001the Board of Education in an open session D here here RoR here Johnson here H here Brown here okay we'll get started just a reminder if you're present tonight if you don't mind signing the uh sign up sheet in the uh front of the room um when you leave if you didn't do it already um if you would please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the rep for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right so tonight we pretty straightforward agenda we've got uh our typical administrative updates um there is a website update that uh will be presented on as in terms of a YouTube video uh committe reports um we'll discuss a
002little bit about our Retreat coming up this Saturday uh we've got some calendar updates to go through and uh a little bit of a discussion on cell phones and remote learning days okay so with that I'll pass it over to Dr shaer for the administrative reports all right good evening everyone um we're going to start tonight with uh Governor pritzker's um address yesterday that included his budget proposal for FY 26 uh I'll be just highlighting things that are relevant to us here at OTS the most important piece is what does remain in the budget is $350 million for evidence-based funding those are the same tier funding that we've been receiving year after year for several years that makes a incredibly positive impact um on our financial Outlook um this Saturday when we go over the
003fiveyear projections you will see a side by side of what we look like with the continuation of this and what we would look like if it would fall off so very thankful and when you see the how the projections are different um you'll be thankful that that's continuing as well um only a $20 million increase in mandated categorical programs that will um not have a positive effect on us so these are things like Transportation special educ Ed ation private facility those have been prated for years and years and years and we're expecting deeper prorations because none of that $20 million are for any of those items so if you look at where we're prated right now and we prepare we look at our cost we prep prepare a claim we submit it to the state
004then they reimburse us right now what we submit for transportation we only get 79% back of what we submit for special education we get 69% back of and for private facility tuition 77% so we're expecting some deeper cuts and some uh deeper prorations um for next year which is not great news um still though for us specifically at OTS that is balanced with us being a tier one school and receiving that tier funding um so we won't feel the sting of that at least not yet um as as as much as some other districts May um and then the $1.3 million for career inch technical education is really just to continue programming as is um as I shared with you a few months ago ISB proposed $142 million of increase to those mandated categoricals in
005order to keep the current pration rate so when you look at that $142 million recommended by is versus the $20 million that's in there you can see what an impact that will have for those um next uh worth mentioning this is a city project but it does have an impact on the schools um there's been lots of talk throughout the city of oallen on this proposed Parkplace development it is a development just north of the sports park it's intended to be a mixed use development it will have commercial single family and multif family homes uh the city did do an estimate based on the other developments that have come through in the past several years and they think it will produce 10 four new students total in grades K through 12 so in terms of
006enrollment we don't anticipate that it will have an impact again they don't have a crystal ball but based on past practice they anticipate it would have minimal impact on enrollment um the developers are not requesting Tiff funding so they that could result in a million dollars in property tax for OTS specifically the city is hosting open houses they've had two already I'm sure they'll have other meetings um there's a slew of information on that on the city of oallen website again I just wanted to highlight it because it does have an impact on OTS and it is it is proposed not approved um next um e-learning and cell phon so uh Mr how has put together along with Mr Graham and e-learning committee uh years ago when e-learning became an option following the pandemic OTS
007chose not to do that because the discussions with the administ a as well as Department chairs and Educators was that um e-learning does not provide the same level of Education that in-person learning does however in the past couple years there's been more energy either from our community members and some of our teachers um and interested in pursuing and looking at that again to see whether it might be a better fit um ironically the first e-learning committee meeting was scheduled for last Wednesday and we had an emergency day so um the next meeting I think is coming up I know the next meeting coming up at the end of this month um so the important things will be you know as they discuss this is you know is it a good fit for us how do
008you implement it with Fidelity you know we know that when we had to do that longterm back in 2020 2021 when that was new for us that it was detrimental to the education of our students in the short term can we implement it with Fidelity and make it valuable here at OTS those are the types of things they'll be exploring um also I'm sorry yeah I just want to speak speak to this sure board member okay co co showed us that e-learning is an abject failure not just here at OTS we didn't necessarily do anything better or worse but the fallof we saw for students across the country because of e-learning I'm shocked that we're spending time on it with so much evidence that we have not just from OTS but across the country I
009I I would I would struggle without some very significant evidence and support from from actual experts other than myself right to show that this is a good idea um I we we just had two years of a test across the country millions of students impacted and that's the charge of the committee as they explore it yeah but from what I understand and why I think it's a great idea for us to be exploring it at least is because if we don't have a plan that is registered with State we can't just go to e-learning correct for snow days so in in my opinion but I will wait on the results of the committee having a plan to allow us to go to e-learning if we have to I think is good not saying that we
010will but gives us that flexibility that if we feel we need to if another emergency comes up we have the authority to do it and so just knowing that we can change up if we need to I think is worth us looking into it sure and just to provide some more information on number of days there are uh if those that have an approved e-learning plan there is a five-day maximum for e-learning days um you still also have to build in five emergency days so um for for example um now the oalen area we've had six days where we were not present at school all five ours were emergency days and then we'll apply which I'll get into in a minute for what's called an act of God day for that sixth day those with
011e-learning plans maybe have had three e-learning days and they've had three traditional emergency days or some combination like that um both of those carry a maximum of five and if you exhaust one you have to move to the other okay um also a consideration of changes in cell phone policies for 2025 2026 we talked about this first at PAC um we've received a lot of feedback um from our professionals that the cell phones are a distraction and are a detriment here um and that's not just happening here that's happening all over the place in fact another part of the governor's address was him um supporting a ban on cell phones during instructional time at schools Statewide now we'll see whether that actually occurs or not um so we're having some conversations there as well um
012a as we move through the spring semester and and what we're hoping to do is have some plans in place we do have some departments and teachers that are kind of piloting some some level of a more strict cell phone policy this semester some did last semester um we've heard great feedback from that from the teachers um so we'll see where we go but in may we should have the finished product of what we would like to recommend for next year by the time we get to the May PTAC meeting all right calendars all right let's go back to calar calendar so we have an amended calendar for you to approve later on in tonight's meeting all five of our emergency days were used as of this past Wednesday I'm sorry the 18th was Tuesday
013um so the last day of school now will utilize all emergency days that were posted in the calendar so our last day of school will be Thursday May 29th we had an additional cancellation yesterday February 19th so we will request approval for what's called an act of God day for any emergency days Beyond five uh what that means is that we will request that that day not need to be made up um there is some literature on the state websit that says the state is being a little more Discerning in granting those Act of God days um but I haven't seen uh I haven't heard of any follow through because it's been a long time since we've had more than five emergency days used but we will apply for that um and I will let
014you know after we apply it goes through the regional superintendent then the state superintendent um and it basically what it would do is it would make February 19th count on the calendar as a student attendance day if it's rejected what is the uh outcome we would have to add another day to the calendar and find where we were doing that okay all right then you also have tonight the 2025 2026 school calendar to consider for approval our it aligns pretty much with what we've been doing for the past several years the first day of school would be August 12th there are three school days for fall break meaning five days off total if you include the weekend that's what we've done every year for a number of years full two weeks at winter break again
015have done that for a number of years um a change and this is a change from what you previewed last month um got some feedback and went back to the committee and we talked about spring break a little bit more so typically OTS has taken Thursday Friday Monday for spring break we had discussions on the front side before you previewed last month about moving to a full week it was not the desire of the committee however to give up the palaski holiday um or to push back the end of the year further so we decided to keep spring break as is however a conversation came in well what if we just take that Wednesday off as well um so you will see now in the calendar for approval tonight there's one day added to spring
016break that's Wednesday is now off as well as Thursday Friday and Monday so that'll be six days off total including the weekend the emergency days would be April 1st which is that Wednesday of spring break next year and then May 21st through the 27th I do want to note that the order the days would be used in is on the calendar for your approval as well May 21st and 22nd which are the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day would be utilized first for emergency days then we would back up to that Wednesday of Spring Break um and then go back to the 26th and 27th uh following Memorial Day only if needed rationale for that is Memorial day seems to be the issue in terms of students and families having concerns coming back so it
017we don't think it's bad to use Thursday Friday but then would' rather go back if we use so many days again okay what was the rationale for adding on Wednesday for the spring break uh a desire for a longer spring break and also District 90 is taking off uh Wednesday as well so it is more consistent with them they're a larger feeder District and then the last day of school next year would be May 27th if all emergency days are used and how about graduation date graduation date is the Saturday following May 27th okay it's similar to what we have this year um and then finally I just wanted to extend and hopefully I don't have to do this again next month um hopefully we're through the winter weather I thought we were through it
018last week we weren't um but a huge thank you to our grounds and maintenance Cruise um they did a great job in January which was a bear to get cleaned up because it stuck around so long and it was really nasty to get cleaned up if you shoveled your driveway you experienced that as well um but then again um yesterday I mean around 4:30 I was at both campuses and it was crystal clear in both places so they just did a really great job so I just wanted to share that with you and extend my gratitude to them for the work that they do um on those emergency days so that it's safe for the rest of us to come back and that's all I have for this superintendent report um however Mr schal is
019out tonight um so I'm going to continue into the financial report um on his behalf uh sharing our revenues we are through the end of January in this report we have collected 84.4% this year compared to 83.3 very similar 1.8 million collected in January um we did receive more Federal grant funds in fy2 and really a lot of that is the delay of payments so if we file a claim in July it's for last year's Grant but we're seeing that Revenue this year for our expenditures uh when we're at the end of January we're 58% through the year we had expended around 55% of our expenditures compared to 53 last year with 3.1 million in January um that is getting closer than it was in previous months we had a lot of hls expenditures on
020the front front edge uh HVAC projects um as well as some pack payments in fund 20 um and we'll continue to see some fluctuation there but uh pretty much following exactly as we would uh imagine that we would and that's all I have are there any questions all right thank you Mr principal report good evening everybody all right we're going to start off tonight with some great news um for those who Excel award okay and OTS teacher Mr s has earned the Award of Excellence through the Illinois State Board of Education those who Excel Awards the Award of Excellence is the highest award given through the Illinois State Board of Education to receive the Award of Excellence the most prestigious of the those who Excel honors Educators must have demonstrated a commitment to both equity
021and to the success of all students they regularly C collaborate with colleagues students and families to create positive School cultures there are lifelong Learners who connect their schools to the community at large and who Inspire other education professionals within and beyond their schools Mr s is an incredible educator who is a very humble quiet man but just an amazing amazing teacher he's been with us since 2005 and he is very very deserving of this prestigious award so uh Mr Sarah has got the highest honor this year of these Awards so just very proud of Mr Sarah moving on to another great thing is our our girls tennis team had a 3.6 cumulative GPA during their season this qualified them for the uh ihsa Team academic achievement award again this is a great honor for the
022entire team as well as coach Aaron tomman also as a couple weeks ago as we know the bank ofv Fallon shootout took place on Friday February 7th and and Saturday February 8th um this showcase six different basketball games involving both our boys team and our girls team and some of the Midwest most Elite basketball teams this of course is a great event that brings together the entire Community this event is a year-long process of getting sponsors finding and securing top rent high school team team from around the country organizing a First Rate first class hospitality room of course is very important for workers in participants and hiring workers for this amazing two-day event this incredible event is organized by our our athletic department led by of course Mr Patton and also his assistants Neil James
023and Rick Gibson there are countless other people who volunteer their time to make this just a just a wonderful event for our community and I I know a lot of you guys were there um just an amazing amazing thing so and as and as they pointed out on Saturday night a lot of the people especially in the hospitality room have worked this event every year in its existence which is 10 years now I think or so yeah think so and people don't realize the work that the athletic department does to to find these teams I mean they literally start I mean the moment that whistle ends to end the games they're trying to find opponents for next year it's it's a completely yearlong process I do want us to try to um make sure we
024we don't have it at the same time as the here I think that split our audience some I know it split me um and we didn't have as many people at the shootout um I think I don't know if it was totally because of this but I know some people were not able to come because yeah and the reason why it was very unfortunate that both of were the same weekend was the ihsa calendar rolled forward okay so every five years or so it rolls forward and so uh you know it used to be where it was like the first weekend of February so so that's why just it was a a mixup we make sure that does not happen make sure that we pay attention to that speaking of that so uh on that
025those same evenings of course was the February Fric show performed at the Milbourne campus Auditorium this year there were 13 acts that performed including of course the now Infamous teacher band snow day right um pretty amazing stuff uh February France is organized by our Music Teacher pette and coordinator of alternative program Mr Alex printable of course this event is always great and it's an absolute perfect storm of fun and energy that's felt by everyone in attendance I I'm curious um who wrote to some snow that I win a break that's awesome mat yes also this month being February is Black History Month and every Tuesday for the month of February students can go to the panther Center during their advisory lunch for an activity and for this month the activities include on February 4th was
026craft for culture on February 11th were line dances February 18th was supposed to be the many step show but unfortunately Mother Nature got in the way on that one and then next Tuesday is our panel discussion a real special Thanks goes out to assistant principal Dr Coley uh she's organized all these activities throughout the month of February okay uh this brings us to our cell phone survey so if you remember what we talked about with with our cell phone usage here at school last semester in the fall uh the faculty and staff had a book study on a book called The anxious generation over 40 staff uh participate in that book study where we met three different times um discussing the book and what came out of that that that book study was a survey
027amongst the 40 who were involved in that um which really kind of got a feel for what we all felt should be our cell phone policy here at OTS going forward so a couple weeks ago we we did a survey to the entire OTS staff and there were 216 responses to this the first two questions and it's kind of hard to see from back here I know it says the first question was would you like OTS to consider moving to a schoolwide cell phone policy so our our our staff as you can see here overwhelmingly said yes 80% said yes to that question number two should students be allowed to use your cell phone during advisory um in this one uh as you can see here uh it was yes for the most part okay
028question number three Should students be allowed to use their phone during lunch and the overwhelming support was for yes on that question number four four it this one's a little confusing but it says if OTS went phone free in the classroom what do you feel is the best way to administer this so they were offered four options okay and one of the options was to store the phone in the backpack so 35% of the people that surveyed chose that as option number one okay 18.2% so that should be option number two 14.3% so three and then 32 and a half% said four it's kind of interesting it's kind of All or Nothing on that one another one was to have numbered pouches in the classrooms and this is going to be the most popular one
029and it was 29% said option one 38.9% said option two Dr Shackleford mentioned earlier that some teachers are piloting this in their classrooms the English Department's done this and with um some real great stories that's come out of it the way it works is they they have a kind of like a shoe rack if you want to think of it like that in the classroom they have to put their cell phone in that shoe rack that's for attendance purposes stays there the entire class period and then when they leave they grab it when they leave okay so that's what uh the number pouches are another one was students keep their phone their phone in their school locker I believe District 90 as this policy in their junior highs and uh this one option one as
030you can see 21.8% but this option four was with the most in this one and then a locked cell phone Locker in each classroom was another option and that one is pretty you can see spread out amongst the different options there any questions on this so far I do you got I got more so yeah all right um question number five for for the staff or should teachers allow students to use their phones in in class for classroom learning even if there's a school y rule on no phones in class okay um and 48% said no on that question and then there was a sixth question which was a free response in which there were 83 different responses okay now if we turn our attention then to the next survey this was given to all
031the parents and Guardians last weekend there were 1,375 responses and questions one and two were the same questions as the staff had would you like OTS to consider moving to a schoolwide phone free policy pretty interesting a very different outcome here okay um so you can see 56% said no they should not um so this was very different from what our staff said and then should students be allowed to use their their phone during lunch overwhelmingly yes to that question should teachers allow students to use their phones in class for classroom learning if there's no schoolwide rule on no phones in class well this this case here as you can see a 45% said no number four questions was the same as the teachers had what's the best way to do this well that one
032option of storing the phone in the backpack was the winner here um for parents 69.2% said yes this should be option number one I want to say there was an option five there and that was that was a mistake on my part okay it could have skewed the results hopefully a little bit or it didn't I should say but it probably did a little but as you can see as we go down the line here um the parents felt like the phone in the backpack was the best option okay the second option of the number of pouches in the classroom um you can see it was it was again a little bit less than what they felt in the backpack the third one where they keep the phones in the school locker again a little
033bit less once again and then lock cell phone Lockers in each classroom and that was the lease so with the options on both this is this a rate one to four system exact strongly strongly strongly agree strongly disagree yes so then what was option five option five was nothing it it was a for some reason the forms had an extra option there after I figured after I saw it so it was already sent out I couldn't take it back when it started getting all those responses so picked an option that didn't have a somebody did their cell phone and then there was of course the uh the number six question and there was 444 45 responses by parents and Guardians so in terms of the responses anything any key takeaways uh I haven't looked at
034all at the parents one yet the whole thing because it just got done last night at five okay uh from the from the staff one though um it wasn't it was kind of your normal it was very split uh this topic as we know is a very emotional topic and very divisive topic um with it and so we're we are just trying to get a feel of what the community feels like right what the staff feels like what we need to do next is is see what the the students feel like okay and then in the May Pac meeting we can discuss that and then make decisions going for those I thought one of the questions we were going to ask was because if we implement this policy are the staff willing to go along
035with the policy and adhere to it also question oh that that was not a question on there um if we go with the policy you know we we would hope to get Buy in on that uh for the betterment of the whole so that that would be the job of of all of us in the staff to to make sure we're all pulling the same direction on that so I mean ultimately we want everyone to agree but even if some staff didn't agree when we set policy yes they have to follow absolutely if they want to remain employee correct yeah um but it's interesting the the division here because for me you know when you look at studies you know the introduction of smartphones for children clear connection with worse mental health outcomes especially when
036those phones are introduced during developing brain years in fact I think just this week I read a study that you know young women are affected the most when they have smartphones introduced around 12 and 13 and then young men are impacted the most I think when smartphones are introduced during brain development years and 15 and just sort of the negative outcomes from that I think the board we've seen negative outcomes of fights you know drug use being facilitated by these cell phones and things like that you know I'm I'm so shocked with the parents response that that really shocks me yeah it really really shocks me yeah because how you know what um I I think it's been pretty well established that the negative impacts for smartphones what Communications are we get out to the
037community about some of those impacts of of how it impacts students how it impact students well that's a great question and that's something that we will have to work on to do better at probably um because we haven't sent out necessarily any kind of um messages on that but you know we can always we did when we did the sleep study impact of sleep and studying um and with that but we didn't do it in reference to having it do in class and I think that also the way the first question is written would you consider moving to a schoolwide phone free policy doesn't say kids have to leave it at home so they don't have phone with them they don't have access to them so I can see how you know as a parent
038they'd say no I'm not going to have my kid leave the cell phone at home I need them to have the cell phone so they can call me when I need to pick them up or whatever so I think there might have been because I was surprised also about the 56% that said um no but it might be because they they're not inter you know we just didn't ask it very artfully we just did a general no no cell phones in school yeah when are you trying to are you working towards a decision date in terms of our school policy yeah it would be before we have to give the state a student handbook to you all to approve yes so which is usually okay yes just for the uh rest of board's information just
039some anecdotal evidence I have several family members that are Educators now daughter son-in-law that few um they are noticing staff where in districts which have no policy or don't want to enforce any sort of policy they're having they're having staff lead with profession it's already tough enough to get teachers and if we start to have teachers who potentially are good teachers because this constant disruption you know F aside the Le the profession all together they're seeing that in all three of the I know all on the other side of the river they're leaving their profession because and the administration back it's so disrupted in the classroom it's yeah it'll bring it'll bring in the middle of class no consequence and and and it's happened so often I have't ning a profession at the end of
040the year okay my last thing of course are enrollment numbers and enrollment numbers last year at this time compared to this year uh this year right now we have a total as of today 256 students uh lash at this time was 256 um so any questions on this sorry I've got one more question on the cell phone thing what was the verification method for parents participating they had to be in our our Skyward system they had to be a guardian within our Skyward Guardian one already two okay you got I was just thinking I was like did one of our students hijack okay okay that's it for me thank you thank you and then um next next is uh other reports we've got a web uh web presentation um Mr Co you want sure so
041U Mr Fox was dealing with some uh family sickness issues and so he prepared a video in lie of being here live for the report tonight so we'll watch that good evening I am Daniel Cox I am the OTS website and social media coordinator here at OTS also a member of our OTS Communications committee so uh wanted to give you a quick update here on all the different things that we have discussed as far as the communications committee goes and also on the website and social media uh front that we have that we operate here at OTS so without further Ado let me hop into it this is our let me try that again our forward Fe I tested this 20 times today I believe facing District website that we've worked real hard to make
042uh make our own make very clean and unique to our district uh one of the probably most fascinating features here is the ability to embed video here uh highlighting our school spirit and all the different facilities and wonderful things that are going on here at OTS not only with still pictures but also as you can see uh some video that we even captured during the homecoming rally here courtesy of our Panther beat staff so they did a great job capturing that video so I pulled some of the clips that they had and just posted them here on the website so our uh our collaboration with them is is also working out very nicely so using their wonderful things that they do to highlight OTS is a feature of our website here as well so as
043you scroll down here throughout our page you can see these are most frequently visited items here at with over 10,000 clicks per day if you could believe that or not we have all our most frequently visited icons there we also highlight our district news and different announcements that come out from uh the district office the athletic department all our different sources um so parents and community members can come here and see what's going on here at OOTS all the wonderful things that we are doing including our teacher band announcing snow days and things of that which was a huge hit we also our upcoming events here on our district calendar we have a spot for our student Le Productions including Panther beat and also Panthers talks our podcast so those are awesome things to have
044our teachers can rely on scrolling down and seeing our daily Panther Beach show there updated frequently for them so they know right where to go to get it and then at the bottom of the page is our social media feed so even if you are not a Facebook member or Twitter or X I'm sorry and Instagram uh M you can always get what is happening here at OTS probably our most frequently updated is our social media platforms so those are highlighted there as well so that's what it looks like another real quick thing that I wanted to show you here is um two things actually is our career opportunities page I know this time of year a lot of people um Coming fresh out of college or looking for care different careers uh can come
045to our website here and it is a very awesome way to highlight what is going on here at OTS and why it is important for us to to recruit the the best and so they can come here anybody looking for an open position can see exactly why OTS is the best what uh what that means to them we have our open positions here we have our collective bargaining agreements here and then we have a highlight of why OTS is obviously the place that they want to be here in the future um and as you scroll down we've even interviewed or asked a survey for people to fill out what it means to be Panther and so you can click through here and see different things of uh different quotes from our wonderful faculty and staff
046um about what it means to be a panther to them so that's kind of a cool little feature here for um not only our community but also for recruiting aspects as we know that that's getting more and more difficult here in the future and then the other thing is we're working once again I told you earlier we're working kind of closely with Panther beat uh using the students as an opportunity to get the great news out there for every everybody we have a plethora of clubs activities and Athletics and so one of the goals coming in and Mr Kad and I have been working on this kind of closely is that uh if I don't know what clubs are out there it's really hard for me to get involved so I can come to our
047clubs and activities page I can look down through here and be like okay and as we create more of these more of these will pop up but I don't know what Esports or culture mix or FCA is I can now click on these and it will take me to a video video highlighting what exactly orts are so that is a cool uh cool little something that we are working on here hopefully in the near future we will be able to get a video for every single club or activity that's interested in doing so kind of a recruitment video to highlight what exactly is each of these activities are so as you can see the ones that are underlined in blue already have some videos that are that are awesome to see our Gold Rush Club
048future Educators but uh those already have videos on what they are once again in created by our Panther beat staff in our video production classes and we just highlight it by linking it to the website for our students to see and get more involved with so that's a that's a really cool thing we're working on here other thing I want to show you is our OTS mobile app which is relatively recently updated and put out there for public consumption so this is a cool feature that uh we have been developing where you can just download it straight to your phone you go to the Apple App Store you go to the Google Play Store wherever that you uh you get your apps from and you'll download it and you can kind of see the icon
049here uh on my phone the OTS Panther there with a gold background and then once you open that up it'll bring you to our front-facing mobile app page and what that looks like is our district news it's our district news feed it's our calendar it's basically everything that are those quick hitting items that parents and students and faculty members are looking for just in a more concise more mobile friendly version so you can see the district news is scrolling at the top you can see that our uh our district calendar and everything is going on here um and as you go through the app there are different features down at the bottom you can click on our district news tab which includes all of the the different wonderful things that are going on here at
050OTS that we post on our website also goes over to our mobile app um you can click on a full calendar there you can see what what's happened in the past what's coming up in the future and also if I'm a parent or a student I need to find out what my teacher's email address is or I'm trying to look for the my assistant principal I can come to the faculty and staff directory very easily search for somebody using their name it pops up and then right there you can click on their name their email address all their contact information pops up so accessibility is is tremendous here with this app and and then lastly the hamburger menu at the far right of the app includes Our Daily Bulletin these are our most frequently visited
051Pages um so we thought it was important to include these on our app as well if you're a parent you need to call your kid and sick Administration teams right there to call the attendance office and know exactly what to do you'll have your your lunch menu all the different things here uh forward- facing on the mobile app very very easy and user friendly so that's a cool thing I encourage everybody to download it um it is updated frequently and it is an awesome asset in addition to OTS lastly one of the other things that we are working on is our athletics web page we've been working on this for U quite a while now but scheduling and everything else has been really difficult to hammer down with this I think we've got it all
052figured out now we'll be able to roll it out soon if at the very latest it will be rolled out before next school year for for 100% certain um but we wanted to maintain the consistency and the look of the dish page over to the athletic page the only thing that'll be different of course are our menus across the top we have that broken down by Spring uh winter and fall Sports uh and then our our slideshow SLV video show here at the beginning will be more athletically focused we currently also have our Panther beat students working on something athletically focused a video that we can highlight there um but yeah there will be the district news everything that you'll see from the district side will also be available to our athletic department to post
053at the athletic side uh so what does it look like for a specific sport let's just take a look at football for example is one of our first ones that we worked on so you'll have a a slideshow picture show whatever that P that particular coach would like here at the beginning you can see this is obviously the varsity football team on the right hand side you'll see their schedule roster coaching staff if you need to get a hold of them and any sports specific documents uh you'll have their calendar of events that will be coming up um this will automatically feed from the Arbiter system that the athletic department uses so that's a good feature to have soon as athletic department updates it say a game is canceled something like that it will automatically
054come over to the website which is what has been taking so long is nailing down all that technology and things like that um and then lastly is the social media feeds for those specific Sports so since we're on the football page here we have it narrowed down to the football social media feeds um a lot of people ask can we get results based on or onto our website and yes we can because here's what the what the the goal is with this is that a football coach for on Friday night they play their game they post to their social media more than likely anyway and that's going to be highly encouraged I'll work with the coaches be like hey what's your most frequently uh updated social media page and we will make sure that is
055embedded on their website so that when they post their results or their news or whatever it automatically goes to the website that you see here in front of you so this will be a huge asset as far as results go as far as news goes for uh our our parents and our athletes um that it'll be updated frequently here on the website so and that will be for every single sport so as long as sports are updating on their end as far as their social media goes then yeah we will highlight it on our website as well so that's what the the website the social media front looks like as far as the communications committee goes um it's been exciting to work with the communications committee I think it's definitely a uh an awesome thing
056for o CHS to have something uh like this where we can get all the wonderful things that are going on and highlight those out to our community because I think it's important for people to see what goes on um here within the walls of OTS but also uh one of the the biggest highlights is going to come up next month is when we get to work with our students so we've invited a handful of students to come and join us for our next Communications committee meeting and uh last year that was a big hit because it we we learn a lot from the students of what they're expecting some ideas that they have and things like that so that's all is a good one and then in the future our collaboration with Panther beat Panther
057beat always does an awesome job highlighting everything it's just a matter of getting it out there to the P for public consumption um and highlighting OTS and getting it out there so that parents can see what's going on as well um and also that's a big recruitment tool as well so our collaboration with Panther be in the future we are always looking forward to that um so yeah once again my name is Daniel Cox if you guys have any questions comments concerns ever on the the the the public relations front let me know I'll be happy to sit down meet with you um I also look forward to seeing you guys in the future I know I see quite a few anyway but uh we'll see at the board retreat this weekend probably too so
058thanks for giving me this opportunity and this time I so communication um committee did not meet the month of February our next meeting is it was just um uh said by Mr C say March 11th at 500m and we will have students joining us at that meeting and then Ethan will be joining us in the future meeting so that we can set up some to make sure we we the communication is meeting the Strategic goals and objectives of the board going forward all right education Mr G we met on February the 11th uh uh Mr grma did a great job of of getting set up all of the things that we had listed on that deal with the school report card as far as our goals and so so forth uh there have been committees
059formed for most every one of those things uh among the staff and uh we continue to monitor that and see how things go we meet again on March the 11th Tuesday yeah at 4 o00 okay facilities Mr Rich uh we met on February 11th and had our shortest meeting ever uh uh was about a half hour long and uh my report is attached uh and believe it or not I have nothing else to report that's uh about the first time in 10 years so uh we're going to see how the retreat goes and take it from there our next meeting will be March sounds good finance committee there was no meeting this past month um our next meeting is pending a financial audit uh Personnel negotiations Mr off uh no update but we will have
060a meeting and policy and governments Mr we did have a meeting on the 3D of February and we went through about 10 um policy updates from press some of them we had recently updated but because they came out on the ply update and press we just updated them again so that we stay in that Rhythm and we keep with the ply updates um there were one of them that we we did update the curriculum content um policy 60 had a lot of mandates included in it the other ones were were mainly no substantive changes really but that one did have a lot of mandates included in it I know that you guys are going through all of that um that's the only one that's that bears speaking of so there are 10 for first reading
061we have no for no policy for second reading because it was a snow day we were supposed to have our policy committee meeting so um there are no policies to implement this time um our next meeting is going to be the 4th of March at 4M Mr Brown I do to recognize we just got our is quarterly or monthly what that all comes out and Heather is our new representative for the southwest region for the Illinois Association of school board taking Mark chrisway so congratulations and with that thank you very much Steve we didn't plan this um I do have some talking points which is we we have our um our division meetings coming up uh the corly division meetings are coming up the next one for Southwest Division is going to be on the
06212th of March 5:30 in Troy at Silver Creek Elementary and so that's where we're all get together we'll be able to meet with other boards of education and just you know talk through some ideas we're kind of changing up how we're doing this and going to focus it more on networking is kind of what the isab wants to do now is more networking with um other school board members and to facilitate more talking we're going to um change the schedule up a little bit but as many board members as can be there I encourage you to it is kind of close to moment Troy on the 12th of March and there was a best meeting this uh this month so M Johnson yeah the best um committee met on February 4th um all the superintendents
063were um were there and gave a update on each one of their um on each one of their districts and then we um also talked about the best Retreat that is coming up in um April um we are going to break off into pillars and really focus on the vision 2020 so we'll have each um District um Personnel break up and have discussion topics around that and then move around and then report out it should be a very good uh Retreat and a way for us to meet all of our fellow um board members in our different districts so I'm looking forward to that our next meeting will be uh March 25th at uh Joseph Arthur middle school and again we're going to finalize the retreat um planning for that and we're make trying to
064make sure that we get uh the Mayors from both City or or planners we as the board knows what's happening in in both uh all of the Peter District cities um be able to uh talk that so um all of I guess all most of all of the districts do have a new board member so it is a great opportunity for everybody just meet all the new board members that are each different District where's the retreat going to be D oh The Retreat is going to be at the public works any other questions and did I miss anything the date of the retreat is [Music] April sorry yes it's April 10th at 6:m all right um and that that kind of wraps up the committee reports um I guess were written communication were there any
065written Communications s to the board okay um public Comm comments um would any members of the public like to speak to the war just time okay if not then we'll move to the consent agenda a motion to approve the consent agenda in its entirety including but not limited to Prior meeting minutes Financial reports payment of bills Freedom of Information acts requests and the disposal of OB complete equipment so move roll call I do want to just say to real quick here I'm on my solar panel kick just to get us out looks like about $27,000 of electricity bills in this this month I'm just pulling that out as we I know key we continue explore but we'll be talking about it just like to point that so we have an energy assessment meeting with one
066of the vendors next week we actually have a Cameron here from tonight our electric tonight just visit the meeting but we have others as great fantastic all right so oh um RoR hi Le hi Johnson I huff hi der hi Brown hi all right in Old business we have uh we have a board retreat coming up so it's just a discussion on the agenda and I know Dr shacker has posted an agenda so do you want to take a second to uh just kind of uh present that to the board I I I think some of the uh description differs just a little bit from you know what we might have had last month but I think it's all it's the all the intent is to this there so uh last month we talked about
067the time that we were going through a lot and the subjects that we with a lot to so you'll see in the agenda um start with a a 30 minute discussion um on the discipline review hearing processes and procedures as well as an update on our alternative education program um then for each committee we'll have 30 minutes to spend on purpose goals um refining those initiatives considerations for the future just basically talking about the committee as a whole and a on a very high level and providing some direction there so that's for Education committee we'll do the same for community a and special committees the same for facilities safety and transportation um same for finance another part of that Finance piece will be the five-year Financial projection um that we typically review at at Retreat
068every year and then there's a section entitled Future Finance considerations that's when we'll have a representative and Noble from steel here as well as a representative from PMA um to discuss um Bond opport unities and financing opportunities that will be coming in the future um and she's going to present um kind of tears of what would be available um specifically for some of our facility needs um based on how the board would like to proceed as it relates to the finances okay so she'll present that first and again since we haven't prioritized the facility document yet um she'll just be using examples from our document and then of course that can be reprioritized I in any way but it's really just showing what um different Financial commitments can do for the district um then we'll
069have um a lunch break and again depending on where we are we'll take lunch at 11:50 regardless of where we are in the agenda after that is the large two hour discussion where we'll be looking at the facility document that the facilities committee has been working on refining for several months um how that relates to finance and then how that relates to our education goals and the alignments of those and and the goal there will be to um take that maintenance cycle document and have a list of priorities um and and the marriage of those three things facilities finances and our education um goals should help us prioritize that document so that we can make that responsible financial and facility planning for the future so we have two hours for that because that's a hefty
070lift okay um then we will go back into committees um we have uh 30 minutes um for governance and policy as well as personnel and negotiations there is a placeholder for closed session if needed um don't anticipate any action items so I don't have any action items in the agenda and then time for public comment and closing remarks if we run ahead of schedule we have the other items that were listed for consideration of discussion that we will get to if we are ahead throughout the day okay thank you uh board members any any questions 8:30 8 a 8 A.M breakfast will be available beginning at 7:30 okay any other questions from Bo members okay uh that takes us to new business uh so a motion to approve the appointment compensation discipline performance dismissal of
071personnel items as presented so moveed second roll call RoR i m i Johnson i h i d i i i BR I um next up question are there any pay applications we did not receive any pay so we'll skip that and move to 9.3 uh motion to approve bid for the asbest abatement cafeteria flooring project for Midwest Services Group in the amount of $ 82,9 188 soow mode second roll BL I Johnson i h i Durack I is I RoR I brown I um okay next is a motion to approve trips in excess of 200 miles so mov second call D hi is I RoR i l i Johnson i h i Brown I next to motion to approve the amended OTS Public School calendar for the 2425 school year using previous roll call so
072move second all in favor I I any oppose motion passes um motion to approve the amended OTS Public School calendar for the 2526 school year in previous roll call move second all in favor I any opposed motion passes a motion to approve an Mand of understandings between the alalon Township High School District 203 Board of Education and the alalon Federation of teachers regarding a speech language pathologist vacancy using previous roll call second all in favor I I any oppose motion passes okay so we will postpone um item 9.8 and move to 9.9 which is a discussion on board policies okay so our next regular meeting of the board of education is on March 20th um at that meeting we hope to review the audit and uh summer school offering and staff recommendations for the 25
07326 school year um some of the dates upcoming are the board retreat this weekend on the uh on Saturday and cashmir plasy day on March the 3D so with that motion to adj I have a major announcement lady Panthers are Regional Champions you were all fa