001i am here yes christopher espinoza here all fuller jenny hagstrom here gary pavich here joanna vazquez drexler here nancy kupka this year 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 tonight's uh student perspectives is from north high and i think courtney's going to kick things off here oh no good evening everybody um i'm really really excited tonight to introduce you to some a few members of our empowerment club and um throughout this whole year i have just been so impressed by the amount of service that they have done for our community for other communities for the world frankly and it's just been something that i really wanted to highlight because i'm so proud of
002the work that they've done and they have taken on some enormous projects and um i've been talking a lot with karen spar-thomas who is here with them this evening as well and um i just wanted to make sure that they were recognized for their work because it's been really impressive and i'm going to let the kids introduce themselves here this uh this evening and talk a little bit about empowerment club and what they've done this year so if you guys want to come up hi we are at the dgn empowerment club my name is pelvi fisher rajan fisher molly fisher and madeline from [Laughter] we are a nonpartisan club and we aim to educate and raise awareness on current issues in our country in our world and in our community we believe that everyone deserves
003equal rights and we believe that everyone's voices should be heard so we try to recreate that change starting at dgn sorry so some recent drives we've done we have done lots of stuff this year but two of the things we want to highlight are our book donation drive and our ukraine drive we did this year in our book donation drive we donated over 4 000 books to books for cause along with some dvds and then we uh through our ukraine drive donated two and a half tons of resources to communities in ukraine very good very good um we also did a book drive so the book drive collected books and books and dvds through our organization called books for car books for cause and this organization basically gave books to impoverished communities and all over
004the all over the globe just to give them like give these communities access to like books and dvds that they wouldn't have normally and there was a there was 4200 books donated including the dvds so that's like a really good number just yeah so another really incredible opportunity we had was to uh do a drive to um supply some items for ukraine uh so we had an amazing turnout with 5 000 pounds of resources donated we collected hygiene products and non-perishable food and we just really saw a really inspiring turnout everyone really came together and we just really saw a really inspiring turnout everyone really came together we had dozens of awesome students at dgn pitch in to help us as you can see in the photos organized the things we needed lots of packing
005lots of stocking there was lots of boxes to be filled and over the weekend we saw teachers staff and parents come and help us actually load these things to be sent out and uh it wasn't really some intangible process we were able to actually watch as these uh these items were then transported to ukraine so we saw on tuesday the um the donations flew 4664 miles from chicago to warsaw poland uh the next day wednesday they were driven another 202 miles from warsaw to the border of ukraine um thursday they were driven an additional 40 miles from the border of ukraine to leve and this was just a week after we finished boxing up our collections and so on friday those donations were distributed and we were able to see just being able to make
006a small impact all the way around the world so that was really cool so like i mentioned we have been doing other things with the empowerment club and one of the things we try and do is educate the dgn community about different communities um in our area and so through the sign language club uh members of empowerment club were taught how to speak basic sign language we made valentines for senior members in our community we did a frito collo project where we collaborated with art club to make paper mache flowers that would replicate frida kahlo's hair piece we made tote bags with the sustainability committee of the huma of the empowerment club and we also wrote letters to legislators on different issues that people wanted to talk to them about so yeah thank you any
007questions for our students one thing that's so impressive is that these students not only design all of these things on their own this is not any teacher or staff member saying you should do this this is their these are their ideas and their work and their project and their sphere of influence is so large um everybody at north high knows what empowerment club is and what they do and it's so impressive so thank you guys so much [Applause] so how many students are in the empowerment club anywhere so we're the larger empowerment club as a whole which is a lot of members each year but then we also break into smaller committees that people can join however many they want just to sort of be able to focus on issues that matter most to them
008so we all help lead the humanitarian committee but then there's sustainability march for our lives voter outreach things like that um so those all have dozens of students in them as well and how do you decide on those things like you said you're the humanitarian but how you just said well let's just collect 5 000 pounds of resources for and send them across the world how do you decide to do do what you're going to focus on what you're going to focus on oh um this is i guess a funny story for the bookstore um uh drive we did we were going over all of the stuff we had like in our attic over winter break and my mom was like man i wish we just had some place to put all these books we
009have so much and so apparently everyone else's moms thought this day we just kept getting more and more like okay so many boxes but um stuff like that just kind of like randomly happened i guess well john you found the books for cause online right uh yeah we found it yeah we just looked up like different organizations close to in like the chicagoland area where we could where we could just donate this like massive amount of books and that books for cause was one of the like highest rated organizations in the area cool very cool all right well thank you thank you for all you're doing i just have to because i because i have to i have to so margaret mead right i have to read it because i always threw it up but
010i just might one of my favorite quotes in the world is never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world in fact it's the only thing that ever has so thank you so much for all that you do thank you well that's it for the fun part of the meeting okay we'll move to the approval of minutes we have a motion for the board of education to prove the minutes of the march 21 2022 business meeting the april 11th 2022 workshop meeting and the april 11th 2022 closed meeting so moved second chris and terry thank you very much christopher espinoza aye terry pavicich aye joanna vazquez drexler hi mike davenport epstein jerrell fuller jenny hagstrom aye and nancy kupka aye the minister approved thank you next is the uh
011and the meeting agenda is the uh the meeting agenda includes two opportunities for comments from the audience the first reception of visitors is intended for audience members to address the board about any agenda item on which the board will vote and the second reception of visitors is intended for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to community high school district 99. i believe you only have second yeah i think all of these are for the second reception of visitors anybody for the first reception all right okay hearing none we'll move on to the third third quarter financial report all right uh i'm i'm pitching in for our finance team tonight uh so the board received all the information about these third quarter financial report uh we're on pace for what we talked
012about at the beginning of the year which was running a deficit because we're paying off some significant bonds at the end uh over the course of this year um so you see that reflected in the overall bottom line on this slide but it's on pace for what we talked about back in august uh in revenues uh we're pretty much on pace for what we expected outside of food service which we talked about i think a couple board meetings ago um we're outpacing our projections by quite a bit um and yeah 5 800 uh yeah which of course is inflated you know as a result of first the pandemic the numbers that we had last year not knowing how we were going to rebound and then with the changes that we made in the food service
013this year uh you can see we're on our on pace for over one half million dollars in revenue related to food service and i know jenny that's many reloads of your student's id card thank you for your support yes thank you for yeah thank you for your support yeah expenditures uh were on pace very similar to last year outpacing it a little bit but you know this school year is much different than last school year but this is trending as what we would expect at this time of the year so that's the report it's an action item later on this evening i'll do my best to answer any questions that you may have if you have any looks like none all right moving on resolution on the 2021 tax rates uh those tax rates we
014bring you a projected amount and they're approved tentatively uh by the board in december so this document provides the overview of the changes that occur between the projected and the actual that were issued to us last week really the the big numbers that we take away from this right is that uh the tax cap rate is 1.4 percent you see that the top in green new construction is two percent a large portion of that new construction is bolstered by the downers grove tiff that rolled off and came on board this year that total new tax revenue is 3.4 percent we commonly refer that to as the revenue stream at this table uh the levy approved in december um was .0225 more than what we actually had come through so what i take away from that
015is that mark injury did a really good job of projecting what it should be that's probably a pretty good margin of error um [Music] so the tax rate overall because of our rising eav the tax rate will decrease to 1.8751 which is a decrease of 0.0073 which helps us continue our current trend i would imagine we will be right around 20 out of 856 school districts in the state of lowest tax rate so we we do pretty well amazingly well for our tax rate so value for your dollar in downers grove remains strong other items of note in mark's report as part of the setting of the tax rates is the rex nord abatement that uh the amount that we abate decreases year after year so the amount that we're abating this year is about
01637 000 uh as a result of that that change we also have a change that allows us to recapture uh some funds from property tax objections so that will be an additional 162 000 that we receive this year as a result of that change at the state level this is an action item this evening do my best to answer any questions that you might have all right moving up districts auditor services as the board is aware we have a current contract with miller cooper that was a five-year contract however within that contract we come back and set the rate each year the recommended rate which is an action item this evening is set at forty thousand five hundred dollars this is the group that does our audit brings us the annual comprehensive report in december
017january of each year and then does all the auditing of the district so this is an action item this evening that we recommend approves questions all right oh look at that just says what i just told you all right uh support staff contra association contract uh as i informed the board uh earlier today this was ratified by the support staff association this afternoon it was presented to the board last week in closed session provided an overview and discussion with board members as well as the draft contract language is in the board packet was provided to the board as well over the last week i've received no additional questions from board members however i'd entertain any if they exist at this time quick one um how just more of a curiosity question how did um or
018at all did the pandemic experience of the pandemic affect this contract negotiation is there any anything in some subsequence i i think that um yeah i would say of most substance is the fact that we entered into an interest-based bargaining arrangement with support staff this time went through the training and went through that i think a lot of that was just built on the trust that existed between the groups throughout the pandemic you know there's been a lot of communication a lot of working through ever-changing guidelines and the way that things should work there was great interest of support staff following the same kind of model that we used with the teachers pre pandemic so that really led into the process i think the outcome is more driven by inflation by challenges in the job
019market related to the pandemic and those kinds of things where you see this one-time adjustment in salaries especially amongst a couple of groups to bring us more in line with market so that we can try to attract and retain some employees in positions that we've had a challenge in doing so over the over the last year and in some ways even years before that so really it's more of the post if we're in the post pandemic period that is causing you know some of the changes that we felt we really had to make in compensation in this model most notably increases in insurance benefits as uh the research out there shows that that is one of the key pieces for attracting and retaining employees right now it seemed like a quick review of the documents
020it was kind of a win-win situation space sets out to do right yeah so at the beginning we set out both sides agreed to what the goals of negotiations were and at the end we were able to achieve in some creative way all of those goals as outcomes we definitely value our support staff so absolutely i'm glad that we got the win win so this is up as an action item later on this evening as well freedom of information requests we continue to receive them fill them and they are posted up on our website if you search for foia you can see this recently fulfilled foia requests which provides you a report on all of them okay moving on to consent agenda is there anything any member of the board wishes to extract for further
021discussion going on i'd just like to point out and thank gina zaccardi for serving on the dupage area occupational education system board of directors thank you so much so we need a motion for the board of education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes the personnel report appointments certified changes of position classified appointments classified personnel report resignation certified retirements classified resignations classified financial pages the district auditor services and the resolution of appointment to dupage area occupational education system board of directors which is so moved second mike and terry thank you very much mike davenport aye terry pavich aye joanna vazquez drexler aye christopher espinoza aye shirelle fuller hi jenny hagstrom aye and nancy kupka aye the content consent agenda carries next we'll move on to the action items the first we need a
022motion for the board of education to approve the agreement between the support staff association and the board of education district 99 from july 1st 2022 through june 20th 2026. second joanna and chris thank you very much joanna vazquez drexler hi christopher excuse me christopher espinoza aye shirelle fuller aye jenny hagstrom aye terry pavasic aye mike davenport aye and nancy kupka aye the item carries next we need a motion for the board of education to adopt the resolution entitled resolution authorizing the dupage county clerk to extend specific tax rates for tax year 2021 so moved second chris and joanna thank you very much christopher espinoza aye joanna vazquez drexler aye mike davenport aye shaw fuller aye jenny hagstrom aye terry pavasic aye and nancy kupka aye the motion carries okay we'll move on then to the
023second reception of visitors this is the second reception of visitors which is intended for audience members to address the vote on any topic pertaining to community high school district 99 comments comments will be limited to three minutes to provide all visitors an equal opportunity to address the board individuals needing more time should submit their thoughts in writing to the board secretary mrs nydiak 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 proceedings are being tape recorded for the purpose of producing accurate meeting minutes and we are being streamed aboard i the board's presiding officer reserve the right to modify these protocols of circumstances warrant and audience observation of these protocols
024is appreciated thank you all right first speaker is noel manley good evening my name is noel manley and i'm a resident of darien illinois the united states is not a racist country and district 99 is not a racist community however despite president kupka's public statement last summer about critical race theory not being taught in district 99 the district presented during school during the school day a video entitled the faces of dgn this 10-minute video was presented to students on january 28th 2022 during the school day from 10 30 am to 10 53 am the video included a five question worksheet discussing intersectionality and how it applies to the student for those of you not familiar with intersectionality i suggest you consult one of the district's 16 copies of the critical race theorist ibram x kendy's
025book how to be an anti-racist specifically you'll find mr kenny's discussion of intersectionality on page 188. the video presents the marxist concept of intersectionality through the use of two teenagers indoctrinating two elementary school students to the concept rather than have a serious discussion or debate on the matter the video rolls into a series of tired racial and ethnic tropes that pander the worst stereotypes of the past in typical critical race theory manner the video stereotypically presents two children of color jerry and fatima is coming from marginalized groups while presenting a white child greta as growing up with the wind at her back this unserious presentation allows for no room to discuss poor white people in this country nor is there any effort to illustrate successful muslims or hispanics i wonder where the muslim neurosurgeon who
026removed my brain tumor in 2006 and saved my life falls in this discussion i guess nowhere because he does not fit the narrative the video then rolls into a series of cringe-worthy declarative statements by students and staff indicating their ethnic background and what they are not a mexican-american young man declares he does not like tacos a young muslim woman declares she's not a terrorist and a teacher that he is not a member of the mafia this is a waste of time and a waste of taxpayer dollars on a more critical and more critical race theory indoctrination so in the spirit of this video i thought it'd be appropriate for me to make some declarative statements i am native american specifically i'm of the ojibwe nation i'm from a place called and i am not a
027drunk i am an ojibwe man but i am not a victim and i'm an ojibwe man and i have no patience for liberal white racial pandering thank you our next speaker is laura hoist good evening my name is laura hoyce i'd like to address transgender training in sophomore downers grove north health class last week on april 12th teachers at downers grove now north presented the gender unicorn to 10th grade students this gender identity gender expression training was handed out and collected at the end of class in other words the trans student educational resource was carefully guarded for secrecy students aren't allowed to take these papers home district 99 does not want parents to know what teachers are telling their sons or daughters that there are other genders besides female girl and male boy that there
028are expressions other than feminine or masculine that sex assigned at birth includes not just female or male i'm sorry but also other inter or intersex according to the epic times april 13 and 19 opinion article the biden administration policies are pushing puberty blocking transition surgeries for transgender children the federal government will force taxpayers to pay for medical interventions such as puberty blockers hormone therapy and gender affirming surgeries this is nonsense this is evil it's marx's teaching that's intended to destroy our families it's grounded in communism urging students to follow the government and ignore your parents do you folks know about this do you approve of gender influencing and sex grooming at donnerfield north and south i'm speaking of what occurred at downers grove north last tuesday i don't know what's happening itself does district 99
029engage in telling girls they can become boys without telling their parents should our schools be teaching students that they may be attracted to the same or other genders should teachers tell them it's okay to be emotionally attracted to the trans craze to become popular if you want to know more go to transstudent.org gender there you will find the transgender unicorn sheet shown in all colors and languages there you will learn that for transgender people sex assigned at birth and their own internal sense of gender identity are not the same superintendent thiele and district 99 board members and participating teachers stop corrupting our kids stop grooming our kids for kinky sex stop forcing students to fulfill your political agenda restore quality education at downers group now south and downer stroke north thank you ms hoyce if
030you are aware of a teacher that is actually grooming a student in the proper term of grooming please share that with us we don't take the term grooming lightly in the school district we don't take that as a term that you just throw around lightly so if you are aware of a staff member that is actually under the technical term grooming a student i ask you to seriously bring that forward to me in confidence thank you next speaker is i can't make out the first name i think it's briner thank you ed again my name is ed brainer lifelong resident of donors grove graduate of downers community high school in 1962. it was a time fortunately when the high school focused on math science and history versus what i'm afraid they focus more on critical
031race theory pornography and sexual orientation now but i digress you might recall in september of 2021 the national school boards association sent a letter to president biden requesting that he direct federal law enforcement to investigate parents as domestic terrorists on october 4th the u.s department of justice under merrick garland directed the fbi and u.s attorney's office to investigate parents for harassment intimidation threats of violence against school board members and school employees because of that 13 states including illinois have withdrawn membership of the national school boards association and many more have distanced themselves from the same district 99 has paid the national school boards association four thousand hundred and sixty-five dollars annually now that illinois has left the school boards association will district 99 withdraw and cancel any further payments to the national school boards association
032hank we asked you this back in the fall when this came about and you had indicated that as the year progressed you would make a decision whether you will continue in the national association so i ask you again if this has been the case if you withdrawn mr browner if you'd like to reach outside if you'd like to reach out to me outside of this meeting i'd be happy to answer your question however this is the reception of visitors and this isn't a time for dialogue very good and at that time i would like to know what you get for that four thousand dollars thank you feel free to email me okay let's move on to communications and announcements jenny anything on uh lund i don't have anything this week it'll be uh next week
033do i am assassin uh education foundation we're meeting uh wednesday so chris anything on isbs nothing exciting okay upcoming board meetings on may 2nd we'll have a workshop meeting at 6 30 pm here in the asc on may 16th we'll have our regular business meeting at 6 30 again at the asc uh we have no close session so we just need a motion to adjourn so move second uh that would be um terry and chris all those in favor aye aye all those opposed your adjourned thank you everybody have a good evening thank you