Proviso Township High Schools District 209 - BOE Committee of the Whole Meeting - 12/2/2025 Part 2

001Good. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> Can I get a motion to reconvene the committee of the whole meeting of the Township High School Board of Education? >> Second. >> Miss Smith, can you please call the role? >> Miss Malino, >> I. >> Mrs. I >> Mr. Okampo. >> Hi, >> Miss Morris. >> Hi, >> Dr. Fischer. >> Hi, >> Miss Barberhead. >> I miss Smith. >> I thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> At this time, the board of education opens the floor for public comments. There are none this and Mr. Mo will move on to updates starting with finance items. >>

002Yes. So, I will be taking the finance item. So, watch out. So, Dr. Hill is not here today. But the only thing I wanted to walk through on the finance is this document that this packet that I put in your on your tables. And this is just the the our budgeted allocation for the holiday tournament that is December 26th, 27th, 29th, and 30th. And as you can see, I have a comparison from what we spent last year for the tournament, which was $117,193. We're proposing this year to spend $52,290, which is a savings um from last year of $62,000. >> Wow. Um so we were able to accomplish this in by shifting uh how we are staffing this not working um how we're staffing the tournament and so we're staffing this with our administrators. So

003we've asked them to step up and work the tournament. And so we'll have students that will be helping with our um with this with this tournament. We do have some limited positions that we will be paying for. These are our courtside staticians, our officials, assigners, scoreboard keepers, score bookkeepers. Um, but everyone else is either going to be students or it's going to be administrators. And so, I'm excited about this because it's given an opportunity for our students to really take the lead and take on some leadership roles. Um, it's also putting us in better alignment with what a tournament should cost. And so we did make significant shifts um for food service. You you can see we're saving on staffing of $11,000 because we're going to be bringing in food vendors. And so instead of

004spending that money on our staff or on staff and then also buying the food and trying to turn a profit. Last year we we profited maybe $2,000 in food. Um we'll be able to charge our vendors. We're looking anywhere from 75 to $100 a day bring four or five vendors in. So, we expect to make some money on this without having to have the cost uh of the staff. You can see for security, we're keeping our security staff the same. So, we're budgeting that 18,000. Strongly believe that's still needed. Um, but you can see the event workers is where we're seeing some big savings. Uh, last year we spent almost $30,29,580 in event workers. This year we'll be spending 6,200. Um, and then you as you go through, you could also see we're saving 10,000

005operations and maintenance. Those are things that should be happening throughout the year anyway. So, we've been able to better plan for that. Things like resurfacing the floor. Um, that is not we're not pulling that out of this budget. That's going to just be out of the typical operations because that's something that needs to happen. Uh, we did we did save some money on traffic control last year. We were paying the police department to be here to help with the flow of traffic. because we had such a low attendance that was needed. I think our security staff could handle that. Um we did last year not spend any money on trophies. I don't know how that was. So we do we had trophies. We gave them out. So I don't know why it wasn't budgeted in

006there. Um so we're still budgeting $2,200 for that. U some other things we're saving on is we're we're in house doing our own website design and so saving $3,000 on websites. We're shifting how we're doing ticketing. So instead of those those nice printed tickets that we we used last year and spent almost $3,000 on, we're going to do wristbands. So, you know, a lot of the tournaments that I've been to, you can buy a one day wristband or a 4-day wristband and you know, if you buy the 4day wristband just period for four days and it's that's typical of tournaments. Um, and so that will that's saving us a significant amount of money as well. Uh, and then also we're shifting the amount of money. So, we had a hospitality room um in the past.

007And this is the hospitality room is really for coaches and for officials. What I noticed last year is that everybody's going to the hospitality room to get free food, right? So, we reduced that budget from I believe it's from 3,000 to about 1500. And we're just going to have tighter we're going to just we'll have tighter insuranceances to make sure that only the right people are getting into the hospitality. So like we'll have different hand for them. And then we'll also staff our the hospitality room with either administrators or students. And so the goal is to have enough administrators to oversee our students. And so our administrators really aren't doing the work. It's going to still be allowing our children to take on those leadership roles. And then those administrators were here just to provide

008supporting guidance >> and they get volunteer services. They'll get some he'll get hours for that. And you guys are all welcome to take a shift. So we definitely need we definitely need the help especially in the evening hours. So we have um game starting as early as 9:30 and the last games are around 8:30. So we plan to be there from 8:30 to 11. So that first shift is like 8:30 to 4. The second shift is about 4 to 11. So, anyone that wants to help, >> we have like >> anyone that wants to help, we will take it. >> Are we sharing a flyer soon? >> Yes, that all that is information is coming out. I think stuff has started to go out already. >> Well, no. Were you able to find out when

009tickets? >> No, I did not find that out today. I wasn't I got the message, but I didn't talk I didn't get an answer from Julie. Okay. Any questions? >> When did we sign up >> to help with the shifts? >> Yeah, >> I can send something out. I sent something like >> I could send that form to you guys as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> All right, moving over to operations. >> Steph, are you taking this one? >> Yeah. Good evening, board. It's been a while. >> Good evening, Madam President. Board, >> today we're here to um present to you some information regarding a grant that we're looking to um invest our time into. It's the kitchen Patrick Ley farmtoschool program for Proviso Township high schools. The partnership is

010going to be between Proviso District 209 and the Real Food Collective to apply for the USDA farmtoschool grant. This will launch mobile farmer markets to bring fresh, locally sourced food to school campuses and our community sites. Create a hands-on learning lab for our students in culinary arts, business, health, and sustainability. Expand equitable access to nutritious regional foods for families across Proviso Township. Strengthen farm-to-school programs through recipe development, cafeteria integration, and nutrition nutrition education. Engage our students in market operations, logistics, marketing, customer service, food prep, sustainability practices, build our community partnerships with local farmers, and promote wellness through cooking demos and nutrition um sessions. It's also going to develop a scalable, replicable model for other Illinois districts across the state. So, this particular grant will allow for us to possibly even get a um food truck

011to show to sell and promote local farmers for the community to be able to purchase local farm fresh grown foods, vegetables. So, what we're looking to do with this grant is in partnership provide it to our communities, provide that that fresh fruit and vegetable um from other areas that they may not be able to get from. Um is it price probably going to be a little bit lower? It could be. But again, it'll allow us to work with our community. It will also allow us to engage our students in our culinary arts department. I have spoken to Dr. Ortiz and she's been letting me know here and there about what our culinary department um is basically doing right now and how we can possibly engage in doing that a little bit more with those students

012including our students that are here period. There's a lot of agricultural um concepts to this that I believe would be great for the community, would be great for our district, and for the fact that people want to partner with us with district 209 is is just a heightened awareness of where district 209 is at right now in regards to our nutrition department, which I think speaks volumes. I'm going to let um Roberto speak a little bit on this as well. Uh hello everyone. My name is Roberto um the nutrition coordinator with um provided 209. Um what I really liked about this project when the real food collective came to us to talk about this is I don't know if you've been to the Maidwood Farmers Market um that's in the Maywood library. They're the ones

013that run that. It's every two weeks. They know that the numbers kind of dwindle because some people don't know how to get there. They don't know where they're located. So partnering with the schools will give the community not only the student body but horizon surrounding areas feeder schools a area that they know that they could come and get food from east PMSA and west making sure not just one school's getting it but all schools are getting it and again working with the culinary kids helping us build recipes that now these parents know hey there's cauliflower on the market typically don't know how to use it but they made a buffalo cauliflower that we really liked. I'm gonna pick this up and I have the recipe and now I can do it. And it's all built

014off of not only us but with the student engagement. Even if the student wants to run the farmer market, maybe the food truck that day, we take the back seat and they take the lead. So >> awesome. >> I have a question. So because you mentioned the food truck. >> Yeah. >> So when the grant is over, what is the kind of cost >> um the district that we would have to maintain or >> So all of that is the real food collective. So the real food collective would be the ones that have the mobile truck, the food truck because they just broke ground on their lot to store all the food. We would just provide the space for them to come and provide that market and then the partnership to the students that too.

015Thank you. >> And I have a question. Um so is the hands-on learning lab learning how to grow your own food and in what season? >> We could definitely explore that with the farmers. um with the high network of farmers that the real food collective already has and the farmers that we talk with, they're always willing to come and talk to the community of what they do and how they do it and get these kids interested on that aggro life or just the logistics of hey, we just grew all these carrots, how do I ship it to Proviso now? >> That's a whole logistic area that we could explore with them as well. or even just helping our students and their parents understand what they can and cannot grow in our area and how they

016can produce their like in conjunction with >> right >> what we can purchase and what you can do in your own house too. >> Correct. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Then what we're also looking for into that situation that you've asked that is looking into the hydropods. >> We would need to find um specific areas within each school to be able to provide that. We did get that information when we went to San Antonio this year, how much it would cost the district, which is a nominal fee of $5,000 for each pod. But the that pod itself can grow anywhere between, you know, tomatoes and herbs and things that we can also use in the kitchen, which will bring our food cost down just as well. So, it's just something that we are looking into,

017but we would have to find the space in each school to be able to do that. And then obviously it would be able to allow us to have our students whether it's the culinary clubs or the culinary departments to provide their input as well. And even possibly from what we were speaking to other um teachers and other superintendent is they even use um the special educational children to help facilitate because that's something that can help them grow their mind along with the skills of the mobility as well. So it's something that I am looking into. It's just a trying to find that space within each school um to be able to do something like >> say but at very least there's outdoor space which could do things year round >> and again it's structure for

018us to do that because you grow a section of just leafy greens community as well whether we have the clubs go ahead and enough information and data to see how that went a year or two had like they were part of this as well but >> and uh for um are is there any interest the state >> and there's a lot of >> add to the the monthly survey for our lunch and be like how interested are you in growing food as a question >> and is it like a Cook County egg program >> um near Oakan that is agricultural park >> um and and you know district with regarding this grant and any other grant that we've been applying for which I think has been able to put us on the map and we've

019only been in self-operative for four years and I think we've come a long way with this department in self-operative to even be asked asked to be invited to be a part of a grant in four years. >> Are there any concerns with partnering with them or with the grant? >> I mean the main concern would just be potentially them showing up and no one on our side showing up to support them >> on when our you mean the community coming out. Yeah. and and even the students participation. I'll be there and then you don't show up, >> you know, is could be a potential problem. But I mean, if >> again, we're here to support everything about this grant. Um, so obviously if the students don't show up, then we will be there um to

020make sure that, you know, we show our support and our due diligence for this grant. >> Okay, that's Thank you. >> Yeah. Let us know when there's events in what so that we can come out and support >> that we'll win it. >> All right. >> When we win it, we're claiming >> and then and then we'll we'll all engage. We'll all activate. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have LT to talk about vit sports. Good evening board, superintendent, colleagues. Uh today for your uh review, we want to talk about the provis tennis course. We have 10 on the west side of um on the west side of the campus here uh on 1 Avenue. Um they are over 30 years old. We would love to get them upgraded. We have engaged

021in conversations with Perkins and will about setting up an engagement session with the building principal here, the ads hopefully the coaches and other administrative staff to make sure that we put all our minds together to get the best best outcome related to the design for the tennis courts for provides East High School. The meeting is scheduled for the third week of December which is finals week. Uh Mr. as a whole has agreed to uh that and he will be inviting everyone from the building level that he believe is necessary to make that kickoff uh successful. Any questions about the tennis courts? Did >> you say Perkins and Will? >> Yeah, they're the architect. >> So, you have to develop the design first. Once the design is done, then we go into the professional estimating portion.

022Then we take the professional estimation, give it to the superintendent of schools and the CFO to see where those dollars will come from and then implement the work from there if approved by the board of education. >> You have to put this out. >> Yes sir. So after the design that's when we understand what would be in the bid specifications and so I know we provided a couple months ago some quotes but they were older boats and part of it was just for resurfacing but we believe because of just how um the current condition of that the tennis courts are so poor that resurfacing probably would not And so it would would likely require full reconstruction. >> I have a excuse me, I have a question. When you put when you put stuff out for

023bid, what does that process look like? >> So, first the design happens to make sure the proviso has a design comprehensive. If we're going to do an in-house, then it goes to Dr. Hill and her team uh and Miss Turner and um Diamond Courts, they normally meet with me and ask me difficult questions about what's the deadlines, do I need a pre a pre-bid meeting, do I need a walk through and all that stuff is compiled and they share with Dr. Alvarez and Mr. Mod before it goes to Chicago Sun Times. Then they go to the Sun Times. Uh the minimum amount of days is 10 days, but you know during this season if we're going to bid anything out, I really say we should be 20 to 30 days because all the holidays. Um

024so after the interview with Mr. Hull and his team and architects, uh I would like to see uh a 20 or 30 day advertisement to make sure that we have more people time to look at it to bid on to have more potential biders. Do we also put it like on our website or anything like that? >> Yes, Dr. Higgle normally puts uh puts it on the website with Miss Vanderberg I believe is involved in that >> and uh that's communicated also in the advertisement. If they're looking for any bid documents or any draw drawings, they can go to that link and also the emails are provided to >> Are we able during that bid process to like reach out to different companies and organizations be like, "Hey, we have a bid out. Are you

025interested? We do actively do that. >> We do, but we normally I normally work with the business office and say, "Hey, listen. Can we these are provisal partners that can compete for this work. Can you please blast the email?" And the business office normally send that email out on on my behalf. >> Okay. >> Sorry, last question. Do we give preference to businesses that are that are in district versus those that are out or is it just whoever provides the best? >> So typically we don't do anything preference. Uh we normally do the lowest responsible capable bidder >> uh that can perform the work and have the bonding capacity to pay if they don't self-perform. Um but what we've done with FMP in past years is we would marry in smaller contractors with larger contractors

026to get WBE to MB participation. Um with the approval of Mr. Mohit and Dr. Alvarez, that's something we can also write into the bids bank. Um and I'm sure that you know companies would love to participate. We did have about a 13% participation rate uh with the facilities master plan, the $130 million that we spent. So WBE, MBE, and um veterans owned businesses, too. So it was it was a good program and a great idea >> and that's something we build into the bids and it's I believe it's an expectation of the state, but I would have to check the laws on. >> Okay. Even if it's not, >> it's something we would still want to build in. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a question for you. >> Um it's just a general question.

027Do you receive a lot of bids from minority contractors for >> honestly? No. Um we don't uh uh you need to have in my opinion um looking at most businesses that are successful on the business platform, they have like a robust administration team is actually headunting every Monday morning looking for advertisement for work. And it's those estimators job to grab those bids and and say we can do these 10 let's meet this deadline and they get together with their team and they ask those questions. If a business don't have a robust administration team to be looking for that they won't be able to meet the timeline or even meet the bonding capacity that proviso um needs to be in compliance with with West 40 and the state. So that's why we like to marry in

028with the facilities master plan smaller contractors with larger contractors because the larger contractors typically have that administration capacity and it's like a teaching guideline for the smaller contractors to hopefully implement that process within their business uh for the next bid. Uh but we've been grinding to get small black and brown women home be the veterans businesses to be it. The only one we got was one through Mc Williams that was uh supplying uh electrical components. Uh and it was a company out of Shilla Park. I forget the name of it, but it was a womanowned business. And then we had an insulation company through Mini Electric that came in and insulated a lot of our pipes throughout our building. But it was a challenge to get that 13%. But I think one thing we can

029do and make sure that is as we have our bid and to president Barb's point blast out those bids to local companies to or you know to companies that are that are owned by women and minorities and so at the very least if they don't have those headers at least we can help them in that regard to just at least at least alert them to these possibilities. >> I have a question. Um you know lowest is easy to determine and you use other words I think responsible what was the what were the other words the lowest responsible >> and capable bidder or performing the work. >> So what are the factors that uh are involved in responsible and capable >> it would be the bid specifications and then you do the scope of work. You

030ask them about their equipment or ask them about their workload. Ask them if they pay prevailing wage if they can provide cert certified payroll. uh if they can meet the timeline and then go through the warranty. Are you an authorized dealer of LG? Because we want LG products. So that scope review is always determined after we receive the bid to make sure that they're that >> in that guideline of being capable to complete the work. >> Do you want to talk about reading the bids and awarding the bid in that process? >> Yeah, sure. So all of our bids, we want to make sure that you know all the sealed bids, they come to the business office. They're delivered to Dr. Hill and her team in the financial department that provides mathematics and science academy.

031And we give a deadline. Normally it's about 9 or 10 o'clock on a Monday or Tuesday morning. Dr. Hill collects all the bids. Anyone else union, everybody join the call because they want to see what's going on. And Dr. Hill in her office normally open up each bid, show the bid to everyone on the team's call and then tally up the bids, put the tally up and send it to me. I send it to Dr. Alvarez for review and Mr. Mohip for review. Once that is determined, the Lord's responsible bidder. Then I set up the scope review. Then I let Dr. Hill know who I plan to award it to off of the capabilities of performing the work. And then I create a recommendation to award letter for and once she signs off on the

032letter then I give it to the company and I manage her construction from there. >> Is there a vetting process before you when when you when you put all these bids together and let's say you pick five or >> Yeah. So the very responsible capable bidder and if that bidder comes in and say you know what um on the state level I'm not certified for 20 or more people in the workplace for sexual harassment that's one of our requirements that bidder is at that point removed we go accordation to award we have had a few lowest responsible biders say oh you know what I forgot to put the insulation in there's an extra 70 well sorry you had your chance like everyone else we have to go to the next Who is the Wii in

033that? >> Um Uain and purpose no professional would design a brand new HVAC system for proviso high school related to the design and the components is going to go in the system and then our proviso knows what to do after everything is turned over commissioning the project making sure that everything is working per the manufacturer's design and then what we normally do we start the payment process u we make sure that Dr. He is part of that process on the financial portion. The engineers is all part of that process. >> I have a question Gilbane. >> No. >> Well, I was going to ask something similar where like how how long have we had because I heard Perkins and Gilane are our two primary in-house. So >> bring up the bring out the facilities master

034plan to complete a 10-year master plan for the district to live by and fund the first three years which the district did a great job with that. U then after that we brought in Gilane. Um Gilbane has been u a decent partner but we have no future contractual obligations to give them anywhere. Uh that's not to say that we can't whatever the board and superintendent want to do. Uh but uh we do want to make sure that we have partners that's going to be what I would say responsible to the district, responsive to the district and executing the work to the finish line. Um but we do not have any obligations left for Perkinsville or Gilane. We are in conversations with them about the district chooses. >> If we as a board can come put

035out to bid for a new architect if we so choose review or any like >> if we had any now is probably a good time to do that. >> Okay. >> And I have I have instructions on how to do that that I can share with everybody. We also post on platforms where contractors are actively searching for jobs like general contractors. We post >> No, that was proposed a few years ago. And what we were getting, we were getting companies out of Canada. We're getting companies out of local. What do we do? Uh and so we when you go outside of Illinois, you go to other states and other countries, companies need to understand the procurement laws. They have to follow all those regulations. And we did run into some problems with biders um a

036few years ago. I would love to see us advertise on as well. They are Facebook posts where it's all general contractors. But that's a decision. >> Can you can you say that you only want Illinois contractors? >> You can't can't be that. You can be component specific, but you cannot be Illinois Pacific. >> So you say like for example the um to bid on this you need to understand that D >> because that's what we have in our buildings. We don't want Mitchmat components. be someone that's certified and also an authorized dealer, but that authorized dealer can come from anywhere. Now, the the board and the superintendent can for sure reject any bid that we receive. U we received a $5.2 million bid a few weeks ago. That bid is going to be rejected with

037the approval of Dr. Alvarez work. Uh and then we're going to rebid it because we do want to get that work done. We want more than one bidder to be what we what I consider competitive and also uh to be vetted out. Um recommendation going to Dr. Hill to reject that bid and um move forward with rebidding that that scope of work. Provis we have 20 AD machines. Provis west we have 15. Uh we would like to upgrade these machines because the standard life is in between 12 and 15 years. The units that we have now are 14 years old. The units are due for brand new pads. The pads are will cost us for 35 units, roughly $4,700. If proviso decides to go ahead with this and get this approved, we will get another

038$100 per unit. Um, which is 35 units, which is another $3,500. Um, that's another savings component to make sure that we can purchase the units for Proviso East and West. Uh the proviso east dollar amount is 29,965 and the proviso west dollar amount is 22,47375. Obviously with a AED device that's 14 years old, you know, these things work on technology. Um they're no longer manufactured. They're going to stop making all of the pads and we need to make sure that we get the best AED machine out there to be prepared in the event that something happened at a large gathering or a sporting event. So, this is why we wanted to bring this to your attention today. Um, >> I have a question. Do we have anybody in each of the buildings uh trained on

039how to use them? >> Yeah, we have the maintenance department get trained CPR and AED every two years. And this year is the year that we're up to redo that. Our partner with that is Miss McCormick who is a teacher at Provis Math and Science Academy. She's certified and has a company that does it. It's worth roughly $35 to $40 a person. Proviso normally purchase all of the components to get that work done and then she normally do the class and provide a certification with uh a few other team members. I do believe it's mandated that the coaches >> coaches are mandated. >> Okay. Awesome. >> There's a mandated training from the state on this. >> so we have a large amount of people within any given building that is >> that know how to

040perfect. >> Right. Right. >> Thank you. And uh one thing I want to add to this AD machine is uh component is uh Mr. Mohip months ago shot an email asking me to make sure that we put AD machines out on our football fields and our soccer fields. So we're adding two east and I believe three to the west. >> So that's incorporated in this um update here. >> And were you bringing this for approval in December >> for the 9th? Yes. >> Okay. So, this is I know this is one of those where we're bringing it as a discussion item, but we're also going to ask for approval because of the seriousness seriousness of this and and through our normal reviews realize that we have some sheets that need to be replaced. >> And

041then at PMSA, >> PMSA was replaced last year. Uh PMSA has eight to nine machines. it was a little bit more palable to get that done. These are $30,000, $29,000. So, we wanted to make sure that we showcase this to the board because it's a large dollar amount >> and just not, you know, >> I just want to make sure we're not forgetting. >> Yeah, yeah, it was replaced last year. >> Thank you. >> U moving on questions. >> Any questions on the >> Moving on to the Proviso West track. Um over at Proviso West High School, we've been working with uh superintendent schools um deputy superintendent of schools to create a robust uh scope of work. We've shared that scope of work and have it approved. Um this will be going out to bid.

042I'm going to get together with Dr. Hill tomorrow. She should be back in tomorrow. I spoke to her this morning. We will get this out to bid hopefully Monday or Tuesday next week. Because of the holidays, I would like to see this out for bid to 10 to 15 uh business days at a minimum. And the reason why we want to be at this out is because the price that um we received from Kefir was $25,140. That is above the threshold for awarding jobs. We need to go out to bid it. Um so we plan to bid this. And also um we wanted to make sure that we had in the specifications related to permitting through West 40 because any jobs over 35 or $40,000 West 40 require us to have the lowest responsible bidder

043or the selected contractor go through the process. Um we are highly favorable for Kefir to do this work. We tried to reverse engineer some of their costs with Jess and she said that she just could not bring the cost down any that that was the lowest price. Uh so we want to go out to bid for this plan to bring this in January for approval with implementation the week of spring break which I believe is the last week of March, first week of April. The reason why we want to wait that long is because we need that five to six day window for them to mobilize, bring all their equipment in and also complete the work. and that is the lowest utilization time uh for the track. Uh we can't do it over Christmas break

044because we have the Christmas tournament and we just don't have enough business days. There's a lot of holidays in there. Uh but we wanted to make sure that um this was on tonight to um bring some serenity to your thought, Miss Morris. Thank you for and you and Miss Morris for, you know, spearheading this. Uh we want to make sure that we uh do the right thing and and get this track back up to snuff the way it should be. >> Is this just for the um the lines or you said 25,000? >> 25,000 was just the clean >> for just the cleaning. >> And it was 33,000 on the quote. 32,000 >> for the painting. >> Um >> are we going to go for both of them? Both both. >> Yeah. It's one comprehensive

045bid and hopefully what happens because it's two sectors of work that you're giving someone a large amount of work. Normally the price go down a bit because the job is bigger. That's what we're hoping for to get it together to get a lower price for both. Normally you have a lower amount because of the mobilization cost. Have two kind one painting company come in and one cleaning company come in. Now you got two mobilization fees, two contracts. You got about normally that that's higher, more expensive for the district >> because we were you were estimating that it was just 50,000 um just for the line paint. >> Yes. >> Yep. So right just for the lines >> I do believe that the painting is going to come in a higher and the reason why I

046believe it is because the prevailing wage dollar amount for painters is quite expensive for union painters and that's something we have to do. Um so when we get this out to vid I think the painting is going to be higher but I do believe the cleaning is going to be lower. >> Okay. And when we go out to be, will they know whoever we're asking to clean will know exactly the products that need to be used for this particular type so that we stay in the warranties. >> Yes. >> Because Kefir is the manufacturer. Is that right? So they >> Kefir is the installer. >> The Mondo is the man. >> Okay. >> But there's other fuller companies out there, but Kefir is a partner of Proviso. They've done a great job for us. Um,

047we're familiar with Jess and Connor. So, um, track coach love them. So, we we're pushing for them and they will be notified when this is, uh, out to be. And also, uh, there's a company here that the track here at Proviso East, I spoke to them. Um, they're they're open to bidding on it, too. And we just want to make sure we provide the bidding specifications to as many uh capable contractors as possible to make sure we get the best parts possible. So, >> thank you. >> So, I was going to take this one. And so, this is something that I'm going to bring to the board as information again in January. I'm going to actually have the company come out and share this information with you. This is a company called Alira. I was

048introduced to this company by a former uh board member for the state board of education who has has worked with them in the past in many of his his places where he was a superintendent and a lot of superintendents around the state are working with Alterara. So they do a lot of the work that LT does from putting things out to bid to selecting who's going to be the the contractors and kind of seeing projects from the beginning all the way to the end. But one thing that they're doing right now, so that's that's part of their business. Another thing they're doing right now, and I believe it's trying, this is something they're doing, trying to get people, I think, to work with them. But they're offering a comprehensive facility review. And so this is

049something that typically districts will spend tens of thousands of dollars to do to have an architect. I think back in 2018 or 2019, we probably had Perkins and Will come out, go through the entire uh go through all the facilities and say, "Here are all the problems. Here are the things that need to be fixed. Here's the cost for all of that." And they again, and that's how we most likely built up that. They're offering to do this for free with no no obligation, right? They just want to be able to say here here is a a unbiased review of your district's facilities. Here are the costs that's going here are the projects that need to happen and give us some some specs. Now, obviously once that happens, they're probably going to want to say,

050"Hey, we can do this for you, right?" But it's no obligation. There's no contracts here saying that we have to work with them. It gives us an opportunity to compare what we have now from Parker and Will with what is saying and can then it's a it's I think it's just a great opportunity for us with no cost and with no obligation to get some additional insight and I I believe in some conversations I think there's an opportunity for us to maybe look at a different architect to maybe revisit the FMP and what led to the plans because it was seven or eight years ago. I think things have changed >> and you know this is what they do for a >> name of the company. It's called Alter >> and they're an architecture. >>

051They do everything, >> right? >> They also do construction on their own and >> so no they will they will work with they will help you create the bids and then through the bidding process select who those contractors. They manage the process. So it's kind of like what Gil Bane does. >> Gilbane manages the projects for us, >> but they kind of do everything from helping with the bids, overseeing the architects, >> getting the community input. They they you kind of work with them and they help you throughout the entire process. >> Project facilities, project management, >> right? So here for me it's like it's just getting us another view. It's like from another company so we you know could feel a little bit better about what we're moving forward in because we'll have two

052we we'll have two folks to compare >> and so they're going to come in January and talk to the board. U I think this is a great opportunity. I think it's it's something that we should I I think we should move forward in because again it's it's no cost to us. There's there's no real risk. The only cost to us is some of the time that LT to do some light bills, some utility bills, walk the walk the uh the facilities. >> LT, do you have any concerns? >> No, actually I believe this is um proper way to do business. you get a comprehensive study of all of your building systems from lighting to roofs and provide the superintendent of schools and the school board a real snapshot of what's needed. Um there's a ton

053needed at these schools and we just need to have something like this for sure. It gives us a road map to follow and it's from a professional company and we can compare it to other professional companies that does the same >> and prioritize right like prioritize the work that needs to be So again, I'll have them come out in January and talk to the board and if we feel comfortable with this, then we could enter into that that nonoblation contract to say yes to this work, but we're not committing to any projects. >> That's cool. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, board. My name is Alex Ashoff. I'm the deputy superintendent for academics. Thank you everyone for being here. We've got uh first item here. Dr. Ortiz was unable to to be here to present

054this item. Uh but this is for consideration as an information item this month and an action item next month. This is for our early childhood uh development program at Proviso West. So we do have an early childhood uh development program at East and and West. uh east. We did not have a need currently at this school. All the uh the real care uh ba uh baby items are are up to date here at Proviso East. So this is 420 uh of those of those real care babies for Proviso West. There's a charging cart. There's many components uh involved in that. Uh this is purchased through the uh CTI and Perkins funds. So it is grant funded. Uh but I'm sure we're most of us are familiar with these. We often see students kind of carrying

055around uh th those those babies around simulating crying, feeding, diapering, and that factor. So, we are looking for this for Miss Carter at at Provo West. Any questions about this? We're looking at just under $40,000 uh for for the cost. >> When our when our students use them, is there some kind of contract they sign? So, if they damage it, lose it, is there any kind of I >> I'll find out. I'm not I'm I'm not sure. just because they're very pricey. >> They they are. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, but that was one of my questions. Um, is there any maintenance involved or any upkeep or after you know we purchase them? What's is >> it? There is Yeah, there is a warranty period with with them and there is regular upkeep and there's that's

056why we need a replacement. These are replacing models purchased in 2016. So just age there are allergy components in there wear and tear and after that warranty is kind of voided I forget the length of the uh exact term of that warranty but I'll find out on that as well and just the idea of replacing those older components versus purchasing now that enough time has passed it's it's time >> we should all get one during a board meeting >> oh gosh we'll see how it is No. >> Do the babies wake up at 3:00 a.m. >> at all different times? Yes. >> Go through sleep regression cycles. >> So, what's the curriculum like? They bring it home for a week and or like what's >> Yeah, I can I can find out more details around

057like the the the nitty-gritty of that of those curriculum points. We can include that in a weekly update. But, >> thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. Anything else with this one? All right. Next, uh for your consideration, uh we have uh Miss Angela Marino here with us to present on the summer curriculum writing uh for this upcoming summer. >> Good evening, board. Uh Angela Marino, director of curriculum. I wanted to talk to you today about uh the proposed summer curriculum writing projects that we have slated for this coming summer. Uh basically the idea is to ensure guaranteed viable curriculum in every one of our courses across all three campuses and all content areas. Uh you do have access through one drive of the curriculum renewal cycle that we have created a newly created that is a

058five to sevenyear renewal. Uh so if you go into that spreadsheet to tab two and do a simple filter of 2026, you will see all the specific courses that are slated to be either attended to because we don't have a formalized curriculum for the course or they need to be revisited, updated, revised. A few sample courses I could talk about uh the manufacturing classes that provides a west. We would like to have a formalized curriculum for those courses that have not yet been written. Um I also have uh for biology uh we were able to update the chemistry and the physics uh we have not updated biology and our science teachers are actually going to meet the co-author Ken Miller of the current biology textbook that they have and we've got teachers slated who are

059interested in writing that curriculum. We're also attending to work-based learning. What is that going to look like for our students in the community for internships that are meaningful in the family and consumer science department in the business department in the applied technology department? So where it says under scope of work 40 plus courses targeted across core elective PE health arts and CTE you can see specifically on tab two of that curriculum renewal cycle spreadsheet uh those filtered for 2026 for which specific courses that are there. Um again we're looking for teachers to be directly involved in writing curriculum. uh the research out there particularly from Robert Marzano who talks about how important it is for the curriculum to be written by the teachers who will be teaching the curriculum and that we continue to align

060our curriculum to the standards. In biology, for example, we have the next generation science standards, the nextgen or NGSS. Our current biology curriculum is not aligned to that. It's aligned to the Illinois learning standards for science that were previous to the next gen coming out. So, we want to stay on top of these things. Uh, same thing with lots of changes in astronomy and space science, in human genetics. Um, these are courses that we need to be sure are up to date. And for all these courses that are slated uh in this proposal for summer curriculum work, we have teachers who have expressed interest in writing the curriculum. So I wanted to mention that that we have the funding source identified here, a total investment of $99,710 which includes title one allocation and title two

061allocation. This is if we get enough teacher applicants who are credentialed in those courses who apply, go through our interview process, and are selected to write that curriculum. So, we're never guaranteed to be able to do all of the summer curriculum writing projects without the teachers who apply um and are accepted and again recommended to all of you uh to be paid for that work. But that is the best way to align our curriculum to keep it up todate. Uh to keep it rigorous, to keep it relevant, to make sure it provides the college and career readiness that we need for every one of our students from our diverse learners to our English learners to our general education students to our honor students. We want to make sure that we have that guaranteed viable curriculum

062that Rob Marzano talks about. So that's what this is all about is um your uh consideration of these summer curriculum writing projects that we have slated for the this grant money and then we can officially post those positions, wait for teachers to apply, interview them, vet them, and then come up with a list of actual summer curriculum writing projects that can take place with those recommended teacher candidates for your approval. So this is the first step in many questions. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. Um you mentioned that several teachers were interested. What the how you quantify several? >> Oh absolutely. So I would say of the uh 40 courses that we have um that we are proposing for summer curriculum we have at least 30 of them where there are teachers who teach those courses who

063have said hey Miss Marino I would be interested in writing that curriculum. So we have what we tell them is that we need to get these curriculum projects approved by the board. Then we'll post the positions on frontline. The teachers apply just as they would for any other stipen position. Uh we have an interview process, a series of several questions asking them about their curriculum experience and writing curriculum, their knowledge of the standards, what they would bring to the new templates which are updated for the gradual release to responsibility model. And then they are selected. At that point we try to have at least uh well I should say it this way we try to have a co-writing team from two of the three campuses so that you know provisa west isn't saying that provisa

064east wrote it or east isn't saying west wrote it. Plus it really helps with that collaboration so that the teachers who are intimately aware of their buildings and their facilities and their students can collaborate together and share that stipen. So ideally we would have two teachers sharing that stipen and we do ask them in the interview process if these projects are approved and posted and we get applicants. During that interview process we do ask if they would be willing to share the stipen with another teacher every single time they say yes. They're just excited to write the curriculum and update it uh with new textbooks which you've also received the textbook adoption cycle as well. So, we're trying to as a district align all of our curriculum to a renewal cycle, to a textbook adoption

065cycle to stay up to date with standards and with what our students need moving forward with these courses. >> Other questions? Yes, sir. Go. Um so for the teachers who are interested is there an expectation or uh knowledge of their experience with conferences with the state of North Carolina and several workshops where they were were about curriculum writing. Is there any expectations that teachers go to some of these workshops or sessions or be involved at at that whatsoever? >> No, great question. We of course encourage our teachers to continue their professional development in attending conferences uh day training that takes place prior to their summer work and that's where they are trained in following that gradual release of responsibility model. We teach them the Grant Wiggins and J McTai framework of backwards design. What are

066the essential understandings that when that student earns credit for that course, here's what they know, here's what they're able to do, and here's the vocabulary they're expected to know. Then they batch lesson plans. So they call it backwards design because many of us moons ago we learned to write lesson plans and then write the test and then maybe we would meet those or understanding by design or backwards design where they have to think about what those exit outcomes are that are aligned to the specific standards for that course so that they are able to write the curriculum and utilize the templates that are provided and then back on their learning objectives on their assessments um on their learning uh plans their lesson plans. So they they are continued to get support um from the office

067of academics to be sure that they're aligning um what they are working on with our our gradual release model um and that we're keeping the the expectations high for them. So that's that's the process. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Yes. I'll just add an observation. A lot of lot more writing opportunities even in I I've seen students in writing for math. I've seen history where you're taking history and you're looking at it through a theme of maybe power and control or right so like there's I think there's a really what I'm observing is a lot of opportunity rhetoric or English um so I just wanted to make that statement and I'm glad that we have this process I was able to find the documents >> oh wonderful that's great and just

068in response just very briefly um is that we have embedded in literacy and numeracy skills meaning reading reading and math and within that reading includes writing, speaking and listening because those are the four elements of literacy. >> Speaking definitely include that in and we had um chemistry teachers and physics teachers last summer updating the chemistry and physics curriculum with the nextgen standards plan. So, it's um it's definitely embedded in our templates and something that we expect our teachers to produce, our curriculum writers to produce because it's extremely important to continue to build their literacy and math all across the curriculum. All right. Uh next item is what we're considering is a pilot called Read 180. So, this is something that's going to be accelerated as far as on the approval. So you're seeing this uh

069for approval coming December 9th. Uh so just some information around this. So read read 180 is through company HMH. I think it's like H potent and hardcourt I think. >> Yeah. >> Yes. That so we're looking at this. This is also something that our counterpart in district 89, one of our large largest foundation schools, is also engaging in a pilot with them right now. We're looking at starting this work at the start of second semester. This is going to be something specific to our freshmen at Proviso East and Proviso West. If you recall, at the start of the school year, we made a decision that all freshmen at Proviso East and West would be placed into a study hall. We designed that specifically given the needs and where our students are and trying to help

070them transition into high school and making sure that they had time to kind of make that transition to work with someone on different skills and coursework and homework and giving that them that time. As we've kind of gone through this semester, we're just we're finding that that time isn't being utilized as as effective as we'd like and we want to embed some additional support layers in there for students in study hall. So, overall the cost that we're looking at, I'll get into some more of the details in a second, but we're looking at uh to not to exceed uh $74,500 here. This enrichment here, we're looking to address our literacy gap. So, we're talking about uh the different components here of of literacy and looking at strengthening those uh within all of our content areas.

071So, this is something that our study hall teachers uh that are supporting all of our freshmen would be given uh these tools and you're going to hear a little bit more about it, but this idea of online material and actual paper uh material that guides teachers through lessons to help and support in strengthening their literacy. This is also we chose HMH. There's a lot of research behind it uh as far as the growth that we see. We are very very pleased with what we've been seeing with Renaissance and we have uh been meeting our targets as far as that that SGP that uh student growth percentile data and how our students are growing. We still know and we've made some incredible acco accomplishments that we've seen from our Illinois report card, from our our different

072uh avenues that we've talked to the public about, but we still know that there are gaps that need to be addressed. And we are starting this pilot specifically with those freshmen because they have dedicated time where students are there to help support uh their reading and lifestyle uh increases. This is based around the uh science of reading. So this idea of uh decadesl long research in how the brain learns uh to and those different instructional practices that have been proven to be effective. So we're talking about phmic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. So their curriculum that they have this support uh tool is embedded all around uh infect effective reading instruction. We are going to be targeting and if recall Dr. Kermas uh presenting earlier on around MTSS and there was a beautifully done

073graphic around that idea of different tiers. So we talk about tier one uh where this is all students receiving specific instruction and then we get more narrowed and specific and provide more tools for tier 2 and three uh instruction. We are looking at students uh that are in that tier two and three area. So students uh based on their scores in Renaissance uh working with HMH to identify students that would need more support. So this wouldn't be something for every single freshman but only the students that we've identified that need that additional support. And then students that would not need this that haven't been haven't demonstrated uh on based on those last Renaissance tests those other students would be looking at focusing on. So that's our math support tool that all of our math teachers

074are currently using. So just embedding some more support uh during that uh uh during that period uh dedicated the other idea through these. There we go. So the idea with this is for the students that are identified that would best need this support with what H.M.H is providing and there's going to be a lot of training and support uh with our teachers looking at this idea of whole group instruction. It is differentiated. So there's this independent reading practice, small group learning, the student application and then uh different whole group learning. So it's very very prescribed for our teachers. So we know right now that our teachers that are in study hall may not be your English or reading teachers but talking and working with them and other schools that they are working with. This can

075be done uh by teachers that are not English teachers. So it's very prescribed as far as following that progression uh of that daily lesson uh for our students that boast that most need this support. I have a mouthful. Uh, any questions? >> Is it age appropriate for high school students? >> Yes. Yeah. >> It's not flashcards and branded materials and >> that have it's not >> so >> what we've had in the past. >> I when I saw this I did a little bit of background research to this because it the superintendent said it was what works clear house certified and I am what works clear house certified. So I wanted to check and I worked with before this um is very heavily researched over a 100 studies and most have found medium to large

076positive statistically significant effects. >> Awesome. >> That that meet what works clearing house standards uh without reservations. And that's that means a lot. That means there's randomized control trials for multiple schools. Uh and we have done and they've done the math to show that this has positive effects for students all across the board in all domains of reading. >> I have a question. Uh are there opportunities to get um like peer-to-peer mentoring involved? I know just for me in my own personal experience, I was able to be mentored by a peer when I was younger. Um, and it helped keep me at the grade level uh that I needed to be at. And so um is there opportunity to provide like volunteer hours for those students who might show um right like AP proficiency to

077work with this blended learning concept? We have yeah we have not to my knowledge looked into that or there may be current things going on but we can absolutely look into that as far as this is this yeah for that dedicated uh period for students with students that may be able to mentor and their schedules but we can we can look at >> yeah I was just curious thank you >> so earlier I think you mentioned the cost like 74,000 or something like that does that um is there a cap of how many students does that amount cover? >> So yeah, in the actual quote and I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but when we were looking at this HMH and through that research, they said this is for those

078students uh in and that would need both the tier 2 and tier three support. So looking at our Renaissance scores and identifying those students based on their scores that would need this support. I don't remember the >> 400. >> It was close to 400. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So again, yeah, got east and west. So yeah, they're saying about 400. >> So if if if the number goes beyond that 400 number, if it goes to 500 in a year or two years, that the price is going to increase because it's based on the amount of students. >> Yeah, it is. it is based on the amount of students and then the workbooks and the materials and access to the online materials. So yeah, that would need to that would be adjusted and that

079they they've expressed that they're yeah willing to work with us on that and and adjust as needed. And I I love that we're working with that district 89 is also piloting this because and there there must be a way for us then well 89 would provide us that data to differentiate between those who were in the 89 program and those who were not and see if there was any like significant impact in what we're receiving as freshmen then from 89. The ideal would be as more of our foundation of schools do this program or programs like this it would negate the need for us to do this without >> right so we're we do have as you know we've looked at the data we have significant amount of students that are coming to us with

080with these gaps right so without a program like this you know our teachers are really not adept to helping fill in some of those foundational gaps because when you look at the Illinois learning standards foundational standards stop fifth grade right and we we still have students that are coming to us with some of these foundational gaps. So, this is an age appropriate way to help fill in some of those areas of skills that they've missed along their 8ear journey. >> And if it's truly successful and we see that in 89 and in 209, we can hopefully talk to a lot of our foundation move together and then we would phase that out right as but that's >> several years. >> We want to see how the pilot goes first, right? We're hopeful as >> Yeah,

081I know. This is a highly re It's a highly researched program. I've used it before in other places and we saw great results with it >> and our study hall teachers are capable of like seamlessly providing this. >> Yeah, we've yeah there will be training uh with this and we have looked at the actual lessons themselves and how it's aligned and it's aligned with GRR which is a model that we're >> right. Okay. >> And again, it's it's a pilot for this for this semester and then looking to kind of uh see see what that results in and what we'll recommend for the next school year >> because the idea would be to go the opposite direction, right? Like not more students, less students, right? Who because we're bringing them up to >> everyone. Yes.

082And then at the end of the semester, we'll see the paired t test scores about was it? Yes. >> Yes. Yeah. So we Yeah. As we're continuing to use Renaissance Star, we have a fall, a winter, and a spring uh assessment. So that winter assessment is going to be coming up here soon. We're going to be in that window soon. And then so we'll be able to use those two test results and then see how they are progressing from uh to the end of the year in the spring. >> Great. Also, You may want you may just want to also mention that the platform is also collecting data in all of these areas consistently. So each week, so we really don't necessarily have to wait until we get to that spring star test, okay? >>

083Because that's going uh that's also going to shift and allow us and we'll know how our students are doing as we're going every two weeks, every three weeks. So >> this the platform is set up to be able to give you all of those analy data, >> right? Yeah. So yeah to that and for everyone listening or anything that's Miss Lee our our technology integrationist who's been along uh with us on this process. Thank you Miss Lee. So yeah the idea that this is individualized and it is continually adapting to how our students are doing and making sure that they're getting the content most needed to them for them to accelerate that growth. >> Next question. Is there any other districts um using a program similar to this concept where it tracks um if you

084know by chance other feeder schools using something similar we may not >> I can ask them the next time we meet monthly >> I can see what other programs are using. I'm just wondering because it sounds very similar when you say that um you can track where each student is. >> I know in Bellewood they they use a program that the more kids use it tracks and lets them know where they are make it just more difficult. I know I know a lot of districts around are using. We also use >> and it does a lot of that same tracking which is up. >> Yeah. Many of them use the NWA map which is an affiliate of of this. So we can look into if anyone's if any of them are utilizing something like this.

085>> Thank you. All right, good evening everyone. >> Um, so just to add a little bit more um to the the presentation you just heard from Mr. Ashok around the read 180 and what we're going to do sort of within the schools and within the study hall structure that we currently have to support um a successful implementation of this program. uh because yes, the program is um can be incredibly powerful and the research bears that out. Um that doesn't mean that we're off the hook in terms of implementation. So, we have done some collaborating and some thinking about some shifts we can make with our current study hall. Um, and one of those things is just um I think study hall has a um sort of creates a connotation of just uh like very student

086self-directed not a lot of maybe there's behavioral expectations in terms of you know volume and students not talking and students being spaced certain distance from each other but not a lot of expectation in terms of the like academic or cognitive rigor. And with this move to use the study hall time and repurpose it to be much more of an academically driven focus, we are also going to rebrand or rename study hall academic enrichment period as part of this pilot and that will reflect that all students who are in those courses will be doing academic enrichment during that time. And so for those students whose data uh indicate to us that they need that intensive reading support um which by the way um just to add one other piece this is something we've heard a lot

087from the ninth grade uh ELA teachers especially this year is that some of the um their current students that you know through the MTSS process if we've identified students who are struggling with their grades a lot of it is these more foundational skills that students don't have that are causing some of this struggle. And so by moving to the system of using this time that we already have in study hall and repurposing it to make it more productive for learning, uh we think that this will sort of complement that need nicely. Um and so we'll call it academic enrichment period. Students who need that reading support will get the read 180. Students who don't will uh continue a practice that is in place to some extent now of using ESL to work on um on

088math skills that are individually tailored to their needs based on a diagnostic tool that's in that program as well. So students who need reading work on reading students who are where they need to be in reading will work on math at their level um at their instructional level. >> Question what if they need help or both ways there when you know you understand what I'm asking? >> Yes, I think I mean that is a great question. I think we'll have to look learn a little bit more about read 180 and and what the necessary structure for implementation and the time that's required for that is um students have been using the first semester to dol for math. Um and there are some other opportunities potentially for that. So we'd have to figure out a structure

089that makes sense for those students that need support in both. We certainly have students who are who are in that situation. Um and that's actually I'm gonna in a couple slides talk about the master schedule and some of the things we're thinking about there in terms of how we structure that especially for nth graders next year to make sure that there's time for additional support in either or both. >> And wouldn't we assume though like giving the reading support and bringing that up math would also kind of go up a little bit because there's quite a bit of reading and math now too. So it's not like it would be >> reading does help across the across the disciplines. Um but there also is a need for some foundational math skill um reinforcement and development

090in some cases. And so we have to think about how to make time for for that. Many math teachers also use to supplement their own classroom instruction. And so there are um and there is a freshman success uh period which also is a when I could be used for math if we're really focused on read 180 during the academic enrichment period. Um and so on this slide you can just see sort of some of the reasons for the shift. It really as I said is around providing additional academic supports and intellectual engagement for students during this period that was formerly called study hall and is now going to be called academic enrichment. Ultimately this is of course about student outcomes. We expect that this will really improve engagement and create better structure in uh in

091the periods that are currently study halls as we shift them to being more more academically focused. Any other questions? Great. So this is your uh monthly master schedule update. I think we spoke about a month ago about this. Uh since that time we have really focused on student course selection for our current students. Um and you can see on this slide where we have landed as of the end of November. Um, so schools are in different places, but we have made a lot of progress in the three weeks of school that were in November. And we're continuing to work uh to get all three schools up to that 95 96% which is where we need to be to sort of move the rest of the scheduling process forward to look at those course tallies and

092to determine what sectioning we need, which will help us understand our staffing needs, which will get us eventually into the recruitment and hiring season, etc. Um so in addition uh just today we started the foundation school visits. We have scheduled visits with uh all of the foundation schools and um so those have started. We communicated um through the foundation schools with parents about the process, directing them to uh the resources that we have on the website, those beautiful powerpoints with the videos uh describing all the electives um and also just explaining what we would be doing. Uh as counselors go into schools, they're providing a a shortened overview so that they have more time to work individually with students to actually make their selections in P school. And this is where the school improvement team

093has really collaborated um with academics and the data team in particular to get foundation school student data for our class of 2030 so that the course selections can be made in powers school right now so that we don't later have to take time to convert some other data collection system into course requests in p school. So, taking this time to do it well now while a shift um um is there's a charger here. It must be plugged in there. Um >> taking the time to do this now will help us save us time in the future. Um looking ahead a little bit, I'll quickly run through what the rest of the schedule looks like. Um, and I'm happy to provide additional detail in board update if folks are interested as we progress through this >>

094by the month. >> I'm sorry, I have I have a quick question. >> Sure. Um, >> okay. Regarding the future student course selection, did you did you say that the I guess my question is are the freshman teachers having conversations with the teachers at the foundation schools from an academic perspective? Are they comparing curriculums? Are they talking about the curriculums? Is is is that something that's happening now? >> Not as part of the master scheduling process. The the counselors are the ones who make the visits to the schools and sit with students and select their courses. I think what you're describing would be a more robust articulation process which I think there has been some work done perhaps and maybe Mr. Asha from Morino at some point could give an update on that. But in

095terms of the scheduling process, um that's not part of the discussion. >> I notic that look at where each school is. They are West I mean West is a way below is just hasn't really started there yet or >> So one thing that's interesting is that West was actually well ahead for a while. Um and so or they were at least uh significantly ahead of East for a while. And so I'm not sure if there were uh potentially other priorities in that week leading up to Thanksgiving that had to be taken care of by the counselors or what the what the reason was, but we're in conversation with the principal. Um and I also this slide is from a couple of days ago. So if anything it's an underestimate and they could have um you

096know continued working yesterday today etc. I mean East got from like 40% to 80% in like three days time. So it is possible to move the numbers quickly if all the counselors are focused on this. And I should also give a shout out to Dr. Macintosh uh who has really spearheaded all the logistics and scheduling for the visits to the foundation schools which is not an easy task. It is Thank you. It was important to us to Yes. It was important to us to have one person making all of the phone calls so that everyone was getting a consistent and clear message so that the scheduling was arranged in a way that we would have the staffing capacity to actually staff all of the visits. Um and so um those visits have started on on

097time largely thanks to Dr. >> So shout out to the data team for getting us the information and getting it into power school. Shout out to Dr. Macintosh for uh organizing the process. Um in January, we're going to focus on in on creating systems and structures with our colleagues in the multilingual department and the special education department to ensure that our multilingual students and our students with disabilities have the correct scheduling. selections made in terms of the exact kinds of courses they need to be in whether that's um you know the bridging courses for multilingual learners or instructional courses or co- talk courses so students have chosen the courses but not the exact setting and so in January we'll focus on making sure we have all of that right so that when we do our

098sectioning we make sure we are going to have sufficient staffing for all the different kinds uh or or settings of courses that we have to run. In February is when we will go about determining sections and assignments so that we can post vacancies by March. In March is when we will initiate the build in P school and begin loading the students which is this would put us well ahead of what our timing was for the current school year which will allow us to it it should be about two full months where counselors uh and our coordinators and the multilingual and special education departments are all still here and working to review and audit the student schedules to make sure that they are accurate. Another shift we are going to make uh which I'll describe in

099greater detail when we're a little further along in the planning planning process is doing some real um look at our registration process to make sure that we have um a registration process that opens early that has clear deadlines that has effective followup. Um, this is especially important since the freshmen, uh, the future freshmen are all going to be in power school. We have to know which ones are really coming to us and we have to know that early enough to take those students out who we know are not really coming. And so, um, I think we would like to really firm this up a little bit, which is going to take more capacity to do more followup earlier on. And obviously if you know we're not going to rush families into decisions. We're not going

100to sort we're public the public district. We're not going to take away spots obviously. But to have the best and most accurate information will help us to build the best master schedule. And that's we've realized upon reflection that that having accurate information about who's really coming has been a barrier to having an effective scheduling process in the past. So we have to we have to move that up. Um Oh dear, it died. Sorry. Any other questions about the master schedule? >> Do I have another slide? You want to tell me what's next? >> Credit recovery task force. So, this is another very exciting um and sort of timely update. Uh we have uh based on feedback from educators and students um we've created a task force to take a look at our online credit recovery

101partners partner options. We currently use egeneuity and uh what we are 24 educators have volunteered to be on this task force. So it's a large group of people a lot of interest obviously in this. Right now, we're in the phase of defining our criteria before we start to look at products. So, we're creating a selection criteria and a a scoring tool. Um, we have a draft and right now all the committee or task force members are in there madly making comments and track changes. So, it's kind of a mess right now, but I think we'll get to a good solid decision making framework and then in the coming month or so, we'll invite vendors in to pitch products to us and to show us what they have and then we'll use the tool that we've

102created to evaluate and ultimately come to a recommendation. And that recommendation could be that we stay with our same partner. It could be that we stay with our same partner but go to a different product that they offer. Um it could be that we change partners. Um obviously the decision to change partners is one that has to be taken very seriously because of the administrative lift that is required. And so if we were to change um we'd have to be really sure that we had the capacity to make the change and we're would be shifting to a vendor that would really give us a lot of support and make that process as seamless as possible in terms of the integration. Um so I'll continue to provide updates as we move forward. Um we're hoping to

103finalize the tool um this week or early next week and then move into into actual vendor selection after that. So let's see how did I do. I think it >> you got it. >> Awesome. >> Okay, maybe I do better outside. >> Okay, thank you all. >> Thank you. >> So, Jen reminded me that I don't have a microphone in front of me, so I apologize for just being over there screening. The last thing I want to talk about is the equity audit. Now, this is something that we've talked about, we've had public comments about, but we're to a point in the stage where I'm I want to bring a recommendation to you. Um, and so this is not just simply how students are feeling about being in school. It's looking at our policies. It's

104looking at our practice. It's looking at our instruction. It's looking at the gaps. It's trying to find out what when we're thinking about equity, you know, essentially answering the question of is this school and is our school system impacting every child in a positive way? And if it's not, what are those root causes so that we can start putting in some systems to address that and fix some of the equity gaps that we will ultimately arise from this audit. And so we're also looking for a partner that has done this work that has has worked in this space and has been successful in doing this work and also somebody that could help not only identify the areas but then also work with us in the future to help us in our next steps. So for

105this first phase, it's really working with the consultancy to help us identify those root causes and then put a plan in place to say these are our next steps and then we could choose to continue down that pathway with this person. So the group that I'm I'm presenting to you is Ayala and Associates. It is Dr. Carmen Ayala who used to be our our former state superintendent. I know her very well and I worked with her. We saw firsthand what she was able to do around equity at a state level. um being the first female, the first minority to be a state superintendent in Illinois. She's also the the the the person that was responsible for bringing the equity continuum to the state of Illinois. And so she has we we have talked multiple times

106around the work that we need to do here. She's been to the district many times, a couple of times, and has walked the buildings, has been in the classrooms. And so she has presented a an opportunity to us to do this work with a contract that would not exceed $42,500. Now it may be less depending upon how we select to go into this work with her, but it would not go beyond. At the maximum, we would be able to do 19 one-hour interviews. Each board member would be interviewed. The superintendent would be interviewed. The deputies and some key staff members would be interviewed like our head of our ML departments, head of our special ed department, um and some select teachers. We then would have seven staff focus groups. And these focus groups would be

107either well they would both be homogeneously grouped and heterogeneously grouped. We would have four student focus groups um both homo and heterog heterogeneously grouped. four parent focused groups, both homo and heterogeneously grouped, and three community focused groups. So, this is not someone that's just going to come in, look at the data, walk through classrooms, and then give us her thoughts. Like, she's going to do that work. She's going to be in classrooms. She will be looking at data, and then she's going to really dig in and talk to people in our district, talk to our staff, talk to you, talk to our students. So we have a holistic view of what is really and so I'm excited about bringing this to you. I am able to bring this to you next week can start this

108work. I think this is long overdue. Um we heard last week or our last board meeting um from a parent. We've heard from students, we've gotten emails. Um and I think it it's it's to a point where >> we had a question. You say selective teachers. How are you selecting the teachers? >> Well, that would be a conversation with Dr. Yell and her team. And so her team is going to be um Caucasian believe female. So it is going to be a heter heterogeneous group of consultants that are coming in as well. And since they've done this work, they also understand which staff members, which key staff members they should be talking to. or staff members they want to talk to. >> Did do they present you a a plan of how they're going to

109care? >> Yes, I >> I'll send it to the entire board. >> I had a few questions. Um, how long will the equity audit take? >> Um, it would probably take a not to my knowledge. And then as far as the focus groups, >> information people we want to invite. >> And then um from other schools standpoints, how >> but I think and again as we talked about it, we're still also building the strategic plan and so it's taking a little bit longer with that strategic plan because we have more and more people that want to engage in the process. And so I know on December 10th we're going to district 91 to talk to those families. Right. So as we're getting this information from the equity audit and the information from the strategic plan,

110we do want to be able to blend it together so we have one cohesive plan on how we're trying to improve the the holistic. >> This equity audit is going to take a couple months. Probably going to put us at the end of the school year. Are >> they having two working plans? >> Yes. >> And I believe >> um recognition for MSA students at East and West. I don't know if you have any questions about that, but that will be something that we'll be voting on at the well, I guess next week, right? On December 9th. um read 180 as we discussed it would be something that we'll be bringing to the board for approval and the the equity audit kind of reading body language it sounds like this is something we want to

111not wait on and bring this on December 9th I'll make sure that tonight I'll send you over the proposal that I received from Dr. Adela any questions about any of those all right thank you >> thank you >> that was it right >> that's it your beautiful faces like this. Okay. Um, so old business. Do you have any old business? New business. I have two things. First is Mr. Mov's exact one year anniversary today. So, happy anniversary. It's one year. We did not bring flowers. I apologize. We can get you some pizza, but thank you for last year. I think you've been very beneficial to the district and very happy to have you. >> Thank you. >> And then the other new business is because it's your anniversary, the board will also be um doing

112a superintendent evaluation. >> Congratulations. So just, you know, something to look forward to that will start >> like today now that he's here. But I I'll be sending some emails and some sections and we'll be giving some feedback, some input um on what that will look like and of course you'll be involved with this about you. So just stay tuned. And then actually I have three things. Sorry. And also the board uh was at triple I conference last week and you guys can all look forward to a presentation from each of us to share out kind of the sessions we went to and the things that were impactful that we learned. Um, and we will do that at our January meeting. So, >> January, >> just January, not next week, but January. So, you know,

113three to five minutes. You don't have to do a slide if you don't want a slide. You could talk, you could show a video, you could do an interpretive dance, you know, keep it exciting and fun. But, um, that'll be in lie of like a presence record, but I'll just kind of share. But since there is seven of us and it was amazing that all seven of us did go to the conference along with Mr. Mohip and Dr. Kermas, Dr. Alvarez, Mr. Ashaw um it was and Dr. Hill was really great experience. >> We don't want to talk on for hours and hours but three to five minutes I think each is seems fair. That's all I got. um in line with the superintendent evaluation I know and maybe we'll talk about it more in

114January but then our own board self evaluation right >> um and then something just as a observation of um like I enjoy going to board meetings I don't know might be a crazy you know activity but um I I had two very different experiences at two recent board meetings and I think Um, I would love to know that if uh another board member came into our meetings that we know that um I know Janessa does a great job of uh you know talking to people when they're waiting out and for close session but um I need either a signup sheet or just maybe like an acknowledgement at the end like if anybody's here I don't know what is preferred um but I know that when I signed into the sheet right then I was engaged

115and had a nice conversation. So, um it went somewhere. Um whereas the other incident was I felt like I've completely ignored um and it looked suspicious, which I'm like I don't I'm just >> I I'm just Yeah. But yeah, I'm we're just there to, you know, observe and get ideas and see how other boards work. So just in the spirit of learning and educating and growing um I would love to just um pay respects to any other boards that come into our safe >> space. All right. Anything else? >> One comment. Will we revisit a student board member in >> upcoming board meeting or >> It will be I'm sorry I left that off this agenda but >> okay >> they'll be coming back for information with suggestions that you guys >> awesome >> is

116that it all in favor of adjourning >> I >> thank