001[Music] all right uh it is Wednesday March 5th at 6:30 p.m. and this is the Riverside School District 96 Committee of the whole meeting uh Kathy will you please call the role okay Mr vars presid Miss gun here miss KCK here Mr marle here Mr Hunt here and Mr Mirad here a as president all right um is there any public there is okay um all right tonight we have a pretty brief agenda and uh I guess it doesn't matter for anybody watching this recording but we started 30 minutes early today because we're going to go into a Clos session related to our contract negotiations with the Union that's coming up um before we dive into tonight's agenda are there any changes proposed there's not very many things on here in the first place but I'll
002ask okay so with that we will get into to education KCK um so I'm going to it to Angela to give us an update on the advanc been going on good evening everybody um I'm tonight just going to give you an update on what we've accomplished up to this point and the advanced learning program review and then what the next steps are so that you are aware of where we're at and where we're going to start with uh we have our Advanced learning program Review Committee it's made up of our three Advanced learning teachers um at the elementary level there are four three uh Middle School teachers that are on the team um they all Teach an advanced class of some sort whether it's math or Ela and then um a classroom teacher from the
003elementary school a fifth grade teacher Mr Becker and then miss Gorman Mr valis and myself the purpose of this committee is to conduct a comprehensive educa evaluation of the district's Advanced learning enrichment programming for students in kindergarten through fifth grade or through 8th grade sorry and we're focusing on ensuring the program effectively meets the academic and social emotional needs of our Advanced Learners as well as ensuring best practices for identification and qualification and identifying areas for continuous Improvement we're looking at enrichment across all grade levels um and then Advanced learning Services being separate from enrichment for those kids who might need more so if you think about mtss and how we've talked about we provide support and interventions to the 15 to 20% of students who might be at the lower end of um the
004percentile Spectrum then that means that 80% of our students can access the Core Curriculum whether it's math or Ela or even science and social studies they're able to access the Core Curriculum at AER one level without major support so they might have some small group instruction or teachers might do some reteaching but there's not major supports for that tier one group so what we're doing with Advanced learning then is we want to address the top 10 to 15% about of that 80% of students who are accessing the tier one Core Curriculum so we're looking at the top of the group that can access the Core curriculum the goals of this review are um to ensure that we're committed to providing all of our students with challenging enriching educational experiences that Foster their intellectual growth and
005prepare them for future successes so through this review working with the Consultants from the Northwestern Center for talent development we're going to receive some recommendations from the Consultants from Northwestern Center for talent development and what we want to utilize those recommendations for is toensure sure our student needs are met so that we are ensuring our program effectively meets the needs of our Advanced Learners and provides them with appropriate and consistent challenging challenges and supports we want to optimize our identification qualification right now our qualification for our Advanced learning program is very uh test dependent and so working with the Consultants we're looking to see if that's the best way to identify our students to rely solely on testing or if there might be other ways that are utilizing best practices um to identify students so
006that we're ensuring we're capturing the we're we're capturing the students all students who are able to be successful in advanced learning program and we want to maintain our program alignment we want to ensure the program aligns with best practices and reflects our commitment to continuous Improvement and um a commitment to Excellence so the process for this review um is that working with the Consultants from the Northwest Center for talent development we are engaging in a collaborative and datadriven process and so that process includes a data analysis the Consultants um have received student achievement data that is anonymous it doesn't have any names attached to it has uh non-identifying numbers attached to it they looked at they're looking at program participation data and they're reviewing feedback from student staff and families they're examining current research and
007best practices in advanced learning and evaluating the program's curriculum instructional strategies and supports and that's been done through classroom observations through surveys and through focus groups and then Gathering stakeholder input through feedback on surveys as well as focus groups with staff students and families and then the Consultants will take all this information compile it make recommendations and the team team will work with those recommendations then through a collaborative decision-making process where we'll engage in open discussions transparent discussions to review those recommendations and then make informed decisions regarding the future of our programming that future will could include strategies for um implementation for identification for future evaluation um looking at all aspects of our programming so how we got to where we're at right now um we started in October the end of October we had
008a kickoff meeting where we started with introductions and the why of the committee the purpose of the team and the process in um November we as a committee um the Consultants brought to us the surveys that they wanted to use for the staff and families and um students and we reviewed that survey to make sure it um really reflected our programming reflected what we wanted to know as staff members in District 96 and to ensure that um like even the language was appropriate there were certain terms that the Consultants used on their on the survey initially that didn't fit what we do here so just even wordsmithing the survey at Point at times in January we met as a committee with a Consultants to uh talk about the focus groups talk about uh the questions
009that would be asked at the focus groups when the focus groups would occur the different logistics for the focus groups and then they started the focus groups um the week of January 20th with six parent focus groups there were two in the morning two in the afternoon two in the evening on separate days there were three sessions for families that have students in our Advanced learning service program currently and there were three sessions for families that don't have students in the advanced learning program currently um and that's just because the focus is a little bit different if you're already in the program as opposed to to families who may not be in the program it may not be in for various reasons including their kid might have been close but didn't get in so it
010was able by having different uh focus group types we were able to hone in then with questions that um were specific to those groups and I keep saying we but I was not a part of any of the focus groups um because we wanted to make sure one it was Anonymous and two nobody felt um unable to answer any of the questions so I wasn't in any of the parent staff or student focus groups um we then or the administrative focus group um I wasn't in any of them so then we also had the student Focus groups the week of January 27th um I forgot to mention about 55 parents participated in the parent focus groups 33 who have students in the program and 22 who um do not have students in the program with
011our student focus groups the Consultants visited all five schools they spoke with about 180 students total between 3rd through 8th grade um they talked to students who are receiving Services students who are not receiving Services um and they also during that time observed Obed classes they observed Advanced learning instruction at the elementary level they observed class core classrooms at Hower um Advanced and core in ela and math as well as um social studies and science classes so they really wanted to get a feel for how instruction looks in all settings um because we have advanced Learners who are taking science and social classes right and there but it's not there isn't an advanced science or socialized class so how are we meeting our students needs in those core classes as well as how are we
012meeting students needs who might need challenges in our Core math or core Ela classes so they wanted to see across the board what does instruction look like um and then we had staff focus groups the week of February 3rd there were 10 sessions six for the elementary teachers and four for the uh haard teachers they occurred before school during the school day during lunch hour during after school we really wanted with all the groups to make sure there were times that would hopefully fit anybody's schedule we to make sure we were open and um inclusive of everybody uh there were about there were 25 plus staff members that participated in the focus groups our primary teachers didn't really participate because they didn't feel that the advanced learning portion really impacted them um that's something that
013we're going to discuss a little bit more as uh we get the data recommendations from the Consultants because our primary teachers are impacted when we talk about how are we enriching students who are succeeding at our our primary grade levels as well so that's how we got to where we are currently I did forget to mention there was an administrative focus group for our leadership team um as I said I didn't sit on that Martha didn't sit on it as well um so that our administrators were also free to express all their thoughts um the positives and concerns that they might have with our current programming and then we did have a focus group specifically for advanced learning teachers at the elementary level and I believe um some of the junior high Advance learning teachers
014might have joined them as well nope I'm wrong um it was just the advanced learning teachers at the elementary level but a chance for them to talk about their concerns specific to how the program has impacted them so that's where we're at right now so our next steps are the Consultants are currently performing the data analysis and that n data analysis is looking at the student achievement data program parti IP ation data the feedback from the surveys and the focus groups from all the stakeholders and then also an analysis of program communication efforts um they're going to also then formulate actionable recommendations for program Improvement and include strategies for implementation and evaluation continued evaluation of our programming the Consultants will bring their recommendations to our committee late March early April and the committee will spend
015April early May anal anzing those recommendations for program improvements and we'll make a decision as a committee on which recommendations we feel we should Implement and when to implement them so developing a timeline which will communicate then to all stakeholders of course including the Board of Education um as we talk about the plan for recommendations which um the committee has decided to implement one of the important things to note is that if there are changes to programming or any changes that might involve FTE you might look at this timeline and wonder how will we Implement that for next year we may not start implementing everything in the 25 26 school year we will make the plan and then we will do the work and have the conversations with the needed parties to then have full
016implementation during the 26 27 school year there might be small things that we could begin to implement for the 25 26 school year but major things like changes in FTE would most likely wait for a year before we did something like that so that's where we're at now how we got to where we're at now and where we're going from here um and do you have any questions for me I was going to ask you how the engagement was with the different groups but you weren't in any you have any feedback on did the Consultants provide anything that would be useful of just kind of how it went or any High level themes or anything like that that you could share so um the consultant said that the engagement was really good across all the
017groups um that everybody had a lot of things to say both positive and then just some concerns or interests that they had for programming um I also received emails from various parents who were appreciative of the process and felt that it it went really well and was moderated well by the Consultants um they're still looking at the data so it's hard for them to give a lot um to give some answers on themes because they want to Overlay the student achievement data and they're still working on that piece but one of the things that they did point out is that um communication is definitely an area of opportunity that they found through their focus groups and surveys that many staff and parents are not fully aware don't understand the process for identification um as well
018as for the scope of services and our metrics related to Advan learning and so there's this piece of communication and transparency that's missing across the board not just for our families but even staff members would not are not always able to explain how a student might qualify for advanced learning or what um other opportunities there are for acceleration or even enrichment and so that's something that they did say they can see right now will most likely be one of the recommendations as working on communication and providing specifics on how to do that I would I would agree with that um being the one who Fields a lot of teacher questions I agree as well so how do we do it now I do we just we've there's noting there was it's a more test heavy
019evaluation process are the kids just testing in and then we're letting parents know that hey you're yes so we have a matrix um that we utilize to qualify students you receive points on this Matrix based off of map testing coat testing in third and fifth grade and then um a curriculum based measure assessment and that curriculum based measure assessment is supposed to be an assessment of how well the students learned the standards that were taught in the class so you have standardized testing through map you have um cognitive testing through the Kat and then you have the curriculum academic testing through that curriculum based measure and if you get a certain number of points um you need a minimum of 90% on map to get any points on The Matrix for the map testing you
020need a minimum of 80% on the curriculum based measure to get any points on The Matrix and you need a minimum of 120 on the coat to get any points on The Matrix you have to get a certain number of points on The Matrix to qualify and um that is all ran in June and families are notified by the it's ran May and June and families are notified by the end of June of all their kids test scores so they everybody gets a letter that says this is your child's assessment profile here's their um uh map scores for their spring map scores their coat score from the last time they took it whether it was third or fifth grade um their curriculum based measure score and then on the back of that letter it has
021the Matrix which is confusing for parents um and then if your child qualified then you get a letter attached it says your child is qualified for this class or these classes um and it explains then those classes what I've noticed over the years of doing this that's confusing is one when you have the Matrix on the back parents it's a confusing Matrix um I very much simplified it right now but parents are confused by it and they'll get phone calls saying so did my kid qualify or did my kid not qualify um when you don't include the Matrix because one year I was like well let's just not include it then you get a lot more questions did my kid qualify or did my kid not qualif ify um and then there is an appeals
022process which um our Advanced learning process was developed prior to me um through another committee that did the work and worked with another consultant and did a great job moving from where they were to here and now we just need to continue to improve um but the appeals process is just looking at more testing so if you don't qualify but a different cognitive assessment could help you score could help you qualify then I administer a different cognitive assessment one-on-one in the summer if you don't qualify but a higher map score could help you we'll look at your fall map score and see if that qualifies you if you didn't qualify but you could get the points you needed to qualify from the curriculum based measure then we look at the I to see um if
023you exceeded on the I and if you did that can qualify you so the appeals process isn't really an appeal it's just looking at more testing um and so that's another piece to look at but that's why we've noted that the the process for getting into advanced learning is very test dependent yeah but I and I somebody else here may remember but I thought part of the reason it became more test dependent was to get away from the subjectiveness of other things and it's still an appeal it's just an appeal to other data and not an appeal to look for more soft right measures yes and that was what the committee was working on um what we're looking at is through Best Practices is there a way to have a combination of the two and
024to have the test results but there are students who may not perform well on test perform well in the classroom and show that they have the propensity to be able to succeed in advanced learning class and have that push and so how do we reach those kids as well if you're not a good test taker and how do you indicate in an appeals process that that's exactly a possibility of exactly without it being too subjective your dilemma is your dilemma is you have a dilemma does the I mean it's more testing but does any the fast Bridge stuff that more like regular cuz that's more of just like a general assessment isn't it if I understand it correctly of like progress in or does that not really do us it wouldn't really help us with
025that it's more foundational skills than it is um looking at like deep instructional pieces okay yeah I just it's yeah I I hear what you're saying it just when student they're just some students that just don't do well on tests and so banking things all on testing is always a concern of mind but yeah it's you got to take the subjectivity out of it so I'll be interested to hear what the additional recommendations are and I just more common I attended as a parent um one of the sessions I I thought there was a lot of Engagement I actually wound up feeling really good about it because I thought I was the only like very confused I'm like I'm a board member and a parent I should exactly know how this works and how my
026kid got in or didn't or in this case in and I was like and I'm I don't think I fully understand it either I was not alone um there was a lot of you know echoing like either the communication or just not not understanding or as you've been saying it is a confusing Matrix I think some other themes that came up just within my own were you know having to do with maybe some of the differences between you know qualifying for like Ela Advance versus math and then you know being able Ela being kind of like locked in math sort of being on a uh gosh what are we on uh not sorry trimester type system and then families who joined the district later like they join in junior high they didn't test enfor grade
027um those were some of the questions and you know conversations that were happening um during my particular session so but yes there was it was a lot of Engagement and it's nice to know that I wasn't the only confused parent yeah you're I think yes we can agree the communication part and understanding or I don't know if we do we assess against other like when we talk about best practices or do we look at other schools that have successful like programs I guess how can one determine or measure that I can tell you that it's a conversation with the curriculum curriculum people in different districts through West 40 because we constantly talk about it at monthly curriculum meetings um none of us are happy with our processes um all of us see that there are
028different areas to change different things to do different different pieces that we could do differently um whether it's relying Less on tests whether it's not using a cognitive assessment whether it's starting some District start in second grade identifying some districts wait till Junior High to identify everybody's doing something different but that's one of the nice things about having a consultant help with this review process is that these are people who their job is to work you know at the Northwestern Center for talent development and they're working with other districts doing the same type of review process and they're in the res search so that's where their recommendations come in handy because it's not just the anecdotal conversations from other curriculum directors and assistant soups for curriculum it's people who are like KNE deep in the
029information regularly and I'll just say not just because my son's Advanced learning teacher is in this room overwhelming overwhelming positivity for the teachers and what they are doing in these classrooms it was more around the identification the communication the process yeah but everybody in my session overwhelmingly positive on once they're in it what they're getting from you know their Advanced learning C and I find that all the time when I talk with parents just from fourth grade through 8th grade the the rave reviews that um parents have for our Advanced learning teachers and my own personal son who attends hous is not in the advanced learning program he's not Tes um but uh I have often said to some of the junior high evance teachers like I really wish he'd get in because just the
030things that they do to further Challenge and deepen the standards at the different grade levels um is just it's it's great and but that's also what this review is going to do is how do we also have those similar opportunities for kids and core um you know so that they I know uh Martha and I were just invited to an Ela Advanced learning they're doing a debate on shakes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet about Free Will and um we were invited to see the debates that they'll have on Free Will and uh driving your your destiny and that's one of the advanced learning class things and it's great and the way they prepare for it is wonderful I saw it last year and I'm looking forward to this year's um presentations or or uh debates
031but it's an advanced learning thing and I would love for my son to have a part of that so that's why this review process is happening so that we can also see how do we have those opportunities for students who aren't in advance I think that's key you know there's there's so much of a philosophical and theoretical underpinning to it all as well as working through the logistics and nuts and bolts of it all and um one of the challenging conversations for school districts is how do we make sure that our systems are absolutely Equitable and inclusive and that our teachers are doing a beautiful job differentiating for the needs of all students but it's when student needs become sort of I'll say to the top of the class where teacher might not be able
032to differentiate to that level you know is there a different level of supports and services in the same way we we may say it about special education or reading supports or our math intervention so there's there's a lot to it I you know I appreciate where the the very detailed pieces of the process and then I think something for that the committee will continue to Grapple with and I know they already are is is is this I exactly this idea that um I don't want us to think that somehow you have to be in an advanced class to have these wonderfully enriched experiences and I actually don't think it's true you have to be in those classes for those experiences so I think we have to be really thoughtful about and I know we are
033being that way but I think that's really really important and it's something the board will will hear more about as we hear the recommendations that will come from Northwestern too and I appreciate you saying that that it's it's not true that you have to be an advanced class to have these enriching experiences our core classes have great experiences as well and there are great things happening in those classes too we just want to make sure that it as Martha said that it's Equitable for all challenge everybody at the Lev of RA yeah which really kind of gets back to that whole Universal Delight exactly which is very challenging to do so right all right thank you for attending Stephanie because uh my wife and I debated and we ended up not because I'm like I'm
034at the table I could put my feedback in anytime I want so maybe I should just jump in one of those things so um yeah yeah well well I'm glad I'm glad you're getting good feedback out that I will say uh since going back to when I was first on the board maybe slightly before that it was probably that first year I know there was a number of people that approached me about the advanced learning I was so new at that point I had no idea but um just a lot of Desire of like trying to have some more or whatever it was that they were looking for but a lot of questions about how do I like what are the qualifications for it how do I get my child into it how do I
035know if they're ready for it things like that and then what does the programming look like asking for more programming for those that were in it things like that so I'm glad we're undertaking this at this point and hopefully we'll have some good recommendations here in a couple months yes Co any other questions all right thank you I have just a very quick item of goal four I didn't want to ignore goal four um we had our family literacy night last Wednesday night uh we had about 75 students with their parents ATT 10 the the evening I Know Dan and his daughter were there so thanks for being there um a lot of fun not the same we had a lot more for family stem night a year ago thinking maybe the stem may have
036just been more appealing to families but I'm still really happy with the turnout we had about 23 staff members that helped out running different stations and activities so a huge thank you to all of them I continue to thank Sarah hickey every opportunity I get so again want to say thank you on that we will have more detailed update about sort of the work of goal four um as well as goal two and nor is actually home sick this evening so we didn't have that on the agenda anyway but just want to share uh today we had a living plan session with all of our goal Champions and action team leaders and had an opportunity to check in here we are in year four of our strategic plan and where are we where do we
037want to get to yet next year and then uh for the board it won't be that long we'll be having a conversation about the process for developing our next fiveyear plan so any questions about sort of goal you know education committee goal areas in general SL bit of feedback for the family literacy night um let's see I think there were sessions there were literacy sessions I would have loved to have gotten to uh I think what I think there was something like crafting or something for the kids that was available on the way back here because I think the sessions were held in this room on the way back there were the Escape rooms and you know once you're in you can't escape so you didn't make it past the Escape rooms to get make
038it past the escape room to get here okay okay and yeah love the Escape rooms it was great had a great time at it it just it yeah it was students say I've never been in an escape room I can't wait and I thought this isn't going to be quite like that they had to go through a lot of different like puzzle puzzle activities and then they would get a code and eventually you got enough code information that you know you were you were done with the activity I don't I guess that means you then released from the escape room but well you got a certificate of completion at the end which we got at the end you know but you didn't you missed the family the parent event then uh yeah it was hard
039for the parent to to step away from that I guess yeah that's fun funny good and good feedback I appreciate it so yeah there was a lot there was a lot going on absolutely and it was a great event that's education committee I think right all right thank you um I don't see anything on for finance committee so unless you want to give any updates no okay and we'll move into facilities Mr Mar sure uh the agenda is in the packet um I will note the high I'll highlight a couple things um mostly because some of the items that are there we've already addressed in the regular board on the larger level um and that being the security update and the two bids we approved last last session uh one note I did have is
040that the masonry contractor um noted that they did do exceptional work or or Steve said that and that should be a 30 to 40 year fix so that's just something everybody should know um there was some question about whether or not some of the summer work will impact things uh at Hower there's going to be a lot of dust because of the grinding to get the joints cleaned up um the boiler work should be all right except for contractor parking um that's not going to be a super noisy activity a lot of it is just doing technical things in the boiler the room itself um there is going to be replacement of the perious concrete that's out on the basketball court because that was Wesley and I have seen that that's there's areas of degradation
041um they RI the whole thing out and put it back in it was it was it was a bad mix um it's just not sticking to the together the way it should um as long as they're as long as there's no arguments about what needs to be done I don't it's a issue it's a pretty relatively small area so it shouldn't be too bad right C well I mean it's the basketball court yeah but I mean I mean what a couple days to tear it out and replace it and let it cure in a week or something like that yeah yeah it's going to cure quickly um pervious concrete is basically rocks that are kind of glued together so there's not a lot of material in between the Rocks which is why it's let's water
042through so it's a little bit more complicated to to create um [Music] um uh then we had some playgrounds discussion Hollywood is done we knew that um there's an area in front of the playground at ases that's a low spot and it gets rather sloppy when it rains and so we had some discussion about would or just what to do there and staying away from the artificial turf since we aren't doing doing it out here um more of a wood chips and better drainage kind of thing um rather it's actually that area to the back of the like well when you say front I think of back so I don't think of it on the um gu I'm it's the beond the play area yeah court and then theet right beyond the basketball court okay
043yeah the solution is still valid exactly yeah basically it needs some drain pipes and I think wood chips it oh okay well I know it's an area that I think they'll propose something but I mean that thing's been a mess since we installed it just because the kids trampled all over it and then we waited a year that the kids couldn't use it now they're trampling I mean it's concern I had about here it's all about getting the water and not letting it sit there that is such a small spot I mean would we get a lot of flack for just putting a small I mean nobody can see it it feels like we got to I don't think wood chips are very usable right you can't play Kick ball on wood chips I mean
044you can but you know we we we then we'll NE next we have another facility advisory meeting uh you know March I have it back on the agenda still for more conversation so we'll revisit that yeah um ble we kind of talked about the villages looking at the title information again um um I question whether or not they'll find anything new and interesting Dave and I have a side bet that they will um it'll be interesting to see what it's it's all this is all research based so yeah we'll see um I think we were hoping for some more information before the school Year's out um and then we know that uh there was a message earlier today that the village is also looking at putting in a basketball court out there so I assume
045that's where this current fenced area is so I don't think that actually changes uh yeah so I mean I can insert here so I met with um president uh Doug Pollock and the village manager Jessica Francis I also talked to one of the board members on Parks and rack about that it it is interesting they're going through a bunch of vetting process the parks and W had done a big survey I don't you guys saw that yeah I filled that out and um I was reading actually so the the packet for the village uh was released and I read through that they have a meeting tomorrow where they're going to bring the IGA up actually and so we were talking Martha and I were talking to Doug and Jessica about that and they're going to
046modify a little bit of the language in there to say that the tennis court will be re will be a multi-purpose they're just kind of calling it a multi-purpose Court I'm not sure they fully know yet I think there's I feel like they're still researching what exactly to do over there and where to do it how to do it based on the feedback from the parks and wck thing um but they want to help get the IG moving so that we can start putting our design work together and I did read in the the packet and from the um speaking with the um parks and wck board person they would like to participate in it so just I guess as we go forward with our designs just inviting them in early and just having them
047be a part of it I think would be good they've gotten a lot of feedback on just parks in general and like meeting a modernized and upgraded parks and compared to other communities and stuff like that people would like to see enhanced Parks so my guess is they probably want to provide us some of that feedback of we're doing it for the school but is there a way that we can pick equipment that kind of facilitates the broader community and stuff like that um so they're they're hopefully going to approve that IG tomorrow um preservation didn't really have much of an issue with the playground component of it but talking with Jessica there was um probably some desire to maybe do some more muted colors and things like they have over there now compared to
048what we have at some of the others so we could take all that feedback in as we're getting like parent and and student and broader Community feedback in it and everything but um there wasn't any broad opposition actually it said it in the packet for tomorrow's meeting about if the footprint of the playground needed to be bigger there wasn't really a lot of opposition around that we kind of talked around like daa's um you know you put in a piece of equipment and you need a certain perimeter around it and it's like what can we actually get in there and and they were it didn't sound like there was going to be much of an issue if we wanted to enhance the footprint we just got to be careful of the trees as we always
049are we even had that discussion around here right we don't want to be cutting down gigantic trees that are around here um so really on D to do yeah to be ATT figure out what can we get in there and without damaging the roots and all that kind of fun stuff um so hopefully tomorrow they'll have an approval and then we're hoping to bring that to the March 19th meeting for us to review and and approve um so I think we're making some progress there the titling is just funky and we were kind of looking at some of the plots and so part of it is going to be just re I think if I understood them correctly it was just going to be like one big school plot and then the rest of it
050was going to be villager I we'll see how all sh oh do they want Parcels combined yeah just to try to make the whole thing cleaner it was you understand that stuff better than I do you I I I'll look at that yeah that was part of it in there just clean it up cost us too much money it's fine they said they were going to cover it oh well then the re the the re yeah in the in the paperwork that I read it said that cost would be covered by the village for both the village and the school we're going to put in a playground I feel like we're kind of doing each other no then that's the way that's but that's what I've been kind of advocating for is a much more
051collaborative tone and if parks and rock is helping to or ask helping we'll call it helping with the design then that means that the ultimate approval should be much more amendable that'd be the goal I don't like getting into color discussions because honestly just make people happy we'll see how it goes I I've been in too many discussions about col yeah so I think we're making progress on that the basketball Court's a whole another thing and um that was from the survey results that they that were shared in there there was like overwhelming feedback in the comments about wanting a basketball court and I think it said something like the national parks is like 1.6 and the Illinois something or other is 2 point whatever and we have zero so they're they're just trying to
052figure out where to put in a basketball court whether it's there or somebody someplace else so I think they're still trying to figure out what that exactly looks like I don't think that's going to impede our ability to do a basketball court and that's their land and if they want to do something with that later that's fine there's a lot of unused land there yeah for both easy basketball courts end up being a hot button issue because our kids are out there at times that other people at that times that grumpy adults don't want them to be there I've seen I've seen the petition going around for a basketball court I've heard of the one that's not for a basketball court so that's always the case basketball courts just devolve into a lot of opinions
053and then the other thing is when if they research it you know what are the water implications because we always have to think about water implications well if they do the basketball court they're going to have to deal with that too yeah so if that if that were to cause a a retention situation I I don't think it's going to happen because it's probably not worth it to dig a big old retention p on there just for a basketball court so that's not that's not our our piece of the puzzle but um as a community member you know I'm I'm all for giving people more outdoor recreation space but at you know at a reasonable cost too so we'll see how that shakes out but I think uh as far as our part goes we
054should I think have an IGA on the table at the the next meeting so be on the lookout for that unless something happens at tomorrow night it seemed like that was pretty much moving forward all the Committees seemed uh on board with going forward with the proposal and everything so I I think we're going to get a yes mode on it so see what happens but we we'll probably have that for conversation uh two weeks from now thank you yep that that's that's really good news that that discussion happened um then we talked about some long long range maintenance which is also Jim's um chart of kind of planning Out Future budgeting for various projects projects and one thing that we did have a long discussion about and this kind of developed because a the
055science teacher had requested new tables in their in the science lab at Hower and that generated a larger discussion that you don't you can't just swap out tables because there's equipment attached to those I.E water and gas equipment so then I I'm going to summarize by saying we thought that should be pushed to the Strategic plan because that's a discussion about what do we need for Science and lab space and what do we really need in terms of curriculum and how do these things fit together and then that also generated the thought that perhaps the Strategic plan and I I'm kind of making something up as I go here but that the Strate strategic plan would also look at General improvements at Hower including the P the PE space and the lockers and then the
056library space and then there's an a classroom upstairs that's always been a very odd elongated shape I remember it well from when my daughter was at Spanish up there um and then there have been commentary from other Houser staff and then there was also comment on some kitchen equipment so this is more of a strategic item because it's ties in with all it ties in with more substantial improvements at Hower what is the LED lighting LED lighting is something that I keyed off of re on some outside reading and that is um a number of states have already started to ban long fluorescent tubes like the 4 foot long ones these would be two these actually these are actually 4 foot long they're just u-shaped I think you can see that y um but fluorescent
057tubes are starting to be banned in various States and Illinois I believe is on a 2029 ban so at some point you can no longer get these Andor they start getting really really expensive so LED is going to be in our future at some point so wow it's a lot of lights to replace that's why I brought it okay it's under long range maintenance it's a long range plan and there's two ways to do it and one is you can all of these fixtures are have a ballast in them which is a piece of equipment that reduces voltage or does things to the volt voltage to make it work for fluorescent and you can either buy bulbs that continue to use that ballast or you can rewire the fixtures to get rid of the ballast
058entirely and just power things directly Off Your Standard current powering things off the Standard current is much more energy efficient Bellis are basically burning a lot of heat so it's a longrange plan item we've talked about trying to keep everybody in up to date on some of this stuff that's one of them okay it's a lot of lights I wonder if there' be some type of like Grant or funding or provided to schools to come into comp has grants for lighting improvements yeah I just in the current environment uh some of those grants and things may be we may struggle a little bit on those and that's just a neither here nor there well it's it'd be great if we can get grants and like I said ComEd does have things um I don't know
059what those look like right now and I don't know what they'll look like in two years power companies like it because it means they reduce power use here so they don't need to build as many generating plants out there so that's why they do give grants all right interesting okay thank you Joel uh let's see next we do don't have anything for policy you're correct all right and nothing for um Personnel we met a few weeks back um had some discussions go three is listed here that's hiring R retraining uh high quality staff and otherwise nothing to report all right okay um Kathy laugh me no she didn't she's over there over there other public comment there's not yep okay uh sorry I just looked over there she looked so that brings us to the
060close of this session we are going to go into close section um so the future meeting dates here are March 19th there's going to be a regular business meeting at 7 p.m. here in the Houser Learning Resource Center April 2nd committee the whole meeting at 7 p.m in the Hollywood belte purpose room April 16th a regular business meeting at 700 p.m. here in the Houser Learning Resource Center May 7th will just be a short meeting for our B by anal organizational meeting we'll have a new board member on and we'll do our uh committee placements and everything and then uh adjourn and then May 21st 2025 the regular business meeting at 7 pm here in the Houser in the Hower Auditorium so with that is there a motion from the board to go into close
061session for the purpose of collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees so mov second so just just to clarify we're going into Clos with no action to follow and with no action to follow yes thank you do um did I get a second a second yes you did uh Kathy will you call the rooll please okay Mr mle hi Mr barti hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss Kaylor hi session will be in [Music]