September 14, 2023 Forest Park SD91 Board Of Education Meeting

001I'm going to call to order the September 14 2023 meeting of the Board of Education I may have a roll call Mr Lyons here is Angelo here Ms Tyler here Mr Rommel here Ms cotton here Ms wood here Brooks sorry um for anyone who would like to join and participate please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 [Music] our mission and partnership with Home and Community is to educate each individual child in a safe and nurturing and environment we will Foster respect self-worth teach skills relevant to contemporary life to promote academic success and creative expression we will encourage the percentage of rich culture

002diversity in our community we will instill a sense of wonder for the future to enable our students to become lifelong Learners responsible citizens of the world if I ask someone what thank you thank you foreign Forest Park Public School District 91 will be acknowledged by you as a safety nurturing and diverse learning community that establishes the highest standards for Innovation and continuous Improvement to achieve Excellence a global citizenship for each individual child [Music] recognizing the systemic bias that has plagued your educational system we commit to nurturing dialogue around all issues of inequity the including culture race Faith social economic status gender identity sexual orientation and different ability as they pertain to classroom practices school at school district structures and policies and procedures communities that will allow children to reach their full potential Mr Brooks could

003you read the honoring Native American land statement please we the Forest Park Board of Education would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on a traditional lands of the Peoria parabatami Miami Sue and Kickapoo people and pay our respects to Elder spose past and present thank you number four conduct the fiscal year 2024 budget public hearing Dr Hubbard good evening thank you madam president board members Dr Alvarez and guests um our strategic plan drives what we do and we really want to make sure that we align all of our resources to that so tonight I'm here to talk about and present the 2023-2024 budget that support our learning and achievement our family community engagement and our talent and Recruitment and development so in order to do that inclined for the future we really

004look at our past so we looked at the past um 10 years worth of enrollment data to see where we were and that's in blue and then we projected we use the algorithm to project forward what the next four years would be and that's what's in red this data does not include Pre-K numbers so Pre-K numbers are excluded from this so this is some of the data that we use to help plan moving forward this graph here shows our enrollment per grade level for last school year the trend shows declining enrollment in Middle School in order to try to change that Trend this year as you know we built a new steam lab in the Middle School we're also offering algebra and pre-alge virtual students this year so we're trying to see what we can

005do to combat that Trend this year we have about 58 college-bound graduates for the class of 2032 that's our eighth graders and we've got to make sure we prepare them with all the resources that they need moving forward to ensure they're successful in this graph here you can see that the needs of our student population are changing and to ensure that we align our resources we've got to meet their needs the green line that you see it's our loan income enrollment Trend and last year about 50 percent of our students were classified as low incomes we got to make sure as we align the our resources we meet the needs of the changing population yes uh I'm sorry there you go um for the last orange bar shown is that 2023 I can't see yes

006it is okay what's the first year the first year is 2007. okay thanks and what was that percentage or is that numbers 32 32. okay thank you so it went from 32 2007 to 53 in 2023. okay this graph so just looking at enrollment from multiple perspectives and Diving deeper it shows that there's declining enrollment at Garfield in the Middle School so our budget must support the needs of the students in those schools and we're trying to align our resources to that to better prepare them so then kids stay with us until they transition to high school we don't have the 2023 data but this is up to 2022 it shows up her pupil spending in 2022 it was 27 000. I know last year was higher the official number hasn't came out from the

007state yet they won't release that to about October but I could tell you it was higher than what it was in 2022. oh okay I shared this graph with you before um it just shows that we do plan conservative budgeting it's our expenditures for the past 10 years shows that we overestimate our expenditures and they always come in the actuals a little bit lower I'm much lower than what we projected um for the past couple years there's a big difference that is because of the additional Essa funding that we received um so that that's why that difference is there and we didn't expend those funds we did this past year and we have some of them left over for this year to expend so that was just some of the data that we used in

008some historical data would use to plan for the 2024 budget for this year's budget for our expenditures or broken up basically into three categories instruction and instructional supports which is about 67 percent of our budget it's normally hovers around that that's teacher salary and support staff salary District Operations about 24 that's keeping the water running gas light electricity and any Capital Improvements we have to do in school and District leadership that's the leadership teams in the schools and then in the district office let's just see if your breakdown of the percentages of where the funds fall some of the big expenses that we're driving this planning for this budget um always our student uh outplacement tuition that we have to pay additional transportation we added as we you know we're providing Transportation now for probably

009about 50 percent of our district um so that we hadn't put in additional funding for that additional training for um National Equity project you budgeted for the steam labs for last year they were finished over summer we didn't get the bills to now so that's why I had a plan so even though the money was in last year budget I just transitioned over this year's budget because we haven't paid for it yet so they just submitted the invoices for it and they're doing the punch list so then we could release the fund so that's why it's there um also talking about providing an eighth grade trip and providing opportunities for 8th graders so we put some funds in there for that just to be proactive if that's something the board wants to move forward with

010um we provide a permanent substitute teachers for the district we know there is a teacher shortage so we're very proactive and look to hire permanent Subs this year I believe we hired 11. um so we put funding in for that um and then some of the contingency expenditures as I said we still have some Essa funding available that's left over and this is the last year to utilize the sf3 funds we expended all of our SO2 funds so there's some expenditures that we plan to have also to dive deeper and show you where some of those funds go for our general education we spend about 8.1 million and for our diverse Learners we're spending about 2.5 million of the budget that's six planned expenditures for them preschool program which we do not charge for it

011is free to Forest Park residents we're spending about 869 thousand dollars on it and our Early Childhood Program we spend about 183 000 that's the planned budget for this year supplemental supports for our students to make sure that their needs are met about 963 000 is the budget for that this year our ChalleNGe Program we budget by 134 000 extracurriculars programs we know we want to have a really robust extracurricular programs for our Scholars we have 451 000 budget for that yes for the previous support can you give a couple of examples of that um salaries for some social workers some instructional support aides paraprofessionals to make sure we have our summer school program this summer a hundred and one thousand dollars in our emergency program we spend about 378 thousand dollars on and then

012to meet the social emotional learning needs um Health Service to make sure we have a nurse in each school guidance services and Social Work services our psychologists and speech pathologies to to meet the needs of the students IPS we make sure we set aside funding for that that's the budget for the year our school and District leadership a budget about 2.2 million library media Services 220 000 and our District Operations about five 5.3 million dollars that was our expenditures do you have a question sorry the library and Media Services what I'm surprised by that number what it what goes into that that's salaries oh okay I'm sorry so these are all salaries of majorities the majorities and then any instructional supplies that also put in there so if they have a budget to purchase things

013that's putting up but the majority okay okay thank you for that so if there were a case where we were purchasing say equipment for some of the special education needs that would not be included in these that would be separate as part of like fixed assets correct correct okay thank you that'd be more like District operation so any fixed assets are a Capital Improvements and big equipment anything that costs over 500. same slide I showed you previous digital start revenues we always underestimate our revenues and they come in much higher so so that is a good thing um and what comes into that for this year are revenues about 85 percent is local revenues uh 7.5 stay and 7.4 from federal last year our federal was around 15 but that was unusual that was all

014the Essa funds that came in this is normally where we are I think for the past six years we've normally hovered around 85 percent it's like 85.1 85.2 depending for our Revenue that we're projected to get in um locally and what that means is and the next slides what are some of those big expenses um we're projected about get 30 000 in interest last year we only projected about three thousand dollars I would tell you we end up getting about two hundred thousand dollars in interest so the treasury did some really great Investments um but we can't always plan on that money so just budgeting that when you're about thirty thousand dollars that wouldn't get about 99 of our tax collections um we normally hover around that and then only 85 percent of our state

015revenue last year they gave us a hundred percent but just planning conservatively we're only a plan that would give about 85 percent of it in and same thing for federal funds we got a hundred percent last year the only budgeting that we get about 90 percent in because they may hold back some money we don't know they just give us estimates on what they're going to provide us so we want to be conservative in that and last year was unusual to have this happen in the past 30 years at our Consumer Price Index was above five percent uh we don't know still yet if the county is going to keep it at five percent but we budgeted that they would keep it at five percent and as you've heard they've delayed on when they were

016going to receive our first installment so that's not going to come into maybe November December and that's really where I'm going to find out what that percentage is uh so we just estimated that it'd be five percent we're hoping that they keep it at five percent yes and I know we see this every time but and that's exactly why we keep reserves on hand that we do correct yes and that is the very next slide so thank you for that um so if we don't get any money in and we're good for the next 10 months in our education fund 13 months an operational fund Transportation six and a half months and our retirement fund eight percent eight months so we have the money there just in case they don't come in and it's delayed

017further than November or December did we um did we move some more money back into the transportation because I know last month you presented that we spent more than we anticipated yes and that's why one of the expenditures was an extra 175 000 and we got that up to six and a half months because it was around two and a half months reserves so yes any other questions that is the budget presentation for this upcoming year I I do think would be in the same position we have been in the previous years where our revenues are going to come in higher especially if we get towards the five percent for CPI which in the past we've only got about two and a half percent just one question about the CPI is that the federal CPI

018or does is there an adjustment made for state or is that something that we get so there is adjustment made for State we don't know what that is that's normally what it came out in September but they've pushed it back that probably won't come out until November so we're waiting to hear what the adjustment's going to be okay thank you any other questions I'm wondering if you can go back to that slide um that has like the uh the permanent Subs on it and uh do you know what I mean yes so I think this is in a way like this sort of sums up our story in like the last 12 to 18 months about what we've really been trying really hard to do in our district which is to transform to be Innovative

019meet the needs of our kids our staff and I mean I think a lot about all the the kids in our community who are not coming to our schools and what I really want to say is to anybody who's watching this or who likes to think our schools are as good as they are like I really want people to look at this I mean I think we take seriously when our students we feel like our students needs aren't met we get them to places where they are met you know we're working hard on our Equity initiatives we've added transportation we have free breakfast and lunch for each student we just constructed new steam Labs we're considering an eighth grade trip which we haven't had in a long time we're bringing back outdoor education you know

020so like all we're trying to be proactive about um you know Shoring up our staff when people need to call out so that our kids have people that they know in our district in front of them and so to me this is like it's boring but it's it is our story you know what I mean like it's this really is sort of the picture of I think the last 12 to 18 months of We're just trying really hard to take care of our community and I hope people will consider this um because I think that it it shows that we're working really hard to try to help people understand how great we leave our district is and we hope they see that yeah the algebra pre-algebra yeah and as I mentioned before I really wanted

021to take a look at the budget we normally had a larger deficit we're more conservative I really want to strategically get it down I got it down to about 4.2 billion of a difference this time so then we can see how we could better utilize those resources and allocate them to programs that benefit their children in the community yeah I mean I just think like they're not a lot of places where your kid can do a summer program for free your kid can do after school activities for free like we don't school supplies like I think it's all I mean it's obvious it's obviously bigger than that but um I think it's because we're trying to be thoughtful with our budget and the way that we construct you know our expenditures and our Revenue so

022that they serve the best purpose possible so any other questions that is it thank you all right well we're going to take a pause until 6 30 um to start our regular meeting thank you thank you all right welcome back we're going to continue with the rest of our regular meeting for the consent agenda as for the board is there anything anyone would like removed okay if not um may I have I need a motion right I may have a motion to approve so moved second second roll call Mr Lyons all right Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rummel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye Ms wood aye number six uh Rory Hoskins mayor of Forest Park good evening president wood vice president cotton secretary Rummel members of the board superintendent Alvarez it's

023a pleasure to be here I want to congratulate you all on having such a robust air-conditioning system here far superior than most that I've seen recently I'm here tonight because the village would like to uh propose a collaboration with respect to Grant White the use of this building or any surplus space that might exist within District 91's discretion as I think you all know the Village of Forest Park currently uses its more communities that are located at 7501 Jackson for before school after school Services as well as Senior Services and then various Community uses many of the families who use the Moore Center for before and after school care are eligible for me the services designed for low to moderate income households staff at the Moore Center provide some assistance in accessing you know various

024social services and other benefits to families with low to moderate incomes in addition to these families having children who attend district 91 schools what we've seen over the last few years is that the building needs extensive repairs and it's currently undergoing a very comprehensive building assessment to determine the future of that building what some of you may not know is that it was built over a reservoir just to the west of the Moore Center is a village pumping station that yellow brick building that has a lot of our water infrastructure so some of the upgrades that we're considering for the community center mainly a revamp to the playground area the playground area is uh it's just really not on brand with Forest Park considering the progress we've made in probably the last decade the village

025is allocated over two hundred thousand dollars for repairs to the playground however because of the partial assessment that has already been done these last few months we've discovered that there may be some structural damage to this large Reservoir that sits under the the playground area and it might be very impractical to move some of the heavy equipment that would uh be used to to Really upgrade the playground uh and the way that we plan to do some other issues we've had lately with the Moore Center are the issues that come along with being next to the Forest Park Blue Line Station many unhoused persons in the last few years we've had to upgrade the security systems at the Moore Center at times people would come in seeking basic things like a washroom right food but

026before excuse me but because this facility provides care for our children it's not safe to to have it accessible to persons from the train station there's quite a bit of drug use unfortunately in that area in the last six months we've had the sheriff's deputies out we've had a comprehensive cleanup done on the fences just south of our playground equipment there's been a lot of drug use we cut down those trees because what we found is that unhoused persons had encampments back there and it wasn't safe for the kids and so we found some real issues at that Center and we don't know what the future of it's going to be but we see a possible short-term solution and collaborating with district potentially using some of your available properties we believe that the same services

027in terms of before and after school care could be provided on a district 91 owned property that we could collaboratively use and pay for but that we could also expand services we see this is a deal because Grant white is centrally located and it possesses all the physical attributes necessary for a successful Child Care Facility gymnasium classrooms restrooms kitchen space outdoor play area parking Etc as I mentioned the village would seek to share costs with district 91 for the maintenance we're not looking to to purchase the property in addition to our traditional offerings in terms of before and after school care The Village could see us collaborate into provide services to teens or tweens currently are programs only go up to age 12. sometimes kids who are above 12 can be signed up as sort

028of Junior counselors and still work with the day camp programs but that's not something that we generally offer but if we had more space it might be possible to expand services to children who are maybe 12 to 13 12 to 14 even 12 to 15 years old and we see it feasible to establish Partnerships with some of the non-profits and arts type programs that are already operated in the village that we already support I'm talking about things like the Forest Park Theater group that recently did Shakespeare in the park the Forest Park Arts Alliance the just cause dancers I believe the district already has a relationship with just cause dancers the answer Inc possibly the management of the Forest Park comedy club that will soon open up Ms Ramirez has indicated not a willingness to

029work with youth in other parts of the community and of course the Forest Park Public Library and there may be some other partners Historical Society Garden Club what have you so how would this be paid for possible funding sources The Village still has some of our arpa money left those funds were designed to be spent equitably I believe this would be an equitable use there's also the opportunity for New State funding this possibility for new County funding and finally There's an opportunity for private funding we've recently began developing new relationships with a prominent Family Foundation in the area I just took them on a tour of our community center last week and they've indicated a willingness and a desire to work with the Village of Forest Park in a meaningful way so just to conclude

030we see a lot of synergies and collaborating with the with the district excuse me we believe that Grant white already has many of the attributes that are necessary to be successful and quite candidly our services that the village already provides are for families who are sending their kids to district 91 anyway so we believe that there is a lot to offer and that through this collaboration district 91 can of course continue to focus on its core Educational Services to the Village to the kids but the partnership would allow you to supplement the educational experience through more in terms of Arts exposure governance and other non-traditional educational activities so with that I want to conclude my comments I'm happy to answer any questions or I can take a seat [Music] um short short term sharing what

031uh she asked me about the the timeline I don't have a concrete timeline I know that the community center is going to need some repairs what I don't know is whether will actually be able to make those repairs because we don't have the results of the the building assessment but when I said short term I'm trying to indicate that we're not trying to to purchase a building or look for fee title just two questions um you were talking about using the space are you looking to rent it or just share the space so to be determined okay right but either way you're not looking for like to compare it to a 30-year lease where we would be turning over the space and second question are there any based on what you know now are there

032any remodeling needs that you could foresee or would you be able to use the buildings pretty much as they are uh you know this is so early I wouldn't be able to say that I mean it kind of depends on the needs of the district right it's my understanding that there are already some administrative functions being held at Grant White we don't want to interrupt what you're already doing but we do see their possibly space to to coexist so if if some upgrades need to be provided we could probably have some we would certainly have skin in the game sorry last question for some of the the programs that you're talking about especially like the tweens and teens program stuff that doesn't currently exist are there going to be do you have a timeline for

033when we might know what you're planning or is that contingent on hey we need to know if we have the space first it's certainly contingent but right like again there are a lot of there's a lot of programming already gone on right like we're already supported in the Arts lands we're already supported in the theater we know that Rick Corley wants to have an indoor space to use there's the Scout Troop there's there's a lot of groups that already use the community center I think would like to be in a better space thank you very much a few questions um I apologize I didn't catch the grant or the funds that you said that I said potential funding sources we still have some of our arpa money American Rescue plan act and how much is

034left in that fund uh hundreds of thousands hundreds of thousands hundreds of thousands hundreds two hundreds three hundredths we have over I think 300 000 left in order to funding and then have you applied or looked at any other Grant sources through the state we have some grants pending I did mention that we have a relationship with a Family Foundation that's local that just toured the community center has expressed an interest in working with the village okay so you would use a local Foundation plus any type of Benny grants correct so there's there's potential arpa money yep there's some State money pending that has already been allocated to Forest Park it wasn't allocated for this use but we have some State money pending and then there's potential private tolerance alrighty and then also have you

035considered I mean you've talked about some programming that our district is already providing to our kids that a potential other person has uh discussed in the last board meeting and then your same type of programming I mean we're all fighting for the same kids have you thought about sitting down and having a collaboration amongst all parties and kind of discussing that we're here to discuss a collaboration but it's the district's building so if the district is willing to collaborate we're certainly willing to collaborate alrighty John do you mean the theater is that what you mean uh theater teen programs after school care I mean all these programs that Mr Hoskins just discussed has been things that you know has been discussed prior with other organizations so I'm just I mean my thought is we're all

036fighting for the same kids in our district have we had a collaboration right for the I mean we're all providing the same programs at the end of the day in a sense I think they I think there's some overlap I think they look a little bit different they read slightly different audiences but I see I see what you mean can I ask a couple questions okay um so you mentioned that you current there's currently programming for students before and after school do you have a sense of about how many students that is usually about I think 100 a session it could be a little bit more okay and then what about seniors about how many seniors do you typically serve we have lots of senior trips yeah there may be as few on a trip

037as I don't know 40 but for something like senior Bingo probably around 100 okay we have an annual New Year's Eve party for the seniors right it's held early in the day didn't know that the ball drops at 6 PM no clue okay and they and there's usually a band right but that that may attract a couple hundred people and it's not just Forest Park seniors but Maywood River Forest other two oh okay so oh so not even just provizo Township but also neighboring it's kind of the area thing right okay so just so I'm clear this you're anticipating that this would be temporary we don't know what's going to happen with the community center okay um but I'm not you know proposing to try to take over the building or or purchase it right

038right but temporary could be one year two years it could be slightly longer it kind of depends on the desires of District 91. um we'd certainly be flexible okay um but I just don't have a definite timeline right and it would be to move the programming that's currently happening at the community center over here correct okay you mentioned our unhouse population um and not really being able to serve them because kids are right there and it's just not a really safe environment I was indicating that their their numbers yeah and their position just because of what the Forest Park Blue Line station is I get it it presents a risk right and you know in the last year we've cut down a number of trees because we discovered that there were homeless encampments uh just

039behind the community center's playground area unfortunately we find lots of evidence of needle usage right IV drugs um and so those that just enhances Our concern about the location right so there's the need to renovate it but then there's also the the reservoir that's underground and maybe the inability uh to really give it the kind of fix-up that it needs right and I I don't want anybody to think that I wasn't that I was being not sympathetic to that population their needs their current situation I just wanted to ask are you hoping to serve them or No like is that would that be something that that the community center would like to be able to do or so it's core Services have been you know before school after school care sure and Senior Services okay

040um The Village has other programs designed to address the needs of the unhoused population okay once a week a group called shower up comes to the CTA blue line and brings mobile showers we have a number of clothing drives we're working with housing forward you know we're doing some things to care for the seniors excuse me to care for the unhoused yep um but they're not the Forest Park residents that we're pledged to serve necessarily right they may they may they may live here temporarily but our our focus and the reason why I'm here is trying to find a better solution to care for the the kids candidly okay I think what I'm trying to figure out is should you move temporarily to somewhere else like here is that would you like to serve them

041in a place like here to provide core Services I think that's what I'm trying to figure out is is um well I want to bring homeless Services here yes that's not why I'm here okay this is really about children and senior citizens um I think those are my questions I'm not indifferent to the homeless it's just that that's I understand yeah yeah how far along in the process of sort of evaluating the fitness of the building are you we should have a better sense um probably within the next two months maybe even a shorter time and what happens if that space is no longer feasible to be used then we'll have to really put our thing caps on and explore other options that's right um there's a county building across the street from the community

042center that's somewhat underused the TB clinic in the past the village has thought about you know making a real approach to the County government to see about acquiring that somehow okay there's a potential maybe with the library um I mean we wouldn't just fold up services at the community centers just that we couldn't expand it make the it wouldn't make sense to make the kind of improvements that we think are needed there if it's structurally unsound right yeah okay thanks other questions I think the question that I have is connected to the grants there's a process that goes along with the grants and how long do you anticipate having an understanding of when that when those grants will turn into actual usable funds well we already have arpa money available to us so there's no

043waiting on that um and like I said that's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars we're not here to to purchase this building so if there were Renovations needed a contribution from the village we have that funding available in terms of Family Foundation funding I alluded to that that's probably a longer wait um but these private foundations can be fairly Nimble and if they want to make a move they can and in this case we have a pretty strong relationship with this one particular Family Foundation that alluding to and then we were allocated some State dollars um about 1.7 million it's already been allocated to us okay and so those funds what you're talking about are not for the renovation of the community center they would be dedicated or maybe a portion of it dedicated

044to the utilization of this school district and for the community and resources here so the arpa money is is very flexible if we wanted to do something here we could use that to make improvements here okay and that's like I said in the hundreds of thousands okay and that offer money is that just one lump sum or is that like an annual or an amount that can be reoccurred over time because we don't really have a time frame of when the village got a pile of arpa money during the height of the covet height of covert excuse me and we haven't used most of it so we still have a pot of money so that's one General lump sum that can be utilized yeah we wouldn't use the entire sum for this purpose but it's

045it's enough to probably make renovations if that was asked of us okay okay is there a Time by which you need to spend that arpa funding we have another couple of years a couple years okay and one more question so after the after the park district came over and you know they they had a team come through the building and look to to kind of get an idea of what it would take to get the building into shape for their proposal um do you want to have you or do you do you plan on having anybody from the village come in and take a look at it and say hey this is what it would take to get it to where we think it should be for our purposes so that we could talk about

046how much money you have but what would it actually take you know how much would you have to spend here to get it where you need to be well you you've been to our community center right and you've seen the lovely that lovely structure right you can speak to the obviously there's definitely a need definitely you need playground I'm being a little funny there uh I think you're building this sound we wouldn't need too many changes here so really money's not kind of the driving thing when it comes to being here if we if the building were open tomorrow we could move it you could move in and use it tomorrow we think we could make it work um I mean like I said you have the facilities right gems washrooms parking kitchen so yeah

047we could make it work but if there are things as part of a collaborative relationship that the board wanted us to do then we would have the funds to do those things thank you and and just as a side note um as the mayor noted you know the scouts use that building frequently and it is and it's a well-used building it is it is seen a lot of views so it I think it would be good to have start thinking about other options for it mayor um do you have a timeline that you're looking at um be able to use this like when to start I suppose is what I'm asking we'd probably want to start within the next uh maybe a few months you know we'd have to go back and discuss it as

048a team right but you know if the build is available I think it would be uh far superior to what we have but you know we're we're also making use of what we have right like our our staff um does a lot with a little and that's the way they've been doing it for a couple decades now since my kids went to the community center and they'll continue to do that but if there's a better facility available then we'd love to have access to it I was curious if um if there is anything that you believe or that you anticipate would be needed if a collaboration occurred like from that that of the resources that you are utilizing now at the Moore Center and what we have as a resource is there anything that you

049anticipate maybe would need it to be changed adapted adjusted in order to accommodate um the Staffing and the children that you serve there or the community serves there in comparison to here that's a really good point uh we might want to install cameras I don't know what your camera systems are currently like or what extent you have surveillance but you know and watching little kids that's something that we've invested in at the community center and we would probably want to see that wherever we're operating Child Care programs maybe we look at your lock-in systems I understand that you all have a pretty good security system here we're looking at some upgrades to some of our buildings on a more global scale but but security is always going to be important I just wanted to remind

050all of us that I think it's important that we remember our presentation from last month and we try to be fair between the two parties and it's up to the village and the mayor to decide how they want to move forward and how this process moves for you all right like we are going to do what we do as a governing body and anyone who's interested in utilizing our space will be able to figure out how they might want to proceed so I just wanted to you know make sure that everybody feels as though because it's the truth we're we're here to try to understand what's best for our community as it relates to this space so the park district had a path forward that they wanted to pursue you're welcome to pursue a path

051forward but I think we want to remain neutral and listen and you know everybody can do what they feel is the next best step um and trying to figure out if this will work so follow up with us as you deem appropriate thank you yeah thank you members of the board thank you number seven correspondence so we have we have one note here from the Kiwanis Club of Forest Park dear Dr Alvarez district 91 staff and school board members as the Kiwanis Club of Forest Park celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023 we are excited for The Grand Event and celebration that will occur on September 30th past presidents scholarship winners local and National Kiwanis members and Forest Park residents will gather to celebrate and reminisce the impact the Kiwanis has made over the last hundred

052years in Forest Park and we hope that school district teachers staff and board members will join in celebration in one or all of the following ways purchase tickets and attend the event place an ad or well Wisher in the program book promote and buy raffle tickets for the 1 000 Grand raffle the event is fast approaching and we want to ensure your participation in the event and hope to see us there from the Kiwanis and they have a flyer um I know these are out and about and I just want to add and add a note they among other things they support local scouting and multiple other organizations here in Salem so uh good group number eight matters for consideration from the audience the Board of Education welcomes public comment at its meetings this is

053the official time devoted to comments by community members following public comments the board takes the citizens comments under advisement all speakers who wish to address the board during this time must identify themselves before they speak comments are limited to three minutes per individual and the board asks that no specific names be mentioned in order to allow for the most efficient use of meeting time if there are several speakers addressing the same topic the board president May set a time limit for that topic any citizen wishing to address the board on a public matter is encouraged to contact the district office at 708-366-5700 extension 3301 according to Illinois school code items such as those dealing with Personnel individual student discipline the purchase of land security and legal actions may be addressed in executive session by the

054Board of Education are there any public comments come on up Jackie iavinelli from the park district I promise I don't have a slideshow this time but I do have copies if anybody wants um I first want to thank you again for your time um thank you for your time and consideration at the last meeting I appreciate all of what you've done and how you've listened to us because sometimes I get really excited about things and uh I have a lot to say I also want to thank you to Dr Alvarez for your time thank you to Bob for walking us through the building it was great um and so as far as the park district goes this is a viable option this facility mirrors our needs based on our architect's opinion the facility is in

055great condition so the park district comes to the table with experience this is our lane we're a Park District we we do camp we do programs we do Parks and Recreation that is our service that is our expertise that's what we come to the table with that's what we do for this community we have funding we have guaranteed funding the state are we have a 2.5 million dollar Grant awarded to us we have legislative support this grant was given to us by Senate President Don Harmon because he's excited about our vision and he wants to see this happen we have a vision we have a need for indoor space to serve enrichment Arts Theater music dance we also have for adults we have health and wellness programs that we can't offer right now because we

056don't have the space we also come with a partner wssra this facility would house 13 different communities in West cook Chicago the special needs of 13 different communities we would all we would host their offices here we have that partnership we've just signed an a memorandum of understanding going into this knowing that we will have this we are ready to start tomorrow if anybody knows me that's kind of the way I do things and we are a huge advocate of collaboration um and I hear that word a lot tonight and that's what we do we collaborated on the pocket parks and look what we were able to do um that was two government entities coming together to say we have the expertise for the park district we should be doing parks and the village saying

057you're right let's do this and now look at what we're creating we've we are collaborating uh we were talking about uh the teen programs next week our superintendent and our rec staff are meeting with the library staff to collaborate on team programming we we have a need let's work together why would we work separately let's bring it together and make that happen for the community because it's the same Community same tax dollars why duplicate Services when we can offer and do what we do at the park district and I think that over the years we have a proven track record so thank you again I know I probably only have 33 minutes so you can stop me and um also we look forward to the Color Run this Saturday so come on look I think

058there's like a hundred and something kids that are signed up for it so we're ready to have color all over the park so thank you guys for your time all right number nine superintendent report Dr Alvarez okay starting off my recognition I.T recognition we're celebrating National I.T Professionals Day on the third Tuesday of every September which is September 21st this year so we want to recognize our two guys in the back who are behind the scenes uh technical experts here although we're getting feedback guys we are grateful for Jason Saxon and Carlos Romero who makes your our d91 systems run smoothly um our back to school picnic we have now had three back to school events this was our second picnic in partnership with Jackie alvinelli in the Park District of Forest Park and District

05991. we'd like to recognize them as well as a huge gratitude to nurisa Ramos whose spearheads our event thank you to Starship Loyola Health Clinic AMJ Amusement bu events for our photo booth Scouts of America Girl Scouts Kiwanis our PTO Forest Park Public Library Pastor choice and engaged church for their donations Donna klumsky our d-91 administrators secretaries academic coaches and district office leaders Ryan Russ for DJing Mali uzek Patricia laco Amy Edwards Karen Freeman Jane carazone Lisa Parker Newman Deidre Burnett Joseph amawi Anna Carrera Nicole white Legrand Rosie moroney Michelle bernero Brenda Ali our d-91 custodians who are just phenomenal our d-91 Board of Education men who are also phenomenal and our mayor Hoskins and the Forest Park Village for all their engagement for our open house we want to thank everyone and our staff

060and our families for making our sy24 open houses very successful a lot of smiles and cheers and children just enjoying their time in our buildings and then finally for our department of learning and Innovation this is the first year that our staff professional learning provide a choice for our staff and included all d-91 members this was done in conjunction with the professional learning committee our academic coaches and director Edler provided great learning on August 16th and 17th so thank you again and now I'm going to move on to our priorities oh I should have started with the other one um so first for our steam lab our ribbon ceremony it truly was a wonderful event to share with our families our mayor and Village of Forest Park our new steam Labs our children Asante smitter

061let's see science and Emily Lyons and Amira straw provided the tour of our Labs we now have the video to share with you three two one welcome to the Forest Park Middle School steam lab so the station that we are currently in right now is the design room this is basically where we do all of our designs create everything that we would like to create um as you can see right over there we have the laser printer which we use for like wood cutting laser printing for wood and then as you can see right above the tables we have electrical outputs to make sure that none of our students are tripping while we walk throughout the room so we connected them to the ceiling to give electricity to everyone so this is the research area

062or because we will do the research for what you're going to do we have three TVs with every table so TV there to there to be there with tables so we will connect our Chromebooks to the TVs to share our ideas to make sure that everyone sees it without having to punch over the table having to angle your computer everyone not being able to see because of your brightness and as you can see the room right there that's basically for if people need space from everyone else if they need quiet because everything else is going to be pretty loud um there's also a green screen in there for when people are doing projects that revolve with green screens yeah I think everyone knows how the Green Team Works so this area is basically the presenting

063area yet again we can hook up our Chromebooks to the TV to show us what our before pictures were like what our ideas were at the beginning of the project to what our final like on demo of the project was and then basically the final Masterpiece on the table right in front of us anyway this is our steam Lab at the Forest Park Middle School thank you for coming [Applause] all right okay all right we're ready all right lead us off this is the research area where where you do research and what you learn that is the quiet room like the middle school if a broom wants to wear quietly nobody will interrupt them this is the design area where you build and design stuff this is the presentation area where we presentate stuff cannot

064thank all of you enough for this um really for the ribbon ceremony as uh Robert and I were dreaming about it and the board was dreaming about it we just didn't realize how great it was going to look and so we thank you so much for entrusting us with this because steam is really going to make the difference for our babies for our Scholars so thank you thank you so much [Applause] pretty proud moment thank you our children really deserved it they were so awesome up there um going on to enrollment our enrollment to date is 691 students compared to last year's 675 it's you know a little it's good we're under positive uh our Middle School outings and team building uh Forest Park admin Miss Watson and Mr bacon are serious about making Forest

065Park Middle School a place of belonging in conjunction with PBIS all grades will be attending team building in November at Iron Oaks the purpose of the Iron Oaks student Retreat is to enhance professional choosing enhance personal confidence and self-esteem build trust and support encourage effective communication and develop teamwork skills that carry over into day-to-day living environments and Department debriefs in order to make sure there is an alignment with all departments we are now holding quarterly department debriefs where the following departments student services learning and Innovation engagement and operations provide goals at at hand how they will do it and what output is expected and especially that it marries a strategic plan and annual District Improvement plan Rising voice ambassadors last year we launched Scholastic's Rising voices classroom libraries and K-5 classrooms these classroom libraries you

066may recall provide students with high interest culturally relevant texts that celebrate the stories of the historically underrepresented the books expose our students to Rich language that motivates them captures their interests and also aligns with the Illinois social emotional learning standards as part of the launch Ms chardulo who serves as our Ella English language arts curriculum committee wanted to also involve our eighth graders so model was developed to bring 8th graders into K-5 classrooms to engage our elementary students in a read aloud this was not only a great success we are now extending our partnership with Bernie Grant Hill who is our regional sales and Michael Hagan the VP of the rising voices division of Scholastic books our 8th graders will now be known as rising voices ambassadors and will have the opportunity to engage with

067other students and our community in a variety of ways that would highlight the amazing things our district is doing to raise the voices of our students build a love of literacy and nurture and appreciation of diverse cultures we also want to shout out Jen Allman our academic coach and her leadership as instrumental in this exciting partnership with Scholastic Books thank you Ms Solomon Mr dulo and all the leaders who are opening up their classrooms and bringing so much energy and enthusiasm to this initiative we also did a quick video where we had Miss Davenport part of it to explain how she's utilizing the series with our children so that video should be coming out soon so thank you Miss Davenport and with that I'm going to bring it to Mr shakurkey good evening our president

068Boyd vice president cotton secretary Rummel members of the board and Lisa navis Dr Alvarez uh thank you for inviting me to speak this evening um it's funny that we just mentioned Rising voices uh we were just talking about this yesterday and there's also coming out with an Asian-American Pacific Islander collection which would be very useful work as we continue our pursuit of our Equity imperative a lot of the work that the social sciences committee has been doing over the last year or so um one reason I wanted I'm very excited to come speak with you this evening to share about an opportunity that I was invited to do just a few weeks ago in Washington DC um excuse me the national veterans Network and the Smithsonian held a teacher Institute with teachers from eight different

069excuse me eight different states that are teachers that are all working toward doing work with implementing uh curriculum in mandated units of study on Asian American history um and so I'm going to the next slide um and so the overview and the purpose as I mentioned eight different states in a teacher from Washington DC for sharing their experience you're talking about Asian American history for those who don't maybe have the background um isby has mandated units of study in the Asian American history starting with last school year the social sciences curriculum committee has been working over the last year to put that into our curriculum at the eighth grade and continuing to curate that at the fourth grade level as well and that's a lot of what we've been working on so a lot of

070what we did focused on Japanese internment during World War II um just giving strategies different curriculum and a lot of the work that we did was writing and reviewing these curriculums I do have some of the curriculum Network that we've done before the pandemic I can share that with you in just a moment but also developing structures we're working with teachers on implementing these existing units into existing curriculum um this is connecting a lot of the work that I've been doing on my own time with the teach act the teach Act is about teaching Equitable Asian American community history in our classrooms and a lot of that work is bringing over into what we've been doing with our social sciences curriculum um and so like I said most of your focus around the knee set

071um and since our our connection with uh Forest Park um over the last year as I mentioned uh there's been a cohort by different cohorts of 15 teachers apiece um I was selected to do that last year but really trying to discuss the inequities that exist in our systems and strategies for overcoming resistance to teaching New Perspectives and history especially in our classrooms um one thing that we have noticed is that school district that maybe are not fully represented with Asian Americans uh they're resistant to teaching that and try to just to overcome that and so we can incorporate New Perspectives one thing that we've been working with our social sciences department is a little bit of a mindset shift for maybe what we consider to be our traditional social sciences classrooms to do something

072a little bit more inquiry-based document based introducing New Perspectives really is letting students see what biases may exist in different documents and things like that that they may be exploring um and so for those who have the opportunity the curating resources I've helped create a massive air table of resources that can be used from K to 12 and so our teachers can be utilizing that over the next school year especially in the units of study eighth grade is we want to particularly focusing on at the moment that will be done at the end of quarter two and but the teach act came about a lot of it from was a lot of the outcry and a lot of the hatred that was happening during the time of covet but truly trying to expose all individuals

073all backgrounds to what Asian Americans have experienced during a time of coven and teaching a little bit of that background and there's a little bit of information there who was introduced by in 2021 remaining units of both local and the national level Illinois was the first state to implement this and sent then four other states have followed in a couple other states right now are currently discussing where that's going to be implemented in their own curriculums um and just along with that a lot of that work that um was done in Washington sees DC will be brought back to the social sciences curriculum as I mentioned we have two of our Middle School teachers teaching eighth grade social sciences so we'll be doing that mandated unit of study um but also trying to explore how

074we can incorporate things like the rising voices collection and then also curating a fourth grade curriculum as well but just really making sure that we're hitting those units of study and that we're reevaluating and rewriting our curriculum where necessary and making sure that those uh resources that we're using are culturally responsive but also have an equitable lend in giving our students really multiple perspectives and then continuing that shift away from what we might consider to be a traditional social sciences class more of an inquiry-based collaborative classroom more perspectives in looking at potential biases that may exist in those textbooks with that are there any questions about the experience and what's currently going on with the social sciences curriculum I have two questions what about this initiative sites View and what about this initiative makes you

075proud sorry what was the first question what about this initiative excites you and can you tell us what about this initiative makes you proud um I think what excites me the most about I've always had a personal interest in Asian history to bringing that into the classroom but also expanding our student knowledge right we've been very focused a very white eurocentric history to being able to introduce multiple perspectives all across the classroom it's something that excitement um something that we can introduce our students to maybe cultures that they maybe don't see on the day-to-day basis and I think that's what's most exciting and most proud that the work that I've kind of been doing on my own is something that we can also bring into the classroom and we start to share that with others

076and start to educate all across the board thank you I know you mentioned that you're focusing on Eighth and fourth grade why those two grade Labs I'm assuming it's going to be more than that but just why those two that's a great question um so a lot of that had to do with uh I'm just being honest a lot of the work that I did as an eighth grade social studies teacher a lot of that is period over um and based in just like chronological there's a lot more places to implement that especially like World War II Japanese internment um and the same thing with the fourth grade curriculum as it's set up now would it be fair to categorize what you're doing as teaching more material so there's there's stories that have not been

077told and also the way to think about what we have been told so it's sort of a two-fold thing right there's more of it and thinking about it more critically yeah and you know well a lot of what we want to do is to not tell our students what's going on we want them to expose them to a number of documents a number of different resources they can develop their own perspective but also teaching them how to go out and find their own answers find their own opinion and to really be able to back that up with evidence that we've seen critical thinking critical thinking something that can go extend outside of the social sciences as well beautiful thank you hi thanks for presenting um I think one of my questions is is this uh

078is the building of the curriculum in partnership with the Smithsonian or is it just that they host it or I'm curious about their engagement that's a great question so this was actually formed by the national veterans Network there is a large Coalition of nisei which is second generation Japanese Americans they hosted it in conjunction with the Smithsonian so we were in the American history of museum at the Smithsonian okay um so they hope to that the artifact that we saw and some of the speakers were all from the Smithsonian as well okay great I I mean the reason why I ask is I think you know if anybody's paying attention you see what's happening in various State legislatures and how other people's history African-American Latino anybody that is maybe not white Americans history is being

079told differently right it's being changed as if that was fact as opposed to really what what the facts are and so I think I just want to make sure that we're being responsible um and using resources and materials that are historically accurate while we're also helping our students become better thinkers Learners critical thinkers ask questions you know aim for their own perspectives but also recognizing that there is a truth in there um that that's hard to digest particularly for this part of our history but it's really really important so I was just really curious about the intersection of the smithsonianism relates to this I was curious about the developmental differences and what you're teaching between an eighth grader and a fourth grader and how you could explain that to the community that's a great question

080um and that can actually be for those of you who are here I can show you this in just a little bit um but we want to expose our students to a number of different strategies um you know the students who are more at the eighth grade the six to eight sixth to seventh eighth grade they're being more exposed to like document based and inquiry-based ideas and a lot of that is what we'll see at the the Middle School level the students who are at the fourth grade level are starting to be exposed to that so maybe instead of seeing three or four documents they might see one or two where they can kind of compare and contrast see an author's purpose is there any context that might be the bias to this in the

081fourth grade it's about why our social science committee had to start about there because that's where they can start to really discern some of those biases and really start to dive into that a little bit more and third and maybe it's a little more of a context in the background knowledge piece thank you I also wanted to say that I I think it's you know you acknowledged and that we are a district with low to almost no Asian American enrollment um but the fact that we are obviously following the state law but you've also taken such an interest in making sure that this history is shared even though that's a very small slice of our population is really really important and so um it's I'm excited that your passion um is also intersecting with uh

082you know your professional responsibilities so thanks and you know we uh you know it doesn't just stop here I mean continuing with our equity and parity where where our marginalized groups that we're not discussing why aren't we discussing them and how can we continue to bring that to our students and Brian's being a little modest because he was one of what 14 that got selected in the United States because um not everyone gets selected so we're a small little suburb district and Brian got selected he's one of our academic coaches and so pretty proud of the fact that he was selected to bring this to Forest Park so thank you so much is there any questions and I can also you'd like to see maybe um this was a curated before my time working with

083the group but some of the resources are things that we'll take a look at and we'll be developing our own curriculum over the next two years as well and things that individuals can use I can go ahead thank you Brian and um I hope you could see throughout this whole day there's a lot of work and Equity that we've been doing um this is part of it as well as the rising voices ambassadors a lot of different things happening the steam labs moving on to family community engagement rooms as a district we are no longer utilizing class dojo for school family communication instead we have transitioned to a new feature called Rooms within our Forest Park School District 91 app this was launched this week and will provide a more streamlined and efficient way for

084us to keep you informed about school updates events and more it would it will also facilitate better two-way communication between teachers and caregivers we understand that change can be an adjustment and we believe this transition will enhance our ability to stay connected and engage as a school community and you'll also find it in one spot in our app the Forest Park School District app our calendar school year 24 25 can you believe that uh getting next year's calendar process started early we are working with staff and Proviso to make sure we have a school year 25 calendar ready by January of 24. so we want to start early conversations will start next week with our teachers I have also met with the interim d209 superintendent um Corvallis requesting that the breaks that the feeder schools

085have be considered when they prepare their school calendar for next year so we're looking we're we're I know for a fact she's going to be collaborating with us we've already had one meeting so there's a lot going into this to make sure by January we have a solid calendar an input from everyone parent University we will starting our educational workshop for families is something we have been mentioning um the first session is related to student services on September 21st and director um Mikhail is going to be starting that at 6 30 p.m this will be in person our sped family Workshop will focus on parental rights and IEPs we will also start our virtual parent University miniseries with topics on Parent Portal grades assessment and other topics pertaining to parent understanding and also School components

086these will be about 30 minute sessions that you could attend on the day or just watch it on your own since they will be recorded and everyone has a busy life be on the lookout for other in-person parent University offerings throughout the year I'm going to look this way to see if uh director Mikhail is looking at me where is the um Workshop going to be held it will be held in the Middle School library um at 6 30. any questions on that moving on to Talent Recruitment and development I mentioned the teacher Institute days but I do want to mention that um the days were planned in conjunction to Forest Park Education Association the professional learning committee developed a choose your journey of learning so that there was choice for all staff members this

087included instructional assistance custodians and secretaries so it's just not for teachers we also had as a keynote speaker the author of grading for Equity Joe Feldman who was impressed with our staff for their dedication with equity and in our district West 40 also provided a threat assessment learning to provide the ability to see warning signs and situations where they can be overlooked and will be partnering with them a little bit further vacancies like many other districts we are still seeking positions Proviso superintendent theater districts met to discuss how we can support one another and not dip into the same pool of candidates we're all suffering for candidates and we are seeking quality teachers definitely has been difficult we are currently seeking seeking a math coach five instructional assistants two sped teachers one steam teacher one

088social worker one occupational therapist and four School engagement coordinators so we're lucky in the sense that we do have our classroom teachers we are really looking for the two sped teachers next and I know that that our diverse learner department is working hard on that the Protege and Mentor program as we continue to work on our third priority we revamped our Mentor program after listening to feedback from past participants this year the district's implementing a differential differentiating Protege and Mentor program the program has three cohorts of participants and cohort one this will be for teachers new to the district with three or less years of teaching experience we have eight participants right now in this cohort in cohort 2 teachers new to the district but with four or more years of teaching experience and we

089have four participants in cohort too in cohort 3 current teachers who are taking on significantly different assignments academic coaches are currently collaborating with four of these individuals through coaching Cycles or mini cycles which provide focused collaboration on topics such as developing student growth goals implementing Learning Centers for core instruction and standard-based systems support is differentiated differentiated by just seeing the minimum number of hours teachers meet with their mentors as well as a number of protege and Mentor classroom observations finally for those teachers in cohort 3 their participation is really optional and they are not required to attend a district-wide professional learning meetings in addition to differentiating the program for teachers the proteges we are also committing to our mentors who will participate in the district-wide professional learning meetings however they are engaging in activities that

090are designed to build their capacity as mentors we would like to recognize the following leaders who are serving as District mentors in the program Liz Serie Peggy Perry Liz Daly Nicole white Legrand and Mike stiglitz each of the academic coaches also are mentoring one of our newly hired teachers this year as well also Khadija Terrell one of our academic coaches is co-coordinating the program with director Adler so so far the feedback has been very positive and we are looking forward to continuing to grow this program to ensure all participants are able to receive the necessary support to grow as teachers and leaders within the district any questions I think we're reciprocal classroom observations how do you think that'll help the district reciprocal it says reciprocal classroom observations with Mentor how do you think that will

091help and particularly when it comes to someone who teaches in the same grade level um it allows them to support them they know what's happening within that grade level I know right now we have fourth grade is one of them or they're truly supporting them and then they meet together to make sure like what's what are you doing right now with the curriculum and making sure it's aligned so that parents in that grade level is also another parent another great law are having the same experience okay so that would mean another teacher from another classroom as a teacher was in the process of it okay you got it but just observation not evaluation not evaluation okay got it yep all right and for foia we did have one foia this was to identify um everyone

092in the district or employee who's certified as a school librarian with a school library licensure and endorsement in library media and is currently working in that capacity this school year and the purpose for the crust is to identify the number of certified school librarians working in the Illinois public school districts and this came from Janine asmus from Burr Ridge foreign committee reports teacher negotiations uh there has been nothing board policy Mr Brooks or Miss Angela decided to say that we're going to be meeting soon Tom hasn't been determined yet Finance Mr Lyons Miss Angela uh we have no meeting but I just sent an email to get one of the books for the coming months so more to come great thanks uh engagement Miss cotton Mr Rummel not the show off but we did have

093a meeting um just joking let's start um we went over a lot it was very productive I feel we kind of um there's a calendar that went out to everyone on the board kind of doing a sign up so to make sure that we're trying to be at events that the district is having and be more focused on not just being at the event but presenting ourselves as board members because I feel like we all attend as much as we can but we're not always maybe that other people don't know that we're in the capacity of the board member so kind of um building something around that as to what's expected or you know certain things to say in those in that capacity so that first step of the calendar went out to everyone um

094to sign up we're trying to the PTO vice president Danielle sent over a calendar of the events coming up so if we can trying to get at least one board member at those type of events bigger ones like open house we plan for two or more um we also talk about the QR code that was developed last year but not much had been done with it so um between Steve and I we're going to push to get it out to trying to see if we can put it in business where someone comes up maybe have a flyer they can scan it so because we're focused on getting that population that may not be in our school you know someone that doesn't have kids or doesn't have kids in a school or wherever they lie so

095getting that out there um oh yeah t-shirts with the QR code on there so if we're out if we show up to an event and we're representing the board we'll have a T-shirt and somebody can just scan the QR code and who doesn't like free t-shirts um I don't know they're great you'll be on the back so someone can see on the back because other places may be a little weird um one thing we talked a lot about was establishing a relationship with d209 as board members it sounds like Dr gravarez is on that doing that with other provider townships too so we can we'll probably talk to her kind of piggyback on what she started and get those relationships built just because we feed into that high school so trying to get something more

096going with the feeder schools because if kids get in the public way they'll end up all at the same High School um we talked about working with community on creating some type of Housing Coalition which is not really us spearheading it but just having in the know because then it does trickle down to the school so a lot of it was just brainstorming some of the ideals that we can get ourselves out there in the neighborhood and then following up and get it more defined so it's not it just it there's there's seven of us so we can spread it out more and not one person is what they can do they're doing to you know they're overwhelmed with it and getting everything on the calendar as early as possible so that people can sign

097up and get that commitment out there um talk about teacher Outreach by the Board of Education like one quarter visits just building that relationship that building it out some of us may have better relationships with each individual schools just because of maybe our kid tended there so we have that but making it spread across the board so everyone builds those type relationships so now we talked about a lot we have a lot to do we made a lot of work for ourselves and that's kind of my specialty so I'm happy can I ask you a question yes can you help me like can you extend expand a little bit more on the idea of our of board members within let's say our foundation districts how do you um connecting with other board members what do

098you mean that's what we're specifying so one start was if you go back um I met and it doesn't have to stay aboard thing it may be helping them connect ptos um there was someone I met at a fundraiser over the summer and she was trying to start a PTO at the um at one of the middle schools in Maywood and so we were just talking in that's when I think I said before I have she was she's from Forest Park so when our PTO kind of merged together she had been watching it she's lost family here um she went to school and she was asked you know if our PTO person would come just to see like they're not asking enough questions so I just attended with her so kind of made them with

099that connection and now their next step is they want to do some type of joint event with the PTO so not really us owning it but maybe starting those collaborations and then if they work and if someone else can should be doing it hand it off so kind of just putting ourselves out there and making people making it known that we want to collaborate whether we're the right people to do it maybe not but starting that process to feel figure out who is or where it should go to yeah I mean I I understand that I think that makes sense and obviously I think we want to try to maintain good relationships with everybody right I what I want to make sure though is that we are focusing in on our mission always right which

100is like the stewardship of our tax dollars our community um passing policy that makes sense for our community and so you know I like we don't have anything to do with the PTO right so I I just want us to be like very clear about how we're engaging in a way that doesn't um take us out of if we're talking about a board that doesn't take us our board responsibilities in a direction that they or shouldn't go okay you know what I mean like I don't not to be selfish but I I think what we do as Citizens versus what we do wearing our board hat are two entirely different things and so representing a board and a function that really isn't ours to do I just want to be really careful about that like

101we don't have a board representation on our PTO right right so yeah um superintendent evaluation again miss cotton and Mr rule all right so we've met for this as well um and I think we made a lot of progress one of the things that we so right now we have a draft that we're going back and forth with um that we're also going to be talking through with Dr Alvarez we are not making as of right now structural changes so the eval that was there that you've all seen you've all heard um that rubric is not we're not proposing any changes at this point what we did is we looked and we said based on what we've already established which already has a track record how can we what can we add to the process

102to ensure that there are specifically like metrics that show progress towards these things but metrics are tricky things who are being very deliberate and careful about the data that we're looking at um how it's reflected and it basically to make sure that anything that feeds into the evaluation is both fair and directly and exclusively controllable by Dr Alvarez so there's you know because it's not fair to hold somebody accountable for something that they have no control over um and we are going to be talking to Dr Alvarez about that so by the time this is all done it will be something that everybody agrees to it is not something that we're going to be uh imposing but more to come on that we we certainly should have something by you you were asking about you

103know by December um I certainly don't see a problem with that everybody yeah but it's it's nothing really new it's it's mostly it's the information we already have that should be readily available so we're not making a kind of industry out of this can you give an example of a change that you're considering like certainly recognize like in details you know what I strike my question never mind one thing I can add to that it's more just making sure a question is like he kind of alluded to it is if this is the measure we're looking at kind of taking out even our own bias or what we may have seen so it's like she knows exactly what this one point is and it's not that I interpret it as this is what it means

104and you interpret it this way kind of fleshing it out so it's only one interpretation so when we're evaluating we're all evaluating on the same mindset that's about getting into exactly what it says uh PPC we have our first meeting next Wednesday so I'll have a report next month CAC uh Mr Brooks Mr Lyons we did have a discussion with several members of the committee and um I think one of the main things that we want to focus on is Recruitment and broadening the scope of recruitment for people that are coming into the committee we talked about what we love and what we hope to see and the patients that comes along with that process so that's that's where we stand right now and iasb delegate Miss Tyler no almost soon almost um and then

105under 11 items for discussion so we had the park district come last month um in conjunction with wssra we had the Forest Park Theater we had the mayor here tonight so um there is uh this is a great space and so now we would like to tap in to hear from our community so um October 3rd I believe is a Tuesday at 6 30. we're going to have a forum Harvest get it because it's the fall it's not my idea you know somewhat Miss nudies um so the community can come anyone any Forest Park residents parents whether you have kids or you don't um come share your idea it will be structured but come share your ideas on what you think what you would like to do with this building it will be held here

106at Grant white seems appropriate um so it will be pushed out through look in your um your packets from the sorry the principles and on social media but save the date for October 3rd 6 30 here at Grant weight um whoops I skipped sorry uh Dr Hobart good evening once again um just a couple items to discuss the very first one is the certified Personnel compensation report this is an annual thing um as government employees we have to make sure we post a salary of our employees on our district website so this is letting you know that that report is completed and it will be posted on the district website any questions regarding the report or you go to the next one doctor and then sorry thank you sorry the next item is the status

107of the district finances for our evidence-based funding and we did did an increase this year but just like last year it was a very small increase I increased this year with 620.98 for the whole year um so that's additional funding we received from the state I did want to let you know that but what I did want to point out here is as we said our enrollment has been changing and we want to make sure we align our funding to the needs of our students from last year to this year and from previous year our English language Learners population has increased significantly so for the past two years that is a population that has been increasing in the community so we want to make sure we're aligning our resources for that and we will maximize

108that 620 that we just received that extra one any questions regarding the additional funding we received that is all I have for discussion thank you a motion to go into closed session to discuss the employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of employees we have a motion I'll make a motion do we need a roll call or no call sure okay should I have a roll call uh Mr Lyons aye Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rommel aye Ms cotton hi Mr Brooks aye Ms wood hi we are now in closed session foreign thank you all right and we are back we just did number 13 possible action to approve the resignation of fpms ele teacher effective 9-1 may have a motion I'll make a motion second um discussion okay Miss cotton as discussed in

109closed session um whether we are going to approve resignation of Anissa Aguilar McArdle roll call Mr Lyons aye Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler no Mr Rummel I Miss cotton aye Mr Brooks no Ms wood nay four three eyes have it number 14 possible action to approve superintentive buildings and grounds school year 2024 2025 employment contract may I have a motion so moved second second discussion [Music] um as discussed in closed session regarding Robert ladario roll call Mr Lyons aye is Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rommel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye Ms wood aye [Applause] it's a little chilly in here number 15. possible action to approve an unpaid leave of absence for SPL therapist at Garfield from 11 10 2023 to 1 8 2024. I'll make the motion can I have a

110second second discussion discussion thanks for that um as discussed in closed session regarding um Miss Laura nihil roll call Mr Lyons aye is Angelo aye is Tyler aye Mr Rommel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye Ms wood aye number 16 items for Action um consider adoption of resolution authorizing commencement of social media litigation may I have a motion I'll make a motion second a second discussion so this was something I brought up in the last meeting regarding um social media and the social media Giants and how they are affecting our children and we have had our share here at District 91. um this is um I I did provide some of the answers to the questions from last time we would not have to supply anything or add anything to it we would just

111be another District saying that we are unhappy the way these huge social media has been manipulating our children and not doing their part when they're underage or allowing some of the bullying to happen through their media so I am asking for consideration for that what was the specific ask that we're so we're in a lawsuit but what what is the lawsuit demanding of them nothing nothing from us no I mean from the social media companies like we're saying hey we're suing you to make you do to make sure that they they remove children who are underage to make sure if they see any bullying if they see any um any things of threat or even a children who need support that they will take uh responsibility for that as well um and support the schools

112whenever they're contacting them I know for a factor Ramos spends a lot of time making sure that tick tocks are taken down um and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't yeah I think it's just further accountability from those companies and also um you know the Surgeon General has made a big public push around the use of social media and how detrimental it is for young people and so I think it's also like a marriage of those two and I appreciate you reaching out and getting some more information on that because I just did not want our resources taken away um considering that we've got other objectives so thank you never roll call Mr Lyons aye Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rommel aye Ms cotton hi Mr Brooks aye Ms wood aye okay

113okay B Dr Hubbard consider adoption of resolution for fiscal year 2024 annual budget may have a motion I'll second then discussion this is the annual request asking the board to approve the budget that was presented during the budget hearing the 2023-2024 school year we have a roll call Mr Lyons all right Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rummel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye and Ms wood aye number two consider recommendation to approve the memorandum of understanding between Forest Park School District 91 and the fpea iea Nea for outdoor education Lead Teacher and chaperoning teacher stipend I will make the motion can I have a second a second discussion this is the mou with the Union in regards to our fifth grade trip it was normally a two-day trip two days overnight um

114it has transitioned to a one night trip so we're adjusting the stipend by cutting it in half because it's spending half the time on the trip so it's an agreement to do that can I have a roll call Mr Lyons all right Ms Angelo aye Ms Tyler yes Mr Rummel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye and Ms wood aye and number three consider a recommendation to approve the fifth grade overnight outdoor education trip for school year 2023 2024 for seven thousand seven hundred and forty seven dollars may have a motion motion second second oh go ahead discussion and then this is the approval of the trip to take the students on an overnight trip any field trips that are more than I believe 100 miles or overnight have to be approved by the board

115oh man I'm so sorry nope that's okay how how many fifth graders I would assume between 60 and 70. now may I have a roll call please Mr Lyons all right Miss Angelo aye Ms Tyler aye Mr Rummel aye Ms cotton aye Mr Brooks aye and Ms wood aye 17 additional matters for consideration from the board okay I have one for our very first time our school board we applied for this and we received this letter uh dear members of the Board of Education congratulations your board of education is one of 45 to earn the Illinois Association of school boards 2023 School Board governments recognition designation this recognition is designed to acknowledge those School boards that have engaged in activities and modeled behaviors that lead to Excellence in local school governance in support of quality

116public education details regarding the delivery of the plaque and or date tab are forthcoming we commend you for your hard work and distinction as a school board governance recognition recipient sincerely Kimberly small JD executive director of the Illinois Association of school boards okay anyone else been a long evening thank you it's been a great start to school don't forget October 3rd at 6 30 here at Grant white our Harvest meeting and it is 8 45 oh do I need to make a motion oh can I have a motion to adjourn so move a second second all in favor all right all right okay now it's 8 45 in this morning this meeting is adjourned