001i'm good oh you can start [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to the january 11 2001 2001 2021 valley view school board meeting um mr zach no mr badeuris why don't you lead us in the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to this life of the united states public for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all apologize for our few minutes late start with your technical issues yes okay uh you get you get the i wonder if they can hear us pour the affirmation statement up oh no but anybody letting them know that i just i just texted carl and said we can't hear anything okay board affirmation statement mr bedus i'm thinking our mission is to empower all learners to be college career and life ready and to develop grow
002and achieve as productive citizens we will hold high expectations and provide collaborative supports to ensure academic social and emotional success for all students in valley view school district regardless of race gender income geography disability or native language through rigor assessment instruction and accountability so can you guys that are remote can you hear this can you guys hear us on the remote diane somebody hear you they can't hear very well can you do okay they're working on it we'll give it a second how about now they're not up on the screen okay oh now you're back can you hear us now i can't see anybody and i can't hear anything hopefully nothing we can hear you guys i can see and if you're not going to speak we'd ask that you go on mute yeah we
003can't hear anything either so okay we could just hear carl talking now new laptop you're pretty much ninja looking though you guys hear us now not as clear as we could hear carl anyone liz deb diane not clear ellie i don't even hear him i can't hear him either i hear him but he he said yeah i heard him asking us could he he asked me if i could hear very quietly we could hear him just a little bit about now i think they're rebooting you guys up there now this could be a really quick meeting you guys hear us now anyone they're not up on this screen i don't know if you've got them up i can't see but dad can you hear us now you guys available now can you hear us liz
004deb sally diane hey can you hear us now all right they're nodding thumbs up can we hear you i can't hear you diane i see you're talking but i can't hear you one at a time but make sure the mics are off you it says your default speaker is changed to speaker something and will now be used um anybody speaking nida your microphone is muted i can see that diane is your mic muted hey so for those who can hear us at home we are experiencing technical difficulties with the board members who are joining remotely and staff as well uh so we are trying to work through that there's four people up in the tech room scrambling around right now so my apologies and we will resume the meeting as soon as we can i
005can't see them but the screen's black can you guys hear us if anybody can hear just chime in can you guys hear us now can you we can't hear you can you talk diane just keep chatting we got nothing oh there there we go you got me now yay a little bit for steve he's really loud all right here we go yeah fine i can't hear him again really oh no you can't hear yourself now i hear you now we hear you hear you that's because we weren't talking all right everybody ready yes let's restart this uh left off at the pledge of allegiance i believe a board affirmation statement had been read by mr baderis and now the agenda so superintendent kinder the agenda yes sir we would like to ask the board to
006approve the agenda as presented is there a motion second second motion and second all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign you guys have it moving down the agenda treasury report mr gazafi jesus action report 5.1 for the month of december includes interim obligation payments at four million seven hundred forty seven thousand five hundred eighty two dollars and fifty cents debt service payments totaling four hundred forty eight thousand six hundred and twenty five dollars total interim obligation payments for action this evening 5 million 196 207 dollars and 50 cents is there a motion to approve second motion and second member of aduras and member now i'm here okay we have motion a second is there any discussion hearing none seeing none roll call vote please remember campbell yes remember gilbo yes remember
007apparel yes yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes schedule bills 5.2 for the month of january has four funds representing bills payable of one million seven hundred thirty six thousand eight hundred ninety seven dollars and ninety seven cents for your action is there a motion to approve so moved second second motion and seconded is there any discussion hearing none seeing now the roll call vote would be in order remember gilbo yes yes member but dureth yes remember campbell yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes treasurer's information report 5.3 through 5.6 summary of investments property taxes received state funding update and student trust accounts for november are there for your information just a couple comments on the state funding update right now the state is keeping up with
008the payments to the districts we find ourselves just 30 days out which you know to me is a certainly a victory in and of itself we'll see if that holds as we progress through the remainder of the fiscal year ending june 30. the property taxes received is also worth noting if you take a look at that our collections uh really uh to date uh we're actually better than we were last year right now we're outstanding taxes of 0.13 percent uh so again can't say enough about about that and uh happy to be in that position as well so just want to make note of that anybody have any questions mr kazafi on that moving down the agenda consent agenda items miss kinder yes we have five items that we're seeking your approval on this evening
0096.1 board meeting minutes from december 14th 2020 6.2 executive session meeting minutes december 14th 2020 6.3 gifts to district digital library 6.4 resolution number 2109 transportation consortium iga intergovernmental agreement and 6.5 fiscal year 2019 2020 audit report is there a motion motion by member zach second by remember i can't see so i'm guessing sound like apparel okay uh we have motion a second is there any discussion rule called vote please remember peril yes member benduras yes campbell yes remember gilboa yes secretary sephora yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes student staff recognition spotlight video nicole williams humphrey middle school 7th grade math teacher yes periodically we share spotlight videos and other pictures and small ways that we can celebrate the amazing efforts of our staff and hard work of our students tonight spotlight video
010produced by jim blaney and our communications director is mrs nicole williams humphrey middle school 7th grade math teacher and we're excited to share a glimpse of some of the magic that's happening even remotely with our teachers and students give me an example of a challenge that you feel like you've overcome as far as math instruction is concerned one of my classes my seventh grade honors class we're working with transformations and that requires them to use patty paper but i can't see if they're tracing things correctly so how do i know if they're doing it right so i'm trying to utilize as many online tools as i can to really help communicate those things that i need them to understand to them how have you made sure that you're meeting the social and emotional needs of
011your students as well my answer to like anything is responsive classroom like period responsive classroom period i could elaborate on responsive classroom until the end of time um that has been probably the one thing that is saving me especially in remote learning it saved me last year i felt it was like the missing link to my teaching when i went full force with it today we have a scenario instead of kind of like a question kind of like how we did last week with the scenario this one is your friends came over to your house for a movie night one of your friends brought another friend with so there are more people than you plan for you want to pass out the drinks but you only have five cans of soda and you need six
012for everyone to have one what could you do there's a misconception that like responsive classroom is just like morning meeting and there's so much more to responsive classroom it's in your language how you talk to kids reminding language reinforcing language redirecting language um it's about welcoming them right so we can't welcome them at the door so every day i make sure i let them in and i still greet each of them by names when you hear the words you know drop them in the chat you don't have to know the lyrics it's very catchy translate to the left one time translate to the right now go ahead and slide translate to the left two times translate to the right now go ahead and slide bring it up up and down bring it up up and
013down i started playing guitar when i was in sixth grade seventh grade um so i've always been into like writing music creating music just kind of like you know in the four walls of my bedroom became this little project a couple of years ago where i just you know just started thinking of concepts we were working on and like how can i help them remember it and the my other big thing was like how can i make sure it's like good math like not just like there's a lot of things out there that's like tricks to remember things but i was like i want them to know like the common core way like how am i gonna make sure that you know what what i'm singing to them is like true to the common core
014standards of course like that's what's going through my brain so i just started you know fiddling around playing around and then just songs were coming coming to me and that's just kind of how it went so up over nice job you guys are like blowing up the chat all right can i get like a you know you could just give me a little one of these so i don't feel like i was playing to a screen can i get a little like a little oh there we go a little unmuted clap there you have it 10 out oh eric gave me a 10 out of 10. wow and we give you a 10 out of 10 mrs williams thank you for your hard work hey who wasn't tapping their foot come on i know i
015was teller great job thank you um that's it we're moving on to board liaison reports uh let's start on the screen so anyone on the screen deb diane sally yes the planning committee met again on tuesday uh via zoom which was senior leadership uh head of the union and uh members zach and myself to discuss the upcoming um going back to school which we're excited about and uh superintendent kendra will be talking about that later so we had a lot of open discussion about everything that's going on and keeping up on everything so kudos to everybody who is working to get those students back in school anyone else on this remote any from my left am i right nope i do have a legislative update the state of illinois is winding down the 101st general
016assembly the last two days will be to well tonight and wednesday they will adjourn signing die at 12 11 59 that'll be the end of the 101st general session there is something possibly in the works that might be historical michael madigan has been speaker of the house for 35 years plus i believe and sort of took his name out of the running today to be the next speaker he may still come back and and put his name back in the running that will be something of a historical proportion because he is the longest serving speaker of the house in illinois not illinois history but also in united states history any state has never had a speaker serve this long there is a numerous bills that are being debated right now on the floor in springfield
017either on the senate or the house and with all there's restorative justice bills there's some uh funding bills for education there are uh numerous things happening right now uh but the big thing that seems to be uh taking up a lot of the oxygen is who will be the next speaker of the house of the state of illinois so you might want to keep an eye on that in the newspapers in the next few days and see what happens there if there's no more reports we will move down the agenda to miss kinder action report you have no report push the button number nine audience oh i'm sorry audience participation is anybody in the audience who wishes to address the board this evening if so please step forward and state your name we ask that
018you if you have documents that's great thank you and kind of keep your comments to three to five minutes good evening my name is grace avery i'm a junior at bolingbrook high school some of you may recognize me as i am heavily involved in our school's music and theater programs at the start of winter break bhs choir students received the immensely devastating news that our teacher mr fisher is being forced to choose a leave of absence for the majority majority of second semester because he cannot teach in person due to the more extreme safety precautions he must take to protect his immunocompromised daughter from clovid19 since then choir students have collected 181 signatures from bhs students parents alumni and other community members and supporters of our choir program urging you all to allow mr fisher
019to continue teaching us from the safety of his home during the hybrid phase of the return together 360 plan we fully understand that this is not an allowance that can be made for every teacher however mr fisher is not every teacher this is a very specific and unique case in a math or science class a substitute can give students an assessment and easily grasp their skill level and understanding of content but this is not at all the case with choir it takes time to fully understand a student's voice in the way that mr fisher does having taught a majority of his students for multiple years receiving vocal advice from a new teacher who doesn't have that extensive knowledge of our voices could cause serious damage to our vocal development mr fisher knows our vocal strengths
020and weaknesses and goals better than we do and that's how he helps us be so successful throughout the pandemic students in the arts have had to grieve the loss of countless opportunities mr fisher is one of the only people who has given us some sense of normalcy he worked endless hours for months to put together the overwhelmingly successful magical dinner and holiday concert that you all spoke about at your last meeting we couldn't have done those things without mr fisher and we won't be able to continue having such successes without him he's gone above and beyond organizing virtual master classes and q and a's with broadway professionals and world famous composers mr fisher has made this year the best it can possibly be for his students despite the less than ideal circumstances and for a
021lot of his students it's the reason they're getting by in the remote environment at bhs we are constantly being encouraged to prepare for our post-secondary plan i am in three choir classes and ap music theory that is how i am preparing for my post-secondary plan this is not just an extracurricular for me this is my entire life my college and my career and i'm not the only student in this position so something i'm especially worried about is who will be teaching ap music theory if mr fisher is on leave because just because someone is qualified to teach choir doesn't necessarily mean they're qualified to teach ap music theory having both qualifications is a specialized skill that mr fisher has he knows the ap theory material inside and out and he knows how to teach it
022in a way we'll understand in the remote environment which as you can guess presents a boatload of challenges so here we are we have students heading into ap testing we have concerts to prepare for that we want to be just as successful as they were in first semester we have seniors who are preparing for their post-secondary plans and getting ready for college auditions and we have students going to represent bhs at the allstate choir festival this semester i know you would not give the football team a brand new coach who didn't know any of the plays or which team members played which positions right before the playoffs because that would be crazy right but that's essentially what you're going to do to us by giving us a brand new choir teacher in the middle of
023the year most importantly and i can't emphasize this enough mr fisher invests in his students mental health and well-being more than any other teacher i know not only does mr fisher foster his students musical growth he also takes the time to know his students personally and many of them rely on him for mental and emotional support in a year where everything is completely upside down this support is vital many students including myself will severely suffer academically and or emotionally through this change so if it is true that the students are the board's top priority as we transition back to in-person learning and i sincerely hope we are please allow mr fisher to continue teaching us from home thank you you thank you grace we also think mr fisher is wonderful and we are extremely proud
024of the hard work dedication of all of our choral music all of our students in the fine arts with that said thank you for sharing this copy with me and i do also want to mention that every personnel matter is handled on an individual basis but we take your words into heart thank you appreciate your comments very well done thank you um i i think mr fischer is wonderful as well so uh i've seen all the productions and the things that you guys put on and that he's behind so i've much appreciation for that moving down the agenda uh rachel action report no report thank you ms white action reports 11.11.2 yes and good evening last time i presented information on elementary guided reading component of phantom panel and tonight i'm seeking um action somo
025second we have a motion we have a second is there any discussion roll call vote please remember fedoras yes remember campbell yes remember gilboa yes yes secretary sephora yes vice president yes and president quigley yes 11.2 yes uh last time i presented information on board policies 4.180 6.340 7.40 7.315 and point nine five and tonight i'm seeking action your motion it's all moved second motion by member badura second by member pero is there any discussion i had a question hang on a second find it here apologize but um oh um on 7.315 restrictions on publications in high schools could uh could you just go over that one a little bit for me the basis of that one what that one's about sure so can everyone hear me yes okay so sure this policy again these
026are updates uh to our board policies that currently are in existence this policy existed um formally complete policy however he thought it would be prudent to break it out break it out k8 and high school 912. we've already voted on um elementary eight it's already been approved it was presented i can't remember when but maybe a couple months ago and this is the high school portion that is now being presented uh clearly that if the policy was broken up is that um when it pertains to publications at high school a little bit different than k-8 and can you just kind of like talk a little bit about the gist of the publications and what um so basically just ensuring that our students um as they create publications such as school newsletters or opinion within the
027newsletter or anything that they're distributing on campus that it's in compliance with uh board policy so that it is appropriate in language in nature and that it is not um libelous slanderous obscene vulgar etc so that's basically the bulk of the policy going through what is appropriate for students to distribute at a campus uh including school newsletter including with club meetings etc or any other activity that they may involved in that may involve or consider any distribution of literature whether it's with whether or not it's written by students or whether or not it's by you know a guest speaker or whomever that's on campus at the school or a guest speaker you're saying because i'm just using an example i'm just using an example that they're school clubs where they could be an invited guest
028and there could be literature it has to be appropriate if it's distributed that's just an example there's many types of examples because this is in the student category correct uh the 7.315 um okay so that was one of my questions actually is is it just for the students is it is it for the teachers is it for guests is it for but it's mostly just for the students correct uh yes school sponsored media if there's a definition there on top means any material that is prepared substantially written published or broadcast by a student journalist at a public school et cetera um okay um because i'm i'm reading like forbidden material and i was just kind of wondering what the forbidden material might be uh um and you're just saying like um like pornography or um
029contrary to the spirit of um promoting positive uh standards within public education so yes i'm talking about libelous slander anything causing harm against any particular group etc essentially age-appropriate material right with community standards well you know i'm kind of asking is because like there's a lot of banning going on in facebook and twitter and those kinds of things and i and and sometimes some people might think that some things are a fine line of and i just want to make sure i kind of know where we're going with this one because i know that there are some groups that are starting to ban books and stuff and i don't really want to go down that road of where we're banning books and that's why i'm asking what materials are um considered forbidden that's kind of
030where i'm going with this correct uh no this is more school sponsored media again such as the school newsletter school newspaper um things of that nature it's not limited to that but that is a main um example i'd like to give and provide okay so we're not we're not like censoring like uh instructional materials or anything like that this is not the intent of this policy purpose of this particular policy okay thank you come on we have a motion we have a second no further discussion roll call vote please remember apparel yes remember gilbert yes remember campbell yes yes secretary sephora yes vice president zach yes i'm president quickly yes mr gazafi action report item 12 no report number miss nash good evening action report 13.1 is our consolidated action report this evening we're seeking
031approval for 33 items for certified personnel 76 items for classified personnel and two items for classified administrative personnel there a motion some move second motion and seconded any discussion i do have a comment mrs nash um on page seven of the uh agenda there is a man taking i believe an fmla and um there is no ending date there's only a beginning date on that i think he's the only there's only one there can we check on that i believe it's on page seven i see it yes i will make sure that that gets corrected for the next board meeting thank you there's no i do have a question on that um i was just kind of wondering um miss nash um do we do we get a lot of kids coming out of college
032that are applying for our schools because i or like when when we hire um are we like what kind of i don't want to say it wrong um what are our qualifications when we're hiring uh new people into the district are we looking more for experience are we looking for um and both are good believe me both are good but i'm just kind of no i just kind of want to know when we're when we're hiring what what are our what are we actually looking for i know we're short on employees too especially during the pandemic and well not employees themselves but like substitutes and things like that so if somebody would like to apply to our district um you know maybe they're a sub or something or if they're interested in working here um
033is there something that we are emphasizing when we are hiring our employees or is it can you explain you know what i'm saying well i guess my question is what for what positions are you speaking i'm just saying in general what is our philosophy when we're hiring employees for valley view school district what what are the criteria or the qualities that we're looking for and maybe that'll help people and help promote and bring people in um if you could just kind of talk about that a little bit i would appreciate that so i think first and foremost it's going to depend on the on the position that we're we're advertising for right and then the first thing that i would say we would want to look at is the job description and the essential functions
034that are that are inside each of those those job descriptions and so candidates are going to want to make sure when they're looking through those job descriptions that they are aware of those essential functions then that they would be able to perform those essential functions when you go further down the job description you can see education qualifications experience that might be necessary all of those are things that are taken into consideration and all those are reflected in board policy 5.190 it's it's a mixture of education experience qualifications and so on no matter what the position is and that's what we're that's what we're looking for okay thank you we have a motion we have a second uh there's no further discussion roku vote would be in order oh wait i i do have a a
035question oh no i'm sorry go ahead steve i'm sorry go ahead call the vote um member gilboa yes member apparel yes remember baduris yes yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes quickly yes next yes um action report 3 13.2 um this evening we are seeking approval on four board policies um these were presented to you on december 14th for information those are 5.190 the professional personnel for teacher qualifications 5.310 which is educational support personnel compensatory time off five professional personnel resignations in retirement and 5.7 are religious holidays the move second motion seconds any discussion um yeah i do again if you don't mind if we could look at 5.190 professional personnel and then um if we look at um down at the bottom there's a number two uh under the category of the superintendent
036or designee shall and then if we uh look at number two it was just kind of worded a little um funny for me and i'm not sure if i'm understanding exactly what that number two says so if uh if you could read that one for me and maybe just explain that a little bit i would appreciate it sure so um this particular section here will basically states um that we're trying to look at assignment of personnel so that we can ensure that we have qualified personnel in all of our classrooms or all of our positions so that we are not putting unqualified personnel especially with students who are at risk um uh or from are at risk population so um it basically is just looking at how we place and hire educators accordingly um this
037is the part i kind of don't understand a little bit here i'll read it and then i'll tell you the part i don't understand so it says through incentives for voluntary transfers um so i i didn't know if that was first we don't currently we don't currently have a program in place for um or incentivizing voluntary transfers we have a process in place for voluntary transfers but we don't have an incentive program for that okay then it says professional development recruiting programs or other effective strategies ensure that minority students and students from low income families are not taught at higher rates than other students by unqualified out of field or inexperienced teachers the part that i don't understand is are not taught at higher rates than other students by unqualified out of field i don't
038understand what that part means what what are we saying in that part are not taught at higher rates making sure that i think we're trying to make sure that um that our at-risk students are always in a classroom or always in front of a teacher that is um as experienced as possible that has qualifications um that are um are relevant to that particular subject right chime in sorry judy to interrupt i just want to make sure that you guys know i'm standing up here at the podium liz wagman um hi liz hi sally good seeing you um i want to let you guys know that that language is explicitly statutory language um and it aligns with what judy is saying is that we want to make sure that the at-risk students are getting the highest
039quality of instruction and again that is from statutory regulations that requires that they be at the forefront in scheduling and ensuring that they're receiving access to certified and appropriate staff so that is not valley view language that is actually a statutory regulation okay in value don't we do that for all students though we do but historically speaking in other districts throughout the the country that had had been experienced and so i think that was put in as a safeguard from the state level to say that hey it's not okay to just provide a subpar [Music] in terms of qualifications instructor to students who need it the most and so we are fortunate that we have highly qualified teachers to service all of our students including our at-risk students so in this case it's statutory because
040it needs to be there but it does not pertain to us in valley view and it deals with intentionally assigning the teachers to classrooms minority and low low income kids is that what you're saying at risk students at risk minority bilingual special education any students who um perhaps in other circumstances were not provided with high high quality or high qualified highly qualified instructors statutory statutory language is state law so yeah i know that this comes from the federal federal regs also um then i have another question on uh 5.310 let me look at it here and this one is educational uh support personnel and then elizabeth if you wouldn't mind could you just brief briefly on that one if you don't mind yeah this is written in line with the fair labor standards act regarding
041the time off that can be afforded to this group of personnel so again this is explicitly from statutory regulations and aligns with the time off policies and then can you tell me kind of just briefly it doesn't have to be in depth but briefly the time off policy is it has to do i don't understand the the um the pay of one and a half times i'll read the yeah overtime compensation for time okay so this is the the sentence in particular employees may be given one and one half hours of compensatory i'm sorry i'm not pronouncing that very well uh time off in lieu of cash payments for each hour of overtime worked and um and then it kind of talks about the maximum amount of time that you can have so can you
042just kind of explain that to me a little bit what what that means yeah that's talking about what overtime they're going to be allowed to take how much overtime they may take um and that's what it's kind of walking you through and again they get time off for [Music] instead in lieu of um overtime like they can take time off or a salary is that kind of what it's saying not understanding the question sorry sally so are you are you asking sally whether or not they're able to take they have a choice whether or not they can um get paid for overtime or take compensatory time is that what you're asking yeah yeah yeah and how and and how that works it generally depends on the what the collective bargaining agreements say for those individuals
043and so that's why the board policy refers to those documents and then others um you know it would be subject to the supervisor's approval the language that you're referring to sally ex explicitly says applies to those that are not represented by an exclusive bargaining representative so most of our employees belong to a bargaining unit and so the language that is included in that collective bargaining agreement is what determines that and this just refers to again something from the fair labor standards act so again this is statutory this is not valley view language this is the law okay and i'm just going to ask one more question just to make sure i have it straight here so um one half hour of compensat and i can't say that word i apologize uh compensatory i can't say
044it um time off in lieu of cash payment so would it would it match like the amount of time that they have or or do they have the choice of like one and a half times if you take the time off or if it doesn't match the amount of time does the that one and a half hour is it like overtime is what i'm saying and how does that work liz do you want to answer that or do you want me to try to answer that one and i apologize guys but it really doesn't go ahead cutie do you want to talk i mean here's the thing um sally again like um rachel indicated this is only governing the individuals that are not um aligned with a cba a collective bargaining agreement and additionally i
045just want to point out that this is just saying that they may have the opportunity to do this and then judy if you want to chime in with what your standard practice is for this um policy for those few individuals that aren't governed by a cba that'd be helpful yeah so it's so it's either it's an either or um generally and again i'm trying to think of a classification that wouldn't that would be covered under this and i and i'm at a loss right now to think um who was he like secretaries is it secretaries secretaries have a have a provision in their cba with respect to compensatory time and in their case if i believe if they're taking compensatory time if they're like one hour overtime they can either get one hour overtime at
046whatever rate that is of pay or they're they're eligible for an hour and a half of compensatory time that can be taken and there are parameters with respect to when they can take that compensatory time i mean i believe it has to be done within like 30 days of the time that they are given that compensat they earn that compensatory time so that's all subject to the to the collective bargaining agreement for that particular classification thank you very much i appreciate your patience everybody thank you we have a motion we have a second there's no further discussion a roll call vote would be in order remember maduro yes remember campbell yes remember gilboa yes yes secretary sephora yes vice president zach yes president quigley yes action item 13.3 um that's me also uh x-ray 13.3
047is resolution number two one one zero authorizing dismissal of an educational support personnel employee for reasons other than reduction in force your motion promote second motion and seconded certain discussion roll call vote please remember campbell yes humber gilboa yes member apparel yes remember maduras yes secretary sakura yes vice president zach yes yes i think you call my name uh return together update miss kinder if you would kindly yes sir we are going to project the presentation slides on the screen hopefully everybody can see those okay so here we stand six days shy of being at a 10-month mark since we first had a school closure last spring i know that sounds hard to believe because at that time we thought this was going to be a short-term thing it certainly has not been and i
048think we're all coming to the realization that we are in this for the long haul and so many of my comments tonight i'm going to try to put in context of kind of where we were and how and what we've learned and how we're looking at things you know 10 months in we've certainly learned a lot so tonight i just wanted to provide an update related to the planned transition to hybrid learning and answer any questions and discuss next steps as always we continue with the emphasis on ensuring safe and secure learning and working conditions for our staff and students following the guidance that is being provided to us we are ensuring that we are being responsive to changing conditions and those have changed a great deal over time and we're doing everything we possibly
049can to meet the instruction support needs for our kids whether it be remote hybrid or both and it's certainly a lot that we're we're charged with and that we are we've put upon our school staff's shoulders to ensure that that is done and put upon our family shoulders to support as well and ensuring that we're keeping the lens of every learner every day with our core belief of equity and then putting the resources where we believe that they can best support our students so we celebrated a new year we are all hopeful and optimistic that 2021 will will bring new new opportunities new chances 365 new chances in the days ahead we hopefully certainly hope that it's a brighter year but we are also realistic and we know that we still have challenges that lay
050ahead um we remain in the period of full remote learning and we are in the position of getting ready and moving forward with our planning to move and begin a slow gradual intentional transition to on-site learning in a hybrid model and we'll speak to that a little bit later in the presentation i do have staff on the the virtual meeting that will be able to support the later portions of the presentation or any questions that you may have as we discuss kind of the the path that we've taken and where we are headed next so this timeline has been shared and modified multiple times and what we are looking at now is our planned transition to hybrid learning which would bring school staff on site who are supporting the first transition they would come back
051this week and then our first transition of students would be on january 19th with pre-k k-1 6 and 12. i'm going to speak to that a little bit later and as you can see if you can't read all of the writing this is available online and this continues to be modified and made accessible around the clock but we are being very gradual with a phased return at each level a small return at each by grade and by program at each level the considerations regarding our transition plan to hybrid and or any future adaptive pauses we'll always have a site on the level of community transmission district metrics as well as our ability to consistently implement key mitigation strategies and i've shared with you many times exactly what i'm referring to when i talk about mitigation
052strategies and i'll provide a kind of a summary again as we start to move a little bit forward down this path i do want to make the comment um that when we first began getting our arms wrapped around the data and the levels of community transmission we became very focused on certain metrics at the region county and zip code level and we continue that focus as well but we're also now starting to put a different lens and perspective in viewing that data as we look on what's happening around and what the impact is inside of the district we do keep our eyes set on the illinois department public health guidance and there's multiple metrics that they outline that start to give you some signposts of what the level of community transmission is and we are
053seeing some stability coming forward with new cases and new youth cases so that is an encouraging sign at the region 7 level which includes will county and kankakee county we see a seven-day rolling average at 11.1 percent for this region as of january 8th we are hopeful and it's been communicated by governor pritzker that at the end of this week region 7 was currently under tier 3 mitigations we'll see reduced mitigations as long as the metrics are maintained and this is positivity rate the icu and medical surgical bed availability as well as a decline in the number of hospitalized patients there was an extended period of monitoring these metrics although the region had met these metrics the mitigations were held in place for that buffer after the holiday season as a proactive strategy that was
054recommended to hopefully mitigate transmission in the community so we're hopeful for our community for our business community for some sense of normalcy in life that this is the case but we're also hopeful that our community remains vigilant in taking precautions so that we don't see any increases in the future as i alluded to earlier the will county metrics we look at test positivity and new cases per hundred thousand those currently do remain at a substantial level but we see some strong signs with the new cases and youth cases at a minimal level and that's an important story to tell when i said that we're in this for the long haul i when i'm having conversations with people people often act surprised when i talk about next year and based on everything that i read and
055absorb and listen to from experts we will be dealing with this next year test positivity is a function of tests the number of tests that are given so if we could fast forward to the fall or the winter of next year if there's a lower number of tests based on the number of positives test positivity could remain high for quite some time so we may be living in a world with a positivity rate or in a community with a positivity rate of 10 or 12 percent for quite some time because it's it's merely a function of the number of tests and we also have to realize that the concept that schools will not return in any fashion until there is you know zero percent positivity or no new cases is is simply not a reality
056or a reality that i i believe that our community or our families our educators would be willing to accept we may be looking at another full year or more before we see numbers of that nature and even then it's a changing game as covid has shown itself to be in terms of spread or you know now we hear news of new variations new variants or another strand emerging and so it is a constantly moving picture and so keeping this in mind when we look at the data and not making our decisions based on any one metric is really critical when we look at our zip code data that zones us in a little bit further we are seeing around 11 positivity in our immediate zip code areas and we continue to monitor this as well
057looking at the trend lines over time since just before thanksgiving when we announced the adaptive pause so that you see on the chart there that says 11 16. so that november 16th board meeting we saw some lar very marked spikes in the positivity rate at the region and county and local level and since that time we certainly have seen a decrease you see the trend lines coming down we have some movement with the metrics inching back up in some areas as of late but we do continue to monitor that and we are certainly in a different place than we were on november 16th i'm sorry yes november 16th again our new cases and our youth cases is important to note because that is starting to paint a different picture as well so those are important
058metrics that we look at we also monitor our internal numbers our dashboard is available online there has been some questions about the immediacy of the updates it does take a day to update the dashboard from the time that is reported so it doesn't instantly go in there the moment that one of our school nurses enters a case so just for full transparency with the community those cases are reported and they they do show in the dashboard it just takes time for the upload to occur of course we saw a decrease perhaps it was a decrease in reporting perhaps it was a decrease in cases what i can only tell you is it was a decrease in the reported known cases to us and the known staff positive cases in terms of active cases is 18.
059remember this is out of a staff of more than 2 200 staff and then you know the that's in isolation for positive cases and then the known student positive cases as 21. again that's reported and so we certainly encourage our families to also continue to report to us so that we can tell the impact that our families are feeling at a local level in the home and what that means for our school community you see the quarantine number there as well and of course we expected a decrease over time and being full remote but this is something that we continue to monitor as we plan for a safe and healthy transition to hybrid learning we've taken many steps to ensure that we have an awareness of the community metrics around us and as we're moving
060into the range of being at a moderate level of community transmission we'll of course monitor that and we most importantly will monitor the impact that we're seeing with cases as well in the district for staff and students as well numbers of quarantine and being very intentional about our efforts as we're monitoring that as you saw in the chart earlier and i'll refer to shortly we are planning staggered transition by group at each level these are small groups of students small numbers of per classroom small numbers per building that will come back at any given time which allows us to be very intentional and measured in implementing safety protocols and helping students adjust and helping staff adjust and having teachers have the opportunity to get acclimated in their classrooms without a lot of other students in
061the in the building and so this will be the first transition that occurs for some of our pre-k learners our kindergarten and first grade as well as our sixth grade and twelfth grade each of our schools has worked very hard and made many um i guess adaptions and improvements to their building plans for health and safety procedures we've had the experience of having special programs on site we learned a lot from that we've learned a lot from other district successes we do know many districts many of that we which we have visited that at a moderate level of community transmission with successful implementation of mitigation strategies that school transmission is very low to non-existent when those strategies are in place and so that is where our emphasis has been placed our schools have considered all
062of the variables with hallways and open spaces markings signage to have organized and safe movement we have schedules developed for locations for lunch allowing for adequate distancing seating passing periods at middle and high that's something that's very important that the schools have thought through and i'm going to give you perspective on what that will look like compared to what we would typically expect to see in a middle school or high school passing period with full hallways full of students arrival and dismissal is another area that school teams have thought about very carefully for safety furniture and classrooms the considerations for safe distancing six feet distancing and all other safety procedures all students and staff will receive a review of protocols and safety guidelines and it will take time to adjust we do know that um
063we've we've learned a lot like i said from our previous experience and from other districts as well and the adaption once everyone gets acclimated can be done very successfully to the point where um it does become kind of the the new normal and our students and staff adapt very well um allowing time for students to transition in orientation i know that's one thing that i heard especially from kindergarten parents or pre-k parents who are sending their little ones in and the small groups in the in this small class sizes will essentially have a built-in orientation and a built-in time to transition same thing for our sixth graders because they're still our babies and we still it's still a big change for them to be coming to middle school for the first time to provide you
064perspective on our first transition which is scheduled to occur on january 19th i mentioned early childhood kindergarten first sixth and special programs this chart gives you approximate numbers of what you would be looking at by level in each building an estimation and then what the classroom size would look like so for example in an elementary building we may have 30 approximately 13 to 31 kindergarteners coming back and then our class sizes you can see in the column to the right would be approximately four to fourteen at middle school for example we may have we have approximately 80 students in sixth grade coming back those students spread out amongst classes allows for a small class size at approximately seven to ten students and then our high school you can see even our with our largest number
065at bowling brook high school with 240 students that would be on site at a time spread out amongst the entire big building spread out amongst classrooms does allow for adequate safe distancing and small class sizes to allow for distancing in the classroom and our special programs who have operated successfully several couple months ago they have their own unique programming that of course is small in terms of number of total students on site and number of students in the classroom so after i go through health and safety a little bit further we are going to talk about each of the levels and what that means for hybrid students as well as for remote students health and safety inside of our schools as i mentioned before of course community transmission is important and we watch that but
066we also know that we can operate successfully we've learned a great deal from the unknown when we were first taking this on in august the the focus really is on our strong ability to implement the five core mitigation strategies recommended by the centers for disease control to lower the risk of transmission in schools and the schools that have been open um successfully so far have strong implementation and we are fully prepared for this as well that is consistent and correct usage of face coverings social distancing to the largest extent possible regular hand hygiene respiratory etiquette and ensuring that we're emphasizing those practices routine cleaning and disinfection and contact tracing in collaboration with will county health department from the unknown that we faced in august or september we have come light years in terms of our
067ability to work with our local health department to have our staff fully trained and comfortable with all of the protocols for with contact tracing and to essentially become very well versed in public health something that was not an area that we were really really deep and deeply involved with previously the protocols in communication with our local health department are stronger than they ever have been and in terms of the guidance that's been given us for exclusion return to school we have solidly been implementing that and feel very confident that we are able to do so when students transition on site um family will receive families will receive notification on the protocols they've been shared previously they're available on our web pages on the school webpages families will receive a reminder mailing prior to their transition
068we have health waiting areas in all of our buildings for students who may be exhibiting symptoms and need to go home ill we have procedures in protocols in place for return to school which requires an alternative diagnosis or a negative pcr that's a viral test viral covered test that is required of the students to return and that includes a protocol if there are household members who are infected we have quarantine and isolation guidelines that are in accordance with illinois department of public health and cdc guidelines and we have strong protocols and procedures for contact tracing including for non-close contacts and close contacts i won't go into that information tonight i'm happy to answer any questions but that information is also available on our website and like anything the the more you become familiar with something
069the um the easier the more normal it feels or the easier it is to remember that information and this is a lot i know that we're communicating to parents we are currently in the process of establishing a partnership with the will county health department to receive point-of-care assessment for screening an antigen screener for symptomatic students or staff of course that would be by consent and would be just one tool in our in our arsenal to help us in the contact tracing effort if students are exhibiting symptoms and are on site we also have received additional information about vaccine readiness for school staff so we have been in regular communication with the will county health department we will be assisting in any way possible we can for the administration of that vaccine for our school staff
070who select that as soon as it becomes available that is something that the effort at the state and county level they're working very diligently to revise and make that as efficient as possible phase 1a is in process our school nurses will be getting vaccinated in the upcoming week to two weeks and we have school staff will hopefully be shortly after that i've received many questions related to air quality as studies come out related to the lesser transmission on surfaces but more so in the air and i just wanted to reiterate some of the hvac measures that we have put in place to support air quality and reduce the risk of transmission this includes the increased outdoor fresh air intake higher rated filters more frequent filter changes reverse flow fan filter units hepa filtration in the
071main office areas nurses offices ill rooms and the use of a disinfectant product in our air handling equipment yes our schools will look different when students are back on site but as you can see they're still our schools and the desks may be farther apart and the markings on the floor may be quite prescriptive and the signage may be more abundant however they're all done in the interest of ensuring that that we're doing everything we possibly can to reduce the any risk of transmission inside of our schools so i just wanted to provide you with a quick glimpse at what some of our classrooms or hallways look like and what students could expect when they return to school thank you for that very comprehensive report and you guys have done an outstanding job with that
072communication throughout this entire process um there's one thing that you know rachel has talked about the positivity rates well a lot of people don't test because they don't have a reason to but we have people who are testing who don't necessarily have a reason to so if you go test say 100 people who think they have a reason to go test besides their professional requirements being a nurse doctor so on and so forth if 100 people show up to take the test and they all think they have some symptoms that's the reason they go or and maybe let's just say 150 people show up but 100 test positive excuse the numbers and that's part of the reason you see such a higher necessarily positive test rate of people who are testing randomly if you're not
073having any symptoms and don't have any particular reason to go test you won't go test so if you see the state total of 14 million plus tests have been conducted there's only 12.7 million people in the state of illinois so they've tested more than two million people that live here so obviously people who are required to be tested because of their professions are getting tested much more often i personally have not had the test but my family members have because they had a reason to go get tested so there you have it i i hope that kind of helps some of those numbers and we also know that by zip code we look better than some other places but not as good as others so it's it's you know it's cyclical i suppose thank you
074i i did want to see if we have our virtual participants available on the screen the self-certification information will be sent to our families as a reminder wearing the bracelet daily as part of the daily self-symptom screening and self-certification process or it would be required to be done on site will be part of our process that information will be sent home there's a lime green card that students will come with on their first day i do need to access the can we have the presentation simultaneously shown with the zoom participants no okay um so i i have slides that um i think this is probably the most critical information for parents just a summary of what each level looks like are they able to speak yes okay so they're able to speak so that's information
075on screening our first transition i've said it multiple times i'm saying again this transition timeline is available and after today the school communication will be um the most the most frequent form of communication regarding any upcoming transitions as well as on social media um mary wurster our assist our executive director of student services can you please speak to the step transition please good evening um step transition program will return on-site on january 19th in-person learning will occur on thursday through friday from 7 15 to 12 30 with a remote monday our full remote model will be a blend of asynchronous and synchronous work with morning and afternoon support time and that instructional block will run from 8 to 12 for our fully remote step students adam herder executive director of middle and high schools on
076high school transition please good evening for our high school transition as mentioned earlier 12th graders will begin on site first as we stagger the grade levels back into the building for students who have chosen the full remote model for instruction they will be uh have full exposure to all their teachers and classes five days a week for students who have chosen the hybrid model they'll attend two days a week on either tuesday and thursday or wednesday and friday for all students mondays will be remote with a shortened schedule similar to early release days that we've had in the past and then the schedule for our high school will be going back to the seven period schedule and you can see an example on the screen periods last approximately 40 or 45 minutes um there is
07710 minutes in between each period to allow for students who are joining classes remotely online to have a break um also to safely transition students throughout the building who are there in person you'll also note that while the 45 minute time frame is in the chart for each period that does not mean that students will be when they are at home simply watching a teacher talk on zoom for 45 minutes straight multiple times throughout the day those class periods will be broken out with teachers using strategies to engage students give students breaks then of course there are those 10-minute blocks which add up to almost an hour of breaks during the day our next slide i believe is the middle school transition very similar in terms of the full remote versus hybrid model again students
078who are full remote in middle school will have access to all of their teachers five days a week remotely similar model for hybrid students who are returning only differences in middle school being sixth graders will be the initial group of students who were referring we again have mondays that are remote with a shortened schedule here is on the screen is an example schedule of what it may look like for a student who returns on site in this example they are a last name a through k which would mean they return on site tuesday and thursday and then they would be remote the other three days of the week in middle school and high school as has been discussed in the past students when they are not on site or if they're fully remote will be
079using zoom to engage in classroom instruction with the teacher which means that teachers will have students in front of them in person as well as students remotely online and we appreciate the tremendous effort that's taken place to prepare teachers for this for teachers preparation on their own to get ready to teach in this unique way while of course this is not something that really anyone one of us have done before we have had the chance to secure additional technology including cameras additional monitors to support this instruction and are engaged in a significant initiative for professional development to support teachers as we continue to learn with this model but what i will say is that we can be sure that even when students are remote at home and not on site they will be able to
080engage directly in instruction um with access to the teacher asking questions of the teacher getting feedback from their teacher uh throughout all of their their periods in high school and their blocks at the middle school level okay thank you um elementary school transition dr jill chicalis good evening our elementary school plan also has a full remote model and a a hybrid model in the full remote model it will be a continuation of the current model with at-home learning five days a week there will be a designated remote learning teacher assigned to each grade level multiple if needed based on the family the family's learning selection preferences there's been an adjustment of class rosters as needed again based on the selection of the learning preferences in our hybrid model we'll begin on january 19th with kindergarten
081first grade and our special education programs these students will transition back similar to the middle school model where they will be on site two days a week on tuesday thursday or wednesday friday our self-contained special education programs will be on site tuesday through friday um all students in the hybrid model will experience at-home learning mondays with the early release time just like the middle school the hybrid model offers a blend of on-site learning and at-home learning throughout the quarter as well as throughout the week there was also an adjustment of class rosters that will take effect so that when students come back they will be with their semester two teachers beginning january 19th for a summary of our early childhood mary worster executive director of student services our early childhood program uh will continue with
082a remote model from the start of school and have at home learning five days a week our on-site model will be a phase transition beginning the week of january 19th with our multi-needs in our stellar students as well as walk-in speech beginning that following week we would be phasing in our iep students in blended with multiple services and that final phase in will be our preschool for all students preschool for all extended preschool expansion grant students tuition and speech students in our blended learning their learning model will be monday through thursday with fridays being the asynchronous day thank you very much um so just in summary um our first transition is highlighted there for january 19th of course we will continue to monitor up until this point and we will continue continue to monitor very
083closely while we transition while we're on site and as we move into that next transition of january 26th i know for students for families and for staff this will be a huge change requiring a whole lot of effort a whole lot of hard work and it will present many challenges i know that the range of emotions will range from eager and excited to be back to anxious and worried and and i know that that's normal for everyone who's experienced a transition for your child or yourself or going back to the workplace i know that we are also committed however to sticking in this together and working through those challenges to keep the communication lines open to keep the support open and to adapt and be flexible if things aren't working we will adjust if conditions
084change dramatically we will adjust please know that we don't do not make any of these decisions lightly we know that the just the the task of transitioning to on-site uh running hybrid and remote at the same time or transitioning your little ones who've never been in school before is going to cause a whole huge huge effort by parents by staff by teachers by everyone involved our building leaders but i know we're up for the task and i know that it's the right thing to do to take small and measured steps in the direction of returning our students on site we do not make these decisions lightly but we will stick and stick through it together you can expect communication coming from your building your school respective school or schools prior to the transition you'll receive
085a health and safety mailing reminder you should have already received a transportation mailing if you are a family who has chosen to stay full remote and you received a transportation mailing that's okay you can just file that away for for future use you do not need it at this time we do have the ability if you're concerned about your selection that's registered in the system you can log into the parent portal to see what that is if it's listed as remote or hybrid you will receive an email from your school with additional information prior to the transition and then we will continue to update you through board meetings and other communication social media in the website as well so again i know this is a lengthy detailed summary but it is critical that everyone have
086an awareness of just how much thought and planning has gone into arriving at this point and how much thought and care will be put forth as we take the next step forward and and return our students um insight and our staff on site so i thank you all for your effort and your partnership i know it's not an easy ask to make abrupt changes or big changes but i think we're up for the task and i am hopeful that we can move forward and build on our successes thank you very much and draw those on the screen thank you for your efforts as well as we've said we know this isn't easy a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and we're grateful and very appreciative of all the efforts from all of our
087staff and the families in the community in general just for the efforts that they put forth to try and make this as best as we can uh moving down the agenda computer device refresh wait can we can we ask any questions oh i'm sorry anybody got any questions yeah i do actually you know i always do um first of all i want to say this is great that we're we're doing this i know there's a lot of people that are excited about finally getting back to school and it's great that we have all of them we know we're not going to have all the kinks worked out but um we have a lot of planning that has been done and and we're ready to do that so that's great for the families that really want
088that and um i i have a question about um the is there remote only for middle school and remote only for high school as well as elementary school i i don't know if i saw that or not they had choices at the all three levels correct if you wanted to stay remote or if you wanted to be there that is correct the difference is at middle and high school remote they do not have a schedule change they will stay with their same schedule they will just be participating remotely via live streaming and zoom at elementary the team made the decision that we would have separate sections that would be focused on remote due to the age developmental need of the littlest learners so those students would be in different sections so it's likely that they
089would be moving teachers to make that adjustment at the semester okay so some some kids will have new teachers starting when they start this month right so different teachers than they had last semester at the elementary school i know high schools and middle schools a lot of times do that but i know the elementary schools aren't really used to that but i'm sure they'll be okay with that um i have another question too um the planning time i do notice that it looks like the high school goes the full time but has early release on mondays and the middle school goes a little shorter than they normally do but the elementary they're going full on am i seeing that right mondays mondays are full remote early release for all levels with the exception of early
090childhood who has their um remote full remote on fridays so elementary middle and high all are full remote on on weeks when there's five days the monday becomes a full remote early release day and then does the high school have i mean does the middle school have a shorter day than normal during this or what time i i'm sorry i don't remember what is the release time for the middle schools mr herder can you speak to that please yeah the 235 time will be the same so um this information is is posted online as well but the uh a schedule for students and teachers on non-mondays would be the same as it has always been so at 2 35 and then um i'm just kind of wondering a little bit did um the elementary school
091teachers lose planning time will they have enough time for planning especially the ones that i know you have some that are full uh remote and then you have some that are hybrid and just wondering if if they lost any planning time or um if there's going to be enough planning time for those elementary people um rachel i can speak to that um so all of the elementary teachers whether they're remote or hybrid receive the 215 to 325 plan time um every single monday they also have their regular 35 minute plan time daily and then we have worked in an additional 30 minute plan time one time per week for each elementary teacher just as something additional for the added responsibility that we acknowledge that they will be adding certain activities to seesaw or links for
092the students on their at-home learning days so we that's how we added that and then we also have once a month one of the early releases will allow for the plc time as well as the professional development time and we use a lot of the time that we have now in that last like 45 minutes of the school day where optional professional development can be offered and now we're building it back into our traditional early release time sounds good and um that additional 30 i think you said 30 or 35 minutes that they get during the week how is that worked in so we collaborated with the student services department and we worked with the learning environment coordinators and our special teachers um and we looked for ways to incorporate an additional movement break so
093that our kids that are at home doing remote can have an additional 30 minutes where they can get up and move around and move away from their screen and do something that's a little bit more interactive um that's not involved with looking at a screen and for the students on site the teachers would be able to have the plan time as well where somebody else would come in like a learning environment coordinator or a special teacher who had an open section and provide a movement break for the students that are in school and did you say that was 30 minutes per week or 30 minutes per day or um it's an additional plan time per week okay thank you and that is in addition to the students regular pe and recess time um or um
094teacher taught pe time like for movement breaks in the classroom so i i do have one more question about that is it a um combined 30 minutes or is it a broken up like five minutes here five minutes there type thing no is it enough time for teachers to plan yeah it's one full block of 30 to 35 minutes oh okay thank you moving on the agenda computer refresh astrid i'm assuming that's you uh actually i'll take it and certainly jump in as needed um we do find ourselves at a uh crossroads district certainly was well prepared uh in anticipating the need for computing devices for all students in this challenging time of remote learning but we do find ourselves uh with with some of the equipment becoming dated uh we purchased devices chromebooks namely
095uh back in 1415 and 1516 which have will have completed five or six years of service and have reached the end of their useful life we also have a significant number of desktop computers also at the end of their useful life that have been in use for seven years and are scheduled for replacement the past two years we've seen replacement of most of the certified staff laptops and we're proposing to replace a smaller number of those end of life laptops this year with a touch screen flip laptop model that's become the district standard for all certified staff remaining certified non-classroom educators will receive a non-touch laptop three years ago and they'll also be rece having computers replaced with these new touch flip laptops the current devices will be reallocated as school resource computers namely for
096use by guest teachers or as replacements as repairs are needed the proposed purchase of student chromebooks to be utilized next school year will be replaced units that have been in use for again five or six years we have over 19 200 devices being used by students as one-to-one chromebooks tablets spares or replacement devices at all grade levels four thousand nine hundred and fifteen touch screen chromebooks will be distributed to our second through fifth graders as part of this proposed refresh the other 1683 chromebooks to be purchased will be non-touch devices to be used as one-to-one chromebooks utilized by middle and high school students a total of 7 81 five to six year old chromebooks will be replaced with this purchase which are now beginning to experience a high rate of component failure uh than their
097younger counterparts the original lifespan of these chromebooks was estimated at four years back in 2019 we had a successful conversation with google which resulted in an additional year of enterprise support resulting in the extension of their useful life through the summer 2021. all total will have 1283 less chromebooks than currently in production due to the addition of tablet devices for our youngest learners namely pre-k k 1 and 2. midland high school computer labs currently use desktops which are 7 years old and have reached their end of useful life we'll be replacing those with what's known as a chromebox namely it's a small computing device that doesn't have a dedicated screen but would have a monitor keyboard and mouse attached externally at the high schools the desktops will be replaced with a laptop to increase their
098mobility and flexibility of use and proposing to purchase 185 student laptops to replace those desktops in such labs all total we're looking to replace 7728 student devices 320 325 staff laptops for a total of 8053 computing devices prices are estimated at this time would include all warranty support licensing and cases as needed we're finalizing costs as you can imagine computing devices are in very high demand for obvious reasons uh and so we're trying to firm up as best we can trying to get out ahead of the rush uh getting these ordered now for a uh late spring delivery so that we're ready to go in the summer getting them inventoried ready to be deployed uh and distributed so we're ready to go uh for the new school year uh we'll be bringing back an action
099report to you hopefully on january 25th with firm pricing uh and utilizing as we have in the past a tax-exempt lease along with some remaining digital equity formula grant funds to offset the cost of the lease thank you gary much appreciated can i ask a question to gary our way uh gary um i i heard you talking about the desktops um was that for computer labs yeah we're using a chromebox desktop for our middle schools cte labs that's our tech labs if you will in the middle schools and then the the high schools will have desktops retired and we will replace those with laptops to aid in in flexible uh seating and being able to move around uh the the lab rather than being sitting in a you know in front of a desktop so
100i guess my question i guess the reason i'm asking that is i thought each student had their own device so i was wondering why we have the labs still and ordering computers for these areas of each student already has their own device yeah i think the with the uh with the uh career in tech ed labs uh and the uh uh some of the uh dedicated labs like uh do you call it production media production things of that nature it's much easier to use a mouse and a dedicated monitor larger screen monitor than it would be you know a 13 inch or 11 inch laptop and so that software requires a little bit more specification higher specification in the computer thus the need for having a dedicated machine at the at the middle school cte
101labs uh also as well as the uh the high schools those laptops are a little bit more um robust if you will in their computing uh capability to provide you know again more more horsepower if you will for those media production type of classes thank you moving down the agenda legal services report no report aft report no report oh okay no report a valley view council report renee if you would good evening superintendent kinder senior administration and members of the board i come tonight to speak to you all torn last week when i met with member socorro and member zack you asked me point blank where i felt our staff was at in regards to returning i was honest and said i really didn't feel comfortable answering that for you because things last tuesday were
102extremely quiet we had all just returned from a much deserved winter break we were excited for the new year and we were enjoying being back with our students boy what a difference 48 hours can make by thursday last week things had taken a much different turn for union leadership the emails calls texts messages came pouring in this continued more than normally over the weekend and even throughout the day today for every message or person we talked to saying they are terrified to return the next message was telling us how bad they feel we need to be back in person and give this a real shot so as i stated to start i am torn when i hear even one member cry to me yell at me or send me data upon data telling me why
103we shouldn't return it hits me it hurts me and it makes me feel obligated to share it with you why should anyone have to come to work feeling like that we are not health care workers we didn't sign up to have our lives put in jeopardy by coming to school school we're coming to school no staff member or child should ever have to worry about coming to school school is a safe place school is a social place of learning academically socially growing and making lifelong memories for students nothing in this book is written or states that we should be risking our own health and pitting and putting our families at risk and our students in harm's way nothing with neighboring communities preparing teachers and staff in group b to receive vaccines even as early as
104next week i have to ask why why are we willing to risk it what would it hurt to wait a few more weeks at this point to ensure the utmost safety for our staff and allow those who want the vaccine to even get one dose before returning the reality is it wouldn't hurt anyone we've come this far why not just wait we have some districts around us who are paused till march some indefinitely paused and some who have been on site a few times and or even the whole time since august the issue for us here in valley view is with so many of our large neighboring districts is that we don't have one story we don't get to have one story we have our bowling bar community who has been able to maintain current
105metrics that make us feel a lot more comfortable but when we add in romeoville right now who is showing metrics at 16.55 percent doubled what we're seeing in bolingbrook we are scared the numbers have stayed have skyrocketed here in romeville over the last few weeks how do we make a decision for all when we're clearly looking at a tale of two cities right here in our own towns we serve i also feel the members of the valley view council are their own tale of two cities like i said since thursday for every message i received saying we shouldn't go back i got one saying we should our members know just how much our students need us we see them struggling mentally emotionally and academically we also see one another struggling with our own mental health
106and the toll that all of this isolation and remote teaching has taken on us daily we need our students and they need us i've said it before and i'll say it again on paper and the presentation that superintendent kinder shared with you tonight i do not think there is one more thing that we could do differently to prepare for this transition we know the money this district has spent to get us to this point we know the endless work that has gone on behind the scenes and now it comes to the execution of these plans i have to take a second and thank and highlight all the work that the building principals and assistant principals have done to prepare every aspect of this day for this transition arrival dismissal lunch hallways passing periods office space
107break rooms student selections the list is endless the weight of all this will now shift on their shoulders as they have the responsibility to oversee all these plans and policies at each of our buildings i hope that the members of the valley view council will also take a second and join me in thanking your administrators for all the work they have done and will be doing regardless of how we all personally feel about the return they deserve a thanks and appreciation can we all come together for these plans to be carried out is the question can we put our differences and opinions to the side to take care of one another and keep our buildings open maybe we need more time in between these transition groups maybe we need more time to transition our high
108schools with the largest numbers have we learned enough from what we experienced in october i know all these are questions that many that many of us have in our minds as we continue and they will continue to roll in one by one we will answer them and we will take each challenge and hiccup in stride and i will ask our membership to do the same we must respect one another listen to one another and follow all safety protocols and policies at all times this doesn't just mean when we're on site if we want our schools to remain open then we have to do our part in our personal lives too i am in between romeoville and bolenberg daily and every day i watch adults go into stores restaurants gas stations with no masks every day
109i see this and our membership sees us it's not our students and children that are causing the rise in the metrics and spreading of it it's the adults we have to do better we have to be better and we have to show our children more than ever the importance of the three w's we also now call on our families to do the right thing you must go through the self-certification process with your child or children daily if they are ill if you are ill awaiting test results please keep your children at home we will support them online until they can return with us we all must do the right thing as of december 31st our staff doesn't have covet provisions to fall back on that we previously had due to our federal government not extending
110those provisions if we get sick it's our own sick days being used if we have to isolate or quarantine it's on us so now members are faced with the challenge of what do they do every day after speaking with dr nash late last week about this topic i am optimistic and hopeful that we can collaborate about this topic and look to offer solutions if and when a situation may occur here on one of our valley view sites i share superintendent kinder's optimism that we will adjust and grow in confidence every single week i also ask that senior leadership be open to the challenges that our membership brings listen to us collaborate with us and building admin i call on you to be honest with senior leadership about the struggles that the staff is bringing to
111you we have done all we can to be proactive and now we will have to remain in a state of reactive unfortunately to deal with the issues as they occur a state in which we work so hard not to be in i also call on this board of education to offer any community support you can to help administration get those vaccines in available to those value employees who want to take it i also call on the board of education and superintendent kinder to explain to the membership or help me explain how and why when i walked in here this evening we had people who weren't allowed in and we do not even have senior administration and the board of education all here present in this building no more than 10 but starting wednesday we will
112have way more than ten in every single building including this one on site optics are everything at this point and right now this is poor optics for my membership to see i am well aware of the mitigations and numbers allowed at certain gatherings but this is poor to our teachers and staff i know this isn't going to be easy i know you are scared i know some are excited i don't have answers to all of your questions but i promise that jared and i will continue to work tirelessly with senior leadership to get the answers that you need and support you at this transition at every single level in sight we hear you we see you and we are here for you lastly i just want to once again thank all of our maintenance staff
113who have continued to work tirelessly for the last 10 months to prepare for this hybrid transition at each and every level they have been busier the last 10 months than they ever have been in this district you all deserve recognition for all you've done and will continue to do and those buildings won't be as quiet for much longer so please enjoy the calm before the storm because we're coming thank you thank you office personnel report no report any old business before the board this evening any new business before the board this evening any questions from the public on actions we have taken this evening any announcements by the board from my left mr zach actually i have a few announcement announcements um thank you renee for what you said we do listen to you it
114was well spoken we've gone through a long time of negativity and stuff like that so i just want to say a few things welcome to 2021 it's a new year we're gonna try as rachel said we're pulling the band-aid off and we'll see how it works out um i just wanted to say a bunch of thank yous we spent this winter here home in romeoville in bolingbrook and um example is that the teachers and the staff at ring king they had a thanksgiving day they ran out of hams and stuff so they all pitched in to do that astrid had her i.t department pitching hams and turkeys for christmas for the food pantry over at irene king so it's like thank you for those people for doing that in the community that we all live
115in because it really brings us together you know we have in romeoville we have rick from fact rickey's he always gives to the community dinners and stuff like that um up in bolingbrook they have bob from tailgaters he's he does the same thing it's just to the same person it's like he wouldn't tell him you were looking at him he does the same thing in bowling brook he gives to the people that need food and stuff you have lee bush from operation christmas he does wonderful things up there we had the knights from columbus they donated some coats you know what it is sometimes yeah it's been a really rough 2020. but 2021 is look back and try and enjoy and take a few positives and look forward for 2021 it will be better we
116only have one way to go that's all i have president quickly thank you anyone else comments moving down the agenda which i just tucked away any announcements by the administration just one and i'll be brief thank you renee for your comments very well spoken you always bring the truth you always bring the perspective in jared as well and to you and to the membership you know that my commitment stands to continue to work we do not ever have a perfect plan there is no playbook but we are certainly willing to listen certainly willing to learn and adapt or adjust if necessary and and we're in it with you as our building leaders and we we will continue to stand by that so thank you for your comments and you know we'll be continuing the conversation
117we're here thank you all and to our staff i echo everything that renee said um in terms of the load that's been placed upon you over the past 10 months and the road that lies ahead of us you've worked incredibly hard we know the challenges aren't going to get any easier they're going to change on the daily and we are extremely appreciative of your effort and just your ongoing commitment to continue to push through for our kids and our families every single day so thank you all for everything that you do and you also continue to have the support of everyone around you to help us get through the next transition thank you anyone else any announcements by the public seeing none hearing that a motion to adjourn would be in order removed we have
118a motion second and a second all those in favor say aye hi the same sign you guys have it have a safe evening looking forward to what we can do in the future thanks folks be careful out there you