001e you all right the hour of 6:30 has arrived you'd like to start this business meeting of our B School District 116 uh roll call please member Jones here member Baxley here member Haka here member Staten member langendorf here vice president exom here president palowski here are there any any additions Corrections or modifications to tonight's agenda hearing none is now time for citizen statements uh if anybody wishes to make a statement for the board please fill out a golden rod sheet which are located on the table over there and hand him to Lori Johnson who is seated right there uh we have a very long list of speakers tonight so we're going to be adhering to the board policy for Five Minutes special accommodations for uh language translations and such things uh first up is
002C CK sorry I'll put my mic Clos closer ready good evening I'm CK Gales I started speaking to you after 20 more than 20 years of minding my own business because I'm so concerned and alarmed about the loss of public trust in the district because of the process issues along with these parents and community members I implore you to start listening to your community and constituents I speak to you as a former board member with the experience of sitting in your chair I spent 12 years on this board 10 years of it as its president long School Board service taught me there will always be people are unhappy with the hard decisions you have to make it also taught me that the vast majority of the community are people of Goodwill who want the best
003thing for our students and teachers when they have facts real facts and are treated with respect through transparent processes reasonable people even ones who disagree with your choices can understand and accept those decisions I speak from experience on hard decisions as I participated in many in including redistricting including initiating and implementing Equity audit recommendations the first Equity audit making significant and painful budget cuts more than once challenging Union negotiations when the district had Financial challenges also in that era our board and Community work together to pass a referendum overwhelmingly by 83% which I take as a sign of public trust in the district at the time you have now repeatedly over the course of 18 months made decisions with virtually no input on information that shifted constantly without listening to reasonable questions for data or
004information that undermines your rationale for decisions in my time bringing to you my concerns in public my comments have been rejected by some board members because I have no children in the schools others parents and community members alike have had their comments rejected because you followed your administration's advice and dismissed their concerns citing an information provided to you by the Administration no public entity and a school district is a public entity can survive or Thrive when it consistently rejects all input from its constituencies and let me assure you that children in the schools are not residents of this city pay significant taxes directly or through their rent to this school district and our voices you should hear not reject you have made and have before you significant decisions that are transforming this school district all
005without a plan in just the time I've been coming to board members to speak to you you have closed an elementary school moved from six to five and now potentially to Four elementary schools abandoned the district's commitment to Neighborhood schools acted to create a new Middle School campus and committed funds that will now not be available again for 10 to 15 years and yet you keep saying you'll do a strategic plan later after all these transformational changes are done deals I don't get this folks none of this should have happened in the absence of a sense of direction and strategy that was openly developed and debated including Community Voices I'm here to add my voice to all of these parents to ask you to stop and Do no harm make no more decisions that will
006move scores if not hundreds of children cost us in teacher Recruitment and Retention and SP and spend money that will not again be available for many many years stop engage in O true open processes run by someone other than central office and listen to your community there is no shame and nothing unethical or inappropriate in board members stepping up and providing stewardship for the district as is your duty to put this all on pause even topics on which the board has already voted are fair game to raise again this is the way democracy Works elected board members May raise issues when new concerns or new information arises that causes them to rethink or question decisions that have been made trust is fragile involve and engage your community in an open process center student learning in
007every decision and talk about how student learning will be improved by the decisions you make please do all you can to rebuild and restore trust so we can all work together to provide the very strongest public education possible in the face of admittedly very challenging circumstances I thank thank you for your service and I implore you to listen to your community thank [Applause] you thank you Tina uh next up is uh David aalon can you hear me there okay so I'm going to read this in Spanish then in English here we go for la [Music] EOS for see now English good afternoon dear members of the education board my name is David aalon I know that some of you have known me for a few years because your children have been my classmates or because
008you have been seeing me with my mother today I'm going to tell you about my experience using the my school bus since I was three years old it has been my faith one loyal transportation to attend the bus I have traveled on many buses the first was the bus 34 then I trouble the bus 46 followed by the bus 47 sometime lab on on bus 2 and I travel on bus 40 and a cion on bus 52 the friendly chat I had with my friends in the morning before entering the school is something that I always and I always find enjoying for us I will not change that for anything I know that many do not have that privilege many have decided that it's better to a better idea to walk to school I tell
009them I never had the option nor did my classmates the young people who are currently in dual language have Mo have almost always had to get on barded on bus to make it our way to school or back to our homes we always get up get get get picked up earlier because we have to get ready to get on the bus stop on time because we know that if the bus leases we will never we will not able to attend the school on more than one location I had to miss the bus when that happens my mom has to take me to school we have been throw this all out all over the years we have spefic we had a specific neighbor who had called the police on us for waiting the bus outside side
010on her house I know that your neighbors down I know your neighborhoods that shouldn't happen because no neighbor would find it strange to see a group of Latino children outside of their house waiting for the bus due to this situation the bus driver had to move or stop but thank God everything was solved in a good way I have been lucky that my mother has always accompanied me to the bus and waited for me to the to board the bus before before she could return home I have been very happy to be able both of us to get to school because the conversations I have with my friends makes me happy they make me feel part of something important they make me they make me feel like I belong in this group these talks cannot
011happen when you arrive just before entering school I traveled through City since I was 3 years old and sometimes more than 45 minutes before being able to get to school which makes me able to understand the difficulties that my classmates parents believe I can only tell you that you should not be afraid we have survived which is why I believe any other any other can survive traveling on the bus we have not lost any hands or feet from riding the both school buses we have very good good drivers and we trust them fortunately young people who live near schools the there are parks available where they can't do their walk routines every day and it's necessary them for to do so on the side of the city where I live we do not have Parks
012available to take our walks if we want to do so in conclusion a bus trip to school offers you more than Transportation it's the perfect opportunity to interact with your school friends and get to know them better many generations before M have traveled by school transportation to this day don't forget our parents also pay taxes thanks for your time uh next up is Kathleen Carter okay hi my name is Kathleen Carter and I'm a third grade dual language teacher at Dr Williams Elementary this is my nth year working here in Urbana first of all I would like to thank you for hearing the voices of our dual language students families and staff and voting yes for a K through five Spanish dual language school for the coming school year this has been a long time
013coming and will help us to ensure better educational outcomes for our students as we work to make improvements based on the Center for Applied Linguistics report from last year and our work with the center for teaching for Vi literacy this year right now there is a large push in the community to pause all decisions that you as a board have approved I urge you to stick with your vote and ensure that Urbana School District moves forward with the K through 5 Spanish dual Language School in 2425 a large number of dual language students families and staff have shared a multiple multitude of reasons why 1K through five Spanish dual language school is crucial for ensuring our students success and improving the program I want to highlight just a few to illustrate the importance of not
014passing not pressing pause on this decision a dual language school would be a multilingual space and culture rather than it how it is now existing in buildings for the culture and physical environment are very much monolingual this will help to elevate the status of Spanish and promote its use in all spaces students families and staff will be able to communicate with one another with ease families will be able to feel welcome and communicate with staff this will also support the social emotional needs of our students they will be in a space where their bilingualism or multilingualism is valued by all instead of feeling like they're on the outside we have also spent a lot of time looking at data and discuss discing how to make improvements as a district recently being together in one school
015will help us to ensure High academic achievement in both languages opportunities for collaboration with other dual language teachers will be consistently available as our staff will be in all all will all be in one space it would also allow for the Strategic groupings of students who receive tier three intensive supports ESL or newcomer supports or special education supports thus making better use of everyone's time our resources will also be cons Consolidated and the workload of translating and adapting will be shared all of this contributes to the Recruitment and Retention of Staff which is crucial for supporting student achievement I I could keep going but ultimately combining us will help us to make sure that our students are getting the three pillars of dual language bilingualism and biliteracy high academic achievement and soci cultural competence in
016the short time since your vote I have already seen and heard so much hope for the future I have heard the excitement from many of my students at the idea that we could all be in a space where everyone is bilingual and where they could be with their friends cousins and neighbors who go to Leo we got a chance to meet as a multilingual Department last week and participate in meaningful professional development that was actually tailor to our needs and those of our students we got a chance to collaborate with our colleagues across buildings and learn from one another we got a chance to see a glimpse of what things could be like at a school that is dedicated to dual language this change will be hard and selfishly I am saddened by the idea
017of being separated from my Dr Williams family our students and the families who I've worked with for the past nine years I'm disappointed that my child likely won't get to attend Dr Williams when he gets older But ultimately it's not about me and my family it's about what's best for our students and families in the program specifically the emergent bilingual students this program is designed for I do not feel like I can speak to where French the French dual language program should be but would urge you to listen to our French stakeholders especially our congales families and their preferences as you decide where to place the program whether to place both programs together or to have French remain to strand model in a building of monolingual classes please help us to do right by our
018dual language students and families and do not press pause please follow through with your decision to unify K through Spanish dual language for this 25 2425 school year thank you uh thank you next up is Maggie [Music] burn we're gonna see if I can stand high enough and keep him happy um my name is Maggie burn I'm a fifth grade dual langage teacher at Dr Williams Elementary um and I could stand here and say many of the same things Kathleen said but she spoke very eloquently much more concisely than I probably would so instead I want to say one repetition thank you so very much for hearing everything we've had to say over the last two years I know we've gone through two different iterations of this board but we really appreciate the incredible amount
019of time and respect you have given us and thoughtfulness that you have given to the decisions youve been making I understand personally just how hard it is to be on a side of a decision that is not always well received we are all living that right now but we are so incredibly grateful we would never advocate for anything this difficult for ourselves for our students for our families and for all those others around us if we were not certain that this was the step that needed to happen in order to give the best possible education to the most children specifically those For Whom the program exists emergent by who are learning English as a second language or requiring more than one or two languages we ask this because the need is dire for us this
020is not something that has come out of nowhere but something we have advocated for for a long time something that needs to happen and waiting only means putting off better education for children when we know we could be doing better and so what I want to say is even though not all of our families are able to come out in force even though not all of our teachers are are here every single time this is not a decision that has been met with opposition in every field and that there are many many of us including some parents and teachers who have come who may not choose to speak tonight but are here in support and we just want you to know that you do have our great great gratitude and support in this decision and
021we beg that you will listen and continue to know that pressing pause would be detrimental to some children that it may not be easy to know but this is not a no harm situation if we do not move forward doing not doing the right thing when we know how to do better there is harm in that and so we please please ask you not to pause to continue forward with the courage that you had to hear us and move forward thank you next up is Janelle Elliot good evening um you'll hear from a lot of people tonight um and what I hope is clear is that we are refusing to fight with each other um we will instead continue to fight misinformation and false narratives being spread for example that we would be against a
022DL School when we are not um contrary to rumors we are also not against change um we are against decisions made in isolation that will end up harming hundreds of students and we are against the lack of transparency and we are against broken promises we in this room are willing to partner with you we understand that not everyone can get um what might be most important to them we know that um but we are for coming together the board central office community staff and students to use all of our many strengths to truly make Urbana better together right now in this moment um what we do want is for the board to pause we ask you to pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until the Strategic plan is drafted reviewed and
023approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and to do it right um this has been asked by many people over the last two years um my big ass is to pause but I do want to bring your attention um to one of the many reasons why I believe pausing needs to happen and that's staff retention it's a goal it was on your agenda a few weeks ago um in your community Round Table meeting um but from what I'm hearing and experiencing the way in which you are making decisions is going to cause a massive ripple effect on teacher retention which will directly hurt our students I honestly can't comprehend um the lack of communication that we've had over the last last couple years um between district and staff
024and then to the community um I can't imagine a world in which we wouldn't um you wouldn't as leaders in central office and board um include a team of interventionists ideally one from each school um as you discuss a massive change to their current role um the interventionists that I know at Yankee Ridge were some of the very best classroom teachers um and they have Decades of experience in our schools in our bana with our families they have deeper relationships with students who struggle um both academically and otherwise as they see them year after year in these small groups and they can form relationships um any new plan I believe should have first included their input let's acknowledge their expertise and all that they know and the way they know their students and how their
025school Works um and then I would hope that they would be the first to un to know um what changes might come to their position um in the following year even if this is the best idea this um change of interventionists and in teach pushing into the rooms I believe the poor execution of it will make it a harmful change um if these what we're interventionists stay I believe it'll be because of their deep love for their students they have a commitment to our schools and our students um that is is deep and full of love um but now they need to reapply potentially be moved to a new school um at a time when there is a teacher shortage and openings in other districts who we know pay $110,000 more than we do um
026and so why not go and get a pay raise and get on your kids schedule over in Champagne where I'm sure they also offer hiring bonuses um the second group would be the staff that I'm concerned about would be the staff of whatever school is going to be displaced um they weren't given a heads up they weren't there wasn't communication ahead of time um no explanation of of why it might be happening at their school they found out while watching the same board meeting as I did and now they sit with that uncertainty for months um while doing one of the hardest jobs there is right now and then you look at the Timeline it's terrible um we will lose staff from both buildings as March is the time people start applying so as they
027wait to hear what might be the future of their school um I already know of Staff who have started applying in other districts um they probably would want to be in a place where their opinion is considered um and conversations are had where they're shown that they are valued um but who will suffer in the end it will be our students specifically students at Leo and DPW uh you will need to fill around 17 classrooms in a teacher shortage um and in a perfect world you would ask the displaced teachers of either yane Ridge or Thomas Payne to head over there um but these are the same staff that you've left out of the conversations time and time again they've watched it happened to Le staff and to Wy and now it will happen to
028them and so many will leave um it will leave the schools at risk DPW the school most at risk for the last five plus years will now have lots of job openings um God bless first year teachers it is an incredible job and the learning curve is High um but it is a fact that kids learn more with veteran staff as you restore them to their neighborhood you are simultaneously putting them at a further risk please one sentence during a teacher shortage the way in which you go about things matters it matters a lot please stop making m of people's lives by operating without a transparent and strategic claim thank you again I'm going to ask everybody to please keep it to the five minutes please we have a long list and I'm sure people
029um there's more who wants to speak besides the list I have so uh Amy Bader is next hello my name is Amy Bader I have two kids who attend Yankee rid and I also have the privilege of working alongside the amazing people there to be clear I am not speaking for on their behalf of anyone at Yankee Ridge I also ask the board to pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and do this right you are going to hear from others about what all of this change with no plan is doing to our kids we have found plenty of information about the effects of class size School consol consolidations and
030Transitions and closings on student achievement but I want to take just a moment to talk about our Educators the low morale frustration and anxiety is heartbreaking this has been a challenging year for many of them on many different levels some of the changes and challenges within the district this year alone include multiple buildings with new principles due to wiely closing many teachers were relocated into new elementaries with new students and new grade level teams all of our buildings are under staffed with many classrooms still with long-term Subs thus putting a lot of extra workload on grade level teams all instructional coaches and interventionists have had their jobs suddenly dissolved and had to reapply for new tiered support positions or go back into the classroom next year this year a new math curriculum was launch changing
031the way elementary teachers taught math Not only was this stressful and timeconsuming for teachers but the students some of who have been taught a certain way for 5 years had to adapt to a new way of learning math this takes time to master for teachers and kids and of course there is that unknown of where some of them will be teaching next year by themselves none of these seem insurmountable but together and added with the unknown of where you will be teaching next year they are overwhelming in the worst kind of way next school year there will be even more changes affecting Educators including potential increase in class size due to building changes more buildings with new principles new reading CC curriculum potentially a new SEO curriculum and the implementation of the tier one Focus
032co- teing model teachers will have to learn how to co- te with new interventionists that will now be pushing into classrooms instead of pulling out small groups to work in a different space these are major changes just in the curriculum and teaching structure happening at the same time and many will have to adjust to all of that while in a new building with a new grade level team and a new principal let's not forget that there is still a large number of Staff who do not even know what they will be teaching next year what is the urgency to do all of this all at once please consider pausing to let them just take a breath they are tired and burnt out and we can't afford to lose any more of our amazing teachers and
033staff thank you thank you uh Britney Frost hi my name is Britney Frost I'm here representing my multi-racial family my husband and I grew up on opposite sides of Wright Street don't worry we're making it work but we chose to live in arbana um as our kids were approaching school age we chose a diverse neighborhood with a mix of Standalone rent properties apartments and owner occupied homes and a track record for caring for and supporting their neighborhood Elementary School we now have one sixth grader two second graders and a four-year-old we want to raise these children in the supportive context um of neighbors who know each other walk to school together spend time in and out of school together and support the local school but not at the expense of the educal educational outcomes of
034students in the district the emotional and physical safety of students in the district the ethnic linguistic and racial identities of students in this District nor the ethnic linguistic and racial diversity in this District our sixth grader experienced some disability related bullying at the middle school but my son found his people those are his words in support of staff and administration and Friends he got the support he needed additionally from IEP accommodations one of our second graders attends the school in our neighborhood Paul it's the one that you fought for to keep there but she we have had a tough year there she's had a building based sub since October when her teacher took leave unexpectedly the class was unprepared and parents were uncommunicated with it has remained chaotic wild are her words and very difficult
035for our daughter who now has a 504 to help her cope with anxiety and disregulation however she reports that her 504 accommodations have not been instantiated and this is corroborated with the elements that are supposed to come home and don't this should be alarming this is alarming communication is poor at every level yet I believe in the heart and Professional Care and abilities of almost all of the USD um staff I've interacted with I believe that these buildings that these administrators do not have what they need uh because there's not enough qualified staff in these staff shortages and that the administrators don't have the time um to meet the needs of the students who are now in these Fuller buildings I believe we as a community need to do better for all the students in
036our district please take time to look at student achievement measures in classrooms like the one I'm talking about without licensed teachers in place please take the time to look for IEPs and 504 plans that are not being fulfilled and then look at the policies and changes that led us here my name is Britney Frost and I stand with the Urbana community and the Urbana School Action Coalition in demanding that the board pause all approved pending and proposed changes until a strategic plan is drafted and reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and do this [Applause] right Michelle Turner good evening members of the board and Community stakeholders I am representing our King School monarchs in addition to our collegial group of Elementary principles with an urgent
037matter the purpose of my presence is to discuss a matter of great importance and concern regarding the proposed integration of sixth graders into our elementary school setting while I understand the intention behind this proposal we firmly believe that including sixth grade students in elementary schools present several substantial challenges that could negatively impact our learning environment resource allocation and overall School C culture first the structure of K six buildings inherently poses difficulties for creating productive learning environments elementary and middle school students are at significantly different de developmental stages requiring distinct educational approaches environments and resources implementing a one-sized fits-all strategy in a k six setting undermines the unique needs of each age group potentially stunting academic and social growth second this integration necessitates two separate curriculums one tailored for elementary level learning and another that aligns
038with Middle School standards designing imple elating implementing and managing these Divergent curriculums would strain our already limited resources complicating instruction and reducing the effective the effectiveness of our educational delivery moreover space is a critical issue our schools are currently operating at or near capacity and the addition of sixth grade students will complicate this matter incorporating additional classrooms facilitates and learning spaces to accommodate these students will be a logistical nightmare if not outright impossible without significant investment and restructuring the logistical challenges extend beyond space we have currently optimized our lunch schedules and spaces to efficiently serve our current student population introducing a larger number of students will require a complete overhaul of these plans leading to overcrowding and decreased quality of student life Staffing and supervision represent another significant concern with our current resources we are
039stretched thin ensuring that our students receive the attention and care they deserve adding sixth graders to our charge without a proportionate increase in staff would dilute the quality of supervision and instruction potentially potential potentially compromising students safety and learning outcomes furthermore the introduction of sixth graders raises questions about our extracurricular programs such as the band and Strings program fifth grade serves as an introductory phase for this with more formalized instruction occurring in later years expanding the program to include more advanced instruction for sixth graders would would require additional resources instructors and space transportation is yet another logistical hurdle our buses are already operating at full capacity and accommodating more students would necess necessitate increasing our Fleet drivers and route planning efforts further straining budgets and resources lastly the culture and climate change that would accompany
040the inclusion of sixth graders cannot be overlooked sixth graders developmentally require a different social environment than younger elementary students integrating them into our elementary school could disrupt the nurturing age appropriate atmosphere we have worked so hard to cultivate potentially leading to Social and emotional issues across all grades while I fully appreciate the board's efforts to explore all avenues for educational Improvement I strongly believe we strongly believe that the integration of sixth graders into elementary schools is not a viable solution it poses too many challenges and risk outweighing the potential benefits our urge the board to reconsider this proposal taking into account the logistical educational and social implications it entails thank you for attention and consideration on this critical issue thank you Claire E Benjamin hello my name is Claire Benjamin uh and I do stand
041with theb community and their bana schools Action Coalition and demanding that the board pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until strategic plans drafted reviewed approved by all stakeholders we need to take time to do this together and do this right to be honest I'm embarrassed to be sitting in front of you uh the perspective that I offer is incredibly selfish and small compared to everything that you've heard so far today my husband is a commercial airline pilot and when we decided we to build our lives together I said I'm not leaving Champagne or banam we need to build our lives where we have Community When You're Gone 50% of the time and I work full-time we need people who will help me pick up the slack and keep things going on
042the home front we had the Good Fortune to buy a house next to Britney Frost who you heard from earlier and it's a dream street we literally race each other to hand deliver a eggs when someone doesn't have enough eggs to make a birthday cake and that's a true story from last week I could not ask for better neighbors my 15-month-old is tucked into bed a few blocks from here surrounded by people who love her who are actively helping me raise her when my mother comes to help me babysit her when I have work events that take me you know through the evening I know that she could one day 5 years from now walk across the street and pick my child from work that is if the five or six neighbors are not racing
043her to the front door to pick her up and take her home themselves because that's who we're surrounded by I made a very strategic choice in choosing a neighborhood school where we would have that support system which is incredibly important to me and I know I have a lot of privilege if I needed to pay a babysitter to pick my Dart from school because I had a work conflict I can do that I have the means if I need to pull my daughter out of public school and put her in a private school I could do that I don't want to do that I graduated from college in three years because the public school system that I graduated from gave me a Year's worth of college credit my husband is an arbana high school graduate
044and now has a successful career and I love the idea of this dual language program and what you're trying to achieve and to be honest that's one of reasons we chose Yankee Ridge to begin with we wanted that option for our daughter one day that she might have the ability to do a language do a language program or if she has the same language processing disorder problems that her dad struggles with she would also have the option to go to a neighborhood school I really appreciate what you're trying to achieve here but I don't think that this is the way to go about it and I think that there is time to come together and come up with a solution that is not not going to alienate families like ours that is not going to
045make them run for the hills I am sincerely afraid for and I'm going to be very candid here white white flight I mean we're looking at a cascading effect where it's going to destroy what we have built and I just really urge you to hear us and to take time and help us all come to a solution together and I really truly believe we have enough people in this room who are committed to doing that that it's [Music] possible and I guess I just want to conclude with saying that I know that what I've brought up here now is pales in comparison to the horrors that these teachers are facing and current students like Britney's who aren't getting the support they need with long-term Subs but I'm sitting here looking towards the future and I'm
046really worried that this isn't going to be straightened out in 5 years when I am an herbana School parent thank you hi my name is Lydia Roode I'm a fourth grader at Yankee Ridge Elementary School and in the French dual language program program anyways Yankee Ridge Elementary School is a very important part of this community I live within a few blocks of the school and so do many of my classmates and friends we shouldn't have to go to a school further away because of many poor ideas that do not have detailed plans it would be a mess and make so many students sad and miserable the Board of Education should have made central office administrators have a full and detailed plan before Wy was closed before a sixth grade Cent was voted on before the
047Dual language school was voted on and before Yankee rge and Thomas Payne were announced as the possible places for the Spanish to language school do you not actually care about all the students in the district why are you only listening to some people if you really cared about the students in the district you would have created a detailed plan and told everyone about all the schools you wanted to close and rearrange before anyone voted on anything I'm not allowed to go to my friend's houses unless my parents know all the details if I don't tell my parents the whole truth about something I can get in trouble why should administrators in this district and the board be allowed to move hundreds of students and staff around multiple times multiple years in a row without telling
048the truth and without detailed plans I was in kindergarten when Co hit most of my first grade year was done online and it was difficult to learned second grade was fairly normal no sicknesses no surprises in third grade the then fourth grade French class had to join our fourth our French dual language class for most of the second semester they did not get to see their english- speaking friends at Yankee Ridge because of the school schedule and now when I'm in fourth grade French stool language my twin brother and I rarely see non-al language fourth grade friends except in the Halls because everything we do is on the third grade schedule my sister and first grade has a similar problem because first and second grade French to language classes on the second grade schedule when
049my parents asked the building Administration about this they were told that it was just a negative impact of the crowded building and scheduling and nothing was actually done to help us if Yankee Ridge becomes a Spanish stol language school and French dual language stays there with them all of my non-dual language friends will go elsewhere we shouldn't have to lose our non-dual language friends because we want to learn another language because of the scheduling I will probably have few opportunities to meet and spad time with other students my age just like this year I think the French du language students would feel left out like out outcasts I would I would like more than one year of normaly and consistency in elementary school and fifth grade will be my last chance at that I don't
050understand why District administrators don't care enough to make us feel safe and secure why don't they care enough to keep us with teachers we know after years and years of changes I also have good relationships with teachers if I have to leave some or most of them the teachers I know and am comfortable with that would be heartbreaking they are the teachers I have grown up with and grown to know one like my family is stressed and nervous and so am I the board and central office are not saying anything leaving us just hoping they would stop and think for a minute and listen to what students staff and families are saying they would use money and time to for important things like turning Wy back into an elementary school if the board in central
051office continue me and many others might stop to a language stay with with the friends and teachers is that what the administration and board wants in conclusion the board and central office should think this through think about the loss communities they are breaking the friendships that are going to get lost if they continue and the loss of learning that will happen with all the movement of students over and over and over they need to spend their money on important things like keeping good teachers involving families in the schools and helping students learn more stop these terrible plans administrators keep deciding something to few people think that maybe it's okay then they reveal they have another horrible plan that joins with the first one and makes everything even worse stop hiding information stop deciding things without
052plans and help from the community thank you for listening good [Applause] evening Colin rude okay how do you follow that up before I begin I want to acknowledge that I am totally okay with getting my speech writing butt kicked by my 10-year-old daughter she is the product of an amazing French dual language uh Educators I also want to acknowledge how cool it is to see engagement in action I know you on the board and administrators are probably feeling defensive with the amount of strong opinions that are here today but I want to remind you that this is Peak Community engagement it's uplifting to see people who care so much about their school district and who are so interested in its success that they would organize and come here to make sure their voices are heard
053I hope you here at the meeting today and everyone in the community doesn't take it for granted we are lucky to have this level of passionate commitment now on a matters at hand it hurts to say this but I think what I have observed over the past couple of years have been signs of an unhealthy School District in many cases the idea of community feedback has been a box that gets checked I invited people to attend this committee so I've done my due diligence or well you can always speak your opinion at board meetings even though we have made a rule that board members are not to engage that kind of bare minimum approach to stakeholder engagement belies a distrust that you have with all of us my name is Colin Roode and I have
054been a member of the Urbana Community since 2007 nearly 17 years now I have four children between Elementary and Middle School ages who all attend orbana public schools and Yankee Ridge my spouse is an educator in the district I have turned down job offers because I love this town and the school district so much I look forward to a future at Urbana schools for my kids and my family and yet yet the past couple of years have challenged that sentiment I have watched ideas get proposed ones intended to address a very real and significant issues in our community but lack basic objective research or not prioritize Community feedback or be presented in a vacuum as if the only only choices to make this change or do nothing I watch a board become more or less
055a rubber stamp for every idea the central office administration proposes rather than a voice of the community asking for justification support feedback reasoning and importantly pushing back when the community cries out when I learned that Dr Ivory Tatum had proposed all of these major changes without so much as a strategic plan in the nearly 5 years since she has joined this community I really was disheartened I can't imagine a single healthy organization whose chief executive is given the latitude to propose these major District altering changes with no Central tenants to point to no end goal no success metrics nothing no board would allow these sorts of changes without signposts principles or strategic objectives no healthy board anyway so here we are an Engaged Community telling its board how it feels about the actions of the
056past few years we are asking you to stop allowing drastic changes to be made until we all understand the why and understand what end we are building building to this community wants its District to be successful I want dual language families to feel supported and welcomed I want all students to succeed I want our teachers to know they are valued supported and have leadership that will invest in their success I want the Urbana community community to unite behind a common goal an understood goal and have something we can all support as we build the Urbana School District number 116 to a better place so I am imploring the board today to put a temporary pause on all approved and proposed changes around school designation student School assignment and consolidation and ask their principal employees the
057superintendent and administration to perform their yet unfulfilled job descriptions and expectations and show us a strategic plan unify us behind a common cause show us the how and the why and propose an enact changes that have real research-driven support and well-developed success metrics dedic ate yourself to urbana's values the closeness of the Urbana community at large and in our neighborhoods and engage with us to enact a comprehensive plan that we will all feel good about and celebrate together once we are all in on a plan we will all work to make it happen we want this District to succeed our kids our kids successes hinge on it if you all truly have a commitment to Urbana better together it's time to pay attention to that word together and make good on that promise thank [Applause]
058you as Alison bford my name is Allison Serene bassford my daughter is in kindergarten a Yankee Ridge and my son who turns three today will enter the district in a few years I'm here on their behalf and alongside the Urbana community and the Urbana schools Action Coalition to ask the board to pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take time to do this together and to do this right my family has lived in CU for nearly 10 years when we decided to purchase our first home in the area we chose our neighborhood in part because of its proximity to Yankee Ridge we walked our daughter past the school for a year and a half before she started
059kindergarten so that we could prepare her and probably ourselves for this transition until then she had only attended one daycare preschool so the thought of her going to a new place was scary both for her and for her parents she made that transition this fall and we have been really happy with our first over 100 days at Yankee Ridge we're happy with her teacher and indeed the entire Kindergarten staff who were collectively thoughtful and communicative we are not happy with the district as a whole with the central office or with the board we felt blindsided when we learned that Yankee Ridge could be closed only a year into our daughter's education she's come home several times in the last few weeks upset because other children have told her that her school will be closed this
060after we so intentionally managed her transition into kindergarten and after she has adjusted so well it should go without saying that a 5-year-old should not be anxious about where she will go to school in the next few months or if her new friends will be there with her parents too should not have to feel anxiety that we felt also wondering where our child will attend school if if we can get her there safely if she will adjust to this new space yet again or if she will be moved again the next year or the next again I am here to ask you to pause your processes and write a strategic plan so that we can make informed decisions with reasonable timelines for all stakeholders I'm asking you to pause so that no more children are
061blindsided by closures and moves and schools that are not functioning properly I'm asking you to pause so that we can make informed intentional decisions and support our students transitions into them thank you it a frasia Vander I pronounced that right Freya sorry thank you hi I'm Freya from Yankee Ridge and I am in fifth grade I have been here since kindergarten when I first heard that Yankee Ridge had a good chance of being turned in to the fullo language School my heart suck I'm going to middle school next year and I and maybe some others work was kind of hoping to revisit Yankee Ridge and say hi to many of my teachers and stuff like that but I won't really be able to do that if it does get turned into a full full du
062language school I will be sad to see my teachers move I am also wondering how they feel right now I bet they feel so bad also I am not a Wy kid but if a Wy kid is in fourth grade right now they might have to go to six different schools three elementary schools two middle schools including the Sixth Grade Campus and one high school I feel very very very bad for Wy kids right now another thing is I will be sad to see my principal go after just coming to Yankee Ridge I also feel bad for the kids who are in the grades below me because if Yankee Ridge becomes into a fullo language School they'll have to be moved to a different school they might not know any of the teachers that are
063there they have to completely completely relocate and if one of them walks they don't get to do that anymore they have to drive which could be a hassle for the for their parents or Guardians also something that is very very important to me at yane Ridge is the newspaper wolf wolf monthly some other kids and I had an idea and started it this year there are two third graders and one second grader in our group the rest are fifth graders including myself if we turned Yankee Ridge into a dual language scho they would probably not get another chance for those kids to have a newspaper at their other school and if it does go I bet we would be really really sad because we created it and we came to all the teachers and it
064would really just be sad for me and anyone else who is in that group to see it go so that is why I do not think that Yankee Ridge or Thomas Payne should be turned into a doing language school also I also so please ask you to pause this idea thank you Sam Vander Griffin hello everybody how are you I'm Sam Vander my children are in fifth at Yankee Ridge just met Freya and 11th at the high school I want to thank every member of the school board for their voluntary service I also want to acknowledge the efforts of our teachers and staff yours is a difficult and I imagine often thankless labor of love I do not doubt that each of you came into this with a desire to help every student in this
065District achieve their best yet I am baffled and feel betrayed by the leadership in Urbana schools in the combined 18 years our children attended schools in this District I have the least confidence in what is happening right now and we were here for the Don ow and debacle corn times and spy guide.com you have the power and you must stop the wrecking ball where is the Strategic plan I'm told you've asked for it from the superintendent on numerous occasions yet rather than accountability you chose a late night closed door backroom renewal of her contract without first demanding she turned in her homework running a district is not an exercise in standards based grading she cannot have until the end of her term to complete her work every taxpayer in our community deserves to know what
066the plan is the students Educators and parents deserve a plan now to not bury the lead too much you cannot vote on any drastic changes until you have a strategic plan I understand the phrase we don't need data we innovators really was used unironically in this meeting chamber that is a sign you should never trust another word from the central office experts use data to understand what is happening innovators mind data for potential opportunities charlatans claim to have answers bury unfriendly Community polling results and fly by the seat of their pants the jolt that brought light to this overall situation is the swirling morass of a single dual language school I should mention that this issue won't directly affect my family we're done with Elementary after this year I attended a PTA meeting at Yankee
067Ridge a few weeks ago where Paul and rvi answered questions from nearly 150 people when was the last last time 150 people were at a PTA meeting the more I learn the worse it appears what at first could be poor planning or in different Communications seems to bely worse things a foot so I ask this is the urgency around dual language a manufactured crisis to distract from the fact that our district is now last in community assessments we are a district that is going backwards innovators indeed as a bit of an aside tied to this is our beloved neighborhood schools many bought houses to be close to walk schools the perception or perhaps truth is that rich parents at Leo raise holy hell and you run somewhere else you think has less agency social capital
068and time so it's easier to uproot a community given the lack of a strategic plan is the district looking across town at unit four and taking lessons from a district shaped by a federal consent decree in light of how our students are recovering post pandemic we need our efforts going towards getting back to where they should be now I imagine creating new dream programs like a middle school campus or a dual language program are far more seductive than just working on math and literacy initiatives I understand it's sexy to put a buzzword on your resume but it seems to suggest a certain it seems to suggest that Central admin has written off or is indifferent to the outcomes of these kids it comes across as a bit of a slap in the face to every
069worker in this District who comes in day in and day out grinding out the details and nitty-gritty how unfair to the people who every day go out there on the front lines and do the work only to focus resources elsewhere and not give the real support that'll impact the 83% of the students in the district that are at risk or at need and quite frankly it's a wrap on the knuckles of all the students in this District that only get one shot at their childhood education they cannot wait for you to Fumble through slap Dash Innovations they need data driven plans they need safety in their schools they need resources and they need it now if this indictment seems unfair or cuts too close then change Tac it is time to build trust it is
070time to focus on the day-to-day all this demands a plan board stop rubber stamping action items until you know the whole plan you run the show you set the agenda practice accountability and until the board receives and approves a thoughtful Equitable evidence-based and data-driven strategic plan from your primary employee superintendent Ivory Tatum you the board are elected representatives charged with envisioning and implementation of the district every child in Urbana schools deserves you cannot in good conscience Implement any plans to disrupt the learning of hundreds of students across this District to continue down the path set for you rather than considering what a correct path should be is a breach of your ethical fiduciary and potentially legal responsibilities of elected officials thank you Julie Deval my name is Julie dval and I'd like to ask for
071an accommodation Rocket's going to come up here and speak as well um he is not going to speak to the board he's only going to speak to Dr Jay because that's all he's going to talk to um so I'll start uh again my Julie Deval and I have multiple students and grandchildren in The District in the 2020 2223 school year an report was developed for the district forgot my classes in the in the findings it stated to ensure a systematic and continuous development towards advancing Equity within all policies processes procedures initiatives decision-making and financial responsibility it suggested the following Implement measurable accountable and transparent equity-driven goals and widely commun and widely communicate to stakehold holders enhance the Dual language and special education programs by fostering collaboration on instructional approaches between them and then develop regular
072best practices to share with the monolingual and general education classrooms as far as dual language they stated the best way to determine the future of the Dual language program is through an exclusive and extensive program evaluation whether the comprehensive program evaluation is conducted internally or through a third party it needs to narrowly examine outcomes in multiple scenarios the report included eight questions that are suggested to be looked into when deciding if a single school for dual language is supported here are four of the eight questions asked how will neighborhood kids be affected if moved to another school to make room for a dual Language School how would special education services for dual language students be supported in one school what would would be the expenses in the community impact of restructuring a neighborhood school to
073a dual language school knowing that it would be a rare it would be rare to have a consensus amongst all stakeholders to have a dual language school that may affect hundreds of students and their families how will the district offer at best a democratic process to this long-term decision these are some of the same questions and issues that the community are asking for clarification of the district and of the board The District staff students parents and Community member community members have continuously voiced their opinions in either surveys emails or direct comments to the board that's my phone sorry Lindsay sorry the purpose of the board is for checks and balances each board member was voted by the community to uphold their duties to I'm sorry each board member was voted by the community to uphold
074their duties to the best interest of all the students not just a section this includes making duee diligence to question and look at into all the information provided by the district for decision Mak the district paid a lot of money for an outside Equity report and they are not following the suggestions and appear to only follow some at they're choosing we want strategic plans and full transparency an example of transparency after the board and the district were repeat asked repeatedly about the closure of Wy due to finances and repeatedly were told that this was not a reason a year later at last week's board meeting or at last week's PTA meeting a board member admitted in a in a public parent meeting that this was the reason for a closure while I am a member
075of the Urbana community and a stakeholder in the success or failure of Our Community School District I did not sign the petition I believe in a collective voice and support many of the issues and concerns brought up I don't believe putting a hold however I don't believe putting a hold on all decisions is in the best interest of the students I do agree that strategic plans need to be made transparent to all the stakeholders and that the stakeholders have access to give their comments on these plans however the safety concerns of your students should be your top priority the concerns at the middle school are at a crucial and to use a word used earlier dire level and need to be addressed immediately it is unsa it is an unsafe choice for the district to
076not take immediate action in making a strategic plan for the Sixth Grade Center as I stated in previous board meetings multiple people with various backgrounds and input voted in favor of the Sixth Grade Center also multiple sixth grade staff vo their concerns of their ability to safely provide adequate education for their students finally the board asked for a stu for student input my son is this is my son rocket and is he he is here to describe what his day is like as a special needs students ATS you don't have to talk to talk to Dr [Music] J so um every day that I have to go through the hallways in a bit of fear because there's multiple fights Heights people spraying stuff everywhere where people are putting down death threats on walls walls stealing
077and and multiple other people are pretending they have guns Huns Huns and that's it oh and I can't go to lunch in safe because people are cutting and threatening to kill you if you don't get out of the line that's all I have to say thank you thank you thank you Julie thank you rocket Lindsay Maru I got it right this time got it right hello again I don't have a strong voice today because I've had laryngitis but I am a mother to two children in the Urbana School District middle schooler and a fourth grader at Thomas Payne I am not a highly educated person I did not graduate high school I got my GED I ended up having children and being a single mom one to a special needs student and I've worked my
078butt off to buy the house in the community that I live in now um my to my son goes to Thomas pay right now but my concern is for his future his future of going to the Middle School he's scared he's scared of what people are going to do to him because already at Thomas pain he is being assaulted he has been punched in the face and jumped on and beat up he's very impressionable and he's so innocent so please don't put a pause on the Sixth Grade Center our Middle School is in dire need our community needs the help I know that there are a lot of strategic planning that needs to be done but we need to focus on our kids right now Society has changed times are different we battle with social
079media we battle with the internet with what kids are doing to each other um today when I was bringing my children home from school I witnessed um middle schooler getting off of the MTD bus with no shirt on just her brawl running down the street God knows what happened to this girl I have no idea but she was running in a brawl we really need a Sixth Grade Center we need to focus on the middle school we need to help our children because they're our future and they're asking for it they're showing it in their behavior and their actions thank you Julia [Music] henm hello can you hear right distance great um my name is Julia hawen Meer I'm a Le parent um and I stand with the obana community and the obana schools Action
080Coalition in demanding that the board pause all approved p ending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we have wasted two years right but we should really take the time to do this together um and to do this right right um there's so many problems right um so so if you don't have the time anymore right which might well be the case given what we're just hearing right um we need to at least put all options on the table we need to at least have understand what the problems are and what the possible solutions are right there's lots of problems nobody is happy right but you have a whole room full of people that are unhappy right right this is your leadership this is
081your responsibility right we need you to do your job right we can't treat these problems in a peace fashion right we have to base decisions on sound data not on fanciful promises like was the case with the six R and the decision um you um um and many other of your plans please don't don't pit groups against each other we don't want you know nobody wants to be in opposition to another group we we're in this together right we have limited resources I think everybody understands that but this is not a zero some game right but we are better together I think everybody believes that right let's let's keep that in mind right at this point I'm I'm fully in support of a dual Language School although I first came to you um when my
082daughter was in kindergarten and there was the decision about uh turning Le into a dual language um school right um and I and I spoke up because I had very similar problems to what we just heard from some Yankee V parents but also because there was no fully worked out feasible plan in place you hadn't talk to transportation for example you there really really um um it wasn't actually a plan right um and then and then I started paying attention to the school board and then there was Wy um which was much worse than the Sixth Grade Center now Yankee Ridge Thomas Payne all these groups have been treated worse than Leo right uh even though we are the neighborhood of privilege right as we've been told um and there's still no clear fully fleshed
083out plan for any of these including the Dual language I don't think we're in any better position than we were two years ago when you guys called off the vote for the Leal decision um I just don't see a plan right and if you can't stop for a full strategic plan right uh at least reconsider the Sixth Grade Center decision right obviously you need to handle the problems at ums right um you know you know it sounds like like there really are serious problems I know nothing about them um because because my kid is not um at USS um but but it's completely unclear that the Sixth Grade Center actually addresses any of these real and serious concerns if you look at that slide deck it was full of empty promises there was there was
084no real evidence that that any of this would solve the real problems at ums right right so please reconsider that decision and consider instead the option of of turning Wy um uh uh into this the um the Dual language school right but we just heard in the last meeting that that doesn't actually cost any more than than than the sixth grader option right um and please leverage the um the services of the redistricting experts and ask for a map that has the Dual language school at Wy right we are going through the effort of collecting all the data please please do that ple please take advantage of that and definitely don't just propose a single map for each du a language option right that would go back to to basically um back door redistricting that
085so many of us has have pushed back against for for all this time right um thank you Sarah Jansen just uh we're on our 19 C statement and there a 30 schedule just to people know if anybody else wishes to add their name to list please out fill a form in the back of the room and hand it to Lori Johnson thank you all right I've reviewed today's presentation regarding the six k6 model and I wanted to highlight a few things so first of all the timelines at the excuse me where is Jennifer Ivory Tatum can we pause I really wanted her to hear these comments yeah Paul you can understand I can okay can I start over that please just continue where we we have a long agenda and an executive session afterwards let's
086go ahead please I'm just thinking maybe somebody else could help that person um I've reviewed today's presentation regarding the k6 model I wanted to highlight a few things um first the timelines at the beginning omit a very important detail that parents have been asking over and over and over again with respect to all of these major decisions that have been made that these decisions not be made one by one instead we've asked over and over and over again that these decisions be made through a strategic planning process over and over and over again our request to begin strategic planning has been denied major decisions have been made in isolation without thinking about how each decision would affect other stakeholders or the budget the problem is that a decision might sound good in isolation but one
087might make a different decision one's presented with the tradeoffs and inherent costs we're at that point new information has been presented the budget implications of the Sixth Grade Center have been acknowledged 7 to 800 students are expected to change schools within the next six months and not surprisingly parents are worried about the very real loss of community that is being imposed on them the abana community the very people you represent are speaking up once again the final slide in tonight's presentation suggests that you as board members are not allowed to change Course once faced with better information that simply is not true um I printed out some of your policy guidelines policy 8110 public suggestions and concerns the board of education is interested in receiving suggestions and concerns from members of the community each concern
088or suggestion shall be considered on its Merit policy 220 powers and duties of the Board of Education number 21 commun communicating the school's activities and operations to the community and representing the needs and desires of the community in educational matters policy number 810 connection with the community a district public relations program will gather Community attitudes and desires for the district help the community feel a more direct responsibility for the quality of Education provided by their schools earn the community's Goodwill respect and confidence promote a genuine Spirit of cooperation between the school and the community still on policy 810 Community engagement is a process that the board uses to actively involve diverse citizens in dialogue deliberation and collaborative thinking around common interests for the district's schools your community tells you when something is working and when
089something isn't this community wants to engage in collaborative thinking I believe we've had representatives of every single school here tonight please engage with us with the entire Community I've thought a lot about the k6 model and when I say a lot those of you that have heard from me before which is everyone on the Schoolboard you know that I've thought a lot about it I've I've crunched the numbers for a time I thought it wasn't Fe feble I loved the idea theoretically and I couldn't make it work but you know what new information was presented to me I thought some more I crunched some more numbers and I now admit that my initial conclusions were wrong it's okay to update our beliefs when we have more information in fact it's quite mature I still recognize
090that the k6 model will be complic ated it has its own tradeoffs many of those tradeoffs are identified in the presentation you'll see eventually tonight and I'd personally love the opportunity to engage with any of you collaboratively to discuss those feasibility concerns I'd love that opportunity the biggest problem with the presentation is that it only considers pros and cons of the k6 model it doesn't consider Pro pros and consons across all options people are deeply concerned about the alternative options with good reason there are tradeoffs and that's why we need a strategic plan thank you uh Emma Arin har I'm going to start with audio of a public comment from Paul in 2010 before he joined the board at that time the district intended to close an elementary school without transparency or a strategic plan
091strikingly similar to the situation we find ourselves today hi my name is Paul paloski I live at uh 2106 f um I'm a parent of a child ATS third grader at Yankee Ridge and uh two more future kindergarteners hopefully my fault you're right you're Mr this is Mr paloski Brandy low will be next I'm sorry go ahead I'm sorry h two more hopefully Yankee Ridge over six years ago we chose to move from Champagne to orbana uh picking our house largely because it was within walking distance Yankee rid school we visited the school um before purchasing our house and we're extremely pleased with the facilities the programs the staff and faculty but what convinced us that this was the right choice for our family was watching all the kids get picked up at the end
092of school one day and seeing all the parents and grandparents caregivers and students interacting with one another talking about their days making playdates and getting to know one another that's the school was really the heart of that community and we really wanted to be a part of it um without Community a neighborhood is just another place to live without Community a house is just a building on a piece of land I've I've seen our community come together and shareing each other's triumphs and I've seen it come together and help families who are fighting very difficult struggles um communities provide invaluable feedback to the organizations that represent them your community tells you when something is working and when something is not there are many parents and citizens districtwide very concerned about the possible loss of one
093of our communities we formed a Facebook group uh called keep for banon neigh schools currently 19 190 members strong and this new community would love to work with you with respect to the Strategic plan to ensure the maximum amount of transparency with the planning process and ensure that we all are doing what is in the long-term best interest of our community thank you for your time thank you my name is Emma arhart I live a few doors down from Paul on B Street I have a first grader at yane Ridge and hopefully a kindergartner at Yankee Ridge 8 years ago we moved to Urbana from sooy we in large part selected our house because it was walking distance to Yankee Ridge we have a community at Yi Ridge which includes the French dual language program
094the arbana community is telling you this is not working please hear us as you wish to be heard 14 years ago not to pick on you Paul but in 2019 interview with smile politely you reflected on that time period in the clip and you stated at that time I noted that most of the board members did not have young children in the district and I decided to run to ensure a member of the board could provide that voice I will only serve as a board member while I have children attending at schools end quote as I understand it after this Academic Year you will not have a student in the district if you plan on resigning to keep that promise do not rush through decisions without a wellth thought out strategic plan regardless of your
095future intentions in serving on the board you need to stop and listen to our elementary and middle school families without central offices influence you joined because you felt the board did did not hear the voice of the young children and I fear you have now become that disconnected board member not listening to the elementary school students and you are not alone Lola Ben Tori Sherry Robie sit lot Lee I want to remind all of you that your job is to be an independent body free of the influence of central office and serve the Urbana students teachers in community you cannot properly serve our students teachers in community when you only meaningfully engage with central office the same central office that the majority of Administrators do not live within the district and do not have a
096stake in the lives of our youth I stand with the Urbana community and the Urbana schools Action Coalition in demanding that the board pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and to do this right Thank [Applause] you rob Nagel good evening uh my name is Rob Nagel and I have three kids in the schools I have a freshman and then uh two kindergarteners at Yankee Ridge one is in the French dual language program one is not um I stand with the Urbana community and the Urbana schools Action Coalition in demanding that the board pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan is drafted reviewed
097and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and do this right and really what this means is taking the time to evaluate all options and even options that have not yet been explored one of the things that really stands out to me is the mistrust in the issues at every level of the school district right now there are uh clear ISS issues at the middle school with students and behavior and overcrowding there are upset parents there are teachers who are talking about mistrust and I think there is deep threads of um mistrust in the entire school district and I actually think in addition to the Strategic plan I think there needs to be a strategic plan for building trust across all of the stakeholders the teachers need to
098trust the administration the parents in the community need to trust the administration and the board and the Board needs to uh listen to the parents I think that needs that's a key creating a Sixth Grade Center is not going to magically solve behavior problems for sixth graders seventh graders and eighth graders moving the Dual language school is not going to magically solve problems either we need to pause and focus on building back the trust the communication and figuring out what do we need to do structurally within this District to achieve our goals um I I believe improved safety in our schools uh is is one of the most important things better educational outcomes and better graduation rates all of these things take a long time and so making changes we won't know what positives or
099detriment will happen for a few years down the road so we really need to think about what we're doing and take the time to come together have more meetings together and build back the trust thank [Music] you tin Nelson sorry if I mispronounced your name oh I answered pretty much anything starting with the no hello thank you um so I am a father of a fantastic six-year-old uh we got to adopt her she was our seventh uh foster kid in addition to that we were uh respit and support parents for another eight or nine uh foster kids and throughout all of our training for foster care we were told that stability is Paramount for those first seven eight years of a kid's life they are learning to trust people they are learning to trust their
100environment and if you keep moving them around that produces harm so and we'd also see that in the court when we went into a court to hear about why a kid needs a change in their uh home environment it had to be very specific harms and even additional movement uh you know from one Foster family to another foster family or or uh changing a in in family placement needed to have a very specific reason that it was happening so I I've been puzzled by all of this because up until uh hearing about the need to merge the Dual language uh Spanish program I I hadn't heard anything even resembling a harm to justify all this instability for all these students I was discussing this with my sister a school psychologist in Colorado and she voiced
101the same thing and she asking questions you know well that this doesn't make sense any any school district would would have some sort of big reason is there a gang problem they're trying to disrupt well now after hearing the Middle School um but anyways uh but no no no massive harm um so I I do hear and acknowledge that the uh dual language program for the Spanish students has been uh making the best that they can split across two schools and it will help them to merge however they are still going one way or the other where whether it's a movement in a year or uh uh two years there will be a disruption for them I would posit that there will be harm uh additional harm in rushing this move because there is uncertainty
102because there is contentiousness and and you know confusion about how this process is being reached and and what the exact I mean we don't even know which of the schools it's going to be yet 6 months before that will happen uh if we cling to this plan um but yeah and God forbid that uh this is then compounded by the harm of teachers leaving uh litigious uncertainty or uh any other change that might come up because we still don't have a strategic plan there is of course the harm to other students um including several families that I know uh that went from Wy to Thomas Payne or to Yankee Ridge and now they are are very some of them are almost certainly facing the prospect of going to three different schools in three years I
103mean that sort of harm you got to have a pretty distinct and immediate harm to be making that sort of a choice and I'm still not hearing it and I I'm still not seeing it in with this narrative uh with how the um dual language program needs to be merged and the harm to the French dual language program is just appalling uh I mean they're they they don't even know if it's going to exist how is that uh any sort of a plan to minimize harm so um please please please please get get a strategic plan so that we stop moving kids around and harming them year after year after year with this uncertainty I stand with the uh request that we pause especially the movement of the um the elementary schools until there's a
104plan the middle school stuff yeah there are harms there as well um and I know you face tough decisions I do uh appreciate all of the time that you all put into this but please please please work to minimize harm thank [Applause] you mauka yaii m y is she he okay thank you oh I didn't see you back there [Music] hi it's been a while since I've been in front of you all um thought a lot about this meeting I mean we're here all together again literally a year ago was the meeting where you voted to temporarily close Wy and here we are a year later with a boardroom that is completely packed again um a year ago uh this very meeting a l a large group of concerned community members families and faculty sat
105before the board we had over two hours of comments asking for clarity transparency and for you to have a final plan before you relocated our children I'm about to read to you today what was the open opening comment of that meeting as it is as relevant now as it was then and has become much more urgent as the board has by now taken a series of four to three decisions that have consistently disregarded Community input as parents and community members we are deeply concerned by recent actions of the district's leadership the proposed measures which need board approval would affect the education of hundreds of children and deeply impact their families district teachers and staff and the community these measures are being proposed without adequate Community Information or involvement I have an updated paragraph that I
106was going to read next and I I almost want to admit it omit it uh just for a sense of unity I'm tired of this game where we're all pitted against each other I'm tired of the district looking at us like we don't like them and we're just troublemakers we want to help you we really do it's just very unfortunate that now I mean I just I can't even believe literally a year later uh we're sitting here now with another major initiative brought to us us on very short notice we're standing on the brink of dissolving yet another neighborhood Elementary while simultaneously undergoing a redistricting process that we all know is going to be extremely difficult the next section is verbatim from what we read last year it's a little wordy but I ask that
107you bear with me and actually listen to me because there's good points in there there are effective models for Community dialogue that the district should consider and adopt all processes should be inclusive and describe tradeoffs so Community input is Meaningful and thoughtful that input should be considered in decision-making to be considered a success community members must experience a genuine sense of participation that comes from not only having having the opportunity to express their ideas early in the process but feeling that their input is genuinely heard and taken seriously just going to stop there and I'm going to ask how do you think we feel after doing this for over a year now do we feel like you are taking our input seriously probably not we understand that there are multiple constituencies and stakeholders affected by
108any proposed changes and that their interest may not always be aligned this is why we need active involvement across the community parents community members and dare I say board members need to be able to understand not only the implications of proposed changes but also the tradeoffs in decision-making the process must help all parties understand and consider the multiple factors to be taken into consideration in developing a successful plan that will help El elicit broad communication and support I didn't get to read the new petition that's being put out but I just want to implore District leadership and the Urbana school district and board to put a pause on all actions and proposals until we can work together for a strategic plan and we really do want to help we're really done just fighting each other
109so thank you Britney tamon can you hear me okay I think you can good evening Board of Education I would like to start by repeating a statement that I made to the board almost exactly a year ago on February 21st of 2023 I intentionally transferred my child from a private school for many reasons um diversity and culture being major deciding factors this makes us one of the family that um Dr Ivory Tatum has referred to to bring back to the district um that was one of the speaking points when we were closing Wy um yet here I am asking the district to keep my children's School intact I myself attended four different elementary schools by the time I reached second grade I can hardly recall the names I can't I can't recall the names of
110my first few teachers um schools anything I was in survival mode um by the time I likely began to adapt to the new community I went to a new one and I started all over while there may have been a strong community at the schools I attended not saying the schools were poor um I did not benefit from those communities naturally as a parent my goal is to provide a stable environment for my children especially after experiencing the childhood that I did this is what brings me here before you I can provide a stable home life for my children and I'm hopeful that the district will provide a stable school life for my children adjusting to A disruption like the one proposed by the district will hinder students from receiving the full benefits of their
111educational environment ironically here I am making the same plea I made a year ago you have closed my child's neighborhood school and now we're proposing to take the next school from her this will result in my child transitioning into five different schools in six years if that doesn't make you feel like you're failing my child and all the other children who will suffer alongside her I don't know what will maybe you should consider the instability you were create creating for your underpaid teachers I don't think I need to spend much time discussing the trickle down effect of stressed out underpaid teachers on children in the classroom for the past year you have hidden behind the GU that you have little control over what is offered for your consideration and have refused to use your power
112to demand better options from the administration or at the very least a complete plan you have accepted and voted in favor of maor major changes for our district that lack Foundation the the Administration has yet to present us with any research data or Community feedback that suggests these changes will improve our academic outcomes I find it hard to believe there's no way to get redistricting redistricting options from your company without full commitment to the whole school dual language program they can't provide you more than two options I would ask the board to reject this rush rush decision and ask to be provided with several redistricting off options I'm sensitive to the needs of both the Middle School my kids are inevitably going to go there if we stay in the district it's going to affect
113me and the Dual language program my children are not part of the Dual language program but I certainly understand the need for it to be strengthened and nurtured if we were to remain in the district both of my girls will exp experience Orana Middle School this means I have a personal stake in the success of our school district I'm willing to admit that the children we serve today are wildly different from children only even 10 years ago there are a lot of unfortunate contributing factors that are out of our control however I have yet to learn what the district has done to reinforce their staff in order to be enable them to deal with these challenges we have heard about increasing behavioral issues and social emotional needs amongst our middle schoolers but we haven't heard
114what has been done to address these issues we haven't heard of any successes or failures the decision regarding Wy cannot be considered a fully informed decision without the knowledge that another school will be withdrawn from the majority of our elementary students within the next year the committee was not given all the information available and was made and made a decision purely based on Closing one school to openly reprimand a board member for entertaining the request of a large group of your community lacks accountability for your failure to provide all that was required to make a recommendation that benefited every student in the district I'm going to end with the same sentiment I did a year ago demand the administration provides a strategic plan upfront demand a transparent beginning to end plan that has been created
115with Community input and consideration ensure that these changes will result in measurable academic Improvement cultural awareness and Equity amongst our students thank [Applause] you uh Jess Ferman hello why I'm here and asking for a pause and a plan like many affected by these quick turnaround decisions over the past couple of years I personally attended Four elementary schools one middle school and three high schools academically this provided significant personal hardships the longest ability was from fourth to nth grade in this very School District I honestly believe this is what drew me back to Urbana I have two Elementary AE children in USD 116 now I'm triggered my children especially my fourth grader will experience a similar educational plight I'm asking for central office in the Board of Education to provide honest communication evidence-based research and strategic
116plans for this for the decisions that are being made these are the basics how many courses are taken in school about research methods and data collection I know you all are very qualified to understand this and respectfully present the information being asked I am not only here concerned about my own children's education but I have stake for those that are also considered high risk for the past 11 and a half years I have worked in the child welfare system I am currently a original coordinator overseeing two offices for foster care and intact services for many of those years I have been in these very schools advocating for these children's needs there was a lot of research on the effects of multiple changes and moves on children and families and in my line of work with
117the Department of Children and Family Services also has provided policy and procedures regarding limiting the amount of times a child in care is moved why do you think that is the same could be true for disruption of students education and in fact there are laws in place for unhoused youth which also includes Youth and care to remain at their school instead of changing schools and the school district is responsible for transportation to ensure that that happens again why do you think that is could that mean the uprooting of one's education could set that child back academically let's have open and honest communication regarding your plans again I ask you to pause your decisions and provide an appropriate strategic Plan before moving forward [Applause] Rob Bennett oh wow a chair um that's great so uh hi
118everybody uh once again and as with many of us I was here a year ago is um I've had some thoughts I mean who hasn't in this room but it seems like already in the evening 112 minutes into the proceedings um everyone's kind of made the same points I might have made except better except for one and my question is mostly to the board why you doing this why you why you putting up with this we're all sitting here week after week dragging your board meetings out to four or five hours you keep hearing the same complaints over and over again you've heard the word rubber stamp I don't know how many times tonight and I think it's a fairly valid use of the term based on what I have seen in my lone year
119following this Saga I know that a lot of us have also made statements tonight about the obligation of the board as elected or appointed officials to serve the community you have a community that's very clearly telling you in no uncertain terms that we care about what's happening in the district we want to see a clear strategic plan we haven't gotten one there's a lot of smart people in this room too and there's a lot of smart people who couldn't turn up tonight because it's hard to make these board meetings right it's certainly hard to stand up here in the corner for two hours and wait to talk to you which is the only opportunity we have you've heard all kinds of things tonight you've seen also the central office I mean that last slide that's
120already been referenced several times where it kind of feels like a threat to the board that you're not allowed to revisit previous decisions given new information which can include Community feedback but can also include data that you to my knowledge have never received I want to encourage you all as members of a board that serves a very large portion of this community right and serves a very very important role in making sure that our educational system serves children that most need it I I want you to know that you can do whatever you feel is right there's no need to take the central office's word on anything and we certainly haven't seen data presented that supports any of the conclusions many of us have asked about the Sixth Grade Center you know whether that's really
121going to help anything for anybody where's the data on that it seems to me like when I've done the research uh 90% of districts in Illinois or the Midwest generally who have tried this experiment have closed those sixth grade centers so we've heard over and over again tonight about how important it is to minimize transitions that is going to be the source of harm and how these decisions which seem to be being made one at a time see to the pants uh these decisions don't seem to be to support anything be supported by anything except for central office wants to do them I would encourage you as a board to Talk Amongst yourselves as you can as you're allowed to by the open meetings act right that's one big problem and to vote your conscience
122and not with any sort of sense of Allegiance right each decision should be taken one by one and above all everybody here tonight is saying the same thing we have not seen a strategic plan we haven't seen anything that's recognizable as one it's not that we're not hoping for one we're looking for one I don't want to drive this meeting out any longer but I do want to add on the following if I can get it up here's see I can find it my name is Rob Bennett and I stand with the Urbana community and the Urbana schools Action Coalition in demanding that the board pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a Strate plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do
123this together and to do it right thank [Music] [Applause] you thank you Mr Bennett um next up is uh John matanda hi everyone uh thank you for this opportunity we know that this program starts because French speaker come here and then we are very thankful for that and thank you because we are the part of your bana and we are valued so I'm I'm a teacher at the same time I'm a president of the conges community so tonight I will speak as a president I'm not speaking as a teacher so since this change started the community the French speak Community they didn't know what's going on so they didn't go get the right information about the change so the first thing have been called calling parents calling students ask them what they think about the
124change because as you can see they are not here not because they don't want to come here but because they work they work second and third shift and the only time they can have free they can be free to come is on the weekend and that's something they can't so I'm here with their voice to let you know what they think so the third thing that come to my they question me was why this change happen and why should that change happen now can they wait can they tell take time to explain why they need this change to happen and what will be the positive or negative change positive or negative side of the change so they want to get more information because they are the first concern if the program STS is because they
125came in your and that they are very [Music] thankful about the place about switching the schools either Yan or Thomas pen they says that the only thing they want the only place they want to be is where they they will be valued the place they will be set the place where they will keep their culture and the place where they can learn if if they can learn at your at younger Rich that's fine if it can be Thomas pen that's fine but as long as they can be in a safe environment they can learn they can keep their culture that's fine so 90 70% of parent that I talk to they they say yes for being with the Spanish speaker because some of the student they don't want to speak their local language they are
126in an environment where if they speak another language people are mocking them so F being in the environment where they can see all the students speak the language order in English that can encourage them speak lingala or French and the other issue too is about the name because all the name that has been going around they call that school Spanish school is that name that will be kept or it will be a different one because going to the Spanish school being a French speaker It's Tricky it's like the student will spend the time learning a different language order than English and then we ask to the board to communicate with family to know what will be the name of that school if that will happen and then how they will teach students more parent don't
127know if students spend time to learn English and learn French or Spanish and numing or calling that school is a Spanish school that will be tricky for parents so we are asking for the bo to the board to think about the name that to enourage all non French non- English family to attend the scho and the last thing is we here because we need the change what our student say what our because they are the first concern we parents we can decide but what they say are they ready to move around are the teacher ready to move around are the family ready to move around so we can make something that will make everyone happy even everyone will never be happy but we can do it wa thank [Music] [Applause] you uh Brian husaric I'm
128sorry if I mispronounced your last name um thank you very much uh my name is Brian I just wanted to start with saying that I stand with the Coalition in support for posing until a strategic plan is approved by all stakeholders uh democratically um honestly the whole night I've been thinking what will happen when this uh Chinese speaking Community won a school are we going to close another school and give them what they want I mean there's a growing kahil speaking population in the community what will happen when they also want a school what's going to happen I guess the the no or example is to highlight that without a plan we are in the deck and are just pocking around in the dark hoping uh to find safety in the decisions that uh that
129we make honestly this whole conversation has been brought about due to poor communication and decision making on your part it has made everybody think that there are those who are for and those who are against whereas that's not true I don't think there's any right thinking parent in this room who thinks that Spanish shouldn't have the spe that they need to grow uh as a as a as a learning program or that the French speaking program doesn't shouldn't get Room to Grow I don't think there's any right thinking parent in this room who thinks like that we are all for we want these programs to grow but we know that the way that you are doing it is going to lead us exactly where we are today which is without a plan without that strategic
130plan we feel that we're going to end up where we are today now a lot of the information that we know as parents we are learning from PTA not from you that should change we should be hearing from you what is going to happen before we know what's going to happen a couple of months ago the French uh parents in the French program at Yan Ridge learned that the French program is going to be closed well then we said shouting then we started shouting meetings meetings and then oh well well it's not going to be closed oh wait a minute the school itself could be the one that's going to be closed now that seemed very very familiar to what actually happened to Wy when they were like oh as bestos asbestos asbestos H close
131for a couple of months we'll be back no it's actually closed and you see those stories whereas they sound like conspiracy theories that's the mistrust that you have propagated by the pure uh poor communication that you are doing we are praying that you adopt a community engagement model that effectively informs and encourages Community to engage in the decision making especially decision making that is going to Foster forward student learning outcomes not for just part of the population but for all of the population now I do understand the needs of the central office and I hope that you are not rubber stamping them for political expediency because well central office is for the Spanish program so let's do it and I say that as a black man very well questioning myself that well this advances needs
132of a minority no I know that going down that road is just going to create another Enclave if you like and the other people who don't belong to that Enclave are also going to want part of the cake and so what do we do do we also now cut out another Enclave for them I think that diversity is not allowing for one culture to grow but it's for allowing for all cultures to grow together not separately together and the way we do that is by creating a strategic plan tell us in the next 10 years as the board this is what we're looking to do we know that there is there are these needs and this is what we are doing to take care of those needs and this is how we will slowly achieve
133that plan over these years and I think me putting my child on the bus after knowing that plan I don't think there's any member in this meeting who will not gladly put their child on the bus knowing that they're going to a self school knowing that they're going to a school where teachers are being supported I don't think that creating a school where you're going to put the Spanish program is going to take care of the program problems that they've been having at Le tell us how are you planning to support the teachers who are teaching those students how are you planning to you know build safety how are you planning what is the plan to build that mul culturalism that we are also scrimming about you know what is the plan and I think
134we will all be behind you when we finally know what that plan is thank you very much uh wonderly Rodriguez good night my name is wendal Rodriguez I work as a special education teacher in Urbana Middle School we are here again as a dual language teacher we believe in bilingual education and we Advocate because we understand that it's beneficial for our student and our Society we thank you for voting in favor of the K5 dual school we remind you that the Dual program in Spanish and French is not a whim of the teacher it is a stipulation of law the program is created to meet the needs of the Latino and French speakers population that has grown in our district the decision for a K5 building a dual K5 building did not come out of
135nowhere it was a decision based on the C study and the needs of our students we repeat our society has changed and the Latin Community is part of it our student have the same right as all students at this time we are at this disadvantage because the monolingual groups are smaller decreasing the teacher student ratio as a special education teacher I work with sixth seventh and eighth grade students while children's with monolingual IPS have two teachers per grade one for ELA one for math this is a question of inequality our student have less staff and classroom full to capacity the K5 dual school is allow us to offer them an specialized education where the teachers are certified and have chosen to work with them again I repeat the Dual school was not a li decision
136but a decision based on data and the needs of our population this decision will provide the district the opportunity to offer a dual language schol for our students Jun rich or Thomas pay t-shir will have the opportunity to shine and contribute to the development of student at their new school all change are difficult but we have to be resilient and make decisions in favor of our student and satisfy the needs of our society we will happy to join the French bigger family and students and work for uh work for because our students all of them grow in a cultural school when they can share uh their uh culture and when they can speak the language that they want in the same way that they develop the English language that is important for all of our
137student thank you Jordan brinkworth hi I'm Jordan I've been in the French dual language program for six years and I go to Yankee Ridge um I go to Yankee Ridge and I have seen the incompetence of this district for as long as I can remember from kindergarten to today my school has been in incredibly unstable how can I tell this has gotten worse I gone to PTA meetings and what I hear is that not enough people from the DRC sign up their kids for dual language I have been taught by long-term uh substitute teachers most of my time at Yankee Ridge the district has told us they advertise to DRC families with a mail fly my friends from the DRC have come here from a from a very dangerous and complex conflict they come as
138refugees from a country with six million people who have been forced to escape indis uh indiscriminate killings and gender violence from militias that have moved into the country after the Rwanda genocide and the congales wars so many of so many of them work hour hourly jobs and second so I'm sorry the phone is messing up for a second I'm very very no it's just I okay just move on to the next they get left out of uh out of decisions by The District in a meeting I was at the central office and administrators described the parents from thec as hard to reach with little Outreach from the district and no clear plans about the future program that is a colonial language my class started as 13 students in kindergarten it is now eight students my
139friends and their parents need to be supported in a communicating in in communicating a shared language our friends from the deerc needs supported dual language uh French program how does combining it with the Spanish program fixed reaching out to the DRC families where is the information and the plan plan and plan to support this program do you have the information about how the DRC K how the kids from the DRC families that have already had to move to a new country will handle this the dismantling of Yankee Ridge or a shrinking or a shrinking under supported French uh program please pause acting on your decisions until you can show us a strategic plan save our school save our district save our banana students without jeopardizing our community thank you Kish Riviera Toledo holaa SCH for
140Afro American Girl see so afro for Facebook [Music] for Los fr me [Music] for men w g zenil us [Music] in r muchas thank you um so the last uh paration sheet I have is for Lacy Elliott if anybody else would would like to make a statement for the board please fill a sheet in the back of the room and hand it to Lor Johnson but if not this is this is our last speaker tonight Lacy Elliott I'm going to speak in Spanish first and then I will translate what I said [Music] um the familias Andre Wy Thomas Payne Yan [Music] for uh as we heard from many many people tonight you have made promises that you can't keep either you will break your word to Wy families about moving kids again or you're going
141to break your word to the DL Community the Dual language Community you have alienated three whole buildings of St of staff and students between Wy Thomas Payne and Yankee Ridge and who's going to pay the price for this mess it will be the students and specifically it's going to be the kids at DPW in the newly reunified Easter bandana neighborhood why because that school will be half empty when dual language moves out and the teachers you need to move there currently are actively looking for other jobs you will have from the end of April until August to staff Leo and DPW it is inevitable that come August there will be many children in DPW and possibly Leo without a qualified teacher you can't have Education Without Educators if you actually want positive change you're going
142to have to change the way that you do things we are asking the board to pause all approved pending and proposed changes to the district until a strategic plan a strategic plan is drafted reviewed and approved by all stakeholders we need to take the time to do this together and do it right we all want the same thing a bright future for our kids thanks uh thank you that concludes citizen statements uh there will be a call for an executive session after tonight's meeting for the purpose of personnel and there will be no board action after the executive session is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda so move second move in second in all in favor say I I opposed uh no accommodations recogntion or Communications tonight student ambassador report all right um this
143is the student Masters uh report for February 20th today from me and Dominica oh I have the clicker this time okay um um so there's a word of the day in each of these reports the word of the day is Big Tree um big tree is when a person has a strong dislike or unreasonable beliefs towards a certain faction of people just because they are different than them um this is typically through pre-justice or bias typically to minority groups um specifically black and brown people but it can be towards any minority groups um people oftenly often use big Tre to glorify their own group um while putting others groups down um and then the black historical figure of the month is Augustus Jackson who was a black American man who was a businessman and Chef
144um he's well known and historically known for making the modern version version of ice cream and the development of new flavors um he worked in the white house for 20 years and then he opened his own business and his ice cream recipes became famous all over the um nation and he was known as the top chef in the white house um UHS senior night uh for cheerleading band in basketball was on February 9th um where people honor seniors um hard work and dedication throughout all their years of high school um people often make posters or give them gifts and flowers and they basically just stand in the middle of the gym with their family and then like the announcer comes on and talks about um the senior's plans for the future like what college they
145might go to and how many years they have been in that specific sport or activity um I didn't attend this uh your senior night cuz I'm sick so um there might have been some tweaks but this is typically what happens on senior night um there have been US military visits at UHS um where basically the military Representatives just like set up a table in the lunchroom um full of information and students can basically just visit the table gather information um and then if they're willing to they'll like sit down for an interview if they like feel comfortable but normally it's just like they give them like a some kind of physical um information or something like that and then there's as uh VAB tests that will take place on February 22nd Thursday at 11:30 p.m.
146um any grade above freshman can take this test and this exam is an aptitude test administered by the US Department of Defense um assessing individual strengths and weaknesses and having success in the military um Quest Food Management Services update um so there's been a lot of mixed reviews that I've been getting from the student body and I also get lunch every single day so I've seen a lot of things change and improve in um a lot of advantages and disadvantages um I'd say the advantages are there's immense amount of fruit and everyone loves the fruit I mean like there's a long line for the fruit everyone normally gets the fruits that's great um and there does seem to be a lot of options for food for fourth and fifth hour lunches and overall there does
147seem to be enough food for everyone and the lunch workers are very kind and you can tell they are very hard at work and sometimes you can tell they're exhausted but they're still doing their best so it's like really great to see how they can still like tell everyone to have like a blessed day um to every single person who gets food from them even though you can tell they're like like exhausted so um but some of the disadvantages that I found is there still doesn't seem to be that many vegetarian or vegan options um most are I'm not sure maybe all of the vegan and vegetarian options that was said to be in the cafeteria like months ago is not in there like I have a friend who is Muslim and she cannot eat
148pork and a lot of times there's nothing that she can really eat so still and and like this is not meant to sound harsh but it's just like genuinely that's just what's happening in the lunchroom um and then six hour lunch is commonly out of chocolate milk and some food options most of the time so like you come and like they're out of like a lot of food options and you can only eat like a few things or like you only have like a few options um and then students are asking for juice I don't know if this is possible but I just wanted to run this idea by the board because like students are used to having juice like last year but this year is just gone at lunch so they've been like trying
149to find a way to get juice back um and then the FAFSA completion Workshop um and ISAC corpse representative um and Miss de Meer are going to be helping with three workshops about like helping students with fafs applications um these workshops will be held February 26th from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and then March 7th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. um and then there is one that already happened and then they're all in the UHS lecture hall and there's also ISAC Representatives that have office hours each Tuesday from 11:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. in the counseling office at UHS so that's good and then there will be five upcoming College rep visits um February 12th at 9:00 a.m. will be an Eastern Illinois University virtual visit um on February uh 28th at 9:00 a.m.
150there will be a Blackburn College visit on March 6th 2 p.m. there will be a St Francis Medical Center College of Nursing visit on March 19th 1 p.m. there will be Bradley University visit and then on March 21st at 12th PM there will be a Quincy University visit and then UHS basketball and baseball updates so these are like the two sports that have like like a decent amount like a lot going on um for basketball tomorrow there will be a boys basketball game at sham at champagne Central High School versus UHS and then if UHS wins the game we will go on to Regionals and play Danville High School on Wednesday at 6 pm. so I hope that we win and we get to go to Regionals because that would be great um and I
151don't think we got to Regionals last year so hopefully we can have a comeback um um and then baseball there's like two more open gyms for baseball on February 20th and 22nd both before school um from 6:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. and then students are supposed to like bring their own gloves and take these clinics to be prepared to try out for UHS baseball team so y um thank you for your attention thank you Paulina our administrative report tonight is a report on K through six elementary schools and a multilingual school at the current Wally building thank you so I'm gonna invite up any of our directors who stayed um for tonight and I actually ask Dr weel if he could just very Briefly summarize um kesla and um Wana statements ju I mean like
152two sentences just so the board at least know knew what they said because it was very passionate for both of them so um KLA retta's comment and uh public comment in Spanish was it's hard to summarize because it was it was very passionate um in support of maintaining the commitment to K5 dual Language School in support of doing what is necessary to serve the students are Latino students and immigrant students uh French speaking Community as well um that the changes these do come with big changes and uncomfortable changes but change is part of life and part and is a necessity and urges the board to continue with that commitment is that a good summary okay and Miss hanana um shared that she was in support of the Coalition movement of requesting everything be paused until
153there's a formal strategic plan in place that lays out all of the the changes and and the broader stakeholders all in support um and that would be a quick summary of her statement as well okay thank you um George there monitors just went out are your monitors on over there so Tori and okay so thank you he's gonna come problem solve that so okay I've asked the directors to um be available for questions so if there are questions that I can't answer specifics as we kind of walk through this I'll kind of defer to them and ask them to jump in um so we're going to kind of share this presentation tonight um and I'm going to address the beginning um and then have other members of the administrative team jump in so um why
154oh I forgot I can't use that clicker oh clicker thank you yeah go so why are we discussing this now um I was asked to uh following the Yankee Ridge um parent meeting last week um with a conversation around k6 um schools uh was discussed and then we also received information from a Leo parent uh regarding plans for a case6 so it was a formal request from um president palowski and um member hakka to talk about this um and then we also were asked to reconsider um or just discuss reimagining Wy into a whole language uh whole dual Language School um again we've had some of these conversations in the last year or two um but I realize and recognize that there are people uh that are participating in this and not that have not
155been following along for the last two years um so uh there are more people paying attention to the conversations now um as we're talking about dual language um going into Thomas Payne and whle so that is basically why we're having this discussion now there's no action regarding this so this is more of an informational board discussion that we were asked to um share so just to give a little timeline for uh people who have not been following along for the last two years um this is basically a slide that just gives you a little uh background into when we started talking about dual language we've been talking about it longer than this but we had a formal committee um of several stakeholders from the district parents administrators teachers community members um who uh were brought
156together in a um format to formally talk about exploring program Improvement for a specifically for the Spanish dual language uh program as we have heard tonight and we've heard in many meetings previously um both of our programs now exist in two strand models and so we've been talking about um bringing those two strands together into one building so I'm not going to read this this was really just added as an informational document for people who um maybe haven't had the opportunity to go back um and revisit some of this information these are all live links uh so people that are interested and want to know a little bit more about what has been presented and information from the committee that was shared over the last two years um it is available for you here also
157um we there has been mentioned tonight about the uh District facilities committee um that was formed regarding um what was going to be the action taken for um Wy so there was a formal board charged committee um last spring in 2023 um the board uh gave some very specific guidance and guidelines on who should be represented on that committee um what the committee process should look like um in terms of forming the committee and um we followed all of those uh requests and recommendations from the board and put together a facilities committee that started meeting in April of 2023 and met um all summer spring summer and into August um considering the recommendations for either a dual Language School a Sixth Grade Center and how we were going to um use the Wy space um
158in the future so this is just kind of reminding the board and the community on the process of how we ended um up where we are today talking about a Sixth Grade Center I also wanted to share I know I've heard um comments tonight and in previous meetings that the um the committee was mostly sixth grade um or middle school staff members which um actually is not correct so I thought thought it would be better to um provide information and to uh for the people that may be misinformed um so there were staff members from Ms but they were not the majority of the committee um we had parents who represented um all schools there was an anonymous screening process um for parents to participate um and staff members um so this group and there
159aren't names or or schools represented next to them but um there are people here from orbana high school from orbana middle school um every Elementary had a representative uh per the board's um directive the Wy Community was um more represented um in parents and staff members um again we were meeting during the summer so it was challenging um for people with vacations and summer commitments to be at every meeting um so we had some people who basically came for the very first meeting and then we didn't see them again until August or we had some people who um kind of came very intermittently um but the committee was a uh I say diverse group of stakeholders so I just wanted to to say that out loud and clear that up because we we have heard
160multiple times that um the committee was kind of stacked with just Middle School folks um also there were administrators we've also heard that um there were central office administrators um of course anytime you're talking about um this kind of work it's important for our building principles to be represented so these are the building principles who attended um again not every single meeting people just attended based on when their schedules um during the summertime allowed them to be there um I was there with my team but we were non voting members so we were there um mostly to provide information to provide data answer questions and basically just be there to help guide the committee on along the way so that's just a little just a little background I also did think it was relevant to
161share um the vote around um the Sixth Grade Center um I've also heard comments around um the fact that um that only certain that a small group of people voted for the Sixth Grade Center or that the only people that voted were people from ums and as you can see there were 24 people who voted to reopen wly as a sixth grade Center and there were not nearly 24 people representing Ms on this committee so um I also just wanted to share that just as again information for folks redistricting timeline um I also thought it relevant to share um how long we've been talking about redistricting um I know this slide starts with September but we've been talking about redistricting for the last two years um it's come up in multiple conversations um around the
162uh DPW overflow um and the fact that we have overflowed over 300 students um from the DPW neighborhood basically all over the district so we've been talking about this for multiple years now um and the board finally took action and um we had some serious conversations at the beginning of this year um about bringing in a redistricting consultant to help us um address the um continued marginalization of um one Community uh in Urbana um and the fact that uh we've had a lot of conversations um and we've heard it again tonight about neighborhood schools um when in fact um part of the reason why we are talking about redistricting is we have a large large percentage of our students who um don't have the benefit and the privilege of being able to attend a neighborhood
163school um and never have as you heard David say tonight um he's never had an opportunity to walk to school and he's at herban high school so I think these are all um conversations that we've had for many years um and um I applaud the board for um actually addressing this issue um and the Dual language issue as well as um what are we going to do to help address the needs at Urbana Middle School um further in the presentation I attached to uh presentations from the facilities committee basically talking about the current needs I'm not going to go through that tonight um in the interest of time but I thought it might be relevant for people who maybe um weren't following along with that conversation um several months ago when we talked about that
164who might want to go in and look at those slides um to learn a little bit about why um the Sixth Grade Center was something that um many people were very passionate about as you heard tonight um the continued passion as to um why we are uh wanting something different for ums um I spent most of my day at ums today as did several members from my team um and so I would encourage people before you sit in the audience and talk about not wanting to do something for ums to go there and spend some time also um redistricting timeline I've also heard um comments around um there isn't going to be an opportunity or the decision is made um and so we have very intentional uh public input um coming up and it is
165actually February 28 29th uh so right around the corner um there will be uh Consultants they've been visiting with us uh via Zoom at all of our previous meetings but they will actually be here in person um to help share the boundary plans that they are working on um and we are not going to be doing a formal presentation they're going to be walking through um the concepts that they are putting together so I would encourage everyone um who came tonight all 30 people or I forgot I lost my sheet 32 um and um basically anyone who is interested in having some put and um there will be a survey opened up around that exact um time frame they will be sharing the Maps prior to the 28th and 29th so people have a few
166days to look at them um before we ask you to give input that evening so this is just kind of repeat information but I'm just doing it for um people who maybe haven't been involved as much in following along with the conversation as it has been playing out the last few months so so jumping into the k6 conversation sorry I have dry mouth and a coffin so if I have to stop and drink I'm sorry okay so um we basically uh split the conversation around converting six Elementary buildings into k6 schools around um several um implications so talking about curriculum social emotional needs uh extracurricular implications Human Resources budget and Facilities um again we didn't address every single um Pro or every single con but we thought we would um prioritize and highlight the ones
167that we thought were um just really glaring and really important that the community were aware um of some of these considerations um so for pro starting with curriculum content um for all K six schools keeping students for an extra year in an elementary school will allow another school in general education um self-contained classrooms to reach greater proficiency levels in Reading Writing and math uh we've been talking a lot in the last um several months weeks about um the fact that our students are um struggling academically uh we have spent the last two to three years looking at curriculum op options to help make sure that our teachers have um better curriculum to be able to address the needs um of our students academically um and so that is a um a very important U consideration
168um and a pro as I would think most people here would add that having an extra year at elementary would allow for students to have more time to reach that proficiency level so we recognize that as well um for a case six dual Language School keeping sixth graders for an extra year in a whole school dual language model um where all students and staff are aligned with the mission and vision of the pillars of dual language and bilingualism biliteracy um academic academic achievement and crosscultural accompanies will strengthen our DL students development um by giving them more time with the whole school model so um if we were to have a k6 dual language school we all recognize that having an additional year there um would benefit students so those are a couple of Pros some
169cons um that we feel should be uh we want to make sure our public is aware um right now uh we have been spending the whole year I should have said um as soon as the board approved the uh Sixth Grade Center in August um we had a Sixth Grade Center planning team um that was put together with a wide variety of represent divorces froms of Staff members um and we started having monthly planning meetings and so we worked with Scott from igw and his team um who came in um basically a couple times a week for several weeks um to talk to uh Middle School staff about what they felt the needs were in terms of space in terms of um teaching and instruction and what they needed as Educators to be able to
170um effectively improve outcomes for our our sixth grade uh students so some of the comments that you're going to read here are not things that we're currently doing ATS and offering for our current sixth graders but um they are added here because they are things that we've talked about doing um within that committee and things that will be planned for the Sixth Grade Center there also um I've seen some of the um uh comments or emails or um information that has been put out um in the community on social media about um things that have been generated from this committee uh I also wish wish to say that we have not made any final decisions about the teaming structure about the schedule um about you know um how many teams are going to be and
171what exactly amount of time everyone will be spending in those classes um those are all conversations that we are we're just doing a lot of really creative brainstorming and just considering lots of options so I feel like the board and the public have been um misled to believe that um we have already selected a couple of different options and that there's some um definitive things that have been been decided um so I just wanted to say that isn't true uh we are still um considering several options for um the structure of the teams and what the schedule of the day would look like so those conversations are still continuing so jumping back into uh the slides so some of the concerns that we have are are pretty much around the electives um that are going
172to be offered um if we are at six at k6 buildings a lot of the conversations that we've had um within this sixth grade planning team is making sure that we are honoring the elective program um that currently exists ATS are we going to be able to offer every single class that is currently being offered ATS no um but the offerings that would be uh provided in the Sixth Grade Center are going to be much more um than what we would be able to offer if we were in k6 uh in a k6 uh setting um there's also uh equity and access concerns um because the a wide number of our um sixth graders ERS um in the future sixth graders who might enroll um the just the fact that they won't be having the
173same opportunities that middle schoolers in our community have middle schoolers in our region have um they'll be at a disadvantage um without having had the opportunity to have some of those um other electives um sixth graders lose access to the Middle School model um one of the reasons that uh one of the positives at our Middle School is the teaming model um and a lot of our teachers um become Middle School teachers because they want to work on a teaming model um and if we have k6 buildings we lose that ability to um program and have content um around a middle school model it would be very much like um sixth graders participating in what would be a typical day that an elementary student would um be going through um and that loss of content
174We Believe would impact their transition to seventh grade um one of the things that we've talked about a lot at the Sixth Grade Center is that being an opportunity to really um slow roll the students in as seventh graders um really having more time to talk about social emotional needs um to help them become more independent Learners and independent thinkers without all of the distractions that they they see and hear um from older seventh and eighth grade students every day um and we feel like they are going to miss that opportunity to be um just to have that um that transition and that um access to the additional umcl work that we'd be able to do with them as sixth grade students at the Sixth Grade Center so um core content so uh we've talked
175here Tanya came and shared with the board um a couple weeks ago around the work work that the ELA SLA English language arts and Spanish language arts committee has been um putting forth for the last year year and a half maybe um to select a new Ela SLA program and we're very excited that um we now have adopted a um two programs or a couple programs that um will address the uh literacy needs that our students have are so um just prevalent right now across all grade levels um and they are grounded in the science of reading so we're really excited about that the fact that the English language arts curriculum that we've adopted and purchased um core knowledge language arts ckla for K5 and um hmh which is Hooten Mifflin hardcourt for grades six
176through eight um having two different core uh literacy programs um in a k6 space will be extremely uh difficult for our administrators um who will have to be in spaces supporting teachers um professional development and training the walkthroughs um trying to navigate two very um intensive and rigorous uh literacy programs in one building um is is going to be extremely challenging and so um I know we have a a comment on here about uh Spanish language arts uh would also face uh very similar challenges um with different curriculums for K5 and then 612 um supporting year two of illustrative math um as you've heard tonight and we've talked about uh this is our first year of our new math curriculum as well um and the fact that we would be spanning math content across a
177k6 um in one building will also be um challenging um but the other big piece of it is is we have some fantastic Math teachers ATS right now and they are math content Specialists that's what they do they teach math all day long and they're very good at it um and they became Math teachers because that's what they want to do is teach math all day long um and so asking those people to now um even if they're certified or qualified to do so to go to a case six um we feel would be a detriment to our students because they will lose that knowledge and expertise that um those math content Area Teachers have and that goes for every single area I only listed math here but that would go for science and social
178studies and language arts um the teachers at ums um are specialists in the areas that in which they teach and to ask them to now go to a k6 building and teach multiple subjects um that they may not feel as comfortable able teaching um will be a challenge anybody over there want to add anything on that slide okay I just want to reiterate um a point with the professional development um as it relates to a lot of the conversation that we had regarding um one of the needs for combining dual language getting two buildings together for professional development and having groups be together has been a challenge for many years for us the idea with this I just to add another thought is that getting sixth grade teachers from multiple buildings together to do professional
179development on their own curriculum away from their other building you're solving one problem and creating another thank you Lupe okay specials so um I was an ele a former Elementary principal for many years um in my former role as Deputy superintendent um I had the pleasure and the um not so exciting years of having to create the Fine Art schedule um and it is if I could say it is challenging it is extremely challenging to um create a schedule that is Equitable for um all students to be able to participate in music um art dance and drama PE and Library our district has been committed to our fine arts program for many many years years um our model is uh a a model that other districts see what we do and say how do you
180guys do that so um we really do feel that um having a case six and trying to incorporate two sixth grade classes or even three sixth grade classes into the special schedule is is I'm not going to be the one hopefully has to do it but it is going to be just I don't even know how we would do it um without having to add more staff so a lot of these implications are also implications for budgeting or also implications for HR um because you can't just add three classes or two classes of sixth grade and in buildings that are already bigger um that already have a significant number of classes expect to be able to do that without adding staff um now every building won't need that but there are some that will um
181adding sixth grade to a K5 building will extend the lunch times so um the lunch schedule in in our elementary schools some of our schools start lunch and have lunch for almost two and a half hours to add um additional classes will not only extend the lunch times um but we would also have more implications and budget implications for Food Service um lunch room supervision um it just extends the whole day in terms of um just trying to fit everything in from 8:15 to 3:00 would be really difficult um the health curriculum so our sixth graders uh have health uh delivered in a very different way um fifth graders have health but it is a much uh very different developmentally level of of Health um what what the sixth fifth graders receive our sixth graders
182um the health curriculum is sex education and Drug prevention um there's several mandates units of study uh that were required to teach um middle schoolers that were not required to teach um uh Elementary age students um right now we rely on our um we have several of our Community Partners who kind of help us in this effort um the middle schoolers have nine weeks of health class um so they they don't have PE for nine weeks and they have health in Le of that um and during that time they have classes like too good for drugs um The Rose crant people come in and they do lessons around that um there's some of our students in the fax program who have been working with c cupd um with the Catch My Breath program so there
183are Partners who would work with us but basically the health curriculum would be delivered by our um PE teachers and um I don't know that the elementary PE teachers um would be able to do this um I know that our fifth grade teachers or or the sixth grade teachers um are not trained or um may not be willing to uh have that have these conversations in a k6 building so band and strings would be heavily impacted um our Bandon Strings program is topnotch and one of the best in the state um and that starts at fifth grade um we start um for parents who are watching who have younger students who um play instruments are interested in music um as a fifth grader you have the opportunity to try out a band instrument or a
184strings instrument um and we have traveling teachers who do that so we have teachers who um also teach ATS and UHS who travel um Stacy peterik does a fantastic job for band and Tamar gingo for Strings they also have other classes that they teach um at the secondary level um as part of their traveling for band inst strings um if we were also going to replicate what we currently do at the middle school which we would be doing at the Sixth Grade Center um we offer a sixth grade continuing band sixth grade beginning band sixth grade continuing Orchestra all all the things um that are being offered at ums for band and strings um we would we would I don't know how we would be able to offer those things at a k6 um we
185definitely wouldn't be able to do it with the staff that we currently have so we would be looking for um additional band and strings teachers just to make sure that our students aren't missing out on the opportunity to um grow as a be a beginning musician um and again our program is fantastic um because we start those fifth graders early and they're able to really matriculate through middle school and high school um and in I I feel like the program would greatly suffer um if we were going to try to replicate it at a k6 building and I I've already kind of talked about the expertise of ours teachers um the core teachers um but I also want to talk about the expertise of our elective teachers we have some fantastic um teachers um at
186ums who are teaching elective classes um that are really passionate about the work that they do and the offerings that they are able to to provide students ATS which we would be replicating U many of those at the Sixth Grade Center um we would not be able to bring all of those diverse offerings and all of those um electives to k6 buildings um there just wouldn't be enough time in the day um and again we want to focus on Reading Writing Math Science Social Studies seal we have all those other um all those other key core uh learning components that need to be uh worked into a K5 day that would now be worked into a k6 day um and students would really lose out on um a lot of the diversity that they're able
187to get in their learning ATS um science I know I saw a comment in um something that was shared me I can't remember which one but um there was a comment about this particular bullet about the science lab so we recognize that we currently um don't offer for science lab learning ATS for the sixth graders but it is actually part of the plan for the Sixth Grade Center you've already seen the schematic design um we have already made a commitment to having science labs at the Sixth Grade Center because we want our students um introduced to a robust science curriculum um as sixth graders not as not to have to wait to go to the science lab as a seventh or an eighth grader um so that would not be able to um happen at
188a k6 building right now our um K5 uh science curriculum is delivered through units um very specific units around very specific standards um so then our sixth graders would have to roll into something similar and they would lose that um science curriculum that they would would get um when they if if and when we have the Sixth Grade Center um I've already talked about the Le loss of teacher ex expertise and content areas so I think um Angie's going to talk about this a little bit more um in the HR section um because we have looked at the licensing and certification of many of our Middle School teachers um and very few of them even have the ability to teach um at a k6 building so but I'll let Angie talk about that and I
189think that was it anything else about nope okay next is acceleration so I've gotten a few emails about this and I know this is something that we have some parents in the district that are really passionate about acceleration um and it definitely is something that we as a district um is important to us too um unfortunately um trying to provide an acceleration experience for a fifth grader um coming to the middle school has not been something that we've been able to do um they're just so many um limitations around Transportation around schedules um that have made that very difficult to um to figure out logistically how that would work um if we had sixth grade centers at sixth graders at a k6 building unfortunately um we would be limiting the sixth graders ability to also
190uh be accelerated into 7th grade or eighth grade classes we have sixth graders ATS right now who are accelerated um one into one grade or sometimes two um for specific classes I don't know how we'd offer that if we had k6 buildings um just the transportation limitations Alone um would be really really difficult um and I'm going to jump to the bottom uh bullet there um talking a little bit about a pathway to AP programming um that is something that is uh really important to Administration um at both the Middle School um high school and central office especially um wanting to make sure we have more students of color um participating in those higher level classes at UHS so um right now to enter into that path for um being able to access some of
191that higher level programming um or those higher level courses um when you become a high school student like Calculus BC um you kind of have to start that path as a middle schooler um and if you don't get on that path early enough like take algebra earlier or take some some of those classes before you're actually a high school student um it could be uh really difficult for some of our students to reach that level of um H just having the access to be able to take calculus they won't have enough um time in their schedules um from 8ighth grade to or seventh grade to um their senior year to just to even get to that and I could explain that more but a lot of people aren't going to understand it but that's one
192of those things you just have to kind of trust us right so that second bullet um Avid so our district has become um a a Avid School in the um at the middle school level uh we've been uh talking about Avid advancement via individual determination um for college readiness for the last couple years we're excited that we um have been able to grow the program um at the middle school our uh first class of avid students ATS will be transitioning to the high school next year as ninth graders so Avid um will be moving up into the high school we're really happy about that um several of our administrators um that are now at UHS are trained and know a lot about Avid so they're really looking forward to those ninth graders coming um the
193reason we included this here is um one of the concerns that we've seen ATS is um we have we the way we introduce Avid or the way we're um instructing um the Avid strategies um for the students is through Avid elective classes um and unfortunately even though we've um I think tried to do a good job of selling and pring and you know telling the students what Avid is all about we don't see as many students enrolling in the program as we would like um and we feel a way to um address that is we plan at the Sixth Grade Center to make the Sixth Grade Center an avid for all an avid for all program which means every single sixth grader um in the Sixth Grade Center would be introduced to average strategies um
194they would learn the basic um just what is AVID and what is it all about so then when they go to seventh grade they know what it means when they see on a schedule here's an avid elective sign up for that um so we're excited about that um I don't know that we'd be able to replicate that at the sixth grade level I mean at a k6 um there's some very specific training um it is a very costly training just to be able to participate in Avid um we have to pay um a fee just to be part of the program just to call ourselves an avid site um if we were going to offer that at all six uh elementary schools we'd have to send quite a few people um to these National trainings
195to be trained um so that would be a huge um cost to the district and time and um just if there was um interest um in that happening at k6 um we're not quite sure about that I'm looking at my notes anything else about this slide that anybody over there wants to add I think that's kind of it okay and I think John is going to do talk about this Slide John is out of at a a Tech conference this week but he is joining us via zoom and uh so kind of this ties in with the previous slide uh this is just a list uh not a complete list but this is all of the classes that aren't core classes that current sixth graders are actually taking so as you can see there some
196kids are taking kind of accelerated science accelerated algebra uh so if we did have a k uh six model uh these are classes most of them that we wouldn't be able to integrate into that k6 model thank you John and I know there was um I saw a screenshot of um a lot of conversation about some of these classes but what John actually did is went into Skyward and ran a report um and so if we added it on this list that means there are sixth graders that are actually in the classes so I just wanted to reiterate that yeah sorry uh so in this we are saying that if kids from sixth grade um are accelerated and taking Mat 7 how they they going to do it in the building they have they do
197that at ums right now so we have sixth graders who go to seventh grade math classes yes how that's going to happen when they move to the Sixth Grade Center so yes that will be able to happen at the Sixth Grade Center because um it'll be challenging but it is definitely more doable than it will be if um they're in k6 buildings so because the building one is just a couple blocks away um it won't be a matter of driving buses all over town to pick up students to bring them to ums it would just be one trip back and forth and we can do that with our activity buses kids are going back to Middle School to get the classes so what we have talked about doing is trying to schedule it some of
198this is scheduling right so trying to schedule those classes in the morning so maybe if I'm a sixth grader um I am going to probably have my acceleration classes like first thing in the morning and then when I'm done I would get on the activity bus and come back down the street or if it was a beautiful day like today I could walk two blocks back to the school um but again yes it would be pretty close with if we were doing um k6 buildings the loss of instructional time in Drive picking up students driving them back and forth we'd pick them up drive them to middle school they might be able to participate in that class for 20 minutes and then have to drive them back um so logistically it is much more challenging
199but definitely we've already talked about it at the Sixth Grade Center and feel like it is something that we we are going to still be able to do that anybody want to add anything about that okay okay so any other I'm going to move to um I think next is social my there we go it wasn't working there for a minute so before I leave the curriculum area does anybody have any specific questions or comments about curriculum that you want um so for the students of color in the AP classes do you have the demographics of that I don't have it with me tonight but yes we definitely do okay could is there a way you could like share that with me yeah I can share that with you thank you yeah yeah I'll work
200with Miss rinkenberger on getting that to you thank you drum I have that data handy as well not right now but I can work with you to share it yes yeah Paul got okay okay all right so I'm going to jump to social emotional um so we recognize there are some definitly um strong Pros um forcl uh in case six buildings um one thing that I would love to see all of our sixth graders and seventh graders and eighth graders is to just um harness some of their leadership skills um and build them up as Leaders whether it's in a k6 or whether just in our regulars right now um we have some students over there who are just so charismatic and have so many positive things um I just need to see them harness
201all of that leadership in a in a really positive way um and a k6 would give us the opportunity to kind of help build six graders as leaders before we um send them TOS um we recognize that there would be fewer building transitions as people have talked about tonight um that is a concern um and a k6 having that that takes away one less transition right if they are going right from the k6 building to seventh grade um an additional year to mature and develop before being introduced to the challenges associated with being a middle schooler um their you know Middle School is just a challenging time their bodies are changing um um they're developmentally changing um and so giving students a year in the more protected um K5 environment before they um go to
202a middle school um definitely is go to seventh grade definitely would be an a pro so some of the challenges um including sixth graders with much younger students um raises Developmental and social emotional concerns and um I don't say that because I'm saying I think our sixth graders are um not good kids or that they're um dangerous or unsafe or anything like that but I have had two middle schoolers who went throughs and they were very different as uh 12 year olds than they were when they were younger um so um just as a parent I think I would have concerns um having sixth graders on buses with five and six year olds just um the conversations they might hear um the language the profanity I'm just going to be honest um just some of
203the things that sixth graders talk about um I don't know that that would be something we would want um to have with Littles on a bus um I think just they would be on yellow buses too um because we would not be able to reroute um MTD buses picking up sixth graders so we'd have sixth graders riding on yellow buses which um developmentally um is going to be hard um to it's hard to have fifth graders on yellow buses by the time they're in fifth grade they're kind of done with the yellow bus and um kind of expecting sixth graders to uh do that is is is going to be harder um I'm just going to be honest sharing public spaces like restrooms uh with Littles with little five and six year olds and seven
204year olds um is a little concerning um sixth graders developmental needs are significantly different their bodies are changing um they're becoming pre-teens um their conversation the things that they talk about social media like just all of the different um things that our sixth graders kind of go through before they become teenagers um is is kind of a shift in mindset um I know the elementary principal who was here and kind of talked on behalf half of the elementary um principal collegial group I think that is something that they're concerned about um right now they struggle with um just keeping fifth graders um focused on learning and you know do just it's just hard right at this point in the year fifth graders are ready to be out of Elementary and they want to be at
205the middle school um so expecting sixth graders um to stay in that K5 environment um socially I think is is going to be very difficult um one of the benefits of the Sixth Grade Center was we really wanted like I said earlier that opportunity to really um develop that um we know that this is something that's happening to their bodies and to their minds and to their developmental um just all the things that are happening to them as um as um at that age and we really wanted the opportunity to really um grow Independence and grow a lot of those things in a more controlled setting um at the Sixth Grade Center so having those students leaving a k6 and going right to a seventh grade um we won't have the opportunity to really slow
206paace them and um give them time to learn what it means to be a middle schooler um in the same way sure we can still have those conversations in a k6 um but it will look really different when they're with one teacher all day long when they go to the middle school and then have to um go from class to class and and do all the things that middle schoolers do we can't replicate that at a case6 anybody out there want to say anything about that okay um discipline so again um this is right from the um 6 through eight presentation that we shared with the board from the facilities committee back in August as you have heard people talk about um office discipline referrals and discipline is um very different for um fifth graders
207to sixth graders um one of those reasons is what I just talked about on the last slide right sixth graders are um they see themselves as little mini adults and um they um they they're just there there's other layers of disrespect and some of those um disruptive behaviors that we tend to see at the middle school now do I think that we'd have a, or 1900 referrals um in a k6 building absolutely not um because they would be with one teacher in a more self-contained um general education environment um but we did think it was relevant to uh just talk about some of the um more egregious things that we see that happen at the middle school are not things that we want to invite to happen in a space with first grade graders and
208second graders and third graders and Littles um missing out on the Middle School experience um at the impactful sixth grade level uh is a is also a challenge um we want them to have that Middle School experience we want to develop that Independence um we want to treat them um and and kind of talk about the things that are kind of happening to them in in a in a space where they can all be together um and address it together at the Sixth Grade Center acceptance among their people years when transitioning is seventh graders coming from six different buildings will be harder to address so um people may not realize it but again our community is very um very racially and economically segregated and so um we have very distinct neighborhoods um and so right
209now as our students are at six different elementaries or right now five different elementaries when they show up at the middle school um it is is everybody knows who the alphas and who the who are kind of um the the students that are um um really popular really um just things that happen in the community um we see a lot of um Community issues um that come into the middle school because um students have kind of been separated and now we kind of thrust them all together um and I that's one of the reasons why that sixth grade number for referrals is so high um is because that is just something that has naturally happen it happened it's happened with every sixth grade group that we can remember um it just happens when you bring
210so many kids from different um socioeconomic backgrounds race uh culture together um when they get in that space um there are um just things that happen so uh we recognize that and that is also one of the things that we really want to do as a sixth grade Center is build community um and talk to students about belonging and um and how they are community of Learners together um if we are doing that in six different buildings uh then we still are going to have the exact same issues when they all get to seventh grade together um so student engagement discipline following expectations are already challenging ing I think our principal who talked tonight said that um that it's already challenging for fifth graders in a K5 school um and it will be even more
211difficult for six uh sixth graders in a k6 setting looking at my notes to make sure I said everything anybody want to add anything okay extracurriculars so um we have several kind of concerns here um in order to participate in IESA events you have to um have a sister school um and that's actually I jumped ahead this slide um right now as k6 buildings uh the students would not be able to participate in IESA approved events that would be for sports as well as music um the extracurricular participation will require some creative planning on the part of Staff um in those cases six spaces um to provide more enrichment opportunities for sixth graders I saw um comments about Splash we we have um only one year left on the grant this is the last year
212for the 21st Century Learning grant that we have um because we've lost the um funding for that but we are um encouraged because we've received some emails recently um that the state is looking at um offering some 21st Century Learning funds possibly um in the future so any opportunity that we have where we can um seek a new Grant or seek a um re returning Grant um like 21st century we're going to do that um there's some other um you know we plan to approach some of our Community Partners um about still offering some version of Splash um in the future so um so we recognize that uh Splash would be something we'd be doing at the Sixth Grade Center if we have funding I don't know that we'd be able to offer that at
213all of our k6 schools um right now our contract allows us to have um we have a negotiated agreement for um stiens and clubs and enrichment opportunities where our teachers um are compensated for the amount of time that they spend after school um being sponsors for some of those clubs um Elementary receives three paid stiens right now if we had six grade centers in those spa sixth graders in those spaces the budget implication would be we would want to be offering more supplemental pay stiens which is um an an additional cost to the district not to mention space um the asacp program is really robust in a couple of our schools meaning lots of kids right and they use the gym the multi-purpose room they use kind of all those spaces uh so having clubs
214do at just for sixth graders after school um sharing all those spaces would be um not impossible but just um a challenge so I already mentioned the Ia sister School relationship is a requirement um so six graders from six schools would need to get to to um if they were going to participate in any I if we were going to allow them to be um participants in IA activities uh which to us poses an equity issue um because we know that not every single student would be able to um leave their Elementary k6 building and get TOs and because of our transportation limitations um we run our buses after school we double run our buses we we have buses that drop off at elementary and then go pick up at Early Childhood we would not
215have yellow buses to be able to go around the district and pick up sixth graders to take them TOS for after school enrichment activities or Sports so parents um would probably have to be the ones doing that and that in and of itself poses an equity issue because we know there are some students that just wouldn't have access or opportunity to do that um I already talked about asccp okay I can take a drink and any comments from over there any comments about extracurricular seal before Angie talks about human resources okay hi everyone so um there definitely Human Resources implications for any shift in the district but the um shift that could occur if we were to move to a k6 model um would cause more implications than than what we would if we um
216did not have to do that so the sixth grade Center has been a recruitment draw for new hires to the district interested in the concept of a Sixth Grade Center um so we have novice teachers at the middle school so newer teachers that are uh very excited about a Sixth Grade Center there are teachers in other districts that have reached out to me I'm a former Middle School principal um where they have talked about the need for a Sixth Grade Center uh based on several of the things that Dr I Tatum shared and so it is a recruitment draw um but I can't share who's reaching out to me because then um that would show my card so we're excited about the possibility of teachers wanting to work at Urbana because of this um model
217they're currently not enough licensed staff ATS to fill the number of general education sixth grade classrooms needed in six k6 schools and So currently um we have three sixth grade teachers I'm pulling up a different screen that I have that you don't have three sixth grade teachers that are qualified to be um sixth grade elementary teachers so to be able to uh teach all the subjects so three of our sixth grade teachers are able to do that um that doesn't necessarily mean that they want to do that as a former uh teacher myself typically secondary people want to be secondary people and Elementary people want to be Elementary people and so for those three sixth grade teachers that have the capacity to do that or the lure to do that rather they would have already
218selected that um as their career path we do have some eighth grade teachers that hold that um certification too to be sixth grade uh self-contained uh General classroom teachers but again folks that are in eth grade um teachers typically don't want to be an elementary teacher either and so most of the certifications that we that our staff members have are um Middle School and High School more 612 then more the um k6 area let's see if teachers do not choose and I know that this could happen with any scenario that we have if teachers do not choose to go to the k6 schools voluntarily we need to transfer those um with the proper certification to the k6 buildings involuntarily which means we could lose staff members who don't want to leave the middle school and
219so that argument um is a con for any move that the that the district makes um it it's a little bit when you're talking about changing levels um I think it's a little bit more of a a risk because when you're talking about elementary teachers going to another Elementary School teaching fourth grade at one School fourth grade at another um especially in the same district where the curriculum's the same and if they're able to transfer with their with their colleagues um as opposed to a couple of Middle School teachers being moved to each Elementary School where they're losing um like they're going to a different level they're not working with the colleagues that they're used to teaming with so that's um one of the implications so on the next slide uh this is uh the
220top one um for related services staff and specials teachers um what makes and Dr every Tatum talked about this but what makes this a little bit more challenging if for the sixth grade experience so as I'm also a former Fine Arts teacher I was a choir teacher in our district and across W Street and typically people that are teaching the Fine Arts at the secondary level um want to stay in the secondary level because of the performance groups and because of the opportunities to um to go to contest to travel to provide those enrichment opportunities for staff or I mean for students and so if the staff are traveling to the schools to do both fifth grade or fifth grade and sixth grade um it it's going to require more of our teachers to travel
221and not necessarily spend time with the Performing ensembles at the secondary campuses so Tamara gingle teaches at the high school Stacy peterik teaches at the high school as well and so if they're being at the elementary schools with fifth grade and sixth grade classes it's going to impact their um their uh ensembles at the high school also special education staff um teachers and support staff will be working across K six groupings and structures and related services will be spread even um across a greater range and so in this where it sounds like okay if we put all our kids on the k6 uh schools if we were to create that it it seems like okay it wouldn't be that big of a deal we would just take um our teachers from the middle school and
222spread them out accordingly but it's not as simple as that that um because we don't have enough teachers to go to each one of the schools um especially in special special education uh that is a hard-to-fill position for us um prek k12 and to be able to move teachers to support our students is um not it would be a a crisis like we're already at a crisis I don't even know what's beyond a crisis but in terms of special education um vacancies and candidates and the last SL slide um as I said before more teachers would have to be hired for traveling and those are already hard to fill positions related Services occupational therapists physical therapists psychologists social worker Etc also I didn't know Michelle was coming to speak tonight Michelle Turner um but not
223only is the um the the elementary principles and assistant principles having if they were to take more students into their buildings for grade we'd also need to assign um more administrators to each one of those buildings right now to just kind of put it in perspective we have about a thousand students that are been a high school we have five building administrators four student interventionists which is a fancy name for a Dean among counselors and other support staff and so at our elementary buildings we currently have a principle and an assistant principal and some of our buildings are well over 400 and um and they need more help and so if we were to add more students um to the buildings we would need to add more administrators to each of the buildings as well
224we could reassign um Middle School administrators also to those buildings but we wouldn't have enough to reassign to every um building so that's also um an unintended consequence and financial um strain in the district and so that's what I got [Music] I also want to invite Scott up um because I think he might have more to share about this than I do um but the current Sixth Grade Center design um could potentially fit a k6 model with three strands um but I'm not sure that it would properly fit a k6 dual Language School sorry I it should I should have said I'm really tired it would fit a K5 um three strand school that's what the current number of classrooms that the Sixth Grade Center has could fit that um but k6 or k6 dual
225language or case6 multilingual including Spanish and French all of those would be additional classroom needs that would increase the budget of the project and even the K5 dual language would require four additional classrooms yeah I apologize last time I talked to you I said we could do it for about the same cost but I wasn't up to speed on Dual language and it's it actually requires a few more classrooms so um um which is showing what we'd have to add um for just for K5 right is this K5 Scott yes well in red it kind of overlaid the six grade Center um with how we would convert it into a typical three strand Elementary um to go to case six we've got to add at least those four additional classrooms kind of to the left
226there in red and I think also important important to note there that's with uh three strands uh so we would need for just the K5 dual language we would need uh extra I think first grade second grade and third grade in there as well as an extra sped classroom so even without the sixth grade uh that would still be an additional four classrooms just based on our current uh numbers of uh Spanish dual language students so right now um what John was saying is we have about 400 50 Spanish dual language students they are not that is not a three strand that is a four strand at K is it K1 two three um Lupe and K2 K24 yes um so the building would need to be able to in some years grades will have
227four strand and four of one class and then in other years they might have three so we need to have the capability um to also have even just for K5 um have a um a an a space that would accommodate for for Strand and multiple grade levels and right now Wy would would does not do that unless we add several more classrooms correct and adding those four is ballpark a $2 million add to the to the already 24 million which we're having trouble meeting that budget already yeah so that's with this slide I don't know Katie if you want to yeah I so I think that diagram kind of in a really neat way says what this slide is trying to say which is that a k53 strand Elementary could fit in the same footprint
228as the currently designed Sixth Grade Center for the same $24 million cost which is still above what we actually reasonably at this point are able to afford we were astim that we could afford up to 20 million so I want to point that out also um and I'm working on finding that extra 4 million or thereabouts or we're going to be working on reducing the scope so right now that's where we're at is it could be a f k53 strand however if we were to make it a k63 strand just basic k63 strand we would need three additional sixth grade classrooms one additional special classroom so those four additional classrooms would be around a $2 million ad that said if it's k6 dual language we would still also need four additional dual language classrooms at
229the lower levels to be able to accommodate the fluctuations in those grade levels um and then also that would just be for Spanish dual language if we were wanting to combine it into a multilingual school we would need at least four additional classrooms to accommodate the French dual language program as well and um currently that number of classrooms exists at three of our other elementary schools so that would not be an add to the district's budget um but in order to accommodate it at this site it would be a quite a bit more cost um probably somewhere between two and eight million depending on how many of these options were layered on top of each other one quick question Scott if uh we did decide to build the additional classrooms on the Wy site would
230the capacity for geothermal still exist it it starts to get tight because we have a geothermal well field and a storm water detention that we're trying to accommodate and still leave you know room for that expansion so yeah it would be getting tight four we could four classrooms we could probably make work eight one more item of note I think that last bullet so if you did do the k6 Dual language uh with the combined French dual language that would be about 12 additional classrooms which would start to hit the constraints of what we could put on that site was that correct Scott yeah 12 would be pretty tough and that would start also I think impacting some of the the public spaces like the library cafeteria so yeah and one question that I had
231had for Scott earlier this week and last week as we were putting the presentation together is if there would be any cost balance if we for if we had to go forego geothermal would that be something that could help with the construction budget as far as getting a building build of the size we need but really he said it would maybe be $500,000 or so difference so it doesn't really help when you're talking about adding up to you know two to eight million do that and then also the long-term effects of not having geothermal and the ongoing operational cost will be higher so it's not really a um it wasn't to me a choice that was that reasonable at the time you know that shouldn't be what makes or breaks that choice is um you
232know to be able to afford it because it doesn't really provide the savings to the project budget that it would need um do you want to go back up one slide because I don't know if I missed some of the talking points on that one oh yeah the pro go back to Pros yeah I jumped to the map whoops there it is you got it just taking a second there we go um so I think that you know we we we definitely recognize that there are Pros to the k6 model I think that what this presentation is showing and I think a lot of the folks that are in support of the k6 model agree with all of the pros that we've identified as well I think that Administration um just believes that the pros
233don't outweigh the cons so we definitely recognize that fewer students would be moved as part of redistricting if Wy was selected as the Dual Language School um it would still help this model would still help reduce the overcrowding and some of the issues that we're having at ums um and so I think that meets those goals in a different way um and then again it maintains that current neighborhood schools structure although I'm not really sure that that narrative is fully accurate especially when it comes to low income in El students which we're going to talk a little bit more later on in the presentation about that specifically with some data so that's it and then there's just a few other budget budgetary um implications which we've already kind of addressed throughout the presentation in different
234ways but extending out you know right now our we've already given direction to our Consultants igw um redistricting Consultants Etc um to Begin work in certain ways and basically um our costs are going to be driven up by having to restart boundary processes restart design work um for diff different project designs if the plans change so that's just something that I wanted to point out as a budgetary implication and we've already talked about um traveling teachers being potentially more traveling teachers with the k6 model versus a Sixth Grade Center model the distance froms to the to the Wy s's much shorter than to all six elementary schools plus the number of teachers um would be more at a k6 model that would need to potentially need to travel I'm not going to say that for
235sure but um at least right now the way that the sixth grade Center program is being um laid out and um estimated is that very few of those teachers will travel uh Transportation constraints I mean this isn't necessarily only budgetary um right now um um MTD has indicated it's not really any problem at all to add a bus stop at the Wy site to drop off middle schoolers um on their existing routes um but if the k6 model were to be adopted those would need to be yellow buses and our buses we only have 40 buses and they're all on the site at the um where the operations and maintenance facility is and it's very constrained they can barely fit the buses on the site there's there's no more room for more buses um and
236we have 40 buses and that's what we have to work with and at the beginning of this year we didn't even have enough drivers to drive them all um so I mean hopefully that's not a ongoing long-term issue to have these driver shortages but it has been ongoing for the last several years it's been very difficult um but e even so um the capacity issues of the bus buses is an actual real concern to add another 300 plus students to Yellow buses to um get them to the k6 buildings so that is a real concern we would have to look closer at it but at least at this level I just wanted to make sure to list it as as a concern um that we could brainstorm further if we need to and look into
237it um that's it and this is going back to John hey John and if there was a way you could talk a little louder because you're going to be talking about numbers on these next couple slides and so I want to make sure people can hear I'll Scoot a little closer okay uh so yeah uh we had a question from one of the board members just kind of about uh busing and who was riding the buses and uh what percentage of people were riding the buses so these next four slides uh kind of go over that these are all as percentages but I did include the total number uh for each of those so this is a transportation broken down by race uh and as you can see that uh blue bar on the bottom
238that's the percentage of uh people who don't have a bus route assigned in Skyward uh so those would be traditionally Walkers uh to the buildings uh and then the uh light red is First Student busing and the dark red is Mt busing uh so uh here you can see uh on the right side the grand total about 42% of our district students uh walk to St school or they don't have a bus route assigned uh whereas almost 60% uh are riding the bus every day and it does kind of break down interestingly by race and a couple other factors uh so here you can see uh the Hispanic students in the district uh about 28% of them are able to walk to school uh well 78% of them are riding a bus every day so
239on the next two slides uh this is just kind of broken down by the top numbers uh for individual schools so at Leo you can see there on the top uh again uh very similar uh the Hispanic students uh a relatively low number who are walking uh and white students is a relatively High number of I think it was 82% uh for Leal students uh and then same thing for King uh they have a uh ESL intensive program where they have some people who are coming in to uh take some specialty languages those a very small number of those are uh within the walking zone for King uh uh and then Yankee Ridge you can see there at the bottom uh and then on to the next slide uh this is Thomas Payne similarly uh
240they have about uh 60% Walkers so a little higher number for Thomas Payne uh total and DPW is also about 60% uh so a little bit higher number for DPW but again you can see that kind of split for the uh Hispanic student who uh some of them are in the Dual language program at DPW a relatively small number of Walkers uh for those students and then on this last slide uh this shows just kind of across the district uh our free reduced uh population on the left uh is slightly lower than than the uh total District population uh but then our uh English language Learners uh again is uh substantially lower about 25% of those are able to walk so that was just some information uh we' kind of gotten for one board member
241but it seemed relevant to share with everybody so does anybody have any questions about that kind of demonstrates what the um real definition of neighborhood schools are and I Paul said it so eloquently last time when he said it's the whole neighborhood goes to school together and I believe Claire mentioned today in her statements about how important it was for students to have the have parents I'm sorry to have parents to have the support of their neighbors and in other communities where children aren't walking to school but are are riding the bus to school they too have a sense of community and neighborhoods and they go to school together so it's not just the families who who have a school that's within walking distance other communities can have that as well all right Randy facilities
242um some of the um fixtures that we have in the buildings need to be uh different heights uh it was uh K through five or sixth grade uh we have uh for example like drinking fountains would need to be a different height uh counter Heights for um like the library or even the food service counter would need to be different heights um and some of these could have you know additional cost you'd have additional material with your uh like food service counter um or a library uh counter for checking in or checking out books um the uh Furnitures different sizes for the buildings uh playgrounds are geared towards uh age appropriate students so we either have a playground with actual play structures or for the sixth rade Center we'd have a uh like a basketball
243court or the soccer field uh or additional space for just to run around and do field type events um do you anything else Jennifer that's it thanks and then questions for Randy okay and then I think the last um main slide for k6 is just the imbalance across buildings so I know um we had a uh Le parent who did some of this work and um talked about the need for um reconfiguring some of our buildings in a uh k6 um model uh that she created and so um there would be need a need for some reconfigure oh sorry thank you some uh reconfigurations so um I I know King and Leo um may need to be reconfigured as two strand buildings if we were to add sixth grade to those spaces um which is
244concerning right now um King has three kindergartens and three first grades for example um and and that is very intentional because King serves the international Multicultural Community um for graduate students um living and working at the University of Illinois and living at Orchard Downs um we intentionally um have kept those as smaller classes at um King for those three in ones because those younger students are coming in um in many cases with um very limited English um and speaking you know 30 35 Plus languages that we've had at King over time um the other concern about um having King specifically going down to a two strand is um we do have an agreement with the university um a longstanding financial Arrangement uh because Orchard Downs um Scholars and GR students um don't pay taxes and
245um they have uh very specific um programming needs around ESL um transitional bilingual Services um we've offered native language Heritage classes at king um so taking King to a two strand building would be problematic in that if we had a language group who um one year we have 20 or more students maybe um Russian for instance um with everything happening um in the Ukraine if we if we next year had 20 Russian students show up um at King we would have to um offer transitional bilingual services for that group and if we limit them to a twoam then we don't have the ability to do that we just we would lose all flexibility to be able to offer um some of those additional language classes and those additional bilingual Services um that would be needed
246Lup I don't know if you want to add anything into that so I think another point that was brought up was about moving the ESL program from King to another building um something to keep in mind with that is that currently at King we have 90 students that qualify for El services so moving those students to another site would have to accommodate those additional 90 students 50 of those are from Orchard Downs so even if you were to only take the orchard down students you would still have a large number of students that require require Services if they stay at king um in addition to Staffing currently there are um six staff members that provide support to this program that require small group office space um as well as we have reached the point where
247um ISB is expecting us to provide a TBE program for poshto um it has taken us years to find a TA but thankfully we have one and he is amazing but at any point should we have an applic that is a certified teacher that teaches poshto we would be required to start a poshto program in whatever building they are in so just some additional points keep in mind yeah excuse me I have looking at the uh January um attendance at King school I mean they have the highest class number of children in classes in the two strand so I you know I was concerned about that as it stands even for this this school year mhm in their fourth and fifth yeah okay I think that was our last slide about k swi k6 sorry
248um any k6 comments anybody have okay I'm G to go through the we've talked a lot about um reimagining the current Wy into um whole du language was something else that I was asked to reconsider um or just even not to reconsider to just bring informational information forward so um we have talked about some of these things already but so I'm going to go through them very quickly um there are some pros to using the current Wy um as the whole dual language school we would move fewer students through redistricting um if Wy were selected as the K5 dual Language School um there would be fewer staff moves needed um because we wouldn't have to disrup rupt um the communities at um Yankee Ridge and Thomas Payne um the monolingual teachers um will need to
249move to other buildings in addition to the Leo and DPW teachers um moving into those buildings um utilizing Wy for dual language maintains the current neighborhood school and and again we put that in quotations um because a true neighborhood school is um not available to all of our students um the whle site is centrally located as we've already discussed um especially for its um location um we showed you all those Maps when we were um looking at how close so many students live to Wy within a mile and a half so it would be very centrally located as the districtwide multilingual program um and there is a sense of equity around providing the multilingual school with um a brand new building um I know one of the concerns expressed by some of our um Families
250Our Latino families when we were talking about this is they were um concerned about the narrative in Optics and just the thought of being put in a in the um a building that wasn't up to the same caliber as all the other schools but um the fact that we would be renovating the school adding a lot of newer spaces um would make it more Equitable to have the program there cons um Wy utilizing Wy for the multilingual school does not alleviate the overcrowding and social emotional behavior issues that we're experiencing at ums um unless we were able to do it as a k6 Which Scott has already shared and Katie has already discussed um financially we cannot um afford that we'd have to add a um several more classes at about $500,000 per class and
251that is in 2024 numbers um we always find that those numbers go up when we get into the project so um the budgetary implications of having to add those additional classes right now um we know for a K5 we need spaces for about 450 students um if we were talking about a k6 DL building we would need space for about 510 students which again that's a a lot additional classroom space I did link the reports from the facilities Committee just um in case people were interested in seeing that information um if all elementary stay K5 in addition to doing nothing to improve the experiences of sixth grade students um we would have a lot of empty and under underutilized classrooms throughout the district so we've talked about that here um quite a bit in the
252last few months um in regard to the district has put a lot of forethought into adding eight classrooms at Yankee Ridge and um additional classrooms at Thomas Payne um and then if we utilize widely as a dual language school we would be pulling students from um both of Leo and Dr Williams and then not putting any um additional bodies in those spaces and have a lot of underutilized classroom space throughout the district some of the um enrollment project projections that the consultant from RSP shared during the enrollment um analysis that that very large presentation and document um showed there are going to be increases just based on birth rate current students that we have in our district um students that are living in our community the only area showing growth in the next few years
253is Middle School um I don't know if you remember but in a few years they're projecting that our middle schools will um have 1,68 students right now we have 9918 and I was there this morning and it felt like a th so um knowing that in a couple years we're going to have over a thousand um students ATS is a little scary if we don't do anything now to prepare for that growth in future years reimagining Wy as dual language um would likely delay the start of the program um you heard from some passionate um Educators tonight and parents um and staff members um who came and talked to you about the promises that have been made to DL um they've already been planning as so when you guys make a decision about something I
254don't know if people realize this but when you vote then we take action so as soon as you vote on something then we are gone so as soon as you voted on Sixth Grade Center we started working like the very next week as soon as you voted on DL Lupe and Joe and the team got together and they have been planning and working and doing a quite a bit of work already um to plan for the 24 25 school year so um you know having conversations about um not um following through on the action that the board has already taken is one of the reasons why you have people from DL the DL Community coming tonight um to share their concern because they've been waiting for um over two years and longer I mean we've
255been talking about it for two years here at this level but it's been a conversation in the community for well longer than that um and if we don't hold true to the promises that we've made to that Community we will lose teachers I guarantee you we'll lose Tas and we may lose administrators um and so I just I think that just needs to be set out loud do you guys want to add anything to that I do want to add that in addition um in all of our spaces we have student teachers and student teachers are um checking us out as potential play places that they want to work just as much as we're checking them out and hearing from some of the teachers that student teachers are hearing some of the conversations um while
256it might not be the intention of the talk to make it seem like dual language is this big problem or Thorn in the side um the impact of those words is being felt um so the recruitment right now is always challenging for dual language teachers but if I'm a candidate and I have the opportunity to go to a district where the conversation around dual language is we welcome you we can't wait we're really excited versus um you're you know you're you're really stressing me out and ruining my plans um I mean where would you want to work okay and we I think we've talked about this so I'm GNA not spend a lot of time um we've talked about the square footage needs we've talked about um the financial needs I have had one follow-up
257comment on the financial needs that I should have said earlier yes um I just wanted to point out that in our conversations about the bonding options that the $20 million option is like the biggest option and it involves us reducing the amount we have as pay as you go cash down to 80% and or sorry excuse me 20% and and bonding out the other 80% and and historically um we only do 66% bonds and the other 33% is pay as you go projects for summer working cash and things like that so that we can take care of what we have with the money we have now so it's going to really lock down and you know we could potentially Bond up to 23 million that's what was in the bond hearing um but that would
258potentially also involve extending the bonds out further or things like that that are going to strap our ability to issue more money in the future so I just really want to point that out like the project as it is right now is already going to be kind of overextending what we're normally been comfortable with um as a board and as a district so I just want to make sure like it's really not feasible to add four or 12 classrooms to what the current design is because the current design is already overextending our our ability to pay for this project thank you Katie for adding that and any decisions that we make um impact our ability to do emergencies during the school year when Randy has things that happen or all of our summer working projects
259we shared with you um two meetings ago or our last meeting we have a very long uh list of projects um for years to come and we don't want to um tie our hands and not be able to do some of those things with our facility sales taex dollars um in the years to come so um this has been um discussed tonight and a couple of the public comments and I added this not to say that board members of course can bring back um convers ations but I just wanted to put this out as a um just into the Universe um that you know when you guys make decisions and um people again expect you to um hold true to your promises and so I think we put this here um collectively I think all
260of us as an administrative group um felt that it was important just to remind board members that um when you make decisions it's time to move on to the next critical issue and I know um we know that board members have been in spaces in the community and um talking about some of the these things with constituents and stakeholders and I think it's important for board members to remember um that you are one of seven as you are out in the community um talking about some of the decisions that the board has made um and so I think it our our board agreement policy actually uses these Lang I didn't make this up it actually says you know board members can say didn't vote for it but this is the decision that was made and
261I support the work of the full board um and we just wanted to put that out as a reminder that doesn't mean that if board members want to bring back a conversation or a vote about something of course you have the right to do that um we just felt like it was important to remind you um that when you make a decision uh we expect everybody to support that decision um so we can go forward and do the work that we need to do as administrators to carry out on the miss a vision around um whatever that decision might have been um I know here we've talked about strategic planning I know that is the um the conversation uh right now and I'm just going to be honest we we've had this conversation um multiple
262times we talked about it um when we were talking about Leo um we talked about it when we were talking about the Sixth Grade Center um and I will stand behind um what I said last year and what I said two years ago ago if we had start if we had taken time to sit down and write a strategic plan last year I can tell you exactly what our goals would have been we need to redistrict number one let's spend the next five years redistricting let's figure out how we can redistrict in the next one to five years and maybe do that in you know we can slowly do that in the next year or two um and I think this board got behind the idea that we are at critical critical mass in terms
263of the academic needs for all of our students but specifically for our black and brown students our eel's our lowincome students um in this District have been underserved for far too long and saying that we want to wait and look at a oneyear twoyear threeyear plan to redistrict um was not something that I I felt like the majority of members um felt like that was something that we should do another one of our strategic planning goals would have been um let's unify the Dual language program we would have had multiple years a probably a one year twoe maybe threeyear goal even to let's figure out a plan to do that well we've made a decision around that we talked about it for two years we didn't need to admire the problem for another two years
264before we did something about it we made a decision around that and um we're a we're ready to move forward with that another strategic planning goal would have been um and should have been we need to improve the academic outcomes for all students number one we have made that a priority we don't need a strategic plan to tell us that however we're spending a significant amount of money time and resources to bring curriculum into the district um to do that so now the Strategic plan goals that we will be able to write this spring will be much more more robust we have curriculum um in math and language arts we have a decision around dual language we can say here is our year one of dual language this is where we want the Dual language
265to look this is what we want it to look like in five years after we implement the three pillars of dual language we don't need to spend two years talking about it we've done it now we can write a five-year goal to say this is how we're starting the program and this is where we envision it to be in five years um we made a goal around curriculum to look at our curriculum adoptions every five years that's going to align very uh very uh right along with strategic planning we're going to be in year one of a strategic plan in five years we'll be looking at our curriculum adoptions again um Paul has said this and I support it 100% we should be talking about redistricting every five years not every 20 years so we're
266going to redistrict hopefully this spring um and then part of our strategic plan goal should be in 5 years we're looking at redistricting again um as our enrollment needs change um I had another one oh Equity we spent two years talking about our Equity action goals and we went through a fullblown equity audit and we have Equity um goals we have Equity plans and all of that is going to undergird any work that we do moving forward with our strategic PL so we have done some really critical um initiatives Equity work dual language curriculum adoptions making sure that we are going to be addressing the needs of our students academically and redistricting those are huge things that this board took on um and I am proud to say you didn't need to admire that problem
267for two years to make some decisions we made some decisions and now we're going to be able to write some really robust and rigorous goals um for where we are now and where we see ourselves in five years so I've said that before I just wanted to reiterate it um since we had so many people come forward to talk about that tonight time for questions and comments yeah okay board members comments or questions anyone go ahead Robbie so uh this a u a couple things here on this uh presentation one uh for the you know on the pros and cons slide about uh rather the con slide about um Wy is a single DL School uh this slide yeah where there's the number of classrooms that would need to be added I comment was made
268that if you add French DL to the same building it would need an additional three class classrooms and uh I would just uh point out that I'm sure the people of the French deal program hear that and they think that means the program is going to stay a tiny program and you know if you if it is actually to grow and get larger then ideally they would need more than three classrooms over time and if you build them an extra three rooms in this building they're going to outgrow that building very quickly so uh if we were going to talk about a single DL school at Wy I would say you would keep French at a different location so that way it can grow uh and that would actually save money as well um another
269thing is can I add a comment before you move on this slide actually says four classes for French dual language um because we do want to have the option if we need to to offer a single kindergart G um if there is future growth so okay someone may have said three but we actually um wrote on here four classes I see okay then well the same could be said about four classes for the cins I just made about three nonetheless the uh the next thing I uh you know I want to point out is there's reference to this uh proposal plan made by some Leal parents um that was uh Brianna Lawrence uh what's her name Sarah Jansen and Mari aler U and they had put together this uh Proposal with maps of the buildings
270uh how many students would be in classes um and I think that was a uh rather good presentation uh because I mean as a proposal uh when you're talking about being collaborative uh with the community and engaging and discussing ideas um I think that was very helpful uh as far as seeing that the feasibility because when uh those individuals as well as others had approached me like a year ago about a k6 model I was like just like I'm talking to the Leal parents I was like where are they going to go I mean going to get rid of drama and and art in favor of the sixth grade classrooms but uh turns out it would actually work by making uh you know as you put on your own slide here uh King a two
271strand and Le a two strand and in their proposal with that uh you know uh when you talk about Equity of issues the orchard Downs kids have been crapped on for decades and so so this could potentially would also move them to a location uh closer to where they live so you have that option with Orchard Downs actually move them closer to their home rather than uh with some of these other other groups uh so um when it comes to certifications and such you know it's kind of how you approach a question so if your approach is with the predetermined answer that they answer is no we're not even going to consider it anymore then you have these laundry list of cons so for example uh you know when the elementary principal was speaking in
272public comment about how they're going to add more students to my school I don't know how I can manage all that well if you remove a strand you know it's really going to be a very similar number of students is the what you have when you talk about how will they all go through the cafeteria plus the same number of students uh just different age groups so a lot of those cons really if you put a concrete plan together uh don't apply so uh the thing that uh and uh you know easily in a few moments here these other folks at this black table could say it's all crazy talk we're already pigeon hole down this road of inev ability uh and then uh my conversation will be over I guess but uh the uh
273the thing is if uh you do both of these things because what are the problems the problems are you're trying to offload and overcrowded middle school so by moving all of sixth grade to elementary schools you do that um you want to make a single do language school so if you do that at Wy you do that and then that save aves all of the multiple moves and frustrations of the people granted some will still have to move because of redistricting but a large portion may not have to move um and that allows some stability and in doing both of those plans at the same time you have to wait till the 25 26 school year or possibly the next one uh for Wy to be renovated fully um you know the previous estimate was
274fall of 2025 know that extra four buildings and concrete walls will add that much more time to it but maybe it will uh but that will give you one to two years more of what's going on now so there's not so many transitions for the kids that you know the original Wy students more of them will transition off into Middle School uh people that had to move there's more stability as opposed to everybody changing every year in a row so those are those are the things uh I just wanted to to bring up here uh with this discussion I'd like to make a comment um I find it very offensive to talk about the students who are in um the El program at King in such a way and putting words into people's mouths around
275the program that they've had um I think what we tried to show is that we have a very strong program there that has been extremely successful for many years and that by displacing those students and making it a twoand um while there may be the benefit to being closer to their home um the dismantling of that program and the services they have received and the services that they may need in the future um are negatively impacted a quick question for Katie I it's GNA impossible to kind of do this because I know that you guys threw this together you know on a short week with lots of other things going on um but you spent a lot of time talk about the budget implications of uh the building right and yeah they they're they're worthy
276of concern but what concerns me more are the operating budget implications because that going to live with us not just for the cost of one building but year after year after year when we're already looking at trying to figure out how we're going to deal with increasing costs we have in the next year and the year after so was there any um I guess thought given on in terms of Staffing how much additional cost going to a k6 model would cost the district that that wasn't an analysis that I performed I don't know if Jennifer wants to yeah I mean we didn't actually um count out the number of Staff we do know that we would have to have additional elective teachers and Fine Arts teachers um we would have to have um we'd have
277to hire people because I can tell you right now what Angie said is true um the conversations people are having over ATS about this um today um is there are very few people at that building who are going to want to be um in a case six um there may be some um but I didn't talk to any today and um so we will be looking for quite a few teachers um we didn't do math to figure out exactly how much um right now we average is it 60,000 when we say um so when we budget for a staff member um we budget for about a $60,000 ad including their salary and benefits um so that is quite a few additional FTE and that's a first year teacher and that's a first year teacher yes
278that's just our number we use for budgeting for when we just budget for vacancies um but yeah that it would be a significant cost um just for Staffing purposes and I mean as far as ads go though I mean the existing number of sixth grade team classrooms you know if you take all the teachers that are currently at the sixth grade level that same number of teachers would be needed you you'd have the classrooms of the teachers that would then go out so I as far as I think the ads would be on the special side that would all need to be figured out I you know I'm definitely not an expert in that area um but that's something we could spend more time analizing if we so we have enough long-term sub openings ATS
279that any teacher that we might want to involuntarily transfer to the elementary uh to this k6 model could just stay at the seventh and eighth grade building and fill one of those um long-term sub vacancies that we have right now um and then we would then have to go out and find these sixth grade teachers um to work in this k6 bace um the other question I have was for Beth what are the implications of a k6 model be on special ed services uh at the sixth grade level in those buildings yeah I think it speaks not just to special ed but also to the idea of having seven grade levels in one building which is different you think about prek we have three four and five year olds so you've got a span of
280three at middle school we have three grades a span of three we have six at elementary right now which is a pretty significant span and is felt by our specials teachers in having to cross over K one two three four five and at a six so all of your specials people your related service providers your psychologists your speech language they're going to be spanning across more developmental levels more grades more um diverse needs than they do in any other space we have in in our Public School System right now anyone else questions comments I have a lot of comments based on everything that I've read from parents and I've heard tonight and it probably take a little bit too long it's already 11:00 at night and I'd like to take a second chance and and
281bring it up um next time for all the different um address all the different items I do want to emphasize though that I'm looking forward to redistricting conversations I think a lot of these um like what you've said Robie about about the maps that were made I mean we have to know where these students are coming from first and not just saying we're going to put So Many Bodies In in a particular classroom in a particular school we have to really see where these children are coming to and coming from and find the best location for them um there are just too many students that need that need to be in the appropriate schools and um as I said I look forward for parents to come back and to listen to the presentation and then
282come back as a a board to discuss some of the things that we've learned anyone else all right that's thanks the end of our discussion uh we do have a consent agenda tonight starting off with the uh minutes from the January 23rd business meeting the January 25th special meeting the January 30th uh Boe UEA round table and the February 6th study session we also have bills and checks Ed education fund bills for $1.7 million operation and maintenance fund bills bills for $266,000 Bond and interest fund bills for $212 transportation fund bills for $317,000 working cash bonds for $125,000 school facility occupancy tax for $175,000 uh tort for $79,000 Life Safety Levy for $33,000 payroll salary and benefits for $4.4 million and the Orban adult education for $243,000 uh there's a list of personnel items that
283we need approval for along with an approval of an Administration administrative Personnel item uh there's also a resolution authorizing and directing the sale disposal property including ke uh K Le library books and then some uh vehicles and uh lawn equipment um that needs to be disposed of as well is there does anybody wish to remove any of these items from the consent agenda now hearing none the chair would entertain a motion to improve the entire consent agenda as read I move to approve enre second has been moved and seconded any further discussion roll call please member Jones yes member Ley yes member langendorf yes member Haka yes vice president exom yes president palowski yes uh we have an additional action item for gifts uh Bob and Lorraine Venable donated $500 to the Urbana High School
284baseball program is there a motion to accept its gifts and send out appropriate thank you second all in favor say I any opposed uh we do have a call for future uh uh special executive meeting that's on Monday night so that's our board retreat with IB and following that we will have an executive session uh to perform a superintendent valuation superintendent's report uh we'll just post this with the board update tomorrow it's short but we can save a few minutes and we'll just post it tomorrow when we send out the update uh we do have three foas that were processed the first from Tom Schroeder current student enrollment data for our district and each School in our district the district and school data should include the same student demographics and other categories that are reported
285in the Illinois report card and the student enrollment data for each grade level at each School in our district grade level data does not need to include demographics or other categories instead it should include subtotals by education programs uh EG FDL sdl CC Ed gened another from Tom schroer all text messages sent are received by the superintendent that includ included public employees or officials contain public information or otherwise pertain to public business the term text message is inclusive of SMS MMS iMessage Google Chat and any similar short or instant message service that may have been used the requested time period is from December 2023 to present and the last is from Sher Reid from Smart procure variety of vendor information uh time for board reports anybody have a board report this evening if not real
286quickly come to read Across America March 2nd see you at 10:00 thank you thanks sh'll be there um the chair would then entertain a motion to enter Clos session for the purpose of uh Personnel second roll call please member Haka yes member langendorf yes member Baxley yes member Jones yes vice president exm president palowski yes we're in closed session so we'll begin as soon as the room is cleared