001here shirelle Fuller here Jenny hagstrom here Terry pavasich here Joanna Vasquez Draxler here Nancy cupka here Luca palauskas here and Caitlin Vincent here thank you we have a courthouse stand for the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God an indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we're gonna start with student perspectives all right we'll invite uh both principles forward because we have representatives from both schools this evening all right well good evening everyone um this is really fun because we both get to do student perspectives tonight which is really cool so um this we are presenting tonight our snowball teams and um they're going to talk a lot about what they do but it is like one of
002the coolest events ever um it's really fun to watch and the planning and preparation that goes into this and in collaboration with both schools is just really unique and they have this ability to bring all of our students together um in one forum and to talk about things that are really important to teenagers and so it's really cool that they get to present tonight so yeah I just wanted to add to that the work that they do really touches the at like the fabric of our entire District so when I've been able to be a part of the actual event and you watch the true joy and Magic that's happening and I always use the word classical Joy because there's no phones um there's usually music that's been you know from like 19 60s to
003present so like just kind of like Timeless connection and then that connection building our students then bring back and are able to spread in every different aspect of their life so we're both just so proud to be principals in the district that supports this program that has the program so vibrant and such great adult leaders and student leaders so we are happy to hand it over to our leaders and we'll have them introduce themselves I think they have plans to do that until what school they're from and they'll talk to you all about someone is um hello my name is Luca palaskas and I'm a senior at Downers Grove North we know you she's familiar uh my name my name is Mia cassen I'm from South and I'm a senior Madeline I'm from Downers Grove
004North and I'm also a senior my name is Johnny Clarin and I'm a sophomore at Downers Grove South okay so we're here today just to tell you all a little bit about operation snowball and kind of how it operates at North and South um so yeah okay so if you look up there those are three pictures from our three events just from this school year so um there's three events throughout the year so in the fall there's one at North one at South and then in the winter we combined for a Crosstown event um so snowball is a Statewide event it's known as operation snowball but in our district we really just kind of refer to it as snowball it began in Rockford in 1977 when high school students attended the Illinois teen Institute and
005decided that they wanted to replicate it in their own school it started in 1999 in District 99 and is one of the 75 chapters across Illinois and Beyond um you may or may not know but snowball is almost like completely student-led so it's pretty much made up of Junior and senior leaders and then there are senior directors that kind of like plan the whole event alongside all of the adults which are Super supportive throughout the whole process as a director we kind of always came up with the idea is what we wanted the event to look like and the adults were kind of there to help our ideas come to life so this year um our Retreat went back to an overnight event um due to covid it was kind of like different types of
006models throughout the years we had a couple virtual ones a couple one day ones up at Camp Duncan but we were finally able to go back to an overnight which was so so awesome because that's just the best way to do it and like I said there's three annual Retreats and any student is able to go okay so the snowball Retreats focus on fostering students personal growth while creating a community in friendships with one another someone like the main focuses of snowball is social social and emotional learning addressing topics like substance use prevention and education wellness and mental health maintaining healthy relationships building confidence setting goals reducing isolation and creating a positive impact in life in at school so the name Snowball is we try to keep the snowball rolling by bringing the positivity positivity
007back to school even after snowball's over um and snowball creates experiences for students to feel more connected to school and their peers and help prepare them for Life After High School yeah um so most of or a large part of uh snowball is the large group activities um we have pretty much every activity student-led besides motivational speakers and that's just like uh speakers coming in and telling their stories and we kind of like learn different perspectives of things and like different outlooks that we should carry on ourselves um one of my favorite things is the workshops that the directors lead themselves it has like wide ranges of different things that we do it's like just like different things to be mindful about and like like I guess just being I don't know what I'm trying
008to say I'm trying to say like it's just a good opportunity to like be open-minded and like relief some stress and like stuff like that so yeah we also have skits that are director-led as well but and then leaders hop in and help out with that and it's like wide range of different things uh that can be talked about in those skates like different issues that are going on so that and then uh we also have the dance which I had my first time I got to do it uh this year in the fall it was a lot of fun we had coach of Josh it was just a lot of fun uh yeah really good guy oh yeah we also the other few things are across the line which is something that really can
009take a mental toll on people but it's something that like is so special to people because they really like see a perspective of seeing that you're not alone in different things in your life and I think that's really strong um and then the last thing is closing activities but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to share what that is it's kind of a secret but it's supposed to be uh very like performing and like closing to snowball itself so each student is put into a small group and these small groups are randomized and we really like doing this so you go in we missed the slide okay oh so continuing on a big part of snowball are the large group speakers and the workshop facilitators that students and staff are able to participate in and
010learn from with the expectation of our fall speakers rise together all of our adult speakers and presenters this year had a connection with north or south and that's to make sure that the staff and students who are part of snowball are able to connect with them and learn from them outside of the classroom environment and really like like I said connect with them on a deeper level instead of sitting in a classroom and just seeing them more so one-on-one being able to talk to them outside and also at our last snowball Crosstown a social studies teacher named Mr Lazaretto inspired us to create our own super suits which basically means you're creating this like I said suit that is consistent of different struggles you might have had but you're more so creating it to show
011off your interests and the support that you have from others and also the strengths that others might not see so that it Gets You Through tough times as he described to US during that large group speaking workshop and then overall you can see there's a list of different individuals who have helped us keep snowball going and have taught us different lessons throughout one being Mrs Klein who helps us with self-defense learning how to defend ourselves and it's a lot of fun everyone's able to get outside of their comfort zone and then also one of our snowball sponsors Mr Leslie who is in the crowd right now I'm not sure it's retiring after 22 years and being a part of 41 different snowball retreats sorry Luca but so like I was saying before I cut her
012off um each student is put into a small group and it's random and we do this so you don't this is it you're not necessarily with your best friend so this so you can create relationships with people you wouldn't necessarily mean if it wasn't for snowball um and then in these small groups you process the larger group activities um and then you Bond over like your team color there's always a cheer that each group makes up and there's also some team building components to that and then um oftentimes small groups stay in contact after snowball's over so like via text or social media um especially for like Crosstown schools because you won't necessarily see them at school um and then in small groups student participants observe what's involved with being a student leader which inspires
013many to stay involved with Stovall and apply to be a leader um or ejector I think we all we've all been affected by this and then student leaders plan and facilitate their small group activities with the support of adult volunteers which includes staff members and then also adult age d99 snowball alumni have come back to be snowball adults um okay so I'm just gonna talk a little bit about um the impact that snowball has had on me personally um so I was a director um at this past winter which means I was I worked alongside with seven other um seniors and it was just such an amazing experience because I got to see the whole idea come together um with the help of the adults but back during my freshman year I remember going to
014my first snowball and coming home and literally like crying to my parents because of like how amazing I felt about it and I just knew that this would be like my second home all throughout my four years of high school and it really has been it's always been my happy place it's the place that I can go and I know the people around me aren't going to judge me and it really makes me feel like I'm not alone everything I'm going through I can see that other people are also going through it and it just gives me a place to really like be myself um it's also helped me develop the best friendships in my life like all of my best friends have come out of snowball and it's also given me like such amazing
015leadership opportunities like even my freshman self like looking on me like speaking in front of all of you right now would have been like um but snowball truly helped me like come out of my shell and find my true self and just make me a very confident person um so I'm very grateful to snowball for giving me that opportunity and I can't wait to see it develop over the years with like incoming students okay so um coming oh speak are we staying there yeah um so I was a freshman and the whole idea of becoming a freshman is fitting in with everybody because you might not know um as many people as you did in your middle school and as someone who came from a middle school who the majority of students do not go
016to Downers Grove North it was very difficult to make friends and wanting to fit in so doing everything you can to be different and be like everybody else um I would say might sound bad but I was kind of dragged to go to snowball but I'm so grateful because I truly learned who I am and I know like what my interests are now and I'm able to speak up for myself and I'm able to tell others oh like this is who I am and snowball has definitely made an impact on me in that type of way especially also because I was always so like closed off and shy and going to snowball you're kind of forced to speak to other people you normally wouldn't talk to and like Mia I've definitely made so many new
017friendships that I definitely would not see myself having as a freshman girl coming into Downers Grove North and I definitely think snowball has that type of toll on so many different individuals and it just helps us all connect as a community so I was also kind of forced into going my freshman year by a junior at the time on the girls golf team who was a leader um and I agreed to go but I was very hesitant but I immediately fell in love with it once I got to Camp I loved how the leaders and directors were so passionate about the program and I just loved how warm and welcoming the environment was so I decided to come back and then I wanted to be a leader and then a director um snowball has given
018me such a great opportunity to work with people that I would never have been able to meet if it wasn't for snowball it also has like taught me how to be vulnerable in a safe environment in front of other people and be myself um yeah I've definitely grown since freshman year um I would not have thought I'd be speaking but um just the effect that snowball has on my life will last long after high school's over oh I just wanted to say so uh when I went into snowball for the first time like I was kind of like I knew I wanted to go I was a little hesitant because none of my friends were going at all but then I realized maybe that's a good uh opportunity to grow and so I got to
019go and like they're all saying I got to experience the amazing environment that it is and how welcoming everyone truly is it's just truly a special experience to have and I was given the opportunity to lead uh this year in Fall as a sophomore and because we didn't have enough leaders for uh Juniors and seniors but it was definitely an amazing experience I loved getting to uh spread my energy on other people and positive energy and like just like get to be myself I feel like that's the number one thing with snowball for me is I can be myself for a little while and just like have fun with everyone and it's just an amazing time every like no matter it's always an amazing time snowball is all is it gives both North and South
020students the chance to learn and grow together regardless of what school you go to and the snowball students and adult sponsors are so grateful for your support so we have wristbands for you and stickers and then we're gonna hand out some warm fuzzies which is what we wear at snowball awesome I wondered what those were because usually usually we see tutus in boas I was gonna ask what I was gonna ask to explain though yeah somebody want to explain to warm fuzzy yeah okay so basically when you go to snowball and you're put into small groups you get these little yarn necklaces that are like coordinated with your color like your color group so like I was a rainbow director so mine's rainbow um so basically um so the little like Pom-Pom at the end
021you can take these little yarn pieces out of them and you go up to someone and you tie it on their necklace and you give them a compliment nice um so it's kind of just like a way to like go up to someone and say like hey you were really nice to me at the dance I really enjoyed getting to know you and it's just like kind of a way to like spread compliments and make them feel warm and fuzzy so that's why they're called warm fuzzies I love it sending out warm fuzzies well I want to say for those of you who thought you could never do public speaking you need to let that roll off your shoulders you guys nailed it that should not be a question in your mind ever again what
022can I do to keep up the momentum of snowball I mean I think um just getting it like people like involved and just like spreading that it's out there um I feel like a lot of people are very closed off to it because they think it's like a cry Fest or it's like whatever but usually when people say that and they go they're like that was not what I expected it to be because like although it is like helps be very like reflective on your feelings it's a very like positive reflection um but I just think like trying to spread like what it truly is instead of what people think it is and maybe like promoting it as more of like a positive experience unless of like a cry Fest um did you find that
023um were there more participants this year especially coming off of an mab for staff coming off the pandemic because there was a lot that went on in the last three years were there more participants and then the next question is how do you Market it because I would think you know you mentioned a crack Fest if people sounds like it's awesome experience so unfortunately we haven't had as much participants over the past few years um but a way we try to Market it is post it through social media we have it in our daily announcements we post it on the TVs around the school um and a lot of like the leaders and directors will like promote it through social media so just like trying to reach people um through social media but um yes
024we kind of have had a decrease in our participants okay do you um reach out to like at the incoming students open house and things like that yeah are there meetings during the school days or are there is it kind of limited to these events it's mostly mostly for these mostly the events themselves other than the fact that the student leaders are meeting regularly to get things prepared so it's a little bit different in that sense from a traditional Club so the underclassmen participate get a chance in during the Retreats but not as much as sort of the ongoing work that we do um I think it's Johnny did you find that um your your friends once you came back and and told them how wonderful it is and how you learn so much did
025they participate this sophomore year so they're still a little shaky on it honestly if they don't come it's just more fun for me I can just like make more new friends it's all right they can I'll forget about them it's fine it's a little tough to get my friends out because I'm not like I'm kind of a minority of people that go I'm a football player I throw shot put and stuff like most people don't want to do that like that are on the football team but I think overall it's still a really great experience like that like everyone should have just because of like the positivity that's spread throughout it and I'm still working on trying to get those friends out for sure all right you'll get them going yeah outside the actual event
026itself how much time did you guys spend in planning I mean it's no small oh my God just a guesstimate okay so as a director at least like Madeline and I and the rest of the directors we were meeting like at least like two to three times a week so we would meet month once in the morning with the adults and like planning stuff and coming up with ideas and then we'd probably meet one to two times a week just the eight of us to like like kind of like build on those ideas and figure out what we wanted the event to actually look like and that includes like coming up with workshops picking a speaker coming up with a small group themes like things like that so I mean a lot of time and
027like really as a leader I don't we didn't meet as much as the directors do because we didn't have to coordinate the um all the events and everything like that but I would say at least with my partner we did meet a lot only because we got really close in the beginning and we started to like hanging out with each other and we became really close friends so it was more so trying to like build a connection and getting to know each other more and more after time Sundays we had skip practice which took around two hours and Mia was my director and then overall during the week maybe twice a week I'd say maybe for an hour and a half or two hours just to get done with shopping for our certain activities and
028then creating these these problems with the longest I will be completely this probably took a solid four days two hours each but um yeah it's a solid amount of time just to make sure everything's going smoothly any questions thank you thank you thank you yeah I think you should I think she was like a board to snowball I don't want to go great job okay student board members are they taking a picture oh Luke I think you need a picture we'll get your picture we'll start with Caitlyn okay so at South we're obviously in the last part of the school year so just trying to make it the last month or so as a senior it's definitely getting hard at this point but we still have lots to look forward to um this weekend I
029believe we have our Mustang Trot which is our 5K that raises money and it's just like a good way to be active and get students involved at South so we have that going on we also have our Musical coming up which is Mamma Mia this year which I'm super excited about they always do such a good job with all the musicals so I'm definitely excited to go see that uh we also have prom at the end of this month which as a senior I'm very excited for prom just to be with all my classmates and have a good time uh this week being a senior again is definitely a good week we have two days off Wednesday and Thursday for testing so two days that I will not have to go to school which is
030fun and gives a chance for juniors and juniors and underclassmen to start preparing for college and take those tests that they need um and then at the end of spring break coming back to school we started the new ID needing the stickers to leave during black periods just so people who are supposed to be in the building stay in the building and an idea that I brought to miss lip that we talked about was many students are relying on their digital ID more than the actual card that they have so having to use your physical ID for stickers sometimes create a more work having to go to the bookstore to get it printed so I believe that they're working on more of a digital ID system for next year just so it's a lot more
031convenient for students to just pull it up on their phone always have it on them at all times rather than maybe losing the physical card or not having it on you at the time so that's an idea for next year and I've also gotten a lot of questions about potential people wanting to be interested in the board position so this position will definitely be filled by someone great from South and there's a lot of interest at South so that's super exciting and our spring sports are in full swing our baseball on softball teams and all the other sports have had a lot of games I went to a softball game and it's just nice to see like students supporting not just the main sports of football and basketball but also being there and supporting our
032Mustangs for our spring Sports and we're just trying to make it through the last few months of school but we have a lot to support to ourselves um so sadly I did not get to hear what Caitlyn was saying but I'll try not to repeat anything that's similar um for this week it's definitely a stressful time for juniors and sophomores who are going through scts and PSATs overall many of the students I've heard are trying to push through to the end and putting all their focus onto these exams trying to give it all they can even with the emotions that are rushing the junior is going to become seniors the sophomore is going to become Juniors everyone's still trying their best to get through everything especially I know that personally the senior class although we
033might want to maybe give up towards the end everyone's still trying to get through so that we can keep on pushing till the end because I know there's going to be upcoming AP exams which is also just as big as SATs and PSATs but this week for Wednesday and Thursday it's going to be nice to have once again a little break in the middle of the week but um also this Wednesday no this Friday we're hosting our Ritter invite for track and field which is well known by the state of Illinois and there's 16 teams from around Illinois that come and it's this big event that happens we always host and everyone gets to help out in some type of way and be a part of this huge Community with some friendly competition it's it's
034so joyful it's nice to see everyone coming together once again creating that community of sports and also this Wednesday is our NHS award night which is once again one of those bigger things where we're able to create that community of individuals who have put in all this effort to keep their grades up and also help the community at the same time by serving their hours either tutoring some kind of student helping out in sports or maybe helping the people around here I know many people helped the association called Feed My Starving Children which is always so nice to help out as much as possible and the NHS award night just gives the opportunity people to be recognized in our school community and I know personally one of this is going to be the most exciting
035part of the school year because there are so many senior activities going on there's prom and then also the Big Six Flags night that everyone is talking about and also different assemblies that are going to be going on and I just personally think that North is coming closer towards the end and this last these last few weeks where everyone is just pushing through happy the weather is nice outside and it's definitely nice to see everyone so joyful thank you both thank you all right do we have any study for reception visitors not there yet I have a quick recognition before we get there um there are two one is Courtney's here with us uh received the Herman Graves award from the Illinois principles Association foreign Rousseau who's our director of Technology who's also retiring this
036year has received all kinds of recognitions this year but two big ones this is the biggest Tech director organization well one of the biggest uh Rod received two of their biggest Awards the first one is a brand new award uh kosin has been around for 30 years they recognized leaders in the field that made impact for the next for the last 30 and they expect will make make an impact for the next 30. so Rod's got work to do and he was also recognized as the volunteer of the Year for all the work he's been doing in leading schools and cyber security initiatives across the well around the world actually so he is a great leader for us and a great leader for the professional community so congratulations to rod [Applause] reception of visitors we
037have no slips okay and then we'll move on to the board Workshop student assistance program coordinators all right you guys get to tell me when to click to perfect [Laughter] I'm the Student Assistance coordinator at Downers Grove South and I'm Keith Bullock the coordinator at North the title doesn't really give away what we do Student Assistance Program so for those that are maybe unfamiliar we just wanted to share a general overview as to what kind of work Keith and I do in the district in our respective schools first and foremost we're both social workers but we work with a very specialized population and that population is students that are engaging in substance use or that are impacted by substance use in some way so we we work with the counseling and student Support Services team
038as well we work very collaboratively collaboratively within the counseling office with the other school psychologists School social workers as well as counselors to provide intervention in our specific areas of expertise with these students typically the way that our caseload grows is if there's a substance use infraction in the school building or if there's a concerned person for a student and they refer them to us so that we can offer them support most of our intervention is individual working with students however we also do support the the counseling team as well with support groups and group counseling we're going to talk a lot about this tonight but our main responsibilities within the district are substance use intervention prevention and leadership as you just heard our amazing students talk about that's a big part of our program
039as well and we have the unique ability to collaborate with everyone in our position so we get to collaborate with individual students we get to collaborate with the entire student body staff members families and the community at Large next slide please thank you so now a little bit about prevention and education operation snowball you just heard a lot about so that's that's one of our main prevention student leadership activities here and we also have blue crew at Downers Grove South and North Stars at Downers Grove North and these programs are freshman transition programs and they are completely led by upperclassmen and adult supported similar to operation snowball studies show that students who are engaged with their school and connected and Leadership positions are less likely to engage in Risky behaviors so that's why these major
040leadership programs really fall under our umbrella of Student Assistance and we wanted to share a bit about our prevention Communications so as you see these three logos on the screen the south north and District wide one 99 reasons what's your reason this is the substance use prevention campaign that we launched in the beginning of last year and we really were intentional about trying to make this a substance use campaign for everyone so it might be easier for a student who does not engage in substance use to come up with a reason to not use there may be more than 99 reasons to not use and they can come up with them easily but we also recognize that the populations that we work with almost entirely is using substances even those students have reasons to avoid
041use whether it be avoiding a certain substance whether it be avoiding a certain time period of using or for specific reasons everyone has a reason to avoid using so we're hoping that this campaign would reach a broader audience this year we had three Foci with our prevention Communications marijuana nicotine and Fentanyl in our school buildings we typically see marijuana nicotine which is why we felt it would be appropriate to tailor prevention Communications for marijuana and nicotine and that's also backed up by iOS data that Keith will be sharing shortly and the fentanyl communication is more of an awareness campaign fentanyl is not something thus far that we have seen in our school buildings but we are aware of the fact that there has been increased traces of fentanyl in the community which is why we
042wanted to share this information with students staff and families that goes for all of our prevention Communications so we we have a comprehensive prevention plan in which we share the information with students families and staff because whether you are inside or outside of the building we think it's important for all the adults in these students lives to be aware of the different substance concerns thank you so here are just a few examples of the communication so on the bottom left there is nicotine bottom right is fentanyl and above that is marijuana which will be launching later this month so typically we have about six to eight posters for each campaign each substance campaign that we launch with different information and this again goes out to students staff and families and that QR code is something
043that students can scan and we put that on the posters so that they can have quitting information as well as the the resources information which we pull to to put on the posters um so this is Red Ribbon Week which is arguably one of the most important weeks in Keith mine Keith's lives here at the district uh Red Ribbon Week is the nation's largest drug prevention campaign and dare I say this year it was fun so you can put fun and substance use prevention in the same sentence we got a ton of student engagement so that's what made it so successful that's what made it fun you know if if your audience is engaging with your message then that's how you know it's effective so you can see in that photo there that's in the
044South Commons and north and south did the same thing that's a line of students coming up to engage with our campaign and it was during resource periods this year and we we just had students constantly so we focused this year on combining the 99 reasons campaign with nicotine awareness so we had students fill out a paper so just old school pen and paper come up to the table fill out a quiz on nicotine facts and iOS data as well as writing in what's your reason so students filled that out they put in a box and they came up to spend a prize wheel and whatever prize that was had the 99 reasons logo on it because we know that getting that logo out there more normalizes substance use prevention messaging so that's something that Keith
045and I have been working on since our substance use campaign is so new we really want it to be viewed more so that's something that we're intentional about as well now that we have access we had the opportunity to create an access lesson that every student in the building saw about nicotine so that was something that we were able to launch that week as well and we created a student communication which you can see down there and that had uh various different models and we sent that out to staff and parents as well all right I'm going to talk a little bit about the Illinois youth survey so the survey we utilized the survey in a number of different ways including informing our communication as well as evaluating our programming in addition to giving us
046a broad spectrum of data on you know student behaviors interests concerns those types of things the Illinois youth survey is a state survey that's modeled on a national survey that's given biannually every other year and for the most part since uh we have 2008 and then we kind of jumped to 2014 and other than the 2020 year of covid we've been consistently participating as an entire School some schools do a sample population or they do just the 10th and the 12th grade and one of the things that the University of Illinois though funds is to survey every student and we really feel good about that process and practice because it it increases our sample sizes is enormous and then we're able to share with students that every single student who's there on school at school
047that day has the opportunity to take the survey and where we value the information the anonymous information that we get back from them and that's returned to us in the aggregate data from U of I who does all the processing for us um addresses topics of substance use is kind of where it's at at its start kind of at its heart but it's grown over the years to include a lot of different additional topic areas social emotional concerns issues related to bullying emotional health school connectedness questions evaluating their learning and their interest in learning which kind of predates the um five essential survey so we've kind of been getting some of that information for a little bit of time even before that and then some of the other things that are listed there as well
048related to beliefs and attitudes about substance use risk and protective factors for them particularly as well um and one of the things yeah one of the things I want to talk a little bit about too is how we use this for evaluation so we we create it it creates an opportunity to kind of evaluate how we're doing as a district and in our Student Assistance Program in terms of substance use prevention and reducing use overall delaying use is another important goal of the program as well so the the longer we can get students to hold out in their initial use of substance or any particular substance or any really adult behavior of that type um you know the health benefits just increase as well but we we evaluate we find opportunities in like with red
049ribbon week or through the iOS or through sometimes we do activities during drug and alcohol facts week in the spring to get feedback from the students about how they're feeling about the campaign so like the 99 reasons campaign really came out of student discussions during covid they were held virtually but about how we should make our program more inclusive and our approach more inclusive onto students it's so we'd like to take there's so much data from the the iys and it is all public and so you know board members staff members families parents community members can access this information for the state the county as well as for our district um we are sharing tonight District information um but what we found in general is that for really almost all of the domains that are
050data between the two buildings is very similar I think sometimes people feel like you know this building or that building and what we found is that the students report their experience in these areas to be extremely similar very much the same in terms of the data that we get back but we do get data back by building as well as by districts so we're able to compare that as needed but these first two points we wanted to share with you tonight um related to primarily related to social emotional uh aspects or domains for our students so one of the questions that's been a long standing question on the Illinois youth survey ask students about experiencing symptoms of depression so that's in that sort of gold color there during the past 12 months did you ever
051feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stop doing some usual activities and you'll see the increase there sort of in between covets so the 2020 year is where we did not or we're not able to survey students we were actually the week after we went into remote learning was when we were scheduled to take the survey which is why we did not for that year in particular and you'll see the increase and so this reflects you know National research um and even State research and data that we have that adolescents are struggling and they're struggling more than they have been after covet in a variety of ways and so as a person and as as people from our department in C Triple S it
052is concerning to see that that number of students find that throughout the year that they're experiencing these symptoms of depression one of the the um what are the perhaps positives when I looked back at the data from 2008 14 16 18 is that the uh the number of students that are experiencing depression to the degree of of having suicidal thoughts or ideations is kind of held steady um and so while we see students struggling at least based on the self-report from the AI where finding the students are kind of holding steady with in terms of the seriousness by which they're struggling with depression the the bottom left pie chart we ask students what they felt was their biggest contributor to stress which kind of interesting results the orange slice of the pie there at almost
05330 percent is the the pressure that they put on themselves what they identified um which is you know is something that I think over the last several years each building has really worked to encourage our students to take perspective and find ways to relax and find ways to step away from the stress of activities in class and horse work but it's a struggle and then the the pink kind of follows next with pressures from teachers and then the the slices of the pie at 15 are pressure and expectations from family or challenges to their emotional health some other smaller identified stressors in the remaining section one of the things we wanted to share tonight is some Trend data related to substance use and so this feel free to ask any questions you have as we
054go but what you're looking at for these next three um bar graphs is an average of all four grade levels in both buildings so when we're talking about the percentage of students who report using in a 30-day period That's this average so again asking a freshman in a certain group of kids might have a very different answer than asking a senior who runs in a different group of students as well right in terms of their experiences so we're really trying to capture everything by including the averages here one of the things you'll notice is that alcohol use is going down and it's been going down for decades nationally it's kind of an interesting phenomenon to people who are studying in people like myself to find that that's happening and that starts back with the national
055age of 21 and kind of just continues forward where kids are still utilizing alcohol as the most popular substance used for their age group but at much lower rates than you know 23 years ago and that's what's reflected in here as well one of the interesting things during covet is we were wondering what how that impacted substance use for students and a lot of the reporting for adults is that substance use activity went up during copen and the research is showing that it actually went down for adolescence during covid and so you'll notice that I think in in some of these bar graphs as well and so what we might find in 2024 we might find an increase to some extent in all three of these areas that we're talking about tonight one of the
056one of the nice things I suppose though that when I think about this is that oftentimes when I'm talking to students they'll ask or say well then students must be using marijuana just proportionally to the decrease in alcohol and that's not what we're seeing so we're seeing a decrease overall in substance use and some slight increases in marijuana use definitely which we would expect to see with legalization but not in a correlation of decrease and increase um this this chart tells a very different story related to nicotine use um the 2008-2014 shows a decrease again a trend of conventional students using fewer fewer students using conventional cigarettes or tobacco products as a decrease and then kind of the explosion of e-cigarettes and Vapes on 2016 hopefully peaking in what we see at 2018 and then
057you'll see that drop again there with covid um I would anticipate that that nicotine used just based on um you know returning to school and more normal activities is that that will increase but hopefully we've seen sort of the peak of trendiness related to nicotine Vapes at least within this age group come and go THC and marijuana use sometimes referred to as cannabis so many different names but you'll notice how steady this is held for the last several cycles of survey and the reduction I think even the 2016-2018 in my mind kind of holding steady and you'll see that drop there again after copid and we expect that that will bump up a bit as you know students return to some of their normal activities but again anything we can do to keep that number
058as low as possible is a benefit to our student body and their learning uh we try to utilize the data in in um organize it in ways that kids can readily pick up the information even just passing by in the hallway so we've tried to create um some communication that demonstrates sort of the data points in a way that is both interesting and quick to to understand so we just wanted to share a couple examples of that there and then talking a little bit um at any I mentioned this as well but are the intervention aspect of our job so in addition to the educational roles and the prevention work that we do we're also doing Social Work support with students uh related to substance use violations or possession at school including students if there's
059a violation related to the athletic and activity code and then we're also coordinating with the path coordinators students that might be suspended in school providing additional education and opportunities for reflection opportunities to motivate change or to have change conversations with them I'm encouraging that they may you know reconsider or have an opportunity to reflect on their use patterns we provide individual counseling we work in co-facilitating group counseling situations outside of substance areas as well with C Triple S members we work with the alpha teams who are meeting every week to support students and then we're often in touch with families make taking referrals providing support helping problem solve in student situations and then occasionally we're supporting students when there's a substance use concern related to parents students often if there's a situation like that they
060might let their counselor know and their counselor might create an opportunity for them to speak with us as well and create a relationship in addition to the relationship they have with their counselor we're very grateful we continue to be very grateful for the support Kristen Borman is here as well Kevin was here um we have a a history of support by the district by the board by the community for this position and we're very grateful we've had very few people in the positions over time and I think it's really led to an investment and and outcomes positive outcomes in the program so we're grateful we appreciate that questions I don't have any questions but I gotta see I'm really proud of you Keith what you've done since I've come here really impressed really impressed first
061of all great presentation I'm sorry that I'm glad we have you I'm sorry we need you but I'm glad we did um what percentage of students like what's your case look like I think it varies I think it varies between school it varies between year okay it just depends but but you know we we have the opportunity now with the path program which is something that is newer newer developed this year that we get to intervene um with students immediately so we get to go up there and meet with students who have had those substance use infractions it just varies it's hard to hard to put a number to it um but but we appreciate that we also have staff members reaching us out to us concerned parents reaching out to us so that it's
062not just through violations and getting in trouble in a sense that we meet with these students it's also from It's Always from a place of concern but we appreciate when it's it comes initially from a place of concern as well if we had students self-identify there have been a few yeah sometimes a friend will um sometimes uh you know some of the anonymous reporting opportunities that we have some of the kids will self-refer oftentimes a parent if it's not related to a violation a parent will contact the counselor looking for support ideas answers referrals and then they'll often refer that over to us I think in terms of caseload I wanted to say our departments are very relationship driven it sounds maybe almost a little bit cheesy but it's true that we really value the
063relationships that students have with the adults in our department so oftentimes if that student has a primary relationship say with their counselor or another social worker we would go in and provide support have conversation referrals without necessarily not necessarily A handoff you know um so I really love that because what it does is it kind of wraps around the kid situation so that's why I think it's sometimes hard to say this is our caseload because it's I don't feel like the counselors are sort of handing those students off to us and they become ours it's it's sort of communally hours thank you it's amazing that we have this it's really a good thing for our students and our parents well and this is an area where districts have looked to cut costs in the future
064and District 99 has maintained this programming over the years and this is a great service that Keith and Antonio offer our students and of course our entire system here so it has been you know the the board year after year supporting this program that allows it to stay strong and allows it to continue to grow and you can see like with the changes in the schedule and those kinds of things different opportunities that are presented for this work so um and of course path providing additional opportunities moving forward so I thank you both thank you very much thank you wonderful presentation thank you all right uh staff receiving tenure uh is a reminder to the board we don't offer 10 years of District the state does and there's a variety of ways that our staff
065acquire tenure every year at this time of the year we like to just make the the board and the community aware of our staff that have made it through one of those Pathways to achieve tenure and be awarded that by the state so sharing that with you tonight and then by doing so we share that with the public as well so congratulations to all of our teachers that have reached that milestone so this is the second reception of visitors anyone none okay so now we're going to move on to the public hearing the purpose of said hearing will be to receive public comment on a proposed application to waive a portion of section 27-6 of the school code to allow driver education to substitute for one semester of fiscal education public comment will be taken
066during the public hearing do we have anybody coming forward anybody that wishes to address the board on this I'll noticing requirements have been there say again the all noticing requirements have been met I'm sorry oh I'm sorry thank you all noticing requirements have been met for the public hearing for the waiver requirements following the public hearing the board will take action on the school code waiver application to allow driver education to substitute for one semester of physical education is there anyone who we have no one yet who wishes to address the board we have a motion to close the public hearings Mike and Chris thank you Mike Davenport aye Christopher Espinoza Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Terry pavisich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye and Nancy kupka aye the public hearing is closed now we
067need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the school code waiver application to allow driver education to substitute for one semester of physical education moved second Mike and Terry thank you very much Mike Davenport aye Terry pavisich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Chris drespinoza aye shirelle Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye and Nancy cupka aye motion carries thank you now we're going to ask for a motion to go into closed session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in the park recreational educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony and a complaint Lodge against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational study or
068a volunteer of the district or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity and Collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salaries schedules for one or more classes of employees and litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the district has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the district finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the fighting shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting so moved second Mike and Terry thank you very much Mike Davenport aye Terry pavisich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye chrispinoza Sheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye and Nancy kupka aye we're going into closed session we will not be taking any
069action coming out of closed session other than adjourning so thank everybody for their time questions