Joint Board Meeting 2/24/25

001good evening everybody good evening good evening evening awesome great great welcome to the Joint meeting of the Evanson Township High School District 202 and Evanson skoki District 65 board meetings could we have a roll call please and we'll start with District 65 Su present Lind Ryan here wil here here here hernandz here thank you could we have a District 202 roll call please here here here here here here here thank you all right well once again welcome to all of you and um we will have a formal welcome and we'll start with Dr Campbell uh good evening uh 202 boort District 65 board and our distinguished colleagues um Administration um we're always happy to host these uh joint meetings um there's often a lot of collaboration that happens between the districts that we'd like to

002lift up tonight uh Dr Turner and I like have a lot of on uh uh on the line and below the line conversations about what's happening around the lines uh conversations and um um you know we're always um um intentional about how we go about our interaction and our partnership and we're serving the same families here in Evanston and um welcome the two to awesome District 65 is really excited to be here tonight for our first joint meeting of this year uh I do want to just celebrate so we received some awesome news on Friday um King Arts is officially recognized as a magnet school with magnet schools of America and so it is like the official deal and so I just want to celebrate that that school team celebrate that school leadership team they

003have been working hard the past few years to really obtain this status and every year for at least the duration I can remember maybe two or three years they've received feedback and they've taken that feedback and they've made the correct and additions and modifications to their the programming that they offer the students there and so we are just excited at District 65 to celebrate them and so I want to just publicly name that and say way to go King Arts congratulations thank you it's always exciting to start the meeting with some really good news all right um Sergio yeah just want wanted to thank our our board colleagues here and the administration of 202 uh for inviting us and again just having this yearly conversation together so we can continue to collaborate and and ensure

004that we uh have smooth transitions right for the students that we all serve together as institutions here in this community I did also want to read a statement regarding uh some of the federal uh executive orders that are coming out that are concerning to the education committee not only here but across the country um and again something this is something we'll get to discuss a little bit uh much more deeper as part of our agenda item but in District 65 we believe every child deserves access to joyful enriching and high quality educational experience we know that for students to do their best learning they need to feel safe cared for and valued for who they are we are proud to support a team of Staff who go the extra mile every day in their dedication

005to fostering a supportive environment for their students and each other and to be a part of a community who cares deeply about having schools that work for all students like everyone else District 65 continues to monitor executive orders and actions at the federal level but I can assure our Community is that our efforts will remain unwavering and fostering inclusive and uplifting learning environments for students and staff of every race ethnicity religion ability level culture citizenship status sexual orientation and gender identity in District 65 we will continue to follow our current policies procedures and curriculum which are deeply aligned to our organizational and Community Values as well as Illinois state laws and educational requirements we want our students staff and families to know we will continue to do everything possible to make them feel safe and

006welcome in our scho schools then that's my statement thank you all right um anybody else have any other comments before we officially dive into the agenda if not the first item on the agenda is comments from the public and Dr bavis is going over to grab the sheet [Music] we have three comments from the public this evening but uh I just want to read out our uh guidelines for comments to the public okay speakers who have signed up for public comments will be invited in the order they signed up to address the board for up to 3 minutes I will keep time and Signal you at the end of two minutes as a mark of courtesy I will let you know it's time to stop at the 3 minute Mark in the event that becomes

007necessary speakers are asked to come forward and speak at the lecturn 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 comments but we'll listen carefully and will follow up as the boards deem appropriate so we have an interesting uh situation this evening we have three folks uh who have grouped their uh public comments so that's uh Robert Jones Pamela Staples and Steven Vic and if you all could come up to the podium uh we will we'll get started hello everyone hello the uh fact sheet that I'm going to pass out to the board uh to my left if you can pass it to each person thank you very much for that

008the fact sheets um basically we would like for this to be this document to be put in a public record and of course um if you can do that tonight that'd be great okay but what I'm going to do is actually just kind of read off some of the the points of our of the fact sheet I'm not going to read word for word but that's for your uh for your viewing but for the public it's just going to be these these facts I'm going to list below uh let me first start off by saying thank you very very much uh for having us uh thank you to the board The District 65 and 202 Our Community Partners and of course our parents and our students um uh I'll just start with just six points

009uh six and very very important points I want to start off with but number one um first of all my name is Robert uh Jones I am the board chair for the infant Welfare Society of Evon the address is 2200 Main Street in Evon Okay so number one if the federal government Cuts Early Head Start programming District 65 does not have an obligation to pay uh iwsc per per our sub subcontract agreement uh number two if District 65 returns Early Head Start slots to the office of Head Start uh two things to keep into consideration number one uh there is no guarantee the slots will come back to Evon number two uh 55 families could lose comprehensive and specialized subsidized care okay and the third point is that Evon has a growing need for Early

010Childhood slots now there are approximately at this moment about 150 to 200 additional families that actually need 0 to3 Early Head Start services and of course returning those slots to the office of Head Start is not supported uh by the data now number four uh infant Welfare Society of evon's uh 95.5% rating by office of Head in April of 2024 demonstrates a few things number one quality of our work the performance of our work and definitely the impact and success of our work the infant Welfare Society of Evanson enrollment is growing and currently projected at 87% align with teacher recruitment now empty slots are not reimbursed by The District 65 the sixth point I want to bring out is that the office of Head Start guidelines required that delicate slot reduction not negatively impact marginalized

011communities and of course marginalized communities uh include black latino indigenous Native American and specific Islanders and other people of color homeless uh DCFS Wards children with disabilities and dual language Learners okay I also want to uh just point out that our relationship uh not only with the district and and even our with the high school of course has been has been ongoing and of course these slots uh mean so much for the parents in our community and also the students in our community and we hope that your vote tonight would represent that that is represent pres in our students and our parents and what it can do for our actual Community thank you for that thank you that concludes this evening's public comment thank you all right so the next item on the agenda is

012um our discussion around the federal executive orders and uh Dr Campbell I think think we're going to start with you sure thank you uh Madam president um so I think um you know as um we consider what's happening at the federal level it makes me think about um how we pride ourselves and advon in our community on being so inclusive and these um these orders particularly the orders um targeting gender um initiative gender inclusion initiatives diversity and equity a front to our values and for for eths um complying with the orders would require us to be a school um that we we really try not to be um there was a a point in in our history where our black students could not swim in the pool and folks like hey power were fighting for

013black courses here at eths and I think we've worked for more than half a century uh at this at this institution uh to be more inclusive and we still have a lot more work to do right as we look at our data and we look at our our our spouse values and so these orders propose a very uh particular uh challenge for us um as a district to navigate um I will also say that we there's there are more questions than answers uh I'm sure both boards are aware of that and our administrations are aware of that and um I don't think that we really know um what the consequences will be and here at THS we are doing the best that we can to evaluate the situation and to um be ready to respond

014and we continue to assess the developments uh in terms of litigation uh there's a potential for uh an increase in OCR complaints uh complaints uh for those who oppose uh Dei initiatives or gender inclusive policy policies and so what's remains unanswered is how the state of Illinois will respond to these Federal directives as well um and so we are once again trying to figure that out too um we're prepared to stand by our work here in 202 uh and the merits uh of what we've been trying to do and um we're committed to that um and we're not only committed to that because of um of how we want to protect our students but it's also where our data tells us that we should be focusing on right uh we have data um as we

015disaggregate by race we know that there are disparities by race and so this isn't just a conversation about race to have a conversation about race the D the data tells us that we have we have work to do and so that's an open question like how do we comp if we were to comply how do you comply with an with an order like that when you data in your District tells you that you have to do something so um and I know that we're committed to to standing by our our work and being grounded uh in our in our values and so uh we cannot address racial disparities without talking about race and dealing with racially conscious uh policies and so this is an interesting time that we're living in and um we are preparing

016as best that we can and um um we're going to stand by our work work uh here at eths and um um watch the courts and listen to our attorneys and um also um um determine figure out where this is all going and determine what we do from after that um as far as what happens with um the Department of Education if OCR gets in the uh gets sorted and in Department of Justice etc etc all of those remain open questions that none of us really have answers to yet um but that's where we are and um um I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Dr Turner to maybe add or you know yeah I just want to thanks for sharing that Dr Campbell and I I want to just reemphasize uh essentially

017what you know Sergio has stated District 65 we continue we will continue to monitor the executive orders and actions at the federal level what we can assure our Community is that our efforts will remain unwavering and fostering an inclusive and uplifting learning environments for our students and our staff uh of every race ethnicity religion ability level culture citizenship status sexual orientation and gender identity and so for us what that looks like is our commitments will still remain to uh focus on rigorous standards align instruction for all of our students we will continue to emphasize uh social emotional learning and we'll continue to provide the wraparound mental health and support services to our students as we continue to uh undergo this I think you know you said it best we we have questions right and I

018think we share the same legal counsel um across District 65 and 202 and so we will continue to remain steadfast um KN to need with our legal counsil I think everyone is trying to figure it out across the world and so um we will continue to keep doing that for the students in this community as well thank you I think that um both of you uh very well stated and I I'm I'm proud of the values that we have here and um at in Evanston in uh both districts we have values and um and we've been very visible with our efforts to um support students uh all students um and we recognize that um that that this these these guidelines are coming very quickly and there's a lot we don't know um I've always been

019extremely proud of eths because we don't shy away from some of the hard um challenges in front of us uh I've seen this team pull together and tackle some of the most complicated issues uh that a community is faced uh and this certainly is up there I can't even think of anything bigger right now um but I I'm I'm I'm confident that we have been very explicit about our values over the years um and I and I think we all understand what what that is um that makes me feel um feel good although I realize that there are people out there who might question some of the work that we do and um so there will be lots of confusion and litigation we we can anticipate that um but I think that um even when

020we are faced with the pressure to comply um our values won't change and as Dr Campbell said uh our identity who we are won't change and cannot change uh Gretchen did all of that um I just wanted to add an important point that I think our superintendent um alluded to in his remarks um but I want to make it crystal clear for those who don't get in the Weeds on the legal issues involved here and that is executive orders and dear colleague letters do not carry the force of law we have a host of federal civil rights laws and we have some very strong Illinois civil rights laws um that remain the law that we follow um and nothing that has come out from the federal government in recent days in the form of either

021executive orders or dear colleague letters um Can overturn those laws without an act of Congress without an act of our state legislature so um it's it's not a matter for us really right now of pick picking and choosing what to follow we are in compliance with existing law and um that will remain so until a court tells us otherwise and I I I just think it's really important that's been highlighted by the lawyers and the Weeds on these issues um but I think it's a really important point that we need to highlight for everybody in our community and you know frankly across the country thank you other comments Biz I think um just in just like the law has not changed um the needs have not changed the reason we started doing this work still

022remain the vulnerable populations that we have tried to care for are still here um and if anything this moment is making them more vulnerable uh I think all of us have looked at data that has been about belongingness and has been about um the kind of quality of the student experience and I think I hope that all of us feel like that data isn't where we want it to be we know that that's connected to achievement as well and so I think uh you know I hope that as everyone if anybody tells you they know what's going to happen they're lying to you or they're lying to themselves um but what we do know is what we've always known is that these students exist these students deserve our care and commitment um and uh that

023if we really focus on making sure that in this moment where things can feel so certain they were very clear about making sure that what isn't uncertain is that they belong at District 65 and they belong in District 202 mayor your lights on yes I feel compelled to acknowledge of course the um PE scretch and that you're offering because it's really important um for us to understand the law and I also think about just the reality of hearing a government um try to wipe out our humanity and what that must um how that must be addressed and so this conversation while it's measured and we only can go so far um and I wish we could engage at a deeper level um I am very proud to be a part of this community and I

024think all of you and I also um and Rachel this is for you um I feel a deep sadness um that you're witnessing a government that would call us um people from a swamp or I won't even go into the details of what has been in there but the level like I said of wiping out our humanity and so we are elected officials that have to stand up in this moment because we are giving you a country um that is beyond a mess um and and so I just hope that our Unity here will be able to um when things as you say B you know are we couldn't even make up what's happening right now when it continues um that we are strong and that we will uh fight back so thank you cu

025yeah I just wanted to reiterate what everybody else is saying and support um Dr Campbell and Dr Turner and both districts and um just supporting our our commitment to our students um you know there's just so much scary unknowns but I do feel like we are committed to our students and these orders they can't change who we are they can't change the lived experience of our students um and we will honor that and um I also feel so lucky to be a part of this community knowing that everybody will protect our students our most vulnerable students um so I just wanted to State my support in that and um we'll be here every step of the way as all this work starts happening so great thank you just wanted to again do with every everything

026that's been said already um you know we have a say in the Latino Community luch the struggle continues right and I think um the struggle has been there before it's here now and it'll continue to be ongoing uh that's a struggle for Humanity the struggle to exist the struggle to be loved the struggle to have access to a good life um and we can call it civil rights we can call it human rights we can call it Dei but the struggle has always been there it'll always be here and again like everybody else has mentioned here I'm very proud to stand with all of you as colleagues who who really really care about your community um and uh it that that's I think what U brings me hope right and I think that's that's all

027we have you know to kind of work off as hope uh but but again if we're organized if we continue to stand for what our Community Values are and um and and unite together work together as institutions to protect what we believe as a community and protect Humanity the humanity of our of our children and future Generations I think we're going to continue to uh go far uh and we'll overcome this moment so again I just agreeing with what everybody's saying here but again just wanted to express my my gratitude and and pride and for all of you and for the community who's let who lets us serve uh uh and reflect the the the the um the values that you have uh and then we're going to try to continue to support uh despite

028this onslot against our Humanity thank you thank you thank you Bor thank you all oh I'm sorry okay thank you um so many people um I just wanted to say that um while you know we have no choice in this community and in our school districts but to stand by our work and um and that's what everyone's been saying but I think also I think um it's a time to not shy away from really talking about what that work is um because I think um a lot of the problem is there's such misinformation about what Dei is or about the lgbtq lgbtq plus Community um and so I think that as challenging as this is we have to use this as an opportunity to really get the truth out there about what what this work

029is why we do it and what results it it it uh provides thank you I don't know um I and I hope at this point everyone has seen uh the op ad uh that Dr Campbell wrote um it was published in Newsweek in January it's called um we don't tell me um in defense of equity is that right okay um it's very good and um very plainly discusses why we do this work um aside from the political issues so if you have not seen it or if you can't find it um get in touch with uh someone uh at eths and we'll make sure that you get the link it's it's pretty easy to find and then going back to what Gretchen was talking about earlier the uh the the uh State superintendent you know

030again talked about how we live in a state that mandates right it's the law for us to teach culturally responsive curriculum right we're supposed to teach about lgbtqia Native Americans Mexican Americans again it we we we are going to continue to following the law following the laws as they're written at this point until judges tell us otherwise um so again I think State superent put out something last week um and again it's just a really great statement kind of re reaffirming uh that that we have uh in in our state laws legislated to teach uh culturally responsibly to our students okay I'm going to move us along to the next item on the agenda which is the Dual language multi language supports and I don't know who's uh leading it here we go we have

031representatives from both districts who will introduce themselves at the microphone Lindsay both of you sh have both you just take a mic take an individual mic yeah gra yeah there you [Laughter] go and turn it on there we go good evening everyone uh good evening members of the 202 board and the District 65 board uh my name is Lindsay Rose and I'm the director of multilingual Services here at Evanson Township High School hello and thank you for your interest in learning more about our prek 8 dual language program at District 65 my name is Amy Cora and I am the also the director of multilingual services at d65 so we're looking forward to sharing with you all tonight um just an overview of our collaboration and our efforts um to align services for our emergent

032multilingual students so first things first how do we collaborate what do we do together and what are some of the efforts that we've been undertaking uh over the past few years um before we get started around the highlights here um I'd like to just take a moment to clarify some terminology that we use here at eths uh you all may be familiar with the term English language learner or English learner or emergent bilingual um instead of these terms here at ETS we have intentionally chosen to use assets based terminology so we use the term emergent multilingual and an emergent multilingual is any student who qualifies for what we traditionally call English learner services so a student who qualifies for services here at eths is an emergent multilingual and then any other student with proficiencies in

033another language is just a multilingual student we have a lot of those as well um I'd also like to just clarify before we dive in is that the designation or identification of an emergent multilingual student does not have any relationship or correlation to a student immigration residency or citizenship status em students are far from homogene genus and very greatly by country of origin language and literacy proficiencies socioeconomic status and racial identity so just an important note before we dive in okay so now the fun stuff about our collaboration um District 65 and 202 uh have established some routine touch points centered on the needs of our emergent multilingual students so in addition to our annual student level articulation meetings to inform the needs of our Rising 9th grade em students both of our districts now

034use elevation which is a software platform for em data progress monitoring and for Distributing parent notification letters and service letters uh this software adoption for District 65 included a data sharing agreement that now facilitates the transfer of em learner profiles and plans at an individual student level uh in 2023 you can see um I was invited to participate on the District 65 Middle School dual l anguage committee and in turn in 2024 I invited Amy CA to be a part of our dual language steering committee which included a site visit to Highland Park High School's dual language program last April and this was really the beginning to help us develop that shared vision of what a prek-12 dual language program could look like and now I'm going to invite Amy to give a brief introduction

035and background on our foundation District's two-way immersion dual language program so dual language program is a program model designed around the instructional needs of English Learners or how you say here at eths emergent multilingual students um with lasting benefits of all students both eels nons as well the a well-run dual language program is designed to foster three main goals which is bilingualism and biliteracy grade level academic achievement social cultural competence cognitive and quality of life uh benefits as well as positive identity also fit into the picture of the whole student so our shared dual language program goals according to research in dual language programs the need for a clear commitment to a vision and goals must be focused on bilingualism and biliteracy grade level academic achievement and social cultural comp competence and has been demonstrated

036in studies and advocated by dual language education teachers and administrators administrators as a critical aspect of a successful model research on effective schools also has shown the successful outcomes result from a program model that is grounded in sound Theory and best practices associated with an enrichment not a remediation instructional model something that um us multilingual people know already is that multilingualism is a lifelong Endeavor and it doesn't stop at one grade level or when you reach a certain reading level or when you can say things really well in your other language and so by really embracing the idea of a prek-12 trajectory of dual language we are embracing what we know about the multilingual brain it's that there are lifelong benefits to communities to education and to schools and so by joining forces is with

037District 65 we're really looking forward in supporting the full development of our students linguistic repertoire and their lifelong trajectories so dual language in d65 and actually in 202 the next slide um what I I want us all to kind of picture is this umbrella that's dual language education under that there are several models n d65 we have the developmental bilingual which is our current Middle School School model which this program is designed to develop both in Spanish and English for our E's or our multilingual imerg emerging multilinguals um and when we get into preschool what we have is a oneway immersion program which is students that share the same linguistic home language um with very proficiencies in both Spanish and English are taught together and when they move up to K through five we have

038the two-way immersion program but also the Dual language program that started this year which I'll be going into in it shortly um of having sixth through e8th grade being dual language and we'll kind of talk about why that is a little different but they both are the same thing they are students are designed for both native Spanish Els or emergent multil M students and um also they are uh for our native English speakers as well and students learn together in the same classroom that's a purpose and we're going to add in this Continuum the importance of having Grade 9 through 12 to have a successful Pathway to succeed in college which you're going to do in grades 9 and 12 that's the idea uh yes our program here um will include all of the students

039that Amy's mentioned um and will be specifically centered around the needs of our emergent multilingual students but newcomer students who speak Spanish students who participated in two-way immersion programming at District 65 will be invited to participate as well so um isbcs the the Dual language um dual language is a strongly research to show that the most successful is is most successful for our e students and our TBE transitional bilingual students is what the state is considered the our bilingual education and it has an e Focus so dual language programs are specifically designed to support English Learners we have the TBE framework and these programs are we we could we provide instruction in both languages across content and core subjects and we also have the ISB recognizes that in dual language programs include both our our

040English learning or emergent I'll get it by the end of the night ENT multi students um and and at the same time our non students right to facilitate language acquisition for all of them so some are learning English and some learning Spanish together I want uh this is a a a colier and Thomason uh research of over 32 years and it was studied and it's pretty uh I think a lot of people have seen it I want you to kind of focus on the very top because there it shows that the programs with the best performance and outcomes for our English Learners multilingual emergent multilingual students is a dual language program either one way or two-way I want you to notice that we end at d65 by Between the seventh and Ninth Grade I want

041you to notice how much further students will go if we can continue on to the high school MH the research that Thomas and Kier have really put out and they just recreated the this meta analysis in 2010 shows that there exponential benefits When dual language programs are continued through the high school level that's that's where you really getting that promise of the three pillars and if you stop the program before then then you're really missing out on the the treasure chest at the end our new dual language Middle School um we have a 5050 instructional design that means that 50% of their instructional day is in Spanish and 50% is in English in Spanish we have Spanish language arts Science and Mathematics and in English we have English language arts social studies and all the

042specials this graph is very complicated but I just want you to notice that the note the amount of Spanish Immersion in grades K and one that's 80 % of their instructional day is in Spanish and 20% in English in K And1 and they slowly start adding more and more English until fourth grade where they are at 5050 the research says that dual language programs should should not be under 5050 so we will continue it from fourth through 8th grade and members of my board this is precisely what we were talking about at our last board meeting is that our students spend such a significant amount of time investing in their literacy skills and in their foundational conceptual knowledge in Spanish and to not recognize that and maximize it when they reach us is uh disservice

043to those students we are sharing our both our districts are sharing many assessments and this has been intentional for us at d65 um when uh our collaboration we thought it would be a really good um practice to make sure we had similar assessments so we really could see that growth from the K through 12 in in both languages so if you notice there some will be in Spanish and English and some are just English and some are just Spanish and the Apple we re we did after uh knowing that that's something that you use in order to place our students and we decided to use it for the middle school not just 8th grade in order to make sure that students are get practice with the test and really have a basis to go on

044in their Spanish AC acquisition m the Dual language middle school expansion rollout as many of you may know uh Betsy roads is very first year at at the middle school um for sixth grade next year Betsy roads will have a six sth grade dual language program in our district and then by the year 2026 27 the Foster School opens and then all sixth seventh and eighth grade students from Betsy roads will go to Haven um as their middle school and that year we're also starting a standalone Middle School number two we're in the process of having STP three to have parents and stakeholders be part of the conversations on wh recommendations on where that second building should be we add one year at a time and then in 2027 our third and last Standalone Middle

045School will begin sixth grade and then slowly go grade by grade till 2029 2030 which all our dual Lang all our middle schools will have a dual language program if we have enough uh students in the program because this is something we we're going to discuss when we talk about the next slide so this is really projections for eths right now the our projections Al ultimately parents are determined if students will go to um to the Dual language program if they're English dominant um this will serve as their eel um program model for the um English language English language students um so that will be theirs but if all of the students in our program were to go these are the numbers that you can fact um that are coming up to um eths and

046these projections are projections that we're using um we are starting in the fall U we're very excited to have our first course of Spanish language arts we're going to take a look at what that's going to look like in a second um but I think one of the factors that we all know as community members that impacts the attrition of students from a program a specialized program is why do I stay in it what's the point right and so by having a Continuum where you can see the benefits at the high school level you can engage in content area courses and rigorous accelerated courses in Spanish is a really great reason to stay in and we're excited that um we're going to be offering a a variety of programs that will ultimately culminate in our

047students uh participating in dual credit and college be credit bearing courses um so a little bit about our mergent multilingual student body here at eth s um we know that uh the largest student group of emergent multilingual students are our Spanish speakers over 65% of our students who qualify for emergent multilingual Services speak Spanish as a home language and the vast majority of whom were part of the twe program in District 65 that is a huge factor in developing our programs and service models so that there's some uh you know congruency and how we support our students we also know looking at our data here at District at District 202 uh which uh students with Spanish as a Heritage language um are a really big student group we have over 800 multilingual students here at

048the high school and 500 of whom have Spanish as a home language with this student group in mind we know based on our course enrollment data that less than half of the Spanish-speaking emergent multilingual students here at eths are enrolled in Spanish Heritage courses we also know that this student group also represents less than a quarter of the students who took the AP Spanish exams so language and lit in school year 23 so what we have is an enormous opportunity to strengthen the connection between dual language programming K5 68 912 to create this seamless transition and an opportunity for historically linguistically marginalized students and their families to particip ipate in accelerated Pathways and language studies in preparing to launch dual language programming here at eths we're joining the efforts in the commitment to the three

049pillars of dual language education um when you know prospective families in District 65 have their kids getting ready for kindergarten information night and they're considering applying to the Dual language program the three pillars are touted as you know the goal posts for dual language programming but we know that that commitment takes more than 5 years takes more than seven years and in some cases it takes 12 years right and really developing the full linguistic repertoire of our students um we are committing to that effort of creating an Ecology of multilingualism we recognize that multilingualism is an advantage and an asset and we're ready to support our students in achieving not only the Seal of biliteracy which saves students and families significant amounts of money in post high school studies but also in exploring the idea

050of the Seal of dual language which some which some neighboring high schools have already been able to achieve for their dual language graduating students this year is a sample of a dual language program model at the high school level we showed this to our board at our last board meeting and it's an exciting look into what dual language can be in the fall we're re we are preparing to launch our first year of Spanish language arts courses for our incoming n9th grade dual language students from District 65 we're also inviting any student who has Spanish as a home language and can demonstrate Spanish proficiency and newcomer Spanish speakers into the program and as we continue to look ahead and plan and Implement we're looking to expand across the content areas as well as the elective

051areas because language which is happen everywhere it happens in a driver's head class it can happen in a biology class and so really looking at our staffing and our ability to offer courses that we're already offering but in Spanish so the future is looking bright uh we have a lot of projects and opportunities planned for our shared collaboration and our work um we are looking for ways to support our teachers across districts and programs because dual dual language education is very specialized instruction and so there are a lot of ways in which we can collaborate um and we're looking to create that vision for the prek-12 trajectory across both our districts where all of our students are recognized for their amazing assets and linguistic resources and yeah we can't wait to get started so any

052questions thank you it's really also awesome to see the two of you you working together collaborating and uh really talking about even using the same terms across the district so really good and I learn so much every time I hear you okay questions Sergio thank you I thank you both for collaboration and again I know you have a history with us uh so again I I just it is um for me this has been a a lifelong dream to to see uh living in this community to see how both districts can collaborate and again make really create these Booth transitions for for a marginalized student population right um and um I think you know for me as an educator um that's I think where we lose a lot of our kids right um in the

053transitions between all of these um uh different uh transition points right from prek to um you know to kindergarten to you know to kindergarten to you know just formal Elementary School from elementary to middle and and the middle to the high school and and and on and on right um and the issue there and I don't know if there's enough research on it uh but I've seen it anecdotally uh as when when I was teaching it is that again it's these transitions where we lose some of our most vulnerable kids because they just don't have the resources and it again the the systems don't talk to one another so the uh and don't collaborate so it's really exciting to see uh again just this intentional approach now to to to ensuring that our staff is

054going to be meeting with one another uh there'll be visits to the middle school and vice versa um I know I think about our Early Childhood Program a couple of years ago we were having the kindergarten Vis teachers you know chat with the um uh with the prek teachers and we had like an early childhood Summit again seeing you know events like that that could get Educators together to collaborate with one another and really you know talk about what they do within their realm and then make the connections and draw a line for their student students is is I think what's going to make uh a really really profound impact in in educational practice and as well eventually outcomes right so the more we do this right I think it's just U again it's just

055a boon ultimately for our students and for our community uh so again this this can be a model of how we do things right um and I know again as we look at at all our different student populations um again we we really just have to always be intentional and I think we do really try to do a good job as as districts and partner institutions to to really try to to make something like this happen so again I appreciate the work that you and your teams are doing um uh collaborating uh on behalf of this particular student population thank you thank you other questions other comments well thank you again oh sorry B I just have a granular like question I I think we everybody's on board for the the larger scope of it

056um but thinking about I'm thinking about the like like the next two to three years of adaptation in the middle school and how important it is going to be for this to be like for people to clearly have articulated what the benefits are because I I think about the social decisions of joining or not joining in a in a middle school transition coming from a um a tweet program but full disclosure all three of my kids did tweet so like the the social pieces of a one strand twe going to middle school kind of all those things so as we think about um really trying to make sure that this is as attractive as possible and that as many people as possible are capitalizing on in the next couple years I think having a Clear

057Vision of what it's going to look like at the high school is going to be really important um so for a fifth grader family trying to decide whether they're going to do this for all of middle school being able to see okay this is what you would gain access to at the high school that you wouldn't gain access to if you went a the more traditional pathway um for languages so I I hope that as we um that this collaboration is great and if you watch old board meetings this is a question I've been asking a lot of like okay so how do we make sure that you all prep are prepared for the numbers that could take advantage of this um but also making sure that we're setting up the program as successfully as

058possible by making so like i' I'd like to see representatives of the high school at the sessions that we're having for fifth grade families talking about that this isn't just a middle school decision but this this would open up these kind of doors um so that people can see kind of the what the long-term investment looks like because I think particularly for our more marginalized students I think there's you know fear for families of like well you know am I making a choice that is going to have limit them in any way and so being able to illustrate like here's all the things that get open to your student by making this choice I think is going to be it's going to be really important so as we think about the roll out you know

059we we're in a um in an interesting position that our roll out is happening at Bessie roads which is a school that is being closed so I I think that there's um some need to be really intentional about the roll out at other middle schools and making sure that people see the long-term benefit and vision because I think this could be one of the more exciting things that any of us have been involved in um in terms of what the doors open for folks um but I think the implementation could be y could derail us all right so really thinking about what does that mean for us to partner in that transition is going to be really important yeah absolutely we want to we want to be as supportive as possible so that your middle

060school roll out and expansion is as successful as possible um so any way that we can do that you know we're absolutely on board uh we want to see dual language Thrive and we want to be able to offer as many courses and you know cross content courses electives as possible but that's going to be dependent on enrollment numbers um so you know anything that we can do in solidarity for those efforts we're absolutely on board okay our student rep is here Rachel uh Rachel has a comment as well yeah hi everyone sorry I was a little late um well this is actually related to something you just said but um I was a student in twe for from kinder well I went to um what's it called I did District 65 prek and so

061I did Spanish from prek to now and I'm a Heritage speaker from home um but I do like agree that a lot of people get discouraged from taking these like higher level classes because there's such a like harsh stop after fifth grade going into sixth grade um but what you were saying about having like these additional courses being taught in Spanish um when you showed the like the schedules or like the classes that could be uh done in Spanish um a big like like a hard difference that I had and like transition I had to make from fifth grade and all of elementary school where I had span or math taught to me in Spanish um when I got into which I'm sure it's like a comedy experience but like when I got into Middle

062School um I was kind of learning just the vocabulary along with the math and I think that was like the hardest transition I had to make and I was wondering like would there be any chance of like there being kind of like biter uh teachers being able to do like multilingual teaching along with like just the fully dual like language content you know yeah I think you bring up a really great Point Rachel and I think um what we hear from our students is just what you articulated it's it's a night and day switch right I've spent all this time learning all this content all science or math whatever it may be in a language and then it just switches to another language and we know that that's not how the multilingual brain works that

063we're always using all of our languages simultaneously and so something that we're going to be engaging with and we've already done lightly here at the high school is a terminology that I'm sure you're familiar with it's translinguistic teaching right uh I'm a bilingual person and you're a bilingual person so we can actually engage in a lot of instruction across our languages right it doesn't have to be strictly separated um and I think that's a big um you know it's a newer uh kind of Paradigm in the Dual language World um and it's something that we absolutely need to engage here especially um because we have staff who are you know Spanish English multilingual and they have students who share languages and when they tap into that it's like a light bulb goes off like oh

064my gosh this is so much easier to just like clarify this quick concept or to do this quick translinguistic piece um and so as we explore where how and when we're going to offer courses in Spanish we also want to just create a school that is more cognizant and aware of multilingualism right how multilingual brains work how multilingual thinkers think and accept that multilingualism in monolingual spaces right in math class in you know science classes there's a lot of advantages to doing that um and so I think that's going to be an essential component of of how we think about dual language but also just how we think about the greater Ecology of multilingualism here at the high school thank you great okay I don't want to cut anybody off so I'm going to look

065really good here so thank you again thank you for modeling that um articulation and how it can work and absolutely the kind of questions that we should be asking as kids move through the grades absolutely thank you all very much thank you all right our next item um is the social emotional learning updates and I believe uh Dr Campbell and Dr Turner and now we have two representatives from both districts who will introduce themselves at the table all right okay pull a little more all right with any luck we'll be ready to go aha something's happening yep all right we had to get the tech first then we can do introductions that's exactly right good to see everybody um my name is Dr Ty Kinsey and I'm the assistant superintendent principal at eths uh good

066evening I'm Brian Harris I'm the manager of culture and climate for District 65 all right so we are excited to be able to talk with you all this evening about alignment and not just us in our collaboration but thinking about how seal truly aligns with everything that both of our districts are about our board goals our strategic priorities our commitment to the well-being of our students our families our staff but also the belief that we all are responsible for so we're going to highlight that through a few we will not be going to Great depth we're going to highlight a few pieces that we've been working on um that align with each other onal and professional learning and mtss when we're thinking about interventions and then um data and [Applause] outcomes so what is social

067emotional learning social emotional learning is an intrical part of education and human development seal is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities manage emotions and Achieve Personal and Collective goals feel and show empathy for others establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions so all schools will receive with one of our goals as a district 65 is all schools will receive the resources necessary to create safe healthy and welcoming learning environments and will be equipped to meet the unique academic and social and emotional needs of each and every student so you can see we have the thread social emotional learning equity and access and um as we think about the District 202 board goals Equity centers through everything

068and that is inextricably interl with social emotional learning and as we think about our fiscal accountability our community engagement and Partnerships all of these things thread together with also our post High School planning we know that social emotional learning is an ongoing requirement for post High School planning literacy is threaded throughout as well so we're excited to be able to talk a little bit more about that so our seal professional learning opportunities in District 65 um seal and behavior in our ntss framework we do offer Crisis Prevention intervention training which is CPI um last year I created uh the escalation training because with CPI what often happens is you can you pay for a certain number of seats you're allowed of those number of seats and then you know those individuals participate in the training

069however you have a whole plethora of Staff who could also use um some training and some learning when we're talking about de escalating students so we don't have to get to the point of physical management with our students so we really want to hone in on being proactive in terms of how do we deescalate a situation before it becomes a crisis uh restorative classroom ambassadors uh with our kway Educators restorative conferences and encouraging repair and resp uh restoration and that's very important because we do work off of a behavioral response Continuum when we're talking about consequences for behaviors or responses to behaviors maladaptive behaviors um so we want to make sure that everybody is uh getting the tools and their toolkit to learn how to do rest restorative conferences and conversations with students and or

070possibly Educators and students uh Middle School caregiver learning sessions regarding mental health and Beyond diversity training which is led by our district Equity team so oural programming at mtss at District 65 um two to four tier one lessons uh per month for prek and eighth grade students and the content is embedded in those connections oural Universal screener for students and Educators three times a year and that's Sabers that just started this year Sabers and my Sabers our student surveys Panorama our 5 e our interventionist interventionist uh K through 8th grade our face leads on supporting students in the fourth through e8th grade level so uh last year actually the last three years our face leaon were specifically working with our middle school students so the thought was why wait until middle school to start really

071focusing in and honing in on this we need to be working at fourth and fifth grade especially noticing after Co we saw a a heightened uh number of behaviors that we didn't see at at the middle school level but at the elementary school level before so really just tackling you know and establishing relationships once again being proactive with our elementary schoolers instead of waiting to Middle School let's start working with our fourth and fifth graders early so then by the time they hit that Middle School uh age or you know get to high school they already have the skills they need to be successful um our seal classes for Kinder first and fourth graders and we do have middle school counselors for 6th through 8th grade so just looking at it you know you have

072faith Liaisons you have counselors you have social workers you have a whole uh plethora of support for all of our students and seal Behavior mtss framework U through monthly behavor Behavior attendance and grade data analysis all right so you're going to see again the threading um and the great minds think alike with District 65 and 202 thinking about our mtss work our CPI um work and thinking also I'm going to note this our mental health um in the classroom and Beyond is specifically similarly focused on how are we making sure to train all of our staff who are in the class classro for how do we manage for deescalation and externalizing you spoke to it very well around CPI and the cost for an entire District but we do maintain that CPI certification for the

073required individuals um for the state and our culturally responsive seal embedded um instruction with our social emotional academic integrationist um and then we have Myriad opportunities as we think about the professional learning for our staff our our Rebel human work our black and breathing seal and Athletics we're really excited about our new um assistant um athletic director focused on Student Success and well-being and there have been so many steps taken with regard to that including um Pilots that have been worked on with all of our athletes as well as coaches and Families Our Equity learning teams that occur throughout the year and Beyond diversity as we think about how we Center equity and our restorative practices so we're we're working through a very large system so we're now at 33% of our staff have been

074trained in restorative practices which will be our ongoing work um thinking about mtss and our tiers so tiers two and three three is the very few kids two tier two is we're talking about 10 to 15% of kids and tier one is we're talking about 80 to 100% of students so as we think about that we have so many we're so fortunate to have so many interventions thinking about restorative practices as alternative to suspensions but not just alternative suspensions students have been trained and that's part of our when I think about our goals and our Community Partnerships and the Moran Center collaborative and our Equity team and our um restorative practices coordinator coming together and holding circles and initiating that as a powerful um not just act of of intervention but as prevention too our

075trcy interventions our SST our student um support team and IEP interventions so those are all so many steps that are being taken and we know that while we're doing those things our tier one is critical so we're going to talk a little bit about that in a moment but we do all of these components the well-being surveys um just like District 65 Prime students for for us with that we have seal univers screeners and curriculum and one of the things that we're going to talk about tonight a little bit is our cell phone practices cuz we know that some of the changes that we're going to talk about with regard to outcome is never things are never for one reason right all of this fits together as a big puzzle our Safety and Security we

076have new scanning and entry processes Dr Kinsey's wearing her batch so um signed of suicide and prevention and expanding that to all grade levels now um we did do that with freshmen previously and we've expanded that our fentanyl overdose prevention and expansion to all grade levels and I want to pause for a second because all of this is important but building belonging has been a center for what we're doing we know that it's for both districts and I think about our student summits I think about the ways that our students are driving forward the know your rights events that they are hosting here within the school and inviting community members in to speak to their to the club sometimes it's student without students Without Borders sometimes it's others the know your rights um initiative and

077our evening events that we held have been tremendous and all the ways that we're redefining building belonging and standing with our values so I want to again applaud um both of our districts for that and last but certainly not least we know that the act of instruction embeds all these components and we're really proud of that and how that helps all of our students in terms of academic performance in terms of all of our goals and strategic priorities this is another moment for pause look at those beautiful faces these are our District 65 and 202 students because we know that that's why we're here we're going to stay centered on our students you may recognize one who is at the board table right now all right so our data and outcomes thanks um so our

078Sabers and my Sabers data Sabers is the education educator survey ofal needs for students and our uh Educators identified that 86% of students are considered lowrisk the mys saers is a student survey ofal needs for students in grades 2nd through 8th and 82% of students are considered are considered themselves uh low risk uh when I look at the numbers when we look at the numbers we have to make sure that we we say 100% of our students are at risk right and so we need to keep our our foot on the gas and on the pedal and making sure that we're trying to provide the supports we can to all of our students I know we're stretched thin but all of our students need the support in some area so for our Panorama survey uh

079for fifth through eighth graders and and going back to what Dr keny was saying the sense of belonging metric Rose from 51% in school year 23 24 to 58% in school year 2425 and our well-being at seal positive responses reached an alltime high of 73% this fall so you know I think because our staff our district is is uh being more intentional about uh touch you know reaching our kids communicating with kids establishing relationships with our students um and making sure that they're available um to have conversations when things are coming up or when students are feeling big emotions um we we're seeing the data go up and going moving in a positive direction and so over the past three years the number of level threes fours and five behavior incidents decreased significantly from uh

0801,21 in school year 2 2 23 to 623 this school year at this time so students with IEP saw a substantial decline in total incidents from 1,604 in school year 2324 to9 in school year 2425 along with the dro in high severity incidents from 360 to 301 so I think that speaks volumes to the work that everybody is doing in our buildings um our administrators our social workers our our counselors our fac Leons um lunchroom supervisors everybody everybody teachers everybody's playing a role and and I think you know students are are buying into that all right following in line with thinking about the systems that we have in place and how those support social emotional learning and wellbeing so when we um instituted B tobell noell uh Last Summer with our official roll out in

081August this is part of what we saw this is feedback from staff and students um this first semester which is that we got feedback from our students that 97% of our students after having had this implementation in the experiences without cell phones in classrooms um really know what to do and 91% of our of our teachers report that students are engaged in classwork and discussion which is up from 53% in 202 too so we're really happy about the level of Engagement yeah I just saw that look um and then relationship development students are building relationships with their teachers this is their report 82% and then with their classmates really believing this is true at 86% and 89% of our teachers report they are effectively building relationships with students and we these were the threads of

082of the feedback that we received after this survey and the documentation classroom community and how critical it is that 91% of our students said they believe they contribute to a positive classroom Community with the eths cell phone requirements 82% of students spend time talking with classmates 91% of teachers report engaging him back and forth the dialogue that's so critical to have that engaging Lively environment and looking at increases from 71% in 2022 to 82% of teachers seeing that back and forth dialogue between students so as we think about Al all our systems feeding into how do we function as a school had to give a quick shout out that might be our board president in one of those you can see if you can find her as we are preparing for how are we going

083to get all of our students in the building scanning in right as a brand new initiative to ensure safety and well-being and so we spent a lot of time talking about stanions which you can see Pat Savage Williams Madam president um as we did that and it's been a tremendous success similarly when we think about all the reasons why we're going to look at this data we know it's many reasons why we're seeing positive outcomes from the classroom to the hallways to the specific interventions to to the systems so we're really happy to report that when we compare last year first semester to this year first semester we've had a 46% decrease in harassment and intimidation 31% decrease in unauthorized presence 9% decrease in fighting and 12% decrease in overall unique incidents and we know

084again that is thanks to everyone in the building including our students and our families so every year we have um always had a well-being survey and we have developed further that Focus to be about belonging and so this was from last year's um belonging survey that we administered to students with over almost a 70% um reporting rate so those are just a few of the voices of our students talking about the meaning of their teachers to them this teacher tells me what I'm capable of reassuring me what I am and reminding me that they are always here no matter what another student said every time they see me in the hallway they ask how I'm doing another student said they treat me like a person not just their student the another student said the teacher

085I feel connected to always tries their best to connect with me as a person and then another example is she asked me how my day has been how my weekend was she also assur ensures that I understand and feel confident in doing the classworks material and Mr Harris I already spoke to this Al also and there's been that continued threat intentionality and that relationship development so similarly we agreed that we wanted to take this moment also as we think about our relationships one of the things that we want everyone in our districts to do our students our families our board members our staff members is practice acknowledge carel as an act of prevention and that means if anyone shares we want to acknowledge that if there's a concern about harm to self or others we

086want to know that we want to acknowledge it we want to let them know we care and we want someone to tell and that applies to each and every one of us specifically our students all right so looking ahead as we focus on seal building belonging and board goals so we were pausing here because we have a quote from Goldie Muhammad um just to say again it's intentionality we should look at ourselves question our intentions and actions before we think about how we're teaching children or engaging families and colleagues and we have we have to keep that Center at every moment so self-awareness and uh responsible decision making relationship skills which is really at the Forefront um social awareness and self-management so Mr Harrison I've been practicing all of those right now um but that

087concludes our presentation so any questions excellent uh Dr Campo has something to say to our District 65 colleagues Goldie Muhammed is going to be here Friday and you all are welcome to come and hear her speak to I think I told you a while ago but you all you probably forgot you just okay you all are welcome to come what time what time it's in the morning it's like a 9:00 I think now yeah we right okay questions Joey it's not a question I just want to thank you both for the presentation and um really want to just double down on the d65 exclusionary discipline data um it's really been getting better over time and like the first step in all of the systems being able to work is keeping kids in the buildings caring

088for them and uh I know it's been years in the making so to see that continue is uh really positive thank you yeah excellent yeah I really want to just again punctuate that again just the the belonging piece right and um um I think having that adult right in these times that particularly in the high school um and I even thinking about middle school right now but it's just that time in in human development where things are just so awkward and things there so so many things going on your body's going through all these changes and uh to have uh somebody that's not your parents because you can't stand your parents at that point you don't want to hear anything from them your friends mean everything but having that other adult right for a lot

089of kids and particularly for most marginal K that having that one adult that you can trust that's not your parents who you can't stand is just uh a uh lifechanging it's lifechanging and and I'm sure folks can attest to that you know people will ask you you know you've been asked oh what's your favorite teacher you know that that that one teacher that you remember right it's just the one I remember just changed my life I changed my trajectory this was in eth grade so again I think I I just really appreciate the emphasis on on that belonging piece uh and then and just ensuring that we continue to to really focus on that um and how we train our staff um all our staff um and how we interact with you know with with

090the students uh in our care um and I think it's just so so so critical um and then and for the cell phone piece again really appreciate seeing that data and I I I I would love to for us to explore again here's talking about transitions again I'd like to explore that in the middle school right I think you know in this age where again our teenagers are and every actually all of us um are are can get so stuck on on on on social media and get and get taken over by the algorithms and curate our own realities right and just get stuck uh and and and seeing others do things but then us feeling inadequate you know I think we need to find a way to break that and and the way to

091break that is to again I think is trying to slowly wean us off um the algorithms that that have come to dominate Modern Life for all of us not just the kids but but adults as well so you know so that's something that I think as a district we should explore at least in the middle school so then that that transition um and and those numbers that are happening here in 202 actually are improved and it also improves for us uh which again will pay dividends academically as well as social emotionally so yeah and and speaking to your point in regards to the to uh adults in the building so I was telling Dr keny as I walked into the building today I'm like 31 years ago I was expelled from the school right because

092I didn't have I didn't feel like I had that adult that sense of belonging and that adult to connect with and so you know just the work that we're doing right now at the high school level and at the kiway level making sure that adults are present for all students making sure that adults are connecting with all of our students and really being intentional about that is going to make a difference in in all of our students lives cuz it starts with us absolutely yeah I'm really encouraged by all the work that's being done in both districts and really appreciate how you're thinking about it across all different age groups um I love how you know we we had you know basically Aon in sixth or eighth grade but now we're looking at um earlier

093ages for fifth graders so that you know we are able to develop that sense of belonging and adults that you trust even earlier because a lot of times things start early and then they just continue to build over time um the one question I do have and you talked a little bit about it but we love to hear more about just how you think about sense of belonging in particular at those transition points right so sixth grade ninth grade those points where students are moving to other schools or going through other big transitions um I know that you all do a lot of work thinking about that and we just love to hear a little bit more about it sure I'll I'll start with the moving into ninth grade um one of the things that

094we do want students to understand is that we're really working to communicate when they come for incoming freshman information night it is not just that we're thinking about oh are you going to be in athletics or you going to be in this club all of which are amazing things and opportunities but you're part of our family now and you we want you to know that and there's going to be lots of ways that you can feel that and so emphasizing that and we do have right in the spring coming up soon um for our incoming freshmen our activities and Athletics fair right to really think about and make sure to get ahead of here are the opportunities so that you you're doing that for the summer um and we we'll have again our lgbtq plus

095um welcome event for students and families just as part of transitions to the high school thank you yeah and and as a district I think with with the counselors and the social workers and Fa Le zones all collaborating with each other and now with the face leison not just being housed in Middle Schools but also being housed in the elementary schools as well you know they're a touch point for any student that's going to make Transition or or go to another school um the one thing I would say though I feel like we need to do a better job is making that transition from 8th grade to 9th grade because 9th grade could be traumatizing for some students so how do we work together to make sure that we're we're the bridge we can bridge

096that for students as as they move into to high school yeah and I just want to add I feel like for our fifth graders going to sixth grade we do have you know transition meetings where they get to come we have welcoming nights and it's different events that middle schools put on in the summer just to kind of ease that anxiety of transitioning from fifth grade to sixth grade I like the fact that we have now shifted our face Liaisons to working with our students at fourth and fifth grade and they're working in the feeder pattern so as those students are transitioning they have that adult that they're connecting with who already knows the staff at the middle school and it's making it easier to bridge that Gap and so um I would agree 100%

097we we are heavily resourced on the seal side in District 65 but but it's good to see that we're seeing you know the return on the investment for that um and the impact that it's having on transforming students lives so that's the piece we want to just continue to be thoughtful about and intentional as you know all of the change we have going on in 65 as well I'd like to give a shout out to District 65 because there's been so much of that intentionality to support the transition um and I'm thinking about the the counselors right in the middle school and really preparing them so that our incoming freshmen come to summer school and really set them up for Success we you know connect with them we do all those compon that has been

098really gamechanging and then connect them to other adults in the building so there have been lots of shoutouts um to the middle school counselors the fa liaison um so it's it's really powerful and many kids start that in the high school already understanding oh yeah I want to talk to a social worker and that's been for a long time even when I was a social worker here so so that's another great thing Pat and then Mir um thank you this was a great report and really great to see it all together and connected um I guess I want to go to our earlier conversation and mirror raising the point that yes Gretchen's right the law is the law and we're still abiding by it and yes some of this won't come to pass but right

099now our kids are hearing horrible things and and I guess I wonder I know we have a lot in place that will be right there for them if they need it to yesterday or today but um I'm just wondering how that influences the work and you're thinking about all that you're doing and maybe new things you want to do Etc so at the k2a level um we have to make sure that we are having sharing circles um um and not pretending like certain things are not going on because certain topics are coming up in the classrooms on the playground and the lunch room and so when they do um you know uh building leaders have reached out to me to say hey can we do a restorative can we do a sharing Circle and not

100waiting until things are spiraling out of control so really making sure that we're getting ahead of it being proactive um sometimes we're reactive but making sure that we're not delaying the process of having a open conversation great thank you yeah and I think at the high school level one of the things we've been really asking everyone for is what's your feedback what what do students need that you're thinking let's think outside the box with this right or what is your finger on the pulse and we're always asking for those things but we're asking for it differently now um and staff have done a great job of saying okay what else can I do right how can I be of service or of support and make sure students know this message of you do belong here

101here every single one of you um and so that's that's been great I mean just on Thursday when we had an event it was amazing because it was our students Without Borders who took the initiative they brought in um an attorney who actually was originally from Afghanistan and they coordinated all of this they did the panel they did everything and it was during the day so those are examples of where we're also trying to lift our students in their advocacy as well and without putting Rachel too much on on um the front and center you know I think your work that you've already been doing with the equity team really highlights that too do you want to speak to that for a moment that's basically my entire board report today but yeah um I can

102talk about it now but yeah on um Thursday I think I mentioned this at our last um board meeting we had our our solidarity space for the Latina and Hispanic students and um I think that the whole thing you were talking about getting feedback from students recently um I mean we as a student union had the student voice Forum where we got 800 student opinions all in one day but that was at the beginning of the SE at of the first semester and so lots of things have changed since that like in the political climate and just in general so um I think it just speaks to like eths is like all of our restorative practice like spaces and everything um that we continue asking our students like how they feel and their sense of

103belonging and how we can kind of improve that in any way possible but yeah I can talk about it more in my student report more in details I should also name that there were things that I was hearing that um I didn't like um students joking about ice detentions and so forth so I came over the PA and address the students and really said we're not doing that right um now's the time that we wouldn't at any time we wouldn't be doing that and really setting some expectations about who we are and what we strive to be and um those um those conversations and sentiments will be will be ongoing um yeah miror and then you want to just follow up to what go ahead okay um my mind is like zipping around with so

104many things too and we try to stay really focused um one you're sharing your expulsion it it thank you and it makes a lot of sense um to think about then how much you can offer us as we learn and think about how to improve so um I wanted to address that I also was thinking about the call to um think about cell phone limitations as they exist in the 65 um and I would love uh to have that articulation conversation I think it could really help us here even more um personally I would like to see more limitations occur but I would be um curious what is done um at elementary and middle school I realized I don't know um and so so I think that's critical for us um and then forgive me

105um I just want to say when you mentioned CU you P when the law won't always be maybe on our side and so we've seen that so many times um before where obviously a law is embedded with deep level of um racism sexism Etc and so I just that keeps coming to mind like I'm glad we have this moment and we do have the law on our side but at some point if it isn't yeah um that's what we're really talking about as well so I'm sorry to digress but I just needed to say that um I I appreciate all the adult work that has been happening in both of our districts I think you know a lot of this data is showing that intentionality and commitment as we're thinking about the transitions um I'd

106love for us to see how to utilize students more um you know I know like ambassadors and and and and different programs are the welcoming face but like as we think about populations that are more vulnerable In This Moment having like the LGBT thing for incoming freshmen have a reception before or after with actual lgbtq students from 202 to ask like what is it like here what's going to happen right what's what do I need to worry about um for our undocumented students like what for what for every population I think the staff has been killing it and doing a wonderful job but how do we um you know adults are incredibly impactful but peers are also and so how do we um help our students provide resources and support to each other that can

107be true in our middle schools as well right like just thinking about how do we have more visibility for the the students in that kind of peer-to-peer contact UM in this this phase I think is going to be really important as well thank you agree definitely right other comments or questions well thank you again thank you both for this very thorough and much needed report thank you all right so we are at action items for District 20 to and so for this next section what we've done is we've separated the action items for 202 and the action items for District 65 so um our our action items for 202 we just have a few items and at the end of those items we will adjourn and uh and leave and then District 65 can go

108through um all of your items as well gret can we just make sure Rachel had mentioned that she had planned to give her student school board report sure and I don't see it on here so maybe we could cover that yeah now before the action just so that we don't forget and we start adjourning and there's Rachel yes so I just want to make sure because I was looking at her across the way and yes that would be totally fine if that's okay with you Rachel yes mhm right now okay you're on Rachel sounds good sounds good okay so hi everyone um okay well I guess I'll just jump in um and go back to what we were talking about because like I mentioned on Thursday we had the solidarity space that we've been planning

109for a little bit of time now and um for District 65 this all kind of started with last year's uh student well-being report um in the November meeting meeting and we saw that Hispanic and Latina students felt a significant like um lack of belonging here at eths and so um I worked with Miss Hamilton and other like directors of diversity Equity inclusion to um kind of create the solidarity space which we held and um basically all of the participants we had a lot of great discussion um with both Hispanic identifying individuals and people who came to listen and learn as allies um Miss Herrera and I co- facilitated they were during lunch so these two lunch sessions and asked about student experiences and um ways to improve them so some of the key themes from

110the discussion were that many students felt lost at the start of high school and were un aware sorry unaware of available resources like Summit or latinx quest for Community Connection um another theme was some students felt isolated in their classes intended to self-segregate with other Hispanic students uh just because they didn't feel again like there was a community that they were surrounded by and then lastly a strong sense of community in classrooms oh this was just kind of like a mentioning that a strong sense of community in classrooms is necessary to help students feel welcome and we just realize that a lot lot of students felt like they couldn't participate and we were just hearing this from student experiences um that to increase people's ability to participate and feel welcome at the school it's just

111creating these sense of belongings and so um I recently actually in the picture you guys saw uh attended the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute National Conference where I experienced firsthand the power of shared responsibility and heard from inspiring uh speakers and these in insights infor reinforce the importance of amplifying student voices to me um I was able to connect with college students and not only see like role models for myself in the future but also kind of network and create a community with these people um who shared my goals as well as my identity and so that's kind of what I wanted to bring back to eths to uh uh after this uh solidarity space and so um Miss Hamilton Miss Herrera and other administrators and I will be meeting again soon to brainstorm how

112we can do that and to overall build a a stronger sense of belonging for our students um that identify as Latina and Hispanic um so then other updates for student union is that we've started working on committees and we're working on following up with or emailing and following up with administrators and students to gather input so some um committees have already gotten to the point where they're creating Google forms to get a little bit more um Insight on their specific subject or topic and um a key mention or like big mention that we have is our IEP and 504 uh committee who feel that or who created their um their form already sent it out and they're getting uh Insight right now on how people people with iips and 504s don't feel like their accommodations

113are being fully respected and how we can kind of address that um but yeah more initiatives or more updates on that initiative will probably be coming up in the next meeting but that's all for me so yeah thank you great thank you thank you Rachel all right so the first item action item well it's under action item or information item um we have one for you Dr bavis do you have anything to add about that one [Music] have okay great okay so now we're at action items and the first action item is approval of press policy issue number can I have a motion for approval please so second V call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes the next action item is the consent agenda which consists of approval of bills and the Personnel

114report so moved second V call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes okay so we are at adjournment can I have a motion for adjournment please I move we adjourn okay thank you for indulging me yes yes yes without grudging we'll never adjourn actually a little worried about that okay so 202 has adjourned and we'll quietly thank you for sharing your space okay okay [Music] okay all right shall we let's do it sula's up Sula you're up uh I move that the Board of Ed education approve the items uh accept the recommendations outlined in the attached group motion and approve the personal Personnel appointments leaves and separations salary authorization January 2025 Board of Education meeting minutes February 2025 bills payable and January 2025 Financial updates can I move to amend to just itemize the

115salary authorizations as a separate vote okay do we need to vote on that or just move that I would second that okay two yes I'm sorry this is for the amended motion right right yes yes yes yes yesand yes okay I move that the Board of Education approve um and ex and accept and approve um the salary authorization recommend ation second no yes no yesz yes next item up on our agenda is the resolution authorizing notice of dismissal so I move that the board adopt the resolutions authorizing the dismissal of educational support staff second yes yes yes K yes hernandz yes I move that the board approved the contract for Blazer Works temporary staffing for the role of occupational therapist in the amount of 85,000 860 two oh second second no Ryan yes no yes

116hernandz yes I move that the board approved the contract for Student Center services for sdrp phase 3 consulting services in the amount of $81,000 second yes ran yes yes I move that the board approve the contract for Dr Sher Whitaker for Consulting support for the payroll team transition for an estimated $ 38,7 second yes ran yes yes yes yes yes there is one more contract sorry we got one more contract I move that the board approve the contract for accurate Biometrics for Staffing background checks in the amount of $85,000 second yes Ryan yes yes yes yes yes all move that the Board of Education approve a partnership with iwse for option 2B a 2-year extension second yes R yes yes yes yes yes all right and with no further business before uh to before us

117ijin this meeting at 8 52 p.m. I hope everybody has a good rest of the week take care thank you