001e e e like I thought this is a perfect opportunity to bring that up to you guys when I talked to Mr Haney again today I again had a conversation but I'm also been told that I should bring it up to a wide audience because I don't know if these conversations are going for at all or even even you know coming to a wider audience so um he reassured me that all the staff does have like knowledge about Ramadan and that they should be like apprised of the situation and that shouldn't have happened so he basically said that he would investigate it but he thinks that it was like a substitute or something but she told me that that was not the case when I spoke with her she said this is somebody that's been
002there all the time so that's kind of a concerning thing you know to me in addition so I just wanted to bring that up thank you thank you thank you any other visitor [Music] statements so I'll just ask everyone again if you want followup please make sure that Mr Carney in the back of the room there has the correct information and then um somebody on the administration will follow up with you individually I'll I'll do it person okay y okay so thank you we appreciate it so just to be clear that was the V Sean any other okay okay so you're absolutely more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting um it we're just going to go on with our regularly scheduled meeting um and you're more than welcome to stay we
003have student presentation I believe and I think student council is going to do their great [Music] hello everyone we're here on behalf of student council we just have a couple of thank you gifts to give to the school board on behalf of the student body uh for all of the great things you've all done for us um in this package you'll find a leatherbound book and a handwritten note we've also prepared a handwritten note for Dr twadell and Dr cble we are glad we are finally able to present these this is long overdo and we just want to say a big thank you for everything you do for our school thank you so first you just leave it [Laughter] [Music] thank you so much thank you very much presentations are plan okay that's all please
004thank student council for like seening noing all right so our March meeting um just waiting here pull up there we go so we are really in the thick of it right now um week leading up to spring break we're almost there um students are really excited obviously for a much welld deserve break it's been quite a few weeks I I was joking with people today that I feel like we went through three seasons over this weekend really thunderstorms the summer weather and then the snow so um just hanging in there for one more week so here we go our big Community event that we hosted uh that student council put on obviously was our Winterfest dance the last week on the 24th of or excuse me the 22nd of uh February where we hosted the
005Winterfest dance for all of our students and students to come together um as you well know we do these spirit days that lead up to the Winterfest dance as well um just like we had for homecoming we had a record turnout for those spirit days right so kudos to student council who really pulled the school to better understand what type of spirit days students really want um and it shows because every single day of that spirit week we have countless students coming out um and showcasing that Stevenson spirit and following along with all the spirit days so this is just a great Community event for everybody within the Stevenson Community to come together have that Winterfest dance um and it's that something to look forward through as you kind of grind out that month of
006February a lot of Fay weeks cold weather um this is something that Stevenson looks forward to every single year career and academic um a lot of our academic and Co curricular based clubs have just been really busy lately on the bottom left our Science Olympia team coached by Ryan K brought home the fifth place trophy at an intern at a national tournament excuse me in Ohio um so they have just been crazily busy with a lot of different Regional tournaments State as well as National tournaments and they send so many kids who are on the Science Olympia team to them every single tournament that they go to so credit to them right these are students who obviously have a deep passion for science they want to be able to perform um and compete in science-based
007events and the Ste Stevenson Science Olympia team gives them that opportunity on the bottom right are Aces which is the academic uh challenge for engineering and science competed at a regional tournament at gry Lake and competed and got first place that was at CLC so both of those are our science related and academic uh clubs on the top left we had our Congressional and public forum debate teams compete at the University of Pennsylvania upen National Tournament um and they actually closed out the season this past weekend at the Illinois IDC Varsity tournament as well so that will come to a close for our very long debate tournament season like I've said numerous times we've had over 200 freshman that tried out for that team countless freshmen were able to participate throughout the course of that
008year um the debate team is thriving we got a debate sponsor right here next to me the debate team is absolutely thriving and it's just so nice to see I've been on it for now four years seeing that development seeing so many freshman come in every single year your breaking news makes that we do better and better should I share it share okay uh so the Congressional debate team we have Congressional and as Rajan said public forum and the Congressional debate team for the first time two weeks ago in the state championship in JV and novice debate took both first and second place in each event then this past weekend at the varsity level they repeated that they took first and second in the state in Varsity as well and then then on the top
009right myself along with seven others on our Varsity mock trial team had a regional tournament up at the McHenry County Courthouse a couple of weeks ago where we took home first place um we had State this weekend as well down at Springfield and we placed within the top 10 once again so it was a very long weekend we didn't get back to close to like 11:30 last night so we're we're tired but um that was just so fun all of us that were on that team it's been a long long season um trying this case back and forth and just being able to go down there with State there were other 52 other teams that competed against us so just a huge turnout down there continuing off of that um we had our Latin club
010on the bottom left traveled to skoki for a Latin competition where we had 29 students compete at that where they finished fifth place overall so that's an extension of the classroom where many students take Latin as a class here at Stevenson and then are then able to compete against other students to sort of practice what they learning in the classroom um and it's got a tight-knit community of JV varsity and freshman who really love to take place in that on the top right our chess team delivered an outstanding performance at the championship in Peoria um bringing home a second place finish out of 128 competing teams so huge credit to them that is a co-ed team as well that's recognized by the ihsa um so we sent so many students down there to beat at
011that on the bottom right our psychology Club hosted a bra B competition or participated at a brain be competition at Deal's Lincoln Park Campus and so psychology Club is not really a competitive Club per se but this is one of their major competitive events that they have once a year um and it's really nice for students who take psychology whether that be College Prep or AP to be able to apply a lot of the skills that they're learning in the classroom um against other like-minded students across the uh the state and on the top left our model United Nations team traveled to DC for a national tournament and so they were in the halls of Congress they were moving around right they were getting to put on what a Model United Nations look like um
012with other nationally recognized students and so with a lot of these State and National tournaments right a lot of students like these because they're able to connect with peers from all across different areas and share their love for their passion with other people right um a lot of students have stories where they're able to come back and say that they've a been able to get like networking opportunities or internships from these events because professionals are at these events where they go to them um and they're able to network right then and there so it's just really nice experiential they're out there in the community and representing Stevenson very very well along the way Fine Arts has been incredibly busy this past couple of uh weeks we had the Freshman play The Freshman and sophomore play
013The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on the bottom left U so once again students who take part in the plays um huge credit to them because it takes a lot of work on their part right in addition to a very rigorous course load that many of them take they're memorizing their lines they're practicing they're they're rehearsing almost every single day in preparation for that and it's usually a multi-day performance it's usually a Friday a Saturday and a Sunday so their whole weekend goes to doing that um but they're able to build such a great sense of community amongst themselves they share that love for acting and it shows every single time one of their performances um you just can't believe that this is a high school performance that's taking place on the top middle
014we had many students of our dance Department who take dance classes here travel to New York City over the holiday break where they had kind of a workshop so they they participated in dance classes they attended a performance on Broadway um and they did tourist activities and were able to connect with dance Professionals in Broadway so again with that experiential learning element of things here's dance that we're learning here at Stevenson in the classroom here's how it applies into real careers into the real world um and what better place to do it than broadway so they loved being able to do that we've had a handful of concerts right orchestra band it's just I feel like every week almost we have a concert at some point there's more to come after the Break um but
015these are students who obviously have a deep passion for band who have a deep passion for orchestra and choir and they really want to be able to perform at that high level and so we thank you all for giving us the that opportunity to be able to do that in the athletic World um we wrapped up our inter our inter mural basketball championship first and so that's for every single grade level where every grade is able to compete with many teams amongst themselves for an IM style basketball uh competition and so that's really nice for students who may not want to play basketball for the competitive side of things or who want to be able to stay active during the winter months they're able to do it with their friends they're able to build community
016that way um you'll have teams of like 10 go up against other teams of 10 they'll they'll hit it off bracket style um and then every single grade level gets a grade champion in I am basketball as well so we're just really fortunate to have so many intramural um extracurricular opportunities within Athletics for our students to participate in in the top right we had our boy swimming and dive team who competed at the North Suburban Conference championship and finished in first place taking both the regular season and the Championship win with 402 points they then traveled down to Westmont for the state finals securing a six Place finish overall congratulations it's a huge to you all and then on the top left our pickle balls competitive team challenged 18 teams at a pickle ball tournament
017in Palatine and so pickle ball has been The Craze so many students absolutely love pickle ball um I know I think I may have reported back on this but during the National Honors society's giveon element in November pickle ball team actually was able to do a fundraising event for that so they brought so many students to compete in pickle ball they charged a little bit of a fee and then that fee went to the giveth on purpose and so they were able to leverage their numbers right they've got hundreds of students who have tried out and now participate in the pickle ball program they were able to leverage that to bring a strong community support for gibon um I was talking to their sponsor their coach a couple of weeks ago who told me that
018they really have been able to do a competitive and a non-competitive team so they haven't had to make as many cuts um and you'll get students who have never picked up a pickle ball racket to students who've been competing in pickle ball since you know pickle ball I feel has become that crazy Nationwide and so it's just really nice that we're able to have that opportunity for students to be able to compete both competitively and also for fun with their friends um during pickle ball it's co-ed as well so you're you're get community everywhere you go all right last I wanted to end on community as well because there's just been so much more we started with it we're going to end with it as well um on the bottom uh the entire bottom the
019left middle and the right the black student union hosted its black history months event um they did a peach cobbler event that's on the bottom left they had operation Black History Month which rounded out the Black History Month celebrations and then on the bottom right they had a guest speaker event as well so with all of these events it'll also be the subject of the article that I hand you in a moment here um they're able to put on the black student union is able to put on a monthlong programming with all of these events and I talked to many of these students you'll hear about it in the article as well they just love being able to Showcase African-American history with that of the Stevenson Community um and we're just so grateful that they're
020able to get those spaces monthlong every single Thursday to host a variety of events that exposes the Stevenson Community to different facets of African-American history and culture on the top right we had the Lunar New Year celebration hosted by the Chinese National Honors society as well as other clubs that pitched in they hosted food they had networking they brought in kids from the community um you may remember that the Chinese National Honor Society actually hosted a babysitting event for all of the faculty students a couple months ago and so they have really been hitting the ball on just bringing younger students from the Community Middle School students Elementary School students to see what Stevenson's like they give them L mini tours they get food they get to meet other high school students it's just a
021great night um and the Lunar New Year celebration was an absolute blast then last on the top left we had the senior Showdown event where all the seniors competed to win prom tickets and so that is just one of those memories right when we have those tangible aspects that the senior class can look forward to when they become seniors is that senior Showdown um it's I like that it's placed in February like we said February can kind of be a hunker down and get the work done kind of month if you will because there's just so much going on um but it's little moments like that right that Showdown the dance that really allow us to come together and have some fun along the way so as I said for the Statesman Spotlight this month
022we were covering the black student Union's um Black History Month celebrations and so this gives us a little bit of a dive into um it gives us a little bit of a dive into all that it takes for their Executive Board of students to plan all of those events as well as why they love just being able to have the black student union all together and so it's a really deep dive to everything that they've been doing and I thought it does them justice for all the events that they put on last month and then real quick um we've got the orchestra concert that'll be happening tomorrow we've got our Consortium co-curricular affir on Wednesday which will kind of round out our Consortium events for a while the incoming freshman did their course selection they
023met with counselors and various uh members of the academic divisions they've now selected their courses and they will be coming over to see all the co-curricular offerings that we have so we're expecting a huge huge turnout on Wednesday we have spring break starting next week I included that in there because it's something we're all looking forward to uh we've got spring break and then when we come back we've got the advanced placement and advanced art classes as art show where there were uh students who participate in those classes are able to Showcase one or two pieces of artwork with the Stevenson community and their friends and family the National Honor Society will host its spring blood drive on April 11th we'll expect a huge turnout for that that money will go to a good cause
024obviously that blood will also go to a good cause and then we will have a couple of concerts uh jazz concerts to round out the middle of April and so they will be busy practicing some of that over spring break as they enjoy their break as well so that's all I got I wish all of you a restful kind of week ahead um spring break and thank you all for allowing me to continue these presentations I really appreciate it so thank [Applause] you all right ready to go y okay um so tonight uh we begin um new business with uh our first item in ccum inspection assessment and that's a presentation from um our communication arts division so I'll let Doug uh introduce his team uh tonight absolutely um we're excited this is actually will
025be my last uh board meeting for introducing team so I will uh and so we'll uh do it in style right so got our 10th grade uh accelerated English class and uh we have Christ Gores Jerry abito and R daon and Chip Topson here to represent that group take it away sure yeah good evening everybody uh thank you very much for giving us some time to share a little bit of the work that we've been doing on uh 10 AC specifically attention to process uh is our Focus today so just a little bit of background about the course uh there are many of us uh we would outnumber this table in front of us if we were all here we chose not to do that um and we uh we teach about 80% of uh
026sophomores that take uh 10ac English yeah and so uh sophomore year is kind of bridging that commitment to self to commitment to others um I like to explain our different inquiry questions as the many emotional stages they go through their sophomore year um all the disillusionment they kind of accept as they realize they are high schoolers um to balancing all of their Ambitions with how they want to spend their school year with the reality of their mental health and all the other things going on um and we kind of ran out the year and we're getting ready for our last unit to talk about persistence resilience and grip um taking a look at the graphic um I would like to highlight the essential components of building student agency that we built in our classrooms so
027identity belonging resilience efficacy and proficiency and by fostering these elements into our 10ac uh classrooms we recognize that we could create a space so that our students can feel valued and they could develop confidence and also a great way to build their curiosity um and gain the skills needed to take ownership of their learning and their growth this graphic as well highlights the importance of connections acceptance resilience and empathy and again as a team as a team we recognize those elements and we try to recognize how we can help our students within our classrooms feel valued build meaningful relationships and develop the skills needed to navigate challenges with confidence and compassion so having those laid out this has led us to embed efficacy within our own curriculum and so we began with the concept of
028efficacy which was getting a lot of traction around the building and over time we discovered that nobody knew what it meant uh so we decided to reexamine it and determine okay what exactly are we trying to teach them because this is a measurable skill and we realized that what made a lot more sense to the students to their parents to the counselors was that we were teaching them how to pay attention to the process of their own learning what works what doesn't what helps me improve what holds me back and so we sort of shifted our Focus to this concept and we use this terminology now to really help the students understand this isn't about um changing who they are but helping them understand what works and what doesn't what makes them successful students and
029what makes them feel actually that sense of accomplishment yeah um so just kind of reiterate uh this came out from all the observations that our 10ac team had about students um a lot of them were kind of struggling to understand what does it mean to be successful as an accelerated student and also to prepare um for those future AP classes and all the other challenges that they're having as a student um one of the main things that sophomores learn is balance and especially when the uh with their schedule and how committed they are across our community as we saw from that presentation um so this is just supposed to be a space where they can record and have a conversation with the teachers saying like hey I'm seeing these patterns I'm not really understanding this
030feedback or hey I saw this feedback but I'm not sure quite how to apply it um and so our team has been really Innovative in the different ways that we ask them to reflect and the different ways that they can show us that communication and understanding of their skills so um how do we measure this how do we uh know if this is really working and um looking to the student voice survey um and understanding the importance of student voice and and their response um I'd say there's a number of different areas that this overlaps but we chose to focus uh one of the leads here on valuing of subject which you could see you know has made a pretty big jump from the low 7s to high 7s uh in the last couple years
031in particular um and I think this is attributed to a number of the questions that really get students and teachers engaging with conversation about how we learn um ultimately our success criteria is how do I read annotate contribute that in my small groups how do I write in a process that isn't just just me on my own uh doing a paper but utilizing feedback submitting uh Drafting and having that conversation with teachers with peers uh and then preparing for discussion because um taking those steps to really be thoughtful about the questions and pull evidence is important so I think this translates a bit to the uh the lower slide that when we think about how students uh reflect on their own learning strategies um that they're thinking about how those things directly help them if
032I can read more annotate more if I take more drafting time or prepare for discussion um I can see results uh and so this just kind of delves into uh the mix of that of course there some fluctuation but I think the consistency of seeing so many of these numbers uh in the mid 80s and again directly addressing how do I learn more effectively um what kind of feedback is going to help me learn uh when I get stuck what do I do uh in that position and I think students can rely on a lot of those reflective conversations uh that we have and keeping that learning in the Forefront yeah and so while every day we're trying to teach this mindset of taking moments to reflect of where you are and taking stock of
033where your skills um are growing we have planned basically every six weeks or so we kind of call their attention to different conversations activities assignments assessments um that we've done in those six weeks and kind of look at the feedback that the teacher has given you um the practice that we've been doing in class and also calling to attention you know like what's not working working with our instruction is there something that you really like that we did before that we really need to do more of um to really practice those skills or is there um kind of a dissonance in the expectations of the classroom and we need to kind of take stock of how we're working together as a community so every six weeks we kind of restock where we are and reenter
034ourselves and I feel like this has really given students agency in the classroom and given them contr that control um on how they have their learning experience and sttw so um so the maybe I jumped it the success criteria that I spoke about uh is in the top slide here preparation for discussions um independently and efficiently reading uh and planning revision and writing um but the bottom kind of walks through uh what one of those six week Windows might look like so as they start second semester uh and they are delving into MC Beth which they acknowledge is a very challenging step jumping from first semester uh we walk them through how some of these formative assignments uh really Aid and contribute to their learning through that process so again we do lots of close
035reading in the classroom uh in terms of the writing again like we're we're shifting and moving those expectations uh into style analysis uh and then the discussions and weighing in this case you could see uh the matte best scenario is kind of a case study that we use to imagine what if a high school student was trying to be uh student council president in a similar way way of MC Beth wanting to be king um would they rely on a positive view of that ambition in a constructive way or would they let fear kind of creep in and then maybe make some questionable decisions to reach that point uh and then that also uh is matched up with some of our just skill focused practice so that's the Soliloquy practice um so this example here
036is from the fall semester um they're kind of comparing the before and after of their annotations I think one of the hardest bus for students is like why should be anotated in the first place it slows me down um what am I even supposed to be looking for and so what I really appreciate about this example while it does look very traditional in how they analyze um what you really get to see with the student is in the before they're really just summarizing what they highlighted I was like good gr that's all I need to do um whereas after they're kind of pulling out the different ideas you can see a little bit more of their complex inferences and their work of interpreting the text and trying to follow some sort of symbol theme Motif
037um whatever is happening at that section of the book and so for them to kind of see that growth in the way that they annotate and how that affected the way that they understood the book and explained that understanding to me um in our various practices and assignments or conversations um really was kind of like that light bulb moment for the student like okay this is why we really focus on doing that and why you sign this all the time um so yeah it's really nice to see the growth um throughout each of those six week windows and in the beginning of like a unit we tend to like give them the annotation Focus but then as we get to towards the end they will give us the focus they will know by that point
038with scaffolding okay what is it that I'm looking for what do I have to annotate and go beyond just like uh Jerry said in the early stages they're circling the same word and then just writing it off to the side again not efficient right let's work towards these strategies so then It All Leads up to what the essay that they're going to write and using that information so that they could write so then this slide right here is a digital portfolio so some of our teachers have this digital portfolio where throughout the week there's like either at the start of class or at the end of the class period once a week you go in and you include some evidence of your learning if we're doing a MC Beth essay for example and you have
039the graphic organizer not everybody needs it but if that's going to serve you and that's going to help you use it as a resource and place it in your portf folio so there are tons of different um there's vocabulary sheets use it we have models that we upload in Google Classroom take one look at it and compare and maybe highlight after reading a model what did I do that helped me improve my own paragraph or claim so reflective moments and again these resources are available to them and them taking ownership like this is what I need in order to succeed but we hold them high high expect like this is what we want but to get there it will look different for Rick than it will for chip and I think that's super important um
040so this example highlights a little bit of like when they walk into my class um they could have a choice if they want to take a reading check with comprehension literal and analytical questions um and if they do well they could put it in their portfolio if they don't do well you could put your annotations in there because we are not we are not going to Penal you it is what works best for you I annotated I came prepared these are my annotations that show my learning and that I understand what I'm reading so it's all a way of like this is a celebration of the great work that builds up over time um this is uh one of those types of reflective questions we would do at the end of a six week window
041uh what would be one specific day or class activity that could describe learning experience uh kind of similar to uh the way that I run some of the like Google form reflections with my students and here this is a sample of Mr Mitchum student providing Illustrated notes um that they found useful in helping break down the character relationships uh I know it's very very tiny you know like they they find their groove and in their way that works um but in the very very top you could see that uh there's a color coding system so all of this is under act one but the color coding is broken down by scene um and and the AOS are colle uh connecting relationships um and so this is just one way that the student wanted to show
042that they were engaging in the material by being very uh organized uh in their way of note taking I want to meet that kid every year you get one of these that's like I just need I just need to take a picture of it looks like a better way of organizing than myself and we've been using the word conversation a lot obviously it's impractical to have a one-on-one conversation with this frequency with every single student so a lot of these conversations take place in writing and so for example we'll have these kinds of questions and we're looking at the students response we're looking to see what they say about their own learning rather than simply trying to hope that maybe something's working that student in Mr Mitchum's class took the time to go through these
043different steps figure out what made that process work for him here's a student saying that the um comparing previous students catcher body paragraphs on an essay on catcher in the Ry to their own helped them to figure out what they needed to change and also it turns out helped them curb the procrastination that they usually experience so that kind of self-awareness is what we're really working toward having a student figure out okay here's why I'm hitting the hiccups and bumps in the road that I am hitting so we discovered that what we were doing was only doing so much um we discussed with our team the challenges we figured out ways to address efficacy and one of them as I mentioned was to Simply revise our terminology um we figured out what other classes with
044efficacy efficacy standards were doing because this is obviously not pertinent only to English instruction these are skills that are transferable through throughout the building and so other divisions Call It by different names but they're looking for the same kinds of things applied Arts has a professionalism standard rather than an efficacy or an attention to process it's the same basic thing right they're all trying to help the students be a little bit more objective about what they're doing and what leads to success versus stumbling upon it or just failing to reach it um we discussed reasonable parameters for measuring their attention to the learning process and then we started piloting all these ways that you've seen tonight of monitoring that progress so this is the the process of working on a team of 13 people to
045figure out best practice um so our current goal stands as uh having students learn how to reflect on their learning uh celebrate what is working uh and to use the feedback to adjust their habits I mean I think it's it's it can be as simple as you need good learning habits if you want to be a good learner uh and I think we can all agree that students need to engage in the work they need to be reflective about the work uh and a lot of what we are discussing describes conversations that can happen between teacher and student uh or even among students themselves uh some next steps that we've considered are how can we you know just continue to help students appreciate the importance of that agency uh of taking the first step without
046waiting for a teacher to say hey this is a scenario um or checking see and looking for that weight there's a hiccup U to create moments for students to recognize and celebrate uh so again just a continued celebration and how we B balance that again in terms of time because we have lots uh of course we have to do with our reading writing speaking and listening argument analysis uh attentional process so uh we want to just kind of Continue to update that success criteria uh and involve more of that student reflection and Teacher Assessment so thank you so much for hearing us all out any questions we did try to overwhelm you with so is to limit your ability to think of questions I thought you were just providing weight time so there were I
047I have to admit I did not follow uh a lot of what it worked it was fascinating I really did enjoy it one of the terms that you used graphic organizers I mean there's a number of different tools you're referring to which was interesting and I think I could imagine what they were what's a graphic organizer you want to take that do you use them yeah of course I um well a graphic organizer when you have an essay that you could be four paragraphs five paragraphs the way it's set up is that um they don't have to write the full essay but it's like it organizes their ideas so you have an introduction you got an attention a hook background and then the claim so it just space it out for your ideas to be
048placed in there and allows for that organization and structure to exist but you're not writing the fullon in a blank white document we have provided those and a way to visualize it have you ever had somebody give you a printed out version of a PowerPoint presentation it's got the slides on the left and a little block for notes on the right it's similar to that in terms of its layout so it will have this is what this step involves and then it'll have a blank space for the student to do that step like a template so it really organizes graphically their thought process and the steps of the assignment because a lot of times writing something that long is a daunting task makes it more manageable the term graphic organiz is kind of like a
049general term for anything that chip just said like some kind of visual representation of whatever skill we're trying to like a vend diagram right yeah so I I I remember one of my first uh jobs where working on a particular project and I was overwhelmed by the number of things that we had to deal with and I remember the partner I was working for who said that we had to sit down and organize and write down all the steps and then try and figure out how they fit and then the more detail we could understand and appreciate then we could identify what the issues were and what we were missing and in a way you're describing that exact precise yeah and it's a great way for them to come into a meeting with you so
050that you could sit down and then you know okay this is where they're headed this is where I could help instead of like I don't know where to start and they do come in like that too and then you could set them up for success that's great these kids are 15 you go you to go all the way through law school to figure it out they're loing it here at 15 but it is accelerated it is accelerated yeah do are all the books actual books reading real books we've even done some surveying over the years and we determined that across the board they prefer a physical book to anything that's on I do too I just there is still the latest research I believe is still that uh reading comprehension improves with a physical text
051over a because they can usually notate and write the now that we spend all the money on EBS that's I not in our division we don't the money on the real book so he's the graphic organizer for the iPad and then the book I just have to say we've seen a lot of presentations over the years we've been doing these uh for about 10 years and what is just so great about this one is that obviously the frame was around se but what you guys have done is you've actually integrated that work into your daily practices of curriculum instruction assessment grading feedback it's really really impressive like you we are thank you um Troy and I may have looked at each other a couple times thinking oh my God like this is um we we
052kind of we take it for granted how talented I think all of our teachers are in our teams but this is just emblematic of that it's really good so thank you we really appreciate it thank you you so and I I suppose it's of course it is yeah because because of Doug's leadership final and his final har he saved the very best for life they only know Kim say thank you for making him look good in lastely thank you guys very much thank you and uh you all are welcome to stay gets better uh but um before you leave because you may not want to stay until that point later on tonight there will be an agenda item um for personnel and uh the board I think uh will be excited to um approve the
053recommendation for the next director of communication Arts uh Ken so congratul excited for you conrat and uh you have amazing teachers and teams to lead so I'm so proud of I'm So te so great thank you guys appr thank thank you [Laughter] okay that was um that was really good that was so well done that assessment Str amazing amazing okay um moving on uh speaking of books uh we have a first reading for textbook recommendations um just want to point out this year mark we are only bringing two and I hesitate only because is that a typo that one is free yeah no in the history of yeah um you know we talked about this last year and um snow brought up some questions that helped us think a little differently about how we would
054approach textbooks so we went and are working with this particular textbook alongside of some these supplementary materials as well okay so this is our core textbook but teachers are going to be making use of supplementary matal that they've cated in addition to this so it's free are there actual pages in it like there's stuff in it okay I think we can swing free okay well well done bringing forward a free they'll be future expensive okay okay okay all right are they actual bats or are they they're physical actual books I just we're going back to that yeah were well this is a reference a reference Tex oh I see okay wow well feel free to bring free textbook recommendations anytime Mark we appreciate you uh moving on to Personnel um March as you know is
055our not just us but for all districts in the state of Illinois just given the way that statute is with the end of the year closely coming Upon Us March is typically the big Personnel month all of this is on consent we don't need to vote individually on any of them but you'll see um all of the Personnel items including an appointment to the 10 year for um our third and fourth year teachers um can I ask a question of course where is American College of Education located that is is that an online online program really um really good one okay it's one of the stronger online programs it's really good okay uh appointment to third year uh second year first year approval of administrator contracts appointments transfers resignations for staff resignations retirements Etc all
056of that is there you can peruse that at your leisure if you're interested but it's all also included in the Personnel report so that'll be taken up in consent uh we will not need an executive session following meeting we already had one and that takes us to the business section Sean and the acceptance of the 2025 Bond sale official statement yep as the board is aware um you approved um the sale of some working cash fonds we had the actual sale um earlier in March and I'll say that it went very well um we had over 15 different bids um which Liz Hennessy who's our representative said that's the most she's ever seen um and it showed in our final numbers where um our true in our all in true interest cost is uh 40
057or four basis or 40 basis points or 410 of a percent lower um than what we expected so um tonight the board um will need to approve and I realized I didn't put the resolution in there um but tonight um we are uh recommending that the Board of Ed education approve the closing memo and the official um statement for the 2025 Bond sale can I get a motion to approve please so moved second any other questions for okay Terry could you please are we ready yep no hi benos hi to hi Moon's I TI hi Frost hi motion carries thank you um and then the officially the last part of this entire transaction I promise is the transfer uh excuse me the abatement of the working Cash Fund um when we closed this on March
05811th um we now or we closed it on the 2nd the sale was on the 11th um we now need to transfer the funds from the working cash fund to our operation uh and maintenance fund um to reimburse the district for expenses that they've already incurred for um capital projects so tonight we are recommending that the Board of Education approve the resolution abating 14,860 $836,000 Bond proceeds are deposited in the working cash fund as opposed is a bond and interest fund itself only for Debt Service and not for correct that's correct proceeds go into working cash because these were technically working cash bonds specifically if we were to sell um a bond a building bond for example or an operating rate bond then it would reflect specifically in either the Ed fund or the onm
059or potentially the capital projects fund but these types of Bonds were specifically working cash bonds okay thank you good question any other questions for Sean okay Terry could you please pull Ben hi s hi moons I TI I frost I no I carries six to nothing okay and ihsa membership is a yearly renewal Sean that'll be part of kand that's correct and then two first readings yep one is for um the extension of our contract with lauderbach and Ammond for um auditing Services they are the auditing firm that we've used for the last three years um their contract expired with the conclusion of the fiscal year 24 audit um we have engaged um the finance committee uh in return in terms of uh their um satisfaction um with lauderbach and um after some discussion U
060we connect Ed with Matt Baron who's the principal at labach and amen and um they will be presenting us with a quote um fairly shortly that will bring to the board um for uh we're going to look at both a three-year and a fiveyear um renewal to see which one ends up being better for the district um but we believe it'll be well below the cost uh the average cost that is out on the market right now which is $57,000 um a year um and then the second one is the uh annual um music instrument bid um that we bring to the board for replacement and or any new equipment that's needed um this year though we also will be um taking a look at our yearbook services and bringing that to the board um
061again in April and May so and uh I just want to back to the audit one thank you to Steve for he put a lot of time in speaking to the Auditors and kind of yes the some questions coming out of last year's audit so thank you for really putting in the time and and making sure that this makes s yeah and the one thing I did forget to mention is um we also asked about internal controls and targeting our Student Activities funds our athletic funds and so on um and they will include that in the quote as well not because we think there's issues no but just because it's a good practice practice to be to yes remind ourselves and for our administrators who are responsible for that what good internal control practices are
062so it's not that we have any concerns no and and with we have a new athletic director coming on we also have a new Student Activities director it's important for them to understand um the practices that we make them go through so that it protects the district and themselves and the monies that they're in charge transparent very transparent then you have your usual uh F requests y three of them y um two we were able to complete um we have one outstanding um and uh that shall be finished before the next board meeting that takes us to conent okay could I please get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second okay thank you could you please pull the board s here I mo i Ty i r h no hi hi we
063approved okay um few items for tonight the first is um some nice student profiles that uh Jamie and REE included in the uh information report just in case you don't get a chance to see the daily digest so thank you team for including that information um we have just an attachment that includes some important board dates um so please feel free to uh take note of those ream has also included those on the board calendar um as well um there's a newsletter uh with ELC updates and information and then uh two other items I think Wendy you had an update on the mid report you want to explain to the board kind of what what we did what you did with that yeah so those of you who've been with us for many many years
064know that we used to have kind of a midyear report it's kind of status of the goals we goals and action steps we set for our goals projects initiatives um and so this year we're bringing that back in kind of abbreviated fashion more than anything just to hold ourselves accountable and check like where are we with the goals that we set what do we want to do what do we need to um continue to do with still time left in second semester to get those things done that we want to get done um so what you have in front of you um is from all the division directors just a little bit of a laundry list of sorts of things that they're proud of things they've got an accomplished some even put their things like
065o not there yet but we're going to get there so just kind of so you can see the progress that they're already making this year uh according to the gpis that we set in August and September okay thank you thank you for doing that it's um good to get back to that and we we it'll get a little better we had been yeah it'll get better each year we had been doing that I think Co threw us a little bit but thank you for resurrecting and then um ending on a a good note um yep we had we had mentioned this before but we won the iasb award it's a two-year award so was awarded last call covering the 2024 and 2025 years and Terry and I were at the iasb annual dinner um last
066week and received the plaque so it's a nice little so thank you to everybody for doing it's just basically that you know we're doing good work good governance and you know we're checking all the boxes as far as the state is concerned as to how we should be it was an interesting dinner they mostly talked about the board uh Federal Department of of education and what it is and what it isn't and that nobody knew what was going on nor did we welcome to the club well I I mean and this was the state board that did the presentation and they well it's funny they were presenting their Future Vision 2030 or whatever they're calling it which is kind of the future where they want education in to go but everything was like well maybe
067but we don't know and it was a lot of question marks it was a lovely meeting reading it so we will get this congratulations um thank you yeah congratulations M president everyone and apparently we each get him little pin too so I will hand those out more time did they say how many which you must wear to every meeting everywhere you go I every everywhere you get to shopping and you go to groceries great so I'm not sure if you actually said for for Jamie's benefit it's actually the school board governance recognition award um did they say how many school boards get this um I think there's like there's a finite number within the state I don't know what it is but like six I think were presented with it in the future we only
068get one plaque so if we apply for again you can apply every two years and then we'll get these little tiny magnets to go in the future so we the goal would be to fill it up then maybe they'll give us another one look how efficient we are there's a lot of spots I think we could go for a good 10 12 years yeah game on yeah challenge accepted thank you well congratulations it's well deserved you all are fantastic oh I get a should do a jerk so moved okay all in favor all right hios