2026-02-09 CSD99 School Board Meeting

001All right. 6:30. >> Would you mind calling the role, please? >> Certainly. Cara Casten >> here. >> Katie Courtourtney >> here. >> Ken Dawson >> here. >> Chris Espinosa >> here. >> April Fein >> here. >> Don Rener >> here. >> Michael Riskey >> here. >> Ryan Enroy >> here. >> And Romina Papa Gonzalez >> here. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Have a quorum. Let's please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation association forward for several recognitions this evening. >> All right. All right. So, we have two awards to share. Um, I'm Dr. Jerry Lisa. I am the director of educational programs at TCD. [snorts] >> Good evening everyone. I'm

002Dr. Dan Dr. Dan Krauss. I'm the principal of Willburg High School but also past president of the Illinois Principles Association. It's an honor to be here tonight. >> Thank you. >> I'm currently the region chair for the IPA for DuPage and tonight the first award that we want to give is called a BU the building bridges award. This award celebrates the power of partnership and today we're proud to honor the collaboration between district 99 and the Grove Express Foundation. The foundation's impact is extraordinary. Through their annual Thanksgiving 5K and the student led junior board, they have contributed over $500,000 to local education, provided students with real world leadership experience, and strengthened the bond between schools in the community. They are a true BU bridge between our classrooms and community, which is exactly why this award

003was created. So, if you are part of this amazing organization, please come come on up and receive your award. There's quite a few of you. [applause] You can walk in this. [laughter] [applause] You would like to each introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Jana. I'm a senior at Donner's Grove South. Um, I plan to go to University of Iowa next year to major in elementary education. And yeah, this has been an amazing experience and I love the Grove Express. >> Hi, I'm Finley Warner. I'm a senior at Dinos North and I plan to major in economics at the University of Michigan next year. And the Grove Express is unlike any other foundation I've ever known. like I get treated with so much respect and I think there's truly everyone in the community loves it. >>

004Hi, I'm Lily Edington and I'm going to I'm a senior at Downro North and I'm going to Miami University to major in business. The Grove Express for me has just been a cool way to get involved in like every single different aspect of the community and with a bunch of new people in the community and it's just been a special thing to do these last two years. >> Hi, I'm Giana Monica. I'm a junior at Downer Grove North. The Grove [clears throat] Express has just been a great way for me to meet new people and develop my public speaking and event planning skills, and it's just been a great experience. >> Hi, I'm Ingred. I'm a junior at Downer's Grove South. The Grove Express has been a great way to learn from great role models

005um [clears throat] about how to build a nonprofit organization. >> Hi, I'm Owen. I'm from Donner's Grove North. I'm a junior and the Grover Express Foundation has just been a great way to get involved in something that helps our community so much. >> Hi, I'm Belle Riley. I'm a junior at Downer's Grove South and the Grove Express has been such a fun way to meet an amazing group of people and learn how to work with a nonprofit. >> Hi, good evening. Nicole Wallace. I am the chair of the uh Grove Express Junior Board. So, we are incredibly honored to receive this award. Um, nothing meaningful is done in isolation. So, we greatly appreciate the cooperation and collaboration of District 99, Dr. Courtney Dement, Principal Arwin Lip, uh, Superintendent Thleey, our two activity directors at both

006schools, Jennifer Martinez and Mark Marandola. Um, and again, just, you know, very appreciative of this honor. Um, and we love working with our students. We had 10 junior board members this year. Not all of them could be here with us tonight, but um, it's just an absolute joy and pleasure working with them. Um, we've been doing this since 2022, so continue the tradition moving forward. Thank you so much. [applause] >> These are the best nights, right? Like you get a chance to just celebrate all the cool things. And we purposely said, you got to bring the kids up first. Like that's just such a great program. And we got a chance to read about it and hear about it when they were nominated. >> [laughter] >> uh and it is overwhelming uh unanimous in terms

007of selecting the program for the building bridges award just like the same for the Herman Graves award in DuPage region. Uh I had the privilege of uh meeting Courtney Dement back in the summer of 2002 her very first day in education because we worked together at Addison Trail High School. Uh and from there our careers uh have always been uh parallel and worked in the same district for a while until you all had the benefit of hiring her here. uh and she is an absolutely outstanding principal along with Arwin uh a great team and duo that I have the honor of working with uh in so many different capacities. But the Herman Graves award is something that's recognized for contributions to the educational profession, specifically the Illinois principles association. And Courtney's been a leader within

008the organization uh throughout her career as an assistant principal. She often hosted the statewide assistant principal conference at Addison Trail. Uh when she left, someone else had to pick it up, so we do it at Willoughbrook now. [laughter] Um but uh but her continuation with the Illinois principles association has included being uh the Dupage DuPage region representative. She's also been the state director for DuPage. She is now the secretary for the board uh for the Illinois's principal association and if she allows it, she'll eventually be the uh the president. Um but the Herman Graves award recognizes outstanding contributions to this profession and uh she exemplifies that in everything she does. Much like the building bridges award, she is now one of 21 uh principal high uh principles through that have been recognized as the Herman

009Graves award for the region and for consideration for the state award that'll be announced in October. That one's a secret. Uh this is the only one that does not get announced in advance. It's announced at the annual conference. Uh so we'll we'll know then uh where she stands, but we already know where she stands. So Dr. Dement, congratulations. [applause] >> [applause] >> Well, um I I don't need to say a lot, but thank you very much for taking another night out of your very busy nights to be here um for both of these awards. It's really really important and I love that we are able to recognize our students tonight, which is amazing. Um, and I would just say I've always said for my whole career that my best professional development has been with colleagues

010who are doing the job that I'm doing. And it is so rewarding to be able to give back through IPA. And it's always been rewarding and I love it and that's why I keep doing it. So, it doesn't feel like a job when I get to work with all of these really great people. So, um, thank you for allowing everyone to be here tonight and I appreciate all of you. Thank you. Um, thank you. That's it. [applause] Thank you to the IPA for coming out tonight and recognizing our teams. All right. Uh we have some other recognitions. [clears throat] I just wanted to um echo another quick congratulations to Courtney. Um, most of you know I was a principal at another school before coming to District 99. And at that time I was a member

011of Illinois Principal Association, but not super involved until I came here. And Courtney said, "This is what we're going to do." And so I kind of just follow her along um I follow follow along her. I I'm not saying it right. I follow her um at the at all things um IPA and she is just a joy to watch um in that space um leading principles from throughout the whole entire state and then I'm just lucky to get to work with her all the time. Um so congratulations. Um [snorts] I am here tonight to celebrate our all-state theater production newsies and Jennifer Martinez, our activities director, really wanted to be here and so I promised her that I would read her words. So, you guys know I don't usually read, but I promised her tonight.

012Um, so from me and Ms. Martinez, we want to say congratulations to our district 99 students on earning all state theater honors. So, we're going to celebrate um Hunter and Mo in just a moment, but they are selected through a highly competitive audition process from students across Illinois. Um, and these are our um honores from downer south. So Mo, Hunter is going to talk about Mo, but I will just say that Hunter is our technical director and he has served as the production scenic designer and this is his sixth time contributing to this all state theater role. So it's an unbelievable honor and unbelievable to do it six times. So Hunter, come on up. He'll introduce Mo. We are celebrating All State Theater. >> Good evening. I'm Hunter Evans, um scenic designer for Newsies and

013tech director at Downer South. Um this was um this over 500 students from all over Illinois auditioned for this. Um 48 made the cast, 46 made the crew, um and 18 made the orchestra. So it's quite an achievement. Um there's um there's a a pretty rigorous interview process that the stage crew kids go through. Um, obviously there's a there's an acting audition that the actors go through and a musical audition for the for the orchestra. Um, but I've been involved in this organization. Um, as long as you do theater in Illinois in a high school, you get involved in this organization. So, um, I've had the honor of designing six times. Um, it's been a great time every time. One of my favorite parts is actually getting to work with any students that make it

014from our own schools because it um it's just a different different experience than you get, you know, with with with our personal crews. So, you get to experience kids from all over the state. Um [clears throat] and then you get to experience our kids working with other kids and representing our schools in a great way. So, we also had two kids from North. I don't know if they're they were here. Okay, cool. They were great, too. We love them. So, [laughter] Mrs. Mo, she was part of the crew. Um, Mo, you want to say a couple things? >> Hi, I'm Mo. I'm a senior at Downer's Grove South. Um, it was a really fun experience and I'm glad that I was pushed to do it and that I was accepted into it. >> Awesome. >>

015All right. Cool. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right. Uh, moving on to student perspectives, North High. Courtney, welcome back. >> All right. Hello again. Um, I'm really, really excited to introduce to you members of our brand new boys bowling team today. And um I was really excited that they said yes um to this idea of being recognized this evening for our student perspectives. Um they are they're going to talk about their team, but they are brand new this year and had a not only a great season, but they had so many kids and it was such a joy to go watch them. Boy, I went to their senior night a few weeks ago and it was such a joy. They were all happy. They were all enjoying themselves and my first thought and

016I was sitting next to Dave, our associate principal for athletics. We're like, why? We are so happy that we were able to do this this year. And so, I'm so excited that you guys get to talk a little bit about what you're doing. So, I'll introduce our coach, our head coach, Scott Gan, and he'll introduce our students. >> Hello. Uh, Scott Gallen. I previously the girls bowling coach at Downer's Grove North. This year transferred over to the boys program. Um, I'll speak real quickly just on behalf of all the boys. Also on behalf of all the boys on the south side, I think I can speak for them as well. Uh Adam and I have worked really closely together. Um [clears throat] we really appreciate the opportunity to have this have this opportunity to, you

017know, put this together for the boys. It's been years. I've spent years being a sort of a sponsor for guys that were doing it individually and participating in the IHSA uh state series but not having a team. And so this was a great opportunity for all these guys. So why don't you guys come up, introduce yourselves, maybe say a little bit about what year you are. >> Uh, hi. >> Experience. Go ahead. Sorry. >> Uh, hi, I'm Michael Jones. I'm a senior at Downs Grove North. I'm going to Missou next year to study kinesiology. Uh, the experience was really good. I think some of the guys that I met on that team are definitely going to be lifelong friends. uh you know, we really kind of just built a good connection all together. Uh we

018all bonded over something that we found interesting and fun. So I I personally think it was a really good experience and I've been wanting a team for three years now and I'm I'm happy that I finally got one in my final year. Uh and I'm happy that I'm finally got to experience it. >> Hi, I'm Alen Bucher. I'm a senior at Dallas Grove North. I'm going to go to College of DuPage for sports management. The experience was so great. I met a new friend called Xavier McMahon. We be friends for a long time through a football player. I thought it was not like only varsity players got all the rest, but everyone gets all the reps from JV to vi and it's like a great experience. Everyone bonds over and it's so amazing. >> Uh

019hello, my name's Ethan Duc. I'm a junior at Adonners Grove North. Uh I was someone who participated in the IHSA regionals last year before we had a team. So, I was very stoked to hear that we could fortunately have a team this year. I was also someone who uh asked Mr. Gullen when I tried out for soccer freshman year when we were going to have a bowling team and [laughter] Dax about that. Uh he told me, "I'm not sure, but I'm super glad he was able to make it work. This year was definitely a success. We we won a lot of conference games and fortunately some people were able to advance very far into like sectionals and stuff and I'm very proud of them. I'm very proud of how we uh applied ourselves and how

020well we were able to manage this brand new team [clears throat] [applause] slides with some highlights. Um [clears throat] any you guys want to do it or you want me to do it? Okay, go ahead. >> Uh so as I said before, there are a lot of guys on the team. Uh we had 24 boys in total. Uh a few joined after our football run, which was very solid. Uh so it was a good job by them. Uh we played a lot of matches at the beginning of the season. Um we didn't have a lot of matches on our schedule, but thankfully to an amazing coach, uh he was able to reach out to almost every school and try and get some few more matches. He ended up getting >> I don't know what the

021total was, 16 head-to-head matches and two invitationals. Uh so it was it was really a good experience and we really appreciate him. Uh sadly we do have five seniors who are now leaving but they they did enjoy their times. I think I can speak for most of them. Uh and I I think the practices between Mondays through Thursdays were solid. Uh the good like break between Friday and the weekend was good because you could just go in visually. Uh and then we had most of our invitationals on Saturday which it would be nice to break and then go to invitationals. So I mean that's all I got to say about that. >> Let me just say one other thing that wasn't up there. But we also did a crossover with our girls team. So Marian

022Catholic was nice enough to host us and we competed with the girls against both of their programs as well. We didn't kind of put that up there, but it was trying to get, you know, sort of a group positive energy type of thing for both programs and and hopefully that helps with each of them. >> We had a very good season over a record of 13 and three. We won a conference record of 17 seven and three. Also beating down Grove South, winning that Downer's Grove pin. Even though [clears throat] the guy bought a 300, I thought we were going to lose that, but somehow I beat him. In third, in third place, uh, some really great bowlers at the third place at the Roing Meadows invite, as you can see right there. Also, top

02310 finishers. Tyler Anderson, sophomore. He's a very good bowler. He also bowled a 300 once, >> which I saw. It was really cool at a bowling meet. and Matt uh P. He was also a he was also a sophomore. Also a very good bowler. That was Matt also a very good bowler. 20th place at the bull invite. High eighth place at high school by TJ K. He was he's a freshman. He got two 6ix9ine which is very good. And two sectional qualifiers Matt P and Kaden S. Two very good sophomores that I knew that very good bowlers. And Kaden Kaden missed qualifying for state by 59 pins at the sectionals. So we bowled awesome, averaged about a 210 and didn't quite make it. That's how good you have to be. >> Um, kind of like

024Allan said, we did beat Downer's Grove South, which was very nice for bragging rights for the first year. [laughter] Uh, yeah, congratulations to Tyler. He bowled a perfect game. I'm very proud of him because he's gotten very, very close. Uh Tyler, me and Matt, we all won all conference honors, which basically means that out of all the bowlers who bowled uh and within our conference more than 18 games, top 22 gets chosen for uh just getting recognized for having that achievement and having the highest overall average. Um [clears throat] uh also a chance to recognize our seniors, Allan, Aiden, Mason, uh Michael, and Xavier. Uh I'm very I'm very sad that I have to see them leave. Our team is very, very young. I'm like one of few juniors that are on the bowling team.

025So, I'm also excited to see how we build up with our freshman and sophomore groups. Uh, I bet in the future we're going to have even more success, and I'm very excited to see where that kind of goes. >> I want to give credit where credit's due. The the trophy that you see up there, Adam put that together from the southside. Uh, he's an avid bowler and, uh, did a great job. So, we're going to pass that back and forth when it, you know, it's sort of a traveling pin trophy for years to come. >> Excellent. >> Yeah. >> Going to start new traditions. >> Yep. Cool. >> That's what we're doing. We're trying. >> Any questions for our bowlers? >> Probably going to be afraid to ask this, but what what are your average

026for what each for each you guys? What what's your average score? >> Anything's gonna be better than mine, [laughter] so I'm just just curious. >> Better than 50. >> Yeah. the the school I averaged uh roughly 190 for all the for all the match and practice totals. [cough] That varies for I would say in normal league and stuff because I I was someone who initially started bowling with one hands and I wasn't very good. Uh but then when I transferred I was able to like the back end of my season was amazing and that kind of brought my average up personally. >> Good. >> Um >> and honestly been putting up higher scores especially since uh Mr. Mr. G's able to like give me advice and teach me. >> Uh I a 177 I think

027throughout the year. So I picked up bowling about like competit like serious bowling about six months before the actual season. I I kind of got back into it. Uh I had like already purchased a ball before that. But it was definitely a shock coming in seeing all these guys bowling like 200s and I'm like [laughter] wow it's really different here. Uh but thankfully to coach Gan, he was able to coach me up a bit and I started averaging around 180 towards the end of the season. So that was pretty solid. >> I my average was a 131.1. I couldn't know how to spin the ball when I did this liar league. The this this person that taught me how to bowl straightand and then I haven't learned how to cove. That's why my average is

028131 ball. So was like a JB bowler. So I was not like high. [clears throat] Awesome. Awesome. >> Alan was one of our football players, so he missed about a month. [laughter] [snorts] >> That's awesome. Yeah, keep up the great work. That's exciting. Yeah, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Yeah, that's >> all right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] >> All right, student board members, who's who's up first this month? >> I'm going first. >> All right. [laughter] All right, good evening everyone. I'm so glad that we're here after a few weeks. Um, I'm very happy that we were able to recognize so many of our incredible community members that truly are what makes this community so special. So, I'm always happy to see a lot of people here. Um, there continues at

029South there continues to be a very strong push on the messaging that every day matters. Um, we continue to remind students that as we continue into the semester, not only is attendance important, but other things such as doing your assign assignments, being engaged in class, asking questions, just those like little things that will make you successful. Um, with phones and scanning, we continue to have no issues. Um I continue to see those good habits um both in like the lunches, the hallways, um that accountability overall impacting students not only in school but also outside of school. Uh we had a lot of activities. We had our future future Mustang night which was very successful and just exciting to be able to welcome um new Mustangs into the building. Um, I can say it was an

030honor and very special to be able to talk to them and I'm sure Ryan feels the same way. Um, we also have a very exciting week. Um, this week is spirit week, so there's a lot of excitement in the building. Um, there's like the different days for dress up. There's other activities like [clears throat] key clubs holding crush cans. Um, and everything's leading up to our assembly on Friday, which again, it's my personal favorite. It's always very fun with all the games. Um, we also have other things such as the Black History Repres presentation on February 11th, which is an original performance that highlights student created pieces that are centered around food, culture, and family traditions. Um, which is very exciting. I'm glad that students have that uh platform. We are also very excited to

031host the Polar Plunge again in late March. Um, we do this to support the Special Olympics of Illinois and it's just a great way for students to overall get involved and really contribute to a cause that is incredible and that truly matters. Uh, with sports, our cheer team uh, compete at the state competition for the first time in 12 years. Uh, it was very exciting and I was so proud to see all the amazing uh, athletes get recognized. um or our dance team also competed at state and overall they have both had incredible seasons. Uh our basketball team has also been doing really well as well as our bowling, our swim and dive team. Um overall sports and activities have been doing really well and our speech team also competed at regionals this past weekend

032and will uh will compete at sectionals this week. Um and then lastly for resources and access we did relationship mapping which is an incredible I think it's an incredible way to ensure that students and staff uh that students have staff to rely on in the building and we also did the state mandated surveys and then the college and career center continues to provide students with opportunities to explore careers and overall just help uh get help with financial aid and colleges. Thank you. >> Perfect. I think Romina covered it as always. Um, well, next slide, please. [laughter] I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Um, so >> good evening everyone. There's a lot of positive amendment across the student body right now, whether that be academically, in activities, and how students are taking responsibility for their own

033success. Before I get started, I just want to say congratulations to Dr. Dement for her award. it is so welld deserved and I've gotten the opportunity to work with her a lot and she's always had this student first um perspective with everything that she does. So, I just think it's so deserved. Um and I love that we're also um recognizing some of our community members, especially in bowling. Um I know I still use the bumpers um nobody else does. It's just me. Um but other than that, um things have been going really well, really well um across DGN and I think at both schools. Um, some of those key things or key themes that we've been f focusing on this year is student ownership. Um, and I think that's being shown across all of our

034classrooms. I've seen a huge um, gain in people, especially last year, kids were just not doing their homework. They weren't really studying. They were just kind of going through the motions of school. And over the past few months, I've seen that student ownership just go up so much. And I think students are actually doing their work. Students are actually getting everything turned in, and they're being proactive about what they're doing. if they're not going to be there, they're emailing their teacher and being proactive about the days that they're missing. Um, and that's really important to see and I think that's a goal that we've been focusing on as a as a board. Um, we had a student advisory meeting um a few or I think it was last week and one huge thing that came

035up was recognizing attendance. So, we obviously um have had a huge focus on attendance in the past few in [clears throat] the past few months, but we want to take the chance and the opportunity to recognize students that um that have great attendance that I think it was 90% or more we would have some type of way to recognize that. So, we ended up meeting with [clears throat] some of our student representatives at school and people that are um leaders within our school and we're brainstorming ways that we can recognize attendance and I think that's a great way for us to continue that idea that every day matters. u moving even into that everyday branding. Every day is still um all over their school whether that be in the posters, whether that be in emails,

036whether that be in the morning email. That idea and that branding of every day um is what is keeping consistency across the classes. Um there also course selection has been um in full swing um and people have been meeting with their counselors and um choosing their courses. And I just want to point out there's been a lot of um expansion in post-secary opportunities whether that be TCD and that real world um application is a super important aspect to the things that we're offering here at DGN and DGS. Um attendance and everyday um culture. So I kind of covered that but a stronger focus on showing up and being present is shown throughout the school. So just to summarize that um student accountability expectations, so higher standards across classrooms and more consistency and follow-through with staff.

037Students are getting one warning, they're getting that second warning and then there's that followthrough and that followthrough has been shown to um help less like we're running into that less. People are pulling out their phones less and the phone is going away. Like I said in the past, um that self-regulation key is so important and that's what I'm seeing. um student activities. Um just this past weekend I was in Orlando. Both my sisters are in the Athenas. They play six six in nationals which is a really big deal. Um and winter sports are in full are in full swing and their strong school spirit across the building and even spring sports are starting too. So whether that be open gyms or tryyous. Um this year I'm super happy to announce as a vice president of

038DECA we're taking 48 students who qualified to state and that's one of our biggest numbers um this year. [clears throat] Um, other than that, college decisions are in full swing. I know regular decisions are starting to come out and people are starting to commit to schools. Um, and the college and career center and our counselors have been a great resource and helping us um, navigate that process, whether that be financial aid, scholarships, or even just that communication with your schools. Um, at Access, we've been doing relationship mapping and we took a climate survey last week and I just love that. Um, our school leadership is taking the opportunity to collect that data and really making sure that each student feels like they have somebody that they can rely on. Um, other than that, um, stronger

039expectations are being held throughout the building and higher student ownership is happening. Um, overall students feel supported but also understand accountability matters. So, thank you, >> Ryan. on on student ownership. I mean, and I mean, where do you place the causation of the increase in student ownership? >> I would say just like what causes like what's causing that? >> Yeah. What's led to the increase? >> I would say the biggest increase holding a good response here. Um, I would say the biggest increase is people taking responsibility for their own actions. I mean people there's something to be said about somebody being responsible for their attendance walking into classroom and being proactive about their things. I think students are starting to realize that if they take initiative and they get involved they do [clears throat] that

040communication they're going to see that happening and it I just feel like it's it's just something that people are wanting to see and people are having that um they're having their own um way of regulating that, you know. So I think it's just people people are starting to realize that their education is in their control and I think that's what one of the [clears throat] um leading causes of that. Yeah. >> I will say that there's also people realizing that again you can take accountability and take things into your hands but there's also like consequences to not being accountable and not taking control of again those small things. So for example like if you miss a day and then you don't follow uh don't follow up with your teachers. I think students are realizing that

041okay that that is actually affecting things that makes me less successful in the classroom being there matters um with attendance and just like putting your phone away and stuff. I think we're realizing that doing small things like that makes a change and it makes you want to continue those habits and overall see yourself succeed. And even to add on to that like accountability, the conversation when student a student does something wrong and the conversation has shifted as in you did you did something wrong here's the consequence. It's more about understanding why that student did that and how can we move forward um in preventing that and that accountability and the student or student and teacher and whoever it [clears throat] is with that conversation them having that conversation initially and understanding what accountability can the

042student take. How can I um establish a plan to move forward for that not to happen? And I think that specific idea and that framing of that argument is what is leading to accountability in in the student perspective. That conversation specifically. >> Do you think [clears throat] the emphasis on um attendance is trickling down into that conversation? >> Totally. I think people are starting to realize that being there every single day and not just being there pres or not just being there physically but being present in all of your classes. Um not not just going through the motions but taking um taking full action of what you're doing. Um, and I think a huge aspect of that is our building thinking classrooms that we've implemented. Instead of just sitting at a desk and just kind

043of taking notes, people are going up on the boards and interacting with each other and teaching it themselves and learning in different ways. Um, and I think that's what we're seeing. Roina, did you have anything to add? >> Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing. And I think the messaging combined with the actual application of doing those things in the classroom has truly helped people realize that again being in the classroom but being engaged is what you need to do in order to be successful. >> Yeah. And even when students do I I I've seen this and my teacher I specifically my English teacher she said I've seen a lot and I I asked her this question specifically. I said have you been seeing a lot of students taking um or like

044reaching out to you when they're missing days? is I I really asked that straight up and she said, "This year I've seen more students if they're going to miss a Monday, they're going to miss a Tuesday, they're going to be late to class, students are actually being proactive about what they're doing and they're emailing their teacher and saying, "What did I miss? How can I catch up?" And I think that makes it the it our teachers job so much easier, but it's also showing that our students are taking accountability for not being there. And I think attendance matters and we understand that um life happens and you're not going to be there every single day. But you taking that accountability and you taking that next step into how can I come back from that day

045that I missed I think is super cool that we're seeing that. >> Thanks. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. [clears throat] Nothing better than when your student member board members repeat the strategic plan to your board. >> Yes. [laughter] Thank you both. >> All right. Uh, speaking of strategic plan, I'm going to turn this over to uh, Scott and Gina to leave the lead the next part. Who am I turning this over to? Gina, you have the clicker. >> I have the clicker. Okay. So, nice introduction. Thank you. Um and Scott and I are going to talk tonight about grades, specifically about um first semester grades as well as interventions and related to our strategic plan of course. Um and as we talk about that, it's under

046growth of student ownership. So certainly relates um not specifically to attendance necessarily, but certainly relates to students um taking accountability for their grades, for their learning, um talking about some of the instructional practices that are occurring in classrooms across the district. Um so we'll be sharing information um about students getting grades of A's through C's as well as DF grades this first semester and then of course talk about interventions that have occurred relative to that and then even beyond. So as we do that obviously our strategic indicator is all students will achieve C's or better in every class each semester or will be supported through individual support. So, we're going to look at some data today from first semester. You may recall last year we looked at first semester data as well that was sort

047of setting our baseline data and um we work very closely with the buildings on this. Obviously, our associate principles for curriculum instruction, um, Jay Giblin and Keith Pal have been instrumental in really looking at the data and how we can improve um, our our our communication with students and with families. So, this chart here is obviously North High School. Um, and as you look at this chart, and obviously there's seven years of data here, but as you look at this chart, the higher the number, the better. And you can see that this year, first semester, so just uh the semester the end of December is the highest of of all the years um at 95.81%. That's an increase from last year of 0.57% and the highest uh from all the years that are there. And

048again, these are student grades. So it's not counting individual students, it's counting grades of C or better. So A, B, and C grades. So those are the overall first semester. All of our students were in grades of C's or better. 95% of the grades almost 96. This one is looking specifically at individual unique students. So each student only counts once. We looked at students who earned a grade of D, a grade of a D or an F. And as you can see, and again we're looking at North High School. This is the percent of students who earned a DRF grade first semester. You can see that percentage went down significantly from last year. Obviously, the lowest of the five years that are there, but we're seeing uh an increase of over 2% almost 2.25% from

049the previous year. And so we're definitely moving in the right direction. Similarly, South High School. Again, this is looking at grades. So, not unique students. This is overall all the grades that came in first semester. You can see that we also have the current year as the highest of all of the seven years that are pictured with 93.71% and up just about 2.6% from last year. And again, these are grades of C or higher. So, we want the number to be higher. That's that's a positive direction. Similar [clears throat] to when we looked at north, this slide here is showing unique students. So, each student only counts once. Um, these are students who earned um percent of students with a D or an F grade. So, we want the number to be lower. We want

050more students getting A through C's and obviously D or F grades. And you can see it went down significantly from last year and down almost uh 6% 5.64%. So that's individual students the percent of individual students who earned one D or F minimally one D or F. >> Just curious why you looked why you looked at the numbers differently between the two. Is there some insight you're getting like why? >> So the difference between the two. So if we go back that's all the grades. So a student could have six seven classes. um and get C's and all of them that would factor in and it's so it's all the grades it's thousands >> why would you look at them differently between the two >> to look at overall how students are doing the percentage

051of grades that are falling each area but also to look as individually as students what percent of our students are earning grades >> okay >> of in the case of this slide here obviously um grad and you can spin it the other way so right so if you look >> you can't just flip the percent one's looking measuring grades. Total grades >> all the grades every because we're trying to identify you got one D or one F and we want to highlight you as opposed to Okay, that's what I was trying to ask. >> So it's unique. So this is unique students. >> Y okay students the other is measuring kids. >> Yep. Okay. So what percentage of students in this case obviously >> so for the the previous graph it would be if a

052student had >> uh three A's or three Bs or something but then they had one D that would be represented on the >> the one D would be represented on the second graph the three would be on this okay okay >> yes >> but the D is still represented the 90 in the >> grades of C or better >> 6.29% 29%. >> Right. So if you flip it right in that percent exactly >> and the student would be also listed on here as a unique student. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> And as you can see we're down about five and a half% almost 6%. At South School and so remember as we went to that goal the goal is grades of C or better or to be supported. And of course what we mean by

053supported here and there's multiple supports that students receive on on in many cases on a daily basis but we looked specifically at when our counseling and student support services has reached out to families teacher contacts as they will reach out to families when students are earning a D or F grade and combine those. So whether it's a counseling and in many case it might be both right for an individual student counts as a parent contact and the next two slides in my opinion show tremendous amount of growth um and really I credit that to our teachers and to our counselors. So as you look at this slide, so let's look at the Fgrades first. We're comparing the two years here. We're comparing this year we're at North High School obviously. We're comparing this year to

054last year, which last year served as our baseline data. This year, 100% of the students who earned an F grade had a parent contact. >> 100%. >> Say that again. >> Or an intervention. >> Gina, say that again. >> So, I'll go slower. >> Yeah. Say it again. >> 100% of our North High School students uh who had an Fgrade had an intervention, had a parent contact intervention. Every student I might make you say it again. [laughter] >> I mean, >> do I need to word it differently? >> No. I mean, do you know how like this tremendous 100% of anything by anybody is >> tremendous >> is tremendous, right? And >> uh our biggest goal as we sat down as administrative team and worked on our indicators and measures was to set goals like

055this where no kid fell through the cracks. Right? what North High did here last year or this year. Well, last year was great, right? 97 point almost 98%. This year 100% of students that earned an F were reached out to and then you'll go into the next one. >> Okay. >> So, can I just Oh, because that that is wonderful. What does that look like? Is it an email where we don't know what the response is? Is it a sitdown conference with the teacher and the student? I think it is important to know what that data means more than just the 100%. >> And it can look at look like both of those and then some right in some cases it may be an email in some cases it may be a conference in some

056cases it may be the teacher contacting and a counselor contacting it might be a student who has struggled in more than one class and so there may be multiple other interventions right that really we do that kind of wraparound approach to provide all kinds of services for students. It varies. >> Could be office hours, could be student support with the path. >> Could be Strive, which is our one of our after school tutoring tool. >> I think because I think that's important to let people know more than to say, "Hey, my the teacher reached out one time >> because we could be that, right?" But professionals are determining what is the appropriate amount of outreach. Right. >> Right. But I think it's important too though to to share what is being done. That probably is

057way more than just >> It's Yeah, it's way more than just a phone call, an email. >> And often times, even with that communication, whether it's an email, a telephone call, whether it's a conference, it's not necessarily just to say your student is earning a failing grade, but >> to set up a plan. >> What can we do? >> Yeah. >> How can we help? How can we support your student? What can be done at home? What can be done here at school? How can we partner? >> Wonderful. >> Can I clarify on the data real quick, too? So, when you're looking at North and we're looking at the half bridge, which is the right to bar graphs, the actual last year was the 80 87.6% outreach. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Now we're at 100%.

058So just to make sure that's clear and then on the obviously on Gina was going to just say on the left side is the degrade. So that's where we look at that the work that the team has done in the buildings is really just an extreme improvement and a just an effort that is truly amazing. I think that, you know, we we took to heart like we weren't at 100% last year and we reported those numbers to you last year of the, you know, the 74.1 and the 87.6 and that was the first year we collected that. So, we're really excited that, you know, the numbers went up. So, I'm sorry I didn't want to jump in. Want to make sure we understood the data, right? >> Right. So, a 12% increase from last year

059for the F-grade as Scott was pointing out. But if you look at the D-grade, which are obviously on the the left side there, last year was 74%, this year 97% an increase of well almost 24%. In contacts. Certainly, we would like to see that. That's very close to 100% and oftentimes grades can change based on one assessment that can can oftenimes be near even the end of the semester. Um, but I think that's an incredible gain as well. Um, when we're looking at the [clears throat] degrades. So, very proud of our teachers, very proud of our counselors, um, our buildings or in this case, North, but we'll flip to South. We can be proud of South too [laughter] because South has very good data as well. Um, and obviously um, we're looking at the right.

060We're look first at the F-Grades. 100% 100% of uh families were contacted up from last year at 90% which is almost 9.2%. >> Say it again, [laughter] thousand. >> So just 100% >> 100% >> across the district. What is that? >> That still would be 100%. >> Oh, thank you. [laughter] Um, as we look at the D-grades this year at South 96.13% up from 72.5% last year, so an increase of just over um 23%. So very proud of our teachers, very proud of our staff and the work that the administration has done [clears throat] to support students. you want to pick you want through before we move on. I mean it >> the if we compare 25 and 26 we didn't have a change in our grading system we didn't have [clears throat] a change

061in our retake system our teachers didn't just scratch how they grade students. The primary difference here is our intervention process and we're seeing the results across the district at both schools that we're seeing less kids having failing grades. So sometimes it's hard to put your finger on statistics and see direct correlations, but I think this this one's pretty clear, >> right? Yeah. And I think the other piece that's huge is our focus on attendance this year. Yeah. >> Right. just getting more people to show up. Like remember our statement of work, which I'll bring up later, we had this theory that if we focus on attendance and accountability that we will see improvements in things like grades, interventions, staff morale, right? You've seen so far this year presentations. [clears throat] Well, you're about to see

062interventions, but um this itself is an intervention. But our statement of work that we brought you in May said, "We believe if we focus on attendance and accountability, you're going to see the needle move in these areas." What you're seeing today is the evidence that that is true. >> Yep. >> And more students owning their learning. >> Yeah. I mean, you're hearing from our students about owning their learning. >> I think Ryan said it well. >> All right. So, moving into interventions. Um Kina, can you just go one more slide? Actually, so um last year we showed this image. So the image didn't change, but I want to just highlight it again. Um I'm proud of our team. So we have Sarah Corrington and um Kristen Borman at South um leading the way in our

063CS. And then we have um Aaron Lewig and Stephanie Andrews at North. And I appreciate their leadership in terms of working and guiding our CS through these interventions. the the spirit of this image was kind of like one of these infographics of what we it's but there's data behind it. So what we did is we ran all our contact types which is our interventions that our CS does as a whole for the whole district and then each bubble kind of represents the amount. So if you look at like academics is obviously large that makes sense right but you can see these other ones like over to the right you see the alpha and assist that's a problem solving two different problem solving ways that our teams go about working you even see on the bottom

064left the threat assessment our teams obviously support our process with threat assessment so it just gives you kind of and this isn't all of it but this is a you know gives you a representation of what our trips is supporting our students so I Just wanted to highlight that as we go and obviously our our staff are amazing with providing these interventions. Um and then the next slide just thank you Gina talks about our strategic indicator um about interventions and then the next slide what we did different than what we presented last year during the first semester is this year we decided we wanted to last year we and you'll see the slide um next but we wanted to talk about [clears throat] our alpha thresholds which I'll explain that in a little bit we

065wanted to take a rewind and really look at our entire in this case the entire north student body and we wanted to look at how many of those students actually had an intervention through CP and so again whether they needed it or not we were just looking at what was it so if you think back to that bubble there's so many different things that they could be having interventions on so what we did is we ran it and we ended up with 98% of our student population during the first semester of this school year so just last semester had um at least one intervention by our CT um and and 2% of our population did not. And again, what I want to echo a little bit is that the 2% doesn't mean they didn't need

066it or maybe they right like they could be just doing fine in school. Um and and they didn't need any intervention. Um and then the 98% I think is amazing that the the scope of what our team is doing um when you think of North has 2,000 students, right? Um, so that would this is a new piece to our data and that's why it's only this year and then you'll see this every year as we go. >> I also want to add on to that real quick, Scott. It's not just that the intervention occurred, it was documented. Right. Right. So that means not only did the teacher, counselor, whoever it is that did the intervention do that, but then they also took the time to record that, which not just gives us data for this

067stuff, but creates a [snorts] trail of interventions that other staff members can lean on when they try to interact and provide the appropriate supports for a student. So that there's [clears throat] a lot there. >> So to that point, have we made that easier with Infinite Campus? Right. Yeah, one of the benefits a burden on the one of the benefits of infinite campus that we're seeing is that um so like Hank referenced these are all CS interventions that you're looking at right now on this slide um but what um infinite campus allows us to do is in the past years using um ehchool we were our teacher blast department couldn't see the teacher interventions and so we were having that was one a big difficulty of like trying to engage of like okay well did

068the teacher call home? Did they do this with office hours? Did it you had to reach out, which is fine, right? Collaboration is good, but like Hank said, it's really nice to be able to see it quickly and then you can intervene just faster. So, Infinite Campus now is is set up where um the CS department can see all the interventions that are done. So, we don't have that disconnect. >> But to answer the other part of your question, it's not always easy to enter those. Right. So that's one of the things that we are working on >> is in what ways can we streamline that so that entering that data >> is a less of a lift right now it's the first year you're learning system all of those things but as time goes

069on you know as we talk to teachers goal one is documenting and get in the habit of doing that then goal number two is to make it quicker more efficient you know to to get those in >> we we've figured out one automation if student choice if that occurs then that is automatically added as a contact log. We're looking for ways to automate more things >> like that so that it it just >> it's documented, right? And so there there are other things that we're doing with Infinite Campus as well where we're trying to right now if a teacher enters a an intervention contact or any of our staff enter one, they can only do one at a time. We're looking for ways how can you select multiple things because if I call home and

070I have a conversation about grades I may also talk about attendance I may also talk about right so trying to get so where we can select multiple things is a request that we have into IC >> Travis is that is that viewable on the parent side of things >> we don't have the the contact logs set up on the >> so the parent can't see how okay >> it's an inward facing But teachers can see teachers can see what other teachers are doing which is also an important thing as well. Like if I'm calling home to so and so's house, there may be other contacts that have been made by other teachers. So I can I can see that. >> All right. And then the next slide goes into our alpha threshold which we presented

071um last year and [clears throat] then you see the trend data for that and I'll explain that. So looking at the right with the yellow arrow, um it's looking So what we're doing is we're running data, student data on students that are failing two or more courses. They have an attendance indicator, meaning there's some um warning and percentage that they're, you know, um at. And then they have one or more discipline indicators. And so you can see if you look back just from historical, the darker color purple, um bar is what that threshold student count is. So you can see it's pretty low, but you can also see that like at North the number has gone lower each year. Um, which is really nice because our interventions and pre-interventions are working, right? Um, from a

072multi-tered perspective. Um, but we do have students that obviously trip those thresholds and then our alpha team uh at each building u meets with a team uh through CS and gets teacher input as well. and then they work at a problem solving and trying to um create interventions that can support those students. And then the the gray um uh graph indicates how many students that our alpha team actually met with or talked about in terms of problem solving. Obviously, it goes far beyond the 17. So we we've met all 17 because that's an expectation that we do have in our and in the district is that our CRS will hold an alpha meeting, problem solving meeting about every student that trips the threshold. Um and they far succeeded because they're doing a lot of different

073interventions and they're talking about a lot of different um needs of the students. So you can see that like at North um last year for the whole school year there was 17 students that tripped the alpha threshold and there was 100 I got to put my glass on 183 um alpha meeting problem solving meetings for the for 183 students. Um sometimes it's multiple we didn't give you that data um on the same student. We just gave you unique students um so you get a perspective on that. >> Are the 17 included in the 183? Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That's one of our requirements is that on top of that threshold, you need to do a problem solving meeting. Um and and they're always >> they're committed to that and it's working. Okay. And all

074that. So again, we wanted to take a step back and look like when you saw the little donut thing about like our overall interventions and and and then wanted to look at the thresholds. So the same data will be for south. You can see at south we're at 97.9. You can round up to obviously 98, but we're going to keep it that way. Um but amazing right like our team is engaging um and this is the first time we're looking at it that this way for our CS perspective. So again great credit to our leaders in the in the building. And then the next um slide goes back to the South High Alpha and you can see their numbers are a little higher which you look at the blue. Those are the ones that meet

075those the unique students that meet the three um areas that we're looking at. Um but you can also see it dip down last year but all of the 61 did have problem solving meetings and then you can see that 426 unique students also had problem solving meetings. So um again it kind of captures like their interventions and supports that they do. Um if you go back to again the visual of the bubble all those things that are happening they are documenting all those um like Hank was mentioning that is a task but it's it's a it's well worth it. Another example I'll give you is from an administrator. The the first time I get a parent phone call, the first thing I do is I look at a student's contacts and I see all their

076interventions that the team did. Um because that just gives me an idea of you know where are the interventions provided? What is the parent experiencing and how can we work together to to support that student? So it's super helpful um you know when you're trying to trying to look at that as a holistic approach. So and I think our last one is just questions on Hey Scott, can you go back to the prior prior uh slide? Is there any particular reason why uh 2021 it was so low >> uh in relation to the other years? >> Yeah, 20 21 was um just coming off of COVID. So I think you know we were hybrid [clears throat] we were in hybrid a little bit and so those years you're going to see some like obviously different

077data points. So, we put it on there, but we're not that concerned with it. And there was still a lot of engagement going on. And you can see the number at 11 is low because of the hybrid model of the students weren't fully engaged in the school physically like in the school. >> Attendance was much different. >> Yeah. >> Got it. >> That's a great question though. So, I'm glad you caught that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Great. Um, you know, each year, Tina reports on the indicators and measures that the state records. [clears throat] These are the indicators and measures, two of the key ones attached to the strategic plan, right? And they're core in our statement of work this year. So, you know, we only show one portion

078on this strategic plan of what the state has determined is important across all schools. This is what the board has determined is important in our schools. And I I just want to focus on what evidence this is that every adult in this organization is doing exactly what the board expects them to do and the high level of service that our staff is providing our students and you can hear from our students today that they're feeling the impact of that as well. So, you know, I I joked around with Gina about the 100%, but I you know, it is ser I mean, it is serious that these are the measures that are important to us and we are delivering on those things as a staff here for our kids, for our public. Like you can look

079at whatever report card that you see online, but this is the stuff that you as a board have decided that's mattered and we are delivering that for you. [clears throat] So, it's important to highlight that and celebrate that. I think it's important to point out or to thank the teachers because they're generally the first intervention and they're taking time out of their day to do that and that's obviously they've done it a lot more this past year. So that I think that's huge and we need to say thank you for that. >> I also love I love the bubble chart. I just think it's so intuitive but I think it also shows the relationship mapping that you guys right it's it's sometimes it's the nurse it's a fellow student it's I mean it's a lot

080of different things. It's like, you know, meeting kids in the way that they I think that that's so love the bubble. Very helpful. >> You know, I have a quick question. In the bubble chart where the student one was, was that like individual students coming to people they trust and trying to ask for help and trying to establish a plan themselves? Like was that student being self-led and taking that accountability? >> What we did is we took just the entire student population and took all the uh contact types or interventions that were recorded from our CER class. So any anytime a counselor, a social worker, a psychologist, [cough] you know, met with a student, that's what's captured in this. So in this case, it could be that um you know, academic wise, um it's it's

081based on the totality of like how many So we have different like literally those type of note types or contact types that our counselors put in. So if they do a one-on-one, they'll enter it a certain way into the system and then that's what's recorded into this kind of graphic. So we just did a total like how many academic interventions were recorded through CS last year. >> Got it. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> Yeah, that does make sense. Just real quick, I want to um highlight the work that CS and the teachers and everyone has done to get us to where we are now because this has been an ongoing um area of importance that the board has put forth for a number of years. Mike can attest to um and I really want

082to draw attention to what you said about the 100% because it it means a lot and it makes you know having students not fall through the cracks is a huge piece because even if it's just you know a base level intervention >> small things can help students from falling off the cliffs you know >> and and I think it's just incredible work from the whole team uh Scott and Gina thank you all the CS folks who are not watching this but uh [laughter] who deserve all the credit. Um yeah, it's it's it's really great to see. So I I I appreciate everything and I'm looking forward to seeing another 100% uh first second semester. >> All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you Scott and Gina and everybody who's doing the work. All right. Uh next

083topic of discussion is just an introduction to something that the board has been aware of is going on in the background for this year. This goes back to oh when I was hired um [laughter] a decade ago uh one of the topics was how could we revision teacher conferences? Could they become online? So uh we have tried a variety of different formats for teacher conferences over the years. Um, we've still struggled with it being the perfect fit for what teachers are looking for and what families are looking for. We've done two years of surveys to get data on that. We've been working with a committee of uh teachers and administrators to try to look at this to try to meet everybody's needs more equitably through the process. And we also are reflecting some challenges like

084we talked about. Is it just an email? Is it the communication more like what we need and just structural things that are happening different uh in society and how do we respond to that? So [snorts] uh this committee has worked really hard over the course of the year. I am bringing this proposal to you but it's on behalf of that larger uh committee tonight. Uh this was shared broadly with the staff and we're gathering feedback from them as well. Uh so this is just a proposal. Um, but you'll see here I mentioned earlier our state statement of work this year. Uh, and really in here we highlighted these things we were doing this year, but this is kind of what comes next, right? And the the line that isn't highlighted there is the one that's

085important here. Paired with appropriate interventions and supports. You heard some of those today, but those were really about our touch points uh with students, also reaching out to parents. But this is some a little bit of different approach here. And really this [clears throat] proposal is in response to that feedback. And what we're trying to do is like we gave you today like contacts and like Courtney kind of brought out like how many of those are quality contacts? How many of those are dialogue? How many of those are more than just an email? And what we're trying to do is recognize that work that's already ongoing and then amplify it further. to make sure that there is opportunities there for dialogue with parents and an expectation of dialogue when it needs to happen. And then

086of course recognizing recognizing our staff for their time when they have that dialogue. We also know we're transitioning into a world where we need to focus more on uh a student's pathway while they're with us and a pathway after they leave us and making sure that we're creating opportunities, intentional opportunities for parents to have those conversations with our adults in the building. Um and then we have as we've looked at attendance this year, we have noticed that Thanksgiving week is really bad. And when we started to look more into that structurally, we came to understand that only our district and district 58 have student attendance days the week of Thanksgiving. So, we have a structural problem with the fact that many of our families for the littles don't have attendance days and the bigs do.

087And families may be just like, well, hey high schoolers, you can get by and we're going to go that week. our attendance that week was was just really bad. So, [snorts] uh it's like we can either fight the structure or we can work inside of it, right? So, this proposal takes that into consideration as well. So, really the big overall changes here is that to make this all work, we're looking at all of our contact points with parents over the course of the year. So that's curriculum night. That is our October teacher conferences. It also factors in inservice days because we're looking at moving days of students attendance around so we can get no student attendance days during Thanksgiving week. So [clears throat] curriculum night becomes a new format of meet the teacher night. Same

088same night different experience. [cough] [clears throat] uh November has a a period of time, a shorter window for parent initiated conferences and we'll talk about what those mean in a little bit. We're also having these teacher initiated conferences that occur. So before it was just parent initiated conferences in October, we have these two different windows of communication occurring and then we need to move those inservice days around. So there's two at the beginning of the day of the year and then one gets shifted to November. not as much drinking from the fire hose in the first couple of days back for our staff. So, meet the teacher night, let's start there. So, this has traditionally been curriculum night, which is go through your kids schedule while we read you the syllabus, right? And uh we

089feel like that time together could be a little more more powerful. And what we hear from the parent surveys is the reason that they're coming in for curriculum night and for parent teacher conferences is to get to meet the adult that's spending so much time with their kids, right? And really showing up and us reading you the class rules or what we're going to focus on or grading policies or those kinds of things really doesn't help a parent get to know the adult that's spending all of this time with their their students with their children. So, uh, what every teacher would have is this is kind of the gist, right? There's more logistics and stuff we're going to work through behind this. Um, but we're not going to work through all those logistics unless we're

090sure like everybody thinks it's a good idea, right? Um, so on that night, the meet the teacher night, every this is the staff members perspective. So each teacher would have an hour of structured time. There'd be three 20 minute classroom presentations. It' really be 15 minutes of presentation, five minutes of a passing period, quote unquote passing period. The idea would be a teacher would get up at the beginning of that window of time and share a little bit about themselves, what they're passionate about, the courses they teach, like what they love to do in the classroom. So, there's a personal connection there with that teacher. Uh, families could go drop in and go in what order, whatever order they think is of most importance. This is especially important for families that have multiple kids in

091the school and might only uh you know they they got to pick and choose who they go and see, right? So uh there'll be a rotation of that and then the teacher will then move into like a large setting like the commons or the cafeteria or whatever where it'll be instruct unstructured where parents could just walk up and introduce themselves or hey nice to meet you or whatever. you know, my kid loves your class or hates your class or whatever that is for a quick exchange between those. Families can pick and choose what they want to do. So, do they want to go through six formal presentations? Do they want to just drop in and say hello? Do they, you know, want to go to two formals and the rest informal? They kind of choose

092their own adventure for that night for what they need. like a parent of students that has seniors, that might be a different experience than if they only have ninth graders, right? But they get to pick and choose what they want. If they want to just run in and say hi to one teacher and then head back out, great. We was happy to see them. So, uh, that's kind of the more the meet the teacher night. So in this there's a a lot of benefits that we see coming from from this change really uh as you're going to see in the other communications as well but really around flexibility moving into a a less traditional set and get model. >> Hank, can I ask you a question real quick? Can you go back to the the

093one hour structured one hour informal? >> Okay. So I'm trying to wrap my brain around how this is going to work. So say it's from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. >> Mhm. 7 to 8:00 p.m. teacher A is giving three 20-minute presentations. >> Yep. >> And then teacher A then moves to the commons. >> Yep. >> So that's only three opportunities for families to meet teacher A. >> Correct. >> In a formal setting. >> In the formal setting. Yep. >> And then is teacher B going to be doing the opposite where they have like a informal and then Yep. >> the second hour. >> Split it. >> Yep. And then we'll work logistically to try to figure out the the best way to stack teachers A and B. Okay. So, so really I mean there might

094not be if a if a freshman parent wants to meet every teacher, they might not be able to. >> Correct. They'll get six of the se if they want to sit through formal presentations, they'd get through six of the seven. >> Okay. >> Right. If they wanted to do informal, it'd be very easy to meet all seven. >> Sure. Uh I would imagine that families would do a blend and especially families that have multiple students in the building might prioritize which teachers they want to be in for the more formal presentations versus the informals. >> Sure. [cough] Okay. Thank you. And would your department have your [clears throat] departments given you ideas to saying like as a math department what we would like to see is one full grouping of teachers meeting in a formal

095or informal [clears throat] way so that you're reducing that one teacher being stuck in a classroom and now that conversation is just a one-on-one conversation because it's not allowing for others to voice. Yeah, we're gonna take all So, this the staff's all very interested in this new structure. >> Well, I don't know if everybody's interested in the new structure. The committee is interested in the new structure. We now have a feedback period right now where we're gathering feedback [clears throat] from the staff, but we would anticipate at the start of the school year some of our professional learning opportunities be talking through scenarios for that and how you can manage them and also how do you set up the expectations in that room? Like is it going to be three minutes of me talking and

096then a Q&A? Is it going to be three minutes of me talking and then just open conversation? Is it five minutes of me talking and then stations? Is it like there's any number of ways in which a teacher [clears throat] could structure that based on their comfort level and their content area. Uh but we'll give them some suggested models that they could follow. [clears throat] So, and we'll see what other questions come back logistically from the staff as well as we put this. >> Yeah. I mean, I know like we've we've tried moving to a more informal and it it almost made us want to go back to the structured because it's just it's so hard and I can't imagine as a at the high school level now I have 150 students or what have

097you and now [snorts] I'm only down to three 20 minute presentations within that hour When is that conversation going to happen? >> Are you meaning that you want one-on-one time with the >> No, one-on-one time is a very No, that's that's >> what do you think is missing? >> Well, I'm saying it's just a very it's just a very hard thing to do. That's why I think it's great to hear not from just the committee as you begin and then it's what are all of these side conversations as the teachers really start to think about it. It sounds it sounds great in theory. It really does because otherwise you are just you're going in, you're getting paper, this this teacher's talking at you and you're walking out of the room. So, it's just finding different

098models that have worked. Um, but when you're stuck in a classroom and you have one parent that's going to dominate that time and then all these other parents are like, man, I I waited to see this teacher and I waited to see this teacher. At the end of the day, I didn't get to talk to anybody. Yeah, that that goes along with and we've talked about that is there's going to have to be some coaching of families as well of like what to expect in this time, what it is and what it isn't. Like it isn't a one-on-one [clears throat] parent teacher conference, right? And helping parents understand that you could request one of those at any point, right? This is not the time for that. >> So that's why I think I kind of

099start off with the whole having a [clears throat] department. It was really nice because as a math department, we could all just say, "Here's our our bigger picture of what our expectations are because we all hold ourselves at the same level." So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> Well, and some of that could be even communicated in advance, right? So, there's a lot of different ways that that they could, >> but there's also like >> content areas and comfort all play into this as well, right? like what your PE department might want to do and share might be very different than your music department or your math department. >> Absolutely. I love that we're looking at it because something has to change. >> Yeah. Yeah. [clears throat] All right. Um so the calendar has to shift a

100little bit to make this happen next. Right. So [clears throat] if we're this is really to make uh Thanksgiving be a non-attendance week. uh we have some pieces that move. So like we move an inservice into [clears throat] Thanksgiving week that then makes it so that we make up for uh um we move a student attendance day into the first week. Move an inservice day into Thanksgiving week. That takes care of one of those Thanksgiving week days. Parent teacher conferences also counts as an attendance day. So that takes care of Monday and Tuesday of the teacher conference week. Also because of how our calendar works, we could stack those on the same day. So teachers only come in and work. And this is what their preference was was a marathon day on Monday and then

101teachers are off the rest of the week. Right? So they're going to come in in service in the morning, parent initiated teacher conferences in the evening. I'll talk a little bit about what those look like in a second. And then uh [clears throat] Tuesday through the rest of the week there's no staff here. There are no students here the entire week, right? So that fixes our attendance issue with with students. Gives staff a longer break before they head into the last couple of weeks of the semester. So that that's of interest to our staff as well, of course, right? Uh and allows us to take care of some of our responsibilities. Um uh a lot of our instructional leaders are excited to move that in service day from the beginning of the year later into

102the year when we're in the thick of the work and have an opportunity to stop and respond to the needs at that point of the year. Right now that doesn't happen until we come back uh after winter break. Okay. So you can see the other dates that shift then. So now instead of Friday, August 14th being another inservice day, it's a first day of student attendance, which for many years we did Friday is our first day. That's kind of the split shift day where kids go through, experience their schedules, meet their teachers, they go away for the weekend, and then we come back and kick off the next week. Um, we've done that more commonly during my time here than starting on a Monday or a different day. Um then meet the teacher night. We

103always do uh to make up for the time the teachers are here for meet the teacher night, we do a 1:30 dismissal the next day. That's contractual. Um then you see this window of teacher initiated conferences. So we have our first progress report that comes out in the fall and we will communicate to families like hey now teacher initiated conference window has opened. Teachers will begin starting reaching out to you if they need to talk to you about some things. Please work with them using whatever system they have to find a time. Teachers might have like appointment slots that you can sign up for or these are the windows or email me or however a teacher chooses to do that. We'll also do some PD professional learning with our staff as to how to manage

104that and make that not a ton of crazy work uh for teachers. [clears throat] Uh also in our current model there is no teacher conferences in second semester. Everything happens in first semester. So we're shifting our time around to open up. So there's eight hours right now for teacher conferences. We're going to do two hours of teacher initiated conferences first semester, four hours of parent initiated conferences Thanksgiving week and then two hours in second semester. So, we're adding another window of teacher conferences that don't currently exist and have never existed in district 99. >> Uh, can I ask a few questions about that last slide? Um, first question is what it what's the purpose of that gap on Monday the 23rd between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. >> for teachers to have a break? >>

105And do they want that break or do they want it done? >> No, they would like that break. And that's what we've traditionally done for some of these as well. It's also a spot where like some coaches [clears throat] might hold a practice. That's like the first day that fall sports starts. So you might see some stuff like that going on or activities. >> So that was my next question is that's generally traditionally when a lot of sport fall sports start on that Monday. So um that might overlap with many of the teachers are also coaching. So >> right. So I I would imagine some of them might hold like a first practice or that kind of thing in that window in between. >> Okay. And it'd be hard for parents to make conferences at

106one:00 when they're working. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Although we do have some that are in the morning now, but I mean that's after having a a version the night before, right? So we want to keep that in the window in which adults might >> and is is that the conference that's happening right before Thanksgiving is that enough time to affect any sort of change for the semester? >> We'll get there. >> Okay. Mhm. >> Great. >> Coming soon. [clears throat] >> All right. So, if we do this, this is kind of what we're doing right now. So, we're collecting uh from staff feedback. If the board today is like, yeah, let's keep, you know, straw poll is like, yeah, let's keep investigating this. We'll put together a similar uh feedback from families. Um just

107it's mostly like, what do you think is good about this? what don't you like about this? So, we can build out solutions and also FAQs because it could just be like not understanding the model. Um, then I would like to come back to the board later this month and get approval to if everything looks good, right? That we continue to move forward because then we need to go to the calendar committee. We have to get the official calendar amended, then the board has to approve the official calendar. So there's a lot of official steps we would have to do as well as communication about these changes. Then spring summer we start like all the logistical pieces, all the staff training pieces, all the family communication pieces and expectations to be ready for next year and

108then we would roll it out next year. I would also ask if we get to the point of board approval that we approve this for two years, right? That we don't just do it one year and say, "Oh, well that wasn't great." that we commit [clears throat] to two years so we get an opportunity to learn from the first year. Families know that like at least for two straight years there's no Thanksgiving attendance days. That would give families time to plan and staff and everything else and that we would evaluate it each of those years after. But just stick with it even if it crashes and burns this next fall that we get an opportunity to learn from it, improve it, and then take another shot at it the next year before we scrap it.

109I'm assuming it's going to go great, but just All right, so let's talk about a few of the the pieces in here. Uh I just want to get through that whole part and then let's talk about some of the key pieces inside of each of these features. So we talked a little bit about meet the teacher night. So teacher initiated conferences inside of there would be teachers identifying which families that they needed to talk to. And when we say talk to, we mean talk to. The committee is very uh strong on the idea of this not being a one-way email communication, but either a phone call, a video chat, or an in-person conversation about the student. Those conversations would be built around the idea of uh student isn't progressing as we expected or the student

110is making improvement. this is what we need need to do to keep it up or oh my god your kid has been so amazing I really need to let you know how amazing your kid has been right those are the kind of the three main themes we imagine would happen in those teacher initiated conferences what we have heard from teachers year-over-year is at parent teacher conferences they see a lot of parents of kids that are doing really well as you [clears throat] saw from the data earlier our kids are doing really well so I mean statistically you're going to have more conferences with students that are doing really well. Teachers would like to take that time and refocus it on the families that they really need to have an in-depth conversation with. And in our

111current structure, it's about seven minutes to have that conversation. It's not a lot of time to have a conversation about like how we got here, what's going on, what the plan is to move forward. So, uh, teachers would like to have more robust conversations around those three topics. Now, this is already in partnership with all of the interventions you just heard in the in the previous presentation, right? So, this is a different type and it's really focused on dialogue, right? Having a conversation which a lot of people are not as comfortable with as they used to be, right? There is a lot of emails going back and forth in our lives and text messages going back and forth, actual face toface or phone, you know, using your phone for something other than surfing the internet,

112right? And uh we're all very proficient with video chat today. Um getting to the point where we're actually talking about the student and what they need in a two-way communication rather than a flurry of one-way communications. is the focus of this. Also, structurally within our within our system, parents can reach out and request to do this at any point, right? Contractually, it's in the teachers contract. If a parent reaches out and wants to talk to a teacher within 24 hours, they need to work to find a mutually agreeable time to do so. So, parents already have the the opportunity at any point to do this. This [clears throat] is teachers saying we need some authority to be able to reach out to parent and say we need to have a conversation and that we build

113an expectation with families that if a teacher reaches out that that communica that conversation will happen, right? So that their time is really spent with parents that they really need to talk to, right? Um, plus we hear from a lot of parents that they come to teacher conferences because they feel like they'll be a bad parent if they don't, right? It's performative in some ways. And we want this to be a substantial conversation, not a I checked the box and I showed up, right? We want people's time to be spent both for the parent and the teacher uh where time can be most effectively spent. >> Um, then yes. So let's then there's this parent window where it's traditional you go online you schedule you pick it sign up. Uh we have some visions for

114what that could be and that's really focused on the pathway. So whether that is your student hasn't been performing well first semester. Yeah. At that point all of these other communications have already happened right it's not news to anybody come Thanksgiving week that a student has been struggling in the classroom. At that point, it's what comes next, right? So, are they continuing on to the next level, second semester? Are we getting them some additional kind of support? Like, what are we going to do about this? If it's a full year course as they go in, if it's a semester course, are they going on to the next level of that progression? Are they changing their electives? Um, how does that impact then the next year? Right? So it might be the next semester or the

115next year or the years down the road. So the thanks the Thanksgiving week parent initiated conferences start to change in focus around uh students pathway within their four years with us or once they leave us. So we envision putting out like a database of all of the educational institutions all of our teachers have gone to. So, as you heard, like think in the fall were around acceptance windows and application windows. And so, my kid got accepted to go to this school, right? [snorts] And now I want to talk to somebody who has an experience with that school. They could go into the database and be, you know, Mr. Woo Gazer. He went to University of or Iowa State. Iowa, I knew it was Iowa. Went to Iowa State. [laughter] my my student would love to

116go to the illustrious Iowa State. So, I'm going to schedule a conference with Mr. Woo Gazer and ask him what his experience was there, right? Um or for me, it was College of DuPage is where I started. My my students thinking of going to College of DuPage. I'd like to see what your experience was there. So, it might not even be a kid on my case load. I'm talking to a parent about my experience in that. or we have staff members that served in the military before they became teachers and this is what my kid is thinking of doing. I'd like to talk to somebody who has that experience. Or we have all kinds of people that were Scott also was a graphic designer before he moved into education. My kids thinking about going into

117graphic design well at Iowa State. I'm going to talk to to Mr. [clears throat] Woo Gazer. Right. So, we're thinking of how can we reinvision that time of the year because one of the strategic plan goals for the board is four-year plans with us and postsecary goals after that. We have this wealth of adults in the building that have had all of these life experiences that they can speak to that could really help a family as they're looking at do I go into a trade or do I go into the armed forces or do I go to this school or do I go right into the world of work or whatever that we have this cool opportunity that week of instead of parents thinking oh I just need to go meet with every teacher instead

118of strategically based on where my kid is and what they're doing now and what they're thinking of doing [clears throat] in the future. These are the couple of adults I want to check in with, >> right? Um and really and if I don't have any of that, enjoy your night off, mom and dad, right? And and you're good, right? But if you need it, here's all of your opportunities that are available to you. And of course, like if your kids's right on the bubble and they're heading in the last two weeks before finals and they got to touch base with the teacher about that, that's a great window of time to do that as well. Um, so we think that collectively through this uh it redivides our time in ways that are far more diverse

119but are targeted in the ways that we're hearing that teachers and families need this time. knowing that [clears throat] anytime a teacher needs to reach out, they reach out. We see it in our data. And anytime a parent needs to reach out, they can reach out and we will make time for that parent. These are the ones that are just like built in to the structure of the year. So I I totally appreciate what's happening here and I think we have to if we follow through with this we have to kind of come to this global kind of reanding of what our interventions look like in that it's not just this one touch point where the students or the parents get to come to the parent teacher conference >> which I think is huge you

120know and as Scott pointed out earlier obviously we're our interventions are are great right now but this sounds like it's even taking it one step further like hey we're asking the teachers to reach out earlier in semester [cough] instead of waiting for this parent initiated conference. >> Yeah. One of the challenges we hear from teachers not only of the families that they don't always see the families that they want to see, it's always like that's one date on the calendar in October, right? And depending on where you are in the in the course, like you might be an English teacher that's giving out a couple of formative assessments, but the big paper comes the third week of October. Well, I'm meeting with families and I haven't even had the big assignment come in yet. Right?

121So, they would I'm just, you know, I'm not saying all English. I'm just using this as an example, right? that teacher might find that the last week of October is the time where they really need to be connecting with families, not two weeks before, like I don't have enough yet to have that conversation. another teacher might in their class like end of September like they're they're getting their progress reports out and now immediately I need to start setting up phone calls with parents of students where oh early data is in and it's not looking good like we need to [laughter] get a plan together here of before it's too late to get get things moving right so it gives our teachers the autonomy and authority to determine when that outreach needs to happen in line

122with what's happening in the class rather than just some random date on the calendar. >> Yeah. And it might help with the teachers who have [clears throat] their their conference schedule is packed. >> Absolutely. >> Because some of the teachers they have a very full schedule and others don't. And so if those teachers can spread out the interventions a little bit earlier in the semester, that would be huge for them. >> But I think too like we do a great job with the strategic plan. And I think we have to talk about like the impact because I think >> to your point a lot of it is just behavior. The date comes up you're used to registering for the conferences. I just go I >> it's a lot of it's like why you know to

123your point I just go because I feel like as a engaged parent. So I mean I think it's that and saying you know teachers can't fit it all in. We're trying to prioritize. Think that's a really important part of the the messaging and probably the bigger change is for parents, right? Getting the ones to come that aren't coming and getting the ones that are used to coming >> like changing our howing it. >> Yeah. >> As parents. Yeah. >> Right. Where do you want to spend your time? Where will it be most effective? Like Yeah. You might not be able to sit through seven You won't be able to sit through seven teachers presentations that night. Who do you need to see? like who haven't like if I've already communicated with the teacher six times

124about like my student struggling in that class, I've already talked to that teacher, right? And okay, like I might just walk by and say, "Hey, I'm the one you've been talking to on the phone for the last three weeks, right? But I I might not need to sit through the classroom presentation because I already know what that teacher is about, right?" Um or depending on your time, like if you only had 30 minutes that like we assume every parent has that whole night to come sit through their kids' schedule, right? Um but if I only had 20 minutes to stop in and just I need to go see that one teacher and make that connection and then I I get out or if I can't at all that night, this helps reinforce that, hey parents,

125hey families, if you need to talk to a teacher, it's our culture. Reach out. make that connection, right? Don't, there's no waiting for a day. We're here for you. Um, so I think it, you know, and I think the more we get people in dialogue and talking, the better they'll get at it, the more they'll lean on it. They won't wait for, you know, this longer period. They, okay, I had a teacher. I had a conversation with this teacher. It was successful. Now I have a concern about this other class. I'm going to reach out and have a conversation with that teacher as well. Right? And it's about changing some of the culture about how we interact and dialogue about student success. We're already documenting all of these interventions, all these supports. A student's grade

126is updated in real time in the student information system. Like there is a wealth of information out there available to families that want to track student progress. This then gives us some real strategic tools of how to move that needle. The proposed changes to the parent teacher conferences was by the committee. Correct. >> Was the committee also responsible for proposing the changes to the calendar? >> It's all comprehensive. Yeah. Usually the calendar committee would work on that. If this all comes together, they would hand off to the calendar committee like, hey, the board's behind this, the administration's behind this, the committee's behind this calendar committee. Good luck. at all. >> And you said you're going to be surveying staff on the changes to the parent teacher conference. [clears throat] Are you also going to be

127surveying the staff on the changes to the proposed calendar? >> This it's a comprehensive proposal. >> It is. So it's a two question survey. What do you like kind of what don't you like? And uh then we'll sus all of that out. >> Can you go back to the timeline? >> Yeah. Screen, >> please. Oh, I think it's the other way towards the end. So can you can you just walk us through this from from today until >> Yeah. So this so from now until the end of the school year, right? So the way that I would see it working if the board tonight is in favor of us continuing to move forward would be we have our feedback window open for staff right now that tomorrow we would do our board communication of what

128the board discussed. We discussed this proposal. you know, here's the a short little two-minute video that explains how it works because we used AI to do that. Um, and then a link to this meeting where if somebody wanted to dive in and hear the whole discussion, they could. And uh some documents targeted to families uh that we've prepared that is really the outline of what we're talking about here and some FAQs that goes with it uh in text form. Uh, and then a link to fill out the same type of thing. What do you like? What do you have concerns about that we could go through and factor in? Then I would like to come back at the end of the month with what we've learned from that and maybe we're ready to say, yeah,

129like we can take care of all the concerns that were raised or uh oh, somebody raised something we haven't considered yet. like we're going to need a little more time, but somewhere between end of February and spring break, we probably need to know, are we moving forward with this so that we can get the calendar all adjusted and everything else. Families can know that the like we're coming back a day earlier, that they're going to have Thanksgiving week off, like all of those pieces so family calendars can get aligned uh and that we can then move forward. Traditionally, I mean, we're talking about changing this for the 26 27 school year. Um, so, and we post our calendars >> Two years in advance, >> they move. >> So, have we I mean, have we ever

130changed a calendar this late in the game before, have we? >> Yeah, we we've had years where the state legislature determines that we aren't in session election day and then have had to like in May change the calendar for the next year. and have had to negotiate with the teachers and send it out to families and sometimes it's been starting a day I think one year we did this we started a day earlier because we lost election day so um we we have at the last minute like as late as May changed the calendar for the next year actually my first year we were supposed to have three days in session Thanksgiving week we were supposed to have a day off before winter break. The elementary schools that were in session were in session only

131Monday and Tuesday were off on that Wednesday, but were in session the Friday before break. So to align our calendar, that's when I started talking a lot with the elementary schools. Like in April of that year, we adjusted to make our calendar more like the elementary calendars and then went to a two-day week in Thanksgiving. We're in session the day before winter break. So last minute change that year as well. >> So tonight you just want to hear are there like four board members who want to kill this idea? That's what I need to know. Yeah. >> So, >> question for sure. >> You talk about the uh feedback collection for the staff. >> What would be the timeline and the format for the feedback collection from the families? >> Same thing. We'd get it

132out probably tomorrow or later this week that this was presented at the board as a concept. Here's the supporting information. Here's a two question form just to qualitatively get from people. You know, I'm not looking for a thumbs up, thumbs down vote because we won't get the whole community to give us a thumb. I'm looking more for what have we considered, what haven't we, so we can have the best possible plan uh to bring to the board with the most questions answered, and then uh if we can work through those problems that are raised over the next couple of weeks, I'd come back in two weeks with or three weeks with, you know, here's where we're at. If not, it'd be the beginning of March. we come back and ask for approval at the end

133of March. It just depends on how how many issues are raised that might be really difficult to solve versus those that are just like clarifying questions. >> I have one question. Um if you go back to the other slide where you mentioned all the dates. Yeah. Yeah. This one. So I feel like all these dates and I think you said this too. Um and this is something that me and Roina have been talking about. Um but was um those are pivotal points in the fall calendar especially in the college and career. um but specifically colleges and applying to colleges and doing all those things. Is there a way that we can incorporate like the college and career center and the counseling office where they where parents and families have the opportunity to meet with the

134college and career center like Mrs. Green or some of the people your counselor where they can get information about how to apply, where do I apply or have general questions about financial aid and things like that. Like is there a way that we can kind of incorporate those to resources and kind of market that to some of our parents? I feel like a lot of our parents, they are kind of hesitant about calling. Um, and I just think that would be one way for us to even just market some of those resources that we offer. Is that something that has ever been considered or >> Yeah. And I would think that that uh that meet the teacher night or is an opportunity like if that's what you need like head to the college and career

135center, right? You know, if if it's I don't need to meet the teachers, I'm really focused. It's junior year or senior year and I'm really focused on this. Go spend your time there that night. >> Because counselors will be around, right? >> Right. >> Yeah. It makes it a lot more flexible. Right. You get to choose your own adventure that night as a family >> rather than just going through your student schedule. >> Yeah. And I I just feel like families having the option to go to the college and career center, go to their counselor and ask those questions early on in August or whether that be September. Um, and then another thing is you were talking about Thanksgiving week. I think that's a great idea. Um, I know for me personally, a lot of

136our teachers were structuring um, our tests actually on Friday >> and we're doing all the presentations on Friday. They were building out class time for the people that weren't going to be there um, Monday and Tuesday and said, "Okay, you people present today." And I think I just think that's a great idea. And even logistically like for families like if they're going out of town, it's a lot easier for easier for them to leave on Friday or Saturday than Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving or that's just how it felt this year. But I just think it's a great idea. >> No, those two instructional days we've heard from our teachers are really problematic because >> if you're trying to get ahead and 20% of your kids aren't there, you're going to have to retach for

137that 20% that were not there. >> Exactly. Right. Um, and as much as I would like to say just get your kids to school, that's a challenging message to send when the elementaryaries are out that week. Yeah. >> Right. So, there's just a structural challenge in the community that I can't solve from here. >> I would like to throw it out there that I would like the the teachers to have that week off too, but I understand we can't make enough days happen. I know. So, uh, the TE we did talk originally of the teachers of inservice Monday night, like giving them the day off on Monday and then doing uh, teacher institute on Tuesday and they we were like, it's a really long day to do them both on one day and they're like,

138we want the long day. Let's just do the one day and get another day off. So, >> it works in our contractual agreement with the teachers to do it that way. So, >> and that's the way a lot of school districts are going. Yeah. >> Right. Because you gota you got to get that time in. >> Um I just have the question with you have virtual for conferences. >> You is that something that you want virtual conferences versus in person? >> Yes. So in the schools that we've talked to uh that do teacher conferences like at this window of time they emphasized how important it was to be virtual because of the number of families that might be traveling for vacation and that uh they are virtual. We have tried to do conferences that are

139a blend in the past and they become problematic for teachers because a parent is there in person and they if the next one is virtual, they don't see that that other parent is waiting to get in and it gets hard for a teacher to manage that space. Like if it's all in person, they see the person waiting out there. If it's virtual, they know that like when our time ends, we're going to cut off this call. when it's a blend, it has been problematic when because we had a couple of years where like you as a family got to choose your own model for a night and it just logistically was really difficult to manage. So we feel like for the flexibility of families that are traveling it needs to be virtual and if it's

140virtual then it just needs to be virtual for everybody. Okay. Um, does anyone on the board have any strenuous objections to proceeding with further exploration of these proposed changes? >> Then I think we can direct Dr. They to continue exploring. >> We'll keep working. >> I appreciate all the work of the teachers and administrators that like this I am bringing you their proposal, right? Uh, but people have spent a lot of time on this to get to this point. So, thank you everybody. Thank you, [clears throat] >> Julie. Um, item six. Do we have any uh slips for public comment? >> No, sir, we do not. >> Okay. Before we can go into close session, I'm just going to open up for an opportunity for any board member to address any open items uh for

141new business. >> Another time. >> Yeah, that's you. >> Um, Dr. The could you walk us through um for for the public, there has been um conversations and rumors going around of a proposed student walk out in both of our buildings to for I think originally it was supposed to be Friday, but now I think it may be tomorrow. >> Um >> could you walk us through district policies on all of this? Sort of the district response. Um >> Sure. >> Just give just an overview for >> a general overview. Sure. So, um, and Courtney and Arwin, feel free to jump in at any point here because they're managing it from the the building level. Uh, we are hearing a variety of rumors that have spread nationwide about a variety of different walkout days uh,

142related to immigration enforcement uh, in the US. And, uh, we've seen some happen in neighboring schools over the last couple of weeks. Um >> we had a small one two weeks ago. Yeah. With a small number of students uh walking out. Uh it has grown to the point where the the rumors of a various number of days where this could occur. Uh have grown to the level that we felt like it was a responsible thing to do to communicate to families and to students about what our procedures are around walkouts. We've had a variety of walkouts over the years for a variety of different reasons, ranging the entire political spectrum of topics. Our response to those has uh always been consistent with when you're at school, you're expected to be at school. If you'd like

143to protest, we recommend you do it at a time when it doesn't disrupt the learning environment. Uh if you leave a classroom, there's student discipline for leaving a classroom. Um, if you leave the school, there's greater discipline for leaving the school building. If you leave the campus, there's greater discipline for leaving the campus. Regardless of what you do that for, whether you were fed up with your teacher or you have some political uh agenda that you would like to support through protest, uh, our consequences are the same, right? Uh, there is no punishment for protesting. The punishment is for leaving school and not participating in the educational environment. Right? We've been consistent with that for everybody uh for a very long time. These procedures predate me. Uh I think they were first put back into

144the district in 1990 when there was a walk out because South High took down a Christmas tree or North High did. I don't remember. One of the two schools, right? Was it South? >> It was South. [laughter] So uh so our district has a long history of student advocacy and student political involvement which at times to time has led to this. We would much more prefer greatly appreciate if students chose a time that didn't impact the school day. Right? Our primary responsibility here during the day is educating students and keeping them safe. Uh when they are in their normal bell schedules, in their normal routines where they're supposed to be, it is far easier for us to do that, right? Um if a student leaves the classroom to protest in the building or outside the

145building on campus, we will have to shift resources to make sure that people are safe, that people aren't coming onto campus, all of those kinds of things that go with it. We will dedicate as much of our resources we can to make sure all of that happens. However, it definitely stretches our resources differently than it would on a normal school day. We [snorts] cooperate with the village of Downer's Grove and the village uh Downers Grove police to share information that we're learning and to collaborate to make sure that they're working in close collaboration with us. I'm sure the police would prefer that not happen during the school day as well. Um, so the with every time this kind of communication goes out, we have a variety of dialogue and push back that happens of uh

146you shouldn't be punishing kids for protesting. We're not. We're punishing them because they left school. Like that's I mean in our student handbook it's by school code. You're not allowed to to just walk out of class, right? um it isn't about what topic they're protesting or you know their political leanings or any of those kinds of things. It's purely around maintaining a safe learning environment, right? And that's what this is all about. Um so we have been consistent with that for decades. We remain consistent with that if another uh walk out or political action occurs. uh we talk through it. We plan to do the best we can, but it definitely stretches our resources when students choose to do that during the school day. >> Can you tell us any more specifics about how we're

147stretching the resources? Are the village and the and the police department is aware of the walk out, right? >> Yeah. I I don't want to go into actually actual methods and those kinds of things, >> but the resources are being reallocated to the appropriate >> Yeah. We cooperate with the local authorities to, you know, obviously they're balancing other things in the community at that time as well, but we work very closely with them and they support us well. >> Okay. Yeah. I just want to make sure everybody's safe because it is happening and there are a good number of students that are participating. So, >> so >> we do our best, but we still like K if there's students still in their classrooms, right? Right. >> That's our number one priority is to supervise students

148that are in their classrooms. Um, so a student choosing to leave the building is definitely putting themselves at a higher level of risk, especially at times when there's protests going on where there could be counterprotests, um, than they would safely inside of our classrooms. >> And if they leave the campus, we will not leave the campus. Our staff will not leave the campus to follow them to wherever they're choosing to protest. >> Right. Yeah, there's definitely like a legality piece to making sure that we're keeping the students safe that are in our buildings and on our our campus. Um, and it's it's it's a priority to make sure that the students that are in our building and under our care are accounted for and taken care of. And um, and and I'm I'm I'd like

149to think the students who do participate understand the consequences of their actions. Uh I myself as a angsty student also protested and left class. That was the only detention I ever got. Was a little upset about it at the time. Um but there is an amount of um risk and sacrifice that comes with participating in uh protests and speech, right? You're giving up an amount of um comfort to do so. And I think any uh effective protest does that, right? Uh, so I think it's it might not feel great for our students and I I would agree. I' I'd if there was something I could do as an individual board member to not have them get a detention, uh, I'd be all for it. Um, >> yeah, we could plan the protest after school hours.

150[laughter] >> and we we and it's important. We can't pick sides, right? We we can't we can't say these these students protested for a rightful cause, so we're not going to give them a detention. We can't do that. Yeah. >> So we have to we have to have the same measures and consequences for every single student in every single occasion. >> Absolutely. >> It's got to be a viewpoint neutral and like we said consistent, right? We we >> um >> but again paramount to safety of of the students, right? >> But hopefully if our principles see a large group of students leaving, then you you will be in contact with the village. So that while the students are no longer in our care on our property, we we want to know that there's that communication

151so that there is someone in the public domain who's looking out for them on the other side. >> That will be happening kind of resource officers to a police department in our building. Um all of the friends that we're aware of the police department is aware of. So our school resource officer will be very closely monitoring the school resource officer information as it's happening. >> I do want to mention appreciate the school communication outward, right? I mean, they're also letting parents know so parents can talk to their children about >> whatever they're planning and, you know, it's really parents should be doing that if they're aware of where their children are if they're so I I think that was good on our part to be very proactive and clear and you know, whether that's what

152people want to hear or not, that is more information is >> rarely can I give people what they want to hear. >> Yeah. >> Any other thoughts or comments? Okay. And item number seven, um, can I get a motion to go into close session for open meetings act exception number two regarding collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes and employees. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Cara moves. Mike seconds. >> Thank you. Cara Casten >> I. >> Michael Riskey. >> I. Katie Courtney. >> I >> Ken Dawson. >> Hi. >> Chris Espinosa. >> Hi. >> April Fein. >> Hi. >> Don Rener. >> I. Motion carries. Um for the members of the public, uh the only item that will

153be uh uh undertaken once we come out of close session will be to adjourn. Let's uh take a brief break and we'll uh re uh convene for close session. Thank you. Yep. Have a good one.