001practicing. >> I'm fired up. >> We call this meeting to order. It's 7:05 p.m. Um, her Johnson is absent. Rosen >> here. >> Spurlock is absent. Moore >> here. >> Perez >> here. Kim >> here. Car >> here. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion to go into um public hearing for the text levy? >> Correct. >> I move that the board of education of Oak Elementary School District 97 move into a public hearing on the district's on the district's 2025 tax levy. >> Second. >> Rosman, >> yes. >> Perez, >> yes. >> Car, >> yes. >> Is absent. Kim, >> yes. >> Johnson is absent. More. Yes. >> Recommendation for the levy was presented in the November board meeting. This is an opportunity for the public who have any concerns regarding the levy.
002>> Time for you to speak up. Again, it's about the levy specifically, not public com commentary. >> We did not have anyone signing. >> Okay. Motion to close. >> I move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 move to close the public hearing on the district's 2025 tax levy. >> Second. Moore, >> yes. >> Johnson is absent. Kim, >> yes. >> Spurlock is absent. Carney, >> yes. >> Per, >> yes. >> All right. Um, public comment. You have any public comment? >> We do not have any public comments. >> All right. All right. So we will go to transformational boat area update >> student services. Could I have Patrick Robinson introduce our staff enthusiastic group? >> Come on, >> guys. Come on down. Come on down. Come down some more.
003>> Don't be so nervous. >> None of these people bite. >> So, I'm so excited to introduce our um student service department. And so, our first board meeting um in September, I don't know if you all remember, we did a core instruction overview. And during that meeting, we did just a little small sample of student services. And we said that we were going to come back and talk more about student services and all of the different programming within that department. Well, surprise. We're here back tonight to kind of talk more about that department. and Donna, our senior director of student services along with different members of that department is here to kind of talk more about that. I'm going to allow Donna to introduce the team. >> Thank you, Patrick. And we are one part
004of core instruction. And I'm Donna Middleton, the senior director of student services. And with me, they are each going to introduce themselves and the role that they play in the department. But I just want you to know that this is one small part of the large group that really impacts our work. And so I wish that everybody could be here, but that's not possible. And so here we have a small representative. I'm Paula Andre, District 97, HPSA education coordinator. >> I'm Emily Dolan. I'm the UDL coordinator at Irving and Man. >> Tim McDonald, adapt teacher and specials coach. >> Maggie Cahill. I'm a UDL coordinator at home school and your school. >> Good evening. I'm Tracy Ham. I am the director for student services working directly with all of these five people. >> Hello, I'm
005Michelle Sudic. I'm the early childhood student service coordinator servicing our early childhood children at Longfellow PKP and Whittier. >> Hi, I am Rory Utter. I'm the UDL coordinator for Lincoln and Hatch. >> Hi there, Stacy Robertson, UDL coordinator at Brooks Middle School. >> Hi, I'm Ann Wiggley. and the teachers assistant mentor for all 10 schools. >> And so I thank all of you for being here tonight and I thank you for your time. Um I do want to start by saying that this is just a quick overview of our work and we exist, our department exists to support our students, to support our families and to also support our staff. and we are here and each year we try to come up with a theme song and the theme song is really meant to be
006a motivator and to help you know remind us of our why and last year we chose the world by five foot fighting. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it really asks you to think about what type of world you want your students to have. And then it also asks us to think about each of the roles we play in creating that world. And so this year we're kind of expanding on that theme. And we are now our theme song is You Can Count on Me by Bruno Mars. And this is >> all right. And so we just wanted to say that that is our theme song this year. We do try to have fun in our department and it really just reminds us that this is important work and we do show
007up for our students and we show up for our families and we also show up for our staff because this can be challenging work but I want you to know that all of us do it with a lot of heart. It is very rewarding and it means the world to us. And so that is our why. And then I do want to go through our learners. And we support three groups of learners. We support students who receive multilingual education. And we have 186 students. These are all of the languages that these 186 students speak. The ones that are bolded are the ones that are the most common of our languages. You'll see there's the six main languages spoken. Then we have 462 students with section 504 plans. A student receives a section 504 plan if
008they have a medical condition that impacts a major life activity. And then we also have 1,82 students that receive special education services. and they receive them because they are eligible under one of these qualities right here under one of these eligibilities. And then I do think it's important to talk about this. Our work is directly connected to our equity policy. And I hope you don't mind, but I do want to read this for a minute because I do really think it's important to speak to this that the concept of educational equity goes beyond simple equality where all students are treated the same. Two, fostering a barrier-free environment in which all students, regardless of their background or personal attributes, are extended opportunities and resources required for success. That is our work. All right. And so I
009am going to pass it on to Maggie and Paula who are going to talk about the village that it does take to create this work. >> All right. So Paula and I are going to introduce you to some of the different people who help ensure that our department runs smoothly. So on this slide we're going to begin with the directors, the coordinators, and the specialists who really focus on processes and procedures. And at the very center, you'll see our fearless leaders, our administrators, Donna and Tracy. And along the edges, you'll see the different coordinators. So, all of our elementary coordinators support two different schools. And our middle school coordinators support one school each. On the bottom, you'll see Michelle Sudterbeck who supports our pre kindergarten partnership program, PKP, at Longfellow, as well as early childhood
010early childhood program or EC at Whittier. And then in the center outside um our administrators you you'll see our fantastic specialists. So we have specialists supporting behavior. Sally Kramer's our behavior specialists and Wakeley our TA mentor. Sher Lenzo our AT or assisted technology director or specialist. Uh and of course Paula our school coordinator. And um here we have our three fantastic administrative assistants who are housed here at central office who support the department. In addition and had to make it to the second slide here who is our TA mentor who supports the 190 TAs throughout all 10 schools throughout the district. And this slide identifies the leads for both elementary and middle school special uh the special education teachers plus each of the related service providers. Um they have a lead um a lead person
011for their department and they oversee their department and the communication um for the group. And then again the multi-ingual leads for the elementary and middle schools and they support the teachers in their um the elementary and the middle schools. And as Donna mentioned, section 504 plans support students who may have a disability but don't require specialized instruction. Rather, they require supports and accommodations. And at the elementary schools, the coordinators oversee those plans. At the middle schools, our student success coaches oversee section 504 for students. And we really could not do any of this without support from our families. So the multilingual parent advisory committee and the special education parent advisory committee, they both inform practices and procedures for our department. We have a special education uh parent support group that meets monthly and it's a
012chance to form community and have parents support one another and that's led by social workers. Uh and we also offer student night in which was new last year and it's a chance for families to have some respit. So students get to come and spend fun evenings with their teachers and parents get a break to go out to dinner and just have a chance to relax a little bit. So, our families are really important in our village. And I'm going to turn it over to uh Tracy and to Emily. So, I just want to share with you when you think about our special education services and supports, these are the types of supports that we go and provide throughout our district. Um, starting with special education and moving up all the way to one-to-one instruction for
013our students who are unable to attend school. Here we have the type of continuum of services that we have within district 97. Starting with our students that need only speech support. Moving into resource which is available in all 10 of our schools that can be pushin or pull out services. Moving then to something more structured and supportive would be our co-taught classrooms in which we have a special education teacher and a general education teacher teacher partner together working within a general education classroom. Um for students who need more structure, we work um and have um provisions of instructional classrooms in several of our schools in which we can provide a more structured, highly modified program that still aligns with our general education curriculum. From there, we also have our RISE classrooms that provide that alternative
014and functional life skill program for our students who have more communication or significant needs. Lastly, we do want to point out we have several students that attend therapeutic private day schools for and those are for students who aren't able to be supported with our public school setting, but we always remind ourselves that they are still our students and they are overseen um through case management um from our UDL coordinators. Lastly, I just want to talk a little bit in comparison our district to our states. And this is from our Illinois report card. And as you can see, a majority of our students receive their services within the general education classroom setting. Um, and we far outpace, which is really what least restrictive environment provides, our state counterparts. And then within our continuum of services, we
015deliver a specialized instruction which includes the adapting of the content methodology or delivery of instruction. And we are lucky to have a lot of curricular resources to deliver that math, reading, and writing instruction, which is outlined in our curricula guide that's provided for our staff. Currently, it's in draft uh form, but it is a great resource that our staff has access to. And now, we'd like to turn it over to Rory and Michelle Sub. We're going to highlight the goals. One of the goals that we are working on this year is empowering students to participate in their IEP meetings. Uh we want to empower our students to know themselves as learners, to monitor their own growth, and to advocate for what they need in order to be successful. And so student participation can look different
016from our earliest littlest youngers and our youngest learners in early childhood to our eighth graders. Um the level and the type of participation is individualized and it's shaped by each student's um developmental stage, disability, personal comfort and also too take into um account parents, the family, what are their um comfort level, what is their preference um for their child and how they want to participate in the IEP meeting. And so those are just a few little samples of um some of our IEP le um work meetings. and we're going to turn it over to Stacy and Tim. >> Okay. So, oh, you said you had something to say first. >> Well, they usually say save say save the best for last, but this case is true. >> Good. >> Okay. So, throughout everything that you
017all have heard, all of the hard work and all the dedication for our team, we make sure that sprinkled throughout all of that is so much to celebrate. So, if you just take a look at the slides here, I mean, we have adult ESL classes. We have disability awareness presentations in all of our buildings. We have reintegrated several of our middle school students from um the out of district or therapeutic day school placements back into their home school. Yay. We have role align mentor matchup matchups for all of our firstear special education staff. We're involved in the Nora project which um educates our all of our staff on various disabilities. Um we have um young athletes. Let me talk about that. >> Uh Special Olympics, you see it says 13. When I started in 2010,
018we had zero. And so it's pretty cool to see 13. I remember shout out to Ebony, Michelle, Donna, Patrick. Uh, I was with Ebony at Whittier and I was like, "We have this program for bowling. It's unified kids with and without disabilities. Can we?" And she seriously interrupted me mid-sentence and was like, "Yes, what can I do to help?" I always remember that. So, early on, but we've continued the growth. Um, we used to be able to count it on our fingers. Can't even count it. 13. It's amazing. Um, our we like to do the big celebrations too with not just like the smaller group, the families. Um, for example, this Friday, mark your calendars. um 11:15 at Julian. We have an all all the eighth grade >> at Brooks. It's at Brooks trying good
019Brooks. All all the eighth grade uh is coming to watch too and a lot of we're going to pack the place. It's going to be staying room only. But Special Olympic athletes, unified kids with disabilities, it'll be a blast. So if you can make it at 11:15, one of our celebrations, you'll see in person. So Brooks 11:15 right >> after our IEP meetings we have parents or families complete surveys to talk about their experience during the meetings and it gives them an opportunity to give some very very positive feedback as we see 86.7% of our families rated their experience a five out of five. >> Woohoo. >> Yes. Um, so that is our quick overview of things going on in the student services department. Again, thank you for your time and I guess do you
020have any questions for us? >> Who do we need to let know if we want to attend Brooks on Friday at 11:15? >> Oh, will you just come on out? >> Yes, you just Yeah, we alternate Julian and Brooks every other year. It's Brooks this year >> and it like we have some surprises. That's good. >> It will definitely put a smile on your face. >> It's a lot of fun. >> My calendar right now. >> Yes. >> Nice. Don't say hey. And Jim Gates, uh, former person, he's, uh, going to be there in the front row. So, >> yes. >> And that was Friday, right? >> Yes. >> Um, are we going around or are we? >> Okay. Um, so I just I was wondering I noticed that we have uh kind of roughly
021doing math in my head 20% of our students with special education services. How does that compare to other districts and us in the past I guess? >> Yeah, it it is increasing and I can say that I think it is increasing over the country, over the state the more we become more aware. Um, but also I I do want to say that many families move into our district specifically for our services and so that does impact >> a little our numbers. >> It's a great compliment to all of >> excellent. >> Thank you very much everybody. >> All right. Um >> 7.2 evaluation of coaches. >> Dr. Loftton, >> you got time. You're not up. >> You did get a nice shout out. >> Oh, I did. >> Yeah, I'd love to. >> Okay. um
022hard act to follow, but we just want to chat a little bit about um an issue that's come up around um how we actually support coaches through giving them actual feedback via evaluation. So, just wanted to give a quick update um around where we are. So, um just wanted to highlight the team. So, um this is the team of folks who actually worked together to try and figure out what the best way would be um to look at a framework. Um, so just wanted to make sure that I acknowledged both um all the folks on this list and thank them for all of their support and um assistance in kind of working with the process. So as you know um we invest about $120,000 per year um in our sports and robot robotics activities and
023opportunities for students which is um obviously well received and we want to make sure that our students are well supported as student athletes. Um, and we've seen great success over the the years. Um, but we have an interest in making sure that we're giving good feedback to our coaches um, and supporting them through the development of student athletes. So, we did look at a couple of different um, frameworks in terms of how other districts are looking at giving good feedback to sports coaches and robotics coaches in our instance. So, we looked at Parker before the high school. We also looked at Hinsdale um and Brooks had actually previously developed a framework and so we also took another look at that framework. And so what we're proposing um is an observation and evaluation process that includes
024pre-season meetings, one formal observation, um a mid-season check-in if needed, a self-reflection by the coach, um an end of season evaluation meeting, and then just a discussion around next steps. So um once we landed honor our framework after looking at a number of them um we want to make sure that we're focusing on um six standards around commitments to our student athletes knowledge of sport and being able to impart that knowledge to um a number of students how to manage a sports program making sure they're giving assessment and feedback to students and then thinking about professional conduct and continuous improvement. So um we did have the opportunity to share this framework with our opta partners. they are still mulling it over and will get back to us but wanted to make sure that we gave
025an update here in terms of of our best thinking to date. >> The intent is to eventually cover all styping positions. Uh for a director of a school play, for example, is a stipen position. Uh it's funded a little differently here than other districts, but if we're using district monies, we should be evaluating and giving feedback to the people that are running the program. Yes. Is >> that correct? >> Yes. And our timeline for this was actually to start in the fall should we move forward, but to eventually um bolt in all of the all >> that receive stipens. >> Uh we'll start with questions or are you ready for questions? >> All right, John Gab. >> Yes. Um I had a question about the evaluation process. Um, have you guys considered um like opportunities
026for like participants to provide feedback >> like the student athletes? >> Yeah. >> Or parents or Yeah. >> Um, we wanted to start with the probably >> Yes. I think that would definitely be important to kind of get feedback almost like a 360 from everyone who's experiencing the program. But we wanted to start with something that was familiar and we get and make sure that we were really good at giving feedback from those standards. But I think that would definitely be down the line something that we can make sure that we incorporate into the process. >> Makes sense. >> Becky, >> I think it's good practice to evaluate educators in every role and every contact they have with students. >> I'd agree. I think you know collab does this. They give their what we're attending
027tomorrow and they talk about like who they serve, what happened. Uh per district also does this. So my question um the medicine and check in if needed how is that determined like so um once we've had the formal observation if there's something that we note so for example if a a trend is noted or if a family member brings up a concern or if there's just something we need to make sure that we celebrate um we're able to or that gives the evaluator the ability to check in before that end of evaluation meeting. I guess my wondering is um will how will that be communicated because I can understand like if I'm doing that you come and do an evaluation again I'd be like why are you doing this again um and then what is
028the formal observ um observation what does that look like and what are what are you trying to yeah so it can take place during a practice or an actual game so you're looking at how the the coach actually moves with the students how they respond um the instruction that he's given the or he or she um like collaboration as a team, how they're building their program. So, you'll be able to check in at again either a practice or an actual game or competition. Um give some feedback there. But if you have some additional questions around some of the other standards that you could get, you could also leverage that midyear check-in to kind of get more information if you're seeking that. But also looking at different artifacts. So, as you're advertising um the practices or
029advertising, you know, folks to come in join the team, how are you doing that? Is there a way that everyone has access? Is there actable? Is there a rubric for how we're kind of um thinking about the skills that kids need? So, all of that would be a part of the formal observation, but in terms of what you're actually seeing, it would be the coach in action at a practice rate. Then my last um I guess kind of wondering is when it's the to make sure that this is that the processes are equitable like from the tryyouts to applying to something. Will we get the number or can we have numbers about like how many people like demographics, age, race, disabilities, gender of who apply and then how many people ultimately were selected so that
030we can catch like hey we notice you know going to use robotics that there's not a lot of diversity. How can we like strategically kind of promote this and increase those numbers? Um so is there a space for that? >> Yep. So every year we look at the rosters retroactively. So and we actually um analyze for all of those different demographic areas. Um the schools locally hold the triyout information, but that's when we go back to um we actually report that every year. So I just sent out the email to kind of say where we were in terms of representation overall. But this also gives us the data to go back to different teams. So, I've had conversations with different folks around here's what we're seeing, what are the efforts to make sure that we're
031representing all of the rich diversity um of our district. So, yes, we do collect the rosters retroactively so that I know who actually competed or participated in the team. But, um in terms of the tryyout data, that's held locally at the school. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> I now have a question related to that. Um I am assuming this also falls into the larger feeding pool to these sports because I mean who ends up trying out for various things starts especially in Oak Park well before you actually hit for example middle school. >> So is there time for reflection for everyone involved to say how can we work with families and parents before we even get to this point? >> Yeah. So that was actually um an interest of ours this past year
032where we're looking at intram murals at the elementary level um for just to start off with a sport. Um it is more difficult because we have eight buildings. Um but the goal was to at least level the playing field for those who participate in club sports to have an opportunity to kind of mitigate that with having opportunity at the at the elementary school, excuse me. So I think that's what we've learned and we're just trying to figure out how to make sure that every school is represented. um that was just the barrier this past year, but we're still good to try it again. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And then also um looking at our summer opportunities. So, we had the volleyball camp this past summer just as a a way to kind of introduce
033kids to the sport before you have a chance to try out. So, also kind of and we're hoping to continue that um opportunity, but we're looking at what we offer to make sure that we it's not the first time a student experiences a sport in sixth grade. I would I would also just suggest based on past research. Um that there's also uh information sessions for parents and families as well because sometimes you know why would I spend this time on export that I'm not familiar with or just it it's important to involve like what is the what does this give for my child to be doing this? >> Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think our teachers are amazing ambassadors for that. But I think also kind of intentionally from the district level making sure that
034we're sharing the benefits of the Yeah. body mind connection. Absolutely. >> And also the process. Um I'm at the age where kids everything's fine fine fine. And so if I ask like what's the process? How did it go? >> Oftent times it's like you got to go digging in the middle school matters and then hoping that it's there. Sometimes it's not a middle school matters. it's in the student update, their newsletter. >> Um, so like having thatformational early to say this is a process. You have to bring your child for tryyout at 6:50 in the morning. Um, I think that'd be really important because how many students didn't have access to get to the tryyout, right? And we as parents can say, "Hey, I know your mom has to work and she can't get you
035there or your car isn't working." because I was like, of course I found out like the night before. Can you take me to school at 6:50? And I'm like, sure. Um, but how can we identify those barriers? Like that's a big thing. And I'm lucky that I work from home and I was able to take her, but if I didn't, like she can't try out. Yeah. Yeah, and I think we've tried to amplify the opportunities in our family newsletter along with the multiple matters, but I think the timing is definitely something that we can have a conversation about in terms of is it truly is that the only time that we can have that particular child at that time and if and if that's the case, I mean the high school my god but and
036I think it gets them prepared that there may be some early morning sessions but I think again what are those barriers and how are we working together as a community to make sure that people at least have the opportunity to try out. >> Yeah. Um, did I miss it? But did you talk about who's doing who's going to do the evaluations? Is it going to be the principles or is it going to be just >> associate principles likely? Yes. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh, summer 7.3 summer 2026 bid review and master facilities plan update. >> Michael, bring the team forward. >> Talking about educating the kids. Now we're talking about bricks and mortar. There's two All right. So, we're going to two different things that were there. So, we're going
037to do quick update on the 2026 bids that were opened feels like long time ago, but wasn't that long ago. a couple weeks ago, >> November 25th. >> Um, so Peter will go through that for Bullying Andrews. Give a quick overview of that and u >> for summer 26. >> Summer 26. Yep. >> Hi everybody. I'm Peter Akim with Bulling Andrews. Uh been with the district um as your construction manager since I believe 2015. So I've really touched almost every square foot of uh schools within your district. But this is um really a lot of health, life, safety renovations that were priority to happen in 2026. Um it's happening at nine of your campuses. Uh we reviewed bids on in this room on November 25th. We then did a review of all the bid tabs,
038all the individual numbers for each of the packages with FAC on December 2nd. Um you will see on the second page or sorry yeah the second page this is really just an overall summary. This includes you'll see subtotal direct costs which is really the individual trade packages. We broke this up into four individual packages. One being the summer 6 improvements and then three other packages for individual um roofing scope. Um you'll then see some construction manager markups, our general conditions, and then you'll see contingencies, etc. And then soft cost, which is um engineering and their consultants to design all the documents that went out to bid. Um the recommendation that we reviewed with FAC, um we've come to an agreement at about 4.5 million. That is still going to be reviewed another time with FAC.
039Um our initial bids came in at 5.6 6 million but we've since given some um scope reductions um to defer some of that work um that will further be reviewed as the fact and coming back to the January meeting but I think really the ask today from a overall lead time standpoint we need to release the elevator at Brooks the Brooks um scope of work is the modernization of that elevator that elevator is about 25 years old and a lot of the parts are past it you useful life um and the elevator components have a long lead time so we're asking that that contract be um potentially awarded tonight at the board's approval. Any questions that relates to that? The elevator contract has a value of 158,834. >> And the reason that's being separated out,
040just to reiterate, is because the lead time on ordering parts. >> Correct. All the other contracts can wait um until next board meeting in January, but we really need to get the components going for the elevator due to the long vac. >> So, we'll have to add that to our action item list. >> Yeah, >> I didn't I realized as I was talking to Peter about emotions. I don't know if that's a motion that >> it's on it's not hasn't been on the agenda at this point. It should not be acted on. >> We present agenda the bids. I have not presented. >> So >> there may be a special meeting next week. >> That would be fine at a special meeting next week. Um no issues from a lead time if it can >>
041for a motion. Okay. >> Okay. >> And then the other the other items are all things that there's a couple different ones that we are exploring if there are any deducts or things that we can cut back from that. Again, we knew that going into the budget was4 million was projected and allocated with some $400,000 contingency. So, that's what we're exploring now. How closely can we get down to that piece? Um, and then also as part, and you'll hear this a little bit in the master facility 10-year planning work that there are some items that we could work to get down closer to that 4 million or 4.4, but those some of those items would be high priority. we definitely look at being in 2027, 2028, 2029, whatever that part of the master facility would
042be. So, we have a placeholder of that number of about 5.4 million for 2026. Uh, but know that that's what we're working through on some of these options to see before we come back in January. Um, and as we get that, we'll take it to to FAC on January 21st to kind of review any of these updates and what we are able to to be able to deduct or um what that recommendation would be. In fact, did recommend moving forward with this. This would be something that we need to do um for sure. So, >> what slide is this? >> This is page three. >> It's a it's a memo. It's not the slideshow. >> Okay. >> Not on the slide. All right. Thank you. >> And you did mention this is this has gone
043to fork as well or at least the numbers. >> It went to fork in fact last night. Y >> any questions thus far? >> Keep rolling. >> Okay. >> So again, we'll be asked to vote on this next meeting. >> Next meeting whatever. Okay. All right. So let me refresh. Make sure. >> All right. So, uh, appreciate the opportunity to come. We're providing an update tonight on the master facility plan and where we're at in that process. This is not a timeline to, but we're making a or seeking any type of approval for any part of that 10-year plan at this point. Um, I will give a whatever caveat or last night we presented this to Fork and Fact as one of our joint meetings. And when we were mapping out all of the fact
044meetings and this process and where that was that was one that was flagged as one that we could come together to essentially give these numbers and give these additional like recommendation or options that are out there so that they can go back and and and look through their timeline of what does that look like under some of the funding or or projections or whatever they would do. So that is a next step or one of the next steps is that I don't want to speak and crystal you could chime in but they are looking at their projections for the next few years. They typically do that in January. So we'll come back to back in January and then be looking to the board in really a February March time frame for approval. It did come
045up as a conversation last night. Can we go to April? We really because of being able to do the drawings for bids in 2027. We're really seeking that February March time frame for the direction and and approval of this work. So I will uh I appreciate Peter thanks for introducing. So I will let the others introduce themselves and their roles and kind of connection to this and then we'll get get rolling. >> I'm Andy McGregor. I'm the president founder of Skyline Construction Chicago. You a lot of commercial construction work here in Chicago area >> and a fact. >> Yes. Yes. >> Just some random. Uh, I'm Jennifer Castanzo, uh, principal at SDR Partners, and we've been the district architects since 2013 and a district. >> John Pullman, buildings, grounds for the district, >> Peter Ducson,
046and we're working through Peter on a lot of this work as well. So agenda we're going to go through what was the previous so some of these conversations in the the draft of this deck was conversations that we had with back and for and and really kind of putting this together to provide this update to all of you. So, we'll go over the previous 10-year plan, some background there, how we got to where we did with our prioritization, the scope of this work over the next 10 years or where we're at right now, and then some of those recommendations or options and additional considerations that have come up. And Jennifer will talk a little about this about all the different types of uh engagements that we've had that have kind of fueled or whatever brought
047us to this point and the different items. All right. >> It does work. Great. Uh, thanks Mike. Uh, so around 2015 2016, we put together a 10-year capital plan. Um, it was based on health and life safety surveys that were done for all 10 schools, some facility assessments that we performed with our with our consultants as well as surveys and walkthroughs that we did with principles. Um, just a quick refresher on health and life safety. This is a um 10-year annual or 10-year um survey that's required to do for the Illinois School Board of Education and it is meant for you to identify any code violations of those buildings within the year within that of the code within the year that building was built or against the current plumbing codes. Um those are considered either
048urgent items or required items. So they're called priority A and priority B through the ISB process. So when we when you hear that later on a lot today, you'll understand what that means. Um they work in the previous 10-year capital plan was categorized in u these different ways. Life safety again those priority A and B items which generally are plumbing code violations or any fire rating issues with doors and walls. Uh facility assessment improvements or maintenance. So these are generally talking about replacing boilers or mechanical units. Um lighting, any site work issues that needed to be repaired. um capacity modernization. So during the past 10 years, there certainly were some capacity and issues through through the schools. So that included um evaluating and determining uh the size of instructional space that needed to be added
049to homes Lincoln and Longfellow. The temperature controls, this really stemmed from the referendum that was um the the goal of which to bring air conditioning to all of the third floor classrooms at all of the elementary schools. Educational enhancement incorporated the um the renovations to all of the elementary libraries to incorporate collaborative learning and various different areas that kids could um do different activities within the library space. And then finally accessibility improvement. So we have over time installed elevators at Woodier um Lincoln Longfellow and BI. Um and then making all of those levels accessible even where an elevator wasn't wasn't getting them to the right level. So ramps and wheelchair lifts and things like that. Um we also renovated restrooms at all of the elementary schools so that at least one one uh one toilet
050room per floor per gender was renovated so that it was accessible. Um during all that time we we always had our eye on what sustainability elements we could um capitalize on. So with all of the additions or um other things that were happening with the sites, uh we have storm water management initiatives. Um we also have a lot of exterior envelope improvements. Anytime we replace the roof systems or windows, we're keeping in mind how the building envelope functioned. Um the indoor environmental quality improvements, this is related to the temperature controls and air conditioning is at classrooms. So those units are placed within a closet and the air ducted in order to keep the noise interference from the mechanical units um at a at a slower pace within the classroom. uh lighting fixture upgrades. We have
051upgraded over time roughly 33% of all the elementary school lights to LED with control systems and occupancy sensors as well as daylighting. And then uh mechanical systems over time have been replaced at all those schools. So this roughly is the expenditures on capital improvements over the last um few years or more. Uh and you can see highlighted in orange the the years where the referendum funding kind of supplemented those capital improvements. Um as you can see in 2024 and 2025 there was little funding or no funding um put towards capital projects. In 2025 we knew we were getting ready for this master plan and so we kind of put a pause on that in order to holistically look at the needs of the district to make sure we were addressing the most um critical needs
052when they needed to happen. um 2024 we did the the um uh the gender neutral toilets at Julian as a way to keep um parody between the two middle schools. And each year um we did the plan in about 2015 2016 but each year every other year we had a re-evaluation of what was coming up for the next year of of work so that we made sure that we were meeting current needs and um the plan you know the plan is a living document and things were were changing as those needs changed as well. Any questions on the background? Okay. Uh so now as we move into the current uh master facility plan, very similarly we have generated work items for each of the facilities based on health and life safety surveys, facility assessment surveys,
053um meetings and um surveys with principles and the PTO for space utilization as well as getting input from John and his team with the school staff and building engineer requests. And we have been engaging a long time. I think we started back in January when we started our surveys and um have been meeting with lots of different people from PTO, from the advisory committee as well as um West 40 has been involved uh teachers, principles, a core team of administrators and the security um task for sustainability task force as well. So in order once we have compiled all of these scope items for the different facilities we needed to kind of come up with a framework and how to prioritize when they happened. So we did all of that uh prioritization prior to even having
054any estimate numbers. We really found that um we had created this core guiding principles with the core administrative team and that kind of led some of the decision- making as well as the um ultimate critical need to replace roofing across the district. So it came down to really the the roofs that needed to be replaced drove the prioritization of all the facilities and which roofs were in which worst condition and drove which schools happened during that five first five to 10 year period. Uh we also wanted to be cognizant of not closing a school two summers in a row or closing too many schools within a summer because of all the summer programs that are happening and just the um the um detrimental u workload that would be on on contractors and labor and again
055also making sure that we addressed any of the health and life safety items that are A and B items within those first five years. Uh just to touch on the guiding principles that were created with the district admin. Um critical infrastructure needs obviously is the hot topic. Health and life safety as well. Um safety and security. Just as a side note, this is one aspect that is currently missing from the facility plan. We have received from West 4D the um the safety and security assessment and their report. Uh we're going through that internally with um Felicia and Michael and um figuring out which ones overlap with the maltic with the master facility plan and then determining um what that means as far as a construction estimate. So that part is is something that will be
056coming forward in January, February. Um we also have the sustainability initiatives of the board as well as u aligning educational spaces with the curriculum needs. >> Okay. So um STR and bully worked together to uh develop conceptual estimates for all the work that was to be prioritized and then as a committee FAC we spent three weeks pouring over multi-page 11 by7 documents just to try and bucket everything in line with those guiding principles and in a way that made sense. A lot of it was determined by uh the useful life left. There's been a lot of deferred maintenance, especially as you're looking going back to 2022. There wasn't a lot of money spent, uh, you know, upgrading roofs or changing out mechanical cor. John's kind of been using duct tape to keep everything together. Um,
057so we we bucketed into three main priorities. So, priority one is items that need to be replaced in the next 5 years. So, 0 to 5 years, there are boilers that need to be replaced almost immediately. Um, some of the roofs are leaking quite a bit. So that all fell into priority one. Uh priority two was more 5 to 10 years where we knew that stuff wasn't in the right condition uh and needed to be addressed but it probably wasn't a 0 to 5 year meeting. So uh priority 3 was similar but stuff that was in better shape that really needed to be addressed within the the next 10 years. Um so you know moving through uh 2035. And then priority 4 was really stuff that, you know, needs to be on the radar but
058isn't a 10ear issue. Uh the way that priority one uh broke down, it's about 35 million bucks. Uh so that's for the next 5 years. Most of it is roofs and mechanical equipment. So 82% of that total of 35 million is related to those items. Um, health and life safety was another 16% and that left the remaining bucket of about 2% of that $35 million. Uh, that's associated with things like flooring changes. Uh, you know, where you have missing floor tiles or stairs where there's something loose and there's a trip hazard. Uh, so this is really just stuff that absolutely has to be done in the next 5 years. Uh, priority two, again, this is this five to 10 year. You see a little bit more diversity in how that's spent. That's another $9 million.
059Um there's still a lot with the mechanical equipment, some heating plants, boilers, stuff up on the roofs, the remaining roof replacements. Um and then there is some other stuff with site work, some paving that needs to be replaced. Um you know, that could be trip hazard or we know is falling apart. Um there there are some minor programmatic things as far as uh classrooms being updated. And then there's a bucket of other which is about 5%. Priority three, again, this is just within 10 years, that's another $40 million. So, with those all those first three priorities, you're tracking to about uh $85 million. 80% of that is still mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work, stuff that's behind the walls, up on the roof. Um really stuff that you you don't see. U there's more paving, some
060accessibility stuff. um you know with vertical transportation um some educational improvements and then again more of that flooring and stuff that we know will be a a hazard at some point that needs to be addressed. >> All right. So I'm going to go through some of the recommendations or options as we've kind of worked through this conversation and and back and forth to really come up with what does that mean and and again Andrew and and Jennifer shared a lot of background of that and kind of where we're going. So uh we put these in recommendations or options. So three options. One is to as as Andrew said is looking at all those priority one in the first five years. Those were when asked of fact what like what are if we were to look
061at this like what is that top high priority? That's that high priority and where we looked at that. Um and then looking at priority two or priority three in the second five years. And again as we we talk about this like annually we're going to review it just make sure like has anything shifted that we've got to deal with something from two years out earlier and how do we look at that or do that. So we would do that annually but then also um we start looking at that second five years like in in um in theory like what this maps out and looks at. But we would look at that like 2930 to really make sure our Irving and man in 2031 are those the two buildings that have the highest priority issues or
062things that are happening. 5 years a lot of things change. So um that's that's recommendation A or option A. Um and again as or reiterating that roofing replacement things are leaking um and and a number of mechanical units. Uh specifically, we have one that's 46 years old. Um and continuing to uh we got the useful life out of that. I guess that's a positive piece of that like we extended it and it's it's it's I don't want to say it's it's working. >> It's vintage. >> Um and then addressing those play safety items. Um but I'll come back to that item as something that is next step. recommendation B or option B would be to look at all of those priority ones and then what are those highest highest priority twos as some of those
063could be as Andrew said like pushing towards that fiveyear or after uh but what are those biggest ones if we if we have the additional and this would be about $4 million to do that these are those items that would be to try to really get in and leverage that period of time because again as we look at this we build in escalations so every year there's an escalation cost of things getting more expensive. So, as much as you could do early, you can kind of hedge off some of those some of those potential costs that would be there. >> And some of the reason we group that as well was we're already doing priority one work at two or three schools. And so, it's really getting that high priority stuff from bucket two that
064takes place within those schools done at the same time so you're not going back there. And some of those items again addressing all the roofs that were not touched. So we do have in priority two there's some of the man and by roof and units u boiler replacement at buying that up and then some classroom again small number of classroom enhancements for accessibility issues um there. So then recommendation C or option C would be to take care of all priority one and two um in the first five years and then look at priority three uh in the second five years. So again those numbers and all of that it all equals off the same. It's just a matter of when. Um, and again, part of that's that conversation we presented with back and forth last
065night and then looking at those projections and options in January. So, that's why we're not looking there's not a direction of like what do we have to do? And when we say recommendation, that is recommendation effect. These are the highest priority items. It's just like when does that have to happen over the next 10 years. Uh, and then the last piece is the additional scope considerations. So a number of those groups that we spoke with and have been working with and feedback we've heard from all of these different engagements is what are these other things to explore and think about as part of this process when you're going into the buildings. Um and and two of those so there's four different options. So looking at LED lighting um and and again as as uh Jennifer
066had said 33% of our elementary buildings have already made that transition to LED lighting and controls within the the classrooms and the locations of the bu of the buildings. All of our middle schools are there except for our theater lighting with that. Um and then air conditioning is another option. Elevators and electrification and I'll go through those real quick. Uh so LED lighting uh I mentioned those things already. Uh, one thing that we have to look at again is fluorescent bulbs as of 111 2027 can no longer be purchased in Illinois. So there's a thing for us to consider as we go through this. And there are retrofits, but that's not like some of this that doesn't add in any of the controls or the dimmer or anything like that that goes with that. Um,
067this is one item that is a next step for us to get back. We've been working with a few partners to really get what are those incentives and what are the cost-saving measures of going to LED. So there are costs to our energy and our our utility bills that would be saved by moving to LED. So what is that total cost of ownership by making this pivot and that is to kind of call out some of the sustainability work and the task force and work with C4 is continuously mentioned as the lowest hanging fruit to address to offset costs and and your your program and all of that. Uh second one is uh classroom air conditioning. Uh so there's two different options that we explored. Again we explored initially what are these options and then
068how do we could we phase in things or think about things as other pricing options. So the first one of the classroom scope only that is putting the univvent and the AC in the room and that's it. That's not what we've done in the third floors um as part of the referendum and as part of the last 10 year plan and that's that light and bright solution which is like a classroom you call a classroom refresh I guess paint ceiling tiles LED lights so you think of the LED light before that would be included in that option. Um and then also doing flooring. So when you go on the rooms, it has a refresher, a different feel. And and yeah, the third option is elevators. So two of our buildings, as Jennifer had talked about,
069there were elevators down to some of them. We put lifts in uh Hatch and Man, uh but not have we have not put elevators in those locations yet. So those are considerations um that had came come up as part of these conversations to include that there. And then electrification as part of this looking through what is that and and uh we have a sustainability policy we all know and there are goals around that of greenhouse gases. So as we go through that, every single decision, Jennifer talked about that the last 10 years, still having sustainability and those measures in mind, every decision that we would make in this next 10-year plan will have a impact. roofs. Um all of those things are going to have an impact to our uh again towards that goal um
070and a sustainability decision. And this is one for us to explore. And this similar to LED lighting is one that we're still getting information that we're coming back in January of what are what is the total cost? What does that look like? What offsets? What incentives? What other things that might be there to have a fuller picture of that? And we've been trying to work through that. It's just we haven't been able to get that full uh answer with that. And one thing as we got this was to look at is there a phased approach with that and one is to bring the service in and that's about 8% of that 93 million. Uh that 93 million is to replace all of our current equipment that would be leveraging gas to supply that moving everything
071to electrical. Um anything to add to any of that? So without jumping in for getting I like I want to thank everybody here the whole FAC committee board members of FAC and Fork. So Becky and Gavin and then Holly for the work and the for committee with Crystal and her leadership and um to get to this and I know there's a lot of work to go but I would be remiss without saying that and thanking all of all of FAC and the members because it was sad there are a lot of meetings over the last four months almost every two weeks we've been meeting on Mondays and then coming right back here. So asking a lot of our our board member and community members and the expertise that's on those committees is uh second to
072none. It's it's really impressive work and and how we work together. So I think that before questions um I don't even want to say this out loud but how how are we going to pay for this? because I know in that little you know on slide six the little highlighted high point three years was referendum money right um and so >> those are and those that that was the piece of like coming to this and here's all these items and and really being critical of what are these higher priority things and that's where we're at and that's what last night was a critical of having that conversation and sharing this >> um and I know Crystal's had a number of conversations with our partners and people that we're working with and uh to find out
073different things. But that's where January is really the projections. What do we project in the future to give options for this in the future? So it is it is still like what does this look like? And I know it's like we give you these numbers and then like hey wait till January and February but that's we have to be able to give you that full picture of what those options are >> and how we could pay for it. >> And I don't think anybody's assuming that the logical result is that we go to a referendum. No, I mean I know that's like the last thing we want to do. Uh it's just, you know, because the slide had the referendum monies on there and we're seeing some really large numbers and it's like it's really
074>> Yeah, those were a little skewed because that's when the additions happened, the bulk of it. Um as well as then the initiatives of the referendum with the air conditioning. So we wanted to make it clear that those high years had a reason and it wasn't just that >> Yeah. had that money >> threw that money. >> No. Yeah. And I think like I do appreciate a lot of this is not like new capital projects. We're not doing like massive new builds or expansions or any of that. Um, yeah, but they're they're big numbers and I think but I also am like, oh, it's disturbing that our roofs are leaking and that like our boiler could go out and that our winter is already really rough. And so, >> um, you know, I think, you
075know, people, you know, even in the earlier presentation, we heard about like people come to Oak Park for our services and so there is a cost to maintaining all of these things and it's, you know, again, it's not like we're trying to build like bubble houses or whatever, you know. Um, so yeah, I just just anticipating ahead of time like there's a lot of financial crunching that's going to need to happen. >> That's my question too. So >> I'm done. >> Big sale. >> Yeah, >> I'm good. >> Um, Michael stole my thunder. I was going to thank you all. Um, I know Gavin is like back to backto back meeting and I know he had a hand back. you had a lot of input about making this um in layman's terms as someone who
076like hates all these things. Um I was like super concerned cuz I was like cuz right now like at my house I'm like we got to fix this. We got to fix this and I'm just like I don't want to deal with it. Um so I went into that with that in mind. I don't want to deal with it. But you guys have made this like very easily understandable and I feel like I'm following along. So can you come to my house and do that for me? No, but really just like thank you all for all the work. Um, and I think just like being able to understand this. I think um, Holly and I have talked about trying to be proactive in creating like a frequently asked questions and some of the questions that
077we know we're going to get. Um, for example, like what's the big deal? My roof's leaking. Like how do we kind of answer some of those questions ahead of time, right? Um, so I think we talked about like if this doesn't happen, we have to close down schools. So helping people to understand like what's the big picture. I remember a couple years ago Longfellow like the boiler was out and they were like and I think it was top winter break and we were like oh like got to hold on. And so how how are parents dealing with that? You drop your kid off to school and they're like it's really cold. We have to put on our jackets all day. So something like that I think would certainly be useful. But this is amazing. Thank
078you so much. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> All right. Cassette agenda. Um >> motion for approval. >> Yes. I was I'm sorry my brain I'm tired again. 8.1 approval of minutes from the November 18th, 2025 board meeting. Hold on a sec. I'm trying to get the Oh, I'm like, why are you calling that one out? No, it's I move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second Johnson is absent. While >> yes. >> Sperlock is absent. >> Yes. >> Perez. >> Yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Arie, >> yes. I won't have to read all this. >> You have to have a motion to approve. These are action items. >> 9.1. >> No, you have to read all the >>
079not the eights. >> Nine. Yeah. >> Okay. I was like, uh, approval of the action item. Uh, action item 9.1. Approval interim superintendent. >> I move that the board of education approve the appointment of Patrick Robinson as interim superintendent from January 1st, 2026. until January 30th, 2026 had a stipen of $5,000. >> I'm just going to click that to June 30th, not >> I say January twice, >> I think so. >> Yeah, that wouldn't work. 2026 is the end date. >> Second. >> Need a roll call. >> May I point out that the board is saving $120,000 by this action? >> Thank you, girl. >> Let me think about it. Let me think. No, I was just joking. >> Yes, >> Johnson is absent. Kim, >> yes. >> Spurlock is absent. >> Yes. >> Perez,
080yes. Ros, >> yes. >> Motion pass. >> Condolences and congratulations to Patrick. >> Yes, >> cuz it's both. >> Thank you, Patrick. And thank you, G. Thank you, Griff and Patty. >> Um, okay. Approval of the tax levy recommendation. Can I get a motion? Someone read to approve the 2025 tax levy request of 3.3% above the prior year tax extension and adopt the company resolution contained here and for requested amounts that can be summarized as follows. Do I need to read the numbers? >> No, we'll put there's a motion. Second Johnson is absent. Watch >> yes. >> Spurlock is absent. Moore >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. Car. >> Yes. >> Motion pass. >> 9.3 confidentiality review of unreleased close minute closed session meeting minutes. >> Uh, having previously considered the minutes in closed session,
081I move to that we determine that the need for confidentiality still exists as to all closed meeting minutes and parts thereof not previously made available for public inspection. >> Second. >> Rosen. >> Yes. >> Perez. >> Yes. Connie, >> yes. >> Johnson is absent. >> Did you come in? >> Yes. >> Oh, yes. Sorry. Motion passes. >> 10.1 discussion action items. Danielson training contract. >> You've already been using Danielson training in the last year, but the amount was 125,000. This is the first time it's gone up to 36,000. Uh Patrick, do you have any comments in terms of uh past practice? >> Yeah. And so one of the things the >> move up here so everybody can hear you. >> You know, as of January 1st, you can't boss you around. I know. >> That's
082right. >> You can boss him boss each other around. Um Patrick, can I ask also um I know you and Nas with us, but for the public, can you tell us a little bit about what Danielson training is? >> Yes. So the Danielson framework is the framework that we use for our teacher evaluation and it's also a framework for best practice for teachers. And so we transitioned from the old framework which was the 2013 to the 2022 framework, right Natasha? And so the Danielson group was the organization that we used to help with that transition. And so we started first with training our building principles with doing walkthroughs, calibration walks, um how to conduct OBS, trying to get everyone on the same page with conducting the observation cycle, data collection and everything. And then we
083transitioned to our teacher leaders, instructional coaches. And so the 24,000 was already paid for um earlier in the summer. And then we decided that based on feedback from instructional coaches and teacher leaders that more training was required. And so we went back to try and do more work for the remainder of this year which at another cost took us over the 25. And so with the new cost of 36, we're coming back to get approval um for the additional work which will require um the group is coming back to do more work centered around our teacher leaders and doing more calibration walk with our instructional coaches and um our building teacher leaders. >> So it's in total it's about 12,000 more than originally thought. >> 13 >> $13,000. >> Yes. But for transparency, we thought
084it should come to the board. >> We thought it should come to the board. >> Yeah. For support. >> Yes. And so we paid for the first 24 earlier and now this is additional work with our teacher leaders. >> And how long have you been using this program? >> So this is we're going into our second year. And so we first started with a small roll out of training our building leaders. And this year we rolled it out districtwide with teachers. And so this is the first year that our teachers are actually getting observed using this new framework. >> And it's been around for over a decade. >> The framework has been around, but we transitioned to the newer >> framework which has a more um focus on equity. >> Right. >> And I heard
085you say you guys upgraded to the 22. Is there like something after that or >> this is the newer version? >> Okay. So, this is the most current. >> This is the most current that we are using. >> And then just for our public, so some of these questions are I know we discussed but um how do you assess like if this is the right training and this is something that is wellreceived within the the district like how do you >> Yes, great question. And I think this is um feedback that we're getting from teachers regarding how they are feeling because this is also a mind shift with evaluators too because we want this to be more of a conversation instead of I got you moment. So this is more of how are we training
086our leaders to be more of how are you coaching your teachers um and not uh being a I am your evaluator but I am more of a coach to help you improve your instructional um practices in the classroom. And a lot of the practices that we are or training and calibration walks that you heard a lot of us talk about last year. This is in response to that. And so the feedback will be around the ratings that we're starting to kind of see across the board. And then also how are we hearing our teachers speak about the evaluation process because now it's more of like I'm completing this work out of compliance to hearing them say, "Oh, I actually had a really great conversation with my building leader. I got this strategy or they helped
087me do this and this is something that we kind of hear in ad council and in other spaces with our OPTA members. >> So better feedback leads to better outcomes for our students. >> Yes. >> Well, and also a better framing of feedback as growth as opposed to feedback as we're going to mark you down after everything's already done and you can't do anything about it. >> And if you're supporting teachers and you're helping them improve their practice, that's a direct impact on student achievement. Patrick, is is the stuff that you just described, is it currently or is it is the plan to make it part of like a structured review? >> It's part of a current. >> It is already. >> Great. >> And this is what our building um our school improvement plans
088are actually focused on. >> Great. Thank you. >> I can speak to being evaluated and it's very common. It's a very common framework. Obviously the updates are based on the equity models that you know so I feel like we're teachers are familiar with it so it' be interesting to see what those observations look like. So maybe at some point to hear their feedback on how they felt like the new model like speaks to recommendations for improving teaching practices or you know interventions in the classroom. So I think one of the things that comes up when being evaluated, school psychologists are evaluated also using Danielson social workers like everybody not just teachers and they created rubrics specific to your discipline but I think sometimes they try to like do the teacher is the biggest part of
089that framework and then everybody else kind of sits on the outskirts of that. So, it'd be interesting to see how people feel it applies to their everyday practices and improving those. >> And we we actually had um we brought in our specialists and actually had them create their rubrics based on the framework. >> Okay, great. >> Yeah. So, we actually calibrated across the board with all of our specialists, too. >> Awesome. >> It's very common in every district I've been in for about 15 years, everyone choose Danielson. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Can I get a motion? I move that the board of education of Park Elementary School District 97 approve the contract with the Danielson through for the 202526 school year totaling $36,375. Second >> Carney, >> yes. >> Kim, >>
090yes. >> Perez, >> yes. >> Is absent. Rost, >> yes. Johnson is absent. Motion. >> All right. >> Thanks, >> No problem. >> Board remarks. Can we uh get find out who can show up on the 16th? Do we have a quorum? A action item just popped up here. >> I think that's everybody >> that we didn't expect. everyone except for Holly. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we have a quorum. >> Yes. >> And that that starting time would be 6 o'clock >> with uh our schoolboard association representative giving you feedback on the focus groups. That's the purpose. >> Do we need we don't need close session? >> No. That that part has to be in open session, >> right? So, seven. >> Oh, you want to start at seven? >> Mhm. >> I mean,
091unless unless others want to start earlier. >> I'd find the six or seven. I can double check if we want to do >> six you get dinner. Seven you don't get dinner. >> So can we motivate you earlier? >> We also end. >> I'll check with Carmen if you can do >> we just have a couple of meetings scheduled. >> So I just dropped back. >> Oh that's right. >> So we decided last night to not have the back meeting. Okay. >> What about sustainability? >> Sustainability will go. >> That's at 5:30. So we can do that and then I can just >> Yeah, I could try to bump it to >> Okay, we can figure it out. >> Yeah, we'll figure that out. Cool. >> All right. I'll confirm with Karma that she can
092do six and >> so you have a forum. >> All right. Um >> and I promise only at one action item. >> That was a little surprise that we have this one item. >> Yeah, the elevator. >> The elevator, right? >> Um for a board remark junk to give an update on um our search. Um so today and tomorrow we have been having focus or IASB has been conducting focus groups with um nine different groups of stakeholders. I had a chance to talk to Carmen right after she did um one group of eighth graders at one of the middle schools and she spoke very highly of them. So it's kind of fun to hear about that. Um, so, uh, the I for I don't have the exact date the posting closes, but basically over so
093actually, let me back up a second. Um, so Carmen's going to give us the focus group report on Tuesday during our special board meeting. Um, there will also be a written report and slides. So, um, Holly will have access to those, although I guess you can also watch the recording. Um, from there, the posting closes. I want to say like December 3rd or seventh or something or I'm sorry January it's early January. >> Um and so basically around that the first week or so of January ISB will be screening um our top potential candidates once the posting is closed. Um oh sorry deadline is January 7th. Um using kind of all the focus group data etc etc. They'll bring us a slate of six candidates most likely. We as a board will have to um
094pick some dates that we can do first round interviews. Uh so I'll have to send around a scheduleuler to figure that out. Um once we have settled on two potential finalists, uh we're going to have a town hall. Um it'll be kind of webinar style. So there's not a lot of interaction from the audience, but it's a way for the community um to see the two finalists talk about kind of who they are as potential superintendent etc etc. There will be a feedback form also attached to folks who are able to attend the webinar. Um and from there we'll go into um discussing who we want to offer the position to. Um so then we will also need to select dates so that people can plan accordingly um for the second round interviews as well
095as the town hall meetings. Um so assuming everything goes well um oh and then we do have a site visit. I think we kind of talked about close session once we have our desired finalist winner winner selection whatever the word is. Um, and so assuming negotiations go well, >> sorry, the site visit happens after we've made an offer or happens before. >> And that's what Holly said. I actually haven't talked to Carmen about the logistics of that, but it sounds like from what she said, it's only after you made the offer that you do this type of that seems kind of weird to me. >> I thought it was before last time, but yeah. >> Yeah. Just if you could just clarify with her >> and um Sorry, do you have Go ahead. Um, well,
096and I'm wondering if I'm fix I'm mixing up what like site visit Holly was talking about where we go see them of their their site versus they're coming they're going to come here regard for the finalist. So, I might be mixing up what site we're referring to. So, um I'll clarify with Carmen which which site we're talking about. Um, but assuming the timing on all this goes well, we should have in the negotiations, we should have someone uh noted as a superintendent by the end of January, early February, I would imagine. >> Did you have questions again? >> I had a couple. So one is so with for the interviews that we're part of I know last time we had some discussions about format questions got some guidance from >> the search form we used
097then >> has that stuff been discussed with them like do we know who's responsible for what and how we're going to prep for that for the interviews? >> No, I will find out. >> Okay. >> She did send an email. It was kind of late this afternoon. um she sent the email and she has like categories of questions but I think um based off our focus groups and things we've heard from admin >> okay >> I think it might be worth making sure that certain questions are asked um and that it aligns with like the things we kind of want to know. Um >> I also don't think she sent the email to all of us. I don't think I got it. >> She She It literally was like at maybe four or five o'
098I saw I didn't even read it because I had >> But I don't have it. >> No, we don't have it. >> Okay. So, I'll I'll uh send it out to to everybody. And then I just had a similar question about the town hall like just making sure that we understand the format, who's preparing for it, who's running it, >> um how we're making sure it's >> they are okay with running it and they are okay with facilitating the questions. I think >> it wasn't as clear to me who would write the questions. I think they don't do this regularly and so uh it's been kind of a weird like are you guys running this show? Like I think it's been unclear who's supposed to be driving what at times. >> Um so it might
099be kind of a mix of >> I feel like we should just get clarity. >> Yeah. Yeah. No. So, I know we did uh Venus and I talked with uh Carmen earlier and we did get she's sent us a preliminary feedback form because Venus asked for that but I um but >> for the town hall. >> Yeah, for the town hall. Um but I will ask about the questions and I know like when they did the um like when they came and did their presentations, I remember somewhere in my lineup that there was like prepping the board for the interviews, but that hasn't come back up on the timeline. So, I will also clarify if we're going to do that. So, I'm sending the email the I think it's the last email, but I'll double
100check once I get back. Um, but this is the stakeholder town hall feedback form and candidate question. So, I just sent that to everybody. >> Oh, that I did get. Sorry. >> Yeah, I didn't I haven't had a chance to read it. So, >> so if we could moving forward, um, just again given the communication issues there, if if anyone is getting something directly from Carmen that should be a board thing, just forward it because I would just assume we're not getting it. Yeah, the copy has been >> because I mean we haven't I I have not gotten any of these documents so far. There have been a lot of like >> I saw she sent me something earlier but I didn't get a chance to look at it or what's on it. So >>
101yeah, I just for it. Like I said I um I saw it and I was like I got to finish working and um I haven't looked at it. I think the other thing that um feels to me like maybe kind of a foundational thing is that we collectively don't have like a profile of what we want this person to look like. And I feel like that's what sort of informs the questions and that's what informs like the evaluation. Like we have the posting they did, but that posting is pretty high level. And so I don't remember how we I think last time we got to there through like I don't know if the focus groups are going to lead to that or like >> like do we know what the those are going to be
102like? >> I mean there they already happened today and there's another >> well we have ours haven't happened the board focused. >> Oh yes. Um sorry what's your question? Sorry there were like multiple >> how do we collectively before we start interviewing people and developing questions >> come to a sort of common sense of what we want from candidates. So, my understanding, and I might be reading into it, but the way I perceived it was that we were going to get the focus group report out on on the 16th, and that would be our opportunity to provide feedback. Um, >> provide feedback to >> in terms of like what they're going to come out. I'm I I'm not 100% sure what they're going to present, but I assumed it was going to be some sort
103of like profileish, like a kind of a synthesis of all of what they found, >> including us. >> Well, we'll have had we'll have had our two on two onone whatever interviews by then. So, I mean, that was one of the reasons we couldn't do a full board meeting is time. So >> yeah, I just feel like given that I think we've had different assumptions and understandings with them so far, like anything where the first two words are I assume or I'm I'm inferring like I think we should just clarify to make sure >> that we understand um like you know what each of those steps means and sort of what prep needs to go. >> Thank you. I did um also share you had a really good point when we met about like what
104are the next steps and what what the logistics are and what it takes to get there, what the timing is. So I did share that with um junk and Venus. Um and then I saw that >> so those were not wellcraftrafted replies in that email. >> I I was like uh but I think maybe sharing it with her and then also just making sure that um cabinet members who have a a piece of work. work. So, Amanda's been doing a ton of work that she's included on all the emails as well. Um, >> even like some work, a basic work plan document or something would be really helpful. >> Yeah. So, I did share that in the email. So, I know you guys met today, but maybe you can follow up and and share that
105um that as well. >> The random replies I I >> Yeah, I was like, what? But um >> I know they were not like Well, cuz some of the questions were overlap, so I was trying to streamline, but yeah. So, I'll share that. Um, I haven't had it. I just like glanced over it, but it >> But I think more details would be super helpful because I we are kind of like I think I feel like and it would be helpful. And then Venus will be at that meeting, too. So, I think she can >> Yeah. Like I said, I think >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. if you um so this is these are all really good questions and and concerns. So if you have additional questions and concerns, feel free to send those
106to Venus and John um just to make sure that we're not we're we're kicking the tires and we're making sure that nothing gets um missed. So yeah, I think um I feel like they were not send your feedback to Venus and Junk or you can send it to me and I'm happy to have a conversation with Kmen as well. >> Um, but I wanted to provide that update on the focus group. So, >> the 11th and 12th and 15th. >> Yes. Uh, we will have focus groups. So, we're just waiting on you and Venus to put in your last slots. >> I have replied to you that I I didn't care. So, you want me to just pick a random >> Yeah, just send it to her. >> Okay. >> Are they happening here or
107are they by Zoom or >> They're Zoom. >> Yeah. So, she's going to And thank you for asking that. She's going to um send the link to L and then L is going to send those links. I'm sorry. >> All right. Uh any other remarks? I'm sorry. Just I was like I was just going to say I love the presentation from the special ed um portion. Obviously, I had the joy of working with a lot of those folks. So, that was like a nice reminder of all the work that they've been doing. Um, I also was going to say I I found it very interesting to see the celebration. One of them was about their inclusion model. And one of our like comparative districts, maybe not size of community, maybe not even demographics sometimes, but
108Evston, I think, had, you know, a an experience around the same time where inclusion was popping up. And um and I feel like this district has been able to follow through on that on that promise more so um than um that comparative district um or community. I think the other layer of it was um thinking about how the trend towards inclusion and how we support teachers, you know, that don't have a co-top classroom. So that's just something to plant a seed for future, you know, opportunities or commentary on on that because as a school psychologist and working with former social workers, I think there was an increase in in um supports in the buildings for those kind of folks related services. Um there were some schools that increased their co-taught classrooms and then I think
109it's like um it depends what building you're in. So, I I think I'd love to continue to see that conversation. >> I just want to say a quick thank you to Dr. Wernett for helping us out through December. And a very big thank you to Patrick Robinson for stepping in through um June, not January 30th. We really appreciate you. Thank you. >> And Griff, too. We appreciate >> Well, we I was going to give him a thank you, >> but he's not the number one Griffin of Park anymore. That's right. I realized there's another griff in Lake. They have to be a dog. >> He's a very good-looking dog. >> He's the cutest griff. No offense. >> Thanks. >> Golden retriever. Everyone check it out. >> Beautiful dog. >> Right. >> And I and I
110accused the superintendent Greg Johnson. He named him after me. >> It is. It is a very cute dog in person. I have met the dog. >> You met the dogs? I I have to go and meet Griff. You do. We need some We need a photo. >> A Griffin Griff photo. >> Uh so I also wanted to thank Patty um and wish her all the best. She's been amazing. It has been fabulous to have you both here. You're so caring and kind. I don't know when you guys sleep, but you have been just amazing and just helping me as a new board president. You like whispering, do this, say this, and I'm like, okay, that's me. Um, so thank you so much and thank you Patrick for bringing your expertise and your institutional knowledge and
111just your leadership to this position. Thank you to this board as we fumble through this search. Um, it has not been maybe what we had hoped, but you guys have been patient. You have great recommendations and I love that we can have difficult conversations to hold each other accountable um, when we're not meeting expectations. certainly continue to call me in um and let me know like where I can do a better job. Um this last Wednesday, I don't even know what today is, but I think it was last Wednesday at 8 a.m. met with the Gavin helped me out. Was it the committee of governance? >> Council Council of Governments. >> Council of Governance 70C's. And um it was a really good meeting and we talked with the new the um the village's new director
112of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And one of the things we talked about was that although we do not see um immigration officials here as much as we did, they will be back. This is not something that's going to go away. And so one of the things that they are hoping to do is to partner with all the texting bodies um to come up with a comprehensive plan on our messaging to make sure that people know like what happens, right? So if you're arrested, what can you expect from um the police department? What can you expect if they're on our property or or if something happens at one of our schools that we're all connected and we're having succinct messaging and and protocols and procedures? I think right now we all have done a lot of
113work. Um, big shout out to Amanda for like communicating what that is, but we still get questions and we can still improve. And so just making sure there's a effort to make sure that we're like as much as we can be saying one message um to our community so that they know we're all working together. This is one effort. And so their ask is that we have a staff member who works on this committee because we already ask so much of the board's time. Um, and so I will share that information out with Griff um, so that he can work with Patrick to decide if this is something we have capacity for because not like we don't have anything to do and also um, who would be the best person to serve in that role.
114So I will forward you the information that I have, but I might need to clean it up a little bit. >> Um, helpful. Thank you. >> Welcome. And that concludes uh, board remarks. Oh, sorry. I was like, we got committee reports. >> That concludes board remarks, board committees. >> Jack, you just got caught up on. >> Okay. Yep, that's right. Uh, and then Venus and Holly are not here, but we I think we kind of got an overview on them as well. Sustainability may be meeting next week. Um, >> scheduled for the 16th, right? What's that? >> It was scheduled for the 16th board. So, yeah. >> Um the uh the intergovernmental group case cross agency sustainability exchange has finished up its work for now with recommendations around key areas and now we are working
115with our sustained task force to map out um D97's plan informed by some of the recommendations that came out of that. And Michael's leading that charge and doing a great job. >> Uh policy. Oh, I'm sorry. Nancy, do you have anything you want to add? >> Uh no, I was just going to be skipped over. I I got I just wanted to say we're meeting again uh later. We're done. >> Uh I may be jumping over, but I'm looking at a little cheat sheet cuz usually we're like whose policy is that? So LA was kind enough to give me a little cheat sheet of who's on those committees. Got it. Uh so policy committee Becky, >> you know, I think we've been we just had a press release just so that there was if there
116were any changes um to um any policies, we kind of did that report out. So >> was in the consent agenda some policy minor changes that were not very significant. >> So were you approved? >> Uh we're hopping over our collab. Is that correct? No, no, you're not because we have a meeting tomorrow and I just want to make sure who here can attend the meeting tomorrow. Has every Okay, >> I do have to leave like after the first hour to >> Okay. >> May will not be there. >> Yeah. Are you able to attend? >> Uh if I'm needed. Yes, >> I think you're needed. >> Am I? >> Yes. Sorry. >> Um for us to keep course >> Holly can make part of it. She also has to leave early. So um >>
117are we are we voting on something? We do have some things I believe that are being voted on. Um I have already forewarned them. They might want to put those at the beginning. >> Thank you. >> Um and if we lose quorum basically well I'll leave but two people so >> so we can keep talking. Um also I'm going to give a heads up on that one to please read your meeting notes in advance because there is a big discussion coming up of the IG um that we are looking at how we can for example better incorporate uh the library and the parks. um while they are not official members of the tri board and the tri-governmental organization they do have a significant impact and they are governmental agencies in Oak Park for early childhood.
118So take a look at that. There's some draft notes in there from the working committee and it would be good to have people look at those in advance of the meeting. >> Thank you. Um I just gave you guys an update on the council of government. Uh, AA, is that what you said you want to skip over? >> Yeah. Oh, I was just Yeah, we can. That that won't meet again until later in the month. >> Okay. Uh, OPF Joe. >> Um, unfortunately, I was out of town at our last meeting. I know one of the big things that they talked about uh was the rebranding OPF to OP, the Oak Park Education Network, cuz they're trying to expand actually to other communities. That's a big one. >> It makes a word or two is
119better than >> All right. Uh Venus is not here for the OPRF community council, so we'll get an update from her next time. Um, parent teacher advisory council, Jung and Holly. >> Uh, we have a meeting tomorrow right before collab. >> All right. Uh, PTLC. That's Gavin and I. Uh, so we talked a little bit about the superintendent search update and we also talked about um just our uh communications on school safety plans. Uh, am I missing anything? Those are the two big things. Amanda, >> no. Got it. >> You got it. >> Ed is um so of course I had notes and I didn't bring them cuz it's great. Uh they mostly talked about the big um annual uh the initiatives for the this current year. So um their big push this is uh
120looking at the world language graduation requirements uh creating more flexibility for students who are not heading to a traditional four-year institution. So um folks in career technical education etc. Um they are changing MCAT funding. Um and of course I can't remember it's not it's not the medical exam which is what I kept thinking when they first like I don't have my notes so I don't remember what that is. I'm really sorry. Um, and then the other big one was looking at law enforcement procedures off campus. Um, and this is really specifically more in regards to ICE. Um, there's some references to SRO's as well, but it's mostly about uh how to protect school personnel um and students um when they're not literally on school ground. So things like the bus stop, on field trips when
121they're off of school property. So there's some initiatives to try to find ways to build in more um safety for all school associated folks uh including kids. Um and then the they also at both the November and December meeting they had Jean Barbante who's the superintendent for Dupage 88 which uh is the high school for Villa Park and the other town that's near Villa Park. Uh but she's part of a large um uh movement organization to help collect um information around English multilingual learners um and the various programs that are run in the state and what and try to figure out what's actually an effective program or model. Um, so if I know we don't have a huge number of multilingual learners in the district, but if we are interested um you can it's it's
122a little weird uh process, but you can pay $1,000 to give them your data um around your English learners and then to have them also process your data. And the hope is to actually because Chicago public schools carries the massive bulk of um multilingual learner numbers and they don't always share their data um it's harder for for districts outside of CPS to know like what are and ISBY actually won't share either. So they actually talked about ISB has been kind of difficult with that. um they don't actually know what ESL or English language models work for English learners and so they're trying to find a way to uh crunch the numbers and help share some of that information which is why there is a cost because somebody has to do that number crunching. So, if
123we're interested, um the there's a survey and people can jump on. Um cuz I think the big um Sorry, I'm getting way more into the weeds than we probably guys want, but uh >> made a promise to Nancy, too. >> Oh, she's from your >> Oh. Oh, I know. Um, so the is it's interesting because one of the reasons that the CPS data doesn't work as well for us is CPS has a huge number of bilingual programs and a vast majority of suburban districts don't have bilingual programs. They're usually more towards like sheltered English protocols um or ESL um and so they're trying to figure out if you don't have a bilingual program because they're for whatever reason um what are the options that work for students. So, it's it's an interesting concept. I think
124um I think it's particularly interesting that ISBY hasn't really been on board with this because I think one of the questions was like why are districts having to pay for this information when it seems like it would really benefit the state to do this themselves. They're like, well, we don't know. Um but that was there was a lot of time spent on both of those things which I thought was uh it's a big deal. Thank you for that very thorough update. >> No, without my notes. You >> cover them all. >> Yeah, she she sure did. All right. So, um agenda proposed looking into the future the agenda for our January 13th meeting. Uh so >> there's two intergovernmental agreements, one one with the park district, one with the township. >> Yep. accelerated program process
125report card review and of course you heard tonight summer bid proposal you meet action and that's an action item in January >> the other topic that we probably should add add on to next week's agenda is snow days there's some discussion at the high school and our other feeder district the other feeder district about what's the board's preference e-learning versus a traditional snow day on the elementary level there's some issues primary kids do not learn the same way in learning as we all know versus middle school and high school. Even the high school though has given some direction. They would prefer moving more towards the tra traditional snow day. So there's no 100% agreement on on any every level. Uh but there is some debate and I would like to hear the board's preference uh
126as we go into the one apparently one of the worst winners we've had for a while. Sure it started that way. Maybe it's going to get better in January, but January and nice kind weather doesn't usually >> No. >> come together. >> So that that's something we should discuss in January. >> Could we get some pros and cons before we >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Well, I just gave you one, right? For the primary grades. >> Oh, yes. >> We all know. >> Yeah. >> During COVID, my wife had my kindergarten granddaughter in the house. And when I saw what was going on with that, >> it was not very productive. No. And my wife almost uh you know she she she took a big toll on that to say the least. >> How many
127apples do I have? >> Uh all right and I get a motion to adjourn >> and move that we a second. >> Trying to stretch that out for as long as possible. >> I was like am I doing that? I really love us.