001[Music] that's right all right um I'm gonna call the meeting to order it's 707 p.m on uh yes [Music] her Johnson is absent rostered it here Ken Hollis absence here more here here Kim here he's meeting calls to order at 707 PM okay um first up be a public comment and I do have a statement um the district 97 Board of Education recognizes that public participation is a vital part of our organization's success during a board business meeting community members are invited to speak during the designated public comment period on our agenda the board welcomes participation but does not respond during the public comment portion of the agenda those who wish to speak are required to sign in on a public comment sheet prior to the start of the meeting we also have the following
002guidelines be followed in order to allow sufficient time to work this business one when your name is called by the board president please step up to the podium and state your name for the record to public comments shall be limited in five minutes if multiple individuals wish to address the board on the same subject the group is encouraged to appoint a spokesperson please know that the board president reserves the right to shorten the time for each person to address the board during public comment to conserve time and give the maximum number of people an opportunity to speak three all speakers must conduct themselves with respect and disability towards others thank you in advance for your participation in cooperation um well you do have a sign issue I do yes yes we have one person signed
003in general 11. yeah all right thank you um for our maximum efficiency I'm going to read my comment but my name is Jenna Levick Jacobson I'm a hatch parent I am a volunteer with the local moms Family action group and I'm the spokesperson for our group of four um District members tonight um so first I want to mention that Dr Shah and members of the board are familiar with this effort to have the district 97 Administration provide parents and caregivers with information about secure firearm storage but given the scheduled discussion about the intergovernmental agreement memorandum of understanding tonight I think it's important that everyone knows that we have um brought this up to all of those agencies so Village leads this is an effort that we have addressed across the bodies involved in that collaboration
004so why are we pushing so hard to share the message about the importance of secure gun storage it's tragic but the reality is that in the U.S Firearms are the leading cause of death for children more than 1800 children under the age of 18 die every year are killed with guns every year has an average of five children every day we're all right to be concerned about School shooters the majority of whom up to 80 obtain their firearms from their home or the home of a friend or a relative so securely storing Firearms can prevent having weapons to use in the first place there are approximately 4.6 million children in the in the US living in a household with at least one unsecured firearm the majority of children in gun owning homes actually do know
005where the gun is stored and more than a third of report handling having handled their parents guns many of whom many of the parents don't are unaware of that um nearly a quarter of parents did not know when their child can handle the gun in their home home uh one study showed that 41 of adolescents in gun owning households report having quote easy access to the guns in their home and so public awareness is an essential component in making sure that secure gun storage laws work only one in three gun owners living in a state with the child access prevention law like we have in Illinois even know that their state requires Secure Storage of their firearms I know that d97 prioritizes the emotional safety of our students and that we need to confront the
006role of firearms firearms and suicide nearly 700 children die by firearm suicide each year research shows that secure firearm storage is associated with a decreased risk in child firearm suicide additionally 100 children are unintentionally shot and killed every year so we have to do all that we can to prevent tragedies like these reminding adults about secure firearm storage is one very simple but important thing we can do to build a culture of secure gun storage and safety in our community I'm glad you're discussing threat assessment procedures tonight threat assessment and identification programs are one essential tool that allows schools to intervene before potential violent Behavior can be committed I hope that in your collaborative work District 200 Police Department village board um and to fulfill your commitment to the physical and emotional safety of all
007students and staff you also include a secure firearm notification policy which is another essential tool to prevent things about violence um since the mass shooting in my hometown of Highland Park on July 4th many of my fellow volunteers around the North Shore have mobilized and at least four superintendents have already sent letters to their school communities regarding safe storage along with at least three police departments Villages using their communication channels to do the same uh recently Winnetka School District 36 officially passed a safe and secure helped start safe secure and healthy schools resolution just yesterday the McLean County School Board in Bloomington normal cast a resolution requiring their District to provide information about secure firearm storage parents and caregivers when I first started emailing all of you about this there were 200 students in the
008United States going to schools where there was a Secure Storage resolution today there's three million so this is the direction we're all moving in um school districts can help prevent gun violence by issuing notices to families about the critical importance of secure firearm storage and keeping schools and students safe our school boards our village government and law enforcement should work together to develop and fund programs that increase awareness of the need to store Firearms securely by Distributing information to parents about the importance of Banks foreign that brings us to the next part of the agenda which is the d97 joy yes this is the a happy part of our agenda so um as the board knows we have uh three priorities that we've organized ourselves around this year be curious be safe and healthy and
009be a learning designer and today we have and as part of that we want to elevate and celebrate our students and all the great examples of a joyful learning that we have going on so coming up to the front of the room here today is a team from Longfellow led by our student Linnea and her brother is here as well Sonia and Miss Reya is here in principal Jefferson okay wait you want me to sit here right there so Linnea has a plan for everyone thank you lynnea Great Wolf welcome us and uh we are just so pleased that you're here and if Miss Maria if I can actually start with you if you could give us a little bit of a background uh what's your understanding why are we here today well um Linnea
010has made a beautiful work of art this came from a project right at the beginning of the year just introducing the kids to just some simple drawing techniques and I think we drew I drew on the chalkboard uh Circle for each student right and everybody had two eyes and one knows and some of the kids were smiling some of them were very serious remember when we did that yeah and then you guys went back to your tables and you drew as many friends as you could right and then we changed little details to make them look like remember how Lily had little cat ears yeah right and then I read a book called I don't draw a color um which is talking about how colors can convey emotions in artwork and then the students were
011tasked with just assigning like a color to each of the feelings and emotions on the faces um and the kids were all working and Linnea came over and said Miss Raya um do you have any white out and I I saw her drawing for the first time in this um State because she had written w-o-m-e -m so we needed to correct that second and um and so she okay thank you so we can all see uh the picture and I know that it's being passed around we probably need to put that in something instead of a delicate piece of artwork there when we look at this picture what can you tell us about about the picture that's there well when I was making this piece of artwork I remembered that women have feelings and just
012like not just men and the women are important and that I remembered how in the past men didn't trust women you had something you definitely you knew you had you had something to say and you wanted to and you were able to say it through your artwork yeah yeah well when we I want I wonder Miss Jefferson as you think about um the Arts in your school um you know what what are some of your thoughts or observations in terms of um the role of Arts in in your leadership at your school um I think for one it's clear that line is ahead of her time and some of her thoughts and how her thoughts are you know orchestrated and some of the drawings that she's done Miss Ray has done a wonderful job of
013creating making sure that art has a space for artistic expression and that students are able to really Express themselves themselves and dig a Little Deeper past just surface drawings and so this was really profound in so many ways which is why we were you know thrilled to support her and just making sure that all kids continue to have the ability to express themselves in this way and be supported by that what's going to happen next overall Mr I had called me on a Saturday morning and said did you see my Facebook message to you and I was like oh I meant gymnastics for a living and it's a lovely look and it was I was like oh this is her artwork oh my goodness and she said well I had posted it in a nationwide
014it's like an Elementary art teachers group it's an amazing resource actually and she said people are asking for t-shirts a lot of them and I was like like how many she's like well we're at like 700 now and I was like okay I can't screen grin 700 t-shirts myself but perhaps we know someone who may be able to and um she reached out to Megan Lee who has done projects for Lively and another parent locally to do like small batch but you know comparatively small for what we could do um and she loved the glenea's artwork so much she you know this is a busy time with holidays creeping up that she agreed to fit in a collaboration and so we want to donate a portion of all the sales to um because there were
015a few like there were a few choices we were toying around with but we really wanted the biggest impact for the most women family oriented organization that's as local as possible and that like it was just like oh Sarah is it Sarah's in Sarah's in overlapping because we've done Animal Care League before and we've done a bunch of other fundraisers personally so it was like terrorism just went fit all of those overlapping so we're pretty proud of and I think the message just really resonated like during this time in our world yeah it's been a hard summer that's what I think we've had a lot of poem conversations this summer about about a lot of heavy issues and and you know that coming through coming through in this like very clear way it was really
016cool to see her you know channels of that so I think the other thing as we were listening to you is it's the partnership between the home and the school and how do we do what's exemplified here which is to be partners with each other to support and uplift our young animals and each other um you know we were all working through things and I think lynnea what you've done here is you have um also created a way for all of us to come together and um and remember how important the Arts are and how important it is to express ourselves in a in a positive way so I hope you know how proud We Are of you how does it make you feel that 700 people wanted your your picture on a t-shirt what
017does that mean what did you think and like that people like my artwork and wanted to get t-shirts is that um I was feeling proud of myself we want you to feel proud of you we are proud of you and we want every student to feel like you feel and we thank you for being a leader and coming up here so bravely to to speak about your experience so thank you and thank you to office [Music] foreign Elementary District elementary school district 97 approve the consent agenda as present second Frost driven yes our class in this asset can help us accent scrub yes okay yes more yes yes Motionless um up next we have the approval of the mou the OTA um Holly and Nancy as board members have been on the negotiations team and
018they are going to speak out that process or the sure yeah um so we are excited to be approving an mou with obta for a two-year extension of the 2018 to 2022 collective bargaining agreement um and so this two-year extension will uh provide for there's a lot of information that'll come out in the details of the contract um but most importantly as most of the terms stay the same except for that there will be a increase from 1.5 percent CPI to two percent raise for all teachers um and then there's also a stipend for teachers for retention during covet um depending on that statement will vary depending on the number of years of service um there's also some other um additions that are intended to make sure that um that some of the teachers based
019on the structure of the contract that everybody is getting an increase um I but and those things are are important and in two years the extension will expire and will start to have a conversation about a four contract but I think what's really important is Nancy and I had the opportunity to spend 10 months with about 15 of our teachers Miss Rayo is one of them that she already left um and spend time with the negotiating team and the obta leadership and um and the admin team and reinforce kind of everyone's commitment to our students but also really reflect on how hard the last few years with covet has been and rather than create kind of a four-year new contract while we've got Dr Shaw just started and we're coming off of like a collectively
020difficult time that we were able to reach an agreement to do a two-year extension and reconvene and revisit all of the reasons we are here um sometime starting in the school year of 2023 and so personally um the opportunity to kind of get to know even a small group of teachers better is always an enjoyable thing it's always kind of makes you realize just how the magic why the magic happens in the classroom and how important our teachers are and um we did our best in this time to reach agreement to to carry on um and then be ready for next time any questions okay I move that the Board of Education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the mou with opta for a two-year extension of the 2018-2022 collective second Gus Carney
021yes more yes Spurlock yes asset roster yes um up next then we have a discussion of the art presentation on the undergovernmental agreement yes um so at this time we'd like to welcome my colleagues uh to the front of the room here we have uh superintendent Greg Johnson as well as Village manager Uh Kevin Jackson so come on up and uh Chief uh Johnson will you be coming up as well come on Chief Johnson is here as well foreign [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] all right great well um thank you uh to my colleagues uh guests for being here we the purpose of today's presentation the title here is evolving our partnership this is our try agency that's the village of District 97 and District 200 and our effort here to balance uh the community's calls for
022school safety on the one hand and racial equity on the others and what that means to bring those two concepts together in a way that may not have existed in the past and so what we are doing uh today is uh sharing about a proposed intergovernmental agreement and we'll share at the end kind of a timeline of next steps but our plan is to co-present this information in um at the other bodies as well um so we think it's important we wanted to start with uh with this statement that our understanding is that we are all charged to support the young people of our community and uh it's with that that spirit and that understanding that that this work um has been started so the uh guiding values and beliefs here wanted to just take
023a moment um let me just pause and instead of reading them um I'd like to ask everyone to just take a a couple minutes here to read them on your own foreign kind of the concepts and the values that are here to pull out some specific uh Concepts that really come to the surface that physical and emotional safety we are talking about that holistic understanding of our of our youth creating situations that are both safe and supportive um really thinking about how we are sharing our strengths within the community to elevate our support of young people creating new Pathways to communicate and to collaborate and to being really youth centered systemic and anchored in racial justice as we do this work that we are very conscious as we do this work about the the racial
024inequities that are evident in our country around how discipline happens in schools and um and how you know the history around policing in our country we are aware of those things and also affirming our partnership to to come together to to support young people so uh this slide here has uh not everything of course that's in the IGA but it highlights the key Provisions that our most uh prominent uh throughout the IGA and um I'm not going to again just like the last slide read each of these things in great detail for you I'm going to say four words here right or four Concepts to think about these four bullets uh we're talking about statutes and limitations on those statutes in the IGA what are those things required of us by law and what limitations
025are we putting in on those uh are we recommending putting in based off of uh past practice what we understood is best on what those limitations how those limitations are commonly implemented elsewhere the statutes limitations the people uh in both agencies you know in all three agencies who would be responsible for carrying those things out and then of course specifically the last one talks about threat assessment team specifically something that is uh is is referenced in state code uh that we need to make sure that we respond to appropriately in our campus so it's really statute limitations the people and the threat assessment teams those are the key four components uh that are in this and I want to highlight um because of the shared partnership that we have here I just want to underscore
026something that we realize to be true from the very beginning um that we are talking about K-12 students here right the provisions that we see outlined on this slide are ones that are appropriate for both districts regardless of of any other differences that might exist okay so it's part of the the partnership we we quickly read that we want to make sure that we're communicating clearly about what this IGA means and what our relationship means as partners in implementing this IGA so we prepared this FAQ which is contained in your your materials and available to the public on the web and you know go go through uh all of the the questions that are there uh specifically but just a few points uh again it's really you know we're trying to ensure Clarity on the
027purpose of the IGA as well as the provisions and then we really want to make sure that uh there's Clarity on what these what those Provisions actually mean what are the implications for our students what are the implications for our police Personnel uh and again we made a commitment uh in this partnership that we would apply a racial Equity lens in the development of this IGA and we certainly did that we included The Village's uh Chief diversity equity and inclusion officer in the analysis of putting this together but I want to say that it's not just about development of the IGA it's also about how we go about implementing this IGA as well so this partnership we envision affirming a relationship where we you know we're working together iteratively uh and making sure that we're
028implementing the principles of racial Equity as we move forward uh you know if should you know each of our jurisdictions actually support moving forward with it you can go to the next slide here what we're doing this is a part of the communication in the fhu but what we're simply pointing out here we just want to emphasize to everyone that's concerned about this this IGA and the general public that this is not um a return this idea does not include any return to officers in the schools on a regular basis right so um we we are we are not uh there will not be a presence of officers in the united seven schools at D200 on a regular basis this is really about establishing as the slide suggests a clear channels of communication between us
029as partners on a regular basis and making sure that we have effective procedures uh to to allow for that to enable that um and uh we acknowledge that uh wow um we have we will have these procedures to enable that that will actively work together to address the issues that may arise in the process so um we also recognize this is going to be an ongoing Community dialogue and so we anticipate that there's going to be affirmations of some of the what we've shared as well as very critical questions and we expect and welcome that um we know in a few minutes we'll ask and open for questions from the board we've received some already and it we just wanted to share very upfront that you know there are questions that we can engage with
030and answer around our process the intention that you know happy the principles that are guiding this work we're happy to do that however other questions what we've committed uh with each other is that we will record any questions and then we're going to reconvene after we make all of these presentations look at the questions we've received from different board members and craft responses together and then include them as our FAQ so they're very transparently shared but we want to make sure that we're aligned in our responses and not just answering questions too answer them but really having high levels of Integrity around our process with that um so with that you know we are as I mentioned um going to the public board meetings for each of the three bodies we also will be you
031know have had a parent-teacher advisory committee around this topic we that is not no longer functioning at this time through covid however we are going to stand up that parent-teacher advisory committee to use as an ongoing process to you know to inform how all of this uh takes shape and then we also have our commitment to two-way communication of course for you know members of the community Through let's talk and other ways to and through the board to provide feedback and questions to us as well and we're committed to to that process and then finally here is a slide I mentioned that we kind of have a plan we are here at the first uh row today at District 97's uh oh yeah I'm sorry well I'm changing the slides in my own world um
032but I'm sorry thank you John so that was uh the different ways that we are um uh the public board meetings uh we're going to start the parent teacher advisory committee to advise and along uh and then the two-way communication and then this is the timeline so we're at that first row um next on October 13th and then the 17th we will be presenting the same presentation um at the district 200 and the village and then we'll be back here um in between there we will answer all of your questions that you posed um and then be back here um to bring It Forward for a vote to each of the three bodies in the same order so we'd like to thank you for the opportunity to serve and we're really using this word evolve
033and want to thank our colleague uh Jim Hackett who serves in our district for kind of introducing this idea that what needs to happen here is an evolution of our thinking in terms of how do we come together to elevate Youth and to create safe schools that are also racially just so with that we welcome your questions John do you have a particular order you want to go in is well I will start so um I appreciated what you said about that this is a contract for K-12 but it actually did not see any kind of Distinction in how we treat a kindergartner or a senior it seems um to me that there is a very big difference between elementary and middle and high school and would appreciate some information on how that's going to
034be clearly delineated I mean literally the exact same conduct by a six-year-old versus a 17 year old should probably be addressed in a different one um you mentioned that some of this is required by law I'd be curious as to what part is required by law and where we are going above and beyond what is required and why and if we have data to support the reason why we would go above and beyond what is required by law um there's a lot of it seems like there's a lot of discretion left to especially school officials um I don't know if there's as much left to police but um and I'm curious about the training how we get consistency across the schools who's going to be trained who's supposed to report and who's going to make
035those decisions and I'm not I I'm taking what you said Dr Shaw that you probably are going to talk about these questions but if I'm asking something that you know the answer to I'm not trying to rush through them I'm just I don't if I don't know if there's any these I I reckon I'm acknowledging that these might not be ones you guys um some spec so I'm curious about what happens with the information it definitely talks about exchanging information but what's the purpose troubled by the idea of keeping records especially in our district of kids under 13 at the police station for almost any reason like I don't think I think getting don't have I mean I I have opinions about the high school but that's they're they could deal with that but um
036so I'm curious about what's happening with the information and um what the expectation is on the police if they learn a student behaved a certain way and what their expectations are on the school like what what's going to happen like is there an action are we just exchanging and if we're exchanging um as I'm a lawyer so like the idea of keeping records that could later be subpoenaed or used against a kid um later in life or to I don't know ascribe a pattern that doesn't really exist because of the way it's kept um and then and further on that like how is it kept I mean is there a Complaint Form who fills it out do the parents sign off on it how are we deciding the language that we're going to use and
037I'm concerned that without good trading and without concern for intentionality around that language it can be misunderstood if it is referred to later in a kid's life um what data is going to be kept about this reporting and exchanges as far as demographics and so that we can um stick to our assertion that this is going to be based in racial Justice and ensure there's not disproportionality will it be reported to the boards will be reported to the communities how frequently um there's a message memo there's a note in the memo that this is supposed to the agreement is supposed to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline but I don't I'm not sure how and I'm curious about how specifically this agreement does that and what um what kind of that is related to and referring to
038um have you guys consulted and this one might be one you guys are Juvenile Justice experts civil rights experts maybe disability rights experts um about this that's a question I feel like maybe it could be and if you haven't I I would ask that those sorts of experts be consulted about the IGA and kind of the impact and then to two specific points in it um one the section on interviewing kids with a school effect official and no parents um I can only speak for young kids I mean that's kind of putting I I'm very troubled by the fact that there's that that is something that we contemplate kids are I can't imagine a kid especially the young kids we work with being in a room with a police officer and school official and no
039parent and between their desire to please and be feeling intimidated to be concerned about what value there is in that and then my second specific comment is um there's an exhibit it talks about reporting incidents with teachers and I'd like more details on what the word report means is it a student interacting with the teacher in this way and or is it by name and age and who is it reported to and what if like who judges whether or not it's something that should be reported it's in the exhibit it's the first a discover on the table cabinets sure um thank you for coming tonight and presenting and for all the materials I appreciate it I also appreciate that we are trying to balance a variety of interests here and I know that they sometimes
040cut in different directions um and so um I just wanted to acknowledge that I had a few questions um one is I guess a broader question and maybe it touches on something that Holly said as well I appreciate that some of this is driven by Statute as you said superintendent Johnson I also appreciate there's a lot of discretion around how that those statutes get implemented and in particular as I read the IGA it seems like there's a lot of discretion approach as there should be I think on the district's part about when the district chooses when the district decides that something warrants police involvement whether it's an interview whether it's a search whether it's suspected illegal activity and I would imagine that if you were to ask people in the district when they think they
041should when and how they should exercise that discretion in their opinion you would probably get a variety of answers that strike different balances in terms of our desire to balance physical and emotional safety and racial Equity Etc and so I think one of the things that's important to me is to better understand how if in whatever form this goes forward what that implementation looks like because I think the agreement itself doesn't specify how we make those calls is the district it just sort of talks about well if the officer is there for an interview here's what we're going to do with the option here's when an officer might perform a search it doesn't sort of explain how do we get to the point that an officer is in our school potentially interviewing a kid or
042conducting a search Etc um so so I would just appreciate better at Clarity around those things and what kind of guidance is the district we envision um providing or requiring training as Holly said Etc um the other thing I think that's related to that that I would appreciate more clarity on is I know from from the FAQ from the discussion tonight we're not envisioning return to school resource officers but there is a lot in the agreement that assumes that there's an officer in our school like and if there is an officer in our school then these are the sort of guidelines around so I would like to better understand how I guess I'm just saying the same question in a different way maybe how and when do we sort of expect um those Provisions to
043apply um and I in looking at the IGA in part two sections Roman numeral three and four they speak to sort of like overlapping and in some instances like tandem investigations of issues and I would appreciate a better understanding of when we might Envision that happening uh particularly with respect to kids that are in K through a as Holly mentioned um Kevin can you just what was that part again that you were referencing yeah the sort of lettering and numbering I got a little lost in but it's it's it's part two uh sections Roman numeral three and Roman numeral four student behavior in school discipline and Joint law enforcement in school discipline investigations um I would Echo Holly's request for just a better understanding of sort of what the I'm not sure if this is
044modeled off other agreements or if it's something we you all just created from scratch but I would appreciate it better sort of understanding of what it's grounded and generally and then the last thing I'll say is um I would in whatever form this goes forward I would love for us to think about and operationalize how we assess whether it's achieving its goals how do we know we're effectively striking a balance between safety Equity physical safety of motor like what is what would a successful IGA look like and I think obviously probably situated in a broader context of what achieving those things in the district looks like but I think it would be great if we pass this a year from whatever we do to be able to come back and say okay here's what happened
045here's this piece worked out great this piece not quite what we envisioned whatever and let's talk about how we refine and improve it thank you so I'm going to go forward and say first I love that everyone is here at the table I loved this group of people I do think niga is a necessary and good thing to put together I think we've seen in especially in recent major school security issues that not having that Clarity but not having that team of people coming together and thinking as a team is hugely problematic so I commend everyone at the table for actually coming together to put together the IGA um that said everything is refinement I Echo what Holly and what Gavin said I your first point of that we're really coming together we first and
046foremost look at the physical and emotional safety of students and staff we also have to look at the individual students and staff in this and in this case you know I feel like there's some gaps in balancing this the overall safety in students and staff with looking at the individual student rights in this there's some gaps that if not intentional in there but I think there are places where for example as Holly mentioned reporting you know who is reporting to what when where why what are the standards for that I get deeply concerned in talking about having students talking with anyone without specifically having someone in the room who is there for that student like very specifically there to look after the rights of that student um I see that there are gaps within it
047that you know you you don't necessarily want something that's so bad but at the same point in time right now reading through that I could see different standards of what's getting reported school by school and that that concerns me um because if nothing this should the whole point of this is to bring clarity to what we're doing and I think this is still missing the mark a little bit I'm bringing that Clarity for all the reasons that Holly and Gavin have just brought up um I think they hit almost everything else on my list so with that I'm going to hand it over to Sherry thank you Nancy what I thank you all for being here tonight um I know you how we are tired from the long day at work so I appreciate you
048being here um that thank you all for all the things you said you took like most of things like my list um but I wanted to know how the park district plays a role in this um with the new Youth Center coming up I can imagine that they're going to be like spillovers um things that happen start at school may end at the center or start at the center end of the school the next day and so how are we working with the park district um to talk about how they handle situations how they're working in collaboration with the police department and d97 if there are issues that occur um I guess that might be a political about high school as well um I would love to see some targeted Outreach um at least maybe
049already like hit on the fact that there is uh there's some mixed feelings about the way we feel about police um you know I think Oak Park we're privileged to not have some of the issues that other large cities have but nonetheless there are feelings um and I would love to see some targeted Outreach to our black and brown communities um about what this is what this is not um so that people can feel rest assured if they're seeing police presence in our schools if they are watching this today to not say oh they're bringing the police back um because it takes one person to put something on social media and it spirals out of control so I think like being proactive about meeting with black and brown families to say like this is what
050this is and this is we're committed to this is what we hope to see I'm also wondering how this impacts um you know we've had situations where adults are uh offenders um last year we had something happen at one of the middle schools so how how do we handle that when an adult is involved in a school situation or students from another District um and then I had on the reporting because I think you you cucumbered it very well but when I first started the board in April 2019 we talked about not using students names if as if a teacher like reports it and at that time and I couldn't be mistaken I thought it was agreed upon that if the incident occurs in the classroom and a teacher reports it that it would be
051Jane Doe did XYZ because what is the purpose if we're not doing a so the report that's taken from the teacher they were using the student's name and we talked about that was problematic if there is no building at the the police or their purposes so I just wanted to know is that accurate like it if a student hits a teacher and the teacher they call the police what happens with that information do you take that student's name what happens after that because back back then it was a fifth grader that student's name and information was recorded with the police department and I asked the question like why like what are we doing with this what I don't want to happen is someone does something in fifth grade they go to the high school maybe
052they get into another incident and then they go back and say back in 2022 you had an incident in fifth grade um we're noticing a pattern okay I'll just say thanks for coming like everybody else um so most of my I think a lot of the questions uh so I'll ask the ones that are different um so I think for me I kept thinking I don't know enough about what g97 is doing to know what this is going to look like and so I kept wondering like what is the protocol for when we call the police um like when do we one of the things that we were concerned about with the sros being in the school especially with young children is criminalizing kids right away and so we would talk about the school-to-prison pipeline
053one of the things is like figuring out like so a kid when they're fives think they're gonna shoot someone right is very different from a 15 year old which is still they're not always thinking either but and so you know when we think about how we're defining what criminal activity is how do we take it within context you know what are what is the training that's happening within the buildings in terms of how people are because the other thing is we don't want to undermine or under underappreciate what kids are saying also just because they're young because sometimes you know young kids do horrible things too unfortunately and so that's one thing I kept thinking about like it's what is the protocol but I think to gammon's point there is even the section where I
054was reading where I was talking about like students or like searching students at school what the police searches and I kept wondering like when would we have a police officer come and do a search and not a school official first right and so again what's the protocol for when we're bringing in the police versus stealing it within house um I think my concern and I think one of the reasons we uploaded as a floor to remove the sros was to move away from automatically criminalizing kids so having more of that context and understanding of where kids are coming from and trying to understand what's going on I think and they're kind of in the same vein I was thinking about you know people have commented about the data exchanges and so for me I was
055wondering like you know I think it's pretty clear people are concerned like what happens to kids police records like when when the school passes on information to the police and kids have records on file but then I was thinking about for d97 what's our responsibility if we're getting information that kids are caught up in like you know Juvenile Justice or whatever is going on what does that mean for us in the district so are we increasing support services are we doing wrap around things or are we just saying like Okay this kid's like we gotta watch this kid right which is again not what we want to do um and so I appreciate kind of calling out the school of the prison pipeline but I don't kind of I think Echo and some other folks
056points I don't really see how we're disrupting it um in some ways for certain kids who are really vulnerable I think they're getting they're potentially getting caught up in multiple systems which isn't necessarily bad if that means you're getting additional support and services but is problematic if all it is is creating more Paper Trails and more ways in which they're getting caught up um and I don't think I saw enough pushback on like how are we preventing kids from getting further caught up in the cycle of some of this stuff and and maybe that you guys have talked about it it's there but I didn't see it in the paperwork um and so I think echoing um lots of things a lot of us have heard on the board about um parity or um uniformity
057for lack of a better word across the district in terms of how things are executed um or within Oak Park how things are executed because there's a lot of social media so if someone someone does something different then someone else has got something to say so you want to make sure that we're we're being Equitable and fair about what's going on and that's not to say everybody has to get the exact same information because that's not what Equity is but I do wonder about how do we make sure that sometimes we are allowing too much judge personal judgment which allows more bias but also making sure we have room for that judgment when it's you know um in the best interest of the kid and well thought through and all that um this is a
058really small thing but I was looking at this section in cannabis how much weed are people bringing in there's this like I mean I mean not to be you're not gonna to joke about it but like do you want a lot of that question there's a lot of like marijuana gummies and lots of things that are not straight like weed in the community and I can see kids bringing it into schools whether knowingly or unknowingly right and what does that mean and so like you know like in the coat I hope this is not too silly but you know in the code it talks about like specifically cannabis and specifically like a weight amount so I'm like that translates into like how much in gummies again it's like kind of a goofy thing but if
059a kid brings in 2.5 grams of gummies like are they getting a criminally prosecuted um and it may be that they don't know gummy vitamins you know we don't know right and so there's even this language around the intent to distribute it's like well I'm going to share my yeah whatever but I just made me think about the number of people I know since we've had legalization that have access to this and that kids have access to and that they may bring into schools and how does that get criminalized especially as a state we're moving to decriminalize marijuana possession um and looking at like you know vacating court records and things like that and so I just think about like some of that language in there as well hopefully that didn't sound like everybody's choking
060it up because everyone is no um I do have what the one I hate that term I do have one follow-up on that I know that the high school typically you guys do in school suspension if someone's caught vaping or something like that and so I wonder I know this is also happening at the middle school um what is the procedure for that and then the one thing I know few incidents of students at the middle school with gummies and things like that I think the one distinction I would like to have that I don't know if it happens at the high school as if they you know I I want to see less out of school suspensions but if they're in school suspension like what is offered to them to understand like why they're
061doing it how they got it who's getting it talking to the parents from what I have heard at the high school they're just babysitting in school suspension um and I don't know if that like actually is addressing the problem and I think that if you're starting in Middle School chances are you're going to continue in high school and then um Chief Johnson has done a phenomenal job I know she had a couple of organizations working with youth um particularly girls so are there any plans to continue some of those programs increase some of those programs to support the relationship uh between the police and our youth um because I think especially now there is definitely a filling of we don't trust the police so as we're talking about this like we have to make sure
062that our students feel good about this um and so I'm wondering I know like we have um we used to do like a basketball thing pre-covet um so what other opportunities are there for you guys to interact in a way that's not like I'm coming to your school to speak to you but to to engage with them on the community level if if I may I would love to answer that now um please under my leadership speaking personally I'm passionate about youth success so we've given the opportunity I could say wholeheartedly the police would love to collaborate to offer services outside of any type of criminal engagement to provide mentorship and just Community engagement and um I apologize uh for speaking out a term I know we said we would answer those questions later but
063I'm passionate about youth success so if given the opportunity absolutely we will be here in any capacity thank you yeah um I I have one other follow-up I know you mentioned the park district but um I guess just adding the library and the township to it also the township has the youth and intervention intervention officer um which might be another resource and and I mean maybe I don't know I'm not going to mess with your IGA but maybe the IGA even provides for like a decision tree right when do you call the youth and intervention Folks at the township versus when engaging the police I mean maybe there's something to help our school officials and everybody be aligned with when which direction the resource which resource is necessary based on what Behavior we're talking about
064good point because I know that Library struggles with that and they are reluctant to call the police but that sometimes it's like you have to call the police because they don't know what else to do social I mean they have like you know social workers and so I think basically what we're saying is that kids all around Oak Park should feel watched by everyone yeah you got a mom out there will tell a kid especially the slogan of this it takes a village we're all watching um no I think there's a lot of like really great potential and I love that people are discussing about like how to keep kids safe and um you know I don't I think living in a town like Oak Park that we're not going so out of the bounds
065in terms of like the things that we're expecting and um these are all just you know there's a lot of discussions and changes the General Social atmosphere and I appreciate you know bringing these things to the to the Forefront and allowing for us to have conversations and put it together and and one thing noticeably absent from our comments is kind of we trust the threat assessment part like we're I don't think anybody's questioning that if if stuff goes really bad like we want to all be at the same table supporting our kids and I think there's just concerns for these areas that are a little bit more discretionary and how to kind of make sure that we're keeping an eye on consistency and Equity but I don't think anybody even commented I mean I think
066having someone on the threat team and like making sure that our schools are physically safe and you know we're from outside but like when I you know from that from outside um folks it's about the the students and and the inside of the students and we've raised concerns so realize I did have one more question um with the parent with the advisory committees um or rather a common more to make sure that you are reaching out or consider how you are getting parents for those committees how you're reaching out to community members to make sure that there's a diverse representation on that on there um no thank you I we have a lot of notes and fortunately it's recorded so um our plan is um to be very um deliberate about every question you have
067asked and every question that we're going to be asked at the next two meetings um so um I I will just say that um while some of one of the themes that comes out to me as I think about and look at these questions is the call for systems building for culture building for Unity across agencies which is what we've started you're at you're you're saying you're not saying why why is everyone here together you're saying who else might be here and how do we need to think about that and I think that's a very powerful affirmation for us so let us come back to you then you then make the next presentation anything else from colleagues here from my appointment well said it was we're working on in-school suspension yeah I appreciate your questions
068and there are some very clear themes that come out of this uh four five maybe six really cute things that we can work on so kind of one of the things we talked about is like um it's great to like this should be a space where Oak Park leads and um figures things out and um speaks about what we're learning um in this place where we can contribute first of all to our own community and to our own young people here um but also hopefully to a broader conversation in our country and so we'll do that with Integrity so I'm really so grateful for my colleagues here so thank you thank you good job guys you see I love this table it's so cool thank you good to see you um and that brings us
069to board assignments uh scanning bullet committees by cork CCE claim I know we're trying to be the fact next week so there's pretty much the same update for Chrome is that we Dr Shaw myself and Charlotte all met with the leads of claims gets set up for the year and get things okay um IG intergovernmental liaison so I go ptoc CEC Ops Etc ptoc meets next week although you have the date maybe you should let the board know the governing when they have to come for uh what's it where the the track collaboration yeah the collaboration for the tripod yeah yeah I'll share the date yeah okay thank you um any other updates we have not um in a governmental we have not met but we are working on a date for I don't remember
070who the bodies were I think it's the night uh 1997 that's the tripod yes okay all right then that brings us to board remarks actually did you want to do your conference report out first or uh sure um I just wanted to share with the board that I did attend the Illinois Association of school administrators conference which is the conference that uh superintendents across the state um go to in Springfield on September 29th and 30th 150 districts my rough estimate is there had to be about 500 people there it was a pretty large conference um so attended a couple of sessions of note once one was on the portrait of a graduate and how they've used that tool in glenbard District 1987 um to really really Infuse this like what are we trying to do
071here and what's our vision of young people so that was a great session and then I also um attended uh sessions on superintendent evaluation and how people are making sure that it's not an annual event but rather checking in over time and giving feedback and how that helps to inform good practice um I would say that one of the things I didn't mention is that it it is what my you know to connected with a few of colleagues there to see about if there would be an interest of creating within that space Affinity spaces for women superintendents women of color superintendents superintendents of color because I think that would be a support system so I'm kind of initiated that conversation with a few colleagues and we'll see about doing something like that next year thank
072you for the opportunity to attend were there any board remarks um I just wanted to comment on the DC trip because it was in our consent agenda so um Harry and I have been working with a committee of parents as you guys are recall we've done the DC trip we always did it kind of in February over Presidents Day weekend and this time we are going to go May 13th through 16th that was what was approved um and uh we formed a committee and I just want to thank them as a committee of parents who also work in the hospitality space and fed planning so we have somebody rep that is like Pfizer event planning like big giant events Marriott Hotel stuff like that and um we've tried to structure the committee I'm on it
073as an eighth grade parent we've got parents of seventh graders parents of sixth graders I think I come up again as the parent of the fifth grader but the goal is to kind of set this committee up so that we can have some continuity and not have to start from scratch and Carrie's been a great liaison for the administration but what I think is most exciting is we've identified a new vendor that's a not-for-profit and the programming is way better than than we've had before and much more aligned to our curriculum goals um with one day really focused on kind of like policies civil rights um Social Security Health Care immigration those kinds of things and and they provide teachers that run workshops with the students instead of being like a sightseeing tour it's um
074kind of based in in learning and then one day is on government so you do a simulation of set it and you go to the White House and the Capitol and then one day is on American history and kind of covering American involvement in certain Wars and history we are going to make sure to go to African-American history museum and the Holocaust Memorial and then an opportunity to see another Museum and you know certain other historic places but it's been a really good experience planning and I'm excited for this eighth grade class and for um you know to continue oh thanks for the holiday thanks any other remarks all right then uh since there's no other business I'll ask for uh let's do a Voice vote to adjourn so all in favor of attorney say
075aye aye all right that's it all opposed uh government