Geneva CUSD 304 Board of Education Meeting 05-12-2025

001This is the regular meeting of the Geneva 304 Board of Education for Monday, May 12th, 2025. I'd like to welcome everyone here. This is quite an audience. We haven't had a group like this since we asked everybody to wear a mask. But >> having said that, Bonnie, will you call the role? >> Here >> next is the pledge of allegiance. The flag is right there and I will lead it. I pledge algiance 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. >> And if you'd like to register your attendance, there is an attendance sheet in the lobby which you're welcome to sign. Item two on the agenda is the approval of minutes. We have both the

002regular session and the executive session for April 28th. Bonnie, did you receive any corrections or additions? Does anybody have any corrections or additions at this time? >> I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I I >> I thank you. Okay. The next item is the board of education reorganization. This is not a normal part of the board meeting. It only happens after an election and it's been a while after the election, but this is where we in open meeting elect officers and uh proceed with uh the business of the board. As current president, uh, the first thing we do is I will entertain a motion to accept the clerk's the county clerk's vote tally. >> So moved. >> Second. I >> I >> The next item is the oath of

003office. Now, this is the longest oath of office I've ever heard. And we're all the new members and uh existing members can all say it. I'll read it and you repeat after me. So I, RL Kabin, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of Geneva Community Unit District 304 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. Can you do that? >> I sound I will faithfully discharge the duties of the board of member of the board of education of Geneva Geneva school district 304 in accordance with the constitution of the United States the state of Illinois and the laws of

004the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. All right, I'll break it into smaller bits here on out. I further swear that >> I further swear that >> I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. >> I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. >> I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion of my fellow board members and others who seek adecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions

005can be made only by a majority vote at a public meeting. >> I shall shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. and I shall abide by the majority decisions of the board while rem retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. >> And I shall decisions of the board while retaining the right to see changes in such ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. >> As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and

006quality education of every student in this district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for the Geneva Community Unit School District 304. >> I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for the community school district 304. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designated to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. >> I shall assist in establishing structure and environmental design to ensure all students have opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of students achievement and all other conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with stra

007state law. >> I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditionsffecting the education of our children in compliance with state law. I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students and our community schools to advance the vision for Geneva Community Unit School District 304. I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students in our community schools to advance the vision for Geneva Community School District 304. >> And I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district towards fulfilling the vision of the board the board has created fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. I shall strive to work together with this district superintendent to lead the school district towards fulfilling the

008vision board has created fostering excellence for every student in the area of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development. >> Thank you all. [Applause] So, we've completed the oath of office. The next is the election of officers. The open meetings act requires the election of officers be done by open vote, not secret ballot. And someone needs to serve as president prom. And all things considered, I'll volunteer for that job if that's agreeable to everybody. >> Sure. Um the the appointment of a president prom that's me any seated board members can serve as the president of the board is the first officer to be elected and immediately assumes the duties of the chair uh to preside over the election of other officers. nominations. >> I'll nominate Larry Kabin to be the president for this term. Thank

009you. Anyone else? Nominations are closed. That makes it pretty simple. Bonnie, would you call the vote? >> Oh, we don't have to. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you all. appreciate that. Uh so the board board president is now elected. Uh we have other officers to elect and uh the nominations don't require a second just as it goes. I'm going to I'm going to make a suggestion. This is really a very good board and the people who are elected were on the board before. Is it possible that we could go ahead to affirm the position unless someone has an office that they do not wish to continue in? Jackie, are you happy being vice president? The secretary might be a little bit interesting because we're we're going to have to step up on that. >> Yeah,

010I was going to say I think we'll need to do a vote on the secretary and um probably reaffirm the treasurer vote as well. >> Okay. So, um continuing then I will just we only got one we can do. I'll nominate Jackie Forbes as vice president. Are there any other nominations >> for vice president? >> Yes. Okay, we don't have to call a vote. No other nominations. You're you're number two. >> Congratulations, secretary. That's a position which has not been held by a board member in the past because of a unique set of circumstances that we won't go into, but I believe we should have a secretary. And just as an explanation, the role of the secretary is merely to verify that the minutes are correct and Mrs. Johnson will continue to take the minutes

011as usual. Would anyone like to be secretary who doesn't have an office at this time or doesn't want other office? >> Everybody's >> Was this the case where we were going to nominate Bonnie? >> That's what I was going to say. The recording secretary can also be uh not serve formally as the board secretary. So if someone would >> So I'll nominate Bonnie to be the recording secretary and the secretary. >> That's someone. Okay. Any other nominations? I have a feeling there's not going to be one. >> Congratulations Bonnie. >> And treasurer. >> This is Yeah. No such luck, Todd. >> I don't know, Todd. I think I think uh >> I nominate Mr. Leam. >> Yes. >> Any other nominations? >> Congratulations. >> This is u what happens when you have a really good

012group of people working together. Well, agreed. So, congratulations to everyone. I'm very happy with the result of this election. Okay. Item four is recognition, awards, presentations, and public. Am I skipping one? >> Yeah, we need to do a couple. Um, we need to >> see I was so excited. >> Revote uh item 3.4, the board calendar. And >> okay, >> some of those things. >> Okay, I stand corrected. We have reviewed the calendar and I believe it's in board book as well. Um, are there any additions or changes to the calendar? Motion to approve the calendar as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. >> I >> thank you. Committee and liaison assignments. Um I believe you have them from the past and and uh is there anyone who is unsatisfied with their current assignment or would

013like to take on additional assignments for committee and leaison take on something different. >> Okay. I don't know whether it's something that rotates or you know some relatively new >> but there are some things that you know I'd like to try to offer my insight or what if I can. >> Okay. Um, >> I wonder if this might be a um a timely conversation because we have a retreat, a board retreat coming up later this week and that might be an opportunity for the whole team to have some of that discussion. >> Um, so >> I would propose maybe we table this. >> Yeah, >> and then have some discussion at the board retreat if that sounds okay to everybody. >> Sounds good. >> Yes, I was going to suggest the same. And can we

014review and make sure that these are all current active committees or >> Yeah, good call. >> Or leazison. >> Yeah, some of those are kind of longstanding, you know, names and groups that maybe don't exist anymore. So, we'll take a look at that too before our retreat. Thank you all. Now, on to item four, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. Item one is the tra tradition of excellence GHS students. Principal Tom Rogers will present. >> Thanks for coming up, Mr. Rogers. So many students to recognize today. We'll have the board come around the table here. Um uh students, when Mr. Rogers calls your name, start uh on this end with Mr. Choy and then work your way down the line. Um and ultimately when we have your big group all ready to go, we'll have

015you pose up here in front of our our uh sweet banner and um Mr. Baker will take a great picture. So take it away, Mr. Rogers. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize students who have done great things recently at High School. We're going to start tonight with our math team. GHS math team competed in the ACT University. >> Hey, Mr. Rogers, could you get closer to the microphone, please? Thank you. >> Yeah, it's on. Maybe just hold it like the rock star that you are. >> Go. Is that better? All right, let me try that again. I apologize. We're going to recognize the GHS math team first tonight. They competed in the ACTM math state finals at Illinois State University on Saturday, April 26th. The team finished in eighth

016place and there are 20 students on the team. And I'm going to introduce all of the team members this evening. And then when they get up here, there are some smaller subgroups or sub teams that competed and earned honors at the state competition. So I'll recognize those groups after we get everyone on the team recognized. So starting with Ashley Billings, would you please go up and shake hands with Mr. Choy and work your way down? Ashley couldn't be here tonight, so we'll move on to Ellie Brazelton. >> Eli, I'm sorry. Eli, I apologize. [Applause] Caitlyn Silio, >> Isa Cunningham, [Applause] Landon Finale, [Applause] Zach Fugdan [Applause] Gokalp, [Applause] Nick Grimes, [Applause] Tyler Haney, [Applause] So Kakadilla, [Applause] Eli Kuravilla, Carol Lunan, Dylan McCord, Kaden Nukem, [Applause] Riker, Wyn, [Applause] Jonathan Papa, Savvastos, Claire Reev, Emmy

017Rios, [Applause] Nora Stoasley, [Applause] Alvin Tang, and Santanch Trapathy. Okay. Now, we had a geometry team take eighth place in the state. The members of that geometry team were Tyler Haney. Raise your hand when you're called. Emmy Rios, Norah Stasley, Claire Reev, Isa Cunningham, and Riker Win. Congratulations on that great finish. There was also a freshman sophomore eightperson team that finished seventh in the state. Tyler Haney, Isaac Cunningham, Claire Reev, Emmy Rios, Sohan Kakadilla, Eli Kuravilla, um Nora Stoasley, and Alvin Tang. There was a freshman sophomore twoperson team that took ninth in the state. Tyler Haney and Alvin Tang. At this time, I'd also like to recognize G one of our GHS. No, I think there's two here tonight. >> There they are. Look at that. Good thing Mr. Ryan Esbrook, if you'd make your

018way to the front, please. and Mrs. Mary Glinky. Thanks. >> Congratulations to this very intelligent group of math students. Job well done. Now, we're going to test you on how to take a picture. There's no way we're going to be able to get this picture with everybody spread out. >> So, yeah, we need to squeeze together. We need a few people in the front row. >> Two lines. While they're taking this picture, do we have members of our FCCLA group here tonight? >> Excellent. [Applause] There are any parents who would like to take a picture, feel free >> smile for the paparazzi, please. >> All right. Congratulations again to our math team. All right, if you could all head to your seats for just a moment. We've got one more introduction and then we will

019turn you loose if you would like to dismiss yourselves. Next up, the FCCLA state competition was held on April 9th and 10th. Seven GHS students competed in the FCCLA, which stands for the Family Career and Community Leaders of America State Competition on April 9th and 10th. Some of the events, the U baking and pastry and culinary arts competed at College of DuPage and the Proficiency Events, cookie decorating and fashion apparel display competed in Springfield. I'm going to introduce the seven folks who qualified for state, starting with Caitlyn Silio. Amelia Ferman. Molly Gaston qualified but was unable to compete due to illness. Lily Hamilton, Kayla Hobart, Louisa Peree, Nicole Scoffield, and Kira Williams. Unfortunately, the rest of Amelia's teammates were not able to be with us tonight. >> Star of the show. >> So, Amelia and

020her other FCCLA colleagues um all earned silver or gold status at a sectional competition which then qualified them for state. And I'll just brag about Amelia for just one second. She earned a silver award in baking and pastry at the state competition. Congratulations, Amelia. And that concludes the first portion of our GHS recognition tonight. And now to make room for the next wave. If the math and FCCLA folks could please vacate the room. I'm sure you're all very, very discouraged by that. Very disappointed. >> Thank you all for coming. We appreciate it. Oh yeah. two. One is a black Let me see right up front. Everybody All right. Again, thank you very much to the board and Dr. Barrett for the opportunity to recognize another group of students that accomplished great things recently at GHS.

021Next, we're going to introduce our virtual enterprises uh students along with students who made a trip to Orlando, Florida for um DECA, a DECA competition. Um so we'll start with VE. They were in New York City to compete in two categories. And this group had to submit a written plan at a regional competition and then had to present their plan at again at that regional competition. And as a result, uh the group in the human resources category earned first place in their region which qualified them for the competition in New York City. The human resources team consisted of Abby Arnold. Abby, if you'd go up and start to the left hand side with Mr. Choy there and work your way down and then stop in front of the screen. The next member of that team

022was Mattie Bruno, [Applause] Olivia Bogatch, and Evan Sweareski. [Applause] There was also a four-person team in the virtual enterprises competition in the finance category. team members in the uh finance team members were Ryan Kelly, Lucas Oldm, [Applause] Kaden Sorenson, who's unable to be here tonight, [Applause] and Owen Homewood. Like the human resources team, the finance group also had to submit a written plan, had to present, and they earned second place in their region, also qualifying them for that trip to New York City. Let's take the picture of our BE group first, and then several of these same students are a few of them are going to be recognized in the next category. While these pictures are being taken, I want to thank Mrs. Jamie Dunlap, one of our business teachers. She is the VE teacher,

023does a phenomenal job. And the experiences that these students get just just running the VE running the business, the virtual business that they do in VE is a phenomenal real world experience. But then to get to travel to New York City, enter these competitions and give presentations in front of live judges in New York City is an amazing uh accomplishment. So congratulations to all of you. Well done. Now you can sit back down. Next, we had a group in our DECA extracurricular business um organization that headed to Orlando, Florida. They not to be confused with the virtual enterprises course, but there was a virtual virtual business accounting competition. Jack Denowski, excuse me, Jack Dowski and Aiden Cook took first place in the Midwest region. and I don't think either one of them are here. Okay.

024And then they went on to compete in Orlando and took fourth in the country in that competition. So, congratulations to them. Also in the virtual business, excuse virtual business accounting category was Abby Arnold. Come on, back up. >> Mr. Rogers, I just need to say we had so many kids to recognize, we ran out of certificates. So, the certificates for this group, they're coming at you. >> Understandable. Abby Arnold and her teammate Ellie Grancherof earned fourth place in the Midwest region, which qualified them to compete in Orlando, Florida. Congratulations to you and your teammate as well. Next in the buying and merchandising category, Louisa Peree and Addie Clling qualified as they were state finalists at the DECA competition in Rosemont, which also qualified them for Orlando. And in re retail merchandising, Ellie Miller qualified for

025the trip to Florida. And finally, in apparel and accessories, Evan Swareski was a state finalist at the DECA competition in Rosemont and made the trip to Florida as well. All right, Evan, stay up here. One more picture. One more picture. Got to have the Orlando picture. I will add Jamie Dunlap is the sponsor of DECA as well. So she is well traveled by the end of the school year when her students do so well in these competitions. So thank you to Jamie. Again, congratulations to these VE and DECA students on a job well done. Enjoy the last month of your school year. And thanks for being here tonight, everybody. And that completes our recognition for the high school tonight. DECA and VE folks, you are free to go. I think so. Thanks everybody for your

026patience tonight. So many uh important topics to go through tonight. So we're working on a little transition here to another group who's going to come in and uh got some. Thank you. >> Um we're going to have a overview of our accelerated and enrichment program. So I think uh those educators and students are about to make their way in. Thanks for being patient, guys. We're excited to hear from you. Always with the props, Mr. Morland can know. I know. I know. Okay. Again, thank you for your patience and we are now looking at item two, accelerated enrichment program overview, George PES, AE staff and students. Would you want to add anything to that or just let >> Yeah, we'll let we'll let uh Mr. PM Mezis or Dr. P Mezes, take it away. I know

027they've uh been doing some work reviewing the program and kind of want to just share with the board and the community some of the great things that have been happening and some of the things that uh um they're looking at for the future. >> Thank you very much. I I'm trying to figure out how to display here because it's displaying on my computer, but I've got the presenter site on the screen here. >> Go back to hit Windows K again and then it should pop up in the corner. Duplicate. There we go. Now, there you go. >> It's still got me in presenter mode here. >> So, now go up to where it says display settings. Just do the drop down. Top corner, top left. There you go. What do you need it to do?

028>> Just bottom left corner. Okay, there we go. My apologies. And I said this earlier today, patience is a virtue. So, I appreciate uh your patience here today. I want to thank Dr. Mouland and uh Mrs. Peacock here, our AE teachers from H Heartland Elementary School and from Fabian Elementary School that will be um you know uh presenting here today. Uh if at any time during the presentation you get a little tired of uh listening to me, we have embedded some quotes from students um current and past. Uh so feel free to to read those um as we're kind of going through this presentation. I will say before I introduce uh Dr. Mo and Mrs. Peacock here, they will introduce some students here from our schools. Um but we have done a lot of work

029this year that I'll try to highlight real quick. But one of the things that we've been working on that I hope that uh the board you could you know pay a little attention to is we've been working on our cultural competencies uh strategic uh goal and cultural competencies is is a lot like I try to use the analogy it's like when you decide to buy a car and you decide exactly the car that you want and then that day after you go and you see that car everywhere. as we've embarked on this journey on um learning all about you know cultural competencies it seems that everywhere we turn um we are doing some amazing things and I know that uh Dr. Mo will highlight some of those things here so without further ado I will

030pass this along here to um uh Dr. Dr. Mland and Elizabeth Peacock. I do have one uh thing here. I did want to provide a little overview of our AE program. Our AE program, the pro process of selecting students for AE begins in third grade. And we do use a combination of MAP and KAT assessments along with um teacher recommendations. Lots of conversations take place in third right third grade right around this time of year for placement into our AE program in fourth and fifth grade. So we do have fourth and fifth grade math which is 60 minutes daily and we have fourth and fifth grade reading at the elementary level which is 75 minutes daily before they go on to the middle school 6th through 8th grade where they have a period of accelerated

031math and two periods of accelerated language arts. Uh so that is the the quick process. We're engaged in this process currently right now. Um and I we will I'll pass this off to uh Dr. Mland and let him talk a little bit about the elementary um you know program at uh for AE Dr. >> Mland. It was a little dusty. >> Uh my name is Dr. Mland. I teach A&E uh reading and math at H Heartland Elementary School. Um, I would like to take a moment here and introduce three of my students who are doing wonderful things in uh, fifth grade reading this year and in particular a project that they created uh, pitched it to our principal who approved it and then they ran with this project. So, um, outside of a lot of

032the things that we're doing like book commercials and starting a blog amongst the fifth grade AE students and the reading responses and all the gim kits and book kits and breakouts that we do, um, this project in particular was quite exciting for all of us. So, if I could have Henry, Lauren, and Josie come on up over here. Thank you. It's my classroom. So, thank you very much. I greatly appreciate that. That comes next. Uh, okay. So, we will start with Lauren. >> A few months ago, we read a book called Refugee that inspired us to create a fundraiser to help children in need all around the world. In the author's note, Alan Gratz wrote about organizations that support refugees and others in crisis. We created a fundraiser for UNICEF. Our goal was to raise

033$1,000 and we actually raised $1,338. This was accomplished by placing donation boxes around the school, creating an online link for easy donating, and facilitating a change for change week where students donated certain coins on different days of the week. To encourage participation, we offered prizes to the highest donating class from kindergarten through 2 grade and third through fifth grade. Aurelios was so impressed with H Heartland's willingness to help children in need that they generously donated pizza as a classroom prize. Another project we worked on in math this year is our scaling projects. We brought them here today to show you. We built models of the John Hancock building, the Crane Communications Building, and Chichinita. To introduce the concept of scaling, Dr. Mland had us measure and build scaled down models of classroom objects which can

034be seen in our class model. Then we chose buildings around the world to scale down and created models out of balsa wood. After that we spray painted them to look even more realistic. >> Thank you for letting us share our AE projects. Now we have a lot of homework from Dr. Molen at bedtime. So I gasket it. [Applause] >> Hello >> Dr. Morland. Are these perfectly to scale? >> Awesome. >> You can check. >> Yeah, >> you can check. >> What exactly? >> Hi, I'm Elizabeth Peacock. I am the AE teacher at Fabian and you've heard from Dr. from and his students about some of the cool things that are currently happening in the AE classrooms. But I wanted to talk a little bit about the long-term impact that elementary AE has on the success

035of our students in middle school and in high school. Um like how the skills and the confidence that they build in our elementary program help them when they get to high school and middle school later. So to get a better understanding of that, I did reach out to former AE students, both middle school and high school. And that's what some of these quotes are that you're seeing on all of our slides are from them. And I really wanted to find out like, you know, did was being in the program in elementary was it beneficial to you in the subsequent years of your schooling? And the answer was a resounding yes. And I asked them, well, how so? And this will tell I'm not going to read them all to you, but this will tell you

036some of the different ways that it was beneficial to them. But instead of me reading and me telling you all about it, I brought some former AE students, former elementary AE students um to talk to you about how being in elementary AE helps them now that they're in middle school. So I'd like to introduce Jax and Sawyer Man. And Jax is gonna they're in seventh grade at Geneva Middle School North, still an A&E program. and Jackson is going to talk about reading and then Sawyer's gonna talk about math. Ready? >> Thank you. Um, hello. My name is Jackson Mcan and I was an AE student in elementary school. I was an AE student throughout fourth and fifth grade for Mrs. Peacock's class at Fabian. I was in it for math and reading and I'm an

037AE student for middle school, too. Today, I will be talking about how advanced reading classes in elementary school helped me prepare better for middle school. The first thing I will talk about is the fact that I was able to learn about the topics I was interested in. When I was in elementary school, I was hooked on World War II. So, when I got into AE for reading in fourth grade, the first thing I asked was if Miss Peacock had any good book suggestions related to World War II or the Holocaust. She instantly gave me a ton of book suggestions. Me being able to talk to someone who knew more about the topic than me was very helpful and humbling in finding out that I didn't know everything. That leads me to my next point. My

038next point is that we use strategies like signpost to help understand books at a different and deeper level. The first book we read as a group was called inside a back again by Tana Alive. is a coming of age story told in verse following 10-year-old Ha as she and her family flee Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and immigrate to Alabama. The novel explores themes of war, loss, family, culture shock, and the challenges of being an immigrant. The signpost strategies help me look deeper into books instead of just reading a story about what happens. I can find themes, internal conflicts, or notice when something is symbolized by something else. I learned to uncover different layers of meaning in a book and something I still use today with every book I read. In AE reading, we

039also learned about annotating. Miss Peacock had us annotate all the signposts we saw along with inferences and other things we noticed and write them down. So, I learned to stop and think about what I was reading instead of just passively reading. Every day, we would sit in a group and talk about the things we noted in the book and talk about what they meant. This helped me learn about how to uncover deeper meanings in books, which helps me now that I'm in middle school and we annotate almost every book we read. And that leads me to my last and final point. We also learned how we can connect to books and how sometimes a book can mirror into our lives. We can connect and envision ourselves in the book and understand different perspectives. We were

040able to find ways to connect to characters who at first seem to have nothing in common with us. For example, in inside out and back again, we connected to HA by talking about hardships we had and how we worked through them and became better from them. That's all for me. So, here's my brother on advanced math. [Applause] Hi, my name is Sawyer Mcan and I'm here representing the Fabian Accelerated program. I would like to talk about how the accelerated math class has affected me and my current life. To start off, we learned about how math connects by re to real life by playing a year-long stock market game in the classroom. This has really helped me today. Not only because I now have invested my money in the stock market, but has helped me learn

041how how to use math in real life. We didn't just learn about percentages and decimals from a worksheet. We had real life experiences with using them. We also branched off into in-depth conversations about how current events are affecting the stock market, giving me and my classmates insight on events that I might not have known or cared about otherwise. Additionally, we learned to about the patterns of math and how numbers work and fit together. This has helped me see that math isn't just formulas and equations. Understanding the big picture and the patterns helps me solve more advanced problems. I also wanted to mention how fun this class was. Going to school, I would always look forward to math and reading because of the atmosphere in the classroom. I was always interested in what we were learning

042about, and that's because Miss Peacock made it fun and interactive. The last benefit I'm going to talk about is that this class has given me a very solid understanding of math that I have now been able to grow and improve on. AE math didn't just teach me to get the right answer. It taught me how to think through things. Because of this class, I've gotten straight A's in math and hope to continue in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you. Maybe I should um bring my portfolio to your math class and you could help me uh invest. Uh thank you to Dr. Mullen and Mrs. uh Peacock and to our students and families that are here today. Um I know it's a late night and um a very packed board meeting. I'm really proud of

043the work that our AE teachers are doing um and more proud of uh our students that are finding benefit and moving um through our elementary and middle school and high school and and doing well. Uh there's a lot of work that um goes into our AE uh program. Um, we have six elementary schools and two middle schools and a high school. And I will tell you that our AE teachers um are constantly uh meeting not only with teachers in their building to help uh differentiate and support classroom teachers with students that they have in their classroom, but they are meeting often with each other um at least monthly. Um but I know more often than that exchanging ideas, collaborating um and uh you know trying new things are um and every so often our elementary

044teachers and our middle school teachers will get together to take a look at our program, you know, on a much larger scale. You know, what needs what are some updates that we need to make if any? How are things working? Are we identifying the right kids? These are constant conversations that we are having with each other and with our our teachers. If you recall back in 2022, uh we had AE and third grade, but we made the decision at that point to move AE from third grade to fourth and fifth grade for a variety of reasons. Um a couple of which are to allow for better alignment with our master schedule. uh to give our AE teachers and our AE students more time with the uh um with our in the AE classroom and of

045course to reduce the number of students that we problem solve. So what we found back in 2022 we're having problem solving meetings of stu in uh in fourth grade of students that we potentially could have missed and maybe would have benefited. Uh so we were lots of meetings uh in 2017 which is not 10 years ago but about eight years ago uh we worked on detangling the math matrix and I'll I'll explain a little bit what that means because that is some of the work that we engaged in this year with our elementary and our um middle school uh teachers. So when we looked at our reading matrix uh we had three goals this year as a team and that is to detangle and simplify the qualification matrix. Uh again reduce the number of problem

046solving meetings that we had. Uh so again identifying the appropriate students for AE and reducing the number of newly qualified AE students entering middle school with previous AE experience. Let me tell you a little bit about that. This is something that we're never going to get get away from. There are always students that um perhaps uh did not qualify in third, fourth, and fifth grade and then all of a sudden uh come their fifth grade map and KOAT score, they're in AE. And so we have to constantly ask ourselves um you know, is our current matrix working? Are we identifying the right kids? Because we want to make sure that the students that we are putting into AE are the correct and they are um prepared for AE. And so part of that work um

047came uh with adjusting the matrix a little bit. And when I say detangling, I'm actually gonna come around here because my eyes are not that great. Um we have our current matrix on the lefth hand side and we have our new matrix here on the right hand side. In our current matrix, we have seven points to qualify for AE. And you see there's a number of ways to get three points and it's a combination of uh a student's cog and a map. So the lower the KAT, the higher the MAP. Uh the higher the MAP, perhaps the lower the KAT. So there's all these different ways to get three. There's a teacher evaluation process that uh could offer up to three points, a parent recommendation point. Uh and this was always a little bit challenging

048for us. We made a similar move in uh years ago with math as I mentioned earlier and we detangled it meaning we offered points for Kogat, we offered points for MAP and we offer points for a teacher evaluation, five points needed for AE. These conversations are uh we work through a lot of different scenarios because as you could imagine one slight adjustment and it can throw uh AE numbers in a completely different um direction with our our schools. Um but also when we finalized this we looked at the new matrix and we did uh we we applied the new matrix not only this year but we've applied it up to four years before to see all right which students would have this caught and you know amazingly and what we had hoped would happen those

049students that were problem solved in meaning perhaps they had a 119 and you know or maybe an 88 they were really really close um with a new matrix those kids would have all got caught. Um those students were already problem solved in and when I say problem solved a teacher can problem solve and recommend a student you know and often time that's what happens if there's a student that perhaps didn't meet the minimal qualifications we we truly believe that not one single assessment should determine this. uh we would take more of a qualitative approach and have conversations with teens and teachers and we find when we looked at who those students were that didn't qualify on the matrix that were doing well in AE at the elementary level and at the middle school level and

050at the high school level we looked at who those students were what their composite of score what their story looked like from a you know a data and assessment perspective and and this is what we what we came across here. So, uh, lots of work and I want to thank, of course, our AE teachers at the middle school, um, and, uh, at the elementary school, but I also want to thank our awesome tech team. I know Mr. Wilks is not here, but, uh, there are many days where I send him random numbers and he spits out spreadsheets for me to look at. And, uh, we, you know, it's, it makes our job much easier with our tech department helping us with different scenarios. Um so we went and uh adjusted the middle school matrix as

051well and we landed on this and this will be in place um beginning next school year. So a little probably a little bit more than what you all had hoped to hear about today but I want to thank you all um for your time and again our students and Dr. Molen and Mrs. Peacock for their work today. questions. [Applause] >> Can I just ask a question about the matrix? So, in looking at that, we've taken out that parent recommendation piece, which I know sometimes our parents know our students the best and what learning environments work really well for them. And then it feels like that also puts a little more emphasis on just standardized test scoring where that might not be where every one of our students performs the best. That might not be how

052all of our learners show their their potential. So are we thinking we're capturing some of those students who might otherwise not be showing up? Yeah, that was a question we had with the MA math matrix as well when we eliminated uh eliminated that uh point uh for the parent. Um but the short answer to your question is um that's why we still have a problem solving process. So teachers can have um do have an opportunity to bring a student that perhaps you know did not uh meet. when we looked at the students that um when we looked at historical numbers and you know current numbers and future numbers students that are in high school that have been in this program we looked at the role the parent point played and it actually has a role

053more in the on the opposite end I would say um I don't think we've ever had a conversation where we've called the parent and and asked for the parent point and the parent said no so you'll notice on the the Kogat we did rem you know we did lower it from a minimum 20 to 116 to allow for more of those students to be caught. Um, but at the same time, the parent point on the opposite end is there often times conversations that we have with parents um that they will not place their student in in AE. Um, so they would not give that point. In the end, it's the conversation that's most important with the parent that that we have. Um, and if a if a uh if we find that a student has

054qualified and we have a conversation and there are just some trepidation there, the the teacher or the AE teacher will have a conversation with that parent um and they will make that decision collectively. So, I'm not sure if I totally answered your question there. >> So, what about the opposite where there's times where parents feel like this is where my kid belongs and they it might not be showing up in their MAP scores or their KOAT score. Correct. So that's where we have our problem solving process in place. So um again >> we don't feel that any single assessment um paints uh the a picture of a student. Um and so there are often times where a teacher or even a parent at that point will come and say you know my child uh did

055not you know was not in the best position to take the assessment that day or their classroom data shows a different story. uh we will pull together all that data, have a conversation with the classroom teacher, the team um and make a determination about AE placement. >> Just one other question then semi-related. Now, at the high school, we're we've shifted because of some state law changes where um you're automatically placed into classes based on score and and also we we have had a policy of just going based off of anyone can choose what classes they're in. Have we have we thought about how this may play into like where kids may place later into high school or like looking at that long-term projection? Yes, we actually looked uh historically we looked at uh students uh

056that have been in AE up to I think um in their fourth or fifth year in high school and identified those students that were in AE and then we looked at the scores um and to see which students, you know, performed um and what what classes they took. Were they in honors classes? Were they in uh advanced courses? and how they performed in those and the data supported that the the the uh the matrix that we are using and the matrix that we are um uh we will be putting in place here um those students are the the right students. It was actually um refreshing to hear that Dr. Molyand asked that same question in our uh committee because we want to know that's I think that's the biggest fear that I wouldn't say fear

057but that's something that teachers always ask are we preparing our students for the courses that they will that will take and that's why those problem solving meetings for students that don't quite make it and we're discussing that's why that's very those are very important discussions because we want to ensure that the students that we are placing in AE we're setting them up for success. Stephanie, I would just add that you're what you're referring to is accelerated placement act and that is dependent just on a test score. So that is just dependent on their um Illinois Assessment of Readiness, math or language arts score or their um ACT, >> right? And then in addition, we allow anyone to choose where they might want to go. But >> correct, we have open enrollment in course selection. >>

058Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. I think it's a very valuable program and the teachers do a wonderful job with the students. So I appreciate all your work. >> Thank you for your questions and the work is all on our teachers and our students. So I appreciate them and um your patience with me earlier. Um can never plan for tech issues but uh appreciate your patience. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda, uh, English language learners with Shanet Sims. >> One more transition here. You can tell it's May because we have one million awesome things to do. Don't be sorry at all. Don't be sorry that we're doing so many important and valuable things. While this while this transition is happening, um I intentionally I'm sitting here because it

059will provide me a couple opportunities to speak about uh Mrs. New Kirch while she's setting up for the presentation tonight. Um I I want to be quick because I know we are beyond bedtimes for some of our guests tonight. Uh but I just want to take a >> I'm sitting right here. You don't have to talk about me though. >> Well, I just want everyone to know Audrey might share her blanket. I don't know. Um, no, seriously. Um, I just want to recognize all that, um, Mrs. Newer has contributed to our district for the last 11 years. She is unfortunately leaving us, um, this year. She is assuming a central office role in district 41. Uh, so she will be taking her time and talents um to Glenn Ellen, but she has certainly been an

060incredible advocate for our students and our families and has really been uh the the voice and the heart of this program for the last 11 years. So, I just want to acknowledge all of her work, thank her for that, and uh she's still stuck with me for a little bit longer. So, >> thank you for that. Hold on. >> Your code's right on the screen. >> No, not showing up. I know. I know. >> So, uh, while Kelly gets tech, uh, figured out, I am Mrs. Nukeert. I'm the ELELLL coordinator for the district. So, I oversee, um, ELELLL and bilingual programming for preschool through high school. Um, we do have a bilingual program um, at Harrison Street Elementary School. Miss Karowski is here as one of our representatives with some of her students. Um, but

061we also see a wide range of um, students with different um, home languages, Ukrainian, Turkish, Mandarin. Um, and we have programming in all of our buildings. Um, really strong programming in all of our buildings. And, um, we're here tonight to show some of the things that we are proud of. I do have an assistant here as well. Hold on one second. Oh, here we go. We are proud. >> Um, some of the things that I am the most proud of uh with our team is that across the district we have a number of incredible teachers and instructional assistants um that provide support for our students. Uh the early learning program has two ELELLL teachers. Harrison has two bilingual teachers, an ELLL teacher, and three bilingual instructional assistants as well as bilingual office professionals. Uh we

062have an ELLL teacher between Williamsburg and Mil Creek. Another one at Western and Hartland and another one at Geneva Middle School South and Fabian. Um we have a bilingual ELLL teacher at North um and a bilingual instructional assistant there as well. At the high school, we have three ELELLL teachers um in addition to a bilingual instructional assistant and a supported math class, which we'll talk a little bit about later. Um Mrs. Morrison is here representing the high school uh ELLL team. Um and we also have um a bilingual registar here at central office. Um and these are all changes that have happened um really in the most recent years. Um, so just as the person who partners with Shanet and George on getting um, all the best supports to our students at all of our

063buildings, I just want to say a huge thank you to our building admin, our district admin, the board for recognizing that some of our programming is just a little bit more unique than in other places and you've really supported us in getting um, so many great people in place to help our students and our families. Um, some highlights of the year. Our staff is amazing. Our students are amazing. Our families are amazing. They've been here since 6:15 waiting. Um, these little guys are about to uh present to you soon. We have new curriculum for the bilingual program over at um Harrison that's going to be piloted. Um, Kelly has been a big spearhead of that. Um, here with us uh tonight. Uh we have a newcomer curriculum for English one at the high school, a

064new foundational math class for newcomers at Geneva High School. Um and another thing to celebrate is that our numbers at North and South are much more balanced. Um which we all really um there's a lot of value for all of our students and for our entire academic community when um our diversity and our uniqueness is spread out between both buildings and not just housed at one. Um, and that's just been a big effort that we've been um, working on as well. I'm going to hand it over to the more fun ones, the kids, and uh, let Miss Kenarowski kind of take the lead on that. All right. Thank you guys so much for having us here today. Uh, Victoria is my little helper. She's going to walk down and have them introduce the students if

065they want. Some of them are feeling a little bit shy right now. And then we're also just going to tell you where which country their families are from just because we're represented from many different countries in the United States. So, do you want to start? Uh, my name is Victoria and I go to Harrison Street in second grade and I am from Mexico City. She just moved here last summer and she is doing great. So, we're very proud of her. So, she's going to be my helper. [Applause] >> Venezuela, >> USA, USA, Mexico, >> Columbia. >> Very cool. So, so up here we have many countries represented. And um in the PowerPoint we did a quick writing sample of what uh their favorite things are that we do in my classroom, some of the things

066that they like as well as a video to tell you what they are proud of of what they've done. So we have kindergarten, first and second grade represented here. Um I have 19 students across kindergarten, first and second grade. So, these are all of my students that um we work with. Some are here. Um and so they each have their own slide of things that they're proud of. Sa. All right. So, Sarah will be first. >> I'm a kindergarten. We read books. >> We listen to music. >> We do May. >> My favorite part. Miss Kari is fun. >> Can is fun. >> And I like to add >> I like to add I'm so happy that I know [Laughter] >> I'm in second grade. >> I like the whole school. I like to teach

067my my friends Spanish. I'm proud of me because I think I read good. >> I'm proud of myself because I think I read good and my handwriting is better. Nice. Yeah, that is very nice. >> I'm in kindergarten map. >> We do calendar. >> I like the color. [Music] I am proud doing math. [Applause] >> Kindergartian. I like Miss Karovski. >> Like to do puzzles. >> I like to do calendar math. Now let's do math. [Applause] First grade. >> First grade. >> I like to write in English and Spanish. I like this addition. >> I am proud of how I do math and reading English and [Applause] ready. All right. So this is Santiago and he is in first grade and he said he likes the Osmo. I like to do fun things. I like

068to learn in English because it's fun. And his video is >> I'm proud of how I do math. >> Do lots of math. [Applause] All right. So these are all of my volunteers here. We spend a lot of time um working in English and Spanish. They start off in Spanish in kindergarten and then as they start to learn more English, we start introducing more English and that is when they start reading in English. So my first and second graders are reading in both languages right now. Um my kindergarteners are well on their way as well. So we are very proud of them and all that they are doing. Right. Yeah. So thank you guys. Uh, we will let the we will let you guys go home. Thank you for coming. It was late. Can we

069do one quick picture? Can we do a picture? A group picture. [Music] >> Oh, no. I like >> Okay. Perfect. >> Thank you so much for coming and being patient. Thank you. Thank you. Um before >> work. >> Sure. >> Um so I do have one more um thing to highlight and this is truly um one of my favorite things other than the littles this year. Um we have a teacher over at Geneva High School primarily geometry and algebra if I'm not mistaken. Um and Mrs. Phil came to Shaunette and I uh last spring and just really felt uh she felt some frustration and she also felt compelled to take on a brand new task. and um she came to us because we um in the recent years we've had a larger number of students

070coming to us in either seventh grade or eighth grade and then going to the high school with not the same math foundational skills as their gened peers. And so we were just kind of frantically throwing them in what we thought was the best place for them. And it really wasn't the best option. it wasn't an appropriate some of the different ways that we tried to work through it. It just it really didn't work. Um and not without any of us trying, right? Uh Mr. Rogers and I and Mr. Drexler, we have lots of conversations of how do we support this group? Um and so Mrs. came to us and said, "I'm going to teach a foundational math class." And I was like, "Oh, okay." Um I'm not a math content specialist. Um but she is.

071and um we work together to um create the parameters for this new foundationals math class. So what Jenna is doing is essentially like fifth grade through 8th grade math um at a super quick pace but also gleaning all of the most essential learnings because we can't repeat four to five years in a semester or two. Um, and so Jen worked and also to credit um, John Thomas, math department chair, um, Shauna, George, Tom, Doug, we all just were like, let's do this. Um, and so Jen's class has um, six students in it. And, um, there's also an instructional assistant who is bilingual, who is Spanish speaking, who's in that classroom as well. Um, and it isn't a criticism of Jen Phil, but she does not know Spanish and her she does try and she learns

072along with the kids, but um, what she has done with these students in just a short amount of time has been so amazing to watch. Um, these students feel very safe in her learning environment to take risks, to practice their Spanish while in their English while also practicing and learning math. Um, of the six, there are four that are going to go right into the regular algebra track next year with their Jenned Pierce. And, um, Jenna's just worked tremendously to create her own curriculum, her own manipulatives. Um, and she's just, it's just been such, um, such an awesome thing to see and really probably the most, uh, heartfelt uh, thing I've seen all year long. So, um, and Jen would probably tell you, um, last summer she she was super scared, very nervous, um, didn't

073really know how it was going to go. And if you were to ask Jen Phil today what her highlight of the day is, it would probably be this class. Um, so I do have a quick video. Um, it really is about three minutes. Uh, it's a quick just highlight of the classroom. You'll see Mrs. Thleen, our instructional assistant, and then we'll interview two students, one in Spanish and then one in English as well. And then that concludes our part of the evening. Oh, so that this is not only help them in math. It helps me to learn my English. Like I can learn more words and like I don't feel like shy to like ask for help cuz like I know there's people like doesn't speak English in that class too. So I don't feel

074like left out. >> This class has been very bene beneficial for the kids because first they are in a small group and they have the the language help they need. So they feel very comfortable talking and asking questions because they know they are going to be helped and they can ask many times they need until they understand. So they feel free to ask. That's good for them because uh you can tell I can tell they are learning a lot. You can compare the class from last year to this year. You can tell the difference in the knowledge of the kids because they feel comfortable to ask questions to resolve to talk to practice the language even because sometime for they are teenagers so they feel shy and in this class they don't they they don't

075feel that way because they know they are learning and they can practice math and English at the same time. So, it's really a good good good type of class for them. [Applause] All right. Thank you again. Um, especially to Miss Canarowski. Those little kids, man. They you say Miss Canaraski wants you to come and they're they're here, right? Miss Kenowski is so fun. So, thank you for uh all of your work uh with the little ones and Mrs. Morrison with all of our help with the big ones. Miss Kanani over here um from South and Fabian also just working tirelessly. She just got new two new students from Hong Kong about two months ago. Um and so she's working super hard with them and making sure that uh middle school navigating middle school is going

076well. So um thank you so very much and uh we've got lots to be proud of and so much to celebrate and so much more to do. So, thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you very much. I'm I'm quite sure that everyone on the board is really delighted to see that you're exploring and working with different approaches to be successful with these students. I'm very pleased. Well, next on the agenda is public comments. And uh I have a pile here. a number of you. I recognize your name because I've read your letters and uh so I I look forward to hearing this. Um I I don't really want to limit anyone's time, but we don't have an infinite amount. So if you would be relatively brief and if someone else has made the same point, just

077say I agree with this other person and it will help. When you do this, in order to appear on the video of the meeting, you need to be at the podium and use the microphone. Brian Melany, your turn. >> Good evening, members of Board of Education. My name is Brian Maloney and I'm concerned about the future of district. >> There is another one sitting right there. If we need to switch them, give her a tap there, George. No. All right. Are we on now? >> Ah, there we go. >> So, again, my name is Brian Maloney. I'm concerned about the future of our district foreign language program, particularly uh the intention of the superintendent to dis sunset the German program. I have two boys currently in the German program and Fra Kosog's level one in

078two classes. In fact, one of the reasons we decided to move to Geneva was because of the German program. German offers many advantages over other languages. Germany has the third largest economy in the world, and many German companies have American headquarters and branches in the Chicago area. Such well-known companies as Bosch, Seammens, Tissup, Aldi, and Harabbo are in the local area and actively look to hire German speakers. In fact, over 3,000 German companies are invested in the American market, second only to the UK in employing Americans. According to The Economist magazine, German proficiency offers salary premiums higher than other languages, between 25,000 and 75,000 over Spanish and French, and they predict the trend to grow even wider in the next 30 years. As a German teacher at St. Charles North High School for the last

07925 years, I have witnessed what German can do for students firsthand. I brought along a photo. I was just using the other day with a group of parents as we're ready getting ready for our exchange program. This is my 2011 group. Um, Elizabeth in this picture now works for Austrian Advantage, an Austrian business alliance in Chicago. Rachel earned a Congress Bundist Scholarship after high school, went to university in Germany, and still lives there today working for a nonpublic uh aid organization, nonprofit public aid organization. Nikki lives in Munich and works for a publishing company. Mitch taught German at the Donk House in Chicago and is now a senior global consultant at AON. Katina got her masters in Austria, now works in Shamberg for Hidenhan, a German industrial equipment supplier. John, as a high school student,

080got an internship with Bosch and Shamberg translating documents to send back to Germany. He then got into a prestigious engineering and German translation program at Rose Hullman and landed a job with Tissen building windmills on the North Sea. As many of the be world's best engineering firms are in Germany, I get a lot of students who want to be engineers because they know the huge advantage German offers them. A growing segment of my students are now native Spanish speakers who want to learn a third language. And in 25 years, I've never had a year without a native or heritage German speaker in my classes. The German community is here in the Tri Cities. As you are aware, the state of Illinois has passed a law requiring high school students to complete two years of foreign

081language starting in 2028. Limiting Geneva students to only French or Spanish not only is not what is best for our students, it also reflects poorly on the district, reducing AP honors and elective offerings, which will hurt Geneva school rankings. Please do not use the excuse of the retirement of one of our German teachers as a reason to discontinue the program and disadvantage our students. Members of the board, I implore you to please reject the superintendent's decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Um, what do you think? >> Quinn Schaefer, I think. >> Quinn Schaefer. Yeah. >> Is that Yeah. Okay. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Quinn Schaer and I will also be speaking against the decision to sunset the German program. I'm a class of 2024 graduate of Geneva

082High School and I was a member of the German program for all four years of my high school career and was an active member of German club for two years before serving as club president for the 2023 to 2024 academic year. When I first entered GHS in 2020, I had no idea the role the language would play in my high school years. I assumed that I would take my required two years and then be done with it. However, I quickly learned that this would not be the case. Through the excellent teaching and guidance of Fra Swedenbank, who you will hear from soon, and Fra Kosog, it did not take long for me to gain a deep passion for German and the German program. Every day for the next four years, I would be incredibly excited

083to walk into that class. Aside from a handful of exam days, there was always a new story to learn, activity to perform, or conversation to be had. For Swedenbank, who was my teacher for three years, gifted me and my peers with a knowledge that extends far beyond language. The idea of phasing out the program was always a looming threat, one that was brought up occasionally, but always seen as a distant possibility rather than a current reality. You can imagine my disappointment then when several days ago my former teacher Frost Swedenbank texted me informing me that the school board was now seriously considering a plan to phase out the German program. They cite the declining enrollment numbers which is an unfortunate reality. However, the importance of the German program is not something that can be expressed

084in mere numbers. It can be expressed in experience. And I know that I am far from alone in saying that this program has been the most significant experience of my high school career. I have met countless friends and made countless memories through this program and have even had the great privilege of traveling to the German speaking countries several times to put what I have learned into practice. Thanks to the teaching of Fra Swedenbank, I would learn that a language is not just a different way of speaking, but a window into another culture and way of life. To phase out this program would be to close this window. Overall, this program is a tight-knit community of passionate, bright, and creative students of which I am so proud and lucky to have been a part of. Phasing

085out this community would destroy a program which has provided and continues to provide countless opportunities to the students who decide to take up this challenge. With all this in mind, as someone who has had their life changed because of this program, I ask you all to please consider reconsider its phasing out as it would be a defeat not only for the students who take this language but for the wider Geneva Community High School as well. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, Quinn. Jessica Zeke. Hi, good evening. My name is Jessica Zeke. I'm also here to speak on the phasing out of the or the sunsetting of the German program. I am going to shorten mine because my son will also be speaking as to his experience with the program. But I will say this, not

086all kids are sport kids or theater kids or art kids. Some kids find their passion through those classes that they take or those subjects. This was the case for my son. The program and subject impacted him so much that he is actually following in Fra's footsteps and majoring in education in German and college. I understand we have declining enrollment numbers in the program, but enrollment es and flows as families grow up. This is not a new concept. It is not not for the German program or any program. I believe our district has bigger things to focus on and other areas that need significant attention. The suns setting of the German program in contrast is a small move and purely symbolical that won't ruffle many feathers but make it appear as the real changes are being

087made. The only real change that it creates though is to limit educational opportunities for our students starting in 2028. As the gentleman um who first one said we are going to require two years of educa or of foreign language to graduate high school and Geneva's response is to cut one of the programs. So we will go from having three languages to two, but now we're requiring it to graduate high school. When students have a choice or a strongest interest in a subject, they are more engaged and overall have higher achievement. On a more personal level, I think the wonderful experience I think about the wonderful experience my child had and other students had over the years, the German club, the actual trips to Germany, field trips to the Chris Kindle market in the city, the

088list goes on and on, the support FRA has given them, the experiences the program has given them. It makes me sad to think future students won't have that opportunity. I would really like you guys to reconsider sunsetting the program. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Tyler, it looks like it's your turn. >> Good evening, members. Good evening, members of the board. I'll be also speaking on the sunset program or on the sunsetting of the German program. My name is Tyler Zeke. I am a senior at the high school who is currently enrolled in AP German. As many of as many of you know, I sent an email to you all stating some of my past experiences and I want to take the opportunity again to speak here tonight. The German program has offered

089me many opportunities over the past five years. It has allowed me to travel to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and actually have an appreciation for the culture and to use my language skills. based on what I knew from German class and what I learned from that trip. I made the decision to spend my year my junior year in Germany as an exchange student. Without the GHS German program, I would never have been able to have any of those experiences. Upon my returning home from Germany, I naturally enrolled in AP German where I further expanded and practiced my language skills which led me to receiving my seal of biiteracy in February. I am now going to be taking my AP test this Wednesday, which will be greatly useful where I will be majoring in German education. Though

090my experiences are on the extreme side, um like the first presentation or like the first speaker mentioned, German has a German plays a large role in the global economy and in many businesses also in the US. Students need options. As a current student, I can admit that I don't try or learn as much when I am forced to take a class. When I get to choose, however, I am much more willing to learn and actively participate because is a course or program that interests me. It always has seemed to me that Geneva is proud of the amount of courses and programs that they are able to offer to which I believe a large part of the success as a school district can be accredited. Removing German will take that choice away from each and every

091student signed up to take German one next year. It will also remove that choice from each and every student who will come through the high school in the years to come. It will make foreign language just another hurdle to get to graduation instead of a fun and interesting class where students will actually be engaged in actively learning. I do want to add I know a m major part of this decision is based on the budget and I had the opportunity to present on the budget to miss to Dr. Barrett last Friday and I would like to touch base on he did state that our ac our athletic spending which is over $600,000 based on the information that I have gleaned from Mr. Leam and Mr. Rogers is a small fraction of the budget that makes

092Geneva that makes the German program a far far smaller fraction and as I believe also our superintendent said in last meeting the German program is small but mighty. The students enrolled in it care about the program. It is an integral part of their high school experience and I sincerely hope that it will remain a part of GHS for the years to come. I would like to thank you all for your time and have a good evening. [Applause] >> Thank you, Tyler Jamie Carolda. Did I say that right? >> Okay. Good evening. Thank you all for allowing me to speak. >> Could close to the mic. We just want to make sure we hear. Thank you so much. Sorry. >> I was far away. >> Okay. Good evening. Thank you all for allowing me to speak.

093I did butcher mine a little as I was speaking to Mr. Maloney because you didn't want us to duplicate So, it's going to sound choppy. I'm here tonight as a parents whose three children have all gone through the German language program. Each of my boys has taken German and each one has loved it. Through this program, they didn't just learn a language. They traveled to Europe, visited four different countries, and experienced cultures in a way that textbooks simply cannot offer. It opened their eyes and shaped how they see the world. But beyond personal growth, there's a practical side. German is the most widely spoken native language in Europe and is a key language in science, engineering, business, and philosophy. Knowing German gives students a competitive edge in international careers, especially in STEM fields, international relations,

094and a global business. Germany offers generous scholarships and tuitionfree educations at its universities, which can become accessible to our students through this program. By offering German alongside Spanish and French, we aren't just teaching vocabulary. We're investing in well-rounded, globally prepared young adults. Removing this program would take away opportunities, not just for travel, but for future college, career, and cultural growth. Please don't let that happen. This program matters more than most people realize. Let's keep it alive for the next generations of students. And as I was just informed by my fourth grader sitting next to me, there's several fourth graders at Harrison Street School that want to take German. [Applause] Thank you very much. Uh France Swedenbank. Good. Um, I just want to congratulate all you board members on your election and thank you for your

095service to our community. Um, I am Renee Swedenbank, one of the two German teachers. My other colleague Karen um, is in the audience. Um, I am speaking here on behalf of the entire world languages department and I would like them all my colleagues to stand up and be recognized please. And Beth So, um, I'm here to speak on behalf of all of them in our strong opposition to the plan to sunset the German program. We sent a written statement to the board on Friday, May 2nd. I hope you all had a chance to read it. Um, I understand that you've also received quite a few letters in support of the German program from former students and from community members. And while there are many reasons why we oppose this action, I'm not going to reread

096our statement, but I'd like to use my time allotted to focus on a few points and even to propose an alternative to this plan. First though, I'd like to thank Dr. Barrett. Um, you have continued and allowed us to continue um this transparent dialogue. Um, I appreciate you acknowledging that eliminating this course of study is a big deal. Um, I couldn't agree with you more. Um, we have invested 27 years into this multi-year program that has a capstone and that has provided students, as you've heard from some of them, with so many educational opportunities outside the building. So, I think it deserves very careful consideration and some really thoughtful attempts to preserve it before we take that action. Some steps that we haven't done yet. I don't want us to jump um to the ending

097first. So, as you may have read in our statement, enrollment from year to year has an eb and flow and we may experience some years um a significant drop as we've done for the upcoming school year. And this happens once every four or five years, but the numbers usually recover, shouldn't say usually, always recover in the following years. During this year's registration, only 19 students between the middle school and high school elected to take German one next year. This is the lowest number that we've ever experienced, but we maintain this is a dip and it is not a trend. The concern I think that Dr. Barrett has is that if you have a small German one class, you'll have a tiny German five class years down the road. But as you've heard from some of

098our previous speakers, students are engaged in German language for lots of reasons and not the least of which is their cultural connection, family connection. Uh people in the family who speak German. In fact, this year 30 30% of our students have a family member who speaks German. So when you have that close cultural connection, you're more likely to stay. And we do have very high um we have very high retention rates in German. So in our statement we also discussed the average class size. So the average class size um at Geneva High School according to our school the ISBE school report card is 22. Uh this year our number is at 21.6. Next year that number would be um uh 21.4 even with that drop. So, we surely can continue to um support a program

099that would allow uh class sizes in their 20s to continue. Um if we do have a a low enrollment in German five, we can consider, as we've done in the past, making German four and five a class together and teaching it as a blended um program. But to eliminate the program that has sufficient enrollment to run a class at each level just in case there's a small German five class, it just doesn't make sense. And even while we've been aware of the declining enrollment projections, we have still continued to add multiple electives. This of course is going to have an impact on enrollment in all the electives. Now, our students are very fortunate to have a wide range of these electives that satisfy both their interests and units towards graduation. But I do want to

100point out that German fulfills a requirement that many of the colleges and universities that our students attend want to see on their transcripts. And in a few short years, as many have already mentioned, it will be a requirement. And that brings me to my second point. um and probably the one that will have the biggest impact on uh future enrollment in German and that is that the Illinois school code right now that is in effect right now uh requires two years of a world language for graduation starting in 2028. The final year of the phase out would coincide with this effective date of the law and that means that when the requirement goes into effect, Geneva students are going to have one less language to choose from to meet that requirement. this, as we've said

101before, is not what's best for our students. Um, Dr. Barrett, you expressed doubts that this requirement is possible to implement statewide. Um, that there aren't enough teachers to teach every high school student in the state. But here are some facts that I'd like you to consider. The law stipulates, quote, it does not apply to students with disabilities whose course of study is determined by an IEP. So, we've exempted a large group of students who will not have to meet this requirement. I think that certainly makes it more feasible. Um, and especially for our district to be able to manage. Um, this law was first passed in 2021. So, districts will have had seven years to plan for this. And if we are not teaching the language, we are not going to produce more world language

102teachers. I'm happy to say now that I will have produced three. So, um, there have already been two attempts, this is important, there have already been two attempts to remove this, uh, from the code and both have failed. The most recently was in January. Um, and we've spoken directly with the governor's office, directly with the governor's office about this. They have confirmed that the law is going to take effect as written. Now, it's certainly possible that there will be another attempt. Um, but it does it really make sense to phase out a program that's going to be needed in the near future to fulfill this graduation requirement? This is a law right now and we don't really have the right to decide whether or not that law is going to uh go into effect. So

103unless or until it changes, it seems too early to be considering this action. And finally, I just want to talk very briefly about the Illinois State Standards and our own strategic plan. um which I happen to pick up on the table outside. Um so according to our own strate strategic plan and the Illinois state uh standards um cultural competency is a very important aspect of uh the curriculum and through this law the message from the um the message from the state is that they consider cultural competency to be so so important that they've passed a law that would support it. a law that is also um I'm sorry as a district uh we've adopted cultural competency as one of our goals. So clearly it's important to us. So why would we take an action that

104is in direct contradiction of that goal? What better way to meet this standard than through a world language program that continues to provide choice and opportunity to our students. So, um I do have to say that it um it's very difficult for me to speak um against an action and I know that everybody's intentions are good. I didn't ask anybody come up here and brag about me as a teacher. I am I am um speaking in support of students in the future. I won't be here forever, but there is a long line um at least six highly qualified um educators who would love to fill in any other role. And we do have to hire somebody um to fill uh to to um to fill the position for the the 410 position that's open right

105now. So I am speaking really on behalf of students in the future knowing how important it is uh to be able to have a choice. Here's what I would like to propose. Continue the program for the next two years and allow the students who registered for German one to take it as planned. We continue to promote all world languages equally at the middle school levels through the summer world language camp that this year is going to be only in its third year. and we can see how that affects the numbers as the years progress. If a future attempt to overturn the law is successful in the next three years, well then we revisit where we are until the enrollment increases due to the requirement small German 5 AP classes can be combined with German 4

106and taught as a blended class. In the meantime, as I said, staffing um continue to staff part-time teachers until we see whether or not we can sustain a full-time teacher. Again, we are a blue ribbon school in a high-erforming district. We earned that designation partly due to our world language department. Our students deserve that choice and I think we can take actions that will mitigate expense while still providing this choice to our students. Thank you very much for letting me speak on behalf of Thank you, Fra of Fra Clicker. My name is Osaka Cla. I'm the CEO of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest. >> Little closer is all so we can hear you. >> So, thank you. >> So, my name is Ursula Clicker. I'm the CEO of the GermanAmerican Chamber

107of Commerce and I'm here as a private person, but in my role, I was at the the keynote speaker at UIC for the German Awards Day. And I can say what an incredible group of people there was, young students that came through high school like yours that got awards to go to Germany to study further. And it was just wonderful to see. And when I heard that Geneva is thinking of closing down their German program, I just wanted to come and tell you that we as a chamber, we take care of trade relations between Germany and the US. And as Mr. Maloney already said, and I think I know already one of his students because she was a colleague of mine, Elizabeth at the German American Chamber, um, yeah, there are 6,000 German companies in

108the US. German companies provide 871,000 jobs in the US. They invest 656 billion into the US. And the biggest question we always get, why don't we have more people that can speak German and can work in our companies? Because language is power, not in communication, but to connect. And it's super important that when you learn German, you also have a view into the culture of German. And that is, to be honest, super important for Germans because they like it that there's somebody on the other side that understands a little bit about their quirkiness. because I have always been a mediator in this because I have to explain to my US colleagues why German emails are always super short and that Germans are not like angry that they're just short. They don't like to talk about

109baseball games on the weekends. So stuff like this is something super important that they learn that teachers here teach their students. And that's why I think with all the power that German companies have and their leaders in sustainability and innovation and in arts, it would be really bad even for the economy and not giving them the chance to work for a company that wants somebody that maybe not speaks fluently but understands German. And also in addition, Germany provides for students free college education. So once you get your I think it is a C1 or C2, you can study in Germany for free. And that one is something that maybe maybe we need more advertisements. Maybe kids need to know how fun it could be to learn German and to know about all the great companies

110and all the great products that come from Germany. Maybe a tour through Haribo in Wisconsin that build a huge manufacturing plant would be something that they think could be cool. So if you need help to figure out some cool ways to interest people in German language, we are here for you. Thank you very much. >> Well, normally speaking, the board listens quietly to people as they address the board and that's what we've done just now. But in the interests of clarity and openness, if any board members would like to ask a question particularly of either Fra, we could entertain uh that if there's anything that you'd want to talk about very briefly. >> I was just going to say I will bring this topic back up in my report here in a minute and an

111opportunity for the board to ask me questions too if you want. So, >> okay. And uh just as a minor aside, uh my son has received a PhD in Germanic studies just now kind of. And he got a job at the University of Denver as an associate professor of German studies. So any any fathers out there know how you feel when your son gets a big deal job. So thanks for that. All right. Well, unless somebody has a question, we will move on to the next item. But thank you all for your comments. It's been very interesting and I'm glad you were able to speak and speak clearly. Legislative updates is next. >> Yeah, I just have a couple of updates. Um, this morning at 10:00 a.m. the House, the Illinois General Assembly House had

112a subject matter hearing on House Bill 2451, which is regarding an amendment to the requirement for foreign language for two years at the high school level. uh they heard from various organizations uh throughout the state who are subject matter experts on that and then they also took questions from members of the education policy committee in the house. Uh it does I didn't get to hear all the way to the end. It was like an hour and a half long at that point but uh they are going to be looking at this legislation and proposing some changes to it. Uh they did mention the year 2829 of where it will start. So there is some time to make some um adjustments to that and um so they are going to be taking a closer look at

113that language. So I wanted to bring that up tonight since that was a topic that we were talking about. Uh again wanted to keep it brief. So there's really only one other bill I wanted to bring out. Senate Bill 191. Uh completely different subject. Uh they are looking at requiring threepoint safety belts on school buses that are purchased by districts. If you lease your buses, this is not a requirement. It will not be retroactive to buses that you've purchased in the past, but any new um buses that you purchase potentially could require this three-point safety uh belt on it. So, it is moving its way through the process. Uh they are targeting the end of the month still as um finishing up this session. So, we'll see what other uh bills come through and make

114it to the finish line with the third reading. And that's all I have tonight. Jackie, can I ask you to clarify um the foreign language bill is that did you say 2029 they were going to start looking at it? >> No, that's 2829 is the school year where it was the current legislation would start. So they said that they have a couple of years to continue to look at this. It's currently slated would currently be slated to begin. >> So they had a discussion and they said we have some time but they do want to move forward with looking at making adjustments to it. >> Thanks. >> Quick question to Todd maybe. Um Todd, with the buses, do any of our current bus inventory have uh threepoint safety uh uh belts in them? >> Uh

115for regular transportation, they do not. >> Thank you. For what it's worth, my understanding, I I read something about the legislation today. Um and the most recent the original proposal was that this would require um all buses all buses driven by school districts to have um uh you know this the safety belts. And now the modification is that any bus manufactured in Illinois and sold um would need to have uh the safety harnesses in them. So, there's a there's a change in there that I think would put less pressure on school districts if it did happen. The law doesn't necessarily say all of your buses have to have them. It just says uh that manufacturers would need to include those uh if they construct made those in Illinois. >> Yeah. Stuff moves so quickly in

116the with the general assembly at the end. You like >> Yeah, I just heard that this morning. >> Yeah, this morning. Yeah. That might be the smoothest segue from legislative report to superintendence report we've had. So Andy, would your turn? >> Yeah, thanks so much. Just a couple quick things and then get into the topic of the day for sure. Right. Um, first I just uh, you know, as I always want to do, want to acknowledge some of the things that have been going on and, uh, want to just acknowledge that last week was teacher appre appreciation week and that's an opportunity to recognize our awesome teachers and um, you know, all of the educators in our district uh, for the great things that they do. I know a lot of uh, fun stuff happened.

117Um, and it's actually a good week to have it because this time of year it's you know it's stressful. There's a lot going on. Um, and I think it's a good reminder of of all the great things that happen. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that because we're always um doing our best to acknowledge and appreciate uh folks in these meetings. Next, just I apologize, Robin, for that. Um just as a friendly reminder, our meetings are always on Mondays, but we uh sometimes have these uh goofy windows, and we'll have one next time where our next meeting actually will not be on a Monday because that's Memorial Day, so it'll follow on that t or fall on that Tuesday. Um, so just a reminder for for the board and the community on that and I

118kept those brief so we could get into our, you know, into this uh continue this conversation um regarding the German programming uh you know and we started this last time uh shared some information with you about our declining enrollment and the idea of sunsetting the program so that we could, you know, wanting to maintain our commitment to our our current German students. Um obviously uh the board and the administration has see uh received additional feedback like we did tonight. Um and wanted to have an opportunity tonight uh just for some conversation with the board and if the board had questions or or comments or things you wanted to talk about that that I could try to answer. I do want to um sincerely thank all of the speakers who came today. Um and I would

119echo what Renee said. Um this is when we have these kinds of conversations uh these are a big deal and we should be um having important difficult conversations and um I I appreciate that they can be transparent and open like this. I I think this is what we have to do um in order to be able to make decisions together and move forward as a district. So I I I thank Renee for doing that. Karen also and and Jesse's been part of these conversations uh with me too. So, um you know, obviously we know that uh as we discussed last week and as Tyler pointed out, we know that um this is a small and mighty group and our kids uh who metriculate through this program we know have tremendous experiences. Um, and you know

120what we're trying to do is think about this from the perspective of uh our ex our strategic plan and that goal of uh you know trying to rightsize our staffing with enrollment. trying to do that um potentially in in the most thoughtful way we can um where we're not having to riff staff or employees like you know we've uh talked about when when we've been addressing some of these issues like at the middle school level we talked about a similar approach. Um, and it's really about uh, you know, we're we're trying to think about that long-term commitment that you have when you start a German one program. And like Mr. Maloney said, right, like he's got kids in the program. We want to be able to maintain that uh, opportunity for those kids. And anytime

121you start uh, this program uh, German one, that means you're maintaining this for five more years, right? Um and so if we want to make sure that we can do that as we're watching our enrollment decline uh and the participation in that program decline that really was the has been the impetus um for these conversations. So I don't know if there are other questions or comments from the board that I can answer. I I will say I guess one more thing I would say um certainly this feedback that we've heard um and the feedback we heard this past uh over the past week or so from mostly our our former students who had great experiences uh in this program um we don't take it lightly take it to heart certainly something that uh you know

122Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Sims and I will reflect on and have conversations about uh following this meeting as well. So >> yes, um I have a question. Uh I've been hearing, you can hear me. Okay. Uh so I've been hearing about these spikes in the enrollment going up and down, but the latest demographics of the country in terms of birth rates and trends of this nature. I mean, these are affecting universities as well. I mean there are some universities obviously that are you know taking on Germanic studies and this sort of thing but are we really going to be as I understand and looking at the uh demographic studies irrespective of German um are we really looking at spikes continuing like that or is the trend somewhat like you have that icon going down >>

123yeah so in terms of our district's overall enrollment you're saying >> is it really going to be spiking up and down or is it really on a downward trend And I just want to make sure I understood this correctly. >> Yeah, our our district's enrollment is definitely on a downward trajectory. It has been for some time. Um uh and you know, remember we shared some information earlier this year and multiple meetings from a demographic study. Um so, you know, there was a time not that long ago uh that we had about um I think the best way to think about it is kind of by a cohort, right? or so by class of kids. So there was a time not that long ago when a cohort of kids um like a class of kids in

124the Geneva system and at Geneva High School was uh about 500, right? About 500 kids per cohort. Um we're now down to about 400 kids uh per cohort at the high school level. Um, and we're the the long-term trajectory that we're looking at is we're seeing that go down into the mid300s and potentially the low 300s um as we you know over say the next decade or so. Um so the the specific local demographic study that we did um would say that we're probably going to go down a little bit not a little bit more um you know not a lot more but we're going to go down uh some more over the next decade or so and then theoretically stabilize a little bit if there are no other um you know significant changes like

125you know some big new neighborhood or something like that like we've talked I I do think for what it's worth, I think when we heard from um uh Renee when she was talking about spikes, I think she was talking about in the individual program, right? Like some years it'll be higher and some years it'll be lower, but I think our overall in enrollment will be on that downward trajectory, right? Okay. Yeah. Thanks. >> I had a Oh, go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, okay. So, I had a couple of questions. Um, so I know this is an elective and we offer several electives across um our catalog for our high schoolers. Where do we look at a a cap that we want to have all classes at a certain size? Are we choosing to

126not run other elective courses? Like are there other electives in the same boat as the German courses right now? >> Yeah. So when we um you know part of the impetus for this conversation at this time of year, you know, as I think you heard from Renee and some of our speakers and um you know, this is something that we um have been keeping a watchful eye on for a few years and been having some conversation about um for a few years as we've been watching those numbers and watching the district's overall enrollment decline. Um, so I would say the reason we're having this now, uh, is largely because that sectioning that happens in the spring, right? And Mr. Rogers and Mr. Drexler and the team at the high school, you know, kids put in

127their course requests and uh, in the winter and as they get into the spring start building schedules. Um and that smaller number of students that uh we saw for German one this year I I think kind of perpetuated um you know circling back to this conversation that that we've been having. Uh so I would say and Mr. Rogers can can nod at me or throw something at me if I'm wrong. Um the truth is there is no hard and fast number and we don't try to have a hard um and fast number because we know that it's it's so nuanced. Um I I do think that you know to your point in any given year um there are a number of courses that we don't run at the high school uh because uh the number

128of kids who express interest in that class doesn't meet a threshold that we think makes it worth running. Um and I think that doesn't mean that we don't think that's a great class, right? That doesn't mean we don't think that it's a valuable experience for kids, but uh in any given year there are courses. I think between this year and next year there might be about um I think around 10 courses uh that are in our course catalog that we're either not running this year or we are not running next year. Um, and as we talked about last week, I think that uh it's again it's that fiveyear commitment that gives this one extra gravity. Um, and you know, on on one hand, and you know, I'll be candid, Renee and I have had this

129conversation. I mean, we talked about this, we we come at that five-year thing from kind of looking at it from different lenses, right? If you have um a business class that we can't run this semester, well, you can just not run it and then theoretically run it next semester or, you know, one time next year or something like that. Um the way I think uh we're trying to look at the um this five-year commitment is you know as I said earlier we want to maintain our commit make sure we can maintain our commitment to our current German students and so we feel um a heavier kind of weight on making a determination about German one where I think I you know Renee respectfully disagrees would say because it's a five-year commitment, uh you shouldn't pull

130pull that plug right now. You should um you know want to maintain that. So, uh, I I don't know if I answered all of your questions, but >> No, I think that does answer it. And spec like I was really wondering about why now, but I think that you speaking to the five-year commitment is is most of why that's important to start this and and I guess my other part of the question is like, have we tried to do anything to recruit students into German? I think everyone knows we offer Spanish, most know we offer French, but do we try that for German? So more students know that that's an option since not every district does offer it. >> Yeah. I mean, I know Rene's done the we've done camps and the summer camp. Actually,

131I think the first time I met you was at uh the middle school uh there was a middle school German club you got rolling to um Rene is talking about >> Okay, >> I'm going to repeat that for the microphone so I'm not speaking over you. Uh so um uh Renee shared that uh what I was remembering was a a German leadership thing where her high school German students uh presented to the middle school German students and this uh to answer your question about the uh advertisement um or the ramping up that middle school German camp that I mentioned started two years ago. This would be the third year. This summer would be the third year. I've never heard of it. I also know But there have also been insan words. If the German program

132goes away, there's no guarantee that upcoming students aren't going to want German and you won't have that surplus. For example, I know that there were various computer graphics courses that we used to offer and I had and I have several kids that have gone through the Geneva high school that the younger children were looking extremely forward to. So you are removing elections, you are removing options. >> Go ahead, Willard. >> Yeah, I just said a question maybe I didn't understand completely. I understood that one of the options I don't remember that speaker's name, but there was a notion of part-time teachers and blended classes. So I guess that's a little bit abstract to me in terms of how that would work and would you really uh reduce the quality of your teaching or the presentation

133for the students? I mean I know that they're avid learners and they're very uh I'm sure a student know how to do things uh how to how to improvise but is that really the best model to use part-time teachers and blended classes four and five together? I mean, >> yeah, I think anyone would say um well, I I guess you're asking two questions. One, the part-time teachers. Our program is currently staffed by two part-time teachers. >> Okay. >> Um >> uh who are strong and wonderful. So, uh you know, um our program is currently staffed by part-time teachers. as you uh if you if the program did um you know sunset or phase out uh yeah ultimately you would be using less and less FTE um in terms of part-time uh staff uh you know

134until uh you got to that last >> section of AP German or whatever the case may be. Um so yes that that is how that would work uh you know if you did that um to your the the other part of your question um is that you know putting multiple classes together is that ideal I don't think anyone would say that's ideal um but I think it was you know a point about um an alternative approach that that could be tried >> can I yeah that that has been done in the Absolutely. >> Can I comment? Uh I know Andy, you know my feeling about this. Um this is not going to be the last time we we have this issue. I don't know what the next topic is going to be or subject is

135going to be, but with declining enrollment, we're going to see this again and again and again. So, we need >> to think. It frustrates me that we try to think within the box that we've been working in for the last 30 years and not thinking outside that box to come up with a different solution. Now, I don't know if it's if if we have to renegotiate something with our GA or if we have to find some other way, but I will use the example of my son. We came back from Shanghai. He had two years of Chinese. he needed a third year for his for his um for his uh college requirement. He was able to pick that up through an online um and again I' I've talked about co-ops with other other uh school

136districts in the area who are struggling with the same problem. If we keep thinking only in the same box that we've always thought in in the same square, we will not we'll not solve this problem and we're just going to we're we're going to become less we're going to offer less and less to our students. So, you know, I I don't know what it takes to to do this. It needs probably more than than what we've put into it today. But I that would be my hope and desire that we would consider alternatives outside of it has to be a teacher in our district teaching, you know, these kids that we can't find another opportunity here. That's we if we're doing this for the kids, that's the sol that's that is the the one way

137to to solve the problem. So I I'll step off my soaps at this point. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> I think the only thing that I would add I think feels like that our German program needs a marketing director in the middle school in order to to promote promote the language. And I think um seems like there's great opportunity in in in the language and and in future you know those that that know the language seems like there a bright future there. So in order to capture that and to promote the language um I'd be curious to and I'm guessing um Mr. Rogers that you you speak to the eighth grade to see what how how how it or Dr. M maybe you do or who someone does that speaks to the middle

138school. Okay, we you know we have this many Spanish, this many French, this many German and uh um you know so we kind of have the that understanding of of of the numbers that are coming coming through. Um, and then so I I think as a board we don't want to we don't want to outright take away sections that are that are important to our you could say legacy um programs or classes. But we also, you know, have to have an understanding that that we need to um we need to be thoughtful and we need to be um you know, data driven in our decisions and whatever we do. So um like I said, I think it really comes down to the marketing of the of the German. If we if we can get the

139enrollment up in that, I don't think anyone here sitting at the table would would be opposed to keeping or not sunsetting, right? I think that's not the goal of of what we're talking about. It's the it's the hope that we can get more um students into this and if trying to find a German student is the is what we have to talk about. I think that's a good problem to have. So >> that that's fair. Thanks. And you know that middle school marketing thing um certainly it's a conversation we've had before. Um and and candidly it's a conversation that um all of our departments at the high school feel especially our elective departments feel very strongly about. um you know that is one of the challenges of this topic as well right it's a um

140I won't go so far as to say zero sum but you know there are only so many courses um kids only have so many spots in their in their schedule and there's only so many um things that they can take um and so there's always going to you know that bal that balance or that scale is is um always uh tipping one way or the other and it's a little precarious. Um but uh I that's fair feedback. Um so thank you and if there's any you know anybody else not just ask questions but feedback or thoughts for us. >> Can I add to Dan's point real fast? I think um something that I had asked Dr. Barrett for which I know he had shared with the whole board was the number of students enrolled. So

141the 19 total for next year but he also did share some numbers of enrollments for other foreign language courses and it was kind of eye opening for me. Um so I think to understand what our students are mainly picking and that I think the number you had shared was that 70% of our current students are enrolled in a foreign language. Well, by the time they graduate from high school, 70% of our about 70% of our kids will have taken at least two years of a foreign language. So, not at any one time. >> Not one time, just like at some point. >> Yeah. So maybe it might be helpful to see all those numbers as well compared to each other because I think what Dan is saying like the recruiting might be it but also

142we do when I looked at the French numbers compared to the German numbers there wasn't if you took two or even three kids out of French and put them in German instead then we're talking about a French problem instead of a German problem. So >> yeah, the to to Paul's point, these are the things that we're really trying to be very thoughtful about as that enrollment number goes down. And and as Dan said too, right, I think a robust program is, you know, we'd love to see all of our our programs be robust programs. We know they all have impact on kids like um you know, several like Tyler so eloquently shared today um and the impact on him. So, uh, we know that all of our programs do that and that's what makes these,

143uh, these decisions and conversations difficult and, um, important that we have them like this. >> Um, I wanted to reference some of what Paula was talking about looking at different ways of this problem and not just thinking about how we've always done it. One of the things I did hear on that hearing this morning was that online world language is really not a good option. So having your students sit in a classroom and listening and trying to learn online is not but we have talked in the past about a co-op because other districts are also looking at uh sunsetting this program and Dr. Barrett you had talked about some of the logistical challenges with with that. Could you talk about that again just a couple of the reasons why it would be difficult to try

144that with another district? >> Sure. I mean, I think you know that um you know, we currently have a couple different co-op models in place uh in the district. We we have our Mid Valley Special Education Co-op. Um and we we also have the Fox Valley Career Center um that specific to the high school probably most analogous to this topic um uh that provides uh you know opportunities for kids to take um courses that we otherwise at this point ar don't offer um at Geneva High School and and aren't sure in some cases would never be able to. Um so in each of those instances as examples, right, those are those are formal organizations that have been built up. They were constructed over years. Um as with through intergovernmental agreements, um they have their own

145boards, their own budgets, their own staff, their own uh contracts, their you know all of those things. Um and so uh you know as the most onetoone example you're talking about something that would take a lot of work and infrastructure on the front end um uh you know to build. Um so if you're talking about building a kind of formal system like we currently have with some of the co-ops that that are in place. Um, so in addition to that, then you could be thinking about uh, you know, a co-op model like uh, you know, I think similar to kind of what Paul was saying. Well, what if you just why not just this one? Like this is the first one that's coming up. Why not why not just this one and do some kind

146of co-op? And I think um, again, just like with the the the Valley Career Center co-op, for example, um, the the hurdles are not insurmountable, but they are significant. you know, you're talking about um different districts with different um schedules, different start and stop times, um different period lengths, different uh teacher contracts, um you know, all of those different things. Uh they're not right next to each other. The kids aren't necessarily in the same place. So, virtual would certainly have to be part of that solution. And to your, you know, point about virtual, I'm not sure about that. Um then there's the option about transportation as you've heard us talk about before um with the Fox Valley Career Center. Um as an example of there's a logistical hurdle to that because uh you know that

147certainly once kids have to travel that means they have to eat more of their schedule. Um which means they're limiting kind of other options that they would take. Um and it kind of hems them into a particular pathway. So um again not insurmountable uh challenges but things that I think would take uh a lot of time and I think um then the the the last kind of big challenge to be thinking about uh from that perspective um and I think it goes to Paul's point again uh and kind of sim similar to how uh um you know FRA and I were coming at the five-year thing from a different perspective Um, I think Paul and I might come at the um this one from a different perspective, which is, you know, to Paul's point, this

148isn't the only time this is going to happen. Um, and and I point well taken. We need to be thinking about this and being creative. Um, being willing to be creative. I think that's fair. I think, uh, from my perspective, I would say this isn't the only time this is going to happen. And so what is the um kind of precedent that we would be setting um for any time something like this could potentially happen? Um, and you know, to to play that out long term, as Paul noted, um, as our enrollment declines and our neighboring districts enrollment decline, um, you know, are you setting a precedent where then you're going to be expected to do that for all sorts of unique courses? Um, and is that a sustainable model for any one school district

149that is its own um, entity? So, that was a little rambly. I I apologize, but I think those are just some of the things that you would need to think about if if we were processing through something like that. >> As you've gone to different superintendent meetings, have you heard of anybody else interested in a co-op where that would be even something that they would even want even if they were like because we would have to cross a lot of hurdles. Are other districts looking for that even? No one I've talked to has has expressed interest in it. Anybody else? And that's the end of the superintendent report. I would like to thank you all. This has been one of the most open and fair discussions that I've heard at any board meeting I've attended.

150And so well done all of you. Don't know how this will end, but I'm I'm hopeful. >> So, you don't have to stay anymore unless you just want to I'll read I'll go through the >> Thank you everybody. Thank you. >> The next item eight, board dialogue topics and pending action consideration. There's nothing there that we need to discuss. Item nine, work study topics and future action considerations. Again, nothing there to discuss at this time. Uh, item 10, information, a board meeting presentation schedule and foyer requests and board correspondence. And that's for information only. Discussion is not required unless somebody has something they'd like to ask. Consent agenda is next. Uh item one, personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, new hires, and item two, request to purchase $24,25.75 from Datamation

151Imaging Services for digitization of student records and approval is recommended. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Yes. >> I >> Okay, board member comments and reports. Now that I've chased everyone away, anybody got anything to say? >> You want to start? Yeah, I can start. I won't be long. I know we've had a lot of different comments, but thank you to everyone who participated in the meeting tonight. Um, I appreciate all of the public comments. I think that's a great way to have conversations about the things we're doing in the district and hear differing opinions. Um, and our discussion as well with that. Some great presentations from our students between the AE program and the ELLL program. Those are just really fun and love to see what our students are doing in the

152buildings each day. And then congratulations to all the awards we gave away. I also wanted to say thank you to all our teachers after teacher appreciation week last week. I know all the schools plan lots of fun ways to recognize teachers. So, thank you to all of our teachers and staff. And then I also wanted to say happy Mother's Day to all my board members and admin. Um I know we couldn't do anything we do in this district without our moms. That doesn't just include us and our teachers and staff, but our parents. We need our moms to educate our kids to help educate our kids. So, thank you all for that. And I know it's such a busy time of year. There's been lots of different events between band, choir, orchestra concerts. So, just,

153you know, visiting various schools, getting to participate in all the fun, but hope everyone stays um calm and excited over the next couple weeks as we get through the end of the year. That's that. >> I'd like to say that um It's very u encouraging seeing the AE reading program and the math components coming together. I didn't have a real good understanding of that in the big picture, but seeing the presentation tonight just really um demystified it. Not to be funny about it, but just took some of the mystery out of me in terms of how this comes together, especially the two brothers speaking about their experiences in the grade school and then taking it on middle school. Um I am looking forward um to go to this musical at Harrison Street School um on

154Wednesday. So, I just trying to be open about that. So, I'm looking forward to that. They I called the school and uh said, "Did I miss it?" They said, "Oh, no, it's Wednesday." So, so um look forward to reporting back what I found. Thank you. Uh, also want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and all the thoughtful correspondents that we've received in the past few weeks about the the German program. It it's good to know people are really passionate in our community about um the program and it it was good to hear from folks tonight uh in person. So, thanks to that. Of course, thank you to the families who brought their students tonight and had them speak to us about the programs that they do that it's really meaningful when we get to

155see them and and furthering our understanding about the different programs that we offer. We don't always get to get into the weeds. So, that was nice. And congrats to all our high school students tonight. Amazing work as always. Uh the only thing I want to plug is for our Geneva music boosters. I've mentioned it before, the jazz dinner is Tuesday, May 20th at the high school. This is a fun event. Uh tickets are available through the 14th if you're interested. Uh that is you. It is $18 and adults 12 children ages 4 to 12. If you want to have dinner, if you just want to come and hear good music, it is free. Uh but they do like you to go online and register or purchase tickets so that they get a good count of

156how many people are coming. So, I wanted to plug that for our music boosters friends. And that's all I have tonight. >> It's at the high school. >> Uh, their website is genevamusicboosters.org. >> Paul, would you like to go next? >> Yeah. Again, I would like to thank all the people who came out and spoke today. And also, I'd love it when we have the kids come here. It's kind of neat having a board meeting where we have to have three different tanches of people come in and out. Maybe it was four. I don't even remember at this point, but I think it was it was a good discussion and I appreciate the opportunity to for people to to express their views and ask the questions and hopefully we can find a solution to the

157issue about the German program. >> I would echo everything that's already been said. Um, of course to all of our students, we saw from as young as kindergarten to recent graduates speak tonight, which I thought was really um, remarkable. I wanted to personally shout out Mrs. Peacock and Dr. Moan. I think they are doing amazing work and to hear their students and in what they're engaged in and the conversations they're having, I think is really wonderful. um a personal maybe uh comment slash request when developing the agenda. Is there a way to put the younger kiddos first? >> Those poor kiddos, they they said they were here since 6:15 and didn't talk until I think what two hours later if we could maybe just reorganize that first section to get our younger kiddos. Having a

158second grader that bedtime is so important. Um yeah, and just all the best to everyone as we're working on finishing out the year. Um and thank you for the the great conversation and um excitement for a program that has been going now for 20ome years, the German program. I think it's really um a testament to what we do here in the district when there's a conversation of sunsetting something and there's a lot of conversation about why that shouldn't happen and the reflection of the education these students have received the passion they have for it. So I think that's something really to highlight. Um and that's it. >> Yeah, I won't add too much because I think I echo what everyone said here tonight. I think the one takeaway that it's um you know a lot

159of times we we sit here twice a month and we wonder if anyone's actually listening to what we're talking about and so to get the response that that we did and and had some great dialogue um it's obvious that that people do care about not only the work that we do but also our school district and our community. So, thank you for everyone for coming out and I do echo things about the the um the timing of the kids here. >> Yeah, I I won't say anything hardly at all except that uh you guys all ask a lot of good questions and and listen thoughtfully and and I I'm impressed. Ishbre kind because German wasn't offered in my high school in Latin. Well, nobody will talk to me in that either. So, I guess I

160guess we want to keep an open mind here if we can. >> Back in the day that was that was in my high school. >> Yeah, >> but that's Catholic. >> In any case, we find ourselves looking at executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation, uh discipline, performance or dismissal of individuals. Actually, that really would cover it for the executive session. So, we need a motion. Motion >> second. >> I Okay, as usual, I'll allow a fivem minute uh approximate break for anyone who needs it. And if if nobody needs it, we could skip that.