001all right I have 6:30 Julie can you uh call the rooll please certainly Cara Casten here Ken Dawson here Christopher Espinosa here cherelle Fuller here Terry pavage here D Runner here and gaana hunie here thank you all right having a quorum can we please stand for pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right Hank it's my pleasure to turn it over to you for item number three and recogn of the state championship cross country boys Team all right good evening Boron honored guests it it's interesting to be where we are right now to be able to congratulate our first place boys cross country team from North High um and it
002is interesting in the fact that one of the goals this year for the board and for the administration is to get better at recognizing people and to formalize some of our processes you guys decided to win the state championship before we had that process figured out so uh not one to wait we're we're trying to figure out the process as we drive but one of the things that we definitely wanted to do as we recognized uh our students was to give our uh villages the opportunity to recognize our students as well so I have a proclamation to read from the village of Woodridge and one from the village of Downers Grove then I'm going to invite our coaches to come forward and talk about the season a little bit and then our students to come
003forward and talk about the season a little bit so uh the first Proclamation is from the village of Woodridge um and it says to whom these presents shall come greeting Proclamation on Saturday November 4th the Downers Grove North boys cross country team won the 2023 ihsa boys 3A state championship in Poria Illinois and the boys cross country team was led to Victory by student athletes Ryan Edington Grant schroer Philip Kiel Kaden Weber will serat Zack bender and Isaac moss and the Downers Grove North boys state championship would not have been possible without the exceptional leadership of head coach John Sipple and assistant coaches Andrew Edelman Eric buhot Alexa Harris Jillian Russell Josh Williams Ethan wood and Robbie Prescott and the achievements of Downers Grove North's student athletes High highlight the commitment spirit and pride of
004the Woodridge community and should be recognized and we thank the runners coaches students administrators parents and all others involved with the program for representing this region so well making Downers Grove North High School proud and for bringing the community surrounding Downers Grove North High School together during this exciting CrossCountry season now therefore I Gina Cunningham mayor of the village of Woodridge do page will and Cook County Illinois by virtue of my office do hereby congratulate the Downers Grove North High School boys cross country team on winning the 2023 ihsa boys 3A state championship and on their tremendous achievements this year and Proclaim Monday December 18th 2023 as the Downers Grove North's High School boys cross country team day in the village of Woodridge all right in the village of Woodridge and urge all citizens of
005Woodridge to gratefully recognize the outstanding achievements so this is signed from uh Woodridge I'll present that to the coaches here in a second and then we have another Proclamation uh this is from the village of Downers Grove whereas on Saturday November 4th 2023 the Downers Grove North boy hi Downers Grove North High boys cross country team won the ihsa class 3 state championship in Poria and the team ranked number one the entire season tallied 79 points in the championship beating their nearest competitor by 46 points and the Downers Grove North boys cross country team consists of student athletes Ryan Edington Grant schroer Philip kiio Kaden Weber will serat Zack bender and Isaac Moses and whereas Philip kiol and Grant schroer placed in the top 10 finishers and all seven team members placed in the top
00650 finishers of the 236 Runners and head coach John Sipple and assistant coaches Andrew Edelman Eric buhot Alexis Harris Jillian Russ Russell Josh Williams Ethan wood and Robbie Prescott were integral in guiding the team to Victory through their unwavering support and guidance and the hard work dedication sport sportmanship talent and team chemistry of the 2023 Downers Grove North boys cross country team serves as an exemplary representation of Downer's Grove to the sport of cross country and to the state of Illinois bringing pride and recogn recognition to our community now therefore I Robert T Barnett mayor of the village of Downers Grove do hereby congratulate the Downers Grove North High boys cross country team and proclaim the week of December 18th 202 Down's Grove try outour so the whole week is proclaimed as Downers Grove North
007boys cross country week in the village of Downers Grove congratulations I couldn't say it better than our than you want to say a couple words about the season and invite your boys forward uh sure now these guys know you give me a mic here we go joking all right um no I do uh just want to thank uh these guys and the whole team uh for all their efforts and everything that um they put forth into the season and over the years um things don't happen overnight or by accident like this uh it takes a lot of hard work a lot of pers perseverance a lot of dedication um and it speaks to uh what these guys have been doing for for years and for some of these guys it's been four years to get
008to this point um and just so incredibly proud of of the efforts and everything that they've put forward um so so very thankful for our coaching staff um and for for them helping support uh Us in this effort and everything and and the parents and everything that that they bring for these guys and and the support that they've had for for the program and the team and everything and uh thank you to the school district as well and and North High it's been uh it's exceptional and you know it's and I feel like I need to say you know it it is uh it's very special season and they're all so unique um and it's we're so very fortunate that we that we ended it in this way because it's it's uh it's incredibly hard
009what they do and thank you for for recognizing them and bringing them up here uh really appreciate everything thank you hey don't leave yet don't leave yet I need you to introduce your Runners all right without further Ado well let's start off with uh with our seniors here uh Zack Bender [Applause] Jun here Grant schroer Soph morale will [Applause] Sarat all right do keep going yeah well coach coach we got some questions for you I'm sure uh if you want to stay at the mic that'd be great you're not off the hook yet so why why don't you uh tell us about uh uh where some of these uh seniors are actually going to be running in college oh very good uh well uh we have Ryan nson here is going to go to Missouri
010University of Missouri uh in Columbia there and Kane Weber is is going to be running at Kentucky University of Kentucky wow um and then uh we have two still undecided uh spots left with Zack bener and Isaac Moss so you gonna be there are people watching they can there or still be able to re-recruit [Music] it are you going to be making your way down to some of those SEC track meets and Cross Country meets ah that would be pretty exciting I'd love to do that absolutely yeah that's awesome all right we're going to bring some students up to tell us the highlights of the season but before we do that late breaking news we have just I have just learned that uh coach Sipple has been voted as the itccca Illinois track and cross
011country coaches association coach of the year in class three boys [Applause] cross as we talk about like we don't really uh you know we don't run any of the races so that stuff doesn't happen it only happens because of this stuff you know so I'm like these guys making it happen so can we have a couple of athletes just kind of come forward and tell us highlights of the Season what your big takeaways are so the board gets a feel for what you guys did this year sweet all right I'm off now you're off coach do I got to talk into this yeah yes no just it's kind of crazy how I we saw my sophomore we got there Junior we got third and then this year like we were able to put it together
012so that was that was pretty awesome but for me the highlights were just like just being able to go out of school every day and go just go on an easy run with these guys and just like laugh for 40 minutes straight so that that was my highlight and going to Portland again so and for the board members that aren't aware it's Nationals in Portland that they went to all right anybody else want to share anything all right come on up all right it's not every day you're stay champ uh yeah I definitely say the highlights are just like just hanging out with these guys and hanging out with like the coaches like they create such a just like inviting and fun environment um like we really don't like I don't know I guess focus
013on like our goals like they just kind of just happen because we you know we love running like the the man who like w like loves walking will walk farther than the guy who loves the destination and I don't know I I like that quote it kind of ss the first season so that's all I got to say awesome excellent [Applause] great I don't know how I'm going to follow up a quote like that no I just think that the highlight of the season was really kind of like what Ryan said running with the guys at like every single day um I mean just not even like this year but I mean every every single year the guys before us made a great environment for us and like our biggest goal is to keep that
014like inviting environment going to the people around us and like to everybody around us not just the cross country team I mean I think the cross country team is truly something unique and I wish that like everybody could experience something like that just the inviting environment and the I mean you go through you go through everything with every like all the entire group so it's like you form a special kind of Friendship with them just going through everything like that so it's something that I hope everybody can experience [Applause] yeah I think the I just want to pigb of B's idea about um about like the seniors like my sophomore year seniors that were there made like a really good environment for me and like taught me how to be like a better leader and
015I think it's like cool like this year I was able to turn around and like um use that leadership skills and people younger than me and I think that was a big H and also hang out with these guys I mean these guys are going be my friends for life so it's just cool to see like the bonds we create and just how close we get throughout the season I think another thing when K was saying like we really pay attention to like how good we're doing that the goals kind of come with it and like just the B of the whole work and just the coaching staff that we have just puts us like makes us stick to like be accountable and just like stick to what we do each and every day so
016that's all I got to say we yeah all right well I guess I'll just say some of my highlights Seas uh I don't know just like I kind of think about every day as like just I like focus on the present not really the future so when it comes to my goals and stuff like on the state line I wasn't really like thinking about all the work I've done I just think about all like the present and I just run my race so uh what else oh really really fun times with this group uh the cool Downs if you don't know what the cool down is after the race we go on this run it's just super exciting it's like that's that's what I that's what I uh feed off of for my races so
017[Applause] thanks wow I would just say my favorite part like just with this team and everything is just like like in school like just like getting to look forward to go practice after each day and then just like being able to push myself with all these guys and just like just I mean everything about the sport and um [Applause] yeah all right we got at least one more seven for seven yeah let's go seven for seven okay uh this this year was kind of a big year for me um yeah um I I haven't always been like like the best guy or like the most committed guy but this this year I kind of turned it around and uh I was I was able to kind of experience for the first time like what the
018what the team like um uh included like uh uh I would always always like kind of practice early sometimes and like um or or skip once in a while uh on family M but um yeah uh this year uh I kind of just been able to see like being with these guys the Friendship the laughs um just like man I'm not a public speaker wow but uh yeah it's it's just been a great ride [Applause] well on behalf of uh the entire District um I'll let Mr rener speak on behalf of the board here in a second I just want to tell you that everywhere it it showed well in a lot of different ways so thanks for all you've done as a team this year uh on behalf of the board um like to
019Echo those sentiments um it obviously I was out and saw you guys compete quite a bit obviously uh watching my own daughter on the girls team um didn't always uh get the opportunity to be at the same events that you were at but uh um got to be in Portland with all of you and watch you compete on the national level and I think you guys should be super proud of your performance um the quality of those teams that were out there and the fact that you were still able to compete and finish seventh overall was fantastic um the conditions that day were rough and you fought through it and it's a experience I think you guys will always remember for the rest of your lifetime and the camaraderie that you guys spoke about here
020tonight is something that I think will be a lasting memory that you'll cherish for the rest of your lifetime so we're all very very proud of you and wish you all the best as you go forward and hopefully we'll see you again again here next [Applause] year all right athletes and parents I know how much you're looking forward to staying for the whole board meeting but you're not required to uh if the athletes and coaches would step out so that Mrs brownie could grab a picture of all of you uh this evening that would be great and then I'm sure there's studying to be done so you're welcome to stick around if you'd like to but you're also welcome to go thank you thank you all thank you than you congratulations thank you yeah they
021all brought one we got some pictures iot we had all right minutes okay um I need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the minutes of the November 20th 2023 business meeting the December 4th 2023 Workshop meeting with action item and the December 4th 2023 closed meeting so moved second Terry and Chris Terry and Chris thank you very much Terry pavich hi CHR Spinosa hi charell Fuller hi Tenny H far Caston I hen Dawson I and Don Runner I motion carries we have no slips for retion reception visit over to you Hank for your items number six all right uh this evening we have uh some of our administrators here Kelly zerner and Dr Karen Taylor here to present on uh chronic absentees and I think Scott has some parts of this as
022well uh who would you like for me to give the clicker to Gina Gina's also involved yeah's driving driving all right so thank you so tonight we are going to report as Dr th said on chronic absm which is one component in this some of the school report card presentation that we've been doing the last two meetings so tonight we're going to talk about chronic absenteeism we'll Define it and talk a little bit about what that means we will also share some information about our data dashboards as well as interventions and what we're doing to work on chronic absis so again I know we've defined chronic absenteeism before but as we talk about it want to think about the difference between treny and chronic absence so treny and and the definition is important for the
023state but also for our understanding as well so chronic absenteeism includes all absences regardless of whether it's excused or unexcused and even if it's a suspension and an in school suspension too um the only time that an absence wouldn't count if it was like a long-term situation where we were providing Educational Services but those are our rare circumstances whereas treny is taking into consideration unexcused absences so as we think about how the state of Illinois defines chronic absenteeism the state defines it as a student who misses 10% or more of the school days in a year with or without cost so even if uh the student goes to the doctor the parent calls the student in those mental health days may recall hearing about the state has allowed students to take mental health days those
024all count what would also count is if a student is unexcused so it's 10% of the year which is basically roughly 17 and a half days 17.6 days and partial days count so it accumulates it's not like it has to be 17 full days or 18 full days but rather it can be parts of a day that come together to Total a day so a chronically absent student is a student who's missed 10% or more of a school year with or without cost it also could mean a student who isn't with us for the entire school year for example let's say the student is only with us for 150 days then it would be 15 days so you may recall from I believe the first school report card presentation that I shared with you the
025schoolhouse picture that is new this year to the report card and this is an example from North High School and you can see that chronic absenteeism accounts for 10% of our rating of our summative designation remember we talked about some of the other areas like Ela proficiency and graduation rates and Science and so forth chronic absenteeism counts for 10% and you can see here that out of 10% our North High School rating was 4.96 and our South was 3.62 and again I share that so you can see how it fits in with the larger summative designation and with that I'm going to turn it over to Scott all right thank you um so as you recall from our last time Gina was presenting uh or I talked about the um five Labs um went through
026the cple last the path and our activities dashboard um and I kind of like kind of gave you a little teaser that we'd be sharing a little bit about attendance during this time so we have our attendance dashboard and just as a reminder on that that's something that we're we're we created the dashboards to go right to our staff to use um to generate um lists of students we have counts we could just keep a good close eye and monitor um you know on our progress and where we're at so um again the dashboard if you recall from the last time I used the words like a threshold so any threshold that we have on there is really filtering in the data so for example on the attendance dashboard it's looking at students that are
027chronically play apps and are failing one or more classes so we call that a threshold because it's combining those two pieces together and then generating a list of students and then that's where our team with uh being led by Karen and Kelly go into and work with our staff to just do you know the intervention and the work to try to um you know improve obviously that and if you recall we um our dashboards also are set up that you can filter by different things so we can look at um like say we could pick ninth grade look at our ninth grade students that are chronically absent and failing one or more classes so we have a lot of features in those dashboards that are really easy to use and give us student list and
028data um and then from an equity lens we can look at obviously race low income special ed you name it um we have it in there for the data to be able to sort through and look at that um so that's kind of the attendance dashboard our Deans are heavily using that um along with Karen and Kelly um and then um I think the next slide is our chronic absenteeism uh it's the 5-year Outlook um going back to 2019 um I believe you've seen this before but you can see from last year where we were at and then obviously um and obviously we've talked about you know the The Chronic absenteeism rate is obviously going up but I think what I'm proud of is that you know we're looking at those numbers but more importantly
029we're actually intervening with students and Karen and Kelly will describe uh the work that the team's doing with that so we're I'm proud of the different things and even since literally like last year and they I don't want to steal their uh information but just looking at numbers reacting to it and creating those interventions so um I'm proud of the team for that so and then the next slide gives the just the comparison to depage County Schools I think it just puts it in perspective of how District 99 uh is fairing with um looking at Chronic absenteeism which obviously District 99's in the blue uh bars the Orange is the depage county average um and then the red is the state average if you look to the far right is the fiveyear average so that
030does you know give us a trend of we're a little lower than obviously the state and uh the depage county school um but again the numbers you know they tell you where you're at but it's really the work that you know we're doing to intervene and try to affect that you know ultimately that number but really support our students so we really want wanted to um kind of shift our Focus to what are we doing how are we intervening how are we identifying students who need us and we wanted to start first by how um students are brought to our attention for support and I'm going to rest heavily on the fact that this year more than ever um I've really truly seen a team effort with our teachers with our CS our counselors our
031social workers our Deans all working together to try to support our students so some of the things that we do to identify students that who are having an increase in their attendance um is our teachers like notifying us um they can do it through multiple ways sometimes it's an email to the dean sometimes it's an alpha referral um sometimes it's sending out a Deans referral the Deans also send every single Monday morning they get the previous week's attendance um and it's all of their students on their case load that have had an absence so that they can comb through to see who has an unexcused absence so they each Dean has approximately 700 students on their case load they will pull all of the unexcused absences from the week prior we also have support in
032our attendance office which is something that we um implemented to help um where we pull all of their tardies as well you know if a student is tardy um to class they're missing out on some of their instructional time so we have um someone in our attendance office who pulls that data so that we can intervene early and often um we do use the five Labs I mean that is a wonderful tool that just helps to identify and make sure that there's no student who's left um not receiving our support so that's generally how they get identified and then we broke them into three different tiers which we're going to go into depth on what we do on those individual tiers but just kind of for frame of reference if you're looking at a tier
033one you're looking at students who are less than 10% absent of their school days 10 to 19% is tier two and anything over 20 20% would be your highest level that's a tier three um and then once we identify we're doing a lot of monitoring um just kind of piggybacking on Scott and what the work that we've done recognizing that it's something that is utmost concern so we are um addressing our students who need us our Deans last year at the end took a report of all of their case load and identified their top 20% of any student with who was absent and they made it um kind of a mission at the beginning of this year to just reach out proactively and check in on each individual student both North and South which was
034great um it's something that you know they had never done prior and we're trying to implement different kinds of resources and interventions so that students feel supported so Dr zerner was talking about the different tiers um and this model shows us a little more indepth uh how the tiers work so it it's based off of the multi-tiered systems of support that's a common model we use um when intervening with students out of our counsiling and student Support Services world uh so the tier one level really should be meeting the needs of 80 to 85% of our students uh and so the the focus there is on things that really are building a a climate a school climate and culture of belonging um and making sure that everyone understands the impact of their attendance on their
035learning and on the school culture um and that we're focused really on recognizing identifying and recognizing students who have good and improved attendance so that it's what's promoted as the norm in our school culture right um and then the tier 2 level intervention again that's students who have been absent between 10 and 19% of the possible student attendance days for any reason at all right excused or unexcused uh so in the first two weeks of school first 10 days of school a student who's been absent one day is considered chronically absent at that point in time they may only miss that day so by the end of the year they will no longer be chronically absent but um so it's it's important to recognize that that's a an organic number we're dealing with kind of
036fluid fluidly throughout the year MH um and so the tier two level though our Outreach and our interventions become more personalized that really should be meeting the needs of about 15% of our students and the goal there is to really re-engage them with a lot of connection and mentoring so that we can bring them back under that 10% uh and when students reach that top third tier our interventions become really truly individualized those are students who who um may need interventions via outside agencies or alternative education they may need um home visits they may need family level interventions things like that so tier one um so that's the one that we're hoping to catch most of our students at the tier one level so that we don't get to a tier two or three but
037we're looking at there this is just some of the interventions that we have in place and really this is where um I think our teachers are pivotal and all of the support that they've given us this year with um helping to contact families to show to demonstrate impact to their to their academics when they're missing out of school one other thing our teachers are doing and I want to give a little shout out to our security teams as well is they're in the moment emailing the security team soand so is missing from my class if you see her in the hallways or in the comons make sure she gets back to class bring her back um and so I it's really impressive and they're they're looking for them um and so I really appreciate teachers
038Reaching Out Security looking for kids getting them back te have the robo calls that just inform the families twice a day um if a student is missing one of their periods that we haven't had a call in yet from a parent or Guardian so that will call out around 11:30 and then the last one calls out around 5:00 P p.m. um as it Cycles through and that just identifies what periods the students were absent or hadn't been called in yet for um PBIS is really pushed in to trying to support good positive behavior um of course we have our traditional Dean interventions when a student is missing an unexcused absence receiving that consequence and being responsible for that as well as those tardies because I think that is very impactful to um the education that
039they're receiving I mentioned the Deans printing out that attendance report the alpha teams have an early warning system that comes through that Flags is something that Scott had previously PR previously mentioned and we've done a lot of professional development so that we can work together and it's a collaboration um from all stakeholders and tier two again is where we get a little more targeted with our interventions trying to build connections to get students reinvested in the school um Scott and Kelly and I and some um some of our friends in the Cs team attended trainings throughout the fall that were put on by the regional Office of Education um and one of those introduced us to the idea of the attendance Improvement mentoring group uh so we've had staff members at both schools attend a
040training that was offered here in District 58 and then we partnered with them and sent folks there and it was free and it's a really great curriculum that um we're ready to roll out at both schools at the start of second semester so we've been identifying students and looking for uh incentives to make sure that the students are invested and wanting to go because that's where they will not only connect with adult staff members who will hopefully build those connections but also other peers who might help to hold them accountable for making good decisions about coming to school every day or might just be the like you know it's easier for me to get to the gym when I know someone I have a buddy there and they're expecting to see me that day kind
041of thing in class as well um the the nudge letters are letters that uh are sent to families when a student has exceeded reached or exceeded 10% or more of the possible student attendance days that they have been absent and sometimes it's just important to call the family's attention to the fact that you may not realize this but your child went on two College visits and they had this doctor's appointment that took them out this day and this other reason and then they were sick with the flu for 3 days all of that together has me meant that they've been gone for more than 10% of the possible school days we really would like to see them in school here are the reasons and the benefits of of being in school um and then certainly
042the at at the tier 2 level is where our Alpha teams are meeting weekly and talking about what might we do to reinvest this student in coming to school and and attending all their classes on a regular basis and that may mean bringing the family in for a meeting um and it could be all members of the alpha team meeting with them it might just be the counselor might just be the dean whatever make sense for that student I just want to say on the the aim group that um Karen mentioned our staff volunteered like that is important piece I mean our staff is taking a vested interest in this and they volunteered to lead these groups it wasn't something that we had mandated we gave them the professional development we were looking into all
043options so that we can support good positive attendance and our staff has volunteered themselves to have these support groups really quick is it 17 days is the is the threshold and they don't like 16 days they don't they don't care I mean you know not they don't care but that they're not measuring doesn't trigger the Metro until it gets to 17 probably a kid who has 16 days absence at the end of the year at some point during the school year trip into you know the tier two because it's that fluid number we talked about right unless it happened on the very last day of school that would be very unusual State also looks at Chronic treny um which is unexcused absences however it doesn't impact the summit of designation it does appear on the
044report card so you can actually see it um but it doesn't impact the rating and are are there times where they're capturing this data like so October 1st March or is it just so there's various uploads that we have to do to the state throughout the year with the final upload being in sum okay and it's the final one that counts for the yes the school card we might be going back and finding oh there's a mistake here or oh this needs to be corrected that can occur throughout the year but ultimately there's a drop dead date and it all has to be so we can help ourselves oh yes absolutely like even though the state may not be flagging that we are um and so per semester generally speaking it's six excused anything beyond
045that we're addressing that sorry that's okay no problem because it's actually a really good segue as we talk about treny versus chronic absenteeism um to this tier three interventions so the depage regional Office of Education really they've been great partners for us um on all things attendance and increasingly so this year we've I was talking with Kelly about this recently we've seen even greater investment in in our schools I think they've really recognized that chronic absenteeism is a problem not just in District 99 but countywide and they've really put some energy into building building out programming to support districts and um being more responsive when we're calling them in the event of a tier three truancy intervention um so we're um getting a quicker response um the team they're called Behavior interventionists they don't call
046them truy officers anymore but the behavior interventionists went through the same trainings that we went through at the Roe this fall um and so anyway so that's a really individualized case because again these are the students that it should be only at Max 5% of our population um and these are the students that have missed 20% or more of the possible student attendance days uh so we need to get really individualized here and we need to be really responsive to the unique circumstances that each kid has uh and so that requires a lot of Outreach on our part that's when we're doing home visits that's when we might be considering Alternative Learning environments perhaps the length of the day in our schedule isn't working for them perhaps there's another barrier that might be better addressed
047in a different setting um and so individualized plans and certainly the involvement of community agencies perhaps Family Support perhaps um you know drug and alcohol intervention is something that's needed it really is student individualized Student Response here and we've certainly learned that it really does take all of us I think we're seeing positive results because we are all leaning in the teachers our support staff our security team our administrators our parents we're we're doing better about educating them and we're getting folks to lean in um because this is really not something that can be addressed in a vacuum um when you hear so often that it takes a village right um attendance really does take a village because there are so many different barriers that get in the way and uh just speaking of all
048the stakeholders and I'm just going to highlight a few that we've we've said that some people have volunteered for aim but like when I when Karen and I are speaking on that we're talking about you know looking at groups to create and our social workers want to create a group that have students who have been hospitalized and they hit the tier three and because that's a different set of students with a different set of needs and the Deans are creating their groups and we're looking at that impact um academically for our students as well it truly has become a focus for all of us to kind of take own ownership of so that we can support our students better before we get into questions I want to recognize a mistake I made at the beginning
049I left the doctor off Kelly's title and that was an error on my part uh she's recently minted I guess doctor so yes very true thank you I left that off of the introduction wanted the opportunity to correct that thank you all right so questions from board at each High School on a on an average day how many students are absent would you say or arwi and Courtney what would you say I I would be guessing at this point we can pull it though and we can just ballar I would so our average da well actually it wouldn't be a guess because we generally know our average daily attendance so this is a whole different thing we haven't even talked about and it's kind of complicated to understand but average daily attendance is a separate
050figure that gets reported to the state and that's um it looks in congruent when we talk about chronic absenteeism because average daily attendance will tell you that approximately the mid90s I don't know where we sit exactly today somewhere between 93 and 95% of our students are present in our buildings every day to under 50 students under 100 students so are absent a day yeah depending on each campus that guess the raw number 5 to 7% of whatever our total student body is and we hover right in that 93 to 95% of daily attendance but as Dr Taylor was mentioning somebody could be in the daily attendance counted but also count when their absent is chronically absent so like it's that's why it gets a little bit confusing um but each day we have you know
051so you know absolutely strong attendance right showing up but we do have those kids that need our support my point is with tier one interventions we have Robo calls twice a daily automated phone message is there any possibility that that could be transitioned to live phone calls or is that unrealistic with you know the Manpower in the offices or what but I just know if I was a student and I knew a rooc was come to my house it would not deter me from you know not coming to school but if I knew somebody had to pick up a phone and talk to a person or that person is leaving a message it gets a little more complicated and it may be just the nudge they need to get to school sure the the daily
052influx of phone calls and attendance reporting is quite profound and that's why there's two calls that go out because sometimes we're still recording the attendance and the teachers are still updating their attendance by the time the evening hits got it um and so sometimes you'll have I'm excuse my daughters who is senior at north um you know Megan might I might get a robo call at you know 11 o'clock that says Megan missed period 4 but she actually was coming in late to period 4 because she's with the counselor got it got it and it pulled so we really rely heavy on that second poll um but the influx is so severe that we're trying to accurately report that attendance that the live call won't happen until the dean steps in to interview got it
053and then Deans do live calls got it okay the other reason for the midday Robo call too is so that parents can be alerted midday instead of waiting till the very end of the day I've been that person or forget to or forget to call forget to call in that's the reminder school's public comes up on the call right like I was just calling in yeah so they do get through so um I I think I think I know the answer to this but I want to ask the question again anyways um just to frame some of the questions that I have to layer in on top of that um there is no correlation between chronic absenteeism and academic performance in the classroom no the the change now is there's a correlation between uh a
054student failing and them being chronic absent not other way around the other way around so chronic absen ism is not a predictor of how well a student is going to do in the classroom no it's the exact just like Hank said it's the exact opposite if I have a student who is failing they're most likely to also have trance or excessive absences okay so we we shouldn't be looking at this from a board perspective of this is not necessarily an academic performance issue issue is that fair or some you know and that's complexity so so kid remember kids that are are chronically absent that have gone on two College visits they had a minor surgery which meant physical therapy appointments took them out or doctor you know but they also knew about those things in
055advance so they talked to their teachers they worked to stay on top of their assignments it's not impacting them academically um more I chronically ruent student yes probably is that's probably correlated with their academic performance so in some instances people are on your radar but you're you're kind of like well we already knew that this was coming or we are you know we know that this student is going to finish physical therapy on December 1st exactly right or they were in you know they had a concussion and that knocked them out for a full five days and depending on when during the school year that happened like yeah it's so indiv ided for that is a student who's chronically absent is that student a drain on resources for d99 meaning are are teachers having to
056take on additional tasks outside of the classroom to make certain that those students are getting caught up I that's going to depend um truly um again just as as complex as this is because of the nature of an absence some of the students that like Karen was talking about they're very proactive and they say you know I'm having this short-term surgery like my daughter had she'd hate that I'm saying this on the on a short-term surgery she had a short surgery um but she was going to be out so she had made you know connections to her teachers to intervene and get ahead of it now does that require more additional work as a teacher yes like teachers work hard for each individual student always um but it you know attendance is one factor that
057causes that um but then there's the students who are Trent and maybe they're missing and now they need to make up tests and have to go down to the testing center or they they need additional support so they're going to access office hours or they're going to access the tutoring center for additional help or might be directed into a directed study to get additional academic support so it's really dependent upon the need of the individual students but it's key to recognize the fact the work that our teachers have done oh absolutely to to flip that data metric right it used to be a strong correlation that a student that was chronically absent was going to be failing and what our teachers have done through the variety of different supports and online resources and office hours
058and all of those things is our teachers have literally flipped that metric so it's no longer a predictor of a student failing that is like huge success by our teaching staff and our entire administrative team and all the supports that are in place in District 99 that a kid that's out hospitalized isn't going to fail all their classes you know or a kid that has a significant issue at home or there's you know all of these things that factor in why a student is out it isn't all that some of it is a student's blowing off class right but there's a lot of factors that could Le Dr zerner just said that lead into the specific reasons why a student might be out and the fact that that is no longer a defining predictor of
059fail goes directly back to the work of our instruction you know our instructional experts in the classroom you know I don't know I'm concerned because I saw in the uh one of your slides that it seems like in DuPage County and in um our neighboring schools and US are just like right up there um this last year and so um is is that a trend that is happening around the country or is it just from world that's a takeaway honestly and I hadn't really thought about the worldwide impact of chronic absenteeism but yes postco um but the the trainer who worked with us in the the trainings I've mentioned at the regional office um works with schools in Australia um the Netherlands someplace else Ireland and Ireland yes so all over she's working with schools
060exclusively on chronic absenteeism she in every training I went to identified she knows of one school that has not or that has maintained like 5% or lower chronic absenteeism postco so are they are they giving bonuses to the kids sure bonus here no I mean I you know looking at this it's element high schools it's everybody yeah it seems to be frightening how much it has jumped since Co and um you know are we also um talking to parents because some of that is Parental um you know letting them stay home you know or whatever and that two and three piece where Karen was like highlighting family meetings like we're calling entire families in with the Alpha Team the counselor the dean you know their psychologists all like everybody's coming together saying here's the impact
061and this is why we need our student here are they being receptive to that yes um some you know is is it helping I mean you know have we seen um maybe the numbers going down from when you guys started you know this Intervention Program yeah so I can about a year ago at this time um I was really worried I continue to be worried but um I was really worried and did a lot of work um at the tier one level that we continue to need to flesh out and build up even more but um Jill Browning and the communications team helped support our efforts with pushouts to parents educating them on the importance of students being in school every day um there's a lot of research out there about um even at third
062grade if they're absent this much what the chances are they would graduate from high school on time um graduate at all Etc graduate you know at or Beyond grade level those kinds of things but uh so we definitely are working to educate families about that and but there's a big factor we can't ignore here that is up until March of last year the recommendation was that if if you were homesick and you believed it was covid to stay home for 5 days right that puts you onethird almost onethird of the way to being chronically absent right so that is a big variable that has been in there the last two years that that same expectation doesn't exist this year um so I mean we might still have higher levels of illness or those kinds of
063things and people are responding to illness differently than they have in the past but that was a huge big blip you know if a kid was sick a couple of times uh they'd be pushing up against that that numberers so now is the people who put these numbers together are they um thinking about changing how some of these numbers are are reported because I mean if if a student is sick it it's so much better for them to stay home than it is for them to come to school and be sick so shouldn't we kind of I guess get points for that you know you know what I'm saying they are definitely topics being discussed at the state the fact that you know during the last several years as this was put into place you
064had several different opportunities for students to stay home um such as mental health days there's a variety of like public service days that were added but those still Factor into our metrics right so uh and then with illness and everything else the encouragement to stay home but that doesn't you know reflect in I mean okay I mean either way they're still out of school right so you can argue about what that threshold is so far as our rating but you still get down to it's better for a kid to be at school generally than not um the thing that most schools are pushing back against is what you've heard tonight is we're measured on whether a kid was there or not but not the way we look at it is we should really be measured
065on did we take the steps to respond did the teacher respond and try to make sure that the the tier one things were there for students that pass a certain threshold are we offering tier 2 tier three We Believe those would be stronger metrics for the state to be measuring us on of the variables that are under our control rather than ones that aren't completely under our control um but I think that that's a Nuance that comes with time is people look more and more at the data and the rationale and the reasons and those kinds of things right now this is all still pretty new in the concepts of how we're looking at data as a state and I would imagine that it would evolve over time I think that's really important that even
066if they are sick because we are focused together on it we're bringing them back to a sense of belonging so they don't feel overwhelmed and they don't want to you know not want to come up to school again because I feel like I'm too far behind so really working on the intervention piece is vital well I think that uh like um Dr E had said is it really makes a big difference when our teachers and and staff work towards helping that student get back on track and I think that says a lot about our district and I think you know I hate to say this but I think we deserve points or whatever for that you know because because it's not like our students are failing because of it correct they're they're thriving um and
067and that I I don't want to make that an okay thing either you know because that puts a lot of burden on onto our staff so um it this is just a huge dilemma complex problem yeah yeah it's not easy do you have enough data yet that shows of those three tiers like which bucket I know it sounds like we're doing a lot and that's great and not like you don't help all three tiers but is there any enough data that says like if you can prevent tier one kids from getting into tier two you're likely to or focus more because this it's great we're doing all this but seems like a lot and it's a lot on the people in those teams and the teachers do you have enough data that informs that it
068does when you're looking at individual students because remember the reason why they hit that bucket dep is very dependent upon the individual so if it's a student who has I'm I'm going to use more extreme cases in tier three right you have a student who's hitting an early hospitalization but not long enough to gain support you know getting tutoring and and homebound care that that's going to jump into a tier three pretty quickly and we couldn't anticipate that at the tier one level but early intervention of course is going to stop that tier two and tier three especially when we we um kind of embrace that student if it's just a truy student we're embracing them and saying no we need you here you know we absolutely want you to belong or even not just
069a truy student but that student who is kind of like I don't really feel like going to school today I kind of feel a little under the weather can you call me out um you know if we like like I talked about the peer connections right if they're like if they've got an incentive a if school is a place they want to be if they know somebody's looking for them they're more inclined to kind of be like yeah I don't feel you know I'm a little tired I worked late last night but I'm going to go because I want to see Kelly and you know I know I've got a math test the next day it'll be good for me to be there for the review and she'll tutor me so we're good kind of
070thing truly the other thing that like Scott has set up our dashboards to look at is student involvement because that's one of the key things we know if it but students involved in at least one or hopefully two things at school sometimes maybe they won't come out of bed because they have a math test but they're going to come anyway because that activity they're involved in is after school or that club is meeting or there's a practice or whatever so should have asked the cross country team what their attendance rates were are good they were really good so so that's you know working with our activity directors to you know reach out to those students and bring them in and help them get involved is is important I mean truly it's all my dissertation was
071on belonging and connection it was truly it came down to the fact that students need to feel a sense of belonging and that somebody somebody really truly cares and that's one reason why I love District 99 is because I couldn't find another District that puts more effort behind caring for their students um so much so I moved my family into District 99 just so they could experience that level of support and love from their teachers and that's something that I'm hopeful for like because we're all embracing this together I do think we'll see positive results from it okay this question by no means represents my personal feeling on this but just let me uh play devil's advocate for a moment so if you're telling me as a board that chronic absenteeism does not have an
072impact on academic performance no it's not necessarily A predictor academic performance okay that to me is the same thing but okay but um and it's not a drain on resources no it can be a drain on resources okay okay right all right why do we care and why should the board care about the level of absenteeism that we're experiencing and talk to me a little bit about why it's important for kids to be in school because our kids deserve the best and they can't get the best if they're not in front of their teachers who are literally dedicated to their instruction dedicated to their future and dedicated to Preparing them for the future our kids deserve that our we should care because our kids deserve us to like they're they're our future so absolutely we
073should be very focused on this topic because our kids should maximize their potential in whatever the Avenue they're going to go down is there anything the board should be looking at from a policy standpoint to assist in this process um are there negative reinforcements available that the board's policy decisions meaning you're over 10% chronic absenteeism you cannot participate in a social club that's the opposite of what we would want to do yeah I hear what you're saying yeah like I want to hear your recommendations is is there something that the board should be doing from a policy standpoint to help you and assist you through this process or is this really just an administrative process um no I think you have and are continuing to support us every single day um throughout covid and then
074the after maath of trying to recover from all of that I don't think there's one policy I can point to to say this isn't supporting us you've always given us the resources we needed and the time to implement the change um to let us dig deep into into the information to figure out what to do um I don't think there's one policy I can point to to say if we change this that's going to be the magic formula I think giving us that time to implement all these interventions and the in the people to do so which you have um I'm I would say maybe in the summer I could maybe better answer that question because we're putting all of these things in place right now um but I think that it makes an impact
075yeah what comes to mind for me is not necessarily a policy change but uh maybe a Shameless plug or plea um in talking with the Deans about in in trying to identify students that are appropriate for our attendance intervention mentoring groups that we be starting second semester at South we're prepared we've got six different staff members they're going to partner up so we'll run three groups um and in talking with uh you know we certainly can identify on paper who needs the program but then there's the like okay but who's really going to benefit from from this mentoring group and how do we get them there right um and so our Deans were talking about providing incentives and resour and rewards for attending the group so that we can hook them in as through an
076incentive so feeding them um when they're there is you know students always come around when there's Pizza um but you know maybe it's also with successful completion of the the program they would be eligible to win a raffle of you know tickets to a dance or passes to Six Flags or something like that or maybe there are community businesses that would be willing to donate things that we could use to help incentivize the programming for students I guess too I like it but it's also complex because not everybody that hearing that you know how they're marking people ass is you know you want to go to a college visit or you at a doctor's appointment so how do you they should be college visits you know you may have to go to the doctor so
077how do you start to deal with that with a policy right but I think you could Target I mean I will say as a parent you know to your point about there's so many details I some think there's almost too much detail so when I go into Home Access Center there's like 45 different ways you can be marked at the center like it's it's a lot and I'm sure there is some reason but I think for visibility you know and I know I think we're eventually moving off that platform but it's very difficult as a parent to have visibility so way you could pop up and say you know I literally have no idea how many how many days I and I've tried to sort of investigate that because I think I fall into the
078bucket of need some physical therapy you might be going on a college tour and so again to your point like if there are targeted ways of little things we could do to take the burden off the actual people effort I know kids being hospitalized and that whole different thing and needs different intervention but there could be targeted ways to get this population CLE communication home maybe we could work for one subset of this group or um frankly policy or sticks in some other way to some part of the group that might just be taking advantage of the flexibility we offer like if those kids could truly be identified could we target you know I don't think at a policy level but just to allow the people and the human effort that you talk about and
079all that to really focus on the kids where it's going to work just a well and we would certainly love when we're making this the shift in student intervention systems to be able to more quickly identify exactly what you're you're talking about too um and sometimes when we're asked to report out um how many days has the student been absent this school year it it's kind of cumbersome to to do that in echool right now so it would really be lovely if we could just look at the attendance screen and see is there some some data reason why you have to capture all that data like I okay yeah all all the St question and then really quickly another thing is the attendance office is kind of like first off it's hidden and a lot
080of people don't know it's there and also a lot of um teachers like I'm not going to name my class or anything but um I've gotten marked absent because I was like in the bathroom or something or some like and the teacher like won't change it um and also just being able to have and I think another thing that would really help with the accessibility of the attendance office is for example I have 7th period off and I have fifth period off which means because of the block schedule I'm out of school at 12:30 which is awesome because then I get to take that opportunity and go work however because the attendance office is a little and I completely understand like it's especially as we were talking about you guys are just completely slammed however
081my mom just ends up calling me out every Wednesday so I can go to work instead of trying to go through the process of getting the early release and like all this stuff especially with the seventh period it's really hard so like I don't think I'm chronically absent but like I might be getting close just because like I leave school on Wednesdays early and my mom needs to call me out or like during my junior year I was at College visits all the time because I was trying to get all the information and I don't know I don't think that it should like is there a way to change that where it's like you you're not penalized for going to a college visit those are the same questions we're asking Goa like I there have
082been times where it's like like there was like a week at the College and Career Center where it's just every College I wanted to apply to was just there so I was constantly there and my mom was like why are you always at these visits like your attendance is going to go down and I thought it didn't count so my bad but that's a good point just the teachers it sound like sounds like they do but I would just ask this question do they has there been conversations with them because if you are you know in the bathroom does everybody know the importance of this because that and and is there a reason you can't change it if the person's like I was in the bathroom yeah we've done a lot of professional development and
083last year as W is this year and they can go change it they go back in and change it no could a mistake happen sure I mean we all we all could make a mistake if we didn't catch it but three mistakes if you're my teacher it's true though I mean I think parents don't understand either um I I thought college visits were excused they they are excused absences they are excused absences yeah you're right and then I thought excused absences didn't count like into of most yeah that's why a lot of times when we're reaching out and informing a parent that they're children are chronically absent a lot of times we know the reason and it might be apparent we've already worked with because of health issues or whatever but parents sometimes get really
084upset that we're reaching out because they're like but I've called them in it's like it we know we know but you're actually passing the threshold in which we we required to to reach out so it does cause some angst and confusion I had that angst and confusion yeah I I mean you have any hope that the state will change given all the things it is a we have a new state superintendent who was a school superintendent and uh Dr Smith is definitely interested in looking at these things and soon yeah but I mean it's nothing at the state level moves quickly so uh there's definitely conversations beginning around many of these metrics especially because as the board is learning they're kind of coming into fruition we're actually seeing how the data is playing out and
085some of the assumptions underneath like when you see a plan that says we're going to measure chronic absenteeism because the research shows previously in the past students that are chronically absent have a higher failure rate so yeah it makes sense to put it on there but then when you get into what counts and how the math works and those details now it doesn't make as much sense as it did at the surface you know at the macro level so that's kind of the iteration that's playing on across you say they're giving more points to it now than or was it not really a thing it really wasn't a thing so this is new across the board one of the nice things I think that not necessarily nice things but one of the things the state
086is doing is trying to get a handle on how many students are taking mental health days and so now I'm like previously we have to report that separately it's a separate cult we have to report that um because a lot of us have expressed concern that you know there's legislation giving students and families the opportunity to take these mental health days and yet it's negatively impacting our numbers and so while that's a small step I'm hopeful that over time things may change that's five days right I me third of and not that every kid takes those of course but at least they're trying to get a handle on how many days students are taking for met what's the same thing we've transitioned to with illness like if you're sick stay home if you need a
087mental health day stay home take care of yourself like you have that message at the same time then we're calling that same family I'm like you've been gone too much and they're like but you said stay home right so it it causes a lot of mixed messaging that that we're trying to get our arms around quantitatively um as you measure potentially the impact of what you guys are doing from an intervention standpoint are you how are you going to measure your success is it based on a drop in our chronic absenteeism do you have a goal in mind as to where you'd like to see us in the next 5 years years how how are we going to know if what you're doing is successful at the macro level the drop is probably one of
088the easiest things to point to but for me it's and when we get all of the percentage points on that little school house that's that's that's our goal I'm far less I'm far far less concerned about that grade than I am on the impact on the kids right that's I that's kind of what my questions were kind of meant to get to tonight um so the macro it's the number that's an easy thing to just point to but that's not really telling the story of the students and so when the Deans pulled their chronic the students that met that 20% and they start intervening proactively before they even have their first absence and making those connections it's looking at stories like that and making sure that students who had struggled in the past um who
089may may have had a really rough year starts to improve and they feel that success in the sense of belonging so while yes it's you know maybe some it's easy just to look at a number for us it's that's not what we're about we're looking at the individual students to make sure that they're successful and they're meeting their own individual goals and there are other quantitative metrics that tell a story more important right are for your graduation rates um our students who are involved in activities and Athletics um our senior exit surveys that give us feedback about their personal experiences as at Downers Grove South or North okay do you knowes does 58 have the same in the other feeder schools is this is this happening it's rising at yeah it's rising at all grade
090levels um throughout DuPage County certainly but um truly globally we've always had a higher absence rate at the high school level because parents are comfortable letting their kids stay at home for the day so high school rates of of absenteeism are always higher than elementary schools however postco with the number of people that are working from home elementary schools are seeing the numbers jump drastically because before you would have to send your kid to school cuz that was who was watching your kids that day but with the number of people that are working from home there's a lot more uh Elementary parents that are like yeah just stay home you don't feel well cuz they're at home with their kids right so it it that's part of the Nationwide trend of increases so do you
091think about 85% you can sort of meet with tier one we're talking about a relatively small two three yeah mhm not everyone needs a set tier one right like not every that 85% we're probably not intervening at 85% we're just encouraging positive attendance we are you know having those good dialogues making those connections our tier two and three are the ones that we're going to hyper focus on unless we're seeing a trend in tier one you know climbing into tier two into tier two we're going to intervene quickly question obviously there was a paradigm shift with the virus and the way we live work and go to school today what do you tell parents as to why their children need to be in school school cuz as a parent you know I could say well
092my child doesn't need to be there they're getting the scores they need they're getting the grades they need why do they need to be there what what are we saying what is the true value of our d99 education which they need to be in the buildings to experience so I have a two-pronged response to that um a student who is out of school might for a short period of time be able to continue to keep up get good grades that kind of thing um but that's you know we are not an online school and we are not intended to be and it it's not something that can be sustained over the long term and the concern about a student exceeding the 10% even less than that right is that once you've been out it gets
093a little harder each time to go back and the length of time that you've been out makes it harder to re-engage and the other piece is it's the high school experience right when we look back at what we remember about our own high school experiences yeah like they're they're talking about the camaraderie and their their friendships um and their activity um and they're not talking about you know the lab they did yesterday or that really cool like clip they got to discuss in English class um and so it's it's the socialization teenagers need that and their peers like as a parent of teens their peers are more important to them sometimes than their family um and maintaining those connections and truthfully that's a really important life skill that they will need to be employable later
094we are you know that's an offshoot of of the virus as well right we are kids stopped talking to each other face to face and they're reliant on social media and screens and the ability for teenagers even to like walk into a restaurant and Order um and look face to face with someone have sustained eye contact and place in order for their own benefit right um it like they don't know how to do it mhm I mean I taught uh US history in economics before becoming a dean and then an associate principal and of course I thought that material was the best in the whole wide world but truly it was the conversations they had with one another and the growth that they could learn from each other I can't replicate that at home yeah
095definitely I really can't and so when they dialogue and be able to debate and have empathy for one another and when somebody has a different opinion than I do be respectful in that engagement and that conversation is what I can't show you in a book like that has to be learned inside as school thanks I I would agree especially with the emphasis on cell phones we need every opportunity we can find to help our students with their social skills I think yeah there's just so many postco studies of what they're struggling with you know from not being in school that yes absolutely yeah there's too much good stuff happening agree I just have one final question the uh so we had 30% of our student body who is chronically absent last year um of that
096number is the majority of that 30% unexcused absenteeism or is it is it a good portion of it truancy a good portion was well I'm guessing actually if I answer that question um but remember that in includes until March of last year that if you tested positive for covid you stayed out for 5 days um and so much of what we saw did include excused absences um I was working with the attendance data monitoring team last spring to try to identify the the buckets of barriers that were interfering with attendance and that we looked at data and we talked to student focus groups and we could not identify common buckets because it was really you know very individualized and and across the board so we haven't seen like a trend over the last couple of
097years that the excused absences has grown and that's what's pushing our absenteeism R I would say we have seen that we have seen that 2021 we had 12% that were chronically Trent so that's yeah and then 2022 was 13 and last year was 15 so a slight increase in chronic treny but a drastic increase drastic increase in chronic absente excused absenteeism yep he let us know if there's any messaging you want us to do at a board level like at the beginning of a school year a letter from the Board of Education to to parents you know as part of student registration that this is really important I love that idea and we need to do this uh let us know if you think we need to uh positively reinforce kids who have perfect attendance
098um if there's anything that we can do to send out and reinforce this message to try and reverse that trend of growing excused absenteeism they'll give you a list of parents to call thank you there's anything we can do thank you yeah thank you both it's very good work thank you good work thank St hard work all right uh returning from last last meeting Gina provided an update of course proposals these are action items tonight the list of courses are up there this is the last kind of chance to ask any questions before we move into is an action item later this evening any questions y y think they look exciting I'd like to take some of them yes all right uh moving on to Dre the 2023 tax levy request uh we heard the
099board feedback last week and or last meeting and Jer responded to that so I'll let her cover the changes okay excuse me um I hope my voice will carry tonight I was sick last week so last month we presented an estimated tax levy uh for your review and our discussion and since that November board meeting we've received some additional information from some of the uh Township assessors so using that additional information um and taking into account the feedback that we received from the board we've um revised those EST the original estimated figures for the tax levy to the ones that we're looking at this evening so last month the overall increase was a little over 5% tonight we're looking at one that's 8.8% in total last year at this time what we presented to the
100board uh for the proposed 22 uh tax levy was about an 8% increase so just a little higher than last year um but given the unknowns um we've put together a little higher estimate just to protect the district and a reminder to the board this all get adjusted with the real numbers remember this is just a guess yeah and anybody who's property hasn't been reassessed or changed in some way will be capped at 5% what we're really trying to capture here is any of the reassessments new construction new businesses those kinds of things in that number I got my letter today same yeah I think I did too it was so once the county has all that information then they review it they process it and then in the spring we'll bring back the actual
101tax extension because they'll do the computation on it yeah look dog and ultimately excuse me it has to stay within the tax caps so that's going to be enough will that be enough we feel so mhm okay all right that's all that matter we're seeing uh most of our peers in Tage County are somewhere between 8 and 10 right now just to be sure that they capture everything when the actual true numbers come out all right uh this is uh up for uh public Hearing in a moment and then action later on this evening okay all right freedom information requests we have received them we fill them they're listed up on our website all right this will be an opportunity for a public hearing for truth and Taxation do we have any anybody that wishes
102to address the board regarding the levy Levy only at this point do you want me to open the you need to you need to open it yes yeah sorry Don yes you have an official thing to read um yeah so do we do I need a roll call to open the hearing you just open it so I can on my own okay so I'd like to open the um public hearing on truth and Taxation I'm going to have Dr the repeat exactly what he just said if anybody the board this is your opportunity hearing none I may have a motion to close the hearing on the 2023 tax Le Levy and truth and Taxation some moved second okay Harry mov charell second Char was second thank you very much Terry pavich I charell fuller hi
103Denny hagstrom hi haric Caston hi Ken Dawson hi josa hi and Don rener I motion carries public hearing is closed okay item eight the consent agenda um I get a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a Personnel report appointments classified transfer of position classified B Personnel report resignation certified resignations classified C November Financial Pages d student tour e revised administrative regulations 5.27 one ar2 AR3 and ar4 F acceptance of donation from the M MCN develop LLC and G acceptance of donation from the Knights of Columbus Council number 16062 so moved second Terry moved Chris second thank you Terry pavich I Chris Spinosa I cherell fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi car Caston hi Ken Dawson hi and Don rer hi motion carries I I'd like to highlight
104though are two donations the MCN development company helped to offset the unexpected costs of sending a State football team to state championships so that was very nice of them they provided $5,000 donation to offset the some of the transportation and the team dinner and a variety of different things and that just came out of the blue they called and said we we anticipate that you're going to have some increased costs how can we help so that was wonderful and then the Knights of Columbus are uh providing a donation uh to help out at t99 great so very good thank you uh item nine recommendations for Action um can I get a motion for the Board of Education to approve the 2024 25 course proposals as presented so moov Chris moves second 10 seconds thank you
105very much Christopher Espinosa hi Ken Dawson hi cherl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Trey pavich I Tre Caston hi and Don Runner I motion Carri cares um now can I have a motion for the Board of Education to approve the 2023 tax levy for 111 m890 519 the certificate of tax levy the certificate certification of certificate of tax levy and the CER certificate of compliance with the truth and Taxation law as presented so moved second car moves Ken seconds thank you Terry pavich hi Ken Dawson hi Mr Espinosa hi Char Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi car Caston hi and Don rener hi motion carries thank you any old business Hank uh no or any new business no Julie do we have any receptions of visitors we do have one uh we have one uh person
106that would like to address the board you want to provide the yes so this is the second reception of visitors which is intended for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to Community High School District 99 comments will be limited to 3 minutes to provide all visitors an equal opportunity to address the board individuals needing more time should submit their thoughts and writing to the board's secretary visitors addressing the board need to submit a comment slip to the board secretary and will be invited to the microphone prior to addressing the board audience members should State their full name the proceeding proceedings may be taped recorded for the purpose of producing accurate meeting minutes the board's presiding officer reserves the right to modify these protocols if circumstances warrant audience observation of these protocols
107is appreciated thank you we have one presenter Amanda cond yes I am here tonight to bring attention to my son Harrison cond his story he was born deaf in 2006 he received two surgeries but he still had permanent damage he started wearing hearing aids and attended a death and heart of hearing school from the age he was 3 to 5 he learned how to speak sign and read and advocate for himself at that young age he started wrestling at age five which boost his self-confidence and made him feel like all the other hearing kids Harrison learned how to read lips at a very young age because he could not understand and communicate with his coaches while he was on the map fast forward to his time at doners Grove North High School where he attended
108his fresh sophomore in junior year he participated in wrestling for those three years under coach Chris McGrath representing Downers Grove North and he is a three-time state Placer at North early in his junior year he started to struggle at Downers Grove North as documented by his down Gro North counselor I do have letters for everybody if you're interested in seeing it as a family we decided to find an alternative solution for him a small private school with key fewer students less noise and more personal attention for him and of course we would want him to wrestle all the academic and healthc Care Professionals in Harrison's life wrote endorsing letters on how a transfer to a small school would be best for him as a heart of hearing child Downers Grove North protested this transfer as
109well as the ihsa and they deemed him ineligible to wrestle his senior year since Harrison has trans transfer to his new school he has earned straight A his first quarter except for math class the smaller School setting and the attention he gets is what he needs all of his IEP recommendations transferred with him the only thing he did not get the chance to do so far this year is represent his new school as an athlete we gave ihsa a letter from donor Grove North at our hearing a few days ago for Harrison's academic counselor again his academic counselor from down Grove North endorsed a smaller school for him said it would be the best possible place for him since he was struggling where he was the Downers Grove North principal and AD Kavanaugh did not
110support their own counselor they told the ihsa they did not support her recommendation of this again the ihsa deemed him ineligible again we moved Harrison for academic reasons he just happens to be a really really good wrestler he should not be penalized for doing something that he loves I would like donor gor to reconsider and approve this transfer he should be able to wrestle uh we will be on channel 9 news tonight at 9: it already ran at 6 it's a great story it was done today thank you for your time and thank you for listening thank you thank you can I pass around letters yeah abut thank you very much thank you I just have a few ran out thank you I will remind the board um that the Illinois High School Association ihsa
111governs the eligibility of student athletes through its own process and makes all of the decisions regarding eligibility thank you the district supports all students and respects the family's decision to send their student to a school that best suits their educational needs when families request to transfer the student out of our school we complete all of the required paperwork in a timely and accurate manner the process of determining eligibility is entirely at the discretion of ihsa okay um moving on to Communications and announcements um Jenny do you have any report on l no nothing until January okay uh Hank or Charelle on sassin we have a busy week this week yeah on Wednesday yeah charel will'll be at a governing board on Wednesday uh where they will be asked to approve uh our recommendation for the
112next executive director so uh it's been a really good process we had some really good finalists and we're excited about who's being recommended to the governing board good I think I didn't see a location so we'll you'll be at sassad yeah at the sasset office if you need help let me know they're on Ogden okay I didn't have the time either but okay I'll refor the message sure Terry uh report on the uh Education Foundation we're meeting Wednesday so I have nothing to report okay uh can any report on iasb nothing nothing this year looking forward to next next year okay um item number 14 upcoming board meetings um the next board meeting will be January 22nd 2024 which will be a regular business meeting at 6:30 p.m here at the ASC um for the
113benefit of audience members uh the board will now be moving into closed session um the board will be coming out of closed session with one item uh an action item um uh for those who want to stay otherwise please feel free uh to go so at this point in time I need a motion uh from the Board of Education to go into close session for 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 lodged 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 legal
114counsel for the district to determine its validity so moved second Terry moves Chris seconds thank you Terry pavich hi Chris J Spinosa hi cherl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Cara Caston hi Ken Dawson hi Don rener hi motion carries we're now moving into Clos session before before that I just want to say thank you you to both north and south for the fabulous um music concerts the Mosaic and the holiday concerts I was at both of them and they were very moving and our students and staff work really hard on those and they did a fabulous job I just want to say thank you and if you could pass on to the staff that it was just magnificent and um it is every year but um it's always a special occasion so thank you thank
115you thanks Terry all right after a short break we'll journ in close session in here