001i'd like to call to order a regular meeting of the board of education april 2022 um cathy could you please call the roll at seven o'clock p.m sorry 20. here yes present here meadows here here all right mr meadows would you lead us in the pledge absolutely i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right dr hitchens are there any items to be removed from or added to the agenda tonight there are not all right our first item on our agenda is our public comments we wanted to remind everyone we thank you for coming tonight that tonight the board will not be um engaging conversation it's your chance to speak and our
002chance to listen i'm going to pass it over to holly dietzman as she explains our policy for addressing the board welcome to our meeting this evening will be called up and order a form submission the first form received is the first person invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard your comments will be limited to three minutes and we will display a timer on the screen so that you can see where you're at in your time the three minute time will start once you are settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary kathy scaffidi at my right speakers should conduct themselves with civility and respect towards everyone in this room our first speaker
003is amber gersa nikki woodruff and jen erickson my bad all right my name is amber gersa and i'm an english teacher at batavia high school and a batavia parent of three in recent board meetings we've heard from students begging our administration to do something about the racist transphobic and homophobic issues that plague our district our motto this year is you belong here but we have students entering our doors each day that are being terrorized and traumatized due to their race gender identity sexual orientation and or disabilities they must endure repulsive insulting slurs and hatred while they are in our buildings and under our watch we have created somewhat of an equity plan but this plan focuses on long-term goals and completely forgets about the students that need help right now the district tells us that
004when we have concerns we should use the chain of command over the past 11 months i've contacted administration to express my concerns and offer solution solutions for these students that are telling us they are traumatized and do not feel like they belong i've documented my interactions with administration where other teachers and i are begging them to do something about our students who need help now i've submitted copies of my notes in the board notes and i have copies available tonight if anyone would like to see them here's some key points that i've documented over the past 11 months regarding efforts to support students that are suffering i've had 30 points of documented contact with administration i've had over 46 emails to administration i've had more than nine face-to-face meetings with administration eight times i never
005received a response to my question or email in february we had 50 teachers email senior leadership and our board questions related to equity we never received a response i even asked at one point if i could have a meeting with an administrator and a board member so we could discuss and get on the same page for our students i was denied i was told that our board and administration believe in the processes we have in place how can we believe or trust in a process when it forces students to suffer i was told to use this process but i'm here because these effective structures have failed i've done what you've asked and it's not working i've attempted to use the system but i'm deflected to other committees or completely ignored other teachers and students have
006also reached out to administration many times this falls on deaf ears or we're told the committee is working on it or we're told the committee is working on it and after that committee there'll be another committee created to come up with an action plan once we gather the data hopefully you can see the problem in the system we're relying on a faulty system to help fix problems the faulty system has created and students are suffering how much pain will we put these kids through before we do something to help them feel a sense of belonging in our schools i encourage others that are frustrated with our lack of short-term plans to ask administrators and senior leadership what they are doing to ensure all students belong now you have told our students they belong now it's
007time to prove it [Applause] our next speaker is jacob wyatt jennifer erickson nicole woodruff shannon hemis and julie thule all right good evening i'm speaking on behalf of our staff a representative group of our staff we're coming to the board of education tonight to share some celebrations as well as to raise your awareness about student learning needs in our building although we are here tonight to address the challenges in our school we'd like you to keep in mind that these challenges exist across all the buildings and we don't want it to become normalized we need to accept that the students sitting in our classrooms today are not the same as the students we had pre-pandemic we've consistently met with our building administrator throughout the school year and our staff also met with dr newkirk and
008mr pierce recently to share some of the challenges our students face and request that they rethink how we support students post pandemic we celebrate the success of our second grade cohort of students the teachers on this team have shared that having four small classes greatly enhanced their ability to individually support the students academically and socially their map scores showed significant student growth and we are hopeful that smt and the board will consider these factors that led to their success when planning for the future kindergarten through fifth grade in our school has experienced very high social emotional as well as academic needs this school year despite support from classroom teachers special educators paraprofessionals our school social worker and other resource personnel it has been difficult to provide consistent instruction due to the severe nature of the
009sel and behavioral needs we're experiencing for kindergarten especially we're grateful that the district administration has already decided to add a third section to first grade for the upcoming school year we feel this will significantly improve the outcomes for the students next year while we're celebrating this success of second grade unfortunately our collaborative structures have been taxed this year and haven't been able to resolve many of the same issues our students have faced since august we encourage you to question why these systems have failed to completely support our students this school year our crisis response team and support staff have been heavily strained and as mentioned earlier the students sitting in our classrooms today are not the same as the students pre-pandemic their social emotional and academic needs are significantly different in the past it was
010uncommon to have multiple students in crisis now on a typical day there are multiple students in crisis simultaneously support staff has been unavailable and ill-equipped since our system just isn't designed to support this level of need renowned organizational psychologists teach us that systems are designed to get the results that they get this year this system did not work for all of our students so please rethink how we service students with a sense of urgency so we can see students feeling confident safe and successful in the upcoming school year thank you for your time [Applause] next week good evening everyone i'm matt holm i teach history at potavia high school and coachupatev high school last year at this time we got together with a group of teachers at the high school and we read and discussed
011a book called so you want to talk about race at the same time i had the good fortune of doing training with the chicago bears on equity training as the nfl was going through it in this group called rise up reaching out to coaches in the area after that experience was able to grab a group of teachers and work through the summer amber molly and multiple others and go to our administration in august with a list of concerns of ours they included excuse the old man glasses student voice and a a club or a union specifically for our students of color and lgbtq community amber was able to get that going we talked about the need for professional development and equity as well as diversity in hiring we also talked about the need for support
012in our classrooms for difficult topics eventually we were able to come up with a public and equity commitment to our own students and of course the students gave us response to that as dr king would say it's one thing to have thin paper it's another thing to have thick action so for the last couple of months we've been working with small groups and trying to get teachers to look at their practices their climate their environment of their classrooms so that they can address the students in all of this time and all the literature and all the things that i've read two things have stuck out to me one the first thing that has to happen is it has to be a personal self-evaluation you have to look at yourself your own practices your biases your
013privileges all of the things that make you see the world the way you see it before you can see it the way somebody else sees it that's the first thing that stands out the second thing that stands out and most recently has hit me is that this is urgent we began on thursday a new committee with the district i'm very happy to be on that committee but i want to stress as i go into that those two things we need a deep self evaluation of our district of our staff we need the training that goes with that and while we're doing that we need to realize that there are students who feel like they don't belong they don't have support they feel like maybe they don't have an equal opportunity with other students in the
014building or in general they just feel like they are not part of batavia public schools and with that in mind this work has to be urgent i know it is the end of april and we're moving into may and the end of the school year is nigh this work has to be very important and it has to be urgent thank you [Applause] good evening in case you don't know me already my name is killian mullen and i'm a transgender and queer senior at bhs the last time i spoke in front of the board i mentioned issues in regards to the transgender community that needed to be resolved and tonight i will shift from that point on to actions that have been taken by students and staff alike from that moment forward and don't worry i
015got the message last time i won't be using language you feel the need to censor tonight just in case you were wondering i think what tore me apart the most about the last meeting you all had that i spoke at was not the fact that the language i chose to use at night was censored but the fact that the administration at my school immediately jumped on that yet didn't immediately jump when a black woman stood where i'm standing right now and told you that the students at her school threatened her with violence to the point of lynching it seriously took a white student getting up on this podium and saying a queer slur for bhs to begin moving ever so slightly faster i want you to sit with that for a moment while i talk
016about what else has been done the weeks after the address i made to you on march 22nd have been extremely active within the community at bhs during this time i moved forward the administration on plans to make a focus group for transgender students called the butterfly committee that would be a direct line of communication from adam to transgender students and will be represented by four transgender students at the school one from each grade level along with this a protest was organized and done outside the school on the morning of april 5th and students came to show their support for the message that bhs needs to do a much better job of acting on their supposed commitment to equity these are two positives that were drawn from that moment but i want to highlight that these
017actions were taken by students and not enacted by administration which goes to show yet again that students and teachers committed to fixing this must constantly take the burden of trying to fix problems that the district continually refuses to dig into and truly resolve we see the outlines of planned equity in action on your website and we don't see any action taken we see the posters in the hallways that promote people like ourselves and my peers of color to the masses walking through them every day but we don't see you promoting a more diverse administration to represent those frankly performative moves we see you stating time and time again that school is always learning and always growing yet you stick to the same classrooms with blatantly racist and queerphobic teachers who only strive to teach a
018one-sided historical or literary world from a soul-white perspective with all this being said i want to make it clear that i'm telling you that not enough has been done and that most of what has been done has been at the hands of students and teachers who are desperately trying to make change in the little free time they have outside of school and other commitments we aren't the ones being paid to build an education system committed to equity for every student yet here we are putting in the work and taking the real action i don't want to glorify it either a lot of us are extremely tired and we are just about ready to give up and let the cards fold and frankly by this point it would make a lot of sense if we did
019yet we haven't yet because many of us can't i do not want another transgender student at the school to go through what i did and the thought of that that may happen to any minority student for that matter because of your laziness when it comes to taking tangible action makes me genuinely want to scream i don't get what you don't understand about needing action now especially after all we've seen over the past hundred years in this country but i will keep telling you until it gets through to you that there is no other way to abolish the systematic racism and discrimination within our school besides taking action it shouldn't be hard to understand and it shouldn't have taken a white queer student to come up here and say slur to feel like a fire was
020lit under the high school to do something about it stop making promises to pretend you own up to the violence that occurred in this district to do the lack of action in the face of discrimination thank you [Applause] next we have molly jackson schultz please be good um hi my name is molly jackson schultz and i'm here again today to speak on behold no on behalf of students and add my voice as an advocate one of the units for our class is the voice unit where we talk about the power that an individual's voice has during this unit we teach students various ways to use their voices and encourage them to speak about what matters to them we want students to realize that their voice matters we want them to feel heard i would feel
021like i failed them in that purpose if i didn't continue to speak up now and use my voice i didn't get selected for the district equity team and i feel like my voice hasn't been heard enough through our existing structures so i'm going to use my voice here to continue to advocate for students i've opened statements before to the board about what you've got this kid about why this work is so important but i've always run out of time so tonight i just want to focus on action steps a student spoke in december requesting resources for trans students on our website while the website has been updated with a large equity plan for the district it has not yet been updated with the information that they requested i did some research for examples and i
022would be happy to share some if that would help the student has spoken three times now at the board meeting and has had a meeting with administrators and they still feel like their request for resources on the website hasn't been addressed it's been months we've made other website updates why not this one teachers have requested training to be better for students with regards to dei since october we've not received much with the exception of our new ken williams work in preparation for his institute in the fall the first module largely focuses on defining the terms equity and selectivity it's three videos and a couple of refresh reflection questions this is important baseline for our discussion overall but this doesn't help teachers in the short term help students feel more included or valued or safe the
023second module is more centered on professional learning communities aka the teaching teams that we work on and essential learnings these are things that many of us have heard in teaching school and again and again it institutes these videos center more on that concept than the concept of equity during the training williams says that we need to figure out how to get all students there but then doesn't offer any solutions or ideas i hope that solutions and ideas are present in the conversation later this fall regardless that still isn't helping teachers course correct for this school year last year we received articles for hot tip tuesday or tips on becoming more effective educators with remote learning why have we not received articles or webinars or advice on these things providing these on a weekly or bi-weekly
024or monthly basis would show that the district values these ideas and would also help teachers access some of the training that we have requested again in an effort to be solution focused i have some websites and free webinars and articles that i'd be happy to share if that helps oh no scroll down students have also requested and asked for affinity spaces um they seem to just want to be heard is there any way that we can implement listening sessions in affinity spaces before the end of the school year to show seniors that they're valued and we care about them there have been mixed answers from leadership about whether they can run or not and why i'm going to skip down to my conclusion i'm excited by the district statement that we are a district of
025action and we are committed to equity i however share concerns that were brought up in the january board meeting about pacing the school year is ending soon what we've done for students and staff now how are we going to rise above the structures of structures that created these problems in the first place and how are we going to make it clear that voices have been heard how will we make it so that all students feel like they belong here oh good evening i've been up here before my name is martin byrne i'm a sophomore at bhs over the last few months parents students and teachers have stood right here and bravely described horrible experiences of racism queer phobia and other bigotry that they've experienced in batavia schools students have described rampant bullying hateful language being
026used against them by other students being called slurs at school including the n word and even death threats they've received from other students because of their race or gender identity and keep in mind these are just the people who had the access and the willingness to share this publicly what about the kids and parents who were understandably too scared to do so or didn't have the access to do so kids in our schools are suffering kids in our schools are unsafe at school this is an emergency and the time for telling these students to continue to wait for telling them the change will come in a few months or by next school year is over the time for action is now you may remember me from the strategic plan check-in committee report that i helped
027deliver at the february meeting i'm grateful for the opportunity i had to be a part of that important work but as has been laid out in these meetings that presentation was one simply of data and conclusions it's now in the board's hands as to what to do with them and how to take action i am very pleased to hear that an equity action team is being assembled to propose long-term changes for equity i understand that staff have been invited to apply to serve on this committee but if nadia had heard of opportunities for student involvement students bring invaluable perspective on the very issues we are trying to to prevent and address and need to be involved in discussing solutions it's good that the district turned to students to give feedback on our experiences during the
028data gathering phase of this process but we could not stop there there with student voice in recent months it's been the students who have done the most challenging work of this process coming up here to describe the traumas born of racism agriphobia that they've experienced now that we are at this point in the equity process it would be counterintuitive and wrong to exclude student student voices from official discussions of action on equity the district has set good things in place for long-term change to happen with the ongoing formation of that equity action committee and established commitments to equity this long-term strategy is needed but so is immediate action look as discouraging as it is to continue to hear of these incidents happening in our schools and i think we might even hear some more tonight
029i am optimistic i'm optimistic because so many people care about this and are showing up for it and are committed to it and members of the board i know that you care deeply about this too and i'm very grateful for that through i work with the strategic planning planning check-in committee my perspective as a student my participation in clubs like the bhs equity and justice committee the bhs pride alliance through my following of these meetings i know that we all want to get to a place where every student feels safe at school and getting there won't be easy but make no mistake we absolutely can get there and lastly to everyone especially my fellow students who have come up here to share your experiences or in any way fought for a safer and more equitable
030bps i want to say thank you may this not be a fruitless fight thank you next we invite jenna mcknight good evening i'm jenna thank you for listening to us for thank you for listening to us tonight but not really listening truly hearing us i'm here tonight to speak on a different aspect of dei i recently went back to school to obtain an lbs one certificate which is a sped certificate in doing so my eyes have been opened wide to how different amazing and life-changing our schools can be schools where everyone feels they belong that is our motto this year as we've heard i was subbing in one of our essentials classrooms this month and overheard a student say i don't know why i have to do any of this i'm in the stupid class
031anyway it broke my heart but i know that this student is not alone and feeling this way we have students who refuse accommodations refuse pull-out all because those things make them different or not normal which is interesting because the definition of normal wasn't supposed to be used on humans in the first place it was made for math i don't have the time to get into the history of it although i would love to so call me but i can recommend a book called normal sucks this book is mind-blowing eye-opening and life-changing a read that any parent or person in education must read we live in an ableist world that demands those who have a disability to conform to the normal this needs to be changed during the pandemic i thought many times that this would
032be the change the the change for education i thought it would blow it up to be honest but we went back to status quo and i completely understand why everyone was stressed and needed some sense of normal but that opportunity hasn't passed we still can grab hold and change school for the better i must say i am fired up with excitement and passion for what the future can hold excited for change even though at times it is scary if we really want everyone to feel like they belong then let's change what we do don't misunderstand me there are times when we need to pull students out and when we need to give them what they need in a different way but how can we do that in order for everyone to feel like they aren't
033different or singled out how can we normalize different how can we change the face of education here in batavia we love to say we are innovators and change makers so let's do that let's not wait for the surrounding cities to make the way let's be waymakers here and now put our actions where our mouths are let's make sure that everyone feels that they belong this doesn't need fancy things or lots of money it needs innovation and outside of the box thinking it needs a ground up renovation in the end i don't care who you are who you love your background color ethnicity or ability because that is what makes you you and you have the right to feel loved and a true sense of belonging the time is now to take the steps forward to
034truly creating a sense of belonging for all i have a chapter i'm going to hand out to you called from behaving to belonging that i would like to share and i really want you to take the time to read it and reflect on it so that we and batavia can make a difference so that students feel like they belong please ignore all the markings on it and lastly i would love to sit and talk more about this so let's connect thank you [Applause] thank you everyone thank you to the board thank you to our community our teachers for just having this opportunity to enter in this dialogue today i actually wrote something but i have no desire to actually read it so i'm just going to wing it with you all because i'm so inspired
035by the teachers who spoke the students who've spoken and shared this evening before i begin i would like to say ramadan mubarak it is ramadan and to all those who are celebrating this holy time and blessings to you and your family um i've lived in batavia for almost 16 years almost 17 years and i'm a lifelong educator and in that process as a young person moving here with my family i was really looking for a place where we could belong and you look at things as an individual and in those experiences that i've had i would go to the school and and wouldn't see my children reflected there and would try to make corrections so i would say okay i can help create a presentation here i'll pay for a speaker storyteller to come that
036those things haven't changed and so now that i'm older i'm like why are these not a part of our community of these celebrations there are two black teachers in this room please stand up and come here miss majersky this woman changed my child's life she saw my son and helped him and he wrote about how she helped him to be good in school this one here you made a place for my child to to see himself and to teach him two that's it that one over there never has had a teacher his whole academic career that looks like him never not a one not a one that is not okay that is not okay for the last 10 years our teaching population has been 95 plus white our administrative team is 97 percent white two
037and a half percent asian there's no administrators that reflect the diversity of our community that is not okay we have to do better batavia we have to do better our white children are not seeing people in leadership who look different than them our children of color are not learning from people that look like them we have to do better we have to do better so i don't have a lot of time left but i want you to say i'm in it to win it people up here i've said i would help i'm not asking for anything but to serve our community to we have to do better we cannot sit and have teachers it's not my job to be texting teachers resources that's what i do because they ask because we're not giving it to
038them we're not giving our teachers what they need right now it's not that hard our children need to know how to go to the bathroom they need to know how to where they can pee right now we shouldn't be talking about this if it was your child would you be okay with that that they can't pee no that's not right kids need to have a group where they can go an affinity space i'm a grown-up i'm an educator i'm old i have them why because doing this is exhausting it's exhausting and when i get home i get on a phone and have to talk to educators because we're tired please help our teachers please help our children now thank you for your time and our final speaker is alexis porter [Music] hi so uh last
039time i came up here i talked about how a student that i've known for a long time told me he wanted to lynch me now i'm going to talk about how the school has gotten even worse from that um how i get cat catcalled from outside of classes or how i get sprayed with water guns on my way to home or how i get yelled at from cars that i hope you get ran over or how i have to beg teachers to teach real stuff that actually happen in history not one side all sides it is so sad how children have to come up here and beg y'all full grown adults to teach a real history or tell them or tell like really like oh my god i can't even speak right now how disappointed
040i am in full grown adults your quote for the school year is oh you belong do i really belong do i i am in pain walking into school suffering with anxiety worried if somebody's gonna ask me if my lips are real or my hair is real asking if they can touch me as if i'm a pet in a petting zoo you want me to belong teach it shouldn't be that hard you call this a school teach your teachers right teach i'm begging y'all because i cannot go through this no more i really can't i'm suffering i'm really suffering y'all i'm scared to go into school i'm really am i belong that's a question i ask myself every day not only in the real world i don't belong because of my skin color but after going
041to school and y'all tell me force me to believe that i belong and i really don't teach tell them the real stuff please cause i'm tired i am tired that's all i got [Applause] next item on our agenda is our bps partners i'd like to invite todd swanson to the podium i don't have to steal matt's old man glasses i brought my own so good evening i'd like to begin tonight by sharing an outcome that came from the recent illinois education association representative assembly that i attended along with four other bea members at the beginning of the month iea is launching a campaign called respect which focuses attention on our invaluable education support professionals throughout the state support staff are typically the first to arrive at school as they unlock the doors and turn on
042the lights each day they are some of the first people to greet students as they arrive at school in the morning who give students the academic support they need to become successful learners who carefully assist with students health safety and nutritional needs and are the last people who see students safely home at the end of the day the value of their work is priceless we want to continually recognize education support professionals and their ongoing and vital contributions to educating the students of batavia public schools the respect campaign is a statewide effort with the support of iea the letters of the word respect form a slogan for this campaign respect stands for raising education support professionals by elevating careers together as the pool of candidates for education related jobs continues to dwindle across the state and
043the nation the iea is supporting efforts to improve working conditions for our education support professionals and therefore aid in recruitment and retention of these vital and necessary professionals the campaign focuses on five main areas that includes wages health insurance pensions retention and recruitment and job duties tonight i simply wanted to make you aware of the respect campaign briefly convey what it is and ask you to join with the batavia education association and the batavia education support professionals association in helping to ensure the education support professionals of batavia public schools know their worth and have the respect that they deserve another outcome that came from the ra that focus on education support professionals is the desire to abolish using the acronym esp when it comes to speaking about our colleagues we don't shorten teacher to tchr
044or board member to bm so why then would we do this to our education support professionals going forward please join me and the batavia education association and the illinois education association in refraining from referring to the education support professionals of batavia public schools as esps and further helping show respect for them by calling them by their full and rightful name education support professionals the second focus of my time with you tonight comes as a result of our district moving forward with using the lens of diversity equity and inclusion this year has been spent seeking feedback from staff students parents and community members throughout our internal equity audit that feedback has been analyzed presented to the board had action plans developed and next steps were put into place this has happened over the length of the
045entire school year and has culminated with the creation of a district-wide collaboratively selected equity team that i am thrilled to announce will begin their important work together next week and from there the team will have the ownership to determine what their future looks like as a team and what the scope of their work will entail this has been a very lengthy process to get to this point but it is a celebration to know that we now have a team working together to help move our district forward with equity diversity and inclusivity the part that remains the proverbial bone of contention is that we have spent so much time playing the long game the needs of the here and now are what still we are left to struggle with as a district we have had staff
046and students alike share their personal stories of things that are currently happening in our buildings who have done their due diligence to follow the right paths laid out before them in seeking help a resolution and still find that there has not been much if any forward progress in resolving their issues gaining support or feeling like we are making positive gains one of the things that i have learned just recently through our interactive and flexible institute day which is centered around equity and led by our future in district presenter ken williams is the definition of equity that he is grounding our entire district in this is the exact common language and understanding that we are all using to associate with the term equity equity is providing students what they need when they need it and with
047urgency the eye opening part of that statement to me is those last two words with urgency i believe that those who have come to speak written letters organized or taken action this past year as dei has taken a front seat in the awareness of our district are not seeing that peace with urgency come to that same forefront i'm not saying that solutions have not been offered or avenues have not been pro provided to pursue what has been apparent is if we are to believe what ken williams is telling us is that urgency is as critical as to giving what is needed and when it is needed it is that sense of urgency and providing support in the here and now where as a district we now find the largest gap of where we are and
048where we should be and it is here that we all must do better how do things improve on this issue i don't have a magic formula but it seems clear to me that a logical answer lies in listening listening to understand and not simply to reply is a fundamental key to effective communication and problem solving and is a skill that every single person sitting in this room tonight or joining us virtually or who will be watching this tape version in the future can always be reminded about pay attention to those that are speaking notice their eye contact and their body language as well as the tone with which they are speaking listen with your body turn to the person that is speaking lean in make eye contact with them make them feel like they are
049being listened to don't interrupt listen fully and wait until they are done before asking questions or adding your own responses repeat what they said don't just say what you are planning to say repeat back what you heard before adding your own comments respond to what they said be honest and respectful in your responses and always talk and listen in the exact same ways that you would want to be talked to and listen to and the last part here is the hardest for me for sure and i assume for many of you as well yet it is one that causes more needless problems and issues don't jump to conclusions or be judgmental when we bargain our contract with the board one of the keys that always grounds both of our teams is not to run up
050the ladder of inference this ladder is a loop that may enable a person to make a wrong or inaccurate conclusion based off past experiences biases or perceived truths what can i do to help avoid climbing up that ladder of inference it can really be summed up in three simple parts reflection advocacy and inquiry be aware of your own thinking and reasoning and ask yourself if you are making any false assumptions that's the reflection part make sure others understand your thinking and the reasoning behind it it's easy to assume that everyone understands where each other's coming from and that simply isn't true we cannot assume that someone who has no experience with what we are dealing with completely understands our feelings and our thinking that is called advocacy finally ask questions of others as to what
051they are thinking and use those answers to test your own assumptions this is the basis of inquiry to wrap up i issue each and every one of us a challenge as we continue to move forward and grow as a district do all within your power to become a better listener i found two pretty profound statements about listening that i'd like to close with the exact same letters in the word listen make up the word silent and most people do not listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply please be a listener who seeks understanding and i am confident as a district we can live up to our motto of always learning and always growing thank you [Applause] next item on our agenda is our committee updates chris we can start
052with you um i gave my committee update in writing to all of you so you have that all right um i did not make it to insurance committee because i locked myself out of my house so tony will give us that update the insurance committee is looking at some other opportunities to both improve healthcare offerings and perhaps do them a little cheaper than the way we do them now so more in the coming months okay i was able to make it to um iraq this last week or so um we had our uh building our future update which was good to hear some of the things that are kind of occurring there uh began our discussions on um the budget which is our kind of beginning of the process as it were um and then
053understood a little bit more so um long and short of it is we also then reviewed new features of the elementary kind of budget process okay i had no committee meetings this past month okay erin um i was unable to make plaque but i did connect with steve and we discussed how we the committee has continued to roll out our educational equity modules to the staff and we're looking forward to continuing our work for professional development and to support on the staff and the important work that you all do thanks erin and i failed to notice that one of our student ambassadors is here at least one i'm not sure if they both are so oh no wonder i didn't see you back there uh so we'd love to invite you up to share with
054what's going on oh right in front of me okay so um a little bit about teacher appreciation rece recently teachers within the district have overcome so many obstacles throughout the past two years and continue to make student learning the best experience possible our teachers not only teach the students within the district but also build relationships and try to make students feel at home when they are in the building teachers teach us to be kind to others respect our peers and teach us to be overall good human beings bps students are so grateful for what teachers have done over the course of our education and hope other students continue to gain those memorable lessons something very important going on in the district is also mentoring at grade schools many students within our high school have also
055been mentoring over the past few months at the grade schools the mentoring program allows the high schoolers to build relationships with the little kids and help them through day-to-day issues and allow them to have a buddy to look up to the program is coming to an end for the year but it allowed high school high schoolers to gain experience and provided the kids with a trusting friend who they can look up to sure um some things for next year students are looking forward to the end of the school year to have a break and be refreshed for the new beginnings that come in august over the past few weeks it has been discussed among the student body that we are excited to learn and get to know our teachers on a personal level we believe
056building personal relationships with our teachers can help benefit our learning and make us feel more comfortable within the building and then some exciting news this month is bps101 was uh sorry bps101 honored for was honored for music education for the eighth time um bhs student athlete tony roberts received nff award and um bhs coach honored was honored by illinois conservation foundation with outdoor hall of fame induction so that's it for this month all right thanks ladies [Applause] the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda which is an opportunity for the board to approve a number of routine business items all of which are laid out in the board book so mr pierce if you would walk us through the consent agenda for sure 4.1 is the approval of the march 21st special meeting
057minutes for the facilitate facilitating team 4.2 is the approval of the march 21st 22nd 22. um regular meeting minutes 4.3 is the approval of the april 11th 2022 special meeting minutes for the facilitating team and then lastly with our approvals of meetings we have the approval of the april 12 2022 special meeting minutes for the committee of the whole 4.5 is our personnel report and you'll note we're entering the hiring season if you will and we have our first administrators uh hired for this next school year on here and you'll start to see uh probably in the next several months a lot of new teachers hired for the uh payroll and bills is 4.6 4.7 is the approval of the regular meeting dates 4.8 is the batavia high school ihs a membership renewal 4.9 is
058our textbook display 4.10 is our textbook approval 4.11 is the approval of disposal of surplus property property 4.12 is the approval to renew student photography contract 4.13 our curriculum contracts 4.14 is the approval of multi-year powerschool sis renewal and then lastly 4.15 is the approval of the entire consent agenda are there any items on the agenda for clarification or for removal all right then i would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second with my meinsler second by meadows all in favor aye any opposed all right i did want to take a moment um to invite kristen stevens she's going to be our new principal at to come up uh just have a moment to introduce yourself i want to say really happy and excited to be here and to thank the
059ags interview committee and staff they've been super welcoming i've already gotten emails and phone calls and then also to thank the board and the district office staff so looking forward to a great year and thank you so much welcome thank you kristen can you let him know when you're starting work tomorrow tomorrow she's going to be at the 8 a.m staff meeting i'm told so good for her but she actually still has to finish her other job i do welcome glad you're here thank you thank you so much the next item on our agenda is our routine report so i'm going to hand that over to dr hitchens yeah um every month we look at all the foia requests that have come through this month we had three foia requests that came through and they
060were all granted we also look monthly at the treasurer's report so at this time i would entertain any questions all right we do have two items for action on our agenda tonight the first one is our copy paper and student school supplies bid is lindsay here lindsay is not here so who's going to talk to us about that uh that would be me i figured that might be you so um board members would probably recognize the copy paper bid as that as a customary bid what is relatively new and was conducted for the first time last year was a school student school supplies for the elementary level and seeing is that went well last this current school year we'd like to carry forward that again in the next school year so this bid puts the
061two of those uh items together um when i was looking at the spreadsheet last week i recall correctly about a little more than half of the cost of this bid is copy paper and the balance would be elementary school supplies for students we're recommending that we award the bid to three separate vendors depending on how they bid certain items going for the most cost effective and those vendors are accurate office supply pyramid school products and school specialty so i'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have that's a big difference the amounts so do we have any idea of why are we sure they can fulfill what we they're the amounts aren't different in the sense that they're the bid is being awarded based on the item price to all to three different
062vendors okay whichever bidder had the lowest price we're awarding that item too it's a little different than we typically do it's not it's not a winner take all bid it's broken up by pieces they sound a little ridiculous but we had like a big issue with printing paper this year where we could hardly print any there have been several issues which i'm surprised by that the need for paper is so high we haven't been able to use it is there a difference here over a year there the copy paper has gone up um a lot in the over the prior year um especially recycled paper um which we're required to by law at least put out to bid for when we're um when we're seeking to purchase it we have to seek recycled paper it's
063not very cost effective to do so right now unfortunately but yeah it's been a challenging year for for printing and copying because of the toner shortage and we're using more paper than we were in prior years obviously because we're in school every day and then we've had some issues with copiers too so so this is kind of unrelated but yet related um i heard a lot of good feedback about the school supply situation but what if anything impacted how we put this out to bid in terms of getting feedback from parents students teachers staff about that process because it was new and there's always going to be growing pains yeah and there have been and even in the weeks since um we put this bit out we've had some more growing pains okay we did
064do a survey of teachers a couple months ago and the overwhelming response at the time was very positive i think it was 95 percent supported the program as it was we've been making adaptations all year long in terms of product additions and product quality and so we're taking teacher feedback in that regard our hope is that we can continue to make that program better overall the on balance is going well and there's opportunities for improvement and we'll take advantage of those moving forward okay thank you another questions right i would entertain a motion to award the bid for copy paper and elementary student school supplies in the amount of one hundred and forty two thousand six hundred and sixty five dollars and nine cents to bidders based on item cost uh accurate office supply in
065the amount of dollars and nine cents pyramid school products in the amount of thirty eight thousand three hundred and thirty dollars and school specialty in the amount of ninety five thousand seven hundred and twenty eight dollars um move by my flare second by mathis all in favor hi any opposed all right next item on the agenda is uh intervention materials dr newkirk i'm sure we've had a team of people that have been looking at our mtss system that's our multi-tiered system of support which is how the system responds when students are struggling with their learning in particular we've had a group looking at reading interventions so that group is in the final stages of their work they've narrowed down their list of potential interventions these have interventions that we use with tier three students there
066are four different products that are listed within this that we wanted to get before the board it's not our intention to buy all four of these but once that team makes their decision we're able to move quickly and purchase those materials for our buildings they would be used by different interventionists reading specialists and special ed case managers so we don't know the total cost necessarily yet bradford that's why i put it into two separate ones because as that team makes their decisions you'll see in the back conference room there's different interventions set up for them to come see they'll go through their process and decide on which ones that we would move forward with purchase okay so we're giving you a blanket approval for whichever one you choose it's likely three of these but we're
067not at the stage to say exactly which three okay i was just going to ask what the timeline is for that decision they have one more day to come into to review the materials they'll have another meeting and make their decisions after that so it should be within the next couple of weeks okay so just to clarify that some combination of these here correct in an amount that is unforeseen so there's not even like a cap other than just determining which ones might be the most expensive for each of these four we looked at what our needs would be right for next year in terms of who who would need those materials right and bid them out that way okay any other questions right i would entertain a motion to approve the intervention materials that
068are chosen by the team so moved second move my meadow and second by my sir all in favor aye any opposed all right those are all the action items on our agenda tonight um although we do have closed session and there's a possibility of action after closed session um but that won't be determined until we come out of closed session so in the meantime dr hitchens administrative comments my comments tonight are about our um our progress our weapon our equity website has been updated with some of those things we when when the team came and presented in february we gave the list of things we've acted on this year things that we have yet to do this year and then our future steps for future years so we'll we'll be able to give you more
069details in may when um because the the team that is making those decisions meets start they meet this thursday they have two action items one is to deliver um a an action plan and the second would be to talk about the role of that committee moving forward so you see many staff members in this room that are on that committee we have very um we were very fortunate to have a lot of people with passion but for this one day this this planning day we did need to limit the number of staff members and then their second item on their agenda for thursday will be to talk about what that committee looks like moving forward including who's not at the who's not at the table whose voice are we not hearing so it is there
070that's part of their day is to figure out who else will be invited to be a part of that committee moving forward so they have a one day summit on thursday and then action steps moving forward from the comments it's very very clear that you have asked me to put together a plan about voice and being systematic and have a system for collecting voice because it shouldn't have to be this way where people um don't have a voice and feel there there are people that have urgent things that need to be heard and so we'll be putting that systemic plan together so that it doesn't people don't have to wait to be heard and they were heard right board comments chris we'll start with you well i was planning on just making it hey raw
071sports we have all the stuff going on like our track team beat the number one rated team this weekend so we are possibly the number one track team in the state however i've been inspired by everybody who came out into comment tonight and i want to let you know that i hear you um i can also relate to what you've gone through because that was my experience as a child growing up in the 80s and going to school in the 90s and it's still happening so i think we need to be aware of that and i think we're doing a lot of great things but like we've said a lot of them are long-term things and perhaps we need to focus more on some of the short-term things and i think the best thing we
072can do is go to the students who have brought us their concerns and after we've done something and say have we actually made life better for you and if we haven't we need to go back to the drawing board and keep going back until we do something right but until we can look you in the eye and say have we made your life better and you look us back and say yes our job is not done so we will keep fighting until that happens or at least i will so that's all i have to say craig um i'm gonna start with not my athletic stuff but all the other things that i tend to say um and then i'm going to end with one other thing i'll go fast through the first ones um i
073want to kind of say congratulations to the music program on the best community for music education as mentioned before for eight years in a row um i have a vested interest in it i'm very excited to hear that it's continuing jazz concerts i talked about last time were really well really well received and very popular um congratulations to the the win symphony for an invite to super state which is kind of like the state championships of sorts for band programs lastly on that front i want to just say to all the parents teachers kids students everybody else that was involved in the spongebob musical including one here in the audience um i'm going to point desert out a bit because he did something that i found very very inspiring my son plays in the pit
074in the back in every show yes riley meadows he plays he plays um trumpet in the back and he made my son feel very very special and acknowledged and for a group that plays behind the scenes or under the stage or in the black box that was a huge thing for all of them and i appreciate it even though you picked on the band director most of the time it was still awesome so and i heard you basically rift the whole thing so even more impressive so thank you something different yeah it was it's fun hearing him talk about it so um lastly i want to kind of talk about one thing that i um grew up with that my dad told me a lot and people tend to use the words hear and listen
075interchangeably my dad said to me all the time i know you heard me but did you listen because i hear bells ring but i don't listen to bells i listen to my parents i listen to my teachers i listen to others i want to let you know that while it is not always easy to show action on this side of the table that i know myself and i will speak that i presume that everybody else here is listening and we're trying to figure out our ways of doing the best things we can do it is not always fast but i am hearing about the need for urgency and there will be conversations about that that's all i can at least promise right now so thank you thanks craig rj um definitely want to echo what
076craig said i don't think there's anything i can say that would make anyone happy right now except that um i heard everything you said it does cut to my core i there's not a lot of good that that is coming out of anything that's going on with the situations obviously or no good so um it tears me apart so that's all my focus is on and i will try to show with action instead of words that's it thanks rj erin so i usually tend to keep things very short and sweet but i have a lot to say tonight which is very unusual for me when we sit up here and listen and hear what is being said it can often be frustrating to not be able to say anything back to to engage in dialogue
077but tonight as i was absorbing listening hearing i realized what a blessing that is honestly because it forces me and i presume other people up here to process to think to reflect and i really value that and i hope that you do too because our lack of response is not a lack of respect for what you are saying in fact it's the opposite for me personally so i just want to share that um from my heart because a lot of the things that we hear especially tonight the last meeting the meeting before that they're hard to hear but i thank you for sharing them for being honest for being truthful for not sugar coating because that's not helpful either so thank you for everyone that spoke i know it's not easy and it's appreciated um
078not to jump topics but i also want to compliment spongebob because i took my my family and no ris no disrespect on the change of topic but wow the talent that we have in this community from the music to the the art to the acting to the singing and i'm sure i'm missing many many things is just second to none it is inspiring and as i'm watching this and watching people's faces in the audience just in awe i i'm thinking about all of the different skill sets that come together to make that happen and each person that's involved whether it's spongebob or a day in a classroom or people who come speak at a meeting or the people that sit up here each person's talents strengths weaknesses even make those things happen and i personally
079just really really value that and at times i think that we don't acknowledge productions like that enough so bravo bravo i was speechless that doesn't happen a lot um and the final thing i want to say and i i recognize we have a meeting again before graduation but i know a lot of people are making some big decisions right now maybe they have been for a while but before we get to graduation i just really want to commend everyone's decision that they're making whether that's going to trade school community college going to the workforce taking a gap year going to a four-year school or any other slew of opportunities that they may choose to do because there are a host of them i just want to say congratulations because that is a big decision it's
080not an easy decision there's a lot of pressure to make certain decisions that may not be right for you so congratulations no matter what your path may be i'm proud of you i know your families are proud of you and i couldn't be more elated to sit on that stage with all of our graduates so congratulations early and i'll say it again next month but i really value trade schools i really value the workforce community college any decision and i i didn't mention one that is very near and dear to my heart military military thank you for those making that decision it is not an easy decision thank you to your families because they serve too that's all i have to say tonight thank you for bearing with me i had a lot to say
081it doesn't happen a lot but i appreciate you listening i think that um the comments from my board members are heartfelt and i think they reflect that all of us even the two people that are not here tonight are very committed to doing the best we can and it's not always easy um so we again we i think the all of you that sit up here the passion and the heart that you bring and the desire just to do better so i thank you all for coming we do have closed session and there may be action after but other than that all of the normal uh work of our meeting is over so i would entertain a motion to adjourn a closed session to discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific
082employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodge against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity no move second move by meinsler second by meadows all in favor all right all right we are joined to close session you