001good evening we have the live feed up and rolling and so at this time i'd like to remind everyone that if you've got cell phones please silence them and we'd ask guests to sign in and visitors in order facilitate an effective meeting you'd like to make comments to the board please read the visitor guidelines found outside saw our participation sheet and get that to dawn this is the regular demeanor boxing board of education i'll call to order at 701 pm on monday march 21st also remind the public and public participation is allowed willing to develop participation portions of the meeting other than those times the board meetings are not interactive with those in attendance liberal wins here here hendrix here schultz here nick murray here hennessy here with home here i pledge allegiance to the
002life of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you everyone uh board members you get a chance to look at the agenda i'd like to propose a couple of things i'd like to take item and do business item two administrative contracts and it's my understanding that we've got a couple questions and maybe some discussion that we would want to have in closed session so we would move item two approved administrative contracts to the very end of the meeting after closed session and that's okay um and then at that point you will know how better to address that item um the other item that was called to my attention today is items four five six seven and eight are purely
003routine um and there was some question as to whether you would want to group them together or potentially put them in the consent agenda does anyone have any thoughts on those items or we can just move through them very quickly the suburban lease the auditor contract purchase of these buses and employee assistance program i'm okay with the consensus inside the agenda okay so we would move those concepts so i would move that we approve the agenda with uh the following changes number two moves to the end of after closed session and then items four five six seven and eight move the decision is there motion to do that is there a second second one further discussion all in favor of this yeah bills to be paid treasures reports personnel changes press 108 some a couple
004budget transfers surplus items and now it includes items four copier release items five the suburban lease item six the auditor contract number seven the user buses and number nine the employee assistance program um does anyone have the desire to pull anything out of the content agenda for individual discussion second discussion local vote on consent uh no but i would like to make note that i would have voted yes on 439 if they were separated out okay no with the same no he yes leon yes yes mcmurray yes mccomb yes item six donations usually we turn this over to dr hall but there are no donations and i think i can handle making that um number seven it's communication time is there anyone here from the pto tonight for a report from that media how about
005a report from someone from the msca about the foundation yeah i have a report march is scholarship month for our senior class applications for students are available on the foundation website which is www.msef.weeply.com and those are available on the website through the end of the month the scholarships will be presented at awards night to week congratulations also the bulldog cash bash is coming up soon on april 8th individual tickets and sponsorships are now available you can find the link on the website again it's www.mscf.weebly.com the event starts at 6 00 pm at carmen's in champaign it will feature entertainment from felix and fingers and food from yoders this is the major fundraiser for the foundation and all proceeds go back into our schools through educator grants scholarships and other projects such as hall of fame
006we appreciate everyone's support and we look forward to seeing you at the bash thanks thank you for the report from the foundation god do we have visitors tonight we've got six tonight and we'll just i just go in order uh you've got up to five minutes if you need five minutes if you don't need five minutes that's fine and shorter uh if you start to approach the five minute mark i will give you a signal as i can as to how much time you've gotten remaining i would like to remind everyone that we need to be polite we need to be respectful and we need not to take any personal shots or personal attacks on board members district employees students community members really anybody so appreciate that and don if you're ready to go we'll
007start with doug higgins ladies and gentlemen my name is doug higgins we can all agree on a great a neat moment we can all agree on we need great quality education and there's overcrowded in our schools however i have my hand a bag of cookies and if you've been to walmart you might have seen these cookies until very very recently like the last two or three weeks the price of that bag was a dollar it's now a dollar 24. national is a 24 increase national inflation is its highest since 1982. a 7.87 increase from february of 21 february of 22. december of 2020 the national average price of a gallon of gasoline was two dollars and 30 cents december of 2021 350 a gallon and today about 449 a gallon or a 90 increase natural
008gas from amber in january 2021 was 37 cents per therm january 2022 it was 69 cents per third average home price in champaign county increased by nine percent from 2021 2020 to 2021. moody analytics reported that the average u.s household expenses increased by 296 dollars from february 22 over february 21. after consulting several sources the cost of building materials has increased 15 to 20 percent in the last year inflation is affecting all of us is truly impacting households that look paid paycheck to paycheck superintendent hall told me there were about 900 surveys regarding the planning for our school's return and 62 were in favor of the declined spending plan for about 100 million dollars to be fair to the best of my knowledge the survey offered no other spending plans to consider alternative options according
009to mr schlicht the best estimate of the school district population is 15 370. at a national average of 2.51 persons per household our health our district has about 6 100 households the 98 million dollar referendum will cost the average household 16 000 over the 20 16 000 of the 20 years of bond repayment furthermore considered the response rate was approximately 15 percent of all households in the district many did not respond or even know of the planning we did not reserve receive a survey i learned in the reference proposed referendum in the february 22 and 25 papers the news gazette on my blog there are 10 homes many have school-aged children i've spoken to five of the homes actually six now and none of them do other referendum planning and the demographics reported december 2021
01021 assumptions remain with the speed of our world today it seems unlikely that the assumptions can hold many of the assumptions cover a 10-year period this is a long time since the publication of this report for instance gasoline prices have increased predicting the future for an extended period of time seems tenuous at best as mr mccomb noted in the board meeting of february 22 looking out five years is somewhat reliable but looking out the next five years and i quote is kind of fuzzy at the last board meeting mr slick was projecting out some of the demographics to 2046. some thoughts on specific items that have been reported replacement of the current eight-lane track which has not been reported to have structural issues or at least i couldn't find any reports yes possibly an unnecessary
011expenditure second tracking the dreamer varsity falls in the same concern regarding turf from baseball softball diamonds a 2019 study in the journal innovations and orthopedics found a 58 increase in injuries on turf versus grass it's my understanding that other models to address the district needs are available the needs can be met for about half the price these alternate bottles deserve more publicity so taxpayers can truly make an informed decision asking for a 22 increase in school tax on top of all the other increased household expenditures will be a strain for many households for the average home price of 300 000 in the district there is nearly a hundred dollar a month or over a thousand dollars per year for the school tax on top of the 3 600 that we talked about earlier for inflation
012in closing i have the greatest respect for the efforts each of you offers the district as members of this board this is a very challenging job that each of you volunteered to accept i believe it would be wise for the board to have a consensus or near consensus on almost an almost hundred million dollar expenditure a four to three million a 43 margin does not present the united front and may split the community i suggest this board come to a better consensus to present the united front of the community again we all agree that overcrowding is an issue that needs to be solved the question is how does the board come together for the community thank you so much for your time up next is eric henderson month um a lot of us who attend
013these meetings we've had concerns that have not not been addressed they haven't hit the agenda i look at the agenda some of which is uh curriculum and materials they've been posted online yet are some of the textbooks in in the library so that you know the public the taxpayer can peruse them and see what type of uh you know materials are being uh you know put out for for the kids um uh so that's been a concern and that's that was put out for several months ago and i've seen that he had an agenda um you know just with this regardless referendum um you know i'm in this time i retired i'm kind of thinking about what i'm going to do with my money i need to be like that but and we pay a
014pretty considerable amount on your home uh real estate taxes for the school and i you know this is a beautiful building but the paints aren't even dry here we're already you know going to take it to the to the taxpayer again and i think somehow there's got to be a way to fund this stuff when new construction is built put an impact fee on there and they you know instead of somebody just come in here and it's like somebody walking in the back door or your house and eating all your you know food or something out of your refrigerator and touching it you can't have that i mean i think it should cost a little bit more to be here and then that escrow that money and then that way when a referendum it comes
015up people can you know get on there's something in the kitty already and it's not as shocking or stick or shock um i also hear about obsolete buildings i don't know i went to school with champagne my grade school is a condo apartments the other great school had torn down why switzer became judah christian i mean i think the renovation and you know everybody needs you know hot and cold water they need the heat on there and take some stove to cook the lunches with and stuff like that but it's really what's being taught there's more important physical facilities i believe um well maybe i'll address you personally with this one since then caveat about it simply um going forward that um i this is a delicate topic and uh this last one is certainly
016not the least one but we keep on hearing about you know i don't know clubs in school but with regarding uh you know homosexuals on school property i i don't know that we need to promote any agenda of certain things i'm sure there's other club and these sorts of things should be organized outside of the school you know i believe in politeness good manners no bullying i think that's what we need to do here we don't need to promote any agendas you know materials or anything else that's there's there's all kinds of places for people to go to address their needs that way but i don't think it needs to hit the schools and uh you know you know i think we just all need to be good and kind and nice to each other
017that'll probably solve most every problem you have thank you very much speaking of gay kids in school i'm martha mills i'm the president of the board of united pride of champaign county i saw in the minutes from last month that board member hennessy was disappointed not to see discussion of a diversity and inclusion committee on the agenda but i can't help but notice its absence once again this month it's interesting because it goes along with what i planned to talk about tonight being school climates um lgbtq students exist in every school whether administrators teachers staff and other students are aware depends a lot on whether the school is a welcoming and inclusive environment so what kind of environment do you create consider the following examples do you do this frequently occasionally rarely or never do
018you use neutral terms to describe students relationships instead of making assumptions like saying partner instead of boyfriend or girlfriend do you use inclusive terminology such as an individual's chosen name and pronouns do you not assume genders of someone's friends family members or romantic partners in conversations with students peers and community members do you use students chosen names and pronouns in all school environments do you correct people around you if you hear them using incorrect outdated derogatory or harmful language or techno terminology do you advocate for lgbtq inclusion and affirming materials in all school and classroom environments if you see or hear harmful situations or comments do you intervene when possible do you participate in school gsas or sexualities alliances think about how you answer each of these do you do you do those things frequently
019occasionally or rarely maybe never what about these do you enforce the non-discrimination harassment and bullying bullying policies for all students including lgbtq students do you ensure event policies allow the inclusion of same gender and gender non-conforming couples do you work to create a culture of accountability by providing leadership resources and training for identifying safe spaces in the schools to elicit feedback from students or school staff about implementation of policies intended to create safe and supportive environments for lgbtq students does your district maintain an advisory group that regularly monitors and provides recommendations for creating safe and supportive environments for lgbtq students do you attend trainings and professional developments focused on creating safe and supportive environments for lgbtq students these self-assessment questions come from the cdc's guide to lgbtq inclusivity in schools if you answered rarely or
020never to most of the questions it indicates you are only minimally inclusive if at all you are not as well prepared as you could be to provide inclusion and supportive environments for lgbtq students and you need to make time to commit to changes the cdc guide has resources and tips for how to improve one of those includes welcomingschools.org a website representing the human rights campaign's comprehensive lgbtq plus bullying prevention program for educators and youth serving professionals as a representative of uniting pride i am here to tell you that in addition to national resources we as a local organization would like to help mohamed seymour schools be more inclusive of lgbtq students we have trainings available for staff and students we can help you navigate building more inclusive policies and practices research published recently in 2021
021demonstrated that lgbtq students and schools with more positive and inclusive climates have fewer depressive symptoms and are lower risk of suicide compared to students at less positive and less inclusive schools thank you what do you do and your role on the board is so much bigger than your personal beliefs if you do not actively work towards creating a more inclusive environment especially when you have evidence that students are suffering you are prioritizing your personal beliefs and comfort over student well-being you are communicating that you find student depressive depression and suicidality more acceptable than the discomfort you might face creating change is that the message that you want to send thank you uh molina thank you i'm felina hadin and i'm also here from uniting pride to further discuss the need for inclusive services and recruitment
022for lgbtq students are you aware that the state of illinois has legal protections for transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students and that state laws protect the rights of transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students to be free of discrimination harassment and bullying in schools the illinois human rights act makes it a civil rights violation for schools to deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment of the facility's goods and services on the basis of gender identity or other protected status the illinois human rights commission has repeatedly ruled that the iahra protects the rights of people who are transgender in both employment and public accommodations including schools illinois law prohibits bullying including bullying on the basis of gender related identity or expression according to illinois law every school district must have and publish online a
023policy to prevent and address bullying that includes a contact person to report bullying procedures for a prompt investigation usually within 10 school days with fair procedures and appropriate inappropriate support for all students involved the ihra too requires schools to protect students from harassment it is considered severe or pervasive or harassment of a student when the school fails to take corrective action to stop the severe or pervasive harassment the illinois human rights act prohibits severe or pervasive harassment of students not addressing the bullying of lgbtq plus students is an active choice it is one that could be violating illinois state law which could result in lawsuits if you are unwilling to have dialogue for purposes of diversity equity and inclusion of lgbtq plus students perhaps the notion that inaction sets up the school district for lawsuits
024would be motivating best practices for ensuring an environment free from discrimination harassment and bullying include providing ongoing training to all staff members including how to address harmful and or discriminatory language and actions especially in the moment regular training is an essential part of preventing discrimination and harassment in the school environment and helps ensure the effective and informed implementation of inclusion practices create a non-punitive environment that focuses on prevention ensure accountability for inclusive practices for school district employees and students provide easily accessible information and supports districts should have know your rights information easily accessible to all students districts should consider posting such information in common areas of its schools such as bathrooms and hallways be clear about the complaint procedure support lgbtq plus affirming student groups does a student have the legal right to be addressed
025by their affirmed name and pronouns yes and schools cannot require legal name change or birth certificate changes to update their records and practices does the student have the legal right to fully and equally access facilities in alignment with their gender identity yes schools cannot require transgender non-binary or gender non-conforming students to use restrooms or locker rooms corresponding with the student sex assigned at birth and schools cannot create different requirements for transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students than they have for other students but what if some students or parents are uncomfortable with transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students using school facilities that correspond with their gender identity in short discomfort of students teachers or parents are not valid reasons to violate the law they are not thank you they are not valid reasons to deny or
026limit the equal use of facilities by transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students what happens to school districts found to violate the illinois human rights act districts can be subjected to ihra or title ix they will be subjected to significant monetary liability including damages attorney's fees and costs please be aware that not appropriately addressing bullying and harassment of lgbtq plus students in mohamed seymour schools is a potential violation of the illinois human rights act and may set up the district for expensive legal action if you are not willing to change for the good of the students will you change to protect the financial and legal well-being of the school district thank you [Music] mark johnson clips new superintendent nice to see you not that it's dragging um so much to talk about i want to start
027with one thing and that is the censorship of the video that covers this meeting tonight now it's my understanding you should make the decision and you guys have no word over whether or not this is uh youtube has commentary i i find it appalling that two people can determine that this whole base of parents and citizens cannot comment on what they see at these meetings i mean if there's ever a place it would be on the back end of this video so i'd like it to be on your agenda to discuss it amongst yourselves and then vote on it and make the vote public who does not want and who doesn't want commentary am i clear on that it's very important i find it appalling that it's not allowed i've made a lot of comments
028about my concerns when it comes to what's going on in the world today and how it uh totally overlaps what's going on with the world so i thought i would just start with a quote i can find it i'm sorry i apologize i'm sure all of you are yeah i've lost it i'm sure all of you are aware of the book none dare call it treason have you ever heard that book none don't dare call it treason written in 1964 58 years ago and it talks about exposing all the timeliness within our society and what they were doing and there's a lot of emphasis on the schools and that was 1964. look at where we are today we all know that your union is a communist union they don't hide it but you don't find
029it that's a problem today and it needs to be rectified and that will be your new job is to find out why we're teaching common core critical race theory and this new sex education program it's horrible what they're doing to the kids they're talking about a 100 million 150 million dollar building and they're going to turn out brain-dead communist kids who will go along with whatever the state says to do well that's not the country i live in i live in this red white and blue place called america in fact i brought something that's special to somebody in this room now that may look like a red white blue elephant because that's what that is has nothing to do with republican party not a thing to do with the republican party but the colors matter
030because there's hundreds of millions of men like me who are fed up with what's going on in the world today and we can put it on the shoulders of education because they fomented this across the nation and it has to be changed it has to be exposed it has to be thought and it has to start somewhere why not here why not contest what's going on with the union and what you're teaching your kids and you need to look at whoever's doing the curriculum in this school system and find out what kind of garbage they're they're bringing in front of the kids eric is right what what would be wonderful would be to see every book in this school system at that library over there in fact get two copies so one always stays there
031and somebody wants to take one out and read it they could then the parents would know what you're teaching the kids and that would go along with all the readings that they're allowed to read for extra credit too because there's so much garbage in that stuff it's pathetic and as far as this whole inclusiveness thing going on wanting to be in a school system all that does is it leads the path to grooming pedophilia it's a big deal right now they're working really hard for it the last thing we want to do is have more than a club the club is pathetic to my book and to actually listen to the idea that we have to go and include more perversions and i will call it with perversion with no testimonies no vote no on
032that whenever that comes up no they control the language this you know there's uh there's a joke and there's great truth in jokes if i was to rewrite the one that was men are from mars and women are from venus i would add all the rest of the genders and wokeness in this country are from the universities within uranus because it's that pathetic but is that true thank you you couldn't cut him up before he did that why i tend to do that joe calm okay my name is jill pelner and interesting time to tell you about all my connections to our school district but i will say i'm a former employee as a speech pathologist and i currently have three kids in our district first i want to thank the bulldog blueprint committee who
033volunteered their time to listen to the community find out what they want i attended the last two school board meetings and i was disappointed to learn that two board members were not willing to participate in this process or meet with the bulldog blueprint committee chairs as my lowest expectation for our school board members i would expect you to be informed before voting on a referendum it was disappointing how uninformed they were about the process as witnessed by the questions during the last meeting those questions were answered during the bulldog blueprint process the complaint that voices weren't heard during the bulldog blueprint meetings was interesting since that board member did not attend any of the meetings it's hard to have your voice heard when you refuse to participate in the process and attend the meetings in
034my experience i actually felt like the process listened to many voices as it moved away from building the junior high before circling back to it another member brought up the idea of building a high school this was presented and discussed at the planning meetings and for various reasons the community that participated decided it wasn't the most fiscally responsible decision not only because it would have been more expensive to build a high school than a junior high but because it would have also entailed purchasing land to accommodate the high school and the cost of remodeling the current high school to fit the junior high model it didn't make sense to ask the community for 150 million referendum when the high school is only 40 years old and has been recently renovated in my opinion if the
035voices hadn't been heard then the referendum would have been for junior high building only that was part of a strategic plan made before middletown prairie was built and was discussed at the joint village school board meeting in september 2019. fortunately our school board realized that growth in our town and the needs in our schools have changed since the original strategic plan was made about a decade ago honestly i liked the original plan to build the junior high it would have been a cheaper referendum but i learned through the bulldog blueprint process that this would only solve one problem in our district as sonny said during last meeting just because i didn't get my way i don't feel like my voice wasn't heard instead my experience was that many voices were heard for years i've heard
036people say that our community prioritizes athletics over arts this plan listen to those voices and includes very nice performing arts additions to the high school on lincoln trail i can't carry a tune so that isn't my forte but it makes me happy that the committee listened to all the places so what started as a plan to build a junior high that only solved one problem turned into a plan to build a junior high add classrooms to the other three schools build a transportation center provide safer drop off lanes increase parking at the high school and improve our performing arts and athletics facilities i believe the bulldog blueprint committee came up with a plan that is fiscally proud responsible and meets the needs of our community as dr henrik said at the last meeting he doesn't
037know the right answer so he said let's let the voters decide i agree i was going to say do your research as the end of mine but that is something we may not vote the same way but i appreciate all the research you put into everything that you said tonight um so let your voice be heard june 28th do your research and then get out and vote thank you right now we are to building reports from board communications and we'll start with uh justin um i'd just like to say welcome back to everybody after it's pretty great i hope everyone is refreshed and ready to take on this home stretch we have in front of us spring is in the air just wish everybody the best as we move forward that's it okay um so
038i feel like tonight we've had a few people come and speak to us uh clearly our opinions are uh all over the board here uh for me it emphasizes and further underlines the need to create a space for dialogue around some of these topics and i don't know how many times i have to ask but i'm going to ask every single meeting that we add to the agenda the discussion at the board level of inclusion and diversity i'm also going to ask that on the next agenda we add a discussion point about the comments for this video because people have come several times and asked if we could have a discussion on whether or not those comments should be made available and i think it's worthy for discussion so those two things and then uh
039over spring break uh in my mailbox i received a letter from the teachers of this building and so i just wanted to say to the teachers that i'm sad that we're at a state where uh the us postal service uh is where we have to deliver messages um about pain that we're going through um but i appreciate the time that it took for you to share that with us um i asked that we discussed that in open session tonight that wasn't part of uh any accommodation that was made i will continue to represent you you may not see that but i appreciate that we have some problems that need to be solved and i will continue to attempt to do that in my role on board so thank you for taking the time to send
040that to us i think it's valuable information and i think we can only solve problems in this district when we're willing to have conversations even if those conversations aren't comfortable um i just wanted to say thank you to all of our buildings our teachers our administrators for um the extra stuff outside of school just helping to make our kids really well-rounded so a couple things that come to mind um the girls on the run program on lincoln trail and he's around the world at lincoln trail i just love the amount of energy um that goes into that and volunteers who are hoping to run that and then like the summer school opportunities and the summer camp opportunities that our district provides i think that just really speaks to again how great a district we are
041so i just want to say thank you to all of them all those people who are making that happen kevin um i hope everyone had a restful break i came back with laryngitis so i'm sorry you have to suffer through that um i just want to briefly address the referendum issue um the way i see it the board made a decision to walk a certain path um and my opinion on that path was made very clear at the february 22nd meeting i encourage people to take a look at that if they want to understand that decision but moving forward we need to uh move on as a board and not dwell on it on every decision so if that's the path the board wants to take i'm going to do my best as a board
042member to help us uh walk that path as best as we can and so that that's just my intention as we move forward tackle and also to lindsay there's light at the end of the tunnel but thank you to youtube and to the teachers that we receive those letters from we do hear you um i think there is a time for us to consider those things and you will consider those things so i just want to make sure that you know that all the board members are supporting our teachers um we'll make the appropriate decisions when we have all that information in front of us i'll just share a couple things real quick first of all welcome back to everyone who got to participate in spring break and uh you brought back some years like
043larry jacobs has already done that but i hope everybody had a good time um a couple comments uh it's it's no secret that there's a board we've had some struggles and issues um from time to time but i just want to commend the board i think the superhead services work together pretty well wasn't perfect no but we didn't did pretty well i appreciate the statutes and efforts on that and uh we've got an exciting announcement here shortly pretty much um financial update heather we are 66 done with um the year but we have 61 um actually of the revenue that is due to the fact that our 2021 levy we will not start receiving that money until may um not as well as the fact that i have put in for a permanent transfer for
044an o m but i'm not going to do that until i know what the imbalances are because if i don't have to i won't do it for working cash um the expenses look right on track but we're actually trending a little bit better than even what it looks because we're always behind a little bit with our grant expenditures because they are reimbursable so i will be doing the expense reports in march um at the end of march for january february march and then we'll receive that money back so we're we're actually training pretty well but i also want to take this time thank you for consolidating uh some of my things i do appreciate that but i did want to introduce since he came tonight this is mr greg wolf he is from watts copy
045systems um and he is the one that the winner of the bid they came in at the lowest not only the lowest for this year but actually lower than what we approved five years ago so um i worked with him with actually several different companies so i look forward to working with him like that so thank you questions for heaven thank you christine you've had a chance for an opportunity to review the report i don't have any additional information i'm happy to answer any questions you might have questions for christine ted back to roma nicole so i just wanted to provide a little clarification on the steam camp that we'll be offering this summer so our attendance for jumpstart the last couple of years has been declining and that typically targets students that have maybe
046have some academic struggles during the year so in partnering with niu this steam camp is a way to hopefully make that summer school jumpstart more engaging it's going to be literacy based with lots of hands-on activities we're working with them right now to develop the materials we should have that uh we'll have them by the end of the school year and then they'll come and provide some professional developments that teachers have signed up to utilize this materials um so that the camp will be open first to our kids that receive um might need some interventions some additional supports and then the remaining slots based on the number of teachers we have when we open up then to anybody that they want to attend um looks like right now based on the teachers that have signed
047up k-8 will probably be able to run about 120 kids which is well more than than we had attend jump start in the past so i'm hopeful that by changing it and making it maybe more math science art and literacy based that it will just appeal to more students and we'll be able to get more kids engaged if you have questions about regular summer schools for dailies here they'll probably do that one with high school numbers no questions bender be able to answer those i will put a little shout out that we aren't offering dual credit this summer for the first time so super excited about that opportunity it's a great way for for kids to get some college credit ahead of time at a much lower cost appearance so be sure you sign up
048for that and i cannot stress enough um the first year experience course we did not get enough enrollment to run that in the fall for next school year but if you have kids that will be taking ap courses no credit courses i just would really encourage you to have your kids sign up for that first year experience course it's all about time management organizational skills even if your kids not taking no credit it's a great it's a great first course um to do um for kids um just lifelong planning and organization to benefit from that so happy to answer any other questions you might have nicole i know you've been working on putting the curriculum online um and um one thing that i'm interested in is having um things that have already been produced like
049syllabi from junior high high school and even reading lists that are part of that you can go so by put it together for us as a forward type package so that we can easily see that i know that sometimes teachers will put it on different websites of their own and we're not asking for or i'm not asking for anybody to produce new material but just material that they have that we could compile in a way that you can look through um pretty quickly um so can i ask a question with that um so we've asked the teachers for 612 to have that ready at the start of the year for all courses and classes um if we put that up on the curriculum page under like under sixth grade there would be all the stills
050idea for sixth grade if you put it up for seventh grade and would that be in a kind of way where then you that would be okay i think that um i would like to have it before next fall if it's already produced you know if it means just by transferring the file to put in that spot that would be great but like i said i'm not asking for teachers to generate new documents that aren't already in place but they've already got that information and that we can put it forward so we can look at it um that would be and i'm speaking for myself so other board members can speak up if they would desire the same information or not but um that's something that i would be interested in can i can i
051clarify what is your what's your goal well i want to know what's being taught right so i just want to make sure that it's like just as a parent you just want to be more informed it's not to bring it back to the board so that we're proving what's in this no absolutely not it's it's uh as a as a parent and as a board member um i i would like to know what's being how to be instructed and you're always welcome to contact the passion i mean i've just encouraged parents that they have questions about the being positive so now remember when we talked those are like books that are used like across the grade level so we just put them up in the fall so they haven't been updated yet because that was
052the intended list for this it was never intended to be a gotcha so we put up you know calling everybody clear because there was one book that came up and it wasn't we put up what we knew at the time and there was a book that ended up being used across the whole grade level and had never been used across the grade level before so it was not it was just one of those things that happened but the intent is the teacher's best intent that the books that are out there are the books that are used across grade level i'm going to tell you if we do the best we can there will be other books that will be taught to communicate with your child's teacher they're happy to share with me what's going on
053in the classroom so i can't promise that we don't put that list up and there still won't be a book that's taught that's not on that list we do the best we can so i totally understand that i guess what i'm saying is once we identify that there is a book that's omitted from the list i would appreciate it now i'm not criticizing the person who didn't put it up i'm just saying now that we're aware that there's a book listed maybe we can add it to the list and that would make the list work we can add it for next year if it's a i don't know that that book is going to be used i i don't know if that's intense enough to use but absolutely the intent of that that was going
054thank you yeah dr hall thank you i'm happy to announce the first ever state district breakfast which will be april 26th something i wanted to do for a couple of years um 11th house so i'm happy to be able to do that maybe just one time and hand it off to our new superintendent in the future if it's something that he wants to do and just look at his valuable um way to update our community leaders on this phenomenal district and just kind of give a snapshot of what's happened this year and brief overview of teaching and learning curriculum facilities and other pertinent information so that's going to be april 26th and uh in the morning we'll serve a light breakfast um thank you to corn belt for uh their willingness to host this and
055they're in their room there the big meeting room so i'm looking forward to that and we'll get out some invitations and information about that in early april and um i know everybody can read my report but i do just want to congratulate publicly cc abramson and john singer they were named to the ihsa allstate academic team and just having one one of your students receive this accolade is amazing but to have two students is really just incredible and outstanding so congratulations to them we will have them at our next board meeting as well as our wrestling team to congratulate them on bringing back children from state team tools so it's been a been a great winter for our students and appreciate everybody's hard work questions right all right i'll run you regular business item number
056one um board president recognized board of education approve both the superhead contract is discussion or comments i will say we did have the opportunity to talk to people around the state different positions and everyone that has run across dr lee in the past has nothing but tremendous things to say about on it i got a call from the news goes at dave him and dave was like this kenny lee guy yeah is he the guy who used to play football at paxton yeah i think so dave he was he was such a great kid we loved him when he was a student my kid played football for four years and started i don't know they know who he is but they you know it was just indicative of the feedback that we received on this
057and i for one step happy any other comments thoughts before we voted i don't want to echo your comment earlier about how refreshing it was as a team as a board to come together and do the interviews and i mean we just had so much fun with one another and i just really appreciated knowing that we all had a common goal to bring a stubborn leader to the district and um it was it was wonderful and i just i i really think that there's an indication of you know we're on the right path um i'm incredibly excited um that dr lee decided to to join us i'll be honest i was very worried the state of education right now is not something that people are jumping into excitedly and um to have a superintendent coming
058to us with experience in that k-12 district in a high school district having been a teacher having been an administrator beyond just being a superintendent is unbelievable so i'm very excited i know yes tennessee yes schultz yeah nick murray yes glam yes yes congratulations yes [Laughter] thank you very much i i play football at paxton in the in the uh early to mid 90s and for those of you at the baseball game tonight you can see i did not play baseball i apologize for my pitching skills but i can i can always work on that um i appreciate this opportunity i i have been really taken aback by the um text messages and phone calls and emails that i have received since this announcement came out and coupled with those announcements of welcome let us
059know if you need anything has has also been this is a great community to live in and this is a great place for kids to go to school and as i shared in the interview process that uh in going through the buildings with the other administrators on that friday in march it really solidified my need to get back into central illinois and to get back into the k-12 setting and certainly the response from the administrators and our community members and our board of education uh has solidified that even more the the pride that the members of this community and pride that our community stakeholders and staff have communicated to me in this district has solidified that even even more so than that so as i mentioned through the interview process i'm committed to this position
060for years to come and i'm committed committed to collaborating with all of our stakeholders um to continue a model of continuous improvement so um with that this is a lot easier on this side but with that being said i know that you have other business to take care of um i thoroughly appreciate this opportunity i'm looking forward to working with you and partnering with you and i i couldn't be more excited and more proud and will will implement an endless work ethic to make sure that i make you proud for making this uh this decision so thank you okay item number two we've moved in the agendas later in the evening item three with resolution vowel question for june 28 20-22 doctor well this is the final step in um moving ahead with placing the
061bond issue on the ballot um this resolution has been directed by the folks at chapman who specialize in this type of things um they improved our agenda and working on the agenda and so um okay so the recommended board of education approved the resolution as it's been provided is there a motion to do that so here's your assignment [Music] discussion can you take us through for those of us who have never done this before um how specific or how general can a question be you get a two-minute time limit um specific specificity depends on the project i guess the more specific it is the more you have to live up to that okay so you know if you say a certain size addition if you say remodeled certain sections of a building you're limited to
062that size of addition that scope will remind when you use broader phrases then you're allowed more more flexibility and as as we've said before at this stage of the process you know dane has done a lot of work but he hasn't actually done designed to the extent where you can really have a better handle on exactly what that's going to cost and of course we all know that things are changing and so you know to to try to make it too specific would really limit the board's ability you know both positively or potentially negative um you know you said 100 000 square foot edition and the bids came in such that you had to chop five thousand dollars off or five thousand square feet you're stuck yeah vice versa if if you know bids came
063in great and you get five thousand square feet yeah as long as it's still an addition a renovation you know you could get caught within these those frames and i remember the last time you had mentioned that it needs to be specific enough to stay um replace the junior high we couldn't say to replace a school [Music] by saying replace the junior high you then give yourself room to if the board determines at a later date they want to use bond proceeds to demolish the junior high you can do that okay if you just said build a new school building or build a new middle school building i don't remember what i said before if you if you say middle school would have to stay middle school for life you can't change it later um
064you you no longer you'd have to then have another referendum even if you didn't need money you'd have to go to the voters and say we have two million dollars left over please allow us to spend that two million dollars to take down the building so it's not staying there as an eyesore and so you know that's that's why we chose that language um in consultation with bond council was they felt that that gave the flexibility then to the future accord or board or if you just use that language and then decide we don't want to demolish it because you know the village wants to take it over and make it you know negotiate whatever [Music] i understand that this will pass but i still feel i have to say [Music] i feel like asking
065people to increase their property taxes by 20 without really be able to say that we're going to address that building for all students that they're responsible and muhammad is a town which a lot of people are blessed with well but for people in the middle class and below a per year increase and property taxes really a significant check for their households and so i don't agree that we should ask people to sacrifice unless you can be sure of you solve this space issue for all of your students and this wording on the bond connects to building a junior high and services to a transportation center it doesn't the wording like kevin said is very general for the other buildings and so in the likely event that the junior high project is going to exceed the
06651 million dollars that are just currently allocated to it [Music] and i just think we have an urgent need to provide classroom space for all of our students in all of our buildings um and so you know we haven't had that great of a track record but this building space um and with the village being prioritizing new growth and that wasn't really considered i just i feel like i support all of our teachers and students having spacious modern classmates and i feel so the wording on this ballot would only support a segment of our teachers um while asking our community just to sacrifice a lot and i think there's a better way to provide this so that is fine what about build and equip additions to and alter the pair and put existing useful buildings
067makes you think that you aren't being held [Music] so if the junior high building ends up costing 80 million and there's only 18 million dollars left [Music] something has to be done at another building but it doesn't specify what it doesn't specify this which for a good reason i understood what kevin said but it it specifies we're going to go to junior high which you desperately need don't hear what i'm not saying we desperately need space for this used up on the junior high and then we have to build a new transportation center because that's specified in here right then where are we going to get the money to do anything with the trail they might have to do a really scaled down version of what they have [Music] and so while i understand i
068totally understand why we would not specify things we specified two of the things and i just feel like this is such a sacrifice for people that there are so many people in our town who are saying well i don't really want to pay another thousand or fifteen hundred or eight hundred dollars in taxes it's not a choice between how they're going to feed their family or how they're gonna provide their reasons with gas prices going up inflation going up i just [Music] i that's just how i feel i'll just go into the transportation sector [Music] certainly in a situation where building begins and it's costing more than and that what would happen well as far as project side of things um first of all there are bids taken um the only thing that increases those
069contracts are either dramatically unforeseen things something that's under the ground or something like that um besides though once a bid happens they're on the hook to deliver the project within that now if it's a general contractor's construction manager it's different as far as who they're coming from but really once that bid happens through the design process what happens is that you know after our friends there's scopes in different buildings you start at a really high level you know you start allocating funds right now we've got this 50 and 20 and 12 and five yeah we might find that we only need three out there we might find them we need seven but those are all things that really there are some of those costs built in for some other flexibility that they move around we
070don't go we don't get through design and we decide we design a middle school that's taking everything else yeah we we have an opportunity far before that to adjust and realign and make sure that we if you will you know meet the intended plan you know touching all the schools because i know that's an important piece that's one of the first things we heard um so once the bits are taken you know i mean if if steel prices tripled we might have a contract with the contest who says well i can't do this well they better be folding because if they're not holding they really don't have a way out of it literally like that's where it comes they're not going to do it there are performance bonds that we collect on that they pay
071the difference to that that's by all we have to have you know design phase is where we've got to be cognizant and we'll talk about it through it you know different design phases so i i hear you probably and i i also hear the piece about we haven't had a chance to have conversations about designing buildings and so i would hate to say build and equip um seven classroom additions to and you know whatever if they come back and say actually we would like just two extra large classrooms and we're gonna do multi-classroom spaces or you know open classroom concept again whatever so just saying you know you but that that piece i i do appreciate that flexibility in there and um you know i kind of like the idea of even just having even
072more flexible you know a building um and that way if something comes out that we're like well maybe that's not the change but i do appreciate that we need to have a little bit more specificity throughout this process as david was trying to cost out some estimates um [Music] and we want to right on the other hand we don't want to budget so much money we're borrowing more money than we'll ever need and not being stewards of people's money either so there's an effort to really try to help and make sure we're protected if costs continue to go up like they have been doing throughout the process be prepared for that on the other hand we don't need to be lying in the piggy bank and just collide with it that's real money that people
073are going back so i think there's been an attempt guarantees there are no guarantees i think we've done our best to make responsible decisions based on the data that we've got in the information that we have and i appreciate that about the process from the very beginning folks my understanding is when we start to get beds and you start to do more detail planning you'll circle back with the board to help make some of the bigger decisions about priorities you know you know let's say everything is more expensive than we expected by 20 baby the question is that well do we go with one gym versus two or do we remove the additional mpe those kinds of decisions you're you would come back to the board yeah yeah so i i understand that concern but
074i feel like that's a problem we deal with when it comes up if it comes out so the number one thing is that you know there's really three big phases to design schematic design whereas the number of rooms where they are next to each other really fuzzy lining design development very solid big problems then we have construction documents where we detail it out there are estimates through that whole process i was taught my first year as an architect that when you hit one of those points and there's a budget overrun you don't just show up to the meeting with the news and budget you better have ideas of how you get in line right so that's where alternate bids come in that's where like you said one jeff versus two yeah that's where we asked
075the administrators well which you know so we come if you will armed with not only ideas but the ones that are most palatable to the users what we see is the most viable that may be i mean there are even pieces that you just put on hold you just say hey we're not going to buy furniture for that wing until we're done with the addition over wherever because then you really start to get a better feel for yourself but yes all those have to come back through the board because there's we ask for authorization to proceed the dvd and that's with an understanding of what that plan is just we don't just take it from you know june 29 and then go to bed there's here's more that's poor us too because i want to
076make sure you know exactly and the community knows exactly someone speak to so i know we would not believe stuck out in this language was the reference of about a different site owned by the school district um am i correct that that means that we wouldn't be able to build anything on the current junior high site based on that language because it says on a different site you're going to build the junior high on a different site it's really referencing the junior okay so we could potentially build something earlier the transportation center on the junior high site that's not why do we even venture a record site in the late [Music] are you going to be acquiring land with these funds so you're putting that issue to bed we own a site so that would
077be something that would be credited if this is yes the donor so with this language the district could theoretically with cash let's say buy land and build on a different site if we were so important yeah because you're not building on the site well that's what i want to make sure it's not about it now it's not we do we're not leasing basically just again prohibiting the use of bond proceeds to acquire new facility new structure has to be specific so it's not that it's more important you're using sales tax [Music] any other questions yes no [Laughter] we do not have any space nothing in junior high and as much as we want all of this to appear overnight it's not going to so for next year we would like we have looked at several
078different options but we would like to remodel the bathroom slash wrestling room um to create two more classrooms at least two more offices so that we have the space we need for now and we did look at other options that were more expensive as much as i'd love to put a nice portable in front of the thing and i'm kidding but i'm just saying just to show our need um that was actually twice the price how much was the quote for supportable classrooms for two classrooms it was double the price with about 200 and something that we had gotten that was progressive yeah plus all the things that we would need to have to send out there like um and the only thing that we didn't include was um and that meant that they would
079have to actually go back inside you know to use the restrooms or whatnot but that would have been even more expensive [Music] second if this is difficult right here on the spot i can do it offline but is there anyone that could show a floor plan where the building or where the room is that we're talking about the two classrooms are going to be against the east wall of the rest of the ocean okay and then smashing the two smaller offices would be if you go into the wrestling room from the internal hallway okay you correct and then once yeah yeah and then there's a small classroom to the right of all classroom offices so what is and what are the two classrooms can be used for the two offices so of the five new
080rooms one will be agriculture education okay one would be a teacher that's on a cart right now she teaches science and math um one would be a special special education class you know both these special education classrooms and two smaller classrooms and then one would be a multi-use it's a very small little office okay so yep if you will in the real estate world we have a few options i know steve has updated can't tell all right any questions yes yes okay okay let me find my list here don't forget at this time we're going to go into closed session 4-1 collective bargaining negotiations between public audience employees our representatives our liberation's concerning salary special for longer class employees we're going to go into um for personal reasons complaint appointment employment compensation just from performance
081which is educational um [Music] other matters i believe that covers everything one way or another all right because you're mostly going to go session for those reasons for a second segment and uh lyon yes yes henry yes schultz yes mcmurray yes tennessee yes mcconnell yes we thank everyone for being here tonight at the conclusion of closed session we will come back to the whole procession and address administrative contracts from this year so we'll be that later on tonight other than that have a fantastic night thanks for being here