as we go through the spring semester to see how things go. Uh we also are going to

046kind of we've started uh partnering uh with the video production students to do a quick publicity blitz with some some spotlights um with uh with uh the social media and Panther Beat and and things of that nature too. Another program that we offer um through our department is the Panther Academy for Careers and Education or PACE. Um this is the credit recovery program um that uh is the online coursework that we provide through admentum. Um now this is facilitated in a classroom with an OTHS teacher and the students are going through a typical regular school day in most of their classes but for one hour a day they come in and they take these online courses and [clears throat] these the instructors are there to support them. they're grading the um activities and and really

047kind of helping to them to to work through the curriculum that is provided um through admentum. Um the we also offer um two sections of of this at the Milbourne campus just during the spring semester though of course because it is simply just to make up and recover the credit that they may have missed in the fall. Um so for uh the fall of 2025 semester, this past semester, we had 43 students enrolled in this in Smiley at Smiley for um PACE originally. Um and um and just in case anybody's curious, we're actually up to 58 enrolled this spring. And then over at Smiley, we have 29 students um who are enrolled um for this spring semester as well. But as you can see, a good majority of students were able to make up credit

048towards their graduation requirements. We're looking at 77% of the assigned credits were recovered um last fall and we are looking towards hopefully having that same success or maybe even better this coming spring too. Um as far as updates um on the pace um I'm super grateful for u Mr. Daniel Cox who has been um a PACE instructor in the past and now is again here this spring um and also Mr. printable who really kind of helped give us some good feedback and prompted us to consider a few changes uh to uh our policies um with PACE classes this semester. So in an effort to maintain academic integrity and increase accountability and and just engagement during class time with these students. Um uh so we've we've created a couple new policies. Most notably though is limiting

049their the students access to the courses. So, previously they would have access to the courses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, they could be working on them any time of day, weekends at night, 2 o'clock in the morning, which we don't really prefer. Um, and so what we've done now is we've uh we've limited that to Mondays through Fridays from 7:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. That little bit of extra time still allows these students to come in and and use the academic assistance center to take care of some of the the uh their coursework. Um, but now they're able to be a little bit more engaged in class. they're actually working on the classes while they have the instructors there to support them. And then um they are also um uh able

050we we as instructors are able to then kind of monitor a little bit more of their computer activity too. >> So it so we um instead of 247 doing regular school hours and that's so we can really monitor. >> Yes. Yes. So, so um what we were finding um in some cases that students would come or either you know skip class or not come to school um or um in some cases too they would be um uh not taking advantage of their time w you know using their time wisely in class and then you would end up going home and just kind of you know doing things a little less I guess more haphazardly if you will and so this way we're kind of just really you H helping students to use that time wisely

051during the class period. They have an instructor there to help them and support them through their instruction too. And then also the academic integrity piece. We can kind of monitor what they're doing on the computers as far as you know having extra tabs open using another device and things um to also make sure that that the coursework is um is kind of with done with fidelity. I don't And we just started that this semester. >> This past semester. Yes. >> I'll be curious to see the results. >> And so far and and I should have had the the numbers there up there, but they so far the numbers this past semester were comparable to um the previous school year. >> Thanks. Um so again, that kind of brings us to our challenges. So again, we

052still have some of those academic integrity concerns. Obviously, even during the school day, there's no way to really monitor what students are doing 20, you know, all the entire time on their computers. Um, the most significant obstacle though to student success was the truency piece. Exactly kind of what we were speaking about with attendance. Um, so most students who were there every day, working every day were the most successful. All right. So, looking forward, um, just in student support services in general, um, we have a few in uh, initiatives that are already underway. So, the first is um we were very successful last school year in updating the uh curriculum for our life management skills class here at the Smiley campus. Um and we've actually found now a a a good a program um that

053is um evidence-based and that we're pursuing right now and we've actually applied for a grant though for funding. So, so we're waiting to hear the response on that opportunity um and hopefully will we um be you know, getting good news on that here soon. Um, another piece is Oops, sorry. >> Federal grant. >> Oh, good question. So, it's actually it's actually through a university. Um, yeah. So, uh they they are seeking out I think more students and and uh schools to get involved in the program probably to help increase, you know, their uh collection of data, I think. And so, um so that's that's where we're at. Um next we also again just looking at other opportunities as far as things that we can uh play around with with the settings uh with our admentum

054pace courses with the curriculum the pacing the timing of all that and and how we can utilize more of those tools and resources. And then last but not least um one of the things that we'd like to get back to is having a dedicated teacher for those pace classes. Um it's you know been great. We have wonderful, wonderful instructors that are working with our students right now. But there was a lot of benefit to just having a little bit more consistency, having an instructor because of the wide variety of the classes that the students are taking. Um, uh, having someone who's a little bit more familiar with all the curriculum, and then again with just the way that the system operates and all the tools, um, I think would be beneficial. And the other piece

055of that too is that we'd also um you know really be able to use some of the extra support in the academic assistance center here at Smiley at the Smiley campus um just due to the three grade levels that we're supporting here. >> So even with Mr. Cox coming back. That's still the loss of 6 >> that No, sorry. That was the loss of of 6 that from from the peace program. And so what we've done is is the the the teachers that are teaching it now are all teaching six class assignments currently. >> All right. Um, this leads us to now, um, uh, it's after those highlights of the supports we've offered to in-person students here at OTHS. Um, now we're going to transition to the alternative education program. Um, where students are earning

056initial credit uh, when they're placed offsite as the result of a disciplinary hearing or being homebound due to medical concerns. So again, this kind of speaks also to the attendance piece um as well and how we're supporting some of those students um for so for these courses teachers are assigned um through admentum. So the students are still taking very similar in fact in many cases identical courses through admentum but it's through the ed options program and they're assigned uh teachers through admentum and then um I as the alternative education coordinator coord collaborate with school counselors to just make sure they're set up with the correct courses um and then I monitor their progress and communicate with them and meet with them you know from time to time and and make sure that they are on

057the right track uh throughout the semester. So um Mr. Printable shared with you um last year all of the procedures that he developed in partnership with administration. So I'm not going to spend much time on the next few slides um uh but I mean please feel free to uh read through as you wish. Um other than to emphasize that he created a very thorough roadmap for ensuring students and their families have as much information and supports as possible to begin. Um they also um or there's on the road map. It's also a great way to make sure that we're staying up to date on or keeping students up to date on their progress. Um and so that they can also get extra support um when they need it. So um they'll request meetings with me.

058I'll meet with them virtually. Um, I've had students, many students that even come in to uh onto campus and their parents will bring them uh and uh and I can, you know, even show them how to do things on the big screen that's in my office and and we work together that way too. So, um, in the [clears throat] long term though, ultimately the goal is to make sure that they are able to return to the building successfully. And so, that's where our re-entry teams and re-entry plan program um, has really, you know, kind of taken off here. So, um, one thing that we focused on more this semester though is utilizing the re-entry process not just for students returning from disciplinary placements, but also um for those who are returning from homebound or other

059extended absences um as well. Um, so we've added the um some new elements um to the re-entry plan form um that we uh complete with the input of [clears throat] the student and the parent while they're in um usually the assistant principal's office um and um and during the meeting. And so we're making sure that we're considering all their goals and necessary supports and even asking them about things like extracurricular interests u because ultimately again the goal is to get them reconnected with their peers and back with the school community as well. How many students um in alternative? >> Great question. I'm actually getting there here in just one second. In fact, we'll skip right there. So um so right now, this is for the fall of 2025. Um so we had um a total

060of 23 students on our ad options online and then 13 who were on traditional homebound placements um throughout the course of the semester. Now, some of those were full semester placements, some were partial semester uh placements. Um but ultimately what we're looking at is disciplinary wise we had 14 and then on homebound itself there were 22. Now the numbers for disciplinary um uh placements have not really increased much in the last couple years. Homebound has um as of fall 2024 we had six. Last semester uh spring of 2025 was 11 and um and now you can see that we are at um 22. So um and that I believe is only going to continue increasing. I already have 11 students as of today and I already and I have applications um waiting on my desk

061for me to process tomorrow. So >> homebound >> for for homebound. >> Is there feedback coming from the families on what what's driving kids to choose homebound? >> A lot of it is is mental health. um uh that those are the prime most of the applications that I receive um are for students with mental health diagnosis. Um I also I you know it's really hard to tell again this is and this being my first semester I don't want to you know kind of make [snorts] too much conjecture but I do believe that um the word might be getting around a little bit as well. So um about uh some of their options. So >> I know last year and I I see things have been put in place so that we can do better weekly

062checks or checkins. How is [snorts] that going this year? >> Excellent question. So that's something that I will be honest with you. first semester I was not as on top of the weekly um with teaching the um the the first hour pace class um but I did it was every two weeks um is about you know how we end up operating or ended up operating last semester this week I've already been um making sure that those students are getting going immediately. are you able to meet? I know last time he was trying to meet with um students and wasn't given the opportunity to do so either, you know. >> Oh, responding or >> Sure. Yeah. And and I will say that I actually get um I would say 90% of the time at least I

063get positive responses. Um I make sure I'm reaching out to parents directly in many cases um with some of the students that are still not, you know, quite as responsive. Um, but that and I would and we'll get to kind of the success rate here next, but um, but you'll see that that really it's it's a pretty successful as far as a lot of the students who are being uh, able to gain credits this way um, and and make sure that they're getting um, what they need while they're away from campus um, academically. But um, but there's that small subset that still is difficult to reach. All right. So, that takes us to our student progress. So, um as you can see here, uh when it comes to their progress, whether you're looking at the

064completion rates, um by student or by course, um they were about the same. And so, that demonstrates that most students were successful in either all of their courses or just about none, unfortunately. And so, again, there was a lot there were many, many students who did a really great job. um of of tackling their coursework. Um but then the ones who were struggling were really really struggling. Um and that's where we kind of fall into the challenges here. >> So do you feel like they're struggling or they're just completely unengaged? >> I would say probably the latter. Um the unengagement um I think is is the issue. And so that's that's where when we're looking at the environment environmental uh factors that might be influencing that. But then also um you know of the students

065who did not perform very well many of them were students with IEPs or 504s as well. Um, but it it was less of a um a concern about like the u the rigor of the course as it was just them not logging in often enough to get it all done. Um let's see. And then again, here's the the last, you know, part of this too is is back to that academic integrity piece. um where it can be a concern again with these students at home outside of our you know control kind of in our environment um and and knowing how things are operating that way. So um that takes us then to what Mr. Prrenal kind of mentioned. Oh yeah, sorry. >> Why is your dashboard lagging behind a D? What what's that just seems

066like a technical fix that needs to happen? >> That is a that's an excellent question. So, this is something that I've actually um I'm pursuing with Edenum and that they kind of know is it is a an issue that we would like to have addressed if if if they can. Um but it is it's they uh what the the view that I have on my computer screen as far as their progress is concerned um is always a day behind. So, um, so anytime they've, whether it's their activity minutes, um, or whether it's the grades that they've earned on an on an assignment or something that they've turned in. [clears throat] >> [cough] >> So looking forward um again this kind of just you know re reemphasizes that we really truly would benefit um from having

067just a brickandmortar building um where we can bring a lot of these students in because it's the ones that um don't have you know maybe the the supports at home um that you know we could provide that extra uh um support for. Um so and and Mr. Mr. Prable again um you know like I said had you kind of mentioned the school within a school model and I agree that that would be best case scenario. The one thing I would one piece I would add to that um after visiting I visited um Edwardsville uh high school um and Triad for their uh student success centers. Um and after receiving their feedback and just hearing about what's going well and what's not there as well. Um the one thing that they both emphasized and and in

068one case it was occurring. In the other case they wish it was more is actually moving away from some of the online when they have the students back in the building at least for the students who are like for example in the homebound or or truency kind of population. Um because we know those students benefit most from having those strong relationships with teachers. Um and so um so adding that extra piece to um to this I think would would make a big difference or could um as well >> and those examples for the students that are in the online course where they do have a physical space they're doing or some have a physical space dedicated to it as well. Correct. >> Yes. So >> and so do they have the teacher there even though

069the teacher may not be the teacher for this class they still have the person the human. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So in and and so in a setting um for example like an alternative education setting especially for disciplinary purposes um you know that seem to be functioning you know quite well. Um but as far as students like drawing in back in students who have a tendency to not want to be here in the first place the online stuff was sometimes even kind of more isolating. Um and so they like for example at Triad they have um you know their program set up so they literally have a classroom teacher for each subject area and then the students just kind of rotate between those those teachers. Um they do still utilize a little bit

070of the admentum type online stuff for credit recovery purposes still um there as well but it was it was primarily instruction based. >> All right. Um, >> one more question. Yes. Um, additional personnel are you saying dedicated >> to homebound and alternative? So, >> good question. That that is something that you know at um [clears throat] at at both actually I would say both settings um they did have dedicated personnel that were just there for that purpose. And again, it's kind of that school within a school model where you do truly have an administrator. Um you have um you know the teachers, you have a social worker, um you have even in some cases they had a nurse who you know kind of doubled as a security person at the front door. Um uh with

071that I know that we have multiple kind of programs within OTHS that we could potentially you know find ways to make that work. um being more than just the homebound and um truency population, but that's the way it was set up. Um and that seemed to be pretty successful. >> What's the biggest constraint right now? Just not having facility. >> Correct. The space. The space. Exactly. And [clears throat] so that leads me to my last piece here, which is um you know, we know that of course that's a long-term fix, you know, really having that brickandmortar um facility solution. So, in the meantime, um I have been I've met actually with two representatives from Amenum right before um the winter break. Um and I'm following up with them. I have another meeting scheduled in March

072with them. We've already [clears throat] been discussing some of these potential solutions um for at least the academic integrity piece. Um but then also uh we're going to be discussing different intervention tools and things like that as well that we might be able to utilize a little bit more effectively um as I learn more about the system. So, for for our homebound students. Can you explain the process that allows them to be homebound since we think that this is coming more popular? Um, is there I'm sure we kind of look at the whole >> yes >> record and before we determine if we're going to allow them to be home. [clears throat] So um state law I think requires that we you know provide this or ability this service u we have an application um

073that um has the students information it has to be completed by a medical provider and it has to be a uh a a physician a psychiatrist or a nurse practition practitioner. um they fill out the medical portion of the application, but then we also require that they provide a letter on their off medical offic's um uh letter head. Thank you. Um that that states the condition, the med medical diagnosis, the impact on their ability to be in the building, and then um basically the duration, how long they would need to be on homebound. >> So the family chooses that path. It's really we have we have no say. >> Correct. Correct. And then and the Exactly. And and the and the parent, you know, signs the last piece and that's that's what we receive. Yes.

074>> So, but I Yeah, as long as we have that medical document documentation, >> any other questions? >> All right. Thank you for your time and thanks for your support of our programming. Next we have >> I know a lot of you guys know me some don't. I'm Craig Eles. I'm in charge of the food. This is Nancy. She is my area director. I usually talk to her daily or so. So, I just wanted to come up and Nancy and I were talking about coming up and introducing ourselves and let you know how things are going. Um, when I first got here, I came from senior assistant living room. It's flipped. I mean, it's senior assistant. They there's just they are a lot like children where they have to sit at the same table and

075they have to sit their same friends. Uh, but it's the same people every day. You know what they're going to go through. Um, I've been doing this for four years. I've owned five restaurants, uh, White Cottage. Um, I think you know my cousins, they're from they own electric. Um, Brett and Chris went here. I mean, it's I've been in Oallen my whole life and they'll start. Um, so when [clears throat] I got here, Nancy and I talked and I said I was a chef when I was 22 and and then my second bachelor's is healthcare administration. So, that's kind of a little bit about me. Um, I just came here because kids are fun. I get the easy job. I mean, they come into the cafeteria. I'm like, "Hey, this is home. We have kids

076that say, "This is my only hot meal." Um, we just we're just having a good time. But, it took me a little bit to change the team. Uh, Scott's got everything under control. They don't have to worry about the kids. Um, we've got this now where I've have kids giving Christmas cards uh to my to the ladies that work back there and the ladies know my name. So, it's a really good change and and for the ladies that have been here that work for me, um they've said the same thing. We thought the kids were getting rougher and I said, "No, no, you just change your attitude. Let them know that they're welcome. You know, just they don't need us to tell them go sit down. don't take that. Don't do this. I mean, we

077got a kid my size that takes three pieces of pizza every day. His dad called me and said, "I can't afford $10 a day." I'm like, I don't want to feed him. I've got a 31year-old who eats like that. So, um, anyway, with that with the things that have changed, um, we have a produce company that brings local produce. We've actually had boxes from Eerts. Uh, that really, I mean, at the senior assistant level, they had to have farmers market Farmers not USDA. You know how the government works. It has to be USDA approved. Old Time is our uh produce company. They do buy local within 400 miles uh radius. Um but yeah, we've we get stuff and this last week when he was bringing in where are the apples from? And he said, "Well,

078guess what? They don't grow in Midwest during the winter. So, it's further than 400 miles." Um and the thing I talked to Nancy about I said, "I for you for how much fruit these kids eat. I don't It's It's 276 apples in four days is what we go through. Um and with the apple thing, I'll tell you, we did a contest because I couldn't get the kids involved last year. So, right around March and you can look at our numbers, you can see the difference. It it jumped really fast. The kids just started eating. The contest was a piece of paper like you can't look it up. Just write down how many types of apples there are. One girl wrote 750. She won. We gave her uh meals for a week. We paid for them.

079Uh the answer is actually 7,500 varieties of apples in the world. Uh but you're sold what sells in your area. But um and if you want to have fun, look up the Tibetan apple. It's $3,600 for six of them to get them in America. But they're actually um almost black. They're beautiful apples. But um the one The scratch cooking is what I do back there right now. Um, I prep Nancy and I will talk about some of the food. We'll watch the food cost. That's the biggest jump back there is that side where Miss Gloria is standing at. Uh, it was today was orange chicken. One of their favorite. We we once a week something that the kids have said is on there. Usually it's the popcorn chicken. They love corn, chicken, potatoes, and corn.

080Um, that's where student choice comes in. You'll see in a minute with um when we do our we did a survey and we asked them, "Hey, write down on a piece of paper." We give a piece of paper. These are the funniest because we just said, "Write down what your favorite food is. We'll check them our recipes. See what we got." These girls didn't do anything. They just kept saying, you know, whatever you want to serve. They were just wrote these and the lunch ladies were all back there going they didn't say anything other than they like the create corner and the difference would be last year was third averaging 30 kids were at the create we hit 167 so we're breaking 100 every day. Uh these are some of the programs we do. This

081the one that's at mood boost that's the number one thing here is grapes. So, we go through four cases of grapes a week here, whether they're and it's it's a free-for-all. We've actually had to start bagging them, you know, because there is a portion control, but we put them in pans like this. We have had kids going, "Did you have to take a whole tray?" They literally will walk away with the tray of grapes. And I'm like, "No, it's going to hit you later in the bathroom." In the um these are some of our programs. Global Eats, this was last week. They voted for [clears throat] Thai food. So we did Thai pineapple. We sold out. That was 167. Um the small picture on the right is when Chef Jay comes here. He is a

082blast. The next time he's here, I got to You guys got to come in and meet him. Lot of energy. Kids love him. He gets everybody involved. They voted for this year they voted for the tomato soup and the cowboy grilled cheese, which is just three types of cheese. Uh easy meal, really. to take care of. Um, for people that do numbers, uh, this is pretty this is different. And I will tell Nancy because I write the numbers down. I'll say, "Hey, last year, you know, we're turning the bill. This year it's $15,000 higher, but we literally have jumped in our lunches. Now, you uh, Mr. How just said showed us the number that we have actually have less students, but our numbers went up. We have more people eating now. Um, our breakfast are

083start we were at 30 to 40. We've hit 90. We'll hit triple digits. Uh, that was the hardest one. We just had to ask the kids. They're still tired in the morning. Number one thing they were saying was coffee. We'd send them over to the little snack bar and say, "Grab some coffee." Then we open up the soda machines. That went nuts. And I'm like, I don't know if I can't speak for the parents. And I'm like, "Oh, these kids want caffeine. They're wiping us out at breakfast and I'm like, "Okay, those are great sales, but I also we don't open them every day now because I'm like, I don't think this a good idea to get kids all sugar." Even though it's sugarless soda, it's not good for them. Um, but our breakfast counts

084are up. They were the last number was a couple thousand lower than that. Um, Alakart is where the big guy came in. I told him, I said, "Your lunch comes, you know, pizza, you know, milk, fruit. It's it's a balanced meal. It's alle when I order a lot of extra food." And there are a lot of kids that this is our only meal. Mondays and Fridays, we are swamped with kids. They are loaded up on their food. Um, when I got here on the left side, it looked like chaos, but it's actually pretty organized. Um, and the ladies at the registers, they do not they they're just I'm amazed by how good they are, what they do. Um, we had our our Halloween because we wanted to get our team working together. Jim on the

085side, he does so much more for us. He will not take food. He won't let us do anything. Give him a blue slushie. He's happy. And then for the snack bar, we had to tell them that the slushies, that's all fruit. It count 12 ounces counts as a fruit. So they don't want oranges, apples, they can come get a 12 oz cup. So it's pretty good. I mean, it's just fruit. >> Uh the slushies, the blue raspberry, it's all fruit. There's no sugar. It's just natural sugar. So the one side is strawberry. It's okay. The cherry's better. I like the cherry better than the strawberry. And the blue is just I think the raspberry, blueberries. Yeah. But it's all We don't have anything back there that has sugar. I mean, as much as I own

086the white cottage, I love sugar. We can't serve. Kids get enough sugar as there is. This should be a place. And I understand where the government's coming from saying light up on the salt, lightening up on the sugar. So, and the fried And you can get that everywhere. You don't need it at school. And the kids still because of the ovens the school has. It comes out crispy. So the way we're doing it back there, changing the attitude in the kitchen, getting the team to realize we're here with a bunch of kids. Student, come on. They're easy to take care of. They they want to eat. So student survey works really good at the high school level. make the menus that the kids want. You know, we did get some that said steak, shrimp, salmon.

087I'm like, just not going to happen at this price. Um, and just get the kids involved. And when we do the student survey, it really does work. They do come up and they sample the food and and they give us a lot of feedback. Uh the local produce, diverse menus, the Thai food, the Chinese food go over really well and everything is balanced. That's pretty much about it. You can ask me any food questions. I'll answer been doing a long time. >> Seven 7,000 >> 7,000. >> Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing. And everybody freaks out about that. >> The the programs you're doing that kind of survey kids and get food on the table of kids life. Is that that just here at or you doing that at all your schools? >> All our schools.

088>> Yeah. I It's something new because the kids have said, "Really?" I'm like, "Yeah, what do you want?" And I just told Nancy, I said, "He runs up Friday, Tuesday, can you make popcorn, chicken wine?" We changed the menu. Just this one kid is so excited. >> So that's her favorite. Popcorn chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. Good Midwest. >> The menu weekly or is it like on Tuesdays? Is popcorn chicken? >> It's monthly. We do them monthly and then I send them to Nancy and then we get them to chef Katherine. She looks at them and then uh Meredith the dietician. >> And they change monthly. So it's not each month is the same. They change every month. No, that's I mean they don't have our pallet. They don't eat like us. There's they

089want a lot of reput repetition, but I still I'm like try something else. That's why we're happy about the Thai food. >> What's the most popular? What's the most sold in terms of entre on a consistent basis? >> Popcorn and chicken. That and the chicken alfredo. >> Okay. >> They asked for lasagna. It went. So, so the chicken alfredo, spaghetti, and popcorn chicken. >> Basco sticks. >> Got one over the over the grill that kids asked for something other than the chicken. So, we put Bosco sticks over there and hot dogs, corn dogs. We rotate them out. >> Thank you. We appreciate All right. Um, so that wraps up administrative uh board committees to come next on January 13th. And the update that you were given today um was pretty much what we went over

090um and just where we were with all of our um All of our Oh, we on communication. >> Are you talking education right now? >> Education. Communication. I'm sorry. We met on the 13th also. And we went over the PTAC meeting, the feedback that we received from that, which we thought was really, really good. We love um the format, any feedback from board members on the format. We thought that uh Dr. Shaker did an excellent job. Um, so we just went over that and talked about plans of things that we can incorporate in the next PAC meeting that may go well to follow up to that one. Um, but we went over those things. And then also the survey, uh, she just kind of gave us a overview of what the survey, she didn't have

091all the details that she briefed today, so we kind of went over that in the communication meeting. Um, we thought breaking up into small groups was uh, successful, but we got a lot of and feedback. Um, so that's something we may look at doing in the future. Um, going into those small groups. And then, um, second part of the meeting, we kind of went over where we are with all of our updates on, uh, the video, our website, um, Mr. Cox gave us an update on the website and how that's going. Um, our social media feedback um to the respective pages that we each u chair has submitted or I guess organization has submitted their pages to update to the website um and where to find um information on the website, the athletic updates, notes

092sheets, and different things like that. So, we went over that. Um we're not going to have a meeting in February. Our next meeting will be in March. >> All right. >> April >> 14. Yeah, next thing that's April 14th for communication. Did I miss anything? >> Uh the only thing was maybe schedules. There's a lot of discussion around electronic calendars just to make it easier and seamless because it just seems like a lot of coordination, a lot of places to look, but we don't really have an answer on that yet. >> And a lot of manual effort for individual questions >> that you were starting on education. I'm sorry that's what so uh education we met on the 13th also uh and like I said we got an update on our KPIs and where we

093were with all of those and our goals um and where we're going with that. I think we're uh in a good place and we're still working through um so that was a good um midterm on where we are with our goals and our targets and if we're on point for that. Um, we did talk about uh board policy that was presented to us and the chairs are going to look over some of the things that we talked about and then get back with us on board policy to get back to the policy committee. Um, and we discussed the ACT versus the SAT now that we're um back into the ACT and asked about ACT practice, seeing if maybe that's something we can implement again like we used to have. Um so just those type of

094discussions. Um our next meeting will be set for March 10th. Um and did I get anything that we talked about? >> Next is facilities. the 13th as well. Uh my report is attached. Uh I've got one thing to add. Uh Mr. Patton made a presentation to us. He has plans for a new video scoreboard in the Panther Dome which will be funded out of his funds as well with a combination of the shootout uh funds uh going towards this. will include the new uh board that a new player board and new uh shot clocks and he plans on uh having that installed in May. So, and that's basically it. Our next meeting will be uh the 10th of uh next month. >> What do you mean out of his funds? So, we just facilities >>

095fundraising. Okay. Yeah, there were sponsors that were going to cover a big chunk of like maybe for sure time or something like that [snorts] because there's going to be some advertising on the side of the scoreboard. >> Yeah. All right, that makes sense. >> Maybe also some activity. >> Yeah, >> right. And then uh when when is uh our retreat is that before our February meeting? the Saturday following >> obviously a lot of facility type conversation at the retreat >> to review prior retreat. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh finance Mr. Uh no finance or personnel committee meetings this month. Uh but we do we were going to have personal committee meeting on the third >> the fourth whatever >> the third is because of scheduling confidence on my end unfortunat >> at 4 p.m.

096I'm not sure that I saw that. Was that >> that was just we just discussed >> we just decided that possibility. So it hasn't been officially communicated yet. >> Make sure it'll work. >> Sounds good. >> Is that a meeting that we all should be for midyear? >> Right. That's coming up pretty soon. So >> February 10th. My intention was to present it there, but if I'm able to put together something for him, I can send that out to you. >> Okay, sounds good. Um, all right. Next is policy >> policy committee. So, um, press has been very active over the summer. You will see for second reading is 28 policies. Again, these are not very substantive changes is what it comes down to. They're just updating their work throughum. The first reading though there

097are 20 as uh Donna alluded to. Uh two of the policies of the policy committee referred one to the education committee for review and one for the personnel committee for review. Um the one to the personnel committee Mr. H is a brand new policy. So please look closely at it and then um give us your recommendation that up. Um I meant to say we met on January 6th. Our next meeting is February 3. at 4 p.m. That's all for policy. >> All right. >> So, one quick question. So, since like these massive 20 and stuff, that means in is it two years or one year, we'll we'll have this many during this month every time, right? If we're reviewing them, >> in theory, we should be good for a while, but we still have a

098big stack. It's almost like IBD spent the whole summer going through all of the policies over again. So some of them we had just reviewed but then came down with I think they touched just about every single one of them >> because usually they would quarterly they would >> well this was all part of a quarterly update that we received in October November um but it was just a lot larger than usual but their usual rotation is five years unless there's a statute change in which case it's more frequently >> okay >> fiveyear review if they if they aren't aware of any legislation that requires a change prior There was this was a big dump. I haven't compared how many of them they've gone through. It's a majority of the policies that we're going through.

099We're still working through the October. >> Yeah. >> But we've not seen besides the new one for that personel needs to look at. Um and then the ones that we referred to education was just because OTHS had something different than what the policy was. So I wanted education to look at it and Is this still the way we want to operate? It's always good to to look again and make sure that's still the way you want to do things, but other than that, they really haven't had any. >> Sorry. Um, in special committees, uh, we did not have a best meeting, but there is one [clears throat] coming up on the 26 at 4 pm. It's at the district 90, uh, district office. And then the, uh, We haven't had a meeting with City Fallon

100in a while, but there's one of those coming up too on February 5th at 9:00 a.m. in city hall. Um, so next would be >> we do have 27. >> Okay. >> I've got four on the 26. January >> district >> uh district the district office [clears throat and cough] >> I do have a couple updates from there. So first of all the division meetings are starting again. The southwest division meeting is going to be on the 11th of [clears throat] March. It's either 5:30 or 6 o' I'll get clarification on that. It's going to be in Granite City. Um the topic this quarter is going to be the cell phone ban and um we might have an update because the state legislature is revisiting the standardized approach. So they looked at it last session

101and it it never got towards action and it kind of just died by and then they uh they were done with their legislative session. Uh there's been some chatter about them picking it up again and looking at a standardized approach. talk about the cell phone bands and I think we're hear from we are going to hear from Collinsville about what they have done and how they've approached it. >> What time? >> It's either at 5:30 or 6. I'll get that to you. >> What day? >> The 11th of March. >> This is IAB. So there'll be a mailing that goes out from guy inviting us to >> I usually sign you guys up for those. >> Yeah. >> So when you see the email, just tell Karen if you want to you want to go

102or not. >> Similar to the meeting they had fall. >> Okay. I guess as far as cell phones, how how are we feeling about our cell phone policy that we put in place? >> Sure. Um it it seems like it's been an overwhelming success. Honestly, you know, I can't we'll have to look at the data at the end of the year in terms of uh discipline. There's been a lot more call pink slips as a result of that. Okay. And I think overall talking to the classroom teachers, it's been uh handled exceptionally by the teachers and consistently which the teachers wanted and so it's overall been I think very successful. >> Okay, sounds good. We'll hear what they have to say at this meeting and share with you guys with what we what we hear.

103But >> and that'll be a good time to talk to board members at other schools and see what they've done. you know, express to them what we've done and how we what we've seen. Um, and all of that will inform the the ISB um council, general counsel is going to be at our meeting this time. Um, it's going to inform them as they go as they talk to legislators and pro legislators, which gets into the next session section for um advocacy day is on March 24th. Any board member that wants to be part of the advocacy team going to meeting to meet legislators and to tell legislators, excuse me, and tell and what um how things work at the district level and and what we're doing. We want to advocate one way or [clears throat]

104the other. IASD has a team they put together. Um and they're going as a group on March 24th uh up to Springfield. They're going to have an education session first of all at the Bank of Springfield in the morning and then they're going up to the state capital in the afternoon. So if you're interested, there's [snorts] a sign up on the IASB web page or come see me and help you the that you need. Um, also board members, IASB is seeking uh board members to review their share the success um panel proposals. So, this is they're taking nominations and they just need the panels to review the nominations um for which ones are going to be presented at the joint annual conference. So, if you want to say what's presented at joint annual conference, this

105is a panel you can get on and review some of the proposals. Uh let me know and I'll the email on who to touch base with on that. Um, also ISB they are now engaging in a strategic plan and they've gone around you should have seen it when you were at the conference surveys for board members to do and you could do the survey and give your input on what help what can IB do to support their member boards and to support you as an individual board member. Um, I know I responded to that and got called to be on a focus team. I think that Rob is also on a focus team gathering that information. Um I was also in line with that uh appointed to a uh the core planning team for the

106strategic plan. So as we collect the information from our stakeholders, then they're going to move into putting the plan together, draft, you know, drafting it and um and implementing it. The idea is to have the strategic plan done and ready for an August approval by the ISB board of directors. So, it's moving pretty quickly. A lot going on there. >> So, you guys have thoughts or feedback? I think my meeting is the 12th, February 12th. >> Sounds great. >> But, you know, just send just send your thoughts to Heather and myself and we'll make sure that that gets shared with the focus groups. >> Um, and then separately. I wanted just to just just for discussion um you know ISB is the state level for all the school board members to join. The national level

107is COSBA the consortium of state school board association. Their annual conference is in Louisville in March. Illinois is a member of COSBA. So as individual members, we can go to their annual conference and it's much the same as ours except you see what other states are doing and you have you have some networking opportunities with members from other states. Um so at that but just for discussion I' I'd like to go from our school board and see what's out there see what see what other schools are doing other states are doing and talking around. Um >> when is that? >> It is 13 through 15th of March. It's in So, it's within driving distance. Um, if any other board members want to go, I'm all about car pooling there. Um, the registration fee for members

108of COSPA is $825 and it's for those those three days. Um, much like the joint annual conference from IASB, they've got different sessions and it's all across the board on anything you could want to go um, what want to learn. Um, so I intend to intend to go to that. I'll bring back any ideas or thoughts and such that we have there. Um, but again, if anybody else wants to attend, let me know. >> So, it's a lot like school board conference, I think, in Chicago, but at the national level. And uh I I mean, for Heather to go and represent us, the board would need to uh approve it as a uh kind of like we did for a schoolboard conference um in in February prior to the trip in March as a uh

109as a trip. Um I think Beth would Dr. Shackleer probably have to look and see what kind of budget money there is to do this. But um I I would propose that you know if there is money >> there is room for travel and >> you know to send Heather on to represent our our school district you know at this national conference. But uh if everybody's in favor of that, we would need to do something in February. >> Do you know if the since you're the president of the subject, do they have traveling money for you to attend that >> has a delegate that they send and I'm not a delegate. I'm >> Yeah, I tried that. >> So they are sending a separate delegate. >> So I mean I guess gauge of interest and

110anybody oppose doing that okay >> as long as it's just one I don't think this is something >> I would have to I think she could represent all of us community >> then we'll add as an agenda item next month and do a roll call on Heather, could you get all the information to Dr. Shacker in terms of like estimates? >> Thanks. >> All [clears throat] right, that wraps up special committees. I'm sorry. Comments from visitors will come next. Um, so would any members of the public like to address the board at this time? If not, we'll move into our consent agenda and I'll make a motion to for the consent agenda items in their entirety, not including but not limited to prior meeting minutes, financial reports, payment of bills, freedom of information act request,

111and the disposal of obser [snorts] question. There's a $1.6 million charge for the bonds and the bill payments. >> Yes, the scheduled bond, I assume. >> Okay. >> All right. I didn't miss that in the past. Thanks [clears throat] >> I >> Johnson. >> I Vtor >> I >> Right. That concludes our consent agenda. We have hold business. Um we have a second reading of board policies. So, make a motion to approve board policies as presented. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? The motion passes to approve the policies. That's old business and new business. Uh we've got our personnel sheets. I'll make a motion to approve the appointment, compensation, discipline, performance, dismissal, personnel items as presented. So, >> move second. >> A roll call. Hi >> Leuth. >> Hi. >> Johnson. >> I Richtor.

112>> Hi. Um, we've got some contractor pay. >> We don't have any this month. >> So, we will skip that 9.2 and move to 9.3, which is [clears throat] trips in excess of 200 miles. And we've got a motion to approve trips in excess of 200 miles. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Roll call. [snorts] I had a question on that. Um, do you know where uh the Panther would be? Was that like their regional or >> it it would be national >> I >> Johnson? I Victor. >> Hi. I uh next is December graduates. So motion to approve the final list of December 2025 graduates using previous roll call. >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? Okay. Motion passes. And then the next is uh kind of the merger of

113the law firm that we use a lot. Korea is merging with a firm called F3. Um, so I think we're looking at the paperwork to formalize that that merger and approve that three to become our legal representation. So I make a motion to approve >> the rates in there. Are they similar to what? >> They're the same. No changes. >> No changes. >> F3 is are they what's their background? >> They're larger education law. Nationwide >> education. >> Okay. >> And you said nationwide. [cough and clears throat] >> She also she's a member. >> Correct. And I get feedback. I asked earlier about kind of the local rates. We I think we assume that the rates that we're paying aren't like Chicago rates, but they're kind of metro St. Louis rates. I don't know if

114you got feedback on that already. >> Oh, no. I didn't. Um they uh I when I reached out to Bushu on that they did not have that available and had reached out to the liability insurance company and they would have rates for what they pay as a liability insurance company for those that take it on and and we're waiting to see if they have anything that they can offer. >> Okay. So my my to double check to make sure are the rates we're paying for legal or competitive in >> this area. Um so and that's something that we can do at any time. Um I'll make a motion to approve Fagan Freriedman and Full Frost LLP F3 Law for the use as district's legal council using previous roll call. >> Second. >> All in favor?

115>> I oppose. Okay. So, the motion passes. [clears throat] The next is destruction of verbatim taped executive session recordings. Um, so I'll make a motion to [clears throat] the destruction of verbatim taped executive session recordings using previous roll call. >> So, move second. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? Motion passes. Um, next is the semianual review of executive close session minutes. So, I'll make a motion to keep the executives close session minutes closed at this time >> as a previous roll call. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion passes. And then the tentative uh school calendar is just a discussion item. Next month we'll we'll vote on that. Um I I don't Is there any additional discussion to have on that? Dr. Shackle pretty well [clears throat] explained it. Nope. Okay.

116So we'll move on to which is a first reading of board policies and there's a quite a few of them again. So um we'll see these next month for a second reading. anything to discuss on them? >> Okay. And otherwise, uh, was were there any other items of consideration that came after we published the agenda? >> Okay. So, our next meeting of the board will be February 19th. Um, where we'll look at and approve the school calendar. Um, some of the dates coming up, we got the final shootout, February 6th and 7th. >> And that's just the seventh now. >> One day. just the seventh has been updated. >> So, is it just more games on one day or >> It is more It is more games on one day, but I don't know that

117there's as many teams as there have been in the past. >> Combination. [clears throat] >> We've got a teacher on February 13th, President's Day on the 16th, and then the February frolics are the 20th through the 21st. Um, with that, we'll make a motion to adjourn the regular meeting of the board of education. >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> I >> [laughter and clears throat] >> Hey, you're right.