001good evening it's my pleasure to call to order the peoria public schools board of education meeting for october 2020 to order would you please call the roll miss caustic here mr claus here dr ranking mr walter here mr wilson here mrs ross here mr chuck here seven president have a quorum okay please join me in the pledge of [Music] allegiance of america this is the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all board members have announcements dr ranking students in grades two through four return peoria public schools second third and fourth grade students will return to in-person learning on an a-b schedule starting monday october 26th for those families with students returning to in-person instruction make sure to listen to your principal's weekly announcements to stay up
002to date on announcements and protocols at your school other announcements mrs koski principal appreciation week school bus safety week next week peoria public schools will recognize two very important groups of people whose work since march has been particularly invaluable the week of october 19th through the 23rd is principal appreciation week and school bus safety week thursday october 22nd is national school bus driver appreciation day peoria public schools 27 principals and 24 assistant principals are leaders mentors and advocates for our building staff members and our families first and frequent connection with the district our transportation department staff members delivered meals and instructional instructional materials to students in the spring and are now making sure that our buses are safe and sanitized every day please take the time to say thank you to these important team members
003thank you thank you other announcements hey yes i have one president shaw uh go ahead vice president wilson virtual parent teacher conferences will be held on monday october 19th and tuesday october 20th please check your principal's announcements to learn how to schedule a conference with your students teachers friday october 16th is the midterm of the first semester and the end of the first grading period midterms grade reports will be sent to parents on wednesday october 21st other announcements mr waldman yeah i've got two here first one is the peoria public schools 2020 united way campaign begins october 9th and will run through october 30th our support and investment in united way has a direct impact on our students and families the pandemic has only exacerbated the need for a range of support and services in
004our community the united way partnered with pps during the spring and summer months to provide consistent and nutritious meals to our students when they were not in school buildings a united way ambassador will be reaching out in each school our focus this year is on increasing our participation in the number of contributions from each building any amount you can give will help benefit our students and families our school district and peoria community and the second one is fire prevention week poster contest the peoria fire department is resurrecting its annual fire prevention week poster contest renamed the ernie russell fire prevention week poster contest in honor of fire chief ernie russell the theme for this year's contest is serve up fire safety in the kitchen so far in 2020 the peoria fire department has responded to
00575 cooking fires 21 of which developed into house fires to stay safe while cooking the fire while cooking the fire department recommends and they wrote this i didn't keep an eye on what you fry stand by your pan turn pot handles toward the back of the stove keep a lid or baking sheet close by the ernie russell fire prevention week poster contest is open to all grade levels due to covet 19 school closing students can email their posters to a artist at peoriagov.org or mail it to fire central 505 northeast monroe street peoria illinois 61603 include the child's name and age thank you miss walter mr ross sure fall break peoria public schools will be on fall break on wednesday october 21st through friday october 23rd we hope our families have a relaxing break and
006stay safe and healthy for school to resume on october 26th thank you mr ross any other uh mr klaus did you have an announcement okay okay so sat exams high school seniors will take the s.a.t exam this coming wednesday october 14th this s.a.t is a graduation requirement transportation will be provided from hub locations please see your principal's sunday announcements for hub locations and pickup times students must arrive at 7 30 a.m mass are required students will be screened for wellness and grab-and-go breakfast will be available cell phones and smart watches will be collected and returned after the test information on which entrances should be used at each high school are in the principal's sunday announcement and then immunizations and physicals for kindergarten 6th grade 9th grade and 12th grade students must be completed by october
00715th schedule an appointment with your family practitioner today or making an appointment at the in school health clinic at tree wind school manual high school or peoria high school please contact your school nurse if you need assistance okay dr clark did you have any in any answer not today thank you very much okay so moving on to awards and recognitions first we have the those who excel award uh winner for administrator of the year dr jerry bell will be presenting now i can read it i feel like i can't hear myself with this mask on uh good evening president shaw vice president wilson school board members and dr karate as the executive director of middle schools i have witnessed firsthand mr tom bloomer's continued exceptional administrative skills and knowledge during this his sixth year as
008principal lincoln k-8 school not only has mr bloomer continuously pursued professional development opportunities to further enhance his administrator skills and knowledge but he also serves the mentor and continuously develops the instructional leadership capacity of his assistant principals as a matter of fact three of mr bloomer's more recent assistant principals are currently principals in the district mr dan hiles principal of dr mod sanders primary school mrs heidi barron principal keller primary school and dr michelle cruz principal next door at von steuben middle school as principal of lincoln k.a school mr bloomer has led the charge of establishing a school culture and climate conducive to significantly reducing the number of student office referrals and out-of-school suspensions he does this by ensuring teachers are implementing engaging relevant lessons in their classrooms as evidence i paraphrase what one of
009his teachers recently wrote quote mr bloomer is encouraging he wants and inspires lincoln k.a teachers to try new things in the classroom even if it flops he never creates gotcha moments in the classroom and uses every day to help teachers get even better mr bloomer is always available to stop in and see a new technique or project a teacher decides to try and give genuine helpful feedback no matter how busy his days are he always reassures teachers that students thrive when teachers can teach how they want to and he never discriminates against teaching styles end quote with mr bloomer the accolades do not stop with lincoln's teachers they also extend to lincoln's students the following is what one of mr bloomers now former students recently wrote to whom it may concern i am a student
010at lincoln k-8 school and i have personally been able to witness all that our principal mr bloomer does for the students in school as well one example of his extreme kindness is here during recently covet 19 has made it to where we are unable to have our eighth grade graduation at the school so he as well as some of our teachers came up with a solution to have a drive-through graduation my family and i don't own a car so he insisted that he take us to the school and back so i'll be able to participate in my graduation this year he also tries to work with students on their own to see what they may need to help them excel in school and to help us be our best he is always kind to other
011staff members and parents as well and i think that he's i think that says a lot about a person's character he also does a lot for the community he recently helped put up an outdoor library so local kids can read and enjoy books closer to their homes next to the library is a little food pantry so families can have food also so with all of this being said i and many others believe that our principal mr bloomer is the best choice for this award and would thank you sincerely if you chose him [Music] as evidenced by those who know him best there is no peoria public schools administrator more deserving for the those who excel administrator of the year award the mr tom bloomer please join me in congratulating mr bloomer on this selection of
012this prestigious award as he comes forward and shares a few words mr bloomer thank you for those kind words dr bell president shah vice president wilson dr karate i want to thank you for this incredible honor i know that the the many uh who have come before me some great colleagues have received this and i'm just humbled to be in their footsteps i think it's important something you know about me i taught i was in the classroom for 19 years so i think that's that's unusual but it does frame how i um approach being a principal i'm very empathetic as a good teacher would be to anybody who walks in in my building but like many others that came before me the trail was blazed by some wonderful people who took me under their wing
013and so i look back almost 20 years now and when i walked into von steuben middle school as an assistant principal and knew nothing and dave overpal completely changed my mindset just a wonderful man taught me how to run a school operationally instructionally building good relationships with teachers as well as students and parents so i was there for five years and then i went to tree wind under cheryl ellis and she was awesome i greatly enjoyed working in the tree wind community very different than von steuben but it really opened my eyes to what an urban educator can do tree wind is a tough school but cheryl so cheryl showed me that with with love and the right approach that you can change lives so those were my two main mentors who really formed how
014i'd approach being a leader in the school i've been at three schools as a principal since then calvin coolidge woodruff and now lincoln k-8 and all three of those schools although there are many similarities because they're all students and all students are the same in many ways they're very different in many ways too calvin coolidge in this small little enclave in west peoria and that staff there took me under their wing and showed me how to bring in a community it's west peoria it's small and so we really got out there and engaged the community although that's true in every school you have to engage the community it was especially important there at woodruff we had three schools at the time we had the career and technical center we had the safe school which is
015the county school where students came if they were expelled and then we had the alternative school all three of those schools were so different but the approach by the staff there was to completely think out of the box you had students who didn't fit the traditional mold and so i took from there that there are so many different approaches to teaching there's no one right way that staff really opened my eyes and then finally lincoln k-8 six years ago um when i walked over there across the field that was a tough school still is a tough school in many ways but because i had a staff that showed such incredible resilience if you look at my staff they aren't much different they're different but as far as turnover they stuck with it and because they
016stuck with it we have a school that has turned around and it continues to make progress so somebody told me this is pandering but i love this district it has taught me so much and i can't wait to continue being the principal at that school and leading but president shaw this this may not be the place but i think i have some questions for you and it's kind of controversial so i don't have the podium very often so i've heard that if your principal of the year that the school board sends you to paris for a full year on sabbatical visiting different cafes and an occasional school fabian williams the fabian daniels i'm sorry told me that this was the case and she wanted me to bring that and ask if that that is the
017case is that the case will i be going to uh paris we'll defer to legal counsel [Laughter] okay well that's strike one my french lessons i'm just going to stop then uh the other piece and i just have to bring this up is that i heard that for a full year that the the people in the community must now refer to me as sir thomas is this true uh respectfully we'll defer to the mayor [Music] all right okay and i guess the final one is and this might be the biggest and i was too it's too bad he isn't here today because i heard that terry knapp has to be nice to me he's in florida well he's in florida well that's being nice to me then okay on that one i will i will
018defer to uh mr willis mr willis if the board salaries can be increased by three by a factor of three then we'll we'll do that so seriously i i greatly appreciate this honor i am humbled and so thankful thank you to everybody [Applause] and he cleaned up he looked great so today we have a presentation presentation by principal bloomer on the early early career educator of the year and this is how he is during meetings yeah superintendent meetings he's a comedian well i have the honor of introducing the uh actually the the person who nominated the new teacher of the year i will tell you something about brandon jamerson however before i bring mr hiles up who nominated him i knew brandon before he became a teacher he was at isu and my wife over
019there was his supervising teacher or no that's not right yeah okay supervisor from isu uh guided him through um isu so she told me that she had this wonderful teacher we had an opening in math and i said great i'd love to interview him tell me something about him all sorts of great things uh but she said he was not from an urban area that he was lived out in the suburbs and i thought oh well i'm not so sure about that we hired him because he gave a great interview and because my wife completely endorsed him he completely proved all my consternation and nervousness and anxiousness about hiring him because he is everything you'd want in a teacher let alone a new teacher he's innovative he loves students he loves to try things somebody
020used the word flop he flops sometimes doesn't bother him at all and those are the qualities that i want in a teacher so i'm going to bring up mr hiles who's going to give the official thank you mr bloomer board of education dr karat thank you for having me tonight uh it's my privilege to be here to recognize brandon jamerson's 6th grade math teacher at lincoln k8 as peoria public schools early educator award recipient like most new teachers brandon would be the first to tell you he had his share of peaks and valleys while he navigated through his first couple years as a teacher there were two things though that really stood out to me regarding brandon his innovative practices in the classroom and his ability to reach students mr jamerson learned early on that
021giving students the keys to the car and letting them have ownership in their learning would pay dividends using depth of knowledge charts mr jameson provides students with varying ability levels different paths rather to take in approaching content the result of this is a classroom which has students working at high levels of autonomy and at levels of cognitive complexity appropriate for their needs while most young teachers are nervous about administrators come into the room mr jamerson would actually text us and say hey come into my room there's something cool that i want to show you guys and uh we would come and watch him and whether it was turning his classroom into a slope-intercept plane or giving students the ability to work together to problem-solve real-life scenarios using math mr jameson has put a lot of
022fun energy and authentic learning into a sixth grade math class lincoln k-8 student alberto sepulveda remarked in his nomination letter that mr jamerson makes math fun and easy and also that someone could buy 95 boxes of pizza and not wonder why alberto also went on to say that he knows that mr jameson cares about the students in their learning and that his hard work doesn't go unnoticed given the time that we're currently living in it's more important than ever to be innovative in our approach to teaching and learning and mr jamerson embodies those characteristics it is my sincere honor to introduce to you early educator reward recipient brandon jamerson uh thank you everyone this is much oops this is much uh different i'm used to talking to 12 year olds who just are a lot
023of fun to be around so this is a whole different crew i when i tell people i teach middle school they're like oh my and i'm like yeah i love it so that's what i do um i'm really appreciative of the administrator's past and present that i've had at lincoln gay for letting me be letting me be me in the classroom i do some crazy things and some people would be like what are you doing i'm like we're going to try it what's the worst that's going to happen i mean either you do really well or we teach the students growth mindset so there's a lesson in floppy so i'm really appreciative of my administrator mr bloomer mr hiles at the time for nominating me for this award thank you [Applause] congratulations once again to
024our world recipients and to the nominees for this year next we have district presentations first being hispanic heritage month mrs anna rose director of ell services good evening buenas noches dr karat president shaw and the board first of all before we start with our presentation i want to recognize and appreciate dr karat for allowing us to showcase heritage culture and pride she not only fosters that with the hispanic community with african american community just in general all diversity that i've seen in the district this month as you know is set aside to recognize culture language tradition family backgrounds and highlight great accomplishments for many hispanics globally this is a great opportunity to educate and bring cultural awareness in our schools and promote that diversity that we want to see every day there are over 35
025different languages and customs in our school district alone the most common language is spanish followed by arabic and french we are fortunate in the district to have a dual language program in five different buildings which includes harrison lincoln glen oak whittier and veleska the goal of the program is not only to promote by literacy in two languages with academic uh leadership but also to promote global diversity and culture dual language students attend four days a week with fridays being project-based learning the students learn about different topics for the month of september 15 through october 15th we focus on hispanic heritage the teachers focus on teaching students the different aspects of the culture including agriculture famous hispanics artists music building structures dance sports and different activists throughout our country students have the opportunity to compare what
026they learn about these hispanics and other cultures and races as well for example silvia mendoza is the ruby bridges story for hispanics like ruby sylvia's parents wanted their daughter to attend a higher ranking school exclusively was set back then for whites they wanted their their daughter and child to obtain this higher level education rather than going to the mexican school that was assigned to brown skin students this was a struggle that everybody can recognize and learn from and these struggles and challenges for these students that we face are current in our schools so this is a story that not only highlights the hispanics but also the african-american and we find opportunities to compare get together and look at the things that are common but yet different i like to also point out the different projects
027that are shared behind me we have art projects we have research that the children did on the different artists sports figures landmarks and behind me is a showcase of boxes that show structures of bridges in all of latin america i invite everybody to after the meeting have the opportunity to come over and really look at the details and the fine research and skills that these students are learning which takes them to a higher level cognitive complexity in their learning they're not only writing they're researching learning computer skills and really enhancing their learning by learning about their culture i also want to take this time to let you know about some of the famous hispanics that are in our community and one being maria miranda is a community instructor who teaches floor cleric dance to children
028in our community she is not paid but she goes to a parking lot in the back down the street and in the parking lot they practice dance floor caloric dance to promote the culture so we have her daughter who is dressed in a typical costume that they use to promote dancing there's different regions in mexico and what they do is they teach the different cultures and the different dances and the different aspects of the different regions in mexico so she not only does this free of charge but helps children stay off the streets and learn the pride of their tradition and heritage we also have our very first foreign exchange teacher who was brought from spain her name is luciano guerra lucia you want to stand please she is dressed in a typical flamenco spaniard
029outfit and her daughter is as well and also has promoted the culture in the schools i'm going to have her talk a little bit to you about how this started in peoria hi good evening um 20 years ago i was the first teacher hired by the district mr hinton was the superintendent at the time and he was aware of the need for bollywood teachers um so i started at harrison with mrs perkins and after three years we mr hinton i present i went to him i didn't know what i was doing i'm going to say it right now i i said we should start a bilingual program this is i went to isu and i was like that is so exciting and mr hinton said yeah let's do it you are going to be the
030pilot teacher and i said oh so i started crying but that was a different story so uh since then now is in many different schools we weren't very sure what we were going to do but the difference in the kids and i have to thank mrs rose because she is always like fighting for us the difference between knowing what you know what you are being taught and being appreciated and showing that they care for what you know who you are of your language is unbelievable those kids i used to teach second or third grade and at the end of the year i was like i couldn't believe it you know you as a teacher you're studying you say no no no i don't think i can do this but it was just blooming so i'm
031very thankful very proud to work for the district because they i mean other school districts might say we appreciate diversity but we are the ones fighting and showing it you show by doing not by saying so this district is doing and i'm just saying thank you and we're constantly working on how to perfect our curriculum our program and help students become the best that they can be and be proud of who they are i know the values the culture the language was maintained by me by my parents when i came to the united states i didn't speak any english i came to the united states speaking only spanish i learned english as a kindergartener and actually was retained in kindergarten because they thought i had a learning problem because i couldn't communicate and that's why
032i fight so hard to make sure that students are not looked at as inferior or have a learning disabilities be because they can't speak the language it's always a great idea to embrace and not take away the culture and the roots and background of people especially when they're blessed with two cultures and two languages thank you thank you [Applause] comments from board members this is ross thank you i wanted to say uh i'm happy that you're still here i was on the board when you were brought from spain i tried to get them to let me go to spain but they wouldn't but it was it was it was a number of of teachers that were brought in and you're the only one that's left is that correct for the first year yes yes from
033the first august 2nd 20 years right i remember that i was right here when you came and so thank you for staying okay we have a second presentation on the legacy project dr thank you presidential good evening everyone um i do have an announcement to make the live streaming youtube channel is not we're having some challenges with that is that correct mrs seipel do we have any advice for them is there can they switch to another platform they can go to comcast channel 22. so you can go to comcast channel 22. um i apologize for that um okay and the video so youtube is not picking it up for some reason but it the video will be uploaded later in the meantime you can go to comcast channel 22 and tune in so we do
034have a a nice group of individuals who follow us at every board meeting so i really apologize for that so ms ross i know people were texting you asking me what was going on so thank you for letting me know um just thank you to senora rose she's an amazing director executive director for um ell program very passionate knows instruction very very well we do have some plans actually of expanding that duel the dual language program and she and i are working on that so stay tuned there's a lot of interest we have a lot of she mentioned the schools where we have those biliterate programs going on and um the four building she mentioned and she has waiting lists for those programs and those kids you should you should see they're speaking english and
035they're speaking spanish and it's it's really really impressive and so the sky is the limit for us in that area um so i i have two friends that i've asked to present to you on this legacy project and it's a nice uh it was not planned that way that i picked up right after mrs rose and she talked a lot about diversity and respect and culture and inclusivity and and those sorts of things so this next presentation has a lot of that theme so i'll start off by just saying a recent mandate that was signed in august of 2019 states that states the following in public schools the teaching of history shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people in the history of this country and in
036the and in the state of illinois so the law merely states merely that the teaching of u.s and illinois history in public schools shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lgbt q plus people lgbt students in illinois in some cases victims of harassment and bullying because of their status and part of the reason why that happens is because the general student population don't necessarily get an accurate portrayal and understanding of lesbians gays and transgender individuals they do not necessarily hear the positive stories so the goal for pierre public schools is to continue to create inclusive classrooms for students of all gender identities and sexual orientations so pr public schools has two amazing partners that i've been working with for years who have been working with us on the curriculum on the professional
037development and the implementation of this mandate so the first partner um is with friends the organization and it's called friends and the executive director is derrick kilmer and the second partner is halt center for healthy living and central illinois and the executive director there is andrea parker andrea has identified becca mathis as the representative assigned to peer public schools to work with us on this project and becca is kind of almost like our employee she's been with us for many many years so again over the years both organizations specifically provide provide lessons that address lg btq plus terms and topics and um what i like about this group is that all educators from the halt center and from friends and actually we do work with center for prevention of abuse but all of the educators
038who come into our classrooms to work with our students are trained they receive comprehensive and inclusive training and just fyi illinois is the fifth state to require teaching um about lgbtq figures so um i've asked two individuals these two individuals that have mentioned derek and and and becca they are the co-chairs of the peoria public schools legacy curriculum advisory committee um i would like like them to present a little bit more to you and uh as it relates to the the mandate is called 246. so uh where is derek oh i guess they're in line derek is online and becca's online are they online okay perfect so welcome and uh take it away okay thank you so much dr karat for the wonderful introductions speaking here is becca mathis i'm the adolescent health coordinator at
039the hall center for healthy living and i'm one of the co-chair members for this committee that was established by peoria public schools and then i will go ahead and let derek introduce himself as well good afternoon thank you again dr karate and becca my name is derek kimler executive director of central illinois friends and i've been working on the lgbtq curriculum for illinois for the over a year now with the legacy project in chicago and i'm proud to be in peoria illinois docking to a school that is going to be putting this on the forefront to actually pick up the mantle and run with this so we're excited about the innovative uh progress that this school is doing so thank you okay so we can go ahead and move to the next slide um we
040today in this presentation are going to start with uh just jeric and myself to represent the committee but moving forward we hopefully will have the opportunity to have other committee members join us for these meetings as well um so our mission and our vision we'll start with the mission to develop an integrated curriculum for all students that shares the history of lgbtq plus people's roles and contributions and again this is specific to instruction of history curriculum and then the larger vision of peoria public schools as a district-wide representative of implementing first through 12th grade curriculum that will teach and enhance the knowledge and contributions of lgbtq people to all students so as dr karat mentioned there are some benefits that we would like to share regarding inclusive education and some of these tenets have actually
041already been implemented within peoria public schools regarding our sexual and reproductive youth education program so especially our middle and high school populations are very familiar with a lot of the foundations that we'll be discussing today but some benefits that i wanted to share with you all and kind of bring to the forefront of your mind include number one inclusive environments as well as inclusive education is beneficial to improving overall school climate so there is evidence that the improvement of school climate to be inclusive of all students regardless of gender identity sexual orientation is going to have a positive effect on the educational outcomes and success of students we also are all very well aware how important representation is for young people in the space of education so when lgbtq plus students have the opportunity to
042identify with people like them who made important contributions to society throughout history that also has positive effect as well as positive health outcomes in addition to student success so we'll discuss health outcomes very shortly um outside the scope though of students who may identify as a part of that community inclusive education is also helping other students celebrate diversity so non-lgbtq blessed students being provided a fuller sense or a fuller picture of the importance of what it means to live in a diverse society and then lastly i want to continue this point to discuss improved health outcomes inclusive education has a significant impact on not only the culture and climate of a school as well as a district but also the literal health of the students that we serve so this data actually comes from a
043national survey that identified that when schools enhance their curriculum to be inclusive of lgbtq plus roles and contributions in history as well as inclusive curriculum and language throughout the school that more than 75 percent of the students in the schools with that inclusive curriculum said their peers were accepting so their sense of acceptedness as well as safety within their own school environment was improved that is compared to students that reported only 39.6 percent of them feeling accepted or safe at their schools and those schools were without an exit curriculum so really the point to be made here is that it's not just about having a fuller sense of a diverse and wider understanding of our history for our students but actually impacting our students health as well so the next slide is also to reiterate
044what dr kratt began to say with her introduction of this initiative which is to say that unfortunately we are becoming very well aware of the adverse health outcomes that affect our lgbtq plus youth so as you read through this slide we identify multiple areas related to adolescent health that are impacted negatively solely on the fact of the experiences and the adverse experiences that lgbtq plus youth may experience so greater risk of experiencing mental health issues high risk substance use greater risk for violence victimization both in school and outside of school and greater risks related to sexual health some of these risks can be addressed with more comprehensive education and referrals and supports for students but a significant impact can be made just by making environments safer for students and incorporating more inclusive curriculum which is
045exactly what the legacy curriculum is intended to do especially related to history instructions so our committee process is pretty early within the timeline here um this was a project that i would say gained a lot of steam really quickly because we have amazing community partners on board we have an extremely supportive district as well as district leadership to acknowledge the importance of really getting this moving uh so the committee that we were able to put together relatively quickly was actually thanks to the wonderful connections and the work that both central illinois friends and the holt center have already done in this arena for not only the district but the committee as well so we have folks representing from unity point from eureka college we have folks representing from pflag which is a local parents and
046families group support group for individuals a part of the community but the committee process itself has really been driven because of the folks who are involved we of course also have representation from the district including counselors as well as our social studies department and our principals as well so that committee we wanted to make sure was very inclusive of not only the individuals that would be implementing the curriculum but individuals that would be supporting young people in the classroom and in outside spaces and that could really inform the best practice way to integrate something like an inclusive curriculum into history education so one of the major processes was then to identify and review the legacy curriculum which shortly i'll have derek expand upon what that curriculum is exactly and why it aligns so very well
047to fulfilling the illinois house bill mandate of 246. in addition to that though the advisory committee identified the need for professional development opportunities for both the staff will be integrating this curriculum into their existing curriculum as well as offering professional development for any support staff within the schools to acknowledge again that our lgbtq plus youth experience significant negative health outcomes as well as experiences so to be able to improve that overall culture and climate the advisory committee felt it was wise that folks also had professional development to support the integration of this curriculum so these findings were presented to the superintendent and the three-prong approach that we will discuss shortly was created so here we are at step five with providing updates to you all and we will also share a timeline or where we
048are going in the very short future so point six and seven of the process are things that are already in plan as in terms of or sorry in place in terms of what we are moving on to next which include presenting the curriculum itself to the social studies department for feedback from the folks who will actually be implementing that curriculum and then developing a more formal implement implementation plan and timeline to provide to you all shortly in the future so this is the three-prong approach that i mentioned before which contains the professional development aspect the legacy curriculum itself and then also acknowledging that there will be some level of community support that will likely need to be provided to make sure that this inclusive education is truly embraced in the way that it is meant
049to be so i will pause for a moment here and we'll get into more in depth of the particular safe zone training and things like that in just a moment but i did want derek to speak a little bit to the structure of the legacy curriculum as it may be structured in a way that's not inherently obvious to understand but makes a lot of sense in terms of age-appropriate content for our students yeah thank you becca and and i'm sure you are looking at this and going uh what another curriculum another thing we have to learn and just yet another you know adding to our jobs here as educators but we really did have educators in mind we have educators on the on the committee that created this curriculum and it was meant to be
050as easy as possible so to start off uh the level one as you can see grades three through five then they go up this is base level stuff we're simply talking about the same people we talk about already in grades three and five through five but we're adding the fact to who they are you know uh sometimes in in elementary we we talk about um the king's wives and and the civil rights persons wives and and and these individuals we talk about their wives and their husbands and theirs significant others and we talk about their lives um we're just adding who they are many people i don't know if you know uh that are sitting in this room right now that george washington carver was in fact a gay man or the illinois roosevelt was
051a lesbian woman or that leonardo da vinci had a husband um bynard rustin james baldwin harvey milk the list goes on and on um these are people that we already talked to about in these grades and it's easy to talk about these subjects in a very age-appropriate way and what i mean by that is say we're talking today's today's uh topic of discussion is george washington carver you would as a teacher click on george washington carver on the online curriculum and depending on what grade level you are will be what talks about will give you the language to be able to talk about to those uh to your students so whether it's who they are and what their accomplishments are or whether it's this is what they also did as a social action individual to
052progress the lgbtq uh civil rights movement or the rights are our rights so it kind of goes up through the grade levels and it provides multiple different levels per person that we talk about or event um you know whether we're talking about uh say say you want to talk about world war ii and you're a history history teacher in junior high you could type in world war ii lgbtq and it'll tell you everything that an lgbtq individual uh helped during uh world war ii or that was a an experience that lgbtq people had in that time like the pink triangle which uh disproportionately which which uh imprisoned the lgbtq population that did not get free after liberation of germany um it discusses say today i'd be miffed if i did not discuss about uh two-spirited
053people um two-spirited people today is uh indigenous people's day by the way so happy indigenous people's day and um uh two-spirited people were something that native american people celebrated where you were uh which is basically transgender individuals um in the native american community this is something that we knew a long long time ago this isn't something new this isn't something that we've just developed with science and medical advancements this is something that is enriched in our history and um and this just kind of adds to that that that stance now with that being said this is where it gets easy not only is the curriculum easy for the teachers and the educators to be able to click on the event and to find what represents the student that's asking the questions it our education that
054becca's going to get in depth with is going to provide them with the essential tools to be able to handle those questions and at the end of the day we understand that the apprehension of doing this that isn't the fact that that people are anti-lgbtq the apprehension is fear of making a mistake fear of not knowing what to say at the right time that is why we are here the thing that peoria public schools has that a lot of schools don't is a relationship with central and friends and hult center for healthy living or in center prevention of abuse this community is enriched in individuals and ability to help and and reach out and if we can't give you the best tools maybe we can serve you the best way we can to be able
055to step in and provide this very easy approach okay thank you very much so we'll give a little bit more background next on the professional development that we as a committee also would advise to the district and taking kind of two different tiers to this professional development so the safe zone training is a training that has long existed to build capacity for individuals to engage in conversations to answer questions related to lgbtq plus issues and concerns to connect people to resources and the help that they might need if they're struggling with anything related to mental health and also just for folks to feel like they're better well-versed in the ever-changing terminology related to the community so the participants who would be ideally identified as participating for the safe zone training would be the folks who
056would be integrating this legacy curriculum into their existing history instruction so our folks from our social studies department as well as our school counselors because we obviously recognize that they are oftentimes the first line or the first referral for students who have more questions or need more help but then also we wanted to expand the safe zone training to include any individual who may just be a staff member outside the scope of history instruction or as a counselor or social worker and just maybe particularly interested in being identified as knowing more being open to having conversations and knowing referrals within the community to help support young people any staff member that felt like they wanted to play a more active role in facilitating that inclusive discussion and that positive climate within the school so the
057goal of the safe zone training is really to learn a more in-depth way to support our students and learn more about lgbtq plus terms and identities examine prejudice examine implicit bias assumptions that may be made about the community especially if you are not familiar with a lot of these terms and also a discussion of privilege and how that plays a role related to a person's gender identity as well as their sexual orientation so the safe stone training is a much more in-depth training that would be provided to folks who are especially interested or then identified as being need need to be given those skills to facilitate much deeper conversations if they were to arise in a classroom the safe and supportive environments training would be the other aspect of this professional development identified by the
058community where the participants would really just be all other peoria public schools teachers and staff so the safe and supportive environments training actually comes from the centers for disease control division of adolescent and school health which really is a sector that arose from the sexual health education initiatives across our country but it is also a tool that we've been using related to our comprehensive sexual health education to help empower and prepare the folks in the schools who are identified as kind of the go-to individuals to answer questions related to sexual and reproductive health and then provide referrals to young people if they need more information the whole goal though of safe and supportive environments is to really increase student engagement in school life and also helping them feel supported and connected not only in school
059but to their community in general so the idea just like the training has in its name is to really build a safe and supportive environment that's inclusive of all students that obviously supports their academic success but very much supports their health and wellness as well so there is a note here that we included to say that the community workshops and presentations would include foundations of safe and supportive environments as it's less intensive of a training but still provides the opportunity for open and honest conversation so kind of the two realms for professional development identified to give a little bit more background on the legacy curriculum derek gave us very specific examples about how the curriculum would be utilized and integrated into the existing history curriculum but we just did want to make a note to
060say that this wasn't just made out of thin air that our committee didn't throw this together in a week um this is an existing curriculum that has been in the works for a very long time um so i'll go ahead and let derek jump back in and explain kind of where this curriculum came from and the folks who were involved in this particular project development yeah thank you yeah so there's an organization called the legacy project who teamed up with the safe school alliance and we pulled in people from all over the state professors from bradley university illinois state university u of i and so on to put together a comprehensive evidence-based core curriculum so once again this is supposed to be a broad approach there are pieces of these of this curriculum that are
061meant to add the in-depth education for grades 11 and 12. but basically everything before that is just a build-on of what is already being taught to individuals and to students in your schools so we're not talking about a okay this week in lgbtq education this is what we're going to be talking about we're talking about a natural progression and add-on to uh what the history we're already being taught in histories in social sciences um another thing about this because to make this uh really hit home uh with the fact that we have so many educators um as a part of as a lead on this uh project they didn't think it was enough just to make this as user friendly for the teachers they also wanted to make this user friendly to parents because they
062know how important that is so even parents can access this curriculum and and can help their students or themselves better educate themselves so you say you have a parent of a transgender individual or a lgbtq individual as a whole and you don't quite know how to talk to them about representation you can coin the term in the search bar gay lesbian transgender american history world history social sciences music pop culture art and that's what's going to bring up what uh representation and core curriculum the other great thing about this is it hasn't stopped they're adding new new new material every week so this is something that as years go by it's just only going to get better and better with that being said they we have also developed a message to uh three different groups
063we've developed a message to the parents we've developed a message to the teachers and we've developed a message to lgbtq youth and the youth as a whole to better understand why it's so important to talk about this why it's so important to talk about the fact of certain people who did great things in our history were in fact lgbtq individuals so that we can focus on the on the fact that we are a nation of all peoples built by all peoples that's all i got thank you all right so in terms of the proposed curriculum implementation the committee has um decided that the initial phaser phase one that we are looking to propose for spring 2021 would be to first start with the high schools so again going back to the way that this curriculum
064is structured it's structured in levels um and it gives some sort of flexibility here for teachers to identify within an age range or a grade range to be more specific what type of curriculum may be best suited for their particular classes so level 3 and level 4 would be relative to the high school populations even though level 3 actually does extend into the later adolescence of middle school it still would be we'd be focusing just within the high school population for the first phase of implementation and then moving forward the committee since we are still quite new in terms of the curriculum implementation plan we have not identified specific start dates for phase two and phase three but we have proposed that we would then move from high school to middle school and then from
065middle school to elementary school uh the idea being that while folks are being trained and given the skills in terms of professional development and how to best support and then intensively support the curriculum and students themselves who would also be integrating this curriculum step by step face by face so then our next slide would be the proposed timeline of implementation moving forward from today so invitations have been sent to some folks regarding the safe zone training in particular and those invitations will continue to be sent to elicit any interest in participation for the safe zone training so we're looking to identify those participants before the end of this month and then actually get those folks trained before the end of november with the idea being the sooner that folks are trained in safe zone the
066sooner they are able to or concretely identify the skills that they may use to then integrate this curriculum and comfortably have those conversations within their classrooms and within their schools we are planning to provide a presentation to the social studies department for a discussion of the legacy curriculum how it could best be integrated and also offer the opportunity for feedback and that would be later in november and then we would also then at that time be able to develop a more concrete plan of implementation of the curriculum itself including specific start dates and an idea of a timeline for those additional phases we're looking to have the safe and supportive environments workshop opportunities for the community at least identified and scheduled for the spring of next year or to start in the spring of next
067year we would like to have those opportunities identified and prepared before the end of this year and then the last point here would be to say that those more general professional development opportunities could be done at the very start of the spring semester of 2021 to then provide the opportunity for folks especially if they're going to be welcoming students back into their physical school environments they would have an idea of how to better support a positive and inclusive culture and environment as well as know who those folks are that are more specifically trained in safe zone as referral opportunities for additional support okay so the last note that i wanted to leave everybody with was just another mention of the benefit of inclusive education and inclusive doesn't necessarily always have to be inclusive of lgbtq
068plus youth but in today's conversation that is what we're talking about so i want you to take that lens with um what several people especially in education may know as curriculum as a window and a mirror if you're not familiar the phrasing kind of goes to say that the mirror of curriculum reflects individuals and their own experiences back to themselves providing them the sense of self-affirmation and not only their identity but their self-worth their aspirations for the future curriculum can also be a window though it offers views of the world that you may not be used to that you may not be able to particularly or personally identify with but also gives you the opportunity to understand different perspectives and identities for yours and why that diversity is extremely important so mirrors and windows as
069it relates to inclusive curriculum is really meant to provide this full positive engaging environment for students to not only build healthy self-concept for students who identify within that community but also raise that awareness for other children who may not have that opportunity to celebrate that particular type of diversity so it really is meant to not just address the types of topics to be integrated within the history curriculum the purpose of that bill was really meant to say that our schools should be inclusive the stories of our history that we provide should be diverse and students should have the opportunity to have mirrors as well as windows throughout all elements of their education we are starting with this initiative of the legacy curriculum integration to address this house bill that would provide the opportunity for instance
070of education within construction thank you so much uh becca and derek um just you've done such an amazing job uh it's it has been fun working with both of you continuing to work with you board i think a few key points it's a it's a resource and you've heard words like integrate and it's it's fluid it's it's it's not an additional um new thing that individuals have to sort of go through extensive training and um on it's just an additional add-on to to us history and um and social studies history which i think makes um makes our kids a little bit more it makes the curriculum richer provides a lot more information more interesting information and we're fulfilling that inclusive mandate uh which is which is all good i think the good news is um
071you you did not see a cost so it's free um i had an opportunity to get on on the website um i i was given a link actually actually derek sent a link to dr wilson and i and it is pretty impressive i will make sure you get a an opportunity to sort of just play around with it it is also uh standard standards align and just very very very very very well done very interactive and it's all online as i said you can search and uh amazing information so but i wanted to to kind of wrap up with with that and again thanking derek who is the executive director of friends and uh becca who works for holtz and we have been working with them for years now and this is an exciting project
072for us to continue to um expand and serve all of our all of our students thank you questions from board members mr waller yeah i've got a couple um derek um it appears that you guys have used this in some places before have you used the city of chicago chicago suburbs was there an area that you've tried this out because you had some statistical bearings on how it did help so has there been a place where you've used this curriculum yeah so it's a good question uh basically is in the chicago area alone right now because this is a very new curriculum we have just rolled this out uh in fact it's been rolled out to the public for the first time just two fridays ago um however uh this has been implemented beforehand in
073in other schools in the chicago area um i don't have any statistics for you because of it because it's so new um but what i will speak on are some statistic statistics of other states that have have uh included lgbtq curriculums and that would be a decrease like massachusetts saw a decrease in suicide rate they saw a a decrease in um needed mental health um mental health counseling um they saw a decrease in bullying um and and they saw a decrease in in um or they saw a uh increase in in in education in terms of of uh i'm sorry i'm getting the end of the day here i'm stuttering on my words acceptance derek that's like think of it right now but yeah but what i will say i thought this was interesting when
074i was going through statistics the other day um this is one that a lot of people that are usually against lgbtq curriculum think which is uh you don't have to worry there's no any there's not any new lgbtq individuals that come out of this so that's one thing that that uh the the people the writers of the books we've been reading to to do this is saying that you know to to put any stigma to rest uh increase of lgbtq education does not mean an increase of lgbtq individuals but uh but what the main thing it helps is is your mental health you know i actually want to make a point on what becca said about that because it she she discussed about how this helps people with their with their um you know the
075lgbtq they're more likely to struggle with drug with addictions and they're more likely to be homeless and they're more likely to have mental health conditions um make no mistake uh it's a cause and effect uh side of things i think sometimes we get confused that so many lgbtq people have mental health conditions and that's not because they were born with mental health conditions which created their lgbtq nests it's their lgbtqness in the united states has created their mental health conditions by not being accepted by not having the basic knowledge that they have always existed and that it's okay to be you and uh when when when a child is given that freedom to understand themselves they have the freedom to finally listen and learn to the curriculums they're being taught if they're too busy in
076class debating on who they are and beating themselves up and hating themselves for who they are and fear that they're going to lose their homes or or their families they're not listening in the classrooms no i want to speak i'm for this curriculum i think the thing is excellent one of the things i think a lot of people here don't know i had a younger brother a peoria public school graduate of woodruff who was gay ended up being one of the first victims of aids in peoria and has passed away some 15 years ago so i understand this the other piece that i have for you is that i appreciate that you said that but we as the board are going to have to be the ones to defend this curriculum and i can guarantee
077you now it won't be universally accepted so i was saying that if we had a board member or two who wanted to be on the steering committee i think it would be very helpful to to make this go so i just wanted your opinion on that well not only would i love for that board member to be on this committee i'd love to meet you and hear your experience because uh as a executive director essentially my friends we help people living with hiv and um you know i don't know many of you know but we we team up with holt to provide the testing in the schools and um for all stis and hiv so uh yes uh full and for foremost i understand that this is as many people on the board that wants
078to be on this committee i would say with that if i'm not speaking out of turn without becca i would say i would i would be more than happy to say if every single one of you wanted to be on the committee i could say yes we've got some legal rules more than welcome you to participate and also yes very openly show that you are an advocate for inclusive education and can speak to the importance of not just fulfilling a mandate for the state but what it really means to be able to support our young people in the schools thank you thank you mr shaw other include dr ranking i i had a couple questions president shaw vice president wilson i've got dr rayne king and then you okay okay thank you yeah um so
079thank you very much for um for this some of my questions are for the committee and some of them are for the district for the committee going off of what mr walther said i am this and i don't think this is um to derek and becca but to the to the district there's no elementary no middle school and no board member on the committee right now and i think that's a huge concern that we're talking about social studies curriculum and we're talking about the history department we need to have voices on the committee before we kind of present this to the board so i guess that's my first concern is um it's not a well-rounded committee right now do you like is is there a plan to add people to the committee dr karate i
080know dr wilson's on it also yeah i mean traditionally we we the the the configuration that you saw up there that's what we've that's the traditional makeup but obviously if anybody is interested in being on the committee just send an email to me and i'll be happy to put them on um my next question so i have a list of them so sorry my next question is um it feels as though this was kind of rushed knowing that this committee was put together in the fall and we're still in the fall and i'm wondering how many other curriculums were looked at so i know that the legacy curriculum is in cps and it sounds like they just started implementing it two weeks ago there are at least two other curriculums that i know of that
081i have experience with that have been around longer than that and i know that um before when we've had kind of curriculum presentations it's shown a comparison and we didn't get that comparison tonight and so i'm wondering if the committee did do a comparison and or when we would be able to see that comparison we can um actually we saw that one and we know that it it ruled out in chicago and it's very very very interactive and student-friendly and but if you have another one that you'd like to share with the committee they would love to take a look at it but this one you know that's the one that we are familiar with that's the one i work with derek and i work with uh becca and uh this is a continuation of
082the work that we have done so um you know that's that's the one that that came to the table because as he mentioned um there's representative from bradley university isu individuals who are very familiar with it's been very very vetted so we all fell in love with it and said yes this including our counselors the other individuals but sure i think it's a good idea to take a look at some of the things that are available this one is free um so the other ones i'm aware of are also free and i just think that it would serve the board well if we could see a comparison much like we have with other curriculum that have come before us not that this could be a fantastic curriculum and the one that we end up with
083but if we don't do the comparison work i don't think that we as a district are doing um our due diligence to make sure we vetted curriculum for our students so yeah i think that's a good point um you know we've we've this is the this is the one that we looked at and the one we fell in love with but i haven't seen any any other any other programs out there or any other curriculum out there actually so definitely throw it back to the committee they're the ones really not the board they come and they make they're the ones that vet everything and then they come to the board with their recommendation the board does not really you know make the decision the board approves yes or no but with that being said it's
084not a bad idea too if so if you have additional um curriculum that you would like to say hey uh team take a look at this so take a look at that that that that would not be a problem at all i think that would be embraced and welcome okay and then the last um part i have is i have could i can i speak up to that i'm sorry um i would love to look at any curriculum as well um i would just add to the fact that the reason this curriculum is so well done is and this is why i would like to look at other curriculums because you know we might be able to find a better curriculum but this curriculum was was met in the in the way to meet the
085needs of not just the teachers and the students but also the parents both in rural and urban areas throughout the entire state of illinois and it was also built on a curriculum that's already been vetted and proven evidence-based in in massachusetts so but like i said i would i would love to compare because you're right we need to be able to do our due diligence here so uh i would love for you to share the curriculum that you're talking about excellent yep i will do that um another question i had was at on the one of the very first slides that stated that we do first through 12th but then on the rest of the slides it only went down to third so my concern is is that first was never brought up even on
086the kind of elementary schools tbd it was never brought up but then also the idea of pre-k and k that pre-k and k should also be part of this curriculum and so my concern is the timeline and knowing that early childhood and that kindergarten first and second isn't included in the timeline or the phasing out um and so i don't know if that is a limitation of the curriculum if so i'm definitely some of the curriculum that i'll pass on to you derek does touch on pre-k first and second but i'm not sure if that was intentional or if that is something um that is tbd i mean like because on the very first slide as i said at first it said to first grade we didn't see first grade again and we never saw
087pre-k and k i think the the the priority was actually high school and getting it getting it into the high school curriculum and so everything else it's it's malleable it's brand new um the mandate just came out august 2019 amidst covet and everything else going on i'm pretty impressed that we were actually able to i i i think as derek and becca mentioned no other district outside of the state of illinois they've gotten i mean outside of chicago that's kind of like yeah as eric said it's the end of the day outside of chicago have gotten there yet so i'm just i'm just really super proud of the efforts and our progressiveness as a as a district and um a real focus on uh you know an inclusivity and um so definitely we're definitely open
088to all sorts of ideas and continuing to expand and build right and derek and becca i don't want you to take my questions as saying that i'm not for this i am 100 for this most of my research is in this like i could definitely see um banks and macintosh's framework with the contributions additive transformational i definitely see where the legacy curriculum is based in a framework and in research i just want to make sure that as putting my board hat on that we are doing like i said our due diligence to make sure we're doing the best for our school district before we kind of quote approve something that will then be be implemented so making sure we do include our entire district and not just down through third grade the last question i
089had was um starting with high school knowing that we're going to be starting the black history 365 in high school and then also adding this i'm wondering if from the district level that that is i don't want to say too much to ask but a lot to ask of our teachers to do in january 2021 and if it would be better served to start kind of at that level one with fifth grade or even third fourth maybe middle school instead of high school so that the high school teachers don't feel overwhelmed with two brand new curriculums or supplemental curriculums or however we want to state it in january so that's just something to think about as we're thinking about this timeline and dr wilson is on that committee she's our curriculum expert the director of
090instruction and and and so forth so again that's you know that that discussion that's where the decision comes out of from that committee also thank you very much for those questions because the harder the questions the more we compare and contrast the better we're going to do right by every student in peoria public schools so i don't i i don't think you're against this at all i i think the harder questions you ask the better for everybody involved but to answer that question it does go to kindergarten it goes all the way down to kindergarten right now we do not have a pre-k aspect to that but it does go to kindergarten and it goes to the contributions level one approach thank you vice president wilson yes thank you president shaw um i guess first
091i would like to thank your organization and the members on the committee uh for putting together this important inclusive curriculum um i do agree with dr ryan king i believe that the uh the committee could be more diverse include more people one thing that i noticed was missing was parents that are in our district i think parents would uh would be a good group to to add to the committee um and speaking of that there were some parent concerns regarding the subject matter that was presented to the primary students about two years ago uh have these uh prepared concerns been addressed in this curriculum can you provide specifics two years ago uh well i think i had reached out to you when we got all the emails i think all the board members received emails
092on the subject matter that was presented to the grade school students they felt it was too [Music] young to get the type of work that they were given regarding male and female and different things uh does any other board members remember receiving these emails i remember the discussion i do i can i can review them and bring those uh messages back yeah so i i you know you can always reach out to your doctor yeah but you're talking about two years ago so i i i i get a million the thing is this is a mandate so as mr waldo said you know um not everybody is is is necessarily want to make sure that the parent concerns that were brought up about two years ago is going to be addressed within this curriculum we're
093not going to put out the same thing that parents and me and included in a lot of different ways didn't agree with yeah i i i need more specifics sir i'm sorry but two years ago with everything going on i i i i'm good but not that good i do remember those mr wilson i remember you bringing it thank you thank you mr walter so i'll go back and i i guess try to forward the emails over to you um also could you elaborate more on the community support uh that that you kind of briefly mentioned in the presentation um i think you said in regards to uh workshops and presentations right similarly explain to me what that looks like yeah absolutely and it's uh the black history 365 also has that component becca you
094want to you want to take that one but it's again it's all about educating the community on on the curriculum whatever it is and um and all of the opportunities and as derek mentioned um there is also um it's also parent-friendly and so um training the parents and exposing the parents to all of the aspects of the curriculum and how you know how robust and friendly it is so i'll have becca or derek you wanna you wanna continue yeah absolutely so the element of the community support there was really um in one aspect to address some of the concerns that you have already identified that there may be families that when they hear that lgbtq is going to be incorporated into history curriculum they may have questions as to what that looks like so at
095the baseline level it would be to be able to share this curriculum with families that do have questions and have open and honest discussions about why this is a benefit why it stands to benefit all students not just students who identify within the community so those community workshops and different presentations that could be held could be number one as a avenue to educate parents about what the curriculum is itself and have a greater understanding there but also offer support for families as well as students that may identify within the community um one of our members of the committee jessica brown she is a dean of students at eureka college and she made a very important comment to us she is well versed in safe zone training and she facilitates these types of training opportunities professional
096development for not only her colleagues but also to support the students that she serves and she identified a particular concern that needs to be addressed within the larger community is as this curriculum is implemented this may present an opportunity for a young person who does identify within the community to be experiencing all different kinds of thoughts and feelings so for example if you have a student who's participating in this curriculum and this is the first time they've ever heard another adult reference the accomplishments and the contributions of somebody that is like them they may feel extremely excited to hear that information other students may feel like they have this responsibility to take on that identity and represent that identity to the rest of their classmates so if you have a student who is openly out
097as a particular identity we want to make sure that that student doesn't feel like they have to take on the burden of telling the history or the context of what their personal experiences may be that the curriculum will act as a standalone to make sure that we're incorporating inclusive education for all and not putting any particular student who identifies within that community on the spot to have to provide education for their peers that maybe don't have that experience so really those community workshop presentations are going to come back to that foundation of building safe and supportive environments for families of all backgrounds to openly ask questions in a way that they may be able to potentially learn something themselves but then also find ways to support not only their children but the success of their
098children's classmates as well and becca you and i worked on um a project a situation um at one of the schools nearby uh did you remember what we worked on specifically it was a project you and i were working on at von steuben i think that's i think that's what mr wilson is referring to yeah historically just with i mean even just with the topic of the holt center and other community partners providing sexual health education to adolescents that is still a controversial issue and that is well understood and the discussion of what is lesbian what is gay bisexual transgender that does occur in sexual health education so um we do have folks and parents and even teachers who reach out pretty regularly to better understand what the purpose of providing this information is and
099why is it that this information is provided in this particular type of curriculum the context however of sexual health education and those discussions as to relationships and identities as they pertain to a person's sexual and reproductive health are not going to be the same as the conversations that occur in inclusive instruction noting the rules and contributions of the community in history but there is an opportunity there in either realm to have an adult in the room that's facilitating curriculum regardless of its context to create an environment where students do not feel targeted for an identity but students also feel supported and asking open and honest questions about things that maybe they don't understand in a way that can still be respectful towards families thank you thank you and just you know for the record i
100support this curriculum um it's very important as i stated earlier i i just want to make sure that uh the the parent concerns and teacher concerns and my concerns were addressed before i approve any curriculum myself personally so dr corrado went ahead and sent you those emails that i received there's a few of them there just to kind of refresh your memory on those uh but i do appreciate the information i look forward to to working with you on this thank you and to echo what derek said previously we really do appreciate the questions um we were hoping that you guys were going to have good questions for us because we understand our committee does need to be more well-rounded and we definitely do need parent representation coming from community health education and knowing how
101important youth voices i think we're also very much lacking in the youth realm representation of our committee members so we are still in pretty early stages of this curriculum so we appreciate those questions to make sure we're really challenging our thinking and really rolling out something that's going to be to the best benefit of our students thank you very much and we will you know we will have individuals who may sort of push back on that and we have to brace ourselves for that and um and and as the board knows whenever we do have concerns we look into it we rectify it and we move on so um will there will there be lots of questions yes and that's that's the work that we do and that's that that won't be different than anything
102else any new project that we take on the piece that i like about this as as was referenced the community piece and parents really have can have that they don't necessarily have to be on the committee to um to number one have a voice or to have the support and i really like that you know the try the the three components of this approach in terms of support for families and support for the communities if they're you know if they're having any challenges um at home or you know with any other situation there will be a group of individuals out there to help them so that's i think that's that's pretty good other input from board members yes uh yes i have a question for dr rankin um the programs that you're familiar with is
103there any way that you could provide that information to us as a board and just in case we would like to kind of you know wrap our hand and wrap our heads around it prior to having a presentation this is a lot of information and so if we're going to be looking at a comparison you know i kind of like to be able to do it um prior to a presentation um so i was wondering if you would be so kind as to provide that information to the board yeah i can send that on to the board um and kind of the biggest thing that i just want to echo what derek and becca were saying is that this is not sex education so i know a lot of times when i have brought this
104up with districts outside of peoria or even some people here in peoria understanding that this is not sex education this is implementing history about lgbtq individuals into our history curriculum not that that's what you were saying but i just want to kind of reiterate that and so um just making sure that that that's kind of understood that that's what the bill is asking um and so just kind of keeping that in mind but yes i will definitely pass along the other curriculums that um that i have either implemented or have coached um districts on implementing um for your for your viewing yeah i'm happy you mentioned that dr rankin because i think that that question two years ago was a was related to sex education thank you also uh because there's some overlap here if
105i may uh i don't see why we i know that there's conversation about how the board's gonna have to answer to this for the the parents and the in the community um it may be good to consider the board taking safe the safe zone uh training i think it's a great idea derrick i'm sorry i missed that you said for the board to say it would be good if the board took the safe zone training and it would be able to give everyone on the board a better understanding of what's being taught to your teachers and that you would be able to be given the tools and the uh understanding of how to to speak towards what we're teaching in the uh in the school system completely agree thank you all right other input from
106board members okay like to thank uh rebecca mathis and derek kemler for your presentation tonight and looking forward to a future presentation thank you folks so much appreciated yes thank you next we have presentations by audience and would like to remind the uh two presenters to of the five-minute limit and to also keep the uh their comments uh respectful and constructive first we have uh joy kramer is no longer here okay and next we have marvin hightower good evening thank you president shaw and vice president wilson and to the rest of the school board james baldwin said not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced sherry cannon and i had the privilege of serving on the black contributions committee led by board member ross and lisa
107gifford and the first question that was posed who are you that question was not about your name or where you work but where do you come from and i was one of the ones that was able to answer that question because my family had did a search and traced our roots back to ghana west africa and then we were brought here and was raised my father were raised in arkansas then we migrated up to peoria there's more than there's more that i could say but i'm cognizant of the time but as a result of knowing who i am and where i come from i am connected to my roots in ways some or most of our students are not one of the things the national naacp is calling for in our we are done dying
108social justice movement is ensuring that every student of color receives a quality public education that prepares him or her to be a contributing member of this democracy edmund burke said those who don't know their history are destined to repeat it we are at an inflection point in peoria we have a choice to make we can continue doing the same thing and hope for a different outcome or we can do what's necessary to make the changes that are vitally needed and i recognize change is not easy in fact one of the things that resists change is tradition peoria public schools has traditionally taught black american history the same way using some of the same materials at the same time to check the black history square the black history month square it's time for change and black
109history is part of that change it's time for our real history to be taught not just a watered-down whitewashed version changing the names of schools with white supremacist segregationist names is part of that change and for the record a president enslaving other human beings back in the day is a very big deal and it's and it's bigger than the cost of removing a name off of a building changing the name is an investment in the future of our community doing business with minority contract contractors and businesses is part of that change also so i commend you on that as well we would like to thank dr karate president shaw vice president wilson and the entire school board for doing your part in facilitating change the peoria branch naacp stands with you as you move forward
110because black lives matter thank you response to audience presentation thank you president show mr hightower you know i i love him he's well respected in our community and he's basically given us an endorsement in terms of the direction we're heading and and the work that we're doing and we're doing some amazing work um last board meeting as he referenced you approved the black history curriculum which is pretty profound for pure public schools i think as a district we have been aspiring to get to that point for maybe i don't know over 40 50 years and that was accomplished uh tonight we had some amazing discussion as we continue to focus on a you know more inclusive um curriculum um we had the legacy project and heading in that direction we'll continue to review additional materials
111that that's out there but that's heading in the right direction on tonight's agenda you will be voting for not only a recruiting officer but i mean recruiting an equity officer who's in the audience with us today to help help us pull all that work together and the other equity work that needs to be done as a district equity is huge for us um you know when we talk about the teacher pipeline that's another piece that's associated with what mr hightower talked about and all of the other pieces that go along with it making sure ensuring you talk about ensuring that our kids you know are exposed to on a given high quality rigorous education so they they're reading at grade level or higher and they're able to problem solve and communicate and all of those
112things so we're definitely as a district heading in in the right direction this is a progressive board and i just really appreciate the work um i you know mr haitawa mentioned i didn't even know they were coming tonight so he mentioned changes is not easy it's very difficult um but we we're tackling the tough work and we're having tough discussions and we're just sort of you know bulldozing our way through and doing what's right um for our community and most importantly for our kids and i think in the end you know as we read in the paper we saw two of our alumni who are donating over 400 000 these are peoria public school graduates so we're a rock in this community and what i'm proud of is not only working with the board but
113also the progressive work that we're doing so i'm sorry mr hightower got me going there but thank you thank you all right moving on to information items item number one school improvement plans is it my turn yes yes the school improvement plan oh yeah actually both [Music] actually it's a school improvement plan it's um my notes i didn't bring my notes with me but when i was a principal at whittier and a principal at roosevelt and the principal at manual those are mandated by the state every school creates a plan to really improve and to improve reading and to improve student achievement overall and it's it's a requirement for the state to receive school improvement dollars and so i just need to mention to you that all of the schools have done a very nice
114job um with their plans and the idea is to craft a plan that is you know that is not only progressive but and rigorous and robust but will also improve student achievement and uh and then we'll once i share it with you on the informational items we will send it to the state tomorrow so it's just it's really just fyi for you if you would like copies of it i'll be happy to share to share those with you also but it's pretty routine thank you any questions from board members on item number one okay all right you're up again item number two which is uh thank you return to school again good evening board president show of vice president wilson um just a quick update really regarding our return to school advancement plan so this
115looks very familiar with you this might be the fourth time you're seeing it so we've just updated it for you michelle may we go to the next slide and you're familiar with that one i really like that one it's slid in in times of ambiguity and you know the clarifying vision and uh creating stability and i think we're really good at doing that lots of moving parts a lot going on but we i think very proficient in trying to be as stable as possible it's impossible to attain 100 stability but despite what's happening it's in a good place and then item number three is also a very um good one for us too we communicate with our families on a weekly basis i do and principles uh they do also and um it's very important
116to communicate early and often and then you can see the other ones uh item four we'll talk about that because um i i'll share with you know we talked about phase in uh by the end of the month all of the primary students will be in and so um the purpose of this today is for an item for the develop ongoing course connection so we'll talk about you know some possibilities and proposals and recommendations for uh middle and high and then um identi identify the barriers we're facing and of course it's the virus still along with many others um and then developing our early wins we've gotten some early wins i gave you a report on kindergartners or first graders the the the transition was fantastic the students were very very happy i went to
117all of the buildings had conversations with kids and staff our teachers are doing an amazing job overall they're very very happy to be with the primary students today special ed students self-contained specialist students started today today for the a those on a a schedule tomorrow those on the b schedule because remember we're still following the the hybrid blended um model and then the team building we're all working working on this together um no man is an island and you can see we do have a covet committee and they're very very busy and actually uh very very um you you can see the names i don't have my actually i left my notes in front of in at my desk but we have union representation we have we have teachers we have thomas is on there
118so hr is on there jerry's on there dr ikezonder josh is on there monica hendrickson from the health department is on there um so yeah it's it's a very good group and they're working very hard for us you've seen that before when is the best time to bring you know kids back and uh we talked about we we you know we can bring kids back we decided to go over the middle um you can see the range the range of cases and the positivity as a board we talked about um as long as it's within that range of five percent um and and or we can identify where you know the word the trouble you know is coming from well you remember we talked about at the university um a couple of weeks ago that
119we it was a little high higher than than than it should have been and we were but we were able to identify and locate the hotspot and you know i'm pleased to report um friday uh that website the matrix health department matrix is updated uh every week at about 1 two on friday and uh it's the positivity rate is four point seven percent um and it's a seven day positivity rate and you can see that new cases uh per 100 000 and it's 121 and so let's go to the next slide and so you can here is a graphic depiction it's it's uh you can literally get a sense of what that looks like in terms of i think somebody talked about ebbs and flow today and and it's trending in the right direction right
120so that's looking really good um a piece that we have to talk about is uh the the positive uh the active positive cases for staff and the top one is is um is staff and the bottom line it's kids and um but then the one on my right hand side where he talks about um current my eyes are really bad exclusions actually from the buildings as you will notice the exclusions it's really an interesting story because they include the exclusions for the kids you'll see that have gone up and for a lot of reasons number one we're bringing more kids back but two what's going on also is there's this household impact so if i'm having a tummy ache or a headache or runny nose whatever everybody i mean initially it was just that one
121person now the entire family is excluded right mr b and so um and so that's that's interesting to continue to track and so the entire household is impacted so um yeah moving to the advancement plan you're very familiar with all of that you've seen that about six or seven times if not more right bright board when we approved it on the 22nd and then um the advancement plan for fifth to seven as of october 12th we're still kind of looking at the blended model and and actually for the original plan when you voted voted on that plan june 22nd it was the blended model a b and an option for virtual learning as sellers or a genuity a cell is for k-8 and a genuity for high school let's see what's what the next slide
122brings so we have completed uh phases of the advancement plan um and i reference kindergarteners and first graders uh the first day was october 5th and 6th and that went very well like as i said i gave you an update on that and then self-contained students started today spoke with dr bond that went very very well also and so the mitigation practices in the building we continue to you know the mask obviously that's mandatory and uh the splitting of classes is huge so we're actually we're actually you know splitting the population in half um the the the daily cleansing is important the physical distancing is important but the good news is um an additional piece regarding mitigation practices covid rapid coving tested will be will be part of that and as you know and we
123have to give credit to the gilmore foundation they provided two hundred thousand dollars to pierre public schools to roll out rapid covet testing and uh dr rossi who owns that redditor slab uh a graduate of parapublic schools schools will match mr gilmore's support and as we all know mr gilmore gilmore is is a graduate was a graduate of manual high and he lived to be a hundred a hundred years old and i think he passed on september 22nd if i remember um and also was president of caterpillar and so both both of these grads peoria public schools graduates they basically they're collaborating with us uh to make the covit 19 test in a normal part of our operations providing even more access and more timely results so we can literally receive results um [Music] between
124you know four to six hours and so those those high quarantine numbers if those those results had gotten in the time you know we received those results in a timely manner then they're cleared free and clear they can come back um so that is that that's that's a that's a big deal so it's an extraordinary um generosity and we wanted to thank them on behalf again of the board and our students because they you know they're they're just really interested in the kids and their future and helping out as much as they can because our goal is to help children and staff get back to school get back to the classroom quicker and help classrooms um and schools open so this opportunity will allow us to return to in-person instruction in a manner that minimizes
125the spread of covet 19 without the necessary necessity of quarantining large numbers of students and staff and again as we said this is tremendous it's a game-changing donation and this is um this is really what we needed to bring more students back sooner um yeah and so yeah i i can go on reading but i'll stop and so um yeah so the upcoming phase four of the advancement plan i think i referenced that earlier grade second third and fourth they will be coming in they'll be transition transitioning in in two weeks october 26th for those on a the a schedule october 27 for those in the b schedule so let's uh let's go into the next slide michelle and so here's the recommendation um so it's primary and now um the conversation now is so
126what about middle what about high and so the conversation the recommendation to the board needing consensus to continue to plan to bring in the middle schoolers in november and and so what that looks like fifth and sixth grade students first day is being proposed or recommended to be november 4th the day after election day and then um so you can see those on the a schedule would come in on the fourth those on the b schedule would come in on the um on the on the fifth and so fifth and sixth only in the building just to kind of sort of we really liked how k and one worked nicely and then transitioning the other ones um it was so easy so seamless so cohesive and so that's the same rationale and idea for middle
127school and um and then the seventh and eighth graders would transition in a week later so we would give the fifth and sixth graders the fourth the fifth and um and then the following week the seventh and eighth graders would start on the ninth can we get the next slide please and so that was phase five so then phase six would be um the advancement for high school um so you just saw middle school so high school because see high school is so complex and it is it's unique and sort of complicated which is complex right and um and with because the staff and they're they're so specialized so the team they've been thinking and planning and being creative and um innovative and so the idea is identified students that need or request additional support
128will be provided options to learn in person through intentional planning and scheduling using an open space concept before or by november 9th and then uh all remaining high school students first day will be january 5th um and six for those so we would it would be a clean s a clean start second semester for sure but still trying to salvage some of these days in november there's still some things that can be done with with the high schoolers because of the complexity of certification and specialization and so you can see the return to school timeline um we've we've you know it's everything that i've referenced um and so i'll give you a few minutes to take kind of take a look at it and so november 9th we phase in 7th and 8th graders and
129high-risk 9th through 12th graders so that's the recommendation what else do we have do we have another slide disciple okay and you've seen you've seen the um the bell schedule uh for the the you know the three-tiered bail schedule you have seen that who's on what time so that's the proposal board thank you thanks for listening i'll take questions questions for doctor can you uh michelle are you can you go back to the one about high school that oh up one can you explain further that first bullet point it seems very um ambiguous and wordy but what does it actually mean sure i could do that dr wilson i'll have you help me um with it it is actually it's different and as i said it's innovative um and so yes thanks for asking we
130can help you with that need more um in person and so the buildings that really are just hydrating those students are freshmen they just haven't had the opportunity to have a high school experience and get themselves acclimated so each particular building has really been working with students and they've been sort of bringing in some students as needed but this would be much more intentional and focused and really trying to create these open spaces where the high school students can come in and we had some support for them they would still be on ms teams they would still be learning from their regular core teacher that they might be in a space and there might be some certified non-certified aides that can help support so it's not to replace anything it's just to provide some support
131for on-campus learning and i was going to actually ask mr atkins duecher to assist because actually that was atkins do true and mrs tony strong uh part of that committee and um i said guys think outside the box and um let's not make it disruptive because it's the high school it's you know if high school is just a totally different ball of wax um but it's it's still sort of keeping things intact but also providing additional support for those who are struggling how strong would you say that's that's a good characterization and so is there a maximum number of students that are going to be allowed to do that allow i don't i mean like i don't know the right wording to use but is there a max like if we hit 100 and 101
132comes and you're like at we don't have enough room so like how is that being determined yeah so as you said they will it will be through intentional planning and scheduling um using open spaces so they will you know they have the the formula and they'll be able to determine that but all of those mitigation pieces that i referenced earlier physical distance in the ongoing cleaning so forth um will be definitely will be will be incorporated and then my final question is how will this impact teachers and or non-certified certified and non-certified staff with this intentional planning of time because they're doing something now right so how is that going to impact them for for this plan yeah great question and i i did ask that question also i said be creative but then it's
133like yeah it's nice and creative so dr wilson take that one fee and kind please think about what that looks like richwoods pureed high and manual as you know have some differences to them and so they have different support staff that could be accessible at different times so we're letting them determine kind of what it looks like after they meet with their return to school teams then the principals and i will just get together and just come up with maybe some general parameters so there's some similarities so there's some um you know there's some equity across the board but yet the way richards brings in students or chooses students and story to hide makeup can be different based on the needs of that building so it's kind of a loose tight if that makes sense
134yeah and other questions mr walden yeah and the january 5th when we bring back all the students and stuff with it i know we had an outline plan how are you guys planning on doing the lunches for the high school i know you can take care of the middle school and other stuff a little bit differently and easier and stuff with that but with the high school with our classes how are you going to do that yeah my recommendation to the the committee and the team great question mr walter is grab and go a lot of my peers throughout the state of illinois that's how they're doing it and so kids on the way out they're taking their lunches and they're heading out with them it minimizes a lot of you know and i think
135with when you've got this school cut in half you can still use the lunchrooms because there's enough distance between i think in doing that i subbed to dunlap a week ago and that's what they've had to do they they had to do their spacing at the lunchroom and they've done some other places where kids will eat and including some outdoor spaces they have places outdoors where they had kids if the weather was we're getting to the end of the season we may not be able to do that but uh and i know i went there the other day some of the parochial schools they had four or five classes that were outside just trying to mitigate what's going you know what's going on other input from board members on the phone okay so can you
136put that that slide with the slate up there that last slide with all the detail i gave a pretty good interview this morning and i have to disavow most of what i said put that up there this is the actual uh it's okay it happens so the question is um what does that sound like to you as a board can i ask one more question are we are we looking to do a consensus tonight that's probably the most appropriate and um so um yes this is actually less aggressive than what i gave them this morning so yes i'm okay with this um yeah i just have one question so um knowing china about the rapid covet test testing how is that playing in to this can you just talk a little bit about that since
137i know that was a big a news article again just to kind of make sure that everyone kind of hears how that's going to be implemented absolutely thank you so much dr rankin you're in a zone today actually um and so the the covet committee that um that i think it may have been the third or second slide they are and they are an amazing rock star committee they're in the process of um ruling it out but theoretically the idea is obviously testing doing random testing also and the i what we talked about was really testing everybody and so let's say you have you know 300 kids in the in the building and and so and you're divided by five and so you'll do do it you'll test they'll be tested a chunk at a
138time and so it's it's also it was on that mid that uh where it says asymptomatic and symptomatic and so obviously the ones with symptoms automatically will be tested and then in addition to that in order to really stay open and mitigate any as much as we can everybody will at some point everybody will be tested a number of times and but they're still building it they're still building that rollout they have to work with dr rossi and um and we have some of the partners who may be willing to help us so there's still a lot of work that needs to go there but theoretically students and staff will be tested and you may have a a testing policy coming to you at the next board meeting i sent it to vice president wilson
139what was it i think friday um so that it can go through the policy committee and um we will we'll have that on the the next board agenda for an export meeting okay so i'm looking for consensus on the plan okay okay dr grant king yes mrs ross i'm okay with it i've got a couple other questions but we need to get the consensus first okay okay um mr klaus yeah vice president wilson yes let's do one yeah one of the things was just really a comment on the testing um dr kratt and i've talked about this for weeks and stuff with it and this is really a gift because one of the things that it really does if you can identify a student that appears to have symptoms which you can get a positive
140test that all of a sudden takes that whole family from being added to the thing it takes a teacher for meeting 10 days in school it frees up both substitutes and families it does a lot of things that we didn't have and so it's i mean it really is a gift that will help us doing that and then i actually had a comment too um for mrs rose in the in the in your committee um i did a school visit and i was at uh glen oak and uh i just went is there any those kids they weren't overly crowded but they were a little packed and stuff with that in my understanding are they there four days a week and then they get the one day off with them what's their schedule during the
141day um the primary goal is to do a lot of teams type of activities so that if you do go into a retreat mode the kids know exactly what to do as far as functioning through managing to the different platforms that they are given so they do that during the school day as well okay there seemed to be a lot of learning going on i just know that to seem they were in inside that classroom a lot and i just was wondering if there's any way do they get pe once a week every day okay and they get encore depends on the building they get art music and some buildings have technology some buildings don't technology is basically what they're doing through ms teams and learning platforms they have the ability to go into different
142online platforms that we have in addition to ms teams and schoolers they're able to get on the sites that we purchased for els so they're able to do the new language and as well as like reading a museum things that the general regular individual students have and then the last question i have for dr crot with us going back have we seen any migration from people who were on a cellus that wanted to go back into the classroom is there a change for that yes actually um thanks for asking and i'll send that to you we're still compiling that um it will be it will be interesting to see the the um the data from middle because now they'll they'll really have just two options prime middle should be an interesting group to watch because
143it seems like high school well high school will have some flexibility right and um but the middle they'll either have to select they'll either have to select the hybrid or that you know the asylus the platform the instructional platform thank you miss strong so we'll we'll see what happens what about we've had some teachers that had medical reasons they couldn't do that how i figured you've talked with the union about that how's that going to work from working at home but now with them back in the buildings and so all of those things are well thought out okay thank you mr b okay any other input before we close out the plan okay thank you dr crouch thank you very much on to item number three salary compensation report were there any questions from board
144members mr waller um i have a question for mr willis on this um as i went through i was looking through here and i couldn't find mr willis and then all of a sudden i did yeah you go by you don't go by archie do you find that mr wells didn't mean to point that out but i was looking through there where the hell mr willis on this report then i see well there's an archie willis here it appears to be reasonably similar the question i had however on a more serious note is that according to 105 ls 5 10 10 20 47 there's supposed to be base salary and benefits of the district superintendent and all administrators and teachers i find six or seven missing from here starting from the top one down i
145don't see dr crot in here or dr wood or dr wilson um were they in another place did i miss him no you saw your own i mean it was maybe i missed him i'm sorry that's why it's correct i said i may have missed it but i thought there's an administrator's page i just didn't see him on that so yeah there's sandra i found dr wilson okay it must have been on a different piece of the parts that i had i saw yeah no i thought so it's a but that last page which i thought had all the administrators including archie um administrators other than uh certified okay and then certified administrators are sprinkled throughout the report gotcha yeah it didn't seem like you'd missed that yeah thank you for no more questions okay
146other questions uh on item three seeing none item number four proposed expenditures over two thousand five hundred questions from mr willis seeing none item number five report of requests under the freedom from information act and the status of such requests dr grant thank you so much president shaw since our board meeting on september 28th we we have received one new request there was also one pending request noted on september 28th all were completed and to date we have received 44 requests for this calendar year at a cost of one thousand five hundred and fifty dollars thank you thank you dr karate we have come to the consent agenda vice president wilson if you please thank you president shaw in one second here as i scroll up okay president shaw the consent agenda consists of the
147following items item one gifts to school district two payment for travel three human resources report four approval of nwea web-based measures of academic progress math reading and language assessment license renewal item 5 read 180 and system 44 6 settlement agreement with bonnie guthrie 7th annual renewal with blackboard for communications services for the 2020 2021 school year item 8 national principals month and that is the entirety of the consent agenda thank you vice president wilson are there any items that board members would like remove for uh would like uh remove for a separate vote mrs coster other items seeing none is there a motion to accept the consent agenda with the exception of item number five so moved second it's been moved and seconded discussion on the consent agenda excluding item number five seeing none please
148call roll mrs castig mr claus dr ranking mr walter aye mr wilson aye mrs ross hi president shaw hi is there a motion to accept item number five so mo it's been moved and seconded uh this is classic the only question that i that i had on that the only reason that i pulled it is that um i was trying to remember originally when we approved like the ocellas and everything was this read 180 at that time was that a part of the cares grant that we that we approved this under or is this something that's different this is uh this is to replace materials and they're adding i think they're they're adding a school you want to take that hairspray i'm sorry what cares cheers okay i'm sorry no it doesn't have anything to
149do with fears this is this is part of the school of improvement right is that the question the funding yes it is so under the illn power do we have underperforming and lowest performing schools and they receive additional money to provide supplemental materials for schools that are different than other schools and so these particular schools have been read 180 and system 44 for the last few years so this is not district money this is completely grant money okay thank you you're welcome the discussion all right another can you describe the difference betw between read 180 and system 44 are they the same thing they have two different names yeah they're related systems 44 it's more for um lower level like i think third grade and and and below and and or something like that but
150it's it's all great span it's really good so they're yeah one sis is the lowest and then 180 it's higher discussion on item five saying none madam secretary please call the wrong mrs castig aye mr claus aye dr ranking aye mr walter aye mr wilson aye mrs ross aye president shaw all right motion carries okay the deliberation agenda item number nine the expulsion with the expulsion to be held in obeying the proposed action is that the expulsion with the expulsion held in advance listed on the report dated october the 12th 2020 be approved as presented second okay madam secretary please call the role mr wilson are you muted i'm sorry i was on mute mrs ross aye president shaw aye motion carries seven eyes okay presentations and suggestions by board members mrs ross yeah i
151have a brief um clarification you know as we talk about curriculums um and i think dr kraut you said that the um senate bill 246 was since last august it just came out this year in july july 1st 2020 and um that that doesn't matter but i guess what i want to make sure is that you know we are incorporating everything in what we do and i've always been working with the lgbtq community for a number of years with a lot of different things so everybody needs to be recognized for what they what they're doing much of the information in the black history curriculum is also points out those contributions you know for all all different uh types of people so i just want to make sure that that was clear it wasn't although we've
152been working on you've been working on a lot longer this particular law just came out and it's related to any uh federal grants grant money that we would receive that we have to do this particular program yeah i mean kudos to the board this work is you know you're trailing you're leading the pack uh in terms of this work which leads me to actually you just approved um or recruiting an equity officer if you don't mind i would kind of like to quickly introduce it to you is that okay definitely dr pott please take the podium and welcome to peoria she's looking forward to moving to peoria she wants to get out of chicago i am truly honored to join peoria public schools in a very important role for the district supporting outcomes for all
153students to succeed and have access at their fullest potential has been the heart and the passion of my work in education in addition hiring the most talent educators for the school is a strong asset i bring to peoria thank you for this opportunity and i'm looking forward to working on your behalf thank you thank you [Music] i appreciate that sir no i have um i was going to bring them with me but i'll i'll forward it to you there is a workshop presented by the illinois association of school boards it's a virtual one that's going to be next week and it has to do with input from the board the hiring of administrators and uh we're not doing a superintendent search dr kratz i don't want you getting nervous that's fine but this this was
154about the input that you should have and it has a list of the different administrators that should be considered and so i'll just forward that on to the board for that other presentations and suggestions by board members i don't i don't have a presentation but i do want to just make a comment and i wanted to welcome dr dr bach okay i wanted to welcome you and hope that you know uh being the senior first senior board member i have uh you know i've experienced a lot of change and what i what i think works better is when we incorporate the talents of people that you know makes a better connection so i'm welcoming you and hope that you'll be able to recognize the talents in our district right other presentations and suggestions by board
155members reports from board committees we're going to make it building committee this castic and i are hosting on the 15th this month at 3 30. okay the parent teacher advisory committee um sent out from thomas this evening sent out a survey the link doesn't work right now but i just sent that to thomas so he'll be fixing it already fixed it um so we do um mrs ross and i really would appreciate it if families and teachers would please fill out that survey we're talking about discipline and any discipline policies or other types of things that are happening during remote learning and struggles that parents and teachers may have so that we can start to think about that at the district level and i just want to make sure that um our parents and teachers
156know that this uh although some of the questions in the survey are not related too much to discipline we will segment out those things that that are pertinent to the committee okay thank you other other board committees yes the policy committee will meet october 21st at three o'clock all right thank you vice president wilson either any other committee uh committee input saying none is there a motion to adjust thank you