001[Music] hey we're excited it's a holiday season we have two great events happening simultaneously at hery tonight one is Art therapy gifted To Us by the road home program from my good friend will busdorf veterans from all walks of life shared their stories through masks there's the outer self that we show the world and then the inner self that we don't show anybody and some of the masks show how others perceive Us and how we perceive ourselves on the inside and they're very powerful in that way when you can see the jposition between how different they are in pretty much every MK and the veterans wanted to share these with our community to normalize mental health they were seriously hoping that young people would you know find some courage to to heal and some hope
002because all of them shared their masks and their stories recognizing you know what I'm good with me no matter what um and they wanted to connect the veteran Community to our community simultaneously this night we have veterans local veterans come in they are judges for our Ginger bill which all the funds go to a solders journey home home we got hundreds of houses to be built tonight to honor our country our school and the things kids belong to the huskys and local veterans are our judges it's a spirited event for 10 years hery huskies have dedicated some time and created a spirited event to raise funds for a solders journey home to help build a home for a handicap accessible veteran and this is one of my favorite nights of the year because we're having
003an absolute blast it's a it's a short event but it's electric with good energy because the holidays are here everybody's included absolute blast and we know behind all the fun this is a great cost we raised some funds for soldiers journey home we brought Spirit we educated kids we we welcome veterans to our community we couldn't be happier The Exchange programs at Prospect are unique because we get to offer um a true exchange experience for our students there are three at prospect that correspond with our three language languages Italian French and Spanish our students get to first host in the fall so all three of our languages host students the European students in the fall and then our students travel for spring break so in addition to their language skills that they build over the
004course of their courses this is a true capson experience that allows them to culturally meet students host them travel there and have the Homestay experience as well I think from uh from two different perspectives a language teacher perspective we get to see our students using the language in a real tangible environment outside the walls of the building which we all have been trying to Foster for such a long time and we get to see it come to fruition the other piece of that is the students perspective and both when they have students here they're opening up their hearts and their minds to A New Perspective and a new culture and then when they go abroad I think it really solidifies for everybody that they are not only able to use their language but also see
005the world through a different lens which leads hopefully to exponential growth in the future I do have to say it's pretty cool that we have a program with exchange students because it's really different to have Exchange student and to be in a family in another country than to just go with the class on a school trip because you really have the full experience which is pretty cool and I think it's more like complete like you can really be in the Life of an American student which wouldn't be the fact if we were just going on the school trip here tomorrow we are going to see Chicago so I can't wait for it and to just uh see the reiver do the boat tour and all the museums that are here and also like try T
006typical food for example like Bagels but also like the deep dish pizza I heard a lot of older students that had done this program and the experiences that they had like the friendships they built and just the opportunity to say like oh I was an exchange student like in a foreign country it's just something so cool that I think I'll reflect on for the rest of my life I hope to get a like a lifetime friendship maybe and learn about the the cultures and traditions and the food because I've never been to the US and it seems really exciting I think for me one of the most important reasons why this exchange is so important is because it's one thing to learn a language and a culture in a classroom but to really live it
007I think really instills some sort of Pride and passion for students continue to continue their learning I know for me personally when I found out that Prospect was one of the only high schools that offered an exchange program I knew that this was my goal to be here because I wanted to be able to give my students that opportunity to become lifelong Learners and to continue using this language beyond the walls of school and hopefully into their Futures as well I'm really excited about this because uh it feels really like different and at first it felt unreal but right now I'm realizing that it is true so it's a great experience and I hope a lot of people will do this in the next [Music] years 3 2 1 action so today we are doing
008the district 214 Arts unlimited drama day and for the first time ever we've collaborated with Harper College we've provided our students from across the six schools in district 214 an opportunity to learn about all different areas in drama it's super exciting and because of our collaboration and with the help of Kevin long at Harper College we have brought in some amazing experts to work with our students in drama and theat we have students doing musical theater we have students doing stage combat and fighting we have students learning about the Shakespeare folio and how to speak The Shakespearean text how to act on camera how to build a set paint a set uh design costumes the class that I'm doing is called acting for e for e approval of minutes for the open and closed so
009moved oh um does uh does someone want me to take these individually as I'll I'll wrap them together open and close meeting of December 14th and the open and close meeting of December the special meeting of De December 21st there several people want to address the board on some more topics the board president May limit the time to two minutes per person the public comments agenda item will only be will be the only time that the board of education will hear public comments during meetings although comments may be made on most any matter related to the operation of schools comments will not be allowed identifying individual students or staff members as this is the Board of Education business meeting the board practice is not to respond to public questions or comments at this time because
010this is not an open-ended Forum however we do listen carefully if requested a written response will be provided if you wish a written response please ensure that Miss Keys has your full name and address on the signup sheet to be fair and consistent to all addressing the board the same protocols and procedures must be in place for everyone on the DI there is a green light that indicates your time is started the yellow light indicates 30 seconds remaining and the red light indicates your 3 minutes have expired so if you want to come forward to the microphone and clearly state your name for the minutes this is Gary Garland could you please come forward Gary GRE Greg I'm sorry Greg no new prescription needed go go ahead all right I just wanted to say about
011like the we've received a couple emails about attendance and kids and I understand how important it is I also want to address like the December 22nd email about Improvement of mechanical systems for the students and their environment for Learning and stuff but I just feel that with the block schedule that the district moved to from the eight per perod schedule it's allowed the kids to fill their time with other activities they uh are not mature enough to handle it and their free time and that you know I feel that the one extra elective has been sacrificed for the keeping the kids engaged and not having math every day I mean going from the 8 period schedule we had to insert the 45-minute Lunch Period which which is like 11% less minutes that teachers are in
012front of the students every other week teachers are only in front of the students 960 minutes down from the 1175 minutes that it used to be with five periods per day that's like an 18% loss so it's almost 29% of reduced time of teachers engaged in the classroom with the students and I know that there's availability with the students to go on their own and learn but they're lazy they're these kids they're not mature enough I feel um I mean these are 145 year olds and again it's like even with the teachers with the Union agreement they're allowed up to 15 minut 1500 minutes per week and only teaching five classes per day in the block schedule they're only four classes per day in the new Union agreement will teachers be required to do three
013classes a day because I know that there's also a limit on how many students per day that they can be allowed to teach it's like 140 on the limit so with minutes in teaching per day and the uh students getting them in front of students keeping them in front of students it's just too much lost time out there um because I mean like a lot of teacher I mean only if they're allowed 140 per day and they're only teaching two classes a day that they're only seeing and engaging with maybe 35 students within their classroom in each class so that maybe 70 total it's like half the time and I've never agreed with two academic classes per school day of you know 10 or yeah 160 minutes is qualifying as a full day of Education
014I mean having a daughter that was in gym waiver and lunch period it's only two classes it's just I just don't feel it's right up there thank you and I apologize Greg I uh the next uh person that signed up is Elizabeth Bower all right so good evening happy New Year everyone um chair um first I wanted to address the earned honors report that's coming up later this evening I may have to duck out so I might actually have to miss that um but I'm glad this is finally on the agenda at the same time I'm disappointed at a couple things um first that there's no information in the report that's available to the public or the executive summary on the process for actually concluding the pilot second uh there are a number of concerns
015with the report itself and is kind of what I do for our living so um my concern is first of all that it cherry-picks results to suggest that more students are taking AP classes it's providing false comparisons between traditional honors and earned honors to um overstate the benefit at the same time nowhere in the evaluation that's available to the public is a real discussion of how this is impacting actual student learning obviously if I had access to the data I would do my own analysis absent that I hope that you will all use your all the critical data analysis skills that you yourselves can muster on this point rather than just signing off on something second I wanted to address the ethics commission um which as you know met over two years ago and the
016commission accepted the investigator's recommendation to bring a set of policy changes to you the board that's two months ago and I'm really confused as to why that actually hasn't happened yet um in addition just to flag for you the fact that the investigator was factually incor incorrect on at least one point um he said that the solicitation of the $3,000 that took place was not a violation of the policy because of an exemption of $75 per P per person per day but even though that's in state law your own policy does not have an exemption of any kind for soliciting gifts um I don't know whether you intentionally made the board policy a higher standard than state law or whether you accidentally gave yourselves a stricter standard but it's there um third and reading through
017the public meeting packet all of a sudden in the discussion on the fees there's a statement that in 2026 you're projecting an operating deficit and that was a bit of a surprise given how insistent you are that you all are very fiscally prudent I went back to the latest meritorious budget and it's not as meritorious as it usually is it you cut it in half from 300 to 150 pages and in the statement in the section on long-term Financial projections there's a vague statement of the budget is balanced for the next several years so I something's going on there and I'd really like to know why all of a sudden the budget isn't balanced anymore thank you thank you okay moving on to um discussion items I I know the the board policies are really
018lengthy but uh you know after the legislature is done we we really get this done from the um from the association about updating policies so Dr Ro would you like to uh talk about the policy changes please sure I'd be happy to um so the the policies that are in front of you a number of them are um updates to to the legal side of things or some footnotes but there are a handful of uh more substantive changes to I'd like to bring your attention to uh just to go on my list here about about seven or eight to highlight briefly uh policy 2 colon 20 uh it raises the bidding threshold from 35 2 35,000 from 25,000 offering districts a little bit more flexibility to work with a trusted partner before it has to
019go out to bid uh typically the things that you see the contracts are much larger than that that 25,000 anyway but the threshold is now 35,000 per state uh for 4 col10 requires districts to present an annual report of average expenditures of the district's operational funds from the previous three years at a board meeting so you can expect that annually uh coming um to to over an overview of those the average of those three years uh annually from us uh 4 colon 60 pertains to contracts again allowing districts to utilize a design build construction project with specific parameters and design build is a uh a a construction project process that actually has the architect and the construction management in one uh one entity so instead of bidding on separate projects it does allow for some
020of this a lot of times you'll see that in a um um performance contract uh much like the district used in in years prior with uh the a building in this in this building um we're we're we're big enough and our our projects are big enough we prefer the the bidding process um that gives it's nice for some smaller districts especially to use uh have that flexibility and this also addresses requiring District district-wide assessment contracts uh to be presented and approved at a board meeting so for instance we use uh Horizons in some cases a star assessment or some districts use the NW EA map assessment um those types of Assessments must come before the board for for approval uh 5 col 190 extends short-term sub teaching licenses as a type of teaching license until
021June 30th of 2028 it's a 5year extension creating a little bit more flexibility uh to fill some of the vacancies left left in the classroom with a teacher shortage five col 210 amends the policy to include non- tenur teachers in the provision that tenur teachers have had to live with for uh many many years uh that that you may if you resign within a third day window from the first student attendance day the district has the right to deny that resignation or teacher risks their their license being withheld prior that was only tenure teachers that that applied to but due to the shortage and there was a lot of movement in the last two years in the final hours of of of Summer and put districts in a really in a in a in a
022pinch where they would hire a teacher and that teacher might accept another job at the at the 11th Hour it it really really harmful to our planning so I think that's a good move uh 5 col 250 expands leave of absence policy to expand unpaid leave to employees dealing with loss of a child by Suicide or homicide so uh offering some additional Provisions to take care of families when they're dealing with um uh family tragedy 6 colon 60 requires instruction of Native American history as well as the dangers of fenel use um so that's just that's something we've seen we've seen coming and are totally prepared for but that uh just calling that out 7 colon 290 requires teachers administrators and school support Personnel who work with students to be trained on identifying warning signs
023of mental illness trauma and suicidal behavior in our youth uh that I'm I'm sure that will tackle that through our gcn's as well as some inperson training in our annual training um battery that we have 8 col 30 adds a provision allowing boards to meet and close session for hearings regarding denial of a mission to school activities Andor events I think this is an unfortunate necessity in the rise of um of confrontational and bad behavior a lot of sporting events that allows boards to take action on on withholding the ability to attend sporting events if people can't um can't control themselves while they're in attendance and then one that doesn't impact us because we're a high school district but it's worth calling out um is the state of Illinois is now moving to full day
024kindergarten requirement so 6 col 30 a lot of our feeder districts are um are wrestling with that we 25 is in the midst of a pretty sizable construction project in preparation for that as well as many others so um doesn't impact Us in the in the in the immediate but it's something that our our communities are dealing with with that happy to engage in any questions you might have board members I'll open the floor to anyone that has a question about any of the policies just to note um 5on 330 is uh election day schools will now be closed the November election day I should say okay I don't hear anything so we'll move on so um a discussion to about the proposed permission to dispose of closed audio recording 712 any discussion uh board
025members 713 the review of closed minutes uh discussion board members thank you 72 finance and business services Mr key you're up yes thank you very much good evening Board of Education Madam president um the first item we have here is the approval of the renewal of the community ed course catalog contract you'll remember uh back in June of the of last year now uh the board approved the award of that uh printing contract to the lowest responsible responsive bidder they are KK Stevens out of atoria Illinois and they were approximately 10% lower than the SEC second uh lowest bidder uh the bid called for year two pricing uh guaranteed in the bid which uh they did and they put it around 5% so we're here this evening um to discuss this with you with the
026understanding that uh we'll be recommending uh the extension of that contract for one year into the next year uh at the January 25th meeting and uh our friends in DPS have reported that um it's been a very good contract they've done great work been on time and on budget I open the floor to board members I just wanted to compliment you Tim uh clearly we are entering into a contract or have a contract with somebody who provides quality work and uh financially it's a sound decision for all of our stakeholders anyone else I just had a a quick question Tim so we had them for the year it wasn't a 2-year contract initially correct and they increased it by what percentage for the second year it's approximately 5% so it depends on the volume um
027we're estimating it to be around $57,000 in year okay for the total or for the increase uh no for the total for the total okay and we didn't need to go out to bid for this this next year because it was a continual of the contract correct thank you anyone else one question question so with I don't exactly know where aoria is but is there a freight Factor Fon County Illinois okay is there a freight factor involved that's not included in the pricing no this is the this is the cost of the the services delivered price correct yes sir okay thank you okay board members thank you you're up again great uh the next item uh up for discussion this evening uh we have discussed as an Administration uh the board tasked the administration the
028superintendent tked the business office with doing some research on the return of student fees in the coming school year the 24 25 school year as we all know um there was a pandemic and during that time uh and since then the board has opted to wave student fees um to provide relief to our families uh during that time and uh the the budget and fund balance has supplemented that during that time uh the business office did quite a bit of research they did they looked back through 18 years worth of uh fees here at district 214 um really analyzed uh closely about seven years worth of Revenue and then compared uh uh our former fees with current fees for our comparable districts the high school districts um in in the uh CER counties here and
029uh a couple things of note uh there we provide a table that shows the registration fees since 201 uh 10 11 you see that the fees went as high as $460 in the 1415 school year uh Mr dling had shared today with me uh that at that time the the the board had decided they wanted to try and um kind of uh assure folks of four years of the same fee at that point we found that in 1415 but then we we lowered the fee in the following year so um that's a strategy that's out there as well that that could be included in the recommendation at the the January 25th meeting um couple data points uh the fee uh Revenue in fiscal year 19 was about $3.7 million and uh in fiscal year 20
030it was 3.5 million and that's at that $420 rate uh part of the recommendation that that we're crafting at this point pending discussion this evening would be eliminating the co-curricular fees the $65 per uh activity and uh again for context and fiscal year 19 that was about $360,000 and in 20 it was about $320,000 um of of note uh as well uh the fees uh are waved for free students uh with a fee waiver and in fiscal year 22 uh our our data shows that about 28% of our students or 3,400 would have qualified for that uh fee waiver uh and then just a minor uh point is that when you compare against uh these the comparable districts uh there is there are all the cart items that they're charging that are included in our
031base fee uh including technology fee uh and other items such as gym uh uniforms and uh locks and then again on the next page you just you see the uh the comparison with other districts the data there is showing current year fees most school districts around this time of year are talking about that for next year fees so we don't have next year's fees available and with that I'll open up the floor for questions open the floor board members go ahead Tim you know at first glance in comparison across the districts we have a neighboring District that seems significantly lower at least half of what we're looking at can you explain to me why we need to be as high as we are or where that money would go for the taxpayers please certainly student
032fees are are one of those things that really rely on past precedent and as you can see on the first page our fees were actually a bit higher as recently as as eight or nine years ago all the time in in that uh that table there you know we've had significant inflation now um our costs have gone up but the fees have gone down a little bit and we've waved them for three years so um I guess what I'm dancing around is it it it supports the operations of the district and uh for $3.7 million uh any adjustments we make we would have to find that Revenue elsewhere uh it can't in perpetuity come out of fund balance it's it's done well up to this point uh but again as was discussed earlier in a
033in a public comment we're looking at uh a deficit if we don't change some things moving forward in the neighboring District that is lower have you compared their additional fees because um when I look at the participation fee that it's zero where there additional fees that would be additive that would compare to the rate that we're charging nothing significant okay no thank you board members Mr dling just a couple things um I think the 420 is too high um for the fee at this time and um I'm I'm wondering um we did have a program in place to uh charge freshman students as it came in a fee and that was the same fee they were charged uh for the remaining 3 years uh which seems to be what some of the colleges do or
034a number of colleges do uh and I'm wondering why we wouldn't try try that again it certainly gives you the opportunity to increase if you have to the next Freshman Class coming in uh but um I think the 420 is too high board members Mr Walker um what I agree with the 420 being at the upper end but can we talk about if you have the numbers for waivers do the the waiver numbers have they gone up over the past few years what what's the impact with the waivers because I think there's that subgroup of parents that are waivers there's people that are struggling that don't make waivers and then it's you know the other bucket we'll say but that that group that's in the middle really gets hit by this and I think 420
035is a big sting when the neighboring districts are not that and I think we have to do some digging to just dig in and make sure everybody's okay with that I mean that that's a big that's a big number if you have more than one child coming into District 24 and certainly people are right on the edge of stuff so I think we have to be very conscious of that certainly yeah when to I I cannot In This Moment speak on the uh historical waiver numbers we can gather that and provide to the board in advance of the next meeting for sure that would be helpful I have one additional question I'm going to let you finish taking your notes no if so if a family and and that 420 is not just for family
036that's per student correct that is correct okay and I I I agree with the other board members who said I I think it is High um especially I mean because if you have more than one student I mean you're close to $1,000 and yes especially that group that is close to the edge I agree so yes if you could please thank you I have go ahead go ahead a following up on Miss Ral do are are we aware of any other districts that allow a second student discount um or have we done that in the past or would that be just a recordkeeping nightmare but you know like first student pays full rate second student in the family in the same time frame right it's not uncommon at all yeah my P we did that
037with Transportation so there's a way to cap it if if the board so chose to to make a family cap uh that's something that's possible I would like to see something like that because I when my oldest got into her what third year High School from then on I always had two kids in for about a decade and um you know it it it was a lot in those years right so we were in those 205 15 years okay anyone else yeah go ahead Mr have we ever thought about uh like the district I came from d26 it was the same thing where if you had three children the first person paid full price for the bus and the other two would get discounted rates have we ever considered charging for the bus in Li
038of some of these fees well I would say that in in in six months that topic has not come up okay but it's a it's a it's a interesting idea and concept especially considering uh Transportation costs are not only going up but are also uh outsourced so because in reality the the the student fees are covering probably some of the bus are they that absolutely it covers operational costs uh the information I have here again new guy uh we do charge uh for Trans Transportation if you do not qualify for a bus because of course if you're over a mile and a half or have a safety hazard you're afforded free busing so on the spreadsheet here I'm seeing 675 for one student 550 for two or more students so we do have that um
039I can get some information on how many of those fees are charged so we can understand how many students are um not eligible but choosing to pay to ride I mean do we have any idea how many people do take the bus half time ahead I don't because that mean if you had that number that could certainly you mean paid or just ridership just ridership because if if you had that number you can if you put from our partner easily if you put a cost to it say say it's $400 for the year I mean that might be one of the ways where you could recruit some of the dollars if we as a board decide that the fee is too high or the fee should go away and we'd only be able to charge
040for students that are less than a mile and a half without a safety hazard so that's that's not a small number a large number of students in a high school district also where they're car pulling and driving it's it's even fewer so so the the high school districts are different than the elementary districts when it comes to that well state law is mile and a half you don't have to require you don't have to provide transportation um within a mile and a half from the school unless you have a hazardous designation close to the building all right thank you and we have little kids can't World from where I came from and I think there's at least four hazardous areas I can't recall them the state has an entire formula as to once you get
041to a certain um threshold of of hazardous designations then you can provide transportation for all and you get additional reimbursement for that so we're not there um but I appreciate this feedback I I think you know Mr Mr key and I will go back and come back with some different suggestions for you the next the next next meeting for continued discussion thank any other points I mean I don't want to close the conversation if you I just have one small point and and it's irrelevant honestly of of the cost and everything but has there been any consideration I always worry about our administrators who have to deal with last minute registration would there be consideration that you know uh a fee um increase the later you register so that maybe on the front end that's
042also not totally uncommon that to offer a slightly reduced rate if you register before a certain window so that we can capture uh the number of students in my prior District that's that was common practice and I think it's probably common the same here yeah okay thank you yeah that ear early bird discount three plus years since we've since we've had it I think about the change just at this table of you know who had involved in that so sure no and I appreciate I mean I I think the district's done a great job in you know waving those for the past three years like you said and has a accommodated accordingly but I think it needs definitely a motivator to sign up quickly yes we have to be very careful it's not a penalty
043not discount early bir the carrot not the stick no but genu I do appreciate the conversation we'll we'll come back with uh with another another angle at this and see if we can strike a happy medium let me just make one more comment if I may sure so you know the the Carro and the stick I get I understand that but I think think we have to look harder at the population and demographics that we have that even if you offered $100 less they don't have the cash or the money to do it on that early day so you know one thing that concerns me here and I think it's on everybody's mind we did it for three years fund balance worked great but you have people that were going to say next year oh
044you have two kids it's $11,000 and that $1,000 is hard to get when you have health care coverage going up like unforeseen and we made recommendations here right and we made um adjustments for our team here but there's other people that don't have that luxury and that $1,000 really and I know everybody's empathetic to this but I think we really got to dig hard and look at how we can impact this without making it such a burden on people because I do think that there's that that slice that really will get hit hard by this I I hear you Mr Walker and I I think that even outside that slice regardless of where you are on on the income scale we're all feeling absolute inflation in different ways I mean everything is is more expensive
045but to your to your point um and and actually to comment on and address one of the the public comments Miss Bower mentioned a little while ago um you know the out years of of a 5-year projection are not totally uncommon to be unbalanced because there's a lot of unknowns and everything's baked in and things change in and usually in in twoyear increments where things are really really tight and and and there and but some of the districts habits and some of the things we've done because of our response to co have elevated our our costs so you Mr key and and the superintendency team has actually spent considerable amount of time diving in and and dissecting what we've done over the last several years and where we need to go so that an operational
046balanced operational budget is our priority I heard that from day one of the interview to probably three or four of the board meetings we've had in the last six months that's been mentioned regularly um so it's not something that's been lost on us and it's something we intend um you know to carry forward and I I say it in total sincerity that you know our intention is really bringing a kind of a tier one ebf mindset to a tier four District we are a well-resourced district but that's we don't take those resources for granted um we intend to extend them and expand them as far as we possibly can with what we have we just have to remember the the additional spends over the last handful of years in response to a 100-year crisis that
047we faced in addition to aging buildings that have an $800 million price tag we have there's a lot we have to balance um and we we do not have any intention of going and asking the community coming to you asking for permission to ask the community for additional dollars we're intent on trying to do that ourselves um and a lot of that in in thinking go back to where we were pre- pandemic is where the conversation tonight came from um and I hear you loud and clear we'll come back with some additional suggestions for this but um our our fiscally responsible conversations going forward are going to include we have to find ways to trim what we're doing so that our students continue to have the worldclass experience in the classroom that they are having
048but there are efficiencies I talked about it at the last board meeting the the green initiative efficiencies we need to to go down these roads and embark on how we can save money on energy so we can divert and avoid having to come say we need an increase in student registration fees all of that plays into the same conversation so those are the conversations we're having um they they're not ready for for prime time yet but um we're we're on the right Road and we'll eager for the conversation with you and we have some of those ideas and solutions that we can share where we're headed and the strategic planning process is going to play a huge role in that next year to hear and hear from our community um who they want district 214
049to be 15 20 years from now and how we can work towards that and the financial resources that we have at our disposal play a huge role in that but we intend to be uh stewards of the community's tax dollars is is a high priority for us and we don't take that that lightly but I appreciate genuinely appreciate the conversation we'll be back in two weeks uh with with a different approach thank you Mr key you're up again excellent so the next discussion item again is a uh a recommendation that will come back to the uh January 25th Board of Education meeting uh we went out to bid uh for musical instruments uh there was approximately a million dollar of sr3 funds set aside for this uh this as is typical in most school districts
050um there is significant need for replacement of equipment and uh the opportunity is there I know Dr Lopez worked on this if we get into deep conversation about how we got there I'm going to defer to him I'm here to explain the uh the transaction part of the deal um we did put it out to bid we received quite a few responses um the one area we did not receive responses were on the uh the two replacement Grand pios uh and those are uh the specific brand that that our music uh group was looking for that our districtwide music committee was looking for were Baldwin Grand and uh their sole source through one distributor in the area so uh we were able to secure favorable pricing um from a resident in the district uh who
051is the owner of that distributor and uh provided we receive uh authorization at January 25th meeting in addition to uh what you see before you will execute purchase orders for those two pianos as well um I would entertain any questions you may have uh right now not a m musical guy so please don't ask me to play any music yeah don't ever ask me to sing so we had this recently um was it June I forgot when when did we yeah so so this has been almost a 24mon process uh we had an initial round of immediate needs so uh this our music staff did an audit of all the equipment uh spent 6 months doing that then they had to reach consensus on a stand uh everybody had different violins everybody had different so
052they had to identify a standard piece of equipment and they did that uh process first and from that process they identified immediate needs that were urgent uh it was a much smaller purchase I think closer to $100,000 or so so much smaller uh we did those and that laid the groundwork for them to continue to work uh so that we can put together this extensive uh sort of expectations of standards for equipments that are that really are standardized across the district and so it's a significant investment in our music program so how often do you think we will see this this is the first time we've ever done this it was a unique opportunity one of the changes we did make uh in this year's budget which we we would see if we'll be able
053to continue was to allocate uh a an annual allocation as part of our materials uh uh instruction materials uh fund uh so that there is a set aside of about $20,000 per School each year to replace musical instruments as needed so that we don't have to do another sort of big buy okay understood um board members Mr Walker just a quick question with what we learned with the standardization of the equipment are we sharing that with the senator District so we're setting them up for success as well oh that's a great idea and I I'll talk to Jeremy who's our fin art coordinator to make sure we communicate that thank you anyone else M so this um this proposal here is going to come out of the Esser funds and then going forward this will
054be the last year and the 20 grand is in the budget thereafter yes okay all right thank you okay one else oh Mr dling um I want to thank the parent music organizations who uh have uh over the years and since I've been on the board this the first time I've ever seen something like this happen and the Sr funds were there but the the the funding of musical instruments was primarily in the hands of the of the parent music organizations and I got to tell you they did a great job of of bringing in instruments replacing instruments but there's only so much you can do with the number of instruments we have if we're going to be a Fine Arts District of quality we have got to have students that play instruments that are
055playable instead of being taped up in some cases as we have so I I compliment you I compliment Dr Lopez for this and I look forward to us doing this in the future because we've we've done this for the normal we've done it for athletics we bought um all kinds of team uniforms and everything else over the years we are to be doing something for this this this process so I'm glad to see it's going to be moving forward thank you anyone else thank you thank you Mr Katy uh Human Resources Miss CRA any report none what uh nothing to report we'll beginning uh we'll be beginning our negotiations with our Education Association next month so I'll have plenty to report at Future meetings thank you 7.4 operations Mr ulie Happy um item one is
056the proposed Prospect roof HVAC and electrical install this is component two of the prospect roof uh project the board previously approved the actual roof replacement last month so this is the the second component and this is for the install of the rooftop units that we also prior approved uh purchase through Cooperative purchase through train so this is component two of the prospect roof project this summer any questions board members I do go ahead um it it really will go hand inand also with the elgrove culinary arts Renovations um it was a big deal um in my former District in d26 and that is the uh the 10% contingency fee we always felt that that 10% contingency fee actually represented what we were going to pay not what we could possibly play pay it was always
057seemed to be that we always got that contingency fee so my only comment is um would it be possible to notify the board if we are going to face that contingency fee in both this Prospect High School roof replacement as well as the elro culinary arts Renovations that's all I'm ask yeah absolutely and I think uh Dr roow and Mr K and I have had many conversations about these projects and I think our our plan is to bring to the board the final cost of these projects so we can see um the actual costs associated with with these projects and we'll provide that transparency F great thanks Chris appreciate that any other questions board members on to the next item item two is the proposed Cooperative purchase for a chiller at Forest View and a
058chiller at Prospect a chiller is to cooling what a boiler is to heating um what's unique about these chillers is in 2020 the EPA has banned the use of refrigerant 22 that's essentially like Freon in in your in your house um so they no longer produce or import R22 in the United States and we have to phase out any units with R22 by 2030 these units are all also uh aging and beyond their lifespan 1999 at Forest View and 1993 at Prospect um so this is associated with with our facility assessment and our Capital Improvement plan um we use these units um to cool the building so essentially we're we're ready to to replace these two units and you said through a Cooperative purchase Cooperative purchase yes good uh board members I have a question
059go ahead are those the only two schools with those types of chillers that have to be replaced under that program no no some some are new UN but we know we have that deadline and any remaining chers will be reflected in that 10-year plan okay I have a question so um I know that the the the new equipment we're going to get might cost say a million dollars but I think what would be important to um educate our stakeholders on is that if we take into consideration what the cost of the R2 refrigerant is as well the labor that we have to do every year to to Band-Aid that stuff until we can get the new stuff I think it' be important to show the public that while the cost of the equipment was a
060million dollars if we didn't do the cost of the equipment we'd still be spending say $100,000 on the refrigerant cost and the labor assuming we can get the refrigerant yeah right because it's being phased out now we do have a stockpile um that we're confident that can get us through we did we did uh Miss misak and operations pulled a number for us that if in a chiller emergency if we lost all refrigerant it would cost approximately $23,000 to recharge that unit in a single instant single emergency y yeah that's a lot of money and that's been a lot of our our conversation around the replacement of these uh energy consuming items is that return on investment is is a is a part of what we share um Mr fito so that way we can
061we can talk about what what's we spend you have to spend a little bit to save a little bit in the long run and that's we'll be reflecting that'll be a regular occurrence moving forward appreciate that point okay anyone else yes go ahead um what is the expected life of these units and what is the expected life of the new units this is a great question I don't know that off the top of my head I will definitely follow that information thank you go back to Mr Hinman with that answer please um okay so we're on to the culinary arts renovation at elro yes item three is the proposed bid awards for the elro culinary arts Renovations this is the final summer 24 project uh very very excited to discuss this project this design phase
062um has been approximately two to three months in the making um with heavy input from our col arts teacher at algrove along with the administration so the bid package is approximately nine packages um that address the demolition General trades electrical Etc um we do have a rendering to share with all of you uh and facing the screen right now what we're looking at is the entry point into that classroom on the right are the uh I think they're Banks of lockers now if I'm correct um so that's that's the wall entering the the classroom the calling art so what we're doing is taking two classrooms and making a large space and there's also still classroom space which we will see shortly thank uh oh thank you so again this this is a culinary space and
063it's um it's fairly state-of-the-art and and looks beautiful and what you're seeing is industrial grade equipment um you see the teacher we don't see the teacher station yet but you see the student work stations um and this is this is looking towards the courtyard you see through those windows in the back thank you here's another view of the space um we're doing the drops from the ceiling for for any electrical needs stainless steel you go next for me Jason this is this is the back to the proposed uh classroom area again large space this is the the proposed classroom area these are not these are not final Design This is still pretty rough rendering so all the designs and the colors and the final finishes are not reflected in this rendering one more Jason is
064there one more let said okay what you're not seeing in this rendering is there's actually a glass partition between the actual culinary space and the classroom space so it allows some flexibility kids to go work in this space and still have supervision and uh it's going to be a nice beautiful space so the culinary arts teacher was in on the design I AB okay um correct me if I'm wrong Paul didn't the um outgro culinary students wi the senator gespi Bake Off last year that's they're going to be very not the award for winning that Bake Off by the way we're not doing this again other schools should you know it looks great uh board members questions go oh sorry mine's going to be real quick the electrical drops is that standard I mean I
065worry about this big box in the middle of a table that students could hit because they're working around I mean I realized that it is an industrial area but is that standard now it's similar to like an auto shop in provides Flex they they retract up and so you're able to kind of move around pull it up pull it down if you need to okay and it steems safe and everything I mean I I know in some of the other areas they may have okay all right thank you I don't know so um in some of my tours of schools and Facilities I noticed that um culinary arts was one area where we have great discrepancies in building a might have really good culinary art space Building B really so is this going to be
066our standard that we're looking to match in District much like we have here at Forest View seawing yes is it was it yeah so so is this going to be sort of our standard of what we're trying to achieve absolutely okay cuz you know I'd like to see over time and I I know I'm I beat this horse a lot but these kind of spaces um are laboratory science type spaces to have the same types of access to the same types of equipment across the district right we're we don't have to become identical Modular Buildings but levels of care it's really important agree and there's an additional something actually very special about this project um is you know we've got great Partners throughout the school district from the on the business Community but also in
067our our village Villages and uh we hear a lot about Tiff districts we have 19 of them um El Grove manages their tiffs at at an exceptional level and uh and they are a wonderful partner uh and and talking about this we were approached by Mayor Johnson and Elk Grove and with an offer to um to share some of their Tiff Surplus dollars and Elk grve is donating $750,000 toward this project so um Mr CER and and Dr Kelly and I will be attending the elk gr Village uh board meeting on February 13th I believe uh to accept the check for $750,000 toward this project so we greatly appreciate that partnership it it honestly is is is what elevated and it made it possible for us to to do it this summer instead of uh
068make putting on the priorities list down the road so we're really grateful for for that uh thoughtful donation and partnership so I I just thought that you're doing student services and the colonary Arts a lot of construction that is correct El Grove is going to be a busy Place Dr Kelly and team have uh been very flexible in creating uh vacating some areas early in the school year so we can get a head start and maximize our time so we appreciate that you know I I love that you shared with us elk grov and their generosity I wonder Mr MGI if that was something we could put together a package on and perhaps send to some of the other loc Lo um municip you know Villages Etc about hey look what El Grove is doing
069not to you know say they're really great but encourage other you know several still trying to form relationships with sp's few the big one in Arlington Heights that's coming my mama always said if you don't ask no one can say no so true it's a very good point so the dollar we'll be able to ask a brand new partner in a few years for big donations so the dollar amount you have here the 1.6 does that in is that take into consideration the 750,00 so you take away 750,000 from this and then you get the amount that we'll be spending I know we don't have check in hand so we have to say what what uh the the total dollar amount okay go ahead um I was at the elgrove PTC meeting on Tuesday night
070and there was a a rumor flying around that uh principal Kelly who was known as the chef boy Rd at Grenadier nation was going to be preparing the first meal when the ribbon cutting was being done at the colony yards I just was looking for a confirmation that begun searching Pinterest for ideasc thank you macaroni and cheese and panut bur jelly for all oh love that okay thank you uh what do we got next Portable Restrooms no easy way to transition to uh this we talk about food and now we talk about okay go we're talking about used uh restroom trailers um used he hear me out um I see how you can spin this yeah so so we have three locations that where our stadiums do not have outdoor bathrooms that is El Grove
071Prospect in Rolling Meadows at each site we pay approximately $34,000 a year to rent one of those trailers I'm sure you've all seen them and park that near the stadium or in the stadium for a span of fiveish months um this was actually another a misx idea I I can't take any credit for it um she researched the actual cost to purchase these trailers and we figured out that we can buy a used obviously cleaned and tidied up uh restroom trailer for for three for a total cost of $200,000 the service costs uh will be about $1,000 per year so this is really a costeffective measure and this allows us to buy the time to get to the point in the facilities Improvement plan where we can then address that down the road but this
072will this is definitely a cost savings measure and so how are we choosing these pre-owned porta potties I mean I guess my question is this um I've been a football mom and sitting outside at games and um all bundled up and then wedging my self into um a facility and one hopes that it's sufficiently accommodating for for you know that we're not spending money on I don't know yeah no the these these units are the units that we use I don't I don't know if they're the actual ones that we have rented I I can they are okay they are the ones that we've had on our property um so obviously they'll go through a thorough cleaning something we were in a rent to own position oh Lord all right any other board members I
073have one question um Mr Yolie so is there maintenance or anything that we incurred throughout the 5 months that we rent these that we will then be taking on that we should account for that that is the $1,000 per unit cost a year to have them serviced and then our our crews will Rize them and and do whatever else is needed um to shut them down for the winter okay so that's additional and and our crews will be trained and everything so that they're prepared to okay I mean I have complete faith in our crews but I just wanted to make sure they weren't taking on additional without thank you we have an expected lifespan of that I mean no seriously because you know we're putting in we say it's $1,000 a year to service
074I assume that's the chemicals that clean chemical to walk in but there's also I mean we know that washrooms get beat up mhm right so currently if something happens to that we walk away from it they they do it or what happens with that what what are what's the extra cost to yeah is there a warranty is there a service plan there's there's a hidden cost there for what has to happen right we'll absolutely follow up with that information warranty does say there's a 12mth service warranty here if repairs are needed during um the they're covered expectancy so where will we store said portapotty during the off seon they stay there they stay Outdoors come up Ana you need to come forward to the microphone please and state who you are in your title so
075people at home will know okay yes that before I decide to go out for a quote and bring those units I speak with all of the apos in a school on all three schools I asked them if they will be interested for me to do that and also it's okay for them to store them during the winter time if they will have a space and they said yes they were very excited because also giv having those units for them they can brand them nicely like we can make make them nice looking from outside we can maintain them inside like we do with all of our bathrooms it's the same kind of setups they are just outside that we have the those units they are the units that they bring us every year and we do
076that for many years we would like to have them the same because we know like before they will come to the property we will fully inspect them we will be sure that they are fully operated that they are not damaged and they are what we looking for then we will sign the final agreement we have 12 months warranted when they will come and service anything what we need it then we have a CMA members that they can come every day how they will come and clean them on a regular basic they will also maintain and do any type of the maintenance that it's needed and yes the schools they have a they have a spots when they we can start them terrific thank you thank you okay are we done talking about porta potties oh
077Mr dling I I I just don't want the the requirement put on the CMA to be excessive or or or more than what they're currently doing because that will be exactly the same what they doing because when we have them on from April to the end of the September we have to maintain them that it's not being extra okay okay so C are not doing extra Mr he a little bit off the subject but not too far what about 8 compliance at those three schools how far is it to a ADA Compliant washroom I'm sure it's it's different in each building but obviously we have access to the indoor facilities for Ada purposes those units they are Ada wait wait the major reason to bring them to the property it's like the people that they
078need to have the Ada they can access them this is the purpose of those trailers because we have regular outside like Portables washrooms and people they can use inside facility but for people that they have any type of the disability or they need to have the close access those trailers they are ad a compliance so you can get to them in a wheelchair uh yes they have a special ramps and they have access and they have the handy Cape like bar they have all of the codes and that's how they are um prepared okay thank you very much yeah just two things but I know what she's talking about they come in like this around okay party discussion over okay let's move on oh teaching and learning Dr Lopez thank you Madame President and members
079of the board 751 okay so I want to uh provide a discussion and some background information on two related topics automatic acceleration and earned honors uh I provide both to the board and to the community a brief summary of some of the findings uh related to both these topics as well as uh some of the data is available in our public documents for the board so first automatic acceleration may not be something that uh the community or that uh it's it's fairly new uh and that refers to State legis oh hold on there you go it refers to State legislation that requires the automatic placement of students into the next most rigorous level of coursework this next most rigorous level of coursework would be honors advanced placement or doal credit uh originally when the legislation
080was passed it was expected that the impact would be greatest in the elementary schools the elementary schools uh still did a lot of testing for gifted and honors students uh and identified a very small percentage of students uh in order to access to access some of that uh highest level curriculum in district 214 for many years now we have open access to advanced placement uh and expanded access to dual credit however uh after the legislation was passed yeah thanks um ISB uh provided uh the benchmarks uh and this chart of benchmarks sort of indicates their recommendations for us to automatically Advance students the test score benchmarks that they identified were significantly lower than many of our benchmarks currently for uh accessing honors uh level coursework particularly for incoming students uh because we're familiar with our
081current students and we focused on the uh diagonal movement of students and helping students reach the most rigorous coursework in our schools uh we meet with students our teachers know our students they re recommendations and kids move um regularly into advanced placement into honors level but for our incoming students was really going to be the most significant impact so The Benchmark that the state identified was 70 points below what some of our schools had already established so a score of 410 um gave you access to uh on the evidence-based reading and writing test on the PSAT T8 gave you access to freshman honors English as well as into uh AP Human Geography freshman year or if we would have had an honors Human Geography freshman year uh for it was a test score of 450
082uh into honors geometry as long as you've already taken algebra and for honors biology a test score of both uh uh evidence-based reading and writing of 410 and the math benchmark in order to qualify for honors biology all of these scores were are lower than what some of our schools had already established one interesting fact I did want to mention that we had 111 current El students that have not passed access and exited at El but have met the benchmarks for automatic acceleration into honors which I thought just was an interesting finding the other piece I wanted to mention real quick before we move on to that to the next slide is at the very bottom you'll notice that for us senior year because of our dual credit partner and our special relationship with Eastern
083Illinois University our students are able to act access college level English composition and literature with an evidence-based reading and writing score of 430 um as well as the same test score gets them access to college human Endeavors which is basically a quantitative math class A 101 math uh which is a unique opportunity for our students and there is no Benchmark for students um to access the college speech course senior year so most of our students have access to all of those courses senior year okay um this is what this means and this is a summary of what I talked about on that chart sort of simplified uh showing that for an incoming student uh you are placed in those courses automatically and I and I do think that's an important term automatically it doesn't mean
084that you have the option and that we call you and say hey do you want to go it means that the school district is compelled to automatically place the students that meet those benchmark scores into those honors level into the most rigorous level coursework that we have and only and the parent can opt out um the next item I wanted to address uh is the difference between college preparatory honors and advanced placement and this is our language uh and from both our handbook and our policy and practice college preparatory is basically the 4.0 non-weighted course that refers to courses that are taught at grade level and prepare students to access Early College experiences and post-secondary opportunities that's just our our regular curriculum our honors weighted 4.5 cour is defined as honors courses intended to offer
085a more challenging academic experience that covers more material at an accelerated Pace these courses are designed for students who excel in certain subjects and are comfortable working independently and then advanced placement which is the the highest weighted uh course for us which is 5.0 on a 4.0 scale similar to rigor and honors but you have the added uh piece of the advanced placement ex exam and the course is utilizing College boards uh syllabi and course materials in order to prepare students to be successful on that exam those are our three levels in how they're currently defined now the implication of automatic acceleration uh is that it will we'll see uh this reduction in benchmarks to access honors will mean an increase of an additional 2,000 students in our districts uh taking the opportunity to take
086more rigorous coursework in English social science and science with up to 20 8% increase at some of our schools and in math it means about 350 students uh in addition to what we've had previously accessing more rigorous coursework which is about up to 6% at some of our schools and again this is automatic placement and I and I and before we move down to earn honors I we're we're discussing automatic acceleration because it'll have a direct implication on how we view earned honors and what's happening in that space because in many ways it has some similar goals so as we looked at earn honors uh we have spent uh a few years in a pilot program and we went through an extensive process evaluating the program speaking with teachers visiting classrooms and collecting data all
087of which the board has seen so earn honors for uh for the purpose of of the board and the community provides the opportunity for all students to experience learning together with a focus on a common experience and the potential uh for any student to earn a 4.5 weighted grade which is that honors level grade doesn't mean every student in the course is going to earn it it means they all have the potential to and it has an explicit goal of increasing access to advanced placement and also on path to doit coursework we've implemented earned honors as a pilot at elro high school beginning in uh 2021 uh with freshman English and then expanded to sophomore English human geography and biology and it was implemented in school year 2122 and freshman biology at Rolling Meadows high
088school now uh what happened in each of these uh important to keep in mind that these these were each developed as a pilot independently in each department and in each school so at the teacher level among those plc's they worked collaboratively to develop the standards for students to earn honors so in this presentation and in the documents uh you'll see that in human geography a student in that course can or not Hors by meeting the minimum standards of a two two on a fourpoint scale in each of four standards on a rech research proposal and that they have to earn at least a c-grade in the course and of course I'm not an expert on any of these These are this is what I've observed this is what's written in the syllabus and obviously um
089what they've reached consensus on for biology at elro high school a student in biology earn honors through demonstrating Mastery of the identifi or and honor skills on four of the six Assessments in each uh semester in 12 units many of the labs that they're using in earn honors biology at ear at OV High School were the same labs they were using with honors with the honors uh biology traditional course um and what they did was was they elevated the uh specific labs they were doing with all students uh and they have found a lot of success with it and in English a student has to earn at least a c in the course that meet a proficiency level on an 8.5 on a 10-point scale and three of the four honors designated summative skills on
090the assessments each semester so these are these are the approach it's reflected in the course syllabi teachers speak to their students and parents about this uh at the beginning of the course and then in Rolling medals high school again each each department in each building was working independently they developed a criteria slightly different for uh earning honors and biology for there they have every unit offers options of review level and explore level activities and then students to choose am I going to do more review level activities uh or do I feel really strong in the content and I feel I want to be challenged by some of the explore level uh activities which are activities that are at a much uh greater depth they have to complete at least 75% of their activities in the
091Explorer level and then put that together in a portfolio and they actually meet with the teachers one-on-one to discuss how they've met the standards for honors level work and they also have Summit of tests uh that have questions that our students are expected to master and that in order to earn honors you have to earn a 70% or above on those exp and and have a in-depth understanding that you can only accomplish through the Explorer level work so again each one a slightly different approach but that each of those teacher teams work together to collaborate to create a standard of expectation so uh some of the data that we have uh that was included this is just a highlight and I've invited uh Jeffrey our director of research and evaluation here I'll go through some
092of these but certainly we can uh if you've got questions he's also available to to to help us so the first Set uh are you on the first page or I think on the previous one there you go the percentage of students earning honors at Elk Grove in grade n increased significantly in year one but what's interesting is that has fallen in years two and three so it it's sort of uh leveled off right earned honors has closed some of the demographic graphs in honors level courses obviously it's it's eliminated at uh elro High School the immediate benefits in the English course grades both weighted and unweighted uh again a greater impact initially and then it's moderated in year two and three of implementation um the most profound effect has been the increase in access
093to AP English coursework by grade 11 uh and outgro saw increases while other schools may have have seen decreases in participation postco so those are some some interesting finding uh we can go to the next page so uh students who entered who were scoring uh under 430 were more likely to access advanced placement by junior year the percentage of students earning honors in at least one semester at Rolling Meadows increased significantly from 36% to 55% and then the 57 and it increased while enrollment and Honors that other buildings remained stable or even decreased and the increases in earning honors at rolling medals occurred across almost every demographic group and were pronounced for students who came in at the lowest ps8 evidence-based reading and writing and math scores so just a broad summary so the earned
094honors pilot eliminates traditional tracking of students it dreamlines scheduling and provides all students regardless of previously demonstrated ability levels with an opportunity to earn honors there is supporting evidence that suggests increase access to advanced placement in English but not necessarily in performance levels on the assessment currently the current itation of some of the earned honors courses do not meet the criteria for an honors level course as defined in the District academic handbook and the impact of automatic acceleration uh is expected to increase honors access across the district resulting in really comparable rates of earning honors at all School sites so there were three recommendations based on the evaluation the first one really is you can see that each teacher group took a different approach there were they all have their merits and all have their
095strengths but we Pro but the first recommendation is really standardize the approach to grading to meet the articulation of achievement levels in the earned Honors coursework that reflects the district standard we certainly can have a discussion if we don't think the district standard is the right one uh that would be part of the conversation second uh provide opportunities for profession significant professional development to staff on differentiation strategies um the Rolling Meadow staff uh really independent on their own I give them a significant amount of credit reached out to a group called modern classrooms project uh where uh it really helps the facilitation of differentiation of instruction at different levels that I just think is really powerful um and that might be something worth investing in and expanding and providing to other staff uh and third
096providing access to a consistent freshman your Core Curriculum to all students districtwide now this is simply uh simply stated but it really is not a simple statement and with that means is um and I'll give you an example currently if you are a typical freshman in human Geo you're earning Civics as part of the human geography course um there's some that would argue that we really should be doing Civics with all students in the same class together right now we have those segregated right different levels you have some honors or some AP students and and I My Hope Is that maybe collecting feedback and seeing is that an area that we need to rethink how that works uh particularly um currently uh and um and identify perhaps Civics in a different way um also there's
097some some schools that offer some opportunities in coursework that other schools don't um and so sort of and facilitating those dialogue to ensure that we have of consistent freshman Corp it doesn't mean we can't have different electives and different opportunities depending on interests of students uh but for us to facilitate conversation ensure that uh everyone has access uh to to comp able experiences and that concludes uh my summary of the presentation and I'd be glad to uh answer any questions you may have yeah I want you to go first Mr Rob all right um Dr Lopez thank you very much for that summary my first question is okay so this was a pilot and the schools that participate in this pilot clearly had an objective in mind do these schools feel they met their objective
098through their pilot in my conversations with the administration and teachers at each of the schools they are very excited um and feel very confident about the impact they're seeing in the classroom as much qualitatively as as it is quantitatively um they feel good about the experience students are having uh none of them feel that they're done it it is a pilot for a reason uh it's been a couple of years many of them have described to me that they have made significant changes each year uh in order to to get it right um and they expect that they are going to continue to have to make some modifications but they feel very I mean I don't want to speak for them but what they said to me was that they were very confident in the
099work that they were doing okay having had the opportunity to observe um English at Elk grve in the earned honors and the biology at Rolling Meadows I I can't say enough of what our Educators have done for to create this [Applause] program the time the commitment um the philosophy behind that I definitely appreciate that and I just want to make sure that for all the energy and and all the effort that everyone is benefiting through it the the Educators as well as the students that is my first concern um you made a few few recommendations and I really appreciate that the first one is the standardization and I'm going to kind of ask about the auto accelerate and the standardization of the earned honors program the state has said that we have a cut off
100and and they can get promoted to the next um level in this case because the earned honors allows the honors for human in Geo elk grov and Rolling Meadows have that Advantage um I realize on the flip side the other schools because they don't have honors human Geo because we either have regular Geo or College Prep I apologize College Prep or AP if you're above that cut off then you are automatically put in AP which appears like a great Advantage except if you're really not prepared for it then it's disadvantage and so I am concerned that elk grve well it doesn't necessarily offer AP as a freshman for that human Geo that potential disadvantage and the flip side there's the disadvantage for the students who are put into AP when they could have been placed
101into honors so I would like to understand if that is a standardization we need to look into um we where are we at and and maybe Dr Ro you can advis this is remaining a pilot or is this and I understand that education like everything continues to evolve and I really appreciate again our Educators continuing they saw I mean the first year they did this was during covid they so not only do they go to zoom they have this whole new curriculum and and I can't I really want to emphasize that you know when we have these individual classes the college prep up to the AP you can focus on that on those students at at their ability but these teachers are taking all of those abilities and creating differentiation that is a lot of
102work and a lot of commitment on their part so I I do really want to emphasize and appreciate that so again my um where we at on the pilot are we continuing the pilot or is this a recommendation to put this in fulltime and if that is the case will it be going into the curriculum catalog well our I think where we stand on this now is is as Dr Lopez said any more time um I don't think you know we're not you won't hear me refer to it as a pilot it's more of Elk Grove has an innovation that they're working on and they're going through the iteration process um Dr Lopez mentioned the the the adjustment in grades and part of the reason that some of those grades went down was Elk Grove
103recognized the level of rigor needed to be increased after year one and made that adjustment which I again I commend them for because it was the right move um what we've learned from this uh is that there is a certain balance that we have to strike in the district um on a district standard and there there there's the district standard of honors level instruction that we've been having some internal conversations of of what that needs to to be and so kind of where I am right now in our conversations if there's a district standard whether you're teaching at at at any of the high schools in a in a more traditional honors class or ear honors class the goal and expectation is that you still achieve this standard the options are just there for a
104student in an elk grve earned honors class to elect to push to that versus stay at that um at at that uh exploratory level instead of the or the what I forget the terminology that you used the review versus the exploratory thank you but but we don't have that District standard tight enough and so that's in our conversations that's the initial step that we need to make so that um not not every school is going to offer the exact same experience but every school in a um you know honors algebra one ought to be offering May me that's a bad example because math math but an honors English one ought to have that similar experience you just may have as earned honor or as Auto accelerators going to show us you don't know what may
105walk through the door you may have a wider variety of academic abilities walk through the door especially with auto accelerate we don't know the impact that's going to have yet so uh we think we owe it to the work that's been done at El groven Rolling Meadows to continue to support this watching Auto accelerate um and and establishing that District standard that I believe is going to offer the additional support that our teachers need to keep growing this Innovation and I think that's what's been missing from this they've done this on their own we want to provide a little bit more oomph behind them um and that will that'll actually I you know Dr Lopez and I we've been talking is going to go beyond just um honors level courses and and and earned honors
106as a concept there's a there's a certain level of balance that we have to strike as a district of what is site based control versus District control and and we've had some great conversations with the principles on where is that balance because we don't want the pendulum to swing too far in One Direction because we're not going to be the district that has controlled at the district level that's not who we are that's not in our DNA and that's not how Innovation is is is bred but there's a certain level of of consistent agreements that we all uh are working toward and levels of instruction is going to be one of them I appreciate that and you know as Miss Palmer talks about we just want to make sure every student has the an equal
107opportunity and and I agreed it it will look differently aside from I mean once that definition and that that standard is established from what is expected there's also the the grading aspect and I am can I I would appreciate a little more clarification I I understand a little bit about how you get the honors credit and that is actually executed after both semesters are completed is my understanding or after each semester is completed um the honors designation is uh recognized if I just want to make sure that if a student really wants a college prep wants to perform at a college prep level they're in they're have the opportunity to get achieve an AB C or D whatever they choose B based on the effort that they put forward as well as an ABC or
108D at the honors level if they choose to so that it's only it's not only everyone who gets an a per se is designated Honors that you can get a be in honors because if you were taking honors anywhere else and again that that's just making sure every student has that opportunity if I I I go to another school in the district and I take honors I get a B where if I take an earned honors I only get the a so I I would like a little more clarification on that and help me on this Lo because I'm probably going to misspeak on this but I think that's actually where the beauty of of earned honors as a concept um comes in is that it's it's really about depth of knowledge on those those
109intentional strands and and Dr Kelly I would invite you to come maybe expound on this from your experience if if I misspeak or you can just say it better than I am but um the ability on on their exams to to show a different level of depth of knowledge earns that credit even if it's at a sea level you still have that uh if I if I butchered that or not and we've spoken a little bit about this in the past and I've spoken with different board members about this over time um and thank you for your questions and your patient uh dialogue about about the topic as a whole whole um it's extremely important topic uh as as has been described already the it is teacher Innovation and extraordinary teacher work and teacher passion
110that had that put this into action in the very first place we did not top down this ever at any point our English teachers said we feel like we need this and it was in the immediacy of postco but in the midst of that covid hybrid year that they said now is the time it's the only time it's it's this is why we we need to go for this and it's the outcomes that we're aiming for it's the can you show Proficiency in this and in each of those areas it is correct that they are not identical sets of parameters in our biology human geography and written and oral communication courses but in each of those they have emphasized what can the student demonstrate as as a proficiency that's going to be the determining factor
111in whether they earn this or not not it's not going to be can they tolerate what I have put them through it's going to be what can they demonstrate in at the end and as you saw early and this is not a product of these teachers wanting to give higher grades in that year that hybrid year grades were a very difficult concept we had kids that were in their homes we had kids that were barely on the camera we had kids that we were trying to reach and couldn't really make personal connections with and it when you look back at that it looks really high how many kids got honors credit and in each of the years while we're certainly not proud that fewer kids earned honors credit that's not what the it's not a
112source of Pride the source of pride is constant professional reflection and um refining that has got gotten our teachers to feel more uh solid with the choices they're making about what is it that's going to demand or that's going to like demonstrate an honors achievement level in that course whereas they feel regularly that when they taught honors sections they weren't always sure exactly what it was that were getting them the honors credit they just had more and faster more and faster and they felt like we need something better than that we need what can you actually perform what can you do and that was the determining factor it's extremely important to not what Dr Rose said is none of them believe it's a finished product none of them believe they've got the nut cracked and
113they've got it just as it needs to be all of them are Prof professional beyond my wildest expectations and continue to refine and work extremely hard to serve our kids every day I have one question you know we hear from parents that are not happy about the the standardization across the district we've put everybody through the ringer here asking questions and everything else what did the student say what's their experience if if we heard the voice of the student what would they say that's a great question there are students who have said um that they're degree of being pushed to have to demonstrate is more that they have learned how to site do research and acquire and process information to create something more they have learned how to communicate with a wider audience than they
114have had to before all of these are some of the um where do you see that measured it's hard to see it measured but qualitatively speaking the the the outcomes that from students that we have asked this question of is it is pushing me in these ways do any students say it's harder in my AP class than it is in what it was in an earned honors class yes I have heard students say that and so the idea that it's easier is not something that any of our teachers or any of our anybody wants and so again it's part of that calibration that's uh that's there what did I always like the expression are they running towards it or running away from it are they running towards this uh yes I I believe yes and
115our our students have said they do have to and enjoy the diversity of their student peers in the room with them the entire time in those courses because there isn't a separation of those students into different sections it is all audiences all topics all together in certain courses for that select amount of time not forever and not in all courses because of course we want our kids to shine in their individual areas of excellence and push themselves to even higher outcomes it's always been about the end point for each individual kid any of these decisions have been made with what's the end point for each individual kid college readiness demonstrated by college credit if possible career orientation with experiences in the workplace in workbase learning if possible an orientation toward helping each other and learning
116together and caring about our communities and we feel like this is working us toward all of those goals simultaneously I I did want to mention since there was a question about grades there's only a on10th different in GPA or in grade in that freshman honors English class pre pilot not pilot to to Pilot uh so there's been not a significant impact on grades there's not necessarily been any kind of grade inflation or anything like that I think can I ask one more question Paul sorry you know a lot of soft skills we say you know redefining ready make them College ready or ready to succeed after leaving 214 some things that you don't learn in high school unless you get the connection is being vulnerable and how to deal in a vulnerable situation after looking
117at all of this it seems to me that we're expanding those students mindset that it's okay to be vulnerable and what can I take from it and how do I grow from being that vulnerable because it seems like from my vantage point we're creating a safe place for them to come in and say yep I feel good about here help me get to where I want to go rather than walking into AP class and going well you know the exchange rate on an A and AP is really it's like I don't want to do the math if we're setting the kids up for for Success like this that that vulnerability piece and learning how to navigate through that I think is an added value that's not talked about a lot here I do agree and
118it at the end our goal is that our students receive college credit if it's at all possible and the number of students at our school that have earned college credit in last year's graduating class over 80% there there's we're our goal is to have the end point be the right outcome for the kids in the moments of the years there's always some degree of what you thought would be right or not right but what do we get in the aggregate over the course of all the courses over all the years and all the staff and peers our students can interact with we deeply believe that we can do both of those things we can have the right level of delineation and separation with community and learning certain Concepts and themes together with an audience that's
119as diverse as our community every day and our teacher deep more importantly our teachers deeply believe that that's the right thing to do and I do think that the families overwhelmingly have stated that they believe that this is this has been a positive outcome for their kids one of our parent teacher counsel uh statements about what do they like most about elro high school one of the top things was the Freshman courses and the way that they're structured where everyone is in together is that a universally held belief I doubt it because there's always someone who's going to feel like I don't know and so I don't mean to denigrate or disrespect anybody who thinks there's a better way cuz frankly we believe there's always a better way we can always do a better job
120and uh but but the the passion and work in our staff has been just over the top and the feelings attached to this have been positive and and strongly so thanks Paul I have another quote well I it's clear why you've gotten educator of the Year Etc over time you're a very good speaker and I really enjoy listening and hearing what you have to say I've been a big proponent of earned honors over time um for the simple reason that I don't think a kid should be defined on their opportunities by what they score on a single day you know you have a you have a stomach ache you had a fight with your mom you whatever you wake up and you perform poorly on a test and you your opportunities Fritter away right or
121even going back in time you were in second or third grade and you didn't develop skills at the same rate you were in a lull when they picked out who got to go to the higher math and and that that's been dogging you over time so I love the idea that a student I feel it's very very American dream can can go and say no no no don't put me in a box I am going to bootstrap I am going to be I'm going to be I believe I should be I guess I love that because there's a lens of equity what troubles me is that at different high schools and again I don't want the high schools to be alike I know it sounds like it I don't but I do want that same
122type of of opportunities to be not necessarily identical but the same types of opportunities at our different schools and one of the things that I think I heard here was that some of the schools don't have an AP human Geo others do well if you're maybe like me and you're trying to get the best ever and you're always super competitive on stuff if you're at a school that doesn't offer as many AP classes as another school does there's no way you can finish with as high of a GPA right it's like you it's just not mathematically possible so things like that on on where students have opportunities where they can wind up one school to the other and whether or not the honors level rigor in a particular earned honors level class or a straight
123up honors level class whether the rigor of what we're trying the knowledge that we're trying to get the student to achieve is at the same level and again I don't want things to be identical I'm not looking for us to S sit kids in little rows and every kid's different and learns differently so I I'm I'm very conflicted do you think that and there is a question here um do you think that the auto accelerate will will how do you think it's going to impact that earned honors does you know you know what I mean is the state so it's so one of the things that that uh elro accomplished and and Rolling Meadows with earned honors is really sort of liberalizing and opening up the doors to a lot more students to access honors
124the reality is is that's going to happen in every single one of our schools because of automatic acceleration um where uh and a majority of our students at all of our schools will be starting in honors which wasn't necessarily the case um and so you will see a much broader span of students in our honor sections whether you're studying at Prospect or Buffalo Grove or El Grove so they'll look more likee than different um the uniqueness of of the approach that's being taken with earn honors is that it really is providing an access to every student not just even even though majority of our students are scoring within those uh ranges of the benchmarks certainly not all of them um and so it encompasses even even uh a bit more the student population but we
125have many of our schools where most students will be sitting in an honors section next fall goad can I do a quick followup to that question I I know I took some time but considering that there is a a auto a benchmark now does that mean if they ex they're above 410 they're automatically considered an honor student through earned honors they're considered an honor student across the entire District automatic Ally um and I and and Paul can certainly respond as well but at Elk Grove not only every student has access to honors and they they do get to decide whether or not you know to what extent they want to right but at the other schools they have the option to opt out they can request to opt out but do will they have to
126because technically then would you be grading them as an honor student they will be student doesn't have to earn they can opt out on their own they don't they're not compelled to have to meet the honors correct don't reach that degree of proficiency and therefore they didn't earn the credit in the honors that's how it is currently but now that there there's a score minimum do we automatically hold them to that honor standard or do we have to put on a sheet that getting is the auto accelerate means that they would automatically plac in the next available course up and and then there's not a next available course up is correct is the point so they're in there they'll be encouraged a teacher now has more data on this student and say to say hey
127nudge you can do this let me help you do this and I think that's the beauty of of of what earn honors is as a concept as they continue to work on it is the ability as a teacher forms that relationship with a student to push them just a little further uh and show them they can and opens up doors beyond that classroom I wasn't sure if the auto accelerate put a constraint on it so it's okay Mr F I don't have a question but um I just want to make a comment so I was at that meeting on Tuesday when you talked to the elro high school parents about the earn honors program and um I thought your presentation was very good by the way the one thing that you did say was you
128clearly focused on the role of the counselor and the student and how the counselors met with all the students multiple times and talked to them about what classes they should take and in some cases you mentioned that you the counselors were pushing some of the kids to say hey take a chance and and step up and I I thought that was great um the problem I have and that's really not a problem but it's just the suggestion is that and I'm going to put in automatic acceleration as well is I think that what's happening is we have students that are getting the information but the parents are not and I think that we've seen it for the past year at least where we have um some parents a subset parents and it might be more
129might be less that do not understand how the orous program works and and I know in some cases we have tried to explain it and um and I'll be honest with you even today still a little bit confused about how how it works a little bit because my kids go to hery and I'm pretty well versed in what what happens there and elk grov and roing motors are a little bit different but my concern is now we've got automatic acceleration coming on board next fall and I I just think it would be in our best interest to do our best to educate the parents on what automatic acceleration is so that way they can understand why their kids might be in a different class or might be you know level have leveled up and not
130understand why and that's that's just my comment it um can they opt out automatic acceleration yes the parent B on they can knock the child out yeah okay so just for clarity all parents have been communicated with if their child was um uh eligible and and has been Auto accelerated as well as what that what options they have if they elect to opt out or remain in um but I think the point about our honors is is well takeen in one way you had an our radar thank you Mr dling um Mr Lopez you mentioned that probably by Auto acceleration we'd have 3,500 students in one case affected and then I believe another 4 or 500 and another yeah two 2,000 additional students that we would have in honors next year that we wouldn't have
131had yeah um so uh is our staff ready to uh take on that uh higher level of honors uh courses that are coming in I mean is that are we do we have to do something with our staff to get them ready yes so what it's going to mean is that there needs to be a greater level of differentiation uh regarding strategies in the classroom um and Gabriella our director of professional learning has put together a series of professional development all of our associate principles for instruction at each of our buildings are preparing their teachers and putting together programming for both this spring uh as well as uh this this summer uh to help uh teachers we are going to have teachers that hadn't necessarily taught honors before that are going to be teaching honor
132section um that is we're going through that process right now to identify sectioning uh and then identify we're not at the point yet of who's teaching what but we're laying the groundwork in order to be prepared um we have really high quality staff there's and so I I'm confident they're going to certainly meet meet uh the expectation of teaching honors the challenge is really going to be differentiating because uh now you have a broader spectrum of student abilities in your classroom I I understand it and certainly our staff is well qualified and I'm very proud of them I guess my question is how many do we identify that that we feel have to look at at the honors curriculum that they may be teaching and how Diversified it as it is and need need some
133more training I mean have we got a figure on the number of people well no after Staffing I would imagine yeah I think you to Dr Lopez's point is the professional learning that's being planned now but then also um different instructional approaches like you know modern classroom project is something we're looking very closely at that changes how you you approach the classroom in general with a focus on differentiation uh and then there's the emphasis on some of the structures we already have in place throughout the district in our professional learning communities because some of the best professional learning on how to differentiate is Teachers sharing with teachers of I've got such a wide range how are you tackling this um you're and looking at their scores you're having great success what are you doing that
134I might be doing different that's where it really happens in the professional learning communities we're prepared to not only support that but then also help with those strategies going ongoing effort for sure so we're ready to live within the within the confines of the uh staff that we have uh except corre possibly some okay I don't I don't believe additional staff will be necessary to address earned honors or I mean Auto accelerate needs okay any other questions thank you your excuse Dr Kelly wait I have Oh no you're not shall we Mr Kelly do you feel that your staff you speaking about the support amongst the um plc's unfortunately your division head and and some at Rolling Meadows when those learning committees get together they may not have as much support where are they finding
135their support because they're doing things slightly differently I mean you can feed off of other um sure division heads but where are they are are they feeling the support that they need and and getting ideas I so elro has been um I'm proud to say El grve has been having more students try AP coursework at later years in high school than than our counterparts in large measure especially in English and so we have sort of a we have a ready-made um a kind of go-to group of people who have been doing this for quite some time they've already had more more acceptance of kids that other people may have said I don't know about that kid they've said no let's do it and so there's there's internal strength at our school of people who just
136deeply philosophically believe let's go and it is not it doesn't mean it's easy it doesn't mean they feel like they've got it figure it out but there is an emotional support network inside staff to staff and division head to division head in addition there are some area schools that have undergone some things that that like work like this and there's a network of people it's it's there's a network called The Bridges of opportunity Network work um and and some staff here in 214 have attended workshops some schools around us that have undertaken this kind of a uh work that can that talk to each other and and look to each other for support and how do your teachers feel as well because if our teachers didn't feel this we certainly would not uh uh push
137them through this if it was uh if they didn't emotionally support it okay great thank you anybody else wait stop anybody else going going thank you Dr Kelly thank you Dr Lopez uh great discussion board members Mr Moi anything with Community engagement I have no updates at this time oh thank you very much so we are now at the point of closed session I need to Motion in a second to go into Clos session for the purpose of discussing the employment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educat setting or legal counsel for the public body 5 ilcs 1222 C1 and our second reason is student disciplinary cases F five ilcs 122 C9 uh Motion in a second please so moved second there's a
138motion in a second uh please call a roll fito yes Palmer hi dusing yes Hinman hi Ral hi Walker yes and crer so we will have action after closed session uh how long do you think Clos session will last 45 30 to 45 minutes we'll be back thank you very [Music] much [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] h [Music] oh [Music] w oh [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] w oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] oh o oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a
139[Music] w oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] okay we are back from uh Clos session and we have a few things for roll call so we got 911 so moved is there a second second have a motion in a second any discussion please call roll dusing yes bito yes hi I Palmer I Ral I Walker yes and citer I motion carries 70 yes motion carries 70 ptrs thank you uh 912 uh I move to approve the modified purchasing transportation and business services supervisor job description second there's been a motion in a second any discussion H Hinman hi Ral hi dling yes fito yes Palmer I Walker yes quiter I motion carries 70 so then we have uh 921 a motion to approve the accounts payable for December 21st 2023 and January
1405th 2024 second please second discussion call Walker yes Palmer hi dling yes fito yes Hinman hi FR hi and quer I thank you um you know this is the first time we've done this Committee of the whole and uh I I hope it works for you all uh you know we'll be talking about this later on in the year if you want to continue this but I I believe it went smoothly tonight but that's just my opinion so um motion to adjourn so move second Palmer I Ral I dling yes Vito yes Hinman hi Walker yes quite sir hi we are adjourned at 9:55 thank you good night [Music] m [Music]