001Okay. Uh, good evening everyone. It's six o'clock, so I'm like to call to order this business meeting of Urbana School District 116. Roll call, please. Member Cheryl. Yes. Member Hixon. Yes. Member Maribou here. Member Jones. Member Langorf here. Vice President Baxley here. President Palowski here. Uh we have a quorum. Uh are there any additions, corrections, or modifications to tonight's agenda? No. Hearing none. Uh there will be an executive session tonight after the current meeting uh for the purpose of litigation against the district. There will be no action taken by the board after the executive session completes. Uh it is now time for citizen statements. If anybody here present wishes to make a statement before the board, please fill out a golden rod sheet in the back of the room. hand it to recording uh recording
002secretary Lori Johnson. We haven't received any yet going once, going twice. Uh no citizen statements this evening. Uh is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda as published? So move. Is there a second? Move to seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Uh we do have an action item tonight which is the appointment of our student ambassadors. Uh after uh we take a motion to approve uh Mia Schroeder, Candre Towns, and an alternate for Sophia uh sorry, Shico Freilley uh to fill the role of student ambassador. Is there a motion for the floor? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Um do we need to do roll call for this? I think uh we probably should. Yeah, let's just do a roll call vote, please. [Music] Member Hixon. Yes. Member Maribou, yes.
003Member Langodorf, yes. Vice President Baxley, yes. President Palowski, yes. Member Cheryl, yes. Motion passes. Thank you very much for your service, guys. Now, it's time to be sworn in. So, there's a little form in front of you that uh I'll stand and I'll read parts of it to you and you just repeat after me. You press the green button. You press the green. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first thing you got to learn is is turning these mics on. There you go. Yeah, they got be about six inches from your face for people to hear you uh online. Um I say your name. Sophia. I Kandre Jones. I Mia Schroeder. Do solemnly swear. I Sophia. Okay. Do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of student ambassador that
004I will faithfully discharge the duties of student ambassador that I will faithfully discharge the duties of student ambassador that I will faithfully discharge the duties of student ambassador to the board of education of Urbana School District 116 to the board of education of Urbana School District 116 to the board of education of Urbana School District 116 to the board of education of Urbana School District 116 in accordance with the policies of the board of education. in accordance of the with the policies of Board of Education in accordance with policies of the board of education in accordance with the policies of the board of education. I further swear I further swear that I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by myself and board members and others who seek a hearing before the board
005and board members and others who seek a hearing before before the board and board members and others who seek a hearing before the board and board members and others who seek a hearing before the board. Congratulations. Thank you for serving. [Applause] Next up is the student ambassador report. I think control. Okay. Um Okay. Okay. So, um this is our report for um this meeting. Um so, we have gathered together um to form our mission um as your new ambassadors for this year. Um and some of the plans that we have um started this year. Um starting off with our mission statement. Um, as your student ambassadors, our mission is to represent UHS with integrity, supporting student engagement in academic curriculum, and to advocate on the behalf of all students to create a positive um and
006inclusive learning environment. Our role actively listens to the concerns and recommendations of fellow students and creates solutions to enhance growth in academics. We are ensuring that each student has equal and easy access to resources around the building. We shoot to value leadership, positive interactions, and involvement to build a strong and more unified school environment. These are introductions. I'm Mia Schroeder. I'm a senior at Urbana High School. Um, I love to read and hang out with my friends and play with my dog. Um, I plan to major in criminal psychology in college. Um, and within Aana High School, I'm involved in basketball. Last year, I was the president of the peer tutoring program. Um, I helped co-found science Olympiad. Um, I was also the president of civic engagement club. I'm involved in Habitat for Humanity. And
007I co-founded Ladies and Lab Coats. Um, one of some of my goals as student ambassador are to increase the literacy rates in graduates and increase the diversity in AP or accelerated classes and to help effectively bring student concerns to the board. My name is Sophia Oh, sorry. Okay. My name is Sophia Sho Freley. I'm a junior at Arbana High School. I'm on the volleyball team and the past years and this year as well, I'll be in Habitat Humanity and last year at Key Club. This year I'm in National Honor Society and I'm also a part of student council. My goal as a student ambassador is to invest in Urban Athletics and trying to get more students involved and having coaches get more like training on like coaching. And then I also want to try and
008get ACT class slash like SAT prep courses before after school for students. And then I overall just want like to advocate for as many students as possible. Um um I am Kandre Towns. I am involved in the student equity um council. I am in student council, band council, marching band, and jazz band. My goals this year as a student ambassador is to create an environment where every student feels safe, supported, and treated fairly. Um I want to let students know that their voices are heard, and I want to advocate improvements for them. Um my another big thing that I have is I want to make sure that all students have equal access to resources around the building to better help themselves and their education plans in motion. Okay. So um some of the plans that
009we have made so far um is we have a Google form that will be sent out this Friday um to every student in the building um that is a student concerns and recommendations form. Students will fill out that form accordingly um in which it gives the student ambassador's points of application and that gives us some things um that we could work on. Um in the email it has a list of questions um that students again should should fill out accordingly and that will help us. Um and that'll be attached in a email that will that will be sent this Friday. Um on the next slide, this is some this is just a slight sample preview u of the form that was made. Um and keep in mind that that this form is anonymous. We do
010understand that as ambassadors, some students may feel like they aren't able to speak up to adults or or aren't aren't able to speak up to staff in the building and they are afraid that something may come back to them and so for that this form has been made anonymous. Um it will not it will be anonymous in the sense that no names will be given but students are only allowed to answer the form via their via their student email. So, it has their first and last name listed on it in the case that something happens that to where it it could endanger themselves or endanger someone else, we know who sent the form. Um, and all of that will be sent this Friday. Um, and as far as our um we will be making flyers
011for students who may not read their emails daily. Um, and we will try to get those done by Monday and get those approved by Mr. Waller um and get those posted around the main points in the building and try to get as much student input as we can so that we know what we need to advocate for and we will share those um we will share those results at a later time. Thank you. That's great. Really looking forward to seeing the the survey data. That's awesome. Um the board reports. Anybody have a board report this evening? Okay, let's start with that. How did your first day go? It was good. I already heard from Sophia, so yeah, it was good. Okay. It's now time for board reports. Does anybody wish to have a board report
012this evening? There's a couple things I want to, I guess, bring up. Uh, one is is is we talked last time about the naming committee and it's been a busy couple weeks getting the getting the school year started. So, we haven't gotten the committee membership all done yet, but I expect that in a meeting in September, we'll have a committee put together and and uh ready for for board approval. Um, since it's a board committee, those meetings are going to have to be noticed just like any other board committee. Um, so so so they'll be they'll have to meet uh public meetings. Another thing I guess I want to clarify is I think there was some confusion. Can I ask a question? Sure. Have our other naming committees been open? I don't believe they they
013have not but but we had made mistakes for a long time with regards to having open meetings for just asking because people have asked about that other naming committee. They had not but it really wasn't until because we haven't had naming committee in a very long time and it was we named Dr. Williams school and those were not open. Yeah, those were not open meetings and that was a mistake. Okay. I'm just Yeah. asking because it's been asked of me. So yeah. No, it it's a board committee, so I think we have to do it that way. Um, it changes people who want to participate. Yeah, and I get that significant and I get that just passing the questions on that I'm getting from people. Yeah, I I understand that, but I it's it's uh
014state law. So, um, and then as uh want to make a clarification, I I had brought up Janice Mitchell. Well, I guess when we we're talking in general about naming committees, I think people conflated that statement with regards to a possible uh name for the sixth grade center. And that wasn't my intent at all. I was just saying that the reason naming committees are formed are typically one of two reasons. One is either we have a new thing that that we need to name or we wish to honor somebody. And I think I just brought her name up because I think she's somebody we should honor in an appropriate fashion at some point in time. That that's it. So yeah, sure. Um uh yeah, I understood that you said that and you meant that Paul.
015So I I there was confusion in the public though, so I wanted to clarify that. Um regarding the committee, is it the board or the naming committee that will set the parameters on what the um not the rules or what what criteria you would use? The the board would would charge the committee with with a with a purpose. Okay. Should we be able to do that before the committee meets so that the committee won't work outside that criteria? Yeah, typically you would do that when the committee is impanled and that that and that would happen with a formal vote of the board. So, we would say these people are on the committee. This is their this is their charge. Okay? Because I I looked for some clarification. And I looked up some um other schools
016in Illinois that have had naming committees and what of what criteria there were and I didn't find much except for in Chicago that was something that might pertain to us might not because we're a much smaller community. I don't think we do things the way Chicago does. So we'll bring that up at a later time. The other question that I had was last week we also got an email from the media wanting to one of us to uh answer questions and my response to them was that Paul you are the spokesman for and I know that that day you didn't have time. So in that event with with with television stations they often want to you within the next three hours of receiving the email and I was absolutely slammed to work. Absolutely and I
017understand that. So, I mean, is there any other direction that as a board that we should go in the in the event that they they call back a second time and say, "Well, we haven't been able to reach uh Paul." I mean, generally, it would probably fall to Ben, then you you'll go down the officers who would wish to to do it if I'm unable to. Okay. Thank you. That's what I want to know. Thank you. I did I hear you're going to be on the radio tomorrow. Is that about the naming committee? No, that's that was that was that was scheduled asking about No, that was scheduled a while ago. He I this is the second time I've done it. It's it's basically Champagne did it a week ago. It's basically welcome. It's it's
018a new school year. Let's bring in the school board president and have a chat. That's what I forgot this. That's WDWS. It's it's it's Penny for your thoughts. Okay. Anybody else? Go ahead. talking about the media reminded me I wanted to give a shout out to the news gazette because they had a really nice very sweet article about the UHS football team and I just like the way they did it and I hope that everybody supports them this year. That's awesome. Thank you. Uh one last call. Uh moving on to our consent agenda. We have a set of action items for the consent agenda. Starting off with our minutes uh for the June 17th business meeting, the July 1st uh special meeting, the August 5th study session. Uh 10.2 are June and July bills and
019checks at fund bills for uh $3.4 million. Operation mains fund bills for $715,000. Bond and interest fund for uh a little over $1 million. Transportation fund bills for uh $476,000. working cash bonds. Sorry, my lines are uh working cash bonds for 76 million. Uh school facility occupy tax for $485,000. TOR for $216,000. Uh life safety levy for uh $9,000, payroll for $6.6 $6 million and Urbana Adult Education for $174,000. Um the in our packet was a long list of personal items as typical for the start of the year including um some retirement announcements uh for this year and following years and uh administrative personnel item. Is does any wish to does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? If not, the chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent
020agenda. So moved. Any any further comments, questions, or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Maru, yes. Member Langodorf, yes. Vice President Baxley, yes. President Palowski, yes. Member Cheryl, yes. Member Hixon, yes. Motion passes. Uh, we also have an individual action item uh for gifts. Um, Smith Burger Company donated the UHS Winter Guard supported the UHS Winter Guard by sponsoring an entry $100 to a regional competition. Adara Salon Champagne also supported a sponsorship $200 to enter two regional competitions for the UHS Winter Guard. Uh, CU Church donated 50 backpacks with school supplies for students in the abandoned school district number 116. Is there a motion to uh receive this gift and uh send out appropriate thank yous? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any further comments, questions or discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed?
021Um uh there is a executive meeting right after this. We close this meeting with no action followed by the board. Uh that's it for scheduled uh special meetings. Uh superintendence report. So, we had a wonderful uh first day of school. This is uh principal of our early childhood uh program. Is is that Katie? Is Katie Madigan right? I think so. Erica, thank you. Erica. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Erica at Yankee Ridge. Um and uh we have some students walking in. So it was a great first day. So our um high school students all started today. So yesterday we just had freshmen um and all the kindergarteners come tomorrow. So be thinking about us when they're all in there together. Um our back to school event on Friday was a um very successful. I know we
022were a little worried about the heat and u how warm it was, but people still showed up. Um we had we had 30 community partners who signed up, but I don't think we had that many show up because of the heat, but we still had a large number of um our community partners available to share resources with families. Um Quest provided the food. Uh we had um a refreshing uh cone of ice for everyone. And then we transitioned to um the football field and uh we introduced the fall sports and each of the teams um said a little bit about their season and then invited um the community out to support them this fall during their game. So, thank you to all of our partners. Um I sent out an email and everyone responded and
023um I think it was a a really well- attended event and we want to make it a yearly um something that we do every year. our young people um at the high school and middle school. We had a couple middle school teams out there as well. Um really get kicking off the year. It was just a lot of excitement. So, thank you. I know we had a couple board members in attendance. So, I think Sherry and Lindsay. So, um thank you guys for coming out in the heat, but it was a great great great event. Sixth grade center ribbon cutting. So, um this is just a picture of I know we had a very well attended event on our Friday night ribbon cutting uh which mostly consisted of students and um their parents and their
024families um as well as some of our clubs and teams. So again, uh we had some of our contractors, the architects, we had some previous board members. So I think Mr. Dimmit is there and Tori Exom came. Um, so there was a lot of excitement in the building as um people entered. We gave our teachers lots of grace because they'd only been in their classrooms for about two days. So we've we spent most of our time um just kind of figuring out where everything was in the building and um just kind of uh leaving their mark. The students were able to sign a huge banner that will hang up in the gym for the year um for the inaugural uh sixth grade class. And um one of our art teachers, Mr. Clevenger, um had a
025huge activity in the um elective hallway where the students were able to do an art project called Leaving Your Mark um on the sixth grade center community. So, as you can see in the little picture there, there were tons of videos and uh lots of excitement as we had that big long orange ribbon there. Um we called out some students names and oh member Cheryl was there as well and um member Baxley because they also had had students um and Lindsay and Jennifer. Yep. Um and so it was nice to have their students be able to come up with them and we have a whole group of staff members on the other end there too ready to be part of that. So it was a great celebration. Um I should say on Monday night we
026had a community open house. Um, and I think that Sherry attended the community open house. Um, where we expected it to just be community members popping in, but we had a ton of families and students who came on Monday night who weren't available to come on Friday because they were out of town or traveling or whatever. Um, so we were really happy to see so many students come with their um, parents to the community openhouse as well. Um, Urbana football. So, Jennifer just mentioned that I was going to mention that really nice article, but we really want to encourage um people to come out and support our football team. As you know, we have um return to football just here in the last two years. And uh we're trying to grow the program and uh
027we have some really dedicated young men right now who are um participating. And John, I think you've got somebody who just popped in there. Um so, our first home game is August 29th at 7 um St. Teresa High School. Um this is our first Friday night under the lights and we've dedic dedicated it um we're designating it as elementary fun night. And so um at the welcome back event we were passing out uh little uh tickets. Uh if you if an elementary student comes with a family member, they get in free and then we're going to have some fun activities for the students. Um we really want to encourage our um our young people to get excited about Friday night under the lights. the more younger students who come, the more excited they will be
028to be one day be Tigers and um hopefully have their opportunity to either be in the band and be a marching tiger or um be on the team. And so we're really trying to grow that excitement um with our younger students as well. So we've listed the um all of the home games and they all start at 7 or 7:30ish. Um, so come out and join us. And do you guys know which one of those is homecoming? Was it Is it the September 19th one? I'll have to Okay. Yes. So September 19th is homecoming. I We'll have to add that before we share this out with the community and the public. Um, King School was visited by a few of our um, Fighting Alii football players. They dropped off backpacks. That that has become something
029that they've done at King for the last two years. And they shared school supplies. They talked with some of the fifth grade students. So, um they are really excited when the Ali football players anytime we have Fighting Ali people come to our schools. It just brings so much excitement in our youth. So, we're really um we're thankful that they do this every year and um it it brings a lot of joy to the King School community. I think that is it. S. Thank you, Lori. I'll put that on there, too. All right. Um, there was a listing of FOYAS in our published agenda that were processed uh by our FOYA team. Um, I think that's it for tonight. So, uh, we're ready for to close our meeting and and, um, have an exact exact session.
030So, the chair would entertain a motion to after a 10-minute recess to reset the room. uh enter close session for the purpose of litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of a particular district has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the district finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for finding shall be recorded and entered into the closed meeting minutes um with no action taken by the board following the close of the executive session. So moved. So moved and seconded. Uh any further comments or questions or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Langdenorf. Yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palowski. Yes. Member Cheryl, yes. Member Hixon, yes. Member Amaru, yes. All right. Thank you. We will have attendant recess and then
031we'll begin our close session meeting.