001all right it's 6:30 cly car Caston here hen Dawson here CHR Espinosa here charl Fuller oh here thank you Jenny hagstrom here Terry pavage here Don rener here Gianna hunchy here and Al Mo thank you very much having a to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all start bless bless you bless you I'm waiting for my all right uh we have Representatives here from uh t99 this evening Lisa B is going to kick it off give you the oh have all the power all right don't abuse it uh we might have to turn it on you know there's oh yes you know we got to skip a couple here there we go okay good good
002evening everybody my name is Lisa valo I'm the director special services for District 99 um super excited to be here tonight on behalf of the transition Center um I'm lucky enough to be able to be there on a daily basis uh starting this year and so very excited for you to meet um for four of our students that we've brought with us here tonight um but what we thought we would do is maybe just start with um just sort of like a couple updated photos from our wonderful transition program um and just to say that was uh from our ribbon cutting ceremony that we had and just a couple of those photos and as you can see um everybody is incredibly excited for what a wonderful facility we do have so thank you very much
003um okay so the purpose of transition 99 right um it's a postsecondary preparation for our young adults with disabilities 18 to 22 um and they are there to further develop and practice their educational their life and their vocational skills within their homeschool Community right so they're not bust 30 minutes away and practicing within an environment that they don't know anything about it's right here in their home Community um and a big part of work we do at transition 99 is also making those connections to Adult Services for our students in Illinois so when they do leave us at the age of 22 their families are aware of what is out there as a way of Adult Services do to continue their you know vocational experiences and just interact in their own Community with the help
004of uh those Adult Services by the state of Illinois so that's a big part of the purpose of transition 99 um I won't read through this but you can just see um these are the staff members uh that we have over at transition 99 obviously myself and then here tonight we do have our t99 coordinator Carolina shach we have seven teachers and here tonight uh to support some of our students is another one of our teachers Jerry smolik as well as our vocational coordinator Trisha Broly and then our spean language pathologist Natalie Ganon um but they just came here tonight to help support our students um as they present to you guys on our our student perspectives so I'm going to go ahead and call up Carolina and she's going to give you just a
005brief overview of the curriculum and the supports at t99 um so then you have kind of a an understanding as the students present what they're specifically talking about when they're talking about their programming at t99 hello thanks for having us so like Lisa said our program is 18 to 22 so everyone knows what happens at downish Ro North and South it's a comprehensive high school so they're focusing on American history physics English what do we do though our program is centered more around Life After High School being a young adult living on your own as independent as possible so all of our students learn about current events we talk a lot about our circles curriculum and relationships we do housekeeping meal preparation and cooking is a big deal we don't have a cafeteria so all
006the students are responsible for going out the community grocery shopping they'll meal prep they'll do a group lunch once a week um or and then some of them bring her their own sack lutch but meal prep and cooking is a big piece we do a lot of money skills managing your money we do a little bit of academics but it's very functional base so how much money do you need our supportive students will learn the next dollar up approach others will be doing um expenditures and revenue and money management and a budget you know for the month with rent and then we do a lot of hygiene and health um self advocacy how to speak up for yourself talk about yourself in the community laundry we have three washing machines and dryers recreational Leisure is
007a big Focus what do you do in your downtime if you have an hour or you have a whole afternoon to yourself so things that you do by yourself activities you can do with others social emotional learning and that's really grown um zones of Regulation so figuring out where you're at and how to get into a different maybe we use the green zone a lot a lot of our students want to be in the green zone versus the blue or the yellow health and fitness we have are partnered with the O Park District now and so we go work out at their facility and we get to swim walk the track play basketball and then community- based instruction so we have an awesome location um so we can walk to various places and then we
008also take field trips and learn and the teachers teach the students in their Community too so there's certain skills and then there's some things we just do for fun um the students are broken up into two different groups which we did this year this is new um cuz we really have grown so our more supported students are in our life group is what we say and we talk about Community safety being safe with strangers working on crossing the street safely navigating your community they need more assistance with independent living skills so dressing themselves toileting for some of our students these students typically aren't able to work in the community on their own in like a competitive or even a job training situation so we have them volunteering at different places um some of the students
009will talk about that and then we also have our micro business so that's our inhouse things that we do so we make dog treats that we sell um shredding we have the cricket and then focusing on Natalie our speech pathologist is a lot of work with communication some of our students and one of the students who's going to present today uses an alternative augmentative communication device so what he's using is in the form of an iPad but other students use different um things to communicate if they're unable or they need extra assistance to speak um and then our strive group is our less supported group we work on Executive functioning with them that growth mindset um like I said about the money job training healthy living and adult safety so Natalie and Jerry are going
010to talk a little bit about our entrepreneurship class and then navigating the community with Pace hi everybody um so Carolina asked me so I'm Jerry SW one of the teachers at transition and we're really excited because we have two new classes that we've started this year um and one is entrepreneurship class that um I am teaching and two of our students are here today and they're going to talk about that we've partnered with the University of Illinois Chicago for research grants that this um they developed a curriculum that by the end of the year the students are going to have their own business come up with a business plan and get $500 towards the supplies to start running their business um so that's exciting is something that we want to continue possibly in the future
011as well once we're done with UIC in their Grant um another class that um teach with Natalie our speech pathologist is our Pace travel training training class so one of the hindrances for a lot of our students on getting jobs or maintaining jobs is transportation or even just accessing the community in general um because a lot of them don't get their driver's license or can't take the fixed schedule um bus so Pace pair Transit is what we've used for several years it is door-to-door service for um adults with disabilities and it's not always perfect and a lot of our students need help work navigating that right just any other Transportation um so we started this year of doing a direct instruction on how to use Pace par Transit so that when they do leave us
012they have all the tools to be safe so we work on from applying to get in the program to scheduling rides Rider etiquette problem solving and then we go through role playing with our staff we take them out in the community and pretend and practice like we are the drivers and we take them to the wrong place and so they can problem solve a what do they do it's late or they go to the wrong place so that's been a really exciting um new curriculum for us too um okay also um come to talk to you about our micro business so that this has been I've kind of taken it over I don't know if I was supposed to take it over but the last couple years been my baby um so many many years
013we've been doing the shred dock the shredding has been a huge business a huge activity for our students it is a preferred activity a lot of our students really enjoy doing it so we collect Str confidential documents from area businesses the district um our feeder districts give us all the their stuff too and other people bring in their personal items that they need shredded and it's just something where shredders are working all day and the students really enjoy it so we take it any any you have you can bring it to us uh We've expanded then on to dog treats so again this is more for our students who are not quite ready to go out and job train into the community whether they're not ready yet or they might not be able to get
014get to that point where they can be independent in a job we can do it safely in our building and they can work on those skills and get fulfillment and they do get we do offer payment too they earn gift cards um through our seep grant for the work that they do as well so we have our dog treats in is um very student Le so we try to make it as student le as possible so it's students measuring and making those treats rather than the staff um because of the d99 education fund Grant we were able to get a Cricut and a mug press so we've expanded to making custom mugs and stickers um so we people can send in what pictures they want we've got a lot of pets that we've been making
015into stickers um seller recently um but it's been really great and we've expanded that we now come to the high schools once a week we come to North and then every other Friday we go north or south and we have a table where the students can sell and they can work on those the money skills and just the you know social skills and personal skills to be able to talk to others and sell so it's been a awesome experience for us so thank you very much now I'm going to turn it over to the students I know we've talked a lot students and we bring up Mary she's going to start us off oh and if you're interested in anything we have Flyers that open up though put this on hello yeah sorry oh hello
016I'm Mary re I'm a freshman at t99 and in typical day at t99 I SP choices of things to do in my free time one of my favorites is going to the downers girl library for the True Crime Club I just started job training the Downers Grove Library where I collect books and gather reserved items my favorite part of t99 is going on community trips and my business Hub my favorite trip this year was going to the field museum it was really cool to see the crystal section and dinosaur in my business class I started making bracelets for my Busia and I sold them at a community market one the photos is me working at the Oak fitness center another me is singing at a teeny n party and the other one is volunteering on
017Meals on Wheels uh thank you for supporting T I brought bracelets that I made nice thank you thank you you thank you thank you thank you we're thanks thank you Mary like thank you thank you don't want to break thank you very much like Taylor Swift it's like Taylor swi hi my name is R I'm a senior at t99 I have learned many at t99 over 30 years I draw training at the p and got hired as a runner I now work at DGM for shw where I meet B boses B and other tests I'm learning how toart my own business make making clothes and our B I learn how to use pce so I can get to work my favorite part of t99 is making friend and99 FS my favorite Community trip with T9
018is going to open up fness Center for working out with my teacher Jerry PR sure I working out at Oprah Park Des Year my my hood team made it St every one last year that's me with my teacher Jenny thank you and that's up y right thank you thank you hello my name is G this my three year at so or can't we wait with morning routine as grass next l in into comedy speed light time hope broke finish and Andy twice we go to humpton in for work into cleaning and hry at afternoons okay how I do housekeeping back business my favorite part of going to 10 and9 going to work bring and ped my favorite comedy trip you're going going to the is a goo war game I like see my friends and
019was it that game this is me the worker it's me my friend B and Ma and dby dark sweets with Mary and park going say swings much thank you thank you and then our last student is TJ come on up TJ I'm TJ postas and I'm in my first year at t99 I start my day at t99 in my home room getting ready for the day we wash and fold laundry take Community trips and make micro Biz items like dog treats my favorite part of t99 is cirle class to learn about safety my favorite Community trip is going to Oak Brook fitness center to walk on the treadmill doing sign language with my classmates playing oops volunteering and Feed My Starving Children at the Wolves game with t99 [Applause] thanks hello my name is Trisha
020broy I'm the vocational coordinator with t99 um our program has a huge focus on building vocational skills for all all of our students whether that's in a supportive environment of our building with our micro business and our in-house jobs um or out in the community and we have so many outstanding business partners most of them are up on the screen there's a chance I missed some but um all of the students here are job training or working somewhere in the community TJ is going to start this week at PDF progress which I'm so excited about raran has job trained and found competitive of employment through that which is incredibly wonderful um Mary is at the Downers Grove Public Library and Jackie is at Hampton in where she does some housekeeping jobs um through these Community
021Partnerships we do a service for um our students and the community and they do the same for us so it's really wonderful and we're so grateful for them um just today we had two students who started competitively working at mod Pizza which is incredibly exciting that we had a partnership with them kind of preco where we were job training um we went back after covid once everything opened back up and they were really interested in us being there with job coaches but to competitively employee students so we're very grateful for that so thank you thank you so that completes our student perspectives um we hope you really enjoyed it obviously come see us at t99 anytime just drop by one of us would be there to take you around if you'd like to see it
022um but we'd like to open it up in case um anybody had any questions they might have either for our students or for some of our staff members and if not that means we did a really good job great job thank everybody for sharing their story tonight thank you yeah those are wonder it was very interesting and very good to see the students and yeah how they're doing yeah so again come on over any time and you'll see a bunch more of them um kind of in their you know in their uh their daily schedules um and um thank you very much for the opportunity well I I do have some questions sure almost he almost escaped how's the new building and how how is it um improving upon Andor opening up new opportunities for
023educational opportunities yeah I mean obviously it's beautiful so who doesn't like to work in a beautiful environment right um but just from a space perspective um you could imagine we had about the same number of students previously and so and these are adults they're they're they're not kids right um and so we are able to really spread out and have those experience where we are not sort of trying to hurry up like be on top of each other all the time one great example are the two kitchens um because there are two kitchens we don't have to have um four different lunch periods to rotate students in and out they can use it not only for the meal prep that the folks were talking about but also creating and making group lunches like some of
024our students would do for their families um preparing their breakfast any every morning or preparing lunch to take with them to work like really trying to um to mimic what a regular work day would look like right when we get up before we go to work we're preparing all you know we're taking meals with us to work we're doing all of that in our kitchens right and we're really trying to simulate that exact example um we also now have some swing spaces so if we need to do smaller groups or move things around we have the space to do that um right now we have seven classrooms but we have the ability to house eight um and so we're using that extra classroom right now for recreational um means like that wck in Leisure piece
025um when the weather's not great and we can't get outside that's another place for us to be able to to experience those types of things but the kitchen being a really big one um not just for its function of a kitchen but it's multi functional purpose right um that I think every like the Commons in both buildings um same kind of concept um so we can utilize it for different reasons um but we absolutely love it um we've had lots of people from the community prior students come back and just show up and want to see it and everybody's walking around like oh my goodness this is so wonderful so we greatly appreciate it not only for our students but Al also for our very deserving staff thank you um Lisa the um partnership with
026the UIC and the um the grant program how did that come about and um are there more opportunities um yeah so I went to a conference at University of Illinois um in champagne and they presented um on their program that they were accepting area schools and they work with high schools or transition programs and you I just had to contact them and we applied and the students then and parents signed off on that they could be be part of this research and this is their final year though of the grant so as far as the money goes that they would provide that ends this year but the curriculum is free for everyone so we can continue to use the curriculum for years to come and hoping that maybe like through our micro business money maybe
027we can use that depending on rules and regulations how we can then support students to have these side hustles or if they can't be compatibly employed they have a home business that they can you know work on every day and to through that way so thanks for doing that I mean a lot of the the kids who talked here tonight mentioned that that is one of their favorite things at t99 so that's a great really I wish we we have a detailing service thatone open up a his own detailing business and a landscaping business so I think it's plus our clothing line and our bracelet so I think it's I'm excited to see where they going to take it yeah that should be like an end of the year t99 student perspectives and we'll come
028back and definely and allow the other students in the class to present sounds good what hours are they like the students yeah when when are they there they're there from 8:00 to 2:30 oh okay mhm and but we're in and out of that place all day so um probably at the very beginning of the day at the end of the day you'll see all of them there but very infrequently throughout the day will you see all of them there okay now are you doing 365 no we're we're the regular District 99 calendar closed over the summer and then we do our our district esy program that we've always done um in the past we've housed that at donar's grow South um because t99 was just physically too small to house our full District esy program
029but we're going to actually be there um the summer which is wonderful because of the location and access to the community um that is just more prevalent at that location than it is at doners gur settle okay so pretty much all the month of June that's okay say how many weeks is that is that just it's it's June 3rd through June 27th um off the top of my head yeah it's pretty much always the month of June same same okay yeah okay I know I said this at the ribbon cutting but it Bears repeating um the you know we always talk about d99 being a destination district and I think that applies to t99 as well and t99 touches so many lives for the students and their families and um there's a lot of families
030that moved to our community because of the the program that we offer at t99 and also the in the schools themselves so least I just want to commend you and your staff and all the work that you guys do and the the daily hard work that's put in and the lives that you touch so thank you so much oh our our pleasure our pleasure we have a lot of really happy staff m members um who get to see our young adults walk in every day um and I will say huge upgrade for me I get to be smiling all day every day cuz you can't not smile in that building um so um it's it's been wonderful being there every day you know I would agree with you 100% having attended the ribbon ribbon cutting
031your staff is just Magnificent the energy and passion that they bring every day is just phenomenal yeah Y and what I love the most is that they're smiling even when there's big problems mhm um so we just smile through it and help each other um but um you know they just love the students and really enjoy working there and they enjoy working there in this lovely facility but they enjoyed working there when we were a little more crowded right either way they loved working with our students and I think it's just a very big thank you to them too as staff um to be um in an environment where they're now physically comfortable as well um and our students and our families just love it so again we appreciate you all for supporting that um
032we know it's it's a big investment can I to I mean you have a very impressive list of Community Partners um so you know how can we help I mean what are the are are you always looking for more Partners what kind of partners are you looking for um um little more about that we so a h huge initiative kind of in the land of special education and vocation is carving jobs because there's a million jobs we've like carved out like the district Pony we've taken over as a job training um that's inter Office Mail yeah sorry lot of words but like finding tasks that our students can do because often the robust job discription Des cription somewhere is challenging but we can pick things and say I have a student who can really do
033this and we can really build out your Staffing and make you more efficient when we do these things um so any contacts anybody has they're welcome to have my email um send me an email I'm more than happy to communicate and facilitate conversations of how we can help our students access the community yes Trisha has been I mean done a lot I mean she supervises four job coaches that work with our students but a huge part of that job is not only doing the schedule for all of our students which is always really challenging every week but um is really going out herself into the community walking into businesses asking those questions how can we help your business be more efficient I have a student in mind who I think could do X Y or
034Z and really trying to build opportunities around those questions but it's walking into businesses and talking to owners and talking to people and trying trying to carve out those specific jobs that might not be posted a specific way but maybe we can create something that would be mutually beneficial to everybody and we have so many wonderful businesses in the d99 community um to really like work with and Anderson's Bookshop is a great example of a small shop where I walked in had a conversation with a manager and then they called me back and it took a little bit but they wanted us there so so it was it's been a really exciting kind of Adventure in that sense and our students are the best employees there's so many studies at individuals with disabilities they come
035to work on time they're not distracted by their phone they're so loyal so really a big piece is finding like a job culture where there is natural supports where people who are working like at the patio they'll still like Q our students oh keep going here this is ready those natural supports are embedded and once our students get hired and are competitively employed they stay competitively employed we still like go to cers and students who graduated 8 10 years ago are still working same thing with juwel Trader Joe's so if we can get them set up make sure they're successful then they stay and it really brings so much meaning and importance to their life because they have something to do every day get up and then they have people who are caring about them
036because we know the work aspect of our life is huge so it really when we can find employment for our students even if it's volunteer or supported it really this so impactful for them so that's why we put so much emphasis on the vocational training piece of T9 right thank you thank you [Applause] guys this [Music] all right Tiana and Alla have a tough act to follow I don't know how I'm going to follow that that was really good am I turn to go first yeah all right um A lot's been happening at dgn lately um first off I'll touch on winter sports because we're pretty good at those um uh for basketball we're killing it just like we did last year um we're both both the boys and the girls this year are doing
037just incredible um our girls gymnastics is at sectionals tonight so cheer them on um and our girls bowling and wrestling sectionals are on Saturdays as well are on this Saturday as well and um really importantly coming up we have a um spirit week coming up to because February is kind of that L month so we're we're trying to pick it back up again get get the excitement back in so we have next Friday we have a pep rally so we have a special schedule on Friday and we're going to do class competitions team competitions and just kind of like amp everyone back up again um Monday night we have a dodgeball tournament which is super fun and we have spirit days coming up so Monday is going to be Pajama Day Tuesday's Marty gr day
038we have a Valentine's Day we have class color day it's going to be so fun so yeah everyone other than that it's just kind of that lull kind of time right now so everyone's kind of in the second semester thing juniors are figuring out what they got on the SAT score and they're either like oh no or yes um seniors are just waiting for college decisions to come back sophomores are gearing up for next year um lots of cours registration going on right now I was just in the College and Career Center and um hunting down scholarships and um our it was slammed with um which I think is really good because it's become a really really good resource for a lot of kids like I saw freshman sophomores Juniors and seniors in there just
039being able to have a resource of just questions they had about different classes or different scholarships so yeah it's been really good thanks thank you so for at South we have been we've we have a lot of activities coming up for February to make it a little bit more again like Gian said a little bit more happy and fun because from the transition from January to March cuz March is even going to be more packed it's going to like having this time to have fun is very important while also focusing on studying of course but um so with that in February we have so for Valentine's Day our Key Club is actually selling Crush cans for $2 meaning they purchase a crush can so like a soda can and there's like different colors like different
040flavors stand for different types so like purple is I don't know your crush and then orange I don't know orange is significant other and then another one is friendship like there's different but you could choose whichever one you want but with that they're selling those so then you would just put like your friends name that you want to give it to and then they'll send those out to classrooms so on January 13th and January 14th they're going to deliver it to the classes and the students will just be shocked on if they got one if they expected or if they didn't expect it you know and then we yeah we also have our Ace spirit week coming up so I think that's in like February 20th so it's a few yeah a few weeks from
041now with that we're also ending with our uh Winter Dance so that will be fun to see and we'll also have a bunch of like spirit days competitions between classes and then hopefully seniors can get the spirit jug again during the assembly and then um for leap day our Mustang access leaders are actually trying to figure out something to make it fun on leap day since it happens one in four years right so we we've definitely come up with ideas so that day can be really fun and engaging and everyone can be like happy that we have 29 days instead of 28 so so that will be fun and then with sports the winter sports are kind of of like in the closing period so we're going on to our Issa like competition levels and
042I know a lot of people are working hard to get where they want to be so that's really cool to see like them Reach the level of sectionals or state and just seeing that like our Phillies our Varsity dance team got 12th in the state last weekend or week two weeks ago but other than that like everybody is just excited to see where dgs can go in sports and in February so I's any slips no no s no no okay Hank I'll turn it over for item number five items all right we just have a few quick uh items for the the board this evening uh the first one is usually at this time of the year we bring recommendations for increases in student fees however this year uh we're going to recommend leaving them
043flat for a year so there's nothing for the board to approve unless they would like for us to come back recommend with a recommendation to raise fees but our business department uh feels like this is a a good recommendation for this school year awesome yes I'm pleased about that um you know it's hard enough for our families without having to add extra money to it so that's very good yeah well and a a reminder a no increase in student fees is essentially a decrease in student fees cuz we're not keeping up with inflation right so uh although it doesn't look like a decrease essentially is it's a little easier uh in front of you is a rough draft document it went out to the board earlier it went out to our staff as well and
044I've been Gathering feedback from staff uh this is the most uh recent version it hasn't changed since I shared it with the board end of last week but this is uh a project we've been working on this year as we've looked to better recognize students and staff in District 99 uh so what we've been working on is a staff and a student and staff recognition program criteria that would lead to uh students or staff members coming in front of the board and being recognized uh or dedicated ceremonies that happen at the schools that board members would be invited to attend um listed in here uh with specifics are for athletics and activities for team and individual placements that would uh automatically initiate us as the administration reaching out to uh the coaches or sponsors uh
045to try to find an appropriate time to invite them in to be recognized by the board um so I have a couple of things for the board first is any feedback on this second is a question as to whether we would like to do this quarterly by semester by year in real time as they happen kind of those are the options and then finally how do we want to make up catch up for this school year uh whether it is we want to do it on a board meeting night and we find a location invite everybody in we missed or schedule a special board meeting that's just a celebration night separate from our normal business so I'm going to go in that order so first of all any feedback on the document as it's presented
046and this will just continue to morph and change because things change in recognitions and as we get feedback from people I'm not going to ask for the board to approve it but to review it so uh any feedback on this document I I just had a question so if I understand this right so the dedicated ceremonies are around these academic things that are listed here this list of like 10 right everything else would be coming to AB board new so all this other stuff is okay just make all the other stuff when it happens would would happen at AB board okay I think you yes is this differentiated by north and south or are they just put together they're just SM we tried to smash it together no I think this is a really good
047idea yeah we've gotten a good you know we did share it with the entire staff last week I've got Jill and I have gotten a great deal of feedback and have tried to work that into this I imagine as time goes on and as things happen we might have to tweak it and adjust it but we think it's a pretty good spot to start from I think it's a fantastic program it would be a great thing anytime we have a opportunity to highlight um the accomplishments of our student and staff I think we should take full advantage of it and as much as possible if we can do it in real time yes I think the closest to the actual event the more meaningful it is yeah that was my next question so thanks for
048the transition C I I I definitely agree with that um real time is the best because then you don't get so backlogged yeah because we are kind of backlogged right now you know school year so although we're backlogged because we're choosing to real time Al so I think what Hank's trying to cut to ch is what what does that mean is that mean every single board meeting we have sort of a like a new business old business we have like a standard like I would recommend we open with celebrations like that and any guests that are here a lot of the feedback we when we used to do more of these recognitions from students is we are very busy this is night on the schedule you know and concerns about students taking another night out
049so I would if we're go going to do it in real time I would have the principes work with those coaches and sponsors to find the most appropriate date for their teams we'd bring them in and that would be the first thing we do from jump so that they could be recognized and then they can be off on their day um and we may actually have some groups that are like thanks but no thanks right and and that that would be totally at their discretion but they would be invited uh to come in but that's how I would recommend we do it if it's a very large team we might have to relocate the board meeting to another location right and that's always a challenge as well based on facility usage and everything else so
050we as close to real time as possible with all of those factors brought together is the timing of all these things like really scattered like are yes some of them are seasonal you know and you could end up like we did this year where like football and cross country at North all had great seasons and they'd all be in close proximity to one another um so each of those Sports Seasons ones kind of happen uh at three points throughout the year although some of the sports kind of staggered as they end right some end like golf is going to end early in the fall where football's going to end late right yeah GI we can also just do like student Representatives because that way so like for example like them like the captains of the
051football football team come and then just talk cuz that way then we don't have to relocate and it's not like a ton of people talking and then that way it's just like a little bit of a segment at the beginning too that we can get more people in too I I kind of like having um all the students come that you know I think that they would feel a little more important by I think so too yeah like to rather than if we have to run over the cafetorium in south or something like that true so be it so I I like the idea of um starting the meetings with celebrations I think though if we do a you know take a trial period and see if it's going to work doing it at every
052meeting and you know try to get the right fit for it we can start that way I think and then we figure out if that's the best way to do this this is is something new for us I don't think they'll happen at every meeting you know it's not like every week there's somebody finishing at the top of the state or national level right or every month oh well um the other thing though is there are some sports that may choose to have their own celebrations and would rather invite you to theirs right so that's a Poss you know the coach and the team could say no we'd rather have our own night with our parents and families invited and in that case we'll invite the board to ours right so I would like for
053us to always defer to the students and coaches as to what their preference is or they might choose to do both right but um know that they will in this approach like our our teachers and coaches and we'll find out I know when I first got here we did these uh Julie was it twice a year qu three times three times a year and we did hear from a lot of students that it was another thing kind of added on their calendar and interest and attendance waned greatly uh from before I got here into the first couple of years that I was here um and then we went to celebrations at the schools instead of at the board level um but we're going to try to bring it back we saw that the cross country
054team really enjoyed being here with us and being recognized so uh and we are really focusing this year on how we can better recognize people's accomplishments throughout the district so I I think it's time to reboot it give it a try learn from it and then we can see how it goes it looks like though most of at least to me most of the students who have come to be recognized over the years I've been on they're excited to be here and they you know like the fact that we're recognizing them so but I think we should be committed to if their preference is to have the like we should all try to have some and have some representation absolutely so what we'll do is uh work with the principles as these great events happen
055try to figure out how to make it best work for us time location all of those pieces but know that they will at least receive an invite when they meet this this criteria um and we'll try to it sounds like in as close to real time as possible is the feedback now we have a whole bunch of people from the beginning of the year through January that we haven't uh celebrated yet uh would the board like for us to pick a meeting in the future to do this or Julie and I could work with the board and the principles to try to find a night where we just do a celebration of kind of the first half of the year and invite people out thatd be in favor of the ladder yeah we have to
056do a special meeting yeah CU I'm thinking if we invited everybody we missed to one meeting we probably wouldn't have AAC be a long night we've had a lot a lot to celebrate this year yeah yeah yeah so we could just do it doesn't even have to be a formal board meeting right we don't have to do a formal agenda but we could do a recognition night where the board is inviting these different groups we'll once again work with the principles to identify who we should you know make sure we're catching up with and inviting out and then we could just do a special celebration night at you know one of the locations we be open to doing it during the day or do you feel like that would exclude families or that's the challenges
057yeah is is the the families I think parents probably would enjoy participating MH uh with parents it it's either breakfasts sometimes are better parents can come and celebrate before they head off to work right and kids can show up and do that but if it's a longer program it would have to be in the evening evening I will say we had the uh National Merit Scholarship uh recognition breakfast and that was a very nice event and it was attended by the majority if not all of the parents who you know just push their work day back an hour or two if they had to but it was very well attended and it really didn't interfere with the structure of their day so that was really good yeah the the I would say the majority of
058the things listed down below either happen at like an evening celebration but a lot of them tend to happen at breakfast now right yeah we do a lot of breakfast people are busy after school so we we've had a little more success in the morning agree so I I'll talk through it with the cabinet with the principles and we can try to figure out if it makes sense to do one night for the district or a North night and a South night or North morning and a South morning I don't know we'll we'll talk through it and try to find a time that makes sense if we're going to do it independent I would say we do it just separate from like a traditional board meeting yes we just have a a celebration in some
059way it's too sterile here for something like that yeah well with and with the number of groups yeah that we'd have to catch up with yeah all right we'll get to work thank you uh couple other items uh car's Grant uh Scott has worked uh really hard for us to have access to this cares Grant Scott can you give just a quick summary of what it offers our community yeah so the we were District 99 was awarded the 249,000 by the Illinois Department of Health in the state of Illinois to provide Mental Health Services and it's the it's the services of counseling outside of the school day um the way the program will work is that we will do um the kind of the marketing to the Strategic marketing uh to students in need um
060referral GPS is a company that we worked with in the past they're also going to be part of the grant they will connect families to um outside counseling the district it's Anonymous for us we don't know we Market it but we don't know which students get the support um which is good though they you know the whole Spirit of it is to get mental health support um and so what we did on the memo we listed the um contracts that are part of the grant or subcontracts and so what we're asking today is um for you to authorize us to you know work and move forward and sign those contracts uh to keep the crant moving so um we're super excited about it um it's going to be a great resource for our families and
061students and Scott's working through each of those contracts with the board's attorneys so once the board's attorneys we're asking that once the board attorney authorizes us to move forward that you've authorized us to execute those agreements and enter into them so any questions for Scott sounds exciting it's a great thanks for the work great resource for our community all right uh the next one is uh the bond issuance we brought at the last board meeting uh we're about to open a public hearing for anybody that would like to provide feedback on that Bond issuance none of the terms of it have changed uh it's still the same amount for the same purposes uh $5.2 million for the additional Capital Improvement projects which includes the turf field the tracks the scoreboards two large classroom projects at
062each side of town the internal scoreboards and the Fieldhouse floors right so uh and the cost of issuing the bonds uh Jer here if you have any questions otherwise we'll ask Don to open up the public hearing no questions okay so item number six uh this agenda item or I'm sorry the next agenda item for the board of education is a public hearing to receive public comments on the proposal to sell Bonds in the amount of $5.2 million for the purpose of increasing the working cash fund of the district the working cash fund bonds all persons Desiring to be heard will have an opportunity to Present written or oral testimony with respect there to the reason for the proposed issuance of the working cash fund bonds is to enable the district to have in its
063treasury at all times sufficient money to meet demands for expenditures are there additional comments from the members of the Board of Education hearing none um if there is any written testimony written testimony concerning the proposed issuance of the working cash fund bonds will be read into the record by the secet if there is no written testimony um if there is any I'm sorry if there is no written testimony if there's any oral testimony or any public comments concerning the proposed instruments the working cash phone bonds um public may make those comments Julie do we have any there is no written testimony there no written testimony there's no oral testimony is there anybody that wishes to address the board regarding the public hearing hearing none hearing none um all person Desiring to be heard have been
064given an opportunity to present oral and written testimony with respect to the proposed issuance of the working cash fund bonds I need a motion for the hearing to be adjourned so moved second Terry moved and K seconds thank you is there any discussion on the on the bond issues hearing none Julie please call the role for a vote on the motion Tre pavisic I Ken Dawson hi Chris Espinosa hi charl Fuller I Jenny hagstrom I Cara Caston I and Don rener hi motion is carried and the hearing is adjourned moving to item number seven the consent agenda is there any item a board member would like to remove from the consent agenda hearing none I need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a authorization for
065the administration to sign the contracts associated with the car's Grant pending attorney review of the contracts B amended summer 2024 calendar and C extended school year esy compensation so second second by thank you cherl Fuller hi Terry pavich hi Cara Caston I Ken Dawson I CH Espinosa I Jenny hagstrom I and Don Runner I motion carries item number eight is there any additional no sir no slips no okay so item nine is um close session um I need a motion from the Board of Education to go into a closed session for a the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint
066lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the district or against loal Council for the district to determine its validity and B collected negotiating matters between district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees in accordance with 5 ics1 1202 C2 so moved second Terry moves Chris second thank you Terry pavich I Chris Spinosa hi charl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Cara Caston hi Ken Dawson hi and Don rener I the motion carries for the members of the public the board will not be taking any action other than to adjourn when it comes out of closed session thank you all right we'll be back in here let's take five
067all right all right