001I hereby call to order this committee of the whole meeting for Monday, September 8th, 2025. The time is 8:03 a.m. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Aaron Stone. >> Kristen Castro >> here. >> Allison Pless >> here. >> Amy Paling >> here. >> Katie Hilton >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. Ann Hart >> here. >> I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the August 11th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. I move to approve the minutes of the August 11th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. May I have a second? >> Second. >> The motion has been made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, or omissions to the minutes? Okay, seeing none, may I have a roll call vote? >> Annne
002Hart, >> yes. >> Kristen Dcastro, >> yes. Yes. Alison Pless. >> Yes. >> Amy Paling. >> Yes. >> Katie Hilton. >> Yes. >> Judy Bullet. >> Yes. >> Thank you. All right. We will start this morning's discussion with the facility development committee. I will turn it over to Mrs. Diccastro. >> Thank you. Mr. Boltzer will provide a review of the summer 2026 construction project. >> All right. Good morning. Um, so this uh just a couple of of brief updates. Nothing really financial this month. Um but we just wanted to share with the board a couple of of quick things. Um one is more just timeline. So when we kind of look at a I'm looking at a calendar now. So you know both of our meetings with the board this month are are earlier than
003than we typically see. And then when we spin ahead to October um you know both of those meetings are near the end of the month. So we do have a fair amount of time between today and when things really start happening in October. The kind of current timeline is they're getting really close to wrapping up all the design documents. Um current plan is still to go out to bid, submit um that publicly in early October. Uh exact date still to be determined. And then we would be out for a few be out to bid for a few weeks. Then we would uh open those bids late late October. Um meaning that by the time we open and uh Nicholas would have their chance to do uh you know scope review on each of the bids,
004we'd be looking at um discussion and potential board approval in the month of November. Um so that's kind of our timeline. Um certainly I expect to have um at least some brief level information at our October committee the whole meeting. um even though we may be in the middle of the bidding period at that point um just for the board to consider. The other thing is uh since last since our last meeting um Dr. Koscoli and myself and um Tony with along with a couple of our engineer engineers and people from our design team met with the village just to kind of review the overall project. We always um review our projects with the village. Um you know the I think the conversation this time was a little more extensive compared to prior years just
005because we're considering stuff that's outside the building and in you know near our street front. So, um I thought it was a good conversation um to, you know, get the village's perspective, consider many alternatives, uh get some feedback on things. And so, based upon that, we're going to continue to work with the village um and and see where things go as far as um you know, what all of our options are. And that way um come you know November when the board might actually would actually have to vote and make things official um we can you know have a lot of information for the board about what options are out there. Um so I thought it was a good meeting. Um I know that our civil engineer still still needs to meet with the Metropolitan
006Water Reclamation District. uh given the size of it, that does appear to be a requirement. If if it were to stay at that size, we'd have to um install some underground water storage. Um so, they would still likely be having um that meeting. And so I'm happy to answer any questions, but you know, I just want to let the board know we, you know, we're kind of going through all the different iterations and um we'll certainly when before the at a time before the board would have to vote, we would share what we feel all the relevant options are to the board. Do you have anything else, Car? >> Uh no, I Well, I guess I would just add that uh the conversation with the village was really productive. We're grateful for their partnership. Ultimately,
007um we're looking for some alternatives to see if there's some options that could be considered that wouldn't require quite an extensive um underground water kind of offset. So, um so we'll continue to work on that and we'll bring forward some additional information. Um just know that that we're working to try and make sure that we're moving forward with the the option that gives us the safety and that we feel like we need along with um being conscious of the taxpayer dollars that are put toward this project. So >> board members, any other questions? >> Uh yes. Um do is is it our responsibility the financial responsibility for the the water sort of the work related to the water, not >> the village and not Yeah, that's us. Yeah, that would be us because it would
008be the result of a project that we're trying to to take on to improve the the front's arrival and dismissal kind of procedures and um the the land that allows for that. Um so one of the things we were thinking about is obviously the playfields has a huge underground water offset. Um so we were inquiring about whether or not that would be something that could be considered. There's more research that's needed there. Um, but then also looking at the traffic flow on Locust and if improvements could be made there. There may be adjustments that could be made to our project to minimize the um hard surface that we're trying that we're we feel like we need to put in in order to improve safety and security. If we can minimize the hard surface and leave
009more green grass, then there's not the need for the offset. Thanks. Okay, see no further questions. Um, thanks for the update. We definitely appreciate the careful management of the bid timeline. So, thank you and we'll look forward to hearing more. At this time, um, we do not have any items under school finance. So, we will move on to strategy. Miss Stone is not here this morning, so we will turn it over to Dr. Krem School and Kelly Jackson. >> Thank you. We are pleased to uh present to the board and our community for final review our action steps for this school year. The board will remember that this is our final year of our five-year strategic plan. We're really proud to report that we've accomplished a whole lot with regard to our goals and our
010um action steps each year. Still, uh there's more work to do and there's a couple of areas that we're really focused on this year. So, we have taken our action steps and spent some time um since last year in our annual report to the board um to refine what work we will pursue this year. Um we spent some time over the summer working on that um and this fall and most recently with our district strategic advisory team. So, we're really grateful for all of the input and um we're excited to share with you our focus areas for this year. Kelly, >> thanks. Um, as uh Dr. Kiscolo mentioned, we had our last uh or our first DESAT meeting of the year with our district strategic advisory team last Thursday where we presented these and gathered
011some feedback and now we are ready to um share our action steps out with you um for this year for final review. Um so I am going to start with um student achievement and growth as a reminder that um goal area is to ensure a differentiated education that provides a strong foundation of rigorous academic learning. And so we have uh developed several action steps this year and some of them are familiar to you. So the first one um is really uh a carryover from all five years of our plan where we analyze student data in collaborative teams after each benchmark period. And you'll see our various um data sources that we analyze um just to make adjustments to tier one to identify students who might u need some extra supports either to our tier 2
012or tier three more intensive interventions or enrichment in English language arts. and uh math. And as a reminder, we can find um information about our progress there on our uh strategic plan dashboard and through um or our many reports throughout the year. And so um as we do this again this year, you'll you'll get lots of reports from our team um about the progress that's made and we've had lots of celebrations in this area. So it's exciting to be in this fifth year. Um the second uh action step is introduce foundational principles of universal design for learning or UDL uh to support planning and use of differentiation at the tier one level. And as a reminder, tier one is just what all students get in the classroom. So it this is English language arts and
013math, but it's also science and social studies and world languages and any any subject area that's taught really. Um and universal design principles include planning and designing instruction. Um that really is before the differentiation takes place. So it's looking at the instruction and and tearing it up and then implementing assessments um to use to then differentiate as a response to the plans you put in place. Um we're really excited to bring some consultants in to talk about this with our staff and to give them some tools to um approach differentiation and planning um with this mindset. Uh the third action step is to support implementation and professional learning for recently adopted curricula. So we are excited that we are in year two or um further for many of our new curriculum um resources. So at
014um kindergarten through fourth grade, you'll remember that we recently implemented bridges and so we're in our second year of that implementation and number corner is in its third year. Um you fly um foundational skills is in its second year at kindergarten through 2 grade and um fifth through 8th grade social studies is in its first year um but second year and fifth grade. So um we will be supporting that implementation throughout the year. Um and then number four kind of along with that we are in our second year of our English language arts um evaluation and we are in the process of piloting um multiple curricula. There's um two specific ones at kindergarten through fifth and then at sixth grade they are piloting two and seventh and eighth grade they are piloting too. um and
015many of them overlap throughout those grades, but um we're excited to get results from that pilot and hopefully make a recommendation after winter break this year. Um expanding the research or the reach of instructional coaching is our next action step. And so we are looking to um just build on the successes of last year and um expand the reach through um a lot of professional develop development that we're doing with our coaches and our principal teams um but to get our coaches really entrenched in in the work at the building level this year. Then um six is to provide goal teachers with goal setting templates and specific examples. Um we've done a lot of work with goal setting and we continue to measure that. Um but we are looking to get some feedback from our
016teachers and in order to really embed this practice as we move forward. Um so it's kind of that last level of this goal setting um work that we've done so that we can set everybody on their way and just expect that this moves forward. Um implement and evaluate the effectiveness of our schedule at 58. So, we will be continuing to gather feedback on that and make recommendations for any next steps. Um, uh, number eight is part of that where we are, uh, we've curated and we've begun to implement some tier one executive functioning lessons for all students during that home room time. Um, and so we'll be gathering feedback on that and making adjustments throughout the year. And finally, um, we've started some work with our building MTSS teams. If you remember five years ago,
017one of our goals areas was to create MTSS building teams. And now we are looking at refining um the systems that are there and taking a deep dive into um those systems um with some consultant support to really um improve our practices and and create some consistency along the way. Going to turn it over to Kristen Swatson. >> So goal two is supportive community. So, while Kelly really just talked a lot about sort of the academic achievement for our students, goal two is really the rest of the student. So, it's really between the two goals addressing the whole child here in our buildings. Um, in in terms of our action steps, um, we have we have some that are continuing and some that are really building on the work that we've been doing over the
018past five years. So, the first is to implement an expanded scope and sequence for Wayfinder curriculum in grades five through eight using our new home room structure. So, we are very excited. We had a group that worked this summer in order to develop lessons for those times to really help improve and and really um implement our social emotional learnings for our fifth through 8th grade students. And we have now a curriculum, we have a scope and sequence, we have lessons. So, we're really excited about the work that we're doing with students in this area. The second is to pilot a reporting tool for SEAL skill development um for our K4 students. So we've been doing everyday speech with those students. We've been implementing the curriculum. Now we're looking at how do we how do we
019report out for parents so they know how students are doing in this important social emotional development. So this fall is going to be a pilot program for that to look at see what information we need to collect and how we can communicate with parents. And then the goal is to implement that reporting tool at spring conferences. The next is to integrate our monthly themes of inclusion and belonging into districtwide communications and activities for staff, students, and families. Our focus is continues to be on belonging. Um that isn't that is a need. Um we definitely want to continue to work on that at our 58 level. We still see that our students at the 58 level don't necessarily feel that sense of belonging that we want them to. And so we're trying to change some of
020the things we're doing. One is implementing the the expanded home room time to give those students more of a sense of belonging. We're going to continue to work on our themes and implementing that across the district so that we can continue to work with our students in that area. Um go or action step four is to optimize our current building MTSS team systems and responses in developing and aligning our tier one, tier 2, and tier threeCL practices. And this is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our programming, improve how quickly we can identify students who need services, and address how we're allocating our resources. As Kelly noted, we are using um a consultant to help us with some of this. We're very excited. We've already had our first meeting with our MTSS teams from
021our buildings with the consultant to really look at how are we how are we catching those children quickly and assigning interventions to students right away so that we can really intervene quickly and effectively so that that we don't have students that struggle for a long time or sort of fly under the radar. So the work is is very exciting. We we're really liking the work with our consultant and looking forward to what we can do with this. Um the next one is to provide training in CHAMPS and restorative practices by identifying cohorts for targeted system for classroom culture and management. Champs is a classroom uh system of of classroom management. It builds a lot off of our work with safe and civil schools in the foundations program. So that really captured a lot of the
022common areas of the building. the cafeteria, the hallways, the bathrooms. Champs now moves many of the same principles into individual classrooms, but sets up a system for students that that gives them information about how they need to behave and it uses a common language across all of the classrooms so that teachers are are really consistent in how they're how they're sharing expectations with students. restorative practices at the 58 level is really how do we set up a system um that doesn't focus so much on sort of punitive discipline but really about how do we bring children back into the fold when things are going ary if they're struggling? How do we help them become regain that sense of belonging with that classroom? And we're we've we've done some work with restorative practices in the past.
023We did a little bit right before COVID and then COVID hit and it sort of derailed that. So, we're very excited to send groups of teachers from each of our buildings out to get that training and to continue to bring that practice sort of building wide as opposed to just um social workers. Most of our social workers have had restorative practices training and now we're looking to bring it more to the classroom settings. Um the next one is to research and evaluate existing and available mental health and seal screeners to identify needs and propose a selection for the 2627 school year. Uh the Illinois State Board of Education has required starting in the 2728 school year that we screen all students for mental health issues. Um we are we are going to spend some time
024this year really investigating and diving into what those options are. Our hope is to identify something for next year. It may be that that we depending on what we find, we may need a little bit more time, but we do want to make sure that we're responsive to that. But we also want to find a tool that is going to provide our teachers and our administrators information that is actionable within the classrooms so that we're not just screening for to fulfill a requirement. And then the last one is to task a student advisory group at each school to engage in problem solving, increasing the sense of belonging and idea generation with support of staff leadership. This is another way that we really want to try and work on bringing student voice into that sense of
025belonging to try and capture the the great information and great ideas that our students have in order to to really share how can we help other children feel more a sense of belonging? how can we help them want to come to school? So, we're excited about this one, too. We want that student voice and to get that information. >> And just one note, um if you see the asterisks after the different action steps, those are where we have embedded um the recommendations from the CRC um based on our report uh or report that we gave last month at the board meeting. >> I will turn it over to Heather. >> Great. Goal three focuses on the adults that work in our schools, their needs, their growth, and their learning. Action steps one through five are
026continuing action steps. I just want to highlight number five. I think um we've made some real growth in this area, which is focusing in on reviewing the data we collect either what was the five essentials and now CSCI um both at the school level but also at the district level. So, we come together several times throughout the year at the district level, talk about patterns, um, trends that we're seeing at the district level, and then principles and school administrators take that information with their teams back to their schools to look to see how is that impacting their school individually. And I think that has really um been a nice evolution over the course of the five years to see how we can not only evaluate it at our level, but then also what is each
027school needing as a result of this information. And so knowing that that's continuing this year, I think is is good for our our staff, but also our students ultimately. Action step six is um looking at how we continue to provide adult learning on the different cultures um that our students have and bring into our schools. And so we're looking at being very intentional on institute days to provide some learning opportunities for our staff in those areas. Number seven is looking at our onboarding process for new staff. So at um you may recall hearing in August we do three days for our new teachers that we hire. We do that at the district level. Each department takes that and then essentially we hand it off to our building principles to meet with our new staff very
028regularly, monthly if not more often to talk about topics that are relevant as they're learning the school culture. And so we want to make sure that what's happening within each school is um aligned, not necessarily locked up, but aligned so that we're not missing anything. And so this is a way for our building administrators to take a look at what each school is doing and making sure that it's meeting the needs across the district and we're being fairly consistent, shoring up our onboarding practices essentially. Number eight is really um continuing to look at staff attendance. We had a good discussion at DESAT last week about how to address this. So those of you that have been with us for a couple years now on the board know that we continue to talk about staff attendance
029and where we fall relative to the state but also to our own progress. So we look at teacher attendance, certified staff and then non-certified staff attendance as part of our KPIs uh for the strategic plan. We have not made much progress in this area to be very um transparent about that. We had hoped that some of the goal areas that we were in action steps that we were focusing in on might have a positive impact on this specific KPI and we just haven't seen that result. And so um this year uh we plan to make it more make our staff more aware of where they themselves are falling but where we are also falling as a group and um some more regular feedback about that. We're not exactly sure how that's going to look and
030feel exactly at this moment, but we know awareness and then taking some direct action steps towards that is our plan and you'll hear more about that when I update goal three later this fall. And then action step nine is a continuation as well from our DEIB task force that started about three years ago. These were some outcomes from the task force and we will work to implement these in the coming school year. takes us to Mr. Deonte. Goal four. >> Goal four, family engagement. As a reminder, we're strengthening partnerships by connecting, collaborating, and communicating with families and communities to advance teaching and learning. So, we have our six action steps here. Some are ongoing from last year. They may sound familiar, others are new. First one being to expand outreach to intergenerational hearing adults of
031current students, community members without current students, alumni and local organizations to strengthen connections, partnerships and support. So this is recognition of the fact that we have a variety of constituents and people that have a vested interest in our schools and uh reaching out to them to see how we could partner. um everything from uh alumni which historically uh an elementary school district may not maintain those connections. High schools pros do a really good job of that, but we'll see what we can do to to keep that connection going. um to just adults in the community. Uh we have Mather's Place and a few other maybe um senior kind of groups that may want to come in and connect with our kids and we would welcome them in and um now is the time to do
032that, not when it's perceived that we want something from them. Um so they uh reaching out to those groups to see how we can connect them. And this could also just be uh looking at what we're currently doing and then trying to apply that uh throughout our schools. So we have maybe let's just say we have one elementary that's really good at connecting with our grandparents. Well, what are they doing and can that be replicated throughout the district? Action step number two, engage and inform families through multiple diverse channels. Uh this one we have talked about before. So, uh, we want to make sure that we're, uh, sending out our information in all the different ways that people receive it, uh, including attending to maybe what, uh, that particular generation is accustomed to. So, um,
033we've talked a little bit about like postcards and, uh, fridge type stuff to put up on there that I think a lot of people, uh, miss that and and it's not always the social feed that and that people like to get their information, uh, in that way. Number three, create guidance documents for the use of artificial intelligence by teachers, students, parents uh to support student learning. So, this work has begun. We had a great workshop that I uh talked to you about uh that was upcoming. Um it has since happened on August 15th, a good cross-section of of our various positions. We had a handful of parents. We had a handful of students and everybody worked and we had an outside facilitator who was fabulous. And uh those documents are uh are done. Uh I'm
034just waiting a final review from the consultant to make sure that we didn't miss anything. And then we'll publish those out uh and and give some pretty good clarity to all those different groups on how and when and AI could or should be used and that way it's just not this confusion. Uh and then that same facilitator, just so that the board is aware, uh she did such a great job. We're bringing her back for uh the institute day in October as well as the one in February. I think our Kelly Jackson agrees uh as well as some of the people on her team and everybody that saw her that she needs to come back and uh in front of the rest of our faculty and staff, which is so we we did. We signed
035a contract for her to return. Uh the uh next one uh this work uh had already begun at the beginning of the school year. Define, educate and communicate a clear philosophy for the use of technology at school to support teaching and learning. So these are the documents that you may have seen that uh refer to active learning, active use, and passive learning, passive use. So, uh, needing to simplify, uh, less jargon, language that we can all understand, all, uh, kind of wrap our head around both if you're internal to D39 and our parents, um, just in the way that best, uh, best use of technology with really strong instructional practices and and really where that shines. So, that's what those documents were for. Um, so those have been published, have been shared. Um, I think
036it achieved uh the goal that we were trying to achieve and I believe we're talking uh or you are discussing in a little bit. So, if more information is needed on that, feel free to ask at that time. Number five, refine and implement programming to welcome new to district 39 students and families throughout the school year. So, our PTAs always do a great job of this. We have again pockets potentially happening in schools. So, taking a look at what's existing, how we're welcoming people in, um, onboarding for families, if you will, and just making sure that our families feel welcome when they join our system, wherever that happens to be. It's not always kindergarten. So, um, some of our kids enter our system at a variety of different levels. So, we just want to look
037at that and, uh, make adjustments if needed. And finally, uh, design. And this is a one to carry over from last year. Design and prepare uh to launch for next school year transition supports for incoming seventh grade uh students at Wilmet Junior High School. So we had done a lot of work with Highest Highest um everything from the Highest Hangouts to you name it. They uh there was a lot of work done. We reported on that um through DESAT. Uh now it's time to turn our attention. We just it was an ongoing uh action step from previous years. So, what can we do at the junior high uh to kind of replicate the successes that High Crust had but have their own potential spin on that? Things like getting kids and parents into the building
038uh earlier than than the fall, those kind of things. And at this point, I am turning it over to Corey. All right, goal five is stewardship of resources. Uh so when we look at the five action steps um the first three mirror what we've uh included in in all the prior years um things that just really are a core part of goal five and and would continue to have them in there. The bottom two are newer ones uh for for this current year. So, um, at some point this year, probably in the second half, we'll take a look at all these non-traditional classroom spaces that we have all over our our six schools. Um, one of the things that I I've seen, I know others have too, is when you when you walk throughout the
039buildings, you know, I think most people are familiar with our, you know, traditional classroom setup and and we've talked about, you know, the number of sections and at each building at different grade levels. One thing we probably haven't talked much about is how some of these small offices or um small spaces have been used that they exist all over these buildings. And so we're just looking to you know kind of share that information with the board and the community. Um so that what I'm thinking is potentially a presentation um where I would be a part of it but along with with some of the principles and we would highlight and talk about what those what those other small spaces are used and and how extensively they're used um throughout the district. um be uh from
040just the concept of stewardship of resources and our facilities and and leading into our next fiveyear cycle. We felt like this would could be something that was uh was really valuable. And the last item is just reviewing uh a sustainability audit and and what work has been accomplished from that audit. Um that was done several years ago. Um, so we're we're kind of reviewing that and thought it would be a good time to just kind of share what's out there. You know, this is one of those areas where um there probably regardless of what financial position an organization's in, there's probably always more potential options out there than there are funds to um, you know, implement projects. So, I think it'd be nice to take a look at all the things that D39 has done,
041but also what, you know, future options might be out there that we could consider, particularly as we kind of start to look ahead at that next 5 to 10 year window for projects and operational considerations. So, >> great. And just a reminder, uh we do continually update the strategic plan dashboard um that's available on our website. Um but uh all of our updates from uh last spring or June um have been done and completed. So we will um start to update this year as we make progress with that. Um are there any questions or comments? Board members, any questions, comments? Um >> did you Miss Berlin? Go ahead. >> Go ahead. Um, I just have one I and it it's more about it might be more about capital improvements than it is about strategic plan.
042I'm not really sure, but it's kind of part of that audit of what we've done and what we haven't. Since I came on the board, I I've heard many times that that and with great pride that the district has succeeded in uh air conditioning all of the teaching spaces, learning spaces. Will that audit include kind of a a listing or can that audit include a listing of the spaces that are not yet airond conditioned that might need attention in the future? And I have to be honest, I'm thinking about I was in the cafeteria when there were probably a hundred elementary school students and it must have been 100 degrees in there. And so I do not know if that's the case in all the schools. Can we kind of figure out what there might
043still be next steps that would be appropriate and safer or a safety issue as well? >> Yeah, we um >> I don't know when that happens. >> Yeah. Now, I don't know if it would necessarily fall into that last bullet point, but we could certainly at any point during this year um weave into our facilities um committee meeting have an agenda item where we just go back and now that we've completed an extensive amount of air conditioning projects over many years, review where um where we are. You know, one of the goals was every classroom, every space, as I mentioned, and I think it's a bullet point for all these non-traditional. That was one of the more tedious parts for the design team was as we were doing these projects working their way through to
044make sure, hey, we have two offices here and then in this hallway corridor there's another cl like sometimes there's one office, sometimes it's a cluster of four or five. like making sure that each one of those was covered because many times it's a staff member who's in there the mo majority of the time but then they also might see one or two or three students. And so just like capturing that um off the top of my head, the the most likely thing that will come of that report to the board is um places where our staff and students are regularly at that is those are air conditioned and then we have some large spaces at every building. Everybody's got some large spaces that are air conditioned. Then on the other hand, we've got a few
045that are not. that's the most likely outcome, but that we can certainly do that at any point this year. Just to update everyone. >> Yeah, I I think actually Judy, there's two things that your question leads me to think about. Um, one is as Corey mentioned under bullet point 4, as we study our non-traditional classroom spaces within our buildings, it might be nice to just if if the board is interested, we can add a column to that study that would identify whether or not that non-traditional space is aironditioned. Um, so that would be easy enough I think to fold into that study. But the other thing that is a little more historical, Judy, from your time here on the board is prior to our focus toward classroom spaces, we had extensive conversations. The board had
046invested quite a bit in large space air conditioning at every building um with the idea that instead of classroom spaces we would air condition kind of break spaces um large space air conditioning. Um so in every school uh the board invested in a few spaces that were large space air conditioning. Not the same in every school but at every school there are two to three large space air conditioning um areas. Um, so what we can do is bring back that report so you can see kind of what that looks like across the district. That would be easy enough to just again bring back um and I can share that with the board. Our most recent large space air conditioning kind of summary report so you can see that um because I think that's really what
047you're getting at is now that we have air conditioning in our classrooms, are we turning our attention back to large space air conditioning? Um, I'll say that historically that wasn't the board's intention, but that doesn't mean that as we continue to progress and evaluate it might be something we now as kind of the next step on the horizon. So, >> well, and certainly having uh educational spaces, teaching spaces as a first priority made sense. If we're now five or 10 years down the road, yeah, are there some things that we still can and should be doing? >> It's a great question. That's a great question. So, I will share the large space air conditioning report with the board um so that you have that just whatever was our most recent one. It's a now a
048couple years back because it was before we started launching into our classroom air conditioning. Um but we'll share that and then we can certainly fold into the study of the non-traditional classroom spaces within each building just an identifier of is that space air conditioned or not. >> Good. Okay, great question. Thank you, >> Miss Pathless. >> Okay, I would just first of all just like to say this is so much work both that you've already done and that you have to do for the next year. Um, and it's super exciting. Um, in particular, I just was wondering about the goal setting template. Um, that seems like a super helpful tool for everybody to use. Is it going to be the same K through eight or I mean I probably not, but >> yeah. So um
049we are in the for leading up to this we've had a lot of sessions at institute days and just PD on how to goal set and so um and we've had a lot of success with that and but I think we have a lot of teachers who do it their own way or may need certain individual things. So, what we're doing is we're gathering input at our first um our first grade level and department meeting from the teachers themselves to say, "Okay, so where are you and what do you need?" And then um developing templates and and resources to help them. So, it may be different. It may be the same. It just depends on what they need. >> Yeah, it just seems like it's been such an effective tool for kids that I'm That's
050exciting. Um kind of in the same vein to um for um Dr. Swanson just the um the reporting tool for skill development that do how are you guys going to go about that? Are you going to use teachers to try to help? We'll >> let Kelly respond to that. She's been working with the committee on that. Yeah, this has been something that the committee has been working on for the past couple of years and um so it's it's really a tool that we want to um implement at conferences and it's um a tool that has offers they're like I can statements that um are at each grade level and the students respond to it and then the teachers also respond to it. So then it gives a a conversation point for teachers to have with
051uh families at conference time. So it's not like part of the report card. It's more of a discussion. >> Exactly. Exactly. And then there can be I mean there already we do behaviors that promote learning on the report card and oftentimes teachers will comment on elements of this. Um but um we're going to take a look at that behaviors that promote learning and if we can weave some of that in or um you know adjust so that we get a full kind of round reporting we'll do that as well. Yeah, I think that's super helpful just to kind of elevate that as something that parents >> know about and kids know about and be really helpful. >> For sure. Okay, last one. Sorry. Um, and this one was for Tony and I would just say
052that I love the idea of the intergenerational and the alumni stuff. I think that's super cool. I can remember on Instagram back in the spring where they had some newer seniors or Loyola seniors come back to Harper and their little fourth grade t-shirts and stuff and I thought that was super cool. I know as a I have a junior. I'm sure he would be super pumped to go back to Central and >> where is you know >> we had a group visit the junior high recently as well and it's amazing the connections that people have not just with their high school when they graduate but the fond memories they have with us and they graduate >> from the junior high um and a lot of focus is there but everybody remembers their elementary school that
053they attend and their teachers. So, you know, if we can keep that connection alive and it could just be as simple as maintaining emails, maintaining contacts and um nutrier uh I know Leo has mentioned this, Nutrier has a day where people come and visit. Could we uh do something the day before and pe maybe someone's already in town, let's say, and could we have our own annual kind of visit to the schools or these are I mean that we're we've only started with the action step, but there's already some ideas being generated of how we could help that and facilitate it to keep that connection. >> I just thought that was really cool. Yeah, it was a great story with >> any other board members. Okay. Um, so I will just say thank you. I
054love so many aspects of this plan. One of them being, you know, that we set this the five-year plan, goals, direction and just how frequently we are coming back and um those action steps and the everything is evolving and we're, you know, changing as as need be and the transparency around it has been excellent. Um and then specifically today, I was glad to see the CRC connection there. I we are always so grateful for all of the work that they do. So, I was um it's just great to see it specifically called out across these action steps. Um so, thank you. And if there are no further comments, we this is now an opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at
055this time? If so, please stand to address the board. Um, guests should state your name and community of residents and by board directive, you are allowed three minutes to address the board or one minute if you have previously spoken. So, at this time, Michelle, three minutes. >> Hi, I'm Michelle McGregor. I reside in Northfield, but I've been working in the district for 14 years. I am currently the co-president of the SSU, which is the support staff um uh union. I've been in this position as a co-president for two years and I was a vice president the two years before that. I represent the support staff. You know the saying, we clean it, we cook it, we order it. We are the hidden staff that you really don't see. So, I thought I'd be take the
056time to introduce myself um and get to know the board members better. I've been working very closely with Carrie and Heather and my boss Corey. I work with a lot of the the admins here. Um I like to have good relationships with the people that we work with. So please come see me. We've been doing great things in the last four years, even outside the contract. And I just want uh for you to put a face to the name. Thank you. >> Thank you, Michelle. Thank you very much. Appreciate it you taking the time to be here this morning and all that you're doing behind the scenes. All right, let's see. At this time, we are moving on to Are we Carrie? Moving on to old business. >> We are moving on to old businesses.
057>> Okay. Is there any old business? >> Okay. Any new business? >> We have placed two items on to the agenda under new business. Um, one is administratively placed on there and that's a policy review and discussion. Dr. Swanson uh wanted to highlight a few things before we bring a specific policy for first reading because this one might uh require some additional review and consideration by the board. Um so, uh we wanted to take just a few minutes to walk through that before it was even presented as a first reading. So this is policy 760 um which is residency and at through the the normal review our attorneys brought out we have a we have an exception in our residency policy that allows for families who do are not current residents of the district but
058intend to become residents to start school with their with their peers. State law requires that people not only own or that people live within the boundaries of a district in order to attend school. So it's not sufficient to own property here. You have to be living in that property or you have to be living in a rental. Um so we have over the time uh come up with a way for families who have maybe a contract on a house or a lease that is going to start within the first 30 days of school to allow them to prepay a tuition then attend school. And we have in our current policy allows for those families to receive a full refund if they indeed move in within that first 30 days. State law actually does not allow
059for that full refund. Um they said that there is no provision for tuitionfree attendance if you are not a current resident of the district. So our attorneys recommended that we look at that piece um and and sort of decide what we want to do about that. Uh there's a couple of things that I would like to recommend. One is that we would continue to allow families to sort of prepay that tuition, but then charge them a PDM until they are actually living within the district. So that does still that that meets the letter of the law. It still allows families to move in or to start their children if they're not closing on their house or their lease doesn't start until a little bit later. Um their kids can still start with their peers. The
060other thing is that we have currently um our current policy requires families to move in within 30 calendar days of when their child starts. In looking at our neighboring new districts, most of them have a 60-day timeline for that. And we have certainly had a number of families this year that have maybe moved out of their home because they were doing extensive rehab work and they were not able to uh get back into the house within that 30 days. It's caused a lot of angst for families. it's a struggle. They then have to register their children for school in another district if they are not able to find a rental unit here. So, I'd like to propose that we extend that timeline to 60 days. So, we would allow then families that that are able
061to prove residency or move move in within the first 60 days of school or within the the first 60 days of when their child enrolls. Um, again, on with that perdm, we would continue to require that prepayment. we would refund everything after they've moved in. >> Well, you're saying refund everything except the pdeium. So, less the pdeium. So, there's really two changes I think um that Dr. Swanson is recommending. One is allowing for 60 days rather than 30 days. So, it gives just a little bit more buffer for our families. um you may or may not be surprised how many families on an annual basis this this does impact and it creates quite a bit of worry and angst for them but also um for Dr. Swanson and her team as they try to support
062a family. Um 60 days is really the the most that we would uh want to allow most contracts when you're trying to buy a house is you know it's that 45day timeline. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 60, but that really gives us the full length of of time to allow for it. The family does have to prove though that they have a contract on a house or um occupancy an an estimated occupancy date for a their home if they're making improvements to it. So, um we feel like that will give us a little bit of wiggle room. But then the other thing is just aligning with the law that we collect that check of PDM tuition, we'll refund it um less whatever days they were here on a tuition basis. Um we're still maintaining as
063has been a long-standing tradition in our district and in in most districts throughout Illinois that we don't just accept a tuition student period um without uh the intention and proof that they are to become residents. Um so or some kind of other intergovernmental agreement which only exists through our um cooperative witsy. So >> so we just wanted to get some feedback from board members on that um before we brought it forward for first reading. >> Any questions? >> Sure. Judy, is there a difference between living in the district and then having to leave temporarily because your house is being renovated versus buying a house that you plan to close on in 60 days? And the reason I'm asking is if you own the house, even if you move out, you're still paying property taxes, so
064you're still supporting the schools. Whereas if you're moving in, you're not paying any property taxes during that time. Like, should the tuition be different? I just Yeah, I know it would make it very complicated. >> State law is actually very clear. You have to be sleeping within the district. You have to be living in the residence in the home. >> But in terms of what we do in to meet that law, does it have to is it should it be the same? That's just a question. >> Yeah, it's a good question. >> If you're already paying property taxes, which are what's supporting the schools versus if you're not, then your tuition, it seems like it should be more or different. Um, it's a good question, but the law is really clear that it's based on
065residency, not based on whether or not you're paying property taxes. Um, we have many homeowners who are paying property taxes, but then maybe renting their house out for a reason, or it's not a livable home. Um, sometimes people buy land, but it's not there. It isn't improved to be a residence. Um, so there's all sorts of situations in which someone might be paying property taxes, but they're not actually living there. Um so for that reason state law is really clear and it is um it is best and advisable for us to align with state law in that regard. So it is um living there I will say Kristen does a great job of answering questions for families who are contemplating u moving out for home improvement reasons and moving back in. Um all of there
066there are many things to consider when you're considering that option. The the one other piece that I'll mention is if you are a resident of the district on the first day of school, that does grant you the opportunity to continue enrollment um for the remainder of the year. And that is another state law that kind of um allows for that continuity of education. Um what it doesn't allow is well, I owned the property at this point in time last school year and I want my child to continue indefinitely as an as student. you actually have to prove residence every single year. You need to establish residency in order to legally be enrolled in the school district. So, it does I hear your thinking on that. It feels a little like, well, but I'm still paying
067property taxes and and so um but there are many reasons why people might be paying property taxes but not living within the area. So, um that residency really is key. So, good question. >> Any other questions, Mr. Mr. Castro, >> um I'm totally in agreement on the 60 days and your recommendations. That makes total sense to me. Just curious, does the state determine the tuition across the board or is that something that's district by district? >> So the state says that you can charge a max I think it's the maximum is your per capita rate for the year before. >> Yeah. The common practice is just to take the most recently completed annual financial report which is like an isbeby created document huge excel sheet with I don't know 20 different tabs but in one
068of them they have this very specific like per student tuition amount and that's just other districts I've been we just use it's just very easy number it's very public and you just take that number divided by the number of student attendance days >> but it is district by district it is not a state set um number for the whole state. It is state set for each district because each district spends a little bit differently for each student. So, it's based on the expenses that we um we reported from the previous year. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Miss Papless? >> Um I also support the 60 days and I was just wondering is that new Trier High School's policy? Do you know? >> Uh new Trier is yes 60 days. Thank you. >>
069Anyone else? Okay, we will move on to the next new business topic. >> Uh the other uh new business topic is really prompted at uh the board's request to discuss some of the technology upgrades um and um adjustments that we've made for this school year. And so I leave it to the board to um give some feedback or have a discussion at your desire. Anyone want to start the discussion? I'm I'm happy to but okay. Um Okay. So, I will just start by saying that I appreciate all the work that have has been done and all the steps that have been taken to this point. Um, and I think in speaking with board members and hearing from some community members, what we're looking for most is um the goal of just really being judicious and
070deliberate in screen time usage in the schools um and limiting it unless it serves a clear educational purpose and is um really in support of curriculum. And I think that the administration has completed um a lot or most of the work in order to reinforce this. And a lot of this is not new. This has already been happening in the schools, but we hadn't really discussed it recently. So I appreciate all of the, you know, the work and the documents to encourage the discussion and the direction. Um, but there was the work over the summer, uh, with the review of iPad usage at home and some changes there and all of the infrastructure work that was done to support this. We've looked at active versus passive usage and what that really means and how to
071implement that in the schools. Um, I appreciate all of the communication around securely, which gives us as parents a um, you know, a good look at how our children are using the iPads. Um, we've talked about whether or not iPads are used for free time, recess, lunch, or reward. And I think we all agree that they should not be. And through the work that we have done, um, the iPads are not allowed at recess or during during lunch in our schools. Um, and then Tony, I really appreciate your memo on purposeful usage and I think that that is, you know, really at the heart of it for us. Um, so again, I feel like the the work has been done overall and, you know, please correct me if any board members feel differently. Our goal
072is for the technology to have an educational purpose. Um and now that we have kind of reviewed all the work has been done by you guys, we've reviewed the documents, we've had some discussion over um the course of the school year so far is just about um you know the priority is ensuring the consistency of this goal throughout the schools. And I also like that it was tied into some of the action steps today. um one specifically that Tony mentioned about communicating a clear philosophy um as it relates to technology and then implementing that. So that that was a lot but that's you know me trying to kind of summarize what's been done and where we want to go. So open to any and all feedback from the board. Amy, >> so I completely concur.
073Uh I appreciate the impact the input we have heard from community members. I think it's been really helpful and timely and the work from the district has been enormous in receiving that and clarifying things. Um, a couple things I that come to mind. Um, some for the community. I think it's important to remember that the board does not dictate curriculum. That's not our role. But to provide direction just like you're saying and uh and so I think that's what we're trying to do. So, you're not going to hear us pinpoint a number of minutes per day. Like, that's just not an appropriate role of the board. Uh, but general direction. I love seeing the action steps in the strategic plan. I think that's so uh helpful. And, um, I, you know, schools across the nation
074tend to swing on this pendulum. We all know that. You don't have to be in schools to know that, right? Um, and it's not particularly helpful. So, you know, we learn we learn reading by purely teaching phonics. Okay, that's not really helpful. So then we swing to just teaching uh in context and that's you know we we know that you need to be more subtle and nuanced and I think that's what we're doing here uh in terms of being purposeful and when is technology the best tool and so I really appreciate that. I just also want to reiterate that everybody sitting here trusts our educators. they are so thoughtful judicious about how to use this in their classrooms. I think what has happened culturally and not just in schools is the cumulative impact. So I
075I used to work in schools. I can see the benefit of having these conversations because I might in my own classroom be really thoughtful about what my students are doing but I don't know how much time they're using it in other classrooms. So it is, I think, a very important and helpful conversation to have as teams because it does add up. Um, and so I really appreciate the clarity about the free choice. I think that's, you know, those are not times that it's the best use. We want kids interacting with each other face to face as much as we can reinforce. So >> thank you, Mr. Castro. I also concur. I appreciate all of the hard work and um I think we were at curriculum night the other night. I had I have two students
076at Central and I was really pleased um from both my second and fourth grade teachers about their communication in terms of the iPad usage, the how, the how much roughly speaking, and the why. And I felt really good coming out of that. Obviously, I had all this in the back of my mind. And I just hope that I don't know if this was because of the work you guys done or if it's just um these particular teachers, but I felt really good and I hope that other um parents can feel the same. And it made me think that some of this like all this great work is being done. I want to make sure that we're doing a really good job of communicating that consistently because I think um you know it's it's different across
077classes and and grades, but it might be um less or better than maybe some of the parents think because it's not being communicated consistently. So, I think if there's work we can do there and think about that, that could be super helpful because I felt really great coming out of curriculum night. >> Great. Thank you. Any other comments, Miss Pas? Um, yeah, to that end about the communication, I the I'm just confirming that these different things are online, correct, Tony? >> They're on the websites. They've been emailed out to parents multiple times. >> Okay. So, if anybody needs them, they can find them there. >> They're readily available. >> Okay. I'm I'm sure they are >> and if not, we'd be happy to send it to them. >> And a postcard on an Instagram post.
078Yeah. Um, so I also appreciate all the hard work. Um, and I especially appreciate the um, in the DESAT report or the strategic plan report. It sounds like we'll probably continue to get updates about this throughout the year so we can kind of keep track of it. That that would be my only concern is that we spend a lot of time talking about it right now, but then we kind of lose focus on it. Um, and so I'm I'm happy that it's there and that we'll get reports and that community can continue to provide feedback if they want to. So, um, I appreciate the speed of which we responded to all of this and I look forward to hearing about it again and throughout the year as part of the strategic plan. >> Thank you.
079Any other comments? >> Great. Thank you again for all of the work. All right. At this time, we will um adjourn to executive session to discuss special education and individual student matters, specific personnel, and collective negotiations. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session? >> I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss individual students, uh specific employees, collective negotiation matters, and special education. I think is all of them. >> May I have a second? >> Second. Motion having been made and seconded, will the clerk please call the role? >> Alison Pafas, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Christina Castro, >> yes. >> Motion carried. We are now in adjourn to executive session. The time is 9:07