001we will call to order um Welcome to our February 7th 2023 regular Board of Education meeting May we have a roll call please Andrew Bradford here Angela Wilcox Barry alt Schuler here Leah Callister lazari here Aaron chanding here Katie Karam here Steve Wang all right I would like to turn it over immediately to Dr Hunt to introduce our Star-Spangled student good evening and thank you and if this is your first board meeting um I would love to say we have this amazing town here every month but uh thank you to our musicians and we'll get to recognize them in in a moment before I do that we have a program every month where we ask one of our exceptional elementary students to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and at this time I would
002ask that fifth grade student uh Lila yupate please come forward Lila if you can come on up here please um there she is so principals are asked to choose one student in their building in their Elementary School that really exemplifies who they are as a school and Leela has been selected to represent Guerrero of Elementary which I can personally relate to being just an exceptional school and building so congratulations Leela for this opportunity she's described by her principal and her teachers she's been enrolled at Grove since kindergarten and she's been recognized today for her being recognized today for her tremendous growth birth both personally and as a learner through Leela's Journey with Selective mutism she is continuously pushed herself persevered to overcome challenges and demonstrated bravery over the course of the past six years Leela
003has worked both inside and outside of school to develop and effectively use skills and strategies that led to high academic success while participating collaboratively in classes playing in the Grove Orchestra being a part of Grove's basketball team participating in Girl Scouts anchoring all School morning announcements performing in the speech tournament and performing a choreographed dance on stage at BHS last summer I'm out of breath having to read them Leela is an advocate for other students she actively engages with the selective mutism Association and participated this fall as a panelist at their National annual conference she records and she shares videos demonstrating how to help kids with Selective mutism Leela exemplifies to others how to breathe in the Brave and breathe out the fear which is one of her kid to kid tips there's no doubt
004that Lilo will not only continue to grow but will also make a significant positive impact on others ladies and gentlemen before I ask Lee let elitists in the Pledge of Allegiance please recognize her for all of her foreign [Applause] thank you from here congratulations [Applause] always a good way to start our meetings so before we get into any other business we've got some other recognitions uh so board members I apologize as you missed a lot of Talent on display in here when some of our real estate musicians were performing but at this time I'd like to turn it over to Bridget tileson to introduce some of our exceptional musical students [Applause] thank you [Applause] hello there we go good evening my name is Bridget Houston and I'm the K-12 director for fine Visual and Performing
005Arts in Barrington 220 and I always say I have the best job in the world working with these amazing musicians you saw some of them performing before the meeting tonight artists filmmakers technicians it's it's really a joy to see students creating and coming together through the Arts and we're so excited tonight to recognize night absolutely exceptional young people this evening who have achieved the highest level of musicianship in the state of Illinois it's an incredibly rigorous process to get to our district 7 Level and then to make it even further to the state level so I'm so excited to introduce you to these young people this evening and as I introduce each student I'm going to ask our wonderful music teachers to come on up near the gift bags and you guys can if your
006student comes up just hand out their gift bag and then students can stay up here as I introduce each one and I ask the teachers to share a little bit about each student that I'm going to speak about tonight then I also tried something new this year I asked them for their favorite musical memory from BHS so I'm going to share those two so we're going to start out with Ella bobian so if alabobian could come up here and then teachers if he could come up too so Ella is here tonight because she was selected for the All-State honors chorus as an alto 2. and I when I see Ella I think of her as a fifth grader when you came to do the summer musical do you remember that do you remember what musical
007it was High School Musical um and it's just been such a joy to see you grow and develop your talents throughout the years I can't believe you're a senior so when I asked Mr Pemberton about Ella he described her as passionate a natural stage and a highly invested in all of our curricular and co-curricular components of Fine Arts Ella said her favorite musical memory is performing in Mamma Mia last year around this time as Donna with all of her closest friends and getting to sing ABBA songs up on stage so congratulations Ella [Music] next we have Evan schwie so come on up um Evan is being recognized as an All-State honors Orchestra member violin one and Mr Sheldon has described Evan as meticulous and exacting as a musician um and he said his favorite memory
008was performing a movement of a box Sonata for the ninth grade Orchestra last year congratulations Evan next we have Kenny Gua All-State honors Orchestra violin 2. he's described by his teachers as passionate committed and expressive musician his favorite memory was when the BHS Orchestra went to watch the the famous musician Hillary Hahn play a Dvorak piece at the Chicago Symphony Center last year congratulations Kenny next we have Emmanuel Hall All-State Chorus tenor Mr Pemberton has said that Manny is multi-talented in a variety of areas in our school he has driven he is kind and he is positive in all of his interactions with others and I remember Manny when you made it to District Seven so the first step I saw you in the BHS Commons and I said Manny that's awesome congratulations you made
009it and do you remember what you said you said I'm no you said I'm not celebrating yet and I'm not celebrating until I make it to state so tonight is your night to celebrate [Applause] and I think I think that really speaks to the the work ethic and the drive of Manny and all these young people here tonight um you know music it isn't about Talent it's about hard work and dedication and really putting in the time putting in the effort Manny said his favorite memory was the acapella Valentine's Day singing grams one of my groups last year got somewhere around 150 requests and we spent the whole day sprinting around the school to make them all and to sing to people it was the most tiring but fun day of the year and it
010was a great bonding experience this was also an opportunity to interact and be more comfortable performing having an audience of our peers and teachers was a great opportunity to get out of our comfort zones congratulations foreign ER who you saw performing up here just a few minutes ago he was accepted to the All-State honors orchestra for cello and Mr Sheldon said that Matthew is dedicated and expressive and a rock star and I do think some of these pictures you look like a cellist rock star especially that one on the right from Sunday I kind of snuck that one in um and Matthew said his favorite music memory in BHS Fine Arts has probably been playing our music in Winterfest with the Ensemble Club it's been a highlight of my holiday season for sure and I
011think of you Matthew the first year we did Winterfest when it was a drive-through and Matthew was out for five six hours with his electric cello as the cars were driving past in the wind snow rain Evan was too and um with gloves with no fears because you've gotta have your fingers to play and I think that just showed like dedication he was just doing it to share music with the community and you will see him out performing everywhere um in the community so thank you and congratulations next congratulations next we have Ethan Kim Ethan was accepted to the Allstate honors band on clarinet and he is the first freshman from BHS to ever be accepted as an All-State musician Mr Karen's said that he just has an incredible work ethic and when I was
012talking to Mr Sheldon as well he said that Ethan is always joyful and excited about making music and we just you know so appreciate him and all he gives to our music community um Ethan said his favorite memory of this year his freshman year was during the choir concert when we were waiting to perform Jimmy who you'll meet in a minute myself and PSY would be backstage just talking and relaxing and having fun and that it was just like a nice um collaborative situation so congratulations next we have Sam pluster accepted to Allstate choir as a base two Sam is incredibly hard working he's a strong leader he's mature and he's incredibly dedicated to our choir programs both during the day and in after school experiences and he said his favorite musical memory was doing
013magical gigs throughout the Barrington area you guys are everywhere out singing congratulations next we have Grayson Seitz who's here as an All-State honors chorus member tenor one and teachers describe him as having Superior intellect being multi-talented in both Visual and Performing Arts which I can attest to as well that he has incredible musicianship and is very driven to learn um Grayson is a sophomore and said that his favorite memory was from last year when he joined 10 men's acapella one of our acapella groups and he said just in coming in that all the seniors who were there the presidents of 10 at the time were incredibly kind and talented and it was just a really warm welcome into the high school congratulations Grayson last but not least we have Jimmy Chung who was accepted to
014the All-State honors band for percussion first chair Jimmy is described by Mr Karen as being just an incredible musician with a high level of musical maturity finesse and intelligence um but what we all say about Jimmy is he is so reliable incredibly hard-working and that we just so appreciate that he'll jump in and join and contribute to any musical experience in anything for the community and that truly is a gift and he said his favorite memory was the London trip this winter if he didn't hear the band went to London so I got to know Jimmy a little better there and he said playing in the parade the London New Year's parade was a once in a lifetime experience the concert was an incredible environment at cadogan Hall and everything was very memorable congratulations Jimmy
015and I also wanted to just take them and I've got a few extra gift bags to just recognize the teachers uh K-12 who've guided these incredible young people um through their musical Journey from a very young age um you know they're here because of their hard work and because of the dedication and care of their music teachers and especially the three gentlemen here tonight so we've got Mr Pemberton from choir Mr Sheldon from Orchestra and Mr Karen from band and Mr Karen this year he's been here 31 years as the band director so he's guided a lot of young people through the Allstate process he is retiring this year so I think I'd be remiss to not give an extra special thanks to Mr Karen for all his work thank you so make sure you
016grab a little gift bag too for you three um so congratulations to all of you it it's just um such a meaningful thing you make us so proud and we're so happy that you share our gifts with the community congratulations All State News restaurants [Applause] [Music] a little bit come around do it and do it right okay How about if each of the students about if each of the students goes down on their left knee no I'm serious left knee please yay all right ready are there any parents that want to come up parents any parents all right when we sit down about your teachers [Applause] I think while everyone is settling back in just really quick students this is an amazing accomplishment that it was a result of just a tremendous amount of time
017and effort and energy but it doesn't happen without the staff so thank you staff and parents and parents all the lessons and the driving and the back and forth you're a big part of this as well so as as they exit please give everybody a big round of applause awesome so we still have more awesome recognitions um I'm going to turn this one over to uh High School principal Mr McWilliams to do recognition of one of our fine coaches good evening before I introduce Mr roncone I'd like to uh congratulate our students um we're really excited we're actually going to host an assembly next week to give our musicians an opportunity to show off their talents with their peers and we've got a couple of other things to celebrate so next week on the 16th
018we're really excited to spend some time looking and really admiring the fine work of our of our students both performances and and some of our athletic teams as well so something to look forward to um I have the pleasure of introducing um Mr John roncone Mr John roncone is a beloved social studies teacher by many he is our department chair of social studies and he's been our Head tennis coach for 22 years and a coach for 29 years and the voice of Barrington High School on Friday nights for as long as I can remember so John last year led a very talented group of of young men to third place at class 2A for uh his peers as the coach coach of the year for class 2A tennis in the state of Illinois congratulations Mr
019roncone well deserved it's a very challenging bracket to be able to break through to win a state trophy it's a real Testament to John he's got some very talented athletes but talented athletes that need a little bit of finessing of their skills and it does a lot to get the right students in the right place to be able to perform at the highest level so a lot of skill and talent to put into that so Mr roncone would you like to say a few words express my sincere gratitude McWilliams for always supporting us in the community put up with a lot over 29 years so um thank you again and thank all of you and we hope to do it again it was really sort of me thank you [Applause] for more photo okay let's
020do it sure oh yeah it was but like oh yeah one two three [Applause] all right well I get to uh give my report now after those fantastic presentations um we do have an exciting time this month with opening some new spaces and we've got several ribbon cutting ceremonies this month and even in next month as well um Dr Hunt since the board's been been focused mostly on superintendent search Dr Hunt's going to give some other updates for us in his report on some of the things that the board has has been working on so I wanted to make sure that I I discussed here for the community and for the staff know that the board recognizes in the importance of leadership at this time of transition as we search for a new superintendent as
021we mentioned in our last communication we have spent time reviewing and affirming some of the assets that we already have such as a new superintendent profile report and we put a link to that in our last communication it was create created back in November 2020 with input from all Barrington 220 stakeholders the board acknowledges the significance of continuity and stability as we continue to build out framework 220 and execute our community supported referendum the board is committed to working together and plans to have further updates later this week and we will also take time later in the year to recognize Dr Hunt and his contributions that we appreciate so much so thank you for your patience and stay tuned for a further update later this week on that so with that we're going to move
022into public comment um this is the portion of our meeting which we have set aside for public comment we value your thoughts and opinions we ensure all voices are respected and heard in accordance with board policy board Equity statement that states that we recognize Embrace and defend the identities abilities and voices of our diverse School community the board has agreed to the following rules from public comment which I am charged to enforce address the board at the appropriate time use the sign-in sheet which has been done identify oneself and be brief state your name your Elementary attendance area or relation to the district before you begin your comments your time may not be yielded to another person conduct yourself with respect and civility towards others and otherwise abide by board policy 8 30 visitors too
023in contact on school property addressed issues and do not attack people do not delay or impede the public comment or the work of the board instead of repeating comments presented consider standing to show your support as we're president I'm responsible for ensuring that we maintain order and we're able to get to the business of the Board of Education if the public is disrupted we will call a break in the meeting and we'll leave the room together and ensure that we do not violate the open meetings Act this is a board meeting that occurs in public it is not a public meeting the public comment is not a conversation and does not necessarily reflect the views of the board if any comments require further attention we are going to ask Dr Hunt to follow up and
024report back to the board so with that I would like to call forward Karen Morse welcome sure my name is Karen Morris I live in the district and my now adult children attended school here I'm an educator of nearly 40 years as a classroom teacher and administrator my expertise is in the area of curriculum development and social emotional learning or SEL with the upcoming election of school board members I want to express my desire with the current and upcoming members to continue supporting the inclusion of teaching SEL in schools and of the 2019 House Bill 246 a law requiring that we provide instruction materials Karen just one moment sir we cannot close the door we have to leave it open thank you that we give students materials and instruction needed to see themselves represented in
025history let me add this instruction must be delivered in a developmentally appropriate way scl instruction is not a new thing even Plato wrote about the importance of educating the whole child and a good character SEO programs don't call out a particular marginalized group or requirement details and descriptions on varied iterations of gender or a particular race or culture but rather these curriculum instructions instruct teachers to teach to an equity lens that includes fairness kindness inclusivity recognition of one another similarities and differences they teach self-management social awareness and self-awareness and how to develop healthy relationships and make responsible decisions I applaud the board's decision regarding the recent controversy highlighted by school boards across the country including this one regarding the discussion on gender specifically charged by the book gender queer by Maya kobabe last month NPR
026reported this book is now the most banned book by school libraries and districts across the country more than any other book for its explicit graphic descriptions this book was written for adults and I certainly understand the concern for children under 16 especially in those industry in Middle School it is on the barrington's recommended not in full agreement that this award-winning book is not appropriate for pre-teens I'm also here to say that uh even a book whose content is controversial can stimulate a valuable discussion about a topic in this case gender inequity and education and in society districts Across the Nation are having similar discussions for children to learn about diverse backgrounds and the lived experiences of others especially those that differ from their own they need Windows into the lives of others to understand their
027differences and mirrors to see how their lives are similar understanding their own biases and where they can help them with your understanding of cultures and backgrounds different from their own rather than Banning particular books and curriculum in school why not embrace the civil liberties we enjoy in this country and engage students in Rich discussions about the topic with trusted adults the conversations can and should continue at the dinner table teenagers are craving honest and transparent conversations and controversial topics they're interested in grappling with as individuals open-ended questions help young people develop and Define viewpoints based on facts and research rather than on hearsay and hurtful gossip what is gender what are there's the timer didn't go off but okay we're at three minutes so thank you very much we appreciate your thank you for feedback
028Hillary Whitney yeah go ahead thank you working good okay I'll begin by saying I wrote this with older information oh I'm sorry thank you I'm Hillary Whitney I actually would live in wakanda but I grew up in Barrington attended Roslyn station Barrington High School for a year um and now again live in wakanda and I have a young son um so I wrote this with some older information about uh the controversy that had come up with gender genderqueer and other banned books over the summer of last year but considering that elections are coming up again in the spring and undoubtedly this topic will come in front of you again I still wanted to present the the thoughts that I have this evening um so I see the motto for the district is to empower personal
029excellence in every learner in order to do that we have to empower children and create safe environments to discover and express their authentic identities um and so I feel that as a parent it is my it is my uh responsibility to advocate for queer students who may not be able to advocate for themselves and again since this topic will come up uh during 2023 elections and as the new um School reading list rolls out I encourage the board to continue to expand literature and curriculum available to students on gender studies we do more harm than good when we restrict children from learning about themselves and their natural behaviors desires and Curiosities we are effectively teaching our kids that they don't belong that their feelings aren't real important or safe when we say that material like
030this is unhealthy or off limits and while I only did attend Barrington High School for one year I went on to attend a private school where students and faculty would promptly be expelled if they were queer or outed meaning it couldn't be discussed questioned or nurtured and because of this the implication was that queer people do not matter and are not welcome here so on more than one occasion students at this school felt suicide was the only option and they unfortunately were successful the reality is queer people have always lived and thrived and been a wonderfully powered powerful contribution to our society across the globe and they will continue to do so whether or not we provide spaces for them in our schools restricting optional literature like this won't prevent kids from exploring their bodies
031their friends bodies or their own identities that will happen anyway but by providing age-appropriate material in a form to discuss this with their peers it promotes healthy self-discovery and a healthy sense of self thank you for your time any faith good evening my name is Amy faith my incoming kindergartner will attend Arnett C Lyons Elementary School in the fall I've listened to the last few board meetings and have seen and heard a lot of information and discussion related to a shift to full day kindergarten and I am here in support of that move from a fee-based enrichment option to a full day kindergarten model without an additional fee according to the Nea full day kindergarten boosts students academic achievement and it also strengthens their social and emotional skills and SEL standards have become increasingly more
032important to the state and area school districts in the last two years so this shift does make sense plus we all also know how impressionable kids are at a young age so creating these foundational skills in a full day kindergarten setting could be Monumental to Barrington students Nea also reports that data demonstrates that children in full day classes show greater reading and math achievement gains than those in half day classes and we do want our children to be successful from the start of their education in Barrington District 220. although then it shouldn't be a thirty seven hundred dollar fee option it should be offered as a full day model also a board member in the December meeting mentioned that A teacher told her the enrichment reinforces the skills addressed during the day so a full
033day kindergarten model would only bolster those reinforcements for social emotional and academic learning I know you had a more extensive list of area schools at your last meeting but if strong area districts like Kildeer District 96 Lake Zurich District 95 and Crystal Lake District 47. all see the value in the full day model can't we learn from them and stay competitive with them lastly at the Kindergarten Roundup last week during the informational session at the school I attended the presenter said that only three students out of about 67 at lines Elementary School only complete the offered half day and the rest of the kindergarten students stay for the afternoon in Richmond which means parents see the value in this option as well so I believe the district would be making a beneficial change by shifting
034to a full day kindergarten model without an additional fee by the next 2023-2024 school year thank you for your time and considerations pertaining to me thank you Amy [Applause] my name is Paul rudicky I've got two kids in the district one at the high school and one at Countryside I wanted to come tonight and express my sadness at the email I got last week about Dr Hunt's departure um I really enjoyed Dr Hunt getting to know you and and watching you preside over a couple years of what is absolutely pure chaos for our school district I promise you this is not generally the norm um but you know I I'm still sad to see you go um with that in mind um my comments to the board would be I look forward to the updates
035on the superintendent search that were alluded to in the email I think it was last week that came out um I look forward to any Community involvement in in helping in that process if there's going to be an option for the community to assist I believe there was last time um I'm hoping that you would keep your search focused on a superintendent who is supportive of the framework 220 plan that was worked on and took a lot of effort to bring to life and then sort of to get approved by the board uh over the last year or so so keeping the focus on social emotional learning diversity Equity inclusion and what success looks like for each student at an individual basis uh not some predefined test score version of what what is excellence and
036adds pressure to kids that don't need it so um with that in mind that's all I really had to say but I wanted to come and just say sorry I see you go Dr Hunt but um board that's what I would look for in the next superintendent thank you [Applause] all good reminders this evening um next up uh Dr Hunt would you like to give you a report thank you and I was actually going to end with this but I I think after Mr ridnicki's comments it maybe makes sense to do now um I had the Good Fortune of being recruited for an exceptional District that provides a wonderful experience for students close to home where my family is and that opportunity was only made difficult in terms of a decision because of the quality
037of community that I currently work in at Barrington and I've been forwarded some of the things that have been kind of pushed around about the reasons for departure and I want to be really clear this is a family-based decision um that is really best for me and the needs of my family right now and it was made difficult because this is an exceptional school district there are people on this board of education that have stepped forward helped me transition professionally and personally and worked really hard to integrate my family into this community there's people on the wall over there that work tirelessly to ensure that the exceptional educational experience that we have for students continues to happen every single day and there's a staff you know in in this District that takes that very very
038seriously so I want to be really clear this is about my family this is not about anything else and I am very fortunate and appreciative of the individuals on the sport of Education the individuals on the staff and this community who has been very receptive to me and my family so I I felt like it was really important to make that real clear and and and hopefully clear up any misconceptions that may be out there regarding this decision the other thing that I will you know want to say is I think the board has worked very very hard very very quickly on what makes sense and they are really leaning on what they've heard from the community in terms of my entrance and selection into this community and I respect that a great deal and
039then I lastly will certainly commit to doing whatever is necessary over the next few months to ensure that the work of framework 220 and the work that is going on in this District continues to move forward because it's not about one person it's about the collective whole and all the work that we've done over the last year and a half to really bring to light the issues and the desires of this community so I continue to to look forward to that work so I I'm very appreciative of this board I'm very appreciative of our team and I'm appreciative our staff for all you've done for me and I look forward to not tonight being an end but being able to work with you in transition to ensure that everything continues to move forward so thank
040you for allowing me to say that um now let's get to business a couple of items uh for updates I had the opportunity to attend the Ed red education legislative dinner we had a few of our board members that were able to attend as well this year and I encourage you you know as you consider things going forward uh in the future this year Ed red change kind of the format and structure of that they provided some professional development opportunities for school leaders as well as Board of Education members there was offerings on kind of a legislative Round Table reimagining what high school could look like freedom of speech within the digital age Early Childhood literacy School construction so I I think it was a great day for board members to be able to plug
041into maybe different sessions of interest to them as well as then come back come together at dinner we had a wonderful presentation from Kathy and I'm going to say credential I'm not sure that's exactly how it's pronounced but executive director of communication and strategic planning at Glenville 34 who gave a passionate conversation about brand and and what a brand and a story could be about school and what I found refreshing in that message was we were all kind of looking at each other going we do this we do a lot of this this is where we're at so I I think that uh it was it reinforced a lot of our branding our communication and the work that has been done with strategic planning so it was a great night and appreciate those that were
042able to attend as the Board of Education knows we have launched into the process for the design of a Fine Arts Center Barrington High School that was part of the referendum uh that that process we had a kickoff meeting last a couple weeks ago at this point led by Dr byn and our partners in design from dla that uh the the the the the conversation really revolved around engagement and how do we engage the right people in the conversation about what this space could and should look like to meet the needs of our school and Community going forward I mentioned this at Committee of the whole but there was a lot mentioned at Committee of the whole so I just want to bring this to you attention we do have tours established February 16th so
043next Thursday four board members to attend and look at other facilities I believe we're scheduled to go to Argo Ridgewood in Lake Zurich and see their facilities we will put kind of the times and where to arrive and all of that in your in your weekly this week as well but I just wanted to you know reinforce that date and again I feel very good about that process moving forward and I think there's a lot of excitement around the conversations last week we did have a a meeting with our design teams around framework 220 as the Board of Education knows we are kind of preparing to bring you the priorities and the work that's articulated in that plan I'm happy to kind of hear some of the conversations about full day kindergarten and some of
044the things that we've discussed because I think when you see the plan you'll start to see how this this this plays out or has been included in that plan our goal just looking at the weight of what's on the next couple of weeks or next couple of meetings is to bring that into to the board in over the course of two meetings where we'd focus on three priorities each meeting and probably the two meetings in March is one that will happen due to us having to shift some things internally for the board to consider in the next couple of meetings so really excited about that work and really that's an opportunity for us to update you and share but also hear back from you on what what the Strategic Direction what the Strategic actions of
045the district need to be moving forward as we move towards finalizing this plan and I think there's a tremendous amount of excitement in in the design teams and on our staff to actually quit talking about this and let's get to the work and I think that's uh um that energy is certainly uh billed I do want to follow up on the committee of the whole I had two takeaways or we had a little bit of homework assignment okay Dr Brian had homework assignment for coming out we're looking at two things we're working internally with our executive team on two things looking at Cost reductions to offset fees and full day kindergarten what that would take and we're going to bring to the board or share with the board an overview of how we see those
046things impacting our budget and what we would have to do to to kind of make room for those things the other thing is the board asked Dr bind to take at a high level look at Transportation if there was a change in services and delivery how play out from a cost standpoint I anticipate that work will be done next week and I will share that with information out to the board then we'll look for guidance on what conversations the next steps need to happen with it from there so I just wanted to take this chance to kind of articulate our timeline and also affirm that we're on the same page in terms of what the expectations were of what has to be brought back to the board and then I think this is last but
047not least uh I want to thank Dr Bine there's been a tremendous amount of conversation with this board about the property at Woodland it's an elementary school out by Sunny Hill it's been vacant for quite some time District's been leveraging and using it for storage we did close on a sale of that property last Thursday to finalize that with the park district I also want to say that you know kind of you know give you the background that the park district is working in conjunction with the boys and girls club who I believe has publicly announced that they have received a two million dollar Grant to help with the renovation and reconstruction of that facility to put a Boys and Girls Club facility for middle aged students in that property so this will be although
048off of our books in terms of a cost it is going to be a benefit for our students moving forward and we look forward to we've had a great partnership with the boys and girls club at Sunny Hill and we look forward to expanding that relationship as this is build out and and work with them to support their initiatives in helping young people so that concludes my report happy to answer any questions that you may have board comment I'm I'm excited about the opportunities that are going to happen for our students at Woodland and I thank the board again for your contributions to helping us get that get that done and if you haven't had a chance to even take a tour of some of the Boys and Girls clubs nearby it's it's it's really
049inspiring and and um I'm just excited about what what the potential is going to bring there for us for our students Dr Hein I think I told you a little too late that I know Steve and Katie and I and you we all kind of came in and were new at the same time and told you too late that you're not allowed to leave well well we're still on the board but I just just want to say that I'm appreciative so appreciative of all your efforts um you came at a really tumultuous time and helped lead us out of the height of the covid-19 pandemic and it's been a pleasure working with you I think we're going to get to celebrate you more later but just and I'm also glad that you know you're making
050the best decision for you and your family too it's not leaving yet I know I'm glad we get to keep you for a little bit longer anything else bored I was super impressed by the Fine Arts students it warms my heart I didn't think I would ever cry at a board meeting and I I think I did so thank you to the teachers and the faculty administrators and the parents and the students you're amazing speaking of Fine Arts we actually had the first district-wide Festival I think since the beginning of covid that was truly open to anybody who wanted to come on Sunday and it was fantastic Mr Sheldon and the other Orchestra teacher Educators from across our district LED it it was a celebration of black history month so every composition was written by
051a black musician so we had everybody from Florence price to Duke Ellington to Michael Jackson to the weekend and we had two cellists who just brought down the gym with a rendition of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal I think everybody was dancing in our hearts so that was so awesome to see it was just so very appreciative thank you to our Fine Arts to Bridget um and also uh we had an awesome celebration too at the Barrington White House on Saturday of Lunar New Year that bcic put out in a tonic I think 300 people from the community and our school district came out that was awesome super wonderful weekend awesome any other questions okay um any comments or on the questions on the informational reports how about committee reports I know Finance met today he's
052been busy we've got any other reports that yeah Finance met today um before this meeting and it was we had an update about utilities we have contracts for our utilities so that we can budget into the future for both natural gas and for electricity and our contracts are going to be coming up in October and December of next year so we got an update from Dr Bine about the costs of utilities and how they are rising um but they haven't been as high in the winters as we expected so he's going to keep us posted and uh and give us more information as we approach uh next fall on what's going to be a good decision to make and also we had an update on the business office you may have noticed that there is
053a new enhanced meritorious budget document on the website under the business office and it's longer than it's been before I know that I've you know been very curious to read 130 pages of it they put a lot of work into it and it's much more transparent so you can take a look at that this was in conjunction with uh with um an organization asbo who is an International Business Association of business offices I'm not getting that acronym right and so anyway the second part of it is going to be the certificate of excellence which is the year-end document that's going to wrap up and give a lot more information about our district our demographics and this is what some of our comparative districts do it takes it to a higher level um and you know
054I think we're proud of our finance office that they're taking this step to do um bigger work and uh be comparable to like other you know high high class school districts that that are similar to us and so it's a lot of work and we appreciate them so there's more to hear about that too as we go along awesome the only thing I wanted to point out and forgive me if I've misered this the budgets or excuse me the contracts are expiring in October and December of 2023 not 2024. have we heard about the certificate of excellence already have we gotten that or is that what we're waiting on we've not usually it takes about six months International response and it'll be the same thing with the Coe uh we'll get that in uh by
055the end of December and it'll be another six months probably until they make the announcement but uh the the work will be ongoing and we're very excited to have better information available for our board and community I want to talk about the referendum excellent committee thank you um we we met uh almost two weeks ago so as people who are have students or our parents at Countryside you know the countryside is all but done and we're going to be having a celebration this month the end of this month um Huff is maybe a couple weeks behind Countryside so we'll plan a celebration probably either March or because of spring break early April but um both are essentially on schedule we're hoping to be done by sometime during this semester and we are indeed going to
056be done by this time sometime during the semester so that's phenomenal um I'm repeating things people know but I just want to reiterate uh High School um all the fields will be ready for spring Sports so we're talking about softball and Lacrosse and um and baseball but again parents beware that The Spectator sections will not be in the best condition and certainly let um parents from opposing teams also know that they're going to have to we're going to kind of work around the parents but just know that our student athletes will be safe their their fields will be ready to go and they'll be able to you know have a successful um hopefully very successful spring season um as you can see if you walk around the high school the big changes are happening in
057front we have the little shell up and as I said in back the sports facilities outside are are um reaching completion once we get some nice weather we can do some some cement work and and some of the final pieces that need to happen so now the big stuff is happening inside the high school um and as you can imagine working in the high school when you still have students and and faculty and and things happening it's going to be a little touchy for the next year or so the analogy that we used in our meeting was more like the Domino swallowing when one Domino Falls the next one Falls the next one Falls we're going to be moving people around so that we can get the interior spaces done there's going to be a
058lot done this summer 2023 that's when the heavy duty stuff's going to happen we're going to have an empty school and we'll be able to really get get good good work done but um we're starting now with some of the moving Parts just so we're ready to really go full full swing come this summer as people know I just want to repeat there will be no academic summer school at Barrington High School the high school academics will be at Station Middle School the usual Middle School academics will be at Prairie Middle School and then because of construction it Rose the usual Rose summer school for elementary will be a Grove and um Sunny Hill and Roslyn will be normal in terms of their summer school Sports Camps will still take place at the high school
059but there will be no students in the South End of the high school they will only be at the north end where the where the sports fields are so we've heard that you've gotten your summer school information but just want to reiterate nothing happening at the high school in terms of summer school and then as as Dr bind mentioned the Fine Arts were really anxious and excited to start working on that and of course using our community and input from the community and we really want to make sure that you know all voices are heard uh with respect to the Fine Arts um this summer now we will start construction then at North Barrington at lines at the Early Learning Center and at um at Rose so there's more construction still happening and it's going
060to be another year and a half probably until we're totally done with all the high school stuff so um we're very excited about the referendum and if I could just add a separate subject I was at Ed red and I think it's real important for our school board members to be involved politically to talk to our legislators and you know Advocate on behalf of our our educa our education our our district so I I went to the legislative um it was it was a conversation really and I just want this the our district to know that I advocated both for local control and for limiting mandates the height the state tends to just really have lots of bills and and mandates and to try to understand that you know each district is unique and downstate
061is different than Chicago is different than Suburban so um it was a very um fruitful conversation and I definitely feel like I had people who heard what we had to say and there were some other you know very well spoken other board members from other districts who you know have similar concerns and we we really have some very good legislators who who are are great at listening and hopefully they can turn the listening into actual action and help us to be successful so just wanted to mention that awesome any other reports policy it's evident you you were working we got a few policies to review tonight we're meeting again on Valentine's Day so awesome okay well if there's no other reports um let's move to our consent agenda do we have a motion to approve
062the consent agenda as presented so moved second okay let me just let everyone know what we've got in um in our consent agenda we have minutes from January 10th both open and closed and minutes from January 24th or 2023 both open and closed that's the committee of the whole meeting we also have just one Finance report I'd like to just take the time to thank lake house media for their various film and video accessories donations from boom polls and tripods to lighting for photography and the like to appreciate their contribution um we also have a revised Personnel report does anybody have any comments or questions about any of that all right let's do a roll okay for informational reports I noticed that our suspensions are kind of backed down to pre-pandemic levels so I think
063that's a positive sign right Dr winkelmann it looks like they're cut in half compared with last year and I imagine that's due to the adjustment we had last year of coming back in person I just want to make sure it's clear that we're not voting on that as part of the concession sorry we're only voting on on what we just what I just listed to be clear any other comments or questions all right Andrew Bradford yes Leah colster lazari yes Angela Wilcox Steve Wang yes Katie Karam Aaron chanding yes Barry alt Schuler yes all right motion passes we have uh one action item do we have a motion for to consider to approve the student fees as are presented question oh so moved a second second quick summary yeah so the we've discussed this at
064a prior board meeting but the changes reflected um uh there's an increase in culinary arts fees uh at the high school and all other fees are recommended remain flat for the 22-23 school year that would be 23 24 right yeah correct that on the memo and I would recognize that that was something we would come a year was that did we come to that same conclusion with perhaps a reduction in fees if we're going to have a reduction in these we just have to um plan for it so oh correct which I know that they're planning to bring back to us but I'm not recalling if we discuss both kindergarten and fees that or do we just say that about kindergarten shared with the board the total fees that we would collect and of you
065know my recollection Dr Bond jump in is we that the board looked at kindergarten specifically in offsetting that in the future so yeah that doesn't impact this vote but is there there's no plan to look at offsetting fees for required materials like technology and things like that we certainly can look at at adjusting the few P's going forward we just have to agree upon what the you know what that number is going to be right and be able to plan for it I think that's what the board is interested in doing um we can certainly do that I think and I think with respect to full day kindergarten I think we're all very much aligned that it's a very important um it would be a positive addition we just have to make sure that we've
066got the appropriate space you know this is a program where um you know once we offer it it'll be really hard to to ever ever turn back on that so we want to make sure we've got the infrastructure in place um to sustain it going forward I think would be a so we just need some time to to make sure we've got that plan and if that's the direction we want to give to the administration on those on fully kindergarten and on these we can certainly give that direction and board I think what you'll see is when we provide this information you'll see different thresholds of costs and you know they can apply to fees full day kindergarten things of that nature so maybe you get that information out to you and then we can
067you know have that conversational deeper on what what we might want to offset perfect so because these are for the 23-24 school year if we were to reduce fees say techno the technology fee we would consider that for 24.25 right but for full day kindergarten we're looking at it for Academic Year 24 25 as well right or would it be 23 20. correct okay right so for both things we would look at 24.25 any other questions or comments are you ready to do a roll call is there a timeline on this do we we need to decide this tonight because this is for 23 24. I don't believe yet the answer yes this is time sensitive um it's also easier to give a refund than to delay The Collection registration process so if the board
068were to make some other changes over the the coming meetings for next year uh we're it's much easier to manage this way by approving this and then reversing it later if you were to choose to do that holding on to it does pose problems operationally to be able to get registration set up and rolling for this next year sounds like we are ready to take a roll call Mariel Schuler yes Leah colster lazari yes Katie Karam yes Aaron chanding yes Sandra Bradford yes Steve Wang yes Angela Wilcox yes right motion passes um so stay tuned parents for um the fee information we've got a couple discussion items first up is uh first reading of board policy I liked the way and maybe I didn't notice it before but we've got what was presented by press
069versus what we had edits for um so we just want to walk through each one of these yeah I'm impressed you notice the the formatting I was excited but then I didn't really use it as I read through yeah so so as Sandra mentioned um you know our committee met recently and the we have 16 items to discuss tonight the first 11 are updates in order to make sure that our policies reflect what's required based on recent legislation and so the policy committee did go through each of these policies and run through them to make sure that the updates presented by press were appropriate for the district and met the requirements set forth the five at the bottom of the list those were items that we as a district have discussed um or items that
070came up actually a couple board meetings ago that were requested to go back to policy committee to look at our current policy so we chose to look at uh the the remaining five there and and really the policy 620 uh that's been in several committees um over the last several months uh yeah we we have talked about that in our starting at our calendar committee uh Labor Management and policy committee so a lot of there's been a lot of eyes and attention so I anticipate we'll have some discussion on that one so starting with the the first list of 11 that I said are all updates based on requirements to make sure that our policies and language are reflective and current any questions or discussion question some of these things that we have here we've
071been talking about at the Bea negotiation so might that change our policy if we negotiate something different or so uh in particular the calendar yeah maybe leave of absence we'll get you know I think attorney leave I don't know that's a great Point Baron I think we've tried to be clear at the different committee meetings to give ourselves uh the ability to look at and adjust and react and I think we've we've had conversations openly about that that we are going to move forward with the process to have the discussions but there may be some necessary changes following that and I will turn it over to my colleagues to make sure I'm quoting correctly what I heard correct meetings yes yeah no it's a good point can we are there any specific questions on those
072changes presented by press those first is at 11 you said walk through the next five individually because I think there's probably different comments yep yep so let's start with uh we were just talking about policy 620 I will give uh an update but certainly like I said a lot of different individuals in this room have participated in those conversations so help me out and keep me honest so um this policy everything that's highlighted in blue uh we kind of use that color coding to mean that this is uh language uh adjustments and suggestions that we've put in place the premise here is that when uh policy 620 was last updated with some parameters this was an important part of our community discussions as we looked at our school calendar and really looked at that in
073depth as a community and we put a certain set of conditions in place to make sure that the policy reflected the wishes and desires of the community at that time um obviously we're a decade past when these things were put in place and due to just how the calendar Falls as well as where holidays fall as well as new legislation that requires days off in Illinois for elections and so forth and we've received some feedback the last few years from the community with a little bit of head scratcher when you have kids off and then you have them back in for a day and then they're off again and it also has an impact on just continuity of instruction right like we know that when we can have those full weeks or have breaks occur
074consecutively and then come back and then re-engage fully without having another day off that that's best practice right and so what we attempted to do was develop some language that would still honor and point to some of the discussions and the guidelines in the policy but allow a little bit of flexibility so to start with section two you know we understand that August 20th has been a date that's been a target for our community for a long time however starting with that August 20th date does create some odd scenarios when you just look at where the calendar Falls right now and so still making sure that we use very specific language to say we're going to Target a start date of August 20th so that's still our guidepost but looking then to incorporate a little
075bit of flexibility and not just wide open but actually structured with maybe two days maximum on either end of that so the 18th to the 22nd and then look at the calendar and where the days fall look at where our holidays line up look at where um you know the semesters line up all of those things take it into consideration and potentially provide some flexibility the other thing that we talked a lot about is actually adding number three where we really as a district have fallen into I think what's been very helpful for our community to work on our calendars uh two years out so that parents can rely on and depend on the schedule and be aware of it when they're trying to consider their own personal calendars and how things line up with
076their commitments to school right and so I think we've done a nice job of staying a couple years out and working hard to maintain that so that there's no surprises in the community and we certainly have more tools and access and availability you don't have to call the office anymore to ask when is the winter holiday next year because of our website and all of the amazing things are educations department has put together to communicate and make things readily accessible to our community that's my quick summary of a lot of discussion in a lot of groups so if I miss anything please policy members and let's have a discussion about it it's back to a couple meetings ago and so we started looking at it just with regard to years where there's an election you
077know because it was kind of funky with the calendar you know last year this year last year um so we started with that but then the more we talked with Teresa you know we tried to do this kind of balance between first semester and second semester so you don't have 10 more days in one semester versus another and so it starts to get kind of constrained depending on when holidays fall so um you know we thought that by putting these kind of you know bumpers on either side of the target dates it would help and we had Bea Melissa was there as well you know talking this through so hopefully this doesn't you know run afoul of anything that you're discussing in negotiations because we kind of went through all scenarios and then Teresa actually
078has gone through I don't know how many years like maybe five and kind of went through and said it won't be an issue this year won't be an issue with this year ooh this year may be one of those kind of amalgams where we might have a little bit of uh you know have to change it up a little bit but it felt like a great way you know I mean we didn't look out 20 years but at least from what we've written it kind of solves those problems that we saw as those you know come back on a Monday and then have off on Tuesday and I think this generally allows us to Target the end of the school year to have to occur before June right that was one of the things too
079that we were discussing that um I think I might be the only one here that was on the board when we um we put this policy in place with the with the August 20th start date um I think it was a great thing we did for the district to change the calendar my only comment is that um in here as you can see there was a if we were going to change the start date we would hold a public hearing right so I I think since we're changing it from August 20th to a Target date I would ask the board to consider that we do a public hearing at the next meeting and then we wouldn't do the second reading then and not at the next meeting but the meeting after just to give the
080community I mean we had an input 220 group of I should know the number 30 almost 40 community members that got together and and um and helped us make this recommendation to change the calendar and I agree we have done a really good job of getting on top of it and communicating the calendars out which we probably weren't doing as well back then um I I'm impressed that it was 10 years ago um so I would ask that we consider doing that so we can make sure that the community can be heard if they've got any concerns with the changes that are made to the policy sounds good sounds like a good idea I just have a question is is the main driver the Tuesday election day and we want to have Monday off or
081is there something else more going on it's it's that plus as was mentioned you know because it could be the end of the year where it's like day after Memorial Day Weekend Memorial Day please come back be focused on a day and some parents are like does that make the most sense and it's those little nuances of just kind of where the calendars have been falling lately have caused some weird breaks in the calendar so it's it's all of those things happened more than once right even in the past couple of years so well I think it's important because there's you know the students there's the Educators there's the parents you know you know the expectations of all those might have a little different lens you know to hear from everybody and it sounds like
082there's been a lot of listening but yeah I I think we need to listen to so I'll wait till after the public hearing to bring this back for a second reading is the directions go ahead all right the next uh policy that we reviewed is 650 health and wellness so this policy we were looking at um following up on some uh suggestions and questions that came up I think it was maybe two board meetings ago and looking at and considering food allergies in our in our policies so you can see we did come up with some suggested language for the board to consider tonight under the consistent school activities and environment healthy eating section four that was language the policy committee developed good job yeah food allergy parent hybrid we will move that then to
083Second reading the next one uh policy 7100 Health eye and dental examinations immunizations and exclusion of students [Applause] we oh I know why there's not blue in this one so this was a talking point we uh did follow up and look at what is required in the state versus our policy so uh Barry you were correct with the date that is required is different than what is in the policy but as a practice in our district we have found it helpful to start that process to make sure we're collecting the information but you are right it is a choice in our policy but um our health department and so forth uh internally as a district feels like that is working for us but certainly up for discussion as well okay on that one okay I
084just really want a clarification because yeah so that's perfect um policy 7180 prevention of in response to bullying intimidation harassment um we looked at this policy with that same uh notion and lens because sometimes um allergies or things can be a source of targeting or bullying and things of that nature and so which I'd also look at it from a student lens and um in our bullying policy and we had a I almost had a healthy discussion which is helpful rather than specifically calling out food allergies we just said health conditions because it could be latex allergy it could be any really condition trying to make that more all-encompassing so that was the language okay and then uh the last one policy eight one ten public suggestions and concerns we had some conversation around participation
085by the community and after seeking uh some guidance and advisement from our legal counsel created this paragraph As guidance and suggestions for matching what we provide for our students and what we State at our meetings but also then trying to provide a little bit additional information in this policy since um this policy is pertaining to public suggestions and concerns Lewis all the blues just new any questions or comments I think it looks good I think so too good work fire policy for it as well thank you lc620 comes to a public hearing next meeting and everything else goes to a second reading correct like what thank you thank you so next up is instructional materials report I'm just wondering how do we advertise so people know we're going to talk about the calendar so I
086mean it's it's like in big letters and not just by the way we're having a a hearing next meeting you know I I don't know if people feel like they're heard and that they can if they have something to say and whenever we do a public hearing it's separate I mean it's and we don't do a separate notice we just part it's part of the agenda correct please come to the meeting just so again people feel heard and I just don't want people to think we're sneaking it in you know so okay the whole point is to get some information so uh board we've we've talked over the last really year about uh the approval of instructional materials report and the timing of that and when that would come to the board so we're we're
087starting to get on that cycle that we've articulated uh to the board and turn it over to Dr Byrne and her team to review the instructional material report for the 23-24 school year awesome thanks so much for having us tonight and thank you to Dr Gill and Miss Hansen along with our literacy and Middle School social studies steering teams for all the hard work that they have put into preparing for tonight so tonight's presentation will cover the instructional materials report for the 23-24 school year and in the report you may have noticed any new materials were highlighted in yellow which will be the materials that we speak to tonight which are Elementary literacy materials to support the teach act at the elementary level and then Middle School social studies so always a nice reminder to
088remind us of our mission statement and our why tonight's presentation has four strategic priorities aligned to it personalized learning future Readiness inclusive education and stewardship aren't you proud Dave thank you I appreciate you working that in yeah I just wanted to take a moment and remind the board of our cycle of continuous Improvement or our curriculum review cycle which has four stages to it the first one is the research and plan stage so during that time our steering teams are reviewing our student data current best practice as it relates to research our standards both at the local level and state level and National level and then surveys to help determine the best course of action for moving forward the second stage is development and so this is the stage that we're currently in for both
089Elementary literacy and Middle School social studies and this is where the development of the curriculum happens as well as assessments and the designing of professional learning Begins the third stage is the implementation stage which teachers are implementing the curriculum and assessments monitoring student data and then providing rigorous professional learning to our staff members and then the four stage is the Monitor and refine stage which is monitoring both student and teacher progress and then making recommendations as needed and this is really important because in this District we believe that curriculum is dynamic in that static and anytime we are trying to meet the needs of all of our Learners we have to be willing to revise our Curriculum maps appropriately with that said students are our most important work in this district and it is vital
090that we always keep all of our Learners Early Childhood through our transition program at the core of everything we do so that's why you see them front and center in the circle here and I do want to call your attention to the research-based materials component because although that is the piece that we're talking about tonight that is one small piece to curriculum when we think about curriculum it's never a resource or a program it's one component to support a strong reliable and valuable and rigorous curriculum for all of our students and along with that is our assessments that we create and Implement for our students and during understandings as well as personal success skills from our learner profile standards of course and those could be State Standards or national standards and sometimes those are the
091same things and then last but certainly not least is our researched instructional best practices and then we also feel that it's very important to have an integrated approach to curriculum development because it's so important that each and every one of our Learners are able to access our Core Curriculum so you see that it's integrated because on all of our steering teams we have representation from extended services from our language programs from English language Learners as well as mtss and special education and then that leads to students being able to achieve their personal excellence now I'm going to hand it over to Dr Gill who will talk about elementary literacy okay thank you so just over two years ago we started a curriculum review cycle in elementary literacy since then we have read a total of
092over 80 different research journals and books pertaining to literacy from researchers around the world we've reviewed our Illinois learning standards in Reading Writing listening speaking and foundational skills we've analyzed our local data and compared us to other districts in our state as well as nationally we also saw input from parents and caregivers through a survey in the fall which over 400 families responded to and we hosted parent focus groups we also surveyed our teachers for their input also and hosted focus groups at every school for teachers and this time around too we thought it would be interesting to hear from students and so we also held some fifth grade focus groups so their input was really amazing um and literacy so when we finally started looking to select materials for our literacy curriculum we used
093a rubric with 78 indicators these indicators were a compilation from The Institute of educational services from Ed reports which is an independent company that reviews different materials for Education from our community input surveys as well as just framework 220 and our strategic plan so we began with 20 different programs from 18 different Publishers narrowed it down to two programs which we did a deeper dive into and asked teachers to try out some lessons and the team decided and voted unanimously to recommend into reading which is published by hope Mifflin Harcourt for use in our elementary schools um and so while we seek to empower personal excellence in every learner we also want to make sure that we're providing a really strong rigorous literacy core so that really every student very 220 develops the ability to
094independently create meaning from a wide range of sources and texts which is what reading is about and then use these new understandings to become skillful confident and critical readers writers and communicators that's really our ultimate goal and so some highlights of into reading include these materials support the Illinois learning standards they incorporate daily student reading and writing that is differentiated and personalized um it provides a regular structure and responds to the science of reading research it infuses also authentic complex texts within daily instruction and contains explicit listening and speaking instruction which is something that came up again and again and also includes explicit vocabulary grammar and spelling instruction as well so we're really excited about these new materials for our elementary schools and before I hand it off to Ms Hansen we'll talk a little
095bit about the teach act resource and I just wanted to take a minute and remind the board that we are already in compliance with the implementation of the teach act however we felt it important to continue to look at additional resources to support our students at all levels because what we've done is we have revised our instructional units so it's not a standalone unit for our students and in order to do so we needed some additional resources and so as a reminder the teaching Equitable Asian American community history act it requires that resources and instructional units include events of Asian American history the history of Asian Americans in both Illinois as well as the Midwest as well as the contributions of Asian Americans toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century onward so all of
096the resources help support our instructional units in that now we'll talk about Middle School social studies okay thank you four years ago we began our secondary Social Studies curriculum review this process started with developing a set of guiding principles for grades 6 through 12 rooted in research feedback and the standards each year since then we have worked to refresh specific courses including Global Studies U.S history AP comparative government Civics AP human geography and psychology at the high school this year we focused on refreshing the Middle School social Global Studies program so over the course of the last four years our 612 team has read numerous research articles I won't say 80. there's articles on social Global Studies learning including several books on the effective use of inquiry in the classroom we participated in a three-week
097course with the right question Institute through Harvard University that connected us to Educators worldwide working on inquiry and social studies we saw input through a survey of our students and small focus groups and pilot classrooms we reviewed the Illinois learning standards for social studies and the Illinois mandated units of study including the teach act as well as many others and then we finally sent a team of six through 12th grade teachers to the National social studies conference to learn from the best Minds in the field in the fall the team developed a rubric with 33 indicators called from research based rubrics like the equip rubric our guiding principles and indicators from the framework 220 work this rubric was used to do an initial evaluation of 18 different programs and resources the team narrowed those choices
098down to two and then completed a deeper dive so that included testing some of the lessons with students for those in-depth reviews the teachers used an additional rubric with close to 60 indicators aligned to state standards and research on social studies instruction based on this in-depth review the team determined that active classroom from social studies School service would meet our needs at six through eight 8th grade um determined that they wanted to use a blend of materials in order to meet their needs so they will be using active classroom for some of the teacher materials and resources the United States history voices and perspectives from McGraw-Hill for many of the student resources and then we'll also be using the mix Inc incubator curriculum entrepreneurship curriculum very well so some highlights of these programs include of
099course they support the Illinois state standards they incorporate all aspects of social studies required by the standards not just history so that includes Civics economics geography inquiry and research at all grade levels it infuses the inquiry skills throughout the learning process in each of these material sets they include multiple perspectives so students engage with the content using a variety of lenses they provide a rich variety of Assessments including pre-assessments projects self-reflections document-based writing checks for understanding and summative tests that we hope will prepare them for the high school including some of our AP work that we do there and it also includes interactive maps timelines charts graphs and images so students can explore and interact and make connections with content all of our materials will also be available in Spanish for our dual language folks
100and we'll be working to translate for our Chinese immersion and that's all we have for you tonight and as a reminder this will be an action item at the February 21st meeting it was into effect for the fall 2020 right both of these yeah great almost makes me want to go back to Middle School [Laughter] good stuff the teachers have done an incredible amount of work I have two really quick questions so Becky you mentioned spelling so it's I I love that because I mean I feel like you know all of our kids went through at different times and there's like you know the grade that didn't learn cursive and the grade where they kind of stopped doing spelling tests and I love that you're bringing that back because it's so important and I know
101that all of us kind of rely on technology to self-correct but you know when I make my kids write thank you notes I'm like Ugh they're better now they're much older but there was a time so I'm so glad to hear that that's coming back into the curriculum it's so important and then um Kelly I love like anything it when it said interactive timelines and maps and making connections I think that's so important and the document-based reading I think is so awesome that you're introducing that in Middle School considering that that's such a big part of a lot of the History AP tests so you know and and I think my kids that was kind of the first time they'd seen that when you know they were studying for the AP test so this looks
102great thank you thank you so much did I hear correctly like how many things that you did you had curriculum review there was a survey we don't use that word but 400 parents or Community 400 that's a lot and also student focus groups and framework 220 input that's amazing so thank you for doing all this all this work yeah and uh thank you for all the people behind the scenes who we should be thanking to I think I'd be remiss if I didn't comment on your work on the teach act too I really really appreciate that you looked and went beyond and said okay we're in compliance but how can we deepen and broaden um you know how we teach Asian American history which of course is American history too so um I it's just
103really meaningful for me you know as an Asian American who grew up in Illinois schools and didn't know anything about my community's history until I did a research project right in in eighth grade and didn't see anybody in history books who looked like me I think we had a little section on Japanese internment and that was it and so so um I just it's just deeply meaningful that um you know kids will get to learn about not their just their own history but their friends histories and you know different histories of people who who live in our community in various ways right and in ways that you know might have been hard and difficult like you know what happened when there were racist laws right but also the resilience of the community like Juan Kim
104Ark who didn't have citizenship but yet you know filed lawsuits in the Supreme Court just to pretty much say hey I'm a human being you know so just really appreciate that um you know I know sometimes it's like oh it's another mandate but I think that you know when we look at each other's history um and see how do we how can we expand that and how can we learn about each other more deeply it just it lifts our whole Community up so thank you that's very meaningful so and just a reminder board Dr Byrne mentioned this we will bring this for approval at the next meeting one of the things that the board um asked you know there was a time when we actually retroactively approved these um so there's all kinds of resources
105and links and I know they've worked hard to provide you those so if you have any questions uh between now and the next meeting please let us know I do have well one real quick question as so yeah totally agree Dr Hunt um we had the ability to go into depth on this as far as content though for the public consumption may I assume that these materials will be moved from executive content to public content on board docs tomorrow so that um community members can review these as well speak to that okay perfect the current instructional materials report is on our website and so the only difference is right the new items and you'll keep the highlights there so it's easy to oh yeah absolutely perfect okay it lead into our last discussion item feel
106free to stay oh thank you uh agenda items for our next meeting we're gonna have a hearing we're going to have the materials report as an action item we will have minor policies on our consent agenda um a little bit of discussion on budget planning for 2023-24 flexible learning the solar presentation and first reading on the more board policies I have a question um I know we had talked about having those community of the whole meetings like we had at Station Middle School in the fall where the community came and we talked about some topics and it was a more casual board meeting without votes and then we toured the middle school and I think we talked about having one too I know I the members of the community I talked to thought that was
107a really great event and it was informational I don't remember if we have a date for that on the calendar because people do not currently um that's probably something we would have to look at as I said the next probably two months of meetings are jam-packed full um so it's does is the board interested in a special meeting or trying to clear something in April or May I think we'd also discussed having to try to have one before the election too so that folks can have you know ready access to the incumbents I mean is that something that would probably mandate I guess a special meeting then okay well I don't think we need I'm sorry I understand yeah you're proposing well I'm not proposing I thought that's what we agreed to or at least
108uh considered having one before the election well it sounds like Dr Hunt saying that we're full until right we'd have to create another warnings yeah I mean I'm open to the people casual level I know the copies have been pretty successful um it's a I've been to some of those and people can talk and ask questions and it's been interesting things running up the calendar was a big discussion like one of them so we're you're proposing another quarterly Committee of the whole right to be added to it in favor of additional meetings I think if we're gonna do that we just have to have a topic and um maybe you can talk to your staff Dr Hunt and yeah we're back at the next meeting I'd just like to go through kind of looking out
109into you know April and see what topics we have food you could always come back to us in the Thursday update you know I mean I don't want our administrators to work too much either you know they do a lot of good work that we appreciate but yeah I thought you know what I'm hearing every Community wants to hear from us yeah I mean I agree if we can consolidate that would be better in my opinion as well don't wanna schedule managed nicely Maybe yeah if there's nothing for framework 220 that might be a good topic but why don't you take it back to your okay your team and you guys let us know at the in either in your weekly update or at the next meeting we can talk about your report so what
110I'm hearing you say is um the board would be comfortable for that to be destroyed that to be the format for feedback on framework I'm sorry feedback on the framework oh okay it's not an idea it's a question [Laughter] if your opportunities aboard to weigh into that so but it would be another meeting so do we have I guess as long as we can find the time and we've got folks that are willing to add a meeting to noodle that and I guess we only have framework updates coming up anyway so can we consult a consolidate those and it's a lot to do in a meeting and in in that format I mean the the objective was to bring it to the board to walk the board through to give feedback from the board I'm
111not sure that venue provides for that I mean that's a broader community-based piece which we were going to kind of take feedback from the board incorporate that then take it out and take it out so why don't why don't we talk about it internally yeah and see what what our agendas look like okay okay sure that sounds fair all right um do we have a motion to adjourn so it moved second all in favor all right in the opposition 9 45.