School Board Meeting 5/11/26

001I am not even on yet. Hello everybody. Welcome and thank you for your patience. We wanted to make sure that we had a nice smooth meeting that we didn't have any disruptions this evening. So, we took care of what we needed to take care of and we had the police. The police are now dealing with the situation. So, we should be able to proceed with our meeting as planned. So, once again, I just want to thank you for your patience. to the students. We we asked you to leave for that photo because we wanted to make sure that you had no trauma this evening. So, I I hope that you realize that that was all for your protection. We're always concerned about your safety. So, thank you. And so, we're going to just go right

002ahead. So, welcome. Take a deep breath. Put it all behind you. And we'll proceed. Welcome to the May 11th, 2026 board of education meeting. Can we have a roll call, please? >> Here. >> Martin >> here. >> Carson >> Here. Thank you. All right. So, the first item on our agenda is comments from the public. Dr. Davis, do we have any comments from the public? >> We have two comments from the public. Uh, speakers who have signed up for public comment will be invited in the order they signed up to address the board for up to three minutes. I will keep time and signal you at the end of two minutes. As a courtesy, I'll let you know it's time to stop at the three minute mark in the event that becomes necessary. Speakers are

003asked to come forward and speak from the lectern up here. Please state your name and address. Public comments generally pertain to school district matters, but comments about any individuals are expressly prohibited. Please understand that the school board does not respond to public comment, but we'll listen carefully and we'll follow up as the board deems appropriate. Our first public comment is from Jessica Aguilar. Aguilar, Liz Ramirez. No. Okay. Well, that concludes uh public comment. >> All right. >> Yeah, you do have a comment. >> Oh, yeah. Go for it. >> Oh, right here. Y >> um >> if you just state your name. Yes, my name is Jessica and Liz and we're just parents here um at ETHS and we're just here um to show support for Nicole Sanchez, the student activity um uh coordinator and

004we just want to uh hope that you know she can continue being part of um HHS. My daughter has been part of many fundraisers and um and uh she has helped so many students as I have here several pictures of um many students engaging with uh with Nicole Sanchez. >> Thank you. I appreciate the time. >> Thank you. >> Uh and that concludes the uh public comment portion of tonight's meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. All right. Our next item is written communication. Dr. Davis, do we have any written communication? >> No, we have no written communication this evening. >> Okay. All right. Then next we have items for information. And the first item is the student recognition um the DECA state competition. Here we go. Come on up. Come on up. Just like

005line up in front of them. I know, right? There's quite a few of you here, so that's very exciting. >> Yeah. Um, what a decade of year it was. This year, Evston took 49 students to the state Illinois Career Development Conference. Just under 2400 students attended this competition in hopes of earning the opportunity to attend the international competition in April. Students have been working since last May on their written events in early September on their competitive role plays. Um, so the way I'm just going to kind of announce their recognition is, uh, we'll start with state with their many awards, their grand awards, then we'll move to the national recognition. Um, some of the students are here, some of them are not, um, if they're not here, I still feel it's important to recognize them.

006So, um, when your name is called and you are here, just kind of like raise your hands. The school board knows who I'm talking about. Okay. Uh, the following students earned a mini award in their roleplay event at state competition. Sarah Hunt earned second place in the business administration core exam. Sina Manur earned third place in the business administration core exam. Um for principles of finance, Sojo Fitz Green earned first place in information management roleplay and first place in communication skills role play. Farah Levven earned third place in the business operations roleplay for the principles of hospitality and tourism event. Nola Bokar earned third place in product service management roleplay for apparel and accessories. Jesse Dashart earned first place in selling for ro for his roleplay, second in product service management roleplay for automotive services.

007Curtis Greenspan and Asher Fortunado earned first place in their marketing roleplay for their entre entrepreneurship team decisionmaking event. The following students earned top 10 at the grand awards ceremony at the state competition. For principles of business management, Sarah Hunt for principles of entrepreneurship, Audrey Cervantes. For principles of hospitality and tourism, Farah Levvin. Entrepreneurship team decision-making, Asher Fortunado and Curtis Greenspan. for a written event. The business service operations research event focusing on consumer social responsibility and the company Jackbox, Nola Boar, and Carla Hackett. The Career Development Project, Major Match, focusing in on helping ETHs students zone in on careers they might want to pursue prior to starting their college path. Grace Vandenberg and Dorothy Breen. Community Giving Project, Live for Lurries, focusing on raising money for Lur's Children Hospital and the pediatric unit for children who

008are uh losing their hearing. Liv Gerstein, an international business plan, Jas, a mobile application developed for booking vacations in Japan made easy. Teddy Goodstein and Ben Matzah. The following students placed in the top five for the roleplay events, advancing to the international competition that was held just a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Georgia. There was over 24,000 students at this competition. It's significantly grown over the past years. Students who placed in the top four of their written advant event advanced as well. International competition took place in Atlanta, Georgia, April 24th to the 29th. The following students were in roleplay. Principles of business management who took third place. Sina Manor, principles of finance. Um, Ben Matzah took four fourth place. Sojo Fitz Green took first place. Principles of hospitality and tourism, principles of entrepreneurship. Third place,

009Ben Hore. Uh, second place, automotive service marketing, Jesse Dashart. In regards to the written event winners, our community awareness project focusing in on Wildcat care kits that benefit the Evston students and assist with the drug and narcotic addiction and awareness. Skyler Hoffman and Lacy Triplet took first place. Hospitality and tourism operations research event focusing in on consumer social responsibility at Law Principal. Ivy Hogan and Amelia Ward took third place. Our independent business plan, Embrace Co. developing a clothing line for females who have scoliosis. Hannah Stler and Hannah Cervantes took fourth place. Start up a business plan. Mason Singular, one of the luxury fashion houses, a high-end fashion company that targets wealthy buyers who value sustainability and individuality. Asher Fortunado and Curtis Greenspan took fourth place. Nationals was another exciting achievement for these students. Ben Davis,

010where are you? Ben, stand forward. Ben earned a Ben earned a medallion for placing the top 20 out of over 250 competitors in his principal business administration cluster exam. Ben Matza, step forward. and Sojo Fitz Green placed in the top 20, earning the opportunity to compete again in their PR principles of finance event. In addition, Sojo earned a top 20 medallion in her roleplay. Jesse step forward. Thank you. Plays Oh, yep. Jesse plays top 20 in automotive services marketing, earning the opportunity to compete as well. The Grand Awards was an exciting time for ETHS as both Sojo and Ben earned top 10 overall in their event. Results were provided last uh last week showing that Ben placed seventh overall while Sojo placed fourth overall, missing the podium by just one spot. All students this year

011put forth an amazing effort and work so hard. Myself, Mr. Patel, and Mr. Manila are so proud of these students accomplishments. Finally, I would like to thank the assistant adviserss, Mr. Manila and Mr. Patel, for their efforts in prepping the students for their competition. Thank you also to the Thank you also to the administration, my department head, the board, and the boosters for the continuous support of DECA. Thank you. All right, students. We would all like to the board and myself would like to congratulate you, shake your hands and give you a pen. And so just come in the line around the horseshoe and uh we will give you congratulations. Here's your pen. >> Congratulations. Wow. Congratulations. Congratulations. I was hoping they would like. >> Yeah, there you go. >> Yeah. Thank you. Congrats again.

012So, we'll take a quick pause. Just What did she change? >> Really? >> She has a purse thing. >> A bag. I do too. I just bought >> Oh, yeah. >> That's a nice big deal. >> It's a big deal. Your daughter? >> Yes. >> All right. Well, thank you again for your patience. That's a great way to start a meeting. So, now I'm definitely >> in the groove. So, we we're going to have an a presentation from the AFSUSA international exchange student. >> Yes. So, board, I'm going to invite Carol Muskin, a volunteer with AFSUSA, and all of our students. I think there are five of them here tonight who have uh been a part of ETHS for the last year. Uh they're from under other countries and they're going to share just briefly

013about their experience uh at at ETHS this past school year and um um yeah, I think >> they're going to share with us. Nice. Just in case >> they'll do much better, right? >> Kind of shook. >> I know. Get back. I know. >> I know. It is. >> It is >> different way of studying. Thank you so much to the board for having us back again. My name is Carol Muskin and I am a volunteer with AFSUSA. Uh we were here last year when we were hosting three students and this year I believe I've been around for about 10 years as an AFS volunteer and this is I believe the only year we've had five students at ETHS at least in the 10 years that I've been around. So it's uh been a very

014very exciting year. So just to refresh your memory, AFSUSA is the largest and oldest of the high school international exchange organization. We have a really fascinating origin story that the students probably all know, but during World War I, um, Americans first became involved in the conflict as volunteer ambulance drivers. And those volunteers at the end of a fairly horrific experience in World War I decided that something needed to be done. There needed to be a way to bridge the differences across countries. And so AFS was uh started shortly after World War I and of course grew very much in the 60s7s 80s. uh as a volunteer I've been involved in for 15 or 20 years, but my AFS journey started when I was a high school student in Muscogee, Oklahoma. Uh back in the 70s

015in Muscogi, Oklahoma, you didn't meet very many people from around the world. So my junior year, we hosted uh Diny Diane from the Republic of South Africa and that began my AFS journey. AFS is also really well known as the exchange program that is really almost totally volunteer-run. We have a small slim staff, but for the most part um the supporting of the students, the selecting of the students, all of this is done via volunteers. So, we want to thank the board and the school for hosting AFS students for a very long time. Um, but I want to also just um give a nod to Dr. Campbell for serving on the AS AFSUSA board. So, we really appreciate his service to AFS as an entire organization. So over the past nine ten years that I've

016been around, I believe if my numbers are right, uh AFS uh has had 18 different students at ETHS. All of them having phenomenal experiences. Um many of those students coming from Europe, but also students from Asia, Japan, and China, students from uh South America, such as Chile. Um but we also have several students who've come six out of the 18 who've come to uh AFS through the US state department scholarship programs. Those students um work very hard. Uh, in fact, the statistics day say that it's as difficult for one of these students to earn one of these US State Department scholarships as it is difficult for an American student getting into Harvard. So, you'll meet these students and they'll say, "Oh, you know, a thousand applied and three of us got to come." So, um,

017these scholarship students really, uh, worked hard to get here and, uh, we're lucky this year to have a student from Poland, Amelia. Um, all of the students will introduce themselves in a moment, but, we wanted to make a special, um, presentation for any high school in the US who does host one of these uh, US State Department scholarship students receive a special medallion certificate. So last year we were here because FSY was hosted in the spring from Malaysia from the YES program and this year we have Amelia from the flex program and Amelia is now going to present the certificates. Oh, you did. She did present the certificate. Yes. Yes. Come. Come. You'll be the first one. Please introduce yourself and say just a word about what the flex program. >> Okay. So, um, my

018name is Amelia and I'm from Poland. Uh, I applied to Flex program around like two years ago and then it was a whole one-year process application to um come here. Actually, I applied to this program uh before my freshman year. Now, I'm a senior and I didn't get in and then I gave up and then I applied again. So, I actually got into flex after two or three years. Uh so yeah, inflex program is a um program for uh European and uh Euro Asian countries. Um it's a full scholarship program. Um you can apply for it and uh it's founded by United States department. We have also great flex alumni opportunities. So after coming back from the United States, it's not the end of our adventure. like we can still work and present um United

019States and ourselves in our countries. So yeah, >> before you leave, why don't you say one thing that you felt was very special about your time here at DHS? >> Okay, so one of my favorite highlights was being part of the Nutcracker play. Um, yeah, because I got a chance to act in the Nutcracker and it's I do theater in Poland a lot, but it's completely different here. Uh, there's much more people. I love the energy, the stage craft, costumes. It's taken care like we're just taken care of very well by all of the staff and it was amazing. I love my teachers here. Um wait can I just speak like this because I feel like okay uh teachers teachers were really amazing especially uh my language teacher it was really great I have really

020good experience with teachers I will I will miss them a lot um yeah and I think and I love the diversity and people in ATHS it's amazing thank you. >> Hi, I'm Elias. I'm from Italy. Uh for me, one of like the best thing of uh it teaches us was probably like the sports. I really like sports and the fact that like school is a really complex system cuz like back home school is cool and there is no sport. There is no other like clubs and anything. So I really like like the fact that there are like many options, many possibilities that like um students can apply to. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> My name is Nina. I'm from France and I really liked the relationships that I got with some of my teachers. It's

021really different from friends like um teachers and friends are really like distant from you and I really like that here it's like a big family. So I'm Olivia. I'm from Spain. What I really love about ETHS is like the diversity and there's people from everywhere and all of the activities that the school provides like summits and all the clubs and how you can find something for you. I as well love theater as well as Amelia and I did stage crew which I loved. The community was amazing. I met great people. I'm really sad to go back. Yeah, I have really good friends. All my teachers are great. I also love all of the classes that we have here. Like you can really find all of the arts classes are amazing and you can find classes

022that fit for you and they all work in Spain. It's just you have assigned classes. You can't really choose. So it's pretty it's really great. It's very good school. I really like it. Hi, my name is Noel. I'm from Sweden. Uh, the best thing about HS is the classes. Can pick and choose how you want. It has allowed me to uh challenge myself like in my math taking extra hard math classes or astrophysics and also computer science. would never be able to even learn that in Sweden because you take a track instead of classes. So I need to stick to the classes by track the show. So for me, >> I have a question. I know some of you were at prom on Saturday. How was prom? Can I give them You want a picture

023with your house families too? Thank you so much. >> Don't forget >> kids, we want to give you a EHS. We want to shake your hands and say >> Here's your pen. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Here's your pen. did a great job. >> And thank you, Carol. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, I see coming to the table. >> There we go. >> We're getting ready for a presentation by National Lewis University. >> All right. So, Bora, we're going to invite Thaxton Laundry uh to the table along with Tana. Tana, you coming to the table? Tana's gonna back bench, she said. >> Okay. So just Daxton big table at the table to discuss an exciting partnership that we've had with National Lewis for the

024last couple of ye well last two years year and a half. >> Yeah. >> Year. Okay. >> Um and um we're really excited about this work and so I'm going to let turn this over to Baxton and then we've got Tana Francel now in the back uh who's been working with us. We also have Dale and Pete all who can speak to some of our workforce development partnerships. But tonight we're focusing on National Lewis University. So Thaxton, take it away. >> Thank you so much uh for the time. I'm Thaxton Lundy um here from uh a program called Accelerate You and National Lewis. I will say uh tough act to follow. Just amazing amazing students. I also am happy to have helped clear out the room as part of my presentation here tonight. So um

025if you need, you know, room clearing, I'm I'm happy to come back and help. Um so my my goal for the next couple minutes is just to tell you a little bit about this program. Um, we're really proud of the model that we're building. We think this is a new kind of way to do college and uh we're we're deeply grateful to be working with ETHS. And so I want to tell you a little bit about uh what we're doing national just a reminder on National Lewis and kind of what this project is, what we're doing specifically in Evston and then happy to um answer any questions at the end if if you have them. Um just just I think people know National Lewis. There's a lot of people at ETHS who have degrees from

026National Lewis. Um National Lewis headquartered in Evston for about 80 years from 1926 to 2006. I've had campuses in and around uh the area. You can see some stats on on what we're doing. The college was founded back in the 1860s by a woman entrepreneur who was committed to educating immigrant kids in Chicago. Um, and she was partly responsible for bringing the PTA to the United States. Her name was Elizabeth Harrison. Brought the PTA to the United States. Uh, helped start kindergarten in the United States. Um, and I share that not to get into the ancient history of Nasha Lewis, but because there is a kind of a DNA of our institution that is deeply committed to figuring out how to make higher ed kind of equitable and accessible and to figure out how to

027kind of break down the walls of higher ed and go uh meet people where they are. Um, and so you can see the students that we're working with broadly in Chicago. We have an undergraduate college that serves about 6,000 students a year. And that program um our college, our undergraduate college was designed specifically for firstgen students. So um really small class sizes, really tons of coaching support, wraparound services, low tuition, and we were really proud and continue to be really proud of that program. Um but we noticed a couple things. One was we weren't even having a conversation with students who had decided that college was not for them. So if they had people in their life that were saying you should go get a college degree, we might be able to talk to them

028through a guidance counselor. But if they weren't sure or they had decided for whatever reason that they weren't going to go to college, we just never even got to talk to them. That was one problem. The second problem was that we had students who would get into our program and a year or two into the program would stop out. And when you ask them, despite all these design elements that we had created to serve them well, when you ask them why they stopped out over and over and over again, we heard,"I need to work. I need a job. I need to support myself or my family, whatever it may be." And so, um, about five years ago, we started a new program at the college called Accelerate You. I I came to the university to

029help uh get this program up and running. And we call it job first higher education. And so we've sort of flipped the idea of what how a college degree can work. And the idea is really con the concept is pretty simple. And that is that um we try and get people a job on the front end of a degree instead of at the back end. And we use the job as a way to help people stabilize things economically. So these are jobs that don't require a college degree. These are jobs like a medical assistant or an IT help desk professional um or a sales rep. jobs that are good jobs where you can get benefits and stabilize things and figure out what you want to do. And then our goal is to work with you

030to earn a college degree over time. And we do that with the in the fi in the five blue boxes. We have sort of five design principles. So we number one is we start with the job first. We go find employers that have open jobs in and around Chicago and in this case in Evston and they need talent and we build training pathways that lead to that job. Number two is we work really hard to make sure that the learner stays at the center of everything we do. So these programs are short, usually two to six months long. They're hybrid, so you can do online and in person. And then just we wrap students in a ton of support and coaching to make sure that if they run into some kind of hiccup or barrier,

031they've got uh resources to help navigate that. And I can talk a little bit more about that later. Number three is we really are trying to get a combination of technical skills. So how do you put a needle in someone's arm? How do you fix a broken laptop? But then also all the durable or leadership skills that we all know are what really matter for any job, right? How do you ask questions when you don't know the answer? What do you do if someone's really mad at you to deescalate things? Um how do you work well on a team, etc. The last two are, I think, pretty straightforward. We cap the cost of every one of our programs at about $7,000 um equivalent of a PEL grant. So, if you're full PEL eligible, you'll pay

032pay zero dollars to out of pocket to come to our program. We want to kind of get rid of as much debt as possible on the front end. Um, and then everything we do is stackable. So, every credit you earn in this program can fold into any uh any of our degree pathways um at National Lewis. And so, this is really what we're trying to do as a college is build a both and model. Um, a lot of people when you ask them have uh a kind of two-track uh frame in their mind. Uh, you either go to college or you go get a job. It's really hard even for the best intention people to figure out how to do both of those at once. And there's a long pretty dark history in our country

033of splitting those up and sending certain kids down certain paths. And so what we're trying to do as a college is scramble that. We're trying to say actually what if you actually use the job as a way to try and slingshot yourself into upward mobility first of all and then second of all into a degree in a time and on a way that makes sense for you. And we do that we have a goal internally at Accelerate U called our 8020 goal. So, we like to see 80% of the students who start our program complete. 80% of the students who complete to get a job in the field that they trained in within three months. And then we like to see a $20,000 bump in compensation from the day they show up to us to

034the day they leave with their new job. And we aren't at these targets yet. So, we're somewhere in the neighborhood of about 75% completion. We're getting about 70% of our students into jobs right now. and our students are seeing 13 to$14,000 of comp bumps in six or seven months. So, it's pretty good, but we aren't at our target yet. We still got a bunch of work to do, but we've set this as an ambitious target because we believe that the that if you're going to do this work, you got to put your money where your mouth is and really deliver um outcomes for students. And and by the way, for the students that don't complete, we work really hard to figure out how to get them back into our program or get them to another

035program so that they can um find a find a pathway that works for them. Just wanted to share a little bit of stats. You may be asking like who who comes to this program? Who who who are the students that that that are attracted to Accelerate. You we've served about 1,200 students to date. We train about 360 370 students a year right now. I'll I'll you can read the stats on your own. Um this is our macro data for everybody that we're serving. I'll draw your attention just really quickly to the top right. So threequarters of our students are working part or full-time while they're in our programs. Um and so uh people are really sort of fitting this is sort of college fitting into their life. And then the middle uh box which I

036guess is the only one that doesn't have a number um is that we really focus on what we call the mighty middle the the middle two cortiles of the graduating class. So this this is a program if you're top 10 of your class you're probably going to a four-year institution which is great. Um, we're really trying to grab those students in the middle that are trying to figure out exactly what they want to do next and using this accelerate you program and the job first idea as a as a hook. We focus in healthcare and tech. So, our largest program is a medical assistant program. Um, it's a six-month training with a one-month externship uh at a at a employer partner. And then we have uh uh technology programs as well. So, healthcare and tech.

037We have five different pathways right now for students to consider. There's a lot going on on this slide and we'll share the slides with you afterwards, but um this is the medical assistant program. You can see some of the partners that we're working with in the bottom right. We train students up for about six months. They learn how to do all the basics of being a medical assistant and then they get to show everything that they know with a bunch of our employer partners. We work with Endeavor, Erie, um and Northwestern Medicine here uh in Evston. And speaking of um we uh have been working, as Dr. Campbell said, we've been working at Evston for about a year. Um, we were invited to come here as part of a collection of organizations that Northwestern University

038brought together as part of their workforce uh initiative to as part of the stadium build um here in town. Um, and so we're really working closely with the high school, with Northwestern, and a variety of other partners, some of whom I think maybe you all are either very familiar with or maybe have even heard from uh at the table here. Um, and I guess just one thing that I would call out is that um, we anybody who went to ETHS or anybody who lives in Evston um, is eligible for a $1,500 stipend as part of the program to help offset any costs or other kinds of things that come with the program. So, in addition to the health the the financial aid uh, that 85% of our students take advantage of, uh, there's also a

039little bit of spending money to make it easier to to get into and finish a program. And I will say, I'm announcing this for the first time very publicly tonight. On Friday, I learned that our very first student in Evston uh got their very we got our first student hired on Friday at Endeavor here in town. So, she's an ETHS grad, graduated a couple years ago, just finished our program, just got a job offer. So, the model um is working broadly, but is working very specifically in Evston. And we hope that that is the first of many, many, many, many more to come um here in Evston. Just really quickly, last thing I'll say is uh we we um we set up this AccelerateU program and I mentioned that stackable thing at the beginning where

040we try and get people into degrees. Um and we've built what we think is a brand new model nationally. We have a three-year college degree. So when you've done Accelerate You, you can take all those credits and you can actually in two and a half more years earn a college degree. We call it learn and earn in three. Um it launched about a year ago and um of the first 15 or 16 students that are in the program, I think eight like nine or 10 of them have already gotten promotions in their jobs. They're all working towards their their college degree. So we're really just trying to figure out how to create um a model that will work really well for ETHs students who are finishing and uh figuring out what they're going to do

041next. So that's what I uh I wanted to share. I I again I just wanted to make sure this was on all of you all's radar so you know that this is happening. We have about 15 ETHs graduates from the last couple of years who are in the program. Now our goal is to get to 20, 25, 30, eventually 50 students a year um coming through this pathway. Um and again, you know, earning college credit that they can apply to a degree at NLU or take with them over time. So thanks for the chance to share a little bit more. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. But um thanks for the time. >> Thank you. This this sounds really exciting. You said about 50 students from Evston. That's kind of what

042you're hoping for. >> Yeah. Right now we have about 15 students in the last year who have gone in the program. But if you told me that we could do more than 50, we would do even more than 50. That 50 is uh 50 is a number that is uh is bigger than where we are now. But um we really do think that this is a different and and for some students just better way to do college. And so we're really excited to try and figure out how to make this happen in Evston. >> Yeah. This is great. All right, questions. Pat, >> thank you. This is great. This is just a really wonderful presentation and and program. Um, so I had a question. You you mentioned that you give them the you get them

043the job first. >> Yes. >> So is the idea that they go into a a job like a medical assistant then their program is all leaning towards a higher level medical assistant. Is that kind? So they come in, it's not just like any job. It's a job with a focus on their path. >> That's exactly right. Yes. So we're we we're using the job. So, we're very explicit with students that we want this job to be an opportunity to do a couple things. One is for a lot of students, we want to just stabilize things economically, right? So, if you aren't sure, you aren't working, you have you're, you know, sort of making ends meet. We want to get that in place. We have found that if you're trying to figure out your job and

044you're trying to be a college student, it's really hard balance, right? So, first and foremost, it's just to get into a job, get benefits, full-time pay. Um, but yeah, these are jobs that don't require college degrees and we want students to be going to earn college degrees. And so there's a bunch of different ways that you can stack that together. So you can we have a nursing program at our at our university, right? So if you are a medical assistant and you love the clinical work, we can get you into a nursing degree so you can then get a bachelor's degree and move your way up. You may become a medical assistant and get in there and decide, "Oh my gosh, I actually love the community part of this. I love being with people." Great.

045we'll get you into a social work degree or we'll get you into an HR degree or we'll get you into another pathway or business degree if you like the business part. So, I think one of the challenges I I I I won't ask anybody to raise their hand on this, but when you come out of high school and you're figuring out what you're going to go do next, if you're doing a college degree, not many people know when they're 18 or 19 what they're going to go do. >> And so, part of what we're doing in this work experience is is giving them a chance to try that out and figure it out. Do I like working in an office? Do I like working with patients or customers? Do I like working for in a

046environment that's high stress? Do I like, you know, working locally? Do I like traveling for work? What do I like to do? And, you know, I can give all the presentations in the world and we can have glossy flyers, but the truth is you have to kind of feel that and figure that out. And so, what we're trying to you we're using the job to try and uh to try and do that. And um we're just trying to get them a head start to figure out what it is. And the reason why we picked the specific jobs is that we want to set the students up to be successful. There's a lot of training programs out there where you can train people up, get them a certificate, and it's like best of luck. >> What

047we're trying to do is understand the job deeply and then essentially create the IKEA owners manual for the students, right? so that they know every step of the way in the program how to be really successful in that job and then find success. And this may not be as much of a case at ETHS as we heard from all the students earlier, but a lot of students that we serve are kind of out on school. They've had a pretty tough high school experience. They aren't sure about uh formal education. And so part of what we're doing in the six months is reconvincing them of the not only of their skills and abilities, but also of the power of a degree and and staying on. And what we've found over and over and over again is

048when students go get that job and they have the experience and they're like, I got a college ID, I'm a student, and I now have a job. That it really kind of um propels them to a bunch of new new opportunities that may may not have kn they didn't even know about before that. So, >> right. And what that's really interesting um quick question too on do you work with the employers because I would imagine you want that experience to work in tandem with what you're trying to do. So >> exactly that's this is a big part. So we have an entire employer engagement team that their whole job is to figure out who are the employers that we're working with, where are those job slots, where is the job market heading, how do we

049create a smooth transition from training into jobs. So, one of the tracks that I I I didn't even mention it, but the second one from the right, tech sales. We're training people to get into tech sales jobs. These are commission jobs. So, it's a base salary of $55,000. Most people will earn somewhere between 60 and $80,000 their first year out with a high school degree and a six months of training. And we are lining up those tech sales jobs and then training people to go get into those roles. Uh we're we're introducing this program in a couple weeks. We're really excited about three months of training and then a three-month paid internship into a full-time job. And that is that just all relies on having employers waiting to grab the students when they get done.

050And so one of the things that we're trying to do again this braiding of both and is be a hired institution that's good at recruiting students and finding students but then also really good at working with employers and using the training program as a bridge to to get there. It's awesome. Thank you. >> Thanks. Thanks for the questions. >> You Leah, >> I just had a quick question. Um, so you said that the credits um from the work or this program are stackable um and they could go on to um pursue the undergraduate degree at National Lewis. Are the credits only stackable and applied to NLU? What if a student then later on wants to go to a different undergraduate institution? >> They can take the credits anywhere they want. >> Okay. We don't want

051them to do that just for the record, but that we are happy for them to do that. Yeah, these are we're an accredited accredited national institution of higher education. >> The credits if they they take any of our coursework, they can apply it to anywhere else. And I and I would say that like um we have students who do our training and then leave the state. We have students that do our training then go work for three years and then we hear from them three years later. Um, part of this is to put the student in the driver's seat. And a lot of times you'll see workforce training that will get someone into that job, but then if they go to another state or they change sectors or they decide they want to go get

052a degree, there's not they got a they got a certificate, but that doesn't really stack into anything. And so one of the reasons why we did this at a higher institution instead of on its own as a nonprofit or for-profit boot camp is the power of being part of higher ed frankly and having that credit and having the financing that will help make sure that students can complete it and and that they've got something to show for the training and time that they put into it. >> That sounds good. I think the flexibility and mobility are important. >> Exactly. Yeah. Thank you. I love this idea and I'm I appreciate you giving us the background um and the history of National Lewis. I didn't I didn't know that. Yeah. And it makes sense that National

053Lewis then would pursue a program like this. >> Um >> my question is how early do you do you start trying to connect with students when they're in high school? we of course try to make sure that they have a plan um when they leave um high school. How early do you start reaching out to them? >> Yeah. Well, there's an answer for that in Chicago and there's an answer for for Evston and I'll do both. In Chicago, we have a whole b we work with, you know, tons and tons of high schools. We're recruiting out of high schools all the time. The truth is that in most cases, we're getting to seniors. >> Yeah. >> Um and this is a program that works really well for students that just aren't sure what they want

054to do. Yeah, >> this is a way to give students an opportunity to try something new or something different. And so that works out really well. I think what we're trying to do in Evston is uh a little bit more multi-layered than that. And I think Dr. Campbell and our team, we've had a couple of different really great conversations about how to integrate this in as as an option. So, not just being, you know, in the hub or having flyers around, but like one, how do we make sure that the teachers that are teaching students in subject matter areas that are related to any of this work know this as an option and can refer students? Tana and I have spent a bunch of time in the hallways here in classrooms presenting to students about

055about what's uh about what's on on on offer here. Two is really working with guidance counselors. The guidance counselors, any guidance counselor, but certainly the guidance counselors here. Yeah, >> if you ask them can tell you three students off the top of their head that they are like that they love they love all their students but that they really love and they want to try and figure out how to get the right thing for them next and it may not be a kind of traditional route. And so >> I think figuring out how to do that. >> We've got to find the right sweet spot here, right? It's like if it's too early it's kind of like I'll get to that later. If it's too late it's like I don't know. and uh and so

056we're trying to figure that out and I think our partnership is is that it's really taking shape there. The one group that we are really focused on trying to get to though and you you may I didn't mention in the stats but most of our students are a couple years out of high school. >> They if if I could wave a magic wand I'd put Accelerate you in senior year >> because I'd I'd try and save students time and not have them do that. But what I will say is we we do see that students need a couple years >> to figure out what it is that they want to do and frankly sometimes to run into some blocks. >> Yeah. >> And to realize that maybe some of the things that they were doing

057are not exactly what they want to do. >> Yeah. And so, um, so the group that we're really focused on here in Evston is the ETHS grads who either went to college, it didn't work out, and came back home, or they didn't go to college, and they're here trying to figure out what's next. And we think that there's a bunch of them. >> There's a bunch of them. There's, many, many, many, many hundreds, many hundreds. And so this is the this is the nut to crack in Evston and the thing that we're trying to figure out right now because >> the best way that we've found is going directly to the community >> through elected officials, community organizations, all the partners that we're working with. >> Um going to Robert Crown, looking for students of

058Robert Crown. I mean, there's a lot of things that we could be doing. >> Um but this is a big area of growth. I I'm I didn't mention this. I'm a D65 dad. I'm I'm going to be a Wildcat dad in um a year. A year. You'll find me under the table baldled up. The idea that my seventh grader is going to be in high school very soon. Not because of ETH, but just because she's in seventh grade and feels a lot older than I remember her being. Um but uh but yeah, so so um you know, there's work that we need to do as a community to find students when they've left the high school. >> Sure. >> And get them back on track. And this is a we think a program that can

059really help to do that. >> Uh but that's going to take collective work. That's that's real work that we need to do um together. >> Yeah, I love it. I love that you're thinking about that and you're thinking in a in that broad way and and you don't have to have all the answers right now >> as you >> that's why we're we're doing it as a partnership with the high school to to figure it out. >> It's good. All right, Mon'nique. >> Yeah. I I mean, when you I'm glad you said that because as I was listening to this, I was like, h that's not the group, right? Um, and I I I would think like a lot of us know that group you're talking about or people that are in that group. How

060do we I don't know if that's a I don't think it's a question for you to answer. I think it's a question for us to answer like how how do we um bring those kids or those young adults now to this type of program? I mean, right off the head, I'm like, "This is cradle." >> But >> Brandy just left. >> But I and I will say like I I know the partners that you have there, they're having that same issue, right? So, >> but YJC, >> YJC, >> um you you have the collective, you have Evston own it. um you know so I'm I'm like okay so how do you really I guess the I don't know what the you know how successful the trade collective is being but >> yeah how do we

061do that how do we get that group because there's a bunch of them >> in Evston >> right now that have graduated from ETHS that are still trying to find their way and they know nothing about this >> yes and that's what we're trying to figure out Um and uh there's that work's going to be ongoing. Um and it will continue. We're just excited about that we have something like this that could refer them to as we think about not only potential juniors and seniors but also some of the kids who've already have metriculated through the school who that we see around the community who are undermployed and looking for something to do. >> So >> and we have that conversation too with the trade collective. So that's that's happening on multiple tracks here. Dale

062and Pete, do you have anything to add? Anything to add? >> Well, I was going to ask that. The alumni, I was going right there. >> So, do we register our seniors immediately in becoming a part of the alumni association or do we >> they sign up? They we get they give us their information, their new email addresses, but we keep the ETHS address active. But we're there's a real >> concerted effort to get those kids uh signed up in the alumni association before they leave. >> Is that relatively new? >> No, no, no. We've been doing that for a while. >> Okay. >> I I would say like a couple things. One is we need to be more intentional early in the in the early grades around our case management and connecting kids to

063opportunities in as early as 9th, 10th, 11th grade. >> And also in partnering with district 65, there's a great opportunity to back that into seventh grade really in terms of exploration. Um and and we have the tools now to be able to do that uh through school links and after students graduate we have something called steam e which we will talk about is how we track local students who go um to local employers and be able to monitor their movement and participation in the workforce. Uh so those are just two two of those things but I think like the key here is to connect to use the data we have because we have a lot of it right we have grade data we have attendance data we have all that data but we also have

064school links data connect those two and then really be intentional around connecting students to those opportunities whether it's Accelerate you and early because we know that relationships matter. Uh it's one thing to to learn about accelerate you as a senior. It's another thing to learn about it in in ninth grade, I would say. Uh because it creates awareness. It creates a relationship. And if the more intentional we are with that and the more we task folks with that as part of a case load, as part of like a career ambassador uh kind of situation, um we'll we'll see more awareness, more access, and more success in this area. >> Yeah. And it's I would say it's another thing to be reminded of it when you're 20 years old. >> Right. >> Yes. >> After you

065have because I will tell you unless it's I don't know something else like um possibly homecoming or a game, they don't still see themselves as students of ET. I mean, right? Because they graduated. So when you connect that this opportunity to someone that has already graduated ETHS, they don't see themselves as still receiving this kind of support to go out and find their way. They're doing it and they're struggling and they're bumping their heads, you know, against how do we do how do I make a living for myself? How do I survive? How do I stay in Evston? >> Right? And I and I think that is the um the reality of you know this group I'm thinking about. I mean that's what I see and and often times they they do end up leaving

066>> our community because they can't afford it >> and they're not connected to >> um a career that is or a job that's giving them a career. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, um, >> Yeah. Just I I I love so many things that you just said and, um, I guess what I would one thing that comes to mind, we spend a lot of time, sorry, we spend a lot of time in our program talking about social capital, >> how you build that amongst students. And part of what we're trying to do in our program is to just build an army of people who are locked arms, getting new jobs, starting to change what the workforce looks like. And one way that we build that is through alumni coaches. So we have people who have finished

067our program who come back to help the next group of students learn. And so I wonder in Evston in particular whether there's a way for us to build a really concerted effort around the alumni work so that we have start off small two three five seven alum who are going around Evston trying to find people who are 20 21 22 and reminding them about the opportunity. I just think there's a lot of creative things that we could be doing in Evston. We we I'll speak for my accelerate you that we can be doing to try and figure out how to how to grow this. So I I'm I think this is the beginning of the the the sentence, not the end of the sentence hopefully. And we've got lots of um we've got lots of

068good work together ahead. >> Yeah. Because I think once once the word gets out >> well >> that that will really it'll it'll catch. >> Well, that's exactly why we invited him here. so that we can start to get the word out, bringing them to a very public meeting to have this conversation. These kinds of opportunities exist and and really lift it up publicly. So, that's exactly >> So, I I wouldn't I I learned a long time ago that when you get to speak to a group like this, you always got to call them to act in something. So, I've got three requests, if that's okay, for this group. Number one, you've already touched on it, is just help us spread the word about what we're doing. help us talk, let people know about this.

069And my um my email address is here at the at the bottom. But number two is like we are on the hunt for creative ways to find learners and to integrate this into the community. This is as I said, this is a professional pursuit of mine. This is a deeply personal one for me as well as this is where I live and this is the the work that I want to do for the rest of my career. And so help us figure out how to find students in your networks or even employers in your networks that are looking to hire great talent. And then the third is I would just say an open call. I I spent my career in K12 schools. I I thought I was going to do that for the rest of

070my my career and I ended up getting into this work because it just seemed like there were sparks that were flying in the intersection of high school, college, and work. and that we needed to design better better pathways and opportunities. But I think the third thing was continue to put pressure on higher ed to build better models. Higher ed needs to be breaking down some of the barriers and creating new and different pathways and holding themselves and all of us accountable for the outcomes. It's just not good enough to say we don't know what happened to students. We need to be saying this is the program that we're building. This is why it's working. and this is why we created the way that we did and this is why this is the right thing for

071students to pick um and that they should ultimately make that decision. And so that's what we're trying to do with Accelerate. It's a small relatively small program now, but this is a there's no other models like this that we've seen. This is a new and kind of national model. Um and this is Evston is the place where we want to try and build it and grow it. So it's really really appreciate the time. I hope I I I think I went way over, but thank you very much for the time and the opportunity. And um you've got my contact information. If there's any thoughts or questions, happy to get a coffee at a coffee shop nearby. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. >> Yeah, this is wonderful. This is really good. >> Really

072good. Thank you. You'll send us the slides, right? Okay. >> Yes, I'll make sure. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. All right. So, we are doing our quarterly update followup. There's a followup. >> Just going to have Dr. McNeel to come back with the actionable steps that we've been talking about this attendance data and this tardy stuff for all year. And so, Dr. McNeel has um some updates to share with the board that she's already shared with the faculty and the staff. She and Manira Bolas, our director student services will come and share their work, a little bit of rationale behind their work and ETHS will see some major changes next school year. So take it away Dr. McNeil and Monera, Miss Bolas. >> Yes, good evening. Um I'm Dr. McNeel and

073this is um Miss Nerbolis, our director of student services and we're going to present tonight um about our proposed new approach to attendance um by redefining attendance from punishment to support. So this year um as we've discussed previously I engaged in a year-long process um a collaborative process in order to review and um revise um our attendance policies. Two policies uh in particular that I'm going to talk about tonight is our no credit policy and our tardy part policy. I'm sorry tardy rollover practice. So I I'm sorry. Miss Bolis will speak about the no credit policy and then I'll take us through the tardy roll rollover practice. But first I wanted to talk to you through our process we used. So as I mentioned it was a very collaborative process. We engaged in multiple rounds

074of feedback and input. Um this work started um from the adult side in our MTSS committee. Um but really um even that was in February. Um but even before that um we um this was lifted up for me um at our student VO voice for forum during first semester. um many students um who came to the student voice forum um from that was held by the student union um really lifted up this concern around this tardy rollover practice. Um there was also some discussion at that forum around the NC policy. Um and so um Miss Bolis and I worked with our MTSS committee um to review data. We also um um developed some action plans rooted from that data and then we kind of went on this feedback tour, if you will, um to kind

075of gather multiple rounds of feedback. And so we got feedback from our um C teachers council planning advisory committee um give them an opportunity those are um standing members of the committee um for the teachers council members and um they were able to give us some feedback on some of our proposed plans and some insights and thoughts for us to think about on both policies. Um they also um so we also um did a staff talking circle to get um additional information from staff um because we wanted to make sure we had a broad um you know uh broad base for feedback to ensure that those who were not on the planning comm um committee could also give feedback from staff and then we um got some student feedback. So I um had this idea

076to host a student talking circle and provide pizza um because I know kids like to eat. Um and um but what I did intentionally was I invited students who had attendance challenges um only. So it was like a by invite only. Um and that's because I had already spoken to um our members of our student union. Um but we wanted to make sure that I wanted to make sure it was really important to me that we heard from those who would be most impacted by these policies. Um because um they might have different opinions. Um and so I wanted to ensure that I was hearing from hearing all voices. Um and so in addition to talking to the student union, I also um held um about two uh talking circles uh during lunch periods and

077I provided um pizza. So that was fun. Um and then I um Maner and I took the uh all the feedback that we got. We took it back to our MTSS committee to um talk through additional plans and how we could update our proposals based on the data we collected and the information that we received from um our stakeholders. Um so now I'm going to turn it over to Miss Bolas to talk you through the NC policy. >> Great. Thank you. Um, so our NC policy, what we've we've uh our nickname for it. Um, so the no credit policy really is in regards to students once once they hit six unexcused absences. So at the point that a student has six unexcused absences, this is the intervention process that our team has been going through

078in order to support the student. Um, so first uh is our kind of tier one support. So automatically parents are receiving notifications if a student has an unexcused absence for their class. Um it's typically through that email. Then once it hit that six threshold, there's regular reports that I receive and then a member of the grade level team was being assigned as a champion to support that student. So weekly I would receive this report. we'd identify which students had hit that six um threshold and a a champion would be assigned and the the point of the champion would really be to create an attendant support plan. So, first they'd reach out to the parent and say, "Hey, are is the attendance accurate? Did you by chance forget to, you know, submit the absence? If you

079have, this is how you access hack. Here's the support." Um, they'd talk to the student, make sure that they're aware. Um, but if it was in fact that the student was had accurately six unexcused absences, then they would create an attendance support plan. And the goal of that would be ident. Um, but then once we'd get to the end of the semester, which we just recently have, there would be a waiver process. And so what that would look like would be the champion ultimately deciding whether or not the student had um met sort of the parameters set to have either a the NC waved so they would earn the credit or the NC would be enforced so the credit would then be removed. Um, we've over the years tried different iterations of what that attendance

080support plan would look and what students needed to do um to try to make this a more equitable policy, but we continued to see um a number of different things that we'll kind of go over tonight. So, the key challenge with the NC policy is really that it applies a behavioral intervention to an academic problem, right? And when we looked through our findings through the data, we noticed a few things that 42 there was some redundancy with this. So 42% of the um NC's actually ended up being irrelevant because the NC from the transcript standpoint if the student failed the class, the F is going to be on the transcript. The NC would not. So even if a student So if a student failed, they failed. The NC was going to be irrelevant. So really

081the NC was covering up a passing grade. Um we also noted for this past so this data that reporting on directly is for first semester of this school year. Um but the data we looked in previous years and it was consistent year after year. Um another inequity for just this past first semester of the school year. Zero white students lost credit due to an NC while black and Hispanic students face enforcement rates of 8 to 9%. Um and then we also noted that it was punitive in nature again, right? So 33 of the students who had demonstrated that academic proficiency. So either they got the A through or A or D um ended up having their credit removed. >> Um I just wanted to note if you want to go back for a second um

082I wanted to note um for this middle um pillar of inequity um when it talks about zero white students um losing credit due to an NC. Um I want I think it's important to note that that doesn't mean those students had perfect attendance. those students um had rates of absences either greater than or the same as the black and lat um Latinx students. However, only the NC was enforced against the black and latinx students. I just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you. >> Um and so this is just a further breakdown, right? When we look at those those grades and the grade distribution in relation to the NC's so overall there were 202 classes. So, not 202 students, but 202 different classes where the student ended up getting an F. And so, that stood

083on the transcript either way. Um, whereas you can see under the AB range, there were eight students where they ended up losing that credit because the NC was enforced. Um, so again, it's really still pro penalizing students who have proven the mastery of the content. Um, and again, the to the point that Dr. McNeel just made really the equity gap in relation to this as it relates to demographics. So as you can see um even the waiver rate so 85% of students of white students ended up having their credit saved. Just going to let that sit for a second versus um our Latinx students at 51% and our black students at 48%. Um and so you know a pretty inequitable policy just from that perspective. And then we dug a little bit further and we

084looked into the number of students that were in free or reduced lunch that were impacted by this. 76% of the students were in free and reduced lunch. So it's not only, you know, from an equity standpoint, but also impacting it um for families that maybe aren't able to provide medical notes. Um maybe they're, you know, working multiple jobs and not able to log on to hack at each time because they're doing five million different things. Um and so some additional concerns around that. I'll um also add that an additional kind of um possible reason for this disparity that we're seeing is the fact that even when students um got the champion and they had um plans to try to um kind of earn their way out of or get their um NC waved um the

085things they had to do um would include things like attend AM support um attend um homework club um and things that occur outside the school day sometimes, right? Um, and so that could be that students who are free reduced lunch or students of color may have had barriers to even being able to access the waiver even beyond documentation. So I just wanted to note that as well. >> Um, so when discussing this and when like looking through this data, we've had a lot of really great conversations um about it. And so just the concern around I guess that kind of paradox right where students that maybe have more resources um there are students are really able based on our current policies are able to miss unlimited time if it's excused while students that maybe just

086don't have this documentation are losing credit at six absences. So technically according to our policy you I mean you if you're a parent parentally excused you can miss 120 days. And just to be clear, the way that a student gets parentally excused is a simple phone call for any reason, >> right? >> Um the other aspect of that is just also how this then aligns with some of the other policies that we have in relation to um students being able to hand in um homework if they are absent. Right? So our our goal is to really have students use different strategies to get to the classroom maybe if they're a little bit anxious. So the the example that I think of this is let's say a student is having a lot of anxiety around um

087speaking in front of a class doing a presentation. Well, if they miss a class and it's excused, then now they have extra time to then do that assignment and to hand it in. So there's almost like this there's also a misalignment of just some of our attendance policies in relation to then the academic piece as well. >> Yes. We also find that um some of these uh kind of like loopholes is what you would call this, right? Because it is not explicitly stated that you can get extra time by using this um policy, but that uh is a is a loophole that you can find if you really know like the policies. Um and we also find that those loopholes are usually um used by um those who are more affluent or those who are

088white. And so um that's another um kind of source of some of the disparity we're seeing, >> right? Um so when thinking through um this policy and if we were going to not have remove this policy then how would we still support students right because we know that attendance and chronic absenteeism is a nationwide concern and issue. It's not just ETHs it's districts around us across the country. We really wanted to ensure that there were um interventions that were across the different tiers for our students. And so we took a step, we looked at um our MTSS kind of additional framework. And so here just kind of outlines, right? Our tier one are all of our um core instruction and just universal supports. So these are the supports that students across the building are going

089to receive no matter what. Whereas our tier 2 um interventions are more targeted. So these are once students have been identified, they've hurt hit a certain threshold, then they would receive these specific targeted interventions. And then tier three is really should be around, you know, 5% of your student population. These are your most at risk students. And so what are you doing for the most at risk, the most chronically truent, chronically absent students um to support? So these are more individualized interventions that are really targeted. Um and so there's some that we've already had, right? We've have our academic intervention team, we have our literacy lab, we have Kitcoin that provides more of these positive interventions that are relation to behavioral. Um and then we also have our social emotional interventions. But we wanted to

090take >> I I'll add that we also currently have um attendance um attendance of advocates um that we have have through a partnership with North Cook. Um and so they really help us support our students who are having some attendance challenges as well. >> Um so with again with MTSS in mind, we really wanted to make sure these tiered interventions um were in in place. And so this is what we are proposing today um would be in place of the current INC policy that we've had this past school year and that would be from a tier one perspective. So again this is um you know all of our universal supports. This is across the building. All students would have access to the support would be really looking at an and a reintroduction of our attendance

091uh incentives. So we currently use Kitcoin. We've been using it for a while. Um there's been some pilots on how we could refresh this um make this more exciting, engaging for students, get them to buy in. Um Dr. McNeel ruled out a tardy incentive plan um for students where we really want to focus on positive aspects and incentives in relation to attendance instead of just punishment around not coming to class. How do we get kids here and celebrate the students who are doing it well, doing it right, and even just making improvements? Um, and as we move into next school year, um, we're going to implement even more incentives, um, and just kind of like recognition ceremonies, um, because like how are we recognizing our students who are doing really well with their attendance, like

092how are we recognizing students, um, who are on time to class and all these things. Um, and so, um, we want to start looking at ways that we can not only have some more recognition around that, um, but adding in additional incentives. So, our current incentive is meant to celebrate, um, students who are already doing the right thing. Um because um when we had reviewed our systems um and all the things that we have going right now um we had a lot of interventions but not a whole lot of incentives um and I believe very deeply that you have to have both um in order to get behavior change um and to you know kind of en encourage positive um habits and things of that nature right and so um in addition to that we

093also want to um add in um some incentives that will actually encourage students to be on time I mean sorry to come to school right um because we know that a lot of um some of it right um with attendance is a disconnection from school um and so we want to make sure that we are making this um even more so a place where kids feel like they can come they should feel connected um but we know there are other barriers as well um but it doesn't hurt to have some additional incentives um just kind of encourage students um to show up um and so we'll include some things like um some positive signage around the school as well to kind of just start sending this positive um message of a a culture of attendance

094and um and the importance of that. I'm going to do more messaging around that as well, which actually segus us into our next one, which is an attendance campaign, >> which Dr. McNeel has ideas on ideas on ideas about. Um and so this would be partner partnering with um Rain, where's Rain with >> our director of communications. director of communications um with her department in regards to um you know there have been some updates in regards to our attendance signage, but really uh a fullblown attendance campaign that includes signage, emails, weekly newsletters. And the goal around this would not just be to encourage students, but it's really an outreach plan to families >> to educate them around the importance of attendance and just the data that we know around um how attendance can ultimately impact

095your graduation and post high school plans. And so um also just the fact right there's a lot of information and how can we get information quicker and easier to parents on what their student direct students attendance looks like as well um in a more targeted fashion. >> Yeah. Um additionally we'll be um we've already started reviewing um some of our current because you heard um man sorry Miss Bolus say earlier um you heard her say um talk about that we um send out some automated um messaging to families already to like inform their of their students um absences. Um, and we also do that at different tiers, just so you know, because I don't think we mentioned that earlier. Um, but like they get a message at two, they get a message at like five,

096I believe. And so there it's tiered there, which is great. Um, however, when we reviewed that messaging, um, it was um, almost cold in some ways. Well, it was very factual um, and just merely about like your student missed and here's the consequence. um we'd like to I'd like to right in working with director of communications um update that so that it feels more connected and positive like and welcoming like we want you here like I believe that even a message with bad news can still make a kid feel connected. Um, and so, um, I want to work with, um, our director of communications to do that, right? And so, um, something like, um, adding in like we really want you here, why this matters, just rationale and messaging, um, so people know that we're

097not just emailing them to tell them the bad news, um, but we want to partner with them and invite them in. >> Um, the next area would be just updating our attendance policies overall. And so the first step of that would be really um reviewing the attendance policies that we currently have and how those interact with our other academic based um policies and ensuring that those align to really support our student growth. Um we've started that work. There's continued additional conversations that need to be have. But I think this is a really um essential part of making sure that um it continues to be supportive for students. >> Yeah. And the goal of updating our policies is again to kind of create this culture of positive behavior and attendance where it really presence matters. Um

098and so we want to really make sure that um we update our policies to reflect that um and that we don't have any contradictory policies um that might undermine that. >> Um so next would be our tier 2. Um so this is specifically right uh once we've identified students who are more at risk um there would be specific interventions for these students. Uh when we were looked at the data we noticed that there is a a subset of students that were freshmen that were directly impacted in hitting the threshold earlier than other grade levels. So identifying and creating various interventions that would support students earlier on in their first quarter at ETHS. Um, so that could look like we have actually piloted um a tier 2 group that would be run. It started this year.

099Um, we're think we did it second semester. We're like, let's move that earlier to first semester next year. That's specifically supporting students um once they're struggling with their attendance. Um, it also could look like peer-to-peer mentorship. Um, we'd also do check-in checkouts. So, this would be pairing a student with a trusted adult mentor for those daily check-ins. and then the individualized attendant success plan. So, you know, even just because we're getting rid of the NC plan, we're not saying to get rid of the attendance support plans that we did this year. Like, that's still the need. We still need to identify the barriers. We still need to put a plan into place. Um, we just don't believe it should be aligned with the NC piece of it, right? And so, um, the check-in, checkout versus

100the individualized attendance plan would be the goal would be able to kind of have that check-in checkout for students once they hit a certain threshold. And then once they've at that next threshold would be that attendance support plan. >> Um, and those plans would be um again focused on supporting students and addressing any barriers um to attendance um so that we can actually focus on problem solving um to help our students um get find their way back into the building. Um and then so our tier three interventions um there is a school refusal assessment scale and the goal of the scale is to it it's actually provided to both parent and our guardian and the student. Um it's a evidence-based questionnaire and it pretty much provides the function behind the absences. Um and so it's

101a tool that would be administered and provide additional information on how we can help support the student with those barriers. Um and then we also have the virtual schooling option which w is um has been piloted um this semester and would provide additional virtual schooling options for students once they've hitten a higher level of um chronic absenteeism. >> And the goal of that would be um eventual re-entry into general education, but just to get meet students where they are um while they're in need or have barriers um and have um so that they don't have a lapse in their education while they're doing dealing with those things. Um there's actually another aspect of this that I I just realized we left off. So um Dr. McNeil mentioned our North Cook advocates um and that they

102are inbuilding support. They actually have a tier three support as well through um North Cook which is the truency. So once a student hits um nine consecutive uh days of absence regardless for the reason they can be referred to North Cook and they have a higher level of intervention support that they do as well which includes like home visits um to the family. They have additional resources and they get a case management. Um so that's also a tier three resource that we started this school year as well and would continue into the next. Um, so in summary, our recommendation would be to eliminate the NC policy and add in supportive NT supportive MTSS approach across all three tiers. Um, our goal really is to shift from that punitive outcome to a more pro proactive student

103support system. Um, and ensure that there's more consistency and clarity around the various intervention practices that we have. Um, we want to pull it out from just being, you know, the kind of a tier three support to really focusing on what we're doing across all three tiers in relation to attendance and ensuring everyone in the building is really aware of our attendance supports across because sometimes what we found as we were doing our talking feedbacks, right, is like certain groups are really aware of what this work is because they're directly impacted by it, but there's not necessarily a holistic view around our MTSS supports around attendance. Um, and so this helps for us to kind of be more more transparent about that and everyone to be really clear on what their role is to help

104students get to class, stay in class, and feel like they belong. Um, and then really just to ensure that our policies align with what we say in relation to equity, right? And making sure that we're um have a really equity centered instructional systems that then support um all of our policies. Um, so some of our additional action steps where we're are we are going to continue to refine those intervention pathways to replace the NC consequence. Um, we're continuing to establish those tier one systems of interventions and supports that were outlined to really focus on that behavior change. Um, and then there's also continued discussion around the alignment of this with our standardized grading practices. Um, and so there's I'm not sure. >> So yeah, I can speak to that. So, um, one of the things

105that, so when I had the talking circle about the NC policy, um, one of the things that actually kind of dominated the conversation was this, uh, verbose and like robust conversation around grading practices. Teachers were really engaged in that conversation, um, and wanting to, um, they even asked for another talking circle specifically around grading, which I then then held. Um, and what came out of that was this sentiment that they believe that we need some level of standardization around our grading practices. um to ensure equity for students. Um because it's like the twin problem, right? Where you have a student, if you have two twins, right? If you have twin students, one is in bi one teachers biology class, another's another teacher's biology class, how do we ensure they have some sort of standardized um

106expectation around what their grading um practices should look like um for a course. Um and so, but we realize that that is something that um even though it was born from a desire from the teachers, that is something that we also have to do in a very collaborative manner. Um and so throughout the course of next year, um I've partnered with Dr. Davis, um and asked him to lead, um a um grading, uh a a grading committee, um uh to try to ensure some more um kind of grading practice rooted in demonstrated mastery. Um but we want to play this fine line, right? Well, we're emphasizing the importance of student presence and learning and also rooting our practices in grading for equity. um which can sometimes um be this uh push and pull if you

107will um but I believe in this group of people and we can get that right um and so that'll be our goal for that um committee next year. Okay, now we will transition to the tardy rollover policy. So for I'll start by explaining kind of what this practice is. Um, I'll assume that you guys aren't necessarily familiar because I wasn't. Um, when I learned about it, um, I wanted to learn more and so that's what I did this year. Um, so the tardy rollover um, practice is um, this rollover mechanism where tardies that accumulate in one school year are carried over to the future school years um, unless they act I'm sorry, unless they are actively worked off. Um, and so a part of that is that students um get on tardy probation um and

108that's triggered upon accumulating 11 tardies which results in restricted access to school and social events um and off-campus lunch if they're um in grades 10 through 12. There are recovery options that are part of this um because I spoke to students being able to work off their um tardies and those recovery options include um going to AM support, attending WKEA Academy on Saturdays um academic study center um and the homework center as well. Um so that's just kind of like a broad overview of the current policy and practice. Um so the current reality um just to provide a little bit of data. Um so let's talk about demographic representation within each school year from the school years 2023 to 2026 about 43 to 45% of students with tardies like any tardy at all including one

109tardy um were white compared to 20 to 21% of students who are black and 21 to 22% of Latinx students. um and that actually pretty much matches our student demographic in some ways, right? But then when you look at the tardy accumulation, there's a disparity that um that really uh really comes to light, right? The proportion of total tardies accumulated is significantly higher for black and latinx students than for white students across those three school years. So what this means is that although um we have um our white students getting more tardies in terms of earning one tardy, at least one, right? If you do like a end of one um they have at least one tardy. There are more students who have that um who are white. However, um when you look at the

110number of tardies that students accumulate. So that means the highest number of tardies are the students who are black and Latinx. Um and as we um know that comes from um many sources, right? Um part of it could be that um more students um who are black and Latinx are being um marked tardy more frequently than their white peers. Whether that is true or not in you know actuality, right? Um it also um could be that we have um some of the our white students who are um working because these uh tardies accumulate over time unless they are worked off. So it could also be the case that we have um some of our white students students sorry working off tardies through those um structures that I spoke to a minute ago um which is

111leading to a lower number of accumulated tardies over time as well. Um so there could be a couple of reasons why we see this disparity. So the core misalignment our current practice um seem is really a pretty punitive carryover practice um it ends up in compounding consequences um and futility really right because um the consequences accumulate over time but it creates this sense of futility which reduces motivation um and I'll talk in a moment about what students had to say about this policy um and then there's a equity and there are equity and access concerns as I just hinted to a moment ago Um but there seems to be some disproportionality um and who's impacted um which groups are impacted um which really raises some equity issues for us. Um and then it also like

112to me one of the biggest things is the fact that it's ineffective for behavior change. Um it risk functioning as a punitive mechanism rather than a behavior changing intervention because when students work off their the ways that students work off their tardies are not connected to them actually changing their behavior and being on time to class. um they are able to go to other um things such as AM support or other uh you know supports um which are held at different times but they can be doing that but still be tardy to class and actually in one of my um uh talking circles a student actually said that that he was on a tardy plan and was currently being tardy. So like on a tardy plan with his dean and then that day he gets

113the tardy plan he's tardy to his classes that same day. Um and so um that to me was like um a data point um from the students around the effectiveness of this policy. Um so we would like to shift to is a more effective approach um which is responsive and restorative. Um we want to focus on timely. So that means so like if you know understand behavior science um consequences really should be close and proximate to the um behavior um in terms of time um and so um we want to focus on in-ear responses um because this emphasizes more restorative timely and developmentally appropriate responses within each school year. The reason why I list it developmentally appropriate is because I really believe that a student who's a freshman at 14 um should not be held

114accountable for what they did at 17 when they were 14. Um because if you have kids, you know, those two kids are not the same. Your 14-year-old um is very different from your 17-year-old. Um and so our practices should reflect um our understanding of um what's developmentally appropriate in terms of behavior change. Um and then this also um this proposal will provide an opportunity to reset and improve behavior. It pairs accountability with meaningful opportunities for students to reset and improve their behavior. Um it really promotes positive improvement um because it ensures that there is uh accountability that is supportive. I believe very much um that if you have high expectations, you have to have high support. Like to me that is not something that can be uncoupled. Um and I believe that our new approach

115will do that. I think another aspect of this as well is it aligns the interventions that we outlined um like AM support to actually be a space where students are getting support with their academics and not with their attendance. Right? Because what's happening is now these spaces are are being they're they're busy with students there that are working on just working off their tardies but not actually necessarily in relation to the the academic piece that they need in that space. >> Yeah. Um, and that's something I heard um, actually from teachers and students around like um, some students are coming there to simply work off tardies and so they might be doing busy work or something, whatever it takes, but they're like, "Can you recommend tardy now? I mean, can you clear my tardy now?

116Can you clear my tart now?" Versus like, "I actually need help on this thing and I'm here for support." >> Um, so what did the students say? Um, so, um, in my conversations with the the kiddos, um, here are some things that were really lifted up that I thought was important for this conversation. Um, so they really named the difficulty of recovery. Um, they said that like it's extremely hard to climb back out once you rack up a certain amount. Um, and actually have seen this in practice. I've encountered students in the hallway. Um, and they were like I've noticed them a couple times being tardy. And so I just have a conversation like, "Hey kiddo, like I've seen you in the hallway a couple times. Like what's going on?" Um, and I've had multiple

117students say, "Oh, I got so many tardies it doesn't matter." Um, and so like I actually have like experienced this in real time. Um, and so, um, when the students, uh, reported that in the different talking circles and things like that, I knew what they were talking about because I had experienced it. Um, and that's also connected to like this loss of motivation, um, because their social motivation is gone. If they can't get off tardy probation and so like if they never have an opportunity to go to dances or um, do any of the social activities, then that actually can't serve as a motivation because they just become um, they accept the fact that I just don't do those things. um which as we know leads to further disconnection from school um which then could

118impact attendance um as well. And so then we have a tardy problem that could become an attendance problem um in terms of absences um or in addition to it being like this bigger tardy problem, right? Um and so it can like be negative on different fronts. Um and so like another piece that was really powerful for me is the fact that most kids said they actually don't disagree with consequences. They were like, "Oh no, don't don't get us wrong. We believe we should have consequences for tardy. We know it's wrong to be tardy. We want consequences. We just believe that this is unfair. Um and I thought that was really profound coming from the children, from the mouths of babes. Um because I think some might think that um students would um want this gone

119because they don't want to be held accountable, but that's not what the kids are saying. Um and so I thought that was really powerful. Um and then the last piece I want to share from students um is this piece about classroom engagement. Students said that they were less likely to be tardy if they liked and respected their class. that means they felt like it was meaningful, important, and engaging. Um, and so that reaffirms the power of relationships. Um, and so I thought that was really um, important to lift up um, as we think through um, ways to connect our students back with us. Um, and it really starts with that um, personal kind of like um, in the classroom getting to know your kiddos um, and kids lifted it up. I also think about this

120is oftentimes uh you know I previously school psychologist and I support this the social workers and so a lot of the times some of the conversations that we're having once we're getting to like an SST3 and we're with the guardian meeting is um there is a conversation when we're speaking with our students around you may not always like everyone you interact with but how do you still move forward and build those strategies that you need to like still be in the space to get ultimately what you want and need out of that space And so also by aligning sort of our policies actually with the behavioral intervention then supports those coping skills strategies that like the our social workers and psyches are trying to like work on with students to get them into these spaces

121even if they do feel uncomfortable with it even if they don't you know like necessarily this peer in the class. Okay. Still how can we work through that? >> And thank you for adding that because that's a really important point um that we're coming from this on both sides. Um, so meaning like working with students um to be able to do some hard things um right um and building that skill because um that's one they'll need throughout life. Um and then on the flip side um reminding I thought it was important to like remind our teachers how important it is the relationships that they have because we have our teachers do a great job of building relationships and so I wanted them know that really matters. Um and I wanted to stamp like um something

122that uh Rita Pearson said long ago like kids don't learn from teachers they don't like. Um and so like this really I think uh speaks to that. Um, so I wanted to lay out kind of like some of the tardy interventions we currently have in place. Um, and because these would continue. Um, so, um, we have tardy probation, which we talked about, um, a moment ago, where students, um, who have more than 11 tardies, um, would, um, not be able to attend, um, different social functions. Um, then we have, um, the tardy reduction plans. These are plans that deans work with their students on. Um, this is when a student gets to a high number of tardies. um they are invited by their dean to come and set up a plan. Um and that plan

123is individualized and um the per the current function of the plan is to um kind of set up a plan where students would um plan out kind of when an action plan for when they would attend some of those other um spaces and interventions to work off their tardies like um so one student's plan might say I'll attend two AM supports. I'll attend um one wild kid academy like XYZ. Um so it's individualized in that way. Um the you'll I'll tell you in a moment what the proposal is to move forward. So I won't spoil that. Um but then um we've also started as you know as I spoke to last time um during fourth quarter um as kind of like a trial run if you will um to kind of get some momentum around

124this. Um we started two um additional in uh interventions. Um one was the hall clearances. This is the random um clearance that happens um in a random wing and a random um hall um that captures students who are um just late to class um just like just missed the bell. Um and those students um are um encounter um some of our safety staff members, some of our leaders in the hall and then they're um then it's marked for them that it is a hall clearance. They were captured in that and then they are escorted to class um in a uh slide that's coming up. I'll explain kind of like um what the progressive response looks like when students um get engaged with the uh hall clearance. And then um we have our late entry procedure

125um which also started recently um which um addresses students who enter the uh building um extremely late into the block um so much so that it would cause a disruption to um have those students um enter that class. But in that um space those students are able to connect with um the staff that we have u managing that space um to kind of see if there are any barriers um preventing that student um from coming back on time. But what we found actually is that a lot of students in both the hall clearances and late entry procedure are students who have an open block. Um so these are students who um have an unassigned period um and they just don't get to the place they're supposed to be on time or they get to a

126place and then they decide to leave a place without a pass. And so we have some um some work to do around firming tightening that that up. Um so the recommendation is that um we do a tardy policy redesign to shift from punitive to um a responsive system. And so um what we want to do is replace our current tardy roll of practice um with a withinar tiered response system focused on behavior change. The rationale um just kind of summarize um is that the current system allows tardies to accumulate across years um which does a couple of things. It punishes students for past behavior without promoting change. It creates a sense of discouragement and disconnection. It incentivizes working off tardies rather than improving punctuality. Um and so um this proposal really shifts the focus to

127timely intervention, accountability, and skill building. And so um I want to walk through the u proposal um at this time. So we want to first um focus on what the new rollover policy will be. Um we will cap tardies that roll over to the previous year, I'm sorry, the next year at 11. What this does is it allows students to begin each year with a fresh manageable start to work off their tardies in a short time frame. Um it also gives um the deans an early um intervention to be able to meet with those students right away um and develop a plan for working off those tardies since they had um an issue with um their attendance in the previous year um to kind of set them up with a strong start. So that's the

128um intent there. Um it also limits long-term accumulation um that we've seen discourages improvement. Um so this means no matter what your number of tardies is above 11, you start at 11 each school year. Um giving our students opportunity for a fresh start. Um there's um we will continue to use our progressive responses for hall clearances um because our students who are tardy um likely should be caught should be you know engaged with one of our hall clearances. Um and so those tier responses um should be really effective at um addressing this behavior in uh coupled with um some of the other things we're doing. Um, so students already get a weekly automated um, home communication with their tardy count. And as I mentioned earlier, we'll also update that messaging to talk about the why

129and how we want them in class on time and the importance of that um, and like kind of the impact on their learning when they're late. Um, just to just make sure it's clear that we aren't just um, wanting you to be target for compliance. We actually care about your learning and your presence. Um, and then the first time a student is um, engages with the hall clearance um, they get a call home. The second time um they get a restricted lunch. Um the third time they get a restricted study um or which is really like a two-hour detention. And then we have um the fourth time and beyond um a student gets a 2-hour Saturday detention um or a loss of privileges or um which is really um our tardy probation, if you will.

130Um but skipped consequences result in escalation to make sure that students um understand that um they're um being you know um engaging with this hall clearance will result in them having to interface with a dean or some other staff member to be able to account for um their tardiness and try to figure out um what their barriers are. Um and then um we'll also do some skill-based supports um by replacing the workoff model that we currently have. So we'll eliminate traditional workoff opportunities and reduce tardies instead through improved um improvement in punctuality. So this will focus on root causes rather than compliance. So, we'll still have the um options for we'll still have AIM support. Um we'll still have um WKit Academy. we'll still have um you know all the other supports um and we'll

131still take attendance there because we do need to document those interventions because those interventions still matter um because we um still providing students um supports through our um MTSS structure um but um instead of students working them um their tardies off through our tardy reduction plan um where they're going to these uh different uh places to work their tardies off students would be um so tardy reduction plans would now be initiated at 11 tardies as I mentioned earlier instead of waiting till students to get to 100 parties or more. Um and then there will be the development of individualized supports and goals for reduction aligned to student needs. So what that means is that um deans will engage with their um students who have 11 tardies. Um and then they will um offer a tardy

132reduction plan. Um the student will then um meet with the dean and set up a plan that really um looks at kind of like what the barriers are to the student um being tardy and kind of some things that they might need um some support with. And then the dean will develop a plan where they look at the students current rate of tardies to class and then set an individual goal to reduce that rate. Right? So that um plan will still be individualized based on the student's current uh rate of tardy. So an example could be um if a student was um student gets a tardy reduction plan um they qualify for one um and they meet with their dean to set up a plan. The dean will look at their uh tardies for like

133last week and say okay so you had five tardies last week um moving like for the next week. if your tardy um if you reduce your tardies from five to three then we'll remove two tardies whatever right um not that will be different based on the deans and they'll be at their discretion um but I just wanted to provide an example of what that could sound like um the key benefit of that is that it really ensures that students focus on actually being on time to class um because that is what we want um and we want to make sure we keep the focus on that changed behavior um and not on um just kind of like this compliance of like working off this thing. Um and then um the structural supports as I mentioned

134um but I'll name again um because all these things work together um are the uh tardy hall clearance plans um that we have in place for hallway transitions, our late entry plan um and then our tardy incentives um to kind of encourage uh change behavior and celebrate the students that are doing well as well. Um so that is um a summary and um overview of um our proposal and recommendations for Dr. Dr. Campbell um that I've submitted to him um you know if he's reviewed um prior to this and so um I want to open the floor for questions. So that was a lot. It was >> but I I I can see all the uh thought that went went into it and I appreciate you uh helping us see the difficulties, the problems, the

135inequities in the the inequities and the the disparities of the current plans and the need then to move to something better. I also appreciate you going from uh the something punitive to uh the positive, the cl a better climate, a restorative um uh climate, a climate of attendance, a climate where tardies aren't um the focus the kids aren't working off tardies. They're really concentrating on getting to class on time. >> Absolutely. Um, so, so I I think those are some really really good changes. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to change the culture >> of our school next year. >> Um, and to that point, um, as a part of the um, because we co-chair, I don't think I said that earlier, but we co-chair the MTSS committee. Um and

136so um as we've done this year, we'll continue to track the data on this um to make sure that um it's actually having the intended uh you know uh you know intended purpose is meeting it intended purpose and goals. Um and so we'll see what happens. Um but we really think it's important to um try to shift our culture um to a place where um attendance matters, presence matters. Um and so that's a lot of our campaigning is going to be around that. >> Good. And we'll be able to track that data as well. we'll be able to look at it. >> Yes. Um so speaking actually um I'll mention too that I'm actually um in discussions with and working with um uh Carrie Levy um in our um data department um to talk about

137what our data dashboard could look like next year um to make sure that some of this data that we're tracking becomes more visible as well. So just um to let you know that's also um in the works. >> Okay, great. >> Okay, Liz. >> Um thank you for all this information. I I love seeing um the really the details of the outcomes of our previous policies because we knew what the policies were but we never knew the details of what the outcomes were. Um so going back to the first policy, the serious inequities that were happening in how um students were receiving or um resolving their tardies and absences um was very very upsetting to see something that I was not aware of at all. Um, and it makes total sense. I mean, you laid

138it out. It makes complete sense why that's happening. Um, and so I was thinking about this, um, the role of the champion for the restoring or the waving of >> um, credits and I'm thinking about I saw how you who you listed who the champion might be connected to the student. Um, and I'm wondering does the champion work with other people in the students life like the actual classroom teacher or any other of their support systems? So, they have a really well-rounded idea of whether the student is learning in class, whether you know like because it's such a heavy burden to carry, I think, for the champion to decide whether or not they get credits for that class. >> Yeah. And I just wouldn't want to see any inequities repeated having that one person kind

139of carry that responsibility and then just the the biases that we all carry, right? Like in making that decision. >> Yeah. >> So, well, first I'll note that um the inequity um because we are eliminating the policy, the inequity that was created by the champion and having to carry that weight, that one person having all that kind of power, if you will, um would go away because there's nothing to wave anymore. So the waiver also goes away because the policy went away. So I just wanted to name that before um Manira spoke to the rest. >> And in regards to the way that the champion functions, so all of these members are currently part of either the grade level team or the IEP team. And so um part of their day-to-day job is really collaborating

140with the the entire grade level team, which would be the counselor, the dean, the social worker psych, regardless of their position, and also teachers. Um I I think that one of the challenges with the way that the current the policy currently was is that um students could come on and off of the NC policy or the NC list depending on when their then attendance was adjusted by a family. Um and so that's a good thing and a challenge as well. The good thing is we identified it. They already built that relationship and rapport with the champion. So that would continue that relationship would continue throughout. Um but there are also limitations in it right in that there would be then work done with the student and then the tens would be shifted and changed and

141they would be completely fine and so there's a lot of extra work that was kind of built in and the champions maybe reaching out to the teacher and just like yeah they maybe missed a class but they're getting an A and they're doing fine and okay they're great. So our goal then with shifting this is right we're still continuing to focus on the students that are actually at risk >> and not just doing it based on a policy. >> Right. Right. Gotcha. Thank you. >> Yeah. Of course, >> so um so I just wanted to say first of all that, um especially with the NC policy, um in my own experience working here, um I absolutely saw everything that you talked about anecdotally. So I think it's really powerful to see it in terms of

142the actual data. Um and glad that we're addressing it. Um, I also just wanted to lift the idea that you're pretty much severing a beha a punitive behavior consequence with academic learning and mastery because those two things are different and should be >> um and and this replacement of you know um uh trying to create behavior change through positive support and intervention. So I want to really lift that and I'm really glad to hear that. I have kind of a question about um so the one thing that I um really really always uh stayed with me was the idea of a student who has an >> NC >> and like you were saying about tardies, what was the motivation to really try to re-engage in class when >> um you already have no credit, you

143don't think you're going to be able to wave it or you have a C in the class but you're going to lose lose that C. >> So, I mean that that just was huge. How it's an incredible feat >> to try to get someone to have that motivation. So, you mentioned something about the virtual school option because what also what happens in that situation of course is that a student digs themselves in a hole academically and if they return to the class it's completely overwhelming because they've missed so much. So can you just say a tiny bit more on would the idea be that you would have a chance like in a class to do the virtual learn the material and like you said re-entry is the idea but h how how does what you

144mentioned apply to that case when a student is already so behind in a class because of their absences. >> So that is um thank you that's a great question. So the virtual school would be for a tier three support, right? And we have a number of interventions and support that would be attempted way before we got to the point of a virtual school. Um so our in school credit recovery, our old school um the virtual school programming would be for students who have multiple NC's. Okay. >> Um so they have multiple unexcused absences actually across multiple classes >> and that's and they also have to be chronically truent. >> Yes. because there's actually a truency grant that we use to fund that. So, >> yeah. So, so those are most at risk, our highest level,

145and that's probably, you know, closer to the 1% of the student population. Um whereas our other interventions such again the in school credit recovery um our old school would be for students who are maybe behind credits. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I just kind Yeah. I just wanted to kind of have that be said out loud because I think that's so that's so important because if our goal in the end is behavior change but ultimately this is all about learning, right? >> You know, how do we re-engage and have the student actually learn what they were supposed to learn from the class, >> right? Exactly. >> And that was actually one of the um kind of disconnects um as well is that when students were um trying to wave their NC by going to like

146AIM support, they didn't necessarily have to go to the class that they were failing or that they had the NC in. they could go to any class. So they could go to their favorite teachers class and then it would count to wave. And so that was kind of a gap as well that we wanted to fill. >> Right. And and I think you you kind of raised a good point, right? Like we've tried a lot of different iterations. You know, it's not like this is a new policy where we're we've seen one semester of data and we're like, okay, let's get rid of it. Like we've as a school, we've attempted different iterations of how we can support students. um and continuously in looking through the data it say there was the same story. >>

147Um I'll also note that um because I didn't mention this earlier um I actually um sought out other schools who had a policy like this um and I found one um and OPRF. Um and so I was like, "Oh, this is great." Um and I had some communications um with some of their staff to just kind of figure and their leadership to kind of figure out um kind of like what they were seeing. Um and so they have a policy that's very different from ours. um it was actually more um kind of like um restrictive in some ways um in some ways but then um it we what I what they said reported is that there were still many issues with it that were also rooted in equity and so um it really kind of

148led to this kind of conclusion that we've been through multiple iterations they've been through multiple iterations like can we really even fix this policy um and our answer was no um and so we thought that we just need to move forward in a different Pat, >> thanks. Um, so thank you. This is terrific. I love how you dug so deep into the data and looking at the philosophical shift from, you know, punitive to more restorative and supportive. Um, and then the policy and practices to to adjust to that philosophy I think is awesome. Um, one thing as you were talking about the the rollover and starting fresh at 11 regardless of what you came with you I was thinking back to what you said about 14 versus 17. Just an idea what if you like

149didn't roll over freshman year just because you know you're a very different person when you walk in here than when you're about to leave. So anyway, that was just like something that came to my mind as you were >> there were also um multiple um kind of um ideas people lifted up around ways to do this. Um and so um some of them were like a tiered response where like depending on the number of tardies you had um certain number would roll over. Um but if the purpose is to re connect students quickly with support if they had some issues right um because a student who most times right the what I anticipate is that students who will actually end up having tardies roll over at all because if you're below 11 it's it's zero

150so none would roll over right and so kids who end the year because they'll still have the opportunities to get if they get to 11 in the school year they'll have an opportunity to get a target reduction plan right away um and then they'll be able to reduce their um you know improve their tardiness um in order to get off that plan, right? And so students who end up after they were reset who end the year at 11 still means they still ended with more than 11. Um and so that indicates they need additional support as they enter the year. Um and so that really is meant to have like a checkpoint like you start the year having to check in with your dean and get a plan um to show that you actually can

151demonstrate mastery. So it's very reachable goal um and an early um intervention. And so that's the point of that. Yeah. Yeah. Um but my major point that really struck me was um when you talked about the NC um policy and there were the three boxes in the middle one was the inequity and you and you lifted this up um Dr. McNeel, but enforcement being a really important word. So we get rid of NC so in theory it's good. But what that word says to me is that it's about the adults and you have all these fabulous plans for the students. And I think that's great. Um, and obviously really important, but that's about something in in the adults that's still going to be there even if it isn't an NC. It's going to be come

152out some other place. And I guess I wonder what your thinking is or if this isn't a thinking that you want to have. >> What do we do about address because we all have our biases? We all have our unintended consequences as adults and as educators. >> Is that something you want to spend some time on or you have already? Um I'm really curious about that. >> Um so thanks for lifting that up. Um so um when you say adults um there's actually um kind of like multiple sources for this because when you say adults most people would think like oh you must be talking about staff but that's not necessarily true in this instance um because um remember that students could avoid enforcement. The main way we saw that students avoided enforcement actually was

153having their parents call them out and their parents actually um provide documentation, right? Um but they're also adults. Um and so it'll be really um important for us to partner with families which is why um that's a part of the reason why we are updating and refreshing our kind of like messaging to parents um and like doing some creative things around our communication home. Um we've obviously got a plan to do like a social media thing um and just freshen up the ways in which we're communicating about attendance to families. Um because that partnership is going to be really important because now that students don't have the NC policy if parents for multiple different reasons, right? um to have a different uh you know u orientation toward the value of attendance um at school, then

154if that's a mismatch, we're going to continue to see the attendance issue. And so that's why we want to lift up the attendance campaign um and really like reach families and inform them about the multiple impacts um on attendance uh I mean sorry of attendance on um outcomes. Um so that's a parent facing side and we want to partner with them in that way. Um but then on the um staff facing side um a lot of what we see um really was in kind of like grading practices. Um and so that's why we're going to have the grading um policies I'm sorry grading committee um to kind of work around like now that we because now the new um NC is an F if that makes sense. Right? Because now if a kid um can't

155master the content um because of absence which doesn't necessarily have to be true, right? because in some ways some students might demonstrate mastery which is what we saw with the kids who got their uh credit stripped from NC right um but students there will be students still who like we had that 42% of students who actually received an F academically that'll still exist and so we would want what we want to do is establish some more standardized grading practices to ensure that our grading practices are more equitable as well because that is really what will um in a way replace an NC it's like the natural consequence of what ends up in the grade Um and so we got to be really um thoughtful around how we implement equitable grading practices um and um standardize

156our practices such that presence um matters a little more um but to what extent, right? Um especially if a student is demonstrating mastery. And so that's why we're going to spend a year-long um you know kind of go through a year-long uh collaborative um journey where we work with teachers um and uh you know leaders to kind of figure out what that how we strike that balance. Um and so we'll see what happens. Great. Thank you. This is terrific. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Oh, Eva. >> Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Uh, first I just want to say thank you. Uh, the student union has been like very anti the rollover policy for many years now and so this feels like a big win. >> Um, I know you worked with

157the student union a little bit with Tim and Malimo. Um, so thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, I had a couple questions that they've >> been answered. Um I just wanted to ask how did you land on the number of 11 tardies versus like 10 or >> Yep. So the number 11 is um because that is the number that students need to start the year um with a tardy reduction plan because under this new policy students um will get an automatic alert um auto admit I'm sorry an automated message that invites them and lets them know hey you've reached 11 you are at 11 you starting the year at 11 um you um need to connect with your dean um so that you can um start a target reduction plan. So, it allows for

158early connection to a dean to get a reduction plan. Um, because in that conversation, it would allow them to talk through kind of like, hey, what were the struggles you had last year? Um, what prevented you from getting to class on time? Um, is there anything that we can do to support you this year? Um, and then they'll say, okay, so you were you you have 11, you're starting the year, let's say it's the beginning of the year, you're starting the year at 11. Um, kiddo, if you um come to school the first week and you're on time, then you have um, you know, then we'll remove XY numberies, maybe all of them, whatever. But like the deans will have that discretion, but also um what it really um allows for is that early connection

159which um wasn't necessarily there in the past in that same way. >> Okay. Was the number kind of arbitrary or was >> No, the number is 11 because that's the number of um >> currently is. >> It's currently is that's the current number. >> Oh, I see. >> Yeah. 11 is when students get a ty No, not target reduction plan. They get on social probation. I'm sorry. Target probation. Sorry. I got it. Target probation. >> So, it's maintaining that target. >> It's maintaining that. Correct. >> That makes sense. >> Yes. Thank you so much. >> No problem. >> All right. I don't think I missed anybody. Thank you again. Thank you for this. And again, >> I look forward to seeing >> the results. Yes. Thank you all. >> And I would I would just

160be remiss if I didn't say this was one of when I when Dr. McNeel started um and we were having our transition meetings. This was one of the first things that I mentioned and had a discussion with her and I I would just be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the amount of work and energy and conversations she put into it from the minute um actually before I think you even contractually started um to to do this work um and just has been a really incredible thought partner um around all of this and has um taken a lot of time to to really do this work and it's been really great leadership um working with her in And thank you to Dr. Campbell as well for engaging in these conversations with me um as well. I

161really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> No, this won't be long. Okay. So, we're gonna talk quickly about new courses, course changes, and courts deletions and proposals for the next >> Yeah, I had a presentation, but I'm I don't have a >> You can do this in seven minutes. >> I'm just going to run through it without the presentation if that's okay because I don't have a connection, but it's just really brief. All right. So, essentially, we have um seven uh eight, nine, nine, we have five new courses. Two of them are dual credit. Uh we're very excited to have dual credit offerings in psychology, introduction to psychology and in a survey of oceanography. >> Yes. >> Uh so really excited for those. Uh we also are going to offer an independent

162uh science research course. Uh we're seeking to uh offer that uh in science. We've had independent study research, but we feel it's really important to provide a credit bearing opportunity for that and to formalize that experience so more students can have transparency in that opportunity. Uh we're going to have an AP cyber security course. Uh we're proposing that and we're also uh proposing the third year of our lead advisory. Leadership is national will be the uh junior uh level lead advisory. So those are our new courses. In terms of course changes, you'll see in your packet a lot of title changes. Uh you'll also see that we've added, you know, we did a prerequisite change. We opened our uh teaching and education introduction to teaching education uh course to juniors. uh we really see a

163need for that uh because we want to broaden that opportunity for students. Uh you'll see that we've made a couple changes. Uh we're going to offer uh we're taking some four English uh courses and turning them into AP courses because they have specific fosi. So we're looking at AP literature and composition gender and literature and AP literature and composition migration stories uh which aligns to a course that we partner with at Northwestern called migration stories. So we're really excited for that. Uh we're also transforming our four English classes to Pathway to Honors. Yes, we're finally doing that. We're very excited. It's the final uh step in completely uh offering pathway to honors grades 9 uh through 12 in the English department. U anyway, that's my update and these are in your packet. Can take questions

164if you have any. Uh this is aformational item and we will vote on them in June. >> Okay. Wonderful. >> Okay. Okay, Leah. >> Okay, for the sake of time, I had a few clarifying questions. And would it be okay um uh just I could just email you those. I mean, not to keep anything from the public. I just, >> you know, there's some picky little questions and I don't want to waste the time. >> Okay. >> Happy to have independent conversations with board members individually on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Let me do uh foyers from the table. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh we have 10 foyas. Two from uh Randawa, one from Milanowski, one from Hayes, one from Randall, one from Johnson, one from Wang, one from Smith, and two from

165Wenig. >> Responses in your packet. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. So, we're at board committee reports. I know there's a committee report for Ed Bread. Uh thank you for submitting that. Um, we had a city schools meeting, but I didn't do a report. You probably didn't do a report. >> Oh, you do? Okay. So, we'll have that ready for next next month. Um, I want to talk real quickly, very quickly, um, about a conference that I went to, a national conference that I went to. It's called the White Privilege Conference. Um, it's an annual convening of educators, community leaders, and professionals. And um the reason I want to speak about it is because I want to emphasize that the primary goal of this conference is to move beyond theory to um providing

166participants with very practical tangible skills necessary uh to foster anti-racist environments. So that's really the goal. Uh some people get really hung up on the name um but the but that's the goal of the conference. It's it's the environment is one of of really good deep learning. Um it's very prof it's a professional growth uh conference and um and I was honored to co-f facilitate a breakout session uh with Jana McGalf and Tony our um director of equity and together we presented on uh the ETHs equity journey and it was extremely wellreceived. We had a packed room and lots of really good discussion. Um I just think that ETHS continues to serve as a model that's worth a national discussion. So um so it was really good. Um and if you want to hear more

167about it, I heard some really good speakers. I got some uh good books. So if you want to hear more about it, feel free to get in touch with me. Uh so I can tell you more about that. Okay. So we're at item nine, right? Yes. Student board report. It was last report. >> Last one. I know. >> Oh my goodness. >> Okay. Okay. Hello everybody. I have a longer report today because I haven't been here for two months and this is my last report. Um, so I'm going to just start with current events. So on May 6, there was the ETHS senior scholarship night with about 50 scholarships awarded to seniors to help with their plans beyond high school. Um, on April 23rd, there was a soft lockdown at ETHS um after shots were

168fired at an incident at Mason Park, which wasn't too far from here. Um, to my knowledge, no one was injured, but it was still a stressful day for everyone at UTS. Um, I was lucky to be off campus for a field trip, but I know it was stressful. Um, over the past week, AP exams have begun and then they will continue into next week and then makeup exams are the week after that. Um, prom was this weekend and I saw a couple of you there. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a great time. Um, Hades Town wrapped up and it was completely sold out all the shows. Um, and it was really a great show. Um, and then to sum up the efforts of the student union from this year,

169um, we'd like to take some credit for the tardy rollover policy. That was a that was a big thing for us. Um, we had a successful walk out in protest of the conflict in Iran with about a hundred students. Um, we somewhat succeeded in getting vending machines open more, not as much as we'd like, but um, just putting that out there. We'd love to have the vending machines open during passing periods um, and always before and after school. Um and then we have formed ongoing relationships with the edtech department to further our um our um goals in finding an alternative to Delado and that will continue into next year um in addition to some other working relationships across the school. Um and then looking forward to the rest of the school year. Graduation is next

170year or sorry next weekend and I hope to see all of you there um as well as finals in two weeks and then the beginning of summer. Um and then to end on a personal note, next year I will be attending Brigham Y Young University BYU majoring in political science and English on the pre-law track. Um my eventual goal is to attend law school and work in government in some form. Uh and much of that is due to my experience here. Um, watching you all has taught me so much about governance and education and it has truly changed my life and the trajectory of my career. So, thank you so much for everything. It's been great. >> Great. and thank you. And we're going to thank you formally in just a little bit. But first,

171we'll hear from >> I have resolution um >> review the re uh student election. Oh, we're going to do that first. Resolution declaring results of student board election be resolved by the board of education district 202 county of Cook, state of Illinois, that the returns from the student election held April 11, 2026 and said high school district for the purpose of electing one student member and one student alternate member of the board of education of said district to serve from May 11, 2026 to May 2027 are as follows. Olan Wilson Thomas 633 votes received. Laura Freriedman 582 votes received total votes 1,215. Therefore, the board of education finds and declares the following are duly elected student members with the offices specified below. The board of education has served from May lema 2026 to May 2027.

172Student member board of education Olan Wilson Thomas alternate student member board of education Laura Freiedman. U and we're going to that'll be passed uh by the board of education today. >> Motion. >> So moved. Second roll call, please. >> She's just stepped away. >> Martin, >> yes. >> All right. Next up is the uh recognition of retiring student board member and then we'll do the oath of office. >> Okay. All right. So, um I just have a couple of things that I'd just like to say um about you. you know that every year we welcome a new student representative to the table and it's an honor to be here and I I'm really excited that you said that this has impacted um your your life and your decisions for a future and that you're going

173to be at by BYU. That's really exciting and very exciting. Um so we just really want to take this moment to express our gratitude to you. Um you came uh well prepared. You your reports were were were great. We um relied upon you to show us a part of the district that we don't normally see. You know, we don't hear student voice. So, so I don't know if you noticed, but every time you speak, we're all leaning leaning to listen um listen to you. You know, no pressure, Olen, but that's kind of what what we do. It's really important and um you know as a student rep you you have this balance that you have to to kind of keep the balance of um representing the students and recognizing what happens at the board table

174and and you actually have the opportunity to experience this um in a way that that really no other students do. Um so um so you've done a really good job with that balance. you've mastered that. Your integrity has been phenomenal. Your vision has been great. And um I just really want to tell you how I appreciate you and um and this board really appreciates you. Thank you for for the commitment that you've made. You've come on days that we haven't had school. You know, you've you've come when we didn't expect you. uh just because you just really felt committed to this work. So, so thank you and I'm really excited to hear what's what's next for you. So, we'll hear we'll hear what's next. So, thank you, Aya. >> And I think a few other

175people might have a few words. Not sure. >> Yeah. Okay. So, um Eva, I just want to say that um uh just to highlight a few things. I think that you've presented yourself as very thoughtful um and um not afraid to share and to ask questions and give your opinion as the student on the board. Um you know, you're right in here with us. Um, and I also could tell that um, it seems like when you talk about, for example, the student voice forum, that idea of student voice is something that clearly you really find important and you're excited about. And I've also noticed that, you know, sometimes you're speaking kind of your own perception or experience, but it also seemed like you are careful to say who you're representing or trying to bring in

176other voices and recognizing, for example, that, you know, sometimes the student union is very involved in things, but the student union is one group of students. And I think that that idea of trying to make sure that you're thinking about all voices is very important and I appreciate that from you. >> Pat, >> well, first I want to say that I was very excited that I randomly drew you as the uh a presenter the other night. I got to uh give Eva a scholarship award that she won um at senior awards night. Um, but you know, we love having a student on the board and I personally feel like it is an a crucial part of our uh work because hearing from you as as Leah so nicely said, not just you personally, but you

177representing students that you talk to, um, other students and other perspectives in the building is really important because that's information we need to make decisions. And so you play a very pivotal role. Um I sort of as my history political science major that I was, it's exciting to hear what you're thinking about doing going forward. And I think that um and it is nice that you said that we had an impact on that. But I also think you were probably drawn to this because you had that interest. Um and the notion of bringing voice into decision- making um and not just your own voice but seeking out the voices of others um and the experiences of others to make decisions and make change um is very important. So I think you've gotten a really good

178start on that. Um and you've certainly shared that and helped us with that. And so I hope as you move forward and you're not the student voice anymore, but you're the voice, you're the one who has maybe some authority and power that you're listening to all those other voices as well as you as you move forward in your what sounds like going to be a great career. So thank you for all you've done and good luck and we do we love to hear about what you do when you go leave us. So stay in touch. >> Thanks a lot, Eva. this. >> Um, yeah, Eva, I I echo the sentiments of everybody else, too. It's been a joy to have you on the board here, and I especially appreciated how um involved you were in

179our all of our discussions and often having questions and commentary for our presenters. Um, I think the role of the student board member can be it's it's kind of a big role. I mean, you're you come to a multi-our meeting that sometimes goes till 11:00 at night and you have to get up and go back to school in the morning and it's it's a big responsibility and we just appreciate that you are so engaged in the work and clearly like listening and learning um the same way that we are listening and learning. Um so kudos to you for that. And I also just wanted to make a comment about your other commitments like the swim team where my understanding is you had like multiple weekly practices at 6 a.m. and you swim for two hours

180and then you try to get dressed and get ready and go straight to class. And I think that's just um a beautiful way of of showing your your discipline first of all to even be able to make a 6 am practice over and over again. Um but just your commitment to your team, right? And I think that those two things are going to serve you so well in your education and in your future career of um just really kind of making sacrifices. We've seen you make these sacrifices um for your own benefit and for your team and for your fellow students. So um yeah, that's I just wanted to say um congratulations at BYU and wherever your schooling takes you after that. I'll quickly add um you know it's it's always an honor to h

181have a student on our board that can um give us the direct link to what the students are thinking and and you did that consistently as well as um faithfully. I think you heard that a couple of times being here all the time being committed and I didn't know about the multiple things that you have to do but I'm not surprised um because in order to sit in this seat you have to know how to balance your time and you're already engaged to some extent. So you have surely proved that and um set a great example of what's to come. So thank you for your commitment. Right. Thank you for saying yes first to be here and for your commitment to um last with us throughout the year. So wish you the best for everything

182that you do and things that you know about and um those that you will be prepared to to tackle in your future. Congratulations. >> Okay. Um, I just want to say one, this was not the best seat because normally I get to sit next to the student rep. Um, so I didn't get to have quite the rapport. Um, which is a loss for me. Um, and I want to wish you the best as you move forward. Um, and even just tonight with the follow-up question in the press, like what did 11 mean? Let me just ask one more time. What what was 11? Right? And it was so um it's so good. So I think you know this already, but just remember to continue to question everything. So thank you. >> It really seems like

183just yesterday that you were taking the oath >> and now we've already I know, right? and now we've already gone through a year and so it's I'm I'm sad to to see you moving on, but also I know that you'll be successful in whatever you decide to do. You've you've made that very clear and evidenced in in the in the effort and in what you've brought to this board. And so I want to thank you for that and congratulations on moving on to the next steps and and doing all of the the big things that are that are still coming and you still get to do. So thank you. >> So you will be at other tables I'm sure Eva. So um and this is just the beginning for you. So thank you again for

184your commitment and I have a little something for you. So, Eva, you're going to take your name placard and I think that's that's that's take it out of there. All right. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Uh Olan, if you would join me uh at the podium, we will read uh the oath of office and hand you your plaque. >> Oh, the mic. Oh, fancy. All right, I'm liking this already. All right, here we go. >> Raise your hand. I say your name. >> I en Wilson Thomas, >> a student member of the board of education. a student member of the board of education >> of Evston Township High School District 202. >> of Evston Township High School District 202. >> County of Cook, Illinois. County of Cook,

185Illinois, >> do solemnly swear to support >> the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of Illinois >> and the Constitution of the State of Illinois >> and faithfully discharge the duties >> of the office >> to which I have been elected. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you very much. Welcome. Welcome Olan. It you look good in that seat. >> Of course. So yes, turn turn the mic on and >> feel free. It's underneath. >> Well, here comes William. >> Okay. All right. >> Yeah. Thank you all very much. Um it's awesome to be here. I look forward to working with you all over the coming year. So on my brief two weeks on the campaign trail, um my platform was if it's a priority for you, it's a priority for

186me. And I truly mean that for all the student body. I ran a populist campaign and I intend to run a populist student government here at ETHS for the next year. I hope to represent each and every voice at ETHS to the best of my ability and I look forward to working with you all on this board to do just that. I know that we'll make some great progress together towards making ETHS a better place for everyone. So, thank you all for being so welcoming here on my first day. I promised day one changes, so I got an hour and a half left, but I won't get to that. But I will get to hopefully some big changes over the coming year. and I look forward to working with you all to make that happen.

187So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Wonderful. All right. Again, welcome. Welcome. All right. So, we're moving forward. Ready, Dr. Davis? >> Okay. Um, so I'm going to call for a motion and we after the motion we'll have this will be moved and seconded. Then we'll have a roll call um to retire the board sen and die. So can I have a motion please? >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Martin, >> yes. >> Parsons. >> Yes. All right. So, now I'm going to ask Dr. Davis to assume the role of President Poten. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, now I'm going to call the meeting back to order and ask for a roll call vote. >> Yes. >> Martin, >> yes. >> Manel, >> yes. >> Parsons, >>

188yes. >> Savage Williams. >> Yes. >> Okay. Now we will do the election of officers. I will take nominations for the office of president, vice president, secretary. Nominations need not be seconded. Each nomination will be voted on in the order of their nomination. Once the candidate receives a majority of the votes of the board, four votes, the election process is over. Nominations uh for the office of president of the board of education for a one-year term. >> I would like to nominate Pat Savage Williams for president for a one-year term. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations? I'm going to close the nomination and call for a vote. >> Yes. >> Martin, >> yes. >> Carson, >> yes. >> Okay. The new president assumes the chair and continues the nomination process. Congratulations, Madam President. >>

189Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU FOR NOW, I'M GOING TO CALL FOR nominations for vice president of the board of education for a one-year term. >> With great reverence and respect, and it it's really an honor, I'd like to nominate Mon'nique Parsons for the >> What? >> No, go ahead. I've never had it done that way. Well, I I felt it deserved Yeah, I felt it deserved it. So, I wanted to Yeah, I wanted to I really I really feel that way. Um, >> sorry. >> Thank you. >> I was I was saying other words. I don't remember. So, we'll just stick it there. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Are there other nominations for vice president? Hearing none, I will now close the nominations for vice president and ask for

190a roll call vote. >> Yes. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> This one belongs to you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So now I'll call for nominations for secretary of the board of education for one year for a one-year term. >> I nominate Pete Davis. >> Because Bill was a joke. No, I nominate Pete. >> Yeah, >> it is. >> I don't know. >> Are there other nominations for secretary? I'm gonna close the nominations for secretary. >> Can I have a roll call, please? >> Um, yes. >> I had to think about it. >> We're all >> consider what in the world. >> It's late. That's all. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. All right. Thank you. All right. I believe those are all Oh, there's Oh, sorry. >> All right. So, um there's an

191appointment. Oh, this is the this is the most important appointment for school treasurer. I would like to appoint Kendra Williams for school treasurer. All right. Okay. So, I believe we are done. All right. So, um I have a few resolutions that I need to um run past the board. First is the resolution ratifying acts, contracts, policies, and bylaws. Can I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Pat, we could do you could group them if them all and then we can do them all at once. >> Okay, good. >> Cool. >> Say and then we'll group them. >> Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to say them all and then we'll we'll have another motion. All right. So that one then resolution for designating signatory. Resolution regarding check signatures.

192Resolution establishing dates to review close session minutes. Resolution establishing regular meeting dates and place and resolution ratifying approved depositories. >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. Yes. >> Yes. And now we're at the superintendence report. I >> have a a long report. I'm just kidding. Just just briefly. Um congratulations to the class of 2026. They had an incredible prom and we will see all of them and their families Sunday, May 17th. So, congrats to the class of 2026. And uh last week was staff appreciation week and we had a host a week of activities for our staff. Thank you to all of the folks at ETHS that makes it the special place that it is for students and um had a a just a wonderful week of things that we hope that our staff

193can show as we showed them how much we appreciated them uh with what we were able to do. So uh and that concludes my report and welcome Olen. Great. Okay. All right. There are a few other action items. One is the first one is the approval of resolution abating the working cash fund of the district. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. The next is approval of updated consolidated district plan for fiscal year 27. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Yes. The next is approval of exempt staff salary increases other than exempt department leadership for the fiscal year for the school year 2026 27. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Next is approval for Pride Month resolution. But before we approve that, uh Liz is going

194to read that for us. >> Okay, this is our resolution for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride month of 2026. Whereas the uprising at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 sparked a liberation movement, a call to action that continues to inspire us to live up to our nation's promise of equality, liberty, and justice for all. Whereas Pride is a time to recall the trials the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, LGBTQ plus community has endured and to rejoice in the triumphs of trailblazing individuals who have bravely fought and continue to fight for full equality. Whereas the LGBTQ plus community in America has achieved remarkable progress since Stonewall. Whereas historic Supreme Court rulings in recent years have struck down regressive laws affirmed the right to marriage equality and secured workplace protections for LGBTQ plus individuals

195in every state and territory. Whereas for all of our progress, there are many states in which LGBTQ plus individuals still lack protections for fundamental rights and dignity in hospitals, schools, public econom accommodations, and other spaces. Whereas our nation continues to witness a tragic spike in violence against transgender women of color, LGBTQ plus individuals, especially youth who defy sex or gender norms, face bullying and harassment in educational settings and are at a disproportionate risk of self harm and death by suicide. Whereas we recognize the resilience and determination of the many individuals who are fighting to live freely and authentically. Whereas we affirm our obligation to uphold the dignity of all people and dedicate ourselves to protecting the most vulnerable among us. Now thereby be it resolved that the board of education of Evston Township High School

196District 202 recognizes the month of June 2026 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride month and celebrates the achievements of the LGBTQ plus community and the great diversity of the American people. >> Thank you. Thank you. Can we have a motion for acceptance, please? >> So moved. Second >> roll call, please. >> Yes. Okay. And next is the consent agenda which includes approval of minutes from April 13, 2026, both regular and closed session, treasures report from February 2026, approval of bills and personnel report. >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. Is there old or new business polling? >> I just have one I know it's really late, but I have one really quick thing. Um over the weekend I was lucky enough to see both Kimberly Krenshaw and Janelle

197um Buouie. No, >> Galani. >> Gelani. Sorry. I was like Janelle Buie is a different person. Um yeah. And it just was um amazing and really wonderful to hear these incredible um public intellectuals. But it made me think about ETHS and Dr. Hill and Nicole Parker and all the teachers here who really teach the history of our country as it is, not as some people want it to be or sliced and diced the way some people want it to be. and it just it just made me really think about those great people in our building and um and I'm just really grateful to them and their work. So, I just wanted to shout them out. Thanks. >> And Dr. Krenshaw was here, >> right, >> for fan and you have the book. You can hold

198the book up so everyone can see the book. >> Um yeah, and um and this coming week, we have Eddie Glaude. We've got Eddie Glaude on th not here but Eddie Glaude's gonna be on the screen for fan on Thursday. >> It's virtual. So it's it's important to register for Eddie Glad so that you get the link. >> And then Friday night it's uh we have David Epstein who's a class of 98 ETHs in conversation with Megan Tui who's class of 92 Friday. Then Monday I interview Claude Steel a week from today. >> I mean amazing like >> uh it's it's just an amazing week. Yes. >> Yeah. So check your calendar and graduation on Sunday. So um congratulations to the class of 2026 and we'll be saying that a lot on Sunday. >> Okay.

199Can I have a motion or an adjournment to close? >> So move. >> Second. >> Okay. So this meeting is officially adjourned at 10 54.