00127 2026. It is 7:05 p.m. Lier, if you can call the role. >> Sure. >> B Johnson here. Rosten >> here. >> Spurlock is absent. Morris absent. Perez here. >> Kim >> here. Carney >> here. >> Okay. Uh we have public comment from Cody Bower. >> Sorry, Turkey. >> Bush. I'm sorry. >> Um, hi, my name is Cody Bush. I am an eighth grade student um on team 82 at Julian. I am also a transgender student and that is why I'll be discussing our gender neutral bathrooms. I want to start off by saying that obviously like I'm very grateful that we have these in our building in the first place. So many schools aren't that lucky. We are. That's great. Um, however, I learned kind of the hard way that these bathrooms just physically being
002there does not mean they are a reliable option for gender diverse students at Julian. Now, when the bathrooms are even open in the first place, it's a mess. You go in, there's whatever you'd expect to be in the bathroom everywhere. Sometimes there's food and drinks and just going into the bathroom. I have to spend 5 minutes cleaning up, usually for students who don't even need to use those stalls in the first place. Um, and it's just something where like I really dread having to go to the bathroom because of that. Because I walk in and it is probably the grossest place in our school. Way worse than any of our other bathrooms. Uh, however, they aren't reliably in order. Most of all my classes are on the fourth floor. So to use the restroom because
003I will get looks if I go into the girls or the boys bathroom, I rely on our third floor gender neutral bathrooms. And until yesterday, they were just out of order, locked for maybe a month and a half to two months. Um, so basically like I and many other students who rely on these few stalls just to use the bathroom every day like every other person in that building would have to go up like four flights of stairs back and forth just to use the bathroom. And at that point it would usually take me 8 to 10 minutes to do one of the most basic things that we as humans do in our life. I would have to carefully plan when to use the toilet because I know it would take an unreasonable amount of
004time just to complete this normal function. And I and other gender diverse students don't really choose this because we want to. We use gender neutral spaces to keep everybody around us comfortable. I don't care what bathroom I use to pee, but everybody else around me does. Um, so we as like queer students at Julian, we work and struggle really hard to make everybody else around us comfortable. And it feels like we aren't being met even halfway. For another example, uh, for a while, even before the third floor stall shut down, the fs slur bag was written on the inside of the door and I had alerted multiple adults in the building and like nothing happened. And I think just letting a slur against queer people stay inside the space that we use. Why? Like there's
005no there's no good explanation about that. Um so yeah, that's generally just what I wanted to talk about. Um, I talked about it with our Gay Straight Alliance Club, Rainbow Tribe, and one of our members, uh, something they said really stuck out to me, and that was that using the bathroom should not be a good or bad experience. It should be pretty neutral, but for queer students at Julian, it is undoubtedly a really bad one. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um I think those are all of the public comments we have for today. Um and we're going to move into then the transformation goal updates. >> Yes. Um before we move into our transformation goal area updates. Um would love to just give um some acknowledgements, some shout outs. Um
006over the weekend we had some extreme cold and snow over the past couple of days. Um and it required some careful planning and coordination to keep our schools safe. And so first just want to acknowledge our buildings and grounds team that worked throughout the weekend to ensure that our schools were warm, safe, and ready for learning on Monday. So thank you to Michael and the team for all of their hard work. I also want to give a um huge appreciation to our staff and families. Um just want to thank everyone for their flexibility and partnership during Friday's e-learning day. Um we heard a lot of feedback good and areas of growth around e-learning and we are taking all of that feedback to make sure we make improvements around e-learning. Decisions about weather related closing um
007are never easy. E-learning days really help us maintain our instructional continuity and continue on our school calendar while making sure our students and staff are safe. And so we want to make sure we continue to work in partnership with our community as we navigate these challen challenges together. Um also just want to um give a shout out to all of our leadership team. Um Amanda, she's not here right now, but she was working extremely hard. She's our senior director of communications um making sure that everyone stays update and that we were making um plans accordingly. So before we jump into our update, just wanted to kind of give those shout outs to our community and team for all of their hard work over the weekend. Um, but at this time would love to introduce our
008core instruction team, Dr. To Lawrence, and we have Jen and Kristen. Please come up to the front for our core instruction K5 math pilot updates. and to I think I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Okay. >> And so, um, in September, we started off our core instruction, um, I think department, we introduced the core instruction team and each part of the team kind of started off by talking about all of the work that's taking place within our department. And I believe at that time Tanda talked about all of the work that's taking place within um teaching and learning. And one of the things that she talked about was the work taking taking place in K5 math and that she was going to come back during this time to give a update around the joy of discovering
009mathematics. And so I'm glad to introduce the K5 team around um discovering the joy of mathematics. And so we have Dr. Towanda Loris. We have Jen and Kristen, our coordinator, our curriculum coordinators. And also just want to take the time to introduce a new team member to the team. Don't want to put you on the spot, but we have Kristen. She's new to our team this year. And then everyone knows Jen. Next slide. During our last board meeting, we had our um director of teaching and learning, Emily. She talked about um our um acceleration program, our statewide mandated program, and talked about how we are starting to kind of open up that window and what that acceleration um program really means to the district. Today, we're going to talk about our tier one mathematics program
010and how tier one really touches all of our students. And tier one is really our foundation. And we really want to make sure that our tier one is really strong. And so we really want to spend time really making sure that we are making the right decisions when it come down to really selecting a really strong mathematics um curriculum. And so this evening we really want to um the team really wanted to discuss the process that they're taking and really ensuring that this process is the right process in really selecting the next curriculum that we're going to pick for our tier one math instruction. So going to hand it over to you. >> Thank you Mr. Robinson. So um the work that we're doing um in K5 math this year is really centered around our
011theme uh for the year. It is the joy of discovering mathematics, inspiring all K5 math learners to reach their potential. So again, we are going to provide an update on our pilot today. Um but in addition to that, we're going to talk a little bit about how we're anchoring our work in um best practice. We're also going to uh discuss how we are prioritizing our math initiatives for the year for grades K5. Um and then we'll take a sneak peek into our journey ahead in terms of our next steps between now and the end of the year. And of course we will um provide an opportunity for the board to ask us questions. So I always like to start with a quote and this quote is from um the book building thinking classrooms and this
012is one of the books that we have been centering a lot of our work around this year. So I'd like you to take a look at this quote just for a second. So it really describes effective learning um through problem solving. And so problem solving doesn't come from like an easy way of getting an answer or a direct answer. It is really a process that students have to engage in and they may have to grapple with something that's challenging or something that's difficult. um they may have to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and it really just helps to build their resilience in math. And so this is the experience that we want for our students to be able to problem solve and critically think. So we'll begin again um with anchoring our math
013focus in best practice. So what does that look like for us? Um so we are um ensuring that every district 97 student reaches their potential in math. And in order to do that, it's important for us to make sure that we have math experiences that are grounded in equity. So everything we do is um grounded in our equity policy. And our equity policy um calls for us to make sure that our students have equitable access to highquality instruction as well as resources that are necessary for them to be successful. Our equity policy connects a lot to the Danielson framework for teaching. And I know you've heard a little bit about this. Our administrators and teachers are engaging in this framework this year and um it really helps to enhance instruction and student engagement and there
014is equity built in the framework for teaching at every level um from the purpose of it to um the individual domains and the components. Um, it's also important when we're talking about math and equity to really think about some of the work from Jill Boer and she wrote Mathematical Mindsets, which is another book that we're focused on this year. And so in the geometric shapes, you'll see some of the um practices that Joe Bowler suggests when we're building equity in math. That's really important. Um, it's important that all students have high quality math instruction. Um our mindsets are very important in our beliefs about who can actually learn math. Um if we don't believe that all students can learn math, it can create a barrier for our students. Um and it's also important that when
015students are engaging in math, they understand the mathematical connections that they're also able to work collaboratively and cooperatively together. And then when we have them in experiences with math, it's important that there are structures and systems in place um for girls and students of color to really reach their their high potential in math as well. So um we are going to pass it to Jen. That's what we're going to do. Um the uh K8 curriculum coordinators had an opportunity to participate in round one of the ISB facilitated um listening and feedback sessions that are connected to the first draft of the Illinois comprehensive numerousy plan. Um this process is mirroring the collaborative process that is be used to develop the literacy plan um in previous years. um really trying to um or attempting to center
016educator voice as well as statewide input in creating this plan. So uh draft one um was uh you know is completed where they'll be working through draft two I believe in February and then finally finalizing the plan this summer. So we have used this plan to really help us to ground ourselves in this work. In addition to the state guidance, um we are grounding our work in current research. And here you'll see two texts. The first one um you'll see here on the picture on the slide on the left um is mathematical mindsets which was written by Joel Bowler um and Tanda Dr. Lawrence has quoted quoted some of her work in previous slides here. Um and that text emphasizes student agency, growth mindset as well as equitable equitable access to rigorous math. And then
017finally, you'll see building thinking classrooms in mathematics. Um, and that text really focuses on the instructional structures that promote student thinking, collaboration, and deep mathematical engagement as well. Um, on the slide, um, you will see our D97 K5 math mission statement. This statement um we've presented this to you uh previously was collaborated and created by our math committee members last year um and it reflects a shared vision for K5 math in district 97. Um here you'll see that it clearly defines the learning experiences that we want all district 97 students to have. Um experiencing experiences that promote mathematical thinking, engagement, confidence, and access for every learner. So, now that we've talked about how we're anchoring our practice or our work in best practice, we're going to talk about the initiatives that we have this year
018for K5 Math and how we're prioritizing those. Um, so as you can see here, um, at the top, we have identified that our work is centered around making sure that there are standards aligned and evidence-based practices across all of our eight elementary schools. And we are doing this in two strands this year similar to how we approached this work last year um with reading. So we have math pilot schools and non math non-pilot schools. So our math pilot schools are homes and longfellow. We also have members of the K5 math curriculum committee who are also engaging in the pilot. So there are two resources that we're piloting this year and Jen and Kristen will talk a little bit more about those resources. Um, and then we also have the work that we're doing with our
019math non-pilot schools, which are the other six elementary schools. And so we're providing a great deal of professional learning um to enhance their instruction and student engagement as well this year. Um, so before we talk about the MAP pilot schools, I'd like to just um put a bit of a disclaimer. Um, we are going to share some information with you in terms of where we are with the pilot, but we are also still involved in the pilot process. So it will be a highle overview that we share today. Um we don't have any data right now in terms of like teacher student experiences or the pre and post assessment data. Um but we are looking forward to coming back to the table in April to share all of that data with you um when we
020make our recommendation. But today we will be able to highlight the professional learning that we provided teachers so far um as well as how teachers are collaborating around the resources that are be being piloted and the student engagement as well. Um this year's work is a continuation of the collaborative work that began last year with our K5 math curriculum committee. So, building on the foundation um that was set last year, the committee selected two resources to pilot this year, which are Amplify Desmos Math and the Math Learning Cent's Bridges in Mathematics. Um both of these programs reflect a problem-based approach to mathematics, um which strongly aligns with the committee's vision for student learning. Um these resources really appeal to the committee members because they promote student thinking and reasoning. um they encourage meaningful mathematical discourse
021um and they provide opportunities for all students to engage with grade level content. Additionally, both of the programs support equitable access for all students. They offer strong instructional routines for both our teachers as well as students and they align with the current research on effective mathematics instruction. Um, professional learning has been provided for these resources um, in partnership with the curriculum providers. Um, but it has also been supported by our curriculum coordinators um, the instructional coaches as well as the building leaders to ensure that we are um, providing teachers with ongoing cohesive implementation supports throughout this pilot process. We are using seven criteria to guide how we evaluate each of the resources. You'll see the seven criteria up here. Um these criteria connect to our K5 math mission statement along with the Illinois learning standards
022for math which include the standards for mathematical practice. Um we are focusing on the key three key shifts of the common core standards which are conceptual understanding, procedural fluency as well as application. Um we're really looking closely at what the instructional approach is specifically whether or not the learning is systematic, sequential, and it supports student thinking throughout the school year. Um, obviously assessment is one of the things that we're considering in terms of how student understanding is and we're using that to guide instruction. Um, we always prioritize culturally responsive practices along with differentiation, accessibility, and really thoughtful use of technology, particularly in the mathematics classroom. Um, and these criteria are all grounded in trusted sources, um, such as the common core state standards, um, ed reports, um, our equip rubrics, as well as the NCTM
023rubrics. So, I'm going to talk through some of the professional development that has been done uh, with our teachers this year. So, in the pilot schools and with our math committee members, the teachers have had opportunities to participate in two um three-hour in-person training sessions with each of the pilot resource programs. And in addition, each of those programs is meeting virtually with every PLC and the math committee um about halfway through the pilot um to answer any questions that teachers have and provide further insight into components of the program that teachers may not have had a chance to dive into yet and give further insights. The PLC's have also been collaborating throughout the pilot process. Um, and these extended planning sessions have included reviewing and preparing materials for the upcoming programs, examining the unit overviews
024and the learning objectives and becoming familiar with different components of the programs as well as engaging in day-to-day lesson planning. Um, the students, you can see pictures of our students engaging with the resources. um have been highly engaged in these programs that include real world scenario tasks, high levels of discourse, um engaging digital materials and interactive activities and centers. So the comprehensive PD plan developed by core instruction includes this training for the pilot schools but also and provide support in these researchbased practices for non-pilot teachers based on the two texts that Jenna talked about earlier. Um these emphasize growth mindset, equitable access to rigorous mathematics and instructional structures that promote student thinking and deep ma mathematical engagement. So on our institute day in January, while the pilot schools were participating in training for one of
025the upcoming programs, um teachers at non-pilot schools had the opportunity to choose from a selection of um breakout sessions based on these mathematical practices. Um, and we really want to spotlight the hard work of our instructional coaches. Um, as well as Paula Andre, the HEPSA coordinator, Rory Udder, one of our UDL coordinators, and Katina Burus, uh, an MTSS interventionist. Um, they all worked very hard to prepare and present these sessions to our teachers, um, who were able to, uh, walk out and start implementing strategies in their classrooms right away. Um, these sessions included topics such as um engaging math games, effective small groupoup instruction, hands-on tasks, and practical strategies to boost student engagement and deepen reasoning um and foster independence in mathematical problem solving. So, now we're going to just take a look ahead at
026where we are going um in our math journey. So this three-stage process may look familiar to you. Um we are at the end of this year our our plan is to identify one resource um that is comprehensive evidence-based standards aligned um that we will recommend to the board of education um for approval. And so again, we will come back in April um and we will have a larger team with us uh some of our pilot teachers and principles um to join us so that we can share a little bit more with you in terms of our pilot process, the teaching experiences as well as the student experiences. So you'll see here there are three stages in this process. Um stage one and stage two, those two stages happened last year during our resource review process.
027So in stage one, we identified the resources to review and you can see all of the tasks there that have been completed. Um stage two, we selected the resources to pilot. Um and again, you can see all of the steps that we took there. And we are currently in stage three of the process. And so we are conducting the pilot and gathering data. So again, we talked about the two resources that we're piloting. Um we're also in the process of gathering feedback. We want to hear from teachers, students, and families in terms of how they're experiencing both of these resources. Um, for both of the math pilot resources, we are um administering pre and post assessments um just to see um how students have grown within the units of instruction that they're piloting. um that
028will be a data point that our math committee um takes a look at when identifying a resource to recommend as well as the feedback that we're collecting from teachers, students, and families. Um the committee will come together, they will look at all of the pieces of data and um we'll be working with Dr. Coliner um to ensure that we have a framework to come together that's researchbased so that we can recommend the best re um resource for adoption for math. So, that's our three-stage process. And, um, of course, we're going to have questions from the board. But before we do that, I want to just take a couple of seconds to acknowledge the work um that Jennifer and Kristen have done this year. I don't want to embarrass you, but I have to celebrate you.
029Um, not only are they facilitating these two math pilots, but at the same time, they are overseeing the roll out of an entire reading curriculum in grades K5 for the eight elementary schools. And I think sometimes we don't celebrate the work enough. And so, I just want to take this moment to say thank you. And this is true representation of what teacher leadership is in our district. So, thank you. And I'll open it up for questions from the board. Yes. Um, you know, it's math. I'm gonna have some questions. Um, so first I wanted to bring in to juxtapose with the quote that you started with, which was lovely. The one that was from last time from Joe Bowler. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um, just the end part of it, the the powerful thinkers are
030those who make connections, think logically, and use space, data, and numbers creatively. >> And I appreciate that you are working with that mindset in looking at math. So, I wanted to say thank you for that. Um, this is also interesting as a followup to the acceleration piece that we just saw. Um, because I will say one of the things that comes up frequently in conversations with community members is that aspect of differentiation and the importance of that >> because math in particular, I think gets a bad rep in part because people get a concept at certain different rates and if they don't get it at the same rate as the person sitting next to them, they decide they're bad at math, >> right? And I'm like, nobody's bad at math. Can you divide your cookie
031evenly in half? You are not bad at math. Like, you know, there it it's something that just gets a bad rap um on that. And I appreciate that we are looking at that as one of those seven criteria. Can you speak a little bit more to the evidence you are collecting under those criteria to like to help you understand if it is meeting those differentiation needs for example? >> Yeah, of course. Um so that is one of the seven criteria and so um we are really leaning on our teacher input as well because they are closest to the resource and closest to the classroom. So they will be completing surveys based on the seven criteria. So as they're engaging in each pilot, they're collecting evidence from how their students are engaging with it, how they're
032able to utilize the materials for various levels of students. And so when we take their feedback um at the end of this process, that's going to be huge for us as well. Um there's also been work that's done with the math curriculum committee around this as well. So if Jen and Kristen, if you all want to add anything to that, >> problem the problem based learning work. Yeah, we've been working with the MAC committee um to really define the characteristics of problem based learning um and have conversations where we are discussing and analyzing how we are seeing those different characteristics within the programs as we are piloting. So that's an ongoing conversation there >> just to make that shift for sure um when it comes to what math instruction looks like in district 97. Um,
033one of the other things that we're doing the other leg with our non-pilot schools is really diving into those texts to get teachers to be thinking beyond, you know, the traditional traditional way in which they learned mathematics because we do need to make a big shift. Um, and and there will be a big shift with either one of the resources that we choose because uh we were very strategic in making sure that both of the resources were problem based. I just want to say I agree with you. >> Yeah. Because I really appreciate that thoughtfulness of that shift. >> I just have like a ask um to not to mesh all these things together. Um but I think one of the things um kind of to NY's point that comes up a lot is I
034think families are sometimes confused. And so I think the more we can flesh out um for example for acceleration there's a rubric right and I I know that a couple of parents have expressed to me the frustration of like where is this rubric from and so I think the more people may not like the end result the the final answer may be no but I think um really explaining this in layman's terms like what the process is what are the best practices what are the resources that you use like who's the authority right I don't I don't know that answer um so a lot lot of times I'm like I'll go back to this person and I'll ask them. Um and so I think the more that we can like point to just make something
035up. I use IASB and their best practices. Um and then I think that kind of takes away the um well you said no to I'm just an example. um Tanda said no and it's like no this is like the best the best the guidance and the best practices that we have and if they want to take it up with IASB for example then they can do that but I think for a lot of parents uh the differentiation maybe isn't meeting the needs and they want their kid to get more but I also understand that there's we don't want them skipping very essential things um we want to make sure that they have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of math but I think that's sometimes missing is that it's just like I talked to Dr. She
036said no. And they're like, and I asked her why, she said no. Again, >> right. >> Oh, that makes sense. Thank you for that. >> Um, so I'm I'm excited to see the, you know, the alignment between, you know, the comprehensive plan at the state and how you all are going to implement the changes. I um have a question, but not something you have to answer right now. Just something to think about. Um, just having seen Eureka, seeing how it's, you know, been taught and then also how I've experienced as a parent. >> Um, I would say, um, considering, you know, those transitions, there's always going to be kind of some kind of fluctuation in teaching it and parents being receptive to it and kids being exposed to it. So, I wonder if the uh
037companies have any concerns or supplemental materials to help students transition from one curriculum to another simply because I'm sure there are lots of people I've heard many folks using oftentimes very competitive, you know, uh models and so Eureka's familiar in a lot of places. So, I just wonder if that's a feature of what these companies perhaps have considered like, hey, you're going from this to our now our model. Um, these are the ways we've kind of covered that transition for the simple fact that you'll have kids that were exposed to Eureka in their foundational years and now they're going to maybe a fifth grader that's going to go into more of a reasoning and visual spatial curriculum. And um so that's just a wonder, right? That transition for kids that will experience more than one
038curriculum. I know standards are always the same, but teaching it is very different simply because if I was to say for like anybody listening, Eureka was about algorithms and basically here are all these different ways you can learn to solve a problem. And we often were teaching kids all of the ways and then testing as we went along. And in essence, kids were supposed to identify what was the best thing for them. But for kids with like learning needs, ADHD, all sorts of, you know, differentiated needs, it was hard for them to make those decisions. So really, it had to be honed down by those instructional, you know, folks, teachers, interventionists. So I just wonder how that will transition over into this new kind of model that the state is obviously encouraging is like looking
039at procedures, computation and fluency. And as a high school psychologist, I can honestly say once we get the kids and we're qualifying them for like something like a learning disability in math, almost always their gaps are on their addition, subtraction, and multiplication, like they never really became very fluent in those things. And oftentimes by the time they get to middle school, we're saying just use a calculator. Um, so we want to be able to to help them get those skills. Um, the other thing I was just going to suggest and wonder about is if we had um like this is where AI is kind of um helpful in summarizing the the strengths and differences between these curriculums. Um, but there is also human resources in the district. Um, I would encourage using the the AI
040to do the comparison because from what I found already, Bridges seems to be adequate for tier 1, tier 2, and tier three versus Amplify. It sounds like it's more of a potential targeted intervention to try to enrich or accelerate like kids that are really like moving faster with the curriculum. Um, we have special ed teachers that are using bridges, I think mostly in the instructional classrooms. And so I wonder if we can also use them as you know knowledge so that they can inform like how have we used it with kids with special needs. Um so they have you know already implemented that and I I suppose that would be another source of information >> and we do have special education teachers um that are implementing and actually participating and engaging in the pilot. >>
041So it's going to be great to hear their feedback as well. And just to clarify, I think um some of the the materials that some of the special education teachers may be using that you're referring to are the Bridges intervention materials, but this is actually the Bridges core resource, which is a little bit different, but it's still great that we have special ed teachers on our committee that are engaging in the pilot and they will be able to share their feedback with us. >> Yeah. >> Okay, sounds good. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, >> oh, go ahead. I've already had a chance. So, um I'm wondering as we are, this potentially represents a lot of change not only for our teachers but for our students. So, I'm thinking about how we are bringing our
042parents along. as a parent who never really understood Eureka math and frankly didn't like it because I had difficulty supporting my kid who was learning math in a very different way than I learned it and it was very difficult for me to support them because I didn't have any idea how that worked. >> Um I don't want that to happen for other families. So if we can be intentional but also intensive about how we are helping our parents understand what the shift is and how they can then support their kids. And it may be a few of those parent sessions by grade, but I think it's it is we're going to this is a component of moving our needle that is very important and we need to make sure that it's well supported. >> Yeah,
043agreed. >> That's a good point and we appreciate that. Um actually we kind of had to make a shift in ELA um from last year to this year, right? Our teachers were focused on a balanced literacy approach and now it's more structured. Um our team is now um getting ready to create a parent learning experience um around reading and we'll do the same thing for math. Um excited to share that it's called Passport to Literacy. And so we're going to have, you know, families coming in and actually engaging in our literacy resource and learning how to support their student at home. And we would, of course, do something like that for math once we determine what that resources and because we want parents to be involved in that process. Thank you. >> A question. >>
044Mine was just ditto because actually um Becky's comment reminded me of the family comment and Venus just said it eloquently and lovely. So, thank you. Um I was kind of curious actually about the ISB comprehensive literacy plan. Um obviously that was a I was part of some of the literacy ones. Um and not knowing enough about math education. Are there kind of various controversial takes on math education like there was with literacy or >> I'm going to let our our team here because they actually engaged in that feedback session um for the numerousy plan. So what were you all's thoughts? I actually did not really feel that there were it was it was a very supportive listening session. People are very excited about the numerousy plan especially after the literacy plan has been >> rolled
045out um you know pretty successful. >> Yeah. U and the sessions weren't contentious but I think like the re like what drove I think to do it was like we need to address it. So I just wondering if there had also been rumblings within the math community. >> You know I was at one of the sessions where there were materials being thrown. Oh. Um, so it was very contentious for literacy. >> It was intense. We had a lot of, you know, the pendulum is is is big. >> I wouldn't say there was there's too much of that, but there is people who want more from it and want it to be very like >> robust. >> Yes. Um and so uh and they might be coming from schools that have like a lot of pressure
046from you know their communities you know regarding various different you know subjects but so it did seem like that is more of an element of like just really math experts and you know wanting more and it it doesn't feel like the numerousy plan is going to be that prescriptive to say like you must do this. Um so that was kind of the vibe that we got. >> Yeah. No, I I was like I feel like no one's doing a podcast about math controversy. >> Uh the other piece I was thinking about along with the differentiation is I know with like kind of with common core and all of that the increase of literacy skills needed in math and especially with problem based learning and things like that. Um, I was kind of curious if you
047looked at like the multilingual resources or resources for working with I guess more more resources for working with multilingual learners rather than multilingual resources. Um, just I know teachers kind of sometimes I know with the shift towards the common core math standards there was a lot of like for newcomers math was like an area where they could be successful because there was less language. Um, and so I know a lot of times teachers struggle with um, multilingual learners and how to best support them when there's so much literacy. I was just curious if that was considered at all or >> both of the resources do have embedded supports for multilingual learners. >> And we do have um, particularly for our district, we have, you know, Spanish immersion. We do have Spanish immersion teachers who are
048piloting the um Spanish version of their curricular resource, but that is not the only language in which they have support. Um you know, there are very specific supports that are embedded in the tier one resource in English to help support teachers with students with multiple um languages. >> Because I I did have a little note about Spanish. >> They're on they're on the committee. >> Thank you. I just have one more thing. Um, I've gotten some feedback that members of D200 that have been trying to like collaborate with us more and I think that is so important because as Becky just mentioned, these kids have gone to D2, many of the kids, not all, but many of our kids go to D200. So I think understanding like what what is it that they're looking for,
049where are their gaps to make sure that we're addressing that because I think a lot of the parent concern also and if Hollywood hears she would probably say if you don't have algebra by a certain time you're not going to get to calculus and you're not going to go to college. Um and so I think with all this like I've read articles that support that. I've read articles that say it's not true. Um, so I think just like as we are educating our parents like what are the pathways and this is what D200 is telling us and >> you know maybe if they're included in some of those um I don't know the the the university parent teacher or whatever that we're doing. I think that he is a little bit more like okay I
050understand because when they go to the high school and I've been told by someone at the high school now that might change but I'm always thinking like every single class my kids have taken was like when you get to the high school you know so I I just think uh making sure that someone from math at D200 is involved >> um or not even involved but some way collaborating and Dr. Dr. Deleon and I just met with the assistant superintendent of D200, I want to say a month or so ago. And so we're definitely going to continue that collaboration with her. And I think that's a great idea to kind of bring her in on some of the work that we're doing here as well. Um, but our focus is also to bring the middle
051school teachers back together with the high school teachers so they can continue their planning and collaboration. So, thank you for that. When is the middle school math curriculum back up for review? >> Next year. >> Okay. >> No time to breathe. >> Yeah, we'll start the resource review process for middle school math next year. >> I guess on the committee enrichment specialists are also involved. >> Yes, they are. And I would say going back to the point that um John you made was that um there is some work to be done I think in amplify it's um they indicate that it's more language loaded. So I would say like I'd be curious about that between the two curriculums. So um so even if they scaffold or they have opportunities a lot of it depends on
052the teacher implementing those versus like being built in to the curriculum. So, if they're supplemental materials, awesome. But I think like the English sheltered, you know, what is it like ESL? What does it stand for again? English. >> Help a girl out here. Um, >> right. Is that like we try to reduce the language loading? So, I like your question. It was a great question. So, I'm just wondering if that's accurate. you know which one is more language dependent >> and we'll know certainly at the end of the pilot when we've experienced both of them but thank you for that we know that >> you all Hi. Uh, can I get a motion for the consent agenda? >> I move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the consent
053agenda as presented. >> Second Moore. >> Yes. Her Johnson was >> Kim. Spurlock is absent. >> Yes. Perez Ros. >> Yes. Motion pass. >> Action items. >> Sorry, I thought you were going in. Action items. 8.1 Park District for Oak Park summer programs IGA. This is uh what we discussed on the 13th. Is there a motion? I move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School 97 approve the intergovernmental agreement IGA with the park district of Oak Park through August 31st 2026 to support the co-f facilitation of summer programming >> second uh yes >> spurlock is absent her Johnson >> yes >> more >> yes >> stepped Wayne Kim, >> yes. >> Cardi, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> 8.2, Summer 2026 bid approvals. I move that the board of education of Oak
054Park Elementary School District 97 approve the summer 2026 bid awards for projects in the amount up to 4,995,544.34 as presented on December 9th, 2025 and include in the updated and included in the updated award recommendations. I'll second. >> Thank you. Johnson, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Absent. Carmen, >> yes. >> Perez, >> yes. >> Sorry. >> Yes. >> Moore. >> Yes. Motion pass. >> Concluded item 9.1 remarks. I would just like to ask if we can update based on the public comment that was made today. >> Yeah, I was gonna ask >> if we could contact the student. Yeah, >> because I have heard I mean my kids aren't at Brooks anymore, but I I have heard similar comments about the books bathroom when they were there. >> Okay, we'll do. >> Thank
055you. No problem. No problem. >> Do not have my little cheat sheet and I cannot log into Oh, you missed out when we were all like what's the password? >> I was like I can't do this. >> I can go you go just on the list the phone. Yeah, I was going to say uh back >> back and forth at a joint meeting last week um to talk about the um facilities work that has been recommended for uh the N for the master facilities plan. Both the priority one which is sort of the essential stuff and priority two which is kind of essential as well. uh and to talk about different um options for financing the work and so I don't think we have anything conclusive conclusive to share but um that will be coming
056the board's way in the near future and then we're also in the process of looking at ways to get um some of our sustainability work done and some ways to uh finance that through things like performance contracts which um can be revenue neutral for us and and where the um the payment for the contract comes in the form of the efficiency savings we gain through the work. >> Okay, thank you Gavin. Uh PTAC >> uh we met a couple weeks ago and kind of ran through some of the presentations we're going to have. Um, as Holly mentioned last time, a parent university in a couple of weeks at the end of February, there was um in announcement in last week's weekly email. Uh, we've already had a dozen parents um sign up. So, uh, keep
057an eye out for that. It's on, um, discipline restorative justice um kind of the the developing brain of kids. Um, so it'll be it'll be good. >> Thank you, John. Financial oversight review committee for >> that was the joint meeting just described. >> Thanks for >> uh ago. Oh, um I missed this month's meeting, but we are moving forward with um an updated mission and vision statement that is still in the same tenor of what we have all come to know and love about IGV about working collaboratively with other government entities park because we are all after all working for residents in folk park. Um but it was missing things like an equity statement that is also important to all of those boards. So um that should be coming forward fairly soon now. >> Awesome.
058Thank you so much. Uh PE my god PTOC we have not met. We do have a meeting on Monday but Gavin and I will be here. So I'll contact um I'll contact Kate to let her know we will not be there. And uh we'll get the run out from Amanda if she attend. Sustainability task force >> um task force has been meeting often at uh right before the fact meeting because we have some overlap in numbers. Um focal points right now are around um curriculum, climate justice curriculum around um food waste and um reducing uh the use of like singleuse materials with respect to lunches and also around energy including um our I think we're going out soon to bid on rooftop solar and then also So, um, community solar we're moving forward with as
059well. >> And I just sorry, as part of that, I want to give a shout out to the staff who've been working on the food waste piece of that and the curricular piece of that. Um, they've been looking really outside of the box, looking at where sustainability is within the curriculum, but also looking at how can we get sustainability experts in the Oak Park that we have around and to talk to our students, which makes it a lot more meaningful. And food waste, as one might imagine, with K8 students is tricky. They are changing of their tastes in many ways. And the amount of work that is going in to make sure, hey, this school isn't drinking this kind of juice anymore. This school is let's transfer things around to make sure we're we're actually
060redistributing food in a way that it gets used and not just thrown in the trash is I'm going to call it epic and very much appreciated. I have a wonder for the sustainability committee out of curiosity, has there been a conversation about um since we contract with the with the provider if if that's ever been a challenge of like you know mean the food. >> Yeah. We are a subcontractor of D200. So there have been a lot of conversations with them about how we might um improve on sort of the quality and and sort of footprint of our choices. I don't know if we have any concrete to report at this point. >> They did actually at the last meeting. I mean there's they they recently had collaboration meetings on for example um getting supplies
061to make sure the food stays hot when they transfer it over and looking at for example D200 doesn't have the wherewithal to chop up tomatoes and cucumbers for the salads but can we do that on site so there's a lot of back and forth um it's not settled yet but there are really rich conversations going on about how we can improve the food quality and also um keep it affordable within what we can do >> and that it's accessible in the share tables too. >> They are looking at share tables. They actually um have a whole bunch of work that has been done on that on the um from the logistics side of it and the health board side of it all the way through like how does that work in terms of getting it
062set up, having kids know about it and and making it actually viable. Thank you for that. Um, where are we? Collaboration for early childhood. >> It's also me. Um, we are having our hackathon tomorrow. I am very excited about this. So, we are looking at what types of data they have, what can be done with it, what can we glean, and um, I very much appreciated the focus on this on how does that again help us transition from those early years? How do we make sure we're not missing students? how we make sure we're not missing opportunities um for making connections between and I am just really excited. >> Thank you. >> I will report back on that next. >> Awesome. OPF >> u we had a meeting the other day. Um they talked they
063kind of reviewed their big spring event which is kind of an open house event that will be open to the community. Um and also kind of launch their mission brand. It's Sunday, April 19th, so I'll talk about it when we get closer to the date. Um, and then we also spent some time going through um an update on the strategic plan. >> Okay. And finally, it you too. >> Uh, there was a meeting last night which I was not in town for, so I will watch the recording once it's released and then report back to the next one. All right. Um, our next board meeting, regular board meeting is February 10th. Uh, please take a look at the proposed agenda items. Uh, so we have the district transformational goal update, area update, sorry, middle school
064update, SY7 staffing projections. We will discuss the Oak Park Township IGA title one plans request. And we will if necessary have a closed session. >> The close session if necessary first. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Like if we wanted to do it after >> Oh, yeah. That's what I Sorry. That's what I was trying to say. I also realized we should probably do a little update on the superintendent. >> Yes. I think we mentioned that we were going to do something like that. >> Okay. So, just quick update is uh we've been doing or we're in the middle of doing first round interviews. Um there will be a town hall on Thursday uh with uh >> final two candidates, >> our final hopefully probably two candidates. Um and then we're hoping to do final interviews on
065Monday. Um, so we're in So if folks folks should have gotten an email and there'll be probably more emails this week from Amanda um about the town hall so folks in the community can see the town um see the two finalist candidates. There will also be a feedback form that will be shared so that you have an opportunity to voice your opinion on on the candidates and th that uh those that feedback will be presented to the will be analyzed and presented to the board before we go into our finalist interviews on Monday. So um if you are interested in the process and interested in helping um have a voice in terms of who our uh final or who our superintendent will be uh this is an opportunity. Um the email also says if you
066are not able to watch it live on Thursday when it's streamed um it will be available >> until Friday. So you don't have a huge window but you will have a little bit of time to watch the video. Uh so uh look out for the registration email. >> All right.