001right now okay yeah because I don't see everybody so uh we do have visitors here at the ASC and they can hear and see you up on the screen right now okay okay hello hello they wave back and say hello okay it's 6:30 uh let's call to order Julie can you do the roll call Nancy cupka present Fuller here Dan Nicholas here Terry pavich here Rick panado Rick panado thank you Jo Vasquez Drexler pres thank you uh we have a quorum let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance aliance to the flag of United States States of America and to the repic for which it stands stands one nation Nation Under indivisible okay I believe we start with student perspective student Bo student board member questions and comments no those were postponing for
002next week okay directly into uh the board workshop and the only item we have for tonight is uh the report on community transmission metrics which continue to be insubstantial although uh metrics have improved over the last week the DuPage County Health Department is still concerned about is there going to be a Thanksgiving Spike that follows in the coming weeks uh they said it takes seven to 14 days for those numbers and those cases to start showing up so um although overall it looks like uh people are doing more of what they should be and the numbers are decreasing so uh good news overall in the last week um but still uh strongly in the substantial area and uh above the threshold that we would have for returning to school at this time so that's my
003only report um any questions from board members uh next week we're going to talk about the um plans the tentative plans for next semester correct that will be uh next board meeting we'll start with uh the results of the surveys that went out on our last round of learning Gina and and that team are putting together a presentation on our findings from those surveys and then we'll go from that into our plans for iners return to inperson instruction that are heavily weighted BAS based on those survey results okay you know Dan I didn't hear a word you said yeah just ask will we be in person or I I haven't I need to talk to uh District Council to find out uh if under tier three we're able to return but it's likely that if
004tier three mitigations aren't relaxed that will still be virtual um Hank how are other schools able to go back during all this under tier three Arlington Heights just voted to go back Hinsdale the Catholic schools if they can go back why can't we at least try to to a hybrid model sure um really what it's connected to is a combination of where the metrics are currently and the instructional models that are in place with our instructional model being 50% of the students at a time uh were much different than some of those models that are bringing in much smaller groups of students at a time it's also based on the metrics in our area in DuPage County you know when you look at each School you need to look at both their location and their
005programming and what the metrics look like in the in our community uh what we had committed to in our community was for the first semester that we needed to see two weeks of improving metrics and be out of the substantial uh Community transmission level to return to our hybrid model that we had in place in our full design that design was built to keep students and staff safe under those levels of community metrics currently we're outside of that we haven't been trending back inside of it since uh well since we left the hybrid model so uh we're re-evaluating all of that data we're looking at the metrics and how that will work and we'll present on all of that next week but under everything that we set and structured for this semester and what we
006communicated to families about safety and how we would monitor that we're outside of that at this time so uh we're we're looking at everything and re-evaluating if we can modify that for second semester and that's what we'll bring next week but right now we're we're well outside of the range that we said that we would be running School under any other questions all right uh Nancy reception of visitors reception of visitors so this is an opportunity for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to Community High School District 99 comments are limited to three 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 secretary Mrs nidek visitors addressing the board need to come to the microphone
007and state their name the proceedings are being tape recorded for the purpose of producing accurate meeting minutes and they are being broadcast um and then I as the board president reserve the right to modify these Protocols of circumstances warrant please uh your uh observation of these protocols is appreciated all right and we have uh some visitors in the room I'll bring them up in a second we also had the online form open uh over the course of the day we receiv received 24 comments uh all of them encourage the administration and the board to second semester have students return to inperson learning and provide a variety of suggestions of things we should consider as we plan to do that all of those comments will be provided in whole form to the board tomor tomorrow and
008will be made part of the official board minutes thank you Dr with that uh give me a second to turn on the camera and microphone uh for the in the room and then they can come up and wanted all right can uh can you guys hear me yeah a little muffled but yeah um hi good evening thank you for um allowing visitors to come and speak tonight my name is Carrie Norris I have four children and one of them is currently a sophomore at Downers Grove cell could we speak up I can't hear very well is there a way to turn the volume up do you have your computer fully loaded Terry turn up your volume on your yeah you guys are fine it's it's at the ASC that isn't what's your speaker at though
009uh Terry yeah check your speaker setting it's it Max okay all right we're as loud as we can go here so all right sorry I I don't know so please start over sorry yes I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you that's okay my name is Carrie Norris I have four children one of them is currently a sophomore Downers Grove South and I'm just here to express our fa families desire to see District 99 open up and get our students back into the building next semester um I just I want to tell you why it's so important to us my husband and I work full-time out of the house uh we have no at home option to work and our three kids four kids are on their own uh while we're at work my sophomore
010son is a part of District 99 special service department he has a learning disability and he's serviced with an ie P his disability wasn't diagnosed until seventh grade so his first experience under the special education guidelines didn't occur until 8th grade at this time late in his education career he was full of anxiety fear tons of self-doubt and it truly was one of the most difficult years that we as his parents faced then he arrived at Downers Grove South and he discovered his casew worker and his team of teachers was full of wonderful people he admired them he felt comfortable he immediately just dug into High School really loved it and during his freshman year we saw a brand new kid he was happy he was excelling he was finally comfortable in his own skin
011he was easily reaching out to his teachers and getting the extra help he needed when he needed it he was proud of himself and happy he was earning A's and B's we no longer doubted his academic future at this time as we were seeing him rise and Conquer we saw his self-esteem increase for the first time ever now covid is here and of course we did expect some difficulty but we never imagined that his in-person instruction time which is what he needs to succeed would be diminished so greatly we feared the r ifications of remote learning but we felt confident that a hybrid model could at least fill in some of the blanks for him but then our hybrid model seemed to diminish too 12 hours in the building during semester 1 and that was
012it our son has given up we're at the point where he's he's just done he has regressed academically and socially and emotionally it's like we're looking at that eighth grade version of him all over again hopeless no drive to succeed rising self-doubt Rising anxiety and fear of the future feelings of hopelessness for college andora's sustainable career he feels he can't do it he feels he's not capable of learning anything his grades are suffering greatly I'll submit the rest through the form thank you good evening my name is Kate Benton I'm a parent of three students enrolled with District 99 I am also a pediatric psychologist on staff at lur Children's Hospital board members if you have as you have seen the latest studies and the recommendations from National experts are all confirming not only the
013safety of in-person learning but how crucial it is to get our kids back in the classroom excuses for not opening the schools are drying up while repercussions of keeping them closed are piling up educational losses are only the tip of the iceberg I'm here to speak to you about another set of repercussions those that are dear to my heart as a psychologist please listen carefully because if you care about the safety and well-being of our students your efforts must go beyond concern about transmission of covid-19 as your only singular objective we cannot simply ignore every other real consequence of keeping our students at home students do not have a shelf life you can't dust them off and bring them out next year and think they'll be just as good our students in remote learning are
014at high risk for many other negative outcomes and these outcomes are already happening in our community they're already at play let's start with physical health the entire fabric of our children's lives is being changed no place is this more real than in the state of Illinois where Youth Sports have been entirely shut down since March drama music many other extracurriculars closed gone remote when you take away all of those things what do you think happens a lot of bad habits get formed let's start with sleep new sh science is showing that increased digital media device exposure leads to the biological clock getting mixed signals about day and night transition which makes it difficult to fall asleep when you can't sleep at night guess what you sleep during the day when I come home from work
015it's not unusual to find not one not two but all three of my kids sleeping during the day and then they complain that they can't sleep at night one in four teens aged 13 to 19 reports that they are having difficulty falling asleep or they're losing sleep how about weight gain the average child in the United States gained seven pounds during quarantine in the spring students at home have constant access to food and little supervision during the day they aren't walking to school they aren't changing classes they aren't going to PE there's no sports or activities to offer structure and exercise should we be surprised that pediatric obesity is on the rise does anyone need to hear the long list of serious health problems that will be faced by this generation of quarantined children how
016about risky behaviors hundreds if not thousands of teenagers being left at home unsupervised all day do you think these students are taking covid precautions but maybe that's not our biggest worry my husband is going to give me is minutes research is already showing increases in Risky Behavior vaping drinking smoking elicit drug use all on the rise you know why kids report they turn to substances boredom and stress do you think these kids have reasons to be bored and under stress now let's get to the mental health repercussions rates of anxiety depression and teen suicide all on the rise a full one-third of teens during remote learning are reporting incre symptoms of depression social isolation more than a quarter of teenage students report not feeling connected to anyone one in 14s and young adults report having
017contemplated suicide in the last 30 days one in four suicide is the second leing cause of death in youth 12 to 17 years of age these are our kids what are we doing we should be sounding the alarm there's been a lot of talk about the need not to overwhelm Health Systems well I can tell you at lur Children's Hospital we are overwhelmed but not with covid we are overwhelmed with referrals to our Behavioral Health Department we are overwhelmed with referrals to our pediatric obesity clinic and the fatty liver program I can tell you in my division of Developmental Pediatrics psychologists and social Works social workers are going home in tears because they're spending their day trying to talk parents off the ledge kids with special needs who have the highest needs are not getting
018services or appropriate instruction right here at t99 we sit on adaptive pause if these opinions are not enough to convince you then let me end on one more point back in August one of our school board members remarked that she did not want on her conscience even one student who contracted covid-19 what I say to her what I say to all of you does your conscience have enough room for all of the negative repercussions of keeping our students out of school these are not hypotheticals these are realities which list of risks do you want to live with covid-19 has a 99.997% survival rate in our youth if you care about the safety and well-being of our students your efforts have to go beyond transmission of covid-19 as your only objective as a parent a member
019of this community and as a mental health professional I am asking the high school districts in 99 open on January 5th with an aggressive plan for full in-person learning it's the right thing to do and it's time thank you okay if I still have 30 seconds then I'll point out what the experts are saying American Academy of Pediatrics their official position the benefits in school far out the way the risks of Corona virus Dr fouchy the default position should be to keep the children in school and get them back to school director of the CDC Robert Redfield the safest place that our children can be from our perspective is to remain in school it's every bit as risky to have students at home fraternizing with their friends not wearing a mask not socially distancing thank
020you my name is Amy Romano um today I came on behalf of my daughter I worked out at 5 o'clock in the morning at a gym and my daughter works out at the same gym the other thing is I went to the office today I work in the office I've been in the office since March I haven't had a day off and I see Terry playing with her hair and doing stuff this is serious I'm here because my daughter who's a senior she is getting their kids are not participating in class with they have breakout sessions she is doing the frontt of the work and she is being bullied don't talk to me I'm busy playing video games I'm doing this you have you make these kids out that they have the Scarlet sea Brazen
021on their chest that they are Outcast the society because of covid I have run into friends picking up carry out have your daughter reach out to my daughter she is not doing good mentally and you know what my daughter is doing okay but she's not strong enough to carry everybody you are responsible to get these kids back math cannot be taught online it belongs in school science classes chemistry physics cannot be taught online you there's tiles of 30 kids how do you know if they're succeeding and thriving you have counselors you have all these sources how many of these counselors are checking in weekly with these students I know you have the resources but the kids don't reach out to them you have you are the adults in charge act like it do something for
022these kids we the parents have been left to pick up the pieces this it's it's the falling on them and mental health has tainted there are kids that are traveling to other states to participate in sports what does that say to you and you think that oh there was a party so we have to close down the school that's you you are driving these kids to find alternatives to find something and some hope and some of these kids are being bombarded with homework and you know what the amount of homework given does not show the value of a teacher a value of a class this year we've been very fortunate thank you we have nobody else in the room that wishes to address the board I'm sorry I couldn't hear you sorry I forgot to
023unmute thank you all for your comments uh was there anything else you wanted to add Dr thy no I had nothing more to add at this time okay at this time we need a motion to go in a Clos session for the self- evaluation practices and procedures or professional ethics when meeting with a representative of the Statewide Association of which the district is a member do we have a motion Terry Terry moved yeah do we have a second I'm sorry I couldn't I couldn't did I hear Dan believe Charelle second Charelle charel seconds pich I cherl fuller hi Dan Nicholas hi Rick panado hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi and Nancy kupka hi we will go into Clos session we will be when we come out of close session there will be no action taken from
024the board you're certainly welcome uh if you're still in the audience to stay um but we will only be uh adjourning when we come out a close session