District 96 Board of Education Regular Meeting 12-20-23

001[Music] okay uh so we are back in Open Session um we have at least two public comments so I'll just before we get into this we don't have a lot of public commenters so I'll just uh note that we generally ask that you keep comments to about three minutes or so and uh it is just comment it's not a two-way dialogue so you can say whatever you would like but we don't engage questions or other commentary so I will welcome I think it's Nicholas Hoffman all right good evening how you all doing doing what good how are you good my name is Nicholas Hoffman as you just stated excuse me I've got a cough drop in my mouth and I was trying to chew it before I came up here so I'm going to keep

002chewing as I'm speaking I hope you don't mind U I live over in um what as you see on there I live uh in Riverside at 467 Kent Road right down the street from Blight school we have three children my wife and me and we all of them have matriculated through the through the district 96 and and uh also 208 and on the college so I'm very very pleased with with the district and and what they've done for me and my children what brings me here today to speak to you well it has to do with the bilingual teachers that uh there was an article as you well know that was in the uh landmark and it indicated are you folks from the landmark by the way nobody's here from the landmark and it indicated

003that we have 50 non-native English speaking students coming into the district I'm not opposed to that what I'm concerned with as a taxpayer I'm concerned about it and that's where my concern comes in in addition to that I also read that in the state of Illinois we are we are one of 11 states Illinois being one of those states where mandated that we teach bilingual education in the school in our schools but there's one thing I that kind that I found to be very interesting was that the law also provides for funding for the teachers so my question is this from what I understand three teachers are going to be hired or you're going to attempt to hire three teachers I don't know if you've done that already no have you done that you haven't

004you're searching though is it three do I have the number right three I do and my question is this and I'll I'll propose it to you Doctor will the will that be covered their cost of those teachers be covered by the state of Illinois so it's hard for me because I know we're not supposed to engage in dialogue with public comment but I'd be happy to have a conversation with you another time and and can share how the the funding Works Etc why why is it covered or not so this is public comment so that the public can come and say there's no discourse there's no gos back and forth this is not on our actual agenda to engage two-way dialogue so I can't get an answer to a question that's what you're saying I

005can tell you it's I can tell you that it's not straightforward it's it's not a fully funded or not fully funded there's offsets to the funding okay I it would be a conversation then I think we have to go into a deeper conversation but I'll call your office okay absolutely if you don't mind sure okay well see I don't know well I might as well move forward as if it's going to be partially funded by the taxpayers okay I'm going to assume that to be the case based upon your answer and partially funded by the by the state of Illinois okay so therefore that part portion that'll be funded by the taxpayers is what concerns me it was wholly funded by them I'd be very concerned now I'm sort of mildly concerned okay partially concerned

006I know that clear batch I think you hire clear batch to go ahead and vet the students coming in to make sure they are in the district because we'd only want District students to attend our schools and pay for them with our tax dollars and it's a fair thing to do that's fair I think we agree with that that would be fair so I'm concerned about something else since you can't give me feedback now I'm concerned about the vetting process I mean I have to presume that clear batch is a sophisticated company you probably did a search to find and exercise due diligence in finding this company to go ahead and vet the students a company that is highly sophisticated is going to use algorithms to determine if in fact the students are belong in

007our district are in our district therefore can go to our schools and I go back to my initial concern it seems like and this may be wrong in my assumption here that if 50 non-native speaking students are entering our our system it seems like an extraordinarily large number certainly in the middle of the year what ends up happening is I mean we're all parents I presume or most of us are you we will move into a district if we have children and we want those children to enter the school year the beginning of the school year not the middle of the school year now there's a lot of circumstances that might dictate where that may not be the case and you know people who may live in uh Apartments they may be more um they

008have a greater ability to have mobility and movement in and out of areas okay so that would apply to them mostly nothing wrong with that but it would apply to them mostly and and some may be people who sell their house and they wish they would have sold it in the spring moved in the summer the children start the first semester the next semester and that doesn't always happen because life is not perfect so the the I I go back to this the vetting process well POS the question since it's on my mind I understand the algorithms where you take databases and and push information against information and look at it and say okay this this child is either a guardian of or of an adult that lives in the district or the child and

009there's there's actually that's got to be um there's are court documents that support that and so with in the vetting process they're able to push those those documents together and therefore they in match with the CH child who lives there or if the child is is of a a parent or parents in the district they would have that information too and then the algorithm would pop out the exceptions so my question would be unanswered as it might be my question would be does the vetting process when red flags go up and to me if red flag is 50 student students coming into the area is a red flag to me is there a vetting process where agents actually go to the homes of where the children live or purported to live to confirm in fact

010they do live there and are in the district so that's a concern the other concern I have is this so sir I'm going to have to ask you to come I'm sorry I'm going to need to ask you to come to a con clusion has been about 8 minutes and we have a rather long agenda tonight I'll come to the conclusion less than that okay okay I'll try to talk slow to make it E minutes fill it out but no I'm joking I won't do that migrants are are flooding uh the United States okay we all know this they're coming through the southern border actually well not mostly the southern border the vast majority as of no this is according to the Wall Street Journal of November 4th 20 23 120 nationalities with 60 different

011languages are coming across the border so the question has to be is vexing to me it seems like it's possible that we could have someone from China who speaks mandrin and we'd have to have a mandarin interpreter and we can go on and on with this I he said madin for for a particular reason because that is the most common spoken language in the world believe it or not I didn't think it was but I looked it up and it is so that being said Doctor we are probably going to talk I want to thank you for your time and listening to me patiently okay I'm getting a lot of smiles here so I appreciate that too and again my name is Nichol Hoffman thank you right thank you Mr Hoffman uh and then I

012have Jerome Gargano Gargano okay good evening I'm Jerome Gargano live at 463 Kent Road Riverside Illinois I've been a resident here for 38 years both my kids have gone to ble Hower and also on to RB school is fantastic uh I have no problem with that the education they got they received was overwhelming I I'm if ever GED about it they did a great job you know the concern I got two points I want to make one I was a little shocked and I come from a background facility management and so when I hear the news that you have an office on Harlem Avenue cost taxpayers over4 to $600,000 so you have an office to go to I think that's wasteful spending I'm being a pH facil facility facility manager I can certainly find room

013in this building that I can house an office and you had an office here before that's one point like to make the other point is oh how do I say this is I I think that's just it's a waste go spending and as being seeing my taxes go from I assess value just went up now to 57,000 so which means I'm going to get a tax increase I'm 66 years old I'm about to retire my wife and I our taxes are getting too out of out out of out of ridiculous out of hand I can't afford that so you're really forcing me to really possibly move the point I want to make out my sister lives in Tennessee and she met a a rock star uh from The Guess Who guitar player I don't know

014his name Michael sherov or something like that and he uh he moved from New York to Tennessee my sister lives in a very very nice neighborhood it's all brick most of the homes there are 2500 to 3500 sare ft their taxes are 20 $600 a year in real estate taxes I'm paying close to $177,000 it doesn't make me happy so after meeting Michael he had two his his daughter and his son were in the room and he said hey guys it's night o' you got to be home and they're like okay he goes did you do your community service and I'm thinking Rockstar red flag what are these kids in trouble for and then I find out the state of Tennessee and while we don't do this in Illinois they uh do community service and

015you carry and once you do your community service you get to go to state school for free so why why don't we have kids do community service have some skin in the game and then they can get a better education their taxes are $2,600 a year she lives in Hendersonville it's outside Nashville my niece lives downtown Nashville in a beautiful home of like a million and a half doll her taxes are like $99,000 a year it's like me living on Michigan Avenue so I'm saying why can't you're you're the school board can't you guys follow other states you know why do we have to have blinders on us and constantly just look at this is how this is how it is the next question is I got nothing against teachers I really don't they're are

016future why do we have to hire Union teachers if you see the pensions that's what's killing the state and we don't know that cuz you're all taxpayers but if you go to other states like Tennessee nowhere near that and you can look it up I mean it's just uh that's that's all I have to say thank you time thank you for your time and consideration thank you Mr Gano um somebody else just walked in was that a public did you have no okay okay uh thank you both appreciate it um let me get back over to the agenda so that'll move us into the public hearing for the 2023 property tax levy um is there a motion to open the public hearing on the 2023 property tax levy moved okay Kathy can you call the

017rooll okay Miss claps hi Mr marhall hi Mr baradi hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi and Mr Mirad hi okay hearing is open okay is there any public comment specific to the tax levy I'll sort of take yours is a bit of tax lovey commentary I'll say I don't see anybody else okay so is there a motion to adjourn the public hearing for the 2023 property tax levy so moved Kathy can you call the rooll Mr marhol hi Mr barsati hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss claps hi and Mr mayhead I okay hearing is closed okay are there any proposed changes to the agenda as presented tonight no all right so then we will move into the superintendent report Dr I have two quick items um one I just wanted to share

018and we'll be sharing more information with families after the winter break but um we have uh organized a parent presentation and actually a student presentation as well um to help parents protect their children on devices social media and gaming platform so I just wanted to share the flyer very preliminary information right now but we know this is a very timely topic and um I appreciate Don Tano and our team looking at sort of some options that would um be meaningful for our families as we all work together on keeping our kids safe online so a little bit about that more to come we'll be sending that out in regular parent communication Etc and then the student part of it will be for Hower students on February 12th and then I just want to say happy

019holidays to everybody it's hard to believe it's December 20th and um it's been an exciting week There's month really there's been a lot going on with band and Orchestra and choir and student performances Etc so our schools have been busy and I'm really buzzing with the excitement that December often brings to young children so happy holidays to everybody here that's all I have short one all right uh so next up is the consent agenda so could the board secretary please read tonight's consent agenda tonight's uh consent agenda consists of the following the minutes of the following previous meetings November 1st from committee the whole meeting our November 15th regular business meeting along with the minutes from the November 15th uh closed session meeting the Personnel report as presented payables pre-list as of November 30th along

020with payables pre-list as of December 20th okay uh is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as read so move second all right k I think can you call the RO okay okay Mr barsati hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss claps hi Mr marhall hi and Mr Mirad hi okay motion passes okay uh any board member comments before we move into Old business all Christmas concert was amazing very well attended and a bit hard to see at times yeah all right I heard that the one at ases last night my kids aren't that young but I heard that one went over pretty well it sounds like it was rather busy uh full well Dan you were at BL at BL yes how did you find the auditorium oh yeah um was that

021part of where things were what starting off at towards the back of the auditorium it uh the the it it really wasn't viable I don't think to have parents at the very back of the library um yeah actually talked to Martha about it after and well I'm sure there will be some revisiting to that in the future I think I don't know if Martha if you'd had a chance to speak with d yet or I have and um so in the new performance space you know chairs were all sort of flat kids are little um so we've talked about and actually at am was very very well attended last night too um they end up having to break it into two groups sort of in real time and the K1 families all stayed in the

022grades uh two and three went up to the library and waited they took a brief break and then they kind of Switched so we've talked about everything from bringing all the programs to Hower um just taking a different night for each each School Hollywood could probably stay at Hollywood um but uh ble was very crowded Ames was very very crowded Central was packed were you there Selena yes yeah it was but it was sort of like every seat full it was sort of of packed and it was okay but um I mean it's great it's a great problem to have families want to come of course we want families here um so we have we have to look at that one idea would be kids coming to Hower the other is doing like a K1

023brief intermission then a two three grades 2 three program uh the music teachers have shared that they really kind of don't like taking the kids out of their typical performance space it's where they practice it's where kids are comfortable and familiar especially when you're talking about like our youngest kindergarten first grade students that it might be you know a bit overwhelming we did do am here one year several years ago and that was kind of what we heard that they were because they do weight in their class rooms right so they're they're in a very familiar spot the other thing we've talked and we talked to D just the other day was either elevating the kids more somehow in the performance space of BL or some kind of uh Dan brought it up actually some

024kind of like bleacher type thing almost that the the visitors would be elevated because everything was just sort of like on the same level more the the dance performance BAS yeah towards the back they have risers so we're looking at it and and I'll I'll stress as well the the stage area I mean was definitely beautiful it was a great place to see the kids and I'll also say that yeah as as uh kindergarten went made its way through third grade we were eventually able to get up to the front so there might be something to doing it one grade at a time maybe switching people out or or having having a waiting room okay parents of first graders you're you go and and move them in and out I guess that that might uh

025have a better experience for everybody cuz yeah it's it's kind of tough being at the very back of the auditorium and you're seeing nothing but somebody else's back and and your kids performing in front of you for the first time overcrowding is definitely becoming a hot topic now that we're back a Hot Topic around me definitely yeah yeah even after all our facilities working we knew we were sort of building to meet our needs and we didn't build excess on purpose some of the conference about you know taxes tonight uh are pertinent to all of that so I remember when we did the am visioning the conversation was you know can we build large enough space for the whole student body and family like no we don't have enough land right so we we sort

026of made the best I think the Houser Auditorium is an option um there's some transportation and just unfamiliarity issu discussion ideas constrained by the fact that kids and parents and teachers do like to be at their home school and that space works 99% of the time but when we have giant Gatherings then it's not so good but we're not going to build a space for 1% of the time right so it it's close to an unsolvable issue short of having an absurd amount of space and resources to do that or just changing the schedule around yeah and those are the Sol schedule changes are probably more in line with what people want for being at home quote unquote and again I'll say it's a good problem to have because it was great to see families

027it was parents it was grandparents it was babies and younger siblings older siblings all of the above so that was that was great that's what we want our programs to be about so yeah yeah and I went to the fourth fifth grade orchestra band uh concert I think it was just a couple weeks ago and here in the auditorium and it's that very nice the all the new seats all the new carbet all the new lighting and it sounded great um and as always I know the the band teachers won awards for the program that they had put together here but I always look forward to little comedy routine that they put together too they're quite a funny little bunch and so I always get a chuckle out of that their little comments um so

028anything else move on mine I did a band conference and the auditorium there though doesn't aesthetically yes it's not nicer but there isn't really much change but does look sound does look and sound so much better yeah if you didn't know what we did you would have no idea we did anything exactly because I asked my wife and she's like what' you do yeah my wife just as the same thing he like what happened I'm like yeah all right okay uh so we'll move into Old business so then tax levy 2023 um is there a motion uh is there a motion for the Board of Education to approve the tax year 2023 tax levy resolution for an amount of 30, 117,000 second um Kathy you call the rooll Mr Hunt hi gun hi CL hi

029Mr Mar hi and Mr all all right next item is theou the memor memorandum of understanding for the minimum wage increase y back up briefly this goes to some of our commentators plus this goes to the fact that we had a public hearing moments ago but our Levy will be 5% above what it was last year this is at the property tax cap this is slightly below inflation but it is at our legitimate maximum and we do have a public comment sorry a public hearing process so that the community does have an opportunity to speak um so we have encouraged additional participation and I have said it before and I will say it again that this we are increasing our budget at the rate of inflation or today's budget budget is slightly below the rate

030of inflation so we continue to be reasonable in our request thank you yep all right anybody else before I move on sorry I push through that pretty quick okay uh so the next item is the memor memorandum of understanding for the minimum wage change for specific to cafeteria workers um the general theme that we been discussing here is we have uh a few employees that are below the minimum wage that is going to be mandated by the state of elois I think beginning January 1st am I getting that correct um so we have worked with the Union to uh comply with that and so this is the memorandum of understanding to that contract change as far as those wages go and it's cafeteria workers and midday assistance and mid the all right so is there

031a motion for the Board of Education to approve this mou regarding the minimum wage as presented so moved second Kathy can you call the role Miss gun hi Miss claps hi Mr marhall hi Mr barsati hi Mr Hunt hi Mr mayhead hi okay the motion passes next item is for the English learner teachers the additional staff request that we talked about at the committee the whole meeting two weeks ago uh this is for the Plus 3 FTE that we discussed and gave a verbal commitment to and so we're actually officially voting on this is there a motion for the Board of Education to approve the approve increasing the English learner Department by three FTE as presented second Kathy can you call the role actually can I ask one question prior though sure so and I

032think it was asked by the U at least one of the gentlemen there that I think it was noted that these positions were going to be posted attempted to be hired not sure if we were going to be able to get one or not I don't know is there any update from that uh Martha postings up and and I know as of yesterday there were no candidates right Angela corre okay so I assume that might be the same today so definitely not a guarantee that these positions will be filled before the end of the year correct good call Dan sorry I should have asked if there was any discussion on that before asking for call no worries no worries I guess I had a question just sort of on that just sort of for clarification

033I mean this is something like sort of mandated we have the state sort of requires this us to do that right and so yes and I know it's a complex formula Spanish and it's because we met that threshold of 20 students in one School site um that all are Spanish speaking so even to like clarify around the comments tonight about like why why not a mandarin it's um it's a numbers driven requirement by the state um one of the comments that was about an interpreter interpreters would be required regardless of the language so could participate sort to get into the funding issue this is also sort one of those unfunded mandates that we yeah I mean there is some grant funding that comes through the federal and state government it is um it is not

034a lot certainly isn't a reimbursement for the position but it's not zero and so that's but it doesn't come close to covering one of their salaries either right yeah so I just I I just want to sort of over my clarification for that and you said interpreter but we are using interpretation devices right not actually hiring like at an IEP meeting we're required to have an interpreter there at a parent teacher conference we're going to make every effort to have interpretation so when but not as like a daily thing for the no not for the students right so for students we're using different strategies a lot of visual cues a lot of the you know we mention the devices that that do the translation but an interpreter is a specific um thing that would be

035needed particularly for families to participate meaningfully in their child's education yeah okay so to summarize some of increase is driven by a minimum number of students in a school some of there is some funding from state and federal but it's certainly not funding that captures all of the increase correct and then we are also increasing just to provide better services and to Dan's question we are approving the addition of three that does not mean three will immediately be found and hired so mean our thought was we needed one we really need one right away anticipating perhaps some growing needs and continuing and and also like if we can hire three this year that would be great I don't think that we're you know very optimistic that we'll hire all three but I think what it

036does do is it gets word out that if people are looking again we're not going to take an Illinois school teacher from another Illinois School in the school within the school year but maybe spring summer they would say well I I would be ining this job for next year so I think it gets the word out and that's intentional too recruiting and getting ahead of future needs yeah okay well and then given the presentation that we had at our last Committee of the whole meeting you I'm going to steal Ste Selena's comment there it feels like we were falling behind this definitely is fitting a need that's there that's existing and seems to only be getting worse by the week yeah Angeles text me say there are three applicants right now I'm not sure they

037have all the the credentials but we will check that so that's encouraging that's an improvement since yesterday so um real time updates but again and Angel's also clarifying that there were 51 new students that moved into the district since August 10 of which are newcomers you know we talked about the definition of newcomers new to the country any other discussion before we vote okay Kathy now could you call the r okay Miss claps hi Mr marhol hi Mr barad hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi and Mr Mirad hi okay motion passes all right uh next item preschool tuition for the fiscal year 2025 is there a motion for the Board of Education to approve $3,573 as the new tuition rate for the 2024 to 2025 school year has presented soov second is there any

038discussion so just sort of this is sort of TI school fees that we were talking about it's just this is what we've we've increased it sort of based on like um a formula so it's just a increase and it's just applying to the preschool We are continuing to increase it at the rate of inflation and I know we've always talked about this and Jim's been very good about pointing it out just sort of looking we're not trying to beat the market we're not trying to undercut the market we're trying to be at the market just to have an option but we're not trying to undercut actual businesses around here and things like that too so it's uh it's kind of market rate so to speak Martha I'm GNA sound really uneducated here but this is

039our ecce program yeah so that's what we call Our Community Preschool or Blended preschool we tend to or our early Learners program we tend to refer to it in different ways so children that have an IEP that are required to have that free appropriate public education at the age of three they come for free but then um the goal is to have an Inclusive Preschool setting so there are Community students students that pay a tuition for that to be their typical preschool for part pres school and they pay tuition to be in y a really great preschool people really are are very happy with it and um it provides peers for our children with special needs and specialized services for our children with special needs the children of special needs are not paying the tuition

040I think that's important to differ two younger kids both went through the program and definitely it was a great experience for them and that's where I was it's you said it already but Blended diverse program little kids people can opt to pay tuition but we are certainly they can go elsewhere as well right and I think Wesley said like we don't want to undercut the community preschools um we want to provide a a great option for community members and we don't have enough space to take how many do we take Nora it's yeah AM PM and then yeah additional commentary no okay Kathy could you call the RO okay Mr marle hi Mr barsati hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss claps hi and Mr miror head I okay motion passes all right next

041item is the summer 2024 maintenance project mou at ases for tuck pointing uh so I want to make sure I get this right this is for the this is to authorize The Architects um and the cost of the Architects to draw up um the parameters of the project to get the masonry or I'm sorry the tuck pointing job completed this is not the actual uh bid or approval of any work to be done this is just a prep for going out to bid um and the costs that are associated with that is there a move for the Board of Education to approve the architect to provide Professional Services for the masonry repair project at aims elementary school as presented some mov second is there any discussion as you already noted this is for professional fees

042from the architect and this includes design and bidding and construction Administration so this this gets us to the end this gets us to the architect's Services through the end of the project and then as you noted there's will be a public bid for a contractor to come and do the work and this is it aims to do the rest of the building I.E everything but the the old part every yes the old part this is everything but the addition and we are it is being the the projection given to us by umash raash thank you 450,000 yeah so hopefully we can come in under that see he's been very good about his budgets he tries very hard to make sure that we have enough cushion so that we don't have budget issues he's shockingly accurate

043on uh these estimates I've from past ons which he's been doing it a long time so he's good at his said it many times but I he is a excellent owner's rep and he does he he does this good yeah uh any other comments just a quick note noting the dates on the document we theoretically be receiving the bids today so I'm assuming that we still have enough time on the calendar to adjust these forward we did receive the bids today oh we didn't receive the okay that process went ahead of the the actual mou approvals but that that's just a a timing issue for all of us so there will be bids to look at in January formally appr yeah so I'm glad you approved it well we haven't yeah I didn't even notice

044that Dan uh did not click with me when I was looking at this lot of attachments this meeting yeah yeah a lot of opening and closing things for sure okay uh any other commentary no all right Kathy can you call the roll okay Mr barsati hi Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss claps hi Mr marle hi and Mr Mirad hi okay motion um that'd be awkward wouldn't it yeah um okay so the next item is theou memor memorandum of understanding for the new playground and Outdoor Learning area here at uh Central Elementary and Hower junior high for the new PL new grass Playfield reorganization of the parking and to pick up and drop off areas um and all the all the good stuff we're doing at the back of the campus here uh is

045there a motion for the Board of Education to approve the architect to provide Professional Services for the new playground and Outdoor Learning area at Central Elementary and Hower Junior High School as presented so moved second any discussion this is for more significant time effort by the architect but a similar timeline of design bidding construction Administration close out um all the Professional Services necessary from the architect to get the Houser Central project constructed and those bids are also being received I guess the additional comment that I would have on this and this was um I brought this up at the committing of the whole meeting is just I think the options that we were presented with some of the color schemes are really in congruent with the look and feel of this community um I think

046a lot of the honor were blue some of the other play spaces were blue we know as a board that this community appreciates playground space that is very naturally toned and fits in with the landscape and so um while that's not something that we're sitting here approving I just want to make sure that I speak now so it's not you know me forever holding my piece on it and I think we should really reconsider the coloration of that playground and not just go with the option as it was presented Joel will take that to facility advisory committee and make sure that that is none of no equipment has been ordered none is installed uh since we don't even have the contractor on board we have a little moment for the architect to rethink the color

047scheme that will say the asgr stuff is but I don't think it would fit in here so I agree with you no as color is blue isn't it so that that matches Central's red so there is that girl and purple she might be real this I I feel like we've heard enough from our community that they really appreciate playground space that fits in with that's more congruent with our landscape and so um I want to be sensitive to that and I don't think a blue awning is sensitive to that so this is not we're just voting on The mou for The Architects this isn't the final approval of the the uh the overall project but correct I I guess the bids are being received from the contractors right now but and we will be hearing

048about those in January and approving a Construction contract but approving the Construction contract is bringing the contractor on board so that they can start their work but they will then have to order that equipment it has to be produced and what we've paid for so far and approved is the general schematic drawings of the general idea and now we're paying for them to get into all the like the very specific details to actually do the construction and get a bed this needs to be exactly right here 10t from the building yep exactly this a fence that is X feet or inches tall this style brick these colors Y and uh and just a note since we did on the other one uh the estimate provided by from theara is 5,682 500 which is actually quite

049a bit lower from what I remember our original conversations from a couple years ago being in like the $8 million range so um we've definitely narrowed the scope on that as far as costs so that's good with our commentary we have refined the scope and tried to get us to a cost that we thought was reasonable for what we want after the bids come in which they came in today now what happens is remesh and The Architects do the research on the biders right to make sure that they they vet yeah they vet them they do do that analysis and then the bids actually come back and right now it's later for the January board meeting and there won't be a January cow so you'll and what you've done in the past is when you

050hear the bids you actually approve them that night because it's they don't really you know it's not one we talk about one month and approve it the next you hear the bids and and typically approve them if they're acceptable correct basically theara and D will as you noted look at the contractors get their credentials insurance bonds make sure that they the bid they gave us is well thought out and they have covered all the basis for what this plan needs to what they are being expected to build so that they know they're not making a mistake somewhere and then they come to us with the recommendation which is typically to to accept the lowest bidder but the architect and Vistar have verified that they are the lowest responsible bidder and that's what they're doing is

051they're making sure the responsible part is in there as well just to note I think I can remember which I want to say it was Hollywood maybe we did kick out the lowest bidder because they weren't a responsible bidder so we have rejected the lowest bid in the past and not every bidder is responsible and that's why we need this extra research and assessment so one one question here I think the last time we talked about this it had come up that the playground or not the playground the the play area of the field was going to be out of use essentially for a year due to grass planting and growth and I I didn't know if there had been any updates on that or uh that is still what is expected so we have

052to have some discussions on Mar as end and see what options we have for our kids to try on both scheduling and choices by the department the PE Department to make sure that the kids have a good spot to be and all the activities are work for what we do have available and I realize I'm being vague but I'm not they have to think it through yeah I'll just say real life with when we did the As project there was a not like this but there was a grassy area to play and the kids just trampled it within the first like two weeks I think and it was off limits for over a year um and they finally just came down for this school year but it just the grass hadn't rooted and the kids

053just destroyed just by playing on it they just destroyed it because the grass hadn't set correctly so never had a chance it never get never had a chance kids are running on it yeah so that'll be that's unfortunate but um hopefully it'll be very sustainable after that but to your point Dan yes that we thought we would have we would be able to get on the field a little bit sooner than we really will be able to so and then I'm guessing that they're I know Marthur you mentioned you were going to speak with uh you know the parks parks and wck department or the village and just see if other other fields or other areas might be made available yeah and and we've we've had those some of those conversations and some of it

054is kind of what Joel was saying it's really what does the Middle School PE Department want and need so um one solution that's been discussed is Mary Park which is really belongs I believe to St Mary's um the PE department and and then for Central different we've talked about the triangles you know but the PE Department doesn't really want the triangles I think they don't see that as so so functional for them um and I I think they're thinking more in door PE they want to adjust their health schedule SCH so that some of the indoor learning that happens anyway will they were going to parcel it out so there's an expectation that kids will be indoors during those periods of time as I mentioned I think they they still do their outdoor running and

055then I think they'll consider the the Mary Park idea I don't I don't know that they're enthralled with that idea so it may just be a challenging year and we'll get kids outdoors as much as we can we did very specifically look at the capacity of essentially what's going to feel like the central playground area and they're going to look at that to see if there's I think what the capacity is not that they're going to play on the equipment I can't remember the number but it's like so PE classes could be out in that area are there some group games or something that would be appropriate in that area I think they almost have to see that first to see if they think that that would work well for them they have to look

056and just yeah how wide how big what games can you play what activities are appropriate for that space given the fact that there's a wall on one side and a fence on the other comments okay Kathy can you call the role okay Mr Hunt hi Miss gun hi Miss claps hi Mr marhold hi Mr barsati hi Mr Mirad hi okay motion passes thank you next topic next agenda item is the intergovernmental agreement an IGA regarding improvements to the ble Park tennis courts between Riverside School District 96 and the village of Riverside and I believe we talked about this at the last Committee of the whole meeting as well one of them um I think so yes this is just purely uh we're not changing anything with the court itself or the current striping we're just

057adding additional four square and I don't remember what all it was but just entirely to add some paint markings in the tennis court area to provide additional ideas for AC activities for the kids so is there a motion for the Board of Education to approve this intergovernmental agreement regarding improvements of BL Park tennis courts between Riverside School District 96 and the village of Riverside as presented so mov second uh is there any discussion we're going to there's some elements that need to be filled out but there's some dates that are supposed to be entered in here into the theou needs it's got some in general it'll be fine but right now the the term of the agreement is not determined so it has a to sorry I will just simply read it this agreement will

058be in force for a period of enter number of years commencing on an effective date and ending on a date none of that is filled in right now clarify that please thank you so I guess my question is can Pro it is not specifi without the the time you want to wait on it because it's not going to happen until after the winter now anyway so yeah I think we should what are we talk yes it should be fully filled out the only blank I'm seeing is we didn't put BL in that line uh look at the bottom part where it says now therefore number one term oh yep totally overlooked okay thank you good catch Jo and honestly Martha can I give you a task sure and I'll probably give it to Jim but

059anyway Jim the LA and find out how long they expect the striping to last and add two years to it and make that our term okay my guess is we call it for seven years one two three the fourth whereas we just need to have blle Elementary School put in there I was okay approving it without BL in there but your terms of the we shouldn't leave it open right I agree sorry to missed that I I apologize for not seen that earlier so do I have to to make an un motion or do we just move onree okay so we're going to table this to uh January 17th we should have I think we should have that by forever this not going to hurt us okay so we'll we'll get this on the docket

060for next regular board meeting all right uh so then that'll move us into new business so school calendar for 2024 2025 draft you taking this one are you calling Angela uh Angela would you like to come and share about the draft of our 2425 school calendar good evening um just opening up so I could talk about the specific dates sorry yes thank you all right good evening um as most if not all of you know when we look to create a proposed calendar I work with a team of staff members as well as parents this year we had two Elementary teachers um a middle school teacher uh one of them the second one wasn't able to attend the day we had the meeting uh Kathy Pino joins us um we had a support staff person

061and then uh Miss Gorman from ble Park Mr havales from Hower and then two parents one representing Elementary parents and one representing uh Middle School parents joined us at the meeting we talked about uh the fact that our winter break usually mirrors Riverside Brookfield High School's winter break as well as their spring break our spring break mirrors or spring break so those are non-negotiables we start with that in mind um we looked at how we when we normally start school not looking to make any changes to the start of school and so we normally start around the week of the 20th 21st on that Wednesday um both the teachers and the parents in the room the staff members and the parents in the room felt that um starting with half a week for students and

062families was better than having a full five days to just jump right in so we are we decided to continue with the start of August 21st having two staff Institute days uh prior to that we'd have our normal staff Institute day in October following indigenous people day and then also uh because there's not an election in March we'd have uh our go back to our regular Institute day in February that's backed up to the uh President Day weekend there is an election day speaking of election days there is an election day um the first Tuesday of November which the governor signed into law that's a national holiday so that's why that shows as a holiday that is something that all school districts are required to do uh and then we would continue with the halfday

063professional learning in April the last Friday in April and we're re ired by state code to have 176 student attendance days that's also in our bargaining agreement so when you look at August 21st being the start the 176th day ends up being June Monday June 2nd and so that's why we end on a Monday next year so that's our proposed calendar for the 2425 school year um I also want to note that summer school for this upcoming summer for the summer of 20 2024 would be uh run from Monday July 15th through Thursday August 8th and we'll make sure we post that online because I know we had talked about summer school and we want to make sure we're getting the dates out to families sooner so that they're planning for it the catalog will

064still still go out at the normal time but we want to get the dates out to families earlier and that was mentioned in our meeting too by the parents who were in our meeting um last week so are there any questions for me or any concerns about the proposed calendar thanks for putting this together it sounds like a lot of thought and energy went into it and a lot of feedback from uh different shareholders um I think the only thing that sort of stands out to me is having the end of the school year end on a Monday right like I can just imagine that not only will the Friday the week before be sort of uh non-learning day but then this Monday will also be sort of a non-learning day right and the purpose

065of our uh Mission here is to educate students and so to have um the most effective learning days it seems to have that Monday be our last day might challenge that effort um is there any way we can adjust or did like what other um options were considered maybe moving the professional development half day could we put that at the end of the school year on the Monday so that way we could move that April 25th to a learning day it's something that we hadn't talked about when to move the half day um that is something that can be considered um how would you like to last day of school can can be that was something talk and I'd have to check if that's still current but it used to be the last day school

066is always like an hour you know was something in all school districts and they changed that saying that the first and last days had to be full days of school so I honestly don't how does that half day though like you said the total number of learning days are how many 176 and because we're in school for half a day over the course of so many days you can Bank half day professional learning days through the Illinois State Board of Education so through this banking system because we have enough days banked we can have a half day of attendance that still counts as one of the 176 but it might not be allowed to be the last it but we can check that with the state yeah I again like I just I we're also

067worried about student attendance that's been an issue here so like the more that we can encourage students and make it easier for students to attend on those days I'm just worried that you know having that Monday be a school day you're going to see low attendance and people are probably going to already start off on their vacations I will say even if it is a half day professional learning it's still going to count and I think think families would be even less willing to go to school on that Monday when it's I'm only going till 11:00 versus I'd be going the full day so I don't know that that necessarily solves okay the concern that you are bringing up that we also talked about in our meeting on Monday we have concerns about ending on

068a Monday as well and we did look at some other options we talked about um maybe pushing Institute Day to a Friday um the 16th instead so it was Friday and Monday and then starting school on a Tuesday so that we're shifting things um but that was not something that uh we as a group felt would be in the best interest of and that's including the parents too in the best interest of families of students because there are a lot of families that planned that last week weekend getaway Harrah piece um and that it wasn't enough time to start changing that thought process that that if that was something we were looking at a calendar a later calendar another year that maybe that would work but that there was concern voed that that may not

069be good for families um either s with with RB at that point or um RB is scheduled to start on the 13th I believe so there would be families that have high school students would probably be in town on that Friday but it's not the families that would it's the teachers right so because it would be the Institute day on the 16th um yeah so it' be our teachers not necessarily parents and families I guess calendar just always been good I S agree with Selena I think that one day making that the last day is a complete I mean complete waste I mean that's not going to be helpful to the students at all and normally what our schools do is they use that last day for their Field Day activities their whether it's on

070a like this year it is a Friday it's still going to be their field day activi their completion ceremonies their all those CBR celebratory pieces um and so those would be on that Monday because it's the last day on a Monday where this Shir it's on a Friday because it's the last day on a Friday so the last day of school usually is like the wrapup cumulative events of the the year just what is April 18th I don't understand why that's a nonattendance day am I missing something it is a non-attendance day because it um is it's good Friday and so schools usually do it's not a religious holiday it's a non-attendance day state designates it as a because it's a religious holiday well so yeah and I'll there's a long I'll just share there's

071a long history in the state of Illinois that this is a non-attendance day in most all Illinois school districts and we have a contractual agreement right now that a religious holiday is something that our staff are allowed and so the thought behind it is that you would have so many staff members taken as a religious holiday that you would be unable to staff your school on that day so like I appreciate the the personal thoughts on it but it is a common practice and I don't know if I dare say all you know but many most Illinois school districts designate this day in that way and it was something we also discussed in our committee meeting also because it's not a local District 96 that's what I'm saying this isn't something that we uniquely do

072wasn't there also discussion around the um the parent teacher conferences possibly getting moved to like October I know many families teachers rely on like that full week of Thanksgiving teachers have the Institute day Monday but I guess kind of what maybe came of that so it's not off the table but where we went with that is there's some structures we need to work on if we're going to have a mid trimester parent teacher conference and so we felt that that would be best when we moved to standards based reporting that we do it that we make that switch for parent teacher conferences then as well are there Institute days that we could substitute for that Monday like The Institute Day in February or The Institute day in October could we make that the Monday of

073June make that June 2nd instead of yeah um yes that's something we can look at I am hearing that we should probably talk a little bit more at cabinet and I possibly reconvene the team for us to have a little bit more discussion about where we might be able to work on some of this we can also then look at the half day law and see or the last day of school for St School law and I'm thinking it's possible We've Ended on a Monday before I realized it's awkward and I know the the committee looked hard at that like to see how to possibly adjust it and Angela sharing that with you now um it'd be interesting to see if when we've done it in the past if we've done it in the past

074all our old calendars are recorded and then what student attendance was like like you also said the last day is often it's a day usually kids want to be there it's field day it's award ceremonies it's it's fun things um certainly as Angeles expressed the ending on Monday is an awkward thing but they've they've looked at sort of the different ways to do this and it is you know obviously our first goal is to meet the needs of students and making sure it's a strong instructional calendar um the second is we also have we do need agreement from our staff so so there's there's really multiple issues that come and and the community too but um I say that I guess when I say we're building a strong learning calendar for our students so I

075agree with you I was just about to say the same thing you're trying to do my job for me um no I agree I think just there's a lot of feedback we we're not going to solve it tonight so I think if there's any other comments maybe just email them to Martha to gather all that and then we can figure it out it's a first read so good discussion but yeah I think a small additional comment it's like in terms of how we lay out the calendar I think adding a little bit more of a description around the half student attendance day would be helpful for families to understand what's going on that day can you um just what do you mean a little bit there just like to say this is a half student

076attendance day but not give a purpose I think leaves questions with parents so maybe um on the calendar saying a half student attendance slash professional teacher professional learning in the afternoon or exactly okay yeah and that's that's it clarification definely okay the other thing and we could decide this I suppose in January um so draft tonight possible approval in January maybe not with some of the questions and and more comments and time needed with the with the committee also is I I think in the past we may have also published a draft because sometimes what families really want to know is they want to know when winter break and spring break are next year and they want to know when when school's going yeah I mean yeah and we could put it you know a

077note around like the first day and last day are sort of still up for discussion but it's going to be it's going to be within a day or two of that like if families are thinking about vacations and other things they want to know that and the core ones are going to be what you just said so I don't I I think I agree with you I think we've done that in the past and it's in here too so I mean the the public can see this but maybe making awareness in some capacity that it's out there and who know maybe we'll get feedback but I think it is it's that's usually what I hear is I just need to know when spring break and winter break is going to be so especially winter break

078this year looks kind of or next year looks more normal than it has the last two where we go through like the ninth you know or because of when these traditional holidays fall so back the I think it's like third under this MH but right now we're not back until the 8th is the first day yeah so because of when things so this feels more again what when I thought normal to me but yes cool a good time to go to Disney though thank you all right thank you never going again Che off The Bucket List don't have to go to therapy say my par never took me to dizzy so is that because you looked at your bank account when you got back everything is all right um okay so that moves that well

079you're going to be the star of the show for the rest of the night Miss gun moving into press plus number 113 popping up first read first reads right we're going to move into press 113 she has about 30 different um updates but the way that I've normally does do it you know this is updated in response to some of the bills that were passed during like the first half of the um General Assembly here in Illinois so a lot of very familiar updates to many of us um but some that are pretty substantive and um I think you know necessitate conversation so the way I like to do it is um kind of via bundle based on the areas that these policies affect so I'm not going to go through all every single one

080I'm just going to highlight some of the ones via these bundles these themes um that I felt you know most relevant for discussion but of course if there are any that you all had questions on that perhaps I'm not speaking to um during this first read feel free to throw your questions out um but we'll just kind of start with uh the first kind of bundle which is uh the twos section twos regarding board governance and open meetings so the first one I want to reference affects us directly to 120 which is board member development um the changes here actually come from one of the footnotes but essentially effective January 1 there's now definitions for kind of like trauma trauma responsive learning whole child Etc like in the school code so how that's relevant to

081us is because now new board members need to be trained on trauma informed practices so our policy prior said like beginning fall 20 2023 fall 2023 is passed um I believe I believe Selena and Marlo are being new board members are required to take this training um I had Kathy check with isba about many of the current sitting board members uh whether it would be something that we would be able to take as well I don't want to make a presumption but I'm assuming many of us would be interested in doing so and I think I would highly encourage us to do so um as well even if we are not required to within our first year um and my understanding is those resources it's online kind of like a zoom type training that we

082could get more information on um on demand or is it a live webinar do we know how it's presented It's On Demand have you already done it I've done most of it okay you just log in it's it's videos it's different presenters Bran's one of the presenters um and they walk through some really interesting information about like um trauma and um and you know uh financial reporting and Financial discipline for a school board it's it's a good package um so I would recommend it and it's like I said on demand so do it at your leisure all yeah okay well then I was going to say sign me up but I'll just go do it I'll log or I don't know however I need to do it but I'm you know what the field rep

083had said that she would um like direct us to how to get everybody on so I'll have our field rep uh reach out yeah I would yeah recommend it as a as a best practice for our own development and certainly to help enhance conversations we're having for those of us that attended the annual conference a lot of sessions in regards to this topic as well trauma um so that's what I forgot to put on the agenda tonight oh I wanted to put that as a topic okay sorry so pretty straightforward again most relevant for new board members but happy to hear that existing board members are interested in that um and then two2 200 uh types of school board meetings so obviously a very long list of the reasons that we can go into closed

084session some of which we utilize this evening um but it actually adds a new uh reason so you can hold hearings in closed session um related to denying admission to school events or extracurricular activities these kind of have been done in open session in the past but now you have closed session meeting exception so just provides a little bit more flexibility to the board so another reason that you can go into Clos session has been added to to2 100 so would it be to protect somebody's privacy like if somehow a background check turned up something or is that the intent that's been my understanding is some of you know the topics can that you're discussing you know can get in a community setting can be really personal so it does allow for that increased I

085guess privacy of the person and that situation GRE greent and reading the other policies they are pretty sensitive yeah that's the worst um so that okay nice to I guess again option to go into close for that um and then the other one 2200 also now allows another reason that a board member can attend remotely so we're familiar with you know personal illness or disability employment or District business family or other emergency but also now unexpected Child Care obligations is the new new one um so long as the Quorum is still physically present if you have an unexpected Child Care obligation it is a valid reason to be able to attend uh the meeting remotely remember there had been some talk in the past about like covering child care or something so this is probably

086the new you know the more reasonable uh way to to get around that not having the district pay for you know sitters any question on some of the PO IES that fall under section two the board board governance the only kind I would just I will also give my support or encouragement or whatever on the trauma piece for us that have already done all the other stuff just as the we just got the governance award or whatever it was and if that I IIA IB um that's their recommendation to take it I mean I'll take it anyway I'm just interested but just as a kind of a note kind of fits in that whole thing that we just got so no other questions or comments for me on that section so for the next section

087I might Jim I might need your help at some point but where'd he go oh there he is he's sitting quietly so some of these have to do with District Operations a lot of my notes were Jim question mark is this going to be an issue for us Jim question mark um but the first one 410 fiscal and business management so um you all probably recall last year and some of the states that made their way into our policies the law that was passed that required us to disclose like our cash Reserve balance for operational funds so this year they call it like the sequel to that so starting next school year 2425 districts are required to present at an open meeting a written record of annual expenditures of the district's operational funds from the

088previous three fiscal years and ideally uh it's done at a meeting in which the board adopts its Levy so it's timely but um the theme here really was this excess accumulation of funds so talking about that 2.5 Miller ratio um and essentially what they're hoping for is if for boards that are greater than that um they essentially need to submit this Reserve reduction plan by a certain date in December to show how they're going to spend that down over the course of years so again excess of cash reserves and I I was curious I guess you know having not too long ago we definitely had reserves that were far higher I was wondering would we have ever exceeded that number at some point the two yeah the 2.5 ratio but we had a lot of

089delayed maintenance work andh and capital so that when you put off uh the maintenance work I guess you can build up your funds that way but but they were saying greater than two and a half times your operational op we're not we were maybe 120 at the highest when I first got so that's why I didn't think it was going to be a problem but um but if I can also I actually had this question when we were talking to the accountants during the audit um I had a question and they came back to me that number also is sort of a trigger too that we could start getting into some uh issues with that if we ever exceeded it so it's to our advantage never to get to this point in terms of like

090property tax challenges or something exactly okay so and that I don't think that has anything to do with the transport this is just purely the operational and because I remember we had we had um off of one of the audit maybe two years ago we've been working down our transportation fund and so we had a couple hits where we were way too high and we we have take taken action on it so I think everything we just approved today is within current standards I mean we're well below 2 half we're not we're not close yeah okay we'll take a look at the audit next month to from the previous year and then I'll take that and do the next projections off of that and then no issues Jim with the requirement of presenting at the

091open board meeting the annual expenditures over the last three years not at all I didn't think so okay um and then just on also on I think that was the main one J but 460 purchases and contracts um this was really seen as a positive development cuz boards can increase the bidding threshold now to a maximum of 35,000 where it used to be 25 um the the question that I did have though for for Jim was the addition of like the design build contracts I was a little confused myself I think it's footnote 15 that really discusses like design build contracts versus but that's not how we engage we haven't done that our contract process but if you choose to do that there are a set of guidelines for what you need to do but

092it's not the way that we engage so not that it's moot but yes that was the one I I didn't fully understand on my own and then uh 4160 also learned that this is something that we are already doing anyway but Environmental Quality beginning July 1st 24 it prohibits schools from that serve Kate through 8 from scheduling pesticide application during the school day which is defined as 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. um which we don't do as it is so now it's required for schools that were doing it K through a can no longer yeah just any questions on some of those from four or perhaps Jim answered some of the questions you had or thoughts you had okay um we have not gotten to any that have questions but we'll discuss those um so

093that takes us into some of the fives on hiring and condition I conditions of employment gosh I'm out of sorry I'm out of a order here I'll just look through my notes um so 530 just has new wage transparency law it's this National Trend happening in Illinois um goes into effect January 1st 2025 so we have time to prepare for implementation but essentially it requires all Employers in Illinois that employ 15 or more individuals that includes school districts that to post your p scale which we do but also benefit information in any job postings and Donna is fully aware of this knew this was coming down the pipe since we take care of our own postings we don't have a third party so just ensuring that we will be complying with that in a year's

094time for any um postings and I think is is our is the current pay scale or whatever like the table that we have in the contract is that sufficient to meet this because we only have 10 steps and then it's just a flat increase I would think that that's sufficient right because if you're coming in as a zero or a whatever with experience you have a slot and then once you're over those 10 steps it's just a percentage increase from that point forward yeah so is that that's a good question we can take that I mean I I have the same understanding as you that it would be considered because we have to publicly post every individual their name and their salary so I think those two things go together I think we're already complying

095with this but I just the way we po the full contract which also contains a lot of the benefits information now there are some people that not covered by the contract so yeah I think there's some Nuance there that we need to take a closer look at yeah oh yeah here they are found them um 5210 Martha you might have to help me with this one it discusses resignations um which our polic our press document says that we're going to leave it as is referring to the collective bargaining agreement um because it mirrors what we already do but essentially um what it did was kind of revised like the the teachers both whether they're probationary or tenured so if they leave to take another teaching position during the school term the board can refuse to

096accept it they can decide whether uh they're going to refer the teacher to isby for IAL suspension of their license up to a year and they Define the school term as well as you know even within 30 calendar days of the first student attendance day um but our policy says that we refer to the collective bargaining agreement which we are leaving it yes is a review and monitor yeah exactly um 5250 is one of the ones with question leaves of absence so um this one um provides with extended bement leave uh to unpaid leave to full-time employees who have tragically lost a child by um very specifically suicide or homicide and um the question asks about the size of the number of full-time employees in the districts because that will dictate the amount of leave

097between 6 weeks versus 12 weeks so we are a district that higher has over 250 um full-time employees so we would answer it as such which would mean 12 weeks in the event of the loss of a child to Suicide or homicide I'm I'm just curious and I don't know if you'd seen the the training on this yet or not I guess why why is that so specific I don't know that's very yeah that's actually a question I had when I was reading that it's like why why is it so specific because losing a child by any means would be I mean it's I mean there was just that case there was just that story um like five kids died in Arizona in a house fire yeah I mean I mean mhm why wouldn't that

098like that unfortunately happened here why wouldn't that person get I mean it just it makes I guess to me it makes no sense and I guess then my question my followup question would be what do we are can we can we just basically blank it make it blanket for a loss of any like a child just take those couple words out talking about a child extended bereavement leave act that's in the it it just seems like it's very it's I guess it sounds like if if we're following an act if we're following you know a legislative action then perhaps there's a reason why it's delineated like that and that we wouldn't I guess we would need to consult our attorney if we wanted to broaden it but I guess it's to me it serves creating

099two it's creating two classes of bement oh I don't disagree and to me that just doesn't seem well I could s yeah we can look into it more and um but obviously no no issue as to how we would answer the question with our above 250 but right I mean it just it just to me it just seems so I mean very unfair I I'll I'll try to find out more about the origin of it the intention is the the policy currently gives I'm not going to come up with good words here so forgive me please um gives a staff member six weeks of bement leave for any any uh close family member who happens to pass away it's this seems like it would this makes it 12 weeks for the homicide or suicide so

100there must be something very specific about that that the nature of that type of law necessitates the additional potential of up to six weeks but I can see how an argument could be made that yeah it just seems It's like saying like how how somebody dies is more traumatic than another way it just yeah it seems to be focusing on that it was C caused by outside forces it's not just well it's just two outside forces well but I'm saying I mean it's not like I mean car accidents or line in here that notes death of a family or household member who is killed in a crime of violence this seems to be very specific towards violent death I guess if if we if we can like I guess my question is if we can

101find out why and then can we maybe change it because I I don't think again I don't think it's fair I think the Nuance here is Joel is saying we already have six weeks for any reason and then you'd be creating a policy that changes the contract so I don't know that we can just but I guess it's it's we're being mandated to change this we don't well we're being mandated action it's it's a legislative action yeah because the contract actually gives people five gement days so this is in excess of the contract these are these are un these are this is unpaid leave of absence so it's basically the legislature has decided that suicide AR in homid are specifically thata do not necessarily free though for the district what's that right unpaid person but

102the district still has to cover the class start cover more research on this one okay yeah out um then 5330 uh sick days vacation holidays and leaves um speaking of election day and November so this is for um not all what non you the non union staff right nonunion it adds the 2024 election day as a required day off um for everybody but then it sort of created this question around looking at the vacation days for our non-union support staff and actually Don did a survey with yeah um with sort of area school districts on this topic ohes thought we were low but we're not maybe we're not right what on vacation days for non-un support staff because we're at what 10 for five years up to first year and then I think it's 15

103after five okay so 20 after 20 so very very common uh in terms of those benefits our benefits are very competitive with other districts there was a couple things in uh the survey we put out uh asked about vacation time sick time personal time how rollover is handled um you know do they do payouts how long do they get to carry how much can they carry in terms of vacation time um there there's a couple things that were kind of uh interesting just from you know some could be some niceties like right now our that classification can roll over uh but they need to use them by October 31st some school districts go to December 31st um and uh the other thing is in terms of starting some districts are looking at well how much

104experience do you have because if you're come you know if you have 15 20 years experience and you're coming from uh maybe a district where you've got 20 days now you're saying oh you only get 10 is that you know that could be a deter you know possibly if people are accustomed to having the you know that three weeks or four weeks so those would be all things to to possibly consider but the rest in term very similar from the feed from the response we've gotten so far that's good yeah yeah very competitive so really the policy was recommended for review because of the election day but then it brought up the question of vacation days just our own internal processes there so appreciate the the survey and information and I think we'll leave it

105as is thanks Don um okay so moving along into so any any question th those are really the main ones I wanted to point out that fall um in section five kind of hiring Personnel okay um so some of the sixes that we get into uh curriculum you know instruction Library uh oh well we're ahead of 6:30 we're ahead of the game with 6:30 because that's the one uh new requirement that by the 2728 school year uh schools in Illinois must establish a full day kindergarten program with the possibility of a 2-year extension for them but just think about the pressure some school districts are going to feel to have do all that facilities work and what will be a handful of years um assuming you can yeah yeah so um again nice for us

106because we had already updated uh that policy to indicate our full day um program uh 660 and um yes I'll see if I don't know if Angela has any comments but essentially this one's curriculum content so there are three new um curriculum components but the only one that's relevant to our district um requires instruction on the Native American experience and Native American history starting in the 2425 school year the other two are for grades um 9 through 12 so if you're interested if you have high schoolers that's dangers of allergies and dangers of fenel um and isby has you know instructional material available uh to assist and Aid in these implementation of this curriculum content but just kind of ran this one by Martha just to make sure whether this is something we are already

107doing or just you know ensuring that we'll be complying with it by the 2425 school year and Angela did do some research in talking to social studies so we're we're in compliance there I do you want do people have questions do you want Angela to share more we're already doing this specific or we have to tweak like I know we were doing some because I remember when 60 got revamped like you did the whole curriculum presentation and there was we were offering something in that area but perhaps not fully to comply with both experience and history correct so we do offer um in sixth and seventh grade social studies we do talk about Native American history but we only cover up to I believe 1865 if I'm remembering correctly off the top of my head

108so to be in line with this policy I'm going to be working with our social stud teachers um the after we return from winter break during the second half of the year to make sure that we realign our curriculum so that we're working up to um the time frame that the that 660 now says and that we're also including some other pieces from 660 as well so we've been the teachers know about this new piece and we've been in communication and we've agreed that it's something we're going to work on the second half of the Year thank you yep I guess that one sentence on Native American genocide is that coming from press or is that coming from the law it's coming from the law that press put in it so press put it there

109because of the law thank you thank you than okay I think the next one I also I I need help from a lot of people um on a lot of these policies so the other one that also has a question is 6230 with li liary media programs um I know we had been discussing this a lot and then this spring Illinois actually became the first state in the country to pass a book ban legislation um so it doesn't just it it doesn't make it so that boards just have to adopt it it's only if your District wants to be eligible for State grant funding so as a condition this act requires that libraries that want to access that um Grant adopt essentially this this language but I just was not sure or unclear about the

110role that this grant plays for us in the district are we recipients of it oh okay look we even have a certificate Mr Don Tano received an letter on December 15th very timely from um the office of Secretary of State saying please to award the Riverside School District 96 a fiscal year 2024 School District Library grant for $1,368 183 so we want to keep getting our 1,000 and this is something we have received regular I actually remember some board comments earlier saying like it's not a lot of money but it's you know but I was saying that even if we technically didn't qualify or you know the grant was not our primary motivator I think many of us were interested in having some specific language in our policies even outside of the curriculum objection um

111that specifically addressed this and the recommended language from press is the one that refers to the library Bill of Rights and we do right so I guess I was I guess that was one question I had is I did understand yeah because the the second one the practice of banning books and other materials within the district material is prohibited but then it goes to the library American Library association's uh Bill of Rights I guess the second one seemed more like sort of don't do it don't ban books and sort of more in compliant with the state versus the first one confused I know the language feels strong but I think what they what the way I understood it more from the webinar because they did get into the difference was the recommendation was adopting the

112language is better than the drafting that statement because it's not as like nuanced I think if you actually read the full like Library Bill of Rights um which I'll be honest I did not dive into does have more precise language than that one line although that I get that that line feels like it gets to the point the library Bill of Rights I think has that plus some additional meat behind it so their recommendation was that and I'm not sure the default one right yeah yeah and I mean if we yeah I I don't know if this is one that we need to you know uh run by our attorney if we're discussing any others with them to say you know would you agree that using this language is the more appropriate route but it

113sounds like if if we are interested in having language in here do we I mean no I me agree to that I would agree and again we need to now to continue receiving this funding however in whatever amount it is to us and then it's really just a matter of selecting the language and the recommendation was the default because it actually has more like Teeth to it I think if you really do read the bill ofice so we can do so we were sort of Angela Don both have something to do with sort of how our libraries function here so we sort of got caught up in the the funding piece and but I think your question's a good one I that that non default question does sound more strongly worded and yet I think

114Stephanie well described kind of why the recommendation from iasb which does have a legal department that's putting these together is recommending that first one but I can ask our own attorney I mean I think it's a probably a relatively good we just find out I mean yeah obviously there's like a little Nuance in the language and the first one also which discusses like the partisan or doctrinal disapproval right people wanting to ban books because they think the content Etc whatever is inappropriate and the second one doesn't you know doesn't say that at all so I don't know it's I'm not exactly sure why either but I know the first one was recommended um but it sounds like we want one in there just do a little bit more digging as to some of the Nuance

115difference between the two the difference between adheres versus is Guided by right like adheres means we're following it guiding Guided by means it's guidance right because I mean also I'm like looking at partisan and doctrinal disapproval I mean you can say whatever you want you say it's not partisan or not doctrinal I just don't want this book I just to me it seems just sort of it it I guess the first the the default one seems just very um loose yeah I think originally I would have come to that conclusion as well just reading the two but then from the webinar went the other way they were like we actually recommend you go with the first one because it's not it's not as bag or new like oh okay but then I didn't read the

116library B rights to confirm that that was the case so we can look into it right just make a note um and thanks yeah for checking into whether or not we are Grant recipient so we have to pick one um so the other one is in regards to I think I'm moving along to sorry I'm kind of going out 70 you're moving you're moving into the sevens though so I know you're trying to chunk this by section yes are you done with six I am okay yeah no I I am um so residence 760 um yeah this is a really big one I think it's probably one of the most interesting ones out of the 30 but essentially it allows boards to adopt a policy to wave non-resident uh tuition if the student is the

117child of a district employee and again we have over 250 full-time employees um so you no longer need to apply to the state board for a waiver or anything if you're going to allow this um Martha and I were just talking about just just an un quantif unquantifiable number potentially of students um based on employing over 250 individuals so we could be looking at hundreds more children I mean we just got public comment tonight um from taxpayers so certainly possible Community backlash but it is in regards to teacher shortage you know uh difficulty in hiring teachers um so that I believe is some of the intent behind this policy I noce the default is no which is I guess interesting because why would you default to no if the whole purpose is to provide this

118because it's un quantifiable yeah maybe um I would recommend we go with no for exactly what you said Stephanie like I think that could this could be very disruptive to our district and then we've got a 22 unit proposed building that could possibly disrupt us more we've got we got a lot of stuff going on I this one doesn't feel very comfortable to me yeah and I think we're very much kind of ahead of the game with with reviewing policy and making decisions but just um preliminary conversations right Martha that you're having with some of our kind of neighboring schools feeders schools are also looking at the same outcome voting now so we I think this is one that um our attorney also shared that this one doesn't have a lot of press up updates

119are do do a change in the law this one is really about the teacher shortage and so she shouldn't really um maybe that's why it's the default is no because it's not a legal change it's a and if you don't have a real need then you should default to no yeah or if you don't have a real shortage problem maybe you should yeah okay all right that makes a little more sense or more logical so I I guess I sort of in that I guess I in that question then question is um never mind I can't for I'm not formulating the question properly right now so we can come back you think that in the conversation just been thinking through it um the impact of even having 100 students in our schools and what the

120average student cost is 177,000 I mean we're looking at $1.7 million added to our budget so just thinking about it in terms of our space face our budget um and that we're not facing a real teacher shortage in our district fine to vote against it right I guess that was for my question that's my question is it Like An All or Nothing type thing yeah it's I don't think you can pick and choose that's not fair right so maybe I'm not understanding what you're yeah I think it I think it's basically like allows you right but then the board would have to decide somebody would have to pick and choose which which person's children can and cannot so it doesn't require that you accept all but that you accept like I don't know not applications

121or requests but then you can decide on that request what you're going to do with it but right that creates a whole can of worms if you're saying yes to some no to some yeah potential discriminatory ACS or whatever like that just I feel like if we did it or any District that did it it would have to be any child any District child I wonder if there are districts that maybe have a real teacher recruitment problem and plenty of of space right so there are districts that are under enrolled right we're we're so we're just not you know we're we're kind of at our we we we like we built to our need at the time we didn't build for excess capacity we did a demographic study it did not include you know additional

122children of 250 other individuals I know we okay well was the most interesting one but I think we all understand interesting or not the realities of why it would not work in our district uh thanks for sharing those additional thoughts too Selena um okay so some of the others in the seven so 7160 student appearance um just this one I thought was interesting to Note new law that um came out of a student wanting to incorporate like Native American accessories into their graduation attire so essentially this law guarantees that students can accessorize their graduation attire and we do have you know eth graders that go through a formal graduation with items associated with their cultural ethnic religious Identity or other protected characteristics so that would include things like sexual orientation so Pride Flags rainbows symbols

123you know would have to allow that um and I will just say this something I did talk with April and Kristen we do have children that have adorned their graduation attire in different ways and we we have allowed it in the past so the policy would be consistent with our practices um okay 7190 which we probably will have some discussion around wanted to bring that one up as well um this one falls under student Behavior so it's got a couple of different areas so this is um actually the first time that we see the AI language start to appear in some of our um press um policies so they have some recommended language around AI so so I know it's just kind of like scratching the surface um I know we talked about Don and

124Angela we're looking into what some other districts are doing around this um so we're thinking maybe you know having future discussions at like a February cow or maybe like education Committee just to understand like you know current use um responsibility use of Technology but there is some language that has been added regarding AI um mostly under kind of your own work the plagiarizing section I I don't know I want to presume there's conversation maybe around that but but that is the language as it exists I I I didn't understand this was for 7190 correct yes there's some other stuff because it's 7190 itself is student Behavior so it falls under student Behavior under academic dishonesty plagiarism I got to be honest I was caught with the initial question question yeah the question comes later about

125um like victims aggressors like informing parents but it's just a really long policy around student Behavior and the AI comes in under your own work I was most intrigued by that I'm like okay well fig got a little it's it's again scratches the surface I would say it's not even scratching it's maybe just a dust like a dust falling on um yeah but certainly it sounds like an area that the board is interested just to learn more about in terms of yeah practice and and maybe if it's not via policy you know maybe there's you know more in procedure and I guess I guess I'm caught up I I don't really understand what the question is asking and I guess it makes it seem in terms of yeah makes it seem like the the the

126parents are only being contacted I I I really I guess I didn't understand where's the question why you would not contact it's like anything firearm related why would you not be contacting the parents that didn't make any sense yeah so this this is one of the ones that I guess kind of um Martha and I were talking about that and I think you said you talked to Nikki about this one and I Dan I I sort of I share your confusion and maybe it's being a middle school that we're always telling parents everything that happens with their child it seems so this seems extreme and is it just making it mandatory like I'm I'm with you D yeah I mean mandatory firearm related and now we would make it I mean we understood again assuming

127there were we were already doing that but assuming there were districts that for one reason or another were not always um informing um the victim and the kind of aggressor parents in these instances now they they must or they required to perhaps it came out of situations where they were not but again when we saw this we're like uh isn't this already what because I part of why I reached out to Nikki I said am I supposed to tell the whole Community which also as we've like like the victim and notifications think we that's what I thought we tell the whole school district like that this happened and I'm like going this yeah and we so as a as a K8 pre8 District I just I can't imagine a situation where the parents aren't involved

128and engaged in a conversation that would be involving this level drug or battery so what was this policy written by AI I wonder maybe that's there's some things that you with AI wait sense yeah exactly hallucinated um but yes I mean I guess we will in policy expand the notification Duty again something that we're already doing well and the battery one makes sense to me I guess the drug one there could be some really benign like what is what is the definition of I don't know drug related incident I'm just trying to think there's just so much stuff when it comes to that like what is that definition is it like like actual drugs on premises drug use paraphernalia like is there just anything related to drugs has to be notified or talk about what

129is a drug related incident yeah I mean it's it's V batter is pretty clear um almost like yeah need like a whole section on this one because it is such a big policy and there's so many changes to it I guess some things that just start clear yeah yeah it just kind of all falls under the change is about the academic dishonesty related to Ai and then the change is about the reporting piece yeah this has always been a lengthy I mean a lot of this is unchanged right so this has always been very core policy that is often referred to right this is one that we share in our student parent handbook this is one that we we share much more widely because it really does impact functioning in the school district they all

130do but this one maybe more than others I mean drug related offenses in my opinion and I think what this policy states is if it's a drug related offense that's currently something that's not as banned at like at a at a state level um that's what we would be reporting on not if a kid comes together with uh come to school with like an inhaler because but forgot to have like tell the nurse bring an inhaler to school it's interesting do we want further definition I would say we would pursue that legally I mean you bring up a point is it you know prescription medication that's not authorized yeah I assume it's elicit drugs not any drug assum it's elicit drugs not like the kids on antibiotics and but the weird thing is none of

131that is actually in the green changes like the standard policy number two is observes or has reason to suspect any person on school grounds is or was involved in a drug related incident three observes battery and then the addition is or is subject to battery and then the next one talks about if any of these above and then the third one is just about battery again so like I'm not clear where the drug thing comes into that question or how it's different I guess maybe here so yeah I guess maybe just understanding that language change would be better before we vote on it well that's as a real person not an AI yeah but I guess yeah put on the AI stuff as an initial I'm not I'm not opposed to any of the drug

132stuff I just I'm not sure I'm understanding what the change is exactly look at the Press notes on it too I was too I don't I have more notes on the stuff to dance Bo like wait but the question I felt the same way I I I fixated on the AI feel pretty straight artificial intelligence to do your homework like yeah I'm good with that that's what I had to ask at which were we talking about the same poliy what it does is um School staff have to notify the building principle in the event of certain elements and then the building principal she immediately notify local law enforcement plus the superintendent and the students parent Guardian what this does is it then makes the super before the superintendent really only had to notify the parents

133about a weapon this then adds the drug related incidents to the required things that the superintendent has to tell the parent so it's almost it adds to the elements that have to be reported to the parents a lot of the stuff already had to be reported internally within the school or to law enforcement that's the CH okay so the change is going from we currently only have to required to notify the principal now You' be required to notify the superintendent and law enforcement so that's the change not drug language it's the who needs to be notified it's who it's who it it's who has to be notified and of what okay it's the of what and it basically adds the parental person into this mix okay law enforcement was already there for drugs well drugs

134was already part of the reporting thing and that's where CU there's nothing new about drugs in here that I'm seeing but that makes more sense like you only had to notify a parent and a principal now you have to notify these additional people when that's involved so that that that feels more logical assuming you're correct the additional people is the oh the additional but it doesn't say anything about the parent here it does you have to read the you have to read three paragraphs graphs of text and the little nuances that they threw in there at the end and the Press note say something about aligning it to the administrative procedures already in place so and I think that's and again it's like it's a it's middle maybe it's different in a high school I

135don't know I'll go back and read That's why again sorry I didn't spend as as Thor as you all do on this on this one section because I was like we are doing this right um okay well I made a note here we have more clarity on the I'm curious on why previously if there was a drug rated incident the parents didn't need to be notified and now they do and my concern with that one would be if there is like if that's being sensitive to all of these trauma related like if if that consideration was why we didn't inform parents before but we're not as considerate of that now so like is that um and and this just goes to some of the trauma training trauma practices um or sensitive tra practices that like

136I I learned about in the educational seminars is like um is it always in the best interest of the student to inform the parent that's become a hot button issue yeah that's a really good point we were actually one of the trainings that I went to on at the conference had to do about um uh the rights of transgender students and it was a lot of if a child presents himself to a teacher and says here's my desire to be referred to as this they want to create a plan a gender support plan like but the child perhaps is not informed their parent what what then does a district do so there was a lot of discussion about that as well I hadn't thought about it from that lens um SOA but yeah we can

137look more um into it more as to why I mean obviously rest assured it is something that we are as a District admin doing if in these instances would happen here um but yeah if there's interest in understanding the purpose and intent behind the one can look into that and I think just to tie it back to the mission what you just said is we're trying to do what's in the best interest of that student and if that is not in the best interest should we be doing that so I I agree with that thought because every especially with that stuff it could be very nuanced right yeah and one of the last um the last one really that I wanted to talk about that had the question was 7270 administering medicines to students we've

138actually had this conversation in the past about um the opioid antagonist or Narcan and whether or not we were interested in adding it so it was previously optional we had opted not to add it I know our nurses you know kind of had come back to it um with us but now it's it's actually required um so I think we're already looking at obtaining the the supply it's not like there's like a shortage and everybody so we will now be required to have a supply of um Narcan or commonly referred to as Narcan so just just s for clarification so we have to go get this drug and I know this drug I guess the state's not giving us money for this right just no they said it was like $45 for a two looked

139so there is some kind of Cook County Department of Public Health is making it available to us free free free but not um they're subset subset okay I just wanted to sort of point out that a lot of these things that come out we have to do without getting full funding for these things um I guess the the other question or or something you mentioned Narcan we definitely talked about that this was on me though that was it free flowing oxygen or so the question so much like the other one Dan the actual question in this policy um does not have to do with the Narcan it has to do with having a supply undesignated supply of oxygen tanks um and this is optional for districts that want to provide that Supply um it's kind

140of for um districts that have like special educational facilities although that's not exactly defined do they mean a separate building like self-contained classrooms um but anyway in discussion and I don't know if this was a Nicki one but the um the recommendation here is no that we're not going on the oxygen question it's very hard to safely kind of store an undesignated supply of oxygen tanks we're talking about very medically fragile students that would require oxygen um are typically not enrolled in d96 schools there some of the lzy programs revisit the policy I mean it's possible a very medically fragile child could be enrolled you know in our schools um that's not the case right now but it it doesn't and this is actually undesignated because a medically fragile child who may have designated oxygen

141is already going to have a whatever is all required prescription and yeah I guess I I if it's undesignated I'm wondering okay why would we have it then gu and and I'm glad the storage came up because medical grade oxygen is highly explosive so who knows if in a year we'll be required to like we were with n there's very very clear procedures in which you store these things and protect them from accidental knocking them over because they will blow up so I mean my recommendation would be the default of of no to the to the question that relates to the undesignated supply of oxygen that should be the question then do you you want to store something that could potentially blow up yes or no not un and I mean I don't I don't

142want to scare but it's not just going to spontaneously combust but if it gets knocked right it it's a huge it's problem one of the three pillars of fire yeah that's issue well that's that's the main issue is I gu I mean if we don't have any students now or I guess I'm guessing we've never had or at least to your knowledge we haven't had someone well you but I guess yourself you said that would be designated not undesignated right right they would come with all the right requirements I don't prescription I don't know if acent requires a prescription I don't know enough about how it's required but this seems like something that we can we could re defer until we need to until it needs to be addressed yeah I agree I don't think

143I have anything else sorry that not as smooth as I would have wanted thanks everybody for your for your help Stephanie it's it's especially this time of year that was a lot so definitely appreciate all your work on this again and I mentioned at the beginning where I my my day job of just rolled out some new programs so I've been extensively just reading like you know student handbooks and admissions guidelines and well appr my brain is on overdrive this month yeah very thorough thank you yes thank you all right so you're so you're done mean again other ones but none that I thought necessitated conversation done right at 9: okay done uh it does not appear that we have any other public comment so Cy no more no public comment I don't see anybody

144we're not doing the email stuff anymore right yeah nope um all right so that moves us into M future meeting dates oh can I make a a suggestion on a new business item okay um not for tonight but for future for future yeah um so now that we are at the end of our first trimester I thought that the board should consider um being having uh absenteeism reported to them on a trimester basis so we can track our progress so seeing like in the same way as an information item that we see in the board pack um data on lunches purchased or um uh served we see information on attendance and tardy by school and kind of track that um the point there would just be if we're not tracking this data how are we

145holding ourselves accountable we know that this is a a very important part of student achievement is having the students in the classroom and so if we're not tracking it how are we improving um so maybe we can discuss that at a f future session but I just think it's super important information for us to have I think you did you not suggest doing that on a monthly basis you're right I'm not seeing that in here do that but I think what I so and I asked that because I think that would be fine to put it in here I don't think that should be terribly difficult to do but I think what you're saying is openly talk like put it on as a new business agenda item talk about it I think first of all

146I I think just seeing the information so that way we can ass it um is important and seeing like how we're improving on a year-over-year basis because I think knowing that knowing what we do about um some of our attendance issues over the last couple years to wait an entire year until we assess it again doesn't allow us to intervene if there needs to be intervention mid year and so like on our on my students report cards it shows how many days they were absent how many days a Rari so I know that information is out there somewhere it would be nice to have it aggregated and presented to the board so that way we can keep an eye on it and understand if we need to allocate resources to uh improve it yeah I

147think we talk about that work on it yeah I think it's a good suggestion anything else before I move into the closing portion of the agenda no okay thanks Lena uh so future me future meeting dates January 3rd meeting is canceled due to the holiday uh January 17th we will be meeting have a regular business meeting at 700 p.m. here in the Houser Learning Resource Center we will enter close session at 6:15 if necessary February 7th we have a committee of the whole meeting at 7 p.m. the multi-purpose room at Central Elementary School in February 21st we will have our regular business meeting at 7 p.m. here in the house of Learning Resource Center and close session at 6:15 if necessary and with that this meeting is ajed [Music] dir