001e e e are you ready with the recording okay it is now it's now 7:04 and I'm reconvening to open session and calling to order the regular Board of Education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday March 24th 2025 Michelle will you please call the RO Miss gin here Mr kis here miss fosic here Mr Rising here miss Demming present Miss Jane here and Miss Donahue here we have a quorum Miss Jane will you lead us in the pledge I pledge to the pled FL of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday April 7th we have four board salutes tonight and we'll start with Miss Jane District 204
002students advance to Nationals in the reflections art program the board salutes The District 204 students who are advancing to the National level of the PTA Reflections art program Mishka butnik from White Eagle Elementary Anisha Campbell with two submissions from cron middle school and from Matia Valley High School ASI choki Eden Kim verson Raja and Rona Saka and Eden Sim congratulations to these students on the on this astounding accomplishment Miss guns Warriors Hockey Club captures fifth consecutive State title the board salutes the Warriors Hockey Club for capturing their fifth consecutive State title for the combined Blackhawk cup the Warriors Hockey Club which consists of players from wanzi and Matia Valley High Schools won in double overtime by a score of 3-2 Over Buffalo Grove hery and wheen Stampede Hockey Club congratulations on this Stellar accomplishment Miss
003fic marketing educator of the Year award for Illinois Deca the board salutes Nia Valley business education teacher Beth nth for being named the marketing educator of the Year award for Illinois Deca this award recognizes Educators who have demonstrated outstanding leadership with the State Association and their local community honor exemplify the four key points of the DECA Diamond vocational understanding social intelligence Civic Consciousness and leadership development congratulations Beth on this well-deserved recognition Mr Rising Matia Valley newspaper named finalist for pacemaker award the board salutes Adam pagee and the Matia Valley online newspaper staff of the Stampede for being named a pacemaker finalist by the national Scholastic press Association they are one of 34 finalists in the country and one of just three in Illinois the award shows how hard the students have worked to tell their
004stories of Matia Valley this is the fifth time Matia Valley journalism students have been pacemaker finalist four times for their online newspaper and once for their print magazine the Stampede congratulations Adam and the Stampede staff and go go Mustangs thank you I Applause for all of these great accomplish and we would would like to have the Matia group come up here for a photo yeah no one want [Applause] next we will have our student representative report by sonha mat penel from Mattia Valley High School than thank you good evening everyone my name is SOA Pall and I'm the executive board representative of Matia Valley high school and as always it's an honor for me to be here with you all today today I'd like to start off with General updates the speech team sent four
005students to State and had a fourth place finisher students in BPA competed at state two weekends ago and they had four students qualify for Nationals Science Olympiad took second place at regionals and is sending 15 students to State one of our robotics teams won a state design award and they were invited to the world championship our students in Deca sent 47 students to State and had and have had several top 10 finishers a third place in sports and entertainment marketing a fourth place in principles of marketing and a first place in financial services go Mustangs um next I would like to move on to Athletics Ashley basan the first 204 female to make it into ihsa State wrestling and Bridget Anderson qualified for State Gymnastics next Fine Arts our music department showcased their hard work
006and talents all month with many concerts and the MV music department will travel to Orlando Florida over spring break to perform and participate in workshops at Disney World choir and Orchestra students will perform at Advent Health Waterside stage in Disney Springs while the marching Mustangs will be featured in a parade at Magic Kingdom students will collaborate with the Disney musicians and and conductors in a recording studio experiencing firsthand what it's like to perform a soundtra a soundtrack for a Disney film thank you all for your time this evening I look forward to updating you all in the future in the future and as always go go my thans thank you okay tonight our school Spotlight there's actually three schools young Brooks and Granger Middle School Aon Rodriguez U the principal at Young Carol betel principal
007at Brooks Al Davenport the principal at Granger are um going to give us some insights tonight your's is R we can share all right you're not strong enough yeah I guess not all right well good evening board uh thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today um I am Al Davenport principal at Granger Aon Rus principal at NY Young Elementary Carol Batel principal at Brooks Elementary we wanted to take a moment to share a mentoring program that has been really excellent at um fostering positive peer relationships connecting middle school students with some of our elementary students at are feeder schools in some very meaningful ways at its core this program offers Granger students the chance to become role models for younger students showing them a path forward and inspiring them to dream big
008simultaneously students from both Brooks and Nancy Young are provided with an invaluable opportunity to connect with someone just a few years ahead of them and at Granger building both a sense of possibility and a sense of community and increasing overall student confidence but the benefits extend beyond just the students the elementary students also begin to build relationships with Middle School staff creating a bridge that helps them feel more comfortable and supported as a transition into Middle School these early connections are crucial in easing the challenges that come with such a significant educational shift as we know too often The Power of Positive relationships is underestimated but as Dr James comr said no significant learning occurs without a significant relationship this program is about creating a culture of support trust and mentorship that extends across our
009schools it's about helping our students feel seen valued and empowered both as Learners and as individuals by building these relationships early on we're laying the foundation for stronger more connected communities within our students and schools where every student feels that they have a role model to look up to and Community to absolutely support them I truly believe that programs like these help our students Thrive both academically and personally lastly it is extremely important to note that this program would not be possible without the incredible work of our interventionists Peggy Schmid at Granger Elementary Stephanie texus at Nancy Young and Jennifer stanik at Brooks Elementary thank you for your hard work towards this program and we know that a picture is worth a thousand words and that I've been told we're limited to five minutes we
010thought it best to let the pictur speak for themselves so if you take a look this is some of the highlights from our mentoring program this year [Music] [Applause] [Music] that is it a thank you sounds like a fantastic opportunity for the kids both in elementary school and the ones in Middle School to connect and and build relationships and that sounds great so thank you so much for putting together this thank you you're most welcome thank you okay now it's time for public comment and 60 Minutes is allowed each person is limited to three minutes when addressing the board we ask that you respect the confidentiality and safety of our students and School District Personnel we also ask that those addressing the board be cognizant that this is an open meeting and is available to
011all age groups and as such ask that you consider who the audience members are this evening and keep comments age appropriate public comment represents the voice and opinion of the speaker there will be no feedback from the board members during the meeting but followup will be provided by an administrator as appropriate although this is not required it is helpful for the board to know whether the comments and concerns we hear are being raised by residents so we ask that you state if you live in the district and if you currently have children in our schools um tonight we have four signups but believe there's three speakers is that correct because yeah okay so the first speaker is Diane Brown gist welcome good evening board members administrators and community members my name is Diane Brown Gest
012and I'm a resident of the city of Aurora neille Township and India prayer School District I had two adult sons who have graduated from the school district I've been here in the area for 30 years I'm here today to urge Indian Prairie School District 204 to take a Firm Stance against the practice of ticketing students in school the evidence is clear ticketing students for minor infractions is an unfair and harmful disciplinary practice that exacerbates inequities disrupts education and places undue Financial burdens on families each year thousands of Illinois students received tickets for school-based behaviors that in previous generations were handled by School administrators a comprehensive investigation was done by Pac publica and the Chicago Tribune and found that between 2019 and 2021 over 11,800 tickets were issued to Illinois students 93 in total at ipsd
013204 Mata 31 wabansi 43 Nia 19 alarmingly black students were twice as likely to receive tickets as their white peers why ticketing must end number one it forces students to miss class students must leave school to attend Municipal hearings disrupting their education and creating new forms of exposi discipline two it fails to address misbehavior or substance use studies on ad adolescent behavior and addiction treatment suggest that punitive measures like ticketing do not deter substance use and may instead encourage a more secretive Behavior three it places us an unjust financial burden on families fines range from $ 100 to $750 and can be unmanageable for families and many of them who particularly might be go living from paycheck to paycheck fourth it pushes students into a system designed for adults unlike juvenile court proceedings Municipal ticketing
014hearings are public offering very legal protection for Youth and potentially leading to Lasting consequences in their Futures legal and legislative considerations Illinois Law SV 100 Public Act 099 0456 already prohibits schools from issuing tickets as fines in disciplinary measures however some schools circumvent this by referring students to police officers who then issue the tickets a 2024 investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's office confirmed that this practice is illegal new legislation hb2502 and SB 2519 has been introduced to explicitly baned ticketing in schools I urge Indian Prairie School District 204 to take a stance and support the passage of 8 miss donu the speaker time has ended thank you very much for your time and consideration so much thank you the next speaker is Christa small thank you president donah Hugh and members of the board
015of education for this opportunity to speak on an issue that is important to me and our community my name is Christa small I have lived in naville for 12 years and have two students in District 204 one at White Eagle Elementary and another at wanzi high school our family has encountered some challenges within the school system specifically in the areas of unequal consequences for similar student behaviors and lack of school Administration response to ongoing bullying however in the face of that my husband and I still appreciate the district and the broad scope of opportunities our children have gotten we also sincerely appreciate what this board has done supporting inclusion groups hiring Dr tally and state leadership with the district's Equity belief statement we know that you are leaders so we are confident that you can
016also lead the district and the state and the issues that we are raising tonight hearing about the case of Amara Harris at naville North High School in District 203 and the horror she experienced deeply disturbs me Amara was accused of stealing an apple airpod from another student when the reality was a simple mistake because airpods do look alike and she was ticketed and prosecuted by the SRO and the City of neille it affected her life in many ways she had to stay close to home for court appearances and couldn't initially go to the college of her choice she spent six years battling the case to ultimately be found not guilty last year all over a $100 device her family was intentional and spent more money than the airpods themselves simply in the service of Truth
017and protecting her name but many students cannot afford this luxury in this District ipsd 204 propublica has reported that 93 tickets were issued to students between 2019 and 2021 one while conflict is natural and consequences and mediation may be necessary criminalizing minor infractions with this ticketing process can have far-reaching and harmful consequences to a student's future Studies have shown that interaction with the criminal justice system at a young age directly impacts a child's self-perception and has the potential to reinforce beliefs of personal inadequacy and low self-esteem we must not encourage the criminalization of students in situations where they are simply engaging with their peers SRO and municipalities should not be involved in some incidents their impact should be reserved for school and student safety for all of these reasons and more Illinois hb2502 and SB
0181519 were introduced to end this practice I hope you will express your support for these bills and commit to ensuring this practice is not applied to students in our district thank you thank you the next the next speaker is PA y yber King good evening president Donahue and all members of The District 204 School Board my name is PA yber King and I a resident of neille with one child in District 204 I'm a former administrator from the Houston Independent School District and Atlanta Public Schools I'm a former School Board member from the state of Georgia and a graduate of the broad residency in urban education I moved to naville in 2021 because of all the great things I heard about the schools not only did I hear those great things but I've been able
019to experience it firsthand now that my daughter is here in 204 like Christa who spoke before me I appreciate the opportunities this district has afforded my daughter and many other children that said there are some issues the Illinois State Board of Education found that in 2019 black students were almost four times more likely to to be disciplined than white students in districts 203 and 204 studies show that black students are disproportionately impacted by disciplinary racial bias black and minority children can feel the effects of this bias and can experience longlasting impacts on their lives and well-being we saw this in Neighborville with the Amar Harris case I'd like to Pivot after I had my daughter Ruby I noticed something different when family and friends would call to check on me or visit me when they
020called they always asked about my child first not me before they wanted to know anything about me they wanted to know how is the baby Messiah Warriors have a greeting in their culture that simply asks in lie of hello how are the children the traditional response is the children are well I'd say that we can all agree that the state of our children tells a lot about where we are as a community here's the truth if even one of our children is experiencing an unfair practice then all is not well and we are not well the Illinois state board of education has advised against the use of student citations the governor has spoken out against it and legislation to end this practice is actively moving forward now is the time for our district to lead
021with intention and meaningful action you the District 204 School Board are leaders you are Trailblazers you brought us the very accomplished Dr tally the first African-American to lead this District you've been recognized by the Illinois Association of school boards for your effective governance please continue this Arc of leadership trailblazing and Excellence I ask the District 204 Board of Education to lead in this space stop this practice of ticketing students and support the passage of hb2502 and SB 1519 thank you we now move to our consent agenda and superintendent report we will start with the superintendent report Dr tally M Dano members of the Board of Education Indian Prairie Community on Tuesday March 18th Indian Prairie Education Foundation held its Inspire breakfast fundraiser it was an opportunity to share with the community what ipf does for
022the benefit of our students staff and our Greater Community I Want To Praise Dr Trudy Ranson executive director of ipf and Miss Heidi Hol development coordinator for ipf and all the ipf board members for a wonderful breakfast this year our entire Board of Education was one of only 46 districts in the state to receive governance recognition of status additional additionally specific members of the board are being recognized by the Illinois Association of school boards through their leadership uh recognition program these members are recognized for the individual time and effort devoted to learning and Leadership activities so miss Susan Demming annual merit award thank [Applause] you Miss Lori donaho distinguished board leader [Applause] Mr Justin kurubas distinguished board [Applause] leader and Mr Mark Rising annual Merit [Applause] recognition there is still time for parents to complete
023the five essential survey the survey which is given each year provides staff students and parents with the opportunity to provide feedback on the schools where their children attend in order for a school to receive a report about parents' thoughts a school needs 20% of its parents to complete the survey the majority of our schools are now sitting at at or above 20% however there are six schools still below the 20% threshold I applaud still Middle School Graham Elementary White Eagle and mccardy elementary schools with more more than 40% of its parents completing the surveys you have until Friday to finish the surveys so please fill those out now I would like to ask the board to approve the appointment of Miss Anne dros as the new principle of steps effective July 1 2025 Miss dros
024will be replacing Miss Kim Maloney who's retiring it as of June 30th Miss dros is coming to us from St Charles district 303 where she serves as a special education department chairperson she has been in the role since 2020 before that role she was a vocational a coordinator and transition specialist for eight years M Dro shared how it is important to establish trusts in relationship with students staff and families she talked about keeping lines of communication open and has had experiences with moving a program from one location to another she is looking forward to the opportunity I would also like the Board of Education to approve the appointment of Dr Sarah mum as the new director of research and assessment effective July one Dr mum will be replacing Mr Charles frandle who is rur who
025is retiring Dr mum is joining us from the celand school district where she is the director of Educational Services she has been in her current role for the last 22 years she was also a former director of instructional technology and is taught first and second grade she has had extensive work with creating strategic plans and evaluating the implementation of those plans she has spent time evaluating programs within a school system determining the return on investment and she has also worked with school leadership and helping them use data to support instructional programs in the school she's very excited about the opportunity of joining our district both of these ladies are here tonight miss Don who I'll now turn the meeting back to you all right I need a motion to approve Miss Dre go um for
026our leadership of our steps program I move that the Board of Education approves andreos as principal of steps as presented I second is there any discussion Michelle will you please take a rooll Miss gin yes Miss Jane yes Mr Rising yes Miss Demming I miss fosic yes Mr kurubas yes and Miss Donahue yes motion has approved [Applause] congratulations you can come up to the microphone and say a few words yeah introduce if you brought anyone here and yeah my name is Annie drish thanks so much for having me here tonight um I brought my mom today Mary um my husband and son couldn't make it they're preparing for the ihsa um drama competition this weekend so they're head it down for that but um no thank you just so much for this opportunity um um
027I'm beyond excited transition is a very Niche um position to work in and it is my life's work and it's um just really where I want to be this is a unicorn position I think it's the best job in the world I'm I'm so proud to have been selected and it's just a it's going to be a privilege and an honor to serve these students these families and this community so thank you so much for putting your trust in me I will make you welcome now I need a motion to approve the appointment of Dr Sarah mum as the new director of research and assessment make a motion that the Board of Education approve Dr Sarah mum as director of research and assessment as presented I second any discussion okay Michelle will you please call
028the RO Mr Rising yes Miss Deming I Mr kurubas yes Miss fosik yes Miss Donahue yes Miss Jane yes and Miss gin yes motion passes congratulations I would like to thank the board and administration throughout the whole process I felt so inspired and motivated and truly like I was already at home I I can't tell you July is not going to come quick enough I am beyond excited uh to to join the team and I've already had things rolling through my mind of a thousand question questions and and ideas um I'm excited to have my son Aiden uh here with me and my husband Matt my daughter as at Grand Valley State uh currently studying to be a teacher she just got her first student teaching placement so we're excited to have her starting kindergarten
029next fall so uh we'll see but thank you very much I cannot wait to to be a part of the team so thank you you're welcome okay that was all our excitement for the night all these nice appointments and things we are now moving to our consent agenda um I need a approval for consent agenda items F through M I move that the Board of Education approv consent agenda items F through M as presented second any discussion okay Michelle will you please call the role Miss fosic yes Miss gin yes Miss Jane yes Miss Donahue yes Mr Rising yes Mr kurubas yes and Miss Demi I the motion passes all right now we will have a presentation from Dr Mike purcel regarding High School course updates wait for your he waiting for his boss good
030evening good evening Board of Education Dr tally uh thank you very much uh for the opportunity to come and and speak to you this evening uh very excited to share some updates uh that the high school uh teams have been working on and uh and and glad to bring those to you this evening um all this all of the course I was shared to you are being proposed for the 25 26 school year some as you see will have resources that are attached to them uh and others will not but wanted to provide you updates on all of them uh accordingly this presentation will focus on board policy 640 which is curriculum development so there's some revisions and some uh some additions to to work that we've been doing in the past and then resource
031adoption um this work is tightly aligned to our strategic plan uh primarily related to Priority One objective two to provide all students students with high quality curriculum and instruction to meet and exceed standards and or demonstrate greater than predicted growth on standardized assessments uh as I said I have a series of uh courses to share with you this evening uh those are listed here French two uh advanced placement biology advanced placement US History advanced placement environmental science criminal law and history of the world through media uh as a reminder um the the courses that uh are reviewed and updated follow the process that involves Department chairs building and District leaders and School uh instructional uh leadership teams uh the courses are also reviewed and updated according to the curriculum review plan this plan was last
032shared with the board by Dr Lee last summer um and um and we'll continue to update that as it uh becomes uh kind of annually the priorities are uh are alignment to standards and Alignment between schools uh there's a continuous focus on student achievement outcomes as as it uh is laid out in the Strategic plan and Readiness for College and Career uh this work always starts with us having uh two things on the table that's the portra of graduate and our cultur responsive instruction uh kind of platform so those are two things that no matter what the project is those are things that are on the table literally um I like this visual gives us uh a nice kind of view of the work that we do uh starts with a reviewing the needs that
033we have um and then we begin to design and develop what that might look like and then uh either pilot or Implement uh that work um and and then ongoing review happens right so we're kind of at the uh on the design and develop and and we've got enough development to come and share with you kind of the exciting work right so that's the the step between the steps I suppose uh on to the um exciting courses that we have here first is French 2 um the as you recall uh Dr chisman and I here just about a year ago to share with you uh the great work that our French one team is doing um the French 2 course uh has actually some of the same members and and has really built on the
034on the work that the French two the French one team is doing uh building on the themes the grammar and the vocabulary uh the units um are listed there and really kind of fall under two big themes one is contemporary life and the other is global challenges there's uh there's each of these is a unit that kind of relates to those two themes uh those five units will kind of fall through throughout the school year um through the year uh those two themes are I highlight because they're also uh things that are highlighted in our AP French uh curriculum so this uh really does provide that valuable vertical alignment between classes that allow students that that uh choose to advance to that level already to kind of be learning along those themes uh throughout the
035course students will learn about different aspects of the French World uh including various regions of France and other French speaking countries like Haiti uh they'll build their French vocabulary learn grammar structures like reflexive verbs and prepositions with the infinitive uh the team is proposing a uh a resource to support their work um it is the second in the series uh from that we're using in French one they are very excited about the resource that they have and want to continue kind of partnering with this vendor uh to uh to work with our French uh two students they found it re particularly valuable in getting at all the modalities of language learning of Reading Writing speaking and listening um and some great resources both in the instructional uh materials and then in the assessment materials as
036well um as listed here the the resource would be for both the physical textbook and a six-year digital license um that package will be about $86,000 for the um for the term of that agreement um the next few slides are related to advanced placement courses uh the first of these is the advanced placement biology uh for each of these the slides you'll see uh posted up what uh the College Board calls the course and exam description so the the course exam description or ceds um are really the the the blueprint that college board gives us what I put up there is the the names of the units themselves uh straight out of that a little cut and paste uh for you to kind of to see those but obviously there's a whole lot more that
037goes into each of these class class and spend a little time going into those this evening um in addition to the units of study that you see here in front of you um the course explores uh this uh Advanced place and biology course explores science practices related to concept explanation visual representation questioning and methods uh representing and describing data statistical tests and data analysis and argumentation um some really big things that Crosscut across all different sciences and even into other areas of academics uh the course also looks at the following big ideas that are uh in each of these are in almost every unit uh Evolution energetics information stores and transmission and systems interaction uh the team is very excited um to kind of move on to uh with a new resource to support this
038work um and we're proposing the biology for the AP course uh written by Morris it's published by BFW um uh this textbook um the each of these you'll hear that looking at textbooks and the sixthe digital it's sort of a standard uh contract to to partner with these um and th that would be in the a little bit more than $85,000 for that uh for that agreement the next uh is another uh AP science course uh this is an environmental science um follows the same process in terms of development we really align these with the scope and sequence uh to the AP course and exam descriptions um we spend a lot of time with the teachers not only looking at uh resources to support that work but really sharing and coming together and sharing instructional
039practices to the teachers do a great job and sometimes RP classes those those professional learning teams are pretty small right there's it's sometimes one sometimes two teachers and to be able to kind of hear what's going on in other schools and cool labs and and great instructional activities this is a great time for them to get together and share those things um with that they also look at resources to support that work um this class uh has these units here uh has some of the very same um science practices that we talked about in AP biology like concept explanation visual representation um data analysis but also looks at things like uh scientific experiments mathematical routines and Environmental Solutions bless you um the course follows uh big ideas of cutacross units uh including energy energy transfer
040interaction between Earth systems uh interactions between different species in the environment and sustainability this uh AP environmental class uh I get particularly excited about this is one of our AP classes I I talk to you about this every year or so that we really look for those opportunities to to talk about AP classes that uh are more accessible than others it's not easy uh by any means but unlike a uh an AP Calculus class or an AP Physics class doesn't require as much background knowledge to access it requires an interest and a work ethic um and uh so this becomes for many students uh if if they only take one or two AP classes with us there's a pretty good chance this is one of them uh so really looked at resources that would support
041that uh knowing that as part of our reality as well so with that uh the team is recommending and U bringing to you a book called environmental science for the AP course uh written by freedland who is uh a really well renowned author in this space uh published by BFW this is a little more expensive because this is a class of more kids take right we just need more more materials um so uh cost for textbooks and six year digital is a little more than $104,000 um the third of our advanced placement classes are uh advanced placement US history class uh really runs through the same process really were was excited to work with the the AP US History team and they've done a really good job uh in that space of sharing some great
042instructional practices is really talking about how to make this a class that appeals to a whole lot of Learners um and because this is a class that also meets a graduation requirement for US History um and really looking at how do we uh construct both the resources that are available through college board and something that we may be able to bring in to make this a class that um kids can take and and then take with them um as they move on to the their next uh stage in life um this this class lays out uh their units in in time periods which is uh not super informative um but wanted to share with you as I did with the other classes some of the the uh kind of background that goes along with that
043um that the um really looks at the the all of history through three frames one is historical thinking skills uh one is reasoning processes and the other is themes um the historical thinking skills the College Board emphasizes our our uh development and processes sourcing sourcing and situation claims and evidence in in the sourcing Con contextualization making connections and argumentation um um the the you know one of the things that I'm very excited about is a lot of those themes are the same kind of social studies thinking themes that we brought to you in other social studies classes that we talk about right kind of claim evidence of reasoning context Making Connections um are are things that kind of run through our classes and and that they're also kind of validated by outside sources gets very
044exciting to me uh uh reasoning for the reasoning process talk about comparison causation and continuity and change um and there's also themes that kind of go across this and and really really looks at these themes over time so these themes sort of emerge in different units over time and we really highlight things like uh American and National identity uh work exchange and Technology uh geography and the environment migration and settlement politics and Power America in the world uh American Regional culture and social structure so really looking at all of those themes over time now each of those tees may not be evident in each unit but it'll the all of them repeat several times throughout the throughout the course um uh the team came together to really look at a resource that would support uh
045students again looking at how do we support all Learners to to be in the space um and make this a class that that would uh be inviting to students particularly since it's a graduation requirement and came to uh recommending uh a book called fabric of a Nation by Stacy Ellington um and the cost for that textbook and a six-year digital licensing that goes along with that is about $108,000 um moving out of the AP space um to wanted to provide the board updates on two um Social Studies classes that you may recall uh that you approved uh very early fall this year um and wanted to give you an update on the work that's happening with those um and we have some resource conversation that is attached to that as well the two classes are
046criminal law and the history of the world through media uh each of these courses are one semester courses um they are available to students in grades 10 11 and 12 um and were really developed um uh so that they would be the same at each school and grounded in in these things here right the cultural responsive instruction practice as we talked about earlier Illinois state standards for Learning and and a real focus in both of those classes on the media literacy standards uh clearly more in that history of the world through media class uh but there's a piece of that in each one and what I like about uh both of these classes also is we really in the sequence of our learning um we our graduation requirements and social studies are uh the the
047geogra uh a geography class freshman year whether it be human geography AP human and then uh US history class whether that be uh a regular US history uh American society or AP US History and then a government class to to follow that up and some of our students leave our freshman social studies class not quite ready to take on US history so really wrote these classes with that in mind to really look at what are those social science skills that students need to bridge that Gap but also those student and executive functioning skills that would benefit them as well so in both of these classes uh you'll see we'll see pieces of that being written in um now those are also good for all kids right so um but just a particular Focus because we
048know that there's a group of kids that for whom that's a that's a real need I wanted to put that in there um this uh this criminal law class um well I had a chance to talk about this last week was uh we're really excited about it um when it comes to new classes we talk about two things we we talk about we did surveys with students and staff to say what do you what do you want to learn about right what what's important to you what are you interested in um and then we also took the other data point we looked at was um was student uh um student survey data from school links talks about what are your career interests and what do you want to do when you when you leave us
049what are you what are you plan on studying what do you plan on doing for a career and and um criminal justice and and working in the legal system um was a is a big one for us and it's a place where uh we have some coursework but but uh probably need a little bit more um so the um we're really excited to kind of build out that pathway for kids and and and that's something that's in Pro process uh we do have a business law class that that's been on the books for quite a while um we're uh really excited to see how those two classes come together right there's a little bit of work to be done to see how those are uh those can be companions to each other so that they
050can we got want to build this up so that we could take uh a student can choose to take one class or the other um and some may choose to take both so we're kind of working through the the details of that over the next uh next few months to kind of smooth out that process and that's going to a lot of teacher involvement in that conversation and just making sure that all gets built up so that could be a great experience for kids um and build a really uh uh robust pathway for students to understand uh the criminal uh both the legal and the criminal justice system the units of that class are listed here crime scene investigation criminal trial uh criminal justice and prisons uh the last unit will be a little bit
051more of an open inquiry for for kids to take a a topic of that came up in those first three units that's really of interest and do some practice some of those research skills um and some of those presentation skills and a topic that's really of their choosing so um so really excited to to bring that class on I wanted to provide the board some updates uh on that uh what we came to you in the in the fall about uh this class uh the in uh is asking for resource to support that work uh obviously a lot of a lot of vocabulary that goes along with that a lot of you know we want to make sure that those kids have uh something at at their fingertips so the the book is called introduction
052of Criminal Justice by Cole Smith and dang uh that's published by S Gage and similarly looking at both physical books and digital licenses for that uh for that class um the final course I have for you this evening is called history of the world through media um again as we talked about before really looking at this being a bridge class particularly in the history space to help kids become US History ready right so uh so super excited about this um really looking at content skills like cause and effect contextualization right some of the things you hear at all levels um and then uh executive functioning student skills like annotation supporting claims with evidence and reasoning those kinds of things really build those skills uh for students to become us hisry ready and then we also
053know this is a great elective and it could be a high interest thing that students just take because they like it right there maybe some kids that have already taken us history I just want more and I want to do that um at at a at a level that maybe not be an AP level and I want just I I want to do it because I like it uh this unit has uh three three units uh one is uh historical accuracy um kind of how stories are told makes me think of Hamilton right who tells the stories um and then what happens when cultures Collide and does change always mean progress uh so really looking at this uh not you know I think there's a it's easy to kind of think of this as a
054as a film course but they're very much kind of not going that way Direction with this there'll certainly be some probably more kind of portions of uh film media but uh really looking at very multimedia presentation of this podcasts and uh and film and TV and you know infographics and all of all of those pieces and how do they kind of go one off the other so very excited to get the team and and we just think that's a great another great student skill we talk about media literacy really be able to kind of parse that apart and starting with that first piece of historial historical accuracy looking at sources for validity and and really looking for point of view and those kinds of pieces so we're we're very excited about that class um so
055um you know I appreciate the time this evening um the high school teams are very proud of this work and look forward to these courses uh serving a variety of students our next steps um uh between now and the next regular scheduled board meeting um is still allow some time for the courses to be reviewed um it's our Our intention to bring these um for approval on April 7th um we'll also have the resources discussed here tonight um there it's a big stack back tonight so I didn't bring them all with me they're uh they're they're in my office but um but um but they'll be here for review for anyone who'd like to come take a look at them uh between now now and then it would be also Our intention to bring those
056to the April 7th meeting for approval as well um the timeline on this um is uh really so we can get that approval in April as the intention so that we can start and do some professional learning before the school year lets out uh particularly when it comes to that digital platform uh anyone who's kind of worked in a new uh a new digital space knows that sometimes needs a lot of onboarding right and certainly not something we want to be doing on April 14th the day before school or August 14th the day before school starts right so want to have some time for teachers to be able to get kind of dig into that U before that goes along and then you know schedule any collaboration that needs to happen to kind of Polish
057up uh some things like the law class um and some other things that we have going U between now and the beginning of school so with that um I appreciate your time this evening if you have questions I would uh love to to answer them okay Miss vasic all right I'll start by saying thank you I got a good kick out of slide six the fact that the French textbook is called okay okay so I'm assuming that because it's being recommended the material is more than okay they're better than okay yeah yeah and that they really enjoy it um I'm glad to hear that I did appreciate your brief explanation about why um some course updates cost more than others but both for as a reminder for board members but for community members too because
058there's a significant difference I think between some of those course updates for sure um I'm really particularly excited about that um the Curiosity building piece in the criminal law course where students are able to kind of explore their own research that's a skill that they'll use um in anything they do After High School whether or not it's a formal research study being exposed to that research and given being given a chance to practice I think is really Val so I'm very excited to hear that um and then finally um I wanted to know if it's possible to audit the history of the media this history history of the world through media class because are you asking for a friend I would like to take it yeah I'm asking for a friend exactly yeah it sounds
059great I'm I think having these these classes available for our students is great so thank you thank you Miss gun I will just Echo sub of what board member fosk said where it is it's very exciting to see the um the the different courses the different thought processes really and I love that it is a mix of AP and nonap and as you said that it is AP that's a little more every student friendly as we're trying to you know encourage students to take AP courses that they feel comfortable with obviously and feel like they can excel in so I really do appreciate that um I get I was just looking and I also actually wanted to very much say I appreciate the fact that we are now having across every single high school consistent
060um academics so um I just had one question and it was more just a clarifying thing the criminal law um and the history I know the class that board member fic wants to take to the history of the world through media have they started now or are they starting in the fall are they have already started after we them uh so that class was board approved in the fall right um so students began enrolling in uh January okay uh we'll start teaching it next year okay perfect all right excellent thank you no honestly thank you for this it's all really exciting and if auditing is a thing I think I might be joining board member Fric there as well Mr Rising um just one question I mean I think I know the answer already but
061I need to ask it um regarding the curricul materials for the three AP courses um we are doing better than we ever have with AP testing for our students across the district uh so of course I take pause when we change the curriculum in three AP courses uh I'm assuming that the curriculum that we chose for each of these AP courses is college board recommended it's one of their preferred curricul materials that they recommend that aligns to the standards for those AP courses could you just confirm that for me because I just want to ensure that yeah so uh yes and so the um the curriculum is uh revised by the college board right so they they lay out the standards and the units that you saw from the ceds there right so we uh
062we ensure that our courses aligned to to that right um and then we choose resources that do that uh what you may see um is uh that each of those groups who worked independently of each other all chose a book from the same vendor that vendor really specializes in AP and what they would probably tell you uh each of them is one of the um not the only but one of the things that they really like about it is that it's written to the AP class and it's I don't have to kind of sift and sort and kind of kind of move from one thing to the other there are other great things about it some the digital platform is good uh some of the other things are good but it's like really tight to
063the AP class and uh and particularly in uh in some areas more than others it's it's accessible because it is it's not a college textbook it's an AP textbook great um so that's uh probably a little more answer you're looking for but yeah no no I appreciate the the extra at the end so I I just wanted to ensure that that's all I have thanks than you m Jane thank you Mr pel thank you um so I I noticed in all of the three AP courses you me you mentioned that the team shared high quality instructional practices between teachers and schools and I know if I were to look at the textbooks I might get a better idea about this but could you just tell us a little bit about what made these particular textbooks
064stand out like are there any unique Tech features that are being offered in these digital textbooks that we haven't seen before just for the parents and for us to know um what are some of the highlights of these textbooks I yes yeah great question so uh each of them are different in their way right so uh so the um the uh one of the things that they all have in common is what I shared with Mr ryzen's question is they're all written really closely to the uh cour exam description so that uh that like the units follow one another the when I look for um topic 1.4 in the in the digital resource it's because it's topic 1.4 in the course exam description so there's a lot of alignment there that's really nice right that's
065not enough I mean that's that's a great start it's it's a it's a nice to have right um but what we found in each of those and and the teams would uh report out is that uh we look at uh at at the very top we look at three things right we look at uh one what do the teachers think is best for them and for kids right the second is the digital integration that that we're not going to spend that that it works and we're not going to spend class time uh manag having teachers manage that right and the third is finance right is to make sure that it's a competitive bid um and it comes in at or lower than other vendors you know do so so that's the Top Line right and
066then when we look at uh it typically we we make a rubric for each of these and we sit with the team and say really what is it that we're looking for in this because they do have other things you talk about an environmental science class they already have some Labs that they've been doing over time they align right so maybe that their priori is in getting new Labs right but it's really getting I want something that has a a readability that really matches what my kids are particularly for an accessible advanced placement class right so uh the US history class really wanted something that was had both uh good visuals um and um and a a reading level that that could help them they they felt like that team for instance felt very confident
067in the resources they had and the resources that they can get through college board AP classroom but needed some things and primary resource that had a couple things one is um uh primary source documents right so like real U American history documents that were embedded inside of that um two had some assessment things that they could uh either adapt or adopt um for the to kind of writing assessments for classroom uh and then the third was grade visuals um in addition to obviously being historically accurate and you know things that kind of go along with that yeah thank you for that those examples uh and for the usap US History course if approved would that be integrated in the summer or next fall so we don't teach the Apu class over the summer uh so
068it would be uh for all of these would be for the fall of 25 26 and for the electives is that something being offered each semester in all of our high schools so um maybe maybe not yes um so the the way that we register students don't choose which semester they take it because there's obviously a lot of logistics into kind of creating a master schedule um so uh typically yes sometimes if there's like if there's only two sections we may put them both first semester I mean like there's a little there's uh kind of yes with an EST risk you know so we don't restrict it to just one semester um by on demand policy but yeah sometimes demand just and just Logistics kind of make that happen thank you so much Miss dumming
069thank you Mr prel slide four and I appreciate the opportunity to share the priorities that go into any time that we are looking at our curriculum decisions um very much appreciate that and and hope that um the community knows how everything drives down from the um strategic plan which was so critical can you share for me a little bit I may have chosen the hold on for me just a second there was um can you share a little bit of how um cultur responsive um instruction is embedded throughout ju just an idea of what that looks like um throughout our courses and I know it would be different for for each but can you just give an example yeah so so there's uh some great examples so I'm going to talk about one that probably
070is counter to it and and it was it's our French class right so it was really important and and I I some of it is I think that you know we put put on we literally take that like a two-page culture responsive piece and we put it on the table and it's part of our conversation and it's here right so um so and one of the things that helps us to do it just centers Us in the work we have that and the port for graduat is kind of always sitting there right um and and what one of the things that came out a great example of this is that um one of the things that they really like about this Resource as opposed to others is it represents French speaking cultures uh that are
071not in France um so uh so I think that's just one of those examples of that was really important to them that they had that right that the um the AP environmental science one has some uh scientists in like in each unit and the scientists don't all look alike right so I think there's some of those pieces right so it's it's hard to say hey let's make sure this thing becomes more culturally responsive right what you want to do is just uh is integrated into the capital W work right um so by having it kind of at the center of the table um that's how we're able to do those things and then those opportunities come up and say no this is important and that becomes a differentiator or hey as we're doing that lesson
072let's make sure that we have that this is where we can really talk about context point of view and say this is this is a place where we can in the US history class make sure that we have multiple perspectives represented those kinds of things I love those those examples because it speaks to truly embedding and that it's not there's just such a collaboration of things that contribute to the success of the of the course in the classroom and and those examples I I really appreciate um thank you so much for sharing a little bit about criminal law versus VA law uh I did want to know uh both courses though and you kind of in intimated this both courses will continue in the opportunity um a student might potentially take both courses as um
073as a social studies I know one land lands right now on the business side correct yep you you got you did it exactly right so uh one is uh social studies class the criminal law class really kind of talks about the criminal justice system has a social studies point of view right um and then the business law class which we've had for a while uh really talks about torts and contracts and those pieces really comes at it from a business point of view now we don't have an intro to law class that is a prerequisite for those so so each of those can could be a class that a student may take um independent of the other okay so there'll be some overlap between the two because we got to make sure the kid knows
074what a law is and what a what a judge is you know some of the the basics right so um but truth is that that happens in a lot of not a lot but it happens in lots of places right that that the first couple weeks of Algebra 2 is like let's make sure you remember algebra one right and so we have you know that overlap is not completely new and and to hear those things from a new point of view um can only be benefit students who have a real interest and if you're taking both you probably have a real interest right so uh it'll be beneficial we got we got a little bit of work to do we got to polish up the details of that um so uh but we gotta we
075we needed to kind of take a big step forward before we even knew what the problem was to solve and but we're here and we'll get it all kind of figured out so both and it sounds like both departments are going to be working together in order that's great because B law and um criminal law are so vastly different so as our two attorneys on the board could share uh last question is I wanted to understand a little bit um on the criminal law the criminal justice and prisons can you share a little bit about what that that unit looks like for me please yeah so uh really looking at um the prison system and recidivism and uh and some of the pieces that go along with what happens in the criminal justice after lit
076Islands right and and uh what's the talk about plea bargaining and and um and the whole the whole prison system and I think there's a one of the themes the things the team is excited about is that there's a lot of um kind of Human Rights conversations that kind of come along with that right and and those pieces so uh so the the team's uh excited to kind of make that part of the study is looking at not just the the stuff you see on TV right and and the and the trials and the and the and the lawyers and the deals right but also these are real people that that real consequences and and and what does that look like at that end to and and Truth is that uh there's also a that
077space of Criminal Justice is a is a big employer right so making students aware of that part of it too to say you know if you're interested in this as a career which a lot of kids are telling us that there is there's this other portion of it that probably isn't as well known thank you thank you Mr kupus slide 11 so overall I support the course revisions I love the direction um normally I'd ask you to increase the speed of this but you already go way too fast um looking at this unit 11 you kind of go to your audience so you've listed here like units well those are just dates those aren't really informative to us but then you told us about all the richness that goes into those dates and you know
078the multivariable dynamic stuff so that was very appreciative uh I I think one of the benefits one of the challenges I think that the district should accept is on our communication through the course catalog and how um this gets communicated out to the parents and the students looking at the current course catalog for AP US History it says this course is American history in American history is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal with critical critically with the issues and materials in this first year college level American history course it goes on to say this course satisfies the American history graduation requirement and students who successfully completed this should be able to pass the AP test that doesn't really tell me much about these units about the the
079dynamic stuff that you were talking about um you know for for talking about teaching to the standards are we talking about teaching to the test um what what is in there and it's not telling me um you know we're going to use this book or here's a link to the the standards um you know here's a l to link to the unit so I think we've we have the information I don't think it'd be a big jump to include that information and I always try to site on the um be on the side of let's communicate more I think this isn't a big ask of administration that's going to be oh I gotta um spend a lot of time doing this but it the description is so brief if you were to tell me what
080am I going to learn if I take this class I'm not entirely sure um what it is so I'd like to see our court as you go through and um review these things I would like uh Administration to take a critical look at our course catalog thank you well thank you very much um lots of interesting changes and updates it's really important that we continue to always look and refresh our curriculum and our um materials that are supporting our courses so thank you for keeping an eye on that and continue to do that and it sounds like some very cool new classes too so thank you excited thank you all right our last item is legislative advocacy and Board of Education update and we had Miss gent at the National Conference this week yes thank
081you I I want to say thank you first for the ability to go to cosba um and for anyone still watching U it that is the Consortium of yes State School Board Association ations so cosba is such a unique conference because it is State School boards presenting a lot of the time or superintendent and I know every year there are more and more states that join cosba so um the presentations I found very interesting especially ones that were from totally different areas like Wyoming where there are things probably we would never necessarily put into effect but um two of my biggest takeaways I will say from it um was in a family engagement presentation I did um they really showed the positive difference that family engagement makes on a student's achievement um along with you
082know different ideas on how to do it I I'm I'm not going to you know go into Super detail with that but just something to always I feel like keep in mind and take with us is the importance of that too as we talk about about you know the amazing staff we have um obviously amazing Administration and everything just more ways to engage families I think that's something every school board could really improve on um and then AI I I loved the AI presentation that I went to and she really did make a wonderful point of it is happening it has been happening you really do have to just get on board or get left behind because every day almost there are advances and the one thing from her presentation I thought was very interesting
083was the idea that 65% of kindergarteners currently kindergarteners uh the jobs they will be getting as adults are not even around yet so you know yeah I that kind of blew my mind a little bit of where we don't even know what a lot of our children will be doing as adults so it is it's a fascinating idea and um I ironically was using AI to help transcribe all my presentations so she convinced me I'm I'm on board but um no and I wanted to just thank everyone again and give you guys just the update of the new executive director um who will be taking over on July 1 it is Dr Kathy McFarland and she is from the Ohio State Board of Education and um she's taking over for anyone that was not sure
084from Dr Bertrand from Illinois and he will be retiring June 30th she seems wonderful she's very enthusiastic and she is very ready to keep kind of help leading all the different state school boards local school boards through these everchanging times well thank you very much for spending the time going to the conference it's always very beneficial to hear what all the other states are doing doing and hear the discussions there and um we appreciate that you went and thank you yeah I will share my cop all of you did um anyone else have any other items for this topic okay all right then I need a motion and a second to recess to Executive session so I'll make a you got it I got a I'll make a motion uh to recess into executive session
085for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as an independent contractor in a park recreational educational setting or specific volunteer of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing that testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal council for the public body to determine it however a meeting to consider the increase in compensation of a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the local W government wage increased transparency act may not be closed and entered into the open uh public and posted uh held accordance with that act litigation when an uh action against affecting or
086on behalf of particular public body has been F been filed and pending uh before a court administrative tribunal or when the public body finds an action as prob imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting is there a second any discussion okay Michelle will you please call it Ro Mr Rising yes Miss Demi hi Mr kurubas yes Miss gin yes Miss Donahue yes Miss Jane yes and Miss F yes the motion is approved we recess to Executive session work