001Welcome to the December 8th board of education meeting. Can we have a roll call, please? >> Here >> thank you. The first item on the agenda is comments from the public. Dr. Bavis, do we have any comments from the public? >> Uh, we have no comments from the public this evening. >> Okay. The next item is written communication. Dr. Dr. Davis, do we have any written communication? >> Uh, we have no written communication this evening. >> All right, check those off. Okay, the next item items for information. And the first item is the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for the annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2024. >> Yes. So, we have two awards for the annual comprehensive financial report uh that both uh Rudy Mayo and Kendra Williams would like
002to share with the board. >> Nice. >> Good evening board. >> Good evening. >> So, as mentioned by Dr. Campbell, we have two awards uh that we're going to be presenting and discussing tonight. one from GFOA, Government Finance Officers Association, and then the other from ASBO, Association of School Business Officials International. And so for both of these awards awards are highlighting our excellence in reporting for our annual comprehensive financial report uh related to the audit that was done for fiscal year 2024 for which Rudy takes the lead. It is indeed a team effort and a huge lift. Um, but he spearheaded for fiscal year 2024 and we were able to obtain these two reward uh awards uh as a result of that. And so uh we don't take it lightly even though some of them
003we've received 16 years over. We don't take it for just little plug. We don't we don't take it lightly at all. We don't take it for granted. Um, but we just try our very best to maintain high standards. So, thank you to Rudy and the business office team and everyone else in the district that contributes to that effort. I'll just read a few of the word uh words that came from GFOA uh regarding the award and also from ASBO that just highlights that we met the stand the high standards of the program which include demonstrating a constructive spirit of full disclosure to clearly communicate its financial our financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the report and then uh some words from ASBO related to their award. Uh, this award represents
004a significant achievement and reflects your commitment to transparency and highquality financial reporting. So once again, a huge thank you to Rudy, to the team, to the board for its oversight. Um, don't take it lightly for GFOA. 23 school districts in Illinois. We have over 800 school districts in Illinois. 23 of them were awarded this award uh for fiscal year 24. And when it comes to the ASBO International award, that's 63 school districts out of over 800. So >> happy to be in that. >> Yeah. >> And Rudy, these awards that you can carry back. >> All right. So, yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, where will these awards be kept? >> Uh, actually, if anybody wants to visit us in the business office when you come in, we have a wall full of them.
005So, >> see, that's awesome. Come see us. >> Yeah. And they're also listed in the front of our budget. Correct. >> Yes. Also listed in the front of our budget which is posted online. >> Hey, I want to see it. >> I'll start doing tours. Pad, don't tempt me. Yeah, >> I do. Thank you so much. >> Yeah, I'm all right. Okay. Super. Nice way to start the meeting. >> Yep. Okay. The next item is structural changes report. Yes. Um so a few years ago um ETHS engaged a number of changes to the school day to uh adjust for students returning to ETHS from the pandemic. And we went to a block schedule. Uh we extended the passing period uh from 5 to 10 minutes. And I'm still hearing from ETHS alum how problematic that
006is. Uh but nonetheless, um we wanted to slow the day down and um give students an opportunity to to sort of catch their breath in between classes and have more time with teachers instead of having a hectic nine day nine period schedule. So, what you have before you tonight is the report that um provided an assessment of those changes over the last several years. And um this is sort of maybe in tandem from the from the uh uh from the data that the board received last month. Um, and I thought that it would be a good idea to bring this data to you because it really pretty much highlights some of the uh uh the results of some of the changes that we've made uh in the district and in the school over time. So,
007if I'm not leaving anything out, I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Levy and Dr. Davis to walk the board through the structural changes report. >> Thank you. Good evening. Oh, I turned it on. All right. Hi. Okay. So, I'm going to give you like a little bit of context because it's been a long time since we talked about it. I think maybe we first introduced that we were going to do an evaluation several years ago. So, a little bit of context and then some like uh highlevel findings from it and then I can take any questions and just kind of like a little bit of our process throughout. So, like Dr. Campbell said when we came back from um when we returned to in-person instruction and uh Dr. Campbell came out and said
008we were like looking to rehumanize the educational experience, create a more supportive environment, increase student and staff well-being and create equitydriven systemic change. And so some of those changes that he just talked about, the block schedule, the longer passing periods were implemented and cha tasked my department with kind of an evaluation over time. So we created a three-year evaluation plan. And so what I'm going to talk about is this report is like kind of what we the data we collected over the three years and then kind of trying to capture you know every year Dr. Campbell administration team collects data, looks at data, reviews data, makes adjustments based on that data throughout the year. So this is kind of a big highle attempt to capture like some of the big changes throughout as it's a
009work in progress. Um and so this report was through the school year 2024, but last year as we were writing it and uh analyzing the data, we were also doing last year's data. So there are places where we were able to incorporate the school year 25 data like the classroom observations and then there's some places in here where like the surveys that once we finished this report we looked at the surveys and so I've kind of added into my um presentation here some of it I shared with you uh last month with the year review so that it shouldn't be too new. Okay. So what we did our data collection we had staff surveys uh we did student surveys wellbeing on well-being and belonging and uh feedback around the structural changes from staff and students.
010Uh we have a student emotion regulation and coping skills uh study with activities and surveys we've been doing with Dr. Chris Rosac from Washington uh university for several years now. um our classroom observations and then reviewing attendance and discipline data. So the way we organized the report we um thought about it in three as we call domains and everyone is starts with SEAL because the whole intent was to look at the experience the social emotional experience the well-being and so every domain is like is the focus so we looked at well-being support and within that that's looking at attitudes about self others and tasks sense of belonging and connection in school related stress and participation in school activities were some of the um things we were looking at. In behavioral, we're looking at attendance, tardies,
011discipline referrals, discipline referrals, social probations and suspensions. And then under the academic, we were looking at the classroom experience and classroom engagement and not so much the academic change in academics, but these were the things we were focusing on because this was when the big thing about coming back was looking about the experience and kind of rehumanizing that environment. And so this we felt got to that. So some high level from each domain. So, the first one under student mental health and well-being, here's where I'm adding some of the data from last year. Uh, so last year we saw, and we talked about this last month, 71% of students reported feeling a sense of belonging. Um, and those rates are higher across all student groups. And this is higher compared to school year 24, which
012was 63% and school year 2022, which is like the first year we started to collect this data for this report. And then last year in our surveys, 80% of students reported that their teachers treat them with respect and 71% feel their teachers care about them as a person. Again, these are two measures that are higher than the year before and um the previous years. And then throughout this time and from the beginning when we first started um when we were in lockdown actually we started collecting some data on uh depression markers we have it through our surveys we ask and then we also trying that with triangulate that with Dr. Rosac surveys and uh it all like has been lining up every year. So what we're seeing is last year the rate of students who
013identified like with the major depression markers was around 19% which is a drop from 15% in May 2020. Um and so research shows there's a correlation between students who feel their teachers care about them and their lives outside of school and lower depression levels and also they're higherly motivated. And then for context uh researches like the pre- pandemic kind of an average um depression for students in schools was around 11 12%. So to get back down to that is a really um big thing to keep track of and to see this is like some really positive change that we're seeing over this over these years. So domain two we um some highlights from that where we looked at uh attendance and discipline. So we look at chronic ab absenteeism and while it decreased uh a
014little bit in to 21% in 2024 from the year from a couple years before we did see that it went up last year um and so it's still a concern. We're still keeping an eye on attendance um absenteeism truency. We saw that TR truency was up in 22 had dipped the other year in school year 24 to 9% and then last year in the school year 25 was like up again. So we were talking about this last month of the year review the attendance and keeping an eye on how that kind of has uh ticked up. Um we saw discipline referrals increase between school year 2022 and 24. And then some of the highlights that I had in here implement over time over these years ETHS has implemented attendance supports, restorative practices, and in 24
015they implemented the the bell-to-bell no cell um phone policy to kind of address some of these um different data points. And so the then the last domain is around the classroom experience. And I have two um different types of data that we collect uh and and it's uh myself and Dr. um Liz Harter, senior research associate. We ones that go in and do a lot of the classroom observations. And so the observations in the survey data, they they um kind of the themes, the constructs overlap. They triangulate. And so what we see in one should and does kind of align with what we see in some others. So the surveys looked at some constructs and one of them is classroom community and classroom community questions out of that are students 70% saying they feel comfortable
016sharing their thoughts and opinions in class which was up from the school year 24 and so these survey results are also from last year and school year 25. Um, student voice where students feel that their ideas are being taken seriously. That was up 70% last year compared to prior years. Supportive teaching, 73% of students say their teachers regularly check in to make sure they understand the class material. Again, all of these measures are up last year um, compared to prior years, which is a positive trend up. Another construct that we look at in our surveys is a well organized class and uh questions from this 75% of students agree it's clear that what they are supposed to be doing in class they know what they're supposed to be doing in class and then meaningful work
017where uh 2/3 69% they feel what they learn in class is connected to real life. So that's up from 56% in 2024. This we'll see kind of overlap with our observation constructs. And then the last one is teacher caring which also you see in the surveys um data points. So 68% feel their teachers care about their life outside of school and that's up from 59% in 2024. Now in addition to the surveys we also have classroom observations and we started um conducting these we have them from the last two years and so the way we conduct our observations these are not teacher evaluations. The way these are done is we randomly select classes, teachers and classes across all the departments. Uh we look at a random selection across all the different times of the day,
018the different blocks and then we split them across across the different days of the week. Um and so we take this the tool we've used which we've used for several years before um is a class tool and it's on a scale of 1 to seven where one and two is low, three, four and five is mid and six and seven is high. We score it across these different constructs that I'll point out and then we aggregate it across all of the observation. So our goal is to see as many as we can and then aggre aggregate it to get sort of a big picture view of how students are experiencing their classes across the school throughout the day throughout the year. And our observations we start them in November and we do them through about
019March like maybe a week before spring break. And so that's our our window that we've been doing them in. Um, and so the constructs we look at, we look at positive climate, and that's looking at the emotional connection, whether or not there's respect and enjoyment demonstrated between teachers and students. Um, regard for adolescent perspectives means the extent that teachers they meet their adolescents needs for autonomy, an active role in class, and meaningful interactions with themselves and with their peers. Uh there's analysis and inquiry which is a degree which students engage in higher order thinking skills. This includes metacognition in this um domain. Instructional dialogue. It's a per purposeful use of content focused cumulative discussion between teachers and discussion between sorry teachers and students. And the key term here is cumulative. It's not just a discussion
020but it's an ongoing back and forth to deepen um understanding and knowledge. And then the last one is student engagement. And we're looking at overall active engagement, not just a passive engagement. And so just a highle chart we have over the um to years 24 and then last year in school year 25, we see that ETHs is stronger in the areas of positive climate and student engagement. And when we look at these numbers, Ken Hides said one and two is on a low end and six and seven are on a high. anything that's kind of like on a five. So five is like mid high. Five and higher is really strong. Um and so we see areas of opportunity in analysis and inquiry and instructional dialogue in the report. When we looked at this a
021little deeper, we found there were differences in classes um and this was through explor exploratory analysis of the data. uh in classes that had 45% or more students, black and Latino students in classes with less than 45% had some significant statistically significant differences in instructional dialogue and analysis and inquiry. And one more thing to point on this chart here, the little asterisk under the 202425 school year for instructional dialogue ID and the AI analysis and inquiry. That means there is a statistically significant difference from the year before. So that increase from 3.7 to 4.2 and from 3.0 to 3.8 is is a significant increase. It's not just um the way like 4.3 to 4.5 that wasn't significant. That's an increase, but it wasn't like as big a statistically significant increase as these other two are.
022Um, so it's kind of like the big picture kind of high level from the report. Um, so that report was done. Those three years are done, but we're not done. So we're continuing to collect the data that we have identified is really relevant and important to keep looking at over patterns and trends over time, which are the classroom observations and the student survey data. and we have like a rich we're getting a nice trend of survey data. So, we're going to continue with that um to see if there's any more change over time knowing that every year as you look at data Dr. Campbell and your team and you make adjustments as needed to see how this is like supporting and changing and improving things over time. Um I think that's all my highlights. >>
023Let me just I have a couple things. >> Okay. Um, of all the reports that that we bring to the board, this report is the one that we spend the greatest amount of time on. Uh, we did a uh leadership retreat uh which we we unpacked this information. We did a two-day department chair retreat where we looked specifically at instructional dialogue and analysis and inquiry. We also as a professional development team, we have an ecology of professional learning team. Uh, and we took this data and we integrated it into our professional learning this year which is all around instruct. We have an instructional framework and we're using the collaborative action research for equity model. Uh and we've transformed all of our professional learning opportunities whether they're uh action groups around on uh on Mondays that
024are department specific. We also have uh cross- departmental opportunities but everything is grounded really in um instruct in increasing instructional dialogue and analysis and inquiry. And right now we're looking specifically at chunking and processing uh information in a classroom and the frequency at which we do that and providing uh discrete uh instructional strategies and an opportunity for teachers to reflect on that uh up against a focal student whom they've selected. Uh so we're getting it out of the teacher planning mode and more into like how is this received by kids and then how is this received by focal students and using that to inform practice this year and ongoing. That's just an example of how um and also uh this was part of the opening institute day report as well. Uh Dr. McNeel and I
025pulled data from this when we spoke to the the faculty. >> I think we're open for questions. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Questions board. I I remember some of the earlier um iterations of this when we were trying to figure out how to ask the questions so that the students really understood what we mean by um do they feel like they belong? Do they feel like that teachers care? Um, and we I think we've really worked hard and this really indicates to me that we've done a really good job of communicating that in a way that we can pull this and look at this data and make it meaningful and use this data to um to make changes in in what we do with students. Yeah, we as a student in the way we ask questions
026around sense of belonging and connection, feeling confident. Um, a couple years ago, Dr. Campbell asked, "How can we get to a culture of care?" So now, um, for the last two years, we have a different open-ended question. Um, I think the first year is in this report where we ask students like, "What does a teacher do that makes you feel like you matter to them?" And we had over 2,000 students respond. and and so those um themes that reported are very robust and they came up over and over. It was really just like um super encouraging. >> Yeah, >> last year's was um >> I forgot but it was also around like how do you feel valued? >> So >> that's good and I'm I'm sure it's also valuable for teachers to see that >>
027get some ideas. >> Yeah. >> Okay, Pat. >> Thanks. Um well, first I just want to say out loud that thank you for this report, but also just acknowledge that this isn't not every district does this like goes into this level of detail um in terms of the questions, the longevity of the research, um the action that's taken as a result of the data. So, I I just think that's really something to acknowledge and thank you both and your teams and and everyone um for being thinking about this and and doing this work because it really it really matters and it and you know Pete's description of how a lot of this was used was kind of one of my questions. So, you check that one off that you really are using this um in
028a robust way across the school. Um, and I think that's really terrific. Um, I do have a couple questions in terms of I mean I think we've seen a lot of growth and and we came out of a rough time and this started at the be you know when the kids were coming back from COVID but I wonder what do we know about I'm just going to use the one-third because twothirds was a pretty common number of twothirds of kids feel good about this or that. What do we know about the kids who are answering the questions in a less positive way? >> The majority of them are saying somewhat. They're in that neutral. So, it's on usually a fivepoint scale like agree, strongly agree, somewhat, and then disagree, strongly disagree. And so, NAT uh
029percent that usually is in the strongly disagree is below 10% and 7% 5%. Um but the majority about a third of them that yeah most of them are in that somewhat neutral uh range. So what I report is the students that feel like agree strongly agree like yes I feel this. >> Yeah. >> Um and not just sort of in the middle. >> And are we able to because even though a lot of them are in that weird neutral middle um there are kids who are answering no this is bad or no I disagree with this. So, are we able to really pinpoint some I mean, I know it's data and we're, you know, it's not always even known who responded uh the way they did, but are we able to really target interventions? Are
030we able to understand from all the work that you're putting together some themes that can be actionable um and and specific interventions that can be employed to really support the kids who aren't at the higher end of yeah things are great or the midlin even who are just kind of like I don't know what to say I'm going to put three you know that's going back in looking at that deeper dive like that we have looked at it and so students who maybe say uh they don't agree they're not necessarily saying that across all of them it may be one or two it's like a range of students across it so that's hard to find some some clear patterns across um but we have um and we're starting to hear with some ideas to go
031back and dig around to it a little deeper dive in some different ways and so see what we can Um, okay. Well, I mean, it's interesting when you start to pull it apart that there's, you know, maybe it's even better in some ways the data is a little better than even it comes out when you just look at it numerically. Um, my my other question is around um the staff seal and well-being. Um, and I'm just curious, what do we know about the the staff who aren't as positive in their responses? Um, I'm wondering is there a racial component to that? Is it disagregated? Do you know that people who are unhappy maybe fit, you know, maybe are more faculty of black, you know, black and brown faculty or is there some I guess what
032do we know about because some of those numbers were a little rougher. So no, those are all anonymous. So we do not um have that we do not ask staff to identify. So I don't have any data disagregated. I do know that the staff surveys were the hardest to analyze because we would do a fall in the spring. In the fall, um, we would have more response and then maybe half of that in the spring and it's really hard to make comparisons when you only have 100 people take a survey in the spring and you had 250 from the year before. And so, um, that's why that's probably more limited because it was harder to get and feel like I we're making analyses that it could be generalizable. They're not generalizable. So, um, it just
033made that piece a little bit more challenging. The best way right now that we have to look at staff PVAC is through the five essential surveys and and some of the um, patterns in there. Mhm. And you Pete was talking about professional development and administrators and department chairs. Are you able to look at sort of all the teacher pieces too? And is that I guess what I'm wondering is with with the numbers being I mean they weren't horrible but they were definitely not as robust let's say or positive as some of the student responses and I'm just wondering if there's interventions or uh professional development or just conversations at the staff level um supported conversations to kind of help maybe unearth what's going on and most importantly do something about it if people are having
034a difficult time. >> I mean I know we've done staff talking circles in the past as as a as a mechanism for that. Um the other thing we've done this year is we we have these um these action group these AGs. We heard from teachers and staff that they wanted time to to talk and time to collaborate uh and teachers around like students right around around their classes. So we developed we built that in so they could have more time to discuss to talk we gave them a framework in which to do it so it would be productive u and we've measured that uh ongoing we have a survey that goes out every time we do our professional learning now so we've been able to track that we're going to have a more comprehensive professional
035learning survey but one of the things that they said was we're feeling isolated a great deal of isolation coming off of COVID last few years people really like to hunker down in their rooms they don't um they don't socialize as much. Uh so, you know, it's nice to have a standing time even though it's instructional, right, which we think is great. >> Uh but a time to like get together and collaborate has also been helpful uh I think to that. Um it's not perfect uh but it's but it's something we didn't have in the past. >> It's responsive. >> That's good. Um okay, thank you. That's those were all my questions. Thank you. >> Great. Other questions? Leah. >> Hi. Um okay. Um I haven't really formulated my question. I'm kind of talking crafting this
036as I talk. Um so I think what's what I want to um emphasize is so excellent about this is that there's often reports about the typical things attendance rates, grades, test scores. So, I think it's I just um the fact that some changes were made um in real time, you know, in response to returning from COVID and then to really study that and what that really has meant for the school is really great. Um, I appreciate the transparency of this report in that it um really um highlights the improvements and the overall student well-being but is really honest about the persistent racial disparities. Um, and because I think that that's important. Um, and along that line, it it seems like there's a lot here that then it's not data for data sake. It's data we
037can use to see how we're doing, what we're going to do next, what works, what doesn't, what we have to, what are our areas of opportunity, areas of growth. Um, and along those lines, what would be like the next step? What can we do with this data to now get at? So, why are there the persistent racial disparities? Like, what are we doing with that piece of what we found out? >> I Yeah, you can and then you can you can fill it in. I think one of the key pieces is that we've we've taken the collaborative action research model, the care model, >> uh where teachers pick focal students, right, based on uh based on the protocol, >> um and then plan for that student how that how's that student going to receive and
038then debrief that. Um, that's a way in and that weigh in is is profound because we actually had data for the first time that supported the actual need to do it. And when I say the need to do it, I don't mean uh when you do standardized test scores, you can explain a standardized test score away, >> right? You can't explain away a series of classroom observations that demonstrate this difference. particularly when Car's team says, "Oh, we didn't look at advanced placement classes at all." Right? Cuz you know, the go-to when you see those disparities is, "Oh, you probably went to like a class that's overwhelmingly white and you saw this." No, no, no. That wasn't what we did. Um, and in in and conversely didn't go to support classes either. So what we were
039looking at is like the academic like you know the the pathway to honors classes those kind of places that are you know should be right a a sort of uniform experience at least in terms of like your analysis and inquiry and and that kind of thing. Uh but yet we saw that based on the percentage of non-white kids if it ticked above was it 45%. If it was above 45% you saw this this shift. Now, the good news is there's analysis and inquiry and there's there's all these things are happening. They're just not happening with a great frequency. And if you look at the classes that were majority white, those classes also weren't doing at a great level. So, there's a land there's a land of opportunity here, interest convergence to improve instruction across the
040board. You overlay the care model with it and you say, "Okay, but let's let's pay attention to our how our black and brown students that you're going to select and you're going to focus on. you're going to learn all this belowline information about and then you're going to plan your lessons with them in mind and then you're going to talk about it in groups. That's a shift. Um that's a huge shift. Now, are we doing care model this year where we're going into each other's classrooms? No, we're not doing that yet. We're doing it solely for planning and then reporting with with the hope that maybe we get to the point where we can bring people in and out of classrooms, teachers in and out of their colleagues classrooms. But in terms of laying the
041framework, absolutely. And that is part and parcel because this data says we looked at your classrooms. And I actually did a presentation where I said, you know, you got your grade distributions. Oh, you can explain away a grade distribution because you can say everybody gets an A literally. I mean, you could argue that you can argue that grades are inflated. You can do, you know, we don't have a uniform grading system. You can explain away the grade disparities. You can explain away test scores. What you can't explain away is when Carrie and her team go in and they see this in our own classrooms. That's the profound impact on each and every person in this building. Um, and she's building more capacity. I mean, you're seeing more classes, right? This year, you've expanded that. >>
042We are. We have. We have our schedule laid out. We're probably going to do we're looking for at least 50% more classes and observations than we have in the past. And so, the other part of your question is Dr. Hart and I think of data as a conversation, right? So, we we bring this data. It's meant to be useful. Hopefully it's useful and and then you can make some changes which every year administration does and then we go back and continue to collect the data like uh is it helping because it's not just one thing that's going to make things changes it's like a bunch of things and so collectively over time are all these things like helping kind of shift the needle so to speak. >> Yeah. And I'll add that um just as
043a headline, not a headline but whatever you know one of the reasons why we did this at the time was because we were there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears as you know about the block like will it work? How we going to evaluate what we how we all of the things and as principal it was like Lord have mercy. So we we need to needed to put some sort of a system together. So, it looks like we'll be able to keep the block. Um, because the block schedule had been a debate in the district for like 30 years and it took a pandemic for us to move to a block schedule. >> So, but now that we've we've done that and the data looks at the way that it does, we can
044take a real deep dive into instruction and Dr. McNeel can put together whatever kind of professional development plan she wants to and needs to based on the instructional needs that this highlights as well as the other um issues that she's addressing with the MTSS process. >> And you have to give it time. >> Yeah. >> To to to work. Um because you can't like start something and then >> change it and that's right. >> I mean we've been looking at since the belonging data I bring it to you in the year review for many years and so it's kind of even before the pandemic kind of started and to see >> that it's you know this shift up from last year. We're going to keep looking at it and hope that shift up is like
045staying up there >> um >> with all of the social emotional climate, you know, work that's being done. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Okay. I think Liz and then we'll go to Mera. >> Hi. Um so I have a couple questions. So I'm looking in the wonderful memo you gave us and you have the data points in bar charts all the data points for the uh domains one and two and um tell me if I am imagining things but when I look at the racial disparities between the experiences and the races of the students it looks like there's less of a disparity this time than what I've seen in the past. Has it has it shrunk a little or is it just a trick of the eye with the way the charts are made? >>
046Which like which one are you asking about? >> Like like teacher caring and classroom community and stuff like that. Like it looked like it narrowed >> there. Yes. I think everything is like from last year's data. It's across all the student groups. They've shifted up. you still see uh disparities or students who identify as white and Asian tend to tend to indicate um the a sense of belonging or connection that's above average and students who identify as black and latinext below the average. But I do think there's been a shift. There's a couple of places where there are really no differences. Um and I've seen that for a couple years, but I don't know if that's like across all of it, but yes, there's um some patterns. And then um I was just also wondering
047about I love this domain three with the classroom observations. This brought me so much joy because the data is so fascinating. I loved looking at it and I was curious um who are our observers like who's doing the observing? >> It's uh me and Dr. Liz Harter, our senior research associate. and talk about your training Carrie because you didn't just >> we use this tool. It's called class and it's out at University of Virginia. I used it many many years ago when we did the restructured freshman year and we did observations around that and we did um it's pretty intense two-day training and then you have to pass a series of um like tests based on observations and how you score it. Uh, so we did that and then every year when when Liz and
048I when we start observations that we've already done it, we go in and we do several together to check our innerator reliability and once we feel like, okay, we're back on track, you know, after several months off, uh, then we start doing them on our own. So, we'd already gone through this year and done our inator reliability checks. Feels like, okay, we've had a conversations and kind of reviewed how we look at the different things and what's considered medium, high, or low. Um and then we just devy it up and kind of split it between mid November and mid-Marchch and just um make them we already have our schedules. For example, same process looking at how many days a week are we capturing? Are we trying to get equal distribution across all the different departments,
049all the different blocks? If you got block two, you same number on Wednesdays as Fridays. Making sure we get block eight on Friday. Like that is our process to make sure. and then we randomly select the teachers. Uh for the past few years, we're trying to make sure we didn't do the same teacher like two years in a row and this year we just threw everyone back in the pot and just did a random selection again. So, >> okay, that's interesting. Um, yeah, I just I just wanted to say I I feel very strongly and the data supports it that all of these support initiatives from the SEAL to the blocks to the cell phone policy and restorative justice like all of this I really believe it has such a profound effect on our students.
050I mean it's such a massive effort like what Pat was saying that we care that much that we're really trying to hit it from every angle. And I do believe that these things really matter to our students. So I just want to say well done and keep it up. Um I mean Dr. McNeel's tightened the cell phone policy this year. So collecting this data to see if there's any changes next year is also important as we look and see as things are tighten or adjusted just to keep that um process. >> Great. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you for explaining that observation process though. That was that's amazing that you took the time and and learned really how to go and observe. So that that's really great. >> Thanks. It is not. And I whenever
051I come to teachers, we send them the rubric. >> Um everyone I'm happy to explain it, but I kind of explain it give them everyone a copy of what we're looking at and we're scoring. They have a link if they want to look at it. Um, and then we just make sure we're not like if Dr. Harter saw someone last year, then I don't let her go, I'll go. We just kind of make sure we're not we're mixing it all up. And >> that's great. >> Trying to be as transparent and random and equal about it. >> There's also an anonymous feature, right, Carrie? >> It's anonymous. No one knows. We have a a coding system >> on when we like track the data that no one can look at and say I know who
052that is. >> And so no teacher should can look at this data and say that's me. No one can do that. >> Yeah. Good. >> Awesome. That's great. >> Yeah. Um yeah, I am always in awe of your work and feel that we are so lucky to have such a rigorous um research component. Um so thank you for that. Um so I'm thinking about a couple things. Um, one is the theory of action that we may have around leadership and staff, how we're cultivating their capacity um, for sustainability because I I I love our that we are looking at what our students say and what we observe in the classrooms, but I was thinking about what staff said regarding their own PD and kind of what they need. So, um, that's one thing that's swimming
053around in my head is how can we help them help our kids. Um, and so many teachers are brilliant in their own right, but definitely are not trained in the learning sciences and that's why like the chunk review or the things you're doing are really critical. Um, and so I just keep thinking about how we can do more of that or we can support that. And then my other thought was just around, you know, I'm thinking a lot about the protective factors that kids need. And this is going to seem probably trivial, but I was just thinking about the um no cell bell to bell and how you have that in the domain of behavior and policy. And there's something about it that seems to me to be very much about well-being. Um, and I'm
054just thinking about how while we're looking at rules and what not to do, but there's something so much more powerful about that move and and the well-being that's created because of it. And so, I just am thinking about how we can maybe shift that dialogue. I mean, ju just I don't know exactly what the end point is in what I'm saying, but it's kind of swimming around in my mind. I think it falls in two areas. You see it in the student engagement. So you see the difference in student engagement from the like 23 to 24 in the observations because they're putting away. So that I I see a difference there. But then also it's with the tardies and the inhal um >> inhal you know truents are walkers and so seeing that go down
055too is where you also like trying to see that. So >> yeah, >> but maybe articulating it a little different. I >> Yeah, just that it's so positive. It's such a beautiful effect that we are seeing from our kids who really are being freed up to engage in engagement. >> Um and so there's something about it that I want to move it out of this behavioral kind of, >> you know, penalty or something and talk about it in its its extractive move allows for all this additive stuff to happen. And so there's something about that that I want to recategorize, but that's all. Thank you. Well, thank you again for this. This is a great report. It's very um pretty advanced, I'd say. >> Thank you. >> So, I appreciate it. Thank you. >> All
056right. short and sweet. >> I I'll stay here for the next one. >> You can stay here for the next one. Okay. And the next one is the first reading for press policy 120. >> Uh yes, the uh policy committee met uh on November uh 19th through the review the most recent policy update uh which is press 120. Uh this is a first reading. Um the final reading will be next uh next board meeting >> and you see the committee recommendations are there as well as the policies. Right. >> And we do have one 8:30 visitors to uh and conduct uh on school property which is currently under attorney review. And I'll have uh their recommendation uh next time. >> Next next meeting. Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. And you can stay
057there and respond to our next >> sure >> item on foyers. We have three I believe. >> Yes, we have three uh we have one from Bennington on 11:25 and then two from the same uh person on 11:26. and the responses are in your uh packet. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. So, moving right along, we're at board committee reports and um so I have one, but I don't have it written up yet. So, I'll have it for the January meeting, but I went to a meeting of the Evansson cradle to career and uh basically that meeting um consisted of the participants talking about the erosion of public funds. That's really kind of like the big conversations. um all these agencies are trying to figure out how to survive in this era
058and seeing the this the um the benefits go away and and inflation continues to to be escalating. So um everyone's dealing with some of the same issues that we are. Um but you know when this is all they have to rely upon uh it's it's been these are really hard discussions. So, um, and then just really how this has been affecting us, what to expect ahead and, um, and they're just trying to do some brainstorming around solutions, offering workshops and how to navigate, um, some of, uh, the resources and pull things together. So, uh, but I'll have this ready for you. I I need to clean that up a little bit. Okay. And I think Pat. >> Yeah. >> So, um, the November ED Red meeting was right before our last our November board meeting.
059So, um, I have it written up, but it also will be in the January. The write up is in January, but um, the report is this month. But anyway, um, so there were a several different presentations. one by a superintendent in DuPage County talking about a new um um English language learning uh consortium and um our district and other districts can be a part of it. Um so there's we can contact that superintendent for more information. Um, Senator Edley Allen um presented on some of the um things that were passed during veto session. And the one that was most interesting to us um relates to legislation regarding immigration and creating protective uh zones at daycarees, hospitals, courouses, and public higher education um you know institutions. Um then Foranzic, our law firm, and um Ed Reddd
060did some legislative updates as well. Um one area that they're working on together is this issue of student safety to and from school and outside of school um when they're even at school activities but are not within the building. Um, a couple of bills that they talked about, one was related to uh, open meetings act, just basically that you can have a state rep or a regional rep at your close session um, self-evaluations, but the FOYA one was rather interesting. Um, so it was part of the same same bill. Um so one is one of the changes that they voted on um was that you have a right we have a right to verify that the requesttor is a person and I thought that was really interesting especially given some of the things that we've
061seen with some of these quote unquote news sources um and so forth. So, um, it's also not a requirement that districts open electronic files or hyperlinks. >> So, if someone sends a file, we don't have to look at it in order to respond to the FOYA. And I thought again, that's interesting because given everything we know about cyber security, >> um, and that junk mail is not considered a public record. So when you know Pete does these or the FOYA officer does the search for an email that has Pat Savage Williams name in it, right? If there are a bunch in in the junk mail, that doesn't have to be included. I I think these are really they're small but really powerful things. Um so Ed read um the priorities for this year. Um they
062talked about at the end uh world language graduation requirement kind of already have that here. So um the mandated categorical funding um issue particularly as relate to tier three and four schools. So not as much on us but still and then the big one that I think we all have been thinking about is law enforcement procedures related not just to campus but off-campus. And I mentioned that a minute ago. So, it was a pretty informative uh informative meeting. >> Right. Thank you. >> All right. Any other committee reports? Okay. So, we'll keep moving and we are at the student board report. Eva. >> Okay. Hello everybody. Um I hope you had a restful fall break. Since the last board meeting, there have been a couple of significant events here at ETHS that I wanted to
063highlight. Empty Bowl, which is our school's largest fundraiser, took place last Friday, and that raised over $6,000 for the community fridges. It was a great event. There was free soup for anyone who attended, as well as hundreds of beautiful ceramic pieces up for purchase. Um, the Chinese classes took a week-long trip to Shanghai. It was a great experience for those students to be immersed in their language and really see the culture they've been studying. Uh the Scholastic Bold team found a sponsor which has been an ongoing issue. Um they had uh been unable to compete or practice but now they have Miss Sarah Drrell and will be competing again. >> Uh the principal's office unveiled uh spirit week this week. Today was pajama day. Oh, wow. Dr. McNeil had her pajamas on today. I was
064going to say she has pretty nice pajamas. >> I was going to say those are pajamas. >> Um, finals are next week and teachers are spending this week as a review week. So, no new material. Students are focusing on preparing for finals. >> Yes. And then as a student union, we will have finished sorting data from the student voice forum by the end of winter break and we will form committees to target specific specific issues after break. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Campbell. >> All right. Good evening. Uh I'll start uh by saying I I I made the board aware today that um we are sort of at the end of what we could manage receiving no money from Cook County um for the year. Uh we have gone through July,
065August, September, October, November, now the first week, second week in December with no money from Cook County. >> Wow. >> And so this is it. We're at the end. So, um, and if I'll be working with the board on, uh, whatever advocacy is necessary, uh, and working with the county so that not only is ETHS, but other school districts who that heavily rely upon property tax dollars that we are uh, in the situation again. Um, and so you'll be hearing more about that. Um, and you all know how frustrated and angry I am about that. >> Yeah. Um, so hopefully, uh, Kendra says maybe we'll get a dispersement by Friday. Uh, we got our fingers crossed. Um, but if that doesn't happen, um, we'll be coming back to the board because we're going to have
066to make some other moves, right? All right. So, that's bad news. Um, but as we gather for this last financial um board financial see, the money's on my mind. As we gather for the final board meeting of this of the of this uh calendar year, I want to acknowledge the many ways our community have felt. It's been a challenging year. Um you know, everybody's dealing with navigating uncertainty, uncertainty, difficult moments, and some real pain for folks. And yet through it all, our students and staff and families have shown remarkable resilience. The way this community continues to show up for one another remains one of EHS's greatest strengths. This year has also reminded us that our learning isn't confined to classrooms. Our students are growing not only academically but as people who understand what it means
067to um lead with integrity to engage in complexity and to stand for up for what it's right. So I have no doubt that they will carry these lessons with them as they move forward into the world. As Eva mentioned with finals beginning next week, I want to wish our students um focus and confidence as they finish the semester. Uh, and thank you for the staff and the families for continued their support of students throughout the semester. And I'm proud of this town and the work we've done together and the way we move forward as a community. And I'm hoping that the upcoming break, looks like we're getting a lot of snow, will offer renewal for everyone. And we look forward to starting January strong. I can't believe that 2025 is just about over and we're
068starting a new year. >> Yeah. >> Can I ask you a question? What's the financial impact >> of not receiving the the Cook County? >> So, the financial impact is significant and Kendra can can help me here. Um, we um are pretty much relying on all of our um what we call our um our savings, our fund balance to run the school. And we've done that for a number of years. Uh last week, Kendra had to go to the bank uh and you know break investments for us to be able to have cash and have cash flow. Um am I correct at that Kendrick? >> Yeah, we had to liquidate some investments. >> Yes. And so we rely upon those investments and the interest of those investments as a part of our budget. >> Correct.
069>> And so there is a real financial impact. We went to the county and said, "Hey, why don't we go for a zerointerest loan and the county told us our credit was too too good and we had to have uh a >> credit rating that either met or was below theirs." So although the error is not that >> or below Yes. >> Oh my goodness. So because our credit rating is uh AAA as it has been for which we were celebrating >> which we celebrate and we you know and we have great pride about that >> they their stance is that well if your credit is so good then you should obtain a loan separate of us but that means that we'd have to pay interest on the loan >> um and it doesn't make
070sense that we would be penalized. So we're Yeah. >> Even though it's not our fault. >> Correct. >> How much are we waving? >> How much are we waiting? >> Half of the money. >> Yeah. Millions of dollars. Like tens tens of millions of Yeah. >> I think it's significant. >> And it is. What are the numbers? >> Yeah. So right now we're waiting for the fall installment. So, if we talk about property taxes, um, for our property taxes, we budget over $80 million. And let's say that it's about half of that, just for the purposes of this conversation, the split is a little bit different. Um, where the fall amount would actually be a little bit bigger. So, yeah, about 50% of that. >> I mean, I I think it's important to be that
071um clear, right? Because this money belongs to the citizens of of Evston. Correct. Right. That's right. >> And and they feel some sort of way about this high school and to know that um that they're not taking care of the kids in this school in this community. We got to be very vocal about um this happening and and and the impact. I mean, the fact that we're going to the bank >> um >> trying to cover a deficit that they have created and for whatever reason been comfortable creating it, >> um needs to be broadcast. >> Yeah. >> And um you know, as Dr. Campbell shared in the correspondence today. You know, we made it this far and finally when they sent out the bills on November 14th, it was like, okay, >> I think
072I think we might be okay. And now the newest hurdle is that yes, we are collecting the money, but we're not yet in a position to distribute it as we typically would. And we're hoping we'll be able to distribute it by Friday, but we're really not sure. So, it's just like you finally think that you've gotten to a point where it's going to be okay and yet something else from Cook County. >> So, they said that they would possibly distribute it by Friday. That's where you get that from. >> But it's certainly not >> definitive language. >> It is not. >> No. >> Yeah. So, there are some avenues that uh the board can take uh and other school boards are considering. Um, and I mean considering maybe even state legislation that at least causes
073Cook County to just notify us that we're not going to get any money. Uh, so there are there are things that are happening that I think the board can and should be speaking very loudly about. Um, because this is not the first year, >> right? This is just as bad. It hasn't been this bad. >> It hasn't been this bad. >> This is the fourth out of five years. >> Four out of five years. four out of the last five years, >> but we've never had to wait. >> It has not been actually I would have to check that it's typically due in December, but um I think that this might be the latest that we're still wondering when we're going to get the cash. Like usually we would know by now. Um, and even
074that is pretty. I mean, the reference that I made today, I said, Marcus, we're scraping the bottom of the pot, you know, and there's not much much more that we can do here without having to um go for tax anticipation warrants potentially um if they don't come through. Um, so yeah, >> which hurts us financially. >> Absolutely. >> By the way, >> absolutely. right here. We are at no fault at all being >> stu spending our investments, >> spending our investments, >> you know, losing interest and could possibly have to issue tax anticipation warrants at no fault of our own because we have done the things that we needed to do, >> right? >> Uh we can't get any any cooperation from the county. >> As I said, we're not the only district in this
075situation. There are other districts spending down their fund balances as well. um >> several of which neighboring that have also already had to have gone out for tax anticipation. >> There are other districts that have already issued tax anticipation warnings. >> I just wanted to commend Kendra and her team. I emailed her this morning um cuz I couldn't remember how much cash on hand we keep for our, you know, for this. And um she let me know that we typically have between like four and five months of cash on hand. And I just want to commend you all for being so responsible with that type of um savings just for when stuff like this happens. And I know you've probably exhausted most of that because it's been so many months and now we're doing, you
076know, tapping into investments, but I just wanted to um commend you all on creating that safety net for us. >> Thank you so much. Um, you know, and I I've said it before, my my my entire team and then of course the larger team here at ETHS, we preach a great deal about the importance of having a healthy fund balance, right? About when we if we see our fund balance not going in the right direction, the need to have some mitigating efforts um to make sure that we're we're maintaining at a level that's appropriate for these situations. And so, um, sometimes that's challenging, you know, especially with the landscape today, but we're we're definitely doing our best as as an administration, of course, as a board and, uh, leadership team and everyone else here. >>
077Yeah, this is unbelievable. Yeah. >> Well, thank you for allowing us to get all this on record because this is important for the community to know >> for sure >> that we are really um we're struggling. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Yeah, we did. >> Yeah. All right. So, we're at I action items. The first action items is the adoption of the 2025 tax levy. >> Could I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. The next item is the consent agenda which consists of approval of minutes from November 10th, 2025 regular and close session meeting, treasurer's report from September 2025, approval of bills and personnel report. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. The next item is old and
078new business. Do we have any old or new business? Your lights on. >> All our lights on. >> Oh, we just >> Oh, sorry. I thought you guys had all this in new business. Here we go. I put my pen down. >> We want the meeting to last another six hours, Pat. >> Okay. Um, closing of the board. Any polling of closing of the board? Everybody have a great winter break. >> That's my my comment. >> Yay. >> I think that um we are as >> as Marcus said, it's amazing that we're ending 2025. >> So, the next time we're together as a board will be a whole new year. >> Yes. Okay. Can I have a motion for enjoyment? >> So moved. Is that not what I'm supposed to say? >> That's it. Yeah,
079that's it. >> All right. All in favor say I. I. >> This meeting is adjourned. What time is it? >> Almost a record. Wow. Almost. This is early.