May 27th, 2025 Board of education meeting - RESTORED version

001[Music] again. [Music] Oh. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Are you [Music] Oh, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You will yourself. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I'll [Music] be you yourself. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] ooh you are oh you [Music] Oo hey. [Music] Woo! Ooh! [Music] Ooh! Ooh! Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] feel. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] I love you. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] again. Oh, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, you [Music] yourself. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] when I Okay, it is 7:11. Am I on? I'd like to call to order the May 27th, 2025 meeting of Walkaggan School District 60 school board

002met in close session 6 p.m. to discuss matters covered by exceptions to the Illinois student uh the Illinois Openings Act. Item C9, student discipline, C10, individual student matters. C1, personnel matters, C1, legal matters, and C21, close session minutes. Uh, at this time, I would like to ask for a motion to move to open session. So moved. Motion by Mr. Aan. Second. Second by Mr. Riddle. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Mr. McBride, Mr. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Rto, yes. President Rodriguez. Yes. Motion carries. We are now in open session. I'd like to add Oh, Miss Calhan Waznjak, how are you? Haven't seen you in a while. Like to ask if you would uh uh give us the honor of leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Would

003all please rise to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. May be seated. Next item, president's report. Just have a brief report. First of all, I just want to say I was really very uh proud of all of our graduates. What was the exact number of high school graduates we had? I've heard several different numbers. What was that exact number? It was just under a thousand. 987. 987. Right. That's pretty close to a thousand. Yeah, that that was a beautiful event and just my uh uh I want to commend everybody who had a hand in putting that together and uh commend the bravery of everybody who stayed and saw it through

004to the end even though we had some violent weather there. Um it was it was a beautiful event and uh really uh made me proud proud of all of our students. I also um uh attended all five of the middle school promotion ceremonies along with Miss Lensing and uh that was another uh set of events that were very heartwarming and uh really uh makes you feel proud to be part of the Walkagen School District. Um we are having the board self- evaluation session which is going to be um conducted by the Illinois Associate Association of School Boards. Uh that's going to be on June 23rd. Is that correct? That the correct date? June 23rd. Okay. Um I am going to be focusing on a few things my my first few weeks uh first few months

005as u as new board member. Uh number one is going to be the minutes. Uh I know we've had a problem with uh having the minutes done on a timely fashion and getting them approved and and uh getting them moved forward. That's going to be one of my focuses. Another thing is going to be the uh superintendent's goal setting. I know that we have uh the board has been uh a little late on that in the past and I want to get moving on that. That's something that should have been uh started all over. I don't know where the process stands, but I'm going to be looking into that. See if we can't move that forward and get back on a timely schedule. And also the um evaluations of our superintendent and of our legal

006counsel. I understand that we are lacking in our uh evaluations of legal counsel. haven't been evaluations have not been done in a number of years. So, that is going to change. Just want to let you know we are going to be working on that and try to get caught up and get everything back on back on target. Um, okay, that's the end of my report. Uh, student board member report. Okay, now it's on. Um, I don't have a presentation, but I do want to say congrats to all the graduating seniors who graduated. And I also want to give a big shout out to all the students for making it through a wonderful school year. Thank you. Okay. Item seven, special recognition presentations. A Walkan Strong Scholarship. Go ahead. Yes. Need to separate. Michael Teresa, would

007you guys come down, please? You would like me to come down? I would be happy. Yes. So, um, we're a big group. Sorry. We're the Wian Schools Foundation, and we are so excited to recognize our scholarship winners for the 2025 cycle. Um if you could please go to the next slide. Um so some of our members are here today. Um again we're a big group. Uh Mr. Grimes serves as our president. Nick is our executive director. Karolina um is our sitting board member. And then um I apparently I'm a secretary because I've been taking some minutes um and helping with logistics. Um Char is our uh member who used to also be on the school board and um did I miss anybody here? Oh, Martha Padilla as well. She is one of our board members.

008Um so yes, this is our team. Um there's some people who are not here who are also instrumental. Um we got together uh a couple weeks ago um to do Oh, next slide, please. Um okay. um we got together a couple weeks ago to do a fundraiser and some of the um funds that we've been raising for are actually for scholarship um recipients. So on this slide you see um some of the previous winners. Honestly, if we had all the funds in the world, I would have given them to most of the applicants um who we've seen. This cycle was definitely the hardest I think for any of us to judge. Um, and if you go to the next slide, our first scholarship winner is Jayla Tenan. She can come up here. She's going to

009UIC and she wants to study medicine. So, Jayla is super involved. Um, literally doing a little bit of everything. um from what we can remember in her application um you know you you played center on the basketball um on the basketball team, you were in prevet uh club and serving on um some of our student uh um student committees. So um you know if you want to come back and be a surgeon, we definitely need you. We believe in your next steps. The next awardee is Yam Monteano. Um, she is going to National [Applause] Louie. Um, for those of you who may not know Yummy, she's super involved as well. Um, had been a leader in several clubs, including Generation One. Um, and uh, I honestly was really moved by the interview that we had

010because she said that she wants to help um, a little bit of everyone in walking, especially those um, facing housing insecurity and we need more people like Yummy in the community development space, which I'm also a part [Applause] of. And so we thank you. Oh, yeah. So, we hosted our first fundraiser um a couple weeks ago for teacher appreciation, but mostly it was to appreciate our teachers. So, we also gave back to our teachers. Um we haven't done that in a long time. So, I'm just highlighting a thank you to everyone who participated. Some of those pictures are pictures of our winners from our um raffles, our or sorry, our drawings and our door prizes. We raised about $1,000 and so we are going to have another fundraiser soon, so be on the lookout for

011that. And that money goes again towards these scholarships and the teachers grants. Next slide. And that's just a reminder for the teachers grants. Those um teachers, I know the school year is over, which gives you plenty of time to fill out a Google form. It's a very easy grant to fill out. It's $1,000 up to $1,000 per teacher, up to 10 teachers. um you are able to apply up through September 5th and then that project is not due until the end of next school year. If you have any questions you can reach out to me all the emails um if you are a current teacher with the district you should have received an email with a link in order to apply and then slide and then if you want to connect with us so that

012you can um see our events and what we participate in that's our Facebook page and then our email address as well. Um of course we're always looking for donations. I did want to call out our member who is not here today, Lisa Megs. She's been instrumental in um giving us a donation, making sure that her um that her bank gives us a donation for the scholarships. Um yeah, Winrust. Um so, Walkegan Community Bank is what it's known as here. So, she ensures that they um provide us with that. And then I also wanted to shout out um Jose because Jose along with Adriana were the ones who came up with the Walk Keaggan Strong scholarship. And I like to give credit where credit is due. and they were super instrumental in putting it all together.

013So, thank you both. [Music] So, if we could take a picture before you guys go so you have something to show your parents, that'd be awesome with all of the board members and team. You need to get up on a chair. I need to get on a chair. Can you get between there? All right. Nice. Oh, wait. Wait. One more. One more. One more. All right. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] Nice. Okay. Next item under seven special recognition and presentations is B spotlight on 60 MVA Civic Showcase. [Music] Point of the project is that these projects are never going to be finished. Every one of these projects should be picked up by another generation and say, you know what, that was a good solution or that that that had good intentions, but this is how I could

014make it better. A big thing I want people to take away from my project is just how much this really affects the youth. If I want to be able to raise my kids in a community where I feel like they are safe, something like this is just not okay to happen. [Music] the research that has gone into this specific project. Um, getting to know what are some of the issues within the community, some of the issues that they're passionate about. So, it becomes their passion project and it's very important for our students. It feels good because I get to know that I have a voice in Waggan and that the way that I feel and the people who contributed to the project, I it feels good to know that we get to share it with

015everybody in Wagan. [Music] I worked hard these last few weeks, you know, getting information about these water fountains and anything that can contribute to getting some new fountains for school. So, it feels honestly a very amazing just to get this out to the public and get the idea of new fountains out for everybody to see and to think about. An additional next step I would say more from the student support services uh aspect is also getting an idea of what they want to do after high school and for their careers. [Music] I think we've seen the uh changes in um Waggan already. Um I know that we just turned over a school board, but the school board before that showed many different younger people getting involved. Um I think that when our students go out

016into the world, they know that they don't have to wait for it. they can go ahead and um make it a part of their own community. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Okay. Item 8A, close session minutes approval. It is the recommended that the board of education approve the close session minutes dated September 27th, 2023, April 9th, 2024, April 23rd, 2024, May 14th, 2024, June 20th, 2024, July 23rd, 2024, November 7th, 2024, and November 18th, 2024. Previously reviewed in close session. So moved. Motion by Miss Lensing. Second, second by Miss Favian. Any uh questions, discussions on that motion? Okay. Does this bring us up to date with the close session minutes or do we still have a way to go? Uh there are still some close session minutes that are historical that um we've had some

017challenges with the recordings. So, we are working on getting those. Okay. Well, it's good to see all these old ones um getting cleared up. And just for the record, I will be passing on all these since I was not on the board or present at any of those meetings. So, um we have a motion and second. Can we have a roll call, please? Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Mr. McBride, Mr. Ramirez, pass. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez pass. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Um 8 C approval of minutes of for the open session meeting of April 8th, 2025. Motion to approve. Second. Motion approved by Mr. Riddle, second by Miss Lensing. Mhm. Okay. Any comments, corrections, changes, or discussions on that motion? Can I have a roll call vote, please? Miss

018Fabian? Yes. Miss Lensing? Yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Ramirez, half. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Wait a minute. Uh, no, I take that back. I I passed on that one also. I was not here for that meeting, April 8th. Okay. Item 8 D, approval minutes for the special open session meeting, April 15, 2025. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Miss Riddle, second by Miss Lensing. Any discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, pass. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, uh, pass. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Item 8E, approval of minutes to the open session meeting of April 22nd, 2025. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Lensing. Favian. Miss Favian this time. Okay. I've seen my

019name before. Um, any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, pass. Mr. Rto, yes. President Rodriguez, uh, pass. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Uh, 8F, approval of the minutes for the special open session meeting of April 29th, 2025. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Mr. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, pass. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Uh 8G, approval of the minutes for the special organizational meeting of April 29th, 2025. Motion. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Hannah. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian? Yes. Miss Hannah? Yes. Miss Lensing? Yes.

020Mr. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. And item 8H, approval of the minutes for the regular open session micro meeting of May 13, 2025. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Okay. Uh, opportunity for public comment. This an opportunity for the public to address the board of education on any matter whether is it it is on the agenda tonight or not. Uh, we have two uh, individuals signed up. Mr. Mark Shinkin, please come to the podium. You'll have three minutes. Mr. Shinen, good to see you again. Been a long

021time since I've seen you. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh tonight I'm going to ask the board to look into pos a position or positions for next year for the educational assistant pair of professionals. I believe this district needs in a bad way what they have for the teachers, the instructional coaches. So far for to my knowledge for the tw last 20 years there has never been some kind of role for the educational assistant. paras that for instance work in security they get hired there's a training process they just don't walk into the school with educational assistance they get hired here work with the kids how does that happen if we had a couple of individuals here in the district they could go around to the schools and be mentors ers give feedback. Now I will

022say and people will say well that's the building administration that's their responsibility okay or the teacher that they work with well you don't want a teacher and a parah being adversarial you you want somebody else walking in that can give good constructive criticism feedback back. I mean, listen, um, the administration in buildings, what would they see of their paras maybe, you know, sit down formally, maybe once, maybe twice a year. That's not enough to know if somebody's doing their job. So, hopefully we can look into that. Um, I do want to play this little snippet. It'll probably take the last 40 seconds. It's from Nick Sabin. And high achievers don't like mediocre people. So, if everybody doesn't buy into the same principles and values of the organization, it's the same high standard, you're never going

023to be successful. Just like our spring practice right now. You know what my goal with spring practice is? get the right guys on the bus, get them in the right seats, and get the wrong guys off the bus. So, one of these days, you're going to be working in an organization and somebody's going to try to do that to you. So, which one of those people do you want to be? Do you want to be somebody they're trying to get off the bus because you're satisfied with mediocre performance? Because you can never have any team chemistry in your organization if everybody's not committed to the same standard and the same things. Thank you, Mr. Shinkan. Wia Brisco. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good evening. So for the last years I always come and uh whenever I'm

024out with the students, always bring back feedback from them and last week they were taking exams and always do is always walk through the community. I talked to them and they have no problem in just sharing with me where they are and I love it. So last week I was with the ninth and tth grade as they were leaving the school after taking exams and stuff and I just stopped them and asked them questions. So I bumped into a ninth grader and I asked her, "How did it go? How was it?" And she says, "Oh my god, I had a great school year. Awesome." And I said, "Well, is there anything that you thought that you know you might want to share with me about uh the school year?" She says, 'Well, you know what?

025The school work was so easy. I said, 'W, good for you. Good for you. So then I asked her, I said, uh, what middle school did you graduate from? And she said, I didn't graduate from a middle school here. I'm from Chicago. This is her first time being in Washington schools. So I said, and it was easy for you here? She said, yeah. She said, I kind of felt like I was doing eighth grade work. And I said, "Oh my god." I said, "Were you in a private school then when you were in Chicago?" And she says, "No, I was in Chicago public school." And I said, "Internesting." I said, "I'm going to share that with the board because if we have someone that's transferring into our district, I don't understand why they think her

026comment to me was that the work here is easy." She even said, you know, the work that she was doing kind of felt like eighth grade work to her from where she came from, Chicago public schools. So I asked her, I said, 'Do you mind me sharing that with the board?' She says, 'Absolutely, Miss Frisco. And you know, I said, 'P and I said, 'Go home and tell your mom, let your mom know that this is how you feel and if necessary, you get yourself in AP classes because I don't want you to fail here. I want to ensure that you are a success now that you transferred to this school. So I want to share that. The other thing that I want to share is that I talked to about maybe 50 um ninth

027and tth graders and I always ask them who's the principal? Do you know who the principal was? Do you know not one of them to tell me who the principal was at the high school? Not one. And I know I know we went through a transition with Mr. Hill and now we have a new principal, whatever. But I figure, you know, this is the end of the school year and so by now they should at least know who the principal is, right? Next year we need to ensure that the principal is visible at at the high school. Last thing, um, my 16 seconds, I was shopping in Marshalls. This lady came up to me. She says, "I know you. You talk at the school boards." I said, "Yeah." She said she was a teacher here

028for 19 years and she's no longer here. She's stalking the marshals. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Prrisco. That is it. Can we get the agenda back up, please? Okay, we have a consent agenda. Um these are items that have already been uh information has been presented to board. Board in most cases has discussed them or had an opportunity to discuss them and ask questions. And these are items that are continued considered to be uh generally of consent among board members. And what we're going to do rather than uh take the time to go through each one individually, we are going to just vote on them all at once unless we have a request from a board member to separate any of them out. Do we have any requests to separate any out? Board President, I'd

029like to separate item G. Item G, the 202526 school improvement plans. Yes. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Then what we're going to be voting on, and I'm going to go through them. Um 10 A, renewal of no red ink 6 to 12. B renewal of better lessons professional development for 6 to 8. C. Renewal of expeditionary learning e education for 6th to 8th grade English language arts. D. Removal of near pod vocabulary. E. Renewal of the gaggle contract. F. Consolidated district plan CDP. H. We're skipping G. Learning partners for comprehensive schools and school action plans. I. Revision to Whittier professional development request. Uh J. The 2025 visible learning conference. K. Miguel War is middle school AVID professional development. L Lewis Middle School Avid Prof professional development. M Jack Benny AVID professional development request and N the

030AP Human Geography Summer Institute 2025. O the Alan Larson Scholarship and P the Lulu Ripburgger Scholarships. Did I miss anything? Uh my apologies board president. Um, I wanted to compliment that they grouped the AVIDs together, but I misunderstood that they were not all traveling to the same location. So, can we also separate out item M? Separate out item N also. M as in Mary. Yes. Okay. So, we are going to be voting or uh voting on the item G and item M separately. Do we need a motion to separate them out? We haven't in the past. Okay. Okay. A motion by Mr. Riddle to uh approve all of the items 10 A through P excluding item G and item N which will be voted on separately. Is that correct, Mr. Riddle? That's your motion. Yes.

031Do we have a second? Second by Miss Lensing. Any further discussion on that motion? One comment. Sorry, only one comment. Um, because I did have a former scholarship member reach out to me because they did not know how to actually get the scholarship. So, um, knowing that the kids are now out of school and their emails are not being checked, if we could ensure that those scholarship winners get some kind of mail correspondent sent to their home or if we have their phone number that we're calling them directly so they know how to actually cash in those scholarships. And who will be doing that? I believe that's under Brian's realm. Mr. Losa. Yes. Sorry, Mr. Losa. That was very not nice. Okay. We'll make Oh, are you asking us to do that, Miss Fab? Yes.

032So, I we'll make a note of it. Um, Mr. Al Jackets is in the back taking notes. Then we'll make sure that that gets done. Okay. Any further discussion? I just have one comment on item C for expeditionary learning. I'm going to be in support of this with the understanding that going forward it's going to be done with fidelity so that we can start seeing impactful results in our district. Thank you, Miss Lensing. Okay, can we have a roll call vote, please? Miss, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. All these items are approved with the exception of GNM. Uh item 10G 202526 school improvement plans. We have a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Miss Fabian. Second. Second by Mr. Riddle. Uh

033any discussion on this motion? Um I'm just going to make a comment that I'm going to be passing just because um they're inconsistent formatting and approaches. So I'm going to pass. Thank you, Miss Fabian. And then I just wanted to point out that when you look at the um presentation, it says that there was family input and community input. When I'm looking at the actual plans and who's on the committee, I didn't see family members. I did not see community members. And there may have been other ways that you have captured the data like forums or surveys. Um but then that should also be included in the plan so that we do know that in fact there was some family/ community input if that's what we're stating that there was. Um and then the second

034thing I believe in timeline. So we talked about smart goals and being consistent. Um a lot of the smart goals are written for the end of June of 2026 but are using a metric that is much sooner than that date. So for example we have and this is throughout. Um so we have as noted as the five E as noted on I as noted on access etc. Five E is in January IR and access are generally in March and April. And so why I say that is because as a teacher you if you're aiming for a goal for June, you think you have that extra time to make that goal when in reality you do not. So if we can make sure that our timelines actually fit our metrics on how we're um stating that

035we're reaching the goal or if they need until June, then they're using a different metric that actually gives them um to and it shouldn't even be June that gives them the end of the school year to do. Okay. Any other discussion on this? We do have a motion on the floor. Correct. A motion and a second. Okay. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, pass. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Item 10 M, Jack Benny, Avid Professional Development Request. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Motion approved by Miss Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? No discussion on the motion. Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, no. Mr. Ramirez,

036yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Item M is approved. These were the academics consent agenda. Now, we're moving on to item 11, which is the operations consent agenda. and we will approve both of these together uh unless somebody wants to separate them out. 11A is approval of board resolution annual waiver of facilities use fee for certain nonprofits and 11B is the approval of the attendance to the 2025 National Association of Social Work National Conference. Make a motion motion to approve by Miss Hannah. Second second by Miss Lensing. Any discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Mr. Mirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries, sir. Items 11, A and B are approved. Item 12, purchases and contracts. I see none.

03713 personnel items. 13A. It is the recommendation that the board of education approve the attendance of board members Anita Hannah, Jeff McBride, Carolina Fabian, Angela Ramirez, Christine Lensing, and Superintendent Theresa Balencia at the 2025 National Association of School Boards Cube Conference in Los Angeles from September 11th through the 13th at an estimated cost of $2,574 per person for a total cost of 15,400. $244 which includes registration, lodging, airfare, and pdium. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by M. Discussion on that motion. Um the only thing I want to add is that I've asked before is that the board follows the same format as staff. We should be setting the examples. So I see that there's an estimated cost per person which says registration, airfare, lodging,

038pdium, etc. But if we could break that out just the same way that the admin and staff have to break it out so that we know where we're getting those numbers from. Thank you, Miss Lindsing. Um, I just had a question. So, my understanding was the conference starts on September 11th. So, is this are we traveling the 10th? That form would help because it doesn't say Yeah. So, I think I think that would just be my clarification. And so, um, I realize this is coming, um, a bit late cuz it just popped in my head of like, oh, wait, the travel to there. So, I'm fine to approve, but I think we just need to have a clearer understanding and make sure that that's built into the cost if we have to come back to

039readjust that. Yes. Um, I'm actually not sure. I do know that sometimes that 11th is a traveling day, but they'll have a banquet in the evening or a late session. Um, Miss Christian, do you know? I'd have to see what time on the agenda the first item starts. Okay. The first session starts. Coming to you late. So, may I ask the board if we can approve this and amend at next board meeting so that we can pay for the registration and start looking at rooms um so that we're um saving cost effective. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Is who made the motion? I did. Okay. Is your motion you want to amend your motion to be subject to the uh subject to that the superintendent? Uh I will

040do. Okay. Amended as per the superintendent's request. Okay. Thank you. And who made the second? Second. Uh Mr. Ramirez. And your second. You're seconding the revised motion. Revised motion. Okay. Thank you. Uh any further discussion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Uh yes, but I'm going to preface this with the fact that being as we are in an uncertain time, I think these are the two most important conferences for our board members to attend, but I am not going to be I don't think I will be approving others um uh during the year because I think these are just two important ones. We go to triple I and this one and I think we should show uh that we are being fiscally conservative especially

041with these uncertain times. So yes, thank you Mr. Riddle. That was a yes. President Rodriguez. Yes. Motion carries. Item 13B, personnel 52725. It is the recommendation that the board of education accept the administration's recommendations to approve the appointments, retirement requests, and accept the resignations, and terminations as found on schedules F1002, L949, T317, and G660. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle to approve. Second. Second by Miss Hannah. Any discussion on this motion? Yeah. Um I I am just concerned in reference to the uh number of diverse learners um learner teachers that are um that we have been approving for resignations. And um we have been told that it is due to um um processes for uh their visas. And so my concern is that because we're at that threshold, what are we going to do

042in the coming year for teachers in the diverse learners and many of the um many of the um names on this agenda as well as last agenda, they were from diverse learners and I I I'm very concerned about that. Um and so that's my that's my issue with that. Yes, please. Currently, um good evening, um community stakeholders. So currently um there's been a number of initiatives to recruit locally but also with the impeding teacher shortage um while Keegan school district um made um alliances with international with other countries to bring international teachers to work within our community. As a result, there are some variables that go with their visa that state the amount of time that they're able to stay and when they have to return. our first co first cohort of teachers will be

043returning um this year. Um however um and that is due to their visa. It is not something from the American side of the visa. It's something from the Filipino side of the visa. Um however, our HR department is still recruiting um internationally and locally with the focus on um local recruit recruitment first. Um so what you're seeing now is that turnover as long as we continue to keep this partnership with the Philippines and other um outside countries um there will be um standards within those agreements of what the timeline that they can be here when they have to return and we have to work around that. So you will see that retention and turnover in those places when those teachers need to return home. So, this will be the first cohort of our international Filipino

044teachers that joined us three years ago. I'm sorry, five years ago. That's why I was saying three five years ago. Um, and now that I'm speaking this, I personally want to thank you for joining the Walk Keaggan community. I know that many of you lived in Walkegan, shopped in Walkegan, went to church in Walkagan, became a part of our community here and we thank you for the time that you spent here um whether with your families or away with your families and we appreciate the partnership and everything you have done for the students of Walking Public Schools. Thank you. Think we should give him a round of applause. Yeah. [Applause] Any other discussion on this item 13B? Just to say that I'm sad to see some of them go and if um law allows it

045that hopefully we could welcome them back. Right. Thank you. Roll call, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing. Uh, I'm going to pass on this one. Miss Ramirez? Yes. Mr. Riddle? Yes. President Rodriguez? Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Nothing under item 14 or 15. Yeah. Oh, okay. Please. At this time, are you going to put up the Thank you. Okay. At this time, I'd like to introduce Miss Lorine Zami. Lauren, pronounce your last name. Zamie. Laurianne. Zamie, who will serve as area 1 superintendent. She previously served as a principal of Pier School of International Studies. She will be starting with this base salary of $157,500. Congratulations, Miss Sammy. [Applause] Glad you got Ivy behind you. We need that. Thank you. Thank you. That's okay. Oh, is it? Congratul. Okay, moving on. Item 16, financial

046reports. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of education ratify the 2nd May 2025 processing of board bills, man check request payments and no national bank insurance payments for the period of May 7, 2025 through May 20th, 2025. The accounts payable board payments for the period of May 7, 2025 through May 20th, 2025 total 1,850,63757. The manual check request payments for the period of May 7th, 2025 through May 20th, 2025 total 1,584,91848. Though national bank insurance payments for the period of May 7th, 2025 through May 20th, 2025, total $0. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries.

047Okay. Item 17, uh, committee reports. And, um, before we get into committee reports, um, I wanted to just, um, point out to the board that I'm going to be reviewing all of the, um, uh, committee uh, participation by board members. was I asked for a list of all the committees and I got something like 14 14 different committees. So I don't know which of them are active, which ones are not active, you know, who's participating in which one. So I'd like to ask um whoever is assigned to a specific committee, could you please email me and tell me which committee you are assigned to because we're going to be doing new committee assignments and um it's going to be based on number one, what are the actual active committees. Secondly, what committees you are interested

048in serving on and we can have uh up to two uh board members serving on a committee. Point of clarification, those are board level committees, right? Not all of the committees. The 14 that you're on. These are board level committees. Yes. Okay. And then can we also add scheduling? We have some committees that are only available during the daytime and some of us work and cannot attend daytime meetings. Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that. This is something I'm going to try to get straightened out because uh uh this is the time to uh appoint members to the committee and uh I want to be very uh consider of everybody's time and we want to make sure that the committees are scheduled at times um that are convenient for everybody. Of course, that's going to depend

049upon a lot of individuals, you know. So, um we'll have to just kind of see that. Mr. Aljacus looks like he wants to say something. Always always good evening everyone. So just um just a point of clarity for the committees. The list you have Mr. Rodriguez is the list of our active committees which there should be 14. Not all of them have board participation on them. About six of them do. And so we could provide a list of the board members who did part who were assigned to the committees for 2425. All of our committees are in the process of winding down right now. um they're taking like their annual survey and filling out the information. And at the June operations services committee meeting, the board will receive their annual committee report. So, it's going

050to be a report kind of breaking down some of the work that was done by all 14 of those committees. But I would be happy to get uh yourself and the other board members a reminder of those committees and the ones that actually have board members on them. As far as a second point, that is something we could bring up with our members um for participation to do it during convenient times. We know um there's some that are generally you're going to get them like that early or late afternoon at 4:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. But we will talk for 2526 if there's a desire from the board particularly for um committees that have board members on them. If you want to start seeing those later, we can talk to the committee about that to start

051scheduling those later knowing that that may impact some of the staff participation, but I'm sure there's like a give or take that we could work through. Okay. So, if you can give me the list then and all the members that are assigned to them, board members, then I don't have to ask the board members to do that then, right? Okay. Thank you very much, sir. But I can we can still submit to you. Yeah. What you can what I will be Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. What I will be doing is is asking you for your preferences as to which committees you'd like to participate in. Yes, sir. And we can do up to two board members per committee. Okay. Okay. Good. Committee reports. Do we have any committee reports after

052all that? Just the uh wellness committee. We are in the process of getting our po posters um that are that's going to go into the um middle schools and high schools and they are um miss um oh I can't think of her name from the health department. No, no. Um, you're talking about the posters who's designed them is from the health department. Yeah, the health department is designing them, but we're they're tailoring them for our school, right? So, Briana, I believe, was working on it. Yeah. And Briana Briana was uh looking over right uh some of the samples like that's that um that that we showed her. Yes. And uh for this first initial time because we wanted to um the wellness committee decided to that they were going to pick the first round, okay,

053of posters so that we could get them um get them printed and September the plastic preserver, whatever it's called. examination. Yeah. Um and and get them put up so that uh on the first day of school they will be there. And um also we will have a number of different posters that will be changed out periodically. Right. Um, so there's different posters and it's regarding um it's regarding the um the vaping. Um, and it may it may um intertwine with the little uh with the tobacco and um um what else, Mr. Riddle, were basically they were anti vaping posters, right? The anti- vaping postersh. Mhm. And um and and hopefully we can um start focusing also on the unhealthy um the unhealthy um drinks, right, that the kids are um the kids are using, taking,

054drinking. Um and so that's about it. Thank you, Miss Hannah. Any other committee reports? Um, so the equity advisory council, we uh had our closing out meeting and we really used it as a time for reflection to to one, not only look back on everything that we've accomplished, including updating our mission statement, which was a feat, especially with me not being able to connect on the phone, um, given the current national climate to make sure that we're still servicing our students as best we can um but also taking some time to reflect on how has this helped not only in our capacity to support our students but on an individual level. So it was a really nice um summation of the year and general plans on what we want to accomplish next year. Thank you

055Miss Lindsay. Any other committee reports? You can talk about So PTAC met really quickly. Um again for next year just looking forward to seeing more input on our side. Um we had a lot of um overview which is great and is needed but again just having some more areas where we can give um actual input. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Delegate reports. Do we have a delegate? Um yeah we I don't have a report at this time. Miss Hannah, have you been the delegate all along? I have since we since I selected you as our delegate. Yeah. Good. I made a wife's choice. Thank you. Okay. Uh superintendent report. Good evening board and stakeholders of community. At this time, we'd like to give you an update on our summer school program. Miss Patty It is

056now. Oh, thank you, Stephen. Uh, good evening, board president, superintendent, members of the board, community, and colleagues. I'm happy to present to new with you tonight some information related to our summer school programming, which starts next week already. Um, again, some of the information you're hearing tonight is the same information that we have already presented back in February. And again um later this spring we wanted to just uh reaffirm some information in case there are families watching tonight just to make sure that we are uh clearly communicating the information related to logistics. And so um again this is just a calendar. Our first day of summer school starts this coming Tuesday on June 3rd. We do have professional development for all staff tomorrow. And so we're looking forward to doing curriculum training and some other

057uh trainings with our teaching and learning team, our bilingual team, our diverse learners team um to go to make sure that our teachers and staff are prepared for our students next week. Um you can see the different breakdown related to prek through 8th grade. All programming for the most part is June 3rd through June 26. We do have a couple of courses at the high school level with our get ahead credits for our get ahead geometry um and those go a little bit longer um and start a little earlier and their day is longer to make sure they have enough seat time for that particular course. Um we also have AM and PM sessions for our students at the high school level and again we do not um have school on June 19th in honor

058of our Junth holiday. Slide please. Next slide please. Sorry. Thank you. Um again, we do offer uh breakfast and lunch at all of our sites. Uh not only for the stu the students who attend summer school, but we also open up those sites for community um service sites. And so members of our community may come into any of our 11 summer school sites and participate in both breakfast and lunch service. Uh transportation schedules, oop sorry, transportation schedules are being finalized this week and so we will be sending mailings home this week as well as contacting families this week to make sure that they have their information related to transportation routes. Um, as an overview of our sites, again, um, our prek will be housed at Lightoot. We have six elementary school sites, Harmon, Clear View,

059Cook, Glen, Flora, Little Fort, and Lion. And those are partnered across multiple schools to maximize seats, to maximize staffing um, and to make sure that we have sites that are um, at all sides of our our neighborhoods. We have the north, north, central, and south side of Waggan represented within our sites. For our middle schools, we will be at Warez and Lewis. And for our high school, we will be at AOEC and Brookside campus. Reiterating reiterating that we do have a focus on our tier one resources. So again, thank you to our board of education for the investment that you have made in our literacy and math programs and our social emotional learning programs. Those will be um prioritized as as a a large portion of the students learning days. And we'll go over the

060learning schedule in just a little bit. Next slide. Um, we have had the promotion retention policy in place since this past May. It was adopted by the board of education last spring. And we started with three benchmark years, grades three, 8, and nine. And throughout the year, um, at every progress report and at every report card, parents received u information related to their child's status on how they were performing according to criteria set forth by policy. And so we worked with our school level leadership to make sure that any student who was on that list at any point in time was having uh interventions and supports documented through our uh platform called branching minds. Making sure that we had uh parent notification and conferencing throughout the year so that students and parents uh had a

061lot of information to know where they were, what supports were available, and what their next steps were related to how to potentially get off um off of this list for potential retention. Next slide, please. One thing I'd really like to highlight is if you would like to take a uh a quick look at this chart, you can see the benchmark grade levels on the left hand side. You can see the numbers at the end of each grading period. And you can see how um the numbers um for first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, and then our final report card um turned out. And you can see that a lot of the work that at our school level with our our our teaching staff, with our intervention staff, with our principles and assistant principles, our MTSS

062teams, uh really working thoroughly to ensure that students needs are being met. Um you can see that from third grade starting out the year around 80s to 90s, um at the end of the school year, we were able to successfully only have 56 students on that promotion retention list. And so that's one example. You can see the eighth grade numbers also decreased throughout the course of the school year. and just really proud of the work that teachers and staff at the school are doing to support students in making sure that they have those interventions and supports in place. Thank you. Our overall 2025 summer school enrollment so far, you can see our numbers um broken down by grade level. Um you can see that currently we have just under 1,500 students prek through 5. We

063have just about 430 students through our middle school. And um as of this morning, we had 103 students for our 9th through 12th graders, Walkegan High School through AOEC. Um we do allow our high school students to register through the 30th of May. Um they get the report cards after they just took their finals last week. And so in case there was anything um that a student needed to retake or recoup, they still have the opportunity to register through this week on the 30th. This is a breakdown of our uh kindergarten through fifth grade day. You can see the breakdown of instructional minutes for uh language arts, foundational skills, math, etc. There is a small difference between uh what a uh general summer school class looks like versus what the promotion retention looks. Making sure

064that there is ample time um for small group and for language arts and math, especially focusing in on some foundational skills. Similar structure for middle school. You can see the difference between the general summer school as well as the promotion and retention summer school. And then lastly, we have our high school breakdown. And again, the courses listed on the right hand side in the green are examples of some of the courses that we are offering. We didn't want to put in um all 50 or 60 courses that we potentially would be offering. These are just samples of some of the courses that we are offering. In summer school, all students will receive a report card at the end of summer school. And so we wanted to say thank you to our teaching and learning bilingual

065and diverse learner staff to and the collaboration with our um IT staff. It was a pretty heavy lift to build out another custom report card specifically for summer school. And so I wanted to thank the team for the work behind the scenes to get that going. And students will receive grades at the elementary level in both English language arts or Spanish language arts and math. And then for middle school, they will receive a grade in all of their core core content areas. And high school students will receive 14 grades, one per day. We do have our extended schoolyear program which supports students IEP needs and those qualify for ESY would have that information from their uh case manager and invitations for ESY have already been sent home. And lastly, we have our newcomers program. So,

066thank you to our um Bango multicultural department um for u not only u making sure that we have seats for our elementary, middle school, and high school. Uh but we've been really thoughtful this year of differentiating by grade level to make sure that students in a like a early primary grade um have a different u newcomer experience for our than our upper grades. And so, thank you to the bilingual multicultural team for the thoughtfulness in that planning. Um, if you are a parent or a student of a um, if you are a parent of a student um, who may be potentially retained based off of grades, we have already been in communication with you. But if you do have questions or wonderings about uh, summer school opportunities or just information related to summer school availability

067for your child, uh, please let us know. We're happy to uh, to respond to emails or phone calls at any point. And again, just thank you to all of our school level leaders for all the preparation planning. We've been planning this since probably about January, February. And we wanted to say thank you to all the uh work behind the scenes that our school level leaders do. Um and also to our operations team. They've done a a yman's task to make sure that all the materials that we need for summer school have been distributed in in the hands of kids by the first day. So, thank you to operations team for that work. Thank you. I had a question here. Miss the um for the high school, are those students going in for recovery credits? How

068many of them are going in for recovery credits? And in addition to that question, how many actual credits are are the students required to to graduate? Sure. Um I don't have the uh the data in front of me for me to be able to tell you exactly what um your for the answer for your first question, but I can get that information to you if that would be okay. How many students are I I don't have the numbers in front of me in terms of how many students are going for recovery versus how many students are going for get ahead credits, but I can provide that information to the board of education. That that that's something that we need to know. Okay. But how many credits are the students graduating with so we can come

069back with a presentation on that. I just want to know is it 17 credits or 24 credit? I apologize, Miss Miss Hannah. I misunderstood the question. I thought she was saying in general I was going back to the policy we passed. I apologize. Thank you. Go ahead. Sure. So So how many credits do the students need to graduate? Depending on the year, we we do have more foreign language arts requirements being added for the upcoming school years and so those will those have already been adopted for part of our policy. Yes. This this year. Sure. So 17 is not the number. So 17 is a misnomer. I want to make sure and Mr. is there who can also um make sure that I'm articulating it appropriately um should I misspeak and so 17 is out

070there as though this is what we people have a misunderstanding in terms of that's what students have to have to graduate those are core credits that they have to have and there are additional credits on top of that that they have to take they may not have to have a letter grade they have to pass or fail some of our consumer ed courses and some other classes uh like physical education but 17 is not the number of of graduating requirements with um with our current policy. Oh, how many credits? 24 23. It's I want off the top of my head, I want to say it's 23, but I don't want to misspeak. I don't have it in front of me. I don't have that policy right in front of me. Apologize. So, it's 22. 22.

071I think Lensing had her hand up first. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um I think there's a a general misunderstanding with summer school, at least at the elementary level, based on conversations I'm having. Um so we have the retention right which we've clearly outlined on it's slide nine of 16 right so we have those that are under the promotion retention policy and then we have general summer school so there are families out there that have kids that want to go to summer school but they think that they can't because they're not one of the retention. So can you just elaborate what the general summer school is? Sure. And can you confirm that all of our principles are aware that if you're not under retention, you can still possibly do summer school? Absolutely. We've had

072extensive uh planning sessions with all of our assistant principles and principles throughout the course since uh early February. Um they have staffed their school to make sure their summer school site, I should say, to make sure that they have both um some schools are identified as summer school retention sites and they do have some classes for just students who are eligible and um that need to attend summer school for retention purposes. But every school that is a summer school site does have kindergarten through fifth grade if it's an elementary school as well as middle school sites six, seven, and eight um for students who um haveident been identified by their instructional leadership team and their MTSS teams as um being beneficial for attending the regular education summer school. And so we do have to prioritize

073um available seats in our programming just based off of manpower and and seats. Um but and instructional leadership teams and MTSS teams did use student data to send out invitations to students who would be um most impacted and and benefit the most from attending summer school. And but uh parents are able to inquire with with their family uh within their principles to make sure that if they would like to attend and there are seats available that we do have regular education summer school as well as a retention summer school. And so the big takeaway that our family should understand is that when they contact those principles, the principles may very well say we're full up because we have prioritize students that need it more so. So I just want that to be um very clear.

074And then can so we have the sites with third grade students subject to promotion retention. So that's slide four of 16. Um, so can you just clarify a little bit more the Carmen Buckner Clear View and Glenn Flora component? Absolutely. So as an example, I'll use Karma as an example and that's the same kind of thought process for the rest, but I can go through each if that would help. Um, Carmen Buckner is running a summer school site. They are partnered with North Elementary School. Um, and so any student in grades K through five that have been determined um, not through promotion, but just as it would be great for them to attend summer school, invitations were sent out to North students and Carmen students and they will attend at Carmen with North leadership and

075Carmen leadership on site and Carmen teachers and North teachers on site for those so that students are familiar with their principal, their AP and their teachers being on site. They have familiar faces in the school. um we wanted to look at our numbers and as you could um when we go back to slide seven as an example, we looked at the numbers. Um we couldn't it doesn't it didn't make a lot of sense to have um some third graders who needed potential retention um at Clear View and some maybe a class of three or four at Clark and maybe a class of three or four at Greenwood. So we clustered them together in different areas of the city. And so if you don't mind going back to slide um four um Carmen Buckner is our

076um site. They will have kinder through fifth grade there and additionally they will have another class of third graders specifically from um the south side of Waggan's uh sites who potentially will need retention and so the same thought processes for clearly they're taking more of the students on the north side and Glenn Flor is taking the students more in the central location. I think it's well thought out and it's great that it's a collaboration between the multiple schools because families and students have someone that they have seen in the halls before that they can connect with and it's not like ah this is not my school. Yeah. So I just I wanted to make sure that was clear for families as they prepare for this and really appreciate the thought. Thank you. Um, for Miss

077Hannah's question, if we can get the numbers after the final enrollment date of May 30th, so that we don't have to come back and update, that would be great. Um, and then the I have two more items. One is for the um summer food program, you stated that members um of the community can come to any of the 11 sites. I just want to clarify because if we're using the Illinois summer food program, it's generally just um student age children can come. So, I want to clarify that anyone includes those that are not students uh aged everybody. It's my understanding that as a community um eligibility, we we do have a community eligibility program. And so therefore, any any member of the community who would like to come in for the I think it's an

078the first hour after our food program is over. Um they are able to go to any of our sites and come in and have breakfast and lunch on our sites. Perfect. that is that for um 18 and under for um for the Illinois school program, but if they're using the other the national program for the community um the community based one that we have throughout the year, then it it's open to everybody. So, generally it's only school age, which would be 3 to 18, right? So I just wanted to clarify that in our community anyone could go after the students. The second thing that I wanted to note was um because we are in that national program for um free lunches and breakfast, our students will also receive a summer EBT card that's loaded for

079um $120 per student. Um, so parents, if you did not apply for EBT and you're getting the card, it's it's not somebody's taking your information. It's not that um, you know, it's not a hoax. It's because we are a part of that um, program that you will be receiving that card just as you did last summer. Is it still calledision? It's an EBT card. So just under provision, it's through the state of Illinois. That one's not federal. Oh, are we informing families on this? I hope this is not the first time families are hearing about it. I know during the pandemic, we got one of those and we were like, "What is this?" And so, we didn't use So, I mean, like we we got an actual card. So, I just want to make sure

080we're communicating with families ahead of time that they're aware of these things. There are letters sent home through the Department of Human Services that they will be receiving them because it's they are the ones that are handling that. Yeah. But but we are aware of we haven't as parents received communication is what we're saying. Yeah. So again, because a lot of parents last time got that communication from DHS and said I didn't apply and chucked it because they thought it was like spam or some scam. So if we could and now that the kids are out of um school it's kind of a little bit more difficult but that was also approved very late so from the state side it's something that transfer I mean uh nutrition we'll look into Mr. Molton just make note

081of that thank you okay thanks missy all right where are we um Okay, moving on. Um, item 18 a foyer report April 2025. The report is available for the community to review which covers the foyer activity that took place. A second. Excuse me a second. Uh, can we just have one conversation at a time, please? I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. This item is just posted for individuals to review at their leisure the FOYA activity that has gone on in the month of April. Thank you. Okay. Number 19, old business. I see none. Item 28, discussion of school code weapons offense language. So this was a discussion requested by a few of our board members to specifically address how weapons are managed from a student discipline perspective. What was posted to facilitate the discussion amongst the

082board is a proposal by the administration as to how to clarify and get consistency across buildings in managing lookalike weapons particularly if they are a lookalike firearm. Um and it has the proposal develops a continuum that looks at um whether it is mere possession, whether it is possession and use in terms of playing around. Nobody's fearful, whether disruption has been caused. The next level would be there is some disruption but there is no use to cause bodily harm. And then the final level is the mandatory expulsion referral if a lookalike is used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm. With that introduction, I'm going to open it up to the board members to um raise their concerns and have a discussion. The information then will be taken back, shared with the outreach department

083and the PTAC in terms of the board input and feedback and we will incorporate all of that into a first reading proposal when the handbook as a whole comes before the board. Can you add how it's tied to the policy? I'm sorry. Can you add how this is tied to the policy? Sure. So the discipline policy itself, I believe the number is 6040, has a reference in it that um consistent with the school code directs that the administration and and PTAC parent teacher advisory committee regularly review discipline on an annual basis and make proposals for changes. M what um the policy says is that that recommendation coming from the PTAC will be incorporated into the handbook and the handbook will be approved by the board. And so the board is approving the discipline procedures that

084are set forth in that handbook when they go through that handbook process and the PTAC input is provided in in the scope of uh the final development of the handbook. Um so in full transparency I had requested that the board talk about this um for three main reasons. One we need to understand as a board what the Illinois school code states. When I read the Illinois school code, um, I have a different interpretation. And to me, prior instances, not just the most recent one, should have risen to a modified expulsion discussion with the board. Um, so because this is part of our policy, we need to have a public discussion about this information. With that being said, with the policy as it's written and with the Illinois school code as it's written, we as a

085board need to decide if we agree with that policy or if we need to adjust our policy language. There have been cases in Illinois um case AAA versus the um Illinois Board of Education where a student brought a lookalike weapon, didn't use it, was in their backpack, didn't just show it to anyone, and it it rose to a point where the board decided it was a detriment to the school environment, especially after it being the Uvaldi. Um right after the Uvaldi shooting, everyone was heightened. the family came back and said, "You shouldn't have expelled my student because you didn't exhaust all of the levels before or um all of the possible interventions." Not that it shouldn't have risen to an expulsion hearing discussion. Um, and then thirdly, not just the board needs to understand the

086policy and update it if we want it, but the community needs to understand because at no point should we be at that podium identifying students of situations. It should not rise to that. If we're all on the same page, the decisions are made and we can keep it moving. We don't have to um feel as if certain situations were handled differently. And I think there's even some confusion with prior instances whether it's come to the board or not come to the board. And that's frustrating to me because we should all be on the same page as to did it come to us, did it not come to us, are we consistent, are we not consistent. Um, when I read the Illinois School Code, the section where it starts to talk about the lookalike firearms, um,

087is when it goes into the classifications. So, can we pull up the I think it's the second attachment just so that because I like to see it rather than just hear someone read it to me. Oh, of course. I'll I'll hold for a second and and while that's being pulled up, so the board is kept aware of things that happen in the district. There are a lot of things that um happen on a day-to-day basis and so to track what's coming to us in a close session meeting versus what's being handled at the school level, it does get overwhelming. Um but it it is still our responsibility to keep track of all of those pieces. So under number two, it has weapons also mean a knife, brass knuckles. Yeah. um or other knuckle weapon, regardless

088of its composition, a billy club or any other object if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm, including look alikes. To me, those two pieces are separate, but it's being interpreted as if they're together. Where the any other object, if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm, to me is saying if I pick this up and try to hit a kid across the head with it or take a pen and try to jab it into their eye, that's not normally considered a weapon, but it's being used as such to cause bodily harm to someone else. And then a lookalike firearm to me is another category from whether or not it's being used for bodily harm. But our legal has provided a different insight. Miss Vanderbrook, do you mind clarifying

089how it's being used in our policy? So, if you um actually if you flip to the proposed the proposed modifications um how that was clarified under the weapons section will help uh visually show how um that is being read currently. So, if you could pull up the first Okay, it's taking a second. Yeah. Yeah. Can you blow that up so they can read the bottom um where it says weapons? It was never an issue. That's my concern. It was never an issue in reference to the meaning of a lookalike u a lookalike weapon um uh versus a toy gun or that type thing. And um the lookalike weapon is one that resembles a um a firearm. And the um the lookalike that is in question looked exactly like a tri. Well, and that's one scenario,

090but we also have had instances where box cutters have come into our schools as well. Can I finish? Yes. I apologize. Thank you. Um and I'd like to keep this conversation focused on the policy itself, please. So, if you look in the middle of the group A, um the the second sentence will talk about weapons. It that sentence uh reads up to the point of uh reference to well, but not limited to lookalike firearms. that reads the same as the school code. We are proposing to make it clear by by helping separate out the knife is one. Brass knuckles or other knuckle knuckle weapons regardless of composition are two. The commas are driving where this changes in that regard. A billy club. And then it says or. So, or to me when you look at

091for and if my English lessons from many many years ago are still correct, any other object used or attempted to be used to inflict injury or cause bodily harm. And then that last clause clarifies the clause before it. Number four, it does not stand alone as number five. My only concern is that if it's any other object, that language itself inherently would include a lookalike. It it does, but the the reason it is in there as including but not limited to lookalike firearms is because that's what the school code uses. I don't know if we can take audience participation. Can I don't think we're up for a I would I would invite you to join the PTAC meeting where this will be discussed further for for you know to give your insight as to at

092at um sorry when I'm reading the school code how it's broken out with one and two and it uses the word including lookalikes I don't think that that means it stands alone otherwise I think it would have been separated out and not using the word including. So for me, I read it as the way that you have it broken out on this page, which for the audience when you say which page what's proposed, what's up on the what's up on the um TVs right now. It just when a case goes to when when a situation rises to be a case with AA versus the board of education and it was okay that this student was expelled for a lookalike weapon to me that that creates confusion from my understanding regardless like if this is the

093interpretation of the code I I can that's how it's been processed and it's And from what has been said, it has been consistent. What the administration has said, that's they're claiming it's been consistent. Um, the box cutters that have come in have not been used for bodily harm, but that still rose to to a modification or a suspension expulsion modification situation. So, they went to were placed in alternative place. the history going back that far. So I can't I can't say that my concern is that if we are aligning to this is the understanding of the school code. I would not I would like to have it rise a little bit sooner because if a student brings um EB gun to school to me just the presence of that could be threatening to other people.

094I would want and it's not that we're looking to expel kids. You guys have seen us modify so many expulsions. However, it gives the board a level of insight to understand and make sure that that student's okay, that we're following procedures, that they have the supports that they need, that it's being handled correctly, that the school it gives that opportunity for that discussion. And then if any information from the investigation comes out that well, this is a bit different from prior cases, then we can have a discussion if we do want to dismiss the recommendation and go forward with an expulsion. But whenever there's a lookalike firearm, to me that's escalated because we have community members where they could be holding a toy gun and we could have another Tamir Rice on our hands and

095that's not something I want. And while it's not fair that that's the society we live in, that's unfortunately where we're at. And our goal is to protect these kids, educate these kids, and get them to graduate to lead successful lives. So that's where I'm coming from is I would like to adapt it so that it does come to us so that we can have our eyes on it not with the intent to expel as many kids as we can. Mr. Riddle. Okay. Um I would like to know actually Miss Lensing where in this policy or where you'd want to put those words that it would come to the board. But but that think about that before you answer. And and here's my question here on this form that we're looking at. I had a couple

096questions. Um uh Miss Vander, I would just in the very first paragraph level. Excuse me, Mr. Ro. Which document, please? Oh, yes. The um the one that's up on the screen. Well, it's it's No, it's not. It's it's the other one, the uh administration proposal for lookalike weapons. That is the one on the screen. Yeah, that's a little That's the one on the screen. Okay. In the very first paragraph, in the other paragraphs, you Yeah. in in par disruption scrolling up level one disruption. Yeah, disruption. I would add there or suggest that we add toy before firearm because you've used that toy in front of firearm in the other three sections, but we didn't add toy there. Okay. And then and then I would ask um in the next section prohibited material possession which is

097uh which is likely which causes or is likely to promote disruption. Okay. And then it says environment which Okay. Then it talks about fireworks, sparklers, shock pens. I would like you to define what a shock pen is and what's the difference between that maybe and a taser because it doesn't spell out taser. Yeah. What is a shock pen? I don't know. Um and I don't see mist. But we all know what a taser is. And and you know, when I was a kid, they had shock pens where you had a little a little thing that you put in your hand and you shook with shook somebody's hand and it it it just buzzed and made a little, you know, and they pulled their hand back. I don't know if that's a shock thing or not,

098but I would I would take out the word shock pen since we can't even define it and put in Oh, we do have Mr. Validz. I apologize. Oh, okay. Thank you. Yeah. Well, I was kind of like, do you want to do you not want to? What's a shock pen and how does that differ from a taser? which evening board. Uh so a shock pen is what you described those little pens that you push on them and it gives you that shock. Yeah, it's it's looks like a regular pen. It's not a prong taser. No, it's not a regular pen and that little clip at the top. It gives you that shock. A little shock. Little battery operated thing. Correct. Okay. Why do we not Let me ask why do we not have uh tasers

099in here and and also pepper spray? I know P pepper spray is down below, but we've had in incidences in the past where we have children have brought pepper spray to school. Even I remember a few years back on a keychain with her, you know, uh it was it dropped out of the backpack with it with her keys on it. Um and there's nowhere in here that we talk until we get down at the very bottom defining what a you know pepper spray. Yeah, it's not listed, but we do cover it under prohibited material there confiscated when they do come into the building. It's under group A actually a definition. If we go further down, it does say pepper spray is the last word in there, but we don't have uh tasers and I would

100see at least somewhere in here. I would like to see tasers because they're very common. Uh people do bring them in, you know, uh and then the pepper spray. Uh and thank you for that definition. The other thing I would like to ask, and Mr. Van, Mr. fan of Brock and I know I'd asked this before if we could possibly I can see a situation where someone has brought a a toy firearm in um and it doesn't it isn't causing they haven't caused any bodily harm but if they point it at somebody it definitely causes emotional harm. It could be a toy and they point it at a teacher or an administrator or a student. Um, and I would ask the board to consider, can we put those words in there, emotional harm, because I

101think that, you know, that the child might, if we don't have it in there, um, it's, we may not think that's too serious. It's very serious. If the child turned this little like weapon on somebody or on the staff, on the students, that's that would be very frightening and um, you know, could be very So, I'd like to add it as well. So, I'd like to just clarify what you're asking. I'm asking, are you asking that emotional harm be added be added to? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I got to get a location to to the weapons section. Level two infraction as a mandatory referral to the board. Yes, the board can exercise its discretion to do that. You can go beyond, you know, what the the school code requires, but you can't do

102less. So you could as a board add if there is evidence of emotional harm. Yes. That that comes before the board as a mandatory one-year subject to modification. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I can see that very traumatic and proposal. Yeah. Um, so that I would like that added under level two infractions and just you know where it says to cause bodily or emotional harm. And I just want to point out that we can make suggestions at this point but whatever we suggest still has to be approved by the board. Yes, absolutely. And then I I guess I have one final question here and it's it's down a little bit further. I I see the safety director I'd like to hear from him about lookalike. Okay, let me finish my question if I could on

103any mo on and then I'll be done here. And that's the down a little bit further down under weapons, non-fire, possession, use um where it's I would like to know the rationale for dropping that section you crossed out if the appearance or reaction to a lookalike guitar is inconsistent. What did you mean by that, Miss Vanderbilt? So the reason that was recommended to be um removed at at this point is so that you had clarity along the continuum in the other items where reference to lookalike weapons was not previously stated. And then there would be continuity across the buildings in what um discipline category or label was used if it didn't rise to the level of a mandatory expulsion recommendation. So we were trying to get clarity across buildings in how it was treated. So,

104you're not taking away. When I read that, it looks like you're taking away that possibility of a principal deciding that yes, a toy firearm was brought in, but it doesn't fit the definitions above. It hasn't caused any harm at all. Maybe it was in his backpack. It was never given or shown or anything, but it's been found in his backpack. And you're taking that possibility of We're not taking it away. were saying if in your in that example that should be treated as a level one disruption because it was possessed but not so it's already it's already in there. I understand now. Thank you. Okay. And then group B, why do you why do you have a group A and then a group B? I wasn't clear on group B. That has been in there

105um for a longstanding period of time. Uh Mr. Valdez, do you have um anything you'd like to say on how the outreach department has been using group B within the weapons offense? Um it it is still trying to get I historically to my recollection within the district and it changes with administrators um and it changes with boards and it changes with what's going on in the community over the years. But box cutters and razor blades are also are always things that they are a sharp they are sharp their knives. They can cause great damage. Yes, they range from the kids who show up and they forgot it was in their pocket, they work at Home Depot, the grocery store, whatever. Um, group B, it allowed them to still be qualified as a weapons offense without

106it triggering a mandatory expulsion referral because they possessed it and or they gave it and passed it around the building. Um, Mr. Valdez, is there anything else you'd like to add about how that is utilized or did I capture it correctly? You summed it up pretty much. Group B, like you said, is those that pass it around. Someone brought it in and the group of students and they're passing around. Those are beat because they weren't directly the ones that brought the weapon. Right. The the language does speak in the school code to the person who brings the weapon to school is subject to the mandatory expulsion, not necessarily the person who it got passed around to. Wow. Um I do think that is a shortcoming in the legislative language. quite honestly. All right. Wow. Okay.

107Miss Fabian has had her hand up for quite a while. I'd like to recognize her. So, I think that part of it also kind of sums up why on the bottom where the weapons non non-fire firearm possession use on level two um is a little bit gritty. So, if we scroll up a little bit, because I view just as you stated, box cutters and razor blades as a type of knife because it can cut and it's meant to cut, but when you put it in with as a lookalike, a razor uh razor blades and box cutters are not lookalike weapons. They are weapons. So, I think to clarify, we should have lookalike firearms separated from what's an actual weapon, right? Uh because again, then when we're looking at who brings in a weapon and this

108is why they were brought up to us as potential expulsions, because razor blades and box cutters were treated as weapons. That is why they were brought to us, not because they were a lookalike. um because again they weren't used with the intent to harm but they are a weapon. So I think that's where the clarification needs to be made so then we can actually go back and see that when we've had these things brought up it's because they were treated as a weapon even though there was no intent to use versus something like a toy gun which a child would view as a toy which is marketed to them as a toy you know and innocently would bring to play. Right? So those are two very different distinctions. I like that distinction. That makes good

109sense, Miss Fabian. But Miss Sand, but you know what? We're talking about the lookalikes and th the this weapon versus that weapon and everything. Uh, board of education, none of our students are supposed to be bringing any weapons in school. And so all of this um all of this um um redoing the policy and putting this in there and all that. Look, we're forgetting no student is supposed to bring any kind of weapon lookalike or anything other. And so the whole the whole thing you're going to be confusing people. you're specifically going to be confusing the students now all of a sudden. Oh well, if if it has a orange tip, it's not a lookalike. It's just a play gun. Come on, you guys. Then out of order. We don't need to be giving kids

110and others excuses that it's okay to bring these things into our schools. The whole thing consistency, no weapons in school, no look alikes. And that's how we have always um we have always functioned. And if it was a lookalike, it still came before the board and whether the board not to say that they were going to expel the student because we don't expel students. We stay their expulsions and we continue their education in alternative placements. But this stuff about this um the this lookalike firearm, I'd like to hear from the director of safety and his view on what a lookalike is. He is director of safety. Can we hear from him? So I'm going to ask since this is a board discussion and I'm I'm I'm just going to Well, you got Mr. Valdez. Can

111I please finish? I can't respond to your question if you don't allow me to speak. So, I'm going to ask if we're going to have a discussion, the staff will speak for clarity. Mr. Valdez is not giving an opinion. He is giving clarity to how they use the principle. If we're asking Mr. Wilson to add clarity to how his security sees us, that's one thing. And yes, Mr. Wilson will do that today. However, if we're asking Mr. Wilson for an opinion on this policy as of right now. I'm going to ask that he reserve comment because it is the board's discussion. It is the board's discussion now and then the administration will look at the board's discussion and come back with what we feel may be recommendations, agreements or other components. And it's unfair for

112us to put our director of safety up there to give recommendations. That is your opinion. It's not a recommendation. As of now, if you would like clarification on an item, Mr. Wilson will provide it. He will not give you an opinion or an advisement till the board has a discussion on this and comes up with proposals that we will look at and come back to the board out of fairness to our staff. I want to know what uh what he is directing his staff to determine whether it's a lookalike weapon. So what's wrong with that? That is clarification. So if Mr. Wilson, if you would like to clarify a weapon versus I'm going to use your exact words, Miss Hannah, what is your question? I want to know what is what is considered a lookalike.

113Okay. So, can you please clarify, Mr. Wilson? Can you please clarify, Mr. Wilson, what a lookalike firearm is? Thank you. Good evening, board president, board members, superintendent, colleagues, and community. Uh generally we consider anything that's a lookalike weapon that anything that can be mistaken as a firearm, a lookalike firearm. Thank you. That's simple. Okay, Miss Favian, just to to note, I feel like nowhere in this policy does it say that it's okay to bring a toy gun or a lookalike firearm. It's clearly laid out by saying it's under prohibited material to bring a lookalike toy firearm. So, I don't think that this is going to confuse the community and tell kids that it's okay. It's literally saying this is prohibiting which is why we need this clarification added into um into the handbook. Same thing

114with the disruption or use of a lookalike um toy firearm. Again, it's adding clarity that it should not be brought to school and you should not be disrupting class with it. I don't understand where this is saying that we're okay with bringing a toy lookalike gun. I don't I don't see that. If anything, it's clarifying that they should not. Miss Lindsay, um I I think another aspect that I I want to make sure we're clear on. Um, we're talking about lookalike weapons, which depending on an angle, whether it has an orange tip or a painted black tip, depending on where you are from the angle, it's going to be hard to tell from an observer in the situation if that's a lookalike or a quote unquote toy. Um, I have concerns because, you know, we've

115all seen kids run around with those big Nerf toys, like the Nerf guns that shoot the rubber tipped foam pellets, but there are also actual weapons that people can purchase now that if you look at it, it's decorated to look like it's a toy, but it's an actual firearm. So, I I think we need to have a clear picture, right? Because if if a first grader or kindergart like I'll use I'll use my son, he's a first grader. He sneaks things into his backpack and as a parent if he brings um a Nerf gun into school, then I would expect to go through the full um process and and it lands where it lands. and those are the consequences for his actions and he would need to learn from it, right? Um, but I think

116that scenario is also very different from something that looks closer to a weapon where one looks obviously like it's a toy versus to what Director Wilson had said where it's made to look like an actual firearm. So, I don't know how into the weeds we're we're going to to get on that. I think that's that's a fine line, but I would prefer instead of like a lookalike toy firearm, a lookalike or toy firearm. Um, and I do appreciate um Mr. riddles addition for the emotional harm because that to me is mostly what I'm thinking about when these situations come to us because nothing has happened with the the modifications that we've approved or other incidents that have happened but it's that emotional component that we haven't really focused on and then I also have a

117question for permanent markers because I can understand the vandalism concern around permanent markers, but these and it's it's not a weapon, but it's under prohibited material. And so students are probably using these permanent markers for school projects. So if it's being condoned to being used on projects within the classroom, does it make sense to penalize them for bringing their own metallic Sharpies to school? Oh, there. Yeah. So, I I would like to see that removed for from the possession, but we have under prohibited material if they're using it to cause property damage. That makes sense to me. Mhm. So I do just want to point out that um in the sections on prohibited material in the section uh and both of them at level one and level two Uhhuh. it does require that the administration

118take into consideration whether the the lookike whatever it would be or any of the other items causes or is likely to promote disruption. So that still leaves some discretion. Yeah. To to look at what was it? How did others react to it? Which I think goes to the fear level of students. Did did they feel it was a safety risk because they really felt it was they thought it was a real gun? You know, if you pulled it out in a cafeteria, it falls out of the pocket and the whole cafeteria runs out the door. Yeah. I expect the administration is going to treat it as a more significant event than if somebody nobody saw it and nobody leaves the cafeteria, nobody reports it, it didn't cause any disruption. And we have to remember for

119a suspension or an expulsion, there has to be a safety risk or significant disruption before you even get to that level. So this is trying to give a continuum that takes that into consideration as well. Yeah. Um I'm also going to share another personal story where we had a a family event where someone brought um an actual firearm and it was just in their backpack in a living room and we had little kids going around, right? And so, but that if it were an actual firearm, it would be different. The definition it is required to come forward as a mandatory expulsion, right? But if if it was a toy and they pull it out, you're saying that if everyone freaks out, then we have concern. it it's going to start to speak to the significant

120disruption or a safety concern to self or others that the school code not in the language I provided because I just provided the weapons definition but in the section of the school code that speaks to when can a suspension be issued and when can an expulsion be issued. Right? That's Senate Bill 19. Yeah, I'll keep that comment. Okay. Is there anything else? Okay. Okay. So, we will take this feedback. Thank you very much, board. We will develop um a couple of proposals most likely coming out of this discussion and ask that the PTAC weigh in on that as well and then bring the matter back within the um student handbook recommendations. Um the PTAC meeting is scheduled I believe for June 6th 3rd June 3rd at 4:00 Mr. Motton for anybody interested in participating in

121that discussion to further weigh in on what is um an appropriate way to manage look alikes in particular but any of the other matters that were raised this evening. Thank you. Oh, in addition, it's going to be at Lincoln Center this time cuz I know we we try to rotate it to make it accessible to the community. Um, so you're correct. June 3rd, 400 p.m. at Lincoln Center or virtual, but you would have to reach out to get the the Zoom link. Thank you. And that would be reaching out Dup or student outreach at WPS60.org is who organizes it. Mhm. All right. Moving on. Item 21, student discipline. There is none. Uh 22, board member time. Mr. Ramirez, I'd like to hope everybody had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Um it seemed to be very

122peaceful. Um shout out to uh Clark. I visited their uh success ceremony on Friday at Lake Hurst and it was really really awesome. Also, shout out to um team uh came by and visited their open house or their success ceremony. I'm not remember what it was called. Uh but the wraparound center was here. Uh got to visit with some of the families that are serviced through our wraparound center. Um, so I'm really happy um to see that our programs are being utilized and I would really love to see an expansion of um those programs. Um so that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Riddle. Yes. Also a shout out to um everyone at Clark um school who planned their second uh student success end of the year uh showcase. Um it was marvelous as uh

123as anyone who went there uh could see the the kids displayed their projects that they had been working on throughout the year and I'm telling you I was blown away. This is a great school and these kids are doing wonderful work. I mean just fabulous. Um I just thought that the kids also were dressed up so nice. Their parents were there. Um we have so many different uh uh you know groups, nationalities there. Uh it just I just was impressed. um with the whole event. It was just wonderful. Uh and um and then of course the other event that took place on Friday the 23rd was the time capsule. Um and again I was impressed with how wonderfully that was planned with the students who spoke um to seniors that that talked about how they

124prepared for this and what they wanted to put in uh to that time capsule and everybody that worked so hard to cover it up as well afterwards. It was a great experience. Um thank you. wonderful end to the school year. The whole and of course all the graduations that we went to, the the middle school graduations, the speakers at the um high school graduation. Wow. The validictorian I thought blew us away with with how he presented what a fabulous uh young man he is. Um thank you. Thank you, Mr. Riddle. Miss Hannah. Um I just want to say that um that um this year has been really really interesting and we have had um we've had a number of things going on, but overall um our students are um out of school and they're deserving

125a break. Um just like uh just like the staff deserves a break. Um and um um other than that the time capsule um that that that event um it has me thinking about um about different things about uh what was it? 2075. Oh yeah, excuse me. That's the time um that's when the um time cap capsule was going to be open. I'm not going to be here. But um you're not planning to be here. Look, if I could, I probably would. Okay. But um but but there uh I was able and honored to be able to put um put some uh couple things in the time capsule. And so um I that that it it just gave me a whole different perspective about things, you know, and so um that's where I am right now.

126Um, but I do want to say um that was for the high school, right? Can we do one for just for the district? I I I'm just I'm just asking, you know, um Yeah. Cuz I think that um you know, and just to think in 2075, it's going to be totally different. Oh man, I hope so. From where we are right now. And look, I mean, they'll they'll think we are like the Flintstones probably, you know. So anyway, um hopefully we can do something like that, you know, for the district and stuff, you know. Thank you, Miss Hannah, Miss Lindsing. Oh, buddy. So, I just learned a new term this year and it's been around for a while, so I'm slow on the game. It's called Maycember where it's like all of the activities of

127the month of December with no real like hurrah holiday at the end. You're just go go go. Um so I did get to to join a lot of school district events which I was really excited to be a part of. Um, I got to join the JRTC awards night and see all of the awards get passed out to the wonderful cadetses and I got to see the the new regiment be inducted in and just from being the RC in ' 04 to seeing where the program has come now is just amazing. there's a lot more tradition and culture um being added into the program, but I I told the instructors um that the best thing to see is that the love and the camaraderie has has maintained. That's still the primary component of the program.

128Um so it was just I thank them for inviting me. Um it was it was great to see was also able to um stay for the Lake County Educator of the Year. um that happened over at the Lake County Fairgrounds. Unfortunately, none of our educators won, but you guys are top tier and I definitely think we should have taken some of those home, but that's a very biased opinion. I'll say that straight out. Um got to attend the porn to parks gala. So, as we look to kind of tidy up our own house, making sure that we're being good partners with our other um city government divisions, so like our park district, our city of WKEAN Police Department, etc. So, it was really nice to see all of the work that they put in into

129the Carnegie uh library to preserve the the historical aspects of it. And the renovations were amazing. So, if you haven't gone, um it is going to be open to the public, so please make sure you check it out. was also at graduation and I loved that in hearing feedback from the teachers even though the rain was off and on. Um, a lot of us stood through it and everybody got their certificates and diplomas. Um, but the kids loved it. They actually had a blast. So, it was really good to hear that feedback um that it was a really memorable experience. um also did the five middle school promotions and it was really I just I love shaking all their hands and congratulating them because it's a lot of hard work and it's just one more

130step. Um so I know Miss Hannah you didn't mention it but um I had to step in to to help with some of the speeches because Miss Hannah was downstate in Springfield advocating to ensure that we're not cutting funding to education. So I I took one for the team and spoke at all five. You lucky ducks. Um and then I I went to another fifth grade promotion. So because of that, I didn't get to attend the Clark one, but I did go last year and it was amazing. I think it would be great if maybe we could have more of the elementary schools on the same day like use the same space so that um other families can also like we can reserve finances but other families can can experience how how amazing that event

131is or just hit up Clark and see how they do it. That might be a good idea. Um time capsule was super fun. I agree the students were amazing. Mr. Riddle they talked about things they put in. I'm a little sad they put in Red Bull. Y'all should not be drinking Red Bull, right? I will say it again. Do not drink Red Bull. Do not drink Red Bull. Um, but I love Hot Cheetos are okay. Those are fine. And Sour Patch Kids went in. So, it's it's fun to see that 20 years later some of the same snacks. Mine is Red Bull uh win. Um, the Cook Sampler was great as always. Um, they did a really good job. also got to attend I told y'all it was the whole list the retiree dinner. Oh

132yeah, it was amazing. What was it like 700 years you guys said collectively five 736 I think it was a crazy number and just to hear like some of these teachers that I didn't even get a chance to meet or talk to and hear about their stories on how like they're not even just helping our students but they're out there helping our our immigrant families get their GED so they can be um successful in this country was just oh it warmed my heart. Oh it was great. So, I loved hearing those stories. Sorry they're gone. Um, leaving us after this year, but very hopeful that they have a great retirement. I'm wrapping it up. Um, I would like to see if we can get a survey done on how the past um two years and

133we're going into our final year of the calendar adjustment. So, we're starting earlier. I know from a board perspective, we've had a little bit of frustrations just with the hiring of we hire early and then maybe they get another school district that they're going into and then they leave us before they even start. So, we've had that little bit of a hiccup. Um, but if we can get perspectives from the teachers and the students, especially like the the high school students that I am understanding it was supposed to impact and the families, that would be really helpful. Um, and then the last thing as we move into summer, make sure we continue to pour love into these kids. We have great kids in Walkaggan. I can't say that enough. Our kids are amazing and they

134deserve all of the love and support and cheerleading that we can give them. So, I just want to put that reminder out there that these kids need to hear it over and over and over again. Um, I'm just blown away by you guys. So, enjoy your summer if you can. Enjoy summer school. It's going to be fun while educational. Uh, and best of luck to everybody. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. Miss Savian. Um, same for the retirement dinner. I, um, saw so many people that I used to work with and saw as colleagues who were very instrumental in who I am today. And, um, it's bittersweet seeing them go, but it's, you know, hopefully I'll get there someday soon um, with this economy, probably when I'm 102. Um, but I also saw some of my old

135students during graduation, which really reminds me and hopefully reminds other educators on how long lasting your impact is. Um, I had many of them in first grade. So, um, you get to see them all grown up. Some of them you recognize and some of them until they say their name, they've grown so much. So, um, it's kind of sad. Next year will be my last class that I taught here in Walkegan. Um but congratulations to the class of 2025. Um as far as the comments earlier, I agree um with uh Mr. Strickland about having par mentors. It's very important. Um especially when paras move from role to role or can move from role to role. Um so I started as u I had pull out then I was a liaison and then um I was

136in district office. And so you can have so many roles that you move around in. So having a mentor that understands your specific role and can help guide you would be um amazing and I think would help keep our paras around. Um I got to celebrate the teacher vacancy grants. Um and again I appreciate all of those who are taking that extra step to educate themselves and to dedicate themselves to come back to walk Keegan as a teacher. Um that's something that's very near and dear to my heart because I would not be an educator had I not been provided similar opportunity. Um, I know that paying for a bachelor's degree is difficult and going to school when you have a family and a full-time job is difficult and this makes it possible for our

137parents to do. Um, because it's not al always just about the finances, it's about the timing and you know, do you have child care, do you have support, etc. Um, and so I know it's a big commitment, but I also want to say to those who are considering and are are not part of that program to really look at other avenues like um go on to become a teacher.com, see other ways that you can um progress. Same thing with um looking at your contracts, taking advantage of the tuition reimbursements, and there are other grants out there like from National Lewis that also help um pay for your education if you want to move on to be a a teacher. So, um, again, I really encourage you to make that move. I know it's a difficult

138one, but it's a very rewarding one, and it's easier to keep our paras. You're already familiar with our students and our policies and our procedures. So, uh, it makes for a smooth transition on both ends. Um, I also wanted to ask about the seal of biiteracy. I know in years past, we've had a presentation so we know exactly how many students graduated with the seal by literacy. I know that um we say it during graduation, but again, I think we that's something that we really need to highlight is how many of our students are um graduating with that seal of biiteracy and showcasing the languages as well because it's not just Spanish that they're they're getting the biiteracy degree um certification. Um that seal of biiteracy for students who don't know also helps them become

139a bilingual teacher. They don't have to take the tests in order to do that. So, um, that's another perk if you want to come back and teach. Um, I agree with Mr. uh, President Rodriguez, the superintendent goals, and this is something that I've said in the past, if we're doing school improvement goals now so that our schools can be, um, really constructive in allocating resources, including funds, in order to meet those goals, so that they're ready by August um, to get started and meet those goals. We should be doing the same for the superintendent. it's going to be very difficult for her to appropriate funds and resources and staff to meet a goal for the end of the year when we're giving them to her in December. All of these things should be planned in

140the summer so that we're all in alignment of what we want to see for the end of the school year. Um and then lastly, I just want to say again, thank you to all of those who support the WKEAN Public Schools Foundation. And I just want to add a note. Um, if you go on to our website, there is a shop now button. That shop now button leads to a PayPal where you can donate online. That's all. Thank you. Can Can I Miss Hannah? Go ahead. Yeah. Just I just want to give a shout out to um Andrew Cook uh magnetic school and um at one point all of us were given a feather and we became a part of a house. We picked a feather and we became a part of the house. And

141so I'm wearing my medal that I won because of the say say the word my house was oh is a bendy is a bendy. Okay. And they got the highest points and that's the courage the courage house. And so they got the most points. And I just want to say, you know, congratulations. Um, uh, greenhouse is a big and and keep up the good work for next year. Yeah. Cook M. Thank you, Miss Hannah. Okay, we are not going to adjourn right now. We are going I'm going to call for a motion to go into recess. We're going to reassemble and back in five minutes to complete the U close session agenda. There are a few things that we need to get out of the way tonight. At least we have a motion to go

142into recess. So moved. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Aan. All in favor before can you say what we're going back into close session for? We're going back into close session in five minutes. No. No. for exception C1 personnel and C21 um approval review of board minutes. Yes. Well, the five things we have were C9 student discipline, C10 individual student matters, C1 personnel matters, C1 legal matters, C21 close session minutes. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. We are now in recess. 5 minutes. [Music] Again, we [Music] again Heat. Heat. [Music]