001Okay. Since 4.45 p.m., the Board of Education has been in closed session to consider the following. Discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the Open Meetings Act for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes or semi-annual review of the minutes as mandated by Section 2.06. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the district or legal counsel for the district. Litigation when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the particular district has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal. Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives. And student disciplinary cases. I will entertain a motion to come out of closed session. Moves to come out of closed session. So moved. Second. A motion and a second are heard.
002Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. McMillan. Aye. Fitzgerald. Aye. Gerke. Aye. Wanke. Aye. Casey. Aye. Cush. Aye. Kosminski. Aye. Okay, the motion passes. Good evening and welcome to our April 18th meeting. Our mission is to educate students to be self-directed learners, collaborative workers, complex thinkers, quality producers, and community contributors. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Board members present this evening. Kristen Fitzgerald. Christine Gerke. Charles Cush. Amanda McMillan. Joe Kosminski. Donna Wanke. Tony Casey. Student Ambassadors this evening. Joannick Cho. Okay, please join the Board of Education in the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, we have reached the point in our agenda for good news. Okay, during the entire week of April 18th this week, we're excited to celebrate our female athletes as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX. And as you can see, I was
003dressed nice and warm this evening, expecting to be at a girls' soccer game in Aprilville Central versus North, which unfortunately got canceled because of the weather or postponed. So, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. Steve Chell. Sorry. It's dirt on my shirt. Sorry. Bye-bye. And here we are again, celebrating our female athletes team andти movement for the 50th anniversary of Title IX. And, as you can see, I was dressed nice and warm this evening, expecting to be at a girls' soccer game in Aprilville Central versus North, which unfortunately got canceled because of the weather, postpone. So,
004unfortunate that our kickoff started that way but, nonetheless, we'll persevere. During this week, all of our clubs, activities, and athletic programs will join in our celebration of the contributions of women and their support and Snow activity. Students also have opportunities to reflect on the impact of the importance of Title IX and gender equity. Each club activity and team. social media prompts to educate and reflect on the impact of Title IX in their specific areas of focus. So looking forward to celebrating as the week moves on. In other good news, Naperville Central High School has been honored with the Support Music Merit Award from the NAM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. The Support Music Merit Award recognizes individual schools that demonstrate outstanding achievement and efforts to provide music access and education to all
005students. To qualify for the Support Music Merit Award, Naperville Central answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, and community music making programs. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by the Music Research Institute and the University of Kansas. Congratulations, Naperville Central. I think we got a slide ahead if we can back up. There we go. At the Midwest Regional, the Husky Robotics Team competed with 40 students in the Music Research Institute. The Husky Robotics Team competed with 40 students in the Music Research Institute. The Husky Robotics Team competed with 40 students in the Music Research Institute. The Husky Robotics Team competed with 40 students in the Music Research Institute. The Husky Robotics Team competed with 40 students in the Music Research Institute. The
006Husky Robotics Team competed with 47 teams from four states and three countries and won the Chairman's Award, which is the most prestigious award that honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. This award qualifies them to attend the FIRST World Championship next week in Houston, Texas. In addition, Raj Thadani was named a Dean's List Finalist for his leadership, technical expertise, and accomplishment and will compete against other finalists at the championship. On the playing field, the team was the third-seeded Alliance captain and led their alliance of three robots through the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, they won one match by 47 points, but lost the two other matches by a heartbreaking total of 10 points. Way to go, Huskies. And then finally, on good news,
007Central Times is awarded the Pacemaker Award for the National Scholastic Press Association. This is the highest honor available to the high school journalists and programs. While this marks the 14th pacemaker for Central Times, it is their first since 2014. This is a new award called the International School of Music. The National School of Music is the first to win a Pacemaker Award. It was an award that was given to only four schools in the entire country. Central Times goes into the High School Journalism History Books as an inaugural winner of this new award. Central Times was recognized for our student team who designed and developed a smartphone app to access our content, our website content. This award encourages out-of-the-box thinking and rewards student media for the courage to take chances to improvise service to their
008school community. Congratulations to Central Times. Okay, we'll move onto recognition now. We have a couple individuals here to recognize on behalf of a larger group congratulations to the 2019 2020 and 2021 National Board certified teachers both new and renewals National Board certification by the National Board for professional teaching standards is one of the most prestigious Credentials a teacher can earn those who achieve the status of national board certified teacher have met rigorous standards through intensive study expert evaluation self assessment and peer review To date about 90 teachers who are currently employed by district 203 have earned a national board certification They join 82,000 teachers throughout the country who have achieved this mark of excellence Renewal candidates have already demonstrated that they are highly accomplished teachers This renewal process is a process by which the teacher
009compiles and submits a profile for professional growth Demonstrating how their practices continue to align with the five core propositions in their certificate area in contrast to the initial certification The renewal process is a single submission composed of three interrelated components and a reflection process takes about 30 to 40 hours the leaders of the court for mentoring are Connie Kremins Dave Davis Janet Park and David Carroll So now I'll take a moment walk around and recognize the couple that are here. Okay, so I will read a number of people we want to recognize new nationally board certified teachers in district 203 from 2019 include Gabriella Woodson Jackie Fabian Maura Warren Angelica Khalid Edith Nava Joseph nickel and Elizabeth slow pick from 2021 Samantha Chopinski and Melissa Keller renewal teachers from 2019 Betty kennel Rob Hunt Tom
010Reds Todd Ramsbottom and Adam Schmidt 2020 Linda Bennett Leslie free and Matthew Snidecki in 2021 Sarah Wozolik Now new board national certified teachers who are with us this evening from 2020 include Laura Warren and Christine hollander congratulations Also from 2020 were Phoebe Connor and Nicole Epstein. So congratulations on the rigorous work that you've done to achieve this prestigious recognition Okay, that is lots of good news and congratulations to all of our national board certified teachers and renewals All right So we've reached the point in our agenda for public comment the Board of Education welcomes comments from the public at its meetings Citizens who wish to address the Board of Education should identify themselves by name Comments by individuals shall be limited to three minutes if the individual is representing multiple individuals or a group They
011shall be allowed to speak for five minutes at the conclusion of the time Mrs. Patton will designate by saying time as I call an individual for public comment I will also designate the next speaker so they have appropriate time to prepare issues raised in public Comment will be taken under advisement by the Board of Education But will not be discussed this evening issues raised during public participation may be added to future agendas or addressed by administrative staff because the questions raised in public comment address district operational matters the superintendent as a spokesperson for the district is the board's designee to coordinate response to public comment and will apprise the board accordingly as outlined in Board of Education policy 2.2 3 0 individuals addressing the board should conduct themselves with respect and civility to others Individuals
012are free to express their criticism regarding decisions or policies But the Board of Education expects that they refrain from personal attacks on our superintendent Board of Education members and administrative staff At this point I would like to welcome Stacey Cunningham. Good evening and welcome Wait just a minute Stacey. Actually, why don't you just if you don't mind I can talk Okay, hi, I'm Stacey Cunningham. I'm a 203 graduate I've been a teacher at Naperville Central for 18 years, but today I'm here to speak as a 203 parent My son started kindergarten this year and he has had an amazing experience. I've been very proud but and He's mostly had an amazing experience because of the Herculean efforts of his kindergarten teacher I have been in awe of her ability to manage a class of 28
013kindergarten students with various needs and she has no aid and it has been a Astounding I'm in awe of it, but I'm also appalled that this is the situation that she needs to do that This year. I know as from personal experience as an educator and through conversations with my colleagues That students are coming out of the pandemic with more emotional and educational needs than ever before We need to move to smaller class sizes to allow our teachers the time with each individual student to address these needs Currently it's undecided whether another section of first grade will be added for more my son next year, so he may have at least one more year, if not multiple years, of these same large sizes. This is not the experience I wanted for him when my husband
014and I decided to raise our children in this district. Sadly, I know that increased class sizes are an issue throughout the district, so this may be his reality going forward. In conversations with colleagues, I've heard of multiple cases of students being crammed into large classes, such as an AP class of 32 who's set to run for next year. I know that one of the focuses of the district right now is equity in education. Large class sizes work against this goal because it limits the amount of one-on-one time a teacher can spend with a student. For various reasons, students in this district don't all have the same amount of support at home, so it makes support in the classroom all the more valuable. As you consider balancing class size and fiscal responsibility, please consider that I
015and many other parents in this district don't want another check in the mail. I want my child and all children in this district to have the small class sizes that they deserve and need now more than ever. Thank you very much for your time. CHAIRPERSON WONG On behalf of the whole board, thank you for your comments. I do not have any additional slips of paper for individuals who would like to address the Board of Education. Does anyone in the audience wish to address the Board of Education? Okay. So as we finish our public comment, please. CHAIRPERSON WONG. Thank you, Chair. In this period, I want to thank our participant on behalf of our whole Board of Education. We appreciate your advocacy. I also want to acknowledge the public comments submitted by email from our community
016members. We also appreciate your advocacy. Regardless of the format in which you have commented, your concerns have been heard by the Board of Education. I also want to take a minute to thank all those who email their thoughts and concerns to the Board. We read and review each email and value them greatly. At this point, there are some times when, due to the volume of email, we are not able to respond in a timely way to each one. However, each of these emails is read and considered. We thank you for taking the time to keep us informed, and we consider you to be a vital part of the process of reflecting the views of our community. As a reminder, because the questions raised in public comment address district operational matters, the board has designated our
017superintendent as the spokesperson for the district, as our designee to respond to public comment, and he will apprise the board accordingly. This will conclude our public comment period. So we'll go on in our agenda to our monthly reports. Listed in board docs are our monthly reports, treasury, investments, insurance, and budget. Does any board of education member have any questions about any of our monthly reports? Okay, so then we'll go on to our action by consent. I was our board of education action, our consent, I was our claims reviewer. Excuse me? Bills and claims reviewer. And so I will make a motion, and I do not believe we have any need to separate our minutes, correct? We have all board members present. Okay. So I will then make a motion, and I should also thank Melanie
018Brown, who in the absence of Tracy, did all of the, answered all the questions for the board of education. So thank you, Melanie, for stepping in there. Okay. I move approval of warrant number 104-1816 through, grant number 30029817, totaling $21,713.17 for the period of March 22nd, 2022, to April 18, 2022. Sorry, it's a little small there. Along with items 7.02, 7.03, 7.04, 7.05, 7.06, 7.07, and 7.08. Second. A motion is seconded or heard. Please call the roll. Second. Mrs. Patton. Cush. Aye. McMillan. Aye. Fitzgerald. Aye. Warnke. Aye. Casey. Aye. Kosminski. Aye. Gerke. Aye. Okay. The motion passes. So we will go on to communications. And first in communications are our student ambassador reports. And we have Joanna here to tell us a little bit about what's happening at Naperville North. Good evening. As the student
019body has enjoyed a restful break, we have returned and we are busy as ever as we near the end of the year. March 22nd was our vocal spring music concert and our band and orchestra spring symphony concert was March 23rd to 24th. The week of April 4th was our senior week where we enjoyed the variety show on the 6th, a hypnotist show on the 8th, senior celebration on the 9th, and our powder puff football game on the 10th. April 12th was our student government's biannual blood drive and our freshmen, sophomores, and juniors took their respective PSATs and SATs last week. Lastly, this week is our spring week in anticipation of the spring dance where each day has a special theme such as pajama day, blackout, anything but a backpack, class colors, and air band shirts.
020It has been amazing to return to and celebrate these traditions fully. Even though our student body has been busy as ever, we have also settled into our everyday school routines even with some of the big changes we have experienced. As time goes on, less of the student body has worn a mask with initial shock value and the initial component of judgment of it all has gone down tremendously. Furthermore, the schedule changes that have come with homerooms have become a normal part of our routines, but reactions still stay very mixed. Some people love it and some people hate it. It's really just dependent on an individual's teachers and classroom placement. However, a lot of the student body is hoping that our homeroom periods will soon be more flexible where we can visit other classrooms and teachers
021and enjoy a freer period. As the final push to the end of the year begins, us Huskies have a lot to anticipate such as our school musical footloose, air band, spring, AP tests, and even graduation. Thank you. Thank you for that report. You do have a lot going on at Naperville North. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with the Board of Education. All right. So we'll move on to item 8.02, written communications. Listed in BoardDocs are our Freedom of Information Act requests for the public's viewing and the board's viewing. So we'll go on then to item 8.03, superintendent staff school report. Okay. I'll begin with a brief update on CDC COVID-19 community levels in our community. As I shared with the community and the board on March 4th, 2022, the CDC's COVID-19 community levels
022are being used by Naperville 203 to help decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area. We've aligned our plans with the CDC recommendations throughout the pandemic. We've relied on guidance from our public health officials to make decisions regarding our mitigations. DuPage County remains in low level, but we need to monitor our numbers as our county and community metrics are trending upside down. Thank you. Just to wrap up, we've updated the dashboard slightly. It has been updated and reflected on our dashboard today. As you know, we update the dashboard every Monday, and over the past several days, Napervill 203 administration and the DuPage County
023Health Department have been closely monitoring an increase in COVID-19 cases within Maple Brook Elementary School. Since Friday, April 8th, we'd been notified of over 90 cases. Our COVID-19 dashboard is updated weekly on Mondays, as I just mentioned, and captures from the data from the prior week. These positive cases are more than 90 per day. are represented within Maplebrook's numbers which were posted today. In response to the significant increase in cases, the Maplebrook team in collaboration with the district has strongly encouraged mask wearing at that school, continues to monitor or continues to maximize air circulation throughout the school by keeping the ventilation system on 24 hours per day, opening windows when possible which it looks like later this week will again be supported, increasing social distancing in classrooms, common areas, and lunchtime, and provided continued and
024additional access to shield Illinois testing for any student or staff member who provides consent. I believe we tested today and we in the additional test we've seen being seen over 200 students tested each time that we offered it last week. While we've seen a small increase in cases in other areas of our 203 communities since spring break, currently Maplebrook is the only school with cases high enough to warrant those extra precautions. As today has gone on though, we are monitoring very closely at another one of our schools and we are working with the district to make sure that we are able to continue to monitor their domestic COVID-19 cases. There will be a number of challenges and we will likely communicate that information today or tomorrow morning. I apologize. Please be reminded that all families
025should contact the School Health Office if your student develops symptoms and additionally, we do provide and continue to make k95 masks available for any staff or student who requests one. We will continue to communicate with the Page County Health Department to determine what if any additional mitigations should be considered. I would like to encourage or remind members of home or stay home yourself if you present any symptoms. And a reminder, isolate your student for a minimum of five days. From the onset of symptoms, positive tests or a negative test is obtained. So again, as a community, we can't just be done. We've gotta continue to be vigilant, monitor our symptoms, report symptoms and stay home as needed. And so I guess with that, we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you for that report. Questions
026from the Board of Education? Amanda. Obviously that is surprising about Maplebrook. I am curious, the things that you had mentioned about recommending mask wearing, the ventilation, shield testing. I thought those were things that were just constantly in place regardless. Are those things that are not happening at all the schools and it's only now being added to Maplebrook again because of the higher surge there? Or is that, or what exactly is different? From what is being implemented in the district? So specifically regarding masking, on March 4th, we aligned with the guidance from the CDC. And the guidance from the CDC is to wear a mask based on your personal preference, inform a personal level of risk during the low level. And so that had been our shift to that. And with the uptick in cases and
027seeing the increase there, we did go to a strongly recommended message to our families. I think that the biggest change, is that the, again, biggest change is the increase in social distancing in the classrooms as well as our common areas and at lunchtime we had been looking at kind of shifting away from more of the social distancing that had been in place especially at the lunchtime but we've held off on that as a result of that the I think it's just emphasizing the importance of the window opening and the air circulation the systems are untimed and don't run as often during unoccupied times but we maintain that throughout over overnight to to ensure that we had maximum air flow so those would be the changes thank you I do have a just a follow-up so
028what would be the conditions that would cause for even more extreme cases in because I know that we're looking at each school as its own kind of community that would lead to you know higher mitigations like maybe school closure or anything like that that we'd be looking for have you yeah so we actually did look at that with Mabel Brook on this one and the need to potentially transition to remote for a period of time we did consult with the DuPage County Health Department regarding that and they emphasized keeping students in person in school so long as we can safely staff the buildings and so really one of the things that we will have to consider is our ability to staff a building and we were really close with Maple Brook Yeoman's effort out to
029the Maple Brook staff as well as staff throughout the district who helped support and fill in to ensure that we could keep schools open but it's primarily going to rely on our ability to staff the building aligned with the CDC's community levels plan if we transitioned for example into the medium level as an example of a mitigation masking is still not to a point where it's required it is the change at that level is that individual individuals who have a medical condition should consult with their own doctor about their own decision to wear a mask we don't see recommendation to moving to full masking until we would reach a high community level and so again our position has been to align with the recommendation and guidance of our public health officials throughout the entire pandemic
030and that'll continue to be our process and if I just ask one more question then I'll yield are there any specific supports provided to families in those in cases like where we've had such a high surge at the school that are medically complex to provide additional support for them and I know that you talked about consulting with their individual doctors but as a school are we doing anything to try to provide more protection to them yeah that's done on an individual case-by-case basis we have not had to do that with any of our in any situations at Maple Brook at this time but in the event of some of a student who may have been immunocompromised or have a health condition we would collaborate with the student's medical provider if necessary and would add any
031additional mitigations such as air purifiers maybe even more social distancing or the opportunity for a home hospital tutoring if required but it would be done on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the family as well as their medical provider okay additional questions from the board of education Donna okay I think you just asked this but can you just repeat for me so the mitigation or the mitigation levels are based on the community spread not on what's happening in just one building is that correct uh overall yeah and it's like that however we look at it uh kind of layering in there uh additional mitigations as an example two of them that I've shared would be one running the air system 24 hours to ensure that there's a process of air circulation but then also looked
032at increased social distancing when possible within classroom spaces and common spaces lunchtime for example okay and then what additional support do we have for students that may have family members or themselves that are compromised and we would collaborate with the family as well as their medical provider to determine what types of additional mitigations may need to be considered such as air purifiers additional social distancing or the consideration of a temporary home tutor Charles so if I could ask the question a different way is there a circumstance under which at an individual school we would ever go to a mask required to an isolated again an isolated building if we see levels hit a certain level in that area we would have to do that in consultation with our health care providers based on CDC guidance
033I would not anticipate that would come unless the community reached a high Community transmission level the emphasis is on layering multiple mitigation factors within our school and so we'd be looking at those other factors first I did I increased social distancing air purification things like that questions additional ones no okay I I do have a just one note I know with our dashboard that we our dashboard is only on Mondays so I know that there were a couple of different Communications that went out to devise Maplebrook families I think that was very positive and should continue and in the case as you've said if you have additional schools that you're monitoring I just think the more that we can notify our families of anything I know with that being you know we can't make the
034numbers go faster than you know in terms of the way that we're reporting it but in this situation I appreciate that there were a couple of individual updates and I think that those should continue anytime we have additional data to share with our families yeah and in addition we will continue that in addition we did communicate via our weekly talk 203 the entire Community to the entire Community the current situation at Maplebrook is a reminder for all families so we're still monitoring this okay as a part of our talk 203 on Thursday that went okay I also wanted to just as a reminder could you just review what you said with regard to anyone that has symptoms and also the guidance that we're giving our families when their child has a positive diagnosis what happens
035on days zero through five and days six through ten yeah so again I will take the first part regarding students who may have a compromised position to notify a principal administrator perhaps a case manager school nurse someone at the school familiar with the student's condition and then as necessary a team may be convened to work with the student and family as well as a medical provider to determine what additional mitigations may take place I ask a little bit of a question maybe Lisa or Chuck regarding the the various intervals sure for days zero through five students are isolating at home if they have symptoms that continue past that they continue to isolate at home through 10 days if symptoms are dissipating no fever Etc they can return to school for days six through ten as
036long as they're wearing a mask and then I did have one other question I know that we had kind of gone to where we're now having more people in school for events and that type of thing like volunteers Etc have we made any changes with regard to that situation for school events or you know individuals being able to come in and out of the school not at this time specifically I'm looking at Chuck thinking about Maplebrook we know we have an open house this week that we're monitoring okay it may determine that we have to delay that okay not cancel it but maybe potentially reschedule that as we continue to monitor today was a day we I believe many of our staff who were out actually returned and so you know we're in a much
037better different position than we were as of even last Thursday and going into the long weekend but yes as necessary based on that be another I guess local metric or mitigation that we would look at is in terms of limiting the number of people or the types of activities that would occur that would bring large groups of people together and obviously I know what you're keeping track of all the schools the ones that are the feeder ones that that school goes to the junior high and the high school in the event that you would see an uptick there okay any other questions oh sorry Joe I guess um one thing that I uh look at not not just the the number of cases or that that kind of number you hit but also the the
038rate of new cases um are there messages that are sent out kind of before we hit a Maplebrook level where you know that we're seeing increased numbers of the last three days in our school uh we encourage you to mask we encourage you to uh extra precautions in those schools trying to you know head something off before it gets too big when when we have that ability and that information yes and that's how we I think we communicated nearly every day last week with Maplebrook the reality is is that those 90 cases essentially came in from the end of the day Friday uh into Monday and then throughout the week so when we published our dashboard on Monday uh just one week ago we published accurate information information with what we knew less than five
039and then it quickly as uh came in and then we we did testing for staff increased testing for students and the numbers just kept kept going up so yes Mr because as we have that information we do um I I yes okay I don't see any additional questions so we will go on then to item 8.04 residency verification update just a memo update for the board of education and in uh board docs um you know for the past couple of years centralized enrollment has been updating practices and procedures to increase the accuracy and documentation record keeping communication despite these important changes there are kind of situations that have arisen over time that warrant additional inquiries and investigative actions to verify the residency of families who enrolled the district we've continued to work on improving our
040procedures and practices uh in in believe the utilization of a third party to assist with residency verification verification will yield positive benefits of the district so the memo goes to outline the work that's there Dr Holland has been leading this work she'll let them know if there's anything additional at this time we need to share other than what's in the memo or we can just be prepared to answer questions that the board may have I do have some additional comments um the residency verification updates presented in the board packet they provide an overview of updates we plan to implement our centralized enrollment department oversees enrollment and residency for the district in preparation for the school year we plan to utilize the service services from a third party vendor to proactively assist with residency verification for
041families prior to the start of the school year the verification process works by comparing addresses for individual parents not students the address that the district has on file for a parent is compared to the address that the third party vendor has after searching a multitude of national databases there's not a match the third party vendor informs the district and centralized enrollment and we reach out to parents to request additional information to complete the verification process if residency is verified which we totally expect for the majority of our families no action is required by our families our intent with proactively searching parent addresses through the third party vendors to treat all families the same and in time to reduce the number of residency uncertainties that we manage in centralized enrollment and to reduce the tips that
042we receive from schools and community members the vendor natural I mean the vendor destroys all student all school district data once the investigation is completed so that's after the verification process right now we rely on our own suspicions to determine whether or not we need to request additional information for families to verify residency as you may imagine although we have information well intention we rely on tips hunches suspicions and our review of information and it's not always the most effective or equitable manner to determine when there is a need to request additional information by using a third party vendor we are seeking to remove individual biases perceptions from the process and to allow a data-driven approach to determine when additional follow-up is necessary the district currently utilizes third-party vendors when questions and concerns arise but
043in a reactive manner oftentimes the verification is completed by hiring private investigators who rely on some of the companies we have vetted through this process not only have students started the year in our district but then we have to engage in requesting additional information from families engaging in surveillance and other processes pending the amount of cooperation and this becomes very time consuming and has its own costs by utilizing district employees and staff to engage in these processes the regularly budgeted amount for these services are approximately the same for the cost of this proactive approach it's important to mention that the district currently spends approximately sixteen thousand sixty five dollars on the operating cost for each pupil confirming residency prior to the start of the school year should assist with decreasing the disruption in the process
044of this process these calls for the district and our families after the school year has already started it is also a fair way to better ensure we are protecting taxpayer dollars and district resources so that's the core of our recommendation thank you for that explanation and those efforts questions from the board of education I see Amanda I just want to commend you for moving to this type of verification process I think this is it's great to hear that it's much more equitable and we'll be saving resources over time. One thing that stood out to me about what you said was about how it verifies the location of each parent. And so I just wanted to clarify, so if their parents live in separate households and maybe one is not in the district or whatever, how
045is that kind of handled? I have Maureen Dvorak, who's also here to help with answering some of the questions. But the vendor looks at the entire family. So it's the parent whose residency is associated with the student attending our district. I think that's what you're asking. Any additional questions from the board? Thank you for being here, Mrs. Dvorak. Okay, so if there's no other questions, thank you for this. And I think we're looking forward to seeing the positive outcomes coming from that. All right, so we'll go on to item 8.05, President's Report. Thank you to the Board of Education members who were able to attend the Illinois Association of School Boards' DuPage. At that meeting, our Illinois Association of School Boards director announced several months ago there had been notice that IASB had dropped out
046of the National School Boards Association. Our executive director, Tom Bertrand, is one of the founding members of a new coalition of state school board associations, which met on April 11th to put together a transitional plan for hosting events and providing services to state boards of education. He gave a small update about that and has also forwarded an update through the IASB emails. So if anybody wants that update and doesn't have it, please let us know. But I know that he's looking forward to representing Illinois and providing positive programming from the national level. Okay, so we'll move on to item 8.06, Board of Education Reports. Do we have any Board of Education reports this evening? Charles. Good evening. Okay. So. Tony Casey and I represent the diversity advisory, we represent the board on the diversity advisory
047committee. And there was a meeting held at PSAC on April 11th. So Dr. Leakes, as usual, did a great job in facilitating our first in-person session in over, is it two years? Yeah, in over two years. So it was great to see everyone get together. We had a great discussion. We discussed ways to proactively and productively engage families in diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. For the next school year. So we had a good discussion around that and some brainstorming there. And then also committee members are participating in a pilot book study using the book, A Search for Common Ground, which is written by Frederick Hess and Pedro Neguera, which discusses various aspects and perspectives about DEI topics in education. So I'm looking forward to participating in that. It's kind of a book club, so to
048speak, on that. So looking forward to participating in that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that's my update. Thank you to both you and Mr. Casey for representing us on the committee and to Dr. Leaks for all your hard work with that committee, which I know provides invaluable feedback to all of our efforts. Any additional Board of Education reports? Okay. So we'll go on then to our, sorry, let me move my cursor, our discussion without action. Listed on discussion without action is our first item, 9.01, 2022-2023, Board Meeting Calendar. Okay. This is a draft for consideration. Couple of things to point out. A couple, I think, that were just carried over from last time that we didn't catch. Start
049with July. Last year, we moved the July meeting from the third Monday as a result of some Board Summer Calendar conflicts. So July should actually be July 18th to be on the third Monday. We'll make that update. Looking at November, that should actually read the 7th and 21st. We had one Board Member who actually liked this as a result of the Thanksgiving days after the week of the 21st. However, that's a quick turnaround, a very quick turnaround. In 2019, as a result of some scheduling issues, we did only have one Board meeting in November. That's something the Board could consider. And then a Board Member recommended in January, instead of following the first and third, and the first and third. which puts it on January 3 and 17 to consider January 9th and 23rd. So
050that's something that the board consider as well. Typically in July we only have one meeting. And otherwise we follow typically the first and third Mondays unless as noted by asterisks that the day falls on, the scheduled day falls on some form of a holiday which would require movement of the date. And so those are noted on the calendar. So again, this is for review, discussion, and feedback. And then I could work with the board leadership during prep to make any adjustments and changes to bring back for action at a future meeting. Comments from the Board of Education. Thank you for the feedback. I would note that November 24th is the day after the conference for IASB. And so that has tended to be a time where the board is quite active over the weekend. So
051I know we did have only one meeting one time. And it seems like this might be a potential for that. But I don't know when we'd want to have that or if we'd want to put two on and cancel. I don't know. My recommendation would be to consider the one on the 14th. Yeah. Okay. Consider one on the 14th of November instead of the 7th. Just to go a little bit more. I don't know if we have time in terms of bills and claims to be able to pay some bills. It'll be later in the month. It's right away, just a couple of weeks after the October meeting. Although I will note there's five Mondays in October. Right. So that's, you know. So it would already be three weeks. That would be four weeks in
052between. But it might split better to do four weeks there and then go past. Because I think Thanksgiving week is quite early next. The other thing is on the January 3rd, that's right during winter break. And I know that many staff do work. But just to put it in the break, it seems like it's hard to have a break when you're. So I would recommend pushing that later. Any other thoughts from the Board of Education? Donna, sorry. So I will. I think I proposed, and maybe others did too, that for January we move to 9 and 23. And so are we saying November 4th? The changes that I think I've heard is November 14th and having only one meeting in November. Possibly January 9th and 23rd. And then the only thing that. We haven't talked
053about was the July. Yeah. You suggested. I know we only do one, but you suggested 18 instead of 11. 18th would be the standard day. Because that would be the third Monday. Yeah. I think we did the second last time though, right? We did. Some. And there were a couple board members who had conflicts on the third Monday. So we shifted it to that. I'd suggest we shift back to the standard date when able. Any feedback from the Board of Education? Okay. I'll suggest we make changes. And then bring it back again without action for the Board to be able to review. Encourage Board members to look at your calendars and schedules, especially over the summer. And then we can bring it forward for review at the next meeting. Okay. Thank you. All right. So
054we'll go then to Item 9.02, Policy Manual Update, Section 7. Okay. Those who regularly follow our meetings know that we have been reviewing and working with the Illinois Association of School Boards regarding a complete policy manual update brought for your initial review and consideration. Section 7. So it asks that if there's any initial questions, we do have a couple of notes and updates and questions that we need to iron out that we'll have for you before next meeting. But if there's any additional questions that you need us to work on before we look for action at the next meeting in May, we'll entertain those at this time. Are there any questions right now? Okay. So if you have those questions as you review Section 7, please go ahead and send them so they can go
055through the process of getting the answers. It is a little bit longer sometimes because they include our representatives from press at IASB. So if you get those, send them as soon as you get them. Okay. So then we'll go on to Item 10, Discussion with Action. And we'll start with Item 10.01, Policy Review, Second Reading, Policy 7.240, Co-curricular Code of Participation. Okay. The April 4, 2022 Board of Education meeting Dr. Holland brought for the Board's consideration and update to Board Policy 7.240. Okay. So we'll go ahead and get started. I ask that the Board approve this as presented this evening. I'm happy to answer any questions, any additional questions that the Board may have. Questions from the Board of Education on the Co-curricular Code of Participation. Joe. Just a quick question for clarification. I assume
056this policy is just going to then be lifted or is in the policy manual, Section 7, and we're just kind of approving this one in advance? Yep. That's correct. There are a handful of policies that are customized policies that are based off of and modeled off of the IASB recommended policy, but more local. And so this would be one of those. So it's not in 7 as it is here because we hadn't had that co-curricular review with the discipline committee. So this would supersede. So then to clarify, this one's not the one that's in the Section 7 that's in Board Docs. But assuming we approve this one tonight, we should just consider this one the one that's in the Section 7. You will not need to take additional action on that particular policy at the
057next meeting. Got it. Thank you. Any additional questions? Okay. I'll entertain a motion. I move approval of item 10.01, Policy Review, Second Reading Policy 7.240, Co-curricular Code of Participation as presented. Second. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Casey. Aye. McMillan. Aye. Kuzminski. Aye. Warnke. Aye. Cush. Aye. Gerke. Aye. Fitzgerald. Aye. Okay. The motion passes. So we'll move on then to item 10.02, New Course Proposals. At the April 4th Board of Education meeting, Mrs. Willard gave a presentation to the Board of Education on the work of the Learning Services Team regarding curriculum updates for the coming school year. I recommend that you approve these as presented. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions from the Board of Education on the new course proposals. Thank you for highlighting
058the hard work that the staff has done to update the curriculum and put that in place and test it and do all the different things that are part of that process. I don't see any questions, so I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve item 10.02, New Course Proposals as presented. Second. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. McMillan. Aye. Fitzgerald. Aye. Warnke. Aye. Cush. Aye. Kuzminski. Aye. Casey. Aye. Okay. The motion passes. So we'll move on in our agenda to item 10.03, Instructional Resources. Okay. Also at the April 4th Board of Education meeting, Mrs. Willard presented a recommendation to the Board of Education for K-12 Instructional Resources. Again, those resources that have been selected and recommended are posted in Board Docs. I'd be happy to answer any
059new questions. Otherwise, I recommend you approve as presented. Questions from the Board of Education. I don't see any questions. So I'll entertain a motion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve item 10.03, Instructional Resources as presented. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Gerke. Aye. Kuzminski. Aye. McMillan. Aye. Wanke. Aye. Casey. Aye. Fitzgerald. Aye. Cush. Aye. Okay. The motion passes. So we'll move on in our agenda to item 10.04, Establish Hourly Rates of Pay. At the April 4th Board of Education meeting, Mr. Ross brought a recommendation to the Board of for changes in
060hourly rates of pay for various employees. Those recommendations are posted in Board Docs for the board's consideration. I recommend you approve as presented. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Questions from the Board of Education on the hourly rates of pay. Donna. Can we have a little more background on the hearing officers and the comparison to what some of our other districts and our benchmark districts are? In terms of the rates or questions? Yeah, I would say in terms of rates and role and responsibilities and how other districts approach it. Mr. Russell. Sure, perhaps I could speak a little bit about the rates and then invite Dr. Howland to talk a little bit about how it may work in some other districts. I can make a couple comments on that as well. In comparing the
061rates to our comparison group districts, we find that we are the lowest hourly rate for hearing officers. The others range from we're at $95. Currently, the others range from 100. I see 150, 175, and $200. There are a number of districts that don't go with a hearing officer. Instead, they have a member of the superintendent's cabinet or sometimes an attorney working for one of the law firms that serves that district to serve as a hearing officer. Yes, Donna. So I would say what are the advantages or disadvantages of having a cabinet member versus a hearing officer? It depends. The advantage to having a hearing officer is that it is an independent entity, somebody who doesn't have an investment necessarily in one position or the other to act as an arbitrator on behalf of the Board
062of Education, an independent body. Oftentimes, there could be a perception or a belief that somebody internally may lean toward a support for administration's recommendation as opposed to somebody who is an outside party. So I would say that the advantage to having a board-appointed hearing officer as opposed to, say, counsel would be financial consideration. Attorneys are going to charge their standard hourly rate, which are far in excess of what our current rate is as well as our recommended rate. Any other questions from the Board of Education? Okay. I don't see any other questions, so I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve item 10.0. So for establish hourly rates of pay. Second. A motion is seconded or heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Casey? Aye. Cush? Aye. Fitzgerald? Aye. McMillan? Aye. Kosminski? Aye. Warnke? Aye. Gerke?
063Aye. Okay. The motion passes. So we'll move on in our agenda to item 10.05, policy manual update, sections 2, 4, 5, and 8. Okay. Again, as mentioned earlier, when presenting, we're presented without action on section 7. We are in the process of updating our policy manuals. 2, 4, 5, and 8 are ready for Board action. Updates have been made as requested and identified by the Board of Education. Dr. Briche, Mrs. Patton, anything to add on this? So remember, as a process, this was looked at by numerous members of the administrative team and by Tony and I representing the Board of Education and our superintendent, Mrs. Patton, and a representative from IASB, who has helped us to be able to determine the state law requirements that must guide some policies. So I will tell the Board,
064I went back through each of these policies on 4 and 5 today, just to make sure that the interpretation from IASB was correct. And so there are several changes, I believe, in this new draft 5. Is that correct? Yeah. That is correct. Yes. Okay. So that's why we have another draft 5, is because, for example, we'll go back and ask a question, but we'll go back and ask a question. Okay. Okay. So we'll go back and ask a question. Well, you can tell this, you can answer this better than I can. Do you want to give an example of why we would have one of those changes in 5? Sure. Yeah. Every once in a while, we'll ask a question, and we'll have wanted a policy to be read one way or written one way,
065and they'll come back and say, that's a choice, or you can't make that choice because there's a legal mandate, or there's a statute that requires us to have it in there, have the policy written or read a certain way. So when we go back and check those things, sometimes we're able to make individual district decisions, and sometimes we're not. And so we always check those, and it's good to have a lot of eyes on those because there's a lot of policies and a lot of mandates and statutes that we're looking at. So it's been helpful. And I know numerous times our staff would say, I would like to do this, if it's acceptable, if not. And so I know there were some decisions made, okay, we'll go ahead and go with the proposed policy, et
066cetera. So that's, again, some of the draft changes in that Section 5. Okay. So there were also several questions that were made with regard to policies in Sections 2 and 8. We have an updated Section 2 as well as an updated Section 8 with those changes. I know the updated policy that we've done with regard to uniform grievances is not the exact policy that we did last summer. There were some changes due to legal, but they did as much as they could of what we had passed. The only other thing I would note, I know that we are in the process of looking at Policy 420 with regard to capital expenditures of our reserve fund and other expenditures for taxpayers, et cetera. I know that we had talked about potentially that we currently have 10
067to 20 as our range there. I know that we talked about potentially increasing that just given that we have out-year deficits. I don't know if you've had a chance to – I did send a question about that. I don't know if you've had a chance to think about that. Mike, if you would recommend going up to 15 to 25 or just given that when we adopted that 10 to 20, we did not have those out-year deficits and now we do. This time we would recommend that we adopt the policy as is and then make that a continued part of our conversation. Just because we update policy now, we could revisit policy at any time, but that should be something for further consideration. I would like to see further consideration of it. I'm okay to put
068it through right now, but I would like to see further consideration of it as we consider our 420 expenditures. And I see other nods, so it sounds like we will put that as a forward discussion as we continue the 420 conversation. Okay. Questions from the Board of Education on any of the changes in Sections 2, 8, 5, or any of the proposed policies in 4 as well, even though we haven't made additional updates there? Okay. Joe, sorry. I'm sorry. I see Joe. Thank you for making those changes in Section 8. Regarding 8.30, Item 7, I appreciate putting the vaping in there. The language doesn't read quite right, though. It says smoke, vape, or any products listed below an 8. Previously it had tobacco in there as well. Should it be smoke or vape? I believe,
069Joe, I'd have to go back and look. Let me pull it up. We can add tobacco to that if you want to, if you want to add it to 7. That was in there originally. And the way it reads right now, there are a couple of verbs and then something, a bunch of nouns, products listed in 8. I think going with something like amending the language to say smoke or vape, tobacco, or any products listed below an 8 makes the flow a little bit better. Otherwise you're not really saying tobacco. Right. I don't say it. It's implied. Yeah, it's implied. It's implied. It's just you might as well be explicit. But I don't see it in any of the other items either. Okay. I recommend then the recommendation. I'm going to pull 830. I recommend
070that you approve sections 245 and 8 except 830. And we can bring 830 for separate approval to ensure that we have the language correct. Great. And I know that we're in the process with 7.190 as well. So, again, that's 7. But that will be quickly superseded. Just another example of the fact that we continue to revise these policies as per the committees and state law. Okay. So additional questions with regard to these policies. I don't see any, so I will entertain a motion. Again, asking for approval of section 245 and 8 except 830. So moved. That was smart. Second. Okay. So motion and second are heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Fitzgerald. Aye. Warnke. Aye. Casey. Aye. Kosminski. Aye. I want to thank all of our staff for working on those policies. I think
071that this process, though it's a lot of review and a lot of work, it's really going to help us when we get these new updates from press because it will be less staff time on each policy. So thank you for undergoing all this hard work and to the board for reviewing it as well because I think this is really going to help us moving forward. Okay. So then next time we'll have 7 and then we'll also have 6. That will be our last one that we bring for draft. We'll have action on 7. We'll have a motion on 7. Okay. We'll have action on 7. We'll have 6 in draft and then we'll continue forward. Oh, and 8.3 as well. And I'm sorry. Sorry. Yes. And that one as well. All right. So then we
072will go on in our agenda to old business. We do not have any old business this evening. So we'll go on in our agenda to item 12, new business. We do not have any new business. So we'll go to item 13, upcoming events. And we'll start with 1301, schedule of events. You have a new business. Oh, I'm so sorry. A question. I'm not sure if it's part of the policy or part of new business. But prior to the last board meeting in an email I requested that we look at the policy that addresses class size. And so I'd like to do that separate from the whole. I think it's in 7. So when we do all of 7, right? Are we going to look at that separately? It's actually in 6. It's in 6. It's
073in 6. So we can pull that one. Yeah. I would have pulled that one and specifically discussed class size. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. We'll go to the schedule of events. The Board of Education meets tomorrow for the purpose of its annual self-evaluation with a representative of the Illinois Association of School Boards. Call your attention to our next 203 in focus, which is scheduled for Wednesday the 20th. The subject is purposeful parenting, creating a home environment that fosters healthy behaviors and boundaries. Okay. Wonderful. So then actually the board is not going to item 14, adjournment. We are going to return to closed session to discuss personnel. We will take no action in closed session. We will simply adjourn when we come out of closed session. So I will entertain a motion to go back
074into closed session to consider personnel. So moved. Second. A motion and a second are heard. Please call the roll, Mrs. Patton. Casey. Aye. Wonke. Aye. Gerke. Aye. Cush. Aye. McMillan. Aye. Aye. Doyle. Aye. грay. Aye. Morse. Ayes. Ukrain. Aye. Morse. Aye. Hy 책mi�as. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.