001They thoughtfully gave me that gavl so I could stop everyone's talking. Thank you. Um, this is the regular meeting of the Geneva 304 school board for Monday, February 9th, 2026. Tammy, would you call the role? >> Here. here. >> here. >> Thank you all for coming. Glad to see you always. And uh we'll proceed with the business at hand, which begins with the pledge. The flag is back there. And Dr. Hooks will start us off. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> It is possible to register your attendance in the lobby if you would like to do so. The first item of business is approval of minutes for both the regular
002session of January 26th and the executive session of the same date. Tammy, have you gotten any corrections or anything? Has anyone got any at this time? A motion to approve, please. >> Motion to approve the minutes. >> Second. I >> I >> abs >> I >> abs Okay. Item three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. Um, item number one, traditional excellence GHS students dance team. I think I see some of you here, Mr. Rogers. Come on up. And uh, just another exciting meeting where we get to recognize some awesome students. So, thanks. So, you guys probably know what's going to happen, but here's how it's going to work. The board's going to come around here and Mr. Rogers is going to tell us about all the wonderful things that students in some of our different
003groups have been doing. Um then uh when he announces your names, start with Mr. Choy down here and work your way down the line uh for handshakes and we'll give you a certificate and get some photos and such. Take it away, Mr. Rogers. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett. And we appreciate the opportunity to yet again, as you said, introduce wonderful students from Geneva High School who are doing great things. And we're going to start tonight with our GHS varsity dance team. They competed in the IHSA state dance finals held at Gross Singer Motors Arena in Bloomington on Friday and Saturday, January 30th and 31st. And the girls placed fifth this year. U and that was after finishing second in the Dukane Conference. And then uh we were fortunate enough to host our uh to host
004one of the IHSA sectionals. So obviously we were able to compete in our own contest gym and the girls did a fantastic job and won the sectional bringing home another sectional plaque to put on our wall in the athletic wing at GHS. That sectional championship then qualified them for the state finals for coach help me out I believe the 13th straight year. Quite the run. So, uh, the girls are doing a great job of, uh, maintaining that amazing tradition we have at Geneva High School with qualifying for state. And at this time, I would like to introduce the dancers who are here this evening. I understand there is a important try out at uh, one of the D, maybe one or more dance studios. Uh, these girls never rest basically. So, um, there are a
005few folks missing this evening, but we're going to introduce the entire team. Starting with Maddie Alman, [applause] Alli Santamano, Mila Costello, [applause] Reese Dah, [applause] Elise Frick, Sarah First, [applause] Maya Gleason, Melanie Goodfellow, [applause] Brooklyn Graham, Stella Henley, [applause] Emily Johnson, Yasene Lopez, [applause] Miranda Meyer, Tatum Maki, [applause] Avery Puis, [applause] and Juliana Statkus. [applause] And I would like to introduce our head coach, Miss Amy Van Wagenan. [applause] >> And in just a moment, we're going to take a group photo. >> So, girls, we're going to need you to squeeze together a little bit. Maybe make a front row and a back row and make some room for coach. >> They do. They do. >> As soon as Mr. Baker is done taking his photo. Parents, feel free. I saw one of the girls saying
006to the parent, "No, no, no." >> Do it anyway. >> All right. Stay there, girls. Stay there. All right, girls. Before you go, sit down. >> I just want to say, and it I know it's a little cliche, but you always do such an amazing job of representing Geneva High School. And truly, it doesn't matter how many invitationals you win or sectionals you win or how many times you qualify for state. The way you do things is first class and that's what's most important. But along the way you al also win a lot of invitationals and sectionals and qualify for state. So that's gravy. But thank you for the way you represent Geneva High School. Congratulations. All right. Next we also have a couple of outstanding musicians to introduce this evening. We were fortunate to
007have two GHS allstate musicians attend the Illinois Music Education Conference in Peoria, Illinois from January 29th through February 1st, I believe. Um, the students are led, they are not able to be with us this evening, so I'm just going to give a quick shout out to Mr. Shipton, Mr. Carter, Miss Halverson, and Mrs. Heinrich who just do an amazing job with all of our musicians. And this year, uh, Cammy Jerria, who I'm thinking is not able to be with us tonight, but Cammy was a member of the All State Honors Band playing bass clarinet. So, congratulations to Cammy. [applause] and joining us this evening and a participant in the future m music educator seminar as a result of the interview process that she completed in advance of the uh music music educators conference is Annelise
008Picastro Oh, [applause] solo >> solo photo. >> Mr. Baker takes and and congratulations. And just as the dance team has a wonderful tradition, Geneva High School has a long-standing tradition of having music students qualify for this Illinois Music Educators Conference. So congratulations for continuing that tradition and representing Geneva High School that uh weekend in Peoria. Congratulations again [applause] and thank you very much for the opportunity as I always mentioned to recognize great students and I'm certain we'll be back soon. Sure. >> Bye. >> Congratulations. >> Holding it this way. Was like that. Coming down. Coming down. >> [laughter] >> He thought he was [laughter] coming. plenty of seats up front, everybody. >> Yeah, they're all up here. Maybe I think everybody might want to stand over by Mrs. Hirs a little bit so we because
009this is where we're going to project and we want to see uh all your great AV stuff too. It's PD. Yep. So, here we have item two, the staff and students from Harrison Street School. And I'm looking forward to hearing what makes your school so special. That's right. As they're connecting, I think um hopefully the board and our folks watching at home um know that over the course of the last uh year and a half, we've invited all of our schools in to have an opportunity to just tell us a little bit about what makes their school special. Harrison hasn't had that um chance yet, although they've been here for a few other great presentations. Um but now they they have an opportunity to uh share that with us on behalf of their school. Looks
010like we have uh some pretty awesome representatives here to tell us. So, Mrs. Hirs, I'll let you take it away. >> Yeah. So, we'll take it from here. Um >> Barrett, we >> Yes, sir. Come in, I think. >> Oh, good. [laughter] >> Um so, today we're going to present on Harrison Street School, which I'm sure you are all very familiar with. Um because the legacy goes way back. Um it's not very often that a principal who's been there for six years can say, "I'm the newbie." um because we have such a seasoned and tenured staff and community and it truly is that's what makes us special is our community. >> Um so what makes us special is our people, our values and our community and this is just a small small st sample of
011our community from Harrison. Um everybody um puts together our core values which are being kind, being responsible, and being safe. And that is in our staff, our students um do that every day at school and our families do too. Um and you'll be hearing a little bit from everybody um students, staff, and our parents to talk more about how they contribute to our community. >> Mrs. Hershe, she just disconnected somehow. Um so we are going to start um we're going to start with our student leaders. So we have a bunch of different um uh opportunities for our students to be leaders in our school. Um and some of our most important leaders are our safety patrollers. Um we took a little hiatus from our safety patrol but started it back up a few years ago
012and they are back and ready to roll. Um they really help us at arrival dismissal. They're opening car doors. They are chauffeuring our kindergarteners to the kindergarten wing and they are truly some of our biggest leaders in our school and they have a little bit to say about leading at Harrison. So, we have Maddox Bruce here who will go first and then next will be Haley Pence. >> At Harrison, I show responsibility by being a part of the safety patrol. It's important because it keeps kids safe, helps teachers in the building, and helps me and my fellow fifth graders learn about responsibility. My favorite parts are getting to school early, and being a leader. I enjoy building relationships with other students in different grades that I normally wouldn't see. Safety patrol has been fun and
013rewarding this year at Harrison. To me, to me, safety patrol at leadership means helping the school be safer. I joined patrol so I could help the school and make new friends. What I enjoy about being a student leader is teaching the younger kids how to respect our school and the rules of Harrison. >> [applause] >> So, these are two of our safety patrol members. Um, and they exemplify our community within our student body. Um, next we want to talk about our parents. Um, so our parents are a huge part of our community. Um, they do so much fundraising. Um, they do a lot for bringing joy to our building. Um, so many different community events. um family dinner nights. We have um our fall fest in the fall. And we have Mrs. Luthan here to
014talk about, you know, just what the parent community means to Harrison. >> I need that. >> No, you do because to be on on recorded. >> Yes. >> Um Okay, I'll hold it over here. I'm pretty loud as it is. Uh >> actually, you need to have it close so they can or >> Can we hear me? Is that Is that what we want? It's fine in the room. It's fine in the room, but it's so when people watch on YouTube, make sure they hear it. >> Okay, fair enough. Um, so some of you already know me. I'm fairly active in the district and in the community. Um, but Harris's Harrison Street School. >> I'm going to do it, you guys. I didn't want to. I can't help it. Harrison Street School is my absolute
015favorite place to be in the whole world. Um, and it's because we have such an amazing community as Mrs. Hirs was pointing out earlier. Um, part of that is the parents. I had the honor of being the president of the PTO not once but twice um, three years ago and then last year. And it is the most rewarding thing to work with other parents, to work with our staff. Um, one of my favorite things to do is to honor our staff and to show our students how um, how many wonderful things that we can do to support each other, to um, bring fundraising is one of the things, right? You need money to do the stuff, but our fundraisers are just, it's just so much fun. It's to bring joy. It's to bring support. It's
016to let them know that we appreciate them so much. All the hard work that they do, how much they love our our students as much as we love our kids. and we want them to know how much we love them back. So, being a parent at Harrison is just it's like being a it's like being in one big giant warm hug all the time. [laughter] Um because it's just it's just so joyful. Everybody's just so happy to be there all the time. We all work hard. Um but there are so many parents that are so willing all the time to just raise their hand and say, "Yes, pick me. I'll I'll step up. I'll do it. I'll be that person." Um and it's not the same three people all the time. It's everybody. We have
017such a a vast array of parents who step up in any way that they can. Whether it's I'll make the phone calls from home or I'll show up at the event and set it up or I'll be I'll you know, I'll be on the board and you know, bang the gabble, you know, whatever. Um, but it's it's just it's such a rewarding place to be because of all of that love. And I I just I can't can't express it more. It's just such a wonderful place to be. And I apologize, but I am completely unable to control this. [laughter] So anyway, I'm gonna hand this off now. >> Thank you, Mrs. Luthan. And we also, fun fact, Haley Pence's mom um is a former husky, so it really and safety patroller. Um so it really
018shows the longevity of our community. Um and we were just talking in the garden room, you just keep coming back. You can't stay away. Um and so our next um group that's going to talk are our staff members who just can't stay away. Um we have just a small group of staff members of many who have graduated from Harrison and now are working at Harrison. And you know as someone who's come from a handful of schools before Harrison, I just this community and what keeps everyone coming back is truly unique and special. And I will let them speak to that. I'm the youngest and so I was supposed to be last, >> but here I am. And also, just so you know, all three of the pictures that are up here are of me. So,
019um, I love Harrison and I wrote some notes because you just have to speak. I had to be prepared. So, I was a Harrison student from 1996 through 2002. Um, some of my favorite memories, which are not ones unfortunately that some of the kids have now, but include fun things like bringing my rabbit to school for show and tell in kindergarten. Um, the butterfly tent that Mrs. furnish had in first grade, the leave projects and the and having competitions with my classmates on how long our Friday letters home could be in second grade, all the homework and learning my multiplication facts in third grade, reading chapter books and class projects in fourth grade, outdoor ed, and then the fifth grade play. However fun all these activities were, my favorite memories are the teachers and staff
020that inspired me to become a teacher myself. When I think back to my time in Harrison, I can remember the teachers and see them as the Harrison teachers. And I think we all know who those Harrison teachers are, some of which are still at school, um, but close to retirement. Um, and they are the ones that stayed at Harrison until they retired. So, it was very special to me that I was able to go back and become a peer of theirs and later a friend. So, Harrison is a remarkable place that I was excited excited, sorry, to come back to. I really enjoy being part of the school's history and having my own stories to share with my students, such as being a first grade student in the classroom that I currently teach in. I
021also am so proud to be working with my students and hopefully providing them the memories that last a lifetime like those that I have of being a student at Harrison. So, and those pictures there are ones that are in my classroom that I teach in. So, I had Mrs. furnished. And that holiday party is in my classroom. And then that fifth grade picture um is the American flag I have hanging in my room. So awesome. Hello, my name is Bri Dickerson. Um I'm a second grade teacher at Harrison. Um so I don't know if this is exactly what we're looking for, but it was on my heart. So um so really quick, I'm going to dive. It'll take me like 30 seconds, but I'm going to dive into way back when. My grandparents needed a
022place to stay. They ended up renting from my great-grandma who had a house in Geneva. So, my mom and her siblings all went through Geneva. My uncle actually went to Harrison. Um, and then fast forward, my mom needed a place to stay. My grandparents moved out. She ended up renting and now owns that house on the east side of Geneva. So, my brothers and I all went through Harrison, graduated from Geneva High School. Um, and my brothers are all really successful and doing well. All different things, but I mean, incredible humans. And my husband and I actually just bought a house in Geneva. Not on the east side, but my our kids will be going to Geneva schools hopefully, which is a big deal because my husband is also a teacher and so we're competing
023with our districts to see. We wanted to be in one of them. Um, but I say all of this because I feel like I know we talk about um Geneva being a tradition of excellence having that, but I truly believe that there's just legacy rooted here. And my I feel like my family took those few little seeds in their pocket and they planted it and they they watched a legacy grow. They got rooted. And I feel like my family is a big reason why I believe that we create giants who stand on your shoulders and became become even bigger than you. And that's what I take into my classroom is um I want to see people like my former student Maddox who stand on your shoulders and they go higher than you ever went before
024and they go farther than you could have ever dreamed. Um and I I'm excited because I want that for my kids too. Like I I believe that this place when you plant your seeds here, legacy happens. And we see it in our school, but also in our community. I see it everywhere in my church and in my I mean I just I see it in Geneva. And so this is a piece of that. Our district is um we're we're leaving a legacy. So I love that. I love being a part of this legacy in our little school and watching these kids grow and become history changers and changing the world. All right. I started My name's Marlo Olsen and I went to Harrison. Okay. I went to Harrison. I started kindergarten there in 72 and
025I have my kindergarten report card which happens to say still a little still a bit hesitant to express her feelings in a group. Uh >> oh. So this is uncomfortable. Look how far you've come. >> Still currently. So, I went to Harrison for kindergarten and then I went to St. Peters for first and second grade, but came back to Harrison for third, fourth, and fifth. Loved it. Loved the teachers. We go to buy a house. I said I our kids had to go to Harrison. So, all three of my sons went to Harrison. I've got a granddaughter starting kindergarten next year, but they live in Chicago. And try as I might, I can't get them to come to Geneva. their jobs are in the city and they will don't want to do it. So, I
026don't know. I just love Harrison. I love the neighborhood, you know. Everybody cares about each other at work. Everybody wants to be there. It appears, you know, and I mean, everybody's happy. Everybody's there for the kids, you know. And I just love that our like the outside, you know, we have a nice playyard and playground and the kids can run [clears throat] around. I just love it. All right, I'm going to pass it off to Ann. My name is Ann Jansen and I also was a student at Harrison. I started kindergarten year and went through fifth grade. During that time, I'd always pop back in to see my favorite second grade teacher, Miss Briera. She is the one who really sparked teaching. Um, so went on to college, got my degree in elementary ed, came
027back, was excited, got to bring my daughter to Harrison. She started kindergarten and that's when um a job opened. So I went in as an instructional assistant as an instructional assistant for 24 years and then I moved to the office where now I'm a building secretary and I get to greet all the parents that come in and find out how old I am. [laughter] So yeah, in just a few years I will been there for 30 years and I just I can't leave. It's it's my family. It's so close. We're there for each other. someone falls down, we're there to swoop and pick them up and including students and staff, parents. It's just an amazing family community and just love it. So, you've heard how our community is driven by the people in it um
028and how we support each other in our community. And the last piece that I wanted to share is that our community helps other communities as well. I'm not sure if it'll work on your end, but if you click on that picture, it might take you to that. Um, but one of our bilingual Oh, I'll just tell you about it. One of our bilingual office um admins um has a foundation in her hometown in Mexico and Harrison donated a lot of clothes um to her hometown. So, it was a video of them thanking Harrison for their um for their donation. So, not only do we support each other in the community, but we also support outside of our community as well. Um, and that's what makes Harrison so special and truly unique. Um, is our strong
029community and the people who make it, students, staff, families, and our husky. And that's it. >> Thank you so much. [applause] It really isn't very important, but when I was quite young, I was a safety patrol guy. We had white belts, so you guys get the better day glow. And we didn't get a hat either. So, >> that's what I was thinking. They got hats now, too. We didn't get hats. >> They're cool. >> Very cool. >> Very nice. Thank you. >> Thank you guys very much. I think when we talk about what makes your school special, I it was very clear like you could feel what makes Harrison special from that presentation. So, thank you guys very much for coming and taking the time. Go get some Dairy Queen. >> Thank you very much.
030>> Of course, Mr. Baker. Do you do you want us to pull the curtain and be in front of the curtain? >> Leave it to the Yeah, there we go. Everybody's looking. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Is that a badge, too? Does she have a badge? >> She did have a badge. >> Good seeing you. Thank you. We We did not have badges. >> No way. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hersh. >> Thank you, everyone. >> Oh, God. >> All right. The next item on the agenda is public comments. And I've actually received a form. Tammy, have you received any additional forms? >> Okay. Um, Mi Mrs. Uh, hold up. >> You're You're it. >> If you heard, please >> right into the mic. >> That mic close so we can uh make
031sure we get you for posterity sake. Thanks. >> Public speaking was never my strong point. >> Okay. My name is Jamie Carholda. Um, I am here as a 20 plus year resident of Geneva. I have three children who have graduated from Geneva High School and I have one more on their way. I am here as an employee who is passionate about her job as a cook and a server in our middle schools. While I am speaking to the board, this is for all Geneva residents and parents. In our middle schools, we are trying to teach our children to advocate for themselves. They will not learn to do so without being given the opportunities to make those choices. When we do try to keep them within their dietary guidelines, some discard our recommendations. When this happens,
032we often receive angry emails from parents about our incompetence and avaricious tendencies. Recently, I was notified of a Facebook post demonizing the middle school cafeterias. I was shocked. I was hurt by some of the accusations made. As a parent and a cafeteria manager, I take my job very seriously and I take my job to heart. It started with a post made concerning the price of a sandwich. At the middle school cafeterias, we offer several healthy firstchoice entree option, excuse me, options for lunch. At the school board directed price of $3.60. Some are not an option for every day, but I will list them. Pizza. We offer cheese, pepperoni, sausage, a specialty. We have hamburgers, cheeseburgers, crispy chicken patties. We offer the occasional hot dog, chicken tenders, sometimes mini corn dogs, large corn dogs, monthly basco
033sticks or grilled cheese and cheesy bread, and always a warm bagel with or without your cream cheese. We offer cold sandwiches and small salads. We even have a selective gluten-free menu available. Our daily entre change every day of the month and do not repeat during the month with two completely new entre introduced every month. Several sides to choose from are included in the price of the 360 biking meal. Options to choose from include vegetables, fruits, sometimes a warmed cooked side, a sweeter healthy side such as graham crackers or jell-o, and various other options. A selection of grab-and-go sides are placed throughout our serving area to remind students that two sides are always included in that biking meal. We even go so far as to have selections at the register for students that don't realize their
034account is low on funds and can't afford their French fries or fruit roll-ups. We entrust our students to select their own toppings for their entre based on what entre might be. for example, lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream on taco day. Another concerned post referenced sweet treats and salty eats. Students have had these options available to them for many years, long before I came to the middle school. Just because they are listed on the district nutrition [clears throat] website does not mean they are offered every day. Cupcakes, donuts, cinnamon rolls are a rare occasional holiday treat. The so-called large fruit snacks don't even exist in our cafeteria. We do on the regular cookies, brownies, only a few fruit roll-ups, prepackaged Rice Krispie treats, and prepackaged fruit snacks. Recently, we added a singular Poptart. I did
035not read the parents I did not read the parents complain about chips or French fries. I read one individual lump juice and Gatorade under sweet treats. Many children and pediatricians find juice and Gatorade a necessary component in a pre-teen's life, whether they're recovering from illness or for those recuperating from strenuous sports. As for the concern received about ice cream having no nutritional value posted, I argue that nutritional facts along with the allergy information were posted at the ice cream cooler and at the point of sale. Additionally, to encourage the students to eat healthily at South, where teachers are able and willing to assist the servers, we had the children come through for lunch first and then students could come through a second time if they wanted ice cream. We made sure to offer various sale
036prices to include children with less disposable income. Going even further, we only sold it twice a week, not every day, and students were only allowed to purchase one item per day. I want parents to know that I care about what the children eat. I care that they have a nutritious meal that will hold them over until dinner because I know some families in this district are food insecure. I want them to understand school lunches are a separate entity within the school and property taxes and school fees are not applied to the full food service program. This is a business. Parents, instead of hiding behind anonymous posts and intentionally misdirected emails, please reach out to the kitchen managers. Express your concerns, ask us questions. A few of you have been bold enough to ask me an
037Aldi, and I appreciate your truthfulness. Please talk to your child and encourage them to make healthy eating choices while at school. Please do not vilify us for bringing new selections to the cafeteria. Please do not punish the whole for the one and force us to to remove new options. >> Is that it? >> That's it. >> Thank you very much. I think you can rest assured that we will take that issue seriously. >> Thank you. This was um it it did not only hurt me, it hurt many of my employees in the middle school. And so I thought it behooved us all in the middle school cafeteria system to allow it to be heard. And unfortunately there is no better way to get that out to the public than through you guys. >> Thank you.
038Thank you very much. >> And that's it for public comments, but uh again, I'm glad you came. Really, we often don't get public comments and it's helpful. >> Next, legislative updates. >> I have no report tonight. >> Legislature is not in session. Could could I would I would just add though um so it's the start of this session and I just got an email um this past week from one of our uh um an organization that I'm part of. Um you know this session just started and this is the time where everybody's like filing the bills that will then be hashed out over the course of the session. Um, between the state house and the state senate, uh, since this session started, nearly 10,000 bills have been filed in the state house and state senate
039in about the past month or so. Now, obviously, many of those will never get legs and make it anywhere, but as that's just a little example of the scale of kind of what we're talking about and what could possibly what what could be coming down the pipe. When I saw that number, I was just like, I should share that. So, I'm sharing it. Sorry, Jackie. >> What is a typical number? >> You know, I I don't know actually. Um >> much less than that. I'm >> I would guess I would guess >> I think it's um more like five or six thousand. >> Okay. >> Yeah, they I think uh I can find the numbers. I can bring them next time, but they had done a study of where we compare in the state of
040Illinois to other states. And yeah, we are just off the charts, but 10,000. That's >> great. >> Unbelievable. That is a lot. And uh so good to know. The next item is a superintendent report. So Andy, you can segue nicely into that already. >> Great. Thank you. Just a few quick updates uh this week. So um first I just wanted to follow up um with you all and and share and thank the community. Uh we talked a little we've talked about it at kind of several previous meetings. um and had the great opportunity to participate in some community connects events uh last week. Um and first I just really want to thank the folks who came out. It's awesome you know to have the opportunity uh you know I think we've talked about it at
041this table a bit before that um you know the nature of these meetings is you can't have like an interaction really um because of some of the rules and how formal we have to be. Um but it's great to have these and folk can come out and and we can just talk and so had a couple sessions. Um I want to thank our community partners at the library for um you know being willing to let us use their space. It's a great space to neutral space to have those uh meetings. Um so a lot of good conversation. I was happy to see uh you know a lot of familiar faces from some community organizations, some uh familiar you know stakeholder parents from the district, but also got to meet some um some community members who
042don't have kids in the school, which is really who we want to have an opportunity to connect with. Um, and we actually, uh, uh, Sandy and I, you know, probed them a little bit about, uh, what what's the best way to try to get them information and and things like that. Um, so, so that was valuable as well. Um, we got to talk about a lot of our uh, some of the things that we've been accomplishing with the strategic plan and have some discussion around there. talked about um you know the capital uh needs that we've been talking about here uh recently. Um and again just that great opportunity for informal question and dialogue. Uh we also had some um good conversation about future opportunities for community engagement because we know we're going to need
043to be um you know continuing to try to find ways to do that and and get better at it. So all in all really helpful. Uh again just want to thank everybody who came out. Um also just wanted to give a little uh update because a lot of work has been happening recently uh around our cultural competency goal. Earlier this year uh Mr. Pesus was here um and gave an update and I had an opportunity uh last week um to be at one of our buildings where we were doing some professional development uh around uh this work. So I thought it might be a good time to just circle back. Uh as you'll recall, one of our our teams have been or or we've formed a committee around this subject and that committee has been
044identifying act identifying activities uh you know that um fall under this category and are really designed to help our kids have better cultural awareness and and kind of understand the world outside of Geneva a little bit. Uh and they're working on establishing um common activities as you'll remember. So things we know that every kid in the district can get. Uh so they've made made some progress on that and we're seeing some cool activities in terms of both assemblies or common experiences that kids are having in each of the libraries across the district. Um and we'll have folks come and talk about some of those with you at some point uh in the future here. Um again there's also specific professional development going on uh AC and everybody all the buildings are going to have the
045same uh PD um on cultural competencies for our staff um as we're trying to get these common experiences for kids as well. Uh and as I think we've talked about doing some community events and community partnerships. We are on track to um have uh a communitywide um culture fair here uh at some point in the future and we're going to partner with the library to do that. Um so we're pretty excited about how that seems to be coming together and there'll be more to share about that. Um last I just want to give a big kind of shout out and thank you to our um community supporters. Uh we've talked a little bit about our PTO's and and some of the different booster organizations. Um but really what uh kind of drove me to mention
046this tonight is over between the last meeting and this meeting um just some of the donations that have come forward that our district has gotten from some of these groups. U most recently it was uh the music boosters. Um, you know, I think it's probably in tonight's packet. And you know, Todd and I got a letter from the music boosters that just said, "Hey, your teacher said you needed this cool music stuff." So, we got it. Um, and this is not a thing that happens a lot of places. And it's pretty cool uh that there's these organizations like the Boosters and the Fabian Foundation and the GAF, the Geneva Academic Foundation. and they have a big fundraiser coming up at the uh Steel Hockey game this weekend. So, um we just we're very grateful for
047these organizations and and don't want to um just be uh presumptuous about it and we want to truly be intentional about our gratitude because we know that a lot of places don't have great opportunities like that. So, that's all Larry. Thanks. >> Thank you. Um, next item on the agenda, board dialogue topics, pending action, consideration. We have a a large number, 22 policies which have been updated and revised in some cases. These policies have been viewed by the administration and by the policy committee and were presented for first reading on January 26th and are being presented at this time for second reading and adoption. Questions may be directed to the policy committee chair. Anybody have any questions? >> I have one. Um, thanks Stephanie for pointing out a few of them to to look at.
048So, could you talk a little bit about um number 6210 that had to do with review of the instructional materials? I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between the two choices that that are in in that policy and which way we think we were going >> with the question. Is that what Okay, let me just pull that up so I can make sure. >> Yeah, I just looked at it. Let me look again. >> And it sounds like either way the school board reviews the materials and maybe the difference is one of them is just primary and the other one is all materials. that I thought I would ask. >> Yeah, this is the one. >> Oh, the reading one. So, yeah, this would just really be about where we would have the
049option to have the board not approve the new materials. So, you know, when um the high school usually brings in those reading materials and we approve them, this says that if we don't have the ability, we can choose not to do that or we don't we don't have um the desire to. We can just have the administration do that instead. And so we chose as a policy committee to continue the process as we currently have it where they will bring the district will bring them to us for approval. And the conversation we had around that was really because we've had a lot of conversations every time those reading materials are brought and we so we figured one we do have the time to do it. It's not like we are such a large district that
050we have so many new materials each year and two we have the desire because we usually have some pretty good conversation that either we need clarification or leads to a further topic that gets discussed. I think um the graphic novels was a great one. So, we wanted to keep our policy as is. So, essentially, we're not going to bypass the board on those approvals. We will continue to approve them. >> Thank you. That's perfect. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? >> Could we have a motion to approve? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> I I >> I >> Okay, thank you. Uh item two, a proposal for hearing officer services and this is this proposed based on approval of new language and two policies by the board. Any questions or discussion? Uh a motion
051to approve. >> So moved. Second >> I >> Thank you again. Item eight, work study topics and future action consideration. We have no items there. Item nine, information. This is for information only. Uh board meeting and presentation schedule and two is out ofstate trip requests. Those items are covered in board book. Hearing no discussion, we'll move on to the consent agenda. We're going to divide the consent agenda for voting integrity. The uh first item is the personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, new hires. So, we need a motion to approve that first item. motion to approve the personnel report. >> Second. >> Do we do it that way? Do we do >> individually? >> We broke it out. >> We have to >> I >> abstain. >> I I of
052course that well my favorite part of this the next two items gift grants and bequests for $6,766.78 from the Geneva music boosters for teaching wish list items at all buildings near and dear to my heart. Item three, gift grants and bequest $1,600 from Ball Horicultural for GHS horicultural activities. Motion to approve. >> So moved. Second >> I >> and again thank you. Uh next is a board member comments and reports. Should we start with Dan this time? You want to do? >> Sure. Yeah. >> I'll be brief. Uh thankful for all the um presentations tonight, all the um I thought the the Harrison Street that was awesome. It's all that whenever they come, it it's uh um I always look forward to it because it's there's a lot of uh um a lot of good
053information. Not only that, but there the enthusiasm that comes out of that elementary school is so is great. And so, um, they really hit on the the community aspect of of their school and I think it was very evident in their presentation and and also in in, um, in the presentation itself. So, um, and thank you for coming, um, for the public comment. Um, appreciate that. Um, I think our our um our food service um does a wonderful job and every year we have a presentation for our s food service uh folks and uh um always look forward to that because I um truly believe that they do a really nice job for for our kiddos. So, thank you for your your public comment tonight. That's all I got. Um, I would echo about Harrison
054Street and I was able to attend one of their PTO meetings not too long ago and the feeling that we saw tonight was absolutely a part of that meeting as well. So, it was very authentic. Um, and a big shout out to our safety patrol patrollers. Um, learning and growth cannot happen unless there is a sense of safety. So, I commend those two young ones for stepping up and helping make their school safe. Um, and oh, I big shout out to the business office. I got this sweet donation of pop tabs this evening. Um, so as a reminder, Hartland Elementary School is still doing their uh tabs to keep families close with the Ronald McDonald House. So, thank you for overworking the business office and them needing energy pickups with uh Diet Cokes and energy
055drinks. Um, if anyone would like to contribute to this, um, myself and other board members would be happy to collect and pass along to H Heartland. And that's all I have. >> I always say I'm not sure when to Todd sleeps. Now I know how that's true. Now I know how that's true. [laughter] >> I would also like to say thank you to the folks at Harrison Street School. Two of my children actually went there and it has a soft spot in my heart for Harrison Street. So glad that they were here and love to listen to it and thank you for your public comments tonight. I appreciate it. It's not easy to come in front of a board and I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Thank you. >> We'll work across. >>
056All right. Uh [clears throat] similarly, thanks to Harrison Street School and for the students that coming out tonight to coming to our meeting and uh telling us about all the unique things they have going on there. It's always fun. Um, congrats to our dance team and our ILMEA part conference participants that we heard about tonight. Uh, it's always exciting time of year because we have a lot of folks coming for different reasons to uh, receive their tradition of excellence award. So, fun time. Um, special thanks to the music boosters uh, for their donation. Uh I I am one of the liaison along with Stephanie for um that group and they really do work hard and put a lot of thought and effort into their fundraising and then to be able to turn around and give
057uh so many gifts back to uh the students and the teachers is wonderful. Um what else? I did actually get to attend the soup fundraiser that was held last week at the high school. I've done it before. Yeah, it is. It's such a nice um if you're not familiar, the the students in ceramics make bowls, soup bowls that um if you choose, you can take one home with you. Um and then the culinary arts students come up with different recipes for soups that they serve that night. You get roll. They had I believe Graham's donated ice cream for that. Um and then some of the choirs uh kids are there and they entertain you. They they sing um their own choices of songs that they want to do. Um a lot of times just standing
058up there alone singing. So, um, one thing they added this year was they had board games, which I thought was really fun. There were definitely families around who were playing some games and just kind of a cool small fundraiser that they have going on. So, I wanted to mention that. The last thing I I wanted to bring up last week, I forgot to mention this in my comments and I want to bring it up. During the finance committee, we had an excellent presentation from our transportation department um specifically around um some of the buses and I encourage everyone on the board if you haven't there there is a deck out there has like 45 slides but it has a lot of information including some comparisons of some of the things that we're doing here in
059our district compared to nationwide and and some numbers. I also asked about how the propane buses are doing and um obviously you can also watch the video but I wanted to to bring that up because uh folks who are watching online might be interested in in watching that or at least looking through the slide deck that's available in our board book. So that's it. [clears throat] >> Yeah, I just want to thank you for your uh presentation. It just raises the consciousness of all of us to understand um the sacrifice and the dedication you have for your work there. I just noticed hope they don't complain that chocolate is an important food group. That's what I say to people, [laughter] but maybe not the ice cream. Say again. >> Yeah. Some people call it the
060fifth food group, but uh no um that's me. But no, I really appreciate your um presentation to raise our consciousness of what you're experiencing sometimes and hopefully not too often, but also to give us some um how you say relevance of what we are understanding, what the sacrifice and dedication you have in your work. Also want to um uh say that this notion with the Harrison Street School, of course, I didn't go there, uh community uh parents and staff, I got a chance to experience that. Um, I haven't been to all the grade schools here in the district, but I can say that I've um been to three of the schools. Um, but I experienced the musical they had last year, which is the first time they've done that. Not sure if they're doing it
061this year, but they said they wanted to try to keep it going. So, I saw that dedication that we saw here tonight firsthand. I mean just kind of naive not understanding the the structure what they had but uh to see those children uh they had a high goal of what they set for that musical. I was there a year at the PTO meeting before that uh planning of that musical. So to see how it came together even though they had lofty goals they still managed to pull it off. And so I will say that that uh what we saw today was truly as as others have said authentic. Um, and I hope they can keep that legacy going because I could see that with the community involvement as well. Um, the self- advocacy, again, going
062back to you, I think that's so important. But then you got people who will complain about a lot of things. Um, I heard one presentation uh I shared that with uh Andy about cave people. Uh people who complain about virtually everything, cave. So, you got to be careful. Uh they're just that's just going to happen. But I know that you can filter through all of that for sure. Um, and so, uh, yeah, I just want to say I appreciate, uh, the Dash group. I can say as, um, Mr. Rogers said, they represent us, not just an official business. I happen to be at Joan Fabric maybe about three years ago. I didn't know who they were until I saw their jackets and they were all shopping together. Their hair was all the same. And so,
063they just really do uh, represent the community. And I didn't I wanted to say something. I said, "No, I better not." But anyway, but uh but I saw that firsthand even though they were not performing, they were showing their dedication as a group uh even though they were not there to perform. Anyway, thank you. [snorts] >> I just wanted to also recognize um Harrison tonight. I think, you know, these are my favorite parts of the meetings is are the what makes my school special. And really, it's not just because it's fun to hear about hear from the kids. That's great. And hear from the schools, but um one thing that's important to me is to try to get to understand the culture of each school because we're always tasked to make decisions that apply to
064mo usually all the schools. So, I think what makes your school special really helps us do that and tonight shows you why. You really got a sense of that culture. So I think and another way that we do that is always by attending the PTO meeting. So um last week I was able to attend the Mil Creek PTO meeting and that one's always a great one because they come with a list of questions and I quite frankly frankly love that. Um a lot of the questions that they asked were things we have been talking about. So either things that have just started like the facilities um assessment we've done and what might be coming for that or just different questions that we've been we've been having discussions about um just starting. So more to come
065for the community as we know we're all on the same page. The things you're wondering about are the things that we're working on as well. So that was kind of nicely aligned and we were able to share some of those messages. And then just thank you to the music boosters um you know being the liaison and just personally being part of the music boosters and helping them out. I know how important that is and especially because that is our one booster group that impacts every um grade level. So they donate to our elementary schools, our middle schools and our high school. So it really impacts our students from K through graduation. So thank you for their work. That's all I have. >> Thanks Stephanie. Uh, I always wait till last because everybody pretty much covers
066everything and you've done a nice job. Also, I would only add that I got tickets for Friday's performance of the school play and I might learn a little bit about history there. You never know. And uh, they had a problem with the ticketing website. So, if you've been interested in going and haven't been able to make it work, they now have improved that website and it works better and I was able to secure a couple tickets for that. So, and uh we could do a thing on what makes this board special because I think you guys are great, but we won't do that. >> In any case, um there are no notices or announcements at this time. We find ourselves looking at executive session. executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation, or
067discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal council for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee that is subject to local government wage increase transparency act may not be in closed session and must be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with the act Illinois 5 and five lic. Okay. So, etc. [laughter] So, we need a motion to go into
068executive session and a second and a vote and then you're good to go. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> I >> All right. Thank you. That was a mouthful.