001order please we'll call christopher espinoza here uh jenny heggstrom here terry pavicich here joanna vazquez drexler here nancy kupka here scholar o'hara here jade talladeno here thank you we have a quorum let's stand for the pledge i pledge 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 okay before we start with student perspectives i would just like to take a moment i'm going to go already i hear all the time from hank and ed and courtney and mark and others that their work in education is all about the kids and that's genuine and heartfelt and speaks to their dedication as educators but another man who was all about the students he he was too formal
002to say kids has died and before we begin our meeting i want to take a moment to remember mark mcdonald dr mcdonald was the principal of south high from 2003 to 2008 and the superintendent from 2008 until he retired in 2016. if you never met dr mcdonald he was an excellent ex-wrestler uh and football player tall broad-shouldered quiet very serious very formal man he cut an imposing figure but he also but he was also a smart talented and gentle soul who genuinely loved his students and teachers he worked hard to do what was best for the students district and community he championed inclusion and worked hard to understand and meet the needs of every student he pushed for challenging curriculum and student support he advocated for professional development and career growth among teachers and administrators
003he had a wicked sense of humor you can read more about his distinguished career and accomplishments on our website even in his retirement dr mcdonald served the students in our district including volunteering as an avid tuner he was the biggest of men in the best of ways he will be missed in honor of dr mcdonald let us each do something extra this week for the students thank you and representing the administration i had the opportunity to uh to pay tribute to dr mcdonald at the iasb dinner the other night and uh quite appropriately in the north high commons and he was superintendent here when that was first kind of even dreamed of and thought of i know that he he was an incredible leader and an incredible model for administrators here and staff and students
004in district 99 our paths crossed as i transitioned over into the district that was a tough act to follow so he will be greatly missed and his impact on district 99 will be here forever so he will be missed thank you and thank you joanne student reports student board members okay so i will start tonight uh so i'd like to start off by commending our winter guard although it is a winter season sport uh their efforts and how they played and did their um their competitions this season bumped him up a division so north now is in a higher division than we have been in the past which is super exciting and our spring sports have had their first meets at home their first games and i although it might be the weather also that
005it's getting warmer and the energy is coming back to students i think it's also them being able to participate in their sports that they so dearly care about and i'm really excited to see uh how well we do this season um as we started to head into the end of the school year for some it's exciting for some it's bittersweet uh we've had our first induction ceremony of the year for triumphs national music honor society so that was last tuesday and i'm really thankful for the advisor who's amanda zell who now has given this opportunity to students at north but is now opening a chapter of triam at south so it's going to be able to give this opportunity to both groups of students at both schools which is really incredible and along with these
006awesome opportunities that our students are given uh the application for the next student board member has officially opened for next school year dr demand sent out the email last week and i'm really excited to see who sits in these two places next year to further enhance this role because i think that everything's a learning experience this has been quite the one for scarlett and i and i'm really excited to see the opportunities that they get next year uh last weekend we had the journalism sectionals at north north and south compete in the same division and this wednesday we'll find out who made it to state uh for the different events which is so exciting it was fun to compete very stressful but i'm really excited to see how our students do and as we also
007head into the end of the school year the prep for graduation is on and it's exciting it's a little scary i'll be honest next week we're receiving our cap and gowns for graduation next month and i'm really excited to see how everything plays out in the next few weeks as we start to wrap everything up and also i know i don't see gina here tonight but i know she's been working hard to get the cila by literacy test done north will be administering theirs next week on tuesday and i think that's another opportunity that our students are provided which is amazing so they can showcase their talents and the skill that they've been able to obtain and this week for scarlett and i is an amazing week it's short we have lots of testing going
008on for our juniors sophomores and freshmen for their sct and psat and we've been there and i wish them the best of luck and i hope they remember that it's a test a lot of schools are test optional now and a test doesn't define you it's it's a number so that's my little reminder okay um so south's back to being full of activities and we're back into it spring break was nice and restful break but uh we're ready to get back to the swing of things and push for these last few weeks as jade said our spring sports have kicked off their seasons with a lot of success our boys varsity team placed second in their tournament over the weekend and i'm also hoping for some nicer weather for the baseball softball teams they've sort
009of been rained out of a lot so just nicer weather they can get some games on their belts and some momentum as they take out the rest of their seasons and as jade said i want to wish luck to our juniors sophomores freshman anyone taking state tests this week as she said we've been there i know how hard that can be but you know it'll be okay um also i want to highlight our mustang trot that happened yesterday key club hosts an annual mustang chat to 5k around the neighborhood and they pick a worthy organization so this year all donations and everything went to honor flight chicago so they had some members of the organization come and they presented the medals so as always that was a big success and this upcoming week so next
010week will be our spirit week hosted by our athletes committed to excellence club and this week will feature a different dress-up day each day so i know one of them is like bring anything but a backpack carry your stuff around western theme and then friday will be our spirit day so everyone has their class color and we'll have different competitions between the classes during lunch periods so like guess that song minute to win it challenges all to earn spirit points to win that coveted spirit jug on friday during our assembly and i'm excited to be a senior we can't wait to see who wins it and then as i said i'll be capped off with that spirit assembly and we're very excited as a south community to once again have our spirit week and have
011an indoor assembly i personally can't wait to see what these last five weeks of school will bring for myself and all the seniors and jade and everyone at the south thank you questions okay dr thiele returned in person learning uh continued to show what we've seen for pretty much for the last eight weeks we're not seeing an increase in schools in our school yet we know that there's a slight in uptick in the community but at this point with five weeks left this is the last report i plan on giving unless something in policy or rules or anything changes uh we're just going to make it through the end of the year and then hopefully we don't have to report on this any longer um yeah or that it doesn't come back so this is
012the last report on return to to uh in-person learning questions i can't believe it's five weeks five weeks yeah we are interested it seems like yesterday uh the board received a report for staff receiving tenure we have eight staff members this year a reminder that that is granted under certain conditions by the state of illinois not by the district but we always just take this opportunity to recognize that publicly and with the board we have no comments online we have no uh no one wishes to address the board wishes to address the board all right then we'll be moving into closed session i need a motion to move in a closed session for the collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees of their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules and one or more
013classes of employees and the purchase or legal excuse me the purchase or lease of legal of real property for the use of the district including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired so moved second terry and joanna thank you very much terry pavich aye joanna vazquez drexler aye christopher espinoza aye jenny hagstrom aye nancy kupko aye thank you we are in closed session we will not be um taking any action when we come out when we'll be coming out to adjourn so thank you all thank you thank you thank you you