District 57 Board of Education Meeting 4/17/2025

001here. Member Chung here. Member Cho here. Member Qualch. Member Leto here. Member Nelson. President Fay here. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America and to the stands one indivisibley and justice for all. Sorry. Okay. At this time, we will have our disability awareness month recognition. So, March 31st through April 5th marked disability awareness week in District 57. Continuing a meaningful tradition, our schools came together to celebrate and support individuals with disabilities in our community. Honoring the powerful message in District 57, we celebrate all minds and abilities. Throughout the week, students engaged with curated book selections, watched videos highlighting a a variety of disabilities, and participated in thoughtful discussions. These acti these activities were intentionally connected to our portrait of graduate skills. Adaptable, resilient, critical thinkers, empathetic and

002collaborative. A special thank you to Katie Olsen, special educator at Fairview, for her leadership and dedication in organizing this impactful week each year. Disability awareness week fosters empathy, understanding, and respect for all. Thank you to everyone who helps make District 57 a place where every student feels seen, valued, and included. Thank you very much. And at this time, we will recognize our Lincoln band who we just had the privilege of hearing and many of you were here for that. So, we appreciate you gracing us with your skills. And if we could have our band director, Mr. Basher, step forward. Sure. Uh, good evening. Uh, thank you so much board for inviting us to perform for you guys today. Um, so it's kind of with great honor we get to kind of showcase the great work

003our students at Lincoln are doing. Uh, so each year we host a solo and ensemble contest. And when I say contest, most people think it's like you against somebody else. Uh but as you can heard, as you could hear, they didn't play the same song, right? So it's kind of it wouldn't be really fair. So what the competition really is, it's them against the music, right? Uh in order to get these kind of things kicked off, students come with me with their friends, right? Who do you want to play with? Right? And then I have kind of the tricky job of finding music for that mix of instruments, right? Um so what's what I really like about this competition or this contest, it's a great opportunity for the kids to take ownership and kind of

004be self-guided learning, right? So, I'm there to help coach them and everything, but really, as you saw, like I didn't count them in. I'm not directing them at all. Uh, and that's kind of what the greatest thing about the Solen Ensemble Contest is. It's really self-directed, and it's kind of gives them an opportunity to push themselves and see like kind of what where they can get to. Um, so this year we had 32 students participate across 16 events, nine soloists, uh, and seven ensembles, and every single group that received a division one rating, which is phenomenal. And it was judged by another Yeah, let's give them a round of applause. Uh, and they were adjudicated by another professional music educator. Um, so it wasn't just kind of fluff. It was really, you know, uh, actual

005constructive feedback. And then following their performance, they got to work with the judge for about 5 minutes to get even more kind of directed feedback. Uh, in addition, um, so what I really liked about it, I kind of wanted to make sure I included uh, the portrait of a graduate stuff as well. Um, so these are the kind of the five ways in which we kind of hit those. Um so collaboration obviously either with the accompanist. So for our students who played solos, we also hired a prof professional piano player to play with them. Uh and they also had to have a rehearsal with that pianist to kind of work out the kinks and kind of make things. But all of our students were really really well prepared. So all of that went really smoothly.

006Um so collaboration with the accompanist or as you can see within their groups, right? They have to listen, react, make sure the right uh voices are loud enough, the the other ones are soft enough. Uh then next is resilience, right? Through their rigorous preparation. And we had worked on this music for about a month and a half, two months, uh, every single week meeting. And it was really fun to hear kind of the students run into some kind of setbacks and then overcome them, right? So great opportunity to practice resiliency. Uh, critical thinking obviously and interpreting the music, right? Where does it need to be loud? Where does it need to be soft? What's the story we're trying to communicate? Uh, empathy, right? So, uh, that kind of comes through through their expressive performance, right?

007Kind of what emotions are we trying to evoke in this music. And then lastly, adaptability, right? That's all music really is. you're listening, you're adjusting, uh you make a mistake, what do you do? You don't just give up, you got to keep going. Um so kind of in all those regards, right, this soul and ensemble contest really encapsulates all those kind of porch over graduates in kind of a fun little I get to play music with my friends, right? Kind of a veil of that. So, uh one more big round of applause and then I'll just read off some names of students who are here. Yeah. All right. Uh Colton Barnum, come on up. Why don't we have line up here? [Music] [Applause] [Music] Camila, I think I just saw [Music] Anthony and you can

008see two students also received a medal, right? So I I had I've gotten division one two free, but there were no two out. It was awesome. Uh [Music] Bennett Delaney, Max. Uh, Annabelle, [Music] John tutor, [Music] Charlie, uh, Thomas [Music] open and Dean. I also want to point out that for some of our soloists um they were within a point or one student was even within a half a point of a perfect score which is really really big deal. So it's really a testament to [Music] those 2025 sol participants. [Music] Well, I just want to thank all of you again for coming out and don't think that you can go anywhere just yet because we have to take a picture. But before we do, for those of you that uh participated, I know this wasn't

009in the script. So, if you're not willing to respond, then that's totally okay. But obviously, we heard from Mr. Vasher about what the experience was like and what what he thinks you learned. I'm curious to know from any of you that are willing to share if you just want to come up to the microphone and describe your experience and what you feel like you you learned from it. And if there are no takers, that's totally okay. Did you want to? No. Okay, fair enough. Okay, we'll move to the back and we'll take our picture. Thank you so much. you know, um, have quiet conversations at the back of the room, but we are going to move on with our meeting. If I can have my board members back at the table, please. Thank you. Thank

010you so much. Uh we will move on to our student board member report. We have Josh and Zoe with us today. Yes. So, I'm going to pass um their presentation along and I'm actually going to turn it over to Josh who's going to be um introducing [Music] Hi, I'm Joshua Sajji, a seventh grade uh student board member, and this is Zoe Schmidt, an eighth grade student board member. Today, we'll be presenting a slideshow on behalf of our team, which includes fellow student board members Michelle and Alex. We're excited to share our ideas and goals, and we look forward to your feedback. Um, April updates. We are working to um on a newsletter introducing us. It includes a video and a website from us so that students in the district are aware of who we are

011and how they can contact the school the student board. Um, it will be available to every student in the district regardless of age and they will have opportunity to reach us with their ideas. Additionally, we are developing a student contact form that will also be sent out to district 57 students to get suggestions from not just one school but the entire across the entire district. This is Lincoln Superintendent Council. During our first meeting, we discussed plans for the new building. We hope to have another meeting with this group as we really valued all their wonderful suggestions and ideas. We look forward to hearing more District 57 voices and we really want to make sure that we diversify the student voice. Some future some future plans we have is to continue to meet with the superintendent

012council to gain more valuable suggestions. We also plan to meet with the teachers who organized the Fair View multicultural fair to gain their input on the culture affair we are working on. Um, we also hope to achieve uh many things by the end of this school year, but in general, we just hope to create a better environment for all students in district 57. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Are you taking questions? Okay. Are there any questions for our student board members? Jen, go ahead. Uh, so I love the fact that you're putting out a student contact form and the video about, you know, who you are and the website and all that. That's awesome. Um, how are students in the district going to learn about like are that video going to play in all home

013rooms or like what is the do you guys have a plan for that? Um, for the students with emails, so the older students who check their emails, we're going to be sending it to their inbox inbox. And for the younger students, they're going to have a video played with their home room teachers. Awesome. Okay. Classroom teachers. I was curious on that. And then on the um superintendent council discussing the new plans for Lincoln, were you looking at the building layout and all of that? Is that what you were? Yeah, we were looking at the plans for the new school and uh the students had a lot of suggestions cuz they're like uh just us just us four people. Uh we're they're uh the Lincoln group, the student council has a lot of suggestions cuz they're

014in many different clubs like track and field and basketball. So we have a lot more suggestions that way. Awesome. Thank you so much, Arene. I have to say uh member Choke and I were at the global multicultural thing the other day here at Fair View and it was awesome and um you'll get some great ideas. It was it was well attended. They had a lot of stuff. So, it was really interesting and it was really cool to see. So, I'm looking forward to Lincoln's. Yeah, we really want to um help kids learn about different cultures and of course share their cult share their cultures with everyone. So, speaking. Yeah. First, thank you. We're so excited that you're here. So, thank you so much for your um report and presentation. Um I was curious. So, I

015know um as member Choke mentioned, you're creating that um contact form and everything. Have other students already been contacting you with questions or ideas and um things like that? Um I know some of my friends have been asking me about this. So, yeah, a lot of students have been uh reaching out to me, but we don't have like a set way for them to contact us. So other than like texting us like on our personal phones, we don't have like a set way of contact. If that's a solicitation for a district funded cell phone, I think we're going to have to talk to your parents about that. Yeah, we're the website and the form are in construction right now. So wonderful. It'll be open soon. I just have to put a plug that I cannot

016get enough time with this group and it's always a bummer when the bell rings and they have to go back to their class. I'm like, not yet. We are not done. We have so much more work to do. Um but I I have really loved working with Josh and Zoe and as well as um Alex and Michelle. They they're just they just bring so many great ideas. And it's been fun to watch the four of you, even just in this short amount of time, get to know each other and collaborate and kind of get over just the creative process of having to come up with even how we're going to do tonight's presentation. And it's been really fun. So, um I'm sure there might be some more questions or feedback as well. Chris, well, first

017of all, uh welcome again to you guys. It's great to have you both here and great to hear your ideas and you're jumping right in which is which is amazing. So, so thank you. Um the the Lincoln and maybe this is a Dr. Gore question but the Lincoln Superintendent Council comprised more than just our four board members. So So how was that your idea to create that? You want to say who was on that? Um we had a lot of uh very uh sorry like leader leaders um apply for the student board and not everybody got accepted. So Dr. Gore made the program so that the people who weren't accepted could still share their ideas and have their voice make an impact. Oh, brilliant. Brilliant idea. Dr. couldn't get enough of these kids, right? They're

018all really great. And really that was a member choke and I just Yeah, Mary wanted to have everyone I mean I think we both did but she was like what and so we were trying to figure out a way and so even that day we said maybe there could be some sort of superintendent council. So yeah that's a great idea and I know in terms of like getting the word out I know I'm not sure if you guys have figured out how to do that at Fair View and Westbrook and Lions Park, but I know at Fairview they've got the media club presentation every week. Yeah. Uh that would be a great way to do it either at the start or at the end. So I don't know if I assume Lions Park has something

019media club also. I can attest. Yes. So that might be a good way to you have everyone's attention then. That might be a good way to get the word. Yes. Do their announcements. Awesome. Thank you so much and great job and looking forward to what you guys come up with. I mean, to that point, I think it would be super fun, and I I don't know how to coordinate this, to have the media club kids sort of like interview you guys as student board members, right? Like, it would be a great experience for them, a great experience for you to be able to get the word out. So, I don't know who needs to hear that, but let's make that happen. I think that'd be awesome. It is a great idea because they have an

020interview every week. Someone gets interviewed. So, that would be Does Lincoln do a podcast? We do not have a podcast. You don't have a podcast? I know they do it in a class. They create Oh, Mr. Yeah. So, maybe you should get him started on doing a podcast. It's just an idea. Maybe cultural fair then than district 57 podcast. We'll figure it out. We need agents. I know, right? Okay. Did you have any other updates or anything else you wanted to share? Pam, had did you have a question? No. Okay. One of the funny things that we had happen this week when we were trying to schedule time, we're like getting out their calendars and their how busy they are anyways is just very clear that these are which we knew was the case when

021we saw our applicants for this position just how busy you are and um how intentional you are towards your classwork because these are not kids that want to get out of class which sometimes makes it difficult because they're like I don't want to miss that class. I don't. So we had to we have to one of the challenges right that we're working through is just figuring out a time during the day that will least impact their studies and their academic pursuits and also even just their night commitments and all the other things that they're doing. So it's just one of the challenges of being a very engaged and intentional students. So working through it. Okay. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. You're welcome to stick around or not. Um, totally up to you.

022I think we are giving you guys permission to begin your long weekend, right? Because this is the second last time, too. I know. This is the second month that this this night commitment fell on the eve of a long weekend. So, for their parents as well and their families, you guys are welcome. And they can always tune in online if they want to watch, too. But, of course, nice job. You guys did great. Thank you. You are free. Okay. At this time, we will transition to community comments. The District 57 Board of Education welcomes community participation. In an effort to both listen to our stakeholders and keep the meeting moving, I want to remind everyone of our public participation procedures and guidelines, which is available at board policy 2230. Individuals wishing to address the board

023can do so during the community comments portion of the agenda. Individuals should provide their name and limit their comments to 3 minutes. Please remember this is not a dialogue between you and the board. The board is in listening mode during this time. Individuals wishing to contact the board of education are welcome to do so via the D57 website under the board of education tab. Individuals should behave with respect and civility towards others and abide by board policy 830 visitors to and conduct on school property. Are there any community comments at this time? Seeing no takers, we will move on to the next item on our agenda, which is our staff and superintendent reports, beginning with our technology review. All right. Well, this is one of those nights that we all look forward to when Mark

024Fior steps out from behind the booth and he is here to talk about his annual technology update and he has a lot to share. So, with no further ado, perfect. Well, I I missed what you said in the beginning there, so I'm just going to assume it was all good and uh glad to be here out out of the broadcast booth and on the field. Um, so this is my opportunity to kind of share with the board uh the work that the milestones and the accomplishments of our tech department this year. So, our department's comprised of our district office, which is myself, Steve Reese, and Ally Oyman, who uh run our kind of day-to-day. And then in the buildings, we have our instruction and technology coach and a BTA in each of their buildings. And

025so as a team, you know, we worked together to kind of meet these goals and we I look forward to being able to share some of the things that we worked on this year. So, um, kind of start with what we worked on over the summer. These are projects that we forecasted at the end of LA or at this presentation last year. Kind of give you an update of where we stood. Uh, the project that we worked on last year and where we're at this year is our classroom projector upgrade. So, we've been working on this over the last four years, uh, to modernize all of our projectors and our displays and kind of get them up to current standards. So, it's a really, you know, mundane thing, but it's exciting to me when we're

026transitioning to digital and we don't have to worry about eight different types of adapters and teachers wondering what's in each room and it's it's different every place. So, we've uh gotten to about 90%. We're going to finish that this year um in the elementary buildings. We're not going to touch Lincoln. We're we're done there for now and we'll focus on the new building. Um but we'll be trans uh completing that transition. We've also updated our document cameras, put wireless casting. So, uh we feel like we're in a really good place in terms of our classroom technology. Um and we're excited for the next steps as we keep talking about what Lincoln could look like and that that will be exciting, too. Our phone system upgrade was a a summer project that slipped into the fall.

027So we ran into a delay with some of the parts and particularly around our intercom system and rather than try to shoehorn that in August and opening days. We picked a more reasonable date in October that we could work towards. And so uh we were able to switch it out really in one day uh we used a day off and we had a big crew and we switched out every phone in the district and swapped over to what we call the Mel is our new system. And so with that we replaced over about 300 phones across the district. We replaced our paging, our intercom system. And so that actually went very well. We didn't have any issues with that. And through that process, we were able to identify some handsets and some extra phone lines

028that we no longer needed. So we were able to reduce some of that throughout the project. So this was a successful project. We hope um we've got at least 10 years of support and licensing on this and so we expect this to last quite a long time. So uh we were pretty happy with how that project went. Um, another project that we were working on really as an extension of our curriculum review process for our LRC's was as we were wrapping up that curriculum part talking about what these spaces look like. And so we engaged and did some site visits and really kind of re try to reimagine um what our elementary LRC's look like. And so we were able to purchase uh new furniture for the libraries. And so with Dr. Vanderhar and Dr.

029K's and all the LRC directors. Um we were able to land on what you see behind you which is um new flexible furniture in the library. And so if you remember those old wooden really hard to move square desks um we were able to replace them with new lightweight movable furniture. It flips, it nests, you can have different uh groups sitting at them. And you can kind of see some of the different examples um of different heights and different types of tables. and they've been incredibly wellreceived by our um LRC staff um and the kids in there. And so you can kind of see the different configurations in both Lions Park and Fair View. They they look a little bit different. Our bookshelves are movable now. We've kind of untethered ourselves from that old projector

030that was in that kind of corner and they have a movable uh display and it's gone really really well in terms of being able to continue to do the flexible programming that they do there. So you can see they have some of the robots set up in one of the pictures and the other they're doing a classroom assignment. One of the projects that we didn't necessarily anticipate but as as the uh process grew we realized there was an opportunity to really have technology help um support some of the referendum efforts. So um Heather Serno has done amazing work kind of thrown into this and we looked and found some different tools that could really help us through that process. And so we have our um regular email communication, but we added a tool called constant

031contact um which allows us to really reach out to the community um and we have people who can sign up for list serves and they can stay connected. So that was helpful during the referendum process and now we're able to transition that to keeping people updated on our building progress. So you see our website, but we also have ways that we can reach out and engage them, let them know what events are coming up and just update them on the status of the project. A nice benefit of this is we're also looking at using this for alumni and to be able to keep an alumni database and use that to keep um folks connected um and in touch with the district. We were also able to leverage social media. Um we learned how to make

032videos very quickly and kind of spread the word and so we were able to leverage that and then obviously parent square helped us um meet our parent community or uh communicate with our parent community throughout the process. So, um, that was, uh, an interesting experience, but it was nice to be able to have these tools and reach people in all these different ways. And so, we learned lots and it was exciting time. As I mentioned with parent square, that was kind of our big push this year. And so, just kind of remembering where we started, this was one of our strategic goals. It came from our um, several different audits. And this was a really big push to look at how we can strengthen both our one and two-way communication. And so, we put that

033goal out to folks. We met with committees. We looked at different products. We landed on Parent Square last year and we were able to implement it this year. So we introduced it in the fall. We did training for our office staff in August and then all of our staff got trained through the opening days. And based on teacher feedback going into it, we didn't want to say uh overwhelm or overload people with all the different features and tools. So we really focused on posting and messaging. And throughout the year, we rolled out some different features. So, you might have seen field trip permission slips or there might be some forms that you're seeing on there. We also utilize the secure document delivery to send out report cards. Um, we can send out map reports through

034this. So, what's really nice about that is we send it, it doesn't get lost in an email that copies in parent square and we've had parents say it's really nice to be able to go back and look at that and have that available to them. The big difference this year is the translation, the automatic translation. So we have over 130 families that have signed up for u a language other than English to receive communication. So all posts and messages and anything that goes through parents square is automatically translated. We think and you'll see the just the volume of uh communication that happened this year the amount of time saved between that or that two-way communication and translation was huge. And so this has been an an obvious benefit and something that we think has worked

035pretty well. And then the last added benefit was just the ability to bring in our PTO and ed foundation and really say let's consolidate and bring in one single point of communication. And so having all in one place is helpful for parents especially if they have multiple children. They're not going to different websites. They're not looking for this information. It's all in one place. And so parents work gave us the ability to do that this year and we thought that was pretty successful. I have just some metrics and we always talk about how do we know that it's working or what are we looking for in that. So right now we have um pretty much 100% of our parents with some way to contact them. So 94 parent% of parents have an email address in

036there. If they don't have an email address they have a phone number in there. So we have some way to contact every family. I'll draw your attention to the app part which is actually pretty interesting. So Parent Square has an app in addition to being able to get emails and phone calls. Um, and we had over 53% of our parents um, actually download the app this year, which like looking at the, you know, remember the old web app that was connected to the website. We had a couple hundred people on that. So, the fact that we have 1500 parents that were able to download that and access that, it's pretty outstanding. And then you can see our languages in the corner, 95%, so 5% of our uh, parent population is using a um, receiving communication

037in a language other than English. The other thing we look at is whether or not they're able to. We know they're able to access it, but are they able to interact with it? And so this graph kind of shows some of the interactions that take place. So just aside from being able to send and receive messages, are we able to utilize and interact with some of these other features, how are we engaging folks? So we have different ways that they can be engaged through the features, comments, they can appreciate posts, RSVPs, sign up for things, and you can see over 63% of our parents um have engaged with us in some way, shape or form. And so that note down there from parent square is to just keep in mind that some are multiple of

038some families have you know two contacts per household. So we feel very confident that people are able not only to access it but also interact with it and give us that feedback. So, we intend on expanding that moving forward. So, looking at some of our next steps, um we've working on a communication survey um that we hope to have out in May that will give us some feedback in terms of um not just parent square, but looking at our communication overall, how clear, how timely, how useful is this information? So, not just does it work, but are we giving you the right information? And so, we're excited to get that out and hear from families. We're also going to ask them about training opportunities, whether they'd be interested or if there are specific things they

039want to know. And we know we'll have to have more of that at the beginning of the year. Uh we'll frontload more now that we've lived this experience, so we can anticipate where some of those questions might be. Um and we can just do a better job of that roll out. So, we plan on having more training for both staff and families moving forward. The other thing that's exciting that is still not finalized just yet, but we are exploring the parent square pay. It is a new feature in Parent Square. Um it's an improved feature from their payment system before. So we're very optimistic about what it can do. Um Dr. Kay and I have met with parent square a few times and we feel pretty optimistic this will be a way we go. Um

040this potentially would replace eay and so we'd have one integrated payment solution um for all things in the district. And so you can see kind of an example what those notifications it's not quite ready yet. It'll be out in the summer. So, all I have is their screenshots to show you, but you can kind of get a sense of what that looks like. Um, parents can be sent invoices or they can have um, you know, field trip forms with payment included so that you're not doing double duty and tracking down payment and who signed up. So, having that in one place, you can do it from your phone. You could use Apple Pay and just click a button and boom, you're done. So, we're we're excited what that looks like. We'll certainly have more information

041about that um as we progress and if we make that decision, but um we're pretty optimistic about what that looks like. Uh last year or the year before, we talked about our curriculum review process for our Lincoln Middle School uh broad experience computer classes. And so uh the class that was implemented this year was our communication technology class. And so we were able to receive a pretty substantial grant from Bosch um to purchase the equipment in the room. So you can see I don't if you don't remember what it used to look like. Um I think some of those tables were there from quite a long time ago. And so we were able to not only replace the equipment so you can see some new technology in there, but we also had new furniture. And

042what was important about that was to kind of support the new type of class. Um so students in this class will rotate through modules and have different experiences. We talked about podcasting. That's one of the modules. There's also video design and graphic uh video graphic design and uh Cricut printing which uh the kids and you'll see in a video here. The kids really like that. Um so we were able to get this all done just in the nick of time. Some of the furniture may have showed up on the first day of school. So, we appreciate um Bart um Richiro's our um computers teacher and he we appreciate his flexibility with that and you'll see in this video that he uh put together with his kids to kind of showcase the class has just done

043a really great job. So, um we'll turn and uh we'll have a short video. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm about to have a good day. No matter what they say. What they say. Sun is shining down on me. Res. I'm about to have a good day in every single way. The God who made the universe. Known me by my name. So it's a good day. Baby in my arms walking through the neighborhood. Living in the present. I would have should have. I remember back when I was low with a rug. Now I'm standing up. Look at what my father does. Turning all things blue. Gray skies blue. Hear the church saying, "Won't he do it?" I know he's got my back. That's why I'm singing that I'm about to have a good day. No matter what

044they say. Sun is shining down on me. to sing. I'm about to have a good day. I really enjoyed um com tech because of the variety of choice you had in the stations. There were four stations and out of the four of them, I really enjoyed the cricket one where you got to create your own stickers. Um I really liked it cuz you had an opportunity to be very creative and you could do something personal with the Cricut one. Um graphic design in general just really awesome. And the video one, I really liked it. It was fun. You got to be creative with your buddies and create cool stuff. Uh, I like this class because you get to teach yourself and he supervises if anything goes wrong and if you have a problem, you solve

045it or watch a video. I like com because I can express my ideas and be creative. Like this class because it's like really interesting and I'm learning a lot of new things. I'm looking forward to either doing cricket or podcasting because cricket I make to making like my own custom designs and podcasting I really like asking people questions and learning more about people. What I enjoy about this class is how we work is how about we work in partners but we also work independent which helps us explore different ways of like doing things with technology. I like that you can express my voice through the computers and the stations. [Music] N so we thank Bart for putting that together um for us kind of again kind of showcase what's in there. And it's interesting you

046talked about the media clubs in the school. We kind of view this as the next step of those media clubs. So where kids are getting that exposure in the elementarymentaries. Now in this class, they're really being able to kind of take um take those tools that they've learned and really focus on communication. That's kind of the emphasis of the class and how do we use technology to effectively communicate. So um this is the first year of that class and then next year for 8th grade it we're calling it kind of that level up experience. So kids will be able to dive deeper into more choice driven activities or more choice around the tools that they're using to kind of go deeper and and have more complex projects than what they had in seventh grade. So

047we're super excited about it and again Bart's done a great job and the kids are awesome in that class. So we're super happy about that. Looking ahead to next summer or this summer coming up um we talked a little bit last year that this was coming up. We have a data center refresh and what that's going to include is our network switches are going to be replaced in all the schools except for Lincoln. Um we're going to move all of our anything that's currently supported we'll put it at Lincoln so that they're up to um speed and then as we build the new building we'll replace them. So we're doing the three but everybody's going to be kind of on the same um essentially the same network. We're also going to be replacing our firewall

048which is pretty critical. It's a backbone of our network. Um we've got some servers and some power things um that were power backups that we're putting in. And so um this part here we were able to utilize the -ate process for competitive bidding um and kind of get a substantial discount on some of this equipment. So we use that we we basically maxed out our allowable uh funding on our network switches. So that helped to cut down on some of the costs and that project will be happening this summer and we've already kind of put locked that in so those prices won't change and we don't have to worry about that. So that's also a positive thing. You know, cyber security continues to be one of our top priorities. Um we keep trying to build

049awareness both with our staff, students and community around just the importance um that of cyber security and being safe and keeping our data and students safe. Um this year obviously we had a breach. We had um power school which was breached in um the winter in January and so that was kind of our first exper experience with a vendor um going through that and they were able to kind of maintain their agreement. So we have a data privacy agreement that they are required to do certain things um and they did that through communicating the notifying us of the breach and then providing remediation both um in their own environment making sure that um they're not susceptible to again they're implementing best practices and that was released through a crowd strike report and then they also

050communicated with our families uh we also commu sent that communication as well and that they're providing experian credit monitoring for any of the impacted families with that so it did impact all of our student data. It was a limited amount of data. Um so we did share that with families what data was included in that and then again they can make the choice if you wanted to you could sign up for that service. Um so we're optimistic again about the steps that they've taken. It's unfortunate it happened but again it's that reminder that we all have to be dig diligent and again it's just important to keep um on top of those things and that's kind of what got them in that situation. We'll also continue uh what we call hardening our accounts and making

051sure that we don't have people who can access in the building or into our network through our firewall um and through our vendors. So we want to make sure that anybody coming into the network is secure um and doesn't stay past uh their welcome. So we'll continue to harder that and we also what we call endpoint security anti virus things on the computers that will make them safer. So looking ahead, some of the challenges and next steps, I kind of alluded to this. The threat of tariffs or excuse me, the threat of outside actors and threats continue to be an issue. So we're always going to keep focusing on that. Um, we've got some security, we've got a cyber security response plan. We want to practice that, go through that. What would happen in the

052event of a breach? What happens in the event of uh something happening here that uh would impact instruction? So we want to continue to work through those. Um the other thing is obviously the uncert certainty around tariffs and the impact on pricing. Uh we have had vendors who have already said they're raising prices. Um we've had some vendors who say we're not giving up pricing right now. So it's a pretty challenging environment if you have to buy things um that come over for seas. We've essentially bought um whether it be through our Chromebooks or we've secured a majority of the purchases for next year around hardware. So we don't think we're going to be impacted as much on our big purchases. Um, and then we'll kind of watch and watch that landscape and see where

053that goes. But we've been able to kind of get ahead of that or lock in pricing on as much as we can now so that as July one hits, we'll pay that and uh we won't have to worry about any increasing on pricing because that's guaranteed. Um, the other uncertainty is around -ate funding. There's currently uh uh litigation around this and whether the future is going to be continue to be funded. So, we really like it. It's uh it's a nice bit of money that goes to the district to help support some of these things. Our organizations or the organizations I belong to are advocating on behalf of continuing this and so it's just a space we'll have to continue to watch. Um like I said, we're very much in favor of it and hopefully

054it continues. So lastly, our next steps um over the next month, we're going to be doing uh a technology road show which I'll be going to each building uh meeting with staff uh kind of highlighting some of the things that we think are changes next year, getting their feedback on those changes, things that we need to consider in those implementation and we'll also be talking about professional learning around technology. We really want to increase our offerings and we want to look at different modalities and ways to do this. So, we're looking at potentially offering some night classes or a virtual class. Really trying to find where we can get people uh or meet people where they're at to get them into these learning opportunities. And we saw that in our staff survey feedback. It's certainly

055an area we know there's a limited amount of time in the day. And so, we want to think creatively about ways that we can um keep people engaged in that training because it's important and it's a need. We we recognize tech always changes. And so, keeping up on that, we want to carve out those opportunities. So, Uh we're excited to see what that looks like. We'll be getting again feedback from staff on potential topics and what that could look like and then really leveraging our instruction and technology coaches and our team to kind of help provide some of that training. And then uh the last bit is just it's an idea. It's been talked about. We don't have a plan for it yet, but we want to do something around the space of um creating

056an opportunity for more student feedback, specifically around their student experience uh with technology, around screen time, and looking for ways that they can better live up to the responsible use policy in each school. So last year, we switched from the acceptable use, which is you can't do this and you can't do this, to a more responsible use of here are the ways that we should be using the technology in school. And now we want to look at how do we better live that? and we want to include teachers in this process, too. So, um, Principal Larson and I, we've kind of had some preliminary conversations, but we want to continue to explore the space um, and get student feedback around around that because we think it's a pretty big issue. We've gotten feedback from parents

057that this is a concern. And so, um, we want to spend a little bit more time focusing on again the student experience with technology and what can we do to make it better, safer, and more healthy. And with that, I open it up for any questions. Thank you so much, Mark. Pam, do you want to start? Hi, thank you, Mark. It it was really fun. It was a good a good presentation. How much money do we normally get with the rate? I know it depends on what you're asking for and it's a 40%. Yeah. So our our number is 40% and in what's called category 2 funding which is um equipment that provides network connectivity within the school um we have about five we had about $500,000 across a 5-year funding cycle. So we were

058able to utilize that a couple years ago with our access points and then we rounded um that out with the switches in this one. Would it be helpful if we um contacted our Congress people about continuing this? Yeah, I think there's there's two sides. There's the political side and then there's also the the uh litigation. So, I think that's actually going I think it may be going to the Supreme Court or if it's not already on their way. So, I think both sides would definitely help or at least on the political side for sure. Okay, folks who are listening to this, the Five Call app is a wonderful way to contact your Congress people. It's boom boom boom. Thank you very much. Any other questions, Jen? Uh, I just had one. Um, well, thank you

059first of all for all all the information. I loved seeing the classroom. That was really cool to see the different ways that they're using it and knowing my two kids have gone through that like the old iteration of it and to see what it's become and how it then plays out at Lincoln or at Prospect which is really interesting because my daughter's in one of the graphic design classes now where they are making their own stickers and she brings them home all the time. So, love to see that connection. Um, one thing I didn't see was anything about AI and our approach with that and thinking about threats and opportunities and all of that and I know some training has been done with staff. Um, and I'm just curious to speak to a little bit

060of that kind of next. Absolutely. So, part of that part of the road show will be kind of talking through what that looks like from a professional learning standpoint. Um, what opportunities people are interested in like you had said there's some training that's taking place. It's been more informal in terms of what tools are available to folks or what tools our coaches are kind of putting out and it may be interest based too. So, again, I think we want to expand opportunities around AI in terms of what it can do. I think one of the things that I'm interested in with those courses is I don't want to do just an hour on here's magic school. I'd like to get into here's what AI is, here are some um opportunities and then here are some

061things we need to consider as we do that. So being able to be more flexible in terms of our delivery model I think will yield us better results in terms of getting people interested. You know we're still kind of in that area of cautious exploration. Um, like I'd said, I think some of the tools are blocked from kids just from the privacy standpoint. So, we're it falls to kids. There are opportunities that kids have through different apps and through um our LRC to learn a little bit more about it. Um, the sixth grade communicate or excuse me, not communication, sixth grade computers class also talks about that as they do a unit about like emerging technologies. But big picture, different districts have taken different approaches. Um, we've heard from districts that they're all in on

062an AI. um I don't know what that means and and in talking to them I'm not sure they always know what that means and so we believe there's value to it for sure and so I think we want to be intentional and careful about how we do it before we start to buy stuff or we make any investments so we have some tools that we're interested in I think some of that work next year will be looking at where does this fit what is the role it's going to do and how do we sustain this and so that's kind of our goal for next year as far as like specific policies around it. Truth be told, a lot of the neighboring districts, their guidelines are just kind of about what AI is. So, we'd like

063to put put together something around as we kind of work through with teachers to talk what what is the role of AI. We'd like to build some guidelines or some not necessarily policies, but here's how we use it out of that. And so, that is our hope to kind of spend more time in that. Again, it's we've got some folks that are really eager to get on it and then some like I'm good. And so we'll kind of take the land of the willing and work with them and then um as we find things that work we'll spread that. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I mean students are the same way, right? Like I have one who's really all in and like knows how to use it and uses it relatively effectively and then I

064have one that probably still isn't totally aware of like what all is out there. And so, you know, I think students are in that same boat. So, I I like the cautious look at it and I just think it's important that we continue to to have those conversations cuz it's there. Agreed. Yeah. It's not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. I don't think so. Thank you, Mhm. Grace. Go ahead. Well, thank you as always, Mark. I I I really uh respect the position you're in in terms of, you know, probably more than any other area of the district in terms of things just changing so rapidly. I mean, technology is and it's awesome, but it's something that, you know, in your role, you have to stay on top of quite a bit. So, I I

065truly respect that. Um, and speaking of AI, you know, interestingly, I was reading an article yesterday. I forget where it was, but a student in a middle school somewhere used Chat GPT to help, you know, write a paper. And Chat EPT actually was giving completely wrong information. It was making up an author's source or a book that they never actually wrote. So it's it point being is that that's a a space that is important and is everchanging and just staying on top of what it is, how we can leverage it and also how we can make sure it doesn't, you know, do something we don't want to do is is is really tricky and it's not just schools having this problem. It's it's everywhere. Um down to my questions. Uh I guess from a cyber

066security perspective, I know we have a cyber security response plan, but have we done anything in the realm of cyber security audits or third parties coming in and auditing where we are and you know I'm looking at this from the perspective of just where are our risks and are there things that we don't know, right? Uh have we looked at that at all? Not specifically to call it like a cyber security audit. We've got a couple different things that we do through our insurance cooperative. We have a pretty extensive checklist of things that we need to be implementing. Um, if you look at what's on some of those audits or some of those like questionnaires of that process, it's a lot of similar things. Um, so we use that to kind of be our guide.

067We've also worked with H Heartland Business Systems to do uh network scans and network analysis too. So we're look we've looked at it from that perspective. So, we haven't engaged in a full like cyber security audit, but we've looked at in different ways our network security. We've looked at some of those practices and um the cyber insurance cooperatives are are pretty stringent in terms of um really pushing us to that bleeding edge of security. Um their recommendations um you know sometimes are jarring, but in reality that that's the reality we live in. And so, we let them kind of help guide us in that. Um, but certainly that's something we could look at if the board desires. Oh, that's good. Thank you for that. And along those lines, I know we had the issue with

068P school, which makes me think about, have we looked at where we what our vulnerabilities with parent square might be? I mean I know we're going allin with that which I I think has a lot of advantages but the more we start using parent square you know if we start using it for payments and things like that I mean the the vulnerabilities go way up have we taken what we've learned from the power I know they're different they're different apps but have we taken what we learned from that experience to look at okay what might we need to be doing differently with powers school if or um parents square. Uh, and maybe the answer is nothing, but I'm just curious if we if we looked at that at all. Yeah, I mean the the nature

069of the breach from P school was um kind of unique in that it was a old support site in a former vendor that kind of got access through their back door. So, it's one of the situations where there wasn't anything that we could have done differently in that situation. Now looking at like parent square for example um we have so any app that we provide any kind of data we have that data privacy agreement. So that's that soap law that passed a few years ago that requires us to have a contract in place with every uh vendor that we have. So that's part of our protection or at least to say that as a as a company they are responsible for following these like protocols. So that's our first step. Um, as far as like

070in terms of what parent square could do, we we do believe they're following best practices we can tell, right? So, um, in in terms of who has access, we have pretty strict controls over who can access our data from how we access it. Again, in the parent or in the P school instance, there isn't anything that we could have done differently with that. And same might be true with power or parent square, but at least we have that protection to say that you are responsible for maintaining these practices. And if they don't, they have to either remediate or we have to take action. And so that's what we looked at across the state. Um, you know, a lot of districts were impacted with powers school and that that may have been a step if they

071didn't complete some of those. And again, they kind of followed through on what they were supposed to do. In terms of the payment, um, that's something we can look at. The payments are going to be ma would be managed through a third party anyway. So that information would never touch parent square. So financial information that would be a third-party transaction that doesn't touch that information. So when we look at like how do we keep information safe, it's really about what information is stored together and how can you access that? What's like lock and key? And so we don't want those things touching. So again, part of that database might just be student IDs and that links to other things and then these third party tools are there. So again, we um we would have that

072same type of agreement in place with that vendor. Um in this case, I think it's called Stripe would be the third party. Oh, that's good. So that kind of I I' I'd love to give you a perfect answer and say we're good. We do all the things we can. I wouldn't believe you if you said that. So that that's kind of where we're at with that. And those are the steps that we would take or at least the things that we would look for in vendors. And then we want to be selective with the vendors we pick. We want ones with good reputations. We want ones um that have demonstrated that they are willing to comply. If a vendor doesn't sign a an agreement, we don't buy them. We don't go with them um because

073that's it's too important. Yeah, that's good information about the fact that that so parent square would just be a front end for payments and there's a Okay, and they wouldn't store credit card information. It would just be to process the transaction. Security by obscurity is always a good good way to go. So, excellent. Thanks. Thank you, Mark. Any other questions, Vicki? Yeah. Um, yes. So, I echo everyone else. Thank you so much, Mark. It's good to see you up here and not back in the booth. Um, I had a comment and a couple questions. First, I appreciate um the distinction and the or the differentiation between the responsible use of technology and the acceptable use and what that means. It's more than just responsible versus acceptable, but it's don't do this versus do this. And

074I think that's really important. So, I love um the direction that that's taking us. My second question for the -ate funding, nobody maybe nobody knows this, but I know with the litigation you mentioned it might even be either on the docket or before the Supreme Court. Is there any expectation about when a decision or an announcement or something might be made or we're just nobody knows? Summer is typically when they make those rulings. They've been busy lately. So, um, but I think it was planned typically you'd see those responses come out like when they do their work in the summer. So, I think that's the expectation that either they do. I don't know if they're at the point where they're doing the hearings or if they plan to do the hearings. So, um, we'll certainly

075like keep the board up to date if that situation changes and what impact that would have. Okay. But I don't have more for you on that. All right. And my last question is about um, Parent Square. So, um, I know you mentioned that you're kind of slowly rolling out the many features, which makes sense, and that maybe parent square pay is next on the list. Are there other features that you're thinking might be introduced, like big features that might be introduced this upcoming school year? Sure. I mean, we we we basically rolled out most of the features. So, like the one thing that we anticipate using more just having had the experience would be around field trip forms. So, we really want to make that a standard practice now that we've seen it be successful

076in the schools. So that will be the next kind of feature that it may have been it had been done at some grade levels and had been done at different schools for different things. We want to make that a more consistent practice. So in terms of like what features are we implement we'll we'll go into that more. So that that'll be a feature that we're probably going to utilize more. Um, aside from that, again, we were able to utilize the conference forms um to some varying degrees of success in different schools and so we'll continue like appointment slots and the RSVP, but the pay payment piece would be that extra part that would be I think different this year. Otherwise, it' just be doing more and hopefully doing it better. Thank you. Yeah, Pam, I

077saw you had your hand up. I want to make sure everybody else has a chance before we before we get to you. Go ahead. Um I think my question is more for um Dr. Gore uh about do we have in the works a board policy for AI or is there something coming forward from um IASB that's a recommendation? I I anticipate such that just given the timeliness and the pertinence of the topic and I think that we should anticipate that we will have some guidance. Um we have heard from Mark and I know all of us who have been involved in different organizations have heard you know some districts are really especially high school districts are kind of taking the lead on this given the nature. Um but I I think Mark well articulated that

078we want to be as an elementary district we want to be postured to be aware and proactive but not aggressive in the way that we're you know taking this on because it's a it's complicated. I think we want to learn from some of the um probably the high school or unit districts that have the resources to take this on and also press to advise us, but I we certainly want to start building capacity and awareness in the meantime with our our teams and our students. So, it's coming. Pam, what was your comment? I had a a question for Mark. So I know with -ate funding for libraries there's four forms, four steps during the course of the year. Did you get the money for everything that you requested and were approved to do? H have

079you So yeah, so the money comes as a the in this method the money will come as a reimbursement, right? um as far as we are understanding now is that those funds are secure um and that that funding is not being touched and the only thing that is being um kind of questioned at this point is that next funding cycle. So as far as we understand that that funding should be in place through through um the end of this cycle and then it's the funding for next cycle that would be in question. Okay. So, it's not received in the bank yet and it and it wouldn't be because it the uh the award is for the next fiscal year anyway. So, we wouldn't be able to get that um upfront anyway. So, it would be

080based on the purchase after July 1. Okay. So, but everything that we that we purchased already that's inhouse is you got funding for. Yeah. So we we um nothing that we've we've purchased, we've agreed to purchase things, we don't receive anything until after July 1. So in those instances, we've either arranged to have them stored somewhere or delayed ship or however with different vendors, we just do it differently, but we don't actually receive or pay for any of those until after July 1. So all we're doing right now is just locking in that pricing. Fingers crossed. Thank you. I did just have a couple additional questions. Um my first was actually and Jen sort of alluded to this, right? You had mentioned the media clubs in the elementary school and then com at the middle

081school which ties in nicely to all of the graphic art and various communication programs that are at Prospect. And so I think it's great that we have that thread that we're starting. I know we've been working on building that with a lot of our other programming and curricula. So, I'm I'm glad to see that we're sort of um mirroring that trajectory through some of these other programs. Um you had mentioned about the number of families that are using that translation function in Parent Square. Do we have any feedback about the quality of those translations? Are they intelligible one way to another? Yeah, I mean I we've had only one person asked to turn it off and they said we're good. It wasn't necessarily that it was wrong. They just said, "We're good. We don't we

082can use it in English." And we said, "Okay, we made that change." Um, we've heard anecdotally a few times that some of the language um may not translate perfectly like word for word. And so like it is an opportunity for us and we've kind of had dialogue about well how do we when we work with staff in that professional learning are there things that we can do in our communication to be more clear or to make it more accessible to that translation. So like are we using really complicated words or are we using kind of like colloquialisms and like if we avoid that it'll translate better. Um, that's kind of been the feedback, but I I haven't had anybody come back and say it's unread, you know, it's unusable, but we've heard that there are

083certain words or phrases that don't always translate the way it's intended as they wrote it. So, it's something we need to keep thinking about just how do we make that communication more accessible. Sure. Okay. Um and then kind of in a similar vein in terms you had mentioned about student feedback uh in terms of how they use the technology and getting some uh input in that regard. I was curious are we tracking any data? Are we monitoring at all quantitatively? How much students are using these technologies? Right? How much are they on their Chromebooks? I'm sure it varies from classroom to classroom or from subject to subject even. Um but I'm just curious if we're if that's something we're collecting. Yeah, I think the the data we get is largely around browsing data. So we

084can see hours online. We can see what sites are kind of our top websites. Um we can see when websites are top so for you know like um websites might be used more at home than at school or um so we can kind of tell the difference between that. As far as like the experience of an individual kid, I couldn't give you any kind of approximation of like how much time they're on there. But again, it is something that's come up not just from our parents, but also from our teachers just to be conscious and cognizant of how much are we doing on the computer and when can we take um opportunities to either step away or present information in a different way so that we're not just sitting on a computer or having kids

085sit on computers all day. So I I'd love to give you a more uh better answer in terms of that time, but we have different ways we'll look at it and we're going to bring that back to the group. I'm I'd like to bring them and show them here here's the top websites. What what do you think of this? Does this really reflect our accept or responsible use policy and start having those conversations? And then ultimately have them come up with ideas about ways we can um improve that or if there's things we need to block or change or put different regulator policies in place. like that's where I really want to hear their feedback. Um so that it, you know, they're part of that decision. Yeah. And I think I'd be curious if this

086is something you've already thought of or if not, maybe I'll I'll put in a plug that in terms of a responsible use policy, I think some of it is how you use it and some of it is when you use it, right? So to the extent we have any indication of how often are kids choosing to be on their computer during free time, right? like if it's indoor recess, are you allowed to sit on your Chromebook or is it, you know, you have other options and you should go do those other things. Um, I think that might be something worth considering. No, that's great. Thank you. Um, okay. If there's no further questions, we'll move on. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, that I was wondering about that if we took you out of

087the booth if suddenly the the whole thing would come crashing down. Um, okay. Okay. So, our next item is our safety and security data update. All right. Um, so I just wanted to as we transition to this, I just want to thank Mark for being um, so on top of this work and so um, comprehensive in the way that he approaches his work. I think he um, emulates someone that like doesn't take a narrow position about the definition of their job. He is extremely collaborative across the different um, cabinet departments and with the schools. and he is someone that is somehow in all the schools all the time as well. So we don't know how he does we think he has copy and repeat copy and pasted himself or done something with AI and we

088think there's multiple marks that is doing all this work because it couldn't be the work of just one person. Um so thank you. Um so safety and security um this is really just a continuation of um the conversation that the board and administration have been having now over the course of several board meetings. Um the memo in your board packet reflects um kind of an update. I wouldn't say a final product. Um the nature of this topic is vast and we can go in any number of directions, but hopefully this is an acceptable um touch point for us to um continue conversations. And really what this is is a reflection of some of the um the calibration of some of the data that exists um already and is pretty easily attained. And um in some

089cases I just tried to condense some of the um safety data from various reports mentioned in this document and I just kind of screenshotted um relevant data and put it in a PowerPoint so that it was all there for you to digest. Um also you note in this memo that there's some data that because of the sensitive nature of it such as information about our security audit. Obviously, in close session tonight, we had the opportunity to meet with Chief Attorney, who has been instrumental to our district and making sure that we are um continuously improving in this area. And um I think the board and administration all really appreciated Chief Atno's time and both tonight and close session, but also outside of the board meeting and um all of his continuous work and his department's

090work. But with that, I welcome any questions and look for your direction if you have any um place you'd like to go next with this. Any questions about this report? Oh, Karen, sorry. Out of sight, out of mind. Um, thank you. This is a significant amount of work and we appreciate all the time and effort that has gone into this. Um after after our close session conversations with Chief Atno and having gone through this um significant amount of work that that you have done, I feel pretty confident in our current safety and security practices. Um I think there are always places that we can uh improve. I think our relationships with the Mount Preset Police Department and also our social emotional learning work has been um significant and our um the data that we have

091on student safety, the um staff and family surveys for safe for safety in the school climates I think are really compelling and um in instructive how we are doing to um make our staff and students feel safe in our buildings. So, I would be fine with accepting this as as it is and um saying we're we're doing a good job with some areas for improvement. Okay, Chris, you end up Yes. Um well, first of all, thank you Dr. Gore and staff for putting this together. This this is a really good start, I think. Um I guess a question and then maybe a comment. Um for some of the items that the summary of data is ongoing, does that mean that there's still data that you want to collect or does that mean that we could

092literally have this continue on forever if we want to? Oh, we can. No. Uh so these were this was just what um was prioritized in in time for tonight's report. I I understand. So for example, um anal analysis of neighboring school district safety and security staffing ongoing really just reflects that we felt that maybe this was an incorrect judgment, but I thought that based on the board's direction and should there be a directive to continue pursuing this and investigating different staff staffing models and cost models that this seemed like a reasonable next step. So I try to prioritize really condensing you know and presenting an analysis of what exists but ongoing just reflects that's that's pretty easily compiled but I just wanted to prioritize the current Yeah. No that's fair and then okay that actually

093is a good segue. I think at a minimum we should continue and complete this right because that's what we said we were going to do. Mhm. Um, I also think that, especially based on what we heard from Chief Attorney tonight, I I absolutely think we should at a minimum conduct another safety and security audit. So, I like to put that on the table. I I know we're uh for at least for discussion. So, um so those are my thoughts. So, thank you for what you've done so far. I think this is a good start and I look forward to seeing more. Anyone else? Jen. Sure. Uh, I agree with Karen. I think the data we've collected shows me that we're in good shape. And, you know, I think we But I do also, to Chris's

094point, I mean, I think a safety audit again, I mean, I think that's just good practice to have that every few years. But I don't think we need any additional data collected per se about the things cuz like even looking through all the responses, you know, I mean I think there's like issues in the hallways. Well, we know that Lincoln's hallways are are tough, right? Like but that's part of middle school and trying to figure that out. So I think that's like a school it thing to think about, not a you know that we need to go further in the safety audit per se. Um, so I think for me, um, I think look thinking about audits and who and like where we really dig into audits, thinking about New Lincoln and all of that,

095I think is an important conversation for us to have. Um, but I feel pretty good about the data that's on this sheet. So, thank you for collecting it. Anyone else, Pam? um listening to the three responses, I think that when we have a new Lincoln with um better access uh in hallways and to classrooms and more space, more more um more it's going to be more conducive to lowering um the energy level of of uh the uh daytime residents of that of that facility. And um I I imagine that the uh that that the there's going to be with the sunlight and the way that the the school's going to be designed, I think that it's going to lower any aggression and um we'll see, you know, but I I just think that um facilities

096can increase or decrease aggressive thoughts, anxiety, and fear. And so I think that that in the coming years, you know, that uh given that there aren't outside threats that it should be a little bit um easier to be a student there. Well, I think you're asking a lot for a building, Pam. But but I do agree with you. I and I think that's some of what we talked about in contemplating a new Lincoln, right? is to have a new building will hopefully create a a sense of pride about being in that space and caring for that space and caring for each other in that space. Um, so we certainly hope that that will be the case. Vicki, did do you have your hand up? Yeah. Um, I would also I'm not sure if this is

097something we would vote on now or discuss, but I would also be in favor of a security audit. It seems like it's time since our last one, and I think that makes sense. Um and I I think in general and this has come up during open board meetings but um so it's um it's about the buildings right safety and security but it's also about the behaviors of those in you know those in the building and this was not at district 57 this was at Prospect but um I was you know it was 6:30 at night I was going to a TPC meeting their version of a PTO it was raining you know I walked up the doors open and you know sometimes you're like oh is it and it locked and there was a student

098inside and we made eye contact and she very helpfully got up and let me in and part of me is like oh thank you but part of me is like oh no you can't let me in but I went in but yeah so I mean and again this was not at 57 but it is yeah I mean that's a tough situation she's trying to be helpful and nice but I could have been anyone's and you know yeah so just that's a whole different discussion but the behaviors of people als also make a difference. You could have the most secure building ever. But so that's just Yeah, exactly. You have all these locks on the doors, but if you leave the doors open, what what good does that do? Eileen, go ahead. Um, I was going

099to say I agree with uh Karen and Jen regarding, you know, this seems pretty adequate and especially seeing the survey and the responses with staff and students. Also, I agree with the security audit. Um, and I thought we had a really great conversation with uh, Chief PNO and um, the communication that this school has with the police department seems quite exceptional and that I mean it just made me feel even better about that perspective of our relationship with them. And to Pam's idea, I think it would very much help to have a different space, a bigger space. It couldn't hurt. I don't think it could hurt. For sure. For sure. Okay. Well, I'm hearing a lot of consensus. Pam, go ahead. I'm in favor of a security audit. I didn't say that, but yes. Okay.

100I was implied from your from your comments. Um, so I'm I'm hearing some consensus about moving forward with that. And then with regard to sort of collecting any additional data, I I think we sort of have an informal quorum about leaving things as they are based on everything that you've collected so far. um which I I think I would be in favor of especially if we're going to move to doing a security audit. I think to me the external data and like the what are the Joneses doing is helpful to a point but I think our focus should be what can we do and and looking at the internal right so we have quite a bit of internal that's at least available if not necessarily fully analyzed um and a security audit of course is

101only going to bring more internal information um so from my standpoint it makes sense let's move forward with that and and put those pieces together to the extent we feel that anything is lacking at that point. Maybe we could look at the kind of external factors. Chris, go ahead. I I guess I I'm curious why we think that when we talked about this two months ago, I think it was two months ago. I think we agreed that there was value in not only looking at our internal data but external as well. We've done the first part, not the second. And now we're all, not all of us, but some of us are saying, "Well, we're done. We're good." I guess I'm I'm having trouble understanding that. If we thought it was a good idea to

102collect that data at the time, why are we abandoning that? I'd also say I think doing the in the security audits, great. That's going to provide more internal data, but if we really want to look at this holistically, that's an important part of it. So, I I don't think we should abandon that. I think we should keep doing what we said we were going to do. Okay. Appreciate that perspective. Um I guess I I didn't necessarily get the sense that anybody wants to abandon it in terms of like let's never talk about this ever. Um certainly I think my perspective is more timing focused, right? Let's do the security audit. we'll get a refresh look at our internal, you know, parameters and um and what have you and then move from there. But I don't

103know, did anybody else have any other thoughts? I see Jen nodding. Karen, go ahead. I was just going to say looking back at the um the memo that was included in our board packet the recommended data source that we don't that is ongoing um I think this is the one you're referring to the analysis of neighboring school districts safety and security staffing models there's two of them the the two at the bottom right so there is the overview of current research and the um analysis of neighboring school districts and for the analysis of neighboring school districts because it seems like this is really about um staffing rather than about our the internal or external safety of district 57 schools. Um and then the current research there will really never be an end to the available

104research for um for safety and security in schools. Um I having gone through and yes I did I read both of the um the secret service um reports that you had included having gone through those in addition to reading this data in addition our conversations with our conversations with chief attorney I don't know that there is much more that we could this is a pretty con comprehensive nationwide reports, which is where my confidence comes from. Okay. I would argue one of these reports is 7 years old, right? One of them is four years old. This isn't exactly what I'd call cutting. And nothing against Dr. Gore who collected this. I would absolutely not say this is a substantive summary of the current research in this topic. I don't think anybody I don't think you're saying

105that. So when you say it's ongoing, I I believe you because I don't think you would say we're happy with presenting this as the substantive summary of all the data we've collected and I think we should do more. Okay. Well, I I apprec Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no, one more thing. I I I guess I I don't understand the let's do the internal audit and then we'll go do this. I don't see why we can't do them concurrently because they really do work together. One's an internal look and one's an external look. If you really want to get a holistic view of where you are, you need both those. So why do it in series? Do it in parallel. Jen, I think I'd like to just ask because I think

106this is the part that isn't being talked about right now is like what kind of training is done for staff and for for people in the in the district about threats and about safety and about all of those things and like do we have a safety leadership team in the building? Like what does that look like? Because I think that actually I think there's actually quite a bit of training that's being done that is giving the current research and giving the current things that are happening based on what I've heard. So I'd like that to come into this space too. Yes. So we do um we have a threat assessment team at each of our buildings um who are trained and those are comprised of our um building administration as well as our mental health

107professionals. Um, we also have a district leadership team that um meets regularly with representatives from the Mount Prospect Police Department as well as um staff representatives and administration um to regularly look at our threat assessment procedures as well as our crisis intervention procedures. Um and so the training too also takes the form of you know deescalation training and um obviously there's kind of continuums of how we identify which staff need which trainings and um we try to prioritize certain team members who are more likely to be sort of a crisis response team member around um a higher level of training. But that isn't to say that sometimes classroom teachers are, you know, they need to be equipped with a lot of deescalation and um strategies around mental health. So, um just from a preventative lens

108and also in from a responsive lens because we're uh we work with kids who are, you know, preschool through 8th grade. A lot of our work comes through the form of um trying to establish a lot of front-loading of pro-social and connected behaviors and resource kids and staff with a lot of heavy inputs into relationships. So that that you know when they do have conflicts or when they do feel disconnected that we are really having effective systems of responding and supporting. Um, so that when as they get older and as they get arguably a bit more complicated in their lives and what they have access to and how they respond that they are more likely to be um knowledgeable about their internal regulation as well as their external resources and networks of support so that

109they don't feel disconnected. Because a lot of the research and training that we're working with is about how much more um impactful prevention is than crisis response in a in a situation where we have the worst case scenario and how we can be it's difficult sometimes to quantify that because we don't know how many terrible situations have been averted through the daily connections and relationships that are established. But I think that really becomes the the labor of our amazing staff and the focus of our work because it's really trying to support people's connectivity within their schools, their communities, so that if they're in a crisis, they feel like they have the supports they need to get support versus take matters into their own hand in a way. So, I don't think I answered a question

110that was asked. No, I mean you did. I try to source that back to your question. No, no, you did. And I and I'm I mean the work that I do every day is based around that sense of belonging and and the the idea of being connected and that one trusted adult that you have and all those things that you were just speaking to. Um I mean I think one of the questions I have is like are there people in the district that are going to PD to be caught up on the most, you know, the newest and the greatest when it comes to these types of things? and like are we bringing in those professionals to come have those conversations because you can read all the research reports that you want but it's really

111about who is then giving you that information and helping you to like work through it and so I'm just curious do we have that professional development I think it's become a shift and I think that as our our focus from our strategic plan to just the way the staff you heard tonight focusing on the portrait of a graduate we're trying to shift um shift the the voice the posture ing of listening to students and a student experience and be more um prioritizing their views. And in doing so, I think we're much more attuned to trying to be mindful of where they're disconnected, where they're feeling frustrated, where they're feeling unsafe, where where they want more. And we're we're learning that when we prioritize listening, they will tell us. So, but to your question about PD,

112I think we're we will humbly admit that more work needs to be done. Um, but definitely jump in. I would say um I think there there's a lot of work uh that we do with training our staff, of course. Um we obviously rolled out a new crisis plan this year, so that was a lot of training. Um but then the ongoing uh professional development of getting um just information from whether it's organizations that run I was at a safety workshop this morning. Um the police and fire department run regular meetings. So they have one on Tuesday we're going to um and so lots of those will um include this morning's was you know someone from the FBI talking to us and I'll typically you know it's me administrators are usually involved as well and you

113know we'll bring it back and um you know it's a lot of those meetings are a lot of oh great we're doing the right thing cuz we'll hear that and that's great. Um it's also usually you know a couple different things that'll be like oop that's a good idea let's bring it back let's share it out. um it'll then get shared out through whether it's uh principal newsletters, my newsletter um to get it out to staff um about just you know make sure this happens or whatever. Um and so we you know that is happening throughout the years and so you know you try to continue to stay you know apprised of all new information. Um you're not going to be able to have everything but we want to be able to you know include

114that. So, um, the the crisis plan, you know, this year really got rolled out, um, um, pretty seamlessly and staff really took to it and and I think appreciate it. It's it's simple. It's it's and it it does exactly what it's supposed to do. Um, and then we start doing similar to what uh Mark Fer was talking about with just rolling things out simply and and we so we rolled that out and then you know the next step is okay now what are we going to practice and now what are we going to do and how do we make drills look different or how do we have tabletop conversations or you know what are we doing to make sure that we're continuing to um help our staff you know understand exactly what they're going to

115do in different situations. Yeah. Does that answer your question? It does and I think that's where I mean to the point that was just made I think this is where I feel comfortable with like kind of where we are because we've learned that not only are we just doing internal work right we are going external and we are really looking at all the different things that are happening in the community learning from the police learning from fire having them come in the building doing you know their drills here like there's a lot that's been happening and so it isn't just that I looked through the surveys and saw what I saw and decided like We were I think I feel really confident based on the conversations we've had with police, the the things that I've

116seen happen in the buildings, the things that we talked about with Chief Atno, like all of that has made me feel that I think the next step is the safety audit just to make sure that things are in a good place. If we think from there that we we need to do something else, then great. Like we'll figure that out as we get there. Um, but I mean I I applaud you all in really having a strong relationship with our police and fire department in a way that you know they seem excite they seem excited that they have that relationship with us. So, okay. Well, thank you for sharing that. Um, I did hear a majority I think at this point of the board members saying we're good with what we have for now and

117we'll move forward within um with a security audit. I do think Chris to your point probably a lot of what comes out of that audit will be informed at least by current research related to safety and security models um to the you know even if it's not something that we all as a board get to look at specifically um but of course this affords us an opportunity to have a fresh look at our safety and security protocols and to the extent that any of us are dissatisfied with them that's the opportunity then to to bring up you know either these items that haven't been analyzed to our satisfaction or other things that maybe that audit will spark. So I think that's our direction for now. Okay. So um I think we will pursue um you

118know different outlets or different potential partners for that work and then we'll bring next month I think we can have an update for the board if not maybe a full recommendation which would be ideal we will absolutely have an update with some of our progress in that work. Okay. Can I ask you a quick question? You did we you said the majority of the board thinks that's the direction we should take. Can we do a straw poll? Sure. Uh I guess I don't know if I heard everybody weigh in on this. Okay. Well, let's let's do a show of hands then if that's okay. Um if you are in favor of moving ahead with a security audit without further analysis of the data that we have available. Does that make sense? Is that even a

119good question? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, Kimberly, could I just explain my position because I didn't I mean, I know I raised my hand, I didn't say it. So, actually, your summary at this very end was what I was thinking. So my assumption and I hope I'm not wrong is whoever comes in and does our security audit will have strong expertise in what's going on out there, what's the latest research, what are the best practices and that's going to inform them as they do the audit. So um I guess for me especially hearing um yeah some of the already analysis not just internally but externally I feel um that I can wait on me personally hearing what's you know best practices and what what's going on in the neighbor neighboring districts knowing that we are

120moving forward with the security audit. Um so that's why I voted. I think it's just too important for us to assume that our audit will provide us with that information. You may be right, but I I wouldn't assume that. Yeah. Well, it's like it's the board hearing this research and that's one question, but I think you know our administrators and like they have a much better knowledge than what's going to be presented if we move forward with this at this time is my thinking. I know there's a lot of feelings about this topic, but I do want to move us on to other business. Um, and we've already accomplished giving administration the direction that most of us want to go. Um, so we'll go ahead and move on. Our next topic is our curriculum review

121cycle update. All right. In your board packet, you have our um update regarding our curriculum review. And I'd just like to highlight a few thing and things and then I'd be happy to answer any questions. Uh last month Aaron Wilkins, our assistant director of professional learning talked about our English language arts implementation. Um and it has been a wonderful experience having reading content area specialists alongside our instruction and tech coaches supporting staff uh in that implementation. And we've been working closely with them to make plans for next year to continue that support. it's going to look a little bit different, but just we want to make sure that our staff continue to feel supported um in that area. And again, I'm not going to go through all of them right now. Um but just to

122touch on a few, uh the libraries, um and Mark Vior touched a little bit on this. Uh at Fairview and Lions Park, we actually used another um uh grant from Bosch to pilot something called SAM Lab. Um so this is an online tool. Um and it also has different manipulatives so students can learn coding and design thinking. Uh that has been a fabulous experience for our students. Um so we anticipate that we will continue um using that for next year. And then another thing I wanted to point out is um at our middle school I've been working closely with the LRC director there, Tiffany Estraki. Uh we were just at Prospect High School I think last week uh looking at the different pathways um and so we are developing some different lessons that will be

123um brought to our students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade to help them better understand the different career pathways that are available at Prospect and beyond. um because we want our students to have a better understanding of that different career pathways that are available, having a growth mindset, thinking through that kind of educational plan that is uh needed for different careers. And so um we especially want to target um our eighth graders and find ways that we can help better prepare them especially as they go to prospect for the elective night and and trying to choose those pathways. So we want to do some more front loing for our students. so that they're aware of the different pathways that are available. They can do some research, find ones that they're interested in, and maybe ones

124that they aren't. Those are all good things to have. So, that is something um I wanted to highlight. Uh Mark Fer talked a little bit about our com computers class, which is now communication technology. Um I'm going to jump over to math actually. So, math is going to be kind of our our next big curricular review. uh and we are going to be really focusing on that next year. Uh this year we have had uh pretty extensive professional learning um alongside other district 214 Sunday schools and district 214. Um all of our math teachers at Lincoln um participated in it participated in four days of professional learning alongside those different groups. Uh really looking at um mathematical practices and what are the things that we want our students to be doing. So focusing on problem

125solving, students talking mathematically. Um and then there's also a a true framework that we really use to inform kind of that professional learning. So you can take a look at that. Uh that's under the the math portion. So talking about equitable access to content, how we can increase um student agency ownership, identity, how we can use formative assessments to really um in inform our instruction and our teaching and learning practices. And that um partnership is going to continue next year. Uh we are going to focus our attention a little bit more on algebra 1. And so how can we connect and and learn alongside other district 214 center schools but also district 214. Um and we are doing that through Metro Chicago Math Initiative through the University of Illinois. And we're also going to um

126do that with kindergarten through fifth grade. So we'll have a nice alignment from K through 8. So we have started that work. Um we did professional learning at our last uh institute day related to math so that we can start that process. So those are just a few of the highlights. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Any questions for Dr. Vanderhar? Jen. Okay. Um I just have a couple. Uh, one is I think related to the pathway program. Um, and just I know you talked a little bit about what that can look like. Is there any thought about like actually going over to Prospect with groups of kids that are interested in those pathways and like seeing it in action? I think that's a great idea. Um, I did learn that

127they have like an engineering club. Um, so I think we are trying to explore different opportunities for students. I think we would love that. I think logistics are always hard. So, we're we're exploring that. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious if there had been talk about it because it is cool to see it actually in action sometimes. Um so, so thank you for that. And then uh in the enrichment part, it talks about um the four prior priority areas um and thinking about this conversation around grading and assessment that we continue to have and that's one of the name priorities there. Where is the dovetail between those two? Great question. And so I think we have a lot of o overlap between many different committees and I think it all connects with our strategic plan

128and portrait of a graduate. Um so something that I'm looking at that's highlighted here is consistency was something that came up. Um and and really that's looking at our enrichment classes that are occurring at Fairview and Lions Park so that we can u make sure our students have similar experiences but it's also looking at middle school when we have our different classes. Are we having common assessments? Are we using similar instructional practices? Are we using um things that they are doing at high school so that students get practice with that? So I think that ties within that part of it. Um there is a survey that's coming about coming out tomorrow about grading progress reports and feedback. So I would encourage everyone to take that uh regarding or for families. we do have students and

129staff completing that right now. So when I think of that topic, um there's some connections within there. So if we're talking about grading, there's common assessments. When we talk about grading in general, is our focus on learning and student progress or is it on something different and how can we move more towards that? Um I feel like I could go on and on, but I hope that highlighted a few things. No, that's helpful. And I think it gets to my last question, which is um like as we think about outstanding student experience within the strategic plan and thinking about like now we're going into year three of the strategic plan and thinking about like what are the outcomes we can start to look for for student growth and thinking about student, you know, um success

130and what that really looks like to have excellent student experience um or outstanding student experience, sorry. Um what is that? What are there things that we can start to like think about for that for next year? Sure. So I think we can look at that in many different ways. So something our district leadership team is looking at for example is just student experiences in general. So we're taking a closer look at field trips and what we are offering to students both or looking at it for all students as well as different clubs. Um we are also looking at we have Palooa we have a million different things that we're offering to our students. We just had that fabulous um global gathering. So, what are the different experiences that we're offer offering just to see what

131we're doing with all students? Um, and I feel like I just pulled a Dr. Gore where I just started talking about everything that I wanted to share. So, can you please say your question again? Uh, thinking about outcomes, what are the outcomes? Thank you. Okay. So, that is one. Um and then then when we look at other outcomes, um another area that we are looking at is our portrait of a graduate. Um and so those five different characteristics and we want our students to do a kind of a self-reflection this year so that we can see where students are at. That's going to help us target instruction for next year and what that's going to look like and then we'll see growth over time. So that's another area. Thank you. Any other questions? Vicki, thank

132you so much. Dr. Bonderhar, I did have one question about um enrichment the accelerated learning. So, um the second bullet points um mentioned the need for a review and refinement of current placement practices um to identify um enrichment students or future enrichment students. And I was just curious, I don't know if this is a question for you, Dr. Vanderharf or or Dr. Gore, but do you have many families maybe calling to ask why, you know, either clarity like why wasn't their child chosen or what are the qualifications is there? Yeah, it tends to be more at the school level. I think that working through the principles and um there there are times where we have processes for when there are appeals and so that at that point then the district um is more involved in

133that communication. But I think, you know, it's it's it's always an ongoing process and I think we always want to be more effective in the way that we're correctly identifying students and making sure, you know, setting everyone up for success. But I would credit a great communication and the thoroughess in which our schools leaders and principles and assistant principles are capable at really taking the time to explain, talk about our process, listen to concerns, be data driven in the way that they're saying, let's make sure we're staying, you know, following up on this, talking about opportunities for kids to appeal or families to appeal. And then also to continue monitoring and not just saying it's a one and done that we're going to see how we can keep following up with this student and support

134this family who really feels that their child would benefit from a different placement. So um anything else? I was just going to add too when we had our um audit from Northwestern University they um I think overwhelmingly found that we were finding the right kids for the most part and we were missing some students. So when we are looking at this process, I think it's not just looking at um families who reach out for appeals or things like that, but how can we better look at our data and identify students who or families who might not be reaching out to us. So I think it's more about refining our practices to make sure that we're meeting all of the students who who need that extra challenge. Yeah, that's great. Anyone else? No, we're all good.

135Okay. Um I thought I had Oh, I had a question with regard to world languages. I know this has been kind of on our radar for a while. Um, and I had I attended in a personal capacity the sixth grade orientation last night and I heard or maybe misheard. So I'll I'll ask for clarity that um the curriculum that we work with currently is largely sort of self-generated in terms of the teachers and what they put together. And you're nodding. So um I was actually surprised to hear that and I guess I I wanted to ask sort of what is the process then for achieving cohesion not just you know among the four Spanish classrooms that we have for example but among other districts and sort of looking ahead then to prospect. Great question. So

136we have been working with a consultant for several years um and she is really an expert within the field and so um there are different I'm going to read from here the world readiness standards for learning languages um is really what is guiding our practice and so she has um been really instrumental in supporting the team in making language a bigger part uh and in focus. So when you walk into our classrooms, most of the time the language is Spanish or French. Um and that has been a shift for us. Uh and I think uh from our teachers, we're hearing that students are developing stronger languages and and like understanding and we also have a bigger focus on different cultures. So I think the amount of language that students are particip are are using within

137the classroom as well as the different assessments that we're using to guide instruction is making their um their understanding of the language richer. And I think too as we um share more data with district 214 and get a better understanding of how our students are performing in different classes, I think that will also give us a better indication. Um, but we've also had conversations with uh the world language uh department chair over at Prospect to get an understanding of these are the expectations that students have in Spanish one or French one um so that we can see some alignment there too. Wonderful. Thank you. When I was in Dr. from Hondaar's position years ago. I tried to get them to do a workbook and they said, "No, we are not settling for that easy peasy

138response." They're like, "We are beyond that." And they are, it is to credit to the the the um the rigor of the world language department at Lincoln that they did not choose the easy path. Mr. Larson is principal Larson is agreeing. if they're watching tonight, we are proud of them because they have taken the the harder climb. Sure. But it has really been a labor of love. It has been a relentless pursuit and it is they have convinced all of us that they are in it for the long haul and they really are driven to not do kind of the more kind of linear you know they really want to go in depth and be a more immersive and really district 25 um did this work too. So, just as an assurance that like neighboring

139districts have also taken this approach to this type of curriculum. We're not on our own island. Um, but I appreciate that and and I apologize if my question insinuated any kind of mistrust or anything like that. That was certainly not it was just a surprise, right? Because it is so much more work. Um and then to think too I'm sure you know it's not one teacher is doing one curriculum and another teacher is doing it like I'm I'm sure there is some type of right coming together. So that's what I was curious about. They were planning today even. Wonderful. Yeah. And I do appreciate that. Right. Um I part of the presentation was you know we don't we're not grammar based. We're not focused on just conjugate these verbs and then you don't know what

140to do with them. Um so I certainly appreciate that. Okay, we will move on to our um building brighter futures update. Excellent. So, it's it's it's already exciting. So, I can't say it's getting exciting, but it's definitely um moving along and um it's um it's great to know where we we're at a place where we really have that schematic design down. We we have an idea of where everything's going. As our architects say, the lines are now turning into walls. Um, and so they start to actually develop everything. And so, um, it's it's been a pretty neat process, uh, that continues. We continue to meet weekly. Uh, well, I shouldn't say that. We continue to have meetings on the calendar weekly. Uh, I talk to architects daily. Um, we meet, we started meeting with engineers

141more. uh we had our first meeting around technology and what that's going to look like both the guts of the building as well as starting to have conversations about you know forward facing what what what will look like within the building. Um we've had we had a meeting last week with food service consultant. We had um we have a couple meetings coming up as well with just different groups. So really just continuing to move forward, have conversations. Um I want to thank Mr. Larson who's here today cuz he um besides attending a lot of these meetings but there's lots of things where I'm texting him and he's running around to teachers and checking in and what do you think and how do you feel about that and does that work and make sense. So um

142it's been a lot of work but um I think it's it's it's neat it's neat to see the process. Um my thunder was stolen a little bit by Josh and Zoe earlier as they talked about uh what we did. Um, but we had some great feedback from students. Um, and the four student board members actually had opportunity to see it a second time. So, I was asking Josh a little bit about that. You know, what did what do you think the second time? And he was he was saying, "Oh, I really like what everyone else was sharing." So, you know, seeing that all every student kind of sees it a different way and they, you know, that band student's going to go, "Where's the band room and and how does that work?" And, um, you

143know, and the student that loves the sports is going, "Talk about the gym and and let me see it." So, um really neat, really neat opportunity for them. They had some great feedback. Um we have a steering committee coming up for the um uh Lincoln Steering Committee. And then we have um we're going to start setting up now like um the next round of focus groups with um each of the individual like um whether it's art or the whole PE department or different groups in order to start saying, "Okay, now we know where the room is and what it looks like. Now, what's the inside look like? what what how do we plan it out and how do we make sure we have everything that's needed. So, um exciting times. Um on the next slide,

144um it's all leading up to May 8th is our next uh community event. So, we um have the date set 5:30. Um that picture there is the old Lincoln. Um but just to give you an idea of where we're going and how to get in. Uh but we're going to be meeting at the busy gym. Really excited. We're going to be able to share both Lincoln and then we're also able to share Westbrook. So, we're we're going to be um sharing uh both schools at that time. Westbrook, we haven't shared yet with the community. Um so, we're excited to be able to show that on May 8th um at 5:30 as you can see on the flyer. And I believe there's one more slide that just talks about, you know, as we're continuing to work,

145you know, I I just want to remind everyone we're in design development now. Um we have uh been submitting lots to the village. Um including one uh another submitt was today. The next one actually is May 8th, that same day. Um and so we continue to work closely with the village um and get feedback from them, make changes as needed, have good conversations. Um and we're meeting with them next week, uh for the first time about West. We've talked to them a lot, but we will be showing them Westbrook and um getting feedback about Westbrook as well, which is obviously a very different, you know, the addition versus the new building, but questions about where we're at or anything coming up. Pam, who at the village are you meeting with? So, uh, we talk a

146lot with Jason Shelcross. Um, and then an Choy I I spoke to today. She actually was either going today or tomorrow to Lincoln to take some pictures over there. So, we have lots of people we're meeting with. The architects will submit designs through a portal for them and then they will have all their different departments um, meet on it and then they give us feedback. So, I talk mainly with Jason and then Ann, but lots of other people are involved. Any other question, Chris? First of all, thank you, Jason, for all your leadership in this area. I think it's really been fantastic and you've kind of taken all the great job you did leading up to the referendum and you're just continuing on. So, I really appreciate that. Uh, that said, I'm going to ask

147you the same question I'm going to ask you every month between now and when we cut the ribbons. Uh, any new risks to schedule, any new risks to budget? Um, as as for schedule, we're on track for for what our timeline is. Uh, we haven't um moved away from that at all. Um, we have things that we have to do in certain times and and we're feeling good about that. We've had conversations. The village knows exactly what our plan is and and um and they're helping make sure that we live up to that. So, they they will let us know exactly when we need to submit. And when it comes to budgets, we continue to get updates. Um, so every time that we um have a new submission to the village, it goes to Nicholas

148and then they can give us updates. And so we know and uh we know that um at the beginning of our design we were looking at because it's now oh what do we want and how do we get it? So it's gone up. Um it's gone down since then as we continue to to refine and and look at it and um we'll just continue to work on it. though we will we know that when we go to bid we'll have some alternates um and that's what we'll come back to the board and it just depends on how the bids come in and what it looks like um of what we can do and what you know but we hope that we can do it all because it's it's right now I'm excited about everything that

149we have to offer the students. Great. Thank you. Sure. Anyone else? I would just also give a shout out that Dr. Kay has given the white glove service to the neighbors. Um he has been in several of our neighbors homes by their by their invitation and spent time. He is popular among the block. So he's one of those people I feel like you know and Aaron Brachovich when he like knows people's phone numbers memorized that's going to be Jason by the end of this. He's going to be invited to birthday parties and christristening. So yes he is he is out on the streets. I love that you clarified by invitation. Yeah by invitation. He is not a people's to my knowledge too many neighbors homes without invitations. Yeah. Yeah. I do just have one comment

150I guess. Um and I know you mentioned sort of jokingly, right? The flyer has a picture of old Lincoln. Um and I guess one of the things I'm thinking about as we're approaching this project, right? Of course we're all very excited about this long long long awaited thing that we've wanted to do. I would really hate for the students that are in that school now, the students that are coming into that school and will be there over the course of the next couple years until we get to New Lincoln to feel like gh what a bummer, you know, oh, this is like this is the interim, right? This is just the the waiting. This is purgatory, right? We don't want that kind of environment. And I don't think anybody's cultivating that intentionally. Um, but I

151guess I would just challenge, you know, principal Larson to kind of keep that in mind, right? We want that same sense of pride and um, engagement even as we're growing into this other, you know, this new horizon, right? The new frontier. Yep. And I would say that uh, if I can speak for you, I hope u Mr. Larson has already been working on what is it going to look like. He's he's he's actually jumping ahead and I keep saying, "Wait, we have to figure out exactly what, you know, where the construction is going to be and where the fences are going to be and then we can have a plan, but he's already jumping into, you know, ideas of what that could look like." And I also say at our meeting the other day with

152the students um with Dr. Gore. She was already talking to those students who were realizing that they would not see the new Lincoln as students, but are very excited now to come back for the uh Am I allowed to announce that we will we will invite the students back for for a reunion? I I don't We are going to do something special for them. We will do something and a signing bonus if they come back to be teachers at the new Lincoln. That's I said, "Oh, I have a solution. Come back and teach here." Yeah. And then you will get to experience the glory of the new Lincoln. And I think some of them said, "Okay, no." So, and we were talking today um as board member Kowalchek and I were meeting before the uh

153before the meeting and talking about and she was mentioning how a school has done before and we've talked about it too where like current students have the opportunity to like sign a beam or have some type of um input. I know that at Westbrook uh Mr. Hefner has some ideas about how to utilize the the student input that he's received and that can we display that somehow in the in the new wing or something like that. So I think we have some ideas about that um and how that can look. I know it's it's not the easiest for students to see it and then move on, but come on back and definitely as a teacher. Yeah, that's great. We could even make it a fundraiser, right? We could sell bricks and offset the cost of

154the construction. Absolutely. Not just students, maybe like an alumni rate or something. Parents check. Well, that's what Kellogg did. I think Letto Jim Leto Jim Leto's locker was Oh, it would be funny. Cleanest one in the building. Mine would be Cole Walche chair. That's about all we can afford, right? Okay. Well, thank you so much. We'll continue on to I believe that brings us to our foyer report. Foyas. All right. This one is a big one. We have been busy in our FOYA department. We have received 14 14 foyas. So, um the details of these foyas were provided in your board packet, but we've been busy. Please tell me we don't actually have a foye department though. It is me, Roberta, and any other department that is is involves. So, we all try to duck

155it and it is the unfortunate recipients of whichever is the topic. Um, Mary and Robera and others as Yes. as other. Yes. Uh, Jen and I were at advocacy days for Ed Red and this was brought up because these seem to be AI initiated and to possibly bring up into some sort of legislation how this is not the way to do it. You need to have an actual person that is requesting it and not AI. Yes, we were actually really um grateful to have the support of uh Representative Graci who was awesome and really responsive um to hearing some feedback from me and I know several other superintendents to try to you know co-sponsor a bill um to try to get in front of this because um these requests were anonymous and so though the

156requesttor was claiming to have this This is not a commercial request. It was challenging for the u voluminous, you know, amount of requests and also the amount of school districts impacted to try to put some safeguards in place because it's if this continues, you can imagine just how disruptive this type of um behavior can be. Obviously, we are always eager to provide anyone with um material that they are able to access um have access to, but this seemed to be a little bit different. So, shout out to Representative Graci for being awesome and really responsive. Wonderful. Any other questions about the foyer report? Okay, that takes us to our consent agenda. Um Eileen, you did the bills. Bills are good. Rules are good. Okay. In that case, I will entertain a motion to approve the

157consent agenda. So moved. Second. Member Chung. Yes. Member Choke. Yes. Member Qualch. Yes. Member Leto. Yes. Member Nelson. Yes. Vice President Bennett Kill. Yes. President Fay. Yes. We have no unfinished business. This is another opportunity for community comments if anyone would like to speak. Okay, no takers. Uh, new business. Our first item of new business is the fiscal year 25 audit contract. This is our first read of this contract. So, I could just quickly say um Miller Cooper has um has performed our audit. We uh think they do an excellent job as an independent audit firm. Um but you know, not only do they come in and complete the audit, but they are a resource for us throughout the the year. And I will quietly say that as I speak to my counterparts, the price

158is right as well. We'll just say that. Okay. Any questions about the contract? Actually, I do have one. Yeah, go ahead. It won't be a big one. Has there been any material changes in this contract versus pre past contracts? Discussed. Okay. Okay. No other questions, comments. That takes us to our board governance committee update. Yes. Um, so the board governance committee has met twice. Um, and I wanted to thank Mary and Chris and Jen for being making themselves available. It is not easy to get this group of people together. So, it's really been um, a pleasure to be able to work with them. Um, so yes, we've met two times. The most recent was actually this past Tuesday. And um we have throughout through our first meeting have decided that um succession planning was really

159the first priority of the me of the committee. So we've been working on that and we've put together a succession planning document which you guys all have in your board packet. And um to start off with does anybody have any questions about that document? I'm seeing no questions at the moment. So, if you want to continue with your all reading it on the spot. Okay. While everybody takes a look at that and reviews it um quickly, the majority of this document is taken from board policy and ISB um recommendations. there is a continuation of a one-year term. Um, and uh, there's two items that we were looking to pass on to the policy committee, which is the that's not a big deal. Um, which is the addition of the policy and governance committees to our

160policy document and also the vice president job requirements. So, that was one of the items that was really um a pleasure to bring forth was to flesh out the vice president's job rather than um just do what the president needs you to do. So, that was great. Um let's see what else. So really what this document is putting forth is our efforts to um encapsulate our best practices for succession planning moving forward just to make sure there's clarity and um a a a framework for us moving forward for our good governance. Um, I would say that unless there are any questions, um, that in the spirit of good governance that the that we're bringing this forward as a recommendation for the board to adopt as their best practices rather than not policy, but as our

161best practices in our succession planning. Questions, comments. So, I'm understanding certainly what you've outlined in this document is intended based on what you just said to to sort of mirror I think our attitude around our board agreements, right? These are all things that we um are sort of informally agreeing to hold ourselves accountable to in terms of the qualifications for these roles etc. The only things that would change in a permanent formal capacity would be as you said adding the governance committee and the policy committee to our board policy that states you know these are our standing committees as a district and then also was it the piece about the one-year term? No, the one-year term is but the vice president's roles and responsibility. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. So those things would be

162you're proposing that those things be translated and and formalized in policy, but everything else is sort of we're agreeing as a as a team that this is sort of the way that we want for this process to function. Correct. Okay. Any questions or comments about that? And for the policy committee, we were thinking of doing that when the next press off day came, which is soon. And so we thought let's do it then just because if that is okay because it's there it's such kind of preuncter updates that okay yeah and so to the extent there's agreement about that when it comes to that point we'll just when we have our first read of policies we'll just have a reminder that these things are included also. Did you have a question comment? No. Okay. So

163seeing no objection, is it safe to accept that these are things that we're agreeing to abide by in to the extent that they're enforceable moving forward? Okay. All right. Great. And then with regard to policy, we certainly if there was any objection to adding those things to policy, we could address it when the policy um changes come up so we can kind of push that off for next time. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, if there's no further comments, nope. Okay, then that takes us to our next item of business, which is action on Superintendent Gore's contract from 2025 to 2030. Mary, don't make that face. I will now entertain a motion to approve Dr. Gore's contract. So moved. Second. Member Cho, yes. Member Quala, yes. Member Leto, yes. Member Nelson, yes. Vice President Bennett

164Kill. Yes. Member Chun. Yes. President Fay. Yes. Congratulations, Mary. I'm so honored and grateful and love being in this district and love serving you as a board and the community. So, thank you for the opportunity. I'm going to get emotional. So, thank you. Thank you so much. We're happy to have you and if we could, it would be more than five years, but can't handcuff you and keep you here forever. Okay. I mean, we could try. There might be like legal action involved, so we don't want to. Uh, moving on. Communication reports. Uh, we'll start with our NSCO report. Yes. So, uh, we've actually met twice since our last meeting. Uh, we had a committee of the whole meeting on Monday, March 31st, and then our regular meeting on Wednesday, April 2nd. Uh, two things

165to bring to this board. uh the committee the subject of the committee of the whole meeting uh was and you'll recall that for the last several months we've talked about one of the items that came out of our strategic plan development was a a feeling amongst the member district admin group uh a general feeling at least that the quality of and uh frequency of communication from NSSO to them was was lacking. And so since developing the strategic plan, there's been some ideas floated as to how to close that gap. And so the group of member district superintendents met several times uh including Dr. Gore of course to uh to sort of bring forth a proposal on well how you know what can we do to to make this situation better. uh and they had actually

166proposed to create a new uh operational board that would operate concurrent with the governing board, right? Um and so that was an idea that was brought to the governing board for consideration. uh we talked about that briefly in our May meet or May the one that hasn't happened in our um March meeting and then decided you know what this topic really deserves uh discussion on its own and in a public open meeting where we can solicit feedback and community comments and and really just have an in-depth conversation on it. uh as we discussed as a governing board the the thinking was that creating a a complete MA hamstrung I don't want to use that word maybe but a completely new operational board would be a pretty drastic change to NSSO and how it operates um

167and that the belief was that we could facilitate that level of additional communication in ways that actually might be better than creating a completely new operational board. An operational board would have to be uh compliant to OMA regulations uh which are are great but might actually hamstring the kind of in-depth quality communications that can happen amongst the superintendents in NSSO that you wouldn't necessarily be able to have if you were in an OMA meeting. So uh so what we decided as a governing board is we didn't want to go forward with creating this new operational board uh but that we did think that it would be a good idea and Dr. Schneur was completely for this to have her lead a meeting of the superintendents, the member district superintendent every month where it would be

168a defined date, there'd be an agenda, there'd be discussion and questions brought forth and that uh any topics that were brought up at that meeting that the member district admins would then need to discuss with the uh the member district uh board representative before going to an NSSO governing board meeting could be had right so there'd be that opportunity for discussion uh and we generally thought that was a better idea now uh interestingly we the governing board did not formally direct Dr. Schneure to do this because if we did that would be the formation of a board committee which would then make it subject to OMA rules so Dr. Schneur of her own valition said, "This is the direction I want to go. This is a great idea." To her credit, she's been wonderful about

169really trying to involve the member districts uh quite a bit. Um I think there may have been some gaps previously that she's really worked hard to close. Uh and so that's what she's going to do. So I I don't know if she's actually scheduled the meeting yet. Maybe you can tell me. Has she? Yeah. Okay. So this has already started. So other than that for the going forward there will be no additional formal changes. So there's nothing for us to have to discuss or vote on beyond this. And so uh that's kind of the conclusion that this has brought to and and as we said in that meeting, we can always check and adjust on this. If after a year of having these monthly meetings that are kind of going to be run under this

170format that there's a belief that more change is needed, we can always do that. Uh but that's the direction we're going to go. So um I think most of us thought that was a good outcome and hopefully everybody's satisfied with that and so so that's where we are there. Uh any questions on that before I talk about Yes, Vicki. Thank you so much. I don't get to answer questions very often. One question, but thank you for giving that um synopsis or the summary of what's happening. I was just curious. Um, so assuming next month there'll be um at least at least one probably several new NSSO board members at the table, is there any thought that that topic will be revisited or anything or no? It's kind of the current board feels like let's run

171with it for at least I don't know a year. So what's Well, I I can only speak for myself of course. Um, I would say there's never ever, well, in my opinion, I'm never ever going to say we're never going to talk about that again or we're not going to talk about it for a year. Um, if the belief two months from now is that we need to do something different, we'll open it up and discuss if we need to do something different. Um, the creation of the operational board actually would hamstring us quite a bit more. Trying to undo that after we did it would be very difficult because it would require a complete change to NSSO's charter and there would be legal stuff we'd have to do that I don't even fully understand

172but it would be really involved. So to do that and then decide h I don't really think we need this and then undoing it would actually be quite a mess. So this interim step is is a good way towards seeing hey maybe this will help us close whatever gap we think exists and we could always do more right but it's difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube if we were to create this entirely new compliant board and then say ah we don't really need that and undo it. So, so to answer your question, we of course could revisit this if and when we think we need to. The idea of the um OMA board, it was Dr. Schnore along with the superintendent. So, she even knowing, oh, this is going to affect NSSO

173policies and this and that. initially before the creation of this kind of admin board she was a proponent of it or thought it would be worth it and addressing some of the um challenges that were existing are existing. So I I will say that's a that's a great question and I I I don't want to necessarily speak for her but I think to her credit I think she was in a position of I want to do what's best for our member districts and co-op. I don't think she had a really strong belief of we got to go do this and I'm gonna shove this down everyone's throat. I don't think she did that at all. I think she listened to her many constituents, right, of which she has quite a few. She has the member

174district admins. She has the governing board. She has uh students and families and everybody to listen to. And so I don't think she came in with a preconceived idea of this is what we need to do. However, I will say because it seemed like there was a significant percentage of the member district superintendents who really wanted this, I do think she was taking that to heart and saying, "Look, this is what's being proposed by at least one group of my constituents governing board. What do you think?" And you know, I know that one of the things that was mentioned is a lot of other co-ops, special ed co-ops have these two boards. And so, wouldn't that make sense? But uh I don't believe that it was something that she really thought we have to do.

175I think she's looking as any good leader would for what's the best solution to this problem, right? That works best for everyone. And this step that we're taking, I think we all believe has a good potential to be just that. Great question. This is fun. I don't get to answer questions here. Anyone else questions? Okay. No. Okay, one more quick thing on SSO. Uh we did vote as a board to allow uh the uh 202526 budget to go forward to be discussed and deliberated and ultimately voted on by the member districts. Uh at our May 1st meeting, uh Gavin and I think Dr. Schnure will be here to present that budget. Uh so we'll get to see it on May 1st. we'll then get to discuss it again and vote on it uh as a

176board on our when's our next May meeting after that whenever it is. So, we'll have a chance to look at it in advance of the May 1st meeting, ask questions. We'll then have more time between May 1st and May 8, whatever the next meeting is to to do the same. The idea then is that, you know, we would vote on whether we to approve the budget or not at that meeting and then I would take that decision and vote in our June governing board meeting where we'd approve the the budget for next year. Does that make sense? Did I say that? Well, sorry. Uh, and then our next meeting is Wednesday, May 7th. Okay. Go ahead, Jen. No, I was going to do Ed Foundation. I said that's right. Oh, yes. Go ahead. Yes. After

177you. Ed Foundation. I was just turning on getting ready to do Ed Foundation. That's all. We have not met since the last time we met. Uh but we did have the gala and so thank you to everyone who came. It was a lot of fun. Um lots of people stayed till the very end. So that was great and um just a lovely night and thanks to the ad foundation for for putting it on. Our next meeting is April 29th. Wonderful. That takes us to PTO reports. Uh let's start with Lincoln. So Lincoln has not had a meeting since our school board's um meeting. Their next meeting is actually this upcoming Monday, April 21st. Okay, wonderful. Well, we'll be expecting a lot from you next time. Uh Fairview, we just had our meeting this past Monday.

178Um they got a lot of stuff going on. They have their special lunch. They have their fifth grade dance, fine arts night, staff appreciation night. I know the the theme, but I don't want to say it just in case. No one told me not to say it, but I thought I'll um they are one of the uh gift I think the PTO will be doing is giving a tree. So, they are working with the Mount Prospect to pick a tree that is acceptable that's on their list and then they will go and pick a location on the property of where they're going to put it. So, it's kind of exciting. So, that's one thing they'll be doing. And then like I said, a lot of stuff. They have their fun fair. They have uh caparies

179cap whatever caparies coolest school contest. It is May 13th uh from 3:00 to 9:00 which is a lot uh later than their usual like April 2nd. So they're excited. Hopefully it's not a cold rainy day in May. And the next meeting is I believe uh May 12th. Wonderful. Thank you. uh Lions Park. So, the last meeting for uh Lions Park was Monday, April 7th. Um they were focused mainly on planning staff appreciation week, which is um May 8th through 9th, and um the fifth grade musical, which is later this month, and then just the numerous fifth grade events uh heading into that transition to Lincoln. Um, their next and last meeting of the school year is May 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 at Mrs. P and me. So, it's a nice little extra extra meeting.

180Um, we look forward to seeing everybody. Westbrook. Uh, Westbrook um had a few focuses. One is to invite the incoming parents to join the PTO, which is a good thing. Um they made note that spirit wear is in the building and ready for the um the students who are coming the first graders who are um coming to Lions or Fairview. So that's done. Um they were talking about um teacher appreciation week and wondering whether or not uh or how to ask for contributions so they could do a little bit more for their wonderful teachers and staff um at Westbrook. And they're also um thinking of how to invite incoming parents, did I say this already? to join the PTO. Yeah. How to how to reach out. And so I thought that was good. Um uh

181they have uh purchased more birthday books and I guess the best place to get um a a number of new books uh for children is Target when they have their two for one or or you buy two and you get one free. That's how they stretch their dollars. So I thought that that was that was really good. and what they said um this is the second meeting where they've said this and this is really more for Mark Parent Square is phenomenal. They said that with the new parent square it just lets them do all these wonderful things. Um another um committee member said how wonderful it was with the translations that they've had a lot of parents thanking them. um the communication is smooth and easy and and prompt and quick. So I just wanted

182to make note of that because it wasn't just one comment. One comment built upon several comments and this is a second meeting where they've they've praised Parent Square. So good job. Okay, thank you very much. Um, I think given that so many of us mentioned the obviously the school year is winding down, the PTO year is winding down. Um, I'll just give a quick plug on behalf of all of our PTOs for membership, especially executive board membership. I know for example at Lincoln a lot of our leadership that has been PTO involved from the Westbrook days up are looking to move on to other things maybe like a you know a what is a booster club kind of experience at the high school level. Um so we really do need to fill those spots and

183and continue to think about ways to be involved in your children's education. So please consider that. Um that takes us to our board conference debrief. So, I understand Jen and Karen um just as a reminder, of course, you all had the privilege of oops attending that uh COSPA conference last month and so we're pleased to hear what you've brought back to share with us. Awesome. Well, thank you so much and thank you so much for uh approving our attendance at this conference and so we did want to bring back our learnings um just so that you could see what we found. So, uh as Kern will tell you, I made her take a picture by everything. So that first picture on the front page was uh us by the Cosma sign as you walked into

184COSMA. So um I don't think you see them anymore. Okay. So this is our session. Go ahead Mark. Uh our session was called how student voice and community engagement enhance initiative success. Uh our agenda was to kind of share our story to get some collaboration feedback and then help people to apply it to their own context. So these were the four questions that we asked for feedback on during the session. I'll let you read them. Um in the coming and don't move yet Mark, but the coming slides you'll see the uh sheets with them. I also have those sheets. I meant to bring them tonight. Um I forgot them, but they are sitting in my room right now. And so I will give those to uh Mary and Robera if we want to type those

185up so you can see the actual answers outside of the post-its. Um but really thinking about how do you build and repair relationships with your communities? the most important things that you've learned from colleagues how you measure success and what are innovative ways that you've included student and community voices. One of the coolest things it was the students who were um attending Cosba to talk in their own sessions actually came to ours and they gave a bunch of feedback to us which was amazing. Go ahead Mark. So you'll see we had uh great participation at our session. uh people were actually very excited to see uh posted some things out so they were um ready to participate and so these are uh those four questions. You can go to the next slide Mark um and

186you can kind of see where where things popped up and and um like I said I will give these to to Mary Roberto so you can read the answers to and then here is some picture here are some pictures from that. You'll see in the top right are some of those students who were uh writing on those as we were were looking at them. Um, another picture that I made Krin take by our sign. You will see the a bunch of neighboring board members also came to support ours. So, that was great. Uh, that is Shamberg, District 54, and 25 were there also. And so, it was great to have their support at the session. And so, these are our session takeaways. Uh, Karen and I will do them when they're ours. So, Flynn might

187take us a second to read through them to figure out who's Sue. Go ahead, Mark. So I was able to attend this session, school safety is an inside job and it was it was fascinating. It was a really great session um run by a really um knowledgeable and interesting individual um who works for the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Education Services. So he really talked about four different things that um that's centered around how you promote school safety and that it is something that comes from within the school the school culture. So the first one is that school safety is an attitude is attitudinal and most affected by changing the culture and climate of schools. So that's really talking about buyin from the staff, from the students, claiming that that school is ours

188just like our home is ours. Um, school safety is transitional. So they're talking that was talking about transitions from one school to the next, fifth grade to sixth grade, 8th grade, freshman. Um, and how making sure there are mentoring opportunities in uh those transitions also promotes promotes school safety. school safety is engagement and that's engagement across the board. That's student engagement, parent engagement, grandparent engagement, whomever. And one of the ways that he had uh talked about the the school engagement was soliciting grandparents to volunteer for various things um around the school. Um the also is the creating the culture where see something say something is practiced and that was really important because um in the school districts in which he has worked and then many of the school districts that were participating in the session

189this kind of um culture is a very difficult to create. it is something that is a a big obstacle um to to overcome being in a place where students feel like they can do this. And so I was really proud of our school district and how many of these things and how much we're doing um and how effective our see something say something practice really has been um and shown recently. Next slide. Uh so this was one I went to with Conways public school district. Um similarly you'll see that creating a culture of safety. Um the safety leadership teams they talked a lot about. And then I know we also use I love you guys. Um and this idea of really including some of that in newsletters. That was something that was really stood out

190to me is they had a safety section in every newsletter that highlighted some safety thing that happens in the district. And that was everything from like seal, right, and like the mentoring and that kind of stuff to things like I love you guys or bus safety, which I just thought was an interesting um way to get safety out in the district. Uh this was another one that I went to around proactive preparation for school safety. Um and they really talked about the protective factors of relationship with a trusted adult, which I know we talked about earlier in this meeting. Um and they really highlighted the fact that the single most important thing educators can do is form that trusting relationship with adults. Uh and then they had a couple of interesting um things that they

191brought up which the second one is the one uh that we have talked a little bit about in this one too. And if you go to the next slide Mark uh they really like went all out on the stop the prop um and really like put that everywhere and they said like kind of picking that one thing that they really want that attitude and it'll change around was something that they really highlighted. Uh this is this this is you. Sorry. That's me. So this is student voice matters bringing student voice to the board table. So Lori Grant um one of the uh associates that we have at ISB put this together and it was um again it was a really interesting session. We had uh these are the questions really that came out of it

192is that we need to ask ourselves as a board when it comes to our student board members or if we are for schools that are considering uh student board members. So do we have a policy um in our uh in our board policies for student board members? Do they have an advisory vote at all on our on any of our items? Um do we have adult mentors for our student board members? is the orientation for students aligned with our board onboarding. So, making sure we're at the very beginning of this, but looking at our board on boarding and um having a student related um onboarding process and do our kids take an oath of office. There is an oath of office sample from IASB um which might be interesting for our May 1st meeting. Um

193I don't know if there's another slide after this. Mhm. And there were uh many resources. So this was one of the situations where we were able to have a couple of the um the um representatives from the national student student board member association. So in August they have a 3-day virtual conference for student board members in order to get um information about their particular role out. The um ISB has a guidance um documents for student board members actually specifically for the student board members and also there is an idea of having student board members be really um forward in the district having them speak at events for the district um public things in the community that are representing the district. So, it was fun to be in that session as one of the uh few

194districts that had a that have a um student board member. Um and I was able to actually share quite a few things from our experience at that point. But we're doing all right. And then this was the actual National Student Board Member Association session. So, this is the one they act the students actually led the session. So, that's the name of the students at the top. Um and they talked a little bit about in similar fashion to what uh Kern just mentioned um about them speaking at district events. So organizing focus groups or town halls for board members to interact with students. Um presenting at staff or team meetings about the things that they have done or what they're learning or things that they think should change. Um and then their tips were to make

195sure you really explain all the acronyms uh that we use in education to draft bylaws in some format so that you do have policy around whatever it is on boarding etc. um and make sure that they see themselves in the policies. Okay. So this was another one of my um sessions. So fostering governance excellence effective onboarding and support for new board members. So, this was again timely and um appreciated. Um and really the items that I took away from this that are some things that we aren't doing or that we could improve upon is looking at how we are embody um onboarding our new board members. Um certainly we have the ISB mandatory trainings for our new board members and this was a as you can see it was a um a fellow Illinoisan who

196was there. So we were able to pump up ISB for a little bit. Um and um about assigning mentors. Do we have an effective mentoring program? Is there something that we are doing formally for that? And they also had a se a selection of items to do for the first within the first 40 days of the election. So does the individual receive the essential materials? Um, one of the things that they do specifically is they do an entire day of meeting with cabinet and um, department members so that they can get a great view of um, and a sense of what these departments do ahead of their starting on the board. Um, and then there were they also give two books to each new board member. So the effective schoolboard members in coming to order

197so that there is some uh information that they have available ahead of the um their installation that they can start to uh gain some perspective on the board. Ah good book clubs. Okay you have more. Sorry. Oh sorry. Um this was one that I it's kind of it was really interesting. Um but keeping the board in the loop and in front of the community. One of the things they have the board members doing is meeting with the unions which is really interesting. Um and again understanding the departments who runs them and making sure that we are in the schools that we are visible and seeing um our constituents. They rotate schools that host meetings. So this is a much bigger school district than we have. But um in order throughout the year they do rotate

198I think through seven schools each one hosting a meeting um which was again a way to put the board in front of the different school communities. So I went one on AI. Um I think the biggest thing that I will point out here um is just around this end one which was interesting which is percentage of high school students who cheated remained statistically unchanged compared to previous years. Um which was just an interesting uh stat that I was not expecting. Um but just how important it is to really do that media literacy was kind of what came out of this one. Um just around the fact that we can't really spot deep fakes. uh 56% of the United States can't tell the difference was interesting. Go ahead. Uh and then the things to do, there's

199a bunch of them. Um kind of speaking to what we were looking at earlier. Um and then the last one that just is on that slide is the there's an AI toolkit that they put out. Um and I have looked through it and passed it along to a couple other people in different groups and it does it is pretty comprehensive. So something just to take a look at. Uh this is from focus on instruction. Um they were really talking about the board's part in instruction. Uh and this idea of building that collective efficacy um and really how it needs to be aligned to the strategic plan to make sure that we have inputs from all the affected groups and that we really think about those three areas of effective teaching, engaged students and rigorous content

200and how we can continue to uplift those three things. Uh, and then this one was um navigating the professional relationships to support students. This is a superintendent um and they were hilarious by the way. Um, and put out some very funny videos. They do a lip-s sync contest the beginning of the year. I did not put that on here, but it is very funny to watch. Um, but really thinking about how the board participates in foundational PD with staff, which was really interesting. Um so any like big PD that the entire staff does really having board members understand what that looks like and meeting with them. Um those open meeting board work sessions on larger topics they do them at restaurants. Um this was just fas it was just a really interesting look at how

201like culture in this board um and in this district. Uh but they really talked a lot about that driving positive change to the culture and climate data and supporting culture um in a variety of ways and that the board's role is to really lead by example. So thank you. Any questions for us? Where's Big Horn County? I knew you were going to ask that and I do not remember. I don't It's out west. I do not remember though. But they like look up their lipstick videos. They are hilarious. Um, uh, thank you for going. You guys did a lot. Yeah. I mean, that was a lot you went to. We were busy. Yes. I was going to echo that as well, right? We're happy to have sent you and thank you for bringing all of

202this helpful information back to us. I'm sure there's a lot of things we could ask and a lot of, you know, we could dig into deeper all of the things that you all learned about. Um, so with that in mind, we'll take some questions. Please go ahead. Uh well, first of all, congratulations to both you for presenting and it's awesome that you had such great engagement. Um and obviously you were busy as you said. Would it be possible to have this presentation added to board docs? Oh yes, that was my question because I I I think it would be great for not just us to go back to but the community as well. So yeah. Okay. Excellent. Thank you again. Pam, did you have another question besides that? No, that was my question and thank

203you. You know, it's so important to to function on a national level, especially now. And I really appreciate that that we got out of the bubble and and made a name. I'm sure you made a name, a good name, a positive name for for the district um in a in a larger conference area outside of Illinois, you know, somewhere where you're functioning with um with people from around the country. So, thank you. I I know it wasn't um it's not always easy to pack up and go somewhere, so thank you. Okay, anybody else any comments? All right, thank you so much. Um that takes us to our board president report. Um I will just give a reminder about our May 1st board meeting. So it's going to be a busy day. We have our reception

204for the members of our staff that are retiring which will take place before the meeting. So that will be at 4:45. And I I think we'll do it here, right? The same like we did before. Okay. Um, so we'll be here in the Fairview multi-purpose room and then our meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. And it sounds like we do have some substantive items that we'll address, but we'll try to keep it as quick as possible. Um, yes. Yeah. Um, because the focus of that meeting will be will be um bringing on our new board member, Mr. Dorner who's in the audience with us. Congratulations again. We're looking forward to working with you and kudos to you for sitting here this whole time. The whole time. This is good practice for you and you're in

205the uncomfortable chair. So, you're doing great. Um, yes, I remember. And unfortunately, once we finish the business of the current board, we will be saying a fun farewell to Vicki. We won't get emotional now. We'll save it for next time. Um, as she will unfortunately for us, but very fortunately for district 214 be moving on to their board. So, we're so excited for you. Um, but also deeply in denial that you're going anywhere. I think we'll just bring on another chair and everybody will stay right where they are. Um, so wi with that in mind, in addition to welcoming our new board member and kind of transitioning around in that respect, we will also transition or have the opportunity to transition leadership. Um, so I solicited a couple I think it was at our last

206meeting interest from anybody who is interested in serving as president or vice president. Um, I will be circulating the names of those individuals that have expressed their interest ahead of our next meeting. So those of you who will have the opportunity to vote can be thinking about you know those options. Um I will say we are in a place a unique position this year of having options in terms of those leadership positions. I you know historically it's been difficult to fill these roles. Um but we're in a very unique position as a board this year that um there is actually um some competition is not the word I want to use but um a multi multi- layers of interest. So we're grateful for that. Um and then thinking ahead to that experience that process um

207for those who are interested in serving in those positions given that you know this is a little bit of a unique experience. I would just encourage those of you to maybe prepare just a brief kind of plug a a what do you call it a pitch um just to share a little bit about you know why you're interested in those positions what what you know what makes you think that you are uniquely suited for those roles um I think that that would be helpful for all of us who are going to be making those decisions about selecting our leadership so with that in mind. Are there any questions about that? Okay. Does Ray help me guess part of this? Yeah. Yeah, I think we Well, yeah, we discussed that. We didn't discuss that, but I

208I I feel like you you got it. You um Okay. And so that takes us to board discussion. We have no items currently scheduled for board discussion. Yes, Pam. Um, I don't I I have one thing. Um, I received an email today from Joe Broak at Mount Foster Public Library. I think that you all might have too because it is um an invitation uh to district 57 and the other school districts to the board. Um, and I'm sure Dr. Goreu, maybe Jason, I'm not sure. Um, I couldn't find the email now, but it is an MPPPL, civic engagement, where the village, um, the park district, all of the civic organizations in Mount Prospect meet. It's a takeoff on something that I had been part of, um, when I was at MPPPL. It used to be,

209um, in the at 7:00 in the morning. Um and so now um it is at six o'clock from six o'clock to 7 o'clock at night we're invited and and the purpose of it is to get together as a community and discuss important issues that impact on us and um May 29th is the first um resurrection of that um prior meeting and I don't know I don't know how it impacts on an open meeting if how many board members could go. Well, and Robera just pointed out that's Lincoln's graduation. So, oh, that may impact how many of the board members will attend it. That doesn't mean that that means no one can. It just means some of you know. So, it might take care of the OMA restrictions. Although I would think not have a core

210of right. I mean the part of the limitation of the open meetings act isn't just the number of people it's the subject matter. So to the extent a group of us were going to something where the library was presenting to us, provided that we were careful about our discussion and and not engaging in discussing board business in that context, I think it would be permissible. Um given the conflict, right, like you said, and I'm not you the time frame, it might be a little bit challenging, but I appreciate you bringing that up and reminding us of that opportunity. I I know that they have several tables and they try and get somebody they each table is filled with someone from each um community organization. So the village would be there and the park district and

211you know all the schools. Um and then they present a couple of topics um and some questions and then and then there's a discussion and then you fill out a survey afterwards. I was the one who made the survey. I will tell you that. Yes. So, okay. Well, thank you very much for sharing about that. Um, moving then I I guess you sort of segueed us I think into somewhat of our next uh section about suggestions for future board meetings. And this this is um an opportunity for us to I guess raise suggest um things that we might want to talk about at an upcoming board meeting. Are there anything is there anything like that on anybody's mind that we might want to consider putting on an agenda for a future meeting? Okay. I have

212ideas, but I will email them. Okay. Okay. I mean, yeah, I'm not lucid right now. So, that's it is it is getting late. We're we're hitting that sundown hour for everybody. Um, I did have something that I wanted to suggest. Uh, and it it actually, I think, dubtales nicely with the presentation that Jen and Karen gave us. Um, certainly, you know, you all had this opportunity to present at this national conference. Um I think actually you all as well and and Eileen in previous years have participated in uh presentations at the ISB conference. Um and as we're getting more and more of these opportunities as as these things are being brought to us or as we're having a desire to pursue some of these things it occurred to me that we don't necessarily as a

213board have a framework for who who does what. um who is the best person to pursue these opportunities on behalf of the board. Um there's just really no guidelines around um doing all of that. I think it's a wonderful thing for us to do. Um but I really like rules and structure and I think from my perspective I think it's worthwhile to consider um you know spreading those opportunities out to the extent that there's interest. maybe considering the costs involved or the the time related to that. So my suggestion would be and I I'll put this out to you now. Is there any interest by raise of hands and I won't won't take it personally if nobody wants to talk about it. Um, is there any interest in discussing at a future board meeting? Um,

214this idea of sort of creating some framework for our outward-f facing kind of bigger picture conference type level participation. Only Karen Karen wants to have another committee. We want to talk about all the committees. Pam, I had a comment. Not not an interest, but a comment. Sorry. I I think that the people who are driven, who are passionate are the ones that should be presenting. You know, I used to present library things um downstate and and you know, in other places um because that was my passion. I did I did how to do story times to babies. Um those kinds of things. That was my passion. But but I I I don't feel equipped to go and present. I don't I don't I'm sorry. Certainly the idea would not be to send people that don't

215want to do it. Well, not so much don't want to do it. I think the people that are qualified should do it. I appreciate that. Cut you off because I mean the idea of this topic, this part, right? like we don't want to get into the discussion right now. I'm asking are we willing to talk about it at some point. Um I'm not seeing a lot of interest. So we will put it aside and maybe I'll hassle you about it again some other time. Uh okay, moving on then. That takes us to a need for closed session. We have a need for close session for the purpose of security procedures, school building safety and security and the use of personnel and equip personnel and equipment to respond to an actual a threatened or a reasonably

216potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff and the public or public property. If I can have a motion to enter close session, please. So moved. Second. Member Qualchuk. Yes. Member Leto. Yes. Member Nelson. Yes. Vice President Bennett K. Yes. Member Chung. Yes. Member choke.