Mahomet-Seymour Board of Education Meeting 6-22-20

001you were live good evening everybody I understand we do have the live stream up and running now I apologize for a couple minutes late we had a technical glitch there just a couple minutes before 7 which kind of set everything back but I think we are ready to go so at this time I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Mohamad SE Board of Education and call that meeting to order at 7:05 p.m on Monday June 22nd I'd like to remind those in the room to sign on cell phones I'd like to remind visitors and we do have some tonight to facilitate an effective meeting if you'd like to wish make comments please fill out the visitor guideline sheet which on the tables outside complete the public participation form and get those

002to Dawn I think everyone uh that wants to do that has had an opportunity to do that we've been a communication with that group tonight so thank you all for being here and could we have a roll call please here Keith here hen here Schultz here Larson here Tennesse here here and could we stand for the pledge I PL Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice thank you everyone board members you have had an opportunity to review the agenda for tonight's meeting um is there a motion to approve the agenda so thank you Jeremy is there a second second discussion on the agenda I make a motion that we move agenda item 9 B7 to the

003consent agenda that's the insurance bid from he the insurance bid but it is listed as a discussion and an action item so then we do it all once he are you on do you have any problems with that no I do not okay so we're going to move 9 B7 Insurance bid to the consent agenda there a second okay um I need a roll call vote on the moveing that the consent agenda tennessy yes schz yes Kei yes Gil yes enris yes Larson yes M yes so the consent agenda now includes minutes of previous meetings bills to be paid the treasures report Personnel changes uh disposition of minutes of closed sessions in the consent agenda or I'm sorry the insurance bid is there a motion to approve the consent well wait a minute okay is

004there so we now at the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as it's presented do we approve the agenda or did we just oh no we did not approve the agenda thank you Don all right so now we've got the agenda with a consent agenda modifi is there other discussion on the agenda itself uh I'd like to make a similar motion to move 9 B12 to the consent agenda as well I I make a second I second that can is there anything else you want to move no that was the only two okay okay discussion on that than a roll call vote this is to move item 12 to the consent agenda Henri yes Hennessy yes having a hard time heing can't hear you SCH yes lson yes G yes

005Keith yeah M yes any other discussion on the agenda okay can I have a roll call vote to approve the agenda Larson yes Henri yes Gil yes Hennessy yes I saw her yes thank you Keith yes Schultz yes M can I ask a question so Canon Colleen can you not be seen because at least with Megan when we can't hear her we can see her thumbs up or we can watch her words can you not be seen because it sure is a better way to communicate uh yeah I'm sorry M my connection is just too unstable for that mine is going in and out so I'll try try to put it on as often as thanks I just at least I can look up at Megan thank you that' be helpful thank you okay next

006we're item five consent agenda the consent agenda as amended earlier includes minutes of previous meetings bills Treasures report Personnel changes Clos session minutes and now the insurance bid and the vacation rollover item is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as it now stands so moved is there a second second discussion on the consent agenda roll call vote [Music] please show no yes Larson yes ke no Hennessy no Henri yes mome yes agenda is approved um item six donations Dr Hall um we have a donation of $75 to Lincoln Trail from Lisa Powell for the give five backpack program a $1,000 donation to The Muhammad Seymour Junior High athletic programs from an anonymous donor First State Bank of forest donate $1,500 cash for Mom's Pantry um another $500 Anonymous donation uh cash for Mom's

007pantry and then a $0000 donation to The District from Kine Williams for masks for a total of $3,175 okay so those are the donations they um the recommendation from the superintendent is to approve the donations as presented is there a motion to do that so moved thank you is there a second second second have a motion by colen a second by Jeremy further discussion on donation thank you there you go great people helping us out again we is much appreciated everybody we a roll call vote please yes yes yes Henri yes Schultz yes Giles yes mome yes all right it is now communication time is there anything from the PTO tonight about msea Foundation worry nope okay visitors I think we had um three by email and some folks um staged outside that would like

008to make comments tonight I'd like to remind everybody that in our um in our public comment time as we restructured that several months ago we've got a total of 30 minutes allotted for public comment time um 20 minutes is supposed to be limited to a single topic most of these tonight I think are the same topic we will go ahead and allow up to 30 minutes total if if if it goes longer than 20 I I I think this is an important topic and we want to Sure hear what people have to say about it so we'll we'll let it go longer than 20 if nobody has an objection but I would like to our 30 total time can I ask a question sure um I was under the impression that our new rule said

009just that there was a minimum time of 30 minutes I didn't realize there was a Max you heard a minutum we're checking well I mean we can get started maybe certainly we can get started yeah I I think we'll be done under the unless I don't have all the sheets so let's go ahead and start daong with the emails that came in one um is from bob Knight he says to the muhamad Seymour Board of Education regarding the Muhammad Seymour anti-racism resolution I encourage the board not to adopt or execute this resolution the members of the School Board have not studied nor are experts in the field of systemic racism and are therefore not qualified to assert with any Authority that systemic racism is real in American society every school board and School District should

010certainly be sensitive and trained to avoid implicit bias Ms is no different in that respect and should always work to avoid B bias in every way I believe Muhammad Seymour should teach students and staff to be analytical thinkers who can assess the situation recognize bias and come to a logical conclusion on how the situation should be handled the strategy can be applied to every problem and issue that occurs in life this resolution is strictly a political response to the current events in America and should not be adopted Bob night thanks for sharing Bob okay next one do sorry we got Don very busy this one is from Jessica stair class of 2009 she writes dear Dr Lindsey Hall school board members and administrators I write to you today an acknowledgement of the statement released by

011Dr Hall on June 7th and inlight of the continued violence against black Americans in our country as a graduate of Muhammad Seymour High School and one of the few students of color during my time in the Mohammad Seymour School District I am proud of the work that students and community members have done in advocacy for black lives matter as an educator and leader within my own District I am concerned about the lack of meaningful and actionable steps that the district will take to further support students furthest from educational Justice I was academically successful during my time in the Muhammad seor school district and highly involved within the Arts of in the community I am grateful for the work and support of many highly qualified Educators that not only supported my learning but inspired me to

012move into the field of education however this was in spite of the inequities and discrimination that I faced as a queer person of color within the school district I experienced both implicit and explicit racism and homophobia from staff community members and students while I recognize that a school district has a limited scope in terms of controlling specific microagressions it shows its values through actions budgetary spending professional developments curriculum development and public statements as Educators and as school leadership who send messages through what we allow to happen within the walls of our school and how we react as a system taking a stance to support and uplift student Voice by speaking up against hateful rhetoric is an excellent first step in ensuring that our students do not continue to experience educational trauma in our institutions I

013am proud and excited to hear about the work being done for diversity training for professional development I encourage Mohammad seamour leadership to invest deeply in this work unfortunately diversity training alone is not sufficient to interrupt the harmful narratives put forward through our ccul choices pedagogy and instruction diversity training is an excellent start but institutionalizing racial equity requires systemic change I would recommend investigating anti-racist teaching models that approach a shift in both content and pedagog pedagogy in our educational practices in my advocacy work I have learned that change takes time and persistence but it also takes meaningful investment and accountability for leadership I Rec I recommend the following recognize the complicity of Mohammad Seymour and racism our town is unique in it segregation and overwhelmingly homogeneous population issue a public statement with a clarified stance and

014apology in recognition of the harm contained in the letter sent to community and staff refrain from supporting sro's in statements about police violence and murder invest in training led by vioc so I'm not sure if s what that stands um and Educators in long-term professional development develop a strategic plan that includes an investment in culturally responsive teaching practices ethics studies Frameworks critical race Theory anti-bias educational strategies and other anti-racist teaching models unfortunately the messaging I received through my schooling indicated to me that even through my academic and professional successes I would be unwelcome in mohammd Seymour I have faith through persistence vulnerability and bravery this can change for our students to come it is a worthy fight one that I hope Mohammad Seer leadership will pursue sincerely Jessica stair CL of 2009 black indigenous people

015of color thank you right all right this one is from Nikki Galler Nikki writes dear Muhammad see more Board of UC ation and Dr Hall it is with care and concern for the students of Muhammad Seymour schools and the reputation of our community that I write to you regarding the proposed anti-racism resolution as a 15-year resident of Muhammad and with three children currently in our schools I have a vested interest in the quality of Education put for as a veteran educator I realize the importance of growth within my pedagogical practices to reflect global national and logical and local issues and Chang es over time without a doubt Educators everywhere must do this in response to these rapidly Changing Times the covid pandemic in George Floyd's death bring about a Wy responsibility and unique opportunity for

016our schools they bring an opportunity to open conversation get feedback and move forward responsibly in a datadriven environment a school board's task is to gather evidence gain feedback from stakeholders and provide support where needed ining appropriate professional development potential changes to curriculum and providing an opportunity opportunity for pedagogical growth in a collaborative not top- down Fashion After review of the anti-racism resolution and adjoining letters addendum I have many questions that will limit my response to my main concerns first the anti-racism resolution alleges School boards to be able to direct what shall be taught and what apparatus shall be used this is misleading because isv gives each School District Direction Through the Illinois State Standards SLC Common Core Curriculum choice is actually Limited in many ways in my experience a task force of willing Educators should

017de delve into the standards and make adjustments where appropriate as common forc3 dictates an inquiry-driven approach Educators would have many opportunities to infuse diversity into the already existing curriculum this type of task force takes time to measure what is currently being done and what can be improved two the anti-racism resolution organizer want a response and plan potential plan from Dr Hall by August 2020 this is a ridiculous request in the face of an unknown school year where all efforts must be put into preparing for a variety of scenarios certainly we should start conversations and get task forces started but demanding this progress by August 2020 is unrealistic and frankly disrespectful three based on the demographics listed by the anti-racism resolution Mohammed Seymour has 1.1% black 4.7% Hispanic 2.2% Asian and 4.7% mixed race what about

018an indianamerican demographics in our district it is also a growing portion of our student body in an effort to serve our student body best this day data should drive any and all efforts at cultural competency do we have enough eell services in our buildings to serve one of our highest student of color populations Hispanics what are the individual buildings doing within their school Improvement framework to serve these students better there is much to learn about what is already being done within each of our buildings before dictates come down from our school board I also can't help but think about our students of poverty and and how we may serve them better within our schools I doubt this group had a conversation with Dr Hall about what is already in place or being done before writing

019the res letters and resolution in my experience collaboration is always better than confrontation in terms of making progress I have many other concerns including vague accusations regarding Muhammad Seymour staff but we'll end with this there is always room for growth and Improvement within any school district Mohammad Seymour has the strong Foundation to begin these conversations with all vested stakeholders not just those who signed a petition community members SLC current taxpayers student body administrators teachers those in the trenches should be the ones whose voices hold most value thank you for your time Nikki Galler thank you Nikki thank you Nikki and thank you uh everyone who send in emails and Dawn for reading those for us uh we do have some folks that opted to come and speak in person we made arrangements for that tonight

020and Steve is going to um handle bringing them in out room oh um do they have an order they'd like to come in well they were in order how we signed up so just whoever's first out there y first well yeah according to this hi there can I take this off yeah great thanks do you want us to put ours on no I'm good yeah my name is Laura hfield um thank you for your time I am a parent and a Community member I've actually lived here for um gosh over 20 years now I've raised my kids in the district um I'm also a former classroom teacher um I'm currently a professor and teacher educator um in school of teaching and learning at Illinois State University I would like to speak to how the district

021can move forward with respect to addressing historical and systemic racism and racial inequities first and foremost I am in support of the proposed Schoolboard anti-racism resolution I think there have been some important points raised um but I do think that that's something that school board should move forward with now as a white woman I was not taught to critically examine my racial privilege or to understand systemic inequities I certainly wasn't in my own K through 12 schooling it really wasn't until later in my college and graduate school that I came upon those ideas um but we need to do better for our children the research is very clear that even at a very young age uh even at kindergarten in a developmentally appropriate way children can be taught about not just treating everybody alike but

022can be taught about systemic uh inequities they understand race at a very young age and so saying I don't see color is just not enough um so in particular I think that I would like to see some more explicit and critical instruction happening around systemic racial inequities in our classrooms across the P 12 Spectrum but how do they move forward this is a very emotionally fraught topic um as a teacher educator I believe we must start we must start with our District's most valuable asset and that is our teachers our brilliant resourceful giving thought thoughtful and caring teachers they are amazing people and they are unparalleled and they and we actually I as well I'm also a teacher I'm an educator we all are also human we are humans who swim in the same ocean

023of system systemic racial inequities so this isn't a matter of individuals being racists or labeling individuals and calling out and finger pointing at individual who may have made some mistakes I think we all have as a white woman I shter to think about the times that I have probably inadvertently engaged in racial or other microaggressions right um so it's not a matter of pointing fingers um I think that really it should be about moving forward to understand how we as teachers and as a community can more productively and critically understand systemic inequities and teach our children across the K through 12 Spectrum to do the same so with that in mind in addition to taking up and passing the anti-racism resolution I would like to see the district seek an outside educational expert perhaps beginning

024with the College of Education at the University of Illinois to conduct an independent equity and social justice audit this would examine School climate curriculum achievement discipline other kinds of support um community experiences professional devel development um so this can't just look at numbers right um you know we can't just look at things like standardized test scores and demographics really it needs to be critical and it needs to be multi-dimensional its emphasis should be on the district and the schools as systems it is my belief that such an audit should in no way shape or form be an evaluation of individual teachers or staff rather I think we need to be Consulting with the those teachers who know our students so well sometimes better than the vs do um and really Consulting with them um and

025working with teachers um in this process and as a Way Forward I believe that in addition to the important and passionate testimonies that we are continuing to hear of current students and alumni that the district has received that such an equity audit conducted by a local expert group outside the district could really help provide a productive way forward thank thank you very much for your time thank you for [Music] coming good evening um for those who may not know me my name is l Coulson I am a 2014 Mohammad simmer graduate I started in kindergarten came all the way through um I attended ISU after that got my degree in bilingual Elementary education and then I recently wrapped up my master of education at Marat University um my original plan this evening was to read

026the letter that I wrote representing M fellow Muhammad sour longai and community members calling for a focus on anti-racist and professional development among other things however knowing that the board and many folks um who are listening in virtually have already had the opportunity to read that letter um I've opted to go a different route um I would like to acknowledge that I know that the work we're asking the district and administrators and teachers to take on is not easy it is hard to take a look at yourself your teaching practices your professional development and budget priorities uh your curriculum and everything that you thought you knew about the world and realize that despite all of your best efforts putting in countless hours and doing your best to serve students there are still students who are

027being underserved and at times even harmed anti-racist work is deeply personal and they can hurt sometimes often what you must unlearn and then relearn are things that you never realize were an issue because it is part of the very fabric of our society however it will be worth it to make sure students of color are supported and the next generation of children move into adulthood prepared to dismantle systems of Oppression when they encounter them and that they are ready to navigate a diverse Global Workforce it is with that in mind that I encourage the district to First make systemic racism and the related ongoing professional development and curriculum redesign that would accompany that a top priority um second in conjunction with local University experts in the field of Education develop a concrete plan for ongoing

028meaningful professional development which focuses not not only on diversity inclusion but specifically on systemic Injustice uh third develop culturally competent curriculum which is grounded in social justice and specifically addresses race privilege power and more um and this curriculum should not be eurocentric particularly when it comes to history um and finally I would like to Echo L hands Fields uh topic that um it would be wonderful to see someone brought in from outside to to conduct to conduct an equity audit for the district uh I recognized that covid-19 brings many challenges to Educators and that in many cases it must take precedence um I'm not immune to that I work for universities we're also experiencing some of those challenges um while certain components of the requested anti-racism efforts may not be able to be implemented until

029later on due to the distance learning that might take place in Fall 2020 I do firmly believe that some attention and um whatever uh capacity that might look like um can be given to these efforts even in the midst of covid-19 and finally I imagine that there are those who saw the rally of the signs outside this evening um my letter circulating around social media and um our various calls for more training curriculum changes as an attack on Mohammed teachers however I hope that is not what readers of my letter or attendees of tonight's meeting take away from our requests they say it takes a village to raise a child and as the child of muhhamad teacher the village that raised me was Muhammad teachers um you know Muhammad teachers Babys sat me they attended

030my birthday parties they vacationed with me they visited me when I took summer internships in other states and those relationships continue today as many are actually invited to my wedding I cherish the Muhammad teachers that have been in my life and I know firsthand the incredibly hard work that they put in to see their students grow and succeed the concerns we have and the requests that we bring up are not intended to be an attack on teachers rather they are an invitation to the district um particularly the school board and administration to enter the national conversation on systemic racism Center social justice and its pedagogy and commit to doing better through concrete actions which will dismantle systemic racism and support students of color to paraphrase the wise words of M Angelou once you know better

031you can do better and mohamd Seymour we're aiming to help you know better we hope that you all will choose to do better thank you you your about 10 days ago I submitted a letter to Mohammad School Board talking about racism in our school district I know there are many students of color in the district who have had negative experiences based on the color of their skin and as a white person I want privilege to be appeal to any people of color in the district who wanted to share their story I heard back from one board member I also heard back from Dr Hall and I decided to revise what I'm going to say tonight based on the reactions that I got TR Carpenter a former student talked about viewing The Bugs Bunny nips the

032nips cartoon multiple times as a student at mohamed's Teamwork for those who don't know the nips and nips for team depicts Japanese during World War II as racially inferior traitor Global ingredient Carpenter said once the video was over the teacher asked for our opinions a boy decided to speak up and say how he thought it was funny and the teacher laughed along with him and said yeah it's a good video then I promptly raised my hand in stated how racist the video is and how uncomfortable I was watching it to which the teacher immediately changed tone and said yes it is a very racist video and moved on with his lecture that was it no reprend on the student laughing no teaching them why it's not okay to laugh at this and think it's a

033funny video so Matthews had to deal with students making fun for skin color and hair texture teachers did not correct or teach about how it's not okay instead she remembers I have been called the N word once by an adult and a couple times by my peers Trinity re had similar experiences which were also addressed by this ST which were also never addressed by the staff she remembers gaining confidence in who she is in her ethnicity but it was met with people trying to throw things in her hair saying Tren it's so dark in here I can't see you RDS take take away from Muhammad Sor high school isn't great in general it was extremely exhausting trying to teach myself that my ethnicity and culture was Valu while facing so many external factors that consistently

034interacted against that it was just something that is so significant that is that it has caused me to really never want to be considered a part of the Muhammad SE more alumni these are just some of the stories included in my letter and it that was presented the to the board of education and posted on Facebook these stories were meant to resonate with everyone who WR them I could have given some statistics about racism in Muhammad but would you remember it would you think about it would you be trying to hunt down who the allegations are about probably not stories resonate with people and these are real hard stories that we need to hear we can't change until we realize truly what the problem is and these alumni who shared their story show us what

035the problem is this is not a problem with a singular person or even a small group this is a schoolwide environment that allows students to be heard this District like all districts has things it needs to work on for the betterment of all students students of color are hurting students who are part of the lgbtq community are hurting students who are women are hurting students who aren't Christian are hurting students of low socioeconomic status are hurting even many of the students whose tests were Bri about seem like there the cre of crop around here H students cut feel isolated talk about suicide and do drugs please know that the letter you received from me will not be the last I'm going to continue to be a voice of those who are hurting because of our

036schools we need you to listen we need you to believe in us we need you to offer a space where change is accepted so that we can be a school district where kids feel welcome safe and accepted thanks hello H thank you everyone for letting me speak today uh my name is Meg Tucker I am 31 I attended theore High School from 2005 to 2007 I also co-wrote the addendum to the alumni letter with my sister Ash Tucker I did not initially plan on speaking today um and I wanted to Express that I'm incredibly nervous because I'm going to talk to you a little bit about some of the trauma that I experienced in high school so forgive me if I'm anxious and for lesson eloquent as I wrote this sitting outside just now um

037when I was a student in Mohamad s more high school I like most teenagers was coming into my identity it's a very important part of being in high school figuring out who you are um in 2006 as a junior high school student I started to realize the homophobia that was surrounding me and an effort to protect some of the lgbtqia students including myself I tried to start a GSA which it's my understanding one exists today uh and there are today rainbow stickers on doors and I think that that's that's wonderful that's great um at the time when I tried start a PSA this was in 2006 I was told by the administration behind doors that gay had negative connotations and so a GSA would be out of the question um we settled on a diversity

038Club instead which was small uh potatoes compared to the type of protection and recognition that I wanted for myself and my students uh why is this relevant today with the black lives matter movement well it's relative today because at the last meeting which I actually watched its entirety on bulldog TV which I'm really glad you post that up there I watched the whole thing and I was uh taken a and I heard a very similar rhetoric of this is bad and so we'll give you this instead even though it's not good enough I heard that protests were bad and promise marches were good and I was immediately triggered I was taken right back to being a junior high school a junior in high school and hearing that gay is bad and what that did to

039me you as a 31-year-old today I struggle with um when I I it was sorry I'm missing my place because I'm very emotional thank you again for your patience I don't remember my time in Mohammad Seymour as being a positive thing I moved out I ran away uh the community lost me because I did not see this as a safe place for me to live and to grow and and create a life here this is not because the education was poor the education was great this is not because the Arts and the music were poor they were fantastic I was I was in the drama club I was in the choir I enjoyed all of that it was because largely because of the way that I was treated by the administration of course kids bullied

040me let's set that aside kids are going to bully kids right the administration told me gay had negative connotations so my question to you today I still struggle with the internalized homophobia that was impl implemented in me during that time so and that's because Muhammad was so far behind the rest of the world now you've caught up so now in the black lives matter movement in this moment are you going to be completely behind the ball again are you going to have internalized racism and these black kids and kids of color because you're not showing up and you're not on the same page thank you thank you you can take your hi good evening School Board I'm a fellow um class well I'm a fellow person at Mohamad high school I'm a I'm going to

041be a senior I'm in class of 2021 um I just wanted to speak today specifically about the curriculum in the high school in Social Studies classes so by the end of this um by the end of my senior year I'll pretty much have taken every single social studies class that's offered at the high school and I love the teachers and everything but there is a lot of whitewashing that goes on in these classes and what I would as a concrete policy to implement I would recommend that the classes more reflect the advanced placement program rather than um what we teach right now and what I mean by that is that in for example AP US History you learn a lot more about you know the the darker aspects of US history and not just you

042know the romanticization of of our nation's history and I think you know the advanced placement program is undoubtedly flawed but it is a step in the right direction to have the regular US History course reflect the advanced placement in terms of what is taught obviously there will definitely be different rigor in the courses but in terms of what is taught specifically I recommend that the advanced placement history um is reflected in the regular US History also in um I also took AP government politics and I think in Civics you could reflect um the the curriculum in a similar way in the sense that there's a whole unit in um AP government politics solely on the civil rights movement and civil lities and there's not that same thing I mean I've taken both classes and Civics

043at at high school level is not the same um there just isn't the unit that reflects that uh I'd also like to Second what Dr hansfield Who is my mother said about um an independent audit I think that would be a great idea for the school district because I don't think we should attack individual teachers or anything like that I think it's more of a um way to grow as a school district um you know I'm only going to have one more year at Muhammad and I really did enjoy my time here but I think there are a lot of things that can be fixed and um I hope we make our schools as great as they can be I yield my time and I thank you for yours thanks me 30 minutes it is

04430 minimum so we're good we're good okay um hi my name is Zoe cuy I just graduated with the class of 2020 and I just had some things I wanted to mention today so first of all I would like to mention that I have noticed that our classes have become more diverse and there are more students of color but our faculty is not catching up they are not becoming diverse um fast enough next I would like to mention that I think it is important that we are taught more about black history and the non peaceful protests during the Civil Rights Pro during the Civil Rights Movement um and also in the future I would like the Confederate flag on a shirt or other clo clothing item to be seen as a form of profanity like

045curse words and other types of profanity you would see on other clothing items and um lastly I would like to Echo what Dr hesf said because I thought her message was important thank you thanks your oh cool Hello we can hear you a little bit do I just speak you go okay there's a timer here cool okay so hi my name is book sellers and I graduated from Mohamad High School this year and it took until I was a junior in our schools to be around people of color and people different backgrounds but that was only because I got a job in champagne and I think what heavily attributed to me being introduced people other than me so later on in life was that in the 10 years that I attended Mohamad Sor schools I

046only had one teacher that was a person of Co and I was not taught once in those 10 years about what juneth was and I had to learn about Japanese and tournament camps that happened here in the United States for my peers not for my history teachers despite the fact that I know that it has been brought up to teachers before I even got to that learning level and speaking of our history class is why do we spend weeks learning about how the first people came to America bya land bridge or however the experts want to say but it's a footnote that those same people were later slaughtered by colonizers and why were we only taught about the nonviolent actions in our history classes why are we taught that the Boston Tea Party was miraculous

047genius and it worked but that's that's the end of learning about direct action why do we spend more time learning about oil tycoons than anything about Malcolm X or Marsha P Johnson or any of the other civil rights activists other than Dr Martin Luther King Jr I learned nothing about the LGBT community and how they got their rights and I say that if we can make room for land bridges and oil tycoons and we can make room for people that were fighting back then that are still fighting now for their rights in our curriculums and I Echo what Dr hansfield advocated for the independent audit and finally I would like to see my brother my younger brother entering High School this year have a wider education than I received thank you thank you than you

048hi everybody my name is Blane Brock I graduated early from Mohammed in this December of this past cool um my junior year I spent the first half of the year at Mohammad and the second half at Centennial High School in Champagne being at Centennial which is only 18 minutes from the high school I saw tremendous differences in the class in the classes and in the curriculum while my friends at Mohammad spent a maximum of two weeks on the Civil Rights Movement which was mostly watching a documentary we had two different Pro projects on the Civil Rights Movement we spent a month going deep into each part of the Civil Rights Movement mammed also barely acknowledged the black acknowledged Black History Month while Centennial focused on it not only in the history classes but also in

049the English and speech classes there was an event called black writers reading where students and faculty of all Races would read um would read excerpts of books and articles or poetry by black authors students that were black also had the opportunity to read their own poetry that they have written themselves about their own experiences as black youth and their own experiences with racial Injustice there are many other things that I could go into but I feel like these two examples show that Muhammad and Centennial are very different and how they teach their students and how they acknowledge the history of people of color in America and I think that it's really important that Muhammed uh acknowledges the various uh people of color or the various histories of people of color and acknowledges not only the

050white men history thank you for your time thank you L you can take your mask off I can hear you better that way thank you all right thank you very much for allowing me to speak black lives matter good afternoon my name is Eliz sodos and I am a board of education member in the neighboring School District I'm here to offer a few words about the urg of supporting the student L initiative to dismantle systemic racism and to diversify the staff curriculum and educational experience as a whole from aam students and families racism is a Public Health crisis and how do we respond to other public health crises re-educate we intervene we treat people who are at risk racism directly and seriously harms people of color especially black people this isn't a problem from the

051past it's a problem that's never been solved we white people have marginalized lives voices and experiences of black people beginning more than 400 years ago yes before all of us were born we have inherited the privilege of money of power of connections that allow many of us to ignore how systemic racism harms the physical and mental health of black people it's a very uncomfortable topic to talk about and far secondarily but relevant in a community like Muhammad racism hurts white people too I believe that we have a responsibility as human beings to care for one another and to fight for the basic human rights of one another even if we feel we have nothing to gain in this but I acknowledge that not everyone thinks this way so if you need a practical reason to

052dismantle systemic racism in Muhammad Sor schools it's that this racism is harming you too it's hurting your children the toxic nature of racism teaches hate it teaches a narrow incomplete worldview that gives students an inaccurate understanding of History and their place in the world it denies students the understanding compassion and sense of justice needed to be successful in this life rather than teaching students how to fight for a better world that is just fair and accessible to every person instead they are given the tools to perpetuate racism it is hurting your community by actively excluding people of color and by teaching your children to continue this tradition of marginalizing and hate again not something that any of us necessarily chose to do but it is something that we learn to do in fighting racism and

053all the harm it causes there is no neutral stance we choose to be racist or anti-racist in our Collective actions we choose to allow our systems like our Public School Systems to continue on us it's always been or we commit to making it better by establishing a culture a curriculum and a school climate that is intentionally anti-racist which fights to undo the harm of the centuries of hate needs learn to live out to accomplish this I encourage you all to invest in anti-racism training culturally responsive curriculum and implicit bias training you must also intentionally diversify your staff your history books and the books your kids read for English class this isn't about racist people we aren't fighting you we are fighting collectively the disease of racism that impacts all of us that harms all of

054us but most significantly it harms people of color who have historically carry the burden of surviving in a society that was designed at the beginning to exploit them to hurt them to under educate them to incarcerate them and to kill them the only people who can dismantle the power of systemic racism is the people who perpetuate and that's us white people to those who have been fighting keep going to those who are waking up now join us in this fight history has its eyes on you black lives matter thank you for your time thank you we have have a she okay see is that everybody yes that's fine I just thought we were done but that's okay all right so that takes us through public comment and we would like to thank everyone who came

055to speak uh to us tonight we appreciate hearing your voices and and uh we will have more discussion later on tonight and I'm sure um in future meetings but um thank you for those that were here uh now it's uh time for board members you have had a chance to look at building reports and um if there's comments from board members this would be the time uh for those and we'll start can are you so other us yeah I'm here thank you um so if I happen to break up while I'm talking I'll post this uh as well um I want to thank all the community members and alumni who shared their words with us tonight the recent terrible events and thousand instances of racial discrimination and violence in our nation's history very heavily on

056me these injustices are personally painful every American should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder demanding changes that will protect our brothers and sisters of color and fully dismantle the system of racism embedded in our society I understand the push back from white Americans who feel attacked or prejudged I believe that people are fundamentally good I believe that people scared too easily and our fight or flight Instinct takes over to those who rush to defend themselves their friends their family when instances of system systemic racism is uncovered and projected for all to see I believe you're missing the point we have to prioritize the injustices that must be addressed while you may be correct to feel wronged for being lumped together with others people of color in our nation are being murdered in the streets if you are privil

057like me and have not had the experience of an owner following you through a store carefully watching you because of the color of your skin if you are privileged like me and have never had a police officer draw their firearm during a routine traffic stop if you are privileged like me and have never had a stranger feel your hair without your consent if you are privileged like me and have never had a trusted adult remark that they would not allow their child to marry someone of your race if you are privileged like me and have had ample positive adult examples of your race and culture available to you in school settings please stop defending yourself now is not the time to argue your point now is the time to listen to hear to learn to

058believe to empathize and to take action please break down your defenses and hear the truths of your neighbors black lives matter systemic racism is real racism exists in our school district and we all must stand United to fight it thank you thank you Ken Colleen hi you know when I look around the world and I see all the Injustice it's overwhelming for me um I just I I feel like I wonder how do we make a difference in our world and can one person even make a difference at all and I don't know if we can make a difference in this world but I do know we can make a difference in our own community and we know as Schoolboard members we took a vow that we would be a part of establishing the structure

059and environment that was designed to ensure that all of the students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential we play a role in the Equitable and quality education of every student in the district every student those of every race and every religion those who are poor and Rich and girls and boys and straight and gay and the college bound and those who go into the trades and Rule followers and Rule Breakers and introverts and extroverts and popular kids and not popular kids and athletes and non-athletes the halves and the Have Nots I mean we can go on and on all of the students we we are doing so many things right in this District in so many ways this is such a great place to be and one part of being great is to

060be able to see where you need to grow and improve Great Schools always try to be better and tonight we've heard from students and alumni and others that have told us how they're hurting that this isn't the perfect place for them and to those people please know that I hear you you see I want every student to be able to say that their experience in our school district was top-notch it's our responsibility and Duty as a board to work on our structure and our environment we always need to be assessing the conditions that affect the education of our kids I I believe the other board members and the superintendent would agree with me that we have work to do and this is really important work and so I hope that we all come together and

061work to advocate for all of our kids including those who feel marginalized um doing what's right is not always easy and sometimes it's really hard but I don't think we should stop thanks thank you Megan uh sorry this one's hard for me too I just want to thank everyone who sent a message came and spoke uh was brave enough to share their story do understand that these are to do to be to put yourself out there to take some of the pain that you have felt personally and try and use that to minimize someone else's pain I just want you to know that I appreciate your stories they have touched me uh my heart hurts for those of you who have experienced this kind of pain and Trauma and I will continue to stand by

062you hold you up stand in front of you be your voice fight with you fight for you and listen and I just want to say that I appreciate your bravery and I appreciate your stories and thank you for sharing them because I think this is how we move forward as a community and this is how we grow sh their vulnerability and move us forward so thank thank you me um Merl I just want to say that I really applaud the opportunity that we as schools have to engage engage with the community and engag with families uh I don't know how to consider a fractional responsibility between families and schools in in addressing these I suspect each is 100% I actually grew up with two biracial sisters adopted the first of their kind in dlac school

063I did not see the sorts of traumas that we have today now Dunlap is a suburban school not a city school I I don't know if that was different but I suspect and indeed I observed that much of the response to others and and and with others is driven by family values and I just want to encourage us to consider how to engage with families deeply as as we go forward Jarry um I just want to thank everybody for sharing their stories tonight uh I want to Second Merl's thoughts there that I think so much of how we treat others begins at home I'm not sure that the school is um equipped um to provide a moral backbone um there's certainly some rules and guidance that we can give along the way but um that

064moral backbone should come from the family and um doing everything we can to keep families together um equipping them uh educating their children uh which is our primary responsibility at school um would go a long way uh one thing I didn't hear mention tonight is there is an academic achievement Gap um not many people like to talk about that uh but that's where we come in and closing that academic achievement Gap and that is what provides opportunity or equal access to opportunity for people who come from underserved minorities um any background um so I think that should be our primary focus is how can we close that academic achievement Gap there's lots of different programs that we can offer and add to our curriculum that may not help us close that academic achievement Gap and

065um I'll just close by saying that I think the probably the the most inclusive statement that we could make for each other that we could even honor as a school district and as a community would be just love your neighbor as yourself I don't know I don't think that excludes anybody um and something that we all can live by and it's very simple I appreciate everybody making comments tonight I committed my life to serve in public education in the social emotional component of working with families um I have worked in this District but I've worked in other District districts and I've taught at the University and I've been exposed to kids from around the states and from around the world um I am with people when they have concerns I will listen I will learn

066I will empathize I have patience um I I very much agree with what um Jeremy says with loving your neighbor I I feel like we can make change by example and some of those examples have been brought up we we can do better and we need to starting dialogue and discussion about how we do better can make us better I said that at the last meeting when we know better we do better and someone said that tonight um but I want to continue to keep the focus that we don't lift others up by putting others down and um I mean I'm very well aware of the the composition of our district um Dr Hall reported um in her recent parent survey that one of the the we have a population of 7% of the students

067that didn't have access to the materials that they needed through covid we have over 20% kids of low income so we need to take a look at everything and um and bringing this to our attention is important and we can work and we um we are working and our staff is working and so thank you for that and um it takes it takes a village but it takes time and initiative and we have to make a plan and move forward and I think that we are already in that dialogue and discussion and on the back side of that I think it's so cool to go back and look at the Fieldhouse for those of you who haven't been able to um I picked in there and then the staircase um on the side of Lincoln

068Trail me again it looks really nice so there are some really cool things happening in school's still really sort of open-ish all right well I've already um as I said earlier I want to thank everybody that came and spoke to us tonight um I understand that's not easy I understand that it can be a little intimidating to come in front of this group I I don't think we're intimidating but we've been told by others that that can be so I sure appreciate those who spoke out tonight you know we often focus on on what we do well and and and we do a lot of things well um but we've always said we're not perfect and I think tonight was a stark reminder um that we're not and there's things that need U attention and

069there's areas we need to work on um and I think um I know we've got board members committed to work on that I know our administrators are committed to work on that um I believe our our staff is um as well so um we'll talk more about some of those things later on tonight and then and then the weeks months ahead but thank you to all who uh who got us headed down that path tonight so uh at this time we're going to move forward with the business of the evening and first up is financial update with Heather okay I just tried to share my screen it comes up behind me Jared we have a screen share issue wherever you are listening in here he is I'll start by talking about the current budget and

070how we're doing um the current budget we have received categoricals we have SE received and um almost all of our um our ebf or evidence-based funding for the year we just have one more to get and it's already been backed we just haven't gotten it yet so all of those items um should be coming in we are in track right now with sales tax um and the only thing that's kind of behind is our property taxes we uh right now we have um we're still waiting for 4 million to meet our budget numbers for that um I don't know if that will occur or not I do know that I did get a call from the treasures office and they said that the money should be some money I don't know how much yet we'll

071be in our bank on the 26 so we will get some more in before the end of the year so it'll just be whatever they actually have in their office and this month June 26 yes June 26 so that will be able to record it for this FIS schal year which is a good thing so just hope for big money um now kind of talking about the timeline going forward for our budget I know that it has been requested that we present a budget earlier on um during the year um so what we're trying to do is do it as quickly as possible so tonight I'm going through the process and the timeline um the last week of July we'd like to um me to review the preliminary budget which I'm going to talk to

072you a little bit about the process in a minute of what we're what I'm going through right now to get it together um for that meeting um then August 3 the will be a study session where the um input from the finance committee or any other input I have received you know we can work on and have a preliminary budget to present and then and then obviously the August 4th through the 13th we could have another committee meeting if needed and then put the preliminary Budget on display um as we do need to have it um on display for 30 days now remember during this whole time period up to the period of um the uh September 21st we can change anything as long as it continues to be on display so this is all

073a time for people to come together and give me ideas or um for me to share what I have so that would then we'd have the be Board of Education study session on September 14th with the hearing so the hearing would be before the actual budget would be adopted on September 21st so that is what we're looking at right now kind of just so everybody knows what my processes since I'm new here this year I do normally do a zero budget zero based budget meaning start from the ground up but this year's even more zero based because um we were trying to get it done earlier so I don't have the information in the system right now with all the new hires and the new salaries because we don't turn that over till the next

074year so what I've started doing is um first of all getting all the revenue in that we know about obviously we know the levy I do not I budget for about 98% of the levy just in case because you do have some people that um you know or some ta taxes that don't come in sometimes a 98 usually mohammad's rates about 99% but I'm I'm a little bit more conservative EF will be flat because we not we're not promised any tier funding for this next year and then basically everything else will be flat as well unless it looks like there's going to be any kind of downturn in it um hold all of the 1920 salaries from Skyward by work group so basically individually salary by salary and then I took the salary schedule and

075manually input you know the new salary so that I could actually start working on the budget and then created a worksheet to to create the um benefits that are based off of percentages so that I could and start entering it into the system which I've already started doing and putting in the building budgets but we the budgets for the buildings were sent out earlier this year so they communicate back to me what they think they need so right now I'm just putting everything in as is um and keeping supplies and purchase Services other than what's in the grant as flat as possible um considering projects that have already started and putting in the bonds budget based off our current pay scale so what what do I still have to do um is not go is

076it there okay um I'm working with Nicole and Christine right now to put in the grant budgets for special ed and for title one two and four um and then we're you know using information between the three of us to decide what should be District funded and what should be in the grants and work with the directors or gathering information from the bus barn I get to do the transportation claim will be a suit as soon as I can so that I can get good Revenue assumptions for fund 40 which is our transportation fund um work with the directors and principles to finalize their Bas their budgets based on available funds what I mean by that is I put all the wish lists in and then when we see where we're at we see what

077we need we can or need to possibly cut back to get to the budget that we want to finalize um I will allocate as much to fire prevention and safety and Tor as possible because those are not operating funds um so to make sure that we have as much money as we can in our operating budget that's one of the things I'll do with the projects and the salaries that are already in our Tor plan that we will get approved again next month and then I will also look to see if I need a budget for any permanent transfers working cash if needed based off of where we end the year to see if we need to reallocate funds so that is where I'm at I don't know if anybody has any questions or concerns

078or other things uh Heather so I I'm sorry I may have missed this but are are you concerned at this point with the really low balances in a couple of the funds um I you know I am at the wait and see um uh point I want to I Really is going to depend on what we get in um by the end of this month meaning Grant revenue and um the property taxes got money for this month and it's fine so it would just be the property taxes we'd have to wait and see because like I said we had budgeted for um 4 million more to come in and I don't know how much that last um allocation will be on the 26th do you do we need to worry about tax anticipation warrants like

079we did last year no I do not think so um we be I mean we'll be able to make payroll it's nothing like that it's just what it's just the actual um balances in the account and that's why I said you know next year I may have to consider doing some permanent transfers to get those on track what and and why are the property tax funds missing did they give you a reason why they're missing um they just they have um they just haven't I like last year um we have new people in place and things are just being done a little bit differently so okay you know one of the questions I ask them is this something that we need to plan for every year is this going to be an ongoing thing so

080that's something that hopefully we'll have good communication from the county to see what we need to do going forward okay thank you doing things differently enough no not you're making a new habit it's a bad one yes I'm assuming they not give you an answer yet this what we need to change plan no they tried to tell me that in pre previous years that this is how it's been done I said I'm looking at the payments right here this is not how it's been done so is I think maybe a miscommunication maybe just new Staffing so Heather thanks for all your work on that um I was wondering if um you could send us last year's decentralized budgets just so that we could understand a little bit more about how the budget Works before the

081meetings that you have scheduled which I very much appreciate um you know if you could send us last year's decentralized budget we could look at it and then be sort of prepared to look at this year okay and when you say you just want all the different schools de centralized budgets yeah just I mean just the budget I'm not yeah I think it was called the decentralized budget with Trend those are all the those are all the budgets for the individual schools individual schools just to see how the budget looks and works and then we'll be more up to speed for that next meeting thanks I appreciate that so much any other questions for hea Heather thank you for being here thank you for following up with the treasur office oh thank you thanks Heather

082yes I have a question after Dr Hall goes could we take a quick break we're 90 minutes we're taking how that's GNA work all right um uh well you can see my superintendent's report is very brief um I just wanted to add my thanks to the thanks that have already been expressed um to the brave individuals who spoke tonight it's not easy to speak in front of every um public body or in any meeting and we heard some very personal stories this evening and I just want to say thank you and and acknowledge uh The Bravery and um the hurt that's out there as well so um appreciation to the people that came tonight on a stormy rainy night we did have a much larger crowd also outside and just want to thank them for

083coming as as well so appreciate hearing from everybody okay you've seen Dr Hall's report are there any questions for Dr Hall okay we I'm sorry Dr Hall are there any uh is there any oncampus instruction happening right now or is that all suspended behind the driver is all um summer school is virtual to the other classes at the high school and also esy which is extended school year being offered virtually is driver's ad suspended right now no okay thank you that's it all right we'll take five minutes um for a quick break and then we'll uh get into regular business e okay I'm told we're back up live board members are you with me Ken are you there I'm here I'm not Ken but I'm here I'm here I'm also not Ken I'm not Ken

084but I'm here too so far I found everybody but Ken here and I am Ken all right here we go yay all right so we've got people back I believe um so we're under unfinished business the one item we have under unfinished business is uh we talked a little bit at our last meeting about strategic planning we looked at the bills or not the bills but the U proposals for the um uh that we'd asked to be submitted to the district and of course uh they were fairly expensive uh we talked about the option of looking at the um ISB and I know we were going to try to get a hold of Perry I understand Perry has been out of the office right yes so we we have nothing new to report as far

085as contacting ISB except we know they will do it um we we'd have to talk to him for his timetable and we know from past experience it probably runs a couple thousand which is like less than 5% or less than a tenth of of where we were so um we can leave this under unfinished business until we get an es back from ISB or we can talk about it more tonight what fund does the if we were to move forward with any of these plans whether it's was 2,000 or 50,000 what fund does that come out of the Ed fund fund the Ed fund it has to come out of the head fund I if it come out of donations I can't think of another F support that I know Heather's on or not but

086I I I'm pretty sure that's got to be it doesn't fit in the other it doesn't others but I certainly like the idea of of a $2,000 assist on this from isv rather than 50 or 70 from some of these other companies we've used isv before and they do a nice job I think we need to find out what it will cost and yeah get some dates that Parry offers that we can make it work yes it's so weird when you don't see them all right so hearing I don't see anything I I see no faces on the screen right now but not hearing anything so we'll go ahead and leave that on unfinished business and we'll be back in touch when we have something from iasb uh new business Ted Martin Ted you were

087there somewhere a minute ago yep I'm here oh on yeah all right back all right well Ted welcome thank you so much for your time this evening and um and your patience as we talked about some um really important things this evening we are very um honored to welcome you to our administrative team and to the um to the district Ted is going to be our new assistant principal at Lincoln Trail and so we wanted to make sure that um people could um normally we'd have you here in person so for joining remotely um he spent last seven years as a language arts and social studies teachers at chanah junior high school and has also taught Fifth and six sixth grade in the same school district and um what we learned through the interview process

088was he's held numerous leadership positions in the district and was more than ready to uh jump into the assistant principal's job that we had here so um competition is stiff today out there for qualified candidates like Mr Martin so we're very happy that um he accepted our offer and we join the team at Lincoln Trail he has a bachelor's degree in elementary education from NIU his master's degree andersh University of St Francis and I believe that in your free time you are trying to visit all the major league ballparks and are you are Cubs fan I am a cub fan nobody's perfect please don't hold that against me uh iated this right true it's true and the Cardinals haven't won a game so it's perfect uh uh really excited I've been over to over 16

089of the stadium so far uh and the game plan is to do the West Coast hopefully next summer it was originally gonna be this summer but obviously those plans change so yeah uh just really excited to join the team and serve the students families and community and uh if you ever have any questions just let me know email me I'm here I and really just excited and eager to to get going with everything so thank you so much for this opportunity Welcome to our district we're glad you're here thanks welcome yeah yeah confus just curious whether your first order of business is going to teach the students how to spell CH uh it's uh it's tough uh it's tough but yeah well thank you for joining us tonight appreciate here and we'll see you when

090you start in early August thank you so much guys have a great thank you nice to meet nice to meet you too okay next is Dr rumel and Dr Hall for an update on where we at on where we are at with District diversity plan of action okay um well I am just gonna say a very few number of words here and intervie introduce Dr rumel to talk about um our plan of action but also um she's going to be providing an overview and summary of some of the past work that we've done over the last couple of years and then also what we have planned for the future in in the area of diversity equity and inclusion um for our district and there's a number of of different parts of of this plan that

091includes um the involvement of staff and parents and also professional development um so hand it off to you Dr rumold thank you thank you so I just want to start by saying that this has really been a long journey uh for us that began over five years ago um we started working towards creating a culture where diversity is valued in practices that support both inclusion and Equity anytime that you're striving towards a systematic change that change is going to be slow we're striving to change a system for the long term and not just mandate one or two practices just to say we checked some boxes we chose to start with relationships and social emotional learning intentionally the purpose was to ensure that when we began to have conversations which at times can be difficult that

092students and staff knew and understood that the questions and dialogue was coming from a place of truly caring because that was the culture that we had taken the time to create and the time to build building that culture doesn't happen overnight we recognize that we'll make missteps along the way and we will own those and learn from them so where have we been and where are we going here you can see that we're focused on understanding our students and building relationships in 2018 we began our partnership with Dr T from the uh School of Social Work at the University of Illinois I really wanted an expert to support us with guidance and data as we made decisions and moved ahead with this difficult task systematic change Dr Tan is an expert in social emotional learning

093he continues to work closely with me High School administration and a core group of teachers at the high school to help us meet the social emotional needs of our students and while we started at the high school he has provided a great deal of guidance and support with our work supporting all students and staff not just those at the high school so when we talk about social emotional learning these are the skills that we're talking about Diversity Awareness it helps us enhance students social awareness and their relationship skills these are soft skills that we know are critical and healthy students succeed in the workplace and in life and General Dr T Mr Benedict and the high school team have started these conversations um regarding awareness with high school teachers these efforts also tie in with

094the broader restorative practices that the and the responsive classroom work that the district as a whole has been doing so I want to say that when we look at these areas and doctors stand work they're aligned to the collaborative uh for academic social and emotional learning known as Castle standards as well as is the social emotional learning standards so in the 2018 2019 school year we introduced the staff to responsive classroom restored practices we were very intentional in the programs and trainings selected each has a strong research base for the age group that the teachers are working with so responsive classroom they only have their research based while you could Implement some of the strategies high school students their research at this time only goes through eighth graders and you'll see some of the strategies

095and things that we do in the classroom are just slightly different at the elementary level than they are at the Junior High um um at the and then they're slightly different at the high school level but they're all they all align in what they're teaching making for a smooth transition for the students as they move from each building uh through the district um so here are we and it's during this time and these conversations um that the district began to identify potential roadblocks that we had for students at times there are things that we have in place which seem good for students but what we find is that they're good for some students but potentially not accessible for all students so for example uh Transportation this was one area where we realized we've been offering

096summer school for years but never Transportation making summer school accessible for some students and not others so when I presented to you several months ago we talked about adding transportation to summer school to make it more Equitable this is just one example of how we're looking at our practices and trying to make things more Equitable and accessible for all students we aren't perfect we still have a ways to go however I feel like we're very open to the dialogue and trying uh to be more aware of other potential Road losss um so during uh the 19 uh the 2019 2020 school year this past school year there was a new law requiring districts to focus on the contributions of the LBGTQ I plus Community um and so that brought up many discussions with staff and

097parents it was at this time that we again reached out to Dr Tan and asked asked if there was anyone in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois that was an expert in the field of diversity in talking with the principles we wanted to make sure that we were including stakeholders in this process and in these conversations uh many times uh we get volunteers for which we are most appreciative however if we have a a population that has felt under heard or undervalued for a long time we thought it was unlikely that just asking for volunteers would lead these individuals to come forward and participate thus working with Dr Carter black an expert in race and socioeconomic status diversity she helped us come up with a plan for how to potentially begin

098to build relationships with our different often underrepresented families and provide them with a voice and a seat at the table with Dr Carter Black's guidance and collaboration we determined that it was best to start with professional devel velopment for the staff while at the same time conduct some Town Halls that she and Dr Tan would facilitate and then a pandemic hit we had to temporarily divert our focus and make sure that our students and their families were fed and safe we had to continually check on the emotional well-being of our staff and students and we had to add instructional supports for our staff who were overnight thrown into a remote learning situation um one of which most if not all of our our staff had no experience so the good news is I think we

099see the light at the end of the tunnel we've partnered with the University of Illinois and um and we're in it both the university and the district for the Long Haul we'll be kicking off this year with training that specifically provides staff the tools that they can use to support students when they return in the fall we really want to take time to check in with our staff and students regarding their social emotional health and we need to provide staff some training on how to best do that in our continued communication with Dr Tan and Dr Carter black we will get the diversity trainings back on the calendar for fall um and then this year so you can see from the beginning of the year I mentioned we'll start with those supports for students and

100then we have the U diversity trainings back on the calendar um moving into the second semester we'll continue with our store of practice as responsive classroom focusing again on diversity as you saw in the other slides we do a book study every year um I typically offer a suggestion this is one of my suggestions for this year but sometimes teachers come up with other suggestions and we go with that book so this is just a potential book for this year I want to be clear that wasn't the one that the teachers have decided um that that's the one we for sure go with um so curriculum is an area that we're also um very much focused on and I want to share a little with you regarding curriculum and what some of this might look

101like in the classroom so here's some examples of what the social emotional learning looks like in the classroom right now and some things that we put into place um this uh strong kids curriculum is available prepay through um High School it is a supplemental curriculum it's not something that's meant to stand alone it aligns with the social emotional uh learning standard and I have purchased it's just a little paperback book I purchased last year and have distributed those to Marissa Hill for the prek teachers and then like Courtney Cox here and I gave it to Megan Hunter at Lincoln Trail and there's a copy at the junior high as well um and so last year our social vertical team as you're aware we spent a lot of time discussing the new LBGTQ I plus law

102and the implementation of that K12 we've talked about the inclusion of diversity a lot specifically at the K5 level um in terms of the Wonders curriculum and wanting to make sure that the students that we have see themselves and their families in their curriculum um and so in addition to the Wonders we've purchased additional trade books and library books and I've allocated an additional $4,000 from title one this year to continue to enhance U the materials that we offer um in this year is the English language arts vertical team a curriculum alignment piece we too will uh review the LBGTQ I plus law that was uh goes into place this school year um and then we'll be looking also at the diversity inclusion and equity and the types of books that are used um teachers

103sub uh submitted to me last year the major uh pieces of work that they use in each at each grade level and I will say there are a couple of grade levels that we definitely need to look at in terms of making some modifications and adding some more diverse authors main characters genres too but overall we have a you know we do offer a wide variety um just depending on the grade level um and so then there are some pieces that are more uh building driven and so I wanted to highlight some things that might be a little bit um unique to individual uh schools so I think one of the speakers earlier mentioned the gig straight Alliance I think I believe we're in the third or fourth year of that at high school um

104and so that that group is is going strong and then just some other um things going on at at the other buildings I do want to report that there is a cultural awareness committee at NL toown Prairie that was teacher driven um and so that came out of a request by a teacher a couple of years ago and they've done some great things um such as some of the lessons um that they've written for different grade levels so in terms of community involvement our Focus here is on listening of course we all have ideas on things we want to do to improve how we provide curriculum and how we support our students however as a district we need to make sure that we hear from all groups in terms of what they would like to

105see what we can start doing what we can stop doing and what barriers we might need to remove believe a few of you mentioned that in addition to um race and gender identity and a lot of these other we have we have a an income in equity in our district too that really impacts a lot of our students and that can impact curriculum that can impact their in their access to different um programming and activities with in the district so moving ahead we do um I met with um last week with Dr Carter black and Dr Tan we have rescheduled our community um involvement pieces are three town halls that they will facilitate um our goal is to encourage some of the families that attend to volunteer to serve on these committees what we find

106is that sometimes if you have committees already in place they have an idea of what they would like to see or what they would like to to do and then when new people come on it can make them feel like they're coming on in the middle of it and maybe are just there to say yes to decisions that the that the committee has already made it's our goal that these decisions would be made together um as a group again I just want to stress that the order of events and the things that we've put in place it's been intentional and guided by the collaboration of our colleagues and experts at the University of Illinois so it's not perfect but it's where we've been and it's kind of our plan for moving forward so questions I

107like the timeline the sad part is when you look at it think of how much we miss like I'm thinking of all the activities and things that we've missed the opportunity to continue to educate very sad I appreciate the Tim and looking at everything I I do appreciate everything you've done on this so far I've got an observation that I'd like to share that just sort of struck me here some time ago when I was in pury I spent spent time on a board at an outfit called Youth Farm which is a place for boys teenage boys one step away from jail and but but what what I learned from one of the psychiatrists that we had on the board was that there are two gates at which kids learn right from wrong ones that

108age three the first we don't have much influence none on what happens to those under age three but the next is at age 10 the research essentially suggests that if the kids miss both gates to learn right from wrong it's very difficult to then get through that um so my suggestion would be to think about budgets think about the attention of the T and under crowd you mentioned that the curricul or the the particular research wasn't in the high school yet and and maybe that's going to come but but but maybe that age 10 is is even more important than we than we might imagine but I would also suggest that we look Beyond curriculum and Beyond best practices from other school districts because there are places like a youth Farm some other folks that

109that have actually had to deal with this for quite a long time and I'm an advocate of how manag practices are needed to actually change not just a curriculum so how do we build in inspections how do we build in feedback mechanisms and so forth these are typically management things that businesses would do not necessarily a school District but in our case I think we'll have to adapt in ways that aren't natural to school districts uh and look outside of those for some best practices I'm I'm confident those are out there but they won't be in the normal places to look I just I do want to I appreciate that um and I appreciate the piece of the feedback um with the with regards to the curriculum that I'm saying not going through high school

110so responsive classroom is only research and that's why we picked up restorative practices for the high school because it is research based with that targeted population so we wanted to make sure that everything we were using was aimed at the needs of that specific age group Dr R the town hall sessions that have been rescheduled for this later this fall now um and you said there will be some committees formed out of that you believe was that is that how did I miss that or did I get that right no so that what our Hope was to go and listen right um and then after that we would we would talk about our goal of creating a districtwide CommunityWide diversity team okay and and hope that some of the parents that would be willing to

111come to that would be interested in participating on that team so um and I just wanted to throw I think maybe some of our our parents that spoke tonight yeah um obviously this is something that's near and dear to their hearts in those Town Hall sessions and then and then leading into the diversity and that might be a place where they want look to plug it in we were going to do those in different locations correct yeah so we were really Target yes absolutely so we were targeting some populations that don't often interact with the school district so we were hoping to hold one over um near Candlewood or in that area so that families would have to worry about transportation and we would be able to offer A light meal for families to participate

112also looking at offering one in seore and then offering one here I love that and I as we talk about all the diversity things tonight in my time that I was here I haven't been working here for many years though I had students who had never been to a drive-thru because they didn't have a car and they were only six but they hadn't had a car so when we look at all the inequities you know that there are with with race and socioeconomic we need to really I mean I like looking at the larger lens and looking out there because I was shocked and I was taking the student in the car to something that the school had us going to be observed at in Champagne Orana but when we came back can we do

113that again you know because that was being in a car being in a Drive-Thru was such a foreign concept so there's all these different things and I wrote lots of the titles down so thanks for sharing all of those and I made notes when other people were speaking earlier tonight I think there's some great ideas there some things that we can look to do I just I want to be you know I want to be purposeful in the things that we do and make sure that they're sustainable for the long term um well Dr Tan and Dr Carter black are not white Mohammed people so I'm I know who both of them are so that's I'm pleased that that's the extension that we have yes I think that this um should also be part of

114our broader um strategic plan so we we hear really hear from the community in that too um to get a sense of of the just a broader like there be some people that maybe the participate in town hall but I think we get a a sampling of of the community that provides some reliable and valid information is good um the other some questions I have otherwise is is what are what are the outcomes that we're trying to achieve this with bu P so I think overall if I go back to the very beginning we want our district to be inclusive and for it to be a safe Equitable place um and so when you're doing that if there are issues with diversity if there's regardless of what that diversity is that's a problem um but

115we can't do that in a safe way if we don't have the relationships there and we haven't built the culture it's really asking a lot of our staff and us to be reflective some bias that we hold and we have to own that and when you begin to own that and express it it can be embarrassing it's we have to create a safe place for staff to have those conversations and to pate and that's one of the reasons we started with relationships and trying to build that culture um and so I think that's creating a place where all students are equal um and feel valued um is extremely important and that they all have the same opportunities um and I think there are things that we do that unintentionally hopefully that impede that so I

116I think that's our our main um and we hear a lot from parents but we don't hear from all of our parents we and so I feel like the town halls and think especially by them being facilitated by somebody outside of the district um that represent some of these some of the populations that we're looking at might create a safer place for parents and for Community to express some of their concerns or things changes that they would like to see is there um I I I like the emphasis on relationships and and Val you know everyone should feel valued that they have something to add um uh I think one of our outcomes like I mentioned before should be narrowing that academic achievement Gap and is there evidence that a lot of this training actually

117does that um I would have to look at that I that's a great question it's an area that I'm not 100% sure of I know that we need you look at some of the pieces with inclusion and Equity that that can narrow the achievement gap for example we've talked before about access to honors courses and AP courses of very few low-income students in those classes so you're not if you don't have access to that curriculum you don't have access to the transer which means you don't have access to some of the higher ed opportunities I mean yeah I think there would be some research there in terms of academic growth and then can get into the bigger picture you don't have access to academics in the potential higher ed can impact your income down the

118road we're seeing some changes with that some of the um changes in the career field but for a long time there was coration I'm not opposed think I'm opposed to diversity training I think that's correct F I just think that the outcomes need to be focused on what we do and um like I said relationships and doing value is good but if it's not changing people's lives educationally then because this has been done for decades you know the diversity training so so this is not yes and soar that's that's why I'm saying we just need to we need to make sure that it's not the expedient thing for us to do um and I'm not trying to Discount that any way but I just I want to there's to me there needs to be a

119purpose of that's what we're a school system that that if we're not narrowing that academic achievement Gap then we're not really helping them long term and and I think that not just being having access to opportunities but we're building a foundation from kindergarten and and I know that our teachers are doing this but um and it's not just our schools it's all public school the the problem is and if we aren't narrowing that Gap we're not changing people's lives and we're not changing that access to OPP to I would agree but I I think there is a well in the research there is a correlation between um students that feel engaged and connected to school and their academic achievement so we're looking at relationships and we're looking at helping kids connect um I think that

120will close the achievement Gap that that is one of the reasons that um three years ago that I reached out to to the University of Illinois and asked to work with Dr Tana but specifically because I wanted to collect data if we were going to be spending so much money and so many resources on social emotional learning and professional development I wanted to know that it was going to have an impact right so that's what I think it would be good to know and I think important for all of us to think critically about doing things in a way that are going to actually change things and again not not just doing what's expedient but what's always been done so I'm not speaking in any negative light of what we're trying to do I'm just

121saying that we need to question and need to think critically about it um because it's easy to just fall in line and I to me I think muhamad seem more school district is a wonderful district and we do like we talked about many great things and we can do better but if we can do that one thing I mean that would be huge so and if we could close the achievement Gap we would all be very rich just in the sense that that I think is the that is the story for schools that that's what we've all been striving for um and I I think they're yeah it's hard it's hard I think you know when you kids come in it's such a deficit um and there's such a gap already um it's really hard

122to close that um into work well by having these conversations you help what helps them learn to be successful all kids can succeed but not in the same day or the same way so by building those relationships we'll find you know what their different interests are and their different engagement opportunities so Jeremy I think that you said something really important about building all of the this into an overall strategic plan for the district so that it is something I mean this is not meant to be this year you can see that it's that the groundwork has been laid um and obviously some um delay with the pandemic starting but um as far as this this should just be activities and professional development that's just interwoven into what the district does moving forward and it should

123be part of a strategic plan that the board puts together with goals that are set for administration and teachers to work on um that are academic but also as you've heard so much about the social emotional piece as well so I would just encourage the board to continue to try to move ahead with some strategic planning activities any other questions for Dr a lot of work has went into this at this point we're appreciative of that okay thank you all [Music] right let's go to antiracism resolution Dr Hall well this been mentioned a couple times this evening by some of our speakers tonight and um the the this was sent to the information containing board packet including the resolution was sent to the board about a week ago and so um it is on the

124agenda tonight for discussion by the board okay um board members you've had a chance to review the information that was sent um clearly there's a lot there to digest uh but in particular the resolution um we want talk about tonight right out of the gate um thoughts on the resolution I don't have a thought about it but I do want to make a comment that I had several people call me and ask me if I wrote this as a board member and I said no it was submitted to me in a packet and they said well it looks a lot like the pandemic resolution was written and I said I didn't write that either so I just I want that to be known that as board members at least speaking for myself I didn't not

125get a copy of this until it was sent to me in the packet of information which was very thorough but I just wanted you to know that I looked at this night just make note of that yeah there was some initial thought by some staff and I think some members of the community that this was board initiated it was not and it looks like the pandemic resolution very much so yeah but I mean as I said when we commented earlier I I think that um setting goals to make us be um targeting all of our students um is important um I definitely feel like our teachers and administrators should come to us with curriculums that have been studied like Dr rumel and give us their um insight and opinions on that um in section four

126I did not at all think that an end date should be put on there but again this is not directed by the board but it's specifying our duties and that's just a little complex for me even though I think many of the directives are good and they're all things we talked about cultural competency anti-bias developing responsive classrooms I mean she just gave a whole series of all the things that have been done so that's just where I'd like to start with dialogue one of the speakers they comment tonight then the section for end date or by the end of August 2020 um um with everything we've got going on I'm not sure um certainly providing an update at that point is very possible um and appropriate um I don't know how much hard progress we're

127going to see by that date with everything we've got going on trying to get school open um and trying to figure out what those guidelines look like and and get our staff um ready to roll um but I you know I don't have a problem with the Five Points in the resolution um I I'll just put that out there I think what I've learned though and part of it I knew just because I have kids who will tell me what's going on and theyve had you know your parent forms is that some of these things are being done didn't need a resolution that that they've been working on some of the things some of the trainings she gave a timeline for events tonight so BR section section two um a lot of that's happened we

128just heard it up a lot of it's happened but there's there's still absolutely um I I want to address section one um I I don't think it's the superintendent's role to develop a comprehensive strategic plan I do think that's board work that's the board um and then there there you know if there's actionable steps for the superintendent Administration then then that that's more the operations and tactical level but strategies really board work and uh I mean that's that well I I would say that in absence of a strategic plan somebody needs to do something and we're not getting the Strategic plan off the ground well much to my dismay very very well at this point so is it section two wouldn't that also be more driven instead of by the board though the superintendent so

129the first one I would see the board's role is to develop get that plan but then isn't it the superintendent's role to get the staff to to do the training which you're doing so that's again that's a different name listed there it says the board which really in my my input would be would be the superintendent directs the staff to provide the development and training for teachers does that make sense but it's important so in this sense I agree in concept with the resolution and I really appreciate the comments in person tonight and also the the person who said well you know don't maybe rush to something and I think this deserves some attention and some dialogue in order for us to to make it ours and and and and not just a boiler plate

130that is easy to say yes to so I I would think that let's take some time let's take some engagement and put something together a second that I would also encourage the board to take a look at um several of our board policies that could just be updated to include um some language about um diversity inclusion and equity and anti-racism those include um six uh 610 which is educational philosophy and objectives um 310 um which uh is about more like administrative goals and objectives and then also um 130 which or excuse yeah 130 which is School District philosophy and I think that that would those if the desires to do so would be good policies around which to have a discussion and just bring those up to date and you know policies are long-term and

131guide the work of the board and um those would be good places I think to just try thinking about updating those and putting in some language that uh addresses some of the issues that we' talked about tonight thoughts from folks that aren't in the room I just want to say that I support the resolution I I think it was well done I appreciate the work that the district's already doing on these things have some work to do procedurally policy doesn't get it done it's procedures that matter Megan can you say that again I'm sorry I did not hear you said we are going to need to do some procedural work policy is not where it gets done policy is an overriding guideline it's the procedures and implementation that are important okay um we have a

132early August study session right now the only thing on that is the a little work on the budget right preliminary budget if we want to I've heard a couple different things I've heard you know Ken I think is is good with a resolution as presented I've heard that we may want to tweak some language on it a little bit if we wanted to look at specific language in the resolution and if we wanted to look at some language in those policies that Lindsay was talking about we could look at that at the August I and spent some time working on that in August if you'd like to do that know I I kind of agree with uh mean that I'm not sure that the document I mean we can make as many resolutions we want

133to make but you know if you're going to implement change then you should Implement change I'm not sure that and if we're going to have a document then need to be our own document but I would say me too I don't want to tell the teachers what to do and I would like to be part of making plans of what I'm going to be charged with doing that's why I think having a bigger broader conversation with the community about uh strategic plan is helpful we're representatives of the community I agree with that i' too like Megan your comment about adding procedures and implementation so real you know concrete steps these would be kind of those management practices like I mentioned earlier and I think that's where we got to get close to staff sounded like

134from Nicole that some of these things are going on already [Music] mhm and have been if we can cify them in some way I think that would be helpful I I fully agree with that but I also think that policy work is board work and our policies are not reflective of some of this as well that um they just they need to be updated if this is also a priority so I I mean those things go hand in hand no doubt that we need the action steps and I agree with that wholeheartedly because this resolution does not address the policies that we have in place to make them more inclusive we need need to do that absolutely okay so you know we got this on the agenda for night for discussion because I anticipated you'd

135want to discuss it before we took whatever action we're I had any problem continuing a discussion that study session in August so I think if we're going to do anything we can we can take it and put something together on our own I I'm just not I think anything that we have should reflect the values of our community okay so am I hearing that we spend some time together at our August study session is that the consensus I mean the other option is to do nothing which I don't think is a good option yeah I want to do and then the other option would be to take it as is and put it back on the July agenda for approval I would like just to I mean I feel like us coming together and having

136that meeting in August and putting having our goal at that meeting to P some kind of outcome from that would be amazing and awesome and I think it's great to set that goal that's just me I'm looking at the policies now we're talking right now okay any other thoughts okay Don let's put this on for the study session along with the policies that Dr Hall mentioned we'll get those out folks ahead of time and um we'll make that study session kind of a working study session okay um overnight trip procedure Dr Hall right um containing your board packet is a um guideline for chaperon and an overnight trip approval form to start um using as we go forth this is really um well it ENC capitates encapsulates a couple of things first of all it's

137it's basically just a communication tool um so that whatever coach or sponsor is doing the overnight trip um would fill out this form have a conversation um probably most likely with Mr Hensley at the high school um we I can't think of too many of any overnight trips um at levels lower than the high school so this really is mostly focused on on high school trips um but it does outline all of the um what needs to be required is all of the details of the trip that includes purpose cost names of chaperon what the supervision plan and ratio is um for that um it's not put in specific chaperon to student ratios from the standpoint that it it really is dependent upon the trip and what type of trip and where just what it

138is where they're going what the purpose um overnight chaperon um do need to be fingerprinted that's um that something that we would take care of um on the district end uh There's the link included in the form um for shons to get that information it's also included on our website then there's also information about um hotels accommodations um sleeping Arrangements Transportation um and so on and so forth forth so um it also mentions that students are subject to the student parent handbook um Provisions while on any school related trip as well as any other additional special guidelines or rules that might be in place just depending on what the trip is and and where they're going and um and that type of thing so the other thing is is that um the overnight uh trips

139do need to be approved in advance um this form would C to me after going through the appropriate administrator and then come to the board for approval probably just on the consent agenda um but that does take a little bit more advanced planning on behalf of the folks who would be planning an overnight trip but um I think that if we're going to send kids overnight um or potentially out of state that that's something that we should all be apprised of just in terms of safety and liability questions for Dr Hall is I don't see anywhere in this policy anything about being samesex chaperon which seem to be the basis of the request that was made so there reason we don't have that included well I mean I think the discussion of chaperon again I

140mean that that I can certainly put that in do we need to have a ratio if there's the ratio kind depends on the event there some events would probably require a higher ratio than others do we all I'm asking do we want to require some sort of a ratio of adult to students we can we can put that in there I I do think it's highly dependent just on I mean the nature of the trip and but I'm open to that that's just like an approval form first though like this is a document that would you like that would be filled out and would be approved right so they say in there the plan and ratio so then we would have an idea and then you'd set your guidelin is that what you're saying I'm

141just thinking we sponsor a wide variety of scale choir trips marching band trips yeah fiestable I don't know that we've seen ratios in about what we really ought to expect when there's you know a lot of parents involved and so forth but you know I don't know anybody's done the math and and and turned it into some sort of expectation you know the group's going to per it's that's small by comparison but um I don't know what those ratios have been I don't know whether they're adequate but I think it would be wise to address the form does ask for the names of the chaperon the supervision plan and and the ratio so I that covers the concerns but I'm again I'm happy to be more specific on this form if there's more that's needed

142I'm sorry I may have missed this uh is this a new board policy proposal or is this going to be an administrative procedure it's an administrative procedure we we have board policy that covers um field trips so this this kind of Falls underneath that and would be administrative procedure it's not a policy thank you I think I would add in there just like call about the jaon of opposite sex I don't know how you would that but I think that's pretty okay that I think that needs to be added at the policy level and then this is the procedural way that you ensure that that happens in the form and filling that out and doing the head count but I think from a policy standpoint you need to have some sort of policy outline for

143genders of chaperon and number of Camp rooms I would agree that some small version not the full form ought to we ought to have a high Lev policy that addresses the most important things I don't know what's in goty right was included in the policy we got it's pretty general what policies are it's in section six field troops I think it's called I would I would suggest we get the administrative form place and then go back and look at do we need to make some general edit poliy and I agree there needs to be something in there to reference the sex of the Sha rooms as it relates to who's going on the trip the boys basketball team is going out of town overnight we probably don't have to worry about female cha rooms we

144need to know it says right in the policy that it has administrative approval like you said it's an administrative procedure 6.24 this is on the agenda for discussion tonight I'm assuming going to bring this back for approval typically administrative procedures not voted on by the board that's true happy to make the suggested changes and bring it back next month um should we kick to the policy committee yeah do you want need to talk about yeah I mean that's I go ahead and say that that's what I was thinking because I wrote three down so I think there's nothing wrong implenting what we have additions that we suggested and then some policy changes we can do that on top of it I'd agree with what Jeremy said I think if there's some items that may to

145be added the policy then we need to look at that but in the meantime we can certainly go with this is there room in guideline number five to add some of the things we heard about tonight um on so chaperon must use appropriate language and talking about yeah it says don't be offensive and discriminatory but there may be some words that could be added that would be more specific in light of what we've all thought through tonight just just wor second look maybe so other than adding as far as this procedure if something's added about the sex of shaon language does it need to come back to us are we good with it other but I do agree that it would warrant the policy committee looking at some of those policies that's fine to update

146yeah as far but as far as the administrative procedure if we add langu address to sh be good with that then that way or do we want to come back to us I'm good with it does anyone still have field trips to Indiana in the third grade no okay all right may I say something on this topic sure I just I appreciate you guys talking about this um as a parent who you know my daughter went on this trip um the point of me bringing it up was so that it's a longterm change like so 20 years from now some whoever the superintendent is and whoever the board members are they have it in place so that that can't happen again so I continue and I appreciate it being brought to the policy committee because

147I think it needs to be something that is a longterm thing not just an administrative thing thank you next I don't mean to throw M wrench into this at all but one other thought we expect of our teachers the kinds of training for diversity and so forth that we talked about tonight and we're going to fingerprint some parents I don't know if there are online trainings for sensitivity there are and whether we ought to consider or at least discuss considering whether chaperon should have that kind of training least least an online sign off something or other go through hey this is what we expect of parents in our district with diversity and sensitivity in all sorts of ways I think that would actually extend beyond just Che I mean any kind of volunteer that's what

148I'm think think it well could so when you think of procedures and implementations that may be some something that is welcome on all sorts of fronts I think when we're looking at those issues you know we bring them a lot of parents do a lot of different things pie we need to [Music] include okay so it's my understanding we're going to go ahead and go with the administrative procedures um we're going to make some reference to sa so chapons and being a appropriate there and then we're going to pick some of the policy concerns to the policy committee correct that where we're at okay all right next item number five Issa return to play Mr Hensley thank you for being here tonight you're welcome um Matt provided a report to us on what's going on

149um you want to give a quick summary I don't want to have to talk if you don't need to the only thing I would say is that we are uh currently conducting activities in football boys basketball and girls basketball we're on our second week of those activities um including following the guidelines and the pre pre screening requirements that the ihsa and the idph suggested um you may have seen that uh the state transitions to reopening Illinois phase 4 that there's been a draft of a plan of phase two draft forwarded from the ihsa to the ELO Department of Public Health as of today that plan has not been approved by the ELO Department of Public Health but I'm working now to correlate our uh any activities that we would have with kind of that draft

150of what the ihsa is outlined that second phase does allow for summer contact days it does also allow for competition um against other schools um much Ty of things yeah seven on sevens in football uh summer leag shootouts for boys and girls basketball leag volleyball uh when we hopefully when we move to the next phase we would definitely U be ramping up our activities we would see volleyball added to the list of activities as well as probably boys soccer for sure um to go along with what we're what we're already doing and then we would uh we would probably be looking at um some competitions as well nothing too nothing out of the ordinary football 7 on S couple summer basketball shootouts for both the boys and girls probably hosting our own volleyball league um

151those are some of the conversations I've had with the coaches up to up to this point in time so if Illinois progresses to the next phase and ihsa then wants to go to this phase two program how what do you think the time table is on phase two it it could start as early as the 26 which is the phase four reopening right now the plan that I have drafted would not see us starting until July 6th the last couple years as some of you in the room know we had kind of mandated the week of July 4th to be a dead week for our families at this point in time we have a lot of families who have probably already scheduled activities whether they're local activities or travel activities during that time so we're

152not going to spring on them hey by the way we're going to open this up starting June 26 so right now way our summer calendar would look for the remainder of the year would be we would be off June 6th and we would start the contact day period on July excuse me ju 6 July 6 we start our contact days on July 6 and then we would roughly have four weeks the I say is allowing up to 20 contact days this year I don't Envision that any of our teams will approach that number um based upon the schedules that we kind of have we've been kind of working on and then the Issa has removed the traditional dead weeks there's always a dead week before fall sport practices start they've removed that this year however

153we're going to still have a dead week in there again our families are expecting this dead week we need times to get our buildings ready for start of all practice we need to get gym fors done and right now if you recall from our phase one we're using virtually every gymnasium in the district right now for our various for our various programs and so we're not only have a four at the high school to get done the four here has already been done but we'll have two gym fors junior high for Rank and trail to get done so we would continue to have that dead week then before fall sport practices would to would be scheduled to start on August 10th you think I say will get the approval for role when they want to

154start so we were on are you talking about false General are you talking about so um we were on a conference call today with the State athletic director ass I was on a conference call today with the State athletic director Association Craig Anderson the executive director has been joining us weekly to provide updates um judging by what he said he anticipates that the Department of Public Health could make some modifications to the ihsa plan based upon the plan that the state school board hasn't is is working on in terms of reopening schools that those plans are probably correlate very closely together um so I think we'll get to it what it will look like exactly I I don't know I think the draft that they put out there on their social media is fairly accurate

155there may be some um modifications in the numbers are put to allowed and the percentage of your facilities that you'll be allowed to have spectators at because I think the prob look at rolling a lot of those numbers and this is just my opinion that a lot of what would be in phase two would very likely transition into the reopening of false Sports because you know the next step doesn't come until there's a vaccine and so I think the thresholds that come about in phase two would probably be the same thresholds that would come about in phase three and phase three would be start of all I know the governor mentioned I heard today 20% capacity that's the numb we seen outside so and there's a lot of ways to interpret that right now so

156there obviously on some of these points does that 20% capacity include your team does that 20% capacity include your officials um how you we're actually having an Apollo conference athletic director's meeting on Wednesday because if you're allowed 50 players on your football sideline that means I get 50 on my sideline you only get 45 I'm putting my because my chain gang is on your sideline so we're going to have some some conversations as a conference amongst the athletic directors and how do we build our schedules around those numbers in the best interest of fairness for everybody concerned other questions from that um can you can you speak to um we see cases appear in our student body are we going to um adapt our our guarding what activities are going to be allowed to meet

157for training and practices um I don't know if that question was clear enough but you get the idea I hope yeah so yes is the answer to that question I mean we've got some fairly St guidelines from the elois Department of Public Health and the screening questioners are involved um and so you if we get an outbreak amongst one person on one of our sports teams and through the contact tracing at the loo Public Health Department that's going to impact our ability to conduct those practices or conduct those competitions and we could very well get to the point that we could say hey out of an abundance of caution and in the best interest of the kids who participate in our programs and their families we're going to suspend training we're going to suspend practices

158I think right now um the key for phase one for myself and our coaches was just re-engagement um it wasn't about really doing things that were probably going to help us win any contest it was more about getting our kids back on campus getting our kids back engaged with their with their peer groups getting our kids back engaged with our coaches and getting our coaches back engaged with our kids um so that's kind of where we are in phase one but you know we do have a consensus among our group amongst our group of coaches that if we get to a situation where where we think we could be jeopardizing entering phase two where we get to a situation where something could be happening that would be jeopardizing our false our false Sports Seasons um

159and we're going to make a decision that says hey here's what our priorities are our number one priority obviously is our kids and our families our number two priority is probably protecting the sanctity of our false Sports Seasons our number three priority is probably phase getting to phase two so as we're on this journey this isn't you know we don't have a phase one and this has all the answers to all the questions and this is ex and stone and this is what we're doing regardless it's still a very flood situation across the athletic programs we just developed some guidelines and the state has helped us develop some guidelines to kind of navigate those turb Waters okay thank you very much thank you for prioritizing uh as you did keeping our kids safe I really

160appreciate it sure you're welcome it's hard when you talk about the conversation you had earlier and setting your priorities and for you too when you look at places around you this one size doesn't fit all you know well it's I mean i' I've got States I've got a child in our programs I mean we had Shing Tri outs just last Friday and we conducted them with social distancing and following all these protols um and I've seen firsthand the impact the mental and psychological impact that the absence of our programs have had I've seen it in my own house with my own daughter sure and the excitement for her to be able to come and see her friends and her teammates on that cheer squad um was great for her it was great for those 40

161girls that were there trying out just like it was great for the 70 football players and the two dozen girls basketball players and the 20 boys basketball for players so you know we're trying to as you said Lor we're trying to away all this right this physical health and this mental health and getting our kids back re-engaged because it's important for them to do but you know the overarching theme is we're just going to continue to do what's in the best interest of our kids and that could look one way tomorrow and it could look entirely different on Wednesday well things like football you know we can practice this CL separately we do that anyway so that gets us below you that gets our numbers interesting to see get like marching you know I we

162can practice section sections separately and pieces separately but at some point you got to put 200 of them together to make it work I don't know we'll see and I think one of the questions we have to get answered is how do those 200 plus kids at that football game on Friday night impact our capacity what we can have inside FR yeah I know yeah that be real interesting well when you think normally capacity you think of seating capacity but I don't know I guess delates figure that out us a lot of standing capacity there too usually football okay well that'll be a good discussion for you to have with the athletic directors and folks across the St we'll get this figured out I'm sure anything else for Matt no thanks I just like everybody

163else I know it's been a lot of work lots of different plans and it's fluid thank you you're welcome you're welcome thank you than you're welcome thank you all right number six cares funds okay um just from a a broad overview here we we um are going to receive $275,000 in um Co relief funds and we've been working on a plan um this this is a budget that gets submitted in basically in the same way that our title funds and um our idea Grant gets submitted and so Heather's putting together that budget um it has to be submitted by June 30th we wanted to share with you um our vision for using that money um and I um hope that we can dial up we have a teacher who's been waiting patiently to do a

164brief presentation so I will hand it over to um Dr rumel and Mrs Smith and also Mrs beer so Mrs that's so Tracy are you ready I'm here can you guys hear me yes okay good good evening I figured I can show my face quick for those of you who don't know or recognize my new name it probably is odd um I'm Tracy beer I teach first grade at Middletown and I've been the technology coordinator person um at Sangamon and at Middletown under Jared for about seven years now so I'm here just to talk to you guys a little bit about um how the teachers at Middletown hope our instruction can change a little bit moving forward with the plan that we have in place for August upon our kids coming all right so to

165start I thought I would share a little bit about what Middletown actually has technology wise for our about what 800 students so we have currently four Chromebook carts that are shared between the first and second grade students and on each of those carts there's between 21 and 25 devices depending on which ones need to be serviced or crack screen you know all that jazz um and kindergarten currently has one iPad cart that they can share between all sections that has 25 devices if you count up everything that we have we currently don't have enough devices to provide online instruction for all of our students via any really true online format um if we're taking a look at the device numbers we can't provide much uniformity technology wise for our kids K2 and I think that

166that is a huge huge thing we need to think about moving forward in the times of Co um moving Ono one um just some points here that I've kind of come up with I know um there's some pros and cons to one to one at such a young age um I think it's important to begin discussing the importance of on toone in our current School climate that we're navigating um and then I can kind of share with you how on toone would transition into our daily life at Middletown Upon Our traditional return to school I think we can face that um school will not look the same for us in Muhammed for a while um it's likely to change its shape many times in the next few months and that's a pretty there's a pretty

167large chance it may not look completely the same for an extended period of time so um as a board and as the teachers we just want you guys to think about the opportunity that we have sitting in front of us um andbe just review some of those pros and cons of what we can actually do if we provide our students with a onetoone environment okay so why is one: one an important concept at Middletown right now you can see on the left side we've outlined our current setting and some of the really important pieces that we would want um to provide for our students one of the biggest ones that we talked about is um the ability for all of our students K2 on top of your three four five students to have the same

168device for uniformity for parents and also allowing then us teachers to have the ability to do virtual lessons and virtual morning meetings so that children homes aren't having to share the family device to be able to accomplish that um I think it's important to outline too that in both settings we're placing an importance on that digital citizenship um on the teachers part the student part and that of the parent um it provides um a extremely steady routine for our young age kids and permits our staff to do a plethora more of what we were able to do in comparison to um our March May of this year also wanted to outline that although we hope our transition in the co time won't be forever that the on to one has a place in our future

169too um it really helps to meet the needs of today's learner it gives us time gives us more time to troubleshoot things when we don't all have the technology to use um and it truly connects that big picture concept to our real world uses we are trying to te kids every day um this image here is just one I wanted to share um I feel like some of the bigger concerns are usually um with screen time in the early childhood years and this graphic is a great explanation of what our teachers can truly accomplish with one toone technology um it's an important role that a teacher plays in teaching this generation of digital natives um what our children have in their hands right now is the worst technology they will ever hold and I think

170as our as the classroom teachers we hold a strong responsibility in teaching them the difference between these two uses um if we have a few devices in one class the use tends to become a little bit more passive and when we have enough devices for the CH or teacher to integrate technology during all things like centers and lessons small group whole group instruction that device becomes a more active use tool um it can be adequately planned for and it allows for a lot more teacher autonomy in their use um and includes all those nice things like Global Connections design peer collaboration all the things we want them to be able to do with technology even at this super young age all right and then here is just a list um I thought it would be

171important to show everything that we were already using as uh staff at Middletown instructional tool wise already use on the Chromebooks that we have in classrooms and then what we were using when kids were at home using their parents devices um there's some outlines there of what each of those do but they're all very strong curriculums that everyone has used very steady and they kind of have a great way of allowing the teacher to differentiate from afar um which was a huge component for us in April and May um being able to offer this to all children on the same device and being able to teach them how to use it uniformally would make a huge impact and then here are just a few of the things that we would hope to begin including in

172hopefully with some professional development and just being able to have these devices in children's hands every day um we could actually begin instructing and using the instructional tool the way we would want it to be with our virtual readal outs and interactive online lessons and actually being able to host Google meets and see our kids face to face I know a lot of teachers felt like in the K2 world we were missing that face- Toof face time because our kids didn't have a uniform way of contacting us um so it's just there's so many possibilities we could end up in with this adequate access to everybody and then here are just this is more on Jared's end but some device Necessities that kindergarten and first and second gr have talked about the big picture thought

173is just really weighing the pros and cons of the longevity and making sure that we have uniformity and developmentally tool for K12 right so from a k k perspective we understand that those students are not prepared for a full Chromebook laptop so what we've uh We've looked at is a a tablet that is Chromebook based but it's 100% touch uh for those for those young kiddos um that device is in a ruggedized case because we do understand that that they will drop them um and then moving on to first and second grade uh we understand that our first and second graders begin to utilize Chromebooks already uh so we felt pretty comfortable with rolling out a a standard Chromebook that we utilize throughout the rest of the district for those students um looking at potentially

174providing some supportive assistance in in ways of maybe a mouse um because we understand that trackpads are difficult for those particular kids um again these are designed to be ruggedized uh for first and second graders um it's very specific to those particular group of kids um moving forward um those particular devices uh after we return to a sense of normaly in our district uh we do not see those devices not being utilized we definitely see those devices going out into the classroom um and being utilized not as the sole form of teaching but as an additional tool in teacher toolbox um that is extremely important we want to reiterate over and over again Dr Hall or Dr Romo can speak of this but making sure that the kids are not doing this 100% of the

175time but it is a a additional tool that they have and then just kind of an ending point for how this initiative would look for us at MPE I think it's important to think about the chance that these kids would have to use all of these technology things full to their full potential if they had access to a device that could run a programs and curriculums effectively um during our remote learning time when parents were attempting to use their own technology in their homes the Integrity of some of these platforms was lost and by providing families with a school purchased laptop researched by Mr Lynn we are already multiple steps ahead of where we've been um the tech children are using today would then be a skill that they would continue to take with them

176grade level to grade level developmentally and through like a sort of scope and sequence there would be skills that would be taught with the use of the laptops which would be really exciting um and it's significantly important for the inclusion of instructional technology in these Early Childhood classrooms because the children we are teaching today are what we call digital Natives and it should be a priority for us to begin instructing with that mindset okay thank you questions from the board can we um can we come go through the whole car's money there's more okay might all come together likeing it felt like we ending thank you Tracy Tracy would would you be kind enough to send your presentation to the board that was really great and I would just like to be able to read

177through it uh has a full um full presentation she can share with everyone great thank you I will share Don right now she can send here's Mone at the federal level is otherwise known as the the elementary and secondary school emergency relief Grant Sr Grant which is what we are going to be applying for um Mohammed sour receive is going to receive $275,400 Chromebooks um this next fiscal year for 139,000 this is going to be the savings from technology for this next year's budget because we are going to divert that to the car's um grant that way um we can take that out of our operational budget um otherwise um as they were just discussing we have um talked about purchasing 250 of the tablets that Jared was referring to for kindergarten which is 82,2

178188 Chromebooks for first grade which is4 $7,000 and then stiens for the reopening task force of [Music] $6,499 now um as he mentioned before um as I mentioned before I've been working with Nicole to see how we best utilize our dollars so she has also put 62 additional Chromebooks out of the T out of the title grant for first grade so that would cover both kindergarten and first grade second grade will be taken care of with some of the Chromebooks that are already here and the ones that will be turned in from 8th grade and 12th grade jar those in good shape uh so we're still evaluating those um and so we if there's any additionals that we have to come up with we will be sure to let you guys know but we have

179not received any of the eighth graders yet we've only received uh the graduating seniors who did not purchase uh because eth graders are hanging on to them until they attend for grade so it'll be it'll be a tight turnar around for us come a little bit so the over the overarching reason here and um is for using the car's money in this way is because we anticipate and again we're we're still waiting for guidance from the State Board of Education uh but it's it's looking more and more like when we start school in the fall we will need to be doing a combination of in-person learning with off-campus learning so a blended approach and um without our kindergarten through second grade students having their own devices um in order to do that first of all

180we it it creates a really inequitable situation some kids have devices at home some do not um we also feel that we do have we've got more control when our kids have our devices and there's more security and more safety involved um but also just to facilitate the instruction that we need to move to when we were doing remote learning this spring our goal was was very simply just to prevent the loss of learning and Dr ronal in working with our instructional subcommittees you know our emphasis has been and our teachers priority has been in in trying to put together these plans that we've got to move back to instruction and teaching and pushing out new material and um I I don't think we're going to be able to start school though 100% in person

181and because of that um this is a purchase that um we feel necessary to to be able to move ahead and to fall successfully with all our kids and of course we were getting the we were getting the Chromebooks anyway for the sixth through 12th grade students how many of our seniors took the Chromebook and over 100 y so you're looking at about 150 that we have mean the bottom we have to pay $25 yeah correct um but we get 100% of the eighth graders of those who turn in but they but they again so for those ath graders we do not give them a new one until we have their so um we have we have a little bit of Lage with that they they'll want their new one correct correct and those those

182devices from those ath are only uh they'll be starting their third year so we still have some legit on in those places I was calculating how the prices of them just they changed just we made our first initial investment of all of them right so uh the tablets are more expensive um than a traditional Chromebook because they are a touchcreen um unfortunately um but the the first grade devices those are our standard costs so there's no additional cost to those outside of what we normally spend um and say we're doing some things to bolster up the durability correct so the pricing of that 82,000 includes cases for the including cases for the ones were recirculating in the second grade well we'll make those worth yes those those are already rized enough but we will rized

183but yeah we will we'll make that work we have some cases sit around that we can repurpose for those kids question about content I know we've got some for internet for some of these kids but can is there kind of a a market that can preload educational material on these things so they can not be connected to Internet yes and no but part of what we're attempting to accomplish is that face Toof face interaction right so get that yes yes because they probably first graders aren't going to do a lot of their own homework on it so yes or no it can be preloaded but at some point in time they have to have internet access right so that would presuppose that the entire bre is done on before we ship those devices out to

184those kids so so part of what that looks like is hotpots right so coming up with uh Hotpot plans we we're we've been in discussions with different internet providers throughout the community not just Mohamed but also Seymour looking at providing ways that we can do wireless and inter internet activity um I've been in discussions with several internet providers to see if we can provide uh very low cost or at no cost to some families internet access um those those discussions are still ongoing um but we've made some pretty significant progress in that in those discussions So Co is on this going to occur at the next meeting um so the car's money is is very similar in terms of it's like a grant similar to the title Grant and the idea Grant which the board

185does not take a vote on and approve we simply we submit a budget for the monies that we get so it was just a discussion item tonight this has to be submitted by June 30th it seems as though this is more than just spending this money though right like this is a change in how we provide education at MP I think it that's a great point colen I think what this does is it provides more flexibility so all of those things that Tracy were list Tracy listed we already do to some degree but with the limited number of devices when we're in first here in the building there's a sign out system there and so there are times when there are conflicts and the teachers can't do what they want to do or what they

186need to do on a particular day because the materials in this case the Chromebooks or the iPads are not available okay any other questions at this point okay well we've won another hour and a half where has the time left and so we're going to take a five minute break so we can um take care of some business on a personal nature and we'll be back um number seven we moved to the consent agenda so we'll be back with agenda item 8 in about five minutes e I forgot the by you why go to sleep look up why does go to sleep 10:00 good uh here we're back live stream we muted we can't hear you there you go okay welcome back everybody I think the live streen is back up sound is back up

187now too um and Ken colen and Megan are you all three there here yeah I'm here okay thank you all right is um item eight IG with Village of the hall okay um this intergovernmental agreement with the village of Muhammad um covers the use of the Fieldhouse and actually some other um of our facilities that we share and it really just puts into writing and memorializes um the the practices that have been going out on for a number of years but it just solidifies it and um felt that this was I mean we this act this draft of this intergovernmental agreement had actually been put together I think a couple of years ago and just it it has not come to fruition so thankfully um tonight we bring It Forward um hopefully for approval this

188evening uh I believe that the village of Muhammad hasn't on their agenda for tomorrow night but um it was also important with the renovation of the Fieldhouse and um the anticipated receipt of the $400,000 Grant um that Senator Chon Rose talked to us about um a couple months ago that um you know that that Grant was to go toward a facility that um um supports Community usage that there is community use of the facility so I felt that um having a more robust agreement in writing uh was important um for a lot of different reasons and um the the grant was one of them and also just to get it in writing so there's a clear understanding one of those things of then this will be in place and the procedures will be clear okay

189you've had a chance to look at it uh we'll discuss in a minute the super recommends that we approve it as it's presented is there a motion to approve the intergovermental agreement so move is there a second second okay discussion just think if we talk about Community engagement and relationships this is a continuation of wanting to keep that in the public eye so that we collaborate I know it's not stated here but it's still the plan to have um public use outside of Rec programs for the field absolutely yeah yes yeah that's and that's just more on us to open put it up and provide supervision right and we'd like to expand that that's part of big part of the conversation as well one thing that isn't here that I don't think was in the

190original draft clear back when it talked about um The Village having access to it while we're on breaks like spring break winter break and that's something that came out of discussions um with Senator Rose and in the village when the grant came up is is you know there was a desire to find a way to have let let the community use the field house some during those times yet our staff has often gone vacationing has plans not to be here um and and the village is going to step in those times and provide some coverage so we can have the field house open so that's that's kind of a new piece that wasn't there before I remember Sean saying that in a public meeting that you were collaborating all us yeah so that that came

191directly out of the talks we had with the village and with C Rose so that's good that that provides parents options um The Village provides the coverage and that way our staff that has plans over break can still have their plans over the break so kind of a win-win I'm sorry go ahead Merl I can wait I forgot did we add a security option for when we're not there or for a direct entrance at that Fieldhouse without having did we do any thing in the renovation to that the where are the interest okay you can't get into the rest of the school though right we can close off the rest of the so it sounds like there were meetings that were there were meetings to draft this document is that true the document was pretty

192much drafted I mean we had there were definitely there were conversations with Dan waldinger and um with I mean I talked with Senator Rose about um the usage piece and um talk with the uh mayor and Patrick Brown as well but this this this document itself is is not necessarily new I mean it had been in the works for a long time and simply bringing it forward for foral approval the only additional discussion recently was the discussion with Senator Rose and who had those discussions with him I did I'm talking with them about it has this been reviewed or I'm sorry which which of our attorneys has this has reviewed this document Jeff funk and the village attorney as well um do you when did was it sent to Jeff um like with two or

193three weeks ago have to look at the exact I mean within the last month oh did he provide any feedback on it uh any thoughts or concerns on it no his feedback was that it's fine I think I think he there might have been a typographical error that got fixed but no no nothing of substance needed to be fixed and I I just want to make sure I didn't miss miss it but the the board is seeing this for the first time on Thursday is that right correct uh can you speak to why it was settled uh on a fiveyear term to renew this I can't I think if you look back historically I I believe the most of the agreements we've done with the village in the past have been five years so my

194inclination that's why this one I don't know there was any I don't there's anything magical about 5 years my inclination would be since this is I I know this is codifying existing practices but um when you have a a legal agreement you never know what the consequences are going to be um I just would like to suggest we make it a shorter term perhaps two years just to at least get started with we can always renew for longer at a future dat we can terminate at any time though I don't think that is correct say we Noy the other party by July 1st the year of termination that's the 5e Ral the initial turn right um another concern I had when I read through it um it mentions that it refers to the village in

195the district as agencies it mentions that one one agency will help another AG gency find an alternative facility in the event of a conflict a concern I have is it doesn't it doesn't make clear what it means by helping the other agency are we going to just be providing advice to each other um or would we have to contribute to uh rental fees if if um the other agency needed to rent a facility off campus or out of town I don't think there's any commitment to help Financial I think I think the commitment would be to help find an alternate facility if they wanted to use Jim apps and we didn't have gy X available but we could make JY y available that might work same thing if we needed to use one of the

196fields and the field wasn't available but they had another field that work for us well I there's no intent that we're going to help fund each other's rentals sure I certainly support um helping the the parks department um in that way I just want to make sure that we're not making Financial commitment on that no Max you said that there was an original draft of this do we have the ability to see the original how long ago was that drafted you you're breaking up I heard original draft and do I have the ability and I don't know what the question is I'm sorry is the original draft of this and how long ago was the original draft drafted there was an original draft and I I can't tell you at this point how long ago

197that was done Dan wal probably knows yeah did you hear that she said she thought Dan probably know I believe Dan and Rick were involved in the original one to be honest with you so it's it's been a while um another concern or question I've got um refers to the the indemnification section of the agreement um it it specifies a required minimal general liability insurance are we already meeting that minimum or will we have to um get additional Insurance to fulfill this agreement we already meet that Heather are you with us a million dollar policy is very typical she's not there though she's and she's not online [Music] either we've had the facilities for quite a while so I can't imagine we have not had our own insurance I can find so Ken question on

198the two years knowing that these are fixed facilities and been around for quite a while and the use hasn't changed what would two years bias that that five would not just uh simply it would give us um a shorter period of time to to live with this agreement and see if there are any consequences that we just are not seeing um ahead of time uh in general I I like the agreement I am a big fan of uh the parks department in Muhammad um but like I said it's just this is the first time we're stepping into this um it would give us a shorter period of uh if we discover there's some complication or it requires something that we we decide we would rather not be obliged to do um it it requires it

199for two years as opposed to five years um I mean in reality I expect this would vote go through and then be renewed for longer once we once we're confident that it it works the way we want it to work so my opinion is that since we continue to want to keep property taxes down because that comes up all the time anytime we talk about stuff this is our good faith effort to continue to support the parks and wreck department without increasing property taxes so this is one of the benefits that you have of living in Mohammad and being part of the schools uh if they didn't have that partnership with us then they would have to call for some kind of inflation to cover the subsidization of the services that they provide because they

200wouldn't have the access to provide them without this relationship yeah Ken regarding the term if this was Uncharted water I I would agree with you um this has all been in place for several years is really a continuation so I don't see a problem going five years I'm trying to get a hold of Heather I'm not reaching her um I'm pretty would carry a million dollar in general liability that's pretty yeah typical well the intergovermental practice has been in place for 20 years right right we require I think that others carry that amount of insurance when these our facil be likely that we would be carrying less than we require others to carry yeah yeah we require a million dollars of others we're not we're not carrying less than that I we can verify that

201with Heather but I'm pretty sure that Gil all essence of the agreement is to cooperate I think either party could presume to change specific language if the need arose but uh I think in the general Spirit of a fixed facility like this I'm not afraid of 5 years anybody else have any questions or comments also feel if we want to be willing to collaborate like with our senator who wants to make a collaborative relationship with us in the village we need to do something in good faith to show that we're worthy of that too I think I think 5 years speaks to that better than two I agree probationary sounds like two yeah okay I'll put Senator rose on probation we'll let somebody else do that all right we've had motion a second discussion is

202there anything else any further comments okay can I get a roll call vote please Jes yes Keith yes Henri yes Schultz yes Larson yes tennessy [Music] yes yes all right thank you everybody um next item guidance from attorneys um this has to do with the informational U that we the information we'd ask the attorneys provide us with several months back um the attorneys recommended that um those that information be delivered in the form of binders and that we keep those binders here in the office and uh that was not part of the original plan when we decided to do this so I want to go back and address that and square up what the attorney said will we said and put something in place consistent and uh so it's my recommendation that we approve a

203motion to follow our attorney's recommendation to maintain and keep the binders of The Correspondents here in the district office is there a motion to do that motion by Jeremy is there a second second Merl is her discussion yeah I feel like this is a specious argument to suggest that the method that the attorneys use to communicate all of this information to our employees is somehow no longer valid for delivering it to the client is a problematic this has already been information that's passed through our servers more than likely been passed on to personal devices by employees of the district so unless the attorneys are changing all their communication to paper copies that will be confined to the district office and then staff employees have to come in and read them and then respond to the

204attorneys in kind through the office this feels a lot more like making it difficult to get the information than it is about confidentiality I'm clear it's clear to me that this is probably a decision that's already been made so I'd actually like to uh move to amend the motion to also include that the board directs its attorneys to CC the board on all written Communications s to or on behalf of the district to any employee parent Community member or other Council from today forward in addition any verbal conversation between the board's attorneys staff members parents commity members or Council shall be provided to the board by the attorney in written detail within 24 hours of said conversation mean can I ask you a question I second the motion you can I want discussion so you

205have to second the motion to have discussion that I got it I just there's a transfer of information difficulty when we're in this room because you can't hear everything you guys have you can't see you you can't hear you so I mean there's not even 10 people in the room is the real issue that you don't want to come in and read read them in a private room or I mean is that the issue it makes it very cumbersome for me to have to come in and spend hours in the office when I could do it at home after my kids go to sleep from my when I have other things going on yeah it is problem you have to come and sit in the office yeah but that's how we had to read minutes

206previously like we came in and we did it under an order and I you can go out in the public for lunch and for hundreds of people Gathering so I don't understand why it's a big deal and I mean if if you were an attorney I think that you would question that and you are extremely intelligent and you are on another board I know that you don't want just information floating around and I think if you all are all everyone is so concerned about protecting our students safety and our confidentiality then you do it in a protected atmosphere that is my opinion and and it it goes set with the things that you you've all previously looked at and when we have to come back it looks they're here it's the library of keeping things

207just like the the budget has to be presented and it's in that room to be looked at it's proper procedure and management the environment is not changing the environment has already been that that communication has flowed through our servers to the devices owned by employees of the district there is no difference in the way that we are delivering that communication to a board member it goes through the same servers and the confidentiality is something that we take as an oath and that is something that we are responsible for it's not the technology already been broken from the very beginning so that's where my guard comes up okay it's been told to me to my face from people in the community that you've broken confidentiality from the beginning when there was a letter that was written

208by another person so that that one person's action represents all of us so I take that o seriously as well don't know what you're talking about Lori so let's let's go let's go to the second motion because we have to work backwards through this and the second motion Don did you get it no I would like to ask Mrs Hennessy to please send me the the verbatim text of your motion because I didn't get it all and I'm not sure that's I'm happy I'm happy to do that joh thank you but the essence of the second motion is that we're copied on all information all all emails correct copied on information that's sent to employees so that the client which we are is informed of the communication between client attorneys and the decisions that are

209being made and then I would like a any verbal conversations to be summarized and written detail Pro provided to the board for the same purposes okay so you're breaking up badly but let me make sure I've got this on emails you want to be copied and on phone calls you want an email from the attorney talking about what summarizing the phone call correct is that correct that's correct I just so my my first problem was that with that is the attorneys have already made it very clear that there's things that go on with individual students that we don't have an educational an individual educational interest in and we don't need not only do we not need to know about we shouldn't know about so if if if one of our Educators has a has a

210concern about student X and whatever this issue is we don't necessar neily have a right to know about student X specifically and the specific issue so I don't know how we screen those in and how we screen those out the board's attorney is giving advice we are responsible the employee is not the responsible party we are the client of the so all I am asking is to be informed of what our our attorneys are telling us the employees of the district aka the superintendent and any other employee is not the client you know we're probably not going to agree on some of this stuff the attorney has tried to explain this before I don't know how else to respond to that other than we don't there are certain information about students that we don't necessarily

211always have the right to know even though we're the board and even though we're paying the bill that's what the attorneys have told me I I know you don't like that answer I I there's nothing I can really do about that that's the answer we get and we get it from multiple attorneys that's not what transic said when we went to the convention to the iasb uh Forum last fall and that's not what Jeff bunk told me when I spoke to him so there is a misc here ma Max I think you're you're likely correct that we there are situations where the board does not have a reason to have access to information about a student um but I think and I would I'm guessing that the attorneys would agree that the appropriate threshold is

212when the information is going to our attorneys then we immediately have the resp responsibility and the right to hear what our attorneys are being told and hear directly from what our attorneys and what they're saying I think that is the important threshold and I feel like the two are being joined together to confuse a situation I think that's the S the Line in the Sand we need to draw because this is the board's attorney not the district's attorney not the special education Department's attorney the board's attorney we have the right to understand what Communications are being made with them again spoken to the attorneys that's not the story I get so we're going to disagree on it I think we've got to learn more from the attorneys before we could say yes or no on

213this I also want to speak to the confidentiality argument because I don't think it holds and I think we have a very recent example of why it doesn't hold we just got an email to the board from our Administration with confidential information just this weekend it came through email and that's what we're talking about is getting it sent to us in an electronic form so I don't understand why there's this double standard if everything is is is being done appropriately I don't understand why there's this double standard I don't see it as a double standard I see it as a peace meal Case by case that comes through an email what we're talking about now is several years worth of stuff all in one compendium that is in physical form it's it's a suitcase full

214of of data that is not at all I don't think like the individual case emails I have conceeded to come in and review what is going on in the binders I made a motion that changes things moving forward I don't believe the argument is valid I feel like it's a specious valid a specious argument with respect to the binders but I don't think we're having any movement on that so I am willing to concede that point I've made a motion for things moving forward okay so is there any more to you know we got this motion on the floor about things moving forward um that we would be copied on all emails and if there's verbal discussions then the attorney would provide a summary which I would imagine they would bill us to do that

215because that's more work that um I I I'm going to go on record I don't think this is why I would certainly want more information from attorneys before I would ever vote for it I'll be voting against it but everybody can do what I agree with that and I'm not at all prepared to increase our cost on doing business withs but we can sit here and argue about it for another hour I don't think we're going to get any more on so so can we have anything new to add to that discussion I'm actually a little bit confused I agree actually that the proper is to vote on this motion but last month it was told by our board one one am moves to amend second the that it changes the original motion so it

216seems to me that according to what we were told last month we're voting on whole Motion in one you know this motion on top of motion thing is I got to admit is Uncharted water for me well the Robert's Rules would say that the original motion maker would have to agree to an amendment right and the original maker is not agreeing to we did that a few months back we agreed to the amendment and went forward but in the last but in the last meeting we were talking about the Fieldhouse and and there was a motion made in an amendment and we only voted one time and you didn't make that motion Ken made the motion Megan seconded it then M amended it and JY seconded the amendment okay well AR you know it's 11

217o'clock at night almost I can't I'm G be honest with I don't remember that from last month um and I'm if it's a big deal we can go back and Replay that at some point I thought we had agreement from the motion maker okay maybe we did I don't this seems like a whole new motion to me right now right now the motion on the floor is Megan's motion which was made did she send it to you can you with the other motion okay so the motion on the floor right now is she's going to send the direct she's going to email the text to Dawn if she's not done it already but the motion essentially says that we're going to ask if Board gets copied all emails with the attorneys and if there's a

218phone call then the board will get a summary from the attorneys uh within what was it 24 or 48 hours or or whatever that was Megan did you send that to Dawn so she could read it for us because there's gaps in our conversation right now I'm working on it thanks I'm going to table move to table this motion which motion motion I mooved to table the whole motion until we can check with the attorneys about the um law I second that like Merl said a few minutes ago we'll have to check with the attorney I'd like to hear from the attorneys on this okay specifically what you want to hear from the attorneys on well there was the I would like actually sorry could we schedule an a a board meeting and ask the

219attorneys to come so that we can all be there together to ask questions so we all have the opportunity to ask what we want to ask hear it directly from the attorneys that's what I was hoping for sure we can work on that with the attorneys I agreed table the whole thing is wise to we have more information okay we got a motion table all this and bring in the attorneys for discussion and that's been there's been a motion in a second on that is there further discussion on that roll call vote please HRI what are we voting on tbling until we can get the attorneys all right yes tennessy yes schz yes lson yes yes ke yes M yes covid-19 reopening Task Force update Dr Hall right we continue to um attempt to work

220on finalizing plans for the fall it's very difficult to do without any guidance from the State Board of Education so we're hoping to get that anytime hopefully soon um we do know I think it's safe to say that we will be doing some type of modified schedule um and until we see the guidance from the State Board of Education um you know we're not ready to finalize anything so I like everybody else um I I wish we had that I wish we had a final plan um and and we don't um so uh I do want to have Dr Rumble give an update on um a Jump Start program that we are going to um conduct for students prior to the start of school so hand it off to Dr rimel to describe that so

221we can give some of our kiddos a little bit of a jump start yeah so I I want to like give credit where it's do this originally started with Pat ba just recognizing the number of kids at the high school that kind of ended the year with an incomplete and really wanting them to have an opportunity to recover that credit before they started their new courses uh for the fall that way they weren't you know kind of already getting the mind as the new year started with their new courses trying to spend study halls getting caught up from courses from this past spring so he had reached out to ask if there was any way we could provide an opportunity over the summer for kids to get kind of caught up the more we talked

222um we also looked at the area at the high school um at courses that really kind of build on themselves um and so we talked about also offering this opportunity to students at the high school that may have a um have ended their last math class or foreign language class with a C or D just recognizing that that's not really a solid grade to go into the next level so this would not be getting ahead this would really be working through some of the major skills in those courses and making sure that the students were pretty solid to go into the next level um and so as as Pat and I kind of talked through that um there was definitely interest as you can imagine from the other vly principles being able to identify students

223that um either were not engaged during the Spring in the remote learning or um are just kids that typically either struggle coming back at the beginning of the year or have received some intensive RTI services in the past and what that might look like so we're still finalizing the criteria for students principles and um the teachers that will be teaching this we'll be reaching out to identified students to invite them to participate um it'll be the last week of July and the first week of August we'll run for three hours Monday through Thursday and we'll provide transportation for those families that need that during that time um I reached out to Lori give me five we'll provide snacks three hours is a long time for kids to be there and so hoping that we can

224get some snacks for the kids during that time um and also been talks with me and things like that to make sure that we have any kids that are receiving um these Services if they still get a lunch whatever they might need um that may not have that at home during this time so we're excited hope it's a positive way to kind of have a positive experience in some small groups for some of our kids as they um get back to school maybe some of our H at have risk students so that they just give a letter like you know inviting them or yeah that's a great question different buildings have set it up different but somebody will be from that building whichever because I know like kids that have finished second grade that would

225be going into third grade then it would be Linc and Trail but somebody from that building would be contacting them and then do they have like a deadline when they would tell us like I mean you had said maybe what your target number were like I mean yeah so we have to keep I mean right now we're looking at keeping our group small right and so they still have to practice a lot of the the measures that are in place with social distancing and masks and stuff um principes were supposed to have their groups I think by the middle second week of July middle of July finalized because we also have to work with Nick and transportation to make sure we can get drivers you know and routs set up for that are we paying

226them like the staff stien then to do the extra awesome yeah they'll be play their their contractual stien um I put this in the uh so I have transferred some title $4 to Title One um because uh title four cannot cover this but I can pay for it out of title one so I'll be paying for this out of title one I can remember a long time ago like there was a Middletown building a long time ago where we targeted students who finished the year like that and did some interventions for them and this is a long time ago so yeah there there's definitely when you look at the impact of of different um things that you can do for kids to improve ACH achievement and increase learning summer school is not in many of

227the formats is not at the the list but I think this is our Target here especially at the high school is reting credit and getting kids back on track for graduation which has a strong correlation so thank you for the work done behind that okay anything else from the task [Music] force Cy would it be POS I know that we can't make any decisions at all but would it be possible for you to give us um just a brief overview of some of the options that might be able to happen in the fall well all those Al so you know what we're looking at is we're trying to figure out what potentially the guidelines could be from the Illinois State Board of Education and so um we've been developing plans thinking that you know social

228distancing will likely be part of the plan um maybe wearing masks they I don't know if they'll be recommended or required we don't know how many kids are going to to be allowed on school bus so we've been working to try to get our students down into smaller groups um and I'm just I'm really reluctant to put out there you know specifics because it's not finalized and we don't have any guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education um so I mean we're looking at less time in person in schools with you know with kids being here and um some time doing um synchronous learning on devices um meaning while a teacher is teaching in the school kids would be home um on their devices getting the same lesson while you know we're switching off

229groups alternating groups and schools um it's it's an incredibly complicated um complex tons of movie Parts um kind of problem to solve I think basically there's a thought that you know part of the students would be on campus part of the students could be home and then there would be some kind of alternating are we required to follow the uh State Board of education's recommendations or the governor's recommendations or do we have local control over what we want to do with our school district um I I think in the purest sense what comes from the State Board of Education our recommendations um I think that if you were to deviate too far from those I would recommend that the board checks with our insurance carrier about liability issues um you know we're so that's what

230I would say about that I I know that you know we had that survey out 90% of our parents want to have their kids in school um I I think I think that I mean that obviously there's a lot of planning that's going into various things but I'm just you know there's some information that's coming out I I I've got some pre-published data that shows that the risk of younger age groups especially is almost zero um if you're talking about especially even a 0 to 50 age group your your infection fatality risk is near zero and I can say this is from a study that was done in Geneva Switzerland was well done hasn't been published yet it's going through peer review but the infection fatality risk for ages 5 through nine is uh 16,000

231of a percent um so we're talking like really really low risk 10 through 19 it's 32,000 of a percent 20 to 49 it's 92,7 of% and then finally when you get to 50 to 64 it's .14 and then 5% for people over 65 I don't think there's any reason why we can't have our kids in school all day long um I think that we're doing more harm and more disservice to our students by asking them to do the online learning um and it just doesn't make sense to me this age group is almost entirely asymptomatic they do carry the disease they're not good spreaders um and by not having our kids together we're actually reducing that herd immunity that is necessary to even protect our older population and it's it just doesn't make any sense

232um and this isn't the only study that's out there there's there's several other pre-published studies that are going to be coming out that have these numbers um so I I would be all for doing our own thing at the district level um I would see absolutely there's no reason why our K through five especially could not be in school all day long um and because that's a group that's a little bit harder even to do some of the remote learning with um so I just I don't know I'm just throwing that out there because I I I just feel like we're making a mistake and I think our our governor and our Illinois Department of Public Health is is making a mistake by if they keep us out of school or you know Force us

233into more remote learning but it's it's it's like turning back a year for students oh well in the longitudinal effects of when they go to college and those kind of things I mean I had parents say I'll s a waiver when kid go to school I I appreciate that um thought and I'm I not actually advocating any decision right now but I do want to point out that kids aren't the only people in the school building all day so there are teachers and staff and we just have to consider them too not just the children I I'm not I understand the social emotional need for kids to go to school and everything I'm just saying we we need to consider all the pieces at one time I think we can that that over 50 age

234group we can protect um I don't know how many people over 65 we have in our buildings um I mean there's we can we can narrow and focus uh age groups that we can protect and make some exceptions but um to me there's no good reason not to have our kids in school I'm not asking for a decision tonight I'm just I'm just putting it out there to think about other thoughts comments um I I've had a significant number of people talk to me about their desire to completely disconnect um this coming year and and either pursue some sort of homeschool or some other sort of disconnected uh learning option um I would just like to ask that as Dr Hall you and and the staff are are working through options and Alternatives that you

235consider that this group of people and how we can wrap around or offer resources for them to do the best for their kids in the event they decide to um to to go that route and and not want direct uh instructional instructional time anything else we want to talk about the IB guidance um item 11 function of the Board of Education this came up the last meeting I think U and Danny's here tonight she has some questions I guess about what what we should be doing was that you want me to phrase that for me so I'm sure got your question right well it was I asked about the I I don't even know my letters is so it's okay no it was the athletic stop okay and I asked if you guys were going

236to discuss that and it seemed to be that you didn't want to and so you know I listen to a lot of boards and um I I've listened to boards discussed the um transition into Athletics I said too yeah I've listened to them amend budgets I listened to them you know talk about um hires and what the job descriptions look like and so mostly I was frustrated that night as you could probably tell and I'm not so frustrated now but um you know you guys continually want to have this discussion about what the role of the board is and so that's kind of what my frustration came out as is what is the role of a board if you have for example the ihsa guidelines coming out I mean I'm a parent too I you

237guys know that and my son's going to be playing soccer and so listening to other boards talk about what that looks like within their school district how their coaches and their athletes the expectations that they have and then you know plan set up for if somebody does get sick what does that look like for the rest of the athletes um you know at at the board level it's my opinion as a taxpayer and a parent at the board level there should be some discussion about what that looks like for our kids in our communities as we're moving through through a pandemic I understand I read all the guidelines that come out too and they're mostly general for the most part I mean even the state superintendent talked about the upcoming plans that are coming up

238and you know they talked about how it's going to be different for um they're going to be adjustable because different regions are going through different things and so my question to you guys was well what is your role if you're not going to discuss these things because I'm listening to other communities discuss these things that are important to how we organize our life together and I'm not hearing those same discussions here and so mostly quite frankly I was being sarcastic last time but we can have the I mean I love to have the conversation about what the board's role is I love listening to boards we're taught that you know we're taught in school these ideals that elected officials will represent us and that you will be stewards of our priorities and our values and

239there will be conversations between community members and boards and administrations and stuff like that I mean I don't know that 11 o'clock on a Monday night is the right time to have that conversation but I think that it is one that needs to be approached because we spend a lot of time talking about this this board and how it functions and even prior to 2019 there was what is this board and how does it function and so it was my frustration that came out of question but I think it is a i disagreed with Jeremy last time when and and maybe even Negan when you know let's not have this conversation no it is one that we need to have because it it is the most essential part of what it is that we do

240as a society is have these conversations about how we organize our lives together so I know that was a long answer but I'm tired so there you go okay um there's there's been we talked about that a lot and we've not made a ton of progress um you know generally there's ISB guidelines I can get those to you You' seen those um I think on the Issa back to play guidelines actually those were those were fairly specific they were but there's no guidance for reopening has not been specific remote learning wasn't very specific you know other things aren't that specific and so as a parent and I told Dr Hall this as a parent it was hard to answer those questions on the survey because you don't know what it's going to look like so

241even though they're not giving us complete guidelines on how everything should look I don't I personally don't understand why the conversation can't be had of okay we're opening up for phase one of return to play all of the coaches I know this all of the coaches are doing something different some coaches are like okay let's go let's do this together some coaches are like let's have the seniors handle it some coaches are like you can do the training on your own like there's all kinds of different models going on but with return to play let's say you have seniors leading a group are they taking the kids temperatures are they making sure that they're socially distanced are there's all kinds of questions and as a board I feel like putting my son in your hands

242for return to play there should be some discussion about what that's going to look like to make sure that he and every other athlete that goes out there is safe and that's all I mean I trust Tinsley I trust the coaches but I don't understand why there there can't be a conversation at the board level as to what our priorities and our goals are all right well thank you for clarifying that a little bit thank you for allowing me too Dawn we took care of item 12 Dawn do we have any comment that's come in over the course of the evening no do you not all right so at this time a Clos session is necessary for number one litigation uh when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has

243been filed and pended before a court or admin tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the Bas for the finding should be recorded enter to the minutes to close meeting also it's been requested that we site personnel as a reason for tonight just to handle couple confidential questions there so we will add Personnel to the close session is there a motion to go into close session for those reasons we got a motion is there a second second discussion roll call please SCH schz Colleen you're on mute said yes thanks sorry Giles yes Larson yes Keith yes tennessy yes Henri yes mome yes uh public thank you for being with us tonight tonight we will not be conducting any business at the end of Clos session

244um thank you for tuning in and have a wonderful rest of your evening we'll adjourn from Open Session and come back and close session in about five minutes board members you can log out please and log in on the Clos session link