001you [Music] foreign [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] liz can you hear us here can we hear you yes more [Music] importantly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening welcome to the february 22nd 2021 valley view school board meeting i would ask everyone oh sorry 22nd 2-2-2-2-1 uh last everybody rise and join us and pledge allegiance led by vice president zack indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you vice president zach moving down the agenda board affirmation statement remember gilbo if you have it up members our mission is to empower all learners to be college career and life ready and to develop grow and achieve as productive citizens thank you miss kinder board agenda yes i'd like to ask the board to approve the agenda as presented through a motion so
002move second motion and second any discussion hearing none seeing none all those votes favor i say aye aye opposed same sign you guys have it consent agenda miss kinder okay there are three items we are seeking approval on under consent 5.1 board meeting minutes february 8th 2021 5.2 executive session meeting minutes february 8 2021 5.3 gift to robert c hill elementary school is there a motion second motion and seconded any discussion roll call vote please remember campbell yes remember gilbo yes member apparel yes secretary secora yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes student staff recognition spotlight video stephanie wade literature teacher at bullingbrook high school yes thank you we'll be excited to return to student recognition next board meeting and tonight we have another amazing staff recognition that i'm excited to share with you
003this evening mrs stephanie wade literature teacher at bollingbrook high school teaches honors english as well as african-american literature she's a vhs graduate so she truly represents the heart of valley view we're so proud to have her teaching and doing amazing things in our district supporting every learner so i'm pleased to share this with you this evening mrs wade we're going to go ahead and do this little exercise so again even if you don't want to speak out loud definitely type something in the chat for everyone to see as far as your contribution to this activity that we're getting ready to do i had a professor who showed me that reading is more than just words on a page i didn't realize you could analyze a book to such an extent and and pick things apart
004and dissect it and do all these great things and so i was like this newfound love of reading coupled with my already existing passion for writing like this is this is what i need to do and i want to share that with young people for you what is your go-to book what is the book that you read and every time you read it you learn something new i would absolutely have to say toni morrison's the bluest eye it is absolutely incredible and i love how toni morrison said that she stepped away from writing about adults to focus on a little black girl which i i loved that and we don't see that her life is easy but we see how everyone in people's lives we all are connected in some way and we all have
005an impact on each other in some way so what are your thoughts about what you saw during that interview when you see her here's someone who says well i identify as black but she was clearly a white person what are your thoughts about just that one statement that she made it's kind of like i don't want to say disrespectful but like i like the lgbt says that like i am for i like on this on that but like with race you can't just choose to be that race you also teach african-american literature yes why is it important for every student to study african-american literature i will just give you a very plain answer to that i think that it is something that based on the way so many curriculums are built it doesn't allow for
006you to just hone in even if you just do one unit there's still not enough time to be able to hone in on all the different things that you can look at as far as literature by different black authors or when it comes to poetry when it comes to filmmaking there are so many different things that black people have contributed to literature that i feel like everybody needs to learn more about this and it's so relevant to today by the time a student finishes your african-american literature class what is the thing that you want them to take away about the black experience in america that plain and simple we just have so much more to do we've come so far as a nation but there's still so much work that's left to be done and
007i know that's a very simple statement but it's so loaded and i think i just kind of carry myself that way in the classroom i've created a space where these young people feel like especially my my students of color feel like they have an outlet they they have a safe space they have an advocate in me so when it comes to the black experience i want them to see success i want them to see someone who was able to get beyond and make something of myself despite the odds that may have been stacked against me okay so thank you to mrs wade for allowing us uh to spend some time with her and catch a glimpse of her and her students at work we're truly proud of the work that you represent and the place
008that you're providing for our kids and valley view thank you i'm extremely proud of this young lady because she is a former student of mine also so stephanie and her sister both so i give her so much credit she's done there's a program called grow your own teacher i don't know where that's at in the process there it's a is it a federal program i believe or they're trying and having students that come back to the school that they in the community that they grew up in and teach that's a fantastic thing i mean you guys may know about it yes we are in the early stages of implementing um that program in partnership with lewis university we currently offer a dual credit course where students are earning college credit and we're looking to further
009develop this pathway so that's a huge dream of mine and something that is a goal that we are setting for ourselves to have our students come back and be a part of our community as educators as staff support staff it's it's just it's great it's it's a huge priority for us thank you uh moving down the agenda board liaison report sitting off from my right any and all from my left and what's that oh which i guess i'm on your right or i'm on your left oh sorry you're on the screen liz you're right in front of me you got anything yes i do i have a report from the equity um committee and um in our equity advisory committee meeting we were able to discuss what does equity mean and what it would look
010and feel like in valley view in our school community it was nice to hear from students staff parents and community members to get their perspective these students were wonderful out of the mouth of babes we can gain a lot of insight about what is or isn't working in our schools around equity we then reviewed a summary of student discipline data from our schools and began to discuss why there is a disproportionate amount of black students receiving referrals compared to other groups we began to come up with some real solutions on how to improve this from some ideas from students parents and staff and i'm also still looking at another school board member to join this committee uh with me also is she still talking are you still talking no that's it just asking okay who
011would like to uh yeah we can't see your mouth looking to see your eyes thank you all right thank you moving down the oh i have i don't know where this goes but uh um i was contacted by a member of the community on friday who works for zipoli restaurant supply located in bolingbrook and they wanted to donate cleaning and hand sanitizer type items to the district uh working with gary and and some staff they are going to be donating i'm not exactly sure how much but a substantial amount of hand sanitizers and so on and so forth for to the district i just want to tell zapoli supply restaurant supply uh thank you for that kind contribution and it will uh duly noted uh that we really appreciate that and we have a lot
012of very generous businesses in our community uh they donate to food banks and all kinds of things that people need so i just want to let folks know that uh we appreciate that and barbretsky who's the one who contacted me uh shout out to you for doing that so thank you very much and i've just been slipped a note and i i i have to say this liz i heard it's your 35th wedding anniversary so congratulations on that 36 thank you 36 35 six yeah after after two or three years it's like you might as well be 35 right ah thank you so much i know that was big thank you so uh moving down the agenda uh audience participation there's anybody who wishes to address the board this evening please step forward state your
013name if you would please we'd ask that you keep your comments to four minutes if possible and if you have additional information kindly supply that i'm sorry five minutes uh kindly supply additional information to the board clerk and she will disperse that to the rest of the members let me fix this all right my name is jim fisher i am a parent of two sons that go to bolingbrook high school and i have a daughter that goes to jane adams middle school i'm here tonight to request to address enact an inequity in the restart of girls volleyball between high school girls and middle school girls but before i get started in keeping with the theme of african literature about an hour ago in a meeting i was in i got this quote the time is
014always right to do what is right martin luther king okay so my request is simple schedule at least one competitive game between the five middle schools in the second week in march i'll give some background on this this is a volleyball it's 9 ounces it's 65 centimeters in diameter the same volleyball here is what's used by middle school and high school last year both of those sets of students were able to have competitive play playoffs varsity and jv teams uniforms they represented their school against other teams they had open gym lots of people showed up then right and they had yearbook pictures of their teams okay let me tell you what the district's giving this year's high school students girls they're giving them competitive play conference only but it's still competitive play they're giving them
015playoffs they get to have varsity jv i think they even have freshmen they represent their school against other competitors the open gym is a little bit restrictive they can allow two family members to go watch each member and yes i think they're still gonna get their yearbooks next let's talk about what the middle school kids are getting here's what i think that they're getting they are not getting competitive play in fact all they get is practice but there's more they get zoom calls where they can learn more about the art of volleyball that's all they get playoffs they don't get what used to be an association iesa that we would be a part of the district has walked away they're actually planning on playoffs but we walked away from that organization it's the illinois elementary
016sports association these kids don't get varsity jv teams they don't get uniforms they don't get to represent their school against other competitors they get no yearbooks no one's going to see them it's closed practice no competitive play no one can watch them play these girls cannot watch these girls play volleyball because they're not family members with these girls it's a thousand lots of people can go in that stadium these girls can't watch these girls play volleyball okay so here's what i'm asking for you tonight i'm asking for competitive play so let's get a little ball out here this is my idea of competitive play you know what you won't be able to meet this the same as a high schooler today no matter what you do but you can get a little closer in equity
017by letting these middle schoolers play competitive against the intradisc there's five middle schools you all know that and you should let them play because what they won't get playoffs but they will get varsity and jv team designations assignments they will get to wear uniforms they will represent their school against one game against some other school in the district a little bit of safety there they'll get a picture of their team in the yearbook and hopefully if they get to play that one game they can get some of their family to show up maybe too to watch them play if you vote tonight to let these middle schoolers play at least one competitive team inside our district then this is what you're going to give them if you vote and say no or you walk away
018and you don't address my ask that doesn't matter we're back to this and this is practice and zoom calls that's all they get much less than what the high schoolers get so my ask is that you let them have the chance of winning or losing as an educational learning opportunity for a hundred kids in your school district open up for questions anybody have any questions or comments i have a question um i guess it goes to maybe rachel how come arva our middle school don't compete like our high school volleyball players absolutely so at the time that we had to make this decision um we were planning to have students return on site for hybrid learning and as you know that was a huge undertaking and so our our leaders and our staff were have
019heavily focused on that area um when we had the conversations on multiple occasions with the high school or the men sorry the middle school representation the team got together to discuss this the principals the athletic directors which that's very different at middle school they are not administrators they're teachers and then have an additional stipend to oversee it so it's not something they can devote their time to full-time they considered a lot of variables ultimately health and safety of students and staff was a priority there's a lot of differences between middle school and high school our middle schools have less indoor space they have less staffing to oversee the strong implementation of health and safety protocols they do not have a dedicated administrator to oversee that athletic programming as well as i think i mentioned limited
020space and they had zero experience operating athletics in person under coveted conditions when our high schools first began that experience they learned a lot they became very adept at implementing the protocols they have athletic trainers they have athletic directors they have assistant athletic directors and they were able to get very good at that and so they also have more space they have the full field house the gym or um other spaces wrestling rooms and the likes so those are all variables that we considered um the decision was made to have this modified season it's very shortened and condensed even by the iesa guidelines it ends in four weeks basically at the end of march four or five weeks and so the consensus although not universal the majority consensus was that the in-person connection belonging having
021the kids get that experience in person while still having some in-person coaching and skill development was important and that the priority was getting kids back in school for learning just the fact of contact tracing and screening and all of that were layers that was it was a lot to take on all at once and so i i trusted the recommendation of the team to start slow um and of course we can always reconsider and build upon this and we can fully make that shift when we feel that we are ready all along through throughout covid we certainly don't want this for our children let me be very clear we want them to have full opportunities full access including athletics including activities but i've always kept the health and safety and readiness at the forefront and
022to take on something too fast too soon having other inter-school inter-district or inter-school play it was just something that we weren't ready for having intra-squad play is something that they felt that they could manage which they are doing so i know it's a modified experience it's certainly not what we want but there's a whole lot of thought that went into that we certainly are not set on taking opportunities away from our kids so it was it's a difficult decision but we felt that it was the right decision to make for this timing so follow-up question if i can all right three points i'd like for you to give me more detail about adam hunter about his role in that because i've been working with him i asked him if we could do that at that
023level he said no we can't and so that's why i'm coming to the board so i did do that so that's one second one is how much parent involvement did you get when you decided this program and number three a majority of the school districts have stuck with the governing body and they are having competition um so adam herter is our executive director of 612 educational services and he works directly with our middle school principal so that's his role in making this decision parent input was taken into consideration because ultimately the first decision was to hold off on beginning athletics at all just for the simple fact that our priority and our focus was on establishing solid safety protocols at school and not in adding any more demand onto our staff now keep in mind
024our athletic directors and coaches are teachers first um and and that's a that's a there's a lot on their plates taking on hybrid learning um and our administrators have a lot on their plates as well um even just handling the daily health and safety demands so those were conversations that were revisited based by parent input primarily yours mr fisher so that was something that we have taken into consideration um and so the other variables that i mentioned unfortunately i can't change those despite parent input i cannot build field houses on the middle school i cannot um add full-time administrative or additional nursing support or athletic trainers at the middle school we're not in a position to do that right now and don't have the resources to do that so i do value parent input we
025do value our student and athlete input but given all of the variables the current conditions and the resources we had that was the decision that we landed landed on after the more than one conversation that the team had okay thank you you addressed all those points i would say if there are any times for this board to consider reserves now is the time to consider reserves and using them during this window of time and give a shot in the arm and let the kids live their lives i do want to give a shout out shout out to rob rose he's rocking he's the athletic director of bowling brook high school and he's making it happen across all sports the middle school is being left behind all i'm asking is two days of competition that's all
026i'm asking for the board to consider and do it or turn around and walk away and we'll live with practice thank you both of our high schoolers do have full programming in place um when is the season over 12th of march the 12th of march correct so we still have a few weeks that possibly we couldn't practice in last week my daughter was excited now today they had a zoom call i don't know what they did well keep the winter is especially difficult keep in mind our middle schools have one gym so our students alternate their attendance days so there's all their challenges that present themselves in addition to space to have all of that programming run our middle school students don't have as much flexibility they do not drive getting students who are home
027on a certain day into school for the practice we couldn't accommodate the bus routes because the buses were not available to pick up the students and then also run activity buses at the end of the day so it's not just a matter of um you know we everyone couldn't have the gym every day we just don't physically have the space now spring will be a different story because we can have some sports and practices outdoors um track they will not need the use of the gym typically so those things will open up additional opportunities that doesn't help the cause for um volleyball um obviously or you know boys basketball but it's a challenge my opening statement was about the notion that last year both middle school and high school somehow found resources high school high
028school gifts resources and middle school doesn't well high school athletic programming has always been different than middle school and the the goals of high school athletic programming are also different than the goals of middle school athletic programming and so we have different facilities at the high schools compared to our middle schools we have equity at the levels but we also have equity at the high school level we have an administrator at both high school campuses that oversees athletics as an athletic director we don't have that at the middle school so i wish that we did and i wish we also had the space to accommodate but there's there's a great deal of challenges that after much consideration led us to arrive at this decision but i do appreciate the information and requests that you've provided
029and i will share that with the middle school team that had that that has been having the conversations and considering all the factors and we'll certainly i appreciate that but i'm addressing the board i'm asking for their action well we don't need to take action to do that um this is a logistical issue uh we can discuss it and and i will i will commit to you that i will talk to mr herder either this evening or tomorrow and see if there's a possibility doing this but first things first as ms kinder said i mean it's a space thing logistics thing all these factors coming in here i too have a son who's an athlete although it's in high school i appreciate what you're saying and some of the things that you actually brought up
030tonight i mentioned to ms kinder earlier today based on exactly this is there something we can do for these kids so it's not falling on deaf ears we just have to figure out a way to do it safely and do it efficiently and make it fair so that all these kids can actually you know as she said you know the logistics of getting kids with buses and so on and so forth and i know you're going to say the parents will bring them i get that but we can't say that because i don't know that and you don't know that you don't know that all the parents can do that and then how's that one kid who can't get there or those two kids or five kids we have to keep it as equitable as
031possible i understand all of this i we really do and we're not trying to hurt any of these kids these kids have had a the word i want to use i won't but it's a chum bucket of garbage the last year almost now it's almost 12 months you know think of all the high school kids who didn't get a graduation think of all the high school kids who didn't get a prom think about all those things all the eighth graders who didn't get a graduation last year who are now freshmen who have never met half their freshman class friends all these things are factoring in there so it's not lost on us it's just sometimes these logistics and the staff time and the availability of space has sometimes become overwhelming and at some point you
032say we have to pump the brakes and and i'm just throwing this out there because i read it today they're talking about a spike in this coronavirus thing in march for whatever reasons i guess it's because of the weather not enough people have been vaccinated some have some have not and and the cdc is saying this is the time and the state of illinois and everybody else we need to double down our efforts now not to say that if adam says we can figure out a way maybe if we can get the teachers and the the coaches and the building folks and we can free up some space to do one of these things for a day or two hey i'd be there if i was allowed to come because i think these kids deserve
033recognition and it's not just volleyball it's it's baseball and soccer and all the sports that have been left behind because of the situation that we're in and it's i don't live in texas nor do you some schools in some states are doing these things some are not we're in the state that's not doing these things i would disagree with you the majority of the districts stayed with iesa period i appreciate that because i'm not i wasn't aware so i appreciate that there's people moving forward but i don't want you to think that we're not going to get sensitive to what you're going to your issues are i i don't want you to think that and i don't want anybody else to think that because i just i think that's simply not true and i i
034will definitely speak for myself because i know that's not true appreciate your comments and and i will and as i said i will commit to talking the staff and seeing if there's something that we can do to try and make something normal out of all this chum bucket of garbage that where these kids have had to eat maybe we can even um since they're not participating in the iesa playoffs and state qualifications and all of that maybe we can extend the season a little so that they can find time to get those games couple games and i would push back on that it's okay to practice until you get to the game an extra week it doesn't matter take the two practices that are scheduled that week and bring two steps of teams from two
035different schools into one gym you do it in high school those gyms aren't as small as what you're saying they are they're gyms and they meet you know you meet the health regulations by letting people do that and again check other districts that moved forward with iehsa they they actually are doing it and they're figuring it out so don't extend the delight you know equity let the other sports have their windows stay in the window you got use common sense have two games thursday and friday as you end the season within the district it's a simple ask thank you thank you very much thank you moving down the agenda action report superintendent kinder board education meeting schedule 2122 yes sir that's item 9.1 we're seeking your approval on the board of education meeting schedule for
0362021 2022 school year so moved second motion second any discussion roll call vote please member pero yes remember gilbo yes remember campbell yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes student due process case yes 9.2 student due process case a we're seeking your approval motion second motion and second and discussion hearing unseen none roll call vote please remember gilbo yes member peril yes member campbell yes secretary sakora yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes and 9.3 resolution number 2116 semi-annual review of executive session meeting minutes to determine need for continued confidential treatment and authorization for destruction of executive session tapes more than 18 months old motion summer second motion second any discussion roll call vote please remember campbell yes amber apparel yes member gilboa no secretary sakura yes vice president zach
037yes president quigley yes miss white renewal of achieve 3000 curriculum resource yes good evening last time information was brought forward for the renewal of achieve 3000 curriculum resource tonight we are seeking action any questions so move what second second can it be subject to attorney review subject to attorney review yes we have motion in a second any discussion yes just to clarify the action report does say subject to review okay what is the review that we're needing to review again it's a contract lose it's a contract it's a five-year card i did a question uh one of the tables showed that we're gonna pay in the three different payments but it didn't have dates on there what are the dates that we will be issuing those payments we actually received revised information and it is
038in the executive consent agenda and those dates would be one payment will be paid in 2021 the following 2022 and the last one in 2023 and the seeking legal review are the terms of service for the agreement so we're going to go with the second option that's what we're voting on we're voting on the second option so the first option is the 2.2 or 2.19999 up front the second option is 50 up front with the two additional payments in 2022 and 2023 and the last option are the five payments spread over five years do we get to discount no matter which plan we go with so the highest discount of course is with the first option which is a 2.2 upfront the next layer discount is with the second option with the half up front
039and the two additional payments and of course the least discount is with the payment over five consecutive years so what exactly which option are we voting on yeah which option are we voting on well if you'd like to answer but at this time we're also waiting for legal review in reference to the terms of service which is related to the options and after we received that feedback we would seek the best option for our district which could possibly be option two correct and the only difference would be if something changed with grant funding for example if we receive additional grant funding which we are perhaps expected to do then we would take the more favorable option that would help us to realize the most savings over the term of the contract so at this point
040it would be option two and then if we are able to secure additional funding we would take the option one to record to realize the greatest savings so you're seeking ability to do one or two correct in this motion that is correct is there a clarification anybody anybody need any further clarification that's for five years yes it would be for five years total all options are for five years total because it seems like um things change a lot over five years if something else comes along uh in between that we decide that we like better we would be locked into that five years correct i believe with the terms of service we would be locked into the five years however if something were to happen with the corporation say they were to go bankrupt or
041something of that nature we would be entitled to some type of refund or additional service and and with past contracts we've always had included the opt-out clause meaning if they're not meeting the terms of the agreement um the product's not providing what it's promised to provide then we are able to opt out the other thing is with the option two we are invoiced with the initial invoice and then subsequent invoices so essentially the processing of that invoice would be um you know contingent our word of saying hey we're paying and we're continuing this going if the service is not being provided we're not going to continue to pay so we have a motion we have a second is there any further discussion hearing none seeing on a roll call vote please member peril yes member
042campbell no remember gilboa i would be more uh inclined to go for one year at a time so i'm going to say no secretary socorra yes vice president zach yes sorry yes okay president quigly yes there being four yes votes two no votes the motion carries making sure i got my math right there uh moving on down the agenda mr gazafi no report miss nash i know you have a report if you would please i do one two one yep action report 12.1 this evening is the consolidated action report for certified and classified first though this evening we're seeking approval on 25 items for certified personnel 34 items for classified personnel two items for classified administrative personnel and one item for certified administrative personnel is there a motion second motion and second any discussion royal
043vote please member campbell yes member gilboa yes member peril yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes president quigley yep action report 12.2 is resolution number 2115 authorizing dismissal of educational service support personnel employees for a reason other than reduction in force we're seeking your approval motion second motion and seconded any discussion we'll call vote please remember gilbo yes member campbell yes member apparel yes secretary secora yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes superintendent information report every learner together update okay we'll go ahead and get the presentation presented projected on the screen so a few quick updates on topics today on our plan health metrics staff vaccinations and covid19 testing as well as just some recurring health and safety reminders we celebrated 100 days of school obviously not in person on site but we
044are excited nonetheless to celebrate 100 days in school and we're excited to for this milestone for our remote learners as well as our learners on site and we continue to engage learners both in person and remotely and so our staff our students and our families are continuing to put all in all efforts in to support our our kids from our littlest learners to our almost adults and everyone is doing the absolute best they can and it's it's incredibly impressive to see the effort that is going into this day in and day out so we are happy to celebrate this milestone that's good news yeah very good news um a few next steps um we have gotten some questions and i know a lot of people are wondering this is um okay so what happens next
045the hybrid model is fully in place um and any family who selected hybrid is having their students attend at least two days a week special programs and self-contained programs are attending four days per week and and some individual students are attending four days per week so we are considering um to continuing to assess our current instructional models both hybrid and remote and we are continuing to assess other needs for specific targeted groups to consider the availability of additional in-person days or for students who remote learning just simply is not working for and so we're considering that based on an individual basis at this point there's a lot that goes into this as the health and safety aspects of the conversation about that athletics alluded to we continue to be very mindful of what this means
046in terms of our class sizes distancing restrictions as well as the vaccination timeline for our staff and the needs of our students most importantly so we've all along taken a slow and measured approach and that was very purposeful um and i'm proud to i'm proud of the work that our teams have done to take a staggered approach to get our kids back into hybrid successfully and get settled in and we will continue to assess to make a determination if we are able to expand or evolve for fourth quarter and that of course will be contingent on conditions and all of the logistical and health and safety considerations as well we can continue to monitor i'm sorry did someone have a question okay we continue to monitor our health metrics um as well as the the
047new cdc guidance that was um shared with schools the new guidelines that were shared with schools and we're continuing to see what will develop in terms of the guidance that could evolve from idph illinois department of public health as well as our will county health department but in terms of the core elements of the guidance that was issued watching community transmission metrics is one of those and that's one that we have been consistently implementing in addition to all of the other mitigation strategies that they recommend so we are seeing region seven that's will county in kinky county remaining in phase four our will county school metrics continue a downward trend so we're seeing test positivity new cases and youth cases all at a a moderate to minimal level and new cases per 100 000 slightly
048higher but i'm definitely moving in a good projection test positivity for our local zip codes we had a slight increase but when you're looking at new cases the average seven day rolling average of new cases that's been fairly steady since the last board update on february 8th and then we also continue to monitor our local positive cases they remain low as a percent of our population and a key thing that we monitor there is the contact tracing if contact tracing is initiated are others identified as having direct contact and having potential exposure and so that's something that our teams continue to work very diligently on we know we're going to have cases but we have to take all of the necessary steps to mitigate lower the risk minimize the risk as much as possible to
049ensure that there's not transmission or spread inside of our schools we are extremely proud to say that we completed week one week with the first dose of um the clovid 19 vaccine we held a in district vaccine clinic in partnership with will county health department edwards emergency medical services which included bowling brook fire department romeoville fire department and naperville fire department along with our partners at rasmussen college of nursing and it was a very successful week we're very proud to say we vaccinated nearly 1700 staff members and we will repeat that process again in the week of march 8th so we're extremely excited and that was definitely a milestone for us and for our staff it was a big sigh of relief for many who had been waiting for that so we're very proud that
050we were able to accomplish that with our partners will county health department and make that happen and that week of march 8th will be a next important step as well as president quigley alluded to you know we continue to watch what um could potentially evolve with new variants of the new strains of the virus what might we see in terms of vaccination and how long that immunity will last what does that mean for longer range and so we are you know monitoring that very closely of course it's unknown so we have to keep our guard up it's definitely not a time to settle into resuming normal activity and it's going to be something that we're going to be dealing with for quite some time so our health officials at the local level continue to remind
051us that layered mitigation strategies you really need to double down on your efforts in terms of masking distancing um and every other effort associated with that vaccination is is one key component around two like i mentioned is the week of march 8th and um because we do not yet have guidance to the contrary and the research has not been fully completed in terms of transmission of those who will be fully vaccinated could they potentially still pass the virus on then we are still under the guidelines of masking maintain social distancing even for those individuals who are vaccinated so we're excited to see that number increase in district and hopeful for our larger community that more individuals in the high priority groups and then the larger population have access to the vaccines as well we are
052just beginning a screening and antigen screening point of care assessment and what this means is that symptomatic students or staff and that students would be with parent consent would be assessed right in the moment by the school nurse if they became symptomatic while they were at school and what this allows us to do is within 15 minutes determine if that individual has the markers to indicate that they are covid positive and then it allows us to isolate which we would be doing anyway and we then allows us to initiate contact tracing to further minimize any potential spread of from a positive individual so this is a program in partnership with the will county health department and our nurses in our buildings will be providing this as well as we will be providing this at the
053administration center by appointment for staff and so this is another important tool in our arsenal to continue to minimize risk minimize risk of exposure transmission and to keep our schools open some important reminders about that daily self-certification parents staff students please monitor your symptoms please take your daily temperature that's incredibly important wear your bracelet so that we know that you have completed this process at home please work closely with your school in terms of if your child is symptomatic in terms of the understanding the guidelines for quarantine and isolation if students are symptomatic have been exposed or someone in the home is awaiting results of a covid test please help continue to partner with us in masking as well as maintaining distancing our kids are doing a tremendous job our staff are doing a tremendous
054job and even our littlest learners really picked up very quickly to the health and safety protocols so if we keep that up that's just one great effort that we can make together to keep things moving in a positive direction in the community we need your help as well like i said it's not time to let our guard down but masking distancing avoiding crowds and large gatherings is something that we can all continue to do to be extremely cautious about how we are moving about in the community we will continue with updates to the community to families to staff on a weekly basis the next board update will be march 8th and i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have i didn't have any questions i just had a comment state of illinois has
05512.7 million people as of last night in the last report i saw they've administered about 2.2 million vaccines statewide so of course all those 2.2 million people have to get another vaccine or at least most of them do so it's it's gonna it's a process but it's it is moving you know in certain areas faster than other areas uh and of course you've got all your frontline folks that are you know kind of been moved to the front of that line but it will take time and we will get to what they quote you know the herd immunity but but they're getting there and it's not for lack of trying and they're they're averaging i think about 60 000 vaccines a day statewide so you know state's getting there it's just going to take some
056time yeah that we were that's one reason we were so pleased that we were able to accelerate that for our staff and we have more than 70 percent of our staff having received at least the first dose some have already received their second so that's encouraging for us internally and then once our larger community has increased access that's going to be even better conditions for us rachel is this the salipa test so the binex now is a nasal swab and it's essentially a little card and once that specimen is collected it's placed on the card a parent would take their sick child home and within 15 minutes receive a call and they'd be following up with their doctor anyway because we still require that pcr test and that's the actual viral test so it's a
057good indicator we are i do want to mention um we have been for some time just keeping the idea of a universal screening and the kind of at the side of the planning effort and we are researching that more now to see if that's something that we would um pursue on a long longer term scale for a universal screener some you may be hearing a lot of that a saliva test is one um and there's there's many distributors of this but it may be something that we determine is an addition um additional strategy that we would like to add of course it comes with a cost the binax tests are free through will county so that's something that we've been able to do with just the manpower the hard work of our team oh i'm
058sorry go ahead um just to reiterate the students they the parents have to give permission or consent for the testing correct and then for the return um they can have a test or there's an alternative what is the alternative so um the the antigen screening test that would be conducted at point of care if a student goes to the nurse's office and suddenly has a fever and is demonstrating symptoms the nurse has the student waiting in an isolated area parent is called to pick up the child parent comes pick up the child with consent the nurse would administer the test and give that result the child would then you know leave the school need to follow up with their primary care provider the return to school criteria is they have to have a negative pcr
059test meaning the it's a the viral test that the doctor would say that there's negative covid otherwise they need an alternative diagnosis with no suspicion of covid so for example if the child has strep throat and the doctor said there's a negative covid positive strep once fever resolves child can return within three days no suspicion of covet that would be acceptable the best resource is to contact the school directly speak with our school nurse our school nursing team is phenomenal they've been a wealth of information and resource and support for our families and they will connect families give them the right information give them resources if families do not have it thank you moving down the agenda fy21 network infrastructure upgrades that's me wanted to bring your attention tonight the network and infrastructure upgrade utilizing
060e-rate what's most commonly known as the e-rate program there's a nice summary of our background information of the network infrastructure components primarily comprised of the wireless access points or wired connections within within the school buildings uh our network closets uh scattered throughout all of our buildings which includes many switches and routers uh the network closet hardware which connects to the wide area network which ultimately transmits the data several caching servers which allow assessments to be delivered much more quickly than having to be accessed via the internet everything coming centralized to a firewall to protect us from uh malware and and um various viruses uh and then ultimately uh uninterrupted power supplies or ups's which provide clean power uh to all of our network equipment and maintain our connections in the event of power failure a
061little background information on the e-rate program the primary goal is to make information services more affordable for schools throughout the country i was mandated by congress in 1996 and rolled out in 1997 providing discounted internet access networking components and internal connections to eligible schools in valley view with 63 of our students eligible to participate in the national school lunch program that puts us at a corresponds to an 80 percent discount on eligible services and equipment e-rate supports schools with two categories of funding category one includes services to support broadband connectivity to schools second category or category two is for equipment and services eligible to support the network infrastructure including the internal connections needed for that broadband connectivity during the first phase of category 2 funding from 2015-16 to 2021 e-rate funding has utilized here in
062valley view in excess of 2.5 million dollars of that category 2 funding it's been successfully applied for and approved for more than 99.94 percent of the allocated grant funding a lot of the success to that really is credit to uh executive director ashford welch and her team for making sure that we have a robust network uh throughout all of our campuses uh and making sure that both educators and students have unparalleled access to the internet and moving forward we completed the application and selection process for vendors to provide the following category 2 hardware and service upgrades again comprised of those wireless access points switches routers caching servers and ups's in addition to maintenance contracts to support the firewall an rfp or request for proposal was pro was posted following all compliance processes and timelines in
063march and april of last year proposals were received and assessed based on the stringent program requirements and vendors were selected utilizing the decision matrix included in the rfp and there's a figure there included in the report outlining both the various categories with the internet bandwidth cost the discount and what the district's cost would be and then in the category two products we've got the access points servers and ups's switches and routers and the support for maintenance contracts for the associated equipment along with a contingency included to cover any cost not foreseen all total 851 796 is the total cost that was submitted uh in the rfp uh with the discount of 80 for those available uh items coming in at 681 000 leaving a balance for district or local cost of 241 thousand dollars a
064couple additional notes for compliance with e-rate we're required to enforce a policy of internet safety and certifying compliance with the children's internet protection app or cipa to be eligible for the discounts there are three areas of compliance within cipa uh those being the internet safety policy to meet the required cipa standards uh happy to report that we are compliant with that under board policy 6.235 schools and libraries receiving you know these discounts are also required to adopt an enforcement internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures that protects against access by adults and minors to visual depictions of obscene child pornography things of that nature with respect to use of computers with internet access and we comply with that process by the utilization of a web content filter a final requirement is a public notice
065and hearing or meeting by the board of education to address a proposed technology protection measure and internet safety policy uh we've complied with this component at each of the dates that the board adopted and then revised its policy 6.235 access to electronic records also included in the report not under e-rate but important nonetheless is the addition or the focus on disaster recovery we have for the past three years utilize an off-site disaster recovery location which is due for renewal at the end of this fiscal year uh the annual cost for that service is just under a hundred thousand ninety nine thousand two hundred fifty it includes an annual full system point in time archive to supplement that offside disaster recovery we also maintain server backup structure and this year is the need to replace and
066upgrade two of those servers that perform the functionality so the disaster recovery again incorporates three years uh or i'm sorry one year of off-site disaster recovery uh we're asking for a service term of three years uh an anticipated annual cost would be 99 250. and those dell disaster recovery servers have a estimated service term or hardware life of seven years uh cost for each or for both of those servers 131 0167. uh next steps we would bring an action report to you on march 8th to utilize the e-rate program funding as well as this disaster recovery hardware and services that we just outlined the projects will be completed by september 30th of this year the amount of district funds to comply with both e-rate 20 requirement as well as the disaster recovery as outlined is
067estimated to be 472 000 and that would be covered by our lease funds and operational budget questions thanks gary uh so if you have questions on the financing part call gary if you have questions on the technology part probably call astrid anybody got any questions hey gary do does this include at all anything for students at home that don't have internet at home is that part of the package at all where they can get a discount if needed e-rate does not uh delve into that arena we have been utilizing cares money uh to provide internet connectivity to those mckinney-vento student you know families and households uh we've also expanded the use of that to not just mckinney vento but any families that need internet connectivity we do feel we've got adequate supply of what's known
068as a myfi device which is basically like taking your cell phone and setting it on the tabletop and allowing connectivity via cellular connection if you don't have uh the means uh or the wherewithal to hook into a wi-fi connection uh and so right currently now with everything being remote or hybrid we are we are funding uh those connections for those families in need board policies yes we have three policies that have been updated by legal and are just being presented for information if you have any questions um between now and march 8th feel free to reach out to senior administration or to our legal counsel thank you uh let's see legal services report which you all came for new report valley view council report no report i got a note that says no report for
069valley view office council as well any old business before the board this evening any new business before the board this evening uh of information act requests this will be a standing information item on the board agenda going forward and what it does is provide a direct link to the log of freedom of information act requests that we maintain on our website and we're bringing it to the board's attention as um if so you can see of any updated requests that have been issued so this will be here going forward as a standing agenda item thank you so and we do have those on our website i know that that is correct all foia information including the process as well as the log is maintained on the district website thank you very much and it's linked
070into this evening's agenda as well and i want to thank our legal counsel for bringing that to our attention uh any questions from the public on actions we have taken this evening seeing none hearing none moving down the agenda any announcements by the board from my right from my left i i'll go ahead because i i just wanted to say that in our finance committee uh we were looking at some devices to go into the schools for the uh ticker and temperature and stuff and i think gary said last week they came in and you know it's a trial test to see how it works out and stuff for people and the nurses and stuff thank you i had just a gary i just i had a i forgot when you're talking about the uh
071sally's question about the kids who can't afford it doesn't comcast have a program as well with this if they reach out i think comcast it's been too long but i remember them offerings they do i don't know all the details but i know it's a very nominal cost maybe ten dollars a month yeah to provide i couldn't remember the dedicated a wi-fi connection yep uh to the household thank you yeah i just i'm old i can't remember many things but i remember that for some reason um i want to real quickly uh thank all of the volunteers to help get the vaccines done i know that's been done but that was a herculean effort and you know i'm very glad that we were able to get our own supply get it done on our property
072rather than have people travel over the place to get involved and get these shots done so kudos to all those uh you know the big champions deal for and we look forward to help having you help us again if that is still going to be the process but much much appreciation to all those who volunteered including the fire departments uh our you know nurses and our nurse staff of course um and and anybody else that was part of that process so again uh this is not easy but you know if we all pull together we can get a lot done we're a big district a lot of people follow our lead so maybe they'll help get the the county going as well with getting some of these shots you know vaccines handled so hi steve
073i'd like to say something uh ditto's to your comments and i was just thinking about since comcast was something would be an expertise of somebody like leo venegas that maybe he could come and address that and just share his uh insight into that at our next board meeting or through whichever means that he want to share that information uh with you i will uh i will absolutely reach out to leo because he is an employee of comcast and if he can't answer the question maybe he can provide somebody who can so thanks so this is a good idea appreciate that uh any other where we had a left in a new business oh any announcements by the administration actually i do have a couple i'd certainly like to uh give a shout out to mike
074lopez and all of the uh maintenance support personnel in all of our buildings and at the maintenance barn for all of the tireless work that they've provided over these three and a half four weeks of just grueling cold and snow and ice and making sure our buildings are safe and secure uh it's it's been it's been grueling i know because it just seemed like we couldn't get a break it was just constant and so thank you to to you and your team and all of the personnel that just really really got it done and uh uh just unwavering so thank you on that um real quick too uh the finance committee met on february 8th uh talked a little bit about the naperville 203 school district text refund uh that many folks may have seen
075in the media and talked about you know the differences in the financial resources and overall health uh between valley view and and naperville 203 uh and why that just isn't something that would even be possible here um really quickly you know there's a district that takes in almost 39 million dollars of additional revenue annually um and has a fund balance two and a half times what we carry uh and so you know we'd all love to be able to put a refund out there um but you know it would be it would it would mean a world of hurt to us uh versus a district like that and even if we were to take in half you know 20 million more a year the things that we could do for our students and our staffs
076with access to resource uh like that and so again just the way schools are funded it's it's unfortunate uh you know the the evidence-based funding model was really set up to address those inequities and so again it was just something that we did share with the with the finance committee we talked a little bit about school fees and we'll be bringing you a information report at our next meeting to talk about a proration of student fees for our for our families there uh mentioned transportation and nutrition services contracts are expiring uh actually nutrition services expired last year and so we'll have a need to get to the table with those groups uh talked real quickly about auditor services a contract extension there and then the need for an additional technology manager position due to the
077overwhelming demands on the tech department and this in this pandemic so i just wanted to kind of touch on those highlights from the finance committee thank you thank you any announcements by the public seeing none hearing none have a great evening motion to adjourn would be in order much appreciation uh mike for your staff as well thank you very much we have a motion we have a second second all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign be safe uh hopefully spring is right around the corner yes yes you