001[Music] All right. Good evening, audience. We are back in open session. Thank you for your patience. Um, we do not have any public comment. I just checked that right before we we re-engaged here. Uh, is there any proposed changes to tonight's agenda from anyone at the table? Nope. Okay. Uh, with that, we will move into the superintendent report. Dr. Rto. All right. Thanks. So, uh, our first item is we have a group of students from Ames Elementary. We have our music teacher, Mr. Jack Dphano here and Mr. Gearman, the principal is over here. So, uh, you guys take it away here and make your introductions. Thank you very much. Good evening, D96 Board of Education, Dr. Ryan Toy. Um, I always love the student presenter uh, board meetings. I know at the beginning of the
002school year, Dr. Ryan Toy will send a signup sheet to the principles. We get to sign up and pick a month and then forces me to think outside the box of something exciting to bring to you guys. We've seen a a cow adopted at Ames. We had to present about that. The town of Manhattan we had uh last year and this year I went to Mr. Dphano. I'm like what do you think? Can we do something musical? And he's like I would absolutely love to. So he got together some of his most talented third grade musicians. Right guys? All right. Thumbs up. and he has a lovely presentation for you this evening. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dphano. Hello everyone. Uh, thank you so much to the board and members of
003the community for having us here and thank you parents for shephering tonight. Your kids are really, really excited to be here. Um, my name is Jack Dphano, Mr. D to you, and I am the elementary music teacher at Ames. I've been there for four years and this is my fourth year teaching in general. uh and we're going to be talking about how we're integrating social and emotional learning into the general music classroom. So, just a little background on our curriculum. We are an ORF-based curriculum. ORF Carl Orf is a prolific composer, writer, and pedagogue. Um and he really fosters student learning through creativity and exploration. Best way I can describe it is students will come in, we'll play a fun game, they'll actually be doing the concepts without knowing it. Then we're going to go
004to the board and be like, "Wait a minute, you actually just did what I'm going to teach you. Let's explore this a little bit further." And through that, this encourages teamwork, fun and engaging lessons, hands-on approach, and obviously a fun and active and engaging learning environment. And for the SEAL in this particular unit, um it fosters the emotional and social skills to help students manage and build on their own emotions and to have more self-awareness and regulation, which at this age is just very very vital for this group. Um for the outcomes of this particular unit, uh the students are introduced to high do. We complete and perform the pentatonic scale, which if you're not familiar is essentially just the black keys on a piano. Why do we use this scale? because all the sour
005notes are taken out. So even if a student makes a mistake when improvising, you're still going to hear something nice. Can we actually demonstrate that? Would you guys grab your mouth real quick and just randomly play? Except for you, Charlotte. I'm so sorry. All right, go ahead. Try, but you hear it. There's nothing sour about it. It's actually it's pretty lovely the whole way through. So another uh outcome of this is we're going to we explored movements and express emotions through different music performing the crossover bordon which my professional Frey over there is going to do which is excellent for crossing the midline and brain development. And at the end of this whole unit we get to perform for the early learners at Ames. We don't really get to integrate with them as much. So
006this way they get to come in, they get to see it and it's another way for someone except an adult to tell those kids, oh this is happiness, this is sadness. and it kind of resonates with them a little bit more. Um, and then the main melody you're going to hear tonight is written by Carl Orf as well. So, a double whammy about the ORF presentation. Um, all right. As we start this unit, I read this book called The Color Monster. And then as I'm reading to it, I sing this melody and our emotions. And then we realize, how does that translate to our soulfet? We then sing [Music] The high do is being indicated by those uh apostrophes right after. And then we put those on the xylophone. Where does that fall into the
007equation? And I give them the opportunity before I teach them to teach themselves from the melody that they just learned to find that exploration even more. Now, another great element of this progress is, and excuse me, perfect. We digress and to find what are the emotions and colors and what are their representations and then we say to ourselves what movements could we do to represent happiness, sadness, anger, fear and calmness and then I introduce to them some music whether it's from Fel all the way back to Vivaldi. So they're getting the great from the past and from the present. And how does that music make you feel when you're feeling sad? Do you listen to music that makes you feel sad? Or do you listen to music that's happy to try to get you out
008of that funk? Or do you need to stay in that funk for a little bit and feel those emotions in that aspect? So, how does music relate? And I'm going to skip through all these videos because as much as they're great, we're going to keep going. All right, don't get too sad of me, kids. All right, here we go. Let's get started. You guys ready? All right, without further ado, Miss Rater's class presenting the color monster. This is the color monster. Today he woke up feeling confused and he doesn't know why. Are you all mixed up again, color monster? Your emotions don't work well when they're all jumbled up. If you'd like, why don't we try to separate them and put them into their own jar? If you'd like, I can help you. Let's try
009to make sense of how we feel. Ready, set, here you go. [Music] This is happiness. It shines yellow like the sun and twinkles like the stars. When you're happy, you want to jump, dance, laugh, and play. You want to share your happiness with everyone. Ready set. Here you go. Red, yellow, blue. Red, yellow, blue. This is sadness. It's lonely and blue like a rainy day and washes over you like the sea. When you're sad, you want to be alone. You don't want to do anything except maybe cry. It's okay to cry, color monster. Ready, set, here we go. [Music] This is anger. It burns red like a fire and is hard to stamp out. When you're angry, life can feel unfair. Sometimes you want to take your anger out on others. But I'll be nice
010to you, color monster, and all of your anger will disappear. Here we go. Red, yellow, blue. Black and green [Music] are red, yellow, blue. This is fear. It hides and runs away like a mouse in the night. When you're afraid, you feel tiny. You don't think you have the courage to face the gray shadows. But I can help you find your way. Ready, set, here we go. Red, yellow, blue, black and green. Red, yellow, blue. This is calm. It's quiet like the trees and as light as green leaves sway in the wind. When you're calm, you breathe slowly, deeply. You feel at peace two times. Ready, set, one time. Ready, set, here we go. [Music] Now you can rest, color monster. All of your feelings are in the right place. See? Don't you feel so
011much better? Uhoh. I see you're feeling something new. You look different. Color monster. Tell me, how do you feel now? Ready, set, go. [Music] Red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, and black and green. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Os the end. Thank you. I'd like to thank Freya, Charlotte, Audriana, uh, Noah, Franco, and Abby. Thank you guys all so much for coming. [Applause] Sometimes our board members have questions for the musicians or the music teacher. So, that was spectacular. I feel so, right? I' I've never seen this book before, so that's that's a pretty good book, too. Um, so for the kids, I'm just kind of curious. Does anybody have any um would you like to share kind of what your favorite part of this learning journey was or any anything in particular that you learned out
012of this exercise or instruction? Go ahead. Um, I was wondering how like to play these new instruments and finding out like the journey of like like high do and stuff. Anyone else have any comments of what they experienced during this whole unit? Something they liked about it. Go ahead. The different emotions and how to express ourselves. Anyone else? Okay. No. Okay. Does anybody tell me what instrument are these? All xylophones or they are all or sylophones. They're handmade in Germany. Um so we get these from West Music. These are actually Mr. Blacks from the middle school. He was very kind enough to let me use these so I didn't have to lug these all the way from Central. Um, so but he actually got a grant for these, but these are spectacular instruments that we
013get to use every day. Um, and we have a we have quite a bit at as right now, so we're hoping to get some more in the future. Nice. I think we have them at all the elementaryaries, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I see them removing um what are those called? Keys or they're bars. Bars. I removing bars, putting them back on. Is that to just assist in kind of creating fewer fewer mistakes? Yeah, cuz if if you leave all the bars on, it's a chromatic scale. So, it's do which is the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music, everyone. So, um but so when we takes we take about three bars off normally to create that pentatonic scale, but by the time they get to fourth and fifth grade when we're really pushing music notation,
014composition, we try to keep them all on. But it's great because if I have a student that's really struggling with a certain aspect or a certain melody, we can take those bars off and accommodate for them the best way we can. It's very soft sound, too. So, I'm sure it's good for your head at the end of the soft for six of them, but All right, that's But they're but they're excellent listeners at, you know, they know when mystery is getting a little overstimulated. It's in the eyes. So, but overall, yeah, they they they do a pretty good job. Any other questions? Well, that was a warm, wonderful performance. Thank you for coming out tonight. Thanks for coming. [Applause] We could definitely some help carrying some of these. That'd be very lovely. Thank you so
015much. Thank you so much to the board for Absolutely. And Miss Reer, I did. It's your It's your student, so thank you for joining as well. We appreciate it. We appreciate Mr. German. It's good to see you back after your absence. So, yeah. I didn't know either had anything to do with the sound or if it was just made or if it's just like because of how they sit like to create a new corporation with Steelous. So I was using Jonah and Merido uses they all them and they all go to training kind of on their own like it's their own I have a niece that's a music teacher in Wisconsin and she goes to work like it's the thing of like it's body movement less music maybe I just really well explained he just
016explained it really well like even better than what we ever understood. Yeah. I always see them in Hollywood when they do performances at least like two or three out in the front. Yeah. All right. I'd like to eat. Okay. All right. Now, we have one other uh special presentation and I think we'll start with the video here, Mr. Hanky, and then I'll Okay, we're This is what two and a half minutes long. So, all right. Um, you want to Don, can you hit play on that? Or who hits play? David, how do we get it going? Hi, my name is David Hanky and I am the only steam teacher here in the district. I have an undergraduate degree in biology and fine art and a mers in STEM education. This is my fifth year teaching
017steam at Hower and my 10th year teaching overall. Before becoming a teacher, I worked in the exhibitions department at the Field Museum in Chicago Botanic Garden. These experiences gave me a unique perspective on how to connect hands-on learning with real world applications to my students. My sixth graders take an intro steam class where I try to ignite creativity with many hands-on building projects. The seventh graders have design for disaster which expands on their science knowledge and we study natural phenomena like hurricanes and earthquakes. By integrating tools like GIS mapping and 3D printing, they can test their models. The eighth graders have museum engineering. Students are given real world challenges and create projects like booknuts for the local library and community programs like the Best Buddies trunk or treat event. I work hard to make my
018classroom a welcome and inclusive space. For example, a student with special needs shared his love of Angry Birds with me. I developed an activity where students design and build towers, catapults, and projectiles, and then students take turns battling one another. It's a huge favorite. I see myself as a teacher, tutor, mentor, and coach, but also as a salesman and entertainer. If my students don't buy what I'm selling, and if we can't have some fun along the way, then I'm not doing my job. But just don't take it from me. Let's hear from the students themselves. All right, Roman, tell me a little about a project that you enjoyed in our class. I like to how we did the water challenge like this one that's right here, which is basically mine. We had to put a
019tennis ball on there and we had a fan go to see if it will knock over or not. in high water level throughout the fair. So the next thing I also liked which is the angry bird one where you had to build a catapult I mean and then we had to like knock over some buildings and those were my two favorite ones. Um I would describe your class as like it's just like a really fun class. Like I come from ELA so it's like when I get to do museum engineering it's just like a good break from like school and like Mr. Hanky just really like evokes creativity in me. So I'm not really like a creative person and so the class are just like really fun and really enjoyable. Um it's a very friendly
020environment. You get to like uh really like get your creative juices flowing while you're in there. You're allowed to like be free and you're you're in control of your creative choice. So um if you need this, you can grab this and then you know what exactly what you're doing. It's very student focused, student led, and I really like that. And don't forget, a snow day doesn't mean a day off from learning. All right. So, I learned what, two weeks ago, that Mr. Hanky uh is receiving an opportunity. It's really an award, and this was his video to apply for the award, and then I'm going to let you share a little bit more. But it is through the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Uh David's going to be going for is it two weeks?
021two weeks in July. Two weeks in July to learn more about STEM education opportunities. And it just it felt like this really wonderful award for David, but really a wonderful award for district 96 and for Hower and for the Steam program and just certainly shows uh another great thing that one of our great teachers is doing and just wanted all of you to have an opportunity to hear about it and see it. I said to David, would you mind coming to the board meeting? And uh here he is. Tough following those kids though. I I've been here long enough to know that you never want to follow the kids, you know. But but truly um congratulations on an award. It's really very much one that you sought out and knew that it would really enhance
022your work here as a hower educator. So I don't know if you want to share a little bit more about what maybe what the video didn't share or the board members have questions. It this was something I saw like pop up in an ad on social media. Um it was like right before winter break. just put it off, you know, you had there's like all these um essay questions, right? Get references and make a little video. Um so I actually put this all together like two days before it was due. Um but what what Harmon said there at the end was, you know, truly like the aspect of what I'm going for to have studentled, right, student choice. Um I try and have my classroom where it's they're in a position um where they're not
023afraid to fail, right? And and to be able to like willing to take a risk um because that means more to me like the process, right? Not not just like the final product, but the process itself. Um, and I think that that's what I'll I'll hopefully take a lot out of this program is like more hands-on, more process, um, and collaboration with, um, some other great teachers across the country. Um, you know, I I'm one of 30 teachers in the country that was selected for this. I don't know how that h happened. Um, but but I feel really really lucky for this opportunity. Um, and and I'm excited about it. So yeah, so July 7th I'll go for two weeks um in DC and then I'll go the following year for another two weeks as
024sort of like a mentor um for the for the new cohort that comes in. That is really cool. Angela has a question. Angela just wants to add something really quick um because I don't think David would brag on himself. When Mr. Hanky started here five years ago, we were transitioning from really challenging steamed program that not all students wanted to participate in because it was just a really higher level class. And over the five years that he's been here, um, kids are taking this class. You saw right there just how kids are, this is fun. It's not like school, all those types of things. And that's truly a testament to Mr. Hanky. He has built the Hower Steam program and has continued to help it evolve and find new ways to engage in the community
025and to make it real life learning for our students. So, that's something that the kids aren't saying because they don't know that piece, but as a director of teaching and learning and having worked with David for 5 years and watched this program evolve and change into what it is, um this is all because of Mr. Hanky. So, I'm excited to see what he brings back from this experience because I know it's going to impact our kids in such a positive way. Thank you. That was very So, I got to say I'm going to call out one thing that you said in this video that I think is critical and that's the salesperson comment. And I work for a financial institution and we have a marketing team, a sales team that's out in the field trying
026to drive in business and stuff. And so I over the years I've had a number of people that work under me say, "Well, I'm not in I'm not in sales. I'm not a salesperson. That's their job." And I've always said everybody is a salesperson. Because it's what you said, if I'm not selling it to the kids to get them to buy in, it's not going to work. So I that that really struck me. I can't agree with that. I absolutely agree. Yeah. I mean, and that's something I sort of discovered like early on in teaching. Um, and it's just like, you know, I know the kids are not going to like whatever subject I'm teaching, they're not going to love it as much as I am, right? Um, and as as much as I want
027them to, but so I I I know that I have to put myself out there. Um, and you know, I think by them seeing that I'm very genuine, right, and having a little bit of fun along the way, like it makes a big difference. I know for sure. Um and and reaching kids who maybe uh are aren't into it um even just a little bit. Uh it's very meaningful. You know, it's you go home and tell stories about that with with the family and everything. So, yeah, it's great. Well, thank you for putting the video in. And did I hear you say 30 or some one of you two just said there are only 30 30 educators across the country. That's through the country. Congratulations. That's amazing. Yeah, I will also just point out because
028it's so important and we all strive to do this and steam gives us a unique opportunity I think in David just your your skill and expertise around it too is this idea the student said I need to lead my own learning you know so we have in our strategic plan this this big idea that all kids need to lead their own learning right and it's just the hands-on opportunities the engagement that the the steam program brings we we want that to be true in all classes of course but um I think your teaching and and what this had said here really pointed that out. So, thank you for that. Yeah. You know, I I I have to thank Harman, too, because you know, you would have swore by that last comment that he made. You
029know, he was reading out a textbook. Yeah. All right, Harman, here like read this one, right? Um but, you know, it was all all him and uh like I was like, that's it. This is the one I'm sending in. All right. Yeah, it was great. David, we did um we made you a certificate because that's what we do here in school. So um just congratulating you on this teacher innovator opportunity and frame that keep that I'll put this right on the refrigerator right next to the agenda. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. I was going to say I really like that shirt too. I haven't seen that one before. I like I like it. Well, thank you for bringing that uh too because like with the band award thing that we've gotten three
030years in a row and this and I'm trying to think of some of the other but just continuing to articulate like we're here to make these decisions to support these and so bringing these forth to see what we're actually collectively doing here and for the community to see what the output of this is not just with the students but with our staff as well is is really nice. So thank you for Well, absolutely. You're welcome. And I will always I tell Mr. to Stephano as well as all our music teachers that when I go to a music performance, the people I really like to watch are our music teachers. Our kids are awesome. Our kids are great, but the passion and the enthusiasm that they bring. Yeah. Um and and certainly Mr. Hanky. So, some,
031you know, really wonderful examples of great things going on here in district 96. So, thanks to all of them who joined us. Uh I have now slightly less exciting items perhaps. uh one one thing on March 5th we did our strategic plan living the plan and I don't want to gloss over this because truly all these pieces that that you see coming to life are really represented in our strategic plan and so as you all know we are really committed we were committed you know four years ago when we developed this plan that this plan would not just live on the shelf and that it would not just be a set of goals and strategies that we would refer to occasionally and the way that we've really been able to do that effectively is to
032periodically meet with all of the leaders of our what we call our action teams. And so uh we did that just on March 5th and shared with you uh a summary from from all of that. You can see the questions that the teams contemplated and then came together and and shared when we did this living the plan session. We are in year four of a five-year strategic plan. really planning and anticipating that next year you as the board would take a look again also probably at using an outside facilitator uh to come in and just kind of restrengthen this plan certainly develop a new five-year plan but we also know that there are so many components to this plan some things that we just aren't done with yet but also I know we've talked a
033lot um particularly recently around our mission our vision our values so some goals and strategies are likely to change But we don't necessarily see our mission, vision, values changing. Um so but it would be an opportunity for the community and teachers and administrators, everybody, the board to come together um and just to kind of reaffirm that are those still the same mission, vision, values that we want to continue with and then work toward new goals and strategies. So with that, um, just wanted to share kind of a a general overview of the kinds of things that we feel have been some of our greatest accomplishments so far with this strategic plan, but also some of the things that we need to focus on yet in the next year plus that's remaining and um things that
034we may have to continue to allow to evolve and support into a future plan as well. Martha, you said next year. When do you think we're going to initiate that new I would say like maybe in the fall the board deciding you know we worked with CEC last time we've also worked with a group called educational leadership solutions because some changes that were happening with CEC we moved on um moved over to a a different group. It I feel like our internal team is really coordinating and running the plan. It does help to bring in an outside facilitator though just to kind of direct the process. I would imagine the uh the surveys, the community feedback, just gathering more information, having a chance to weigh all that. So, I would envision the board looking at
035a facilitator and a plan fall and then really starting to develop a new plan. Last time we did it like December, January, February, March, I think by Marchish we came forward with the new plan. So, I I think a similar timeline would would work. Were there question or thoughts from the board about about that process? Just beginning to think think about it. I would align with what you said and I would just add using the third the administrator like just the scheduling and organization and making sure it stays on track and moving forward and all of that trying to put that on somebody within our district that doesn't really have that expertise so to speak. I think that was um I don't remember the gentleman's name that we thank you. But I mean I thought
036he was very good at just got this much time, get this done, here's your homework, here's the next meeting. So I I think there was a lot of value in that in addition to all the other stuff that they brought with the outside perspectives of other districts and things. So and I think your timeline makes sense from what you said. So for I would wonder if I mean and I guess we won't know until we dive into it a little further, but has the trend of these sessions are they more online or Zoom now as opposed to in person? Well, that's a good question. I think it's I think we could do however we want it. We did it on Zoom because it was the pandemic. Uh that wasn't the choice. I mean that wasn't
037the preference, but that became our necessity. And you know it is interesting. It's like a lot of things then Zoom just works. So, is that a one way to do it? Um, I know some of the other companies rely more maybe on feedback that comes through surveys. I CEC's model at the time, if it still is, was to bring in 36 people. I mean, they had a formula to it and it was, you know, six parents, six I think we had students, staff members, two board members, administrators, teachers obviously. So, some former students, some former students, two or three. I wouldn't want to rely too much on surveys because I think getting committed people in the room is probably more valuable than a lot of feedback that doesn't necessarily have context to it. And I'm
038and the reason I don't think surveys can generate a lot of context unless those questions are written super tightly. And we did a little bit of both with CC if you recall. We would meet and then we would say like this is what we're formulating so far. These seem to be the priorities that are emerging. Are these the are these the priorities? So I think when all was said and done the amount of feedback we got was a lot, right? But there were 36 people in the room having conversations and I agree those were really robust using the survey to get priorities. That's that's fine. Or feedback on the priorities. So um it it was a really good process. Uh I I also really like the group that we've been working with. You know, in
039addition, they do it too. I think they have a slightly different model and I think they may do bring in a large group of people for one full day or something like on a Saturday. So I think there's all different ways to consider it and look forward to the opportunity to bring forward some of those ideas for the board to weigh in. And I think it was really instrumental in terms of how I think all the board, the administrative team, the teaching staff, the community really came together and aligned around some key goals. Full day kindergarten, I believe, in the room continues to be the sort of the standout decision that was made. There was so much community feedback. It was clear, there was finance, there was facilities. I mean, it it really captured every
040aspect of of what was in our plan. So, um, and speaking of kindergarten, I do just have a a quick update. We have about 119 students in process for registration. So, continue to tell your friends and neighbors it's time to register for kindergarten. 119 is is kind of reflective and maybe slightly higher than where we were last year at this time. It's it's a it's a soft number because this is still early in the process and and as you know, I mean, you can register and enroll for public school anytime, but we also get kind of a surge in the July, August. We just love the idea of getting our numbers and our information as as or as as early as possible. It really does help us with class size and our flexible boundary policy
041and all those other pieces to it. So that's superintendent's report. Little longer than usual, maybe. That's right. Thank you. All right, we'll move into the consent agenda. So, could I get the board secretary to please read tonight's consent agenda? Tonight's consent agenda consists of the minutes of the following uh meetings. February 5th committee of the whole February 19th regular business uh meeting. The personnel report as presented. Our payables pre-list as of February 28th along with the payables pre-list as of March 19th. The review of the closed session minutes for the previous six months and destruction of 18 month worth of recordings. the Lrangee Area District for special education or lad Zy classroom lease for 25 2026 and the school district library program grant. All right. Thank you. There's a clarified G5. It's the 18th 18
042months. After 18 months, we're supposed to destroy them if they don't open them. So, um not 18 months worth of just in case. 18 months. Oh. Um, does anybody want to remove any of these items for further discussion before we motion and vote? And just a comment. Okay. Um, just want to note that fully support the ladsy lease. We've talked about this before and sometimes people seem to wonder why we are the home to that classroom and the fact is we our children use it and it's part of honestly that whole spectrum of serving everybody. So um it's just it's a good thing that we do. I'm glad we've got the space and uh I think we should continue doing it. All right. Thank you, Joe. I'll just echo. I wish we had more space
043to share as part of a cooperative. That's how it works. We all cooperate on this and but um it's great having the classroom at Hollywood. So, okay. If no other items, uh is there a motion for the board of education to approve the consent agenda as presented? So, second. Kathy, could you call the role, please? Mr. Marhall. I. Mr. Badi. I. Mr. Fund. I. Miss Gun I, Miss Clouse, I, and Mr. Mayor, I motion passes. Right. Uh, we got a couple procedural items following this one. Uh, the first one is the resolution authorizing notice of non-renewal to non-tenured permanent substitute teachers. This is very much a procedural thing that we do year-toear. I'm probably not going to explain this right. Could you give kind of a quick overview? Yeah. So, our our permanent substitutes are
044considered non-permanent, non-long-term employees. Um, as substitutes, they also can hold a substitute license or they can hold a professional educator license. So, a person on a substitute license also could not acquire tenure, but also the way it is set up is that the system is set up in such a way that our permanent subs um are not in a position to gain tenure. So, that's why they're non-renewed annually. And then that same comment applies to the next one. They're just two different categories of people, right? All right. So, item H, resolution for non-renewal to non-tenured permanent substitute teachers. Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution authorizing this notice of non-renewal to non-tenured permanent substitute teachers for the individuals named in the resolution as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion
045before we vote? Kathy, would you please call the role? Okay. Mr. Mr. Barcati. Hi, Mr. Vond. Hi, Miss Gun. Hi, Miss Claps. Hi, Mr. Marhal. I and Mr. Mayorhead. I motion passes. Okay. Uh, second one is for a resolution authorizing the non-renewal to long-term substitute teachers. Uh, is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution authorizing notice of non-renewal to non-endered to Hold on. Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution authorizing notice of non-renewal to nontenured long-term substitute teacher? This is a weird worded weird. No, because this is a single long-term substitute. Okay. which is different than the permanent substitutes. Okay, take three. Board of Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution authorizing notice of non-renewal to non-tenured to
046the non-tenured long-term substitute teacher for the individual named in the resolution as presented? So moved. Second. Sorry, that extra two in there was throwing me off. Uh, any discussion? All right, Kathy, would you please call the RO? Okay, Mr. Hunt. I Okay, Miss Gun. Hi, Miss Claps. Hi, Mr. Marhal. I Mr. Bari. I And Mr. Mayor. Hi. Motion passes. All right. The next one is procedural but very exciting. Approval of Hollywood the new Hollywood school principal. Um, is there a motion for the board of education to approve the 2025 2026 contract for the principal of Hollywood Elementary School to Aaron Dwire as presented? So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Kathy, could you call the role? Okay. Miss Gun, I. Miss Claps. Hi. Mr. Morhal. Hi. Mr. Barabi. Hi. Mr. Hunt. Hi. and Mr.
047Mayorhead. Hi. Motion passes. All right. All right. So, the discussion. Yes. So, Erin Dwire is here. Uh, let me introduce to all of you. You want to come? Yes. Put you on the spot. Why not? So, um, very excited. Erin came to us through our applicant pool. We had an opportunity to meet one-on-one and then Aaron was subject to a really large interview team. Um, but really a great interview team made up of uh, let's see, three of our teachers. from Hollywood School, one of our pair of professionals from Hollywood School. Uh Hollywood School secretary, Todd Gearman, one of our other principles, myself, Nority, Angela Dozel, parents, and two parents. Yes. Um large. Thank you. I do not want Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um anyway, Erin really rose to the top of our
048applicant pool. Really excited. Erin is a 13 years experienced in a elementary school district not that far from here. Um prior to that an assistant principal, classroom teacher, a little bit of everything, right? Everything dabbled in everything. Yeah. But truly I'm I'm excited to join um I'm honored to take on this role. Um I live close and the reputation of this district is outstanding. So, I am honored to take part in this um district to work alongside an amazing admin team, a dedicated board, and I'm excited to meet the staff and the families and continue on the tradition of Hollywood School. Um and continue to foster um student growth and learning, and I'm really excited to come back to a K5 building. Right now, I'm in a 35 building. Um so excited to kind of
049see the um student growth from kindergarten through fifth grade. So, thank you for allowing me this opportunity. I'm really excited. Thank you and welcome. Highly recommended from everything I heard from from well all the feedback that was funneled through her. I didn't realize your interview panel was quite that way. I knew a few people. It was a rigorous process. So did warn me as we were walking up the stairs. So that helped. Yeah, there were a lot lot of people. They were all friendly faces. Yeah, they were it was a friendly it was a friendly team but but we also felt it was really representative staff and parents and um leadership team. So yeah, wonderful. I'll also say thank you for the for slipping in the feedback on our reputation out there. It's always hard
050to understand what your reputation is and that is we work very hard to try to have a good one. So I'm glad it's getting it's out there. It's out there. Cool. Thank you. Well, welcome. Thank you so much. I look forward to working alongside all of you. I was just going to quickly say as welcome as a board member, also as a as a Hollywood parent outgoing. You you were a Hollywood parent as well. Um, you know, there's something so special as as you've noticed about this district. Definitely. And of course, I I think there's something really magical about, you know, our little school west of first. And so, we look forward to welcoming you to that community as well and to the district as a whole. So, thank you. I appreciate it. I already
051feel welcome. So, thank you so much. And we'll be in touch soon. Our communication is going out tomorrow to all families, not just Hollywood families, and also to all staff in the morning. And then then Eron and I will get to work. She's got some things to Yeah. Right. Right. The transition. So, I'm excited for that. Yeah. All right. Thanks for coming tonight, too. Thank you. [Applause] And you are more than welcome to leave if you would like, but okay. All right. Will not be judgment. Uh, the next item is Riverside Education Council. Do we have any comment? We still have that addendum contract. Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped over that one. Yep. um approval of the director uh an addendum contract for the director who we just uh approved last meeting. So is
052there a motion for the board of education to approve the contract addendum for the director of technology Molly Mar Court as presented? So moved second. Um I'll just make a comment. This addendum is after we approved the last contract which is effective 71 uh through 6:30 of the following year. Molly is eligible to come work for us for a month early. We thought that'd be a good idea to work alongside Don and just kind of catch the ropes and all the everything that goes into the technology stuff. So, this addendum is for one starting one month earlier as a separate contract and then go into the full year. Any other questions, comments before we vote? Overlap for senior administrators is always good. Yeah, it just gaining some familiarity and not starting off cold. Yeah. Thank
053you. All right, Kathy, could you please call the role? Okay. Miss Claps. Hi, Mr. Marhal. Hi, Mr. Bari. Hi, Mr. Hunt. Hi, Miss Gun. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Hi. All right. Now, is there any comment from Riverside Education Council? No. Okay. shaking her head. No. All right. Board member comments. Do we have any musical performance was amazing. I think several of us have been there. Yeah, we were just talking about it before the meeting started. The Hower Willy Wonka production, their spring musical. I don't even have children that are in it and I go because it's a entertainment on a Monday or Tuesday and I'd like to take my my son although I guess they took the elementary students over as part of Little Symphony. So, but he was really excited to eat the set uh
054last night. So, we went I my I didn't have any kids in the performance either, but my my son wanted to come because I think they didn't get to see all the the whole performance. Yeah. He was eager to see the rest of it and and probably the candy at the end didn't hurt. Yeah. And they uh I heard a couple of you mentioning too like Aunt Diana's was involved with the ticket thing and I know there was a couple other like community related things. It just I spent several hours over the last few weeks helping with stage crew stuff. My kids signed up for that. So I I got a lot of Dave time, Mr. Mason, and he's he does I mean he it's amazing what he pulled off on that. He was showing
055me some of the old ones that he did. I've never actually been to one of these plays, but I've heard about them so much and how how well they're done. And yeah, the Willy Wonka one was was quite something. Curtains opening and all the colors and all that kind of stuff was was pretty cool. Even being part of like the behind the scenes, seeing the final product was still pretty amazing. Any other comments on anything before we move on? Just hope the community or teachers enjoy their muchdeserved um upcoming spring break and find some Yeah. rests in the home stretch of the school year. All right, that'll move us into a few old business items. Um, not an action item, just I'm going to guess the just a general update here for the trimester 2
056update. Yep. So, we have an update on trimester 2. Again, thanks to our tech team and Don Tfano specifically for organizing all of this data for your review. It really helps to see the multiple school years and then as well as the trimester trimester 1 and two combination. So obviously our trimester 2 came to an end at a point where we're able to gather this data. It is interesting to look at it in aggregate like this and to see the comparative data. So we're trending in the right direction. I think we're still not at preandemic levels on this but uh right you note the 2019 prepandemic level was 9%. So, we're still at um depending on on how you look at this overall, what uh 10.59 um 11.35% for the trimester 1 and two combined.
057So, I read that as we must have had a slight uptick with the chronic absenteeism, which wouldn't have anything to do with the little blip that we had. No, probably not. That was just a single day. That was a weather related day. If you recall, it was a day we were open when a lot of schools were closed. You know, certainly winter is more the sort of cold and flu season, but again, that chronic absenteeism are those sort of tracking those same students that miss more than the 10% of the school year time. So, I would think though winter would potentially contribute to that. Wouldn't help it. And there's been a lot of bugs going around in January, February. So, okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions on that before I move on? I'm assuming
058it's something the board still wants to try like I think this is you know makes sense to plug it in to board meetings whether it's I think we've been using it at cow bringing it up at cow or at board meeting really depends on the timing of the end of the trimester. Yeah. No, I think this this is good. Um Selena, you were kind of the catalyst of this. Is it kind of tracking what you were thinking? I think it it's great to keep it and so we can keep on top of it and um if we need to put more resources towards it um it's a good way for us to just have a visual on it. Um so yeah, I'm happy to see it's trending in the right direction and I know that
059a lot of work has gone into to that and so um I'm appreciative of that and appreciative of getting to see the progress. Yeah, I know it's part of the overall report card. Um, do we have it baked into into our strategic plan anywhere as like a KPI to be at or below? I mean, maybe just something for future strategic plan. We put attendance in there as a general factor. We added a chronic absenteeism percentage like as a sub goal under the attendance KPI. Okay. Uh, at the end of last year. So, Oh, yeah. It is. It is officially in there as of last year. It was ironic. I do remember an early discussion like, "Oh, we don't really have attendance issues." So, is it really a valuable indicator? That was pre- pandemic and early
060on in the strategic plan process. So, or maybe it was during the pandemic, but yeah. So, I I do I also appreciate tracking. And Selena, thank you also for saying that there there's a lot of work and effort that goes into just really connecting with the kids that are um more chronically absent or at risk to sort of fall into that number. Uh that this is not an issue of kids just deciding not to come to school. It's really not an issue of just illness. It tends to be far more complicated factors. And um often it's our social workers, our principles, um our team really connecting with families and helping them understand the importance of being in school. All right. Thank you. Um next item, BL Park IGA. We do have a motion in here
061if if folks are comfortable voting on this. This is a topic we've been talking about for well over a year, I think, in some form or another. Uh, I don't remember exactly when our last conversation was. Maybe I know we were at Hollywood when we got the original contract. Um, I think it was back in the fall maybe. And this one is I didn't do a sideby-side comparison. This one is modified. Um, personally, I think it's a lot better than the first one that we got. Um, we got two attachments here. One is just all the village content that they had at their meeting from last week in which they approved this and now this has been sent over to us to review and approve if we choose or send it back or ask for
062additional clarity or whatever it might be. Um before I make a motion, since it is new to this meeting and it is a change from prior discussions, any questions, comments, um concerns, anything like that regarding the IG and any opposition to voting on it tonight are kind of my two questions for you all. I I think it's definitely it it is a better written agreement. Um it's clearly been negotiated between the lawyers on the village side and uh the district side. Um there's some terms in there about termination and such, but I those are standard things. Those don't give me any heartache because to be perfectly honest once we build a playground there it's going to be part of the village and school infrastructure and I there's no to me in my mind there is
063no risk that suddenly the village is going to decide to take it away that that would be that would create community uproar are. So I think the termination agreements are more standard things. So those don't give me those do not give me pause. Um there's a maintenance element in this. The village says that they're going to take over maintenance after we build it and then if the costs essentially I'm paraphrasing a little bit here but if costs become too overwhelming for them then they give us the option to take over those costs. And that's not, as I discussed with somebody else, that's not really any different than we do with any of our other playgrounds. So the biggest thing is we are we would be building a playground on land we don't own. Yes. However,
064we have a solid agreement and the culture of the village is such that I think there's the risk is infantessimal. I would maybe just add that, you know, I know the village went through a very thoughtful process in in making sure that they um got feedback from uh many different groups within the community and I appreciate them taking a very thoughtful approach to this. And um I think here as a district, we too will take a very thoughtful approach to making sure that um you know that the playground that we build um is consistent with what the community needs and is consistent with um the values of this community in preserving green space. and um and so uh I appreciate that the village took a thoughtful approach to it and um look forward to building
065a great space for the kids. Yeah, I would echo both of that. Um just to one thing I was going to reiterate with the not owning our land. I think when when we originally got this when I distinctly remember being at Hollywood and I had the mindset of this being a lease because we had negotiated the Hollywood house that was a lease and we don't own the land but we were technically leasing it. This is not a lease. This is just an agreement. This will be a we will install the park but I guess I don't know if you would say the village owns it but it's on their land. They're going to take over the maintenance. We're just going to put it in. And so I think from the the last meeting where I
066had shared some of the conversation that Martha and I had with um the village president um Doug Pollock and the village manager Jessica Francis was kind of around that whole sentiment of like it is a very community-based um the parks and wreck has gotten a lot of feedback from the community um about things that the community wants more generally. We we know that all the spaces that we build around here are going to be used not just by our students during student time, but community facilities. And so we've been very thoughtful around that. Um I think the one challenge that we're going to have here or one additional component that we need to consider here is that broader community feedback. And so because it is village land and like the parks department is trying to
067do some park stuff too. just being very thoughtful about kind of what you were saying, Selena, is like bringing them in and making sure that they're a part of the early dialogue. This all does need to go. Whatever we design, this is um I listened to the meeting as well and and Doug kind of made this comment too. This is just an agreement to move forward, not a final decision on anything. And they're still working some stuff out with this whole basketball court thing and whether it goes in or it doesn't go in and how it goes in. That has nothing to do with us. we're going to help design the playground, but they want some input on that as well. So, just making sure parks and wreck and whomever else um in the community
068is in preservation and all of them are in um in agreement with it. Just being very thoughtful about that process so that we can move it fast, move it through quicker and not get all the way to a trustee table and then have questions or concerns and it gets, you know, kicked back and forth. So, um I think I think you had mentioned we'd already we had let DLA know that we had this on the table and just kind of get them prepped for it, but working within that space and and one thing I would be also in agreement with that the villages uh been specifically called out was just the trees and like they're they're open to having a bigger footprint there. uh just we don't want to remove trees or at least I
069think the comment was like not removing trees if unnecessary not mature trees or something. So we'll we'll figure that part out. It's a very big area. There's most of it's undeveloped at this point or at least the part where the playground is. I would say most of that area is undeveloped. So there there definitely some old trees there. Yeah. Which I'm sure will be fine and continue to exist as they are. Mhm. Um my son loves the sticks that fall off of them, including the really big ones after big wind storms, so you know, we definitely have to preserve those. Uh but yeah, it it's the more use we can make out of it, the better. The equipment that's there now is great, but it's a little dated. It's been there for a while. Yeah,
070definitely could use a refresh given the other playgrounds that we've been doing with all the other schools. I'd like to point out though there is like a section in here because there's a question about ownership and that there is a section in here for redist like resubdivision of the property. Y so um I do know that we're going to negotiate in good faith on this and so I do know there's no timelines on it but that's probably the one thing that causes me a little pause but uh at least we're addressing that uh in this agreement. And yeah, that that gave me additional pause too. But the way it's written that's very mutual, right? So it it could that discussion can last as long as it needs to. Um the other thing is actually this
071agreement could essentially be indefinite the way it's written. There's no timeline. There's no there are the a initial agreement expires after 10 years but it has automatic renewals every 5 years and there's no term or duration to those automatic renewals. It doesn't say two auto automatic renewals and you're done. It just says you renew every five years. So yep with 90-day advanced notice prior to expiration of the current term. Right. Yeah. After watching the village meeting, it was my understanding that the resubdivision of the property primarily relates to consolidation of a bunch of lots on the property that are owned by the district, but they would just effectively consolidate them into one lot for us, right? Yes. It may be slightly more than that. And that's why there currently Ble Park essentially, you're right, but
072there's an additional piece to it. Right now with the BLE Park school sits on maybe about 10 individual lots, but the uh the amphitheater part extends past those the defined limits of those lots. So that's where additional discussion and collaboration needs to happen. Yeah. Okay. because it does start by saying agree to negotiate in good faith a mutually acceptable resubdition. And that's why I say it's yeah that's very collaborative that's very just got to figure it out. I think the intent the way I'm understanding it is to just do one big property line but maybe there's more technicalities in it that it doesn't but we'll we'll have some back and forth. Resubdividing basically takes all those those 10 lots that Selena mentioned 10 I'm it's from memory I'm working takes those 10 puts them together
073but it may also redefine the border between the village and the school. Yeah. But over overall personally I I think this is the last one wasn't terrible. This one's just better. I think it's more clear that there's less ambiguity. I had some concerns with some ambiguity. Um I think the maintenance cleanup in here also makes sense too. Um because like my preference would have been like we're putting it in, it's kind of on near our property. We already got it, but they want to take it on. That's fine. We have the option to take it over if they don't. So I I I definitely think this gives us more flexibility for more long-term stuff here. Um, are we has everybody had enough time to read this, think about it, and offer a vote tonight? Yes.
074Yes. Yes. Okay. Just by way of reminder, just as policy police, the one of our policies 120 lists out all of our IGAs and so this one would be captured under just village of Riverside. So no changes would be needed to policy with the addition of this IGA with the village since we already have existing ones with them. Thank you. All right. Uh well with that I will make the motion because I haven't done that yet. Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the BL park IGA as presented? So moved. Second. Kathy, would you please call the role? Mr. Barhole I. Mr. Barcadi I. Mr. Hunt. I Miss Gun I. Miss Claps. Hi. And Mr. Meritt. Hi. Motion passes. All right. Uh for Okay, that's it for old business. We'll move
075into new business discussions. We've got two items here. Uh one is the DuPage West Cooperative Member School District resolution. Hand this over you. Sure. Uh so there's a lot of detail in there from the executive director from our special education cooperative. This is kind of one of these unique things that will come up. So DuPage West Cook is is what I would almost describe as like a super cooperative, right? They take in um they have oversight around providing services for very low incidence disabilities, deaf and heart of hearing, visually impaired. They have a given their current agreements, there's a very large organization that has required oversight. Um I think it's just been I think it's like 62 districts. I don't I don't have it again right back in front of me. I know it's in
076front of everybody to read if you have more questions and I can certainly um gather up that detail as I'm describing it. Uh but the the group really wants to move to an oversight committee and the only way that they can do that is to have all the local school boards approve a resolution indicating that you would agree to that. So what I've tried to do here is just bring in a lot of information from our special education cooperative. LaMiel who's our executive director serves on that oversight committee that has really been functioning as a board. The oversight committee really just gives them more flexibility around I think meeting attendance, meeting requirements. They really want the work of DuPage West Cook to continue and around it the work it does serving children. So this is
077new business initial discussion. Uh Ellie Ambiel also said she'd be happy to come if the board of education come to a meeting if there were a lot more questions, but I thought we'd start by providing just a lot of written information. Happy to take any questions back if there are questions or maybe I can answer them. Nora, I don't know how much the directing group has followed this, but this has been more the directing board. So, got it. Got it. Okay. Um, it's it's a requirement. I I I don't want to minimize it, but it's it's sort of around organizational logistics and uh bylaws and future agreements. So it essentially it's changing the board from a board to a committee like to deal with attendance issues. Is that the thing? I believe I believe it's
078like even just getting a quorum and only because I think a quorum is the majority of the 62 districts. So um I think this just makes some things easier and really removes probably some outdated procedures is the way I understood it or understand it. No core changes to the organization. Okay. Because I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not I'll go with the recommendation here because I'm not sure that I'm going to fully understand. It would be my recommendation because it is the recommendation of our ladsy cooperative that the board of education approve it. Okay. And it doesn't have to be tonight. So again, if people want more time to but we would put it on the April agenda. All right. If no other comments, I will move on. There any other questions like burning
079questions or I don't. Okay. This time didn't sound like it. Okay. Uh so the last item, village board of education resolution regarding the Cook County paid leave ordinance. Happy to give a little context here also. So, uh, there's a a new Cook County, see if I'm describ Cook County paid leave ordinance. It was introduced, um, through legislation around an idea of giving, um, particularly low-wage workers more flexibility around time off. Um, there's some understanding that was never really intended to really fall on school districts as part of this. Uh, there was a lot of advocacy work that happened when this was first introduced. schools kind of petitioned pretty vehemently to not be included. Uh the exemption that was added was that no um no employees covered under collective bargaining agreements uh are are sort of
080part of this agreement and they are exempted from the agreement which as you know would exempt a lot of our staff the rec and also um our custodial union as well. Um, and it doesn't pertain to administrators, but it would pertain to, interestingly, substitute teachers, long-term substitute teachers, and district office support staff, of which, you know, there are not a lot of additional employees that fall into that category. Um the idea is that uh employees would acrew one hour of paid time off for every 40 hours worked unless your village can exempt the school districts essentially from this Cook County um paid leave ordinance. So, in working with the village of Riverside, they have updated their ordinance that then would now um exempt the the school district employees from this paid leave and the law
081came onto the books in January. Uh the village of Riverside passed this at their February meeting and it is our the advice of our attorney that school districts approve a resolution that honors the ordinance of the village. I believe that is what people call belts and suspenders approach to things. So that is why this is here on the on the agenda. Yeah, there's a lot of language in there that speaks to the belt and suspenders. The we acknowledge all the purposes of the paid leave ordinance, but we are doing this thing. Yeah. And there is still some movement. It's my understanding legislatively that this whole thing might go away. But I in for now while it's still okay I even I did reach out to Ed Red just this week and she said it's being
082referred to subcommittee. I said is that good news or not? And she said it depends. So, I it's just been kind of a messy um right now we need to calculate paid time off for people that have served in our substitute long-term substitute and district office support from the period from January 1 till February 20th I think was the date of the ordinance. Okay. So, this is not retroactive. to that, right? It's not it's not retroactive. And then prior to this, those employees would not be getting that paid time off, right? They get well substitutes don't get paid time. I I think there's an irony in the fact that it's substitutes. They get this, but um that's that's the way the law is written right now. So, I don't I don't I shouldn't speak to
083the intention behind the law because I honestly don't know. But, right, a substitute. So, in our HR office, we go through and acrew how many hours a sub has worked. When they get to 40, they get one paid hour a month. Well, I I don't even know like the way just having you describe it to me a couple times before tonight. It doesn't sound like the intent was to include school districts, period. It's just we have this small population that's not part of our collective bargaining, so technically they fall into it. And so, we just we need to carve that out. Yeah. Mhm. This is not up for vote tonight either. So, as we Was this Was this a county resolution or a state resolution? County. Yeah. And I won't bring up that as we
084took another look at Brookfields. Brookfields may not pertain to a substitute who serves at Hollywood School for 40 hours. Anyway, we're going to cross that bridge over time. So, for now, this is the Riverside Cook County paid leave ordinance. I appreciate the village passing it. I It really is helpful to us to have that the villages in support with the passing of these um ordinances and many local villages have been working with their school districts to do just that. Yeah. And as you just point out and I have to remind myself from time to time, our municipality lines are not equal, right? So, all right. Okay. This is not a voting action tonight. So, we'll I assume this one will also come up next. Yeah. And if there just if there are any questions that
085you would want me to bring back between now and then that's why it's it's always helpful to present some of these as new business. So for a vote at old business next meeting. All right. Uh no further no no new public comment I'm guessing Kathy. Okay. Thank you. Uh I'm going to read the future meeting dates. We are going to go back into close session for a short period of time here tonight to finish some conversation that we couldn't get through before the meeting. Uh but first, future meeting dates will be April 2nd, committee of the whole, 7 p.m. at the multi-purpose room of Hollywood School. April 16th will be a regular business meeting at 7 p.m. here in the Hower Learning Resource Center. May 7th will be the bianual organization meeting at 700 p.m.
086at the multi-purpose room in Ames. And May 21st will be a regular business meeting at 7 PM here in the Hower uh auditorium. And I need to make a new motion to go back into close session. So is there a motion for the board of education to enter into close session for the following purposes? The appointment, appointment, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the district or legal counsel for the district, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity. Collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules of one or more classes of employees and the discussion of minutes of minutes of meetings lawfully closed whether for purposes of
087approval by the body of the minutes or semiannual review of the minutes as mandated by section 2.06. So moved. Second. It should probably also be pointed out that we're not going to come back. Yeah. Got ahead of me Dave. Thought I should have mentioned it. Sorry. I probably should have. Yeah. There will be no voting action uh after this this discussion. Uh and we will not be using convenient open session. So, is that a second? There's a second. Okay. Kathy, can you call the role? I certainly can. Mr. Barcetti. I u Mr. Hunt. I. Miss Gun. Hi, Miss Claps. Hi. Mr. Marhall. Hi. Mr. Mir. I Okay. Thank you. [Music]