Regular Meeting of the Board of Education- July 17, 2023

001thank you ready all right it is now 6 10 and we are out of closed executive session at this time we will reconvene the regular meeting at the Board of Education with the pledge of allegiance to the American flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Mrs Brenner here Mr Booker here Mr Herrera here Mrs hope Ms Mabel here Mrs Whitcomb here Mr zikert here are there any items on the agenda any members of the board would like to amend or move hearing none do I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda of the regular meeting of the board of education on July 17 2023 as

002presented so second member Mayville made a motion and member Herrera seconded the motion to approve the agenda of the regulations Board of Education on July 17 2023 as presented discussion roll call Miss Mabel hi Mr Herrera hi this is Whitcomb aye Mr zikert aye Mr Booker hi Mrs Houck aye Mrs Brenner aye motion pass 7-0 at this time the board will hold a public hearing regarding the District 2023-2026 emergency day remote e-learning structure for the purpose of providing remote instruction to students on emergency days as outlined in boardwalks anyone wishing to address the board regarding the e-learning plan please approach the podium and address your name for the records and limit your comments to three minutes yep we'll do the proposal and then if there's anybody at that time we'll have you come up and

003get your comments after that thank you I will uh briefly run through the e-learning proposal to make sure everyone has the context of what is being proposed this evening uh with the challenges that can be created by extending the school year in our current situation every time we call a snow day we do make up that day at the end of the school year uh as such we wanted to bring before you today a proposal that would not require the extension of its clear instead it would allow us to provide purposeful learning on those remote learning days uh on days when students can't be physically present the process itself would be that we would propose that the first emergency day would be a snow day there would be no school no remote learning that extends

004the school year only one day and we really do believe that there's something to a snow day people like to hear that phone ring sometimes and it's okay to take one snow day in any given year however following that first emergency snow day should the board approve this this evening we would have the option of calling a remote learning or an e-learning day instead of additional snow days students and staff would need to have adequate notice sometimes we don't know uh in enough time to be able to call and prepare for a remote day but if there were adequate notice and a traditional day of learning was not going to be able to be held on the following day again we would have that option of allowing for a remote day that would be upped

005four additional days over the course of the school year for a total of five after that the uh any additional days would be considered by the state of Illinois to be active God days and only those days that there was no remote learning again would need to be made up at the end of the year of the year so how would we structure that what would we do to engage students in learning we would have a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities providing students with some real-time instruction as well as some on-demand instruction we would hold a standing schedule for teachers to follow on emergency e-learning days so everyone would be aware of what that structure was going to look like all students grades 2 through 12 would be provided access to a Chromebook

006or an alternative device families not having access to the internet uh hotspot or an alternative assignment that hotspot wasn't appropriate for them pre-k through one students would receive a snow learning activity packet well in advance of any potential snow day and grades second through 12th grade instruction and engagement would be verified by teachers again using evidence of the synchronous learning as well as asynchronous assignments with instructional documents posted on teachers e-learning platforms and teachers verifying attendance and engagement by the end of the day consideration for students with special needs would be taken on a case-by-case basis we would for example students who usually were served using a paraprofessional would potentially have the opportunity to have that paraprofessional reach out to them office hours would be made available and services would be provided on an individual

007basis to the very greatest expense possible and the same would hold for English language learner support or any other students receiving individualized support how would we Monitor and verify students Electronics to participation again teachers would take daily attendance instruction and engagement would be verified by those teachers and how would we prepare for it we would have training for staff and students we would plan on a day in October where we would practice having the students get onto the sides having good Care Professionals get onto the sites uh and determining exactly what needs were going to happen on those days so that we would be as prepared as possible to be clear the training day wouldn't be a day off of school we would practice that actually in person staff and then the e-learning structure for

008K1 again would be a packet style structure for two through five there would be opportunities for morning meeting reading and math should that not work for a family because internet access again an alternative assignment or a packet would be provided for that family Our intention is to create a form at the beginning of the school year to determine which students and families might prefer an alternative option so that again we would be prepared should the need to go remote occur grades 6 through 12 students would have their coursework posted in canvas they would need to complete that remote e-learning work and teachers would be available in specific times during the course of the day to meet with any students or any family members that chose to do and finally uh students without access to the

009internet again would be able to complete alternative assignments Arrangements would be made ahead of time uh and the staff notes uh principles will work uh plans for remote e-learning with staff or not classroom teachers so that an appropriate assignment and connection is made for each of those individuals modules training modules may be assigned to some staff so an opportunity for professional learning and work assigned on e-learning days will focus on strengthening skills not introduction of new content the thinking is that we want these to be beneficial but that's for some students it might be really difficult to have the introduction of new content on a day when they are physically so that is a quick summary of what the proposal would be it would never be for more than four days in any given school

010year do we have anyone wishing to address the board regarding the e-learning plan if so please approach the podium at this time I'm a teacher at Washington and also a parent in the district last week at policy committee we talked about some changes um in particular the grades two through five structure um and possibly moving to a packet instead of having the Google meet every half hour um for an hour and a half in the morning um and this was because grades two two through five do not currently take their programs home in order they have Chargers to do so um like we get home they don't take home on a regular basis and they don't have our there's two hard Circle books at home but they weren't take home um so I was just

011looking for the plan to be updated in in that sense if there was discussion around that I don't know kind of like the question and statement at the same time um but also there are questions about equity in regards to the children's in grades two through five um having to be online for those times when the kids in other friends don't have to and I think I can respond to that and say we did have some conversation around packets we could have some additional conversation around packets we built it in as an alternative assessment option as opposed to everyone needing to take that particular option we did feel like the Chromebooks would have a day charge so if they were only home for a day they should be able to utilize those 12 books at

012home for the great most part and thought the learning was probably most valuable for those students and families that were able to access it with the reading and math instruction but again open to open to revisions and other thoughts anyone else wishing to make hot time feel free to approach the podium which is tag team Wendy Taylor and Hopper Grove for the district the teacher in the district and the union president these are just some comments that were sent to me from Members since the plan got posted and she took care of the elementary part um some of the concerns were having three plans for the teacher for these days because they've had their original plan then they would have to have their remote plan and then they'd have to have their alternative assignment remote

013plan so that's three times the planning um somewhere in it it said something about not being new material so really it's not making up for the last day it's just reviewing past stuff so we're not moving forward and then there was a concern about the practice day about losing a real day of instruction to prepare for a potential lost day of instruction that wouldn't move construction forward so we did discuss the plan and and I didn't have a huge problem with it first let me know I should have had a fitter more of a problem anyone else wishing to address the board at this time please come forward regarding emergency day remote eLearning structures uh Garrett low it will be a new parent in the district just a quick question I had was you said

014with adequate notice we would do what is the plan if there was an adequate purpose something happens abruptly what is today then we would utilize a regular emergency day so if something happens in the morning or something the weather was such that now we cannot attend school and I wasn't able to make that call the night before we would simply call a traditional snow day and we would make it up and we would make it up at the end of the year anytime they are not physically present or e-learning those days do need to be made up again any other visitors that would wish to speak publicly in regards to emergency day remote e-learning surveys all right hearing no one else wishes to address the board the public hearing is now closed we will now

015have our roll call vote on our e-learning proposal do I have a motion to approve the 2023-2026 emergency day remote e-learning structure some of the second member Mayville made a motion and member Herrera second at the motion to approve the 2023-2026 emergency day remote e-learning structure as presented and amended as presented any discussion from the board yeah what's what's house adequate notice going to be determined what is adequate notice yeah and I mean I think that it's really going to depend on the circumstance if it appears that we're going to need an emergency day and I can make that call by late afternoon we would send kids home with their Chromebooks and be prepared for our remote learning day it's hard to send kids home with Chromebooks and then say oops I guess the weather's

016actually pretty pretty decent we're going to come to school that's why I asked the question yeah I mean I think that that is that's going to be the the challenge or one of the challenges of this uh but I would need to know the afternoon before I have a pretty good idea that the weather was not going to be acceptable for and safe for people coming in so it's basic I mean I'm just trying to get this straight so parents understand too so basically if we don't call it by we don't call the e-learning by the end of the school day we're going to take a regular snow day well I think we can send students home with Chromebooks in anticipation of a potential snow day and I think that's something we'd have to emphasize

017with students and families is you're taking your Chromebook home that means there might be a remote learning day but it doesn't mean that the call has been made we would still make a call you know either in the evening or the morning of um I would not try to make every call at three o'clock I just think that that is that's not always realistic so a couple things um first of all I mean whether it is or it isn't okay fine but I really don't necessarily see the reason why we have to do one snow day first if we're going to do remote learning do remote learning but um I really love the idea of the flexibility that remote learning will provide for us but I couldn't anticipate any of the questions that were brought

018forth by the union representation or by um that the policy committee that sounds like they had some some discussion about it and I'd really like to see us look to address those problems and or fix them before we you know adopt a plan that you know in its current form if there's pushback's the wrong word but good observation and insight that says um there's some you know potential ditches here especially I had thought nothing of what about the practice day where we learn a real instruction day in case we have a day where we can't teach or have real learning not real learning but New Concept introduction as well um I think those are things worth vetting and taking another stab at with a broader group or you know we don't there's no urgency here

019right we're not even looking at training until I mean there we have to get it filed but I think we should solve for those things um in my opinion before we would actually adopt a plan that did not solve D I agree I didn't think about some of those things and I come from the district that does this and so I was like oh it worked great for us you know we didn't um I wait there was really not much pushback from that but I mean hearing some of these concerns it's can we take a look at it maybe not I don't can it still be implemented this school year so so it needs to be on file with the Roe in September week certainly make revisions to this my just as on the side

020my anticipation of the training day would not be that it would be a full day it would be you know let's get online make sure everybody can do that and then move on with the rest of the day's lessons but certainly and we actually modified to say no new instruction based on the feedback from the policy team that there was concern that that it might be difficult for students but is this set in stone absolutely not I think we will need to evaluate it and probably would need to evaluate it after the training day when we find out oh here's here's a hiccup there's an issue we're going to need to keep modifying this to make it run as smoothly as we possibly and there's a need for it I mean last year when the

021kids were in school in June and a lot of the parents you know were upset and the staff and they want to know the day they're going to be out of school so I do think there's a need for it but maybe taking a look yeah so procedurally what do we have to um I know it's on the agenda for a vote tonight and I appreciate the feedback we got do we um do we have to what does the Roe need from us does it just doesn't need to have a deep plan that we will use for the year or do they just need the Board of Education as authorizing um the district to use e-learning so there's about five components that the Roe asked for that date of the public hearing the date that

022the court approved the plan we would put the plan on bio with the Roe so they would do that but there is nothing that would say we can't modify or change um that we need a letter that the collective bargaining units have been involved in the conversation and I feel like I'm missing one other thing but we have to meet essentially five requirements uh and have that on file and sometimes with the Roe um is this something where if you modified the plan it would come back to the board for approval well you know mid year you do one of these and like and such and such Doesn't work and you think of a plan should be modified is it something that will come back to us or is that something that would be modified

023administratively I think we could bring it back to the board for approval I mean I think we could bring it back for update and or approval built into the plan is that we would evaluate it uh so that is actually an item that's in the proposal itself April and May I think it specifies that you look at it again in April and May for future um you know I'm not saying that doesn't mean you couldn't look at it sooner than that um you know of course you could if you needed to I just would like to see us introduce it with these concerns observations inputs in place that's from my chair I'd like to see us have that because we have time to have you know a little bit more incorporation of those questions being

024fully vetted and and um you know the teachers concerns or observations for lack of a better word about you know three days of planning you know they've got to be planning for if they're in the classroom and again it's a couple of months out of the year but that's still a lot we're still asking a lot of them so um and I think they too would really like to not be in school till June and see that I definitely see the value in this I I just think we have time to maybe you know incorporate some of those ideas or answer some of those questions maybe before we can so I think we could do a few things and maybe you have a different thinking pattern but I think we could uh approve it as

025it is and then we can bring it back with revisions as need be either right away or after we do the October date when we have a better idea we have the whole staff back to sort of give us feedback or we could table it and come back to it next month with some revisions for you next month either of those pieces would work for I mean I think for the administration as long as we have an approved plan to the Ross I would be more inclined for the latter on that just based on some of the payments I've heard from tell the board members as well and concerns just making sure those things get ironed out and we have time so that it can come back in September and get this approved YouTube suppliers

026can I say one door can I say one more discussion point oh sure draw okay um one of the things that I brought up at policy as Lisa was alluding to in some of the notes and then some of the gals talked on as far as improvements go along um yes I agree with some of the pieces we talked about with the developmental ages and what's appropriate in Chromebooks I also to be honest don't love certain things in relation to implementing a plan a um some of the things that were also talked about at policy is the reality in relation to child care so not only a from a parent perspective but B from a staff perspective so a you think through the lens of I have to ask Grandma to watch my child Grandma

027does not have internet nor capability to help my child so like that even if we give a hot spot that might not even help in grade levels if we don't provide packets unilaterally I also think that there's been some feedback in relation to after he posted this just overall internet connectivity and even in different areas within our County as well as for me it's a big one with food insecurity like many of our kiddos this is the only time they eat at our breakfast and lunch and so to me that's worrisome that they wouldn't be with us in schools likewise for some of our underserved populations but El I have some concerns there too so those those are some other concerns that I have just in relation to the plan in general or implementation of

028that we also talked about previously as well any other discussion before Ms Fayetteville with for us the motion to approved all right I'll withdraw my emotions all right thank you second that motion all right turn back in airing at that time all right at this time we would like to celebrate our schools and individuals within the district 2023 Belvedere North High School in Belvedere High School AP scores students from both high schools who scored at five on their AC exam and in what category are listed on board Ducks along with the table showing the growth of scores over the past eight years let's give a round of applause to congratulations to both schools and their students thank you all right next we have some shout outs we'd like to provide and when I we call

029your name we'll have you come up um and I have a little pin for you and we'll have you kind of stay up here if you don't mind and then Cassandra or Dr shovel read your um your little celebration and then um Janine will get a quick picture of us before you sit down but the following people have been nominated by their peers for going above and beyond in District 100 please be sure to check out what they've been nominated for in four ducks again when I read your name if you're present please come forward Stacy hate Hillary Kessler Julie Mattea Angela Shadow Natasha gedansky Steve Holt lulia sarmiento Andrew LeBaron so feel free to come forward we'll have you come up here and Dr shug's going to read a little celebration for all of

030you all right Sarah yeah okay okay I first will read about Stacy Hillary Julie and Angela uh from Harry these interventionists have gone above and beyond assisting students and staff members they all have brought an incredible amount of dedication and commitment to our school each one has provided a positive impact on our students academically emotionally and socially and Natasha from SMS and Natasha is an amazing team leader she is proactive supportive collaborative and always has times on her team each and every day she demonstrates patience and kindness with her team members and all of our students I hope this little shout out demonstrates the appreciation I have for her and the outstanding one she does follow your it's Steve Holt Steve is always putting students and staff first he works diligently to provide the best

031support he can for his students it means with classroom teachers to ensure his lessons are taught and targeted to each of his students needs he substitutes with a smile because he knows teachers need that support despite the disruption to his own teaching he runs two after-school clubs and also does tutoring two days a week Steve is an all-around wonderful person thank you has developed a Spanish cohort group for teachers at CMS she organizes monthly meetings where teachers connect and have fun learning Spanish vocabulary to use with our students in the classroom our teachers are enjoying using words and phrases with our newcomers El and DL students and Andrew from Newark he supports our students and staff in a timely manner and always with a smile is dedicated to our school and works very hard we

032are lucky to have him at North thank you I'll have you guys come over here I don't think they'll see us I'm covered all right although any of our visitors are welcome to stay you're also welcome to leave at this time at this time members of the public and employees of District 100 may make public comments as a reminder any person appearing before the board is expected to address the board only at the appropriate time as indicated on the agenda and follow the directives of the board president to maintain order and decorum identify oneself limit comments to three minutes and conduct oneself with respect and stability towards others and otherwise abide by board policy 8 30 visitors to and conduct on school property um the first one that we have is from Scott Dobbs and

033he'd emailed the board for this to be read this evening dear Belvedere District 100 board members my wife Shawna and I are unable to attend today can you read the following Sean and I have been involved with sports all of our Lives my wife's involvement started here in Belvedere at byb and the YMCA my involvement started out in Rockford at Ken Rock Community Center we were both public school student athletes that have remained involved with sports in the community we both coach and I am on the board of both the byb and Ken Rock Community Center to help see both communities grow we both coach and I am on the board thank you keeping kids active and involved helps decrease negative behaviors or activities in their lives it also creates a sense of belonging or

034connectivity to the community many families home school for many different reasons and ours is no different our children becoming involved in sports with public school kids will enhance the sports teams in our area school teams are seeing a decline in numbers trying out along with kids that are ineligible to play because of their grades it is sad to us that a lot of schools do not have enough players to even have freshman teams that would have never been the case when we were in high school there was a lot of homeschooled kids that are also athletes but above that they are respectable polite kids these kids would be an asset to any school they go to so why not let them stay in their District take one class and play a sport they love thank

035you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you Scott and Shayna Dobbs next we have Kendra Carter Kendra if you'd like to approach the podium thank you good evening the last time I addressed the school board was on March 20th and I spoke out against some highly inappropriate books that are in the high school libraries according to their online catalogs as of today's date those books are still available for minor students to check out and tonight I'd like to discuss one of them flamer by Mike Corrado are you familiar with this book have you crafted open yet I'm gonna assume that's a no because why would you I was going to bring a copy with me tonight for display purposes but I will not use my money to purchase obscene smart the

036images that I was able to find online will suffice this graphic novel contains over 300 pages of absolute both in language and in illustrations flamer contains sexually explicit images of naked young boys in a variety of positions as it discusses everything from anal sex probes to masturbation in detail so I asked you how is this not considered pornography is books like flamer are purchased for student checkout are you also supplying students with copies of Playboy and Hustler because there's really no difference I just have to ask the question because it's in your school libraries check it out and see how much of it you can actually stomach reading now after doing a little more research on obscenity law in Illinois I discovered that 720 ilcs5 is still part of the Illinois criminal code under pornography

037offenses the following information is presented elements of the offense a person commits obscenity when with knowledge of the nature or content thereof or recklessly failing to exercise reasonable inspection which would have disc disclosed the nature or content thereof he or she sells delivers or provides any obscene writing picture record or other representation of the obscene creates bias procures or possesses obscene material with intent to disseminate it in violation of this section any material is considered obscene the average person would find that it depicts or describes ultimate sex acts and there's a whole school of things that I'm not going to read publicly obscenity shall be judged with reference to ordinary adults except that it should be judged with reference to children or specially susceptible audiences if it appears from the character of the material or

038the circumstances of its dissemination to be specifically designed for or directed to such an audience and that's only a portion of their opening statement if convicted of obscenity in the state of Illinois the first offense is a class A misdemeanor it should never come down to a residence having to read Legal Information to get the attention of public Educators and board members this book in all books like it need to be removed from school library shelves the innocence of children needs to be protected and not exploited by obscene books the public Voice keeps getting stifled on this topic when is enough and up if I hear from concerned parents that their child has brought home a lewd book from a school library I'm going to suggest that they contact the aclj or the Illinois Family

039Institute to start legal action against the school district because quite frankly the buck stops with you the Lord and the district administrators we shouldn't even need to have this discussion but here we are please do the right thing and protect the students that you say you care about thank you for your time thank you can I ask a question on this subject I had some questions when is the next curriculum meeting August 2nd August 2nd now we'll have our Board of Education committee reports we'll first start with policy committee meeting oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry come on forward I'm sorry I'm sorry you're good and I have information if you wanted to pass it around but I'm also going to email it to everybody so I'm sorry no problem thank you and I'm

040going to talk extremely fast and I have a longer version I'm going to email uh my name is Alicia Perez and I'm going to apologize I'm 100 sure I'm gonna cry on April 4th my son did something wrong and I will not make any excuses for him he made the poor choice a couple of students were caught with two THC cartridges and told them my son sold it to them District 100 was going to suspend him for two days then it went to 10 and then I received a call from Dave Carson six days later they were going to expel him after conversation we had our son write his statement I've provided that television after that statement they've offered a conditional probation and to go to Summit to something Central under that day too before

041meetings requesting we homeschool because our friends our son was so afraid of expulsion we took the conditional probation because of everything internal figure of my being my son was so attractive we took the neck conditions but I personally believe there was something more Sinister going on behind the scenes as evidence in the policy violations our son could do something more could not be more remorseful for what he was caught doing and what he did to himself and to our family to this day he was in shock at how all this went down I believe he was thrown away in part because of me my husband and I discovered in the fall definitely the sun was making poor choices once we realized this we took immediate action drug test searches taken the car with counseling and

042tons and tons of prayers as it has worked educationally we're still struggling but we're not giving up we're involved we involved our doctor and finally a diagnosis of ADD and would help a prescription messages but this is with no help of District 100 my son did one last Stone an irresponsible thing and do you know why my son did that even though we were in a much better spot I was I was still searching in the rooms their cars and even random drug tests my son was afraid I'd find the one last thing he got hidden months ago and he could get rid of it at school it is a breeding ground for these cartridges before during and even after he had been there not once did the administration share the severity of the suspension

043of my son the suspicions of my son and following Senate Bill 100 do everything possible to avoid expulsion and intervene and and forming us because parents of what was going on this punish I believe was extreme I will email you the history of his discipline over the last 20 years I have volunteer counselors our sat on Commercial committees and personally have raised over 22 thousand dollars for a couple of our school and it is still going on I tell you this not because I deserve special treatment at all but I sat in monthly booster meetings with Jim friesma looking at him in the eye and not one time did that man ever say hey we should or suspecting absolute greatness or at least we are worried about your boys are they okay is everything okay

044at home what if he had been addicted to drugs didn't have any more Compass to want to help them and save him I'm not I'm at sporting events volunteering where I can and not once did someone have enough common decency or respect to want to help my child what if it was your child what would you want wouldn't you want to know I want each of you to ask yourself this and if this is happening to us it is happening to others talk about it time but I'll let you keep going thank you I appreciate it if you would follow your own policies we may not have gotten here why did a private citizen get the email of a special meeting when she was not an employee of District 100 or a board member at

045that time why was her email address blocked out on my copy she shouldn't have been protected person on my request and why wasn't the current president at that time not included in my email why did the executive assistant send the email to the board when policy 2 200 clearly states the president or three board members need to send special request meetings I have more of that but I will send the copies of that to you there are several violations that I have laid out for you that is in the packets that are out there and I am asking you all to revisit Nancy's conditions probation 100 school grounds until they've ended next school year he is not a bad person and what you did was for a while thank you thank you anyone else all

046right now we'll have our Board of Education committee reports our policy committee meeting was on July 11th uh Mr zicker if you have anything you would like to add to the report in addition to the highlights provided no I think about self-explanation uh e-learning can we discussed does anybody have any questions for policy to many numbers all right the first reading of policies the following policy has been submitted for first reading and will be brought back for final approval at the August board meeting does anybody have any questions or concerns regarding the following policy 6 colon 240 field trips I just wanted them I should have said something this was the only other one I think we really talked about is that this is basically trying to correct a problem that really wasn't a problem

047but very rarely that somebody doesn't get their paperwork turned and they could go on a field trip so this is kind of giving away their requirement of needing to notify the board this is just first reading first reading that's correct any questions or discussion regarding that all right business services committee meeting on July 11th Mr foyer or Mr Booker do you have anything you'd like to add or highlight in the business services committee report I have nothing new does anyone have any questions for board Business Services committee members all right facilities and long-range planning committee was on July 12th miss maybell or Mrs house do you have anything you'd like to add or highlight to the facilities and long-range planning committee report the only thing I was going to add is that our next dates

048at Caledonia September 13th so if anyone would like to see the new Early Childhood classrooms they could pop in at that meeting and see what we got going there anybody this is happening okay does anybody have any questions for the facilities and long-range planning committee members all right next on the agenda are consent agenda items are there any items on the consent agenda any members of the board would like to take out for separate consideration five district vehicle purchase member zikert requested to have number five district vehicle purchased removed any other requests all right do I do I have a motion in a second to approve all consent items we're moving number five to be pulled separately as presented so I've got remember Herrera made emotion and member Mayville seconded the motion to approve all

049consent items from movie number five to be pulled separately as presented any discussion roll call Mr Herrera aye Miss maybell aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mr Booker aye Mr zicker aye Mrs Mrs burner aye motion passes 7-0 do I have a motion and a second to approve consent agenda item number five that we pulled separately District vehicle purchase as presented remember Mabel made a motion do I have a second member Mayville made a motion and remember how second is the motion to approve consent item number five district vehicle purchase as presented any discussion yeah the reason I'll give the reason I had I wanted to pull up was I went to the business services committee meeting and the vehicle it was on the other matters it wasn't on the actual on the agenda it was on

050after the on the after the regular agenda it was I think if I heard correctly said it was brought up that day of the meeting that it was that's why it got on there was even talking about as it came first that day it's a fifty thousand dollar van up to 150 up to a 50 000 van for the HVAC person um I was the questions I had at the time were oh a lot you know did we have another vehicle like that and other people were asking the same questions too any time was there um why do we need it why wasn't this talked about when we approved the position stuff like that because a lot of this talk we were going to get a lot of savings on this position we're going to

051be in 100 Grand in this position the first year with the purchase of the van plus probably more than 100 Grand with the salary of the person plus the van and whether we embedded this thing completely when it was just hearing about it that exact day right before the meeting so that's why I pulled it um I'll just say along with what Matt said um this is a bit of a process issue as well when we went over all this way many months ago and approved the actual position the questions were asked what are the other costs associated with this and we talked about what are the dollars that we're currently spending on HVAC in the district and the numbers were thrown out and that this would be beneficial the questions were asking you know

052what are the outside costs do we have to if we're going into the HVAC business is the question I asked don't we have Associated tools things that we're going to need to support that other expenses along with it and I was told no not really well a 50 000 van is a big expense and then I asked at the meeting the other day because we did just hear this and it was brought up that day I said well if you need a van we're probably buying a bunch of tools to put in a van right how do we know what the expense of all that is because because you know tools costs a lot of a lot of money and and we never all of those things should have been vetted at the time of

053the position and part of the actual request for the position but we've talked a lot about this over the two years I've been on here about how expenses should come through business services and and what would be appropriate you know if you ran a business and you probably don't bring up sixty thousand dollar expenses the day of for approval in a couple days and it should probably be part of the original information because we're making decisions with the information that are given to us at that time and this is a good example of not having all that information which may or may not have changed a lot of our positions voting on this at when we had to so I think it's a good example of what happens far too often and I would wish

054that we wouldn't do this and this has come up before and we've talked about it and and we always say we're gonna we're gonna do better and do that but it just it doesn't make sense to do things this way I don't think good businesses do things this way that's what I'll say the timer Jorge because I was in this meeting where they're uh like were there other options that we could utilize of like District resources we have so there are other options the other used vehicles in the inventory most of them are pickup trucks or dump trucks uh we did talk about possibly looking at maybe possibly a trailer as an alternative or something or something and I think um I would rather see Alternatives brought forth and to Mr Booker's Point what are

055we looking at in terms of total cost because yes we probably are going to need some tools with the van other additional items and equipment so what are we looking in totality going forward so we have a better idea of of the total expense um so I would be in alignment with that just to say hey we need a little bit more information before at least I would need a little bit more information before I can make a decision so I'd like that information to include Insurance costs estimated you know fuel expenses the additional costs that we would have for licensing and titling and all of the associated costs you know buying the vehicle is is just a small piece of I mean it's the biggest piece of expense wise but there's lots of other

056expenses associated with taking on additional vehicle ownership as a private party or as a school district so it's just not enough information for me to say that I feel confident that fifty thousand dollars is going to be the last ask and then it's not going to have peripheral ripples into other areas of expense that while they may be small beginning to rein these in and we're going to talk about issues where the expenses are significantly larger later being transparent and fully vetting things in the small is going to begin to set us on a trajectory where there's transparency and timeliness and you know better communication across the board so for me tonight I'd be voting no on this and we have a vehicle for this person to use until we're able to get more information

057on which was shared at the meeting was they would have they would Buddy up one of the other maintenance people or a ground person with another individual sorry I don't know what's happening we don't have a spare vehicle for them to use at this point so it would require somebody else to share another vehicle do we have any indication like if we were to get like a trailer with our light truck or something like what's the price differential in relation to that versus the current terminal well I mean the trailers are substantially less but you'd have to really have to have a covered trailer um the issues that we've talked about at the meeting were with the area where we need a vehicle to pull it so we would still be budding people up and

058with the HVAC position needing to go to sites particularly during the day and things like that parking at some of our schools with a trailer uh maybe a little difficult so there were there were some of those conversations and we have talked about going back and getting some additional information on that but there would be a need for a vehicle to pull a trailer to ensure that we're not sending two people two people always to the same location as another job site you know they you'd have two people that were always traveling together in that situation there was no um specific vehicle and we did indicate that that cost would probably be less than the 50 000 but when you're in the market right now for used vehicles and finding something that would have the

059racking and the ability to be used for this capacity we were trying to get ahead of that game as now that someone has accepted that position I I do not recall being asked all of those questions about the position this position came about through the con study so I know I was not asked to prepare those types of information so I apologize if that was asked for I was not aware of that I know we've talked about adding positions previously and that was not something that we moved forward at that point we were waiting for the compensation study that Dr shug and the rest of the team were working through so I can definitely do a costing for what the intended cost would be like I said I don't anticipate that we would be spending

060the full 50 000 on this it was just just in a used car market for a vehicle you need to have some ability to act when the vehicle is available and waiting for board meeting to approve that you're going to not be successful in getting those Vehicles nine times out of ten so it was a very broad ask it was just okay they started looking and to be honest I think it was missed on the agenda solely because we were working on other projects and so I do think that Mr Winters and I have both missed the ball on that so right now as it stands if we don't buy a vehicle the HVAC person is going to have to Buddy up with someone yes I mean that's not great um but I I also

061can't guarantee that we would have a vehicle before they start in yeah yeah so I mean it sounds like we're gonna have to get a vehicle for this person I don't is there any appetite for lowering the authority amount or I mean I just I don't know that we can expect this person to drive around with somebody else all year I no that I just I don't know the market for like what all of those things cost so like I to be honest would like have to lean on Mrs Armstrong to get us some votes like Tom was saying or Lisa was saying is I don't know all those pieces item I've found any indication I'm just guessing but of the like the tools and that stuff yeah I mean I don't know what at

062this point what's this person gonna do with no tools and no trouble those questions were asked and they were asked when the initial request or or discussion came up at Business Services about hiring several HVAC individuals that is when that was asked not after the back in November of last year because I went back at the information correct when we first saw it when it was first brought up that's when that happened and so yes obviously that's why the question was asked because obviously they need tools and things and what are the costs of those we we didn't get those at that time so we maybe have to make I mean it's likely that we're going to need to make some kind of a purchase um but for me I need much more comprehensive information

063about the totality of cost or at least an estimate good faith estimate based upon the other things that are going to be associated with needing the vehicle because we're not buying a vehicle and then not needing to put something in it if we need a closed vehicle it must be because we need storage for what for the things that we think we need to put in it what's the cost of the things we need put in it what's the cost for taxes license insurance all of those other things I think that's attainable information that we should you know that I I would need before I could say but when does this person start roughly is it do you know when they start the page back starts on uh next Monday but it is we plan

064our buddy him up for training yeah okay okay this is just an initial forming into looking for a vehicle Okay so yeah can I have so in the business service note that says it was recommended for a used van but I guess I'm hearing it's not what was the meaning so that's the initial ask is for a used van up to fifty thousand was it recommended on a committee or no it came forth to be brought here so not recommended but recommended to come to the board I guess I'm doing oh just is that I'm asking there were also other things two driver set cars they wanted to buy too so this wasn't the only thing they talked about that day that were put on at the not on the agenda and they all just

065kind of came up right now all we're looking at is this okay and we can definitely bring it back to Business Services in August and get some quotes um knowing that those will give you kind of a ballpark for uh what vehicles are running uh most likely those Vehicles would be the ones that would be available but it will give you a cost side to that um well again I'm not asking necessarily that you cut down the fifty thousand that may be very necessary and appropriate I'm saying I need to know all the other to the degree of certainty that we can provide all of the other things that are going to follow it so that we're not in a position where as we are a little bit later tonight not really knowing and then

066it's here and then oh well now we've spent the 50 on the truck and now we need to spend another you know 50 on tools or 10 on tools or five whatever it is um Tom or Jorge do you think that makes the most sense that we bring it back to Business Services we don't probably yes and then gets more details so we can make an informed decision versus just voting right now yeah I'd rather get the full picture of all the what's entail with this with this position equipment ban some of the other items I know Mrs Whitcomb was asking about as well um and once we have that yes we can we can make an informed a better informed decision this is a necessity but we will need this for this position I

067think we just need more information at this time for the overall picture the total cost for this position and Equipment yeah buddy not long-term for medication plan I don't think that probably saves money either it will make sense as far as workload and coordination thank you all right next we will have our roll call Action items are there any revisions to the existing board education policies under roll call Action items and members of the board would like to take out for separate consideration hearing none do I have a motion and a second to approve the revisions for the existing Board of Education policies one through 19 as presented [Applause] foreign Board of Education policies items one through 19 as presented any discussion roll call Mr Herrera aye Miss Mayville aye Mrs Howe aye Mr zikert

068aye Mr Booker aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mrs Brenner aye motion passed 7-0 do I have a motion to approve the security monitors so moved member in Motion in the removal seconded the motion to approve security monitors and Belvedere South Middle School and Belvidere Central Middle School as presented any discussion I think it's great I definitely want us to be moving forward with it I just don't know if it goes far enough I I don't know that I mean we're asking a lot I don't know where they're going to get this training I mean if this is I understand along the lines of the hall monitor's job but it is going to you know be different than that it is going to be putting them in much more high stress High likelihood of of incident or

069occurrence areas by definition right we're looking for them to be in those areas that would help reduce incidence of um behaviors or incidents of bullying so by Nature that's going to put them in the crosshairs of some difficult situations so I I don't know I want to start here but I think we have to hold Loosely the idea that um a hall monitor position that we call a security monitor it may not cut deep enough if there's areas where we have enough and a significant issue as we did in some buildings last year and just to be clear the hall monitors are currently in those spaces in the high schools we just don't have them here we just don't have them at Central and it's South and we have worked to Rebrand that position and

070to provide some training that we haven't in the past but I certainly appreciate that feedback I think there's more work to be done there and I would agree they have to be rebranded I mean I've worked with all monitors before in Belvedere and they do they do an admirable job it's not that but I think the circumstances were much different than they are now also I fully support this I think it's a great step in the right direction my only issue was and I've said this before at the meeting the meetings before the meeting too was that I wish this was part of a comprehensive plan that we're using to correct those problems that you you came to us and said that here's the security monitors we need for Central and South along with a

071b c and d and a few of the other things we're going to do because one of the middle schools didn't go from 1500 referrals for three to three thousand just because it wasn't a security monitor there there's a lot of other factors that we need to look at too and I was just hoping that this would be hard part of a comprehensive plan addressing all that instead of piecemealing along the way but that being said I do think it's necessary I do think we need it yeah I think this is good we've said there's safety concerns it did as Matt said come up in policy as something to continue to look at as a broader plan but everybody felt like it was a good start in relationships I hope we see some more in

072the August meeting which will be at or near the beginning of school that will hopefully set us up for having a the next step in a more comprehensive plan any other discussion all right roll call Mr Herrera aye Miss maybell aye Mrs help okay Mr Booker aye Mr zikert aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mrs Brenner hi motion path 7-0 do I have a motion to approve the 2023-24 administrative contracts or nine-month administrators Michael Patterson and Brian Young effective July of 2023 okay remember how made emotion and remember Mayville seconded the motion to approve the 2023-24 administrative contracts for nine month administrators Michael Patterson and Brian young as presented any discussion all right roll call Mrs hope aye Miss May Bill aye Mr Herrera aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mr zikert aye Mr Booker aye Mrs Brenner aye

073motion pass 7-0 okay do I have a motion to approve the 2023-24 administrative contracts for 10-month administrators Andrea debts effective July 2023. so move second member Mayville made a motion remember Herrera seconded the motion to approve the 2023-24 administrative contracts for 10-month administrator Andrea dutts as presented any discussion roll call Miss Mayville aye Mr Herrera aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mr Booker aye Mrs Houck aye Mr zikert aye Mrs Brenner hi hi motion pass 7-0 do I have a motion to approve the 2023-24 amendment to superintendent agreement for Dr Cassandra Shug effective July 2023 so move second number Mabel made a motion and member Herrera seconded the motion to approve the 2023-24 amendment to superintendent's agreement for Dr Cassandra shove effective July 2023 any discussion yeah just really quick I mean I'm going to be consistent

074voting on this because I voted the same way out of the other ones previously back a few months ago so I don't see any different to vote differently this time to be consistent and fair same any other discussion what's the consistency that's right of the travel part the 2500 annuity we've all voted on the Travel piece at one time I know and I voted I know voted on all of them Tyler Bell the director yeah maybe I don't read that I don't remember I just want to make sure that that's why I order is that there it's possible it's possible but I mean if we want to talk about this I'm fine with that no this this stuff came up last year too and people who think it's okay now didn't think it was okay

075last year so now just In fairness let's let's be honest about it all some of the stuff I probably would have supported last year but nobody else wanted to so I've tried to be consistent consistency was that's consistent that's consistency I appreciate the feedback that people full I talked to Dr Shug in relation to as some of it stipulates in relation to um employee feedback and relation evaluation so I'm hoping that's something we can further discuss at our board retreat in relation to her goal setting process and how it ties into some of this work as well in the amendment any further discussion all right roll call Miss maybill aye Mr Herrera aye Mrs Whitcomb no Mr Booker no Mrs Hulk aye Mr zicker no Mrs Brenner aye motion the following items have been added

076for discussion or will be coming up for further review and or possible action in the future background information has been provided and the board who may ask questions and or request clarification at this time 740 non-public school students including parochial and home school students and I'll have both probably either Jorge or Matt maybe chime in a little bit on the context in relation to this conversation sure this comes forward to us um from uh Mr Scott and Shayna dabs who we heard from at uh during public comment that you read they're requesting that we review and look at this policy and let's be clear today homeschool students can participate um in high school sports so long as they attend at least one half of the regular school days that correct Dr Carson dancing 10-5 courses

077five classes five course okay and um which is is that considered at least half times that's considered a full day of attendance okay the minimal part of the full day of attendance okay so either way home still home school students can attend today so this isn't about whether they can add or cannot attend I think this is their request is to bring it forward to see if we could modify our policy to be more in line with ihsa which is saying hey ihsa requires one course to be taken at the school and the remaining courses may be taken throughout their homeschool curriculum if you will I believe that is the ask of us um for us and and why we're reviewing this um I don't know what other information I can provide but back and

078forth and so that's why we brought it just for discussion to the board not to vote on because some of the pieces that we talked about when Matt and I were a policy with the committee was if we were to re-look at this you know timeline how does that come into parent communication whether that be handbook whether that be who monitors the implementation of this how many courses we would be looking at like we weren't at a far enough place to make any determination but rather the committee wanted to bring it to the full board to have discussion here is this even something we make a proposal on look further into based on where we're at and prioritizing work efforts also when Matt and I were at the meeting there were discussions regarding this might

079be helpful in some circumstances to staff or not staff to build teams where we don't have enough participation however there it also was brought up by some parents at the meeting that they may feel uncomfortable or not happy with the choice that their child doesn't make a team where a homeschool student might make that team but then also discussions of obviously any of these people are taxpayers but that can add to anything maybe I missed her yeah I think it was it was a nice discussion I mean the parent the parent the man and gentleman to talk is extremely Nation a nice guy I'm sure his kids are wonderful kids I don't have any doubt about that at all a lot of districts around the area do a variety of things some require five some

080require three some requires four yeah some require one but one's a rarity that they require one Rockford does require one but I can tell you Rockford has a rarity of kids doing it but their curriculum in Rockford has to be approved by the district they don't get to do whatever curriculum they want it has to be the homeschool curriculum has to be approved by the district or they can't do it I think the Nexus of it was and I share can correct me if I'm wrong is that the committee was divided on it enough or not not even divided isn't an appropriate word either had enough questions about it that there really wasn't a proposal that the reason to bring it to the board I think is accurate in saying that we wanted to let

081the administration know whether there's any interest in it or not before they waste their time coming up with something if there's no interest in it it doesn't make any sense to task them with okay what could we live with as a homeschool policy if there is interest in it then maybe that's the opposite is true when was the last time this was looked at when we came up with our all right I know it probably says in the policy manual I just don't have anything for me science reviewed in uh revised in August of 2020 so we're revised in August of 2020 so it's probably coming up again for review here and it just is timely above or outside of that let's go but this one was actual request I think Mr Herrero wasn't that

082true this was actually impressed by the baron yeah to uh their request is to allow instead of five courses right I believe that that's what we're that's what our policy says today they're asking for one course to be taking at the member school which would be the high school year um that would be what IH ihsa would require just one course um to be offered to be taken at the school the I think what we need to come to grips here is with in terms of maybe coming to grips is it's too strong or what we just need to figure out logistically how do we accomplish this there are some there was a document that was shared that some schools are doing this in a variety of different ways um you know whether it's five

083courses one course somewhere in between I guess we just need to figure out if if we need to figure out the logistics of what that looks like then we need to make that known to our administrators in terms of look at it yeah right yeah it is I bet there's not 10 kids in the area of time on it is something that I think was may not be a you know good return on investment for the time Administration will spend um you know I can speak specifically to the fact that you know prior to my older kids getting older at home schooled for almost 14 years so um I get it I understand the idea and the desire to be engaged and involved in Illinois homeschools are seen as private schools and they're not required

084to submit to a number of things that um you know I think we would want them to possibly you know be willing to you know provide some eligibility data like how how is it that you can attend one course and then tell us well your kids are just automatically eligible so finding out an Avenue through which we could satisfy an exploration that would give um a good reason to spend that much time on it from a staff perspective um I think as likely as Matt said you know not very high I was the president of a Homeschool Group and we had K-12 kids in the group and there might have been two who you know out of the 45 or 48 kids that wanted to attend my son Joshua being one of them and what

085we did to accomplish that was enroll Joshua in school and he was the only one of my kids who came to school in middle school and the rest came in high school um but it's a lot of work on the part of administration to go through the process of vetting it all and then the potential pushback from homeschool parents who say well I don't want you to be able to have access to my records and so as much of a proponent as I am to the idea that I think homeschooling is a great fit for some people and I think that it provides you know a lot of freedom to parents to construct an education that they think is best for their for their child when it's permitted by law I think it's a big

086ask of a district to drop their expectation all the way down to one class and then if we did that um there'd have to be some good um accountability right in place they've got to be able to demonstrate like all the other kids that you're academically eligible and that would mean opening up your records to providing some support of that and short of a willingness on this parent's part to spearhead the idea that yep they would open that up I would say it's it's probably a lot more time for our staff to work on than return on the investment thoughts discussion I'd be open to hearing more about what sort of time burn that would be on the staff I mean this is not Helen and Dion but um their taxpayers they pay taxes to

087our district their kids live in our district their kids probably don't choose whether they're homeschooled or not um I think a large number of abuse and neglect cases get reported by schools and the more kids we can get in front of teachers or staff members even for just a little bit of time a day um is not a terrible thing so I I would be interested in hearing what our staff thinks about this and what sort of time burden it would put on what coaches think about it too that's what we did say Apollo into like more rigorous standard like three or four courses in that regard but that was one of the things we said to town like what would be their interest and and for me I'm not opposed to it I just

088think the timing right now we have like our strategic plan our action planning to me this isn't like a right now move on it but I'm not opposed if we got some more information yeah yeah I mean I told Mrs Bronner I think that his daughter's play softball his son plays baseball so I mean they're spring Sports so I don't think they I don't think they were looking for a fall answer necessarily anyway but I do think they wanted to see they kind of want to see the direction we were going to go I think so then they could make some educated choices too whether we'd be totally against it or at least interested in it I I think maybe I'm not portraying that right but that's the gist I thought I got out of

089it so maybe get s back policy but not timely like right now it has to be done well instead I mean I think that's you know it is true I mean that's that's a component of it then I think having staff weigh in a bit on what they think I mean how not what they think but how much time they believe they would need to invest to um instruct something that would either meet with the request rules of these parents or some that would be also combining logistically what are those Logistics in terms of being able to verify eligibility if you will um some of those other components but again great any stuff that you need to know right and to evaluate well I think some of the other questions that would be what if

090any enrollment you know fees you know cost two they pay what if any obligation do we have to provide grade reporting for the one course that they take you know some of those sorts of things and for staff can kind of figure that out so if I could just provide some clarification that I should say rules require that the student must be granted credit towards graduation by the number school for the work taken either at member school or in a program of a cruise so we would have to actually award credit for the students right which is why Ross well you're probably familiar that's why Rockford has to approve their curriculum before they do it right knee requires through an accredited program so really we have gotten feedback from the athletic directors and the principals

091and I think on the whole it was we have to do this we will but um it's packed on kind of the culture of the school with the big concern and the concern they get brought up at Sarah which is around you know some of our own students who attend every day eventually getting cut from Sports homeschool students so I mean if you'd like to ask them again for me it's more I'm just I I personally I frankly I'm those concerns are not high on my list of concerns with this um I I am more concerned with the administrative burden time wise I don't know who that falls on or how but um that is more um yeah and does it put an outside thing on our coaches that they have to handle yeah yeah

092who who's doing that right yeah that that's what concerns me the most it does get more feedback in relation too policy or we can see feedback I'm not sure it's probably more of the building level leadership that would have feedback that we need so we would we can seek that out we can figure out what that looks like we could even potentially draft a policy but what it could look like and seems to me we probably need some language to actually look like look at and evaluate so which is probably going to involve the attorney as well if we talk about revisions to policy that change how we're going to issue credit which they're they're acknowledging it's part of this policy I mean and it you know I guess it's my understanding too that I

093think um our district would still need to approve um the the homeschool curriculum I believe yeah yeah so our you know no matter what you would have to approve it no matter what so that's part of the component going forward it is exist today it sounds like the parents have read the policy yeah and they're fully aware and even yeah and even ihsa has that as a fact sheet that you know and I I believe these parents are fully aware of what's on the ihsa guidelines as well so um just I'm just throwing that out there is that regardless we're still approving them whatever program they're in so no matter what yeah we can still be sort of statistics and memory of that would be needed through seeking out that information from our building level

094leadership do you want us to try to draft a policy or do you want to just start by considering that administrative burden that's what we'll do all right any discussion um Dr Shelton related to upcoming contract renewals or reports nope just that they're in there you can look at them all right um discussion regarding long-range facilities master plan and assessment Mrs Armstrong would you be able to kind of give an update to the board at this point of kind of where we're at or what's been taking place in our schools I know Carla mentioned something coming up at Caledonia but um the long-range planning facilities and long-range planning um has been doing tours of buildings uh for their meeting so that was what um board member Mayville was referring to is that our next meeting

095will be held at Caledonia um and they'll be able to see some of the new EC classrooms with the furniture and things that they have done with the expansion of that program as far as the long range facility master plan and the total needs assessment those are two projects that were discussed back in started a RFQ process in September and then the board had approved to start negotiations on the contract for that in November from that period in November the end of November through March the Architecture Firm Larson and Darby and Cunningham two separate entities I should say I had started looking at that process how to kickoff meeting we continued as a district to work with our kids Consulting to evaluate the proposals and or the proposal that they were offering and working on

096that Master service agreement between the owner and the architect with Larson and Darby being recognized as a district architect I tried to spell out I have the timeline kind of out there I tried to spell out some of the acronyms because there are so many long names in this process but once that Master agreement for architectural services was completed in the end of March during that March time frame we as a district received the first proposal for the costing of the actual needs assessment and 10-year master plan as I had spoken November it's kind of important to realize those are two separate projects that kind of go hand in hand so the needs assessment is looking at the condition and the state of our facilities as they are today and the 10-year plan is taking

097those needs that we have identified through the needs assessment with our facilities and really taking that from a much broader point of view of not only what do you need to do to improve those facilities structurally but also look at are we utilizing our space in the best way to and for educational purposes for making sure that we have enough square footage for first grade classroom second grade classrooms and trying to help design a plan that the district could work with to move forward and try to planning what we're gonna look at in 10 years these documents are usually very fluid you know as you tend to have situations that come up just in my you know tenure here we've had a lot of reactionary situations so the needs assessment was kind of critical to

098get ahead of that so we're not always reacting and just trying to plug the holes right away the 10-year plan let us really kind of look at ideas of what um that master or what the needs assessment could be translated into for the planning on Space utilization what are we using our spaces for that proposal came to us like I said at the beginning of March and that proposal was a significant dollar amount and it was more than I had originally thought in my budget mind frame that we were averaging I had taken into thought that this project was being the two components would be around four hundred thousand dollars so that was kind of the premise that that I was working with and um unfortunately I don't know that all of that was conveyed

099with the board and I'm sure I learned at this point that it probably was not um I definitely did not communicate it out with this board um at that time so I immediately rejected the first proposal and asked them to go back and do some sharpening other pencils because it was a little bit of sticker shot the first proposal didn't come with breakdowns of what actually the scope of the work was going to be it was just a very broad you know here's your your proposal this was cost so we had kids Consulting working with them to really make sure it was aligned with what we had asked for in the RFQ and um it in the timeline it appears there were a lot of back and forth between kids Consulting and Larson and Darby

100during this whole time both the long-range planning committee Administration we were all actively involved in conversations about everybody knew the work was happening the architect selection Darby had attended multiple of the long-range planning committee meetings the administration was working with the Larson and Darby and Cunningham groups on weekly calls which we have agendas of what we were talking through so a lot of the work was happening and the needs assessment was fully underway when um we had Larson and Darby and Engineering groups come out and assess the building she had teams of about 15 walking through the buildings and assessing all the spaces they were in the boiler rooms they were in the roof they were in the basement really looking at everything water testing all of those things so that process has gone on

101became apparent after in the middle of middle to end of April that Cadence Consulting wasn't getting some of that results and there was some questions on what their role was going to be in this process so Mr Winters and I started working with Larson Darby directly and said this is what we need for your contract this is what has to happen and we need the proposal they continued they had a lot of time on the the primary contact that Larson Darby was out of the office due to some personal issues that kind of stymied a little bit in the May time frame in June we came back and I had come over to the facilities office where a meeting was planned with Larson and Darby and Mr Winters and I sat down with them both

102and said we we need to have this proposal like within a week this has gone on way too long Mr Winters had been working through that whole process trying to get them to get the the proposal and that led us to the June 27th date that we actually did get the the second proposal which was their response to the proposal that was sent in March that I had rejected that proposal did reflect a 10 reduction in the brain spaces cost and the seven and a half percent reduction in Cunningham's costs Darby informed us that they had already taken a 15 cup cut off of their cost in the preliminary one because being awarded as the district architect firm they knew there would be future for business for them so that was up where they had

103come with this last quote that was attached it is still hi but in relation to the amount of expertise that is going into this the people that they've had working on the program like I said those site visits were teams of about 15 people with Engineers mechanical electrical very highly skilled individuals that don't work for cheap and so um knowing that this was a very high ticket item and knowing that we needed to have some conversations about this I did post the business service agenda on the long range planning meeting and then brought back him to the board from that conversation as well do we know like I guess two things one are we able to get to get from them like more in detail than this document of like what the estimate is based

104on right so we'll have some autonomy to determine where we want to go and then B can we get some indication for like like you're talking about the walkthroughs and what they've already completed and like what's the dollar amount in relation to that um you know make better determinations in regards to next steps yep um at the last invoice and conversations that we had had with Morrison and Darby they're about 76 percent complete with the needs assessments and that needs assessment report is due to be delivered to the board in June okay I'm sorry October October okay yes I'm sorry and the following one the 10-year plan would be next June if that were to happen because that would be developed from that needs assessment as well so can they tell us about that more

105in depth like what the process does it itemize absolutely you know in relation to that work because this is just hard to tell specifically but the needs assessment has already been fully completed ish like as far as what they do on site or yes yeah at this point what they have left to do is to compile that report and get it prepared for you all the on-site work the examination all of those things have been done and they're now prioritizing those items to say what is your most critical need assessment so what needs to be addressed in one to three years what needs to go three to five and what could be potentially out longer so and then the needs assessment will go back to both committees prior to the full board in October would

106be the intent or as far as the report of it typically we've we've had it just come to business services um and then they would convey that information if you would like to have the whole them come and actually presented at the board meeting that's what I was kind of wondering too others think as far as them being present might not be a bad thing I don't know I mean I don't know if they have to necessarily be present but we spent two we spent over a quarter of a million dollars and we really don't know what we spend it on so far I mean get in detail and we still have another well over a quarter of a million dollars left to spend and we really don't know what's left that we're spending it

107on necessarily so because we're going to make some educated choices on how we're going to move forward it's hard to do that if you don't know what's been done and what's what's option not optional but what's maybe discretionary at the end of it that we could maybe make some choices a or b or or continue on but at least we'd make an educated choice on that right now we really have very very very little information at all to Matt's point like I almost wonder if they come twice like now to present it other than just giving us a paper of what different cost options are and where we go in relation to the 10-year plan and then be like when the needs assessment comes in and analyzing that might not be not being a bad

108approach so I have a couple thoughts um first of all we talked we talked to some about the fact that the process needs um needs an overhauling so that this sort of thing doesn't happen again that we don't end up with the Tail Wag and the dog so I guess I would ask first of all um is there any relief we could seek from Cadence for their failure to get a negotiated you know proposal and ultimately we had to get it ourselves right we paid them a separate amount of money and it took you know nearly eight months to get it so you know that's number one number two I think it's super important going forward um as has been stated in other conversation I mean I'm shocked number one that they were doing this

109work without a contract and number two I don't think we can have work done I mean I really like to see us not be having work done before we know what that work is going to cost us and this is a lot of money or what is it fifty thousand dollars at least that we have now absolutely got to spend whether we use any of the information they provide us or not and that is a huge expenditure that we as board members owe responsibly to be able to answer questions about to our constituents and to taxpayers we take an oath that I recently remember for the board members that were you know reinstated or elected that talked extensively in that oath about our responsibility to taxpayers and in part because our you know our failure

110to ask some questions and that we have to accept as a board we have but I wonder what was the incentive for them to get us a timely proposal when the clock was already taken for them they were already racking up a bill that they knew we were going to have to pay and we didn't stop them so from an administrative perspective I need administrators that are going to step up and say work you you the client starts when we know how much we're spending no more spending money and then finding out how much we needed to spend that that's just it's too much going forward to especially in expenses like this I mean if we spent twenty thousand dollars I'd be saying the same thing the clock cannot start before we know what they're

111charging us I understand that these are our learned individuals with lots and lots of education and Superior skills and you know Advanced degrees who are coming here to do really important and necessary work but we wouldn't be having any of these conversations if we had not put the card before the horse and we had not let them begin a lot of work without any knowledge or information from Administration as to what the back end cost was going to be so not working without a contract going forward number one I think it would have incentivized them to get us a contract sooner than seven months down the road well I mean I guess we had a contract that's but still that contract took five months from November until March to even get and what incentive is

112there for them if they're like yeah they're letting this work so they're going to have to pay us for what we're doing and again I'm not saying they were being that Cavalier about it but why would we think that we didn't have constituents who thought maybe that we were being that Cavalier about it but then eventually I guess we'll find out maybe eventually we'll know how much is going this is a huge expenditure and right now it's a huge expenditure on top of other things that we've undertaken lots and lots of things the long-range planning facilitation team is going to manage that we still don't have Grant proposal information I understand we can't control that on the Early Childhood that's you know that's still months down the road so at least initially that's on the

113district's dime we're not going to not open the programs right we're going to open the you know we're all embracing this but that's going to be on the district's dime and now we've already spent 250 000 of the district's money on something and we don't even know what we got for you so and I really do think there needs to be some conversation at the very least with cadence to say where did they fall down on the job that they couldn't even get us to the Finish Line when we paid them money and we eventually had to send in you and Sean to try and say look okay not now now you have a full stop now you either get us something or we still would have owed them all that money but it makes

114me concerned about continuing to do business with them when they were willing to rack up all this billing and all this money and all this cost before we ever knew how much it was going to be Joanne would we be able to have a special board meeting to try to get them to come here sooner than later so then we can get some of these questions answered or look at some of the numerics or different options because obviously we need to determine in a timely fashion where to go next but we want it to be figured out in relation to a revised contract and then where we go because I mean we don't want them to keep working to that point until we're on the same page okay um the next business services meeting is

115August 1st and I will be out until the 28th for my daughter's wedding I'm leaving tomorrow so um I mean I can definitely ask Sean to start working with them to have them present at that meeting if we wanted to maybe do a forward meeting after that or if you want them to present separately then Business Services I I feel like we want to have more of these conversations at the committee as well so that we can improve the communication across the whole board whatever others think I just think and I think something that it would be useful um because I think it's going to be hard to just say pencils down right now no more work going for because then we will have paid for a large chunk of work with no end products

116so I think what would be helpful for me to see at this point would be um sort of The Logical break points okay here's where you get a product for the work we've put in now here is you know if you spend in the next 60 000 then you get access to spend the next 80 000 you get why because I I obviously I don't have the capability to yeah yeah yeah and that was kind of what I had discussed uh previously was that we can definitely go to a point of saying put your pencils down on the 10-year long-range Point Let's you know put a hold on that so we can have these conversations um I don't maybe we can definitely say you know let's put a pause on the needs assessment however that

117works been done I mean right now what you're you're spending on that is just the compilation and the actual report which will give you something um tangible so when they give us a separate you know invoice in relation to just what that is or would it be exactly how it sits on here we're just paying that component yeah no they when they're invoicing their invoicing those two projects separately so yeah and they visited every building already they've been in every building and so all of that so I think as long as we don't take on any more indebtedness regarding this we already owe but we have to I mean right I mean and when they do it we may still do it I mean but I think don't have them start anything else until we

118have a much better breakdown of of exactly what the cost is not what because we do know now but what do we get for that right you know and I believe um and Sean you can correct me if I'm wrong I'm sorry I put you on the spot but um they've started to have some of those conversations of initial find you know initial things they've seen and maybe that's what would be helpful to see what they've actually I haven't been part of those meetings those are with Mr Winters and Larson and Darby because I'm kind of waiting for that the plan but not necessarily the plan I shouldn't say the a little more finalized result there they've got a lot of the data and stuff that they've been talking about uh maybe that would be

119very helpful for the needs assessment for an update to see kind of what that rough stuff is going I think that will give you kind of the thought of what you're getting if that's part of what we've already paid for I would say if you know taking on any more work to accomplish that I wouldn't feel comfortable saying yesterday giving us reporting on all the work they've already done I'd be thumbs up for sure we want them to finish that off we have to pay for it but if that reporting is going to cost us more money then I think we have to make some decisions before sounds like no right it sounds like completing those reports from the needs assessment and bringing forward the here's what we found right the inspection report if you

120will is part of what we've already on the hope for regardless or 76 complete with that so the compiling the actual final report to give you in October that will cost you that other 20 yeah we get nothing for what we've already spent yeah you could have some reviews they could say it's really x amount that you're paying I mean I think there's definitely a risk there but I think we want there's something yeah I think the big lesson here is check-in is processed because because when we talked to Division I if I'm wrong or he talked correct me when we're at the business services committee meeting there was a lot of debate on whether the board even needed to do anything with this at all that we were already stuck with it and that

121the only reason we were even coming to the board was to try and fulfill that twenty thousand dollar kind of Contracting even though it really didn't matter if we voted it down anyway we were still stuck with it that was what we were told at the business services committee meeting and I remember correctly I'm pretty sure I do I don't know what any of that means yeah I don't know what it means no is that when they were talking about this proposal there were some questions I'm sorry the presentation um the administration at the time that when we were presented with a 547 thousand dollars there were some questions on it when people came to the realization it really was 547 000 and I think what what tweaked everybody's interest in it was initially the

122discussion wasn't so much on the assessment of the buildings and stuff it was some of the peripheral stuff that was catching people's attention like evaluating educational space it's like looking at outdoor educational opportunities and looking like building arrangements and how we construct classrooms and move move walls or not move walls and stuff like that I mean that was the stuff that really got the conversation to a point and then I think there was a realization that people were looking at the actual number there that I I'll be honest I thought it was a dollar sign not a five so I'm just as guilty as anybody else is that once I figured out it was 540 000 or 547 we asked a question about what we could do about it we were told pretty much nothing

123that if you agreed to that back in November or around November when you agreed to do this and it's other than trying to fulfill the idea of bringing it to the board because it's a contract of over twenty thousand dollars that was pretty much why we heard what we did about it from what I remember is that I mean pretty accurate I will say that we have had more of those in-depth discussions in the facilities committee I mean we have heard more about I mean not not cost but but about the you know how we use classrooms going forward and Safety and Security um you know what we're going to do basically the second half of the facilities assessment what we do going forward so we have in recent months had more of those discussions

124so that has I just want to make sure everyone knows that we we have had minus the cost of it I guess yeah the cost the cost is a big determination but I do think it would be helpful at long range planning or directly to um Larson and Derby whomever wherever maybe that we get some more detailed information you know I get that the committee notes are a synopsis right you're not typing out taking dictation of every word that's there but perhaps as those continued updates come that are more lengthy we could get those more lengthy kinds of you know pieces of information in in the updates that come to the board I mean I think we've talked about and better updating and I'll be quite honest as facilities Committee Member I truly was not

125thinking about the cost of presenting us with those options I was thinking about the cost of what doing those options would be sure it truly never occurred to me at the cost of presenting those options would be the same story 100 you were looking down the road yeah whatever they recommend how much is all that kind of cost and I lost sight of this I just I just think it was going to be a four or six hundred thousand dollar thing that's something we should either way because we have to make decisions we have to make decisions about everything and that's not a little expenditure and the fact had nothing it's it's you know it's hard to be a board member and and you're trying to do right by the taxpayer and if you can't

126get information to make a decision that's that's we got to be better I mean Santa Mouse is saying I'm into our house and do a whole lot of work we had no idea how much it was going to cost and now we've got a bill that hey guess what you get to pay well and two times a point that's why we couldn't decide or make a move on a band right something we know we need exactly even if it applies to a van it should apply to half a million dollars yeah sure let me let me understand what our next steps are we are going to complete we are going to discuss the first business services meeting date to have Larson and Darby there to present on the needs assessment and the next the master

127of plan yeah we're going to give you what the preliminary what they've done this information like a status update of what they have done on the needs assessment to this point the needs assessment and overall stats and anything that's currently happening for example we have the core facilities committee meeting later this week we will pause on until we have this August 1st meeting date and then come back at the August board meeting and decide what those next steps will be it's that accurate or what do you do in these core meetings you're talking about what do you do is that so we had the facilities master plan team meeting so we've had two of those meetings and then the core team was going to prepare for the September upcoming Master planning meeting so they're doing

128processing of the feedback from those two initial meetings and preparing for next steps that would take place do we have a good idea as to whether or not suspending those is going to have an impact on their ability to finish out the plan that they we've already paid for that we're on the hook for paying this would really be part of the Second Step second yeah but are they billing at the same time no they build separately okay but for each um meeting that you were talking about the full committee meeting are they billing at that time for all that feedback when they met with the community members and the bigger team for every meeting that they're meeting with the district or yeah is that why you're saying like we did like a special board

129meeting in conjunction with the committee meeting would be an approach to have them here right if they're if we want to have them here then you're not paying for them to come twice I mean I'm just going to say it because you miss 100 of the shots you don't take is there any room to negotiate them coming to this meeting given all of the concerns that we have whether they're theirs or not at without cost and the board has a number of troubling concerns not that you know but we don't want to wreck the taxpayers bill up anymore on this until we have some answers way more specificity and I think like what Carla was saying if we can get like a breakdown in the 10-year part the next steps like if he here's this

130package here's this package here's this package yeah if you do this where's the natural Breaking Point yeah where's the natural stop and go for us I agree do we think they'll have all that by August 1st I will have to defer to Sean's work with them because really the second part isn't like we don't need it right this second but in a timely fashion all right more important what have we already spent money on yeah what work product are we going to get out and then we can decide based on that whether or not we want to go forward and then the only other thing I think that is a takeaway for administration is to to take a deep dive into how process works going forward for these countries on all of these things yeah

131because this we can't be here it's we've asked for two years we need to do processes the correct way thank you guys for your feedback I'd like to now turn the meeting over to Dr Sun or administrative reports because it's July um and we don't have as many uh wonderful students and staff around to uh shout out but I did want to at least throw a couple of some schools for you uh Dr Johnson and team has been running our summer school program we're in our second session at this time with our interest-based programming and you can see these adorable faces and on the bulletin board that Pam prepared for us on our Facebook page get out there and like at that and also here in our report because they are truly engaged in Dr

132Johnson anything you want to share on that no I'm just always really proud of our staff they do a phenomenal job this is the end this is our last week next week will be the last week for middle school and Elementary High School wraps up yeah okay and then esy next week as well one more one more week for most and then the second thing I just wanted to share uh Dr Carson and I were able to attend the Eau conference you may recall that EAB is the research organization that we joined over this past year which gives us access to this really high quality research base it's a lot of what we use for our early childhood planning we were able to attend their supporting Chronicle chronically absent students and returning to school and

133building a better behavior management strategy for students and teachers they had a lot of research to share with us a lot of great strategies team and in fact I've already shared with them but we'll be pulling a part a little bit more detail coming up in the coming months as a part of our action planning so it was a really really valuable experience and I think the board for um they can letting that happen because it really helps inform our learning and learning of our whole team that's it um for my superintendent comments and uh everything else is in there Department highlights and uh any other questions for Dr Shug in relation to other administrative before certifications at this time we will be going back into closed executive session to discuss the items that time

134did not allow us to discuss previously in closed executive session there will not be any action to follow do I have a motion and a second to go back into closed executive session regarding section two headings member Mayville made a motion and member how second is the motion to go back into executive session welcome Miss Mayville aye Mrs Hulk aye Mr Booker aye Mr Herrera aye Mrs Whitcomb aye Mr zikert aye Mrs Brenner aye okay