001if you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district you may submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you our BPS 101 Communications manager Harley dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the speakers thank you president me you've been here before you have three minutes the timer is up on the screen for you um I'm sorry this is Tracy graus here with us this evening um as I said last time I'm not the best public speaker so I apologize if I ramble um I just wanted to reiterate what I was here last here for last time um I do feel I got to meet with Mr Kim and I thought it was a great conversation very
002productive um I hope to see some great things from that um however I I still deep down even though we had that conversation I still have my concerns um because again my daughter came home today saying how there was physical violence in her classroom um and it was not addressed um so not today I'm sorry yesterday um so I just I really want to keep hitting home on JB Nelson needs help they need more assistance and I don't know how else to go about that I know I'm a sub but not one sub can make that change we need more um or just more um people to help out with the behaviors that are going on um but again like I said I just I just had a great conversation with Mr Kim um but
003again it's just it's happening all the time my daughter doesn't know who to go to there she doesn't know who she can go to she has no trust with anyone because nothing is helping the behaviors so she's like if I can't trust that so so and so is not going to hit so and so how can I go to that teacher and know that I feel safe so I'm really pleading that if there's something we can do to look into this I would really really really hope for that because all these behaviors are going to affect these children the older they get and they're only going to get bigger and harder to control right so that's pretty much my piece all right thank you record time that's the end of public that's end okay thank
004you next is BPS partners pod the be I know fight your way there today yes good evening everyone uh first off I'd like to Echo any and all expressions of thanks to our building custodians and maintenance and ground crew uh led by Mark Anderson and his team with our Trifecta of snow cold and Ice days and frozen pipes water leaks and insufficient Heat at the high school all just since returning from break I know that they put in many hours uh much before the beginning and ending of our school times these past few weeks and the Bea could not do our job without our Besa and our District staff counterparts so please accept our heart heartfelt thanks for your time and efforts during these weather challenges we also know that decisions made by Tom and
005the administration on whether to have school or cancel it and to move to e-learning or use emergency days will always be difficult ones to make as inevitably there will be those who support one of the decisions that is made and also those find fault with that same decision I want to thank Tom for using his resources to carefully weigh all the factors that led to the decisions that have been made over the past couple of weeks I know for sure that the safety of students and staff drove all decisions while adhering to the district philosophy of having a safe warm and dry learning environment for our students with these three snow days now behind us I hope we can all move on to Spring very quickly to keep you as a board in the loop
006we will be having our second District coordinating council meeting next Tuesday I know that this is not as a familiar committee to many of you as our established committees like CAC and plaque and rack but DCC was negotiated in our last contract as a way for admin and Bea to oversee the functioning of our district committees and to ensure that our collaborative structures are not only working but thriving we have several topics on our agenda but one that is quickly rising to the top of the discussion list is artificial intelligence or AI I know that this is not really the case but Ai and education has seemed to come virtually out of nowhere in the last couple of years and currently does have a prominent place in the mind of our Educators especially at the
007high school and middle school levels in terms of this topic I'd like to give you a few points to ponder as you continue to bring yourselves up to speed with the implications both positive and negative of AI in the classroom of the future as we navigate these ever evolving landscapes in education it's imperative to acknowledge and address the challenges that Educators face particularly in the context of artificial intelligence the integration of AI in education brings about both opportunity and obstacles that demand thoughtful consideration Educators play a crucial role in shaping the future of our students and as AI becomes more prevalent in our classrooms it is essential to recognize and tackle the challenges associated with its implementation here are just a few key points for for you to ponder as members of the board number
008one professional development with the integration of AI tools Educators need comprehensive and ongoing professional development programs these programs should focus on enhancing their technological skills an understanding of AI applications in education and adapting teaching methods to effectively incorporate AI tools into the learning environment number two resource allocation and I know Tony's not not here but I think his Spidey senses are tingling when I say that uh resource allocation means adequate resources including funding for updated technology and AI tools are necessary to ensure that Educators have the tools they need to succeed proper allocation of resources will Empower Educators to leverage AI in ways that enhance the learning experience for our students three ethical considerations AI in education raises ethical questions that need careful examination it is crucial to establish clear guidelines and policies regarding data
009privacy potential bias and the ethical use of AI tools in the classroom Educators should be provided with training to navigate these ethical considerations responsibly four student Equity AI has the potential to either accelerate or mitigate existing educational inequalities it is essential to ensure that AI tools are accessible to all students regardless of their social economic background the school board should work towards implementing policies that promote equity and inclusivity in the adoption of AI number five collaboration with stakeholders engaging with Educators parents students and the broader Community is vital in making informed decision about the integration of AI and education creating channels for open communication and collaboration will Foster a supportive environment for educators as they navigate the challenges that are posed by AI I urge you all as school board members to proactively address these
010challenges and look towards creating a framework that maximizes the benefits of AI while minimizing potential pitfalls by investing in the support and development of our Educators we can ensure that our students receive a well-rounded education that prepares them for the future now if you haven't quite figured it out yet that entire last section that I spoke about was generated by AI it literally took a matter of 4 seconds for AI to create a succinct example Laden list of excellent things to consider when navigating the Uncharted world of AI and education there is so much good that AI can do but there are also obvious dangers of AI that will need to be addressed by using our stakeholder groups crafting board policy and continually Gathering feedback on where we are as a district with our practices
011and policies while continuing to re-evaluate and make necessary changes in the future future this is purely the tip of the proverbial Iceberg when it comes to the next generation of technology in the classroom and it is one that is imperative that we stay ahead of but and not being run over by the AI bus like it or not AI use is becoming more common and accessible to our students every day Tom and I as co-chairs of DCC will be happy to speak to any of you about all the topics that we will be discussing at any of our meetings so please don't ever hesitate to reach out and set up a time to speak with us both so with that I will just close by saying that I hope that Mother Nature has had her
012fun with us for this winter and we can continue our school year with no more interruptions from her have a great rest of your night and I will see you all back here in February thanks next is Laura with Besa welcome Laura good evening um as I do every month I introduce to you a besta staff member and if you look at our slide this is our Branch as besta represents the branches of the educational tree and tonight I have the privilege of introducing Lorie steinis who is the kindergarten enrichment uh instructor at Louise White and um we asked her a series of questions and she wrote a story for me that I will read to you the story of how I came to BPS is similar to many other support staff I've met my
013kids attended School in the district and after many years of being a stay-at-home mom I was ready to reenter the workforce but wanted something flexible that still allowed me to spend Summers with my kids and to be home with them after school I have an undergraduate degree in advertising from the University of Illinois but knew I did not want to return to my pre previous field in 2014 when my youngest was in fourth grade I decided to give subbing a try and was hooked immediately during my six years of subbing I found a passion for working with kindergarteners I made it known to anyone who would listen to me that I love subbing in kindergarten and was soon being requested by teachers across the district I often popped into kindergarten classrooms when I had breaks
014in my schedule to offer an extra set of hands to help in any way that I could I even expanded my subbing to the Geneva School District just so I had more opportunity to work with the kindergarteners in 2021 when the district adopted the kindergarten enrichment program as a compliment to half day kindergarten I knew I found my perfect job I applied and was thrilled to be hired by Louise White as the halftime instructor this is my third year in the position and everyone who knows me knows that this is so much more than a job to me I love getting to know each one of these little people and hearing their stories I love watching them achieve things they didn't think they were capable of I love seeing them grow throughout the year and
015supporting them every step of the way I especially love finding fun and creative ways to help them learn be creative and build confidence probably the one thing that most people don't realize about my position is the kindergarten enrichment instructors spend a lot of time outside the classroom thinking about planning and prepping materials for our students I think there is a misconception that enrichment is just playtime or daycare we are with our class for Story Time literacy math centers crafts and science lessons we reinforce Concepts that were taught by the kindergarten teacher such as phonic skills letter recognition and math skills with a variety of Hands-On learning activities a few worksheets a lot of group discussions students also have an opportunity each day to play with a variety of different toys building materials craft supplies puzzles
016and dramatic play centers if you've ever spent time with kidergarten age group you know that their attention span is about 15 to 20 minutes I think she's being very generous and then they are ready to move on to something else there is a lot of activities to plan and prop for three hours each day by my calculations almost a thousand activities over the course of the school year and I love every minute of it when I'm not thinking of fun ideas to do in my classroom I enjoy spending time with my family traveling reading guard in cooking taking long walks and dabbling in various crafts I have three daughters all who attended poav schools my oldest is now a grad student studying speech language pathology at Illinois State University my middle daughter is a freshman
017at Iowa State University studying aerospace engineering and my youngest is a junior otavia high school where she plays tennis and is involved in many clubs and honor societies if I could change one thing about my job it would be that it wasn't going to be eliminated the state of Illinois is mandating full day kindergarten by the start of the 2027 school year and from what I've been told by Administration batavia's current halfday program plus enrichement doesn't satisfy the state's requirements I'm heartbroken that I won't be able to continue working at my dream job but am hopeful that I'll find an equally fulfilling position within the school district thank you Lori we really appreciate your hard work thank you thank you and as mentioned before our student ambassadors are not here today whatever they were entertaining
018um board Liaisons are there any committee updates Sue do you have any um I just want to Echo one thing tdd said before everybody Tunes out of the meeting to the end of the comments I do want to give a big shout out to the maintenance workers well done just a great job Todd said it all but I figure if I comment at the end people will yeah I'm with you so I just wanted to get that ahead of time throw me a curveball it's fine um beefy will meet on Thursday but I did want to let people know that if they go to bavia foundation.org you can find information on all our scholarships that are available um there are I'm not quite sure how many we have right now this year five six in
019different categories education nursing um different things you can talk to the counselors at the high school but go to the website the applications are due right before spring break fill them out very simple process and most of them for about $1,000 so do that and also February 1st is the deadline for Hall of Honor applic applicants applications so if you know of an alumni that you want to nominate a staff that you want to nominate um am's familiar with this um or a friend of bavia so fill it out get that in before February 1 so and you can go to the alumni nation's website that's part of Tavia foundation and read all about our alumni highlight of the month Amy Nelson grants are due February 2nd oh teacher grants are due February 2nd go
020thank you Brett I'm not involved on that side so I'm sure I'll find out Thursday about that but thank you Danielle you have any um no committee has met since our last meeting um I I haven't talked about Louise White my leis on school I just wanted to quickly say they had a board meeting uh last week the week before but you know I've sat in in a few um I'm just so impressed you know I I was on our um PTO board and volunteer for for storm so you know it's a lot of work just like what we do here and whatnot but I'm really impressed um with how well they work with each other and Dr scr it's like I just sit there and just like wow they just they get work done
021really well and the other part of it is like they're very aware of how to service their entire Community whether it is like a financial type of thing or just a timing of stuff they do a lot of things on the weekends they had like Bingo and they didn't just have one time slot they had two different ones and I mean I know that's something little but it's how you build your community because not everyone's off of work at the same time and it's just like natural for them and I it's something like those little things that really make a difference in the community so um I just I enjoy watching them kind of go to work they have a lot of variety of things they had like a I don't know if it's was
022like a a shop where like the kids could like a Christmas store but they had like a a bin you know with free free like gifts for people who maybe couldn't shop you know didn't have the money to and I think that's just really awesome to do just kind of remember like you're you have a wide variety of community um so I just kind of want to give them a shout out they work hard and think about their entire Community from what it seems okay thank you uh the insurance committee did meet on January 11th I was unable to attend but I sat down with Josh and he gave me a synopsis I'll read the notes but uh the committee reviewed a report from the well in the screenings from the fall and they just
023expressed a large number of the population expressed a desire to address health concerns like pre-diabetic symptoms and weight loss so there'll be a communication going out to the members on how to address some of those issues and then another topic was um the committee is going to recommend a renewal of Modern Health um Modern Health is a new Mental Health Resource it's an online resource that we implemented last year um you know I was naive at the time I thought when I think of mental health I think of going and sit a psychiatrist couch but actually the vast majority of people don't access it that way so it's a new program we're excited about it we're going to give it another year and then at that point we'll be able to review if we think
024it's worthwhile to continue so that's that's the synopsis of what was the committee felt it was helpful though definitely think it was helpful and um you know it's just hard to judge I mean it's a tricky thing because obviously like if everyone's in a good spot we're not accessing so it's hard to judge if it's people are accessing it to the level that's needed so but as of right now we figure we think it's yes because people are using it people are using it okay count uh so the rack had two meetings since our last board uh the one in December um they had a guest speaker uh Bob Lewis from PMA he just talked about alternative funding sources um they gave a warm safe dry update board approved it on the 19th and then
025um they reviewed the financial forecast and then in January's meeting um we had a small group discussions uh about the alternative funding sources they reviewed um the financial report and then we kind of broke up into small groups and um worked on uh this we had some homework to do for these Financial for we each have to take a section and kind of just give notices and review it and so forth okay Rob um the curriculum committee met last last week um and uh jokingly I I say I try to keep up with all the acronyms that go on try to focus it on that but Challenge on a serious note uh they are talking um some issues and I heard the DCC I know they're getting ready to um um send a proposal over
026there um the other interesting thing is uh I I for me I kind of listen to Just the process a little bit um and see how they're doing and uh I listed for some key words one of them was prioritization they said that they wanted to create some more focus and prioritize the issues that they wanted to address U because it could be overwhelming I think was some of the sentiment with all the the different things going on um the other point was they were talking about the curriculum week which I understand is only three days if I understood that correctly but uh um in this summer and it was nice to hear about that because they were talking about how to increase engagement um with the teachers um and then also how to make
027it more value add and and make it a worthwhile session um when they come to that uh that uh that meeting so there more to come but those were kind of the things that that I got out of the last meeting I don't have any updates okay uh my only update is I have appreciation to Rael for covering for me at the last two meetings I guess I had some I tried last time to have a and thank you to Josh for trying to arrange an ability for me to listen in but with the small groups it was very hard to listen and and pick up so I appreciate you um covering and working with me on that Rec um and then the only one I I think at the last board meeting we had
028had a previous meeting for Bick which if everybody's not aware that's effectively like the Uber Council of all the groups that work with bavia PTO you know those groups um and as usual I'm continually amazed at a couple of things and what I just what echoed with what you said Danielle was how well a lot of these organizations work within their their community and respond directly to the needs of that community and how diverse it is across Pavia School District as well um and how they meet those needs and and hearing others just talking about how one has has been running like winter wonderland for 20 plus years you know in some amazing events and then other one's trying like oh I want to do that how do you do that and and work through
029their trials and tribulations and celebrate their successes so um that would that meets quarterly right Tom roughly correct yeah and we'll be meeting this Saturday yeah okay thanks for the reminder so um so all right um Craig can I ask one question before you move on the meeting that you referenced that DCC okay more acronyms yeah I think I know them by now but do we have representation on that no okay but you will keep us appraised of what's going on because that what you talked about sounds important yeah that's that's kind of the way and correct me if I'm wrong that's kind of like the like this overarching group that's kind of making sure everybody's meeting right their requirements if there's anything that needs to be some cross collaboration they kind of feed up
030to that so it's kind of like select members of every group no and I get it and I know it was negotiated and everything I was just curious but I just want to make sure that we hear feedback thank you great anyone else anything else okay all right consent agenda according to our board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that do not usually require extensive discussion before board to action these items generally are routine recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency Steve is there anything you'd like to discuss yes surprise all right here we go 5.1 the approval of the uh December 19th 2023 uh meeting minutes 5.2 is our monthly Personnel report 5.3 is our monthly uh payroll and bills 5.4 is the renewal
031of the contract for our mental health support servic discussed 5.5 is the acceptance of the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year 2023 by 5.6 is the curriculum approval and 5.7 is the approval of the consent agenda anyone have any questions otherwise I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda question I just have one comment this is a copy of the annual comprehensive financial report it's 138 Pages we have a lot of talk about transparency about how we do business it's all right here so people are curious it's available to public document so right there I would encourage people to if they're curious about how we operate this is a good starting spot the other thing I will say is that I've seen paperwork done by other districts and what the state
032kind of requires as a that backs behind all of this this is a amazingly well digest way of putting the information together that's digestible so it's amazing compared to what I've seen in other districts I will say it's come a long way there's a lot of hard work that go into it now and has accurate and it's easily readable yeah is good understandable they just it yeah you understand not an accountant or CFO so I did have some questions and I know it's Hon's not here but just for as we was talking about transparency um I'll just ask them and then I know that they'll get back to me later in the notes so the first one was is part of the um sure I see it right [Music] the uh invoice Journal was um
033I was just curious is what we like LinkedIn we have a bill for 9,934 I didn't know if that was like for to um like uh promoting like our uh open positions or like I just because my linkedin's free so I was just curious I don't know what LinkedIn does with all the programs that they offer part of the conversation we you've had is trying to create a more profession new Avenue to recruiting using professional platforms and entities have to pay it's not a free account for for an official like business entity so that's what I was just making like that's I'm sure that's what it was for um and then the other one was uh safe and civil schools was that for the was that for Champs do we know I and it's okay
034okay yeah champs training okay and then one then the next one was about just the mental health support and I saw that in the report says that 18% um used it and I I don't remember did they get like how many sessions did they get for like they got so many sessions and then they had to pay I was just curious if like that 18% used all their sessions allocated um that was just something and then in this report the acrf um in the special uh Ed report section um when we have like the breakout is our partials in that one or are they in like a different section they are included there it's not necessarily um everything that was been filled it was what was positioned for okay and then I know acronyms but
035I don't what's CTE programs rear and Technical education yep thank you and then what about the in inter Scholastic programs um I I just I was just on there and I was like what is what is that one you're like athletic Athletics that's athletic okay activities all of those okay yeah okay and I think you were I saw you were you said so that the gifted and honors those are not part of that particular fund okay okay um and then on page 131 full-time equivalent employees page um is this what was actually filled or is this what is what we have and open positions like um like let's and and I don't want to pull it up let's say it said we have 480 positions was that like the employees that we have or is
036that maybe we only have 470 and 10 open I guess that was just my on the on the I if it's on this so it's but I want to make sure I think on the on the presentation this I believe is our actual head count yeah okay this is our live head count okay yeah um and part of that and I appreciate you raising this this was a there were just some general notes I was going to share about our act for report um as you can see Tony's not here tonight so I thought um this was actually you hit a page I wanted to highlight uh uh if you recall earlier this school year in the fall when Tony was reviewing uh preliminary budgets and preparing reports for the board to see and also
037published to the uh public this was one of the areas that he had covered and this covers all of our positional history as well if you take a look there's a there's a look back of almost 10 years and actually it is 10 years on this particular page um and so the look back history kind of pretty accurately I would say accurately to the headcount delineates what our historical positions uh look like that we've employed um reason why I wanted to bring this up is because in the Strategic survey that was launched prior to winter break there seems to be amongst the community and even within our internal stakeholders some folks who still have a little bit of a misunderstanding about some historical positions and the one that I saw that came up a little
038bit was in reference to just um there over the last 10 years has been an increase in administration oh yeah and it's actually been completely the opposite and when I dug into it uh the history I found is that um right around the transition uh of the two previous superintendents um prior board I don't think any of you were on that board had issued a directive to Dr Hitchens uh to take a look at carving back administrative positions which she did so if you take a look at the nine-year look back which was all under Dr hitch's time the district did reduce nine administrative positions it went from 39 to 30 administrators and I just wanted to make sure that whatever I could rectify for the for the public I wanted to make that really
039clear that Administration has not been added that is I was there and that is I think Brad and Steve you know this that that's been a long held fallacy that I I hear that all the time okay and we've told the public that okay all the time yeah and we can show them numbers they still don't believe us okay I don't know what that's all right I mean so I just thought it'd be worth noting coming from you with fresh eyes yeah I did a little bit of digging and the team was very helpful we got all thatal but in this report you're right like it's a really digestible format right because you can see all the years lining up to each other um and then uh one of the notable things um I do
040believe Tony highlighted this back in the fall but the interest on investments actually came back a little bit stronger than even what he was predicting at the time so one of the things that we want to make you aware of is it's higher than what we thought it would be but at the same time with what the board approved for our capital projects plan for The Five-Year Plan in December those funds that were invested are going to be withdrawn for our capital projects so when you see next year you can anticipate we will not have nearly if any the amount of interest that the the district has been able to gain from that because we need to invest those into our buildings uh capital projects so that's a big thing and then if you see
041any areas of surplus part of that is because we have been trying to actively staff certain openings and we've remained keeping we've kept continued to keep those positions open uh such as our classroom pair professionals so there's earmarked funds for that but that should hopefully help explain any of those things and then if anyone's interested uh page 63 and Page 66 will give you imrf and TRS nine-year look backs on um some of the financial details and uh I'm gonna give CED to Tony he's as he likes to put it the numbers tell a story so and Tony has a funny way of reading stories through the thumbers through the data right um which is great so and to uh board member kilberg point the EA report is posted on our website and if anyone
042is interested in finding it all you have to do is go to the business department Tab and then look under Financial reports and then you'll see uh there are actually I believe several years of reports lined up there with links all right and I just have one more uh summer school and I don't remember um was summer school offered for all of our schools or is it only a certain number we utilize mid Valley's esy program for special education we run an online teacher connected to student e program in the summer and then we run credit recovery at the high school but we don't run a very big Su school program that was all I had thanks hon right the only thing I wanted to add is I noticed that for once in a while
043the staff hiring is more than the other two sections so the there's appreciate whatever efforts are bringing people in right now so thank you Steve and others all right let's keep it going yeah no kidding um I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenta as presented so so moved so moved by Sue second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes yes yes yes yes yes Thomas yes thank you motion passes reports Tom is there anything you'd like to share uh foas for this month's uh board to review are presented I don't know if there's any questions but any questions no I have none okay okay and treasur reports did you already do that already um so in in discussing with Tony there are no um outliers that the
044Board needs their attention drawn to in terms of they being other than just typical monthly business that the board is being presented with if you do have any specific questions please feel free to direct them my way and I'll make sure you get answers great thank you any questions send them to Tom all right so we have a couple items on for Action today so item 7.1 is approve purchase of the cyber security platform and considering my office nearly got hecked twice over the holiday and successfully rebutted it I'm interested in hearing this one so Tom you're leading this one I understand yes okay um so as been indicated in the memo to the board this is an endpoint detection and Response Security platform um and it creates just another layer of protection on our
045devices both for students and for staff um this particular product is a a little more newer and updated version it has a little more it has more support than what we've been using um it it provides more of a 247 wraparound support for us the customer service uh we've been using um the pre the pre previous product we're going to replace has been with the district for approximately 5 years um and I know uh Dave and his team has spent a lot of time taking a look at what the best option is right now for us to move to um the the one of the things that strengths that Dave has pointed to with this with this product is that the response time will allow us to actually try and slightly be ahead of the
046game and proactive to situations rather than reactive at times um I think that's that that's it and the customer service with anything with technology related is always a big thing so 247 is really nice too and as you probably can sense like our teams middle night something's happening from home they can get in and then start using our systems to do what they got to do right any questions on that one do we know how much we were paying for carbon black um what we were paying for carbon black I do the one that we're replacing yeah no I do not have that but we can get that but a question I always have is was this anticipated and is it within budget that we had allocated for this yeah yes yes my only comment
047is one bad day is totally worth $52,000 for what is happening to people they the the ransomware type stuff which I understand this is one of those things that would fight are usually asking for that amount at minimum minimum so and the implications to the school district are vast if this isn't handled correctly so I have great faith placed in Dave and his team and everyone else all right um if there are no other questions I will entertain a motion to approve purchase of crowd strike in the amount of 52,900 second by Danielle I think we're doing a roll call on this yep Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes Thomas yes yes yes Meadows yes sler yes okay thank you motion passes item 7.2 approve purchase of data center storage Tom
048y all right so this particular item um if you hear the word data you probably can sense this is critical um this is going to be a shift to uh not only store but protect all of the data that is backed up it resides in our servers and obviously there are layers of how it is stored that are layers of security and protocols um we are shifting away from our current uh product because it's actually ran to the end of its life and usage so again Dave and team spent a lot of time taking a look as to what would be a best product for us to protect our data and store it um knowing that this is a service that needs to be replaced at this point so at a cost of $47,900 um
049and we are looking at replacing something we've been using for seven years when we started with our current product we're moving away from it was on a 5year agreement we were able to get it extended for two more years so we had used it for seven years but now it's run to its end of its life with this new product in group we are looking for a fiveyear agreement or asking to approve a five-year agreement because they have uh not they will not be any end in any service life to anything we are going to be getting out of this package so we are guaranteed for minimum five years that they'll be able to support and update anything that we're using and we will be replacing Hardware hence why it's a little bit more of
050a expensive cost when you come to this kind of data storage um and I think previously we were hovering at approximately $390,000 with our previous product so this is a little bit more but as you all know in the world of technology with inflation and just Rising costs um this was a the very fair market value that David to would recommend and Aaron he's starting alert he's writing it right in there in the sentence down so is this a um onetime fee for the five years is that how that works like and we pay it up front um I believe it's actually dispersed over time I don't think we just cut the big check right up front but part of that yeah it it is it is the chunk there's a 390,000 was in total
051over seven years and um again as their services were declining it's kind of a hard to call it Apples to Apples but uh with this agreement at the price that we're ask that we were able to secure this gives us a good bang for our buck with the customer service support as well and the Hardware switch outs any other questions okay with um no other questions I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase of HP Electra storage arrays in the amount of $47,900 yeser yes yes Thomas yes motion passes thank you very much send along our appreciation to DAV uh staff and board comments Administration comments Tom anything yeah so uh just a couple start out with a few General business items uh beefy was discussed this evening one of the other things is
052that beefy is looking for anyone who's interested in becoming an active board M um to support the leadership of the beefy group I can promise you any War's a camer ey anybody who's interested it's a fun group there are really good baked goods homemade and uh Todd you can attest this right we have a lot of laughs lot of good work lot of cting B Goods Todd March no March kidding me yeah March she's the best um citizen of the year that's right that's right oh citizen of the year that's right and you know it's really good because if you put it on a napkin it's saturated afterwards um um the other thing I had mentioned earlier we do have our pava intergovernmental Council this Saturday uh one thing I wanted to note for the
053public please support your pto's if you cannot serve as an officer please just try and volunteer for any of their events I'm trying to look at the camera because I know this is me but anyway because we have Amy and Todd um but uh there there are they're great people great leaders putting in time for a kids experience we also have partnership groups like bspn beefy all these other groups that come and also be are part of this conversation um what I will say is they have had awesome conversations supporting each other it's an idea exchange that morning um new presidents of pto's are asking veteran PTO for ideas how to engage how did you run your bingo what business businesses are more friendly and more apt to donate more of the proceeds um there
054are some of our businesses in our community that won't take any of cut and they won't they'll just cover cost on the meal and the drinks and they give everything right back to that building which is so commendable it kind of goes back to it why it's great Community local businesses so I say support your local businesses um and then the restaurants know I like to and then uh the other update is strategic plan uh we were able to uh accomplish our first major phase or or second if you think about the survey but we had on January 8th our Institute day we were able to uh have our Bulldog ambassadors lead the sessions at the high school want to thank everybody in this district for being a part of that um for being just
055amazing and how they handled the situation our students were amazing the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so excited and now we'll enter into the next stages and phas phases where we're going to engage some of our partnership groups um and get more voices you know and then you know as the plan was enumerated back in September you know by April we hope to have a good draft to present publicly and then bring back to that other Institute day on April 26th get more feedback on what has been synthesized then by the May board meeting we hope that you as a board are able to take a look at that full product and you too have a conversation about all the p that are being um presented to you um in the meantime we did have
056our first steering committee we'll have one at the end of this month I'm about to prepare my final report to them on how our stages have gone so far with the survey and with round one and then they will get that from me and we meet next week so I want to thank everybody who's on the steering committee as well it's one more night and one more thing some of these people have to be a part of um and if you looked at the names they're pretty much names you've seen on other stuff so so I just want to say thanks to everybody who's been a part of that work um and I think the the last thing I just want to do is thank as has been noted all of our operations teams and
057operations Personnel um typically just for all the work they do just to keep us in school right normal under normal conditions but under the last two weeks we've certainly undergone challenging situations beyond the norm um and I I just say this I when I see them I think of a quote that I've shared with our leadership team back this past summer when we talk about uh Simon synic has a saying that out of his book Leaders Eat Last and it talks about um how we choose to do anything is how we're going to do everything and that team has come together they worked as a team they all stepped up people were going to other places that they weren't necessarily assigned to because there was just heavy needs and different spots um and I really
058appreciate that and what I am also trying to hopefully move us into the next stage is just about our general communication transparency and being proactive about identif sharing what's going on right so if you notice you know we wanted to make sure we shared that the high school issues were not due to any type of negligence or error or you know we could have replaced basically really bad weather hit spots in a on a wing of our building those heating systems have been replaced and maintained over the years and as anyone knows with metal when you continue fix or solder or replace Parts the metal just compromises the Integrity of that structure starts to compromise and with the freezing temperatures you had all these bad situations come together at once but our teams did an
059amazing job so just wanted to say thanks to them Tom would you mind and not we've gone over this year after year but just for new people in the district with kindergarten parents maybe go over the procedure of how to determine whether to close school determine if it's an e-learning date you know what your procedure is because there is it's what I so it's an early morning yes well well yeah I know and but I know that you know that a lot of us know that you especially know that but if you could just maybe give some clarity to sure people out there who may not know it's not just your you do not just make the call we don't make that call no no no it's much much more intricate than that it is
060uh you know depending on what the weather situation or uh you know whatever is coming our way uh if we can get ahead of it typically um we as a team will internally check with each other start gauging what we're thinking and seeing um then I belong to a few threads of superintendence uh one in particular that we regularly communicate with these kind of conditions is the Cane County group we talk we meet and then we decide like where the validity not validity uh what we what we're anticipating from the reporting we're seeing right so we'll jump on a national weather service call which is what I did um last week when we decided to move to e-learning at a very early time right the Thursday before and we were able to do that because
061the National Weather Service was very clear about things and indicators that were coming um collaboration with our County uh superintendents and school districts and then in collaboration with the administration and Mark and his Ops teams and then sometimes uh oh and we do also I communicate with certain partnership leadership groups such as the city of bavia um you know I I'll keep in touch with our Park District friends uh making sure because we have programming that occurs you know in the buildings with them so we try and make sure we got full communication going on including Mid Valley Co-op uh and Lisa py and I also maintain communication there and I always try and give them the heads UPS too um you know I reached out to Todd and Mara you know like for for
062example like today's situation want to gauge what they're thinking so just trying to get all this feedback from all these stakeholders and then if we're if it's if we determine it's too early we will agree the superintendent we agree that we'll meet at 4:00 a.m. or 4:15 a.m. the following morning um and then this is where again kudos to our Ops teams and leaders you know uh Mark in particular has been my eyes and ears on the ground uh as soon as we're calling it at 4:15 I marks up at 3:45 we check in and and so is the team Steve yanan he was up early and uh we uh we gather up Mark hits the ground gives me our Intel what's going on and what it looks like he has eyes and ears with
063our our partners as well uh you know from streets and sanitation Etc and then we tried do the best thing we can in terms of making that call uh for our region now for example the other areas Outlets we pay attention to Kane County Sheriff's Department K do like there are other organizations that when they when they chime in you know we're we're trying to take it that into account as well so um yeah I I hopefully that's that kind of highlights the the comprehensive nature of what go it's not just you sitting at home going yeah but I mean there's people that think that so yeah no and you know what In fairness I've gotten uh you know people have shared their uh feelings about the decisions we've made the last two weeks on
064various calls and um I appreciate it it's it's it's feedback I think it's always important some some supported the decisions some were not in agreement totally understand completely understand that so but I appreciate you just giving some insight into that so maybe people get aidea team did I miss anything you're you're all up with me I think you did well yeah all right I appreciate it we're still waiting for breakfast hey hey he didn't bring donuts he Donuts he Donuts one day I I saw those donuts yeah yeah yeah so so that's everything from my end a little more long winded tonight than normal sorry okay all right board comments I'll since I made Sue start RJ do you want to start sure thank you for that long I mean insightful information it all boils
065down to one text that you get which is so funny cuz it's like hours and hours of thinking but anytime that we have an opportunity to air on the side of safety for our staff students I'm I'm happy that that's the way that we go with it so um and the early notification is very appreciative or appreciated and to all of you thank you all for doing that work um I don't have much thank you for being here that's it Rob um just to reiterate uh the thanks to the building maintenance and I'm wondering Tom if you know there's something we can acknowledge or recognize them for their work over the last couple of weeks uh I'd be in favor of that support that so um the other comment was regarding um the e-learning when
066we did have that opportunity to Pivot to that um that day for the the students um I I sent a picture to Tom of my daughter sitting at the kitchen um Island um working on a math problem I think she had up and stuff like that so uh I know it's not easy it's not ideal that situation but I as a parent I was appreciative that there was still learning going on in that day and that that means you know teachers and staff have to be prepared for that and um get the lessons out so uh I was personally pleased with uh you know the the effort that went into that those e-learning days so just a comment there it uh yeah just appreciation to the maintenance Crews for the past two weeks and what
067they've had to go to um appreciate that and uh with R.J said is anything that has to do with SA we got to think of safety first and you know especially with the warm safe dry how that's on our agenda that's what we need to do that's need to be first and foremost safety and then thanks to M neston for presenting today and all the work that you're doing in our community appreciate it thanks Todd thanks Todd appreciate your comments uh I'll just eckle everybody Mark Anderson his team uh when I find the motiv ation I like to work out pretty early in the morning about 5:00 and it takes me right by the high school and over the past few weeks I'll see the trucks up and running and going to work and so
068those people are putting in a full day's work before most of us are even out of bed and um I think that's just people don't appreciate like how hard they're working in difficult conditions it's stressful um and so they are definitely appreciated and I'd also like to thank the community members because there's a lot of people that have property that's on a path where a lot of students walk and the citizens that take the time and care and effort to make sure that those are safe to pass that is definitely appreciated just in general people having a little more patience because everything slows down is more complicated than that so I want to commend Tom I don't think you've slept much the last two weeks um you know with the situation at the high school
069that was sort of a 247 type of situation and so um I just appreciate the team it's you know the weather is it's going to do what it's going to do and there's some things you can't prevent so I appreciate everyone doing what they they can and I want to also say the communication has been very good I think everyone in the community if they um are paying attention know what's going on why some decisions are being made now you can have a difference opinion on occasion on decisions but at least we're giving our rationale why we're doing it so I think that's appreciated and I do want to teas something up at the high school I just have been attending this week the the National Air Conditioning Heating Refrigeration conference in Chicago at mccor
070place it's the largest in the country and um I just want to say I want to teae up the board in the community that our systems at the high school are very old you can only repair for so long and that we're going to have to have some discussions about that very very soon so be prepared for that and I guess I'll just say I hope Todd's right and Winter's done with us but um usually doesn't work that way in Illinois so just again just be care my my daughter 17 came home one day and spun her out on the Main Street so just everyone just be careful take care of each other we'll get through it so thank you that's great um yeah addon appreciation um for our buildings and grounds our admin Tom
071staff everybody um it's been rough but like to communicate like about the communication that is one thing that I definitely have taken away is an appreciation for letting people know as soon as possible being really transparent like you said we can kind going all have our own opinions and needs and you know frustrations one way or another we can't make everyone happy but one thing is for sure it's very clear it's you know very timely um and that's really appreciative I mean it has to be hard we have people who have various needs um but I think that no matter what we're doing that safety peace and keeping everyone warm safe dry is priority um and talk about what Rob talked about I have a a first grader and a sixth grader and I I
072did bva that the one year the complete year um with both kids and so it was kind of like a little flashback but I was really really pleased with everything I mean it was really smooth and I think one of the biggest takeaways um and conversations I had with people when they were a little frustrated like maybe my kid really can't do remote this and that everybody was really really accommodating hey if you have questions I'm going to be here I'll be here for you reach out to me and even the emails to the parents were very like hey you know if they can't do this that's fine like we're going to meet up when we're back in school and I think that's really huge understanding that it's not for everybody when we have to
073Pivot though we're doing the best that we can and um I just I don't think we can really improve on it very much at least not that I can know it but like it really was wonderful to kind of watch them and and and see how they interacted with that it was really seamless um so just really appreciative to everybody for that um I just I don't think I have anything else to add in today that's it all right Sue try to top all that eron kind of hit on the last point I wanted to say and since I think I am sitting in this old seat I'm going to channel the U John Gaspar The Ghost of John Gaspar in the past because he would not dead though you pe my interest you pe
074my interest just to clarify in winter time so I would urge people to do that and especially if they have bus stops nearby because kids need to stand out there and so make sure when because we are a much walkable School District so make sure that kids can walk to school if you can't shovel I know you mentioned the Tavia United Way I know they have help available for sow Angels yes so there is help out there I'm sure your local churches have things like that too so you know ask your neighbor to shovel so St you have something just as a matter of record um can we have a motion to pass oh did I not do that and Cindy needs that on record please okay I apologize I thought I said that I
075SPAC can I get a motion to accept the consent agenda as written so moved second by so second by Aaron all in favor roll call right roll call vote th yes yes meows yes yes yes AR yes Holly and Cindy thank you for back stopping me and all of us I appreciate that um the only thing I was going to add is um I got a ridiculously small taste of all of the effort that you put in on trying to decide about how all our teachers and students and everybody else get safe when we were texting on trying to even decide to have this meeting today and I toiled and got fraught and talked to six people and couldn't handle it so I'm sorry yeah I know it was just so um so so to
076everybody that puts all the effort in to make sure that everybody does you know what they need to do goes above and beyond what they have to do apprciate it Miss Nelson thank you for coming and for you and all that working with you of being a great conduit for all of those that do great things in our community um you're well deserved and thank you for all that and to that end um I am we are going to be going to a Clos session today uh so we I'm going to officially go to the adjourn to close session part um I will entertain a motion to move to a closed session as allowed under the open meetings act for the purposes of exceptions 5 ICS 1202 C2 and exception 5 I LCS 1202c one
077so moved so moved by Sue second by RJ is that RJ thanks for the point Rob and then um want to give him credit yeah I appreciate that all right Cindy roll call vote please yes yes yes yes yes yes I do not believe we'd have anything for action after this meeting today right so we will stop back in you're welcome to hang out if you like talk yourselves