001and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tom, are there any items to remove or add from the agenda? Nope. Okay. All right, celebrating successes. Tonight we welcome Sarah, Danielle, and Amy and friends to celebrate the Best Buddies Program and the Leadership Program at Batavia High School. Please take the podium. The three names, lots of friends. Thanks for bringing them. We felt like, yeah. Right? That's how it works. But thank you all for inviting us here tonight. We're excited to share about all the great work that Best Buddies does. Great students that we have. So Best Buddies is a club that is dedicated to fostering relationship between students and just like that inclusion for us at the high school level and to promote awareness
002for individuals with special needs and then building those meaningful connections and collaborations. We are an official chapter and there is an international organization as well, so they're pretty large. So last week, I think it was, one of their members came and visited us and kind of gave us some updates, so that was pretty cool too. But we, as sponsors, like to support our exec board. Really, they're like the backbone of what the club does, day in and day out in the school and each of our monthly events and more. So we're going to let them take it away. All right, starting with just some past event highlights, and we do have a highlight reel as well. We'll get into kind of some other favorite events. members up here as well. Elena, what's your favorite part
003of being in Best Buddies? I play big games, see a face house, see these houses, and go out to movies, and get ice cream. Ice cream. Very nice. You're going to pass around some papers and flyers. Do you want to go this way? with some upcoming fundraising information and things that we'll be doing throughout this year as well. Okay, my name is Sadie, and I'm the president of Best Buddies. So I wanted to talk about the reason that I kind of joined Best Buddies in the first place. I had some experience in middle school working with special needs students, and I wanted to kind of continue it through high school, and I still love being involved in the community. I think it's so awesome. I mean, this is one of my favorite clubs. I think
004it's so fun to just hang out. These are some of my favorite people. So I did that for my first two years. I'm a senior this year. So by my junior year, I decided that I wanted to apply for exec board. I just, I really saw the amazing opportunities that it provided for general education students and special ed students, and I think that this club is really interesting with the, like, what you get out of it. I just really wanted to be a part of giving everybody else the experience that I got, and I thought it was a good idea. My name is Avery. I'm one of the social media coordinators. So I'll be talking about some of our upcoming events. So on October 28th, we're having our partner reveal. We'll be doing it with
005a scavenger hunt leading up to the big reveal on pumpkins. Partners and buddies get to paint pumpkins while hanging out with their new groups. And we will be having our Thanksgiving potluck on November 25th. This is one of my personal favorite events. We get to make paper plate turkeys, play bingo, and of course eat some delicious food brought by everyone. And we will be having our gift wrapping fundraiser on December 21st from 1 to 3 p.m. You can bring your gifts and have them wrapped by our buddies and our mentors. It is totally free. Donations are welcome, and we hope to see you there. And to close out our time, we do have a video just of previous event highlights and some other thoughts from our other club members who could not be here today.
006So thank you again for inviting us here tonight, and we hope to see you all at our gift-wrapping fundraiser too later this year. Spread the word. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Oh, yeah. I'm just going to assume it happens. Here? Yep. We dance, we dance. You're going to present on the leadership program now. Oh, great. Yes, thank you. My name is Sarah McEwen, and I am with Best Buddies. I also have a leadership program at the high school that is a really close connection to Best Buddies, so I thought it would be great to kind of hop on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling very good, and so I wrote up my thoughts. And my awesome, awesome friend Sadie here is going to help me out. This is the best I've sound
007probably in about 24 hours. So we're going to let her take over from here. All right. Okay, so the leadership program is dedicated to equipping general education peers with the knowledge and confidence to support and build meaningful friendships with students with special needs within our community. Leadership one is open to all students and fulfills a physical education credit. The course combines... gaining insight on various disabilities, engaging in cooperative games and team sports, and developing strategies to adapt activities for inclusivity. Students apply their learning through communication circles, camp days, and community field trips in partnership with Fox Valley Special Rec at the St. Charles RecPlex. where they play and lead activities that promote inclusion, understanding, and leadership in an array of settings. Here are some highlights captured in photos. Okay, and then on to Leadership 2.
008Leadership 2 is open to any student who has completed Leadership 1. In this course, general education students work daily alongside ILP students in physical education, art, and choir, applying their learning and real-life experiences where true growth occurs. Through these experiences, students demonstrate growth and confidence, decision-making, empathy, and relationship building. We do a lot, but we will keep it very basic tonight. In physical education, students engage in foundational movements, activities, and cooperative games that foster teamwork and inclusion. In art, students create original works that are showcased during the choir concert, where they also learn and personally choreograph three to four songs for performance to friends, family, and the community. Here are a few additional photos. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at our concert. There's one more slide, Holly. And well done pitch
009hitting. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you for coming. We appreciate you being here. Holly, we have someone or people to address the board today? Yes. Welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education. If anyone wishes to address the board this evening, please see our recording secretary submit a form. Please put your full name and address on the form in general the board will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment This does not mean we do not take your concerns or comments seriously the board of active values anticipation in district endeavors and Encourage is people to engage with the district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind Board members are not involved in day-to-day operations of districts and cannot engage in district businesses individually. If
010you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district, you may submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff will reach out. We have Haley Lamb. Welcome, Haley. Good to see you again. I am Haley Lamb. I'm a parent of two children in our public school system. I am asking for a response from the school board regarding my many emails. In the meantime, I'd like to offer my help and support to help accomplish this task. Keeping in mind your strategic plan, this will help accomplish your goals. Priority one, enhancing and teaching learning practices. Recess helps children to concentrate in class. Optimal cognitive processing in a child necessitates a period of interruption. after a period of concentrated instruction. Several studies demonstrated that recess, both indoor and outdoor, made
011children more attentive and more productive in the classroom. Priority two, foster inclusion and belonging. Recess helps young children to develop social skills that are otherwise not acquired in the more structured classroom environment. Through play at recess, children learn valuable communication skills, including negotiation, cooperation, sharing and problem solving, as well as coping skills, such as perseverance and self-control. And anyone who has seen a gaga ball pit can attest to that. Priority three, operational excellence and resource stewardship. By adjusting and adapting to the complex school environment, students augment and extend their cognitive development in the classroom. Studies have shown that high-quality recess environment is associated with improvements in school attendance and overall school climate. Both are areas that we've tried to target. Given the scientific data-driven information, I hope our schools can shift to make sure the
01215-minute recess is dedicated to our students. That way it can improve their skills. I have noticed since we last spoke that recess is no longer being withheld from our fifth grade students, specifically at my school, which I'm very happy about. But I've also noticed classes missing from the playground at their recess time. which is why I still continue to push for this to be fixed. I will leave you with a quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Recess is a necessary break in the day for optimizing a child's social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. In essence, research should be considered a child's personal time, and it should not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons. As a parent, I volunteer my time to help make this work. And I would love to help make it
013work. And then once we are done with that task, I would also like to address that please educate our staff on federal people coming to the buildings and trying to take children away. Thank you for your time. Thank you. All right, BPS partners. Drew. Drew, you're holding out on the board tonight. I'm holding the board up tonight? Yeah, you're holding the whole thing tonight. I can just submit this if you want to read it individually. That's fine. Sorry, misheard you. Hi, board. I have three things for you tonight. First, at last month's board meeting, I asked that as a board you put the ever-increasing complexity of our students' needs, especially within our high-needs programs, on your radar. As a follow-up, I wanted to thank the district and building administrators, lots of our district and building
014administrators, for working in good faith with our members over the past few weeks to ensure that staff have the support and resources they need to best serve our students. Let's do more of that. The BEA looks forward to continuing... to work with the board and administration toward the shared goal of strengthening all of our programming, especially our special education and EL programs. Second, tonight you'll be reviewing a draft of next year's school calendar. I wanted to take a moment to highlight one specific part. In recent years, one resource has consistently come up as something we never have enough of and always need more of, and that's time. At the most recent district coordinating council meeting, we discussed the need for staff to have the time and space to work on the myriad of new curriculum
015coming down the pike. This is a message we've been consistently hearing from our membership. I'm happy to share that we were able to agree on finding more of that time, which you'll see reflected in the draft that's on the agenda for tonight. I know the calendar can sometimes spark strong opinions among our stakeholders, but I hope we can continue approaching this process in a way that strengthens our shared goal of student success. And finally, as several members of the board have already acknowledged, there's been an air of fear and uncertainty among many of our students, staff, and community members as a result of the drastically changing federal landscape. News of immigration enforcement impacting our town and state, the increased vitriol in our public discourse, and even Blackhawk helicopters, yes, Blackhawk helicopters flying over Batavia High
016School a couple of weeks ago, have all added to that fear for many in our educational community. The BEA has been sharing several resources with our members since last year, and I know the district has also shared resources with the community as well. It's not a silver bullet, but it's a start. Unfortunately, in addition to this, one of our other vulnerable communities is also facing the fear and uncertainty of the changing landscape. As you may or may not be aware, on October 11th, nearly all personnel within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, or OSEP, was terminated in a reduction in force. These terminations effectively eliminated OSEP's functionality and this move undermines the oversight of IDEA and severely limits the federal government's ability to support states and districts. It also disregards responsible
017stewardship of federal dollars and jeopardizes the long-standing commitment to a free and appropriate public education for children with disabilities. As of the 15th of this month, a federal judge temporarily halted these layoffs as the case moves through the court system, but the damage has already been done. only adding to the wave of malaise among educators and families of students with disabilities across the country and in our district. Again, fear and uncertainty. Our district's relationship with the state and federal government as it relates to education policy and funding is often misunderstood. It's tricky to navigate. While our district does have some insulation from these broader attacks on public education, I would encourage us to consider how we can communicate to our concerned families and staff the ways that we plan to continue supporting our students in
018the face of these potential impacts. Again, not a silver bullet, but reassurance and communication could help. Finally, I'll leave you with this, a gratuitous excuse to acknowledge the passing of one of my personal guitar heroes, Ace Frehley of KISS. I became a full-fledged member of the KISS army in third grade the moment I saw my first KISS music video, I Love It Loud on Beavis and Butthead on MTV. I was instantly hooked. It turned my world upside down, and I immediately asked my parents if I could quit soccer and start taking guitar lessons. Ace wasn't the most eloquent speaker, if you know, you know, but I've always loved this line, and I hope all of us can take something from it. Reflecting on his own life journey, he said, my life has been a roller
019coaster ride, but somehow I've always been able to land on my feet and still play the guitar. That statement of resilience should serve as a powerful reminder that setbacks aren't the end, but opportunities to rise stronger and continue pursuing what matters most. I'll let each of you interpret that as you see fit. Solidarity forever with Vespa, rock and roll all night, and good luck. Thanks. Thank you, Drew. I was going to say that is one of the most Drew Ray speeches I've ever heard, talks I've ever heard since you've been doing this. You rolled rock and roll into it. Thank you, sir. All right, tonight there's no BESPA addressing the board, and our student ambassadors are off doing very important, how did you phrase it? Senior obligations. Senior obligations. All right, consent agenda. So according
020to our board policy, we designate a portion of our agenda as consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion. Before board action, these items are generally routine, recurring, and can be grouped together for efficiency. Steve, would you please do us the pleasure? Absolutely. 5.1 is the approval of the September 23rd, 2025 meeting minutes. 5.2 is our monthly personnel report. 5.3 is our donations. Thank you to the Collier Community Foundation as well as Batavia Wrestling Club for their donations to Batavia High School Athletics Departments and their wrestling program. 5.4 is the monthly payrolls and bills. 5.5 is our BHS overnight field trip approval. And finally, 5.6 is the approval of the consent agenda. Any questions? Awkward pause. Hearing none. Okay. I will entertain a motion to approve all items in the consent
021agenda as presented. So moved. Moved by Erin. Second. Second by Katie. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Gonzalez-Thomas. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That one's a fun one because
022it reminds you that even sometimes the fun and good things we can't release, like our list of National Merit Scholarships and scholars. Any questions on FOIA? Okay. Treasure report. So there is nothing unusual. I'm stealing his line. There is nothing unusual to report this evening. Everything is in good order. Nothing about tax anticipation warrants? No. He's going to be watching this. That's a dirty word. He's going to go, wait a minute. Don't say that. All right. So no questions on the nothing to report? All right. Committee updates, Tom. So as you can see, we have our committees underway. So what I've done is just a reminder to all of you I take the committee messages at the end of the meetings and I paste them here so that you can You know the public can
023see what our committee messages look like and it's a good summary for all of you. So board members if there's something specific you'd like to Summarize, you know from the committee that you sat on please feel free otherwise I'm really happy to report. We have a lot of work happening as was planned and it's scheduled board members do you mind if I just kind of jump in through some of these things or is there anything that you guys want to share I just want a couple things about CAC So you see up there it says three course approvals. So just so you guys know, there's two at the high school and one at the middle school. So at the high school, they are kind of revamping the link program to be more of a field
024experience. And so students, they're kind of still working out the process, but students are going to be interviewed in order to be accepted. and there's going to be businesses that kind of have to go through a vetting period as well. What is a link program? So the link is kind of like you shadow, if you're interested in like accounting, you would shadow an accountant or, you know, someone in that and kind of get their experience. They might give you some projects. I think they do a, I want to. I think like once a week now they check in with Dennis Pierron runs it. So check in with him, kind of give updates. They have a sheet that the business person fills out and kind of they say what their day-to-day do and like what they
025did that day and so forth. So this would be basically kind of more like an internship that they would do. The next one is for graphics program. They're just looking to eliminate one of the courses, which would be like the gaming and the art design, and go more towards like a graphics, like more into that. And then at RMS, this will be a nine-week course, and it's kind of be like an intro to the exploratory skills. So if your student doesn't do any type of music or choir, they're going to basically go to sewing for so many weeks, then kitchen safety for so many weeks, and then measuring and construction for so many weeks. So kind of like an intro to all of it. So those are the three that I just kind of want
026to talk about because we'll probably have to be voting on those. Yeah, we'll we'll bring it to the board in November and then for final approval You may see them in the course catalogs But they're all pending board approval since that's your role is to approve any new courses that we offer but we do start Registration very early and talking to kids about what their possibilities are for next year So you might see that in the course catalog for the middle school in high school But it is dependent upon your approval of those courses whether we can run them All right. Just one quick one for the Hall of Honor. I went to the first meeting just to announce that nominations are open and they're in need of those nominations. So you can go to
027bataviafoundation.org slash hallofhonor and submit a nomination. I just want to mention for RAC, this is, I think, the second meeting I went to. And as it mentions in the summary there, Bob Lewis came and talked about options for funding some projects that are coming up including the possibility of using health life safety bonds I don't think it's anything we need to talk about right now but it will be coming he's gonna look for you know some options for us to look at and discuss but those those can be used for things like you know, HVAC and things that affect the health, life, safety of our building. And then insurance wasn't on there, but they're doing great. Open enrollment. They, like, came up with a new plan to go to each school. Like, each committee member
028tackled a school, and it seemed to go really well, and I trust what they're doing. So that's all. That's awesome. That's, yeah, great job. That leaves us doing awesome. And so then leading into the last committee, policy committee did meet. So I'm going to go ahead and turn the mic over into 6.4. But as a policy committee update, Raquel and Aaron, if you want to take it over. So those are all the policies that we reviewed. And basically the background on this is. Title IX changed with the current administration back to the 2020 verbiage. So it changed in 2024, and now with the new administration, they said, nope, we're going back to 2020. So it just kind of eliminated. It just kind of eliminated. It's now just Title IX. That's what it is. Instead of
029Title IX, it's just Title IX. There really wasn't, other than like footnotes and just updating the verbiage, there really wasn't anything major. But along with that, there was 12 procedures that changed with it. But again, it just kind of coincides with the verbiage. I mean, it really wasn't, Kristen came and we really didn't have too much. Yeah, it's just like changing the language to be consistent with what the national law is now. It's not impacting how we're providing services. Right. Yes, our services are still the same. It's just the language in our policies. We're still going to do what we normally do. The last one being the world language change, right, from first reading. Do you want us to cover that one? Yeah, can you? That one has a little more nuance to it and
030it is very new. I'm going to let Brad go ahead and speak to that. Sure, we took a look at this policy for the board because starting in 2027-28, there's a change to graduation requirements to include two credits of world language, which that has been an option for students in our system, but has not been a graduation requirement. One of the the concerns about that is that when you have things that are required and you're driving kids there It can have a ripple effect on your other programming So one of the the ripple effects that we're trying to stave off by these policy changes is impacting our career and technical education courses and other electives because we probably would see a difference in those enrollments. So we want to keep those programs that we've invested
031a lot of opportunities for our students. We think those are worthwhile. So we have taken a look at this policy, 6-3-10, and we have not offered middle school students credit for anything that they do in middle school. Their credit earning on their transcript happens the first day that they're at Batavia High School. Because of those ripple effects and trying to mitigate those we are proposing to the board and again We can have further discussion about this that if a student takes Spanish or French one in their eighth grade year only That they could have that as a credit on their transcript their high school transcript So we're kind of opening that door in an attempt to minimize impacts on our CTE courses that is Something that we'll have to look at we're proposing it now
032because it would impact next year's freshmen or next year's eighth graders Who would start to get that as a possibility for a credit? as we process through this one of the things that might be unusual in the way that we wrote this is that The students would not receive any GPA. The course, the credit, the grade for that would not be calculated into their high school GPA. They would simply get a credit towards their graduation requirements through that process. Our reasoning for that is that most middle school students don't know what a GPA is or how that impacts them or how it follows them. And we think that we do a good job of that in their freshman year and want to continue doing that where they start to understand how those things work and
033not put that on an eighth grader, so That's kind of how we wrote like tweak that policy from press is to one open it just for eighth grade Just for a world language at this time and that it would not be a part of their high school GPA That would be a credit creative way of kind of solving that challenge. So I appreciate you guys thinking of that. That's the first reading. All right. That is your first read. 6.5. We have the master facilities plan update. I'm going to have Mark go ahead and come on up to the podium, please. And Mark will walk us through it. Good evening, everybody. I'm normally standing here in October. I have been for a few years talking about just capital projects plan. This year. Do a little bit
034differently. You have two attachments. One was the master facility plan. So that's a little bit new. Now we've had a master facility plan, but it's a very, very lengthy plan. So I took and kind of condensed that down to more short term. And as you can see, you know, on here kind of defines what that is. Really, I took it in. The goal is to get it out ten years. It's not out ten years yet. We're really concentrating on warm safe dry That's why it's not so it's really only out four years at this point But basically that plan it aligns with those four things, you know Of course safety and compliance is number one learning environments enrollment trends and fiscal sustainability. All of those are looked at and then Then the capital project plan
035is very specific in action and this capital projects plan It's really only three years looking out because where we're at Especially now and things it changes very quickly more quickly than I've ever experienced So that's kind of the thing for only three years looking out Now these are the principles again you're gonna see safety at the top Education, balanced investments, obviously being fiscal, and then transparency and accountability. So being very transparent, this is one of those steps right here. Now, these are the categories all these projects fall into, and a lot of these things are repeating. But this is really what it's focused on. Obviously, health, life, safety compliance is number one. The infrastructure renewal, so... Obviously, you're going to see a lot of things come and you already have about HVAC, energy, things to
036that point. Really now, this capital projects plan is only... Focused on those two a little bit in the programmatic improvements With storm last year being the kindergarten and then Louise white next year with kindergarten as well But where we need to go is to the next steps four or five and six, but we're not there yet But again having a vision and looking out that is the goal and just an overview of The projects that are planned for the next four years right around that $11 to $13 million mark. And this just kind of, and you've seen this a lot, but just kind of refresh everybody's memory, but the next three years for the capital projects is looking at the HVAC at Louise White and site work. FY26 and 27 kind of blend together a
037little bit because really this is FY26, which we're still paying off the storm from this past summer, but starting to introduce Louise White. Basically the same work going on a Louise white that went on in store and then just the efficiency Really what you want to do with any of these projects you want to bundle them as much as you can And that could be by school That could be by a system, so you might want to do all the fire alarms. If you have fire alarms on multiple buildings, it makes sense to do those together. The same thing with HVAC. If you have, you know, univent replacement or air handlers or things like that, and we have done that in the past. Some of you might remember we did a big air handler project
038at a high school in Rotolo, and we put that together. Again, by scale, more economy, it helps on bidding day as well. And this is just some, when we talked about the governance and accountability, obviously Board of Education, you're going to get the review, which I'm doing right now. The next two to three months is where the projects will come. So there'll be bid out, and then I'll bring them to you, and you'll have to approve those bids for the work to be done. And then RAC, I went over this two weeks ago at the RAC meeting. Just to update. Where the progress is and to kind of monitor what the data looks like and then again public transportation Transparency with the report and different project costs and that really comes not just tonight, but
039that comes when you know again It's more than likely and this is why I'm giving the report tonight, but you'll see different projects and bids come in For sure in December and January and possibly even November And just kind of sum this up really the master facility plan is the vision that's kind of overseeing everything and Then when you kind of see the excel sheet and the attachment that's the action plan That's the projects that are coming per the fiscal year and the other piece about you'll see in there is a lot of overlap Okay, and I've said this a lot the school how they run their calendar and fiscal years is very difficult in the construction world because everything overlaps because all the work is done during the summer so you start paying for
040it a little bit in June and then most of it comes the next fiscal year July through sometimes December January it just kind of depends on how quickly those contractors get you their pay apps but again kind of another is the warm safe dry is really What we're still focusing on We should be I think 40% done after Louise white and the HC storm site work I'm not going to get specifically into those because I'll bring more specifics about project when I bring the bids together, but really Louise white is Almost while their sister schools and the projects are almost the exact same And then the site work piece at Storm is really looking at when you have, let's say actually our only school in the district that only has one entrance into the school
041for both bus and parents. And that school happens to be very close to Van Nortrick. And so there's not much staging area. So we're looking to basically use the subdivision to the south to add one and then one more entrance to the north of the property. So we're... About done with the city with some comments and things we're still working through that there will be have to be a Public hearing for that because we are changing and making basically another entrance onto a public street on the Van Nortwyk So we're meet with them again on Thursday to finalize some of that But the plan is for that to happen the summer of 26 any specific questions Mark, I had a general question that would be for you and I think Mr. Kim this evening. I'm
042not expecting specifics, but could you speak to some of the pressures that you're seeing when it comes to procuring the material and the services for these projects as opposed to when we originally started putting budgets together a few years ago? And then, Tom, to piggyback on that, could you talk to, you know, some of you can look in your crystal ball when it comes to funding on the state and federal level. Possible challenges that could be coming our way. Well some of the procurements is why it's maybe next month and bring some of this forward because of how we do our equipment So we pre purchase our equipment Through our HVAC manufacturer and train I'm waiting to see how long that equipment is going to take like the rooftop units Some specific things that need
043to go in Louise white at this point like right now It's about four to six months for everything. So again, when you get that range, when you need it, normally the end of June, early July, it gets a little close if you're coming in December. So I'm still waiting on that. I would say it's getting a little bit better in certain aspects, but not all. Some things are still out as long as they were two or three years ago. Other things have caught up. But again, Drew was up here talking about some things at the federal government, and the one thing that's very fearful is the tariffs, and those continue to be. That's more about the pricing, but that's been that way now, that fear, for a little while, so it's kind of continue to
044have to move forward, but you're just aware of it. So I don't know if that really answers it, but that's kind of where we're at. I just wanted you to make the point, I'm sure most people realize it, but it's like, you know, so we kind of went through it last year, but we're dealing with a different set of conditions this year, so it's its own beast again. That's how I perceive it, at least, from my chair. So I appreciate the work you're doing, and I know you'll just keep us up to date on things as they continue to evolve. And from my part, I guess it's kind of to what Mark is saying, is that it's not necessarily on the federal level the funding for us, but more what's going up in costs by
045federal decisions and policies, such as tariffs, that could impact us on how much we get as a bang for our buck when we go out to construction and start building. Costs and materials and labor go up. That will impact the scope of projects that we could potentially... incorporate into one summer. Where my eye kind of stays more focused on is obviously the state and local level, which is the heaviest part of where our funding comes from. I will say from a state perspective, where federal funding does have a secondary impact on us is when the state then has to respond to their reduced funding from the federal government, and then the state starts dipping into funding that we typically can rely on, but now they're withdrawing from that. in order to continue to maintain funding
046levels for other districts that fall under Tier 1 and 2, because as a reminder, we're Tier 4. And so when we see that... That has a ripple effect on us, right? And so one thing I've been pretty vocal about is our reduction in our MCAT reimbursements. That's something that has typically been very reliable for us. Across the state, the rates have usually been pretty steady. This year, we anticipate a loss in seven figures. I will say with some... Silver lining, Advanced Illinois and other advocacy groups are picking it up and actually adding it to their Springfield advocacy push on the budget for next year in trying to push the governor and the state to bring those MCAT funding levels back for all school districts or as high as they can possibly do. Now, I will
047say that we have to be mindful of the fact that our state I think a lot of department heads have been asked across the state to start reducing and saving portions of their budget, right, per the governor's orders. And so I don't know how much and what that looks like. So crystal ball question, not entirely sure. The one thing I always tell our teams is we're on the line. We've got to hold the edge here, hold the flank. You know, we've got a job to do. We've got to figure it out, and we will figure it out, you know. May take some level of creativity like mark said there's some ways that we can try and Kind of nibble at some of these things and put them together We do have on a local level
048some things happening that'll give us a little bit of return back onto our tax rolls for certain things Certain options in terms of our revenue stream But at the end of the day You know, I think we have some ideas November 6th, we'll also, just to incorporate a little bit about the RAC conversation, November 6th, Kristen was referencing another upcoming meeting. That one's going to be treated as a special board meeting if we have enough board members in attendance. Even if we don't, still please come. We just don't have to treat it as a special board meeting then at that point. But we are going to go over the two reports the board commissioned this spring. So we'll have the RSP project. Walked through with the art rack committee Which is really important because that
049was our building capacity study and our enrollment study for our boundaries in particular the elementary schools But I will tell you it was really fascinating with our consultant discovered about our enrollment Characteristics as an entire district within our community then the other one will be the polling survey that was done in May that one I think it has a lot of connective tissue to your RAC meeting that just happened two weeks ago when Bob Lewis made his presentation and provided the RAC group with options for funding lovers. I think it's really important before we navigate any discussion that the board has full awareness of where the conditions are for the climate of our community. whether they're stakeholders that have children in our district, or more importantly, what this Pulse survey did. Well, it's not a
050Pulse survey, right, Holly? They don't call it a Pulse, but it's a Pulse survey, right? Okay, thank you. The important part is we also got feedback from stakeholders who are just residents of the community, and that was really interesting. So I think that November 6th presentation, which will be open to the public if anyone from the public should choose to come and observe. Be important. This is all tied together. It's one big Connected thing, you know, yeah, it's something so it's not like they all all these items live in its own silo You know what one happens to one will have an impact on others. So anyway Thank you This next item is just a quick reminder to the board and to the public because it will impact the public's ability to view our documents
051when they want to look at agendas or minutes. We will be changing platform. The platform we're currently using now is migrating to diligent. So we made a decision after doing some research to stick with... board docs transitioning to diligent. Thanks to Cindy and Holly, there's been homework done and based on feedback from peer districts, we feel that we can sustain the transition and that you as a board will make sure that there's opportunities for you to get some learning sessions on how to navigate like the memos and the agendas and the minutes. There'll be a little bit of a shift for us as administration too, so we're going to have to go through a couple of sessions ourselves. Any questions about that? Otherwise, that's monumental. Just about every district that I know of uses board
052talks. I know. It would be huge. That's a tidal wave across the state. Last item. Again, just so that there's awareness and a reminder to the board but awareness to the community, we have set our data presentation meetings for the building and for the district. The dates are listed here on December 4th and December 9th. That's it. All right. Any questions? All right, on to action items. Action item 7.1, adoption of board policy, second reading. Tom, can you lead us? This policy is in regard to the board's meeting for an election of officers. It's concurrent and tethered to policy 2110 that the board passed their second reading last month. So with this policy... Just a reminder, it would begin on the next election cycle, which is 2027 specifically. And, yeah, that's it. All right. Are
053there any questions or comments from the board on this item? Okay. All right. So I just want to lead in a little bit on myself about why I'm going to make the decision I'm going to make, and one of them is primarily that I just want to make sure that future boards are enabled to kind of have good, consistent leadership across the time because this is effectively about moving the board positions to an annualized vote. And it was the kind of recommendation of the trainers that have trained with us and our attorneys that... that this is something that should be kind of maintained partially due to unintended consequences. That's my opinion. I'm just stating that. So everybody needs to vote as they see fit and as their heart says. So I will entertain a motion
054to adopt the updated policy as presented. Point of clarification. This encompasses more than just that. Is this just that? Is it just this specific item? This, yeah, the change to this is that it'll be, because originally the elections take place on odd years, this has to include even numbered years as well now, and it would take place, the election would take place at the first regular meeting in May, or as soon thereafter as practical is the language that's been put in here, so that... And in 2028, for example, so we'll have new board members or anyone who's rerunning, if everyone reruns and retains their seats, we would be holding that normal 40-day reseating reorganization meeting. But then in 2028, the board has chosen to then conduct another hearing, not hearing, election cycle, but there's no
055election. because that's what the board policy is designed around is the election so we have to modify this policy so that in 2028 it would be happening in may for uh the reorganization yeah okay i guess my question was more on i thought we had discussed this particular item in conjunction with a bunch of other Not in this particular. There was one in the previous one where there was some language that needed to be adjusted to allow us to have this conversation. Okay. But this vote is strictly on just this? This policy. Yes. Just wanted to make sure. Good clarification. Thank you for asking. All right. I will entertain a motion to adopt the updated policy as presented. So moved. So moved by Katie. Second. Second by Danielle. I think I heard. Okay. Cindy, please
056lead us in a roll call vote. Slider. Yes. Swaseki? Yes. Meadows? Nay. Kaelberg? No. Gonzalez-Thomas? Yes. Garrels? Yes. Arlandi? No. All right, motion passes. All right, discussions, item 8.1, follow-up. So at our last board meeting, three kind of topics were brought up during our board. kind of open discussions at the end. They were just for reminder for the public and others. They were gun policies, the cell phone policy, and then kind of some framework around consultant review and approval. So subsequent to that meeting, I appreciate everybody. What was discussed at that meeting is I'd send an email out that would ask people to rank those so that we could kind of help the administration prioritize their efforts as to parts. But since we load. There were three potential things and three potential significant impacts. So
057one thing I will, just in the interest of transparency, I'd kind of add into that based on some individualized discussion with board members, was we left out a potential of, well, I don't think we should be discussing this because maybe this doesn't rise to the light of our board or individually they're not interested in it. Generally speaking, that didn't turn out to be the case. So a couple of things I want to just give for context on that, if I can get to something I wanted to look at. up is when generally speaking it was pretty straightforward that the majority was generally looking for cell phone policy, gun policy, then the consultant framework as an order of priority. It was pretty consistent across the majority of the board. One of the things that in asking
058about a clarification where I talked to a couple of board members on this idea of asking if they wanted to be sure that they thought that that rose to the level of board discussion. A couple of things came out, and if I can remember my password to my computer or type it right while I'm talking, is we want to make sure it's clear about whether or not this is a kind of a request for more information, or is this actual changes in effort policy or gaps in what we're doing. So I'm going to actually read something that one of the board members want, because I think it would provide some... this discussion because I heard it echoed from a number of people. So I'm just laying out the information for that. So one on cell
059phone policy, we'd like to know the current policies being followed in each school. So this is more about kind of an understanding of what our policy is for cell phones, which currently effectively states for structured time, it is no cell phones during structured time, but at the teacher's discretion. There's unstructured time school after school the score school. There's no specific regulation about that And so then what that person particularly recommended was that maybe at our day to day that the teacher the principals or others can provide some input on that matter About how it they see it rolling out or working at their schools to see if there's consistency Gun policy, be interested to know if there's any curriculum that touches on it. There's a specific board policy, 6-060-AP1, that actually hints that there should
060be something around, read the whole thing, but including safe gun storage. It's written in a policy that we have. So that would be kind of an investigation to find out where are we sitting on that? Is that something that needs to be improved upon? And then last one, consultant agreements. Really, it's about criteria for approving that. So those are the things. So one, does anybody have any particular issue with the order that I brought up of cell phones, gun policy, and consultants? No? Okay. So then the way I took that to mean effectively was those are the pecking order that they will go down these things and bring them to us. I would say my opinion, up to you guys as well, if there's something they feel like they can just attack and have a
061discussion with us, go ahead and bring it to us. So if the consultant one is, hey, I've got this criteria I'd like to work through, what do you guys think of this criteria and this change? If that summarizes it and we can get it off the table, I'm open to it. Is that correct? I'm a little confused because I thought when, I know Kristen brought up a couple, I know the gun discussion for sure. I thought when we're asking for the board to be polled, it's to say, is there a general consensus, right, that we want to have a further discussion? It was just to put these on as discussion items, but not like as action for Tom or anybody. I thought the poll was to say, here's what we're most interested to talk about
062first, and then those we put on an agenda for just discussion. And from our discussion, then we would decide here's what we want. hey, Tom, can you bring this back to us or whatever. I'm confused on where we've skipped it because I thought that's what we were just pulling, the board. So I polled yes for order, right? That was like an add-on to a request for a board discussion. And I'm not taking that away at all, so that's something that we can do. Before that, I was just pointing out that there was some information that I heard consistently in discussions with individual board members about ranking this. Why are we having individual discussions when we had a full discussion as a board on what our action is going to be? I was a part of
063one of your discussions. I left that meeting with an action item in place, but wasn't part of any follow-up. And that action item was stating we were going to be polled, right, which you did, but that was done a couple days ago, of what would be one, two, and three so that we could get one onto the next agenda, this agenda, to have a discussion about... What we as a board want, do we want, like, what are we wanting to have a further discussion on? Like, what does it look like? What are we asking from Tom or admin? What are we asking from each other? So I don't think that we're going, where do we navigate differently? I am just telling you what I heard from when I was asking about what people's intents and
064what they thought that people's intent when those topics were brought up. It was kind of brought up that there was information that needed to be handed to them first to be able to have that discussion. So I am not suggesting that we're not changing that or differing from your opinion. What I'm trying to determine is making sure everybody's on the same page about having a lengthy discussion about these matters. I don't understand yet how, like the cell phone policy implementation is happening in each building. I don't yet understand if there is... a challenge or an effort that would be fruitful at those levels. So I feel like from my position, and I'm saying I heard it from others, that there is a information or fact-finding that needs to be determined on this. So we didn't
065talk about that as a... I'm confused. So here's an opportunity to talk about it, Danielle. Well, we already talked about having this discussion. This was done last month. And the action plan was to poll us and put that number one poll onto an agenda for discussion. So, and I hear that you're kind of going that way, but we're asking Tom and admin to bring us back like a report. Where did that change? It hasn't. I'm bringing it here because that's what I heard from people that they were interested in understanding before it became a discussion. So we need to have asked the board, do we have consensus to have, where I'm having a poll, when I asked the board, hey guys, I'm interested in discussion, and the majority of the board said yes, then we
066need to have another discussion on whether or not there's still... desire to have it we're not going to have like an agenda I'm going to have discussion well we don't have an agenda item for discussion no but I understand that you had a whole separate conversation without the entire board well I guess I guess I'm just I don't want to task Tom with anything it don't we need to have not suggested we do that if I could I mean it is under discussions the three items are clearly enumerated in the enumerated in the agenda So, I mean, I think part of the conversation right now is that, if I'm hearing correctly, Craig has presented. That was the order the board has responded with from the polling. It is under discussions. So I would say as
067a board, whatever you as a board are looking for right now, the agenda has it clearly set. So if the agreement is cell phone policy is discussion one, then we could discuss that right now. Right? They really could. Everybody's comfortable with that. My point that I was trying to make was that from... As I am doing my job as board president, making sure everybody's clear on what they were trying to do and understanding and some clarity that I wanted to make sure I got, I had heard differently and I got responses within the emails of priorities that seemed to imply that people were thinking that they wanted to get more information to be able to have that conversation. Why didn't you pull the entire board then? I understand what you're saying, but I wasn't part
068of that conversation. I left that meeting. Thinking we're coming today, but I and I sent you and Tom an email Asking what happened to the polling because I had realized that we never got pulled We were supposed to get pulled after the board meeting So now we're having other discussions about that, but I'm not part of that. I'm not until today So I I just it's a little problematic. We're not following our own procedures. I think is where so just a matter of clarity Mike My understanding of what I was to do was to go out and get a prioritization of those three topics. That's the polling I was talking about. Right, right. You participated in that poll. You responded. That just happened like two days ago or three days ago. I thought we were
069leaving the board meeting, getting the polling, so that we gave Tom and whoever else. the ability to prepare for us to have that discussion in case they were to be looped into that discussion. So I'm going to use cell phone-like policy. I thought that was, okay, that's number one. It would get on today's agenda for us to have our board discussion, a full discussion. But Tom and admin would be with the knowledge that we're going to have that in case we had questions, but there was no action coming out of it, just discussion. And then that would determine if we are saying, yeah, we want to look at our policy or we have more questions. Whatever it may be, it wasn't that this poll was going to happen and we're going to arrive today to
070talk about the three items again and the poll again. It's just like we're doing the same work. Okay, understood. And I wasn't part of any discussion. I guess I don't get why you're calling just a couple people. I didn't call anybody. I called the person that brought up the three topics and made sure I understood what the three topics were. I got information from other board members that talked to me. that called me and said, hey, I want to make sure I understand what I'm asking these questions, what this order is and what I'm looking at. I also inquired as a few because of the lack of, at that point, I wasn't sure if people felt that they had the agency to be able to say. I understand what you're saying. I don't want to
071belabor it too much. If people feel they're ready to talk about cell phones, we can certainly talk about the cell phone policy. I didn't come prepared. I mean, I'll talk about it however you guys want, but I would have... Wanted to look at the policy. I mean what had it to look at Okay, I'm you guys and we can talk about it I'm just saying from my point of view we should be probably be aware of what's coming up for discussion I'm just I don't I don't know how I'm not trying to stop this you guys I just we're not following our own procedures that we put in place and that is a little problematic. We have these for owner accountability. We leave a meeting with an action item in place and we're not doing
072it. And so we're arriving at a board meeting a month later not doing the action that we said we were going to do. So is the issue you have is the timing of when he sent out the email for the polling? Yeah, because almost every discussion our problem comes back to is that we want to make sure that if it's time... If it be BA, if it be Josh, if it be Holly, whoever we need to kind of get their expertise on, we're giving them enough time to come back. Pulling us three days before a meeting or two days before it gets on the agenda is not enough time for them to prepare for us to have a really in-depth discussion. And all it does is prolong things. So now we're going to put this
073on a different agenda for a different day and continue to go on and on and on. So it's just we didn't complete the action that we said we were going to do. The reason why we have this action item list is because this has been a problem for us since I've been a member of the board. And I just don't understand why we had to jump through hoops just to talk about something. Again, I'll talk about whatever, if you're ready. So just to clarify, I mean, the intent would, it's a timing thing, so right after our last meeting, if an email had gone out with the polling, right, and responses were given, then the idea would be that we'd be able to collect those responses, give that feedback to the administration, and then they would
074have come to this meeting prepared to talk or give us. further information that we requested. If we were in understanding, we've had these discussions before as a board, yes. But we may have these discussions that when we are having a board discussion, it's for us to see like where we're at. And then we can ask, like if it's a curriculum question, we can ask Brad, but with the understanding that he may not have the answer. But at least if we gave him a couple weeks, he can say, okay, you know what, I'm going to come in and we're going to talk about this part of the curriculum and policy. he can at least be somewhat, so we don't just get like, I don't know, but we can at least, he has a chance to educate
075us. And understandable and acceptable if he doesn't have the exact answers because our discussion is just kind of starting. So it just... It's the timing then. We didn't give them enough time. The action plan was to leave and to get that polling done immediately after to give them enough time with whatever our number one or top priority was. So I just, it's again something that I think that we've run into as a board and I just, it is frustrating. So I just don't understand why we navigated this way. I think that's where my confusion came from. And I was hearing Craig say about the phone call. So I didn't know if that's what deterred or like, you know, went off straight. I didn't understand that part. So, but again, I mean, if you want to
076have a discussion now and then we know that we may not have answers and have another one, that's up to you guys. I guess, why was this put here with three items? What was the hope for today? The hope for today was that everybody would agree that those are the three items, and that is the order that we will discuss them at. Because up until today, nobody would be able to know what the sequence of those discussions were. Because I can't conduct board business. And that was to give guidance to the administration, like that they weren't being pulled in three different directions at the same time. To be able to strategize when the proper time is to be able to. Not overwhelm them, because we have limited resources and they've got things to do. So
077that was the intent, right? Okay. And to be able to provide an ability for board members to become educated on a particular topic. and to provide them an opportunity to prepare for said meeting. Yeah. So I agree with the approach, but I think there is, in my opinion, there's some validity to Danielle's comments about the timing. I wish we would have gotten it out sooner to be better prepared. Yeah, so maybe in the future, because this is sort of a new mechanism within our agendas, when we're doing this... Maybe it would be a best practice within a certain number of business days get it out poll. Yeah with the understanding that argue that The item number one would probably be the most likely candidate to be on the agenda for discussion with the others whatever
078how many other items there are that would probably be Down the road or or maybe they provide a report and we realize like okay We don't really need to discuss that. We've got the clarity Since we agree on cell phone policy, do we want to lay out what it is we're looking for in order to have the discussion? I know, Kristen, I think you had, did you ask for cell phone, just current cell phone policy? Yeah, I think we could put it on the agenda for next month, but in the meantime, give Tom guidance about what exactly the information is that we need and when. So my suggestion was, could each principal provide us with a short, brief explanation of what the cell phone policy looks like in their school? And for elementary schools, it's
079probably going to be pretty straightforward. It's probably more about middle school and high school. And I personally, like, I don't think it needs to be some big project. But just give us an idea of what it looks like in your school when they do the data presentations or the presentations in December. I would love that if that's possible. Just because it would help us, I think, figure out the differences we're hearing between what some parents are saying versus what teachers are saying and what it actually looks like outside of just what the policy is. Now, I don't know, like, can we have an effective conversation in November without that information yet? Right. Which, if it's going to come at the day-to-day, that's in early December. And a point of clarification, when you say policy, like,
080you're meaning, like, how the policy is being implemented? Right. Okay. Because we have a policy, but we, you know, we've been hearing different things from different people about what that actually looks like, and... I have two middle schoolers and a high schooler, so I get feedback from them, but some people might not get that if they don't have middle schoolers and high schoolers and might be curious about... well, there's a policy. What does it actually look like in the school? I thought we got a really interesting email from one of our parents who happens to be an educator in a different district where this year they've kind of started implementing something. And her perspective was, I guess they have different pouches, right? But her perspective was it's really hard because you have that fear of
081missing out where one class might be using it, but the other is like a way. One teacher might use it for classwork. One teacher might be lenient. And the kids are just kind of all over. So what they've done is you put it in the pouch. And if we're going to use it for instruction, then we take it out. So they know what the expectations are. And I just thought it was interesting because it was pretty, like, I don't know how it's working for them. She said it's still early, right? But it was just interesting to hear because it sounds like. That's a struggle that some of our educators run into and just even some of the kids not knowing, like, do I take it on this class or not or this one or this
082one? So it sounds like that's kind of how they came up with that solution. Well, and if our policy is off and away, then are we facilitating off and away in the classrooms? Yeah. I mean, in general, I can tell you, this I know, I can tell you right now, I mean, off and away is the standard. unless I think you were alluding to it, there's teacher discretion for instructional reasons or purposes. And then, you know, for example, at the high school, if they're in the cafeteria, they might have their phone out. But other than that, the expectation is your cell phone's out. It's put away. Same thing at the middle school. And then I think you said it, Kristen, at the elementary level, it's... If a kid even has it, it's kind of a
083way. At the elementary level, from what I'm hearing and understanding, it's more about the smartwatches at the elementary setting, which, by the way, is an issue that's also being addressed through standardized testing because smartwatches are a prohibited device during testing, correct? But that is, like, at a very high altitude brief summary, like, that's really our district's policy is towing the line of a pretty much complete ban. We don't have the complete ban. Like, so secondary level students can have it in the building and has very conditional and limited amount of use. Will they be able to explain to us, you know, like, I think something else I've heard is, like, you know, maybe one teacher may not. I don't want to say discipline because it doesn't need to be disciplined, but may not handle unauthorized
084use the same way like another one would. I don't know that our policy reaches down to that type of level, but does the language that we have kind of make that more difficult for administrators? Is it helping them in that way? Is the policy helping them? Is it making it harder for them to have something where all the schools are kind of handling it the same way? That's a curiosity I have. So let's test this. We're going to do a little social experiment. Kristen, you're my test factor here. Okay. I know RMS has worked over the last few years to slowly implement a more structured procedural. approach around cell phone use for their kids because prior to Ms. Piatak's principalship, it was kind of a little more random, I think, or just very different types
085from grade to grade. They've kind of moved now to where it's consistent throughout the middle school. Yes or no? Yes, because I went to a coffee with the principal last year, I think, where she said, you know, they didn't start it. 6th, 7th, and 8th all at the same time. They started with an incoming grade. So now they're at the point where it's been three years. So 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, they all have the same policies. All right. So we're good. We're one for one on our little experiment. So across all three grade levels, this is the first year all three grade levels are operating under the same expectations. They've been able to phase everything through. Is that where a teacher has the ability to say, yes, you can use it in the class?
086Yes. Okay. Pretty sure. Secondly, the other piece is they've also, true or false, instituted a progressive discipline system where if students are violating the said procedures about the use of cell phones in the middle school, the deans and the administration have worked together to create a structured, like, progressive disciplinary approach to that. Maybe? I don't know. Okay, that's okay. I'm not aware. I don't know. Your children are fine. Well, that's actually, there's really good truth to that, right? Because I'm kind of in a similar boat. I have a high schooler, a middle schooler, an elementary schooler, and I have a family, right, my home. And it is fascinating. I don't always know everything because my kids are generally pretty well behaved. We tell them. We're a home of educators. Don't break the rules. Everybody knows
087who we are. No, but seriously, I think it is. It gets a little trickier if your kid's not one of the kids that has violated the procedure. You're not very aware of it then, I think, to some extent. But all right. So one for two-ish. But I like the idea, presentations, who better than our building leaders to be able to talk specifically to what they've done and maybe give some context to it as well. Aaron? So my question is, in this discussion, we're going to get these reports, we're going to get information, I think we have the broad strokes right now, we're going to get some more specifics. Are we, the goal of why we're having this discussion, Is it to determine if our policy and implementation is having a positive impact on the social
088development and academic growth of our students? Or is it just that we're limiting it and everybody's consistent about it? What is the criteria we're using to determine whether what we're doing is effective or not? And what measure do you use for that? Because it's pretty, well, it's not new at the middle school. They've been implementing it for three years systemically. I mean, you could go to probably 50 districts. Everybody's got a slightly different variation of this. How do we determine if our flavor of what we're doing works for this unit district at all three levels? That's what I'm kind of... Let me see if I'm understanding what you just asked. Are you asking what is the problem the board wants to see solved? Yeah, because... So what is it that you all are looking for?
089Is it information for awareness, or is there a problem that you all want to identify? For me, personally, is it working to hit those? But I don't know exactly how. This is still a relatively new thing. At the middle school, they might say, well, this is the first year we can really get a good vibe for it because now we've got three classes that have been through it consistently, so they've all kind of come in with the same training or information. That's where I'm kind of struggling. We're going to get this information. What are we going to do with it? I think from my perspective, I don't necessarily want to personally make change to something that's working. I understand that there's some parents that have concerns, and there's some people that have emailed us about
090kind of enacting kind of a total ban, right? And I'd like to know maybe a part of this data, like, one, is there consistency? But that's really an implementation of a policy, not necessarily a kind of outcome per se. Those as a part of the presentation or otherwise are they seeing challenges in the district that our current policy is not allowing them kind of like you were saying that's not allowing them to Operate in a way that is in the best distress of the students Right. So aligned like those other two ideas that you said about emotional kind of growth and academic growth That it's allowing that to occur right that we're not being detrimental and if option a is If there are challenges, is it systemic, that it's kind of uniform, that's where it
091kind of rises to us to say, hey, you need to let us know because it doesn't seem to be a right policy. So either we need to change our policy or you need to change your enactment of said policy and procedures to enact that policy. Or B, there is no problem that we're aware of right now that's adversely impacting our students. So is there a reason to make that change quite yet? That's the two directions I see. Otherwise we could talk ourselves into circles about making change for change's sake, potentially. And I think getting some feedback from teachers might help, too. With the current policy, are you still having kids pull out their phones? That you can't manage, right? That you can't manage, which would suggest maybe we need to have pockets or something. To
092make it easier on the teachers so they're not constantly having to... Which, to a certain extent, that's an enactment of a policy, right? That is a, hey, this is our problem. They don't seem to be able to do that. The board is concerned that that is an unmanageable policy to come up with a way of managing said policy. The teacher's saying I'm spending a third of my day just... Just telling kids to put it away. And that's, I mean, I have not, I don't have, like... just dozens and dozens and dozens of educator friends but various people have mentioned that it's it's hard for the ones that aren't wanting to have it out in their class because the kids have it and they're like wow i did it with this teacher and you know they're
093they're just the relationship with it is so much different it's like having the one parent that says yes all the time the one parent that says no you're just gonna be like i'm gonna go hang out with that parent but like you're gonna you're gonna be used to certain thing we give a little bit so it just Maybe when the administrators come in December, I don't know if there's a way for them to touch base with their peeps and just kind of get a feel for what they're feeling and report that within it. I think that's a good way to kind of check in on that to see if our policy is where it needs to be. So what I'm hearing is then we would have that information at the day-to-days, if that's okay and
094works for Tom and staff. So unless he hears something otherwise, we can presume that will be the case. And then whenever our board meeting is in December. Not sure if it's at a different date because I just don't remember. We're going 4 and 9 for the dated presentations, and then the board's regular board meeting is the 18th? Does that sound right? Yeah, I think we're a little earlier. Cindy, 18th? December 18th. So that would be the Tuesday of the final week going into break. In theory, we would. Number 16. What? 16. 16. 16, yes. Yeah, so it's pretty close. Right up after that. Yeah. So that would be the date, not like we just talked about November because we would have. kind of some substantive information that we could all collectively get at the same
095time. So put it on the agenda for the December meeting, not November. For a discussion. Got it. This is part of the discussion of the priorities, right? Because let's work together to stack them in a way that makes sense. Here's my question. We potentially have an opportunity for the November date to put something that we might be able to just kind of clear up, right? I've had some discussion with Tom. He is working on, while it's a lower priority, the consultant kind of targets. Is that something that he could bring if he's got a plan together to be able to educate and talk to us on? Because that one is pretty much the way I understood our last conversation was develop a framework that gives something for people to provide consistent information to us on.
096And I believe he may have something that he would be able to show us at the November meet. Are we having a board discussion on what those, just to gather to make sure? When he presents that, we can have that discussion about what those things are and do we see that, yes, those, like, not wordsmith it, but, like, yes, we want to know about the valuation process. Yes, we want to know about dollars and competitiveness and why that's there and our expectation of exhaustiveness of that. that we want. Well, I think about what DMG, you know, how we narrowed it down to the three things or whatnot, but just that kind of went into my mind about that. You know, we all kind of like brainstormed, but like was there cohesiveness? That's what I'm asking
097him to bring a, knowing what we talked about that day, an example that we can talk around as a framework. Slot something in when we have a gap to get it done. Do you want my notes from the meeting last time? I kind of wrote out everything the board had asked for. I can send that to you. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Sure. Thank you. Just copy these so I don't forget the particular details of it. So to go back to the cell phones again, I'm sorry I've been sick for the last two weeks, so I'm a little slow maybe tonight. So we're going to get the feedback from the principals and admin, and we should have clarity. on how the policy, if the policy from the teachers or the building level, like, is the policy
098working, basically? Is it, can they implement it? Is it manageable? And we're going to understand, like, the level of consistency probably mostly at the middle school or high school, probably. Grade school, it sounds like we sort of have consensus that they're not really using it. I think we don't get emails from anybody in grade school. And so then I guess my question is, when we get that feedback, again, I'm kind of struggling a little bit, like... How do we determine if it's working or not? If the teachers say, yeah, we can do it, it's not that bad, it's working pretty well, and this is how we're doing it, and they say, in some classes we never use it, and in some classes, like, where there's art or something like that, where it might pull up
099a sculpture of Michelangelo or something, you know. But it helps, it aids the education experience in that case, and we're able to control their use of it. Would that be a scenario where they may say, okay, it's working? I'm trying to struggle with what's our criteria. Can we maybe hit that in December after we've heard from them and really digest what they said and say, this is what we heard, and to your point, well, what does this mean to us? What did we hear? Do we need to enact anything differently? Do we need to do anything? Because I think right now we're trying to understand how it's working. Yeah, and I think if two schools came back to us and said it's just fine, I think we would say, okay, you know, then I guess
100from that perspective, I think we're just trying to figure out in the emails we get from parents about, there are some really concerned parents who say that, you know, they're out, the phones are out all the time, and it's just, so I think it's just trying to get. an idea of what does it really look like to enforce, carry out, and manage this policy, right, in the classroom? So maybe to get some consistency of answers, to paraphrase what a number of you have said, which is, one, is the policy provide you enough framework to be able to be successful in the classroom? Two, is it being, like we would ask them to kind of respond, is it kind of equitable within your school about how it's addressed through all the grade levels, right? And then
101three, is there any reason that it's an action or non-uses, they're challenges that we would, or the district would need to frame out because it's having an academic or social impact on kids. Yeah, because maybe it is enacted right but they can't solve it's still causing other problems that we just don't know about so like if if those three questions were kind of addressed as a part of that and that might give us some consistent information because that could be the other challenges depending on how each one reports out to us we could get different impressions by how it's being handled, right? Which is a little bit what you were kind of saying is how do we know? Because if one says it's going okay and the other one says it's great and the other
102one says it's not, then do we end up with not enough information to be able to say it's working? But if they say, okay, at the elementary school level, it's not really a consistent problem. We handle them on a case-by-case basis. Middle school says great. We've enacted this three-year phase, and it's working wonderfully. Great. It's the high school. Sorry, Joanne. It's a train wreck. I can't do what I need to do. Kids are having problems. Well, then that's a unique situation that needs to potentially be addressed as an implementation of it. That would be what we would kind of come to an agreement and say, hey, I don't think this is a policy thing. This might be a procedure thing. We've identified a problem. District, go solve it. I almost say maybe question four is
103what would you... Fair. Change. Fair. That's a very good question. And get that feedback from them. From the teachers. I can tell you right now what I think we would say is ask parents to delete all social media apps off their kids' phones. No kidding. I mean, anecdotally speaking, that was tongue-in-cheek. But there's some threat of seriousness here. We have... Overall, our kids at Batavia, this school district, we have really compliant kids. Sure. Do kids do things that they shouldn't do? Absolutely. I mean, part of what we all know as adolescent development is kids are going to make mistakes, right? And this is a safe setting to teach kids how to behave appropriately, how to treat each other, et cetera. Overall... Again, I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but from
104a metrics point of view, I don't think cell phone infractions are going to rise to the top of our list. Maybe they will. I could be wrong. But I'm pretty confident we do not have rampant misuse of cell phones in our buildings. What I'm willing to bet is that our administrators and deans, if they're in the secondary level, would say some of our worst cases we struggle with with students is because of what's happening outside of school hours and it's being drugged back into the school setting. And that's where the nexus then becomes our issue because it's exploding in the hallway or, you know. kids and all of a sudden they're speaking ill towards each other, etc. But because of what they may have been doing overnight. Things of that nature. Bands have come in
105to play because then, yeah, you can't control what happens out, but when you tip that, and I'm not saying anything about a band, right? I'm just saying that is what I've heard from that is it takes away the cell phone from the day. Not that you're not going to have your spats, but you're not getting dinged in the middle of class, you're not in your bathroom, in the hallway, in your lunch break. you're just taking all of that away during the school day. And so kids cannot have their screens during the school day. And so that just takes that part. And there's obviously other ways kids can go at it. I mean, they're super smart, but I get that's where the bans have happened, you know, what that effort is for. But it is, yeah.
106Well, and when that ding happens, I think part of the challenge is also that ding doesn't necessarily happen while they're in the classroom or while they're in the lunchroom. It happened 10 minutes before school happened, and then it gets drug into the hallways. Right. Yeah. Yeah, but to Tom's, your example there, I would say then their feedback should be, no, there's nothing that we recommend to change. Right, right. Because we can't fix that part. You're right. That's probably what it is. It may come down to, but that's outside of our purview. I know, but do they keep asking me for it? Couple of apps. I said no. They are so upset with me. I will not give them TikTok. I will not. I've told them. When you graduate, you can do what you want to
107do. They're not going to have it all. TikTok too. So mad. I have two very angry daughters. My three. That's okay. I hope they're watching tonight. Carissa, Carol. So my high schooler. has had some sessions at Batavia Public Schools about social media, where they talk to the kids about social media and the things that can happen. And this might just be his personality, too, but he doesn't want it. Oh, my God. What are you doing over there? I don't need it. I don't want it. You know, he has text groups with friends and stuff, but he's not interested. I've heard that from him. Thank you to whoever made that happen. That's good. Thank you for raising that. We do have educational awareness programming at every level. It's designed to be grade level and age level
108appropriate as to what digital citizenship looks like. So there's big pushes on that. You'll see messenger notes going out about it. Teachers do lessons. So, yeah, absolutely. That's the thing I'm intrigued about, just me personally. I'm not asking for anything. How do you teach people and kids to be better because when they get to college, there's no cell phone bans and a teacher will not really care that you're sitting there on your phone the entire time not learning because congratulations, they won't care that you get to pay to repeat that class. Right. Or go to work situation and I've heard of this happening before that you find out you're getting written up and performance improvement plan because you're sitting on a phone all the time and nobody ever told you to stop doing it. You
109know, so I think it's the education component and the ramification component. I just want to know what the teachers think about it. Yep, yep, that's a whole different, mine is not, mine is an interesting point. It has nothing to do really with kids or the school other than I'm happy to hear that there is education components to that side of the coin too. And then for November as well, as far as the gun safety stuff, could we just get... information in terms of what policy already exists or so cell phones gonna be in the questions is the policy providing enough framework the grade levels is one of the questions the second one was about the procedure Is it manageable? Is it manageable and is it successful? Is the policy manageable for what challenges? And are
110there challenges or problems that you're facing? And then the third one is what would you change? I think two of mine were kind of the same thing, so those three are fine with me. Everybody else? Yeah. Okay. And then is that a consensus of all the board members then that you would like to bring that? Thank you, Cindy. Are you asking about the consensus? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. All right. And then you were mentioning. Tom had said he would bring up the consultant stuff kind of at the November meeting. Do we also want just kind of a rundown on what. gun safety procedures, policies are already in place. Could we just have... I think we said that there's a policy that does state. Isn't
111that what you brought to the table? There is a policy that states that we do have it, but we weren't sure if it is part of... There's an administrative procedure. It's not actually... It's the administrative procedure that Kristen outlined. Yeah, it's a procedure, not a policy. Okay, okay, okay. But the procedure is about getting like safe. It's embedded. It's a procedure that's embedded about overall safety curriculum in general. Okay, so our district has Various lessons spaced throughout our curricular scope about what they teach with safety So it's that procedure and that policy that it's associated with encompasses a lot, like bus safety, walking around the school campus safety, bike safety. You know, there's a lot of initiatives that are mandated by the state that we teach kids about those kinds of things. That's why there's
112like, you know, if you go by any of your elementary schools in particular, you know, you'll see kids get off their bikes and walk the crosswalk. That's part of what they learn to do. I know our town is very adamant about that as well. Down the sidewalk, they tell you to get off your bike down the hill. I never realized that until I just started looking down. So Katie, what you're saying? Well, I just wanted to, so in terms of our, we polled and we said this one, this one, this one, and then the one we put at the top ended up being, it's kind of pushed up for December, right? So then the second one was gun safety. So do we want to hear more on that in November, or do we want to
113set that one down now that we're kind of talking about the particulars? Can I prioritize cell phone first, and then if upon navigation and research, like it's a pretty quick answer to item number two, I can bring that in November. If it's a deeper dive, I will just share with you. It's a little bit of a deeper dive, so did not have a chance to get to that. We're still trying to focus on item number one that you guys prioritized. Does that sound fair? So we'll bring it, but if it becomes a bigger time consumption because it's your second item, I'll focus on first item first. Okay. Or item one first. Yes, so gun safety will be addressed if we're able to get to it. If cell phone is too much, we will push it
114out. Provide an update about that. But I'll share that with the board. I'll make sure the board's aware of where we're at. Thank you, Cindy. Okay. Any further discussion on those three items? Okay, thank you. All right. District calendar. Yep, Board, it's that time of year where people will start calling the district office wanting to plan their vacations. They're much more diligent about that. They're advanced. But we start this process so that we can have approved next month, hopefully, a draft of our school calendar. So in development of the school calendar, we have a lot of ISBE regulation and rules around how you create that. We look at our collective bargaining agreements. That's another factor in the development We look at our surrounding districts as well because we have staff that live there and their
115kids go there So we want to make sure there's some parity to surrounding districts. Does it always line up exactly? No, but we try and get major breaks and things like that Tom discusses this with superintendents sometimes at those meetings to make sure we're still in agreement on those those things. We're also kind of navigating construction as well. We want to give Mark and his team as much time as possible for construction. One more day is always great in construction world They did a really nice job of getting storm open was close call but teachers and staff did a really nice job of getting that building open and Ready to go for kids on the first day. So a lot of factors that go into this as drew mentioned We discussed this at DCC our
116district coordinating council we're also he's soliciting feedback from I have like a great group of calendar people. He's going to solicit that, and I'll provide that for you next month, what their feedback is. That calendar looks very similar to this year's current calendar. Again, trying to get out of the building and then back in with the new Louise White. The yellow dates that you can see there are institute or SIP days. We have a waiver that you guys approved, and we've run through this date. We actually had to do it twice because... of notifications, but we got a waiver approved for using a full day SIP day. And we, as Drew mentioned, we added one in November, November 3rd. And I'll just give the board a heads up. It is an election year, general election
117year. November 3rd is the general election date. In the past, the governor and legislators have made that an official school holiday. There is nothing currently. I've checked on that. We saw a lot of conflicting information out there about that. It's not a current holiday required, but it could be. So if that happens, I can't have staff here. It would be a day for no students currently, so we're almost there. But I can't have staff here. So I'd have to bring you back an amended calendar. There's an action by the state that requires us to have that off. So that's the November 3rd SIP day there. So that's one of the biggest changes there that happens. The rest of it is mostly a function of how the calendar works in terms of the weeks and stuff
118like that. So I'll entertain any questions that you have about that or about the process that we use, and then we would bring this back next month for your approval. So if that happens, would you then find another day to make a teacher or staff day? Yeah, I would likely, again, we would have to talk about this with lots of different people. I would likely have the second be our SIP day and the third be a no school day. It would turn red on the third. It would create a little... Second fall break short fall break which people will probably not be opposed to But it would impact the end of the calendar as well because we have to have a certain number of days We do get out pretty early in May But they're
119gonna want to there'll be some other construction project then too. So we'll want to give them as much time It's always trade-offs with this school calendar We have a lot of constraints and balancing days because of the block schedule. It's not because of the block schedule. We like getting our kids done through finals at the high school level before they go on break. When I was a teacher there, we used to come back for two weeks and then do finals. And I can tell you instructionally, those two weeks were not my finest. We were just kind of like leaving kids on and being like, all right, I got one more. What poem are we going to do today, kids? This, I think, keeps them super focused, and they can leave for break, not think about
120it, and then they come back. It's a collegiate schedule, and I think it's really nice for our kids. Our community seems to really like it. Any overall questions? More specific questions? One thing that I just anecdotally had from others that I've talked to is the interrelationship between the special co-ops and other organizations that we work with. wait a minute, my entire school district is off, but I still have to go today? Because that is on a different calendar than we're on. So the challenge of trying to get out all the districts that feed into those co-ops must be amazingly difficult. Yeah, Fox Valley, Mid Valley, all of the King County schools, because our teachers live in all these communities. So there's a lot to consider in these. Small changes are usually the best changes. So
121no action on this one, right? Nope. Just information. Wisdom that he's small changes are the best changes when it comes to the calendar that seems to be true All right Administration comments Tom, all right very brief tonight, but just a quick reminder to the board and I want to say thank you to the high school team. This Friday is going to be the first career expo that we are hosting ever for this region. This is through the coordination of our high school administration and counseling team with also our Belize director, Cassie Blickham. And so we're really excited that we're being able to be... a participant in this for our region. It's being hosted by Waubonsee Community College. So thank you to Waubonsee Community College and Dr. Connettal for immobilizing all of their campus' resources to
122host the thousands of freshmen that will be attending on Friday. It's going to... So... All the Aurora-based high schools, anyone who receives any student from Aurora, are supposed to be able to participate in this. The problem is there's no facility in our region that could host everybody at the same time. So we had to, as a kickoff... start off with a limited control group to just get this launched and get it going. So participating will be BHS, West Aurora, East Aurora, and Kaelin High Schools. So we're really excited that that's our starting point. And then we do plan on growing this, but we're working with the City of Aurora and the Aurora Education Commission to see how we can try and expand this. We've got to find the facilities for that. But huge thanks. This
123is a big lift. We're super excited. Also special thanks. I would be really remiss if I did not thank... our Batavia Chamber of Commerce. So even though they're not Aurora, they were contacted and reached out to, and they have been so responsive in getting Batavia-based businesses to be part of the engagement experience for our students that will be there. So super excited about it. Next this week in Illinois. We are celebrating a special group of leaders. It is principal appreciation appreciation week So I want to make sure that our eight wonderful principals get a little shout out tonight So thank you to Sean Degman Chris Milka Jeff Modaff Tara Piatek Nicole Prentice Joanne Smith Kristen Stevens and Mike Wall for their leadership and unwavering support in the work we do To drive this district for
124our students to have the best experience possible in our school district And then lastly, just on that note, the Illinois State Board of Education will be releasing and publishing all the district and school report cards at the end of the month. So I just want to make sure that everyone is aware of that. I'm really excited to see what our results are going to look like. And that will be information that can be found on our website. We will make sure the updates get linked in there. Right now it takes you to the current previous year. Other than that, I want to say thank you to everybody. I know the days can seem long right now with everything going on that everyone's doing, whether it's here or just in the general sense of the community.
125So thanks to everybody. Okay, board comments. Anyone want to start before I throw it at Kristen again and she gets mad that I started it on her? Come on, somebody else jump up. You can start on this one if you want. Okay. I'll go. Guilt trip worked. No, it's all right. With guilt, I will start. I wanted to pull the board on your interest in the district designating school properties as ice-free zones. I know we've gotten some emails about it. It's been a topic that has come up in a number of different areas. The city of Batavia is considering making public property ice-free, but that would not extend to schools. So just wanted to open up a discussion to see if anybody was interested in us taking that step to protect our vulnerable families and
126designate our schools as ice-free zones. I guess I don't understand us declaring how that makes them safer. Well, it would be us saying that ICE cannot come onto any school property for any reason. So are there policies and laws that regulate, because there's a bit of a difference, I believe, between parking lot, let's say, for the city and our parking lot. We can tell people, unless you have school business here or a warrant. which there's processes and things to go through that we can tell them, you can't be here, that are already in place outside of a proclamation, per se. I would point out that they are flagrantly disregarding those kinds of things in other towns very near to us. On school properties? Yes. In Elgin and Aurora, volunteers are out every morning and afternoon
127at pick-up and drop-off to... Get in between Any issues that might occur because they are coming on to school properties. They're coming with warrants that are not valid And if you're not up to the minute on that, there's also Know Your Rights training that the city of Batavia did during a meeting recently. You can kind of take independently as well. That might be something that might be a jumping off point for all of us if we received a Know Your Rights training. We could get some more information, see kind of up to the second what it is we're dealing with. They've been pretty near, if not in Batavia, for the last several months at this point. And, you know, we got a couple emails today. There are a lot of families that are just feeling
128fully terrorized right now. Oh, yeah. I think if nothing else, it would be a strong statement to the families. Like, we don't tolerate anyone taking kids off of our property. for any reason. I think the one thing that comes up in conversations is, is there a repercussion? Because with this administration, we do know funding is something that comes along with threatening to remove anything. So I'm 100% on board. Let me just preface that part. And I would like to understand a little bit more if there were, I know we can't, you know, crystal ball it, right? But like, what is, if there were repercussions, what does that look like for us? Just to be able to understand that. I don't know what that, what they could even do as far as like federal funding for
129us if we do declare an ice-free zone, if that would come down the line. Student safety will always. Be over anything. I mean we obviously have to fund things I don't think we get that much funding, but I would like to understand that part I don't know like I think what you're asking is like can it just stop them from doing anything they work. They're not What that may do is make a loud Just like the proclamation for the city of Batavia It's not a false sense of safety. What it is is your community saying, yeah, we see you, and we're going to do whatever we need to protect you. And so that can't come empty-handed with just, this is ice-freezing, like what Katie's saying. There's know-your-rights training. There's different things. Does that mean that
130the community talks? I mean, that's off of our plate, but I think at the top level that we're at, it's a loud voice saying, we don't tolerate that here, and we see you, and we'll do whatever we can. I don't know what that stands for as far as, like, We can scooch off people who are federal people, but I hear that. Yeah, I mean, my take always is when we do something, like, how does this help students, right? And so, like, anything we would do, I want to have teeth to it so it actually has an impact. Whereas I get a statement, communicates to the community, but then at the same point, there's not any, teeth isn't the right word, but like, if it's only symbolic, then it's not really making it, it has some
131impact, but. Is it really making kids safer if that happens? It might be debatable, right? If we are able to have it, if it is the majority of the board wants to have a discussion, is that something that we can learn about? Because I don't know the answers to that either. What does declaring an ice-free zone, what does that change? I do know there's a bill. going through Illinois legislature right now, right? I can't remember the number of it, but it's about how school districts, or they might say schools, individual schools, have to have plans in place, robust plans in place for ensuring children are not taken from school properties. And I think we have to do that by January 2026. I was looking at it. The timeline was kind of confusing. But I think
132a good place to jump off would be education. And if we could all be on kind of the same page in terms of just knowing what your rights are right now, what everybody's rights are, I think that would make it easier to see what the impact would be if we designated it, if we're all kind of on the same page in terms of what is going on right now. So I don't know if that's a training we could... I'll do together just gonna give a bit more information. So on we met we meet Quarterly with all the other Batavia Park District city of others and we just met last yeah when I sent the board the weekly update we had not met yet So I just told you guys we're meeting today, but we had
133I was going to provide you some update this coming week. Give a little bit of that. There was this discussion that came up a little bit. The way I understood it from that meeting is because points of information, nothing more than that. The municipalities are enacting a lot of these by virtue of them being public land and they're public spaces. They have to allow anybody that wants to go sit in a parking lot to be in that parking lot to go use their bathrooms, whatever else. So these anti-ICE amendments are more than a proclamation. They're actually an ordinance or a policy that basically says we can make a change because we have to do this partially because, one, it's a stance to make. Two, there's a misperception that because somebody's in a parking lot that
134they're... participating in and collaborating with an organization that they're not collaborating with from a perception, right? So that is a change that they would make because they don't have the protections to be able to tell somebody to leave a parking lot if it were federal or ICE or otherwise. So that's one reason why I understand a lot of these municipalities are doing it. At the city level. At the city level, right? We already have rules in place that says we can keep you from there. Additionally, the other thing we talked about was because that Know Your Rights session, they were very much open for us to share that out with the resources that we share out and have already shared out in some of the updates that have gone out, that we could share their
135resource out, that meeting and that section because it was recorded so that it's consistent across Batavia. Right. And we kind of co-utilize resources that they've already gone through so the message is consistent and it reaches students even just a little outside of Batavia that don't live in the city of. I'll be following that. So to be clear, you met with the Park District? Park District, Library District, and City of Batavia. This is the collaboration stuff that started last school year. We don't have a cool name for it yet. No, it's not very good. It's not terrible. Patavia Collaboration is what we call it. Cool Collaboration. There was a little bit of discussion on the, what was the word you used, Danielle, about the negative impacts of it? It was not only just funding, but... Just
136ramifications. Do you create yourself as a target that those groups could decide you're making a big statement about it? I'm going to come over to you, and that's kind of why certain areas are being targeted, the city of Chicago and others, because, hey, never mind, there's a lot of people there that they feel like they need to control, but also they made big statements about it. So sometimes it puts a spotlight on you. That's a potential ramification. I also heard that there was discussion about where did the federal groups come into, and we are right next to a rather large federal property. You know, that puts us in a very convenient spot for that to kind of occur. Unintended consequences. I was going to say, my personal opinion is I'm all for educating people. Yeah,
137I'm for that too. Along those lines. I agree with you. Okay. I agree with the intent. My perspective is sharing out that data, including their information, and that in it, see how that rides. If we start seeing an escalation that we think we need to rise up to, that's my opinion, that we could kind of escalate our reaction to it. My thing is I'd rather be prepared before it escalates. It's already escalated. Yes. So I think that we need to understand that. What we were prepared for possibly as a district, and there may be things that I don't know about, so I'm not educated from Utah or talking to anyone else, are not effective, as effective as they were. What we were prepared to happen isn't happening the way that we thought, just like limited.
138So it does take more education from those communities that already are experiencing it with the understanding that it will likely happen. Along with that is the education, is that, hey, we are here for you, is that discussion with community members who are affected, our parents and our students and whatnot. But to your point, a reaction would not be helpful. We have to be proactive, in my opinion, we have to be proactive. I don't know what that needs to look like. Have teachers and staff had any training about this? Have any so about know your rights training or yeah the be a Has been sharing resources Materials with membership. We have also communicated things both internally and externally to parents This past week, we've also shared resources that ISBE has communicated out in their monthly communication
139to schools. So we used that platform, and Holly was kind enough to take all the resources and push that out to our stakeholders. And then as an administrative team, as an administrative body, we've had our own discussions, both face-to-face and outlining protocols as steps that they would take should something like that occur. I guess, again, speaking as a Latina, as someone who has a daughter, I mean, we're definitely more white-passing, we're definitely privileged, that understands what's happening. It affects walking in the evening. It affects walking to school. It affects these things. And so I understand that we can't remove that. But I think we've heard, I know I've heard from a lot of the community that I'm in touch with that is part of our EL community, that's part of our immigrant community, that going
140to school is really scary. Again, once they're in school, they feel a lot more safe. But they still have to get to school. Their parents may not want them to go to driver's ed as an example because what if you get in the accident and I can't come help you? What if you get in the accident and they decide to profile you? Because at this point in our lives, we are being profiled. And so I think the discussion comes in as how do we educate people so that you may not have that understanding or that lived experience of how do you help and how do we understand what people are going through so that we can be aware and then we can then be prepared. Because maybe there are steps that we can take to
141make sure that people, that stress is alleviated. I can't imagine what these kids are going through taking tests. These kids are going through showing up to school every day, not knowing if they're going to go home to their parents. not knowing if they're going to walk home from school and get picked up. And especially when they have family in Aurora, family in Elgin, family in West Chicago, family around, who are already having this happen. So what can we do as a board to help with that? Because that is our realm, and I don't know. Again, is it an ice-free zone? Is it this or that? So I think, how do we have a discussion about that? And is it on the abilities that we have? If we're all interested in it, what are the next
142steps? Schools are already suffering, and that stinks. I mean, that's where we're at. You can't protect everyone, but we may not see it now. Kids are affected by this. Kids are having a hard time functioning in everyday life. Their parents' lives have changed. No grocery store shopping. No going to the laundromat. No going out places. No extracurriculars. Know this or that so we need to understand that this is happening in Batavia to our not all of our kids with some of our kids and we know this because of again, it's what's happening elsewhere and then with the community that we are suggestions though, like as far as like I mean if I think for me it would be like the understanding of like what's the protocols when Someone who shows up at a building or
143a parking lot without a warrant and engages a student What is the protocol? What are their rights? People understand that level. So everyone has access to that. I think that's, with the realm of what we do, that's the space that we can live in when it comes to actual action. Some of these other things might have symbolic worth, which is real. But I think for me, I'd rather start at that spot because to me that's kind of like the meat and potatoes of like actually. Like the education spot. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And if we do want to have a more discussion about it, I think I brought this up last month, is we do have a policy on e-learning. Do we need to look at that or do we need to ask questions about that?
144Because right now, I don't know that it needs to be used for certain people, but if at that point. Is that something as a board we're prepared to say, yeah, you need to use that so that kids are not absent. Kids can still go to school, but I don't know how that works in the background. But we have a policy that controls that. That actually now what can that kick into place for parents who don't want to send their kids to school? Yeah, I'm asking out like today, but no no I think you're asking for a discussion on this type of like yeah if everybody's interested well, and I think I think part of me would be wondering if that comes as a As teachers or others are starting to see this start to occur
145or fear that it's going to occur, that that might percolate to Tom and other admin, this is we need to figure out a way to address this concern that they're no longer coming to school or we're seeing fears of attendance dropping or whatever else, that things percolate a little bit sometimes before they start. popping and being on top of it. Tom just shared with me. Can I just address that, though? For one thing that I know, we've been monitoring because, I mean, the concerns here, you know, for us, we care very much deeply about what's going on. And, you know, we have been trying to monitor and understand and also have check-ins, you know, principles. I will ask personally, just anecdotally, how are we doing? What are we looking at? I've asked. My teams that
146help coordinate with a lot of our bilingual or monolingual families that are non-English speaking, they usually use us here in this building as their resource. For example, we just had BPAC not too long ago, and that was one of the things I checked in with Mr. Milka and our directors here to ask, how did BPAC go? We're still getting pretty record high numbers of participation from our families. Hey, what's BPAC? The Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee. It's a collaborative group that's created as a requirement when you have a bilingual program or EO programming. It's to engage your families and make sure. that they have an opportunity to find avenues to connect to the school district. It's a partnership, too, to make sure that our resources are, we keep working towards matching the resources they need to
147be successful in school. So one of the things we do is they host, you know, The most recent one, Batavia Public Library, came and presented. The feedback was actually really positive. A lot of families weren't aware of all the full nature of the resources our Batavia Public Library offers, so that was great. We've monitored attendance. We are trying to see where our dips are, what kind of personal contacts and supports are needed. Right now, our attendance has not shown any variation as a result of anything that's been happening on the national or state or local level at this time. That does not mitigate or mean to say that families or students are not concerned. I'm not trying to say that. I'm just trying to say when we look at some of the options right now,
148that's what our data looks like at the moment. And then I heard about protocols. One of the things that we have shared out I can resend it We do have a protocol that we created which is tied to board policy 7 150 So it's our protocol and how we address agency or law enforcement On site and so we kind of do a step-by-step Process that our secretaries and principals all have it's been shared out. I had it linked and I think one of our communications last year I can't remember if we included it on September 15th, but I know on September 15th we sent everybody to our Know Your Rights links and then some of the ISBE communications that we've been sharing the resources with everybody. So, again, it is pretty step-by-step, and I think
149the crux of it is this. There are two sides of the law here. In one case... It is difficult for a school district because if there is a warrant or a judge-signed order, we as a school district have no authority at that point. However... When there is an illegitimate attempt or if there is an illegitimate attempt to present some need but they don't have that, law is actually on our side, and that's federal as well. But FERPA allows us to protect our students and not give them access, and that's why part of our protocol is don't let those agents breach beyond any of our other secured entrances if the document's not legitimate. It's an ice-free zone, going back to that, with that in mind. Does it give anything for parking lots? Like our parking lots
150and drop-offs and that type of stuff, does it give kids more protection? So our parking lots are not free public property. Our parking lots are our district property, and you have to have approval to be on it. So if we ask someone to leave and we have a legitimate reason for them to be asked to leave, they have to. A great example is if the media were coming here to cover something. They have to stay on public sidewalks. They can't film an interview from our parking lot unless they've received permission from us. That wouldn't change anything for us. It doesn't. So if their parking lot, let's use this, right? Because I know this has been a recent example in some local municipalities. If several ICE vehicles were staged and parked at the BHS parking lot,
151we would tell them they can't use our parking lot for this and that they have to leave. Yeah. Yeah. If you had, so they effectively wouldn't be on a school parking lot? Is that, so is there, because I'm trying, where does, you know, I'm for that, right? I'm trying to like hear through. Are they, does this act the same way as an ice-free zone for the city? Do our parking lots already act that way is what I'm asking? Yes. Probably. Like where they're not going to come onto the property. That's what I'm trying to understand because if not, then that might be something where this is necessary. If they pull onto the parking lot and they don't have school business, we could tell them to leave and effectively at that point they're trespassing. And the
152law is on our side to say that they don't have school business and for the protection of our students, they need to leave the parking lot. So if the city did their ice-free zone, it would effectively go to our borders where we already have protections? Is that what I'm understanding? Well, the city's public areas, but yes. Right. I don't know whether the... My concern, right, is if this helps, if we are able to have an ice-free zone, does it help us to have one because of where students enter our district area, not in the building, but our areas? So I cannot speak to what it means for the city. I have no idea, to be honest with you. And I would be erring judgment if I tried to offer an opinion on that. I know
153for our property, because when this was a matter last year, when we started sending some communications out last spring, conferring with our attorneys, what we would be able to do is any... legal enforcement law enforcement agency that we're trying to access our property parking lot you know or sidewalks that we own etc um if they're not there with a legal standing warrant or a judge signed order, they are not supposed to be on our properties. Or the permission. But that's where it gets that nuance. That's why I was saying there's two sides of this law here. But if they were to arrive in a building and they do have signed orders, there is nothing we can do. But what I think I heard you say is let's call it the district. Right? Right. The way
154I understand it, an ice-free zone only allows us to control properties we actually own. So we can't say the district is an ice-free zone in total because we don't control the dual parking lot or the roadways in Mill Creek or whatever else. We can't. There's no teeth to that, right? And the law isn't on our side. So to a certain extent, you're right. Wherever the city's ice-free zone, if they decide to go that route, begins and ends. If it is... all public sidewalks for all I know, right? Then that would stop at our driveways. Right. And then if they drove, you know, if somehow they got to our driveways, we could tell them that if they had no reason for being there, no permission for being there, no warrant, that they would need to leave
155and then the police could come tell them to leave. Sorry, we had a discussion when you were asking if we wanted to have a discussion. I mean, we have a protocol in place. That was what he was referring to. If you can send it out again. Yeah, yeah. And I believe, looking at it, I recall it being in something that came through our e-mails at one point in time, and I don't remember when. What I'm generally hearing is, yes, we want to get more information out there about know your rights and whatnot. They particularly include this. What I heard from Tom is that there's kind of this continuation of messaging and information to the students and the staff and the parents over and over and over again. It seems like it's kind of happened somewhat
156regularly. Right. Is there a gap that we see in that conversation other than if there's a wish to have a... statement because from what I'm hearing right now and if you want to let Tom look at it a little bit we can do that that that would effectively be a proclamation more than a policy change about the ice because we are already covered under the most of that In my opinion, if we're covered under most of that, that's great. It sounds like there is a need for education. And, you know, I've heard that, you know, admin and secretaries know what to do. What about, you know, I only have my experience with Storm drop-off. And, you know, there's teachers that come out and help, and there's crossing guards. And so I don't know that they
157are educated as much as... Maybe I am of what what potential threat there might be what does that look like? That's where know your rights kind of comes in a little bit because it educates on that piece And I don't know that we can ask so earlier earlier Tom mentioned the be a is sharing things out We can find out if BESPA's sharing things out to Crossing Guards, Campus Monitors, other. I think that would be a good start. That's a good place to find out if there's a gap somewhere in there. I'm sure you can find that out for us. Because I had also thought even recess, kids and adults outside. And we got an email from someone saying, I am a recess staff and I do not know what to do. Okay. Education. And
158maybe a statement if we want to talk about that. I don't know how you guys feel. I'm for education at this point. I'm all for education. I'm cautious about the statement because of some unintended consequences potentially. Is there something that resolves the unintended consequence or is this another discussion to have? Is this the end for you guys? You don't want a discussion on? putting a statement out. What are we asking at this moment? Are we asking to have a discussion about a statement? I think we passed. Are we having a discussion? We're having the discussion. We're having the discussion right now. You know, I mean, for me, until I see, like, if I think we're being managing... to the best of our ability with the kind of social, emotional, and anxiety side of things, because
159right now we're not seeing an actual drop in things that we're trying to get in front of that by making sure information is shared out, that if that is not being effective and then we need to escalate our impact, right, then that might, I might change my opinion later on it. So it may be that if any other board member feels like this might, this, this, this happened. And guys, I'm reading the tea leaves here, and he comes back and says maybe we're hearing more from the principals, we're hearing more from the staff that this is disrupting student behavior and we think you need to make a declaratory statement that this is not tolerated. If they say that would be helpful to us, then I might be more open to that. I just want to
160caution that I'm not only dealing with the Latino community, right? You're dealing with an immigrant community. You will likely never hear from them. And if it got to the point where there is ice literally right down the road, you're going to see a change in that. You will never hear a parent. I will put money on that. You're not going to hear from those communities ahead of time. My point, I think what my support is, is that you're telling them without them having to ask for it. And we put out stuff, but I've already heard and I've already experienced it's not enough. It's not loud enough. It's not specific enough. And we can't give specifics for everything. This is what we're going to do with this procedure, this procedure. It's helpful to see that there's
161education. it's not specifically stated enough where it makes like, yes. And I understand the fear of repercussions with what that may make for BPS. I'm just sharing that perspective with you, though. That's a hardship where I see that. You're probably never going to hear that from a community. And I wasn't trying to imply that. I was almost trying to say that the perception of our teachers and staff seeing the concern and seeing the anxiety rise up. is where they might begin to sense it even before parents even feel comfortable talking to teachers and others about that. So that's what I was trying to state more than parents coming in and talking to the principal, per se. So you're appreciated. I've heard, I don't experience it, I've heard that, you know, culturally, that is something that,
162you know... Fear of authority, fear of repercussions, fear of everything keeps people from coming to people in positions that may otherwise be able to help them because they don't know that and they don't feel comfortable doing that. I understand that. Right. I mean, like the city of Batavia did their proclamation and it stopped anything. But I was in that room and it made a huge difference. I brought my kids. We had different people there. We had business owners. We had community members. People were in tears. It was a way to say, we see you, and all these people are here to help protect you. We're all here to help see you. And we see your babies, we see your families, we see this and that. It's just, it's community. It's community, and I don't see
163any doubt. I keep talking, so I'm just going to, you guys know how I feel about it. I will always be on the side, whether it's an immigrant community, whether it's a Latino community. I will always, always, always. side on yes to communicate, yes to support. Unless there's like these huge, like, yeah, we're going to lose half of our fund. I mean, I just, I don't, I don't know of any, anything that would be negative without just like putting fear out there. That's not actually like factual. I guess if we were putting on the table, I would say yes to putting out a statement, but I don't know that we can vote or however, whatever. Where does this go? It'd be a straw poll. Just figure out who wants to be the further discussion point.
164Or kind of action. It's not like we're taking action. Right, right. Because there's plenty of other steps that would have to occur to decide to do that. Okay. She asked for the input, right? Yeah, okay. Yeah. Do we have any information or resources on our website, BPS website, about? Holly's been populating it. I think the only question that kind of remains a little bit is do we feel we need to? put an action item on a future meeting about making a declaratory statement because, and I'm only putting it that way because we have other protocols and rules that would allow us to operate in that matter, whether we say something about it or not. That's to the floor. I mean, I brought it up. I would like to have us discuss designating our properties as
165ice-free zones. I agree. Once again, I agree with... The intent here, absolutely, 100%. I need to learn a little bit more about what potential consequences there could be associated with it because you may be doing more detriment to the families and students than you think. So would it be fair, since this was brought up now, to say, hey, because I don't want to get into polls in between meetings, do we want to say, hey, take the next month of self-reflection and... You can put it on a comment for next month for a yes, we want to continue this conversation or not. Is there a way for us to be educated on what, if there are actually any current states, is there anything that is consequential? anyone tell us of the consequences. Whether, I mean, this
166is 100% or this is like, hey, right now we've heard of other places that blah, blah, blah, whatever it may be, but I don't think we're feeling educated in that part of it. And that might be helpful. Even for me, like, I mean, you guys told me, like, yeah, this is, you're going to deal with this, this, and this, and this. I mean, I may rethink that or may even push it, like, yeah, well, that's fine. I don't think we have that information. Could we potentially be educated in that way so that we can make an educated decision? Is that possible? I don't know how to frame it because it's somewhat hypothetical in a way that is impactful. Is there anything that's happening at the level of funding for districts, for districts who have made
167any statements? Has it happened? Well, I can tell you there's a... Couple circles I belong to superintendent circles. Nobody has actually issued anything like that So they're there for us. No, no, there would be nothing for me to share with you Superintendents I'm checking in with none of the superintendents or the boards have been issuing any statements nor do they plan to It's not that they're not sending communication. We've sent communications out. We've shared resources. People are doing that. I'm saying just specifically to what you guys are asking about with an ice-free zone statement from a school district. Nobody is planning on doing that at this time. I haven't been able to find anything either when I looked to see if any... I saw the city of Evanston did something city-wide. So if they're not
168doing ice-free zone, is there language? And that's where I... Yes. I feel yes. From language I've seen, and if that's a desire, I could share that. I don't think that part's that hard. I don't know if that language is teetering on that. That's, I guess, what the ask is. We don't have to say ice-free zone. It can say something a little bit more impactful, something a little bit more supportive. Not just here. I mean, what's been sent out is helpful. I don't know. I don't know, and I don't know if that. has implications behind it. If we took statements that have already been sent out and kind of went over them to see could they be rewritten to be clearer in terms of our support for our students and families, maybe that's where we do
169the suggestion. Is that Craig or you? We're beginning to dive, in my opinion, outside of our role as a board if we're going to start wordsmithing documentation. Unless you have it be from the board. Unless you're like, this is a letter from the board. That's a different thing than evaluating what I understood Katie was saying. Evaluating the stuff that's already come out. That's where I think of it. If there's some sort of statement that the board decides they want to make and read as a part of a board message or whatever else, that's a different thing. I would accept your, like, I'm on the same page as far as, like, sitting with it and processing a little bit. Is that what you said? Yeah. I personally need to kind of work through it because what's
170a ramification to me, it's priority, it's importance is different than it is to you because I'm not in the middle of it, but I've got to be able to think from my perspective because it's painful. It's in the moment for you and your community that you're involved with. That gives you a certain level of clarity that's different than my level of clarity. It's all important. I need to understand from my position what those potential ramifications are because depending on a person's perspective, the ends justify the means and to another person it does not. Because maybe it's more about sometimes the talk is really important but the walk is really important too. Can we just put a placeholder for it? We can put it in. What I would almost like to do is just put it
171instead of a particular board topic. If you'd like to just bring it up again next month and see how people feel and if anybody's moved off of the dot about it. And if anyone sees anything in the meantime, share it with Craig. I can disseminate it. And then also just thanks to all of the... parents that sent us emails in the last couple days about that. So those are my comments. Thank you. Next person. We can just go down the line. I don't have anything prepared today. I loved hearing from Best Buddies. That was awesome to hear from all the work that they're doing and their different fundraisers. That was really, really cool to hear from them. No, thank you for having these conversations about these topics. And I really, yeah, what you said, thank
172you to the people who have written in. We've had a lot of people not just like write in with just, I mean, writing in and just being kind of general is perfectly fine, but there have been some people who have really given us pieces of their lives and different things, and I really appreciate that, and I just want them to know that they have been read, they've been processed, and so keep doing that at that. something you feel because we do see it. So I just want to say that. I think that's all I have at the moment. All right, my turn. I'll also thank Best Buddies. My daughter was involved in Best Buddies for four years, and I saw one of her buddies up there in a lot of those photos. So I think
173it's just a fantastic program that all the kids benefit from. So thank you for that presentation. I want to recognize our art department. At the high school, I believe they were one of five high schools in the state of Illinois recognized. I didn't write it down, I should have, but for outstanding achievement. So I feel like every month some part of our district is receiving recognition for their outstanding work. So congratulations to them. I know they're having an art fair, I think, on Thursday. And then I'll get a little personal. Some of you might know, but... I've been involved in the girls' flag football club at Rotolo Middle School. My daughter's on the team. It's 6th through 8th. They started a two-week club in January of last year in the gym just to gauge interest.
174This year we have 47 young women out from all aspects of the community, and it's really been just... Incredible, the support we're receiving from the district, families. We had a family night. Mark Anderson, I think, was probably involved in turning on the lights at the football field on Tuesday. And the girls got to be on their lights and score touchdowns, and they got to see what it would feel like because this is really a new opportunity for women athletes. And then Friday at the football game, we were in the end zone cheering the boys on, and they put the girls on the scoreboard. Recognized him and Rudy said some nice words about him. We got a nice round of applause So I just want to say thank you to everybody that's been supporting these kids
175because they really I'm getting emotional thinking about it We had a practice tonight, and they're just the greatest kids and Annie Frico Mary Bruno are the ones who got it started and then Julia Gray and I have come in this year We had our first competitive game which we won so it's like now. It's a real thing and So, you know, for me, when I'm looking for light, it's like going and hanging out with those girls and watching them do their thing and have the courage to try something new. But for our first game, every single one of us said, I'm scared I'm going to make a mistake. I said, we're all going to make mistakes, and we're going to get through it. So I just want to say thank you for the community of
176Batavia and BPS 101. for supporting these girls and keep an eye on them because there's good things on the way for all of them. You said this is new to middle school, right? Like from January of last year? Yes. Do they play in high school too? There is currently not a high school team, but we're working on it. Really? We're working on it. Mr. Kim's going to come to practice as a rumor? Give the girls some motivational words. I think you all essentially. I think you just forced your hand. No, it's already been forced. You're on the hook now. It was already Annie and Mary cornered me Friday night. I said, yes, I'm there. Got it. Receive my orders. I'll be there tomorrow. Just thank you to the community and thank you to the families
177of these girls and these girls for what they've been doing. So thank you. Happy Diwali and hope everyone had a safe Halloween. That's it. Also, thank the Best Buddies for coming out. I personally benefited from this gift-wrapping fundraiser the last couple of years. It's a nice deal. Drop off the gifts, went and grabbed a cup of coffee, and I was all done. So it is a great event, so I highly recommend taking it over there. Other than that, no, nothing else too much to add at this point. I was just going to say a more general thank you. You know, there's so many clubs and activities that are in full swing now. I just think it's amazing the opportunities that kids have to learn new things and meet people with similar interests. So I just
178wanted to give a general thanks to all the teachers and staff and parents who put their time into making those things happen and for the activity buses for letting it, it makes it so much easier to get kids home and to those activities. So thank you. to everyone that has a hand in all of those clubs and fun things. Well, I was able to give my update on the Batavia. collaboration whatever lousy name we have for it so we actually toured the Patrick J. Callahan Community Center so you got to see that actually I went there for the opening because I work with Patrick J. Callahan and so we went to the opening there and the dedication and I did not get to go in to see the museum side of it so I encourage
179everybody to go see that and participate with all of our fellow districts and cities and others in the area, but that's a really kind of unique thing and really special and a great resource and kind of shows kind of some of the vision of things that they've been trying to accomplish. Just like we do here at the district. Sometimes where there's a will is a way and you look at creative things because that was originally a site for a larger kind of community center. But that wasn't in the cards so they did the best they could and created what I think is a really nice vision and a really nice synopsis of Batavia. And really great views of the pond and stuff from there. I was going to just basically, I jokingly told Aaron earlier,
180because he's been talking about this girls' flag football forever, that he has found his marching band. So be careful if you want to turn into me. That would be such a bad thing. You know, in all the context, Craig, the first 24 meetings I was on board, every comment Craig gave included a comment about something. The marching band is doing it. Or whatever. So I'm giving it as a cautionary tale. So there might be a lot more flight football updates as well. Yeah. So just really exciting to that. And then one thing, I'm not going to say yet again, thank you to the best buddies for coming, but I'm just continually surprised about how these other facets of activities and programs and educational components. are really kind of coming out that are not directly related
181to the core common elements of education. Like, these are things that are helping this discussion that, and our statistics on inclusion and belonging and things like that, that that is a great example of not only keeping those kids at this special needs, that they feel like they belong, but helping others understand their perspective and showing them that they belong and can be with society instead of feeling like they were outside of society. So that's kind of a common theme, and I really appreciate the district kind of showing that to us as we move forward. And then just because I have to, tomorrow is the community night for the marching band, and I will mercilessly get on your case at the next meeting if you're not able to come to the event tomorrow night. It's an
182amazing event. It always is. I actually haven't seen a single show this year. So I went and cooked turkey. So I'm going to ruin it. I'm going to go tomorrow night. My wife and I are very much looking forward to it. This is the first year that I have literally nothing to do with the show. Very proud that they have succeeded in expanding their capabilities and continue their path of excellence. What are the details of the show? When, where? It's tomorrow night at 7 o'clock at the high school football field. Come a little early. It will fill up. It usually does. They will usually do a little bit of talking beforehand. They come on the field. They run it exactly like they do on a show. So they don't, like football, you see them kind
183of wander out and set up. This one's like parents move everybody on. The kids are helping set it up. They get set, they go, and they do their show, and then they run off the field and that kind of stuff. So it's a fun event. If you have young kids, what's great is Mr. Owen invites all the kids in the stand to come down and see the displays. The band, at least the last couple of years, they sign autographs. They have posters of the band. So they get to feel like what it would be like to be part of the marching band. And go get signatures from all the band members. That sort of stuff. It's a lot of fun and it's usually about you won't be there until 9 o'clock at night. Usually like
184a half hour or 45 minutes or so. And with that, I think that is all of the board comments and we are adjourning to a closed session. So the board is going to end a closed session. We will not have any action items after the closed session. You're welcome to stay here if you like. But if you decide to leave, we want to thank you for coming out this evening. I want to make sure because I've got to read the very specific things. So I will entertain a motion to adjourn to closed session to discuss the compensation or performance of specific employees under 5ILCS120-2C1. So moved. So moved by Danielle, second by Raquel. Thank you. You all are dismissed, if you like.