001items to be considered at the regular meeting of the Board of Education held Tuesday February 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference room 500 north1 Street Heron Illinois 62948 if everybody would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stand One Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Mrs Hastings would you please call roll John Hutchinson hereon here Daniel here Kelly Green here St young here Dave here Steve Robinson here at this time we'll recognize anyone who would like to address the board when recognize that person should give their name before making their comments statements are asked to be limited to 5 minutes in duration and Mrs Hastings will set a timer is there
002anybody that would like to address the board at this time my name is La I was just curious on what was going on with the intersection Crossing at middle school I Headway on Cross guard being hired or what the plan was I saw the cop was gone today so I don't if that's over with I heard it wasn't permanent so I just didn't know what was uh the process of that Mr would you like to address that please yeah we we've been working with the city to figure out the best solution putting a crossing guard down there may not be the best solution because of how busy that intersection is um I talked to Chief Doris about that we have had our resource officer sitting down there um he's had some other things he's had
003a t to also so he's not dedicated there 100% of the time uh we're going to continue working with the city on some possible ideas to make that a safer crosswalk um I know the city has already got plans for the R resurfacing the entire 148 well it's not a city plan it's a state plan since it's a state highway but to resurface that um fixing that crosswalk to make it a handicap accessible making the markings more visible um some other ideas that have been tossed about are uh possibly making it to where when the button is pushed for a student or anyone to cross that all four lights would turn red that way there's a let's say 30 second pause for everybody so everybody could cross safely and then the normal traffic patterns or
004lights would operate again so uh it with the volume of traffic there is a concern putting a crossing guard out there in that position um having somebody there to help monitor the students Crossing um is something we are doing with our resource officer there um I think the biggest thing is just everybody using this as a point of awareness of distracted driving and making sure we're paying attention as we're moving up and down through the streets at school time so is there one prong solution that fixes this I don't think so it's kind of a combination of those things but mayor fatini uh Chief Doris and I we we've been in contact and communicating um to to resolve the issue and those are some of the conversations we've had at this time but sad deal
005thankfully student wasn't hurt but what you know kind of like what does it take for us to grab our attention this has got our attention you know we don't want it to happen again or even worse a student be you know hurt severely or or worse so when you you got a question when you say there's too much traffic to have a crossing guard so like if like figuratively putting a crossing guard out there in the intersection I I me like the person help so okay so that's a little bit different too right so go to Carterville on Green Brier and Grand they have a police officer in the middle of that intersection at school time morning and night cuz the volume of traffic and that person standing in the middle of the intersection getting
006kids across getting traffic moved through that's not what you're talking about you're talking about someone more standing at the intersection to help kids get across the street one I know the C is there now and like you said stuff came I guess Friday was after scho obviously yeah there's some other things there right you know do anything really right I know a lot people have talked about volunteering and stuff I talked to the mayor yesterday at a city board meeting and it seemed like we couldn't do that and did say that it's a liability right for you if some if you were to go down there and volunteer right and then there's an accident just nothing to do with you it just so happens to be an accident then there's that liability piece that's there
007a liability on the city's part or I believe that's what it would be on the city's part yes as opposed to I I guess I'm um what's the idea if there is a crossing guard like actually giving somebody issuing them a stop sign and aren't that isn't that a liability as well there's a liability to it either way you look at it and having someone that you know is there a specific training for crossing guards maybe said there is said you can either take the class or you can be trained by someone who has taken the class okay yeah and I guess that would maybe take away some of the liability if like a volunteer just said hey go ahead and walk and the kid gets hit and parents walk that kind of thing too
008right so I didn't know if the classes took over that responsibility yeah I I don't have the answer to that question and I think it's something that again that just the uh communication coordination between the city and us is something we have to get to those answers and find those out but our immediate was let's put our resource officer down there to watch The Crossing like I said he's been pulled away a couple of times right now um just in the last couple days even before that do you has there been a call for people to to volunteer has there been no I again I wouldn't want to do that I I wouldn't feel comfortable down there honestly at that intersection um I is it real I'm I guess I'm well styler and 148 is
009a pretty happening place I mean you got parents mosing through there trying to get their kid picked up you got buses coming through there the normal 148 traffic at 3:00 in the afternoon it's happening you it's a happening spot so well I actually think that would probably mean you probably would want to have somebody there I mean just saying well it's too busy to actually really get a control how many kids cross there per day did they get a number on Brad what do you estimate kids crossing there marage day day 20 or so yeah I would say a Max of 50 in a given day the other thing to Bear out on this also is that's a state highway so we may be limit on what we can do because with 148 actually being
010a state highway the state may have something to say about that too it's it's a it's a three-prong coordination state city and even the school even though that's not our property we still want to see the safety of our students be be an important priority so yeah it's not just a I think it's just a simple solution that we we put somebody out there throw them in a class and say Hey there you go um a little more coordinated effort is really where it comes back to I guess that's not really school property that's more it's not school property at all city property but maybe State Property state state MH as I got been informed maybe about so if we go back to a couple years ago and talking about crosswalks through town and and
011talking with mayor Fortini has been great and Tom Summers has been great so um they were hoping to have it done last fall and it didn't happened but the resurfacing project of 148 is occurring it's all planned I've been able to work with them and they've worked with the OT Engineers to line out crosswalks throughout the Heron town where kids are crossing and you come down here to Sonic that's a Crossing area all you have is a little sign and that's it you can't even see the crosswalk in the highway anymore uh go the next street down and there's another Crossing there the ones on down more downtown if you will they're a little bit more uh better Mark they've had some updates in the city recently so I guess actually I was thinking it
012was more 13 you know do that you see that where kids are cross from I guess going back toward U Johnson City you know with they yeah and I guess that's what I had en visioned but I guess that is actually a larger span to try to get across um that's I I kind of agree that that's actually maybe a little bit much to ask a crossing guard to stand out in the middle because you got bilateral you got going two Lan or two lanes in either direction and then these Knuckleheads that may be turning on a red or whatever and it's just it's I don't have that answer what my point is it's not a it's not something that we've just ignored for by any means it's just like we don't have that solution
013yet we're we're trying to get the best plan in place and like for the temporary time being it's put my resource officer down there let him at least be monitoring it draw some attention to that crosswalk um it's a tough thing is the school responsible for kids until they get home if they're walk really you guys you know we have kids walking you put a Crossing Gardener you're going to have to funnel the kids from all these ements up by Hardies and on over and they have stay on that side of street until they get AC cross that's an entirely different point there we have they can cross anywhere they want to and unfortunately some of them are like I'm going to Dart out there on in the middle of the road where there is
014no Crossing they're not going to do that yeah yeah they they have their own mind and you can lead the horse to water all you want but it just don't drink sometimes so it's it's certainly a point of concern that we have I mean that's it's a dangerous intersection we and and obviously it can lead to a student being harmed um but it's not a not something the school can just say my gu here's what we're going to do and it's that coordinated effort and I think that's what adds this you know a little more complexity to the situation finding the right person qualified to do so they can do that we already train our kids regularly about Crossing at the crosswalks following and that student was was had the ride away clearly had the
015ride away the driver just I don't know who what driver was distracted driver was ticketed for that you know not yielding to The Pedestrian that type of thing so it's it is an issue if everybody has everything right and somebody still drives distracted it's still the problem that we don't always have control over so um I I I don't you know I'm not trying to evade anything I just don't have the answer right those are some answers we're working on it's it's better striping better crosswalk better ideas and solutions possibly a person down there and how that person is that person employed by the school by the city how legal is that those are the types of things that have to kind of come together in even just something that creates more visibility or an
016awareness that that's that's the biggest thing that I've been harping on is just the the awareness and the visibility of those every one of the crosswalks through town where our kids are close to Crossing from the school to go back to the West Sonic and whatever can't think the next street down right now I'm saying Sonic is at Harrison and P but anyway yes those two streets are crossed heavily um you know because we our kids walk a mile plus a lot of them do well if they get a ticket you know for violating um a few tickets will get you get a word out that that's a policed intersection yeah I think the city could probably you know and that's part of the conversation with Chief dors as well that we've had and again
017jeap dors and May fatini and I we we have no problems communicating about and we have and it's just kind of getting that hammered out and figuring out what checks the boxes from a safety standpoint from a legality standpoint from a who's who who's responsible what can we do um so it's just those boxes being checked it's not I don't have an answer right now but it's it's something that's in progress and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have that finalize solution to be able to say here's the Perman permanent solution if you will and then down the road I like I said I know the the reinforced or the more um noticeable lights and markings are coming and I'm hoping that Paul's for tra fourways of traffic is a possibility I don't
018know what kind of engineering that is or what kind of legality that is from that standpoint um but I do would know that I've heard some other towns around no carandale carandale has some of them you know ideal solution few million dollars to put a bridge over the road right Mr L on his Farewell we're Dave L's Bridge we're going to get it done no okay I you know but I I definitely appreciate your concern and voicing it and I'd be glad to talk to you more about that at any time and share ideas back and forth from what you're but I mean it's it's it's a concern for sure yeah yeah thank you for your comments anybody else would want to address the board this evening not we'll move on we need a motion
019a second and a roll call vote to accept and improve the items in included and not extracted from the consent agenda for Tuesday February 25th 2025 yes John hudon yesy Green yes yes Suson yes Robinson yes yeah yes moving on to Old business Mr Wilson do you have an update for our construction believe have some gent here yeah Brad Kaiser 18 Mitchell if you want to give an update on the junior high I appreciate it uh on the kitchen cafeterias we're doing fin clean right now buch of our part of it as far as other than just couple of changes we're making our time we do have the roofing the trim on the roof talked to them earlier today and they will they got matal they actually be here with the next all be as
020far as the Discover the down spot and stuff by the front door um plus we'll do the sof on the gym at the same time right the uh fire alarm testing has been done plumbing inspections been done I don't know what [Music] allp yeah pretty much all that's ready to go I mean it's ready to basically turn over as K yeah the kitchen cafeteria is pretty close pretty close Okay the gymnasium they're putting up goals uh they're putting a padding the warning will actually start showing up next week we're putting in the U the pockets for the bottle corpse putting those in sleeves yeah the sleeves in EP is since weather actually turned off good EP guys are back and looking to on the east side we should get that hopefully the weather they're starting
021to put Brown on today okay color Tom thinked rain much now get just weatherwise on that back parking lot playground area I mean it's a mud pit I know but yeah yeah inside the gym I mean we've got scoreboards left to hang you're hanging the ball goals right now anything else to in the ceiling because we want to get all that done before we put our wood floor down put up they put up the socks those are up they do have exensions making now wall and that and that's for the HVAC to go out in as far as your duct work if you will that okay so we don't have that much more up above to get done you got to bring the lumber in let it acclimate to temperature after that sets for two
022weeks is he told he told me he told me from start to finish that means from like starting next week he said possibly take six days or six to seven weeks okay I mean that's that's laying the floor painting it letting it cure everything and you guys can yeah yeah we can walk on right all the bleachers are here y I just got to get the rest of them out of they're I saw conics out there yeah okay okay so final completion date we're looking at is I would say seven weeks from Monday yeah cafeteria will be done before that kitchen cafeteria we're realistically looking at Spring break F out theer occy ready to come in and just look at that part that way the Roe will sign off on it they'll just have to
023limit any access to uh the gym and then we'll have to make sure that you've got the exits from the cafeteria on stuff where they're free to get to the parking lots are the public right away they be covered by the constru okay we should [Music] be mostly outside hoping by that I'm hoping within that amount of time too we can get par right yeah that's since that's a complete weather related piece there okay good thank you yeah uh prek uh yeah Steve you want to talk about prek prek we uh submitted the same request for oy this was the final one um to Mr and he's supposed to be there tomorrow if he coordinated with Mike he said Mike had been out but that one has been punched out faker's done with their punch
024list um they've turned in all of the final closeout documents and that one you they should be uh submitting that final pay request okay once they get the few remaining documents out that one's ready to go yeah I think they're moving furniture in yeah freek where I moving furniture I walked through this morning um you know we had a lot of furniture that we've been storing up here at the unit office since we've just been at the Baptist Church and haven't had all the space we've needed so they've started putting assembling together shelving cabinet treat things like that that were extra we already have cabinets you know figure hung all the cabinets on the wall everything like that that was more of a permanent build um so we're getting our prek supplies equipment Furniture um
025assembled out there and then we'll be making that transition the week prior to spring break the teachers with prek will start kind of packing up what they don't need we'll start shipping that on over to the prek center on Weaver Road and then when we return from spring break the students are scheduled to start at the preas center if everything continues on track as it has um going to try to do an open house next week on Wednesday Wednesday March the 5th uh I I'll get a formal piece out to everybody that's a CommunityWide open house I'll get something out on that uh for sure we just kind of had to wait and see where some of our items remaining were the only other things that are still outstanding which are nothing to do with
026fer are um the playground better known as a mud pit right now uh we'll have to fence that off that's on the district's dime and there we we asked uh EX to come in and come on the south side of the parking lot and and dig that down and then put gravel in there so we have more parking lots so our buses can get in there and get through there while we still have some faculty parking so those things are outstanding a figures end of it that's all on us but those things are happening as well Mr L I must be somewhere I've lost there's three classrooms right there are three classrooms Administrative Office correct and is there any storage rooms yes okay yes teachers always need storage there's also if you know Pam Hall's
027room that is now the ROM room for the prek yes yes for the time being so hopefully it's a lot better than Pam's class if you ever did that yes H yeah be allowed to but no it's it's a really well done facility figured it a super I just curious about storage yeah storage built-in storage it seems like every time we build something there's never enough storage yeah the high school construction teacher is actually going to build us a shed for our outdoor storage as well that's to be next fall they're GNA have it for us so that will give us some more storage yeah y okay um tiger Wellness Center I have no update on anything else from um and Paul's on that yeah yep I think that's the only projects we have outstanding
028okay moving on to special reports at the prek center they had friends day um they also have the screening for the 2025 2026 school year and that's going to take place March 6 from 1 to 7 at the Heron prek that going to be the it's going to be at the first B Church okay thank you um celebrating perfect attendance year to date Finley mcmanaway Li Taylor and Maya Kumba coraya sorry uh had year to date perfect attendance and then for February Finley mcmane J Taylor and SMA coraya also had perfect attendance terrific tigers for the month congratulations to Becket Stroud and Michaela Sia for being recognized as the T terrific tigers for February um we just talked about the eight more days and until the new building is ready to go so good job
029all the prek kids for perfect attendance and being a terrific tiger for Northside Mrs K was the perfect attendance winner in January with 94.8 back-to-back wins for Mrs K's class January attendance K students who had perfect attendance there were 43 students first grade students had perfect attendance and there were 67 of those um on January 30th they hosted family reading night during the event staff members had activi for students and Par parents to participate in and thank you for to the planning committee for uh organizing those events the January students of the month are Rowan Wyatt anniah Harris ARA Smith McKenzie Sullivan River Cohen gonos sasy Addison Smith Samuel fan Asher carrian Lilith Clayton Raven Pennington Katie Nome Cooper Lloyd Steven Similac Connor osbor AR Ariana Carroll Serenity Harris Karan Brown finnean Wyatt Ian Torres
030rer Ray and Everett C moving on to the elementary school following classes had the best attendance percentages for January and that's Mrs pri's class in second grade third grade was Mrs siver's class fourth Mrs Milligan's class and fifth was Mrs trexler's class heron elementary had 409 out of 712 students with perfect attendance for January a Awards um students are encouraged to read and take AR tests to earn points a trophy is given at each grade level the following classes won the AR award for January second was Mrs mofield third was Mrs Spano fourth Mrs Jost fifth was Miss isbel um the following students are the top five readers for January fifth place was Blake lemons fourth place Jonah Davis third place Jillian Davis second place was Lily Murphy and first place was Kinsey Oro um
031there were several students who won the strong character awards in January in both in second third fourth and fifth grade and A in the class Elijah Carr from Mrs Jose's class was a top five winner out of 476 posters in the May the forest be with you always fourth grade State poster contest congratulations Elijah and then the hes Flying Tigers archery held a tournament on February February 8th with several students participating moving on to the junior high school um the math team competed February 15th um at the regional math counts competition at SIU Carbondale the team of Cole Walker Cole Brandon trip Manzo and Judah Davis finished second overall as a team Heron had three individuals in the top 10 which was Cole Walker for second place Asher Henson sixth place and Cole Brandon eighth
032place Cole Walker and Asher Hinson advance to the state competition asgo Illinois in March um the dance team competed also on February 15th and placed eighth overall in junior high lyrical at the Ida state finals in Springfield and then at the high school level congratulations to cydney Nelson um she went on to the ihsa girls state competition sh and where did she end up where Stephanie 20 20th Place so congratulations to Sydney boys basketball kyrese lucens is the new all-time scoring leader for heren high school he broke Jean turn's record of 17 1,77 career total points the record was set in 1960 and I know Casey's here where's he at now okay you just passed that at this point all done okay congratulations to kyries U dance team placed fifth at State at AA hip
033hop and the the flag team was the 2025 state champions in doua tall flag and doua lyrical flag congratulations to them um the ihsa All State academic team Wayan Hall was nominated by here in high school to compete for the ihsa All State academic team and the team is chosen by ihsa and lastly congratulations to Heron high school math team for a great showing at the competition on Saturday we will have more details with regard to that I would assume at the March meeting so congratulations to all our tigers and then moving on to new business need a motion a second and a roll call vote to approve the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented question first yes are you happy with it Kyle okay make doing 180 days in a row no breaks I
034hope for that now Mr harlo and I have had a lot of back appreciate the input from all the teachers yeah very helpful okay once again motion a second to approve the calendar as presented second yes yes Steve Robinson yes da yes Steve Young yes John hon yes need a motion a second and a roll call vote to approve the lease agreement with GFI digital questions first thank you uh to the high school people are you happy with it well they won't have digit they they won't have that knowledge they they're I mean they do they have it now the copy machines they have now yes no that that's a different group that we're with okay the copy machines you have now we've we've asked them for their input on are the copy machines doing
035performing as you would expect them to is it fast enough is it breaking down too much is there something we need more of less of so all the buildings have had a chance to give their input in that um so as the proposals were given to us by the uh companies we had those considerations built in where they could say you know the high school said this machine was too slow so we're going to upgrade that from a 30 page a minute to a 50 page a minute machine so those those kinds of things were taken into consideration from each building's uh position so is it the same company no a different company okay that's all I wanted to know okay motion second roll call vote to approve the lease agreement with GFI digital young
036yes John hson yes Robinson yes Kelly Green yes yes Danel K yes any discussion with regard to the eth grade celebration if not we need a motion a second and a roll call vote to approve the 8th grade celebration for Tuesday May 13th 2025 at 5:00 p.m. with an alternate day of Wednesday May 14th at 5:00 p.m. yes yes johon yes yesy green yes yes need a motion a second and a roll call vote to establish a science club account within the high school activity Ledger Robinson yes John hon yes yes yes yes yes yes this time we need a motion of second and roll coote to close the meeting in accordance with section 122a of the open meetings act citing the following exceptions as contained in section 122c to discuss disciplinary cases consider approval
037of closed minutes the semiannual review of closed minutes discuss appointment employment compensation discipline performance evaluation and dismissal of specific employees and to discuss litigation second yes yes motion a second and a roll call vote to reconvene to open session yes yes yes yes yes yes need a motion a second and a roll call vote to expel student SS from Heron High School District number four effective Tuesday February 25th 2025 through the end of the 2024 2025 school year and the 2025 2026 school year during which time the student is not allowed on any hearing cusd number four properties green sorry yes yes yes Robson yes Steve yes need a motion and a second and roll call vote to deny the motion to appeal the suspension of student ew green yes Dan yes yes see yes
038Dave yes Steve Young yes John Hinson yes we need a motion to Second and a roll call vote to adopt the closed minutes from the meeting held on January 28th and February 11th [Music] 2025 yes Johnson yesen yes yes yes we need a motion a second and a roll call vote to adopt the closed meeting minutes resolution as presented declaring the aforementioned minutes as open second yes yes Johnson yes Daniel Kelly Green yes we need a motion second and a roll call vote authorizing the clerk of the board to destroy re and records of the executive session meetings prior to August 2023 second Steve Robinson yes John Hinson yes CL yes Steve Young yes suton yes Daniel K yes green yes we need a motion of second and a roll call vote to approve the
039following Personnel recommendation as presented to approve maternity leave Kelsey mohap as of March 2025 the resignation of Brandon Switzer as a custodian for the district Alicia Smith as a nurse supervisor for the district Sheldon is a school social worker for Northside Primary Center for employment Nene Leong as a reading aid for Northside Primary Center Nathan Liber as an exploratory teacher for the junior high school Dennis Crips as a JV baseball coach for the high school vacancies to be posted a custodian for the district new supervisor for the district school social worker for Nite North Side Primary [Music] Center yes yes Steve Robinson yes John hson Green yes Dan yes yes having completed the items on the agenda I need a motion a second and a roll call vote to adjourn the meeting until the next
040regular meeting of the board scheduled for Tuesday March 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference [Music] room yes