Mahomet-Seymour Board of Education Regular Meeting 9-19-22

001thank you this is the crunchy Curry any more Board of Education ahead of our seven o'clock meetings I'd like to call it the order like you remind everyone yes we actually sign in to ask everyone to sign up for cell phones as rooms quietly so people can hear us about the hearing I'd like to remind visitors in order to facilitate an effective meat responsive budget we need to get those machines to jail Schultz here McMurray here Tennessee here Nicole Here We Stand please of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right thank you very much at the agenda for the budget hearing is there a motion to approve the gender for the hearings second Tennessee all in favor

002say aye aye opposed past I've seen uh two public participation for this portion of the night um the first is from Rebecca Richardson good evening my name is Rebecca Richardson I'm a 32 plus year resident of Muhammad all three of my kids went through the school system um and I just wanted to come especially for the budget part to to express my surprise that after a two years of a pandemic and all the things that we've asked our teachers to deal with and to work through and to survive which I thank you all so much for what you've done I'm surprised that the board is even deliberating this issue um this is they're asking for a reasonable increase the the things that the union and the teachers and the staff are asking for are reasonable

003they're not unreasonable and so what I would like to hear is the board be supportive and want to give those um want to give that increase to the board up to the teachers and staff because they want to not because they have to thank you okay good evening everyone I'm Meg Jones and I teach second grade here at MPE and along with James heinold I am the co-president of the fsca tonight I just wanted to say a word about budgets budget steam mundane they seem like just a dry set of figures that can be hard to Wade through but they're more than that budgets are moral documents that reflect our values and our priorities when we reference Market forces in our budget decision making we are looking to see what others spend and work to

004be competitive on that count this district is starting to pay a price for not putting more money on staff salaries we are not competitive enough to keep folks here and Recruit new folks but I would ask you can to consider tonight whether or not the question of what's composite competitive isn't the wrong question when you are talking about Educators salaries and wages I would argue that the most important thing the district spends money on is on the compensation and benefits of the folks who directly work with the students of this District every day and if that is the most important thing then the question the board and administration should be asking themselves tonight as they put the budget together is what is the most we can pay the people who do this important work with

005our kids we ask you to consider that as we continue to negotiate with you for a workload of compensation balance that is fair thank you foreign which is just something that I don't know why the government cares about but they do um that's basically the fund at the school level we have to budget for those and make sure they're going towards Student Activities and things like that so that's the only thing that has changed um so is there any other questions um one big question that's been circulating is regarding that pending fund balance and education fund so when you look at the education fund it says four million 927 448 they talk about a little bit about why that's ending with a five million dollar funding level okay thank you I appreciate that um first

006of all um what I'm seeing through social media was that we were having a surplus for five million dollars that is not a surplus a surplus is what our revenues exceed our expenses our revenues and the education fund after putting in the boards um proposal that Surplus is eight thousand two hundred and nine dollars the five million dollar fund balance is something that every school district or any public entity has to have to have and especially when we're relying on State and local funds um right now we are actually only at 17 of our revenues in the education to find 12 in our operation maintenance which they're you know is is low um and you can see that simply by not just listening to me um because I know you know I you know it's

007hard to just believe one person that stands up here um but if you look at May of this last year we're at 35 days cash on hand that includes that five million dollars and what that means is we we have we have 35 days in cash so say the county please don't ever do this to us doesn't pay those last two payments we would not have money to pay our staff it also the way that Champaign County works it is is they actually pay part of the second half of their Levy it's kind of strange to be honest to other counties in the first in the beginning of the year they pay the 2021 ending Levy and then at the beginning of the next year they pay 22. so what happens is there's a big

008lag in between those two payments um two groups of payments because they make them in several different ones so we're using that money to pay salaries TRS Insurance um during that time you'll probably know a few years ago when the county didn't pay I'm sure everybody remembers uh chair and Maxwell standing up here and having to worry about putting together tax anticipation warrant that is basically something that you have to do if you do not have enough money to make payroll and so then you have to go out and ask for your Levy early basically um last year we did get a new um County Treasurer and she assured me we would get our last two payments so I just prayed a lot um that she was in and she was she was she's very

009dedicated to education she said and I explained to her what happens to us if that money's not in the bank on June 30th so that is so it is our fun math it is what we rely on um to continue to to pay people on a regular basis yes uh the state recommends 180 days of cash are we ever going to have that probably not um especially while we're growing we don't expect to have that you know right now I think we're at 80 some days um and Maize our lowest point because we're waiting for those last payments to come in from the county clerk um we uh you know I was told when I came to this District that because I'll be honest I was used to a lot more days to cash on

010hand where I used to be so it made me a little worried but I was told violence Dr Hall and I hope you don't mind me quoting you somewhere um that in this District it has always been ran that we you know we hire who we need to hire we do what we need to do we don't need the 108 they're you know 180 days worth of cash so you know I understood that but that is where that comes from that is what the money we use basically in between payrolls and I think our energies are right now we have about 80 days yes and that'll continue to go downtown May um and then as soon as the county pays starts paying the 2022 Levy that's when it will go back up so you'll see

011that basically we went from 35 days in May to 100 days in June so that's what helps that you know and that was actually also with a lot of quite a few loans over the last few years as well to education and operations and maintenance trying to make sure that we fulfill our obligations in those funds 80 is salaries and benefits that we also have a lot of other um contracts and everything else that we we have to maintain in there as well does that help explain it a little bit so if the budget ends up the way you're projecting and revenues end up the way you're projecting well our days of cash on hand if you compare it to last year's fiscal year to this year's fiscal year it should be about the same

012because I mean you know eight thousand dollars isn't gonna make much difference so it'll be about this you know and that's thankfully to um the additional um money we received from the state this year we do have our Sr funding you'll see that um you'll see that coming out eventually so um you know we did hire some positions with us for funding so we have to make room in that for that in our District budget to to be to be able to keep those positions if we so choose to so so how did you did I heard you say yeah the difference between what we've got budget of his income what we got budgeted expenses there's like eight thousand dollars yes yes um so um and I will yes and right now the only additional

013positions that we have are the ones that we had already hired so any questions for your help what are you talking about but it's um what do you think everyone in this room is facing the budget prices also yes because everybody does the license is going up over eight percent again with all due respect we have public participation earlier in public the business meeting public participation in the public participation I face it as well and I just I know that um this board or board before um hired me and to just try to make the best out of the finances and make sure that we stand stable and that's all I'm trying to do so to make sure that we're here for the long term any other questions I have something to say that about

014just as a point in order I thought a public hearing was for the public to be able to ask them yeah um thank you for providing us with more information it's been a March Geniuses when I came on the board with your willingness to provide us information and not only because I like to talk about it but um but because it it helps me to look at it again too because you never know you know what somebody else might see in there so I do appreciate it thanks for being available for our questions it's a crazy road to navigate you're doing good thank you rewarding okay regular Union schedule to start with seven it was nothing else looks like a second here and say hi hi um the message oh yeah foreign good evening this

015is the regular media that I haven't seen my board of education at 7 pm on Monday the 19th of September at this time I'm going to remind everyone to please sign in and silence your phones invite your mind visitors in order to make an effective meeting tonight we ask between comments if you want to make comments to the board to read the physical guidelines buying the orange sheet fill it out and get that in the corner too Jody and public prescription portions to meet other than those times more beings are not Interactive um can we have a role called lamb here here so here here I appreciate that um the board members you've had a chance to review the agenda for tonight's meeting is there a motion through the agenda assembly is there a second

016discussion all in favor say aye all right anyone opposed consent agenda board members have had an opportunity to review this the second agenda the consent agenda is presented includes minutes of previous meetings bills to be paid the treasures report Personnel changes Surplus items some Island state and overnight trip approvals and the internal government would bring up the unit four on Chromebook cart purchase the McKinley Bento family survey Minecraft research project and Eis administrations class slash teacher salary and benefit report is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda for individual discussion hearing none is there a motion to approve the consent agenda has presented so is there a second discussion so I I typically don't know any message agendas you know and um some people have asked me recently why and so

017I just wanted to give an example um for me when I'm asked to vote on the consent agenda I'm asked do you agree with this or do you not do you agree you should say yes if you disagree with you you should say no one of the things we're asked to do is to um look at the minutes and um for example in the minutes for August 15th the minutes say after discussion a referendum was put up through a vote but the real motion was I put into I moved to put option A on the ballot with a specific intent that will continue to have a conversation about what's next if it doesn't pass they just don't feel a lot of times that this is reflective of what actually is happening here a lot of

018times it says there is discussion instead of summarizing the discussion this is done policy and I want to be abundantly clear but this has nothing at all to do with Joey um at all um this predated Jody by a lot and this is a um this is clearly dictated by someone else so I just want to give a few examples of why I don't know because I know people were concerned any other discussion agenda it's great no Schultz no Heath yes yes yes all right yes yes thank you donations okay so this evening I would like to introduce to you Amy tief and taller she's our new junior high PE teacher Amy grew up in Dayton Ohio she graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a sports management degree she later went to Ashland University to

019complete her degree and M.A in effective teaching of the last four years she went to Kent State to complete her adaptive PE endorsement she's been teaching for eight years in three different states and she currently lives in Muhammad with her husband and two kids as a family they spend most of their time watching sports she has an eighth grader and a sixth grader that play football basketball and baseball that's probably why they watch a lot of sports one of her favorite activities is CrossFit and that's something they enjoy doing as a whole family so Amy I welcome you and announce that you welcome her to her foreign I apologize for overlooking that my vision is a little blurring with the surgery um donations yes the first donation we have is from an anonymous donor this

020month to the Muhammad Seymour High School dance team in the amount of one thousand dollars the other donations are from the Mohamed Seymour Boys Basketball Association a yearly donation from that Association to the junior high school in the amount of a thousand dollars also to Middletown Prairie Elementary for a yearly donation for five hundred dollars and a donation to Lincoln Trail as appreciation for the 21-22 season for a thousand dollars uh total and all is three thousand five hundred dollars in donations from two donors so we appreciate the generosity as always thank you very much is there a second second the discussion on the relations you have a very generous community and we appreciate that so very much okay yes Tennessee yes yes Murray yes excuse me lamp yes key yes yes thank you okay

021uh anyone here tonight from the PTO yes well hi um I'm Leslie reddigi I'm the president of the PTO for Middletown and Lincoln Trail um so a few things we've been doing dog walk just ended we'll be doing the celebrations on the 30th at Middletown October 14th at Lincoln Trail and we raised this year 155 945 dollars um next we have Book Fairs coming up so we're going to be looking for volunteers for that that's October 3rd through October 6th uh we also had staff appreciation welcome back little gifts we did hot cold sleeves for drinks hope everybody enjoyed those um and then finally we are putting a new committee together for family events for Middletown and for Lincoln Trail first thing we're looking at is doing like movies in the gym and stuff like

022that so look for those to come as well but that's it for us [Applause] um sounds like a pretty impressive total for me as far as so that's fabulous thank you so very very much um mlca James I understood my name is James heimel I teach fifth grade and have been doing that here in Muhammad for 27 years hard to believe I know that but it is true um I also coach Junior High softball Junior High wrestling and high school softball so I'm I'm pretty involved in the community um and the students in our district I'm also the co-president of the msea with Nick Jones if you were to ask me and the many others in the district who have put a lot of years in why we have stuck with it we would tell

023you it's because we believe in the work that we do and we believe in this community we are dedicated and that dedication should be met with respect good working conditions and fair compensation is a measure of respect and that's what we are seeking in the current negotiations if you look at the news reports report after report has identified serious staffing shortages and education this is true nationally this is true for our state and this has now become true for Muhammad we are losing high quality Educators and support staff to other districts we have unfilled positions in all buildings something that did not exist a decade ago a majority of our members live within the Muhammad school district and we know that strong schools mean a strong community and like many others we have made our

024homes here for that reason I can attest to this because I grew up in Muhammad my parents in Northern Indiana to Muhammad way back when in 1974 when this District was a strong Community back then I graduated from Muhammad Seymour in 1989 and when I decided I wanted to teach I applied to one district and that was Muhammad Seymour I bleed orange and blue my wife grew up in Muhammad we both decided that raising our kids in Muhammad was a must I still have one son in high school out of four my other three have graduated from Muhammad Seymour on my oldest daughter lives with her husband and two children in Muhammad I bleed orange and blue and so do they Muhammad is a destination for families I'm living truth of that because of our

025schools however the days of Muhammad Seymour being the destination for staff are quickly fading away we must fix that before it is too late offering us a workload compensation balance that's fair will help us to retain teachers and staff otherwise we will continue to lose talented educational staff to surrounding districts we should have been able to settle this contract long before now certainly after the district got almost a million more dollars than they were expecting this year from the state we should have been able to settle this contract we have offered reasonable compromises let's do right by our students our staff and our community who come to an agreement thank you [Laughter] foreign so this is obviously homecoming week for Mohamed Seymour and along with that comes the uh behind the Seymour education foundations opportunity

026to honor some Hall of Fame inductees so before the football game Friday night um which I hope you all can come out and support the football team and support the band and everything that comes along with that fundamental Community we all will be honoring few outstanding alumni from our schools so we hope to see you there for a great evening of celebrations visitors we have all the sheets and the reason I asked that is that it's important we know that college won all right is no all right so we've got 11 folks that want to speak tonight and 12 we we usually reduce from five minutes to three minutes but since we have 11 I hope we have all the sheets then we're gonna pull the gate at 11 and we'll hold the time in

027five minutes if that's our procedure says we're going to do Jody will run a clock over here I will if you get close to your five minutes I will do my best to try to politely let you know um and uh reminder that we don't um we don't mention students by name we don't take um accused of her remarks at staff and Mr employees by name we do our best to remain positive and say what we have to say um so we'll go ahead and start first up is Linda Linda all right um hi I've been a resident of Muhammad for over 40 years I wanted to speak about each of my daughter's teachers and how grateful I am for the love and learning they poured into her unfortunately I only have a few minutes

028to speak I started subbing in our district for teachers and paraprofessionals January of 2021. I'm so grateful for my daughter's teachers but it wasn't until my first week of studying that I realized every single teacher in our building are amazing they all cared for their students made extra time just like all my daughter's teachers do the patience compassion and love for every student in the classroom was overwhelming to me the same dedication was also observed by paraprofessional support staff custodians and school secretaries I loved working in the schools and got teary eyed on more than one occasion of doing the love and support that was spread to our kids each and every day it was my privilege to spend a day in their shoes but it was also eye-opening to many challenges they faced every

029day in my opinion if you haven't spent a day in the classroom here and you can't make an adequate decision on the teacher's contracts spend a day in their shoes and then come to the negotiating table spend a couple days stopping in our district for any of our teachers and who will quickly realize that our District's budget should reflect the priorities of our community our children's education should be of the highest priority and we need the teachers and staff who work with them to be adequately paid and to be given a fair contract our excellence in education isn't the building it's the teachers that dedicate their lives serving our community I have real concerns that we are going to start losing our excellence in education if we do not adequately compensate Our Heroes I was

030saddened to learn that our teachers have spent five months negotiating for fair contract after watching the last meeting my son just became anger by the disrespect that was shown to Megan Jones she came before you asking for you to consider their request and a member of the board varied his face Miss phone instead of listening to Mrs Jones speak it was very clear to me by his body language that he didn't and doesn't value our dedicated staff I can only imagine how he acts in closed session discussion Friday night when I received an email from the negotiating committee I quickly learned that there were several misleading words and lies in this letter it was my understanding that our school has a no bullying policy but unfortunately the board members representing the negotiating committee are not

031following this policy I found it particularly insulting to us parents that you would use this venue to mislead us into believing you're the unsung hero saving our tax dollars but we're the same people who are freely promoting other tax dollars for multi-million dollar buildings and expansions we won't need those buildings if we lose our wonderful teachers to schools that are willing to meet their needs of fair pay proper prep time and administration backup I strongly urge you to do the right thing for our teachers I also ask you to review some of your meetings held and evaluate your words to one another and your body language to the people who speak during open comments you should be example to our community school district and our children unfortunately I would be embarrassed for my child's the

032leaders of this District's Behavior at these meetings the good news is our highly underpaid teachers are who my child looks up to let's just pray this day once you give them a fair contract [Applause] foreign Athena LaRue next up will be Cheryl seitzer I needed to get in the room my name is Athena LaRue is that beautiful okay thank you let's make a jerk all right hello everybody uh my name is Athena LaRue I'm a proud tax paying citizen here in Muhammad I'm also an educator in a different School District um one of the criteria for me moving to this community in particular out of anywhere in this area was at school 10 years ago my realtor just like wouldn't let me go anywhere else just like this is the place to be okay um

033and so I always had this thought this is one of the best districts to have your children attend and to work at when I moved here there were no job openings in Muhammad um which I was really sad about okay it's working okay uh but in the intervening time we've seen a pandemic teacher shortages large amounts of students moving into this district and burnout and your school's Foundation is in its educators teachers have been facing that Community growth head-on and as a community member I see that and I think it's very reasonable for the board to please support their Educators as they commit they continue to meet the needs of these students the environment that our teachers work in is the environment environment that our students are learning in our students do deserve the best

034so I'm asking some of these board members um to reconsider the position that you've taken and make this environment something to continue to be proud of for the taxpayers here excellent schools don't just happen it's because the board chooses to support their staff I hope you can reach an agreement that is fair with the Muhammad Seymour Education Association thank you [Laughter] foreign ER and I am a former teacher in the district I was I have a 17-year tenure at the junior high and I also helped negotiate several bargaining unit agreements during my time I've sat on both sides of the table so I understand where the board is at and your finances as well as where our staff and teachers are however I do believe that we must look at what is happening during my

035time in the district we were the place that everyone wanted to be we had a minimum of 25 to 30 people applying for every single position it was a glorious time and it was really an opportunity for the district to grow and to come up in our esteem and our standing this is not the case today as we all know we are struggling to fill open positions at all levels we have class sizes that are too big that don't have enough room for every kid to have a desk and that's in that room in some cases and we have teachers covering extra loads because we can't build positions at all the buildings I'd like to touch on just three things we are losing top talent often to other districts whether that be teachers or support

036staff we have lost those teachers because of significant differences in our salary schedule we must close that Gap if we are going to continue to attract and keep the talent for our students and our district there are several instances of teachers and staff leaving the school mid-year that is unbelievably hard for for a building and for a classroom and most of all for our students why have they left many of them have left because they have found better positions or better paying positions elsewhere our special education department which is near and dear to my heart because I spent my time at special education teaching here and I was also a director of special education for the county but our students in special education are not getting the services that they deserve that they need and

037that by law they are required to receive we don't have full special education positions we don't have support staff where we're supposed to that breaks my heart for those kids because they deserve better Muhammad Seymour has been a competitive has been competitive in the past and we are not right now it will take the concerted effort on both parts for us to get to a place where we are competitive with the districts around us again it is it is a necessary step that we must take yes it might be a leap of faith but if we want to attract that top talent again we will get there I am flooring board to really look hard at your numbers what money is expected to come in the balances in our funds and that especially those in

038our designated for salaries and support staff please come up with a plan please work with our teachers and the union to come to an agreement that benefits everyone simply put we have to do better if we are going to be the district again that you come to for a great education thank you [Laughter] Sarah close enough um I did not plan on speaking tonight um I thought there'd be enough speakers but um coming in I was overwhelmed by the amount of people outside inside was Triple but I mean look at this room I just wanted everyone to acknowledge this board Mexico they're outside do we do it's kind of pathetic to have the this facility this beautiful facility brand new gym right there to house all these wonderful people in support of our teachers and

039we have we have the the excuse of not having technology that we broadcast the games at the junior high I mean it's come up with something I mean it's it's kind of upsetting honestly it shows what little regard that you have for these people um so yeah the lack of effort needs to be noticed that we have people in the hallway unable to to participate here in this room um so I have four children three are in the school district um and I'm here in support of uh teachers I know that um it's it's hot it is hard for me to I don't want to be honest it is hard for me to be in support of this but I I have to I have to move on these past two years have been difficult

040for my for my children but I have to forgive and move on and that's what I have done um but I have very close family I have very close close family members who are Educators um and it's insulting it's insulting and offensive to have her consider leaving the school district she loves being educated this is they have a gift these Educators have a gift a calling to students it's clear as day when I see the amount of work she brings home that's not accounted for um they do it because they want to they do it still up too um how can you be competitive what was published it's it's completely reasonable I I have no considering that the board asks taxpayers to pay to vote in favor of 100 million dollars and we can't offer

041our Educators a fair wage um what else do they write um yeah we have a student population as big as us large classroom sizes um from what my family members and so told Toby large size from size is little fan time and less pay the neighboring School District why would they stay um let's see what else um for short on AIDS my my child does not have Supportive Services she has the long-term self which I by the grace of God I'm thankful that he at least has that I don't know how the high school special education teacher is overseeing that but I'm sure she's not getting paid more for that until she has more work I I'm not sure on that um we have one school resource officer for the amount of students that we

042have we have one District nurse it seems like there's just through the bare minimum of what we're doing for our students bare minimum of teachers I I don't understand it um so I actually consider what what the what um the I miss um s e a is asking um I trust them um I just want to acknowledge wonderful Educators who have have influenced my my children um some of them are Mrs Fritz um Mrs Brock Mrs O'Connell um fifth grade teacher Mrs Roberts um Mrs Kyle the Junior High Mr lamb here at the Junior High um this is a staff um Mrs Fox here Mr beanboard Mrs Merkel coach and Mr heinold coach of Mrs Martin um Mr Ramirez Mrs Mrs Claus um the age that Riley has thank God for them but I feel

043like we need to do better if we want to keep this illusion of Excellence I think we need to do that not by what our words is disingenuous we need to go above and beyond I'm emotional right now because it's it's overwhelming It's upsetting about that and that's all [Laughter] foreign [Laughter] good evening my name is Sarah roknowski we need to address the complaints from our teachers and staff regarding our outrageous pain it is time to make a change that will benefit not just the Mohammed Seymour School District but also the teachers students and staff I'd like to discuss what I do for the educational system and the reason why I should be pink one I work three jobs and one of them is at Muhammad Seymour Lincoln Trail in the morning I am the

044crossing guard at State and Dorchester I said I'm sorry later shine hot or cold putting my life on the line to protect our children from speeding Vehicles texting and distracting teenagers and parent toy like for work or groggy when I asked parents and Guardians to stop dropping up their children at the start of the road I get yelled at and threatened constantly I get paid 11.25 for this I'm also the lunch and research supervisor at the Lincoln trails when I'm outside I am constantly looking around to make sure our kids are safe I searched the area for Oddities and people come from the parking lot to enter the school to make sure that no one is a school shooter or something else along with this I am a caregiver I correct children when they are

045in the wrong and hold your child's hand when they cry or hurt themselves I get paid 11 25 to do this when I'm inside I keep an eye out for a kids who might be choking finding or experiencing a large reaction and I take care of the immediate problem initially I assist with opening boxes and bags of food and beverages they are unable to open I asked them how they do how they are doing a class their favorite subject their favorite teacher I get to know them and learn about their personalities I get paid 11 25 to do this we have created a special bond with our children with your children and our children our future deserve to have teachers and stuff don't be scared to this unless you raise our pay to the teachers

046my name is Miss R but to your children I am the hero the teacher that comes and talks to them the teacher that they come and talk to the person who will be the disciplinary and their best friends my name is Miss R and I can take 11 25 to do this thank you for allowing us to his questions foreign schools many of the professionals around this room were influential in my education and will be influential in my children's education in fact many of the teachers that I had when I was young are still in the classroom even if it's no longer as a teacher in Muhammad as a point of comparison these are the base salaries in comparable districts according to the teacher salary study conducted annually and found on the Illinois State Board

047of Education website Monticello 38 415. Bloomington 40 183 Urbana 46 200. Danville 50 089 Decatur 43 800 Mount Zion forty thousand one hundred ninety eight Taylorville forty two thousand three hundred and thirteen this shows that Muhammad Seymour is not comfortable when it comes to the base salary offered to our professionals recently the board sent a letter which stated that the district's professionals offer would cost our district several million dollars when in reality the salary increased they are requesting albeit still below these similar districts would be that similar to the cost of the district as to what the board is offering with Muhammad Seymour's board willing to give a seven percent base increase to attract a quality superintendent resulting in awarding the highest first-year compensation package in our District's history but bolting and spending a five

048percent offer to attract new teachers and retain our quality teachers our schools will struggle to fill positions can you not extend that same level of dedication and drive to our professionals Muhammad Seymour according to the Illinois report card the state's official Source has a roughly 85 percent retention rate which is below the state average in fact as of this afternoon the district is sitting on at least half a dozen open full-time positions at this point teachers are not being maintained let alone being actively hired at a rate to fill all of its positions Muhammad Seymour is quickly losing its reputation as a destination school to start and finish a career and we are losing amazing professionals to other districts to quote the board's letter at a time when our district is growing we cannot be

049forced into a position when cutting staff is even a possibility then you also shouldn't be offering a contract we're losing staff is even a possibility it is very easy to set a narrative when you have a captive audience a letter sent to the entirety of the school district without extending the union same opportunity did not feel as if it was done in good faith instead of trying to draw the line in the sand and pushing The Narrative of US versus them head to the table and bargain as if you are actually committed to Excellence [Applause] [Music] foreign I reserved my general comments for for this session I had budget comments for the the uh um field hearing so um again I'm Rebecca Richardson a long time resident of Muhammad and my husband and I are

050both Educators lifelong um he was a 35-year public school he's now retired and uh you know I I know what goes into teaching Sonny you know what goes into teaching Max you've been on this board forever and can you also have lots of kids that you you're intimately involved with what's what goes into into these jobs um I did a little bit of calculation kind of uh and I you know it's it's not I'm not totally clear on um sorry I'm still crying from the earlier uh comments but uh starting teachers as far as I can I can calculate if you consider even though they have a nine-month contract I know I was married to teach I am married to a teacher they work around the they they were 12 months out of the year

051they don't stop in the summer they do planning they do bulletin board prep they do all kinds of things and I calculated that they essentially get paid about 17.50 an hour that's a starting teacher 17.50 and support staff as you heard get far far less than that I mean anyway a question I have for for especially the people who are on the negotiating team but a question I got for the whole board is our own teachers worth less than the teachers in Dunlap or in Monticello or Morgan of course they aren't how about Monticello if you back this District into a place where we can't afford to pay our teachers and staff what they are worth it is an unknown lastly Dr Lee welcome to Muhammad Seymour if you haven't already figured this out there

052is one thing this community supports more than anything and that is its teachers and its staff as a part of this close Community I asked the board to put we over me I wore this shirt backwards so I could make this point so I want you to put the we as our community over the me as the board and um give these teachers what they're asking for it's not unreasonable um so I know you can find a way to do it I'm 100 sure you can find a way to do it so as a taxpayer I'm saying to you not please do it do it thank you foreign Roberts and my husband and I have lived here for over 30 years and we have raised seven kids in this District we moved here because of

053the schools um as I would venture to guess most of the people that lived in Muhammad move here because of the school um but I'm I mean I'm not going to State the obvious you know all the problems that there are these people are so incredibly valued but I want to talk about a different kind of value so seven six out of seven of our kids have some form of disability ranging from ADHD and dyslexia to reactive attachment and Fetal Alcohol and everything in between so raising my kids in a town like Muhammad where we are not the norm people that struggle or not the norm has been a challenge my lifeline are these teachers I can there are heroes in this room Cynthia and Cheryl I can't even say enough about you you're just

054I mean they're the boots on the ground when the administrators we've gone to closed session with boards we've gone to administrators I have been from top to bottom sideways and everything in between and now I'm an advocate for the state of Illinois I do a lot in Muhammad but it's never the teachers the teachers are the heroes when the administration previous superintendents not I mean Mr Lee has been very awesome to me and find out about my work and stuff so I but previous boards some of you weren't on the board when we did closed sessions so it's not but when everybody failed my kids and I had to send them to school the hot messes that they were it was these people in this room that didn't give up on them they stayed there

055and I mean I can't even Sarah I can tell the funniest stories that they're funny now but they weren't funny I might just call the police so um but you know just I don't I just don't want their value to be underestimated and the work that they do on a personal human level um I think the other thing is is that okay we're hearing that these other schools pay more for beginning do you think that these highly qualified people couldn't go somewhere else to get a job they could but they care about this community and they care about our kids and I would venture to say maybe half or more this is their dream job they're committed to this and they don't want to walk away but they also have families of their own and

056they deserve to be paid and compensated for the Excellence that they provide not only in the classroom when they're teaching but for kids who are threatening to commit suicide or kids who have had the worst tragedy in the world over the summer and if it wasn't for Cynthia my kid would have never survive and today he served in the Army you just can't Overlook that kind of stuff these people are amazing and they're Heroes and they deserve to be paid they at least deserve to be treated with their respect to fairly negotiate and not to diminish what they do because what they do is pretty good myself foreign I I am here just to support the teachers and I have written so many notes and erased them on my phone because I just don't know

057how to put into words what a great experience my kids have had here I was an econ major maybe I can appeal I think one of you is anytime Professor yes amazing I can appeal here inflation is 8.5 I got a letter from the board on a Friday night saying that this was the highest offer since 2005. inflation hasn't been 8.5 since before I was born and most of these people wearing red [Laughter] [Applause] foreign ago and my house is magically worth 40 to 50 percent more than it was I was happy to pay 40 to 50 more in taxes but I know the teachers are not making 40 to 50 more they we as an econ major you learn that people put their money where they value it most my kids don't come home

058talking about the facilities or the curriculum and as an educator oh man I love curriculum they don't they don't talk about that they talk about their teachers they've combined here seven eight years and they come home through the pandemic and this year every year they just love their teachers and I ask you as a board and the negotiating team to put your money where you value it most and that is with the teachers thank you [Applause] good evening I'm Eric Henderson I'm a long time resident and homeowner in Muhammad and as such I have children attend school board and meet cohort means from the past year my interests include property taxes facilities curriculum and school safety the past year I listen to others and spoken out on the informants and concerns I have a new

059concern that's troubling to me and I hate to say this but Max McComb is a school board president and after careful thought I'm compelled to ask for his resignation to what I perceive as potential yeah Mr McCombs reveals as such his profession and his membership on the school board create the potential for a conflict at the very least it is bad objects his livelihood is based on selling property the more properties of Muhammad the more potential income from properties get sold result in increased School enrollment and constant pressure on taxpayers build new facilities come without a control development and you have the recipe for constant pressure for tax increases on existing residents I find this unacceptable additionally I find Mr McComb to be kind of sending to those of us and take the time to

060prepare and articulate our wishes and concerns to the board during the public comment portion of these meetings I also believe the concerns of those of us need to find their way to the agenda of these meetings well Howard is experiencing rapid growth in my opinion far too rapid growth the result and that has resulted in this board led by McComb Mr McComb to again place a referendum to attempt to Levy another request for a property tax increase on homeowners our voters said no on June 28th of this year but a margin of better than two to one I urge all residents to reject his request for additional funding so no referendum is resulting additional burden on us taxpayers stop I and others continue to request the school materials be placed in the library for our

061examination I and others request that comments following the podcast be made available to those who aren't able to attend the meetings in person sunshine is the best disinfectant the ability to respond with comments is an invaluable way for the public to respond with comments in public to respond to our concerns and also to the board's dispensation of these concerns are later like or or lack thereof I also I and others also wish to have the ability to watch classroom activity in real time the standard on these cameras offer the ability to address bullying and also the monitor teaches things that are subject matter and not digressing around and counterintuitive cognitive materials to the classroom and the students they don't trusted you I'm not here for my health or to present growls or frivolous concerns I'm

062here to present concerns and offer potential Solutions thank you guys foreign I was not prepared to see so many teachers here but I considered a godsend and I appreciate educators holy holy appreciate American educators I want the American way of life taught in the school system and unfortunately an awful lot of that is not happening these days I had Dr Dre spend an hour and a half with Dr Lee uh this summer we got to know each other but quite well actually we have a lot in common one of the things that came out of it is everybody lives A busy life you guys live very busy lives no doubt about it I was fortunate enough to retire at 49. that was back when things started going south in this country and it became quite

063Heaven that this nation had problems so I've been researching what's going on in the world for a long long time you folks don't have the time to do it I did it I was there trying to make a living that's where you are right now you're trying to make a living do you think 30 or 40 million illegals coming in this country was an accident they're destroying this nation this book pedagogy of the oppressed pedagogy this is a term for education this is the education of the oppress some of you might know this book because it's handed out of the University system and talk for any teacher who links education the social change this is required reading fear Remains the most important writer on popular education surely the virtual founder of the perspective known as

064critical pedagogy foreign what's going on in the country right now they shut down the engine like Jackie the price of gasoline like they have nothing's happening by accident your union is a communist Union whether you know it or not you're doing the dictates of the state of Illinois Common Core absolutely garbage some of you might admit it some of you probably won't critical uh yeah what is critical Justice critical race Theory thank you very much undermining the students holy should not be taught in this school system should not be taught in this state but it is I came down to the hallway asking if there's any radical teachers here I don't know if you guys ever hear the term radical teacher no it's a it's a thing go to the university system there's a lot

065of radical teachers and they teach social justice and they divide people I've said it before here you guys are willing to go and strive for money and I I think you should have them a good wage absolutely a great way but at the same time I don't think you should be teaching critical race Theory or sex education to these kids at their age the state is dictating it if you haven't seen it yet you're going to and when you see it I hope you stand out and say this is garbage this is absolute garbage we should not be teaching it to our children that's going to be on your shoulders and when you see a teacher the radical teachers they go in there and it's not so much in the curriculum in the books not

066always in the curriculum in the books it's a case they bring it with them they know how to take their life experiences and explore it into the young minds that are so eager to learn you know how eager they are to learn they're easy to manipulate as well I have a real problem with the homecoming are we going to have a gay part of the parade somebody else one has fried stuff coming to these meetings last time they came was when you said about the program we've already implemented I'd like to know what programs you've already implemented part of that many you're out of time we need to have [Music] thank you I appreciate it um I just want to say thank you very much for all coming out uh I definitely value our teachers

067I'm married to a teacher I have while a dozen teachers in my family I strongly value teachers and I especially value what Christina said uh that struck a lot towards with my own experience in this district and kind of supported that my children so thank you very much for coming up you're gonna be a lot to think about for sure I just put some thoughts together with so much integration to us um I'm going to assigned to it and forget me if I fumble it was really important and I think impactful for me uh to see how many people have tonight I too moved to this District because of the schools uh when we moved here 10 years ago that's that's why I came I put my kids in the school and uh they loved

068every minute of it I ran for this board because I love these schools because I felt that there might be an opportunity for me to assist and lend a voice or a perspective and we're certainly not always going to agree on the solution um we might not agree on the steps we take to solve problems but for me we have to always make sure we're actually trying to solve the problem uh we get caught up in the divide in the US versus them I don't see it that way we are all in this together and if we're going to move forward it has to be together and it has to be with respect for people who share our opinions and respect for people who offer us an opportunity to think about things in a slightly

069different way and challenge what we think we know to be true in my tenure on the board I have struggled uh and often felt like I had to find a voice um for topics that maybe uh other people didn't agree with Beyond we find ourselves now at the point where we're talking about money but for years I have been raising questions and concerns about how we spend our money I don't like giving to this meeting tonight to discuss teacher pay and we cannot forget that we have siled decisions we have given away land worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that impacts us we can't make those decisions in silos and expect that not to come back upon us we can't extend Tiff districts in order to pay for roads and developments when our financial responsibility

070would have been 1.2 million dollars and what we've given up in temp money is multiple millions of dollars these decisions that we make all Impact our ability to move forward together and to make the decisions that are required to make the collective move forward and so I'm frustrated with you um I don't know how to solve this but I am confident like some of the other speakers that we can solve this but we have to come together I am ready to be part of the discussion for the contract and the negotiations I think the board should be doing this as a whole I think it's time I think voices who bring others thoughts perspectives viewpoints and perhaps what is contrary to what is being presented are important because that is where you solve the problem

071we are going to have to compromise it is always difficult to compromise but it's almost impossible to compromise if you don't have real discussions about the reasons that you are where you are and you can't keep making decisions in silos and expect that that's not going to come so I appreciate you being here I appreciate this town and the teachers um I am here and have been here and will continue to be here to work on the collective movement of us moving forward to solve the problems that allow us to create an environment where our staff is supported so that we can do right by our kids so thank you for coming out [Applause] Marshall s tell me um I actually don't struggle maybe not be as eloquent as me but you know over the

072past several weeks a lot of people have asked me are you on the teacher's side do you side with the teachers and my knees are the same thing there are no signs there is no teacher side and districts side like we're all in it for one thing to make a great School District to support our kids to teach our kids we're all in it for the kids and there's no side and it it breaks my heart to see months and months go by where there's not a coming together when we're all on the same team we all need to come together and be on the same team and I hope that as Megan said the board can become involved in these negotiations so that we can come together and try to solve these problems there

073are real problems a lot of them have been raised tonight um retention of teachers attracting new teachers that's not a teacher's side that's an all of a sudden right it's in all of a side to have good teachers it's an all of the study to attract new people so all of us signed to balanced about you right it's an all of a side to try to make this work and I feel like a broken record because I say it over and over and over and over but it comes down to priorities we need to have meetings and honestly discuss with our priorities are one of the gentlemen here tonight was brought up the economics right the economies would tell you that you have limited resources in unlimited ones but you have to balance it and

074you need to do that by figuring out what are the things we value the most and put our dollars there I spend my life trying to impart upon kids that efficiency says we should make sure we have the most value for what we have and so we need to start having these discussions we need to to not take things as given we need to look back and come and figure out what can we do how can we accomplish these goals all together as a group and we are all one team we are almost well thanks everyone for being here tonight uh with so many close friends and family including my amazing wife who work in our school district it was great to see the support our community has been giving our staff despite being the

075business owner for 20 years being on this side of the table has been the eyes of me for me as I continue to learn about school finance and how difficult it is I have a tremendous amount of respect for every single person in this room and I truly want what is best for you all we are all in this together for one goal it's the students I pray that we cannot reach an agreement soon that works for everyone and we can continue on for the students go Bulldogs um this last week has been really emotional so I did have to write down my thoughts because otherwise I would be a problem um I want to start by saying thank you to everyone here who took time out of their evening to support our teachers and

076staff so beyond our teachers and staff our entire teachers our family members community members thank you those who've also shown tremendous online support through sharing posts and updating your Facebook profile picture show your support to our teachers and staff as a fellow educator you need to know that this support isn't always there and it's refreshing and reassuring to know that there actually are families who do support educators and everything that we aim to do on a daily basis in fact over the last three years our profession has become more political and divisive as teachers are questioned daily about what books we want to read to our students what materials we might paint in the hall even down to the exact times we're letting students use the bathroom that's why this whole negotiation process feels so

077personal and emotional to so many people teaching is more than a job more than a profession it's more than a career I have three children of my own but every day I spend time with 450 other children every day I tell my own children and other people's children I love you I'm proud of you and I believe in you education isn't a job it's a way of life there are people Behind These paychecks people who bring our children joy and safety and learning our teachers and support staff deserve every penny they ask for and actually more they deserve more than any District in the entire nation could possibly afford fortunately we live in Illinois where school funding is limited and our district specifically is not adequately funded do I think our teachers deserve a five

078percent raise absolutely wholeheartedly I do this isn't about what educators are worth it's about what we can actually afford our staff is worth more than anything we will ever have in our education fund part of my role as a board member is to make sure we're being fiscally responsible I need to know and understand the finances of our district we've spent nearly 20 marketing sessions and hundreds of hours together reviewing graphs and scenarios to create a salary schedule to give teachers that pay increase their seeking we looked at bargaining agreements from other districts to see how they did it some of those districts have higher salaries because they have higher funding which is out of our control others have higher salaries because they pay less toward benefits and in one case the employees actually paid

079into the Insurance Fund and essentially split the cost of insurance so they could have higher salaries we offered symposals like this to the union and these options were declined I fear that somehow this raise is being misconstrued as how about as to how valuable our staff is to this District please know that isn't the case going into negotiations we had an idea of the maximum amount we could offer knowing it was nowhere near the eight percent we started discussions at we looked for contract editions that would show all of you that we value even though we don't have the funds to give you the increase you would like things like additional sick and personal days increasing retirement pipeline caps ensuring that off schedule employees get the same raises as everyone else this isn't as simple

080as just holding off on installing new windows in order to increase the salary across the schedule School Finance is nuanced and difficult to understand even those of us who hold administrative degrees and work in the field of Education need to rely on the expertise of our chief School business officer an example of this confusion is when people simply add up total percentages being requested subtract the difference but neglect to consider compounding if these percentages are higher on the front end of the likely contract I don't know how many of you remember about 10 years ago when the district had cut positions Library AIDS guidance counselors enrichment programming among others when cuts are happening at that point those aren't just positions those are people I would hate to find ourselves in this situation again where we

081have to make a difficult decision on who will no longer have a position at all because we can't afford to pay them if we are the driver District into financial distress with the request of pay increases at the start of this process we looked at a multitude of graphs and scenarios and we shared all of these with msea I would not be doing my duty as a responsible board member if I knowingly approved raises that would drive our district into financial distress yes our teachers deserve a pay increase which they will get with the negotiation teams offer but our students also deserve to be in classes with fewer students especially in the Elementary grades our chance to add classes when numbers get too big will be limited by this increase I know both teachers and

082parents would be upset if we're looking at kindergarten classes of 30 students or even 26 or 27. our kindergarten classes right now are averaging 20 to 21 students per class one of the hits our district took 10 years ago was that we didn't replace retiring Educators which drove our class sizes up I can't think about just right now I also need to think about our district in two years and four years and Beyond as I said earlier this has been a hard couple of weeks there are a lot of people in this room who supported me in my career have loved my children like their own and challenged me in ways I never knew I needed to be challenged I know you I see you and I think the world of you thank you for

083who you are and what you do there's nothing in the world to show how much you matter to our district yeah I wish I would no it's okay um I really appreciate um the passion that you all have brought tonight um I I think if it was anything less I would have been disappointed for sure but I mean it the passion the energy in this room and the school is amazing and I know this there every day with our students and there's many of you in here too that have contributed so much to my children and I appreciate that um more than I can express in any way but I also hear from people who call me that are don't feel like they can come to a school board and and make comments and say

084Express their opinion so our job is also to try and balance the needs of the people who might have another opinion too and it's not I agree with Sonny it's not easy it's exhausting it seems like everything in the last few years has been so exhausting and I know you guys have had to deal with that a hundred times um I'm I'm I wish it wasn't I mean I wish it wasn't so exhausting um yeah I wish it were easy um that's all I have it really is good to see everybody tonight sorry took a crisis with this lovely videos altogether right Pledge of Allegiance has never sounded more silent over the past five months as we've negotiated the MSA I've heard repeatedly from people our teachers and staff deserve better we're underpaid compared to

085other business I've heard people are our most valuable asset and I've heard we need to do better for our teachers and for our staff honestly I couldn't agree more furthermore I think our community as a whole believe those things I believe our Board of Education as a whole as individuals believe those things I've sat around the table with our negotiating team and I know they share those movies and I want you to know that I share those great teachers are important they're critically important they shape our kids lives they shape our future Generations some of you know this and you've heard me say this before my mom taught for 35 years Elementary music and kindergartner have a son that's a K-5 teacher I've got a daughter-in-law who's a middle school teacher I get teachers I

086understand what it's like to be a teacher teacher I understand what it's like to be in teachers homes I see the commitment I see the dedication the problem is that appreciation respect and admiration are not currency we can use to pay bills so what I want you to understand is we have some harsh physical realities that we have to deal with I wish we did we do just kind of like telling your kids that three other families you know maybe fly an oxygen a nice warm sunny Beach destination for spring break and took a look at our bank account and we won't be gone here's some of the hardest kindness realities that we have to deal with here at Muhammad Sea Market recently the msda published material comparing our district to Monticello Morton and um

087we've also used a mutant that has used not designed these are districts we look at on a regular basis particularly when it comes to academics but we compare ourselves there in a lot of other areas too the MSE apson I'm sure you've all seen it compared our average teacher salaries the teacher salaries and those districts we came up short that's disturbing and that's cause for concern in order to understand the full picture everyone everyone needs to understand exactly what we're dealing with here at Bahama Seymour let's look at the revenue that we have to educate students the dollars that are coming in and specifically I want to look at Ed fund hours because that's where most of our salaries are being for all our expenses to educate kids from if you look at tax dollars

088and if you look at state aid and all the other money that trickles in to the end fund Monticello receives fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty dollars per student Mount Zion receives 11 790 per student that might receive 11 490 percent Morton's eleven thousand and thirty dollars a student and Muhammad Seymour receives eight thousand eight hundred and forty five dollars all right now I understand there's hopes and things we just need to look harder for money and try harder but let me repeat that so it sinks in because we are a a serious disadvantage compared to both other schools again monosyllabus 14 460 dollars per student that's five thousand six hundred dollars more per student than we get Mount Zion at 11 790 it's almost three thousand dollars more per student than we have Dunlap

089at 11 490 is 2600 more of a student than we do and more eleven thousand and thirty percent is over twenty one hundred dollars more per student than we do so that's another first grade classroom I think we have first grade teachers from here tonight and let's just say there's 20 students in that first grade classroom s the math is easier which one so 23 or maybe here 20 students at 56-15 of students might have so gets 112 000 more dollars for that one classroom to operate than we do and we've got 11 first grade classrooms and as you pointed out we've got more than 20 kids in there in fact if we were funded district-wide at Monticello per student levels we'd have 19 million dollars more in our red fund to work with levels

090will give us an additional 700 million unfortunately our funding is our fund we can't actually get myself funding for mortgage funding so like your budget at home we've got to look at doing what we can with the resources we have are we looking at it that way the picture is a little different compared to those four districts we have a much higher percentage of our eggplant money going into the future salaries your staff sellers we have a much lower percentage of our red funds going to other stuff compared to other districts our supply budget is lean and me or textbook and curriculum budget is frugal we already run the less support staff less administrators and most other most less most other people in districts do our size we're here tonight it's not the need for

091more School nurses and resource officers and Crossing yards our buildings rely heavily on PTO dollars we're very thankful for those music Sports drama and other activities rely heavy on booster clubs and parent organizations and the generosity of our community all in all the operating budgets are comparatively leaked we don't have fat in our budgets we don't have extra hidden money we're forced to stretch every dollar and constantly make tough uneven decisions the Stark reality of this situation is because of our demographics those include a significant lack of commercial property taxes it includes a property tax rate that is imperatively low see ya glad you just say and it's coupled with a very high student per household race I'll elaborate compared with a little caption everybody always talks about our houses or restaurants and our taxes

092are so high look at Jacob's Landing where we've got Muhammad Seymour schools and some of those houses and you know four schools and other houses part of the subdivision hey lower property taxes in the house and the Champaign because you're not as nice houses because our tax rate take a house take a house out in Thornton a house in dormwood days 10 grand a year in property taxes that's a lot of money so that and comes to the school district that's a lot of money but with the six thousand dollars that comes to the school district that doesn't even cover the cost of educating one shot most of those homes in Thornwood have more than one child we are in a difficult situation at this point we've signed tentative agreements at some level the msca

093and we reached Mutual brokerage agreements verbal agreements on all outstanding issues except for the financial abuse the board offer on the table is a solid one you know I was going to listen to you guys but you don't care what we have to say that's the problem you don't care what we have to say you don't know what we go through you're just a realtor you have no idea what we don't put a daily basis by employing mindfulness kids you know how many kids I'm about in my car today that's why I'm asking to you thank you just go through shame on you foreign concern about inequities on the salary schedule that's involved over the years and addresses those concerns and most significant manner ever IT addresses everyone's concerns about low Society Department salary rate

094which is critical for all of us to deal with if you're going to attract new teachers and IT addresses those concerns and the most significant manner ever the money on the table represents what the district has to work the MSC would like the off to be hired I get that hard you said I would too we feel on the district side that we've already committed to a point where it might be difficult to ask positions as we continue to grow okay give them the unstable Financial do this from the state we feel it going any higher a slight issue in the state funding is easily resolved to staff and programs which would frustrate our staff concern our parents and hurt our feelings neither side right now is completely happening most would say if neither side

095is completely happy that's an indicator of the hospital thanks all of that appreciate those we just send those numbers um yeah uh Financial update hello um right now we are I mean probably two months in but we are trending with the budget we are um slightly Below in revenue and slightly more expenses but that just goes with the time of year um so we are shooting well with everything um if you guys have any questions about anything that's in the four packets or anything on on the expenses or anything that can serve you or questions right now we're 84.6 like I said earlier that will continue to go down until May and then we're gonna go and as you guys know you know I'm never the popular person in the room okay I'll just submitted

096you know when the principals get together and they want to hire new staff this last year I told them okay you gotta have them cut off here you know I take what money we have left and that's you know that's where we go nobody was happy with myself and obviously you know but when I came as you guys probably know a couple of years ago a big thing that I came into was Day sales days of um outstanding I mean people were calling me left and right and texting me you know because people were arguing that our days weren't enough our days haven't changed so um We are continuing I mean we're at a stable rate right now at 84.64 um but you will see that go down as the months proceed until we get

097our next set of tax payments emails have any questions thank you thank you I'm just impressed with how much you guys oh yeah this is the transportation's down a little bit is that reflective of the bus route that you're not running um because we pay our bus leases at a certain time because that's going to be the that's one of our biggest uh expenses throughout the year for that so yes and then it'll be overtime during it'll kick in during all of the sports and everything like that so so I remember we had some bus driver trainees in the pipeline yes have they um that we're going through you know we've restored that question yeah um we have not at this time nice thanks and just come on to the board news I mean that

098was some of the things that we actually offer as well is is giving them um to get more drivers you know increasing the fake significantly giving them Insurance when they hit certain hours and um offering um as well to try to be competitive with other schools because we definitely need that obviously you know we're just and we're not alone I went all the way to Georgia and saw signs for bus drivers so you know um so anyways could you give us the list of all the things because we don't we don't ever leave it alone all of the things that have been offered so far that we've agreed and then we also we've run a two and a half hours so you know so if everybody has been here right I'm sorry there may be

099a couple of minor things that we've agreed to that were not included in that summary list but everything would be in those tentative agreements that I emailed okay thank you Christine anything you've all had an opportunity to read her of course Steve mundane this month I thought but I'm happy to entertain any questions all right Nicole said sorry um no I just want to highlight that in October we're planning to run uh two Cardinal nights for parents okay five night on October 25th um and then on October 26th the 6th 12th birthday I love this idea what exactly like is it like an introduction to like how things will um so it'll look a little bit different and obviously for what will be shared in it okay five and six twelve um so be just

100an intro um very similar to how we ran it was about four years ago pre-covered um and then we'll have a list of great kind of I call them like breakout sessions um you can uh hope to get that out to parents maybe a week or a week and a half before um before the event that list all the breakdown sessions and a little summary of each one um and then with the time that we have set up parents parents select them to three during that time um I'd like different initiatives so for example at the high school I'm hoping to highlight some of the newer more recent and upcoming courses um and then talk in general at both about different District initiatives and then both will also include a session on the curriculum of

101adoption process so this is beyond just go to your child's class and learn what they're learning in biology this is more larger scope yeah and so I think like one of the things for example too that we talked about in high school was a session for junior high school parents understanding what's the difference between AP dual credit honors what does all of that mean um we'll run a session again something that comes up a lot is a math pathway so if my student is in Compact and that they're not compacted math what are some of the various Pathways or course offerings that are available when they get to high school so yeah thank you no problem foreign anything else all right we're at 90 minutes we're not gonna use a break well it takes about

10210 minutes um number one budget Heather at this point I'm just asking you to approve the budgets that I can submit it to izb and we could be in compliance so and as the year goes on you may see in the consent agenda budget transfers because basically if somebody ends up wanting to spend more money or if Nicole a men's or budget or proceeding men's or budget those things may change as well but you can see them and if my budget has to overall change you know I can redo it if you do it recognize order and approves the budget as a percentage second discussion and you know what when I think about getting a budget I think about someone saying this is how we propose to spend money and once again you did a

103great job of explaining how we decided to propose to spend the money it turns out that's not the budget doesn't look like the priorities that I value and so I'll vote no but I just want to make it a pleasantly clear but it's not because you did not explain or answer the question it's simply that this is not the way I think we should spend this extra dollars so things just so I know for our future there are certain things that like that you're opposed to then and like the expenses or whatnot or um we can talk about it later okay I mean I just wondered I mean it did something but I mean I just doesn't reflect my priorities and so I I have to so I have respect for Heather did you bring

104any of this but did you bring your concern that the budget isn't reflecting the priorities that you would like to see no I didn't have any questions about it I understand my priorities so I understood it and this was The Proposal that was made and quite frankly I don't think that Heather is probably the one that makes the decisions about the priorities that the school board has in the district has she's doing all the work to make sure it is formulated and done and everything like you said he shouldn't always have to be the bad guy who has to say no to everybody she's honestly I will say because um when I normally you should have a contingency I imagine I've never been able to have that here like if things come up or whatnot

105every expense in here unless I mean that's why I was asking you know if it's something you saw I mean you know supplies for the classroom the desks and shares there's nothing or they're just regular costs you know I mean they're like the cost of our buses the cost of our you know the cost of um I I did the building pedges on of her child you know thing and you know sitting with Steve going through the HVAC and the fact you know what you know what we would need to do we're looking at the control s you know I mean things like that but that could eventually save some money there right now I mean so I just that's where I get lost because I literally when I started here I was like how

106does the O M budget just get depleted every year well one thing is to be honest you know we concentrated on that 4.9 earlier I could be diverting income to osm too but I haven't because that's what normal normally you do you do put some other income in no one now um but I couldn't find one thing in operations and maintenance that was something I could say okay that doesn't belong or we could do without it because I really just look hard because I was like because I it because I'm like it's literally nuts and bolts it's not even projects you know it's it's fixing HVAC a lot but it's you know trying to figure out how to make the systems run and we actually had a insurance guy come and do a tour with

107us and you know I was trying to just say to Steve he said that actually our systems in the controls rooms and everything was better than they ever had so it's it's just you know safety wise you know which is a great thing to hear but it's just I honestly and that's why you know if you do see something I want to know you know because you know I can look at it or whatnot I mean tuition for students that's a big cost you know I mean obviously we have to pay for that you know so I just trying to figure out what it is we could take out that we currently pay for you know what I mean that so that's what I'm kind of because honestly I mean the schools weren't even getting

108that much per student you know in the last few years but um because it just kind of got mixed up with titles going in and out of different schools so Nicole made that easy for us because what she did was she took supplies out completely so I'm handling all supplies to the budget budget so I'm just trying to figure out because I'm willing to figure you know changing my risk plan making sure I take advantage of every opportunity to move expenses out of our operation expenses so if you do have any you know I mean I I do see you doing that work no I'm not saying no I just I I'm next I know after a long look it feels expensive it's just now you know if there's something in there that feels like

109it's something that we shouldn't be purchasing you know type of thing so that's all and I do look at every single po and they get annoyed with me because but it is with my questions as well any questions and what I can do going forward is I'll just send that right because it's easy enough to push you down and do that so no lamb yes yes Keith yes and see no henriks yes how come yes this is the third time we've had this press package um after the discussion last week um Miss McDuffie put in a what we heard uh for a version of two colon 230 which is the first one uh from the Board of Education that would um observe when necessary to shorten the time to three minutes uh once public participation

110reaches more than 12 speakers and less support teams otherwise it also still address the the chain of command that was one of the questions the second two colon 230 we would not include as an update based on the feedback that we received last week we are moving forward and less told otherwise tonight with the the first two colon 230 from the feedback that we received for you guys last Monday night um also colon uh policy five colon 8-0 is just adding uh the non-certified staff to court Duty and the others are under five year updates um the process updates is presented with the promotionally absolutely second for the discussion so is the yellow in the first two to 30 is that the only changes from current um thank you foreign yes Schultz yes ma'am yes

111okay yes this is reflective of what we thought we heard um in discussion last week you'll notice on the second page of uh was how we tried to reflect the discussion with regard to that let's put them um second discussion so this means that if we get an exemption the board will then make a determination about how we utilize that exemption is that what I'm doing here yes is that how we heard the discussion last week or not it was my opinion just the idea that is the lot is three days a week it is but the part I'm focusing on is it's so extremely bored it will be the determine treatments right so we voted one we voted to to approve the waiver and that if we're granted that waiver then we will have

112to improve every year to go to the less days a week okay thank you another question 660. you were in the past was literally just went up Lane yes he yes Emma yes Schultz no McMurray yes Tennessee president and that's all yes number four drama of course so last month and I presented construction geometry and uh Sports um and entertainment marketing course um and so I don't have anything to add but I'm happy to do my best to answer any questions so I just noticed this was up for action but I think before we had to go vote we have to have it published onto the parents that's important policy for material adoption is how we've done it in the past typically this is the first year that we have presented the new course prior

113to approving the new course usually that's done at the same board meeting what we've done in the past any materials but I haven't presented any materials for those courses at this time I think we've changed we adopted a new policy as before so the materials were in the packet last month RLS wait just last week it says for curriculum or curriculum Revision in order for the opportunity for the community which is superintendent as and as I've heard as a female notified parents or guardians of any proposed curriculum or curriculum decisions providing public access to such proposed revisions a minimum of 21 days before so I thought we were up for another discussion sorry I didn't realize that until we're proving the class but we're not I was necessary I thought the curriculum for the geometry

114was the same math curriculum we've been using right it's the same math curriculum for the geometry course and it's the same construction standards and curriculum that we're currently using we're just combining the course for the application of the geometry in that um in terms of the uh marketing course there was a suggested book in the materials last week however um the material the actual materials for the course have not gone through uh dirt we haven't brought any of that in yet to go through in terms of the actual curriculum it's just the course typically we get that approved first and then we go seek materials and get the samples and get that in and use the material to come to you in the spring but yeah foreign typically materials come one month in the following

115months are adopted and they're usually at the public library of Kiss I mean to be clear I'm super favorable great job proposing them I just know that word policy says and any curriculum or curriculum revisions these aren't curriculum or curriculum revisions these are new courses we're using the same curriculum we've been using and the sports and marketing class doesn't have a curriculum yet and again I feel like this would have been something to bring to Nicole before the meeting like hey are we actually in the honest because it says action item I was under the impression that we actually I just saw the word action here a few seconds I was reading other things I just didn't notice Michelle are you listening I'm here are we within our policy here I need to have a

116better understanding of what's being presented it's hard for me from this side to tell and I can slowly talk offline with Kenny and then we can talk about it again is there anything waiting a month through this process um help me out no for October would still be fine yep we'll just live through all this uh proposal at this time I mean I think he's a great proposal I just wanted it's not a problem HVAC controllers project for high school accurately as you saw I received the uh final contract today that still needs to go through a legal review so we are withdrawing that proposal as well we'll come back with that next one new business have their number one permit transfer resolution right now so I have to do another um permanent transfer to

117uh o m for 400 000 this year luckily we don't have to do one to transportation in the past um from working cash and I'm doing the temporary transfers because throughout the year if we do go negative in a account even though I don't visibly transfer it over it has to be approved as being negative um otherwise I've done an illegal transfer so I want to say Regal when we go negative or um and basically the auditor told me that they no longer end the year so okay so for number one the permanent transfer resolutions but that recommends the approval of your permanent Transport Solutions or motion to do them so moved for a second the second discussion on transfer okay yes and then number two the temporary transfer um we're also recommending uh sometimes

118every second Heather's kind of explained that already yeah yes and she did all the transfers under one brush which is fine all right we'll call it please yes yes sure yes Keith yes yes yes yes closed sessions necessary tonight number one the placement of individual students and special education programs and other matters related to individual students is there a motion for some reason your discussion um yes McMurray yes William yes Keith yes yes if you're watching um or here in present I will be into some hate no business inclusion