001oh everyone really you might like um you know all right um we call the meeting to order today is Tuesday October 10th 2023 uh welcome to the district 97 uh school board meeting uh can we do a roll call sure Rost here burn here Mo here here johnon here here Kim here order at thank you uh so first we have public comment we currently have one person signed up if others wanted to deliver public comment there should be a sign up sheet outside uh Katie nun come on down and uh pleas say your name and you've got five minutes all right I'm Katie Nunan I'm the teacher librarian at Irving Elementary School and I'm here on behalf of my entire uh teacher librarian team so we the teacher Librarians of District 97 want to thank
002you for including the American library association's library Bill of Rights to the language of board policy 6 to30 intellectual freedom and the freedom to read is Paramount to us and we teach District 97 students about their right and the harms of censorship every year Illinois's uh January 1st law changed to Outlaw book bands and Oak Park's new book Sanctuary ordinance enhance our District's decision to include the ala's library Bill of Rights these formalities mean that books and information are safe in our community students right to read and learn about anti-racism lgbtq plus diversity and more are protected thank you for helping us do our job and uphold our professional responsibilities to our colleagues students and Community sincerely Oak Park teacher Librarians and I can go through the name Jessica bin Nicole chinsky Lori Cony Rebecca
003minger Jennifer Nelson Katie Nunan Lisa Shay nefret Stringham Jamie winchill and Richard Willams so thank you thank you all right what a great start um that concludes public comment superintendent up great yep um we actually have two items there on the agenda and we'd like to move up uh the Washington DC field trip to this section on the agenda as well so we'll go ahead and start with the board presentation plan I'm going to come over here so that I can see and uh how are we doing this Michael you going to read my mind quier okay I'll try that way that's less impressive no don't Friday upate turn off oh yes great so um this is a um presentation plan for board feedback uh to get a kind of um an arc of presentations
004for the year so that we can really make sure we have U productive conversations as we work to transform the district so um here's the a quick walk through the agenda for this um presentation going to um look at a document around uh how the presentations are proposed to be structured I want to walk through some of the feedback you gave last time and how it's been reflected in this um revision and then any further revisions that you might have and then we're going to get to work on that as a staff and make that kind of our our Arc of the story for the year and then we we want to get started on the portrait so um that'll be the the next presentation so um Michael if you could click into this document
005I know the board has already um had a chance to to look at this and I know it looks real small up here but just to give a a lay of this what you see across the top are the dates for the Year this um Committee of the whole and business meetings and then the strands in green are the different strands of presentations for the committee of the holes and then if you scroll down a little Michael you'll also see the repeating strands in blue there for the business meetings and I've put x's in the times when those um pieces so for example obviously we'll always have public action items um policy discussions um safety will be quarterly uh superintendent update around the portrait will be every time we have a business meeting um and
006then of course the board and committee updates so those are the big sections of the agenda also have put the fork and fact meeting up there so that we can make thoughtful about how the board committee work is intersecting with the presentations and it won't be perfect here but over time we can see how next year we can be even more deliberate about how we're using those board meeting structures to inform everything that comes to you um we're going to work through it this year but we're going to get it all lined up in the future so this is um the big idea here I'm going to ask Michael if you could scroll up a little bit to the state of the district we've got something different Happening Here here we're and I'll talk a
007little bit about this in the rest of the presentation but we want to make sure we're responsive to the board's desire to kind of go deeper with the data in different areas and so we've got a plan for using the business meetings to give different cuts of the data and surface your questions and then at the committee of the whole is when we would do a deep dive response to the questions you asked in the business meeting so I'll talk a little bit more about that so Michael um if we could click back into the regular presentation so here's um here's you know this is a slide from last time the idea here is that we are talking as a board and superintendent about using this space differently given the calls for large scale transformation
008of the district that means we need a different kind of dialogue and deliberation ac across staff and board in order to get traction underneath um our values and our policy and um again this idea that the questions you ask to understand our work to probe our work as well as the question the questions also then inform your understanding of the equity policy's implementation and any revisions that need to be made to it resource allocation in the center there at the intersection is the goal of alignment between your policy and your monitoring of the district and our practice and how we're executing getting that balance is is the whole idea so here's some ways that we want to do that let's let's try on what we heard from you last time and how we've responded so
009here's uh how it's proposed to look one of the things that we heard I heard last time in terms of the September 23 meeting the safety meeting you asked that you would like to hear regular updates on the safety data the development of those safety procedures and how and we where things are going in terms of stakeholder communication and engagement around uh our safety work and so what we have done is we've added those safety updates instead of keeping them as a committee of the whole we've actually put them now into the business meeting so there are quarterly updates responding to those three areas you've identified and so that's a change that you'll see we've added the safety updates to the business meeting lineup at quarterly so that you um you know can see the
010answers to your questions and continue to ask them around that important strand these are then this is the slide again from last time identifying those um four different strands of presentations at the committee of the whole meetings and uh what I heard is that you wanted to hear about Equity policy alignment specifically you had an interest in knowing how are we progressing with these Equity goals and does the policy need to be revised right based on what we're learning so what I can tell you is that we as a staff and as a Cabinet we talked about that all of our future Committee of the whole presentations will identify how does this presentation align to the implementation areas outlined in the equity policy and that second check is also important we're not just going to
011make stuff up you know sometimes you just like ah it kind of aligns to this if it's not clear or if we're not sure or if it's you know we're just going to say we're not sure at this time and if we put something up there and say this aligns to this we also welcome and invite you to say I I don't think so and let's have a a dialogue about where we're seeing alignment between our perspectives and where we're not so that's an opportunity to check our thinking in terms of the policy and practice so again these are the four areas where we will be identifying Equity policy alignment based on the on the questions that you asked last time so another area um you asked for um project management components such as timelines
012benchmarks and relevant data so we will make sure that especially in those School Improvement logic model and the now next systems change updates those two strands include those kinds of components so that it's concrete and you know where we are in the scope of of that work um so again here uh those two types of presentations will reflect um that request um so here in terms of the um School Improvement logic models just wanted to give you a sense you know that the schools will be coming to share uh what they're learning and we're also want to make sure that this exchange is Meaningful for the for the staff that presents to you and for you and so um assistant superintendent um Robinson as well as uh Dr de Leon are going to be kind
013of they will give a a framework overview of the presentation for the evening and then they're going to be giving guidance to the teams of like what does the board need to hear so we get that right level of granularity what you're hearing from the teams can inform your um you know your leadership at the policy level we it'll take some time but that's what we're trying to hit we can get your feedback and get better and better at that that's when this oops that's when the schools are coming um so want to's what I do here um yep then we also heard that um the board would like to engage more deeply with District data as it relates to the equity policy so here's a couple of uh changes we've made I kind of
014made reference to this when we're looking at that big spreadsheet but every board meeting after the public report card is released on at the end of October will include a state of the district data report and reflection so the business meetings will Engage The Board in data views and surface your questions the committee of the whole meetings will provide responses and allow for like some off authentic dialogue around those outcomes and so if you um so that's a you know that's the business meeting we're adding that and then again it it appears in the committee of the whole meeting um to respond to your questions also wanted to give you a sense of um how we've structured those so those stateof the district meetings you can see the four um categories across the top uh
015we'll be looking at the student outcomes the district Workforce data that's on the um Illinois report card the district Finance data and the equity Journey Continuum and those first three boxes under student outcomes we want to um look at an some overview cuts of the data on December 12th we'll look at academic cuts of the data on January 16th discipline data and then based on the questions you ask in those three meetings we'll be prepared to kind of engage deeper at the January Committee of the whole likewise you can see that similar Cadence in uh February your we will'll provide some overviews of what presented on the um on the report card around fin uh Workforce and then uh Committee of the whole will deeper dive District Finance two business meetings to surface those things
016April committee the whole and then the district Equity Journey Continuum same um cycle there so again trying to get that right Cadence um and our responsiveness to the things that um are of particular interest to you in the data um and then I also just put this one here this is um the slide from last time talking about those design thinking just wanted you to be aware that when we're talking about back here in um uh March and April the district Finance will'll be looking at the district data on the state report card and that design thinking strand also con includes an unpacking of the what is the budget cycle and use of resources so we're trying to kind of to the extent possible get some thematic um patterns going across the different strands as
017well so here's another piece of feedback that I heard is that um your questions reflected the need for me to better clarify the purpose of the different presentation strands and how they re relate to informing board governance so I think I want to be clear that those design thinking unpacking Concepts is supposed to be kind of a high level engaging the board in the Big Ideas how we're trying to intersect bodies of of research create new Frameworks um you know things that we're doing to try to transform how we think about our field given that what you have asked us to do in equity in the equity policy hasn't been done so we got to think differently that's what that strand is about and then the goal is to tap back and forth between those
018big ideas in the equity policy the big design thinking things that we're thinking about and like what's it looking like on the ground what are the school Improvement teams saying and they're learning about the practice what's the data looking like what's the systems changes that we're trying to make that relates to this so that you can see the complexity of the whole picture of of us trying to um get um traction underneath different values in the system and strengths so um I also like to add here um a proposal that um that there is a there are six uh Committee of the holes and so there was an opportunity to add one uh presentation so I'd like to to propose that we add kind of what's the Oak Park climate context I don't know if
019we are able to have someone from the um the village come to talk about the plan just to hear that Al together and then uh to have an initial discussion about what a policy or what the the board's uh hopes are and I know Gavin you've already spearheaded that conversation and started on that so maybe we can um take some time to to talk about that here sounds good um and then I think this is also that um the board certainly that we recognize that the business um meetings and the committee of the whole sessions are the board's meetings in public and not intended to be a public forum for discussion however the board has an interest in hearing what are stakeholders questions about the different things being discussed at the committee of the holes
020and so we'd like to propose that first of all that we also welcome the opportunity to be a really radically participatory district and really thinking about how do we give more opportunities for stakeholders to be involved and so what we'd like to propose is that we uh share the committee of the whole topics out in advance of board meetings uh through our district channels and invite F folks in the community to share their questions or their perspectives with the board through let's talk once those come in we will share them with the board so that as you're engaging with us you have a sense of what um members of the community have expressed an interest in as well um and so that's another opportunity for making sure that this is the board's meeting in public
021but there's still an opportunity for voice and so that's where it'll be a landing page on let's talk um so overall as we look at the Arc of the Year there'll be 11 business meetings and six Committee of the whole meetings over the course of the year and we're looking to get at that alignment um and so at this point we'd want to i' want to pause and just ask if there are any additional requests or revisions or anything I can also uh go back to previous slides if that would be helpful but the Hope here is instead of and I think this is some of the feedback from the board as well um is what's the presentation what's coming why how are we coming up with that just wanting to actually be very um
022proactive and frontload what are the board's interests and that gives us as a staff the time also to be responsive and to be prepared to engage I think that this idea of buttoned up presentations where we present something you ask questions we answer them doesn't seem to be satisfying to anyone it's not to the cabinet level staff and the District staff that are working really hard to move these items and it's not to you um because it's not giving you insight into the complexity so um we hope that this is also one of our moves that we can to make as a superintendent and board team to um yeah to elevate the nature of the Civic conversations we're having around this really big work that we set up to do yeah well I will just
023say uh thank you for this I think it's really reflective of how much thought you all are giving to the discussions we've been having around how do we have deeper dialogue how do we sort of articulate our shared purpose and how to get there together and it's just really gratifying to see it uh in writing and I think um the feedback that I've heard from folks on the first Committee of the whole meeting is that it was really uh positive experience hopefully you're getting similar feedback from your folks but um I think it did lead to some really robust discussions and I know just speaking for myself that my understanding around some of the things that we talked about has definitely deepened through those discussions so I'm confident it's only going to get better um
024do folks have questions or reactions comments I I found this actually to be really impressive I do feel like it you like it's interesting you have gears up there because it makes me feel like we're going somewhere and and the we have wheels in motion um so thank you for that um this is actually really exciting to hear so for my mind I have three different like flow charts for with dates um one for the logic models for the schools and then the other two one of which you gave us in uh our board update I don't know that we can put them on one but I want to I want to be able to be a uh which is one of our requests to be anticipatory of what's forthcoming even beyond that week or
025you know so I'm wondering if there's a way to put those three together I guess or on a on a bigger flowchart so that do you think this the spreadsheet I think that's what the spreadsheet is intend but does the spreadsheet have the logic model yes okay so it's hard to see on my computer it's really hard to see it is if you don't mind clicking on it just because we're happy to make if it doesn't you're thinking so at the top there um the first row is when the actually we I think there's a edit this it's every presentation is reflected here okay yep yep that's what I need it's just hard yep other comments or questions good thank you I thought that was very reflective of what we were asking you to do
026and I appreciate it on the opportunity as well yeah great okay great well then um we' like to invite up uh Dr Lofton and Amanda sigfreed who're going to talk about like here's how we're going to get it done is we're going to first understand what is the community's call for for our children so Amanda and Ebony are going to come up and do the um portrait of an Oak Park 8th grade graduate update and I think I've got uh the first slide here so while they're coming up um this is our structure for this presentation we just always want to start with one slide here on what's the why here and then I'm going to hand it over to uh eony want to engage you in um what we heard last time and how
027you're going to see that all Al reflected in this uh sh you know the next phase of this work as well as engaging you in the kind of way that we're thinking about the portrait so uh Eon be doing that in a few minutes but the idea is um we want to engage the community in a radically participatory process of dreaming designing and defining our portrait of an Oak Park e8th Grade graduate so I think you're going to need this eony thank you um so you guys are well coordinated in terms of n on the laptop cover it's all coming together all fashion um so first of all good evening so um as we're continuing to prepare for the portrait um we wanted to make sure that we reflected your feedback from our last update
028so there were four key things that we kind of HED in on and at the end of our presentation we're going to see kind of what we check off so the check boxes are intentional um so what we heard is that we should make sure that we're communicating um what we've heard with the folks that are actually telling us um their feedback we need to make sure that we have evaluation points built in on the front um and and our portrait shouldn't just be aspirational we're talk about that in just a second and it would be helpful to make sure that we have a schedule so that if anyone wants to participate that there's a clear calendar and folks can join us um and facilitate and read um some of these sessions so we'd love
029to post to you um what do you see as the differences between an aspirational versus a competency um aspirational reminds me of like every school mission statement like will'll be a 21st century learner like they're all super generic and super big and so it's not clear what that means versus compe based is much to me it seems much more concrete and specific so that you can say like yes they are doing this versus like when you say they're going to be a 21st Century Learning like what exactly does that mean how are you showing that like oh I can text on my phone you know and so um how do you feel about aspiration well it's easy to make a lot of vague statements that at the end of the day you're like I don't
030you know it's like when if you write a bad rubric you're like I don't know this needed or not like um yeah and I think I mean this hits at the this is why I like that this is a v diagram because aspirational is the dream and the vision and the baker statement a little bit but without the competency base that hits the reality of like so now when the rubber meets the road what do we mean by that aspirational like what do we have to get kids to actually do to make that aspirational Vision so if you take that been diagrammed apart aspirational has no you know actual there there and Competency Based is like all like has no dream so I would just add like when I see competency I think of sort
031of like measurable academic skills and when I think about what the sort of purposes of a public educational system are it's both that but it's also these sort of loftier Notions of what does it mean to to be participant in society and you know in our present day or in the future and I agree with Nancy and with the image here that both are really critical um and you know compos feels less sort of like inspiring to me but obviously it's really a critical part of it no offense John might be right on um so for as we're right there with you so I think being those big Ideas so like that Collective Vision where you see holks um aspirations um we're competency Bas is really kind of rooted in those core competencies but where
032they come together is that um we really use either one um both to really guide our strategic planning and we also make sure that we're getting a really good idea of what the community is telling us around what their hopes and dreams for students are um so that's exactly I think squares with whatever has been saying so I'm excited to see that alignment and we've been doing definitely some work around kind of looking at different portraits um and seeing what that company based portrait could potentially look like um so this is just an example from um Pik County schools in Georgia soel can I open that so if you go down just a little bit you'll see that that in this instance they've outlined think critically they want all their students to think critically but
033have gotten really granular around what that means in terms of students being able to filter through information to interpret what that means to really kind of Reas in De um engage in problem solving and then also constructing arguments and being able to kind of reflect on um those things so this is kind of um just a competency B example and where we're going with our um portra we can go back to the perect um is really kind of rooting rooting in in what we already know um students should know and be able to do by the time we leave us an eight grade so um our portrait really revolves around those standards that that ill state board of education has already laid out um and making those connections to those big Ideas um that we
034want to make sure the students leave us um so we just wanted to give an update on some of the work that's happened since we were last here to update you in September uh so some of the things that our planning team is working on uh we really thinking about what the fixed and flexible elements of portrait are so as eany shared we know that our portrait is going to be rooted in those standards which we have so I think just thinking about like what elements of that are kind of fixed within our broader portrait and when we're engaging um where we can actually have room for engagement and what we mean by that so the other thing that we are excited about is last week we got our uh preview I think last time
035we told you that we were uh working uh to get a digital toolkit for the engagement that we're planning on doing so that's some of those communication and marketing tools that are going to help us kind of build that excitement around portrait to help uh promote the events that we're doing and also to um it's kind of creating some materials for the actual um events that we have so we got a preview of that last week um and some kind of fun creative elements of portrait when it comes to um really marketing it so that's exciting we'll have more to share about that later um and then also uh something that we're working on is the initial planning of the first engagement session which is going to be with District 97 Educators so we just
036wanted to provide a timeline we know one of the things the board has been asking for is kind of some concrete like what are actually the next steps so you'll see here sort of the immediate uh what we're working on in October November so this month like I shared we reviewed the digital toolkit we're working on planning that staff engagement we're working on planning our Affinity based listening sessions uh and then we're also going to be sharing an update uh in this Friday's newsletter so we'll make sure to link to this presentation and the one in September as well so the community knows what's going on uh November is when we're really targeting that first staff design session uh and also our Affinity based listening sessions and just as a reminder when we say Affinity
037based listening sessions we're talking about black families uh multi-lingual students with disabilities and uh the elders in the Oak Park Community so then we have here just kind of the broader view of what we're looking at for a timeline for portrait and the winter that's really when the CommunityWide engagement will happen um and we're going to start collecting that data and feedback and looking at uh analyzing some of that information kind of as we're getting it and then we're targeting spring to come back and be sharing the draft portrait with all of you and then we have on here you'll see at the bottom the arrow those ongoing updates like Dr Shaw shared we will be uh here I think every month giving updates to the board okay so in terms of what NE what's
038next uh tonight's agenda includes um a contract for portrait engagement services so uh you'll be hearing a little bit more about that later but that's really to support the work that we're going to be doing with our staff in some of those initial design sessions uh we are like I said planning our fac planning and facilitating our affinity group in our school-based community listening sessions uh we're building out the let's talk and website presence for portrait work and then those ongoing updates so those are some of the things that'll be um on deck for us coming up and then um here so this is what we shared oh sorry I did it on my laptop and I'm like why isn't it changing thanks eie sorry you were going to tr back in on that oh
039yes absolutely so um we did want to kind of check off some of those things so um just as Amanda talked about in the timeline um one of the the goals that we have is to um bring back the input that we're getting especially from our Affinity based Affinity groups to actually synthesize some that data alongside us so um that helps us communicate what we're doing back into the system um I'm working on evaluation points but today we also talked about kind of that intersection between aspirational and um Competency Based so that's kind of where we will be and then um as you'll see we're also working on scheduling events providing a calendar for um your involvement but the timeline gives a rough estim open now it so I just want to quickly beop it
040back around to the importance of that b diagram because there is a risk with something like portrait of a graduate Fort to sound too Mark marketing too aspirational and not have that real grounding in um in that Competency Based piece and I think that's kind of reflected in the two of you who are up here we need to engage the community in we need for people to understand what it is that's going on and be a part of it and then we also need to make sure that it is rounded in actual competencies so I just kind of want to highlight this piece of it and how much I kind of appreciate the thoughtfulness that I's have a question um has there been any discussion about for the um on the timeline you have the
041uh Affinity based listening sessions has there been any discussion about um adding families that identifies lgbtq plus yes so we have had um conversations and we have actually identified spaces where we will talk to students and families um that is something that that we can absolutely build into the infinity space but we have been intentional about making sure that we're um including our rainbow clubs all that um all that engagement um so Yep this is just yeah this is just a specific um I'm sorry goad oh no CU I was like I know someone going be like it wasn't there so I just want to ask the question so that for anyone who's watching they can know the anwers to that um and then also like students with IEPs 54 are they included um and
042this so we actually pulled these from the equity policy in terms of the our data shows that these are the groups of students who are for this away from our Excellence targets so um that's kind of what drove our decision here and then just really wanting to make sure that we're hearing from our elders because they have kind of deep groups and have something to say about um the portrait so but absolutely we're open to making sure that we include all spes and then just two clarifying uh well two clarifying things the multile families um um so Studies have shown that like uh as Generations progress like they're they're um like sub students don't speak the language of their parents so when you say multilingual families is it the like the families like maybe my
043mom and dad be polish but I don't um or is it that the the student is multi we don't make the having more than one language is for sure a gift so we want to make sure that we're understanding that as we lean into the portrait and it could be a multilingual family it could be a multilingual student a multilingual Grand so just making sure that we're honoring and respecting and building on those gifts that our students bring to us I think one of the things too related to that um when we're thinking about some of the design of some of the engagement that we're thinking about and one of the examples um that we're talking about um kind of a homework element of the engagement where it's like if you don't feel comfortable or
044you can't make it to a space you might have an activity that you can do in your home something that we're thinking about in terms of access is using a tool that would give us more translation options so like we can certainly print things or we can use one platform versus another but like I know for example that like a Google tool might have more translation options than let's talk at the moment so we're just thinking through those things to make sure that we are increasing access opportunities for those multilingual families in those different spaces and I know that specifically came up in our last planning session too thank you um so I think it's great that the Affinity based listening sessions happen early but then also the affinity group analysis is is comes back
045at the back end I think sometimes as things evolve you might get feedback and then it it kind of gets dismissed because other feedback comes in and coming back to it I think is um it's important so you don't make sure you don't lose it in the process um I was thinking about um CommunityWide event um and I mean I I'm assuming that I'm assuming that it will draw a lot of interest um and just kind of thinking ahead as a suggestion I think that um parents depending on how old their kids are might have some really kind of synergies and it might be a little chaotic if High School parents and kindergarten parents are having this discussion about porch just might help from an organizational dividing up when you have a a room full
046of people div up but thinking about how you're going to facilitate conversations that are efficient and get the most done because um so I I just think that in the planning for CommunityWide events um in orderers we have a lot of CommunityWide events people leave and they feel kind of unsatisfied right that they didn't really get a chance to talk and that the conversation really wasn't a conversation and so I think that to the extent that we can maximize opportunity for people to feel like the conversation actually included them in related to them I think that's a that will be helpful to the success of those events um I have sort of a question I don't know is there a word that combines comment and question together a Peres um but I'm really this is
047great I'm really glad I think this process is going to be really good and and I think we'll learn a lot through it and it'll be really valuable for the district and I'm really appreciative of how deliberate you all are being at the front end and thinking through what it's going to look like um one thing when I think about like what can be what will be exciting about this is is the sort of notion of a sense of community ownership of the product and I'm wondering if you guys have thought about Beyond sort of like we're going to talk to you we'll tell you what we'll do with it like is there a place and I realize that there's limited time and energy and all those things so take this with a grain of
048salt but is there how do how do you think about like sustaining a person's sense of connection to the process so it's not like oh I did a group in November and then six months later I find out what happened but like is there a way to sort of keep people like feeling connected or like a through line for them that would make them um like feel like this is their portrait as much as anybody's yeah I think that will be one of the goals with communicating throughout this year um thinking about how we sustain that sort of excitement and interest and that was one thing that came up I think that resonated with me a lot when we were reviewing the digital toolkit uh last week one of the things that uh we hid
049on in terms of like a message or an idea is just um kind of the urgency around this um and not in like a dire we don't mean like in a dire way but like right now this is important right now and kind of building the excitement and urgency around that in our community and I think part of that will be really crucial as we're communicating throughout the year and and trying to sustain that interest um but yeah we are thinking I think about too like I'm I'm thinking a lot about our the school level communication and things like that because I do feel like sometimes these District level things can kind of just that's where St right right yeah so um so yeah those that's all definitely part of our conversation thank you I
050think I think in addition to uh What uh Amanda and Ebony shared here like hopefully the way that we've structured this the portrait becomes more relevant as time goes on that is to say if you engage in one of the first sessions you were part of this portrait but um you know as the students we start to kind of as we maybe see it around the community as we maybe create an app aligned to it so like kids are keeping track of things we are would like to develop ways for it to be more integrated and more real and more relevant so that it becomes really a strategic plan driver as opposed to a strategic plan that sits on the shelf right there comments questions about this ni sh L thank you okay up so
051Ebony and I are up for the next presentation and come on up L coming on with us you want to bring your BR here I got a chair I got aair for all right um so you know I I put on here cabinet update and I put that very intentionally as we discuss this as a cabinet and although there are three cabinet members sitting up here um what you're going to see has a you know like most things has multiple fingerprints on it much more than whoever's sitting up at the table um this one in particular we've had a lot of robust really good thoughtful uh discussion about it so um we're presenting on behalf of the cabinet um this idea in question of walking our talk and using the DC trip as a as
052a way to check our thinking uh we invite the board into that process here are the steps of this presentation um some anchor policies and framing the dilemma and then we want to share some um DC U family interest and data context and then just talk about some next steps so uh just again just a quick background that this is about the board approved field trip to Washington DC uh the trip is open to all eighth grade students and there have been different models used in the past for this trip so the anchor policies are these three policies the one on field trips the one on the waiver of student fees and the one on ensuring racial and educational equity and as is called out there on the side our policies require that students have
053Equitable access to District sponsored experiences so how do we walk our talk when comes to the DC triu that's the fundamental question we've been um grappling with and as an administrative team when we're walking the talk the starting point for all of our actions are the board's policies so the first one that was referenced in that um diagram is board's policy 6.24 field trips the relevant section being paragraph three I'll just go through that parents guardians of students shall be given the opportunity to consent to their child's participation in any field trip and two are responsible for all Insurance fees food lodging and other or other costs except that the district will pay such cost costs for students who qualify for a fee waiver under board policy 4.14 waiver of student fees then looking at
054that policy the eligib eligibility criteria is a student shall be eligible for a fee and fine waiver when one the student currently lives in a household that meets the same income guidelines with the same limits based on household size that are used for the federal free meals program two the students parents guardians or veterans or active duty military personnel with income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line or three the student is homeless as defined in the mckenny vento homeless assistance act and then the third policy that we were looking at or that dictates our work in this area is obviously the equity policy which States practices procedures and programs that result in over or under representation of any group of students compared to peers shall be subject to close review to assure
055that such results are due to meeting students legitimate educational social or emotional needs in the event that a practice or program is not equitably accessible the practice will either be modified to meet the requirements of this policy or eliminated if no modifications can be made or agreed upon so in terms of um this year's fill trip really excited about the foundation that was built last year and um as of September 28 we have 548 great families who are interested or express interest be a forum in attending the DC F trip um and this is an increase of 98 families from last year um who completed the board and of that total 540 um we had 121 families um express interest in fin final assistance and so when our school leads actually broke um 121 families
056down to determine who qualified for free and reduced lunch we found that 62 of our families qualify for some sort of financial assistance being free or reduced lunch so 52 families qualifying for free lunch and 10 qualifying for reduce lch this is across both buildings so in terms of the potential Financial impact um based on that level of Interest Alone um we cost it out um the cost of Chip which is 1713 um and multiply that by the 52 families who recover 100% of that sh uh trip cost at $897 from our reduced families we know that folks use a sliding scale so we slide had our sliding scale set at 60% of that 1713 and those 10 families require support that amounts to $1,278 for a total of 99,354 families we also wanted to
057look at um the the total amount of students in 8th grade who qualified who didn't express interest um but those numbers combined and so total we have 110 students who qualify for pre- lunch 20 students who qualify for reduced lunch um and if we were to support um all of those students uh total would be $28,988 so um this slide summarizes last uh Year's funding uh access efforts and so there have been efforts uh made to increase access we had a private donor who generously donated thousands of dollars that supported um increased student participation we also had um the close-up Foundation provides uh adult chaperon vouchers once you get to a certain number of students and instead of those vouchers going to uh an adult to go on the trip they were actually used to
058increase access for students who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend and then that that parent um actually parents that were able actually also paid their own way in addition to paying their CH their child's ticket and so that was a way to uh increase access and then there were also PTO funding fundraising efforts that contributed to access so that's important to know in terms of the context we wanted to figure out this year how we could have more solid Financial alignment with the anchor policies so we did reach out to see if we could use Title One funds or Sr funds in this targeted way for student students that qualify for for title one for example um and we were you know we were told that that is not an allowable expense in either Grant
059and likely would be an obstacle that we'll be re will'll be uh finding in federal grants that's not something we can do on the other hand um you know using those federal funds and including Title One targeted for qualifying students within the state of Illinois is an allowable expense so that is something for us to think about as we look to increase access so um while additional private contributions and PTO fundraising efforts may become um available and could result in more opportunities for students um we don't forecast getting to the kinds of numbers that uh abony just outlined on that slide and being able to guarantee Equitable access at the scale that we anchor um in the manner outlined in the anchor policies and so um that's brings us to The Next Step and so
060what um we want to start out by saying first of all is these statements because we want to make sure that we're not it's not misunderstood that first of all we believe that out of school experiences will be Central to the portrait uh of an Oak Park e8th Grade graduate we affirm that universal access values that are expressed in the equity policy and the acor and the anchor policies are are shared commitments and that transforming our system requires that we engage in this kind of productive tension of how to change the systems and reallocate funds to provide access and we just want to affirm that that's where we are when we um when we bring forward this discussion and so what we are going to do for this year is to actually reallocate uh sy24
061budgeted District funds that are currently budgeted to other areas we're going to reallocate them um to to make sure that we can um meet the waiver um of fees requirement for the DC trip uh for those students expressing an interest and we also do need to say that this will come with unexpected reductions in those areas from which funds are reallocated but that's a way for us to be compliant and um and reflect the intention of policies um and as we oops as we move forward you know we are thinking about what systems are um needed to ensure that first of all all field trips in the future aligned to the portrait and we can be explicit about that that they uphold the anchor board policies that they're fiscally responsible and that we're also being
062attentive to students experiences and fam's experiences as part of that process so those are the Big Ideas we wanted to bring forward and can pause here then for any discussion or questions or other uh deliberation with the board yep sh um so I was wondering are there have you I'm sure you have but um in terms of like fundraising like a campaign or grant grant proposals um and then just explicit act for people to donate like I know for field trips sometimes there's like the little thing it's like do you want to donate extra so I think like making it explicit for families to donate um and then the second part was just like I think I know this is the tension right of like we can only like raising this money is is going
063to be difficult and and providing this money is going to be difficult but I also think about like myself if I'm being quite honest as a person who has uh a seventh grader now and then I'm having two fifth graders come up like I think sometimes people look at that and they say well I don't qualify for free lunch so sorry my kids can't go so maybe some language around or if you're facing financial hardship because it could be that during the regular year you have the money but maybe you're you had a reduction in hours or you have health bills and so I just wouldn't want anyone to be discouraged because they're like I don't qualify for free or reduced lunch so I'm not even going to bother cuz I'm like speaking as a
064twin parent I'm like already like I need to start saving up and I know I want to go so and I've talked to people who are like that's a lot of money so I'm just going to tell my kid now like you can't go and I'm like you have time and I know it sounds like aspirational um but I do think like added some language that if you are having a financial hardship to encourage people to at least apply um for some type of assistance and Sheree what you're talking about um board policy 414 the waver of student fees we didn't excerpt that part but it does have another level of provision for those kinds of things so we can be more explicit about that I think for the purposes of here we wanted to
065be real concrete with numbers so that you knew what we were reallocating but I think in the longer term the policy already provides for a second level beyond the federal designations of free and reduced I'm a little hesitant to say this but I was a little surprised at the percentage of students that go I had thought it would more than half but it seems like it's less than half um and the cost total of the entire e grade okay um and I've been surprised by the cost and interestingly enough my son does not want to go and he's decided and a lot of this friends are going to go and whatever like there's a whole of conversation around that but um no let's dig into it get them on the phone we want to know
066I know we can put them on the phone um but I kind of Wonder like is this where we should spend over $100,000 like is this like it's a trip that the majority of the a grade does not go to and it seems to raise Equity issues and I know people are going to skew me now for saying this but I'm like is this a tradition we should continue does that make sense as like the eighth grade trip um what it seems like are there other opportunities where maybe more students could go because I think there are a fair number of families that don't qualify for aid but it will still be a burden to pay this um and you know we've gotten emails from a couple folks about that and and it's not to
067and they would you know in most levels they wouldn't ever qualify for aid but it's still a large amount um I don't know I've just been thinking about it a lot and I'm kind and I have been kind of circling back to like why is this a tradition that like a graders get out a plane and fly halfway across the country um and is that something it's halfway AC pressen no oh am I being scroogie about that I mean the Civics education portion is the reason it's not like a Bo yeah but then I think the fact that less than half the grade goes kind of raises some questions for me about like who is this for and I know we're trying to accommodate what that I mean it's part of that is because it's
068voluntary meaning but then if it's volunt I guess then like well why is the district support I don't know it just seems very complicated in terms of the number of kids who go the district supporting it the amount of money we're spending and like if only if less than half the grade is getting the Civics of it like is it really an effective I know people are no no no I don't think anyone should no no so it wasn't always done by the so I think there's like some history here no I know wasn't done by the district and only like and less kids went um than half and then it's and it was what you're describing it was a bunch of only the kids that like whose friends were going and parents were going
069and who could spend the money and wanted to go on a tourist trip went and it was really fun for them and they usually went actually over like Martin Luther King day and they only miss they didn't even miss school and not many teachers went and nobody cared about medications and they just got on a plane and went across so I I mean that was really what happened and then last year we said and but maybe this trip by the way doesn't continue I'm not saying it should but last year we tried to and partner with a Civics organization and I went on the trip and I will tell you that there is literally I lived in DC for a year I went there with my parents many times there is literally I I I
070could you not the staff is all like history of political polyi young people that are trained very well to educate in fact I think the kidss were kind of pissed at how much education was why my son is choosing not to go okay so there you go right that's how much education there was does want to go no but um so and so I think that the the partnership um led to as and I'm addressing the cost too it it's literally physically impossible for a family or even a small group to accomplish what's accomplished on this trip um on their own they can't do it and then when you you use a not for-profit that's for Civ that's taking the Civics we're paying the staff appropriately which is what the money goes to and we're
071paying for the bus drivers appropriately that we stayed in a wasn't a fancy Weston but it was a West like a nice enough hotel to put four kids in a room and not have them feel like they're on top anyway so I think that um it's definitely possible that the trip doesn't continue but I do think if the reason your son's not going as education it's kind of a good like that's a better reason than like other reason don't even get me started no not for him I mean saying that the trip is successful because it's educational enough but but but I don't and I'm not saying that you have to keep doing this trip um but I do think I will say that I think the Civics experience as much as some kids were
072frustrated that it wasn't like all day at the pool um was I think more impactful than many classroom experiences our kids will have and if we can increase access and increase people going I always think about like one teacher salary or one exper other whatever it is and like is take paying for 62 kids to go to DC who might not otherwise have an opportunity to do that worth whatever it would mean whatever you know uh that teaching experience so I personally think it's worth it but but with the cave at that only if it does keep increasing in accessibility and may the question it's like what's the the short or longterm goal of it because I think that's what I was wrestling with is like longterm goal of of the trip and so if
073the whole if if like the eventual goal is to have everyone be able to I mean I guess like it's the cost benefit trade-off I guess in terms of like how much it costs the district or how much it costs Families how many students are going what's the impact in terms of like what are we trying to accomplish with it and if more kids I I don't know like I guess I'm just I I think the fact that less than half the grade goes just kind of threw me for a little bit in terms of like but the grade is only 700 so 500 kids go now I think ebony had the St 8% in terms of expressing interest 81% expressing interest or like actually going 81% of of the entire eighth grade expressed interest
074by 4 70% of the entire gr exp regard to fundraising though I will say the district is not doing the fundraising committee because they can't so what we did was we contacted the PTO and asked if a group of people can meet without asking for anything and be under the PTO as a committee and the way that if as that committee raises funds they will take the literal dollars or payments whatever it is it will never like go to the district it'll just go straight to closeup you can just make you can just make anybody can make a deposit at closeup they give the Brooks and juliia number and they can send it by mail order they can I don't know if they can use V about but you know they can electronically send money
075so the goal of the fundraising committee to your point is and right now they're doing the duts for DC and expect to raise about $110,000 per school um if you go with the fellowships it looks like possibly 20 could come out of this year based on rough looking at those numbers so if you have 20 out of the 62 kids could be covered by fellowships and you have 20,000 you have another like some of those some of that money is less than $100,000 but then the goal of the fundraising committee was to have some fundraisers where 50% of the dollars go to three and reduce ledge families and the other 50% is divided amongst any families that participate in the fundraiser so if you if we do a bar Tri if you want to host
076a bar trivia night and you raise $1,000 anyone that participates would get part of that it would divide amongst all the people that participated in all the fundraisers all year year and then half goes to free and reduce lunch so the goal is to do some 50/50 Raffles to try to do a dance and these things all have to pick up momentum you can't do it all at once but but to your point it is a and I mean to my point it's a lot of money for one uh to send your kid and so want to provide opportunities for like Collective fundraising um and then the other thing is that closeup will open an individual account and you can like you said ask you can give someone your account grandparents or a or family
077members or whatever and ask for um donations just but I know that they can't talk about fundraising so that's why I was talking about there have been people meeting and talking about fundraising quite a bit and trying to raise money for both these students that are directly um that are covered by the policy but also give opportunities to other families so do points or what it g call it a commiss commiss Comm call it a qu too if you want so I think um you know being in the former development World um I think like building that excitement is supporting like corporate sponsorships getting um our local restaurants to you know hand over some cash um do the things and create that excitement just like around the election season there was a certain candidate that
078did take out something something um and it it created like this excitement and people like I want to be involved I want to like get get involved with it so that was my comment but just wondering have we explored those kind of things but then I think the committee has not but as soon as you're on the committee you could handle corporate sponsorships yes um so the second thing was I'm going to back my besti here um I would also like to know and I know you and I talked about this that there was a diverse group but I'll be honest back in the 1900s when the trip came up the late 1900 the late my kids say I was born 1901 but um the 1900s when this trip came up when Brooks was Emerson
079like none of my friends went and I had a pretty diverse group of friends but I would say none of my black friends went uh the percentage of Latino families was very low back then but none of them went and then you had like I had a few few friends that actually went so I think in terms of like what we're hoping to accomplish like I would like to see like oh yeah that was like representation it looks like what our student body looks like so if we're getting like I don't remember the exact numbers but we looked at there the it was it had needs Improvement but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was that's what I yeah both of my kids went but it wasn't closeup it was the other company
080yeah and the that world stries yeah the one thing that I found to be helpful one kid influenced the other kid to go they I went on an eighth grade trip so I remember doing that and one year you go to Springfield the next year you go to e8th grade so this has been around for a long time and when they're there they see a whole bunch of other schools visiting DC which is me it's a great experience so I am an advocate for it um but I do think we are doing the right thing this year but in order to sustain this we have to come up with some plans that don't have the impact budget impact that this has and it's some of that's fundraising or pulling some of the PTO money if
081you know in order to if they're interested in making those donations but I I do think it's valuable I do think we're doing the right thing but to go back to one of your slides um keep going wait okay never mind this is part of the being transformational and being creative and and we've solved for the problem for this year we are walking the walk and talking the talk but we understand it's not sustainable and and so this for next year or going forward we're going to have to come up with a different way to build sidewalk so we can walk our walk and talk our talk I think I do think there's also a risk that if you go that if we do take it out of the district it goes back to the
0821900 trip where if some parent decides they're going to just call World strides and they're going to put a trip out there and then only the people who like are in the no sign up and it becomes much less and much less diverse and definitely there's no nobody gets any kind of funding I'm World both kids did World strides and it I understand we have had issues with World strides I'm not it was educational it was there were parent volunteers um but they were going all day long from place to place to place educational but it was expensive I really enjoyed having knowing that that was on I really enjoyed not having my kids on for three days but I was going to say I think also there's an element missing from this is like
083making it so that black kids want to go like I think we can all we can all say or admit to some level our kids are privileged um and so if you're talking about a kid that um doesn't have the financial resources to go um you're going to feel some kind of way about asking your mom I don't even remember why I'm sure my mom would have made way but I didn't even ask cuz it wasn't cool it wasn't a cool thing to do and so I think if we're going to say this is um Equitable and it's it's a learning opportunity all those things we have to have that interest we have to engage students and say like ask the students is this something you want to do is there something else maybe you
084want to do because if you have the the privilege students who parents are like oh this seems cool I'm going to sign you up for it and the kid like half the things I sign myself up for he doesn't want to do but I'm like you going to do it anyway you'll thank me later but if you have the parents that are like this is going to be a struggle and the kids don't feel confident or they feel bad about asking um world strides didn't have uh scholarships yeah but I like I said can I just get mm this for a second um I appreciate all the work that folks have put into this to try to make it as Equitable as possible I don't think we got there this year but I think we
085got as close as we're going to get this year given the situation that we have um I do think going forward it's and I think the portra of a graduate process could be part of this it would be really useful to think about what the goals are for the trip and whether there are other ways to achieve those goals I do think it's a lot of money I don't think that free and reduced lunch captures everybody that's going to find it difficult to go on this trip the reduced lunch threshold for a four-person family in Illinois is $55,000 if you're living in Oak Park and you've got a four-person family and you're talking about another $1,700 for a field trip I would imagine the chances are you're not going on that field trip and I'm
086not suggesting as a district that we should expand and pay even more than guaranteeing that every free and reduced lunch student can go unless we were to come to the conclusion that it was that valuable I'm also hesitant given our policy to rely on donations our policy is essentially as a district we are committed to everybody going on a field trip and to say that we'll get there if donation you know if other folks do what they need to do we can get there uh some years we may get there some years we may not I think it's a little bit um it it makes me a little bit uncomfortable that it's that it's not that there's not there's uncertainty around it so I'm not obviously it's not my saying I'm not at a place
087where I'm saying absolutely not but I do think there are some things we have to Grapple with Beyond just how do we raise more money or how do we ensure that people want to go on the trip I I was going to carry on with that one is I feel like what we're seeing is two issues there's the reality of this year and where we are and the trip that's being planned which has leveled up in terms of what it is actually offering in terms of Civic engagement um but I I agree 100% you can't say we're going to do something and we'll rely on fundrais because if the fundraising doesn't come through what do you do well you you and you you just don't get to go I mean you can't do that so
088it has to be fully budgeted in and then fundraising cover what it covers which brings me to a question for this year which is as that money comes in for the not quite sure how the money is being transferred through if let's say $50,000 comes in that covers free and reduced lunch does that mean you're going to prioritize what you're cutting so that it can come back um in other words that we're allocating enough to cover it which I think is the right thing to do but then if fundraising covers part of it do those pieces come how how are you reinstating the pieces that are now not having to be cut because it's covered by fundraising does that make sense at all okay yeah and I'm I'm guessing that we probably need to talk
089with the close-up Foundation because some of this is due as a deposit right away so we probably need to do that and then I guess one question we might ask them is if money comes in afterwards can that displace the amount that we you know will owe you know I guess just in terms of the timing of the bills basically and who can pay which bill when that's really the question so we can look into that I don't know if you have a sense of that I think there are a couple options so there is a $500 deposit due October 17th and the rest which person $100 yes for each person um so which is kind of where the urgency is coming here and and the rest of it is due in January so there
090could so should there be a way to offset that I think we can figure that out the other thing is kind of speaking to 121 families asked for financial assistance and we're only able to support through our policy to 62 so is there also the possibility that some of that fundraised dollar some of those dollars could go to support um other families so I think there's just a couple ways to think about well and that is what it was sounding like in terms of fundraisings that part is going toward specifically reduced and and free lunch and part is going towards the goal would be that's the goal and the idea behind the discussion with that kind of allocation is that families unraid to produce lunch um should not have to volunteer in order to receive
091funds but other families can participate in the fundraising and have access to the funds oh I see you're saying okay see what I'm saying yeah and so um got I um the people on the committee are are never going to know who has on free in roduce lunch that money will get deposited to closeup without and then allocated by the district contacting them and saying which accounts they go to other folks that participate they'll have to that'll have to be done differently they'll have to participate in U you know I'm going to participate in volunteer three time so I'm going to get my portion of some of us funding got it that makes sense um and that I mean so that's the Year and that that covers it this year and then I like I
092said my thoughtful question on that is if we actually let's say fundraising is wildly successful and we cover all of it what does that mean for what was cut from the budget um and where that goes but then there's a second question of moving forward we now have a program that actually from the civic's perspective is pretty solid um it's a it's an actual educational piece this is however a lot of money and I think moving forward again to what Gavin was saying if you're going to do this we need to budget it and then if we get fundraising to cover it that's great but it needs to be budgeted you can't just assume fundraising because at some point the rubber meet you you at some point you hit the point where if the fundraising
093doesn't happen does the whole program not happen do you suddenly cut back kids like what does that mean um and I I think at that point it makes sense to say where does this fit in as a district priority um where does it fit with the portrait of a graduate what piece of this could it be done in an equally robust way locally with a a less of a budget impact and then it's also that budget priority like again if if we're doing this I do think we need to actually say it's a line item is that a chunk of the budget that we're willing to say this is important enough to contribute that much money to this every year because I think the Equitable piece and the the making sure that everyone can go
094that's non-negotiable I think that just has to happen so the the negotiable piece is where does the budget come from and what are we like if we're wanting to do a a robust Civics experience what's the budget where is it how do we make sure that those other pieces are met so I think we're going to have future opportunities to discuss next year I think this is a really good discussion and surface a lot of the considerations and the considerations compete in some ways I don't think it is a slam dunk decision but do you guys have enough board feedback for now and we can sort of continue this discussion in advance of NE figuring out next year absolutely that's why even this framing we were very intentional that at this point we are moving
095forward with what's on their and we are reallocating so that we can move forward and be in compliance with the policy but yes we can have add one last thing to the yes as we move forward and and look at this can we add to that the exploration of um grants or scholarships perhaps there's a cfic organization that will grant Monies to school districts that that we can look and see tap into if it help us yeah we can keep an eye out for those things I guess um you know we can keep an eye out for those things I guess just again zooming out and thinking about um our district as compared to even neighboring districts that would be competing for those funds even just using evidence-based funding we're a district at 93% adequacy
096based on the the evidencebased funding and so just thinking about that Venus in terms of I do think that we need to struggle with that as as well that um while we may be a competitor for that thinking about the fact that yeah and that we actually if we decided this is important enough we could make some other choices and make some and tighten our belts in some other places in order to have that happen for our kids and so I think the portrait then is an opportunity for us to engage uh just like you were outlining it's year round like yep what matters and how much okay good point thank you thank [Applause] you all right uh that takes us to the consent agenda I Mo with the Board of Education of Park Elementary
097School District 97 moves to approve the yes yes yes yes yes John yes yes motion great um discussion and action items SEIU memorandum of understanding holiday day y so Lis is coming up for this item the board has any questions thank you thank you it's good to be back yeah this one's pretty straightforward up for the board's consideration this had been pending I believe since last spring prior to my tenure long story short the SEIU union has already been receiving the holidays that are memorialize in this mou I just don't believe it was ever brought before the board for formal adoption so a copy of that is before you and I don't really have anything else to share with the board unless there's any questions to read the motion I motion that the Board of
098Education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve memorandum of understanding between the Board of Education and the services boy International Union memorializing the provision of holidays to SEIU as has been the existing practice second yes yes Spurlock yes Mo yes yes Johnson yes next we have contracts over $25,000 authorization for agreement with the greater good Studio yep and Amanda and eony are coming back Evony just might as well stay up here if you'd like um so um but this is uh just they are coming up in case you have any questions otherwise we are seeking your uh authority to move move forward uh as proposed in the M does anyone have questions for Amanda and abony does somebody want to read the motion I motion that the board of education at Oak Park Elementary
099School District 97 to approve the administration request to draft and or edit any documents required to enter into an agreement with greater good Studio sorry I missed the I know you were asking questions I didn't know you're were jumping motion I thought because I wasn't here at the LA board meeting did you guys already discuss this so why are we are not seeing it twice because of the short time frame yes okay so I do have questions yeah who is the greater Goods student like where did we come how do we come to know about them what is their business model are they you know who owns them what is their background yep so what we we know about the greater good Studio we actually found out about them they actually do a lot of
100work around human- centered design they're local in Chicago and we actually the team met with them they came here um to talk about how they do um you know what kind of work they do so we've had a couple of calls with them before they came um and we expressed what we were you know the way that we want to engage with our community and especially with teachers in helping us to Envision what the portrait looks like and because they come at their work from Human centered design um that's that's actually how we initially got um linked and looked looked up uh you know looked them up and they came up and they do a lot of work in the area do they have specific like exper because so we just were talking about Affinity
101spaces they have experience with working with affinity spaces and organizing kind of community white feedback yes so they actually shared a couple of models in which they did things kind of in a different state but it was all about really getting the voice the fooks that will actually impact so that piece around giving that student voice giving the community voice is really making sure that that as we're designing something we're really deeply rooted um in making sure that that's reflected in the portrait we also are going to be doing our own engagement I think that's important as well we're not uh looking to Outsource and have um you know other people representing the district's work Our intention to the maximum extent possible you saw on ebony and Amanda's slide I think that was question was
102asked by board members like how can we you know be involved so we to the ma to the extent possible we envision ourselves also being the faces of the work and we're really using um you know KQ as well as um greater good to help us with the design and sure the facilitation of the teacher spaces but um the actually Community face facing spaces will be more of our own work yeah and that was like that was one of the things from the outset when we were starting to talk about like the planning and what this was going to look like we met with you know a com there are companies out there that just do portrait work it's like portrait of a graduate like that is what they do and um I think that
103work is great I think for us um we had some really clear ideas of how we wanted to do this process how we wanted to be radically inclusive um I think we wanted the flexibility to meet the needs of our community and not be so confined to as set process that has been developed so um something that's been exciting with both greater good and then the work you're doing with PQ is they've been really responsive to our vision and they share our values around um like inclusion and like the human Center uh design design aspect back so I think that's been an exciting thing for us that we can actually guide um the design work versus being kind of like you know starting off in a process that is sort of already set for for
104us if that makes sense I think it's speak Bo no you it just speaks directly I think um in terms of the grant funding source the sr3 a grant funds that really are meant to mitigate learning loss I think it also is a perfect fit with um that funding source so yeah just want to add that meaning that we're paying for this the the we're we're proposing to the Esser so yes that is correct that that's our intention the application hasn't open and so we intend to make the case that this is our work to address um you know um eligible expenses in the Sesser funds but we don't know that that will be improved but that is our and just thinking about the portrait as portrait of a graduate work other than this Consulting
105engagement do we have expectations of other costs or do we cuz I looked at their deliverables and I think it says V2 so do we expect V3 and V4 or do we think this is like this is the the consultant that will get us to the end I think that's that's yeah that's the intention yeah yeah I don't think we intend to come here and yeah that's the goal okay my question is similar so this is a the project timing is 26 weeks so at the end of this will um greater good provide you with enough framework in substance that you can launch and then tweak or add subtract from there yeah I think what's cool is also um educators are actually in those design sessions um kind of framing out how this will work
106in terms of Engagement but also because they're closest to the work and understand the standards so deeply um and the competencies that are required for us to take kids where they need to go um that I think once we get to V2 I think it's pretty close to to where we need to be yes guys two questions so you um what so we get a lot of comments and questions about like us hiring external consultants and things like that so the purpose for um employing a contractor or consultant is because it's limited to capacity Within or this is a big undertaking portrait what we're talking about doing this is a massive Community engagement project for our district and it's important so I think what we are looking to do is to have support in doing
107that and especially um in designing those spaces in the way that we want to so um yeah I mean so it is a capacity thing because I think we are also managing the other day-to-day things and the other really big things we have going on so we want to make sure that we are lifting up portrait and um making sure that we have the support that we need to execute on actually what the like Equity policy calls for which is really robust engagement so that's what we're asking for then have you got thought through the like engagement to get people to trust right so like you have external people come into the community and there's that like o who are they why are they here and how do we trust them that was a part
108of their conversation with us in terms of they are acutely aware of of coming in and that's why they really want to make sure that those Educators have an an idea or have an the opportunity to really design alongside and for um so they actually come in on the front end understanding where they are in terms of being external they're really wanting to get some momentum around um the portra who our Educators yeah I think it's it's also um would you agree Evony and Amanda it's there's capacity for sure the way that you described but it's also expertise you know and I just want to name that and that is also called out in the equity policy that we may sometimes need to engage and I do think this notion of actually like Amanda said
109there was another uh company that we talked to and they basically they got a plan you put together this committee get it you representative group they kind of come up with the competencies then you roll with it and we were like we all got off that call we were like this isn't who we want it wasn't reflecting you know that kind of deeper engagement and so this I think we we are looking to kind of um learned from a model where people are very deliberate about designing and understanding and listening um so it's capacity and also expertise um and I would say with the Consultants that have come in um which great or good and then through the work that we've done so far with KQ there's been a real um they've demonstrated um really
110deep listening and understanding even in the conversations that we've had so far I feel like there's been a really genuine effort to come in and I know like Ki for example interviewed the board and Dr Shaw and different Community organizations and um the work that has come back to us has really reflected that Vision that we've articulated very clearly from the beginning so we feel really confident about uh the work that we're going to be engaging in moving forward and then I have one more question why is the motion worded like this as opposed to we move to approve uh you know with the dollar I mean like why are we approving entering into Drafting and editing documents as opposed to being real transparent about that we approve approve engaging with greater good studio for
111$74,000 yes so we have a proposal as opposed to a contract so we wanted to we were actually seeking board authority to execute the contract but we you don't have it we don't have the a contract right now we have a proposal from the organization so maybe be say my suggestion would be to say to enter into a contract up to and have a cost yeah I think we need the money yeah right okay yes and I don't think all of the Drafting and editing documents I don't think necessary yeah none of that I think we're approving the Y contract you don't need our approval to draft an edit documents fair enough yes you're welcome to draft an edit we can change it at the table yes thank you that sounds good go off the
112minutes is the is the figure is that like the final figure or is there some potential for it to yeah I think um what Holly said is right up to um and not to exceed um okay amount we're at 74940 yeah so not to exceed yeah [Music] 744 do you want are we ready for to make the motion does somebody want to use their quick thinking skills and sure put that together I mooved Board of Education Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the administration's agreement with greater good Studio subject to a financial impact amount not to exceed $4,940 thank you second um more yes Johnson yes yes yes burs yes yes yes revised motion great uh now we have authorization for agreement Community Mental Health Board of par this is a yes and so
113um we'll probably need to take a look at this but um so we have been engaging in cautionary agreement with the Community Mental Health Board to make sure that we're providing mental health and Behavioral Health supports for students in our middle schools and also at times in our elementary schools and they use a couple of models one is through family education they also do individual counseling um they also do group counseling as well as care coordination to make sure that they're connecting families to um outside agencies should they need that support So to continue with this agreement and make sure that the students who have been receiving supports um continue to receive those supports this year um the sponsor which is or the I'm sorry the vendor which is at the call which we've been
114using since we started this program through mindfulness matters um is asking for $ 56,2 to support the district portion on that that cautionary agreement can you remind me which two I know the middle schools which two elementary schools this includes um it was Whittier and I I'm blinking on the other one but it was Whittier and then one other Irving Irving yes thank you what was the criteria for those choosing those two schools Irving's the best there a lot of mental a lot of good mental health thanks to programs like this at the time it was interest and also um support me so perceivably we could expand this to yeah so the this year yeah so this year the um Community Mental Health Board has an interest in efficacy so and we've been moving through
115it for a couple of years now and wanting to make sure that it's actually delivering what we want to deliver so their goal this year is to actually kind of do an efficacy study around this um so I think this also gives us some good information to say in the future um whether or not we want to expand um and how we want to expand and that was going to be my question like how many students do we have any data yeah on how many students they meet with on whether kids have graduated from meeting with them whether they've seen improvements in their behavior their mental health their student outcomes if we've been committed to this since February of 2018 so that is a question that we're asking um so we do have a there's
116a small amount in terms of individual counseling happening right now they haven't yet started the group counseling um care coordination they've been dealing with families so I think this is an important area and I think uh Community Mental Health Board recognizes that we really need to pause and kind of see what those outcomes are so we don't have them yet care coordination includes um potentially private counseling we just connecting to an outside you so yes it could be private counseling um it's mostly private yeah it could be wraparound services in some way if someone needs to get connected to a different service but yes um the majority is outside counseling but I feel like we have had I I can't remember his name um the person that comes from from person yes and I remember
117this first Dr um but has does he have has he provided us directly though some like we have a 4-we program we don't do we do we not do we know how many kids have even take participated in that so no so um and yes and those are exactly I'm just I just wanted to pull up because these are exactly the questions we had so the situation is that the funding is going to end this is why it's on a one a session um we we we were made aware that the funding is going to to end at the end of the month and there are students engaged and so you know we said well and this efficacy study is happening so that we can also understand and ask these questions around what the impact
118is and what the value is so we asked um Ebony and I two questions you know here's a spreadsheet template please fill out which students are participating this year and then if that funding if we didn't fund what amount of funding is needed so that services for this group of students is not interrupted this year that's what this number is until we get the Fidelity study so that we can decide if there's a bigger impact but in the short term we wanted to make sure that we didn't interrupt students that had already formed relationships no matter how small this the end size might be kind of ask like how how I can imagine that if a student as a case worker or if they've been identified but I imagine that there are families out that
119maybe having some challenges but don't feel comfortable coming to the school um or they may not have a case worker so how are there other ways that people can give these services without like having an episode at school so actually they're referral based so it's mainly anxiety depression so some of is internalizing behaviors as well as externalizing so yes um so social workers can refer teachers can refer um but also you know we want to make sure we're connecting to those outside agencies so yeah it doesn't have to be an externalizing Behavior every single time it could just be but I think um more strategic coordination and communication of what those resources are is really important and how to you know even at the CRC the Community Mental Health Board has an office there what
120does that look like in terms of uh student access and how do all of those opportunities then square with the ones we're paying for I just I think that that's the kind of questions we're asking and this efficacy study is one of the first steps as it relates to this program yeah so I thinking about like Middle School matters I shared something online I forgot what it was but it it's basically like come together with your family play games all this stuff and I was like oh this is really cool but I was like it was all the way at the bottom and I don't always go all the way to the bottom cuz I'm like oh I'm getting off the train or I got to take a call so just making sure that we're
121elevating these type of services so that if family's like I'm kind of curious I'm not quite sure I want to look into this so Middle School matters or something going home with the kids cuz I I'll be honest I forgot about this like I know Orson and I have conversations with him but other than that I don't hear about it no if you're I just wanted to say that um ebony was we we were invited the Community Mental Health Board is actually pulling together I think kind of like a um I don't if you want to describe it as like a round table of service providers and trying to get more coordination and I think the kind of communication you're talking about can be related to that yes I believe there I'm also planning something
122at the CRC to make sure that folks are connected to different things I think that will be a part of it but I think we can also continue to do our part to promote it um do do we two questions about the advocacy study one is is it just getting started now and if so like do we have opportunity do you have opportunity to shape it to ensure that it answers the questions you would want to know I think it's the Community Mental Health board's uh study um but I don't know if I don't know if there are I think they would be open to um if there are some questions that we need answered as a part of us making a decision for next year I think they remain open to that and do
123you know when study the study will be completed then will it be made available to us I believe it will be up over the course of this year um because I think they're also making some decisions about their funding priorities um and I can double check and make sure that it's going to be something that is returned to us as well why don't we get back to you about these um questions that you're raising thank you any other questions or comments just to reward the motion again you did such a good job last time have all right I'm ready all right go for it unless people I have ask a question all right I move the Board of Education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the administration uh request to enter into an
124agreement with the Community Mental Health board for the provision of the mindfulness matters program for the 2023 2024 school year for a cost not to exceed 6,250 second Johnson yes yes yes spr yes Mo yes Kim yes car Yes red motion pass thank you thank you uh that takes us to discussion items first one is Opa memorandum of agreement yep and so this one um is it is a two um board meeting item so if there are any questions we'd be happy to uh note them at this time and then get back to the board before you take action in November any questions at this point I assume you'll take them by email too if need be of course y all right moving right along press plus issue 111 and2 policy update so we'll invite
125uh Luis up and as he passes by I will hand him the clicker yes lazy SE motion some schematics all right uh members of the board thank you for your time this is my presentation on board policy updates with respect to issues 111 and 112 from press plus um just to recap we we went through this last time but I made a tweak to it this is the current policy revision steps or Road map you'll notice Step One is on the bottom left and the way the process works just for the interest of the general public they may be watching or present the iasb Press plus service send suggested updates to the school district for these two issues we received them a while back so we were playing a little catch up but after we
126go through these two issues we are all caught up officially so they send the Press they send the updates to the school district step two then is that the administrative team impacts the suggested updates and inv vets them that happened over a per period of a few weeks um and then subsequent to that per some input that was provided at the last board meeting we wanted to note there that then the updates are forwarded to the board's policy committee so that's uh board member Spurlock and board member BMS for for input and review and we can discuss those here if there's uh any input then after that step three which is what we're doing today Administration does a public reading of the proposed substance of changes to the board and provides the general public an
127opportunity to listen to that discussion and then finally step four is that the board votes on the proposed changes and upon board action they become policy so these two two issues will be voted on I believe in November because our next uh board meeting is a committee of the whole um for these two sets of updates for 111 and 112 there were 27 total updates with two subcategories the first being minor edits to language or legal citations only and there was 21 and then there are substantive changes and for this two set of issues there are only six following is a more focused look on the substance of changes for consideration um just a quick note uh per the feedback we got last time right here um there was a suggestion can can it please
128be noted to us which ones are required and which of these changes are optional so if there's a little r it's required little o it's optional um first one what first substantive change was policy 210 qualifications terms and duties of board officers um and that new proposed language adds ads language that includes in the president's duties ensuring that a sexual misconduct related employment history review is completed for the superintendent and that's perspectively um the another substantive change is 4.60 this is also a required change for purchases and contracts this one's a little bit more robust what basically and this is a summary the update requires contractors with the district to be bound by the following uh contractors with the district to conduct sexual sexual misconduct employment history views or ehrs uh for employees that have
129direct direct contact with students um they are also to discipline those employees for providing false information associated with those ehrs they're to maintain all records of ehrs and provide to District upon request and also um it prohibits contractors from entering into any agreement that a supresses info concerning pending or completed investigations um that sexual misconduct was substantiated B affects contractor's ability to report sexual misconduct to authorities or requires contractor to expunge info about allegations or findings of suspective sexual misconduct unless the allegation is false unfounded or unsubstantiated following an investigation wait can you go back for a second sure it requires them to expunge info or prohibits them from exp sorry here's how the it reads with respect to the [Applause] requirement Sor no you're good [Applause] so the the Public Act 10272 effective July
1301st 23 prohibits contractors from entering any agreement that one has the effect of suppressing information information concerning a pending or completed investigation in which an allegation of sexual misconduct was substantiated two affects the ability of the contractor to report sexual misc comic to the appropriate authorities or three requires the contractor to expunge information about allegations or findings of su suspected sexual misconduct unless the allegation is so they can't and so yeah I get it now the first I think the first part is what we're missing that you can't enter contractors can't enter into an agreement that requires the contractor to expunge in got it I see what you're saying it could have been more clear in the summary that makes sense it would be weird to require them to expunge information right yeah I see
131what you're saying but yes that I just read it straight out of the proposed you're welcome um substantive chain the next one is required also and it's in policy 5.30 which is hiring processing criteria and it updates language to require sexual misconduct related employment history viiew or EHR including the superintendent for any staff member that has direct contact with children and students and again the markup makes this clear well and so if we if that is a new requirement are we prepared to start doing that uh so and how does one do that so that's part of what we've been using the verant um software for and that came before the board about a month ago so that's one Avenue um that I'm aware of right but I guess I'm asking you in general when
132you call a prior employer can they can't say they can't say we fired this that employee because of sexual misconduct related issues so how does how they they're requiring us to put this in this is now sub policy 5.3 right we have to do an employee history employment history review for any staff member that comes in contact with our students how does how what what is their expectation on what that is beyond per I mean like you could you can't even Google it like I mean like so if if someone brings a complaint against someone about sexual harassment I sexual misconduct it doesn't necessarily ever get public especially when children are involved so what I could do board member Spurlock is I I'd like to actually explore a little bit more on how we utilize
133verant and then as well as how it's done here and then follow up with a memo just so that I can make sure I'm not misrepresenting anything to the board of the public but as it relates to your question and I would and I'm just curious about when they put this in place they must have had talked about how districts are supposed to do this or maybe not must have is probably putting it they may have yeah I think something that you probably see forthcoming very soon and um some of the resolutions that are coming down from ISB is some of the discussion amongst districts they're asking the very same questions you are how is this actually done in practicum day to day I mean I guess you can ask right when you if it's
134criminal you'll find it well no but I mean you can ask the individual go um right right we all get asked those questions signed under penalty of law to be truthful if you've ever been arrested I wonder you can ask if they've been charged and then if you find out later they have then they've can fire them I don't know I'm just thinking about ways you could get to and there's sure so like I said what I would like to do is prepare law how to do it and then that way I can share it with the board and then if there's addition questions and I'll dig through but that is the proposed markup for 5.30 man continue yes please um also 5.90 abuse and neglected reporting um it requires evidence-based training on sexual misc
135comic that's defined in Fates law that's done on various levels already with the district um including gcn um as well as myself trading with staff B updates superintendent responsibilities reporting to the state superintendent um includes sexual misconduct under Faith law and see updates notification requirements to parents when staff member has engaged in sexual misconduct including when the board takes action on those cases and this was also required as noted on the little r on the bottom right of the slide and then 5.15 Personnel records updated language requires that the district manage responses there you go to employer requests for sexual conduct related to employment history review in accordance with Fate's law um another piece that I would probably that I will include in that memo is as you all know in addition to these board
136policy proposed changes they also send us draft administrative documents most likely there will be suggestions on how the admin would be implementing this on a day-to-day basis and ICL that in the memo of the board and then lastly uh there was a member of the public was Katie Nunan who made mention of this and this is basically an optional up proposed change but our Administration was adamant that it's a good idea for us to adopt um and the proposed change provides guidance on the district's Library content referencing the American library association's library Bill of Rights and notes that parents can use the uniform grievance procedure to complain about Library content and requires criteria to review those complaints and that's already included in our existing uniform grievance procedure um and then just the last note here
137is that the next issue that we have we will be back on target after this is approved by the board and remember there's also another board meeting if any of you think of any questions as it relates to this group of proposed edits we can address them at that time but SE uh policy issue 113 will be large so it will not be a short presentation such as this one and I anticipate more robust discussion with the the members of the board and that's that's all I have thank you thank you is um just quickly the the optional one is the language of that policy will that be on the or can it be on the agenda for our next board meeting sure to discuss the actual language I mean I don't know that it
138warrant discussion but it would just be useful I think given that that's the one where it's discretionary to see the proposed policy yes I can include that thank you you're welcome we should also note that our librarians are supportive of it too yes does this require a motion no this is just for presentation today and discussion okay and as I was sharing if you think of anything additional uh prior to the next board meeting or then we'll vote at the next Bo but at the but because I understand voting on The optional do we have to vote on the require yes they're proposed right they are proposed the board votes to adopt them as proposed most of it just goes on consent agenda okay all right excuse thank you thank you uh that takes us
139to board assignments standing board assignment reports facilities advisory committee has not met um Financial oversight Review Committee not since the last meeting sorry sorry I'm talking out loud going to herself oh okay teacher advisory committee hasn't met uh we talked about portrait of eighth grade graduate today quite a bit sustainability as um usma alluded to earlier Nancy and I and usma and Luis and Sheila and others and also Gary Kine from seven Generations ahead have continued our discussions around sustainability and have been um last time we met which I think was last week we looked at a draft policy and had a good discussion around it um so I think next steps there to make some some tweaks based on that discussion share it with Colleen and Holly for uh review and feedback and then
140we'll have I don't know that the policy itself necessarily is going to come to the table at that Committee of the whole meeting but we'll at least have a disc discussion around the sustain sustainability more broadly and our thinking around it in the district would you like me to reach out to see if um the Oak Park if Marcel from the village can come to kind of provide that as a kind of a an overview I think that would be great I think it could also be really helpful to have Gary there too oh yeah um policy committee anything beyond what we just t talked about no all right intergovernmental a on reports iov uh iov has a meeting on Saturday so I will have a report after that thank you parent teacher organization Council
141there's a meeting on Monday the 16th um is the donation policy on the agenda for that one or is that we us that one I have not seen the agenda if I'm being completely honest no it's not okay um collaboration for Early Childhood nothing at the moment OPF so op oh never mind uh there was a meeting I forget when I want to say last it had to be last month end of last month um and they talked about the numbers for base camp as well as some other things that they're doing how to expand the program there was a ton of interest because the programs are awesome um and they talked about their funding so just like a overview of like the program what happened and what they're hoping for uh looking for and
142some of their um fundraising efforts to see if you know these are still uh viable opportunities or should they kind of shake things up a little bit so really good conversation thank you um Park River Forest Community Council so Community Council meets now so it is difficult like literally right now like literally the same day roughly the same time so um because of that I have been in contact with the D200 board member um to try to liaz and and share information um I did look at the last report given um on the agenda from the school which was some of the referral data essentially the discipline data and it is still highly disproportionate um with in terms of by race um I don't know what the discussion was of that or the details I
143can only look at the report but I would like to get more information on that as well as just get updated in general so I will be able to share that with you once I am connect with the D200 board member but that's kind of how we're going to have to do it it just yeah sharing reports but if there's something specific that um we as a board want to communicate to that group of parents parent run just let me know um because we we cover a lot so if there's something very specific you want like maybe some more details about portrait of a graduate um I'm happy to make sure that we sh that information thank you uh uh we I I went to the kickoff launching last week and Eric Santos was a
144keynote and he's from Oak Park um and uh he talked about just uh Ai and education which was kind of neat um they talked about their upcoming initiatives for the year and they have an upcoming webinar on um districts that have a number of new arrivals um Mig students thank you um that takes us to board remarks so it was brought to my attention um I remember another contentious meeting when we first started about murals within the district that were offensive um so it's brought to my attention that there are still two so back in 1995 um the board unanimously agreed to remove those two of the four were removed however there are still two murals and Hatch Elementary um that were to be removed and they are still there so um I don't know
145what the next steps are I do remember the controversy um and I do remember that murals were removed but these two um are in fact still there so um just FYI get those removed really old yes mhm there was at jul it was Julian I think the they did I think did they donate them to the Oak parket that's like like that yeah well these are um or maybe they were those were mans and this is a different school so these are Hatch and it's it looks like it's yeah it's a mural so I can send it to you guys but I went to go see it for myself cuz I was like no there's nothing and I was like oh yeah that that's there you said there was an agreement to remove them or
146like how was that yeah so and uh there were like four and so 1995 and this parent has requested the meetings so L may have more information but she requested the notes from 1995 um but I said I do remember that we also did it way more recently yeah in 2019 so this is hatch so there were still some that are there um so I think we should certainly I'm going to send them to you now I think we should certainly look into this um because I do remember that have they been in touch with the administration AG yeah they have they reached out I believe via let's talk with the questions or email and so we're in communication and working also with the building uh leader to I I think there may have been
147some discussion about just the parameters around removal of and to your point um Jung WPA mural are there any things that need to be considered um you know from a legal standpoint uh procedurally so we are we did receive that request and we are looking into it and we are supporting the site to make sure that uh they're responsive to the questions um what oh I was just going to make a on my CL on my class in my class on Monday night we were talking about book planning and um I guess the board in Yorkville had a closed session where they pulled a book and so my students um yes just us uh just Mercy which is clearly such a controversial book so my so my students were asking me about yes so my
148students were asking me about board policy and practice so I thought it was interesting that we had a public comment about from The Librarians about um trying to protect kids' rights to read and I know like when they said just wory I was like really I was like that is a clear violation oh I I thought about that when she made her remarks and since you said it I like I am so glad we are who we are and we live here because you have a choice and your kids have a choice as to what you read to them or what you allow them to read and this whole book Banning the concept of this book Banning is completely unamerican in my opinion and I'm just surprised at the groups that have banded together to
149limit our Free Will and our free thinking it's just appalling to me are you really surprised okay surprise is probably not the right word but it's just it's it's just such a load of crap teaching critical race Theory I mean gosh right our friends at the library are getting bomb threats are they really I'm so sad you know shut down like in the Chicago area they including ours yeah including oh yeah few week I didn't know that there was like a second round so I um obvious very sorry to the events the last few days I think are um there's a range of PE students of ours that probably have connections to what's going on um in the Middle East and so I know that there's a range of connections and a range of feelings
150and just want to acknowledge kind of the overall pain that the situ causes um in our community and elsewhere I know my kids are feeling we did receive a um a message from a staff member asking us to consider um or you know in a very thoughtful way like what is the perspective of the district in speaking or you know sharing a perspective in this kind of you know given the context and um um you know Amanda reached out and we were just kind of having an internal discussion about how to address that and we've been talking with um as a Cabinet about how to address that and one of the things we appreciated is that um District 200 sent out a message that's kind of uh broadly about our shared values and policies around
151safety and um reporting any concerns and things like this so it's not specific to world events which could become you know difficult and you know to to weigh in on as a district but if does use the world event as an opportunity to remember kind of to your point Venus like what our values are and the protections and opportunities we have for um both you know getting that kind of social emotional having a a place to share the concerns and um and also the reminder that this is a place of of safety for everyone and inclusion and so I thought I think internally we thought that was just a a really nice way that D200 has addressed that and we are thinking about what that might look like for us well and I think the
152other thing is social media I mean it is it is really like not hard to come across really graphic and vile uh videos and so I think some of our students are likely to come in contact with it I mean I've talked to my kids but that's because of you know our connection and but I you know have caution them but I don't know if parents are necessarily they might appreciate some talking points too about for their family you just reminded me so I had a all day workshop but I was like I forgot to send a message to my staff and so my my thing is like we're not I know some a lot of folks have taken sides and all that kind of stuff but to acknowledge that this is a tragedy right
153so like I don't um I don't have a side I'm signed with humanity and so I think like from that perspective of like I'm not going to get into the politics of it but like at the end of the day like there are people um who are lives are lost and I was watching like last night with my kids and trying to explain to them and I was like it's it's difficult but the point that they said was like they didn't say like oh look at this person where are they from they were like that's sad like that happened to that little boy that could be us and so I think like from that perspective so that's the message that I'm going to type to my staff tomorrow um is that I know people are
154dealing with this different differently but not naming like getting into the details yeah so just U affirming the values and then to your point maybe some uh General talking points or guidance for families for parents especially um yeah I guess of children of any age um we can think about that I think the high school message was kind of broader it's a different audience um and so maybe we can think about what's developmentally appropriate given we'll work on that but I do to Holly's point because X has changed a lot of their policies with regard of content for a second I was like what Twitter forly known as Twitter I too was confused I was who that Twitter Twitter um you can stumble upon or kids can stumble upon some pretty graphic um images that
155they may not be ready for and I think it's fair to um give parents a heads up as much as we can and just monitor their kids social media because the safeguards that were once in place may not be there anymore yeah we can uh consider those perspectives when we craft something and uh we are we I think there was General agreement amongst the U colleagues that looked at what D200 sent that we wanted to send something so thank you we'll do that yeah thank you thanks everyone um so that concludes Open Session what do we what do we need to do to Gavin you said that this was going to be a very short meeting well you know what some of you guys were really chatty tonight so uh I feel like you say
156that meeting well when people who talk a lot complain about how long the meetings go W goodness right I don't understand why it took so long asking a question not that I don't appreciate the discussion and I'm not the one I think you don't I do very much um L what do we need to do to uh so this concludes the open business portion of the meeting someone can make a motion that we um adjourn Open Session to go back into session but don't we have to come back into Open Session to close the whole thing so I think we just move to go into close and we don't adure okay I move that we go into close session for the purpose of appointment employment compensation discipline performance Sy specific employeer legal council for the
157district Collective negotiating other matters related to individual students and litigation seconding yes yes yes Spock yes Kim yes Johnson yes more yes motion to go back to close session