001text on the screen says there were some technical difficulties with the sound recording of this video some parts of this recording have audio descriptions to substitute the lack of sound Fade Into board memb seat at a table Lisa hessle welcomes everyone to the board meeting she asks everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance everyone stands for the Pledge of Allegiance everyone says the Pledge of Allegiance everyone returns to their seats Lisa hessle calls for a roll call Batson is here Benjamin is here carmichel is here drunky is here cotwell is here karney is here Lisa Hessel explains that Dr Denise Herman is not present family emergency uh she is this evening exactly where she needs to be so we wish her well and we will welcome her back at our committee meetings next month
002and we will review our agenda we will begin as always with communication uh tonight we are very pleased to have a full house of student recognition which will start off our meeting then we will roll to an invitation for public comment uh we do have a teachers union report and student School Board representative reports we have a very interesting presentation around our inclusive fine arts class and we will review for requests as well as good news then moving on to our consent agenda uh the as always I will remind us the consent agenda includes items that are routinely approved by the board with a single motion these are minutes destruction of closed session recordings educational tour requests employment matters disposal of obsolete Capital Equipment bills payable and financial reports these items have gone through extensive
003board committee review and recommendation and documentation concerning these items has been provided to all B board members and the public in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review and transparency items may be reviewed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member do we have any board members requesting items be removed from the consent agenda this evening no seeing n uh we will then move on to our items for Action we have uh one coming out of our facilities and finance and our chairperson Don caruk will take us through item a and then the following items are from facilities and finance and Jim Batson will take us through those items uh for information we will have a superintendence report that will be presented by Bryant Kelly uh we will share any board
004comments and events that we've attended we do have a brief ISB and kaspa report this evening uh do we have a seedall report nothing from seedall um any other reports board members would like to share okay uh then we will uh review the future agenda items we are retiring to Executive session to uh discuss Collective negotiating matters under five ilcs 1202 C2 when we return to open session no further action will be taken and we will adjourn so um it is my great pleasure to start with student recognition take it away Dr G all right it is great pleasure to be here tonight and this month we have a whole host of students in Fine Arts and Athletics to honor which is great we'll start with our Fine Arts um we have a group of
005All State Theater kids and all state music kids uh I'm GNA bring Dr Drew Russell up here I'll tell you though one of the experiences that is unique to Define Arts is the All State kids get to perform in kind of an Allstar event um so I've been down there and seeing the ver Hills kids perform in the uh State Theater play musical and in the musical um performance that they do together with other All State athletes it's a privilege we have an amazingly talented group of kids Dr Russell will talk about our Vernon Hills crew right now Dr Andrew Russell approaches the podium as always it's been an unbelievable pleasure to have the opportunity to work and also live in a community that values music the way this community does it's been doing this
006for 11 years every single time we do this I at faces in the audience blown away I make us look really good very and we're happy to recognize them first up is All State Theater so what happens these kids s videos anded they accepted into is essentially top% students that and they go down in January and perform and a show they actually go down every weekend throughout they go down in J January for a full week rehears the show put on the show and it's really really awesome we had two students this year in All State Theater that I will call up first one was in set crew this is Jonathan prus [Applause] all right so next up is Ashley R who was in playing [Applause] Trum is allate are again students who made it
007through various levels of um just today I was deciding to go for a little bit of a head clearing walk through the music wing and was blown away by just the sounds coming from every practice room by the teachers teaching there's just like a very alive busy environment down there and it's that type of stuff that somehow these kids find a way to commit to on top of everything else that they're doing that is just un inspiring and these kids are some of on that you see down there all the time first up Tyler Park B [Applause] clarinet j [Applause] y Benjamin framan tenor Caleb Ginger cello second time in a row Eli Anderson ready for your pictures point I will invite my oh no we're gonna take a picture first and then after that
008my talented colleague Dustin HBY from Liberty Bill will come students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next 30 seconds Dustin Hy approaches the podium all right thank you so much and again with these wonderfully talented Vernon Hill students we also have from Libertyville a d ner Margo mcgormley Owen Gore and Dakota olssen and I'd also just like to add a DT and Dakota were also first chair players in their section which is also just a huge accomplishment so [Applause] congratulations students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next seconds Dr John Gil I'm approach is the podium okay congratulations to you all we're going to shift now to Athletics uh I think both schools have some Athletics does Libertyville have Athletics tonight yep so
009Dr cles who is the principal of Libertyville is at the super sectional girls basketball game hosted at Libertyville so he's he's working while we're celebrating here good luck to the wild cats uh we're gonna bring up a wrestler we had uh exciting wrestling season this year and we have one young wrestler who's a stud he's a sophomore he'll be up here for a couple more years but I'm going to introduce his coach to talk a little bit about him Coach Jesse Walter Jesse Walter approaches the podium we're going to start off addressing the elephant in the room and that's my my face um make a fun it started nine years ago uh make a fun little deal with the wrestlers if they place in state they get to pick my facial hair for a week
010at work so Ilia told me last night he wanted zebra stripes so that's why I got zebra stripes on on my face right now um but Ilia doranikov as a sophomore here at Vernon Hills um and he is one special kid uh on the wrestling mat um he faced a lot of adversity uh to start off and like the American novelist uh James Lane Allen said adversity does not build character it reveals it um and that really showed this year with Ilia he faced some adversity coming over here from Russia um with the cultural barriers and language barriers last few years um and has been working through that he faced some other adversity on the mat this year and uh it's not about how you start and anything it's how you finish and he really
011finished well this year finishing second place in State uh made it to the state finals um a couple things about Ilia just real fast about his stats um he is right now currently the seventh uh he has the he's he's the seventh um has the seventh most takedowns in a single season at 84 that was last year as a freshman um he has the 11th most career takedowns and he's only a sophomore uh he's one of five Allstate wrestlers at Vern Hills High School and he's one of three state finalist the school has never had three medalists or a three-year medalist and IL has got a chance to do that and I think he's got a little foreshadowing here with his sh he's got on with a champion right there of what what's to come
012next year so I just want to celebrate this young man the work he puts in and um the finish that he had this year was pretty special all [Applause] right students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next 30 seconds Dr John Gil Liam approaches the podium all right for a few years in a row we have SE celebrated our gymnasts our female gymnast at Vernon Hills have had quite a run and uh we get to honor a couple of them here tonight I'm gonna ask uh coach um Denise kton to come on up and uh introduce these two wonderful athletes one of whom uh is a graduate this year and so this is the last time she will be gracing this stage but she's been here a lot so
013coach Kate Denise Kaden approaches the podium um first thank you to the board um we've be regulars here every February and we're not mad about it so thank you for having us again um like Dr G said I've got two amazing athletes um to talk about tonight um the first one being Junior Livy Tron um Livy has been a member of our gymnastics team um for the past three years and has been a vital team member to our success as a team um and along the way she's found ways to stand out on her own um as a freshman she came home a state champion on vault um 2023 bought brought more success not only as our team um but she also brought three more medals home on her own a third on floor fifth
014on vault and fourth in allaround um and the reason we're here tonight is to add another amazing accomplishment to her already wonderful resume um she placed fifth in state on vault again um this season um Livy is an athlete um she never will take no for an answer she's determined she's hardworking um and I can't wait to see like I said she's a junior um so I can't wait to see what she does in her senior year liy and then um our second um athlete tonight uh is anuka chudy um she has been a fouryear member of the gymnastics team um I got to meet Annie through the computer via Zoom um her freshman year was was during covid um and I did not coach that year so I got to watch what a special
015individual she was through a computer screen which is amazing to say because to find that type of character that you could see through a screen um just makes her that special um in her sophomore year like Livy she was a vital part to our team um she helped us 2022 23 come home you know second place as a team um and she had Medals of her own a third place on vault fifth on beam third in allaround um in this season um Annie approached her final season with us and it didn't come without ups and downs and not every season you know was going to come with sunshine and rainbows but an's been tough she fought through it um and that speaks to her character she's very resilient um and I remember at one point
016you know her saying to me during this season she's like I just don't want to let the team down and that speaks to the character she's learned through her family through our school is she's resilient she's daring um and she always thought of others before she thought of herself on the team um this season proved that Annie saved her Best For Last she became an ihsa Regional champ on vault bars and allaround she swept the ihsa sectional meet by being coming a champion on every event plus all around um and then advancing to her final statement Annie earned her first medal after Friday's competition as second and allaround in the state um and then it all came down to Saturday she took another second place on bars earning herself her sixth individual State medal of
017her career and then it came down to her last event which was floor she went out had a beautiful set you could just see it in her face that moment she deserved that final score which brought home a champion for floor which earned her her seventh medal a gold to end her career she earned herself her her last medal she was a also just recently awarded the ihsa all academic um recipient as well so she not only excels in the gym but also the classroom um I couldn't be more proud and honored to have been able to coach and support one of the most decorated gymnasts Vernon Hills has [Applause] seen students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next 30 seconds Dr John Gil Liam approaches the podium and
018then uh Vernon Hills just has one more but I don't think she's here is Caitlyn bson here so it is uh worth giving her herd Caitlyn was a part of our uh cheerleading squad competition cheer squad uh Who as a team took home a 13th Place in State uh after being sectional Champions and they were H fortunate enough to have one athlete recognized as an Allstate cheerleader uh very deservingly so and her name is Caitlyn Dodson let's give her a hand Brian Kelly I have the pleasure to uh introduce um three wrestlers from Libertyville High School and recognize them for their state accomplishments so if uh Luke Matthew and Owen come up here I'll say a few things about you um so for those that um you know we had one wrestler from Vernon Hills
019and and he knows that wrestling is a tough season it's a long season with um you know matches on Fridays and weigh-ins on Saturdays and the Saturday tournaments you know are long long days um and so the accomplishment of just making it through the season healthy um and staying with weight um is tough and then when you get to Regionals they have to compete at regionals um and from regionals they have to compete and uh qualify to sectionals and sectionals that they compete in is one of the toughest sectionals in the state of Illinois and then when you um you know go to state um you know wrestling is six minutes um two you know three two minute periods but in that time you can make a mistake and next thing you know you know
020the other um your opponent has earned some points so um to make it to state is tough but then also to place that state is is just quite an accomplishment these guys also had an extra weekend I think uh the next meet the next meeting we're going to recognize the whole wrestling team so as a team they also accomplish and finish fourth overall in state but for their individual accomplishments um so we'd like to First recognize L Luke burto and Luke I think you finished with a 42 and 18 record maybe at Libertyville 19 pins that sound about right the student nods all right Brian Kelly and that and at 175 pounds Matthew cubis and uh Matt you finished 75 and 19 with 37 pins while at Libertyville Dale coach heer first he would have
021this all memorized we he would probably know every pin you had every opponent I'm not that good but I think you were also up there with um some of the records for the number of pins at Libertyville right all right did you set the record this year you set the record this year so [Applause] congratulations we have four fourth place at 175 [Applause] pounds Brian Kelly and then at 215 pounds Owen MCG and you finished with a record of 53 and six and 32 pins on your career at Libertyville finishing in fourth place [Applause] congratulations students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next seconds Lisa Hessel okay moving on to public comment uh first I think we have three students are you presenting individually or together students answer her
022question got it then I will invite Finley Roman to the podium Finley Rowan approaches Podium good evening my name is Finley Roman a senior at LHS and I am a co-president of ecos a club focused on environmental sustainability and and policy within our community e is committed to continuing its partnership with d128 for sustainability within District initiatives we have previously encouraged the board to consider environmental sustainability in new capital projects the following petition formalizes our request for a sustainability policy it has been signed by 279 students staff parents alumni and community members and outlines our request for a commitment to sustainability in the wake of climate and environmental realities Lisa Hessel thank you next up we have Sam Powell Sam Powell approaches the podium so I'll start by reading the wording of our petition so
023uh we the students staff and community members of High School District 128 in acknowledgement of the district's Rising energy costs the increasing risk of climate change related damage to infrastructure and for the sake of shaping a more sustainable planet for our future urge our district school board to take more meaningful and daring steps toward pursuing environmentally sustainable practices in our school we applaud the projects the d128 board has implemented over the past uh several years to help lower our Global footprint including the uh high efficien high efficiency lighting and parking lots at Vernon Hills High School that are ready for vehicle charging stations however we encourage the board to take more aggressive steps such as number one considering sustainability and capital projects uh with several with several capital projects on our Horizon we're asking for
024a formal process to be put into place requiring the board requiring the board to incorporate the three lenses of sustainability social economic and environmental before submitting capital projects for building number two decarbonizing the district through aggressive goal setting the uh District 128's daring mission statement alone will not help us achieve the ideals that it represents we must be setting goals to reduce our carbon footprint in accordance with the guidance issued by the US government's fifth National Climate assessment which asserts that we must reach Net Zero carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050 we ask that the board use the K12 climate in action uh resources to help guide the formalization and Adoption of a district climate policy and finally number three actively pursuing sustainability opportunities these opportunities include but not limited to a transition away
025from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources such as solar energy investing in charging stations for electric cars use of reusable cafeteria China and silverware in our cafeterias commercial food waste and composting improved water conservation and Rain rainwater harvesting systems permeable pavement removal of Buckthorn and other invasive species throughout our campus grounds and the incorporation of sustainab sustainability into our culture and curriculum Lisa Hassel thank you um next is Lily France Lily France approaches the podium hi I'm Lily France a junior and EOS member at Libertyville High School I'm here to tell you about the 279 people from The Wider d128 community that signed this petition the petition was signed by 72 community members 30 staff members and 177 students representing both schools many of the people who signed this petition added comments to the
026board including a student at Libertyville High School Rachel bro who said while I might not be at LHS to see the effects of sustainability efforts I'm an avid believer and supporter of a brighter and Greener future d128 is a strong district and I think the students and staff reflect that I know there are many conversations and work done towards sustainability that I cannot see and I hope that the board continues their efforts toward a cleaner and more sustainable future to create an even stronger District I feel very privileged to be a student at LHS which has many clubs student efforts and teacher programs work towards sustainability however I believe LHS and vhhs would be able to go even further with more District support and Community member um John Katz Mariani said please adopt all of
027the proposals in this petition our district has the resources to be a leader and a model of sustainability this will make our students proud and support their dreams to become leaders in this field and the actors in The Movement to protect the world for the generation and the ones we hope will follow and another Community member Rachel trachman said sustainability initiatives can't be a question of should we but a statement of has to be now we are asking the board to adopt a formal sustainability policy and we are willing to partner with the board to make this a reality thank you for listening and we look forward to hearing from you Lisa Hessel thank you um next we have Brian massof Brian massal approaches the podium uh hi I'm yourself um I live in the
028Libertyville District um it's recently come to my attention two policies that have been implemented or will be implemented uh at District 128 and I have several uh comments about the first is the 50% floor rule that any students turn in work and receive no event lower than a 50% I'm well versed in the research and understand that ideally this rule helps close the equity Gap and help students from getting buried by one poor test grade I also understand the argument that each letter grade has a range of 10% except for f which has a range of 0 to 60% however this seems like the change is being made so that there's equal probability of receiving all grades school is not something that is Chance grades are earned and in theory the grade demonstrates how much
029you understand about the subject matter what is this policy teaching students that even if they don't do anything or really try they still receive 50% my second question about the 50% floor rule is how do we plan to evaluate it do we have any way to measure the impact that it's making if so what are those markers additionally do we plan to re-evaluate this procedure at any point in the future I'm a scientist and I appreciate trying something new however experiments cannot be executed without additional evaluation change re-evaluation the other policy I have a concern about is the fact that students can retake any tests one time I understand that we are trying to create policies where students can demonstrate growth that's a good thing however I have many worries with this policy the first
030is that it does not seem to be mirroring real life after school you have a major deadline for a project or presentation the due date is the due date and if your presentation flops the client probably just isn't going to hire you they definitely aren't going to say it's okay try again we want students to be put in these situations where they can make mistakes and grow from them we want students to make mistakes now where it really doesn't matter it will be matter a lot more when they are paying tens of thousands of dollars for college or when they make a mistake at a major job a mistake there could cost their job as opposed to making the mistake in high school receiving a less than Stellar grade and then growing from their mistake
031it seems like both of these policies are gamifying education it is giving students an out when they are actually not prepared to be assessed it doesn't require them to be ready because they have a second chance they can't do anything less than 50% life after school is knowing about how to do stuff and having the ability to take new information learn it and apply it for example I have a friend who works with an engineering firm who works with the new hires he recently had to fire a college grad because she didn't know how to take the slope of a graph isn't that a mistake we would rather have her make in high school then somehow make it through college not knowing how to do that and ultimately losing her job because of that all
032right my final comment is this what do teachers think of these policies do they endorse them ultimately they're the ones who are professionals and expert the topics they aren't theorists like many of the people who encourage the 50% floor rule or test retakes that's three minutes so if you could wrap it up sure thanks they must be they must Implement these policies and see them firsthand see the effects it has on students grades matter but knowing how to do stuff and deep learning is what matters more you should ask teachers if these policies are actually helping students learn more or if they're just giving them a free pass and anoun thank you that's the last person we have signed in for public comment would anybody else like to make public comment John hedel approaches the
033podium Veron Hills um I have some Internal Documentation from one of the teacher chats that says how do we Implement CRT education in science and math classes I'd be curious to know what that plan is and it'd be nice if the community was more aware of it if you were more transparent about it furthermore I think another problem that I have or not problem but an understanding I'd like to have is we have a very mixed uh race and ethnicity of students in this District as well as in the community Indian and Asian both of them employ in their society some class and cast systems that are very oppressive and critical race theory is a theory and if it's going to be taught in this community and in this education system then it's going to
034be truly divers Equitable and inclusive then you should be including the other races and ethnicities and how they operate in their societies with their cast systems that are oppressive as well because that's the basis of what critical race theory is that's an oppressive uh form of uh Society so I think you need to make the community aware that you're going to look at pushing CRT into the school if you're not already implementing it and just understand what that policy is because I do think it's something many of the parents and students in this community would like to know a little bit more about and then if you do you're going to be diverse Equitable inclusive make sure you include the other races the other authenticities especially the ones that have larger representation in this school
035and in this community thank uh I'd like to address you can have a seat if you're finished but I'd like to address the fact that we have a significant commitment to equity but District 128 does not and will not be teaching critical race moving on I'd like to invite the um teachers union to give their report Jason Rush approaches the podium good evening I am Jason Rush bernon Hills High School applied technology teacher Libertyville resident and the d128 union building representative for Vernon Hills High School my union message tonight is about the edex professional development day that was last Monday February 19th our members would like to thank the administration for hearing our please to bring back the prepandemic edx Institute day started in our district in 2017 this day is modeled after the TED
036Talks technology engineering design that gained wide popularity about 2012 the Ted motto is ideas worth spreading maybe you remember Cheryl samber Facebook coo giving insight into leadership or or Elon Musk initiating Nationwide conversation about boring a tunnel under La for more efficient travel well both of those happened at Ted conferences a Ted X event is related to the larger and more well-funded Ted conferences but the emphasis is on the local and Grassroots dialogue about ideas worth spreading the local Organization for our event comes from the instructional coaches at both schools who do a tremendous job managing this event so remove a single letter and Ted X becomes edex I remember being skeptical about the first d128 edx event in 2017 let me get this straight I'm only going to hear from my colleagues about their
037ideas and practices this was so different from my previous 20 years of professional development my skepticism was quickly replaced with awe and wonder about the capable and qualified individuals who work in d128 this year's event had some 80 certified staff and a total of 90 with admin and ESP stepping up to provide educational ideas were spreading over four 45 minute sessions the topics range from managing a student accessible Google Calendar Vernon Hills Jim paron to streamlining teacher time lhs's John Taylor to five different presentations on artificial intelligence I attended a session about the roll out of the d128 student student student internship program given by Ben Rodriguez lest you think that this concept is of interest to only Tech teachers and counselors I sat with LHS physics teacher Mike Bush and Vernon Hills physical welfare
038teacher Dina franchi who both were there to see how the push for multiple Pathways will affect the students they care about many of the sessions were presented by two or more Educators working cross curricularly and combining different points of view for instance lhs's Brenda Nelson care Bosman and Laura Brandt working together some of the presentations were for educator enrichment an understanding of the many interesting Concepts that students get to learn in d128 every day for instance Vernon Hills High School French teacher Christina hotman and chemistry teacher Sarah Zar Z both or explored the myth that the breakdown of tin buttons led to Napoleon bonapart defeat in Russia us teachers need to have our brains tickled by interest ideas too lastly the fourth and final sessions were well planned with a variety of physical and mental
039health activities corresponding to the health and wellness strand of the Strategic plan I'll end my message with a truism that I am fond of repeating at the lunch table with my colleagues teaching is considered to be the lonely profession why because more often than not we are in our classroom managing teaching and learning yes with students but alone professionally what a pleasure it is to be together and to watch our colleagues expertly ply their trade and teach something they know well and feel passionate about thank you for bringing back at X thank you Mr Rush um and I will turn it over to our student School Board representatives for their reports Raya Elman Shai good evening tonight I will be reading my own report followed by Molly and Lou's reports since they couldn't join us
040tonight because they are cheering on our girls basketball team the girls W be first sectional for the first time in 30 years 51 to 35 against Hana and are playing Lola for the super sectional tonight at home Lou and Molly will update us on how it went at the next meeting this month the band performed for the Winter concert each year one senior is selected to perform a solo with their instrument they auditioned to an anonymous board and they chose senior Margot MCG gromley as the conero winner who is ranked seventh the seventh best TR performing trombonist in the state of Illinois I was very lucky to attend and watch her outstanding performance playing morau and phonique by Alexander gilmont Margo has been one of my best friends for a long time so I felt
041really proud of her as they saw her develop into an amazing train trombonist throughout the years last Thursday Juniors Cassandra Medina and Zoe ooro from Latin American student organization organized the first ever Multicultural night which featured other Affinity clubs like black student union South Asian Student Association Jewish cultural Club Asian Pacific Islander Club in the Muslim Student Association students bought a cultural sa Savory plate along with desserts for everyone to try at the buffet table then each Club representative did a showand to or slideshow presentation to teach everyone about their culture for example Junior Don Donna Castellanos from lasso sang a Spanish song along with senior ABA playing his guitar it was a really fun and educational experience and I really enjoyed learning about the cultures represented at our school Friday was the Winter Dance
042assembly students gathered in the main gym to watch the student dodgeball and basketball teams play against the teacher teams unsurprisingly students won both games also the fencing team and Esports were recognized for going to State and competing it was overall very exciting and fun now I'll read Louis's report thank you Raya for reading on behalf of myself this past this past month has been busy in the Fine Arts dep Department especially in the last week last Sunday all choir students had the option to sing alongside LHS Al alumni Philip ASU a very well recognized Broadway actress known for playing Eliza Hamilton in the musical Hamilton she performed a benefit to raise money for the Adler Arts Center here in Libertyville LHS choir students were able to sing morning low a song from the musical Pippen
043and Tomorrow from Annie Jordana blockton a senior said Pippa was very gracious and professional with us and treated us like we're equals and not just her backup she genuinely wanted us to be there with her and made singing with her feel even more special than it already was it was the first time that pipa Su has been back at former high school and it was a very special and unique experience for many of us 3 days later on Wednesday the choir performed their popular Cabaret concert featuring musical pop and high energy song selections students also had the opportunity to audition in small groups to perform at the concert it was a big hit and a great event to showcase the large variety of talent within the choir Department lastly with the help of Mrs brand
044and some students LHS ran a student-led voter registration drive at the beginning of February to get students ready for the upcoming March 19th primary and November general election it was led by students each lunch period for a week straight and in the end they were able to register 70 students in person and many more online the ultimate number is estimated at about 100 or more students now for Molly's report I currently with Dr K and Louie supporting our girls basketball team as they take on Ola for their super sectional matchup this month LHS hosted their Black History Month Museum in the library with the help of many clubs academic courses and fine arts classes I was lucky to visit the museum at the same time as M as Mrs greens swag's American studies class who
045made children's picture books of important black figures along with the picture books other exhibits included infographics live presentations artwork and more the museum was open for all students to stop by and was an informative entertaining and impactful experience that reflected our appreciation for the black community's contribution to our world at 5:30 p.m. on President's Day the first whistle of the senior dodgeball tournament blew beginning an hour of non-stop dodgeball games the the event was entirely organized by the senior student council elect board to raise money for Blue Cross as students had to either donate money or a code to enter I played for one of eight teams and there was lots of fierce competition as this year had the biggest turnout since the tournament's creation organizer senior Emily bissing stated that she felt that event
046went perfectly and was a great opportunity to engage and bring students together to raise money for those in need Student Council hopes that the numbers of participants will only increase in the future finally on Saturday we had our Winter Dance and all eyes were on the silent disco this year after its popularity during last year's Winter Dance and prom there were that more headphones available attracting more participants the silent disco is popular because it is a more customizable Dance Experience as you are in charge of the music you listen to in the volume its app it is also less chaotic more inclusive and a good break from the loud gym I learned that Vernon Hills does not offer a silent disco and after hearing the positive feedback from the Vernon Hills guests would encourage the
047school to find ways to include it into their dances as it allows for students to create their perfect dance environment overall the past month the LHS has had numerous opportunities for students to come together in exciting ways thank you Maya Ral the past few weeks have been full of excitement for vhhs sports and activities as we just celebrated our boy swimm and dive team just finished a successful season with the state visit to top it off where Junior Dan Burke senior Edward Z and Senior Eli SPAC were to lead the way with all state honors there are also multiple conference and School pool records broken during the last few weeks of their season our boys wrestling team and girls dance team also had a quite had quite a memorable season as they both made had
048made top five State finishes flipping to girls gymnastics they had yet another successful season making it to the state championships multiple team members qualified for the state competition including senior Anna kudi and Junior liby Tron as well as senior Sarah katowski and freshman Maya brusso lastly our cheer team had a successful season with capping it off 13th in the state congratulations to all of them on fantastic Seasons the month of February bhhs has been celebrating Black History Month by Daily Facts in the bulletin as well as a special contest every Thursday each Thursday of this month Dr G got on the intercom and would ask a question revolving black history and that a random class was picked to answer the question if the pick class answered it correctly the class received special cookies to enjoy
049the students really enjoyed this fun activity throughout the month also within school activities our VH gift Club Focus their meeting and activities around the possibilities we can have in our future but also in the future lives of the kids attending our sister School in Uganda we held a fundraiser with the effort to try and raise money for someone to receive a full scholarship to attend school our goal is to raise at least $1,500 we were able to do just that with raising a little over our goal and with the opportunity to Grant a scholarship to a student and see what their possibilities are we all excited for what other activities are to come P Aurora this month was a busy one for vhhs in the first week of February students got the chance to send
050out a thank you message to a counselor for national school counselor week secondly Mr lukan hosted a field trip to the 2024 Chicago Auto Show on the 15th where Advanced topics computer science students got a chance to experience the tech expo within the auto show there they met tech company representatives and CEOs rode on Honda suitcase scooters and observed at the incredible engineering of private planes and numerous cars which was particularly insightful for students pursuing careers in engineering then there was spirit week with the themes as follows Chicago sports day where students Dr their favorite Chicago sports team windy city smokeout where students dressed up in Western entire Chicago Fire where students wore red to promote the blood drive and cougar paloa where students dress in bright colors for the assembly the assembly consisted of
051numerous events such as the student versus teacher basketball game an all-inclusive heads tails game a spectacular performance by dance winter activities recognition and the crowd's true favorite hot dog eating contest the week ended with the snowcoming dance where nearly 500 plus students came to hang out with their friends roller SK skate dance eat eat food take photos and much more finally on Thursday business Professionals of America traveled to Oakbrook to compete in their events I alongside many had the chance to network with others and was particularly happy to make a friend who is heading to UIUC for business and I'm looking forward to meeting up with him again students who didn't attend on Thursday or had made it past prelims and advance to the final round also tend on Friday after speaking to a few
052BPA students they informed me that they were especially grateful for an open campus lunch as there were many surrounding restaurants in the area then students attended the award ceremony Saturday morning where Rohan gam manen Kyle Kim Harrison Quan aner Mara sadar aula sha Chala Riley Mitchell Griffin Nichols SN Kia RMA kenara shishi carwa and kavia Rami will go on and compete at Nationals the vhhs board wish him the best of luck RI sub renan this month we also had a lot going on inside and outside of the classroom firstly congratulations to the student directors and actors of our annual one act show there we got to see the creative short scenes that were brought to life by our theater department and kept Their audience very engaged Additionally the academic Resource Center is getting ready for
053Wednesday the start of our SAT prep St sessions every week leading up to the school administered sat there will be a student-led session to help support specifically juniors in the imminent standardized testing many juniors are going to the SAT blind as the College Board is now switching to the digital format this is why this Wednesday's lesson will focus on the major differences between the paper and digital essay uh format and answering questions that many Juniors will have the arc's hope is to provide support and resources to juniors in order to help everyone put their best foot forward in April also students are preparing for The Language Fair that will be held in the LMC um in advanced language classes students will research and create an engaging project to Showcase a part of history that is
054related to their languages students also were able to participate in the blood drive last week set up in our gymnastics gym students were able to use their study hall lunch or gym period to help donate blood with the help of versity The Blood Center in Illinois after checking temperature and iron levels student donated blood and could help them m to the plethora of snacks that were provided finally cougar Class Act winners were awarded last Friday at the breakfast celebration with parents teachers and students congratulations to Leonor Newman Olivia Bush Hannah Stern Lucas Jackson Taylor Schmidt Amal Stannis Amelia Torres men Melendez Maya Greenfield Julius Paya Nicholas robot robbles Andrew Kaiser Marie henan Pina Chad yea David zerov and Valerie Orosco Lisa Hessel thank you very much does anybody have any questions for our student board
055reps okay great job guys thank you I I have one um why did you think that it was just a a given that the students were gonna beat the faculty in both basketball and dodgeball I don't get that that's more of a more of a rhetorical question that hey look at Vernon Hills I think students have only ever won once wow The Faculty always wins huh yeah they the students came jumped out to a 13-2 lead I think and then just just blew it we gratefully acknowledge that competitiveness and the fun that we get to have uh at both buildings um moving on uh we would like to invite our um director of special ed and our director of Fine Arts at no our remind me Mr little your title Coral director Coral this a
056teacher our Coral director Jeremy little to give us a very interesting presentation on inclusive Fine Arts Kelly hartweg approaches the podium good evening B I'm at that age where my eyes aren't sure if they want the readers or don't want the readers so bear with me uh good evening Board of Ed colleagues and Community I'd like to ask you to take a step back in time with me to the 2020 2021 school year do you remember anything in particular happening in that year don't know what you're talking about I'm sure Lisa the first thing that you thought of was that that was the year that District 128 expanded its Continuum of special education services as we took back the El classroom from seedall into our community the educational life skills or Els class consists of
057instructional courses that are designed to meet the needs of students who have moderate to severe disabilities and who require academics that embed functional life skills such as social PR pragmatic language self-awareness and advocacy independent living and activities of daily living self-care vocational Readiness Community Access and safety and post-secondary transition planning as well as provides direct instruction in and support with adaptive behaviors within the curricular SE opportunities are provided to learn practice and generalize functional and adaptive skills within school prevocational community-based and Recreation and Leisure learning experiences that particular school year we happen to experience another momentous event which some may recall was the opening of the school year via remote learning due to the covid-19 pandemic in a modified hybrid block schedule as we began to navigate instructional planning for our unique new group group
058of Learners we realized that some adjustments needed to be made in order to create accessible and meaningful learning opportunities for students receiving El instruction particularly in elective content which often is the place where lifelong friendships are formed as young adults share learning in areas of personal interest and preference and where Pathways to postsecondary vocational Pursuits often developed for many adolescents we quickly realize due to SCH conflicts because of all these crazy schedules that everyone was in that that were designed for remote learning across our County that our students most of whom were slated to attend a seed doall vocational elective class at a seedall building would miss too much instructional time on the days that they would be transported to that site also due to covid the nature of the class was going to shift
059from Hands-On authentic learning to paper and video-based learning which we felt was not going to meet the needs needs that a learning experience like this should provide for our students working with seed doll and our families we were able to separate from that class which required District 128 to creatively and quickly fill elective needs for students in ways that we had never done before after all we were only in our first year of taking back instructional planning and this population of students into our district Continuum of instruction that year our teachers innovatively collaborated to engage our students in a semester of modified culinary arts and a semester of modified Fine Arts Each of which focused on an introductory walkthrough of all aspects of those specialty areas our students loved every minute of it and of
060of what Mr little calls a collateral blessing is that a fantastic term collateral blessing that's what this class became from that one semester start Mr Jeremy little found a special niche of students with whom he could share the joys of the the Fine Arts and so he built a course with our lead El teacher Danielle ragner that meets the needs of all students where they are at and builds off of their strengths as they learn music and theater skills including acting dancing video production and set and costume design it is also a place where students naturally and authentically practice problem solving advocating socializing organizing managing building self-determining communicating imagining did I say that and creating all of those functional and adaptive skills come to life through the Arts since their partnership and co- teing this
061class began the course has further expanded to inclusively engage even more students who are neurodiverse as well as Mentor Partners who learn about disability awareness purposeful questioning prompt hierarchy support strategies that Foster guided and just right supports with their peer Partners as as they explore the facets of the Fine Arts together this course has become a place where all students learn not just about music and theater but also about working and playing together accepting each other as each person comes this evening I am honored to introduce to you Mr Jeremy little who will share more about this very about his very able students and their very inclusive theater art and music course Jeremy little approaches the podium hi uh so uh my name is Jeremy little I teach choir here as well as the inclusive
062fine arts class I have had the privilege of uh teaching two board members children uh in since 2007 um it was a collateral blessing that uh inclusive Fine Arts kind of came to be and uh the reason that I asked Dr Gilliam and the board and Kelly to be able to present tonight was just to share with you some pretty cool things um I imagine you guys get in the weeds a lot with a lot of awesome details about about the district uh but that can be sometimes in the weeds and this is something that I want for you to know uh you have helped support that really makes a difference in a lot of kids lives um the students uh so we have a a show that we put on and in a minute
063here I'll show you uh kind of a video of some with [Music] some well it's a video um but a great thing has happened when as we as we kind of do this class kids who are in the Els program and kids who are um their peer mentors genuinely work together um I used to teach uh I teach choir and and before we had it sometimes we would have students come in and it would be a difficult thing to kind of like take a a choir and a kid who is in an Els program and kind of put that together right but this class was built for these two these populations of kids our mentors uh this year we have seven peer mentors four of them um desire to be special ed teachers when they
064go to school um two last year of our uh peer mentors um we wrote College Rex for uh and a a scholarship Wrecks for for them for for them to go on uh in special education um so in the class we learn musical skills but we also um learn theater skills so for example I I'm a theater guy so I got to bring some props we're making masks and costumes we make papier-mâché masks um we're doing um this is part of our Savannah unit so we're lion kinging it up with uh stuff we're making making you know scuba diving things uh we're we're u in the Arctic as Penguins we're making binoculars every single one of these props is made by students um in this program right and alongside a peer mentor these are realworld
065projects that they can do and that is the coolest thing that it is not um it's very different than a math lesson that they have or um something else this is like real world stuff and they get to see it come to life just starting this week we are in the auditorium um and we are putting it together with our scenery and putting everything together and the excitement and nervousness and energy that comes from a performance they all get to experience just like you know the allate theater kids that you saw or the music kids when I teach you know do a regular choir concert so uh it's been a pretty awesome opportunity and we are just uh I guess I just want to say we're really grateful to uh d128 grateful to Kelly grateful
066to Dr Gilliam uh Dr Russell my supervisor for kind of supporting this um also you know big shout out to Kevin faen who is our um Auditorium manager for helping us schedule we are in three different classrooms four different classrooms sometime um Brian Miller our autot Tech Guy they spray painted um set pieces we've had we've had so many faculty members help um and uh we have uh two two performances on March 8th so um basically you're going to see in the video if you can kind of see it um we invite you uh to come March 8th either 8th hour during the school day in which last year the auditorium was pretty packed because we invite every teacher who wants to bring their class down to see the show and then in the evening
067uh we invite parents and community members to kind of come see the show too so um I guess this is probably a great time to kind of show the video um but again we just wanted to say thanks and um this is a a perfect kind of like yeah a collateral blessing uh that that our students um all of our students can um shine and be a part of the Fine Arts so thanks very [Music] much thank you for your presentation and for inviting us to the March 8th performance um so that we don't miss the chance to join you would you mind sending the board an email with the details of both performances because I know that there are board members that would really like to attend thank you thank you yes I was
068just gonna say that um as someone who has been on best buddy since I was a freshman I have a lot of experience working with students with abil with disabilities and I know how creative these students are and how amazing they are and I would love if we could implement this class at LHS at some point because I really really like the idea of it okay thank you okay now uh I will turn it over to Mr Kelly to um do the for request and good news Brian Kelly right stepping in here for Dr Herman so we do have um some foyer requests and the report for the foyer request is uh attached to the board agenda and now for our good news um the Vernon Hills math team won its Regional competition at Stevenson
069High School on uh Saturday February 24th congratulations to the team and to their coaches Steve courney Jessica Chapman Lauren Harmon and Alex Joe the following d128 students have been named National Merit finalist from Libertyville High School Cameron hang Vanessa Zang and Kyle Lee from Vernon Hills High School Amir Abdul shch ar ar growell uh Karen Kai Kristen Choy Charles ker shahii Gala Noah Kim devia Moody mudimbi Tyler Park and rain Wier the LHS physical welfare teaching teacher Megan lavry was named the recipient of the Illinois State Board of Education Award of Meritus service she re received the honor for her work done at her previous district and she continues this work with her students and colleagues at Libertyville High School this is Meg's first year at Libertyville High School she previously taught English in District
070d46 from 2005 to 2018 and then health and wellness at Lake Forest District 67 from 2018 to 2023 so congratulations to Megan LHS math team members Braden Bradford Cameron Wang Eric Lee Ian Lee Kyle Lee Mark Swanson and Justin Wang submitted perfect papers at the Illinois mathematics leag League competition at LHS on February 13th Libertyville is currently ranked first in Lake County and third in Illinois in this competition nine Vernon Hills student artists received Regional honors in the Iowa and Midwest Scholastic art Awards gold key winner was Evelyn Weber silver key winners Joe ning meline Wayne Orlando alas Sandoval Romy Miller honorable mentions Charlotte Smith Matthew Lee Orlando Alas sandl and Sam schlow as a gold key winner Evelyn will advance to the national competition this spring as our student board reps uh mentioned the
071Vern Hills chapter of the business Professionals of America competed at the state competition February 22nd to 24th and the following students qualified for the national competition in May economic research team second place Kyle Kim Rohan Gata Mani nenny Harrison Quan Network design team second place sidarth avula Riley Mitchell and Sha cheting Kayla a user experience team designed using Adobe XD um and pilot uh Second Place snah karakia shrishti carwa kavar Rami and rashma Kara presentation individual third place Griffin Nichols and health and insurance and medical billing a pilot uh first place aner Amara the team team is sponsored by Debbie beagle Chris Curry and Dan pen congratulations to all of them and good luck at national competition in May thank you to everyone who generously supported the d128 foundation for learning during its fifth annual
072week of giving that was back in January of um 28 128 this year's campaign raised 8,216 38 all money raised ghost to support the students of Libertyville High School Vernon Hills High School and transition Pathways and that concludes our good news report okay thank you uh moving on to our consent vote agenda uh we are looking for a motion to approve the consent vote agenda is listed Carmichael so moved Batson second thank you roll call please pause for roll call Batson hi Benjamin hi Carmichael hi drum key i hessle i cotwall i k Carney I thank you motion passes the consent agenda is approved uh first item up for Action I will turn it over to Don carmichel for employment of employees we have only one agenda item and that's for the employment employees it
073is a momentous uh addition to what we would normally have done in the consent agenda but this came up afterwards so I'll turn it over to Bryant we have um in our personel report we have an administrative appointment of Tom clenis for assistance superintendent for teaching and learning we have some um retirements and a leave of absence and certified staff and some ESP and uh coaching extracurricular um um recommendations and those are on the employment Personnel report very good may I have a motion to approve the employment items listed that occurred after the PMP committee meeting Batson so moved Dr key second is there discussion there is yeah pause for discussion okay then um no no discussion hearing that there is no discussion roll call please pause for roll call Benjamin hi Carmichael hi drumkey
074hi Hessel hi catwall hi K Carney hi Batson hi and motion passes I will turn it over to Jim Batson or do you want to I have um so uh Tom would like to say a few comments on his appointment and unfortunately he could not be here with us he would love to have been here for his appointment so he's very appreciative of the appointment members of the Board of Education and District 128 community of students staff and parents I'm sorry I cannot be here in person tonight but as you might might well expect I'm currently cheering LHS on at the girls basketball team of super sectionals they were down 2218 at halftime um thank you for selecting me for the position of assistant superintendent of teaching and learning serving District 128 in any capacity
075is a tremendous honor in joining our superintendent leadership team is an exciting opportunity to help our district continue its Legacy of academic Excellence as your assistant soup for teaching and learning I committed to building strong relationship with staff members at our three extraordinary schools to help ensure that we are providing them with the best possible resources technology and staff development opportunities to enable them to do the best work with our students I will strive to be a clear communicator and transparent collaborative decision maker one who seeks to engage a wide range of student staff and Community Voices in the further evolution of our District's curriculum offerings School practices and student programming since joining the d128 team as a Libertyville High School principal seven years ago I have seen time and time again the extraordinary impact
076that that our Educators have upon the lives of our students and the great pride our communities have in our schools building upon this Legacy it is my intention to work diligently to deepen our District's commitment to its daring Mission and our stated goal that each and every student at all three of our schools has the opportunity to thrive achieve and Excel an exclusive respectful and supportive classroom communities thank you all for your support of my work at Libertyville High School and your continued confidence in the work that I will help lead moving forward sincerely Tom clenis congratulations Tom we are very fortunate we have two of the best principles in the business Tom has served the LHS school and Community with great distinction and we are thrilled to see him move into his position at
077the district level so um we will turn it over to Jim Batson for items for for Action that came out of fnf okay um first on the agenda out of the U Finance facilities uh summer school fees uh a quick background here we haven't changed our summer school fees in many many years um momentary pause I'm not too sure if you want to give a background I can certainly um keep talking uh yeah so uh we talked through uh different philosophies of of summer school fees and kind of what changes could look like and so the the plan that we discussed at the committee meeting would be for this Summer that no change 200 is the current fee so no change for that uh but to make a distinction for Why students are taking summer
078school so if it's for initial credit it stays at the 200 for this year if they're taking the class for repeat and replace they'll be able to pay half off which is less than what uh it was last summer and then if they're taking it for credit recovery uh there would be no fee uh for that and so for 25 26 the fee would increase uh for initial credit by 100 each so at the end of a couple years it'll be at 400 and it was 200 regardless of the purpose in the past historically it's been 200 yeah regardless of the purpose yes yeah so it's it it starts at actually less than where we are now and then ramps up only for those uh taking summer school for initial credit which means to get
079ahead um uh thatb ramps up to $400 in two additional year two years down the road everyone else is either at the 200 or less yes and Fe fee wer students uh would still fees would included in that too to wave that okay um can we have a motion in a second we we don't need action on this do we I believe we do um we are going yeah the recommended action is to approve the fees so we do need a motion yeah Lisa hessle uh hessle motion to approve the fee schedule for summer school fees is listed Benjamin second okay thank you uh any further discussion comments from the board this still keeps us very much within our neighboring districts Market you know our kind of market rate right in the middle correct and
080and we feel makes the distinction between Credit Recovery retake and initial credit uh to allow for those those variances thank you Jim badson okay uh roll call please Carmichael hi drum key I Hessel i catwall i k Carney I Batson I Benjamin I okay motion passes and next on the agenda is a landscape bid uh we have a uh for the board consideration a recommendation to approve a bid from landscape concept management for district landscap services for the coming 5 years in the amount of 160,000 226 hessle motion to approve the bid from landscape concepts as listed Ry second any questions or comments from the board just to note this was um discussed at the committee meeting earlier in the month and uh so we have plenty of information on this previously uh can we
081have a roll call please drum key hi hessle Hi catwall I karney hi Batson hi Benjamin hi Carmichael hi okay uh motion passes um we have a recommendation to approve the bid for LHS SE seiling lighting and HVAC repairs with uh bowler construction company for their base bid and alternate number two is a total amount of 954 ,000 and we are rejecting alternates one and three Dan do you have any further uh just that this is a a few projects kind of lumped in together we get just a better economy of a scale by combining some of these together so uh that's why Mark uh put put those together with his team so um yeah these are these are part of our summer Capital list um that we've talked about before and so the totals
082are all in there Jim Batson okay can we have a motion please Carmichael moved to approve the bid for the LHS ceiling lighting and hvsc repairs of the boiler Construction Company base bid and alternative number two in the total amount of $954,000 and reject Alternatives one and three bney second any further discussion from the board again this was reviewed in detail at our committee meeting we have a roll call please I actually have a question sorry I missed the the meeting but um in light of the petition for sustainability initiative my question was with these um lighting HVAC repairs Etc are we including um Replacements that are sustainable green all of those things like if you're replacing lights as an example sorry could you could you say this question again son carne yeah anytime we're
083looking at upgrades to equipment my question is are we looking at the most energy efficient um Capital Equipment that we are bringing on Mark cman the answer is yes uh all the new lighting uh will be replaced with uh high efficiency LEDs uh as well as motion sensors in the hallways so if uh nobody is in the hall way and lights happen to you know switches happen to be on uh the lights will automatically turn off with no movement so okay thank you you're welcome any other questions comments thank you for that that's a good question okay hearing done roll call please essel hi catwall I karney I Batson hi Benjamin hi carmichel hi drum key hi okay motion passes last on the um agenda is uh Vernon Hills High School Life Safety work and
084LST area remodel bid uh again this is one of those where we combine a few things uh together um in in summary the recommendation is for the board to approve bowler construction again for the LST remodel in the amount of $271,000 and bowler construction company for the hls repair pairs in the amount of $274,000 um and the LST is isn't it right back here um you have any additional oh it's downstairs you're right you're right um any additional background on that just this is not part of our summer summer projects but this is part of our capital projects fund so this is basically cash coming from our fund balance based in our this is budgeted for this year um Vernon Hills had their 10-year Life Safety approved uh last summer where every 10 years Architects
085have to come through walk the building and look to see what complies with or doesn't comply with current health Life Safety codes and then they give us a list of uh things to fix and there's three priorities priority a things have to get fixed within a year B things that have to get fixed within five years and then C things that they're recommending to get fixed but there's no time frame attached to them we've been focusing on a because those are the ones due in a year um and so Mark's been working on that this bid encapsulates a lot of that work to wrap that up because we need a trade to do that a lot of that work the lsst uh remodel is related to our long-term capital plan and the the prioritized projects
086that we did um and so this was one of those three projects that we have been moving forward so this is the bid to reconfigure those LST offices in the below us Jim Batson okay thank you yeah so that when I described this it was the hls repairs that's the health Life Safety repairs that are yeah Health Life Safety from the 10-year Health Life Safety study for Vernon Hill um can we have a motion please Benjamin uh I move to approve baller construction company for the LST remodal in the amount of $271,000 and Valor construction company for the hls repairs in the amount of $274,000 any questions from the bo second oh okay I'm sorry didn't mean to cut you off um any questions from the board pause for discussion comments again this was reviewed
087earlier in the in the committee meeting earlier in the month um can we have a roll call please Cat wall hi Co Carney hi Batson hi Benjamin hi carmichel hi drumkey I I motion passes back to you okay okay for information um I will turn it back over to Bryant Kelly for the superintendent report thank you um first on the superintendance report just give a update on Community Education Program and so again um for board members um last year was our last year of Community Education at District 128 um when we um disbanded the program there was a couple of things um one thing in particular that we kept on in our program program and that was a North Suburban Wind Ensemble um and so we um much like we run some of our other
088programs Master swim we kept um North Suburban Wind Ensemble underneath us we organized it um and we worked with Randy Sandell and Don shup were running it before um and so um they helped with our signups we had 55 adults uh sign up this year um we had a fall concert Sunday November 5th uh we have a Winter concert uh coming up Sunday March 10th and a spring concert uh Sunday May 19th actually the Winter concert Sunday March 10th is 4 to 5:30 at the Vernon Hills Auditorium the concert is free for anyone um to come so we don't even charge um the um income from North suburb Wind Ensemble and then paying um Don and Randy we uh did not lose money in that um and we're able to you know even fund um
089I think some getting some sheet music and other stuff so um it's not costing the district anything um to run that program and it's a a a great program for that some of the other programs that we had um we do have Libertyville um using some of our um rooms up at Libertyville High School and I think they're hoping to expand a little bit more um you know that's Libertyville High School Libertyville Village of Libertyville is a little different than Vernon Hills in that Vernon Hills has a Park District Libertyville does everything falls under their Village but they are did have some of programs um at the school so woodworking cooking baking I think they're looking to expand a little bit more um Vernon Hills picked up um some of our programs and our instructors
090they didn't really move a lot over here because they do have facilities that they obviously they want their programs people to use their facilities um but we still partner with them for their swim program already so we um you know are continuing hopefully to help our communities with u facilities for adults and for adult education we're just not running the adult education um but I think this change has been um good for the district um and um North Suburban Wind Ensemble has been um going off without a hitch so just wanted to give that brief update another update on is on edx and I don't know Jason Rush um I should have him back up here to give the update he did fantastic job on that but um again edx was a teacher Institute day
091um back in February um I do I would like to acknowledge and thank a few people for their work on this institute day a lot goes into that day so it's not just uh you know showing up and people um all of a sudden just walking into a classroom and somebody's presenting there's a lot of work first done behind the scenes from our curriculum team and some of our administrators and our instructional coaches so Brian wegley Joe Brian Ray Alin Charlotte eem um Kelly Hartwig and Tom kenis also uh stepped in that team to make sure that we had um presentations and um sessions for our educational support staff um and our instructional coaches they do a lot of the leg work they you know get uh our teachers involved they get the schedule out
092um and they ensure that that day goes smoothly so from Vernon Hills High School Mandy Carroll Brandon Waters cor Corey Smith and Rebecca Garcia and then from Libertyville Kim Jansen Tammy Ry Heidi lechner and Katie Becker um and I would like to acknowledge and thank all of our teachers support staff and administrators that uh step up to present they don't get paid extra to do it they don't get extra time to prepare for it and so they're doing on their time and they're doing that because they love to share um their knowledge and um with their colleagues um and so it was a it was a great day and again in the afternoon um uh our team's spent time with their departments um so thank you to our department shairs for the work that they
093did in the afternoon and I apologize if I missed anyone but I think I try to acknowledge that it was a successful day um this year for us the other report that I want to that I want to include in there and I think you had a handout on that was the equity uh Journey Continuum update and so the report was attached from Charlotte and Larry um Varn and so in that report again they um back in December um presented on our e Equity Journey Continuum um and that was looking at a report card um so some of the comparisons from the 2022 report card but there was a question in that in our student learning category analysis um on our um student learning overall score from 2019 to 2022 showed that it went from
0942.91 to 1.92 and the question was you know why that drastic dip why that change um and so um Charlotte EES and Larry Varn um kind of looked at that and they determined that there was a score Advanced academic programs in 2019 that a score 2.8 but on 2022 is at 1.0 um so they uh did a deep dive into that and analyzed that um they received uh mid January so that's why we're bring it to you now so again this was December 11th they brought it to the board did a deep dive I think there were some questions about that obviously with the holidays um I think there was some delay hearing back from ISB solois state board of education but it has been updated and so if you look in the handout our
095student learning overall score again was 2.91 in 2019 re-reported in December it was 1.92 it actually increased the 3.02 and again that advanced learning program which was previously reported to be um 1.0 actually um went up to 3.0 so there was a mistake so that's uh the update so again you know thank you to those that uh ask questions and thank you to Larry and to Charlotte for giving us an update on the equity yeah really appreciate the administrative team doing that deep dive and really digging in to find out why that score dropped so much and it I imagine is no small task to get is to update our report card metrics so kudos to Charlotte and Larry for really digging in and having the fortitude to stick with it with is to get
096that updated I look forward to our continuing work in that area and that concludes the superintendent report uh moving on to board comments and events um I think we're gonna actually start with the ISB report because we've got the ISB and kaspa and then we canle back there some several things that would be considered events and U coming up and what not related to iasb um first I'll start by saying I was honored to uh represent District 20 28 and the U Lakes division of iasb at the national costbook conference it's the Consortium of of um uh State School Board associations um it's a just a a bit of a history on that for those that might not understand this uh it's a a relatively new organization about 18 months ago a group of uh
097leaders from the uh Illinois Association of school boards as well as several other states and some folks from what was uh what is the National Association of school boards which our state used to um coordinate with uh decided that they uh felt it was important to create a new organization from a fresh perspective uh that organization was built and hosted their first conference a year ago um they accomplished all that in just six months the current uh executive director of that organization is uh is the former uh executive director of the iasb our School Board Association Tom Bertrand um uh and it's been very successful 26 of the states have joined on to that organization and growing uh they held their second annual conference we were in uh Dallas Texas um and it's a um
098a three-day conference with an extra day up front with some uh uh specific um learning opportunity for a pre-conference um uh session um Illinois was well rep represented we were the largest state from our uh understanding the largest state uh represented at this conference but there were uh a few thousand folks uh in attendant um and um from this area I represented uh District 128 there was several uh I think three board members from District 70 in Libertyville uh two or three board members from District dist 73 or 79 I should say the Fremont School District uh so our community was well represented um uh it was uh by contrast it was a little different everyone that's been to the triple ey conference that's a conference of conferences that's a multiple organizations hosting a conference
099simultaneously so you have not only the association the school Wards from Illinois but you also have the business administrators the the school business uh officials um all coming together so there's uh a much larger pool of people uh um able to attend that so this was smaller yet it was very focused just on board member uh interests so that was um um a much more focused um uh event very nice presentations excellent keynote um the the conference next year uh I think it's moving to April from what I understand or maybe uh late March um and it will be in Atlanta Georgia so as I hear more uh about that I'll pass the word and uh we can discuss whether we want to have anyone represent us at uh at that event but uh nevertheless
100it was a it was a great uh great event um each of you received this on your table this is the U at glance how the resolution uh becomes a position statement this is our annual iasb um uh process for getting uh resolutions sent to the uh delegate assembly then the the annual meeting at the uh the triple in November so if you want to take a a moment to take a look at this if you have some topic that you feel is really pressing that you feel should be one of the iasb um ADV advocacy um uh initiatives uh we should uh submit that and see if we can get that uh on the agenda for that um as you know ISB does two primary things it's an instructional and um networking opportunity for
101us as board members but it's also a um uh our representative down in Springfield and to some extent in Washington DC to help the legislators understand the needs of school public school districts and so this sort of lays the groundwork for the initiatives that they um take as a priority to uh that work so um take a look at that um one more quick um reminder if you haven't signed up and you want to on March 13th Wednesday March 13th is the uh spring or winter I don't know what they call it the is ISB Lakes division uh dinner meeting it's going to be here in mundeline uh I believe it starts around six o'clock so if you want to attend that I will be attending that um and that's that's one of the things
102that uh our division uh uh committee that I sit on uh on our behalf uh helps coordinate so our neighbors actually our our Center District uh uh Pete Hanigan Dr Hanigan from hawthor and their uh communications director will be presenting on um I don't know the exact wording of the topic but basically uh gen yeah how do you communicate across different generations of people working in your in your District um so it should be a very interesting uh presentation when he gets when they get to uh doing that so I'd encourage you to attend that's it for me okay um I have a quick update for edre we're going to do our inaugural field trip to Springfield um districts are welcome to send delegates for people that would like to go to Springfield um get
103a tour spend the night meet with legislators um that will be on April 10th more information will be emailed to all Ed R members any other um uh reports or activities that board members would like to share okay then uh we are going to take a brief look at our future agenda items um there are several listed for both committee and the March board meeting um are there any that um board memb members would like to suggest for consideration pause for discussion if you think of anything you are welcome to send me and Dr Herman an email um at this time we are going to look for a motion to convene in uh Clos session to discuss Collective negotiating matters under 5Cs 12202 C2 car Michael so moved Batson second pause for roll call okay
104roll call please karney hi Batson hi Benjamin hi Carmichael hi drum key hi hustel I catwall I motion passes we are uh adjourned and we are convened in Clos session at 8:38 p.m. thank you everyone Fade to District 128 logo look you for a motion and ATT tojn the board meeting Batson so moved Carmichael second Voice vote all in favor I any oppos we are adjourned at 930 22 pm thank you everyone Fade to Black end of meeting