November 16 School Board Meeting

001Hi Sam all right sorry okay we should be live here in just one second okay I know you couldn't see me I was turning on my video okay thank you hi we're just waiting to go live this is this is like the uh the um the rocket that went off on uh on Saturday I hope so it was it was a successful launch yes it was it was great those are always very exciting to me well it's nice that we're able to do it ourselves now and not have to rely on other countries to get our get our men women up there yeah yep uh we're we're we're live everyone so anytime uh anytime you like thank you Rod sure so can we have a call to order please roll call Mike Davenport here charel

002Fuller shelle you're muted please here thank you Dan Nicholas here Terry pavisic here Joanna Vasquez Drexler here Zoe Boyd here and Sam B here thank you thank you everyone we have a quorum next item is a pledge of allegiance we can all stand and say the Pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag FL of the United States indivisible and Justice all thank you everybody next item is a a superintendent item Hank take it away uh good evening everybody uh I know we've moved to uh this virtual setting and unfortunately we can't all be together tonight because of changes in the Illinois Department Public Health uh rules for tier 2 mitigation in DuPage County otherwise I'd love to be together with uh [Music] the sorry right uh to uh personally thank everybody for their service to

003The District 99 Community yesterday was school board uh member day in Illinois and uh it's our opportunity to recognize the uh volunteers that school board members are uh and the service that they provide for overall Community as a former School Board member myself I know the amount of work that it takes to be a a school board member and as the person that Farms off a lot of work to school board members I know how much work it is so uh thank you all for for your service and for everything that that you do uh we did on behalf of the community provide uh school board members with a small token of our appreciation which is uh the same commemorative Hammer that we gave out to our neighbors oh there we go on Q very

004good Mike there you go there you go so really cool thank you so much very cool also at this point uh this is the point of the Year where we traditionally recognize board members for their uh professional learning uh that they've done with the Illinois Association of school boards and uh we have several board members receiving recognitions this year uh board member Davenport with uh as a master board member maintaining that certificate uh year after year Dr kupka with the level two uh recognition uh board member pavisic with a level two uh Rec nition uh board member panado also level two and board member Vasquez Drexler with the leadershop member recognition for attending emies so uh congratulations on your recognition thank you for uh your professional work uh around becoming a or continuing to develop

005as a board member um so uh thank you all and uh thank you for uh your continued dedicated work for the district thank you Hank thank you Hank appreciate it um uh next item is the uh approval of minutes for our October 9 19th uh business meeting and our November 2nd Workshop meeting can I have a motion to approve the minutes as submitted uh so moved second Ry pavich I Joanna Vasquez Drexler I cherelle fuller hi Dan Nicholas hi Rick panado hi and Mike Davenport I the minutes are approved thank you um next item is uh our uh reception of visitors um is there anybody uh do we have anybody that's wanting to to talk uh here in the district office nobody is here and we have received comments through the virtual uh format however

006none of them are on action items so they'll be read at the end very good all right so next item then is uh our recommendations and reports of superintendent uh take it away he all right I'm gonna have Rod pull up the presentation for this evening and share that uh screen with all of you but we're going to start with the return to inperson learning as uh as many of you are aware uh the metrics across uh Illinois and DuPage County and even our own School Community uh continue to not improve uh over the last few weeks uh brod if you'll move to the next slide so the the different metrics that we look at are uh include the Illinois Department Health metrics um we've been in Orange for two or more consecutive weeks so

007that puts us at a substantial level uh our metrics continue to get worse in the Illinois Department of Public Health metrics they also continue to get worse on the Illinois Department of Public Health County School metrics uh the DuPage County metrics we have to extrapolate right now off of the idph metrics uh we're waiting for that document to be updated it's typically updated by 3M every Monday however there's some challenges right now with the two Data Systems between uh idph and Dage County holding hands with one another so we expect that that document will be released uh sometime uh tomorrow however um based on our conversation with the health department this afternoon and them looking at the preliminary data from idph uh our metrics continue to get worse and continue to move further into the

008substantial range then we use the Northwestern uh dashboard to look at the ZIP codes in the district 999 Comm Community when we look at that our community positivity rate continues uh to be to become a higher number up to 13.11% as of last Friday we always look Friday to Friday and the number of new cases is 504 per 100,000 so every one of those metrics continues to go in the wrong direction uh Rod if you go to the next slide when we look at are internal cases um we know from the past when we aren't having people return to school for in-person numbers that some of these numbers are lower or lag because uh there's really no reason to report that a a student is ill unless they can't participate in class however you can

009see that our numbers of positive diagnoses uh have have crept up and now we're sitting around 10 or 11 right now our staff numbers have gone up over the last couple of weeks and then the asymptomatic or close contact quarantines uh have increased amongst our staff but decreased amongst our students in the last week um Rod next slide so at this point we keep monitoring the data and uh we're in that adaptive pause for last weekend this week we had always planned on being remote for the thank the two days of Thanksgiving and then by the following Monday uh we'll make a determination if we're coming back that week we've always said that we look at two- week Trends so uh in order to return the week of November 30th we would have to see

010numbers start substantially declining for this week and then for next week and then on the 30th we'll make a determination if we're coming back at that point or if we're continuing uh the Adaptive pause and continuing with remote learning at the same time we're in the process of uh Gathering feedback hopefully everybody in the community received their uh surveys to provide us feedback on how uh specifically the two weeks of hybrid learning went we'll be looking at that information as well as working with our leadership teams and the variety of teacher committees to start planning on what second semester looks like um assuming that all of the guidelines and everything that's come out from the state is the same uh if those guidelines become less restrictive or more restrictive that could impact how we return

011in December or coming back after winter break so a lot of planning going on right now but we've learned a lot uh over those weeks of of hybrid learning so at this point any questions that um any board members might have um Hank um just in observation just looking at how our our numbers have increased and you see the strong parallel with what's happening in the in the in our broader community and so just something that you keep emphasizing in our Communications to our our own Community here is how you know we can have an impact if people will will you know be safe and wear masks and you know we do have it within our power in this in our own Community to to stem the tide here and um and I I just

012the observation just that hey look there you can you can clearly see everything everything that's happening outside the school you know it parallels what we're seeing in the school and um if we could just just come together as a community we could we could improve things so that we could get the kids back because that's something we all want to so yeah from the beginning I've been dedicated to getting students back for in-person instruction but it has to match the safety metrics that we've been provided by the health professionals and say it's safe to do that as soon as those metrics are are where we need them to be we will definitely bring students back for inperson learning that's what I've wanted as the board well knows as the community well knows that's been our

013the mission of our Administration from the start and our our teachers are behind us on that that um we just need to make sure that the health professionals are saying that the conditions are right in our community to do that so as you said Mike if if we do our part in the community and limit the mixing of groups and if we're not with somebody that's in our household both people wear masks and keep their distance from one another then we can start driving these numbers in the correct direction and and the CDC just put out some information in the last few days that you know maske wearing helps both the person both both people right they've now said it's not by wearing one you're not just protecting others you're protecting yourself so um we

014continue to get more and more information that says washing your hands wearing your mask keeping your distance from one another is is going to be the three key strategies that allow us to get students back to school yeah I I just feel like clearly we can't have it both ways here because we're looking at how the numbers are trending so we have to do our parts because I I want the kids back in school too I I just wonder One Thing do Sports impact our numbers do we have any idea about that are they driving up the yeah they driving up the numbers not here at school I don't know about youth cases in the community I haven't looked at that that data um you know and it's really hard as we talk to the

015health professionals they have some new data from Illinois as to where people have been in the days before they started showing symptoms but that doesn't necessarily mean that they got it there right that just means that they were there okay so it's really hard to tell and there's also uh some challenges in contact tracing and people keeping track of everywhere that they've been and you know it's hard data to gather so it's really hard for us to pin it on anything uh in the in the community necessarily uh that's why just everybody doing their part is what's going to change this yeah thanks so Hank um when you have your discussions with the health department are those discussions also Beyond just the actual Community numbers are they centered around the impacts to our kids you

016know the the the higher case of depression and the I mean don't hear any of that coming out of the health department I want to make sure that they're considering those impacts as well especially considering that you we all know that the rate of of serious cases among School AG children are much lower and I'm just trying to get the sense of are our health professionals in the state balancing that out when they're making recommendations yeah that's a great question Dan and we yes the answer the short answer is yes um the the long answer and the evidence to that is some of the Chang ches that were made if you remember back when the metrics were first released uh it seemed like there was a hard line between moving into substantial and schools moving

017fully remote but as the fall went on and uh the response of uh hospital beds filling up due to mental illness the uh number of uh responses due to uh drugs and alcohol uh the rising amount of domestic abuse all of those things that we look at that's when the health professionals were really telling us you've got to find a way under these new guidelines to get students back and that's when you saw all of us tear up the plans that we had that weren't going to work in moderate or substantial and that's when we came back with the two periods a day and you know one passing period and schools uh across the area started going to like 25% models you saw a whole whole bunch of changes amongst the high schools in the

018area so that we could come up with a plan that would work in higher levels of community transmission uh because the Health Department's not only because we knew that it was important for kids to get back but the health department was saying schools you've got to find a way if you can to get kids back to what's normal and we we worked really hard to do that and it took some time to retool that plan and the problem is is we you know once we got them back we got them here but then the the community numbers not related I don't think necessarily to schools entirely or we know not what was going on inside of our hallways but just the larger Community the spread started growing at a rate where we're reaching levels where

019the health department says we can't guarantee that your your PPE or your safety measures are going to keep transmission from occurring within your school and at that point we can't have people school if we can't be sure that we can keep them safe right I mean I I it's a tough balance I mean not to be cold-hearted but the the community at large if you look at the numbers over the last three weeks the numbers are skyrocketing Illinois so people obviously are not doing what they need to do to control this virus and the ones that are suffering are the kids and if the kids are the ones that are at the least risk I'm wondering if they're safer being in school because being in school means they're going to be wearing PPE they're going

020to be wearing their masks they're going to be in a controlled environment if they're out of school they're out in the community at large which has proven to us over the last month that the community at large isn't taking this seriously or isn't taking this as seriously as they should so I I I'm not criticizing I'm trying to struck to strike the balance of what's right it feels like the community because of the community spread we punishing the kids for something that they're at least risk to get seriously ill ill so these are great points and things that we talk through with other superintendant with the health department the the challenge is um schools are not separate from their communities so when we are open and people are leaving their houses to come to school

021kids are leaving the house to come to school there's more people out in the community as well you know theoretically our students should be at home during during the day engaged in school and doing their their work remotely right now and not out where they should spread it and then after hours should be say following the same protocols that everybody else is following uh the challenge is is we have uh a school with you know when we're running the M modified hybrid model we have over 1,200 people coming in on a single day that that's big numbers that's not like a small elementary school and in that school we have people of all ages right we do have students but we also have staff as well and we have parents bringing students to school and

022so now you have you know if it was just kids then yeah the theory is is probably more solid that we're not seeing the same rate among students but the students need to be here with adults and those rates are are worse and the impact on adults is worse however the health department reminded us today that rates are growing equally at all age levels right now so this isn't a thing that isn't happening to kids uh and the the greatest increases in the last month in our area have been youth cases so um yeah I just know in reading some articles today good news on the vaccine front but they said at the very earliest you're talking April May June of next year to have widespread distribution if these numbers don't get get ready we're

023going to lose an entire year for these kids and I don't think that's fair because this population is the one that are least at risk and they're going to lose a quarter of their High School experience and this I don't know it's it's getting to the point where I'm feeling these kids no matter what the numbers are should be back at school because we're punishing them for because of the rest of the community again not criticizing Hank it's just it's a tough balance and I'm struggling with these things as you know from conversations it's it's difficult and we're on the the cusp of losing the entire semester with the exception of two weeks heading into next semester and potentially losing an entire year um for these kids and I just don't know if that's fair

024yeah and I I agree with you Dan but I also want to be careful that we're not entirely losing thank you uh an entire year right we're losing a year of in-person instruction C but our students and teachers and everybody associated with the schools are working really hard to abely they're losing an experience is what it is they're losing the experience which is to me just as important as it's not the yeah it's just not the same so so guys I I agree with you but my son went to uh he did hybrid he totally enjoyed it however I do know that there are adults in the school district too there's the administration there's staff there's also adults that these kids go home to I I know we're all losing experience as a result of

025of Co and I do want the kids back in school but you have I'm considering all things and and I was a proponent of hybrid I sent my son to school however I know it's it's so many more things wrapped around this other than their experience and I agree I want them to have the experience I want the experience of vacations and things too right now so we all I mean it's it's it's a tough situation I would just say you know we just need to be careful how we're framing this you know so I I hear I agree with what you're saying too Dan and and Rick your emphasis on the fact that they're you know it's not the same and that they are losing out on an experience but it's not a total

026loss and you know nor are they being punished no more than any anybody else is right I mean the the words we use you know kind of say something about how we're approaching things and and it's certainly not in any of our none of our intent to you know to be punishing any of the students on the contrary we're we're bending over backwards you know to make this loss if you will be as less as it as it possibly can be um so uh but I just don't know I mean the other the other piece of it is I just you know just to cut right to the chase I'm not going to do something you know that's drastically different than everybody else around us I mean from a it just that just doesn't seem

027to make sense to me um so we have to look at you know we have to take H Hank's guidance um very seriously we need to take the guidance from our Departments of Public Health seriously and we need to look around us as we do with so many other things and and you know hey what are the other districts doing and how are they approaching this and and to learn from their experiences as well and I think we've been doing that I think we're going to continue to do that and to not do that would be um you know would really be putting ourselves out there and uh because there certainly as we've seen all the way through there are people on both sides of this right um uh and PE people feel very passionately

028on both both sides of this and they have very valid points on both sides but uh you know it's it's it's we we need to do all we can uh you know to create the best possible experience we can right now and to not have it be a total loss and as best we can not make the students feel like they're being punished in some way yeah I I all could agree we would we all want the kids in school but it has to I I I've said that from the beginning yes well if there's nothing else can we can we move on to uh Item B Hank Equity audit results yep I'm gonna turn this item over to Rob uh to lead us through this section all right thanks everybody for having me I'm

029excited to talk to you about the next steps of this ever evolving journey of equity and inclusion in District 99 um so I'm going to add on to uh the presentation that we gave last year uh if you remember uh we gave uh quite a lengthy presentation that had some staff members and talking through the different work uh that they've been doing over the past few years um so Rod are you controlling all right can you advance one slide please Rod okay before we get started on the the meet of the presentation I just want to remind you that every time that we meet as an equity and inclusion Council we're framing everything around our district goals and the two main ones that we're framing it around is first our student experience and then second

030our staff experience next slide so last year I talked about our district 99 Equity team uh at that time we were on our year three of a formalized equity team we had spent two years with some uh consultants and the Consultants worked us through an equity program called The Deep Equity uh program the first year of the equity team was a lot of learning and building that team together to function as a team and then the second year was to plan and start to implement uh things that they learned so things that came out of there was we added a workshop we have our usual uh Cooperative learning assessment literacy type workshops uh but we added a workshop Focus strictly on Equity um in the workplace and then we also at that time made a

031commitment and and created these late start Mondays in which we engage almost all of our staff so our teachers our support staff our administrators uh in rooms together learning so that's what happened in those first two years last year was year three where we were again implementing those and then uh as we all know the pandemic hit so um some of those late starts uh we didn't get to at the end of the school year uh but one thing that we did do last year is we changed the leadership structure so it's still still an effort that's led by staff but what we were finding is that as uh we engaged more in the work we had more and more staff members who raised their hands and said hey I want to be a part

032of leading this this is really great work that we're doing uh so we we modified the structure that we had and we created a districtwide what we call the equity and inclusion Council and then we knew that our work was now leading us into building based work so uh off of that underneath that council is also building based teams so we've been able to expand the number of people who are involved on the team um including our students so our change makers if you remember the foundation funded uh a partnership that we had with a place called my name my story where we trained some students those students are now leaders and they're part of our Equity teams so we've been expanding uh as more and more people are stepping in and leaning in and

033saying this is really great work and I want to to be a part of the leadership of this one thing I will note is in the past we had two different groups we had the diversity um committee and then we had this newly formed Equity team what we found is as we were starting to do planning and figuring out big picture where we're going with this work is that uh it didn't make sense to have those two teams meeting independent of each other so when we redid this organization of Staff leaders we merged the two of those together so the work that the diversity team was doing about recruiting and retainment that was all merged into this Council work now so we talk about the Recruitment and the retainment we also talk about um the

034professional learning and the atmospheres that we're creating and all of that stuff is in now one large conversation with these uh different Council structures next slide please this is the mission statement that came came out of the equity team um we presented this last year the piece I'd like to highlight and keep highlighting is really the last line on this statement which is about students not having to give up who they are so we want them to engage in school work we want them to learn um and we want them to be able to do that without constantly trying to figure out how to navigate um uh different environments you know we want them to bring their authentic selves to school next so if I were to break down our Equity work into uh two

035main pieces uh it would be these two words here belonging and predictability uh a majority of our work that we've done over the past few years has fit into that belonging realm so uh uh improving culture even more continuously improving and creating uh better environments where everybody feels like they belong and that they're included uh but the Council recognized we also have some structural things that we need to work on um so the predictability so I'll get into a little bit more in depth in the next few slides uh what we mean by these two words so belonging is uh pretty clear what that word means it's How does each individual feel uh that they're included in the environment the quote down below though I think is powerful because it gets back to the teaching

036and learning which is our main mission in the district um and so this author in her book she talks about how it's important for us to create this belonging environment because uh the less time that a student has to focus on trying to navigate a particular culture or change who they are a little bit code switching uh the less they have to do that the more time and mental energy they have to focus on their academics so uh uh trying to create these environments where students can bring authentic selves to the classrooms so then they can focus on their academics slide so this is just a list uh celebratory list of things that we've been doing in District 99 over the years related to belonging in the student work realm and then also the adult

037work realm um I'll highlight again the top bullet point there under students which is the change makers um so we trained I think it was about 180 students um on being uh leaders and an interesting thing is that this year so I I talked about how we have these late start Mondays where all staff are engaged in this learning around Equity we're still doing those this year it's just in a remote uh environment but those are being led by our students so these Chang maker students are now creating the lessons and they're helping to facilitate the conversations with the adults around Equity um theme recently was um um looking uh with an equity lens at what remote learning is like for students so really great conversations that the students are leading us adults in uh

038to to help us constantly improve so it's really really great work that's happening there um and then in our adult realm uh a few of those bullet points are related to the great work that the equity team did around professional learning educating all of us and continuously improving um I'll highlight that bottom Point down there because uh this is also the time of the year when Pete would usually come and talk about recruitment back in the springtime and the efforts that we had um again unfortunately because of the pandemic things like career fears uh didn't run you know everybody was trying to figure out how do we do this stuff in a remote environment those didn't run so we didn't have the opportunity to do as much targeted recruitment back in the springtime but we

039did still do those practices that the diversity committee brought in uh those practices of um bias training for an interview team before they start their interviews um uh Department chairs being intentional about uh who they're calling in for interviews and things like that so we still did our practices we were just a little more limited because we didn't have opportunities to go to those Career Fairs to do targeted recruitment next slide so predictability is an interesting thing because usually I think of predictability as a good thing you know I can use some data I can make a prediction and and things go according to that when we look at predictability um through an equity audit lens though um it's the opposite of that um so the quote down here is from one of our Consultants

040that we had in the first two years and is saying that it's actually a bad thing if we're able to predict the outcome of a student based on their demographics so um looking at the demographics of a student incoming nth grader we should not be able to predict what that student's outcome is going to be by just their demographics Alone um so in the equity realm we're focused on trying to dismantle predictability as much as we possibly can because we shouldn't you know we should figure out what the student needs when they come in give them what they need and then uh they're successful so predictability in this case is trying to take that apart so that way we can't predict uh what their outcome is going to be next slide uh again just um

041noting some things that we've done in the past so uh we have uh been working on some things um trying to dismantle predictability in these four areas um the largest one is uh discipline so if you remember last year uh you approved the path program so the alternative suspension program that um we were hoping to start implementing this year uh we're doing it on a limited basis um but we've been working programmatically at pieces to try to break up uh predictability in that sense next slide so when the equity team uh finished their year two and then we reorganized into the equity Council the question was asked well what's next what do we do now so we've got this great professional learning that's launched uh what do we do now um there's some systemic things

042that we uh need to really just inspect and see what is it that uh might be inhibiting the growth of students um so at the time we started to become aware of this idea of an equity audit we uh pursued that and what that resulted in is that we partnered with the DuPage County uh Regional Office of Education they provided us with a uh educational researcher who specialized in equity and she came and led us through this process so the first thing that she did is she helped to assemble a team of um staff in the district and just wanted to know a series of questions what are things that are we are really proud about that we've done in the past in District 99 and what are some things that we think we need

043to work on so she worked uh collecting that information around the background and then that also helped her as she analyze the rest of the data and ultimately coming up with the recommendations there was another part of this audit which is the quantitative so if you've uh looked into the audit it's where all the charts and the graphs are and that was uh quite a large data poll that we did um to then have them analyze and try to find some themes for us and then qualitative uh she met with some focus groups and did interviews and asked a series of questions those questions are listed in the AUD it um but then she summarized what the thoughts were from those focus groups in the qualitative section so she used those three big pieces the

044background the quantitative the qualitative to then in the final part of the audit to give us recommendations of um based on what she's learned from us what we should be working on in the next few years next slide so here's some things that she noted in the Equity audit the background piece um they're listed here so she noted that we've made some really great progress in these areas our hiring practices that was the diversity committee um AP enrollment changes in curriculum empowering students um engagement of family caretakers and our professional learning next slide uh in the quantitative section what she found is that we have little or no predictability in graduation rates and attendance so um a student's demographics from a big picture lens like this uh we can't really use that to predict their

045chances of graduating and we can't really use that to predict uh predict their attendance rate so that's something to celebrate is that we don't have predictability there one thing I will note though is that um just to remind you we're looking at large data across the entire District so uh while we don't predictability in those two things many times those two compound onto an individual student and make it into a big problem for individual students um so I'm not negating that to say there aren't issues there that we need to work on I'm just saying structurally across the district we're not able to predict outcomes for graduation rates and attendance next slide but here are some areas where she did find predictability one of those is in discipline uh you'll see in the charts here

046that overall for the past few years our discipline has actually been decreasing so across all groups of students the discipline has been decreasing however it's been decreasing at a slower rate for our students of color and our students from lowincome households so a celebration that um disciplined data is decreasing um but the data does show that it's decreasing at a slower rate uh for students of color and students of low income households so we have we have some work to do there um we also have some predictability in our AP and tcd enrollment those have been relatively stable however the demographics of students in those courses does not match the general demographics of our student population um so some students are being drawn into courses and some students are being drawn into other courses same

047thing with semester grades um the distribution if you look at the charts there the distribution of grades um there are differences is based on student demographics uh and then our Dropout rates next slide qualitative so again some celebration that came up from those focus groups is that the researcher found that District 99 has uh made significant efforts in fostering belonging through these different activities that are here um uh increased cultural representation in our courses our staff mentoring and our advocacy uh expanded EXT curricular options for students and uh professional learning so we've made some some really great strides in the sense of belonging through those areas next slide and then what she found is that we have some more opportunities for improvement in belonging so the audit is helping us to figure out what are

048our next steps and um what do we do next to to continuously improve in the areas of belonging and in the areas of dismantling this predictability next slide so the end of the report this is a summary of the recommendations that our partners have uh come up for us um the first bullet point is a recommendation that we increase our communication and visuals in the schools related to our Equity work so we have on our website posted uh the work that we've been doing but what she's saying here is that we need more visuals in our school tools to show our commitment to this work uh to people who are walking around inside of our buildings um she also says that we should uh develop a long-term plan uh to focus on increasing our staff

049diversity monitoring this Equity work to see what's working and what's not working and what the next step should be um to evaluate all our curriculum for anti-bias language and representation um embed culturally responsive pedagogy teaching practices uh bullet point here decreasing the predictability in our discipline and our academic programming uh and then continue to focus on our staff culture So she recommends that we put together a long-term plan to focus on those and at the same time expand on our student leadership involved in equity work uh continue our professional learning that we're doing right now and then um create she calls it this Equity advisory committee which is basically our Council but having um more students involved having more parent Guardians involved so more stakeholders involved um in the process of making decisions for our

050journey here next slide so like I just said the things on the left are the things that she recommends that we continue to uh support and continue to do that we've done great things with and then the right side is uh create a strategic plan so a multi-year plan to help address the recommendations that she has in the report to help us to monitor our progress to see how are we doing on these things and then like any good plan it's to plan for the next Equity audit so um you know multi-year plan at the end of this plan or towards the end of this plan this is when we want to have another audit to then look at the same things and see our progress and how we're doing on there and then just

051to wrap it up just a reminder that everything that we do in District 99 is around this mission statement in particular in our Equity work it's that uh underlying word all over there so it's focused on um making sure that every student feels like they belong and that we can't predict that students uh academic outcomes based on their demographics uh next slide so uh I can take questions um I don't know if you've had a chance to read through the entire uh Equity audit it's quite lengthy but um I think it's I think they did a really nice job and it's helping us to figure out what our next steps are in all of this so what questions do you have while you're forming questions I just want to point out that at next month's

052board meeting we'll we'll talk specifically about discipline and predictability inside of that and the board and I'm sure the community knows we've been looking at that data specific for several years now and uh kind of break that out and continue that larger level discussion that we've been having as Rob said we've been making some progress um and we still have some some progress to make so spoiler alert for next month's sportly does anybody have any comments questions I I'll take this opportunity real quick I was going to say something during uh the report out on the ISB resolutions but uh you know every year at the triple ey um uh it seems that I attend at least one Workshop uh that where they're talking about how to start something or how to do something or

053encouraging us to do something that we're already doing at District 99 and have been doing and this year uh even without the conference going on um uh all but virtually um uh yeah one of the belief statements that uh I I voted in favor of and was passed was uh that the Illinois Association School boards urges its members member districts and the leadership of member districts to integrate the principles of equity and inclusion in school curriculum policies programs and operations ensuring every student is welcomed and supported in a respectful learning environment and here we are going into our our fourth year Rob is that right well it's the fourth year of this formalized team but the reality is District 99 has been working on this for many many years right um so just my congratulations

054to the entire team and and a job well done and a job we we're going to continue to do uh well and I suspect you know the the goal is is uh you know Perfection right to to to to achieve all of these these these goals that we're after knowing full well that it's a difficult task and we may never completely get to where we really ideally want to be but if we don't aim for that we're never going to get as close as we're going to get by by by making this effort and making it kind of just um you know part of the way we do business here so even after all of us who are on my screen right here uh are all gone um and other people are are are driving

055the ship um I mean that this work continues so this is kind of a lasting l Legacy that I'm proud to be part of and I appreciate your hard work here Rob thank you thanks well you know it it we made a commitment that it's staff l so really the congratulations goes to the the group of staff member who's who's been involved in it um Hank and I presented at a few conferences last year around this and the difficult thing with having such a large group of Staff who want to be involved is that you can't have all of them go to the conference and do the presentation and see how great the work is that they're doing um so able to bring a few of them with and then they could report back out

056but yeah I agree I think the team is doing a great job um an interesting thing that we have is uh we chose uh well one of the reasons why we wanted it to be staff L is because that's where the most influence for change is is they're influential with their peers they have conversations you know informal conversations um and really helped to encourage people to have this continuous Improvement mindset uh where we're at now is when we look at this predictability it's going to take some um positional Authority so administrators and Department chairs um so now we are looping them in because to make changes like that the for the most part the members of the equity Council don't have that positional authority to make those changes but our administrators and our department chairs

057do so now we're starting to see a partnership of the people who specialize in the influence and the people who have positional Authority putting those two together to really make good change all right well thank you again um why don't we move on to the next agenda item uh calend year 2021 insurance premiums hey some rare good news here uh Rod if you'll pull up that next slide so uh every year at this well every year since we move to a January one renewal date uh we report out at about this time on what our insurance cost were and what the recommendations were for uh next year's insurance rates uh the overview is there for on for you on the screen overall costs were way down last year some of that is you know the

058pandemic causing uh elective surgeries and those kinds of things to be put off stay-at-home things um but we were way down down to the point where even when we factor in an added cost Factor next year if some of those things coming back uh our Consultants are recommending no increase in insurance premiums for the next school year so that's a good thing for everybody um Mark's been working closely on this as well uh Mark what anything else to add to that um not too much really you covered it PR well with the slide really hits all the major points um you know we have the ppos are the plan that really are measured this way what what our claim history is compared to what our um expected claim history is for that period of time

059and it fact that it was so much lower was a good thing the hmos are basically operated on a zero profit loss for us whatever the premium is we pass it on and it does have an impact on uh the board contribution portion to the hmos but that's that's running as expected as well so they across the board felt there was no need for an increase in any of the plan premiums it just as a safety check it's the the health benefit account is a is a seasonal type thing it it's a high point and low Point actually this is normally uh kind of in the middle a middle midpoint for that plan and so last year it was U um you know $300,000 lower than it is this year um so we we are

060improving in that side uh with about a $1.3 million Reserve right now compared to what was 100 One Million last year so um that's that's a positive but you know that fluctuates and it's an unusual year with all the different um po um out of pockets and things like that but anyways it's it's looking really good and we have really good working committee with the insurance committee and it was a unanimous agreement let's go ahead and not have an increase this year and monitor the plan as we go forward so later on this evening this is an action item to approve a 0% to increase in insurance premiums for the next year right I like it any questions from board members food Management Services right we've got uh well this is just pretty quick pretty

061quick in all three of these items I got in a row here pretty quick but um wait we skipped next one is post post compliance report I can flip them pretty good either way let's go with what's in order though so everybody sh it's tax compliance sorry the post issuance is a report that um we're required to provide I am required to provide it every year um to you it's a October 31st year and is what we've been reporting on um an Arbitrage is simply if we issue a bond and it cost this I'm gonna say 2% in terms of what we have to pay for interest on it along with all of the the um ISS cost of issuance if we invest that in u the proceeds before we spend them for whatever project

062we have if we invest those and get 3% interest in the open market with our investments um and if unless unless um there's a couple exceptions that we use um we have to give that extra 1% back to the federal government or we have to pay it we can only earn up to the Arbitrage limit so if we we earn 3% and and cost 2% we got to give give that back to IRS and that's because they are giving a special authority to issue um non taxable bonds to the investors and so because of us taking money out of the IRS coffers if you will by by selling bonds that they don't pay federal tax on um this is a way of them recovering some of that loss in investment and the taxing Authority so

063but the two big exemptions are if it's if it's an issue that's Bond issued and its original issue is less than $15 million which five of ours happen to be um less less than 15 we have 10 Bond bonds still outstanding going back to 2002 five of those bonds are not subject to Arbitrage because they're just too small they they don't care about anything less than15 million to be tracking Arbitrage and the second is if you spend it all within three years four years actually um then you can uh they they also give you an exemption for that it means that you didn't really get it to just sit on it to to just put the money in the bank and sit on it for 10 years and then spend it so they give you

064a time pattern for for spending it and um uh we're following that when we with our other bonds that we have that are the master facility bonds um if you recall we have three of those bonds out and we are um spending it fast enough that I don't believe we're going to have pay any Arbitrage on that even though we do have interest getting earned at a higher rate than the cost for one of those bonds so we're looking pretty good on all that looks like we'll have some additional interest to consider what to do with when we get to the end of this project um and we'll be presenting something probably for you before too long I think this is an annual report that you give to us too right Mark right there's there's

06515 different bonds I have to make sure that there's other things like there's reporting to the federal system for which is called Emma uh it's a it's a system so that the bond investor if they have a problem with their bond or we have a problem in the district um we reported to this National mechanism somebody who's a bond holder can go and look once or twice a year and know that okay that there's been something going wrong with District 99 the things that we've reported that on that system actually have been very positive but each we have two u in fact two Bond upgrades that we have had U over the last five years and so um we we went from you know daa to AA plus and in the course of a couple

066years so um and that's helped and it chosen the interest rates that we were able to sell the bonds at for the um Master facility plan we we have and the economy coming in helped us and with economy being low we jumped on it so we we took advantage of it when it was there uh but there's no now outstanding Arbitrage that we are concerned about right now there's no bad issues or B failures with these bonds that we we need to report to the federal government uh everything is fine and I have report that's what's one of those the other document is a report that I sign each year for you guys representing that thank you Mark anybody have any questions all right so now now food management now this one's a quick one

067and we have to first um did kudos to Jer ethd the business manager for the district who helped uh she was instrumental in getting this program going for breakfast and for lunches through the um the USDA and um now we'd like to do it for suppers um there it's been a moving the with the pandemic kind of stretching out and unemployment and issues being so significant uh USDA is is um asking us to do supper as well we we we have nearly a million lunches and breakfasts that we combined that we've um issued already and jeree was able to manage this coordinating it with both District 58 and 68 mostly but even over the summer a little bit with District 61 and Darian helping them out with with some of the distribution and that's really

068our key point and our our part of this but um in order for us to get reimbursement from Chartwells we have to amend the agreement with them to allow for um supper and so now we'll be doing that with if if the board approves this and um what that does is it helps us get get more meals out to kids uh we'll be doing six or seven days a week of meals to to families um one for each kid and not just for high school age kids it's all the way through the age of 18 um to the age of 18 on these kids so we're we're helping quite a few families with their needs Mark I this is uh you know uh tremendously you know needed and and uh you know Jer is just

069she's awesome uh but uh I you know the question I have to ask is uh where where do we find the time to do this too um well that's why I say you know it was quite a Quite a feat for Jer to do she she actually monitors the Food Service program for the district and and does the monthly reports um she donated a lot and she spent a lot of time on this the all three districts you know coordinated and because District 99 has the largest freezer and refrigerator capacity itself so we we helped with even sharing some of our facilities when we put these things together there be an opportunity for people to to volunteer to help uh community at large is just well actually right now Chartwells is going to provide that

070service and help with the delivery so for going forward for this adding this extra piece they're going to help with the um the delivery piece of this and um actually the the reimbursement for the meals more than covers the cost of the food so the delivery cost will be able to picked up there and some of the additional Manpower that they're using will be able to be picked up as well USDA is going to reimburse this for more than what chart Wells is is charging us for just the meals well if it does get to a point where help is needed I hope I hope there'll be you know you'll let us know I mean I I would sign up to help well you know we've had enough employees because a lot of employees when

071the kids aren't in school there's a lot of instructional AIDS and so support staff that have helped they so it's and Jer was good in helping getting them you know rounded up and and working with them to to get out so she had a lot of help but she she found the help too though so she she's did a great job with this well thank you U she's a she's our Superstar right I just yes just got an award too yeah that's right yeah so um all right any any questions uh from the rest of the group for Mark if not uh we're going to move to iasb resolutions um so uh you want to put that slide up for okay so uh here's the uh here are the kind of a it's a summary

072of the resolutions that we voted on uh the other day um and you can uh you can read through that you should have all gotten a report out on this too um via email I know I I saw I saw it just the other day so but you related we passed resolutions uh there were there were some resolutions that that that districts put forward that uh that the resolution committee um recommended against um uh accepting and in fact all but I think one of those uh never even saw the floor because uh there weren't enough votes to to to bring it up for a vote um so but these are the things that that we did vote um to um to support and so uh you know relating emergency pandemic response at a regional level

073supporting local decision making uh to designate e-learning or remote learning on Election Day in emergency circumstances U addressing the teacher shortage and expanding the issuance of provisional licenses to all curricular areas was adopted um a real need for that and and supporting teacher preparation programs and scientifically proven methods literacy and reading instruction and uh refor the reaffirmation of existing positions uh for State authorized charter schools and and host District participation in the renewal process and enrollment of students and funding and uh there were some housekeeping things for deleting out ofate no longer relevant position statements and um and then the new belief statement on education Equity that I already mentioned so anybody have any questions uh about any of that hearing none let's move on to the uh Capital Improvement plan all right uh this

074is another yearly item that comes before the board uh traditionally before we started the master facility plan the budget yearly for this was usually about 1.2 million uh give or take uh as we have so much work going on related to the master facility plan we've dialed this back a little bit for the last couple of years at a total of 1 million and I'll allow Jim to provide the overview here in a second just reminder for the board that we don't take action on this as a slate of items the board approves items as uh as they come up and are Bid out and get completed that way so uh Jim if you want to give the overview here we do good evening everyone so we this is 2122 Capital Improvement as Hank said

075we're at $1 million for this uh Year I'll go through these items fairly quickly uh there's a few that I'll elaborate a little bit on let's start with the fact I I just want to make sure that every realize that the concept budget number that's on the right hand column that's the number that we're predicting that these projects are going to come in at with architect and Engineering fees construction management and also contingencies so we'll bid these out and we'll see what the numbers come in at but this is a good guess at what we think that they're going to be just wanted to remind you of that large uh repair and maintenance services these are uh large items like asphalt concrete mechanical units at our buildings that we uh fix for unexpected breakdowns that

076may occur throughout the course of the year so we set aside $100,000 and each year we really go through this and if we have monies left at the springtime um we uh add to some repairs that are needed in the buildings to take off the for the next year's list annual bleacher inspection repairs this is for interior and exterior even though they're brand new they'll be under warranty so mostly interior for this coming year this is for the inspection and repairs for both campuses FF is Furniture fixure equipment you'll see that's both for North and South these are needs for chairs tables desks that are in classrooms so you'll see in future years this number getting bumped up uh a great deal we'll explain that more in further meetings but for this year these are

077the numbers that the schools will have to get some furniture fixtures and equipment also it it and these are annuals uh an annual grounds repair this is for outside Green Space and turf repairs for both schools next line line item is for North it's the auditorium curtain replacement these aren't the made um curtains these are borders and traveler curtains so uh a few on Auditorium stage are just getting old and falling apart so we're going to go ahead and replace those the big project at North uh next year will be the chiller replacement this is the large Battleship 270 ton Chiller that feeds most of the 1999 Wing uh it's 22 years old we're putting dollars into it each year it it has faltered on two or three years so we had it assessed by

078our mechanical engineer and his recommendation was to replace it the entire unit so that's what we're doing switching over to South repair repaint T Court surface area the top layer here at South is uh cracking uh so we're going to take it down not all the way to the base because we're seeing that the base is in good shape so just cold joints and longitudinal cracking is being uh seen at the South Campus so we'll repair those cracks we'll put a new layer on and we'll reine it over there South two more it's South the one's a roof replacement it's a small roof about 4,000 square ft uh it's above the small gem hallway uh so this is going to take the roof down to the gypson duck we're going to replace with new membrane

079which is a a synthetic rubber will'll insulate it and they'll put a coverboard and Vapor and replace both areas that's two little about 4,000 square ft and lastly a South is the dock stair replacement this is the loading dock by CMG stairs are olded they're uh falling apart so we're going to replace these and also put in a new railing that's the list it's a short list of year uh but I'll entertain any questions if anyone has any any questions for Jim Jim uh just a couple quick ones uh on the carrier Chiller replacement I assume we're gonna we're going to get to uh something a little more efficient than what we've got right now so there'll be some savings going forward as a result of this correct absolutely and and in mode of everything

080that we're doing with the mfp all the units you know like the ones we're putting on the auditorium all the big units that we're placing are really energy efficient again we have air conditioned our campuses and they've grown in size uh we will lose out that we're air conditioning more area but we're getting that back with the efficiency of our uh units at both schools so it's you know it's kind of a wash so it's good to see that good good and then the uh the small gym uh uh roof replacement uh are we able to do anything more with some insulation there it'll be new installation so we're bringing it down to the deck okay everything above that will be new along with the rubber synthetic on top so you know potentially greater our

081value is as well as a better roof and what was there so uh these are investments that um you know will pay dividends going forward so sounds great thank you I understand you correctly did you say a deck deck the gypson deck is all the way to where the if you can imagine it's like your rooftop at your house it' be where the wood is okay it's actual structure you walk on and then and then the roofing gets and the installation gets built on top of that okay other questions Master facility plan progress right yeah thank you Jim thank you the the next slide here the first portion is the budget coming back uh from uh last month to here where we're at uh slight decrease in contingency uh we rolled into this last year

082last year in the I think it was around this time we had talked about while we did the Science office at North uh including the math office that shared an adjacent wall with it and uh getting some efficient of scale there and it was definitely all impacted by the master facility plan at that point we talked about what on on the south side of town was waiting out there that was an equivalent and that was uh some of the special services department areas uh that would have to come back at some point where a lot of that space is being uh Disturbed and moved around and a lot of those offices are kind of Nomads right now as we push things around the building so next summer we'll consolidate those offices in a special services

083office uh remodel uh last year when we talked about it this time we said that if we had funds available in the contingency we would do it as part of the master facility plan because that's what caused it uh however if we didn't have contingency it would have been the first one on the capital Improvement item list that you just saw uh so since there is fund funds available inside of contingency we're going to include that project that provides some Equity across both sides of town so far as offices go and that reduced the contingency uh this month as well as some of the completion of phase B items from the summer so right now we're sitting at a contingency of $2.4 million uh as I've said many times heading into that last year this

084upcoming year white has requested for us to hold at least $1 million in there for the last summer of work which we still sit well with and we are working on the plan right now for um the classroom and Corridor uh Renovations for that long range we always knew we were going to have work coming out of the master facility plan with a variety of corridors and classrooms and uh some of that contingency will help jump start that work and we'll be bringing you that plan after the first of the year so uh we we've been starting to collect some contract contractor allowances back you can see phase A and B there uh phase C uh we're not into yet so we won't start capturing those back until next year this time so uh that's

085kind of where the budget is any questions on the budget no thank you uh Hank sorry I was trying to move things a little too fast that's all right yeah um I I will I just will ask a general question and and I I think I've asked this before in terms of you know the the huge increase in costs uh that we're seeing um that well I we as in the the public at large in in material costs and and such related to uh supply chain issues that sort of thing are we we pretty well insulated from that because of our our guaranteed Max is that well we're insulated first because if you remember we're we're over 99% uh bid out for everything if you look at the unlet numbers there you can see we

086have less than a million dollars of exposure between North and South that's how much we have left to go out and bid so nearly a 100% of the project has already been bid and those costs are already contained in the bids that we've received from those contractors is there any danger in in contractors not being able to honor their bids because materials are costing them so much more than they expected that would be a possibility but they have to enter in uh to pretty much an agreement with kind of an insurance with us I can't remember the exact name of it Jim can help me out here um where if if they drop out they actually forfeit money to us and we recapture portion of those costs and then we'd have that would go towards

087got coming back in yeah we have a 10% Bond on their contract okay we're not going to lose them um they would lose more money on the bond that they would owe us than they would for the material cost Mike okay so I don't foresee you know we're already meeting with these contractors for fac some of them are already on campus uh working uh so I there's not one that's even nudged that they would excellent backing out good good and I want to add that we've already bit out almost half of that million dollars that's unlet and we're doing the other half this week uh so we and the first round came in pretty good so you know I think it's Friday morning's the last one and I'm foreseeing that that's going to come in

088pretty well too so we'll probably see a little bit back of that million as well which is good news excellent that's great news thank you thank you appreciate it so any other questions on budget and then I'll show a couple of quick pictures and show you what we've been working on the last couple of weeks so uh some of the major work at South has been the auditorium you can see there you know the helicopter flying in HVAC equipments uh this is a board members if you want to go for another walk here in the next few weeks this would be a great time to do to take a look at the auditorium you can get in on the upper deck which is that top photo um it's a picture cannot capture yeah how stunning

089this space is becoming and how just the volume that we're adding to North High you or to South High you can see it in that bottom uh photo there of just the volume in the height and if you drive by South High you can see how how tall the fly Tower is but uh South High is getting a a ton of space here and finally getting the auditorium that they deserve it's going to be fantastic uh when it is done I'm looking forward to opening night and then uh next slide there Rob the other spot where we're making a lot of progress is in the Commons at both schools but it at South High it's really starting to take shape we've enclosed it uh with visin visqueen for the the winter months so that it's

090weather and tarped in but it kind of gives you now a feeling of what it's going to be like when the glass wall is up and you can really get a feeling for the volume of space here also being added to South High and how much it's going to drastically just change the feel of that building um so really exciting space coming in there so uh once again always a tour tour welcome to the board members if you want to come and take a walk of this space over at North High same thing that Commons is coming along uh and the southeast corner is now open for students uh so we were able to get students into the first and second floor the third floor or I'm sorry the second and third floor were able

091able to open in time for students to be back in the hybrid model the first floor is now open and as soon as we can get students back they can take advantage of that fine arts new Wing uh the visual arts Wing that's there uh the commons is now uh fully concreted and it really once again you you get a feel for how big these spaces are and how much square footage we're adding onto our buildings now when you get inside of them in North High we've wrapped up uh or pretty close to wrapping up then the bleachers and Squad rooms if you remember that lagged behind uh South High because of the foundations and footings uh but both of those projects are wrapping up and we're in the process of ordering for both schools

092some of the temporary like banners and displays that go onto those uh structures so we'll spice them up a little bit here uh in a little bit with those uh kind of those Spirit banners and those kinds of things coming online uh this is a view of the second floor uh new CTE Career and Technical Ed uh Wing what you're looking at is from the fabrication lab out into the two engineering spaces um those of you that want on tours of some of the more modern buildings buildings in the area this will be a call back to some of those spaces uh but just totally different open Innovative spaces than what uh our schools have had in the past you've seen some of this at South High I wanted to get a snapshot in here

093of some of it at North High so once again board members if you want to meet up here in December and go for a a quick walk and see some of these spaces uh they're pretty fabulous and we're working on getting pictures and virtual tours uh set up for the community soon as well so any questions on any of the master facility plan this is just so exciting to see it all coming together oh I'm just so impressed you're just Hank you and your team and and uh and Jim fabulous fabulous all right that's it for m facility plan uh next one is foas and we've had them and we've filled them and they're all available on the website right all right so the consent agenda right so we have uh we need a uh

094a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a Personnel report appointments classified B Personnel report retirements Administration resignations exempt retirements classified retire resignations classified and c financial pages and D acceptance of donation District 99 Education Foundation grants go moved second before you take a vote I just want to call out the Education Foundation for another round of just amazing grants for our schools uh details are in the memos but it's over $6,000 in funding seed projects lot of this is to respond in to Innovative curriculum uh as teachers respond to the pandemic things in CTE helping with uh some of our culinary classes in our science classes virtual online Labs uh that are going on so just some really creative stuff and creative responses that our teachers

095are taking to try to make remote learning uh more like in-person learning or at least transfer the concept steps better uh using the tech tools and innovative ideas out there uh if you go online to our Twitter account you can see some of the project from The Culinary classes as we worked with Chartwells and our teachers to pack up all the supplies and equipment needed for kids to cook and do culinary at home so some really exciting stuff going on and uh we of course thank our partners at the Ed foundation for making all of this uh possible and funding some Innovative projects so thank you not surprised to see Mike Mike Hines involved in something called Gizmo yeah yeah right true true sounds like fun stuff all right can we have a a roll

096call panado hi Carri pavich hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi cherelle Fuller hi Dan Nicholas hi thank you Mike deavenport I all right motion carries uh next item on the agenda recommendations for Action approval of the calendar year 2021 insurance premiums right you know motion to approve is presented yeah sorry second it's okay moved is there a who who was firsting and who was seconding I apologize I think I think it was uh Dan who was first Dan's first I saw him saw okay and then did does Terry get the second it it's fine if I don't I sure she is Terry get a second yeah that's fine okay thank you Dan Nicholas hi Terry pavich hi Rick panado hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi cherelle Fuller hi and Mike Davenport hi motion carries and then second

097item is the approval of the food Management Services covid-19 emergency contract Amendment so we need to needed a motion to approve that Amendment with Chartwells for 2021 school year to includes supper meals andov all right Joanna was first and I think Terry was second oh okay R first and Terry second thank you unless unless I'm wrong but that's no you're right it's fine go with it all right good deal Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi Carry pavich hi Rick panado hi Mike excuse me charl Fuller hi Dan Nicholas hi and Mike Davenport hi old business second reading and approval of policies uh these were policies that were brought last month for first review uh almost well all of them except for one are related to the federal Title Nine changes that the board was trained in at

098the last board meeting and the last one is related to substitute teachers we've received I've received no questions on any of these over the last month so we recommend that the board uh approves these changes and takes action to do so okay so how about a motion from uh one of our committee members on this I'll make a motion second second I'm sorry Rick was first and Joanna was second or cherelle was second cherelle okay thank you um Rick panado hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi cherl Fuller hi Nicholas hi Trey pavisic hi Mike Davenport hi motion carries thank you um there isn't any new business we'll go to reception of visitors um we had here in the room however we received several comments that I will read to the board okay and if I go

099on for more than 30 minutes you can stop me I'll stop you putting my timer on all right the first one is an anonymous submission I would like to take this time to express how upset I am with the policy of the district I don't want to hear about space staff or any additional justification or excuse for this nightmare you are putting our kids through make it work you have the educational model to address kids at home on quarantine and the safety practices to keep kids safe at school enough is enough failing grades teens crying sharing social media suicide codes hopelessness lots of motivation pure damage there was no excuse in August and September with the positivity rate at 3 to 4% now uh higher rates there's still no excuse idph has excluded schools from

100closing leaving it up to the districts AG has one youth death due to covid many more suicides and overdoses that does not take into effect the mass suicide attempts severe acute depression academic uh failings leading to possible College denials and the long- lasting and permanent mental health struggles students are being medic ated at increasing numbers because you have taken their focus away enough is enough districts around us are still in session and safely doing so you're asking children to seek help and offer supports that is not good enough they don't even know how to do this they are children stop minimizing our students Health stop minimizing the damage you are causing by justifying this is an unprecedented time it's tough on everyone just stop you have a model that is Advanced enough to cover remote

101learning if needed playing video games all day eating never turning on the Chromebook crying all day in therapy failing classes what more proof and scientific studies do you need to wake up if 600 students at one campus are quarantined what about the 12200 that are not what about the positive cases that should now have immunity since that age group of positives is our fastest growing you have negative students and immune students that should be in school you need to look at the num see that ibp is listed places of outbreaks in schools are down on the list barely a statistical blip teen and youth are not being Hospital hospitalized in any meaningful numbers nor dying inperson is proven to be safe by your own definition most classes have maybe 10 or less students spacing masks

102and shields start prioritizing the people that matter most within the school system start prioritizing children you just need to do it because we will lose a student there have been close calls already listen to them and stop ignoring them the next one is from Lisa Costco as we all can agree this has been an unprecedented time trying on all especially the students each student is impacted and affected differently depending on their situation struggles learning style year in school Etc with the board consider allowing students a covid curve for those students with classes with grades negatively impacted by an unexpected semester of e learning maybe a petition type request per student per class to the teacher Department board for classes for which they are being negatively impacted possibly something like allowing one grade up if getting

103a c or below in a class for example my son a senior ggn is struggling with an AP calculus course not only is unprepared for the upcoming AP tests and is in talks with hiring a tutor for next semester to help with the test he is overwhelmed and extremely anxious with the excessive time and work expected of him in the midst of a pandemic he does not need the AP course he took it for a challenge he had known the entire semester would end up remote that he had predict now predicted lower grade negatively impact his GPA just in time for for college applications he would have chosen a different class but thus here we are it would be a huge help and relief to him and I'm sure other students and other similar unprecedented

104situations to know that they have a potential source of help please keep the students whose grades are negatively impacted by this unavoidable situation in any decisions you are making on how to proceed their grades need help this semester thank you for your time and consideration Paula dolman in-person learning for our children is essential District 999 students are falling further behind their peers academically from neighboring school districts Additionally the mental health of our children is greatly impacted Callie Norris the portion of District 99 special ed students have been allowed to attend school in person on a regular basis I'm wondering what criteria to is used to decide if a special education student can return to school is that that they are not physically and or more severely mentally handicapped then their level of need is automatically

105deemed not as important our child who has an IEP is suffering more than I can even put into words I would have thought that a high respected districts such as ours would be better equipped to serve to service its entire special education population through this pandemic especially after seeing all the regression of these students in March through May earlier this year most of my students teachers have been amazing and as much as they want the kids back in school like we do their hands are tied we are watching our troubled Learners Decline and decline some more every week it is heartbreaking we need to support them better and get them in the building for one-on-one help before we we lose them all together many districts are supporting this concept and are doing it well and

106in very safe ways why can't we please can we work on getting more learning disabled students into the school thank you Jim devit I don't understand why if covid cases are so low in teens they are not they are in remote learning my daughter who's doing very well in school is doing much much worse now she said she could focus better in the classroom than at home and I believe her she tells me about how strict the school is making sure PPE is worn as well when I drive around I see groups of teens close together un masks and I can't help but think that they would be so much better in school where they are protected from the virus all of this back and forth with remote and hybrid is taking his toll on

107kids and increased anxiety depression suicide and poor grades it seems to me like the teachers union are the ones playing with our children's education and future for what they're supposed to care about the students when it feels like it is the last thing that they care about our seniors great are losing opportunities I'm sorry our senior students are losing opportunities for scholarships grants and athletic opportunities to kids from other states who haven't who have already returned to school as well we see the same numbers you do we read the same reports you are yet somehow you think you know better than us our kids want to return to school please make it happen ASAP Amy gay please let our students back into school Under the hybrid plan there are so many factors that warrant the

108need to be back in person from social emotional use issues to the decrease in actual learning that's happening from remote only many schools are successfully doing a hybrid plan and many more are doing full iners while following covid protocols to stop the spread in the school setting even countries that are shutting down or not keeping kids even countries that are shutting down are keeping kids in school though this is not this is where it is being passed and spread our children are being wrongfully punished by not allowing them in school please get them back on the hybrid plan ASAP Lisa lockerby can you please provide an accurate overview of exactly what metrics will be used to determine when students can return to in-person hybrid learning when District 86 is still in their hybrid learning mode

109this creates confusion and frustration both for students and parents clearly the virus in is in Hinsdale just as it is in Downers Grove however the interest of students mental health in the superintendent school board make the decision to keep having students in school even on a limited basis thank you for your assistance sorry this is a longer post so I'm having trouble getting it on my entire screen here this is an anonymous submission it is a copy of a guide for parents to take back their schools by Paul bis um it reads there is nothing in the state statute that requires remote learning accommodations for teachers and I suspect that nothing in current collective bargaining agreements overtly or inherently require a district to go fully remote learning rather School superintendents and their school boards in

110the case of Chicago the mayor are surrendering dictates from teachers unions the unions threats and intimidation are working on politicians management more concerned with keeping their seats in executive positions than with the well-being of students who have not vote or voice there are five indisputable facts in the reopening of schools discussions that should be consistently talking points one the science is overwhelming that covid-19 has a minimal impact on children they are least likely to be contagious and practical affordable measures can be taken to enhance the health safety beyond what is needed to control the spread of the virus two the research is overwhelming that remote learning is a poor substitute for in school learning the longer School are taught remote the longer children are taught remotely the more severe the academic social emotional physical health

111damage will be the increase in teen suicides opioid addiction and juvenile shootings can all can be directed and attributed to school campus closings three while all children are adversely impacted remote learning as a substitute for in school instruction is a devastating impact on poor children and children with special needs this will dramatically widen the achievement Gap with all of its negative well documented consequences for all working parents are enduring hardships with many parents who can't work remotely having to leave their children at home are not going to work at all only one in six black and Latino families can work remotely five most parochial and private schools and many public schools in Illinois have successfully reopened imperson instruction with either completely or partially with no serious problems Nationwide the majority of states have reopened their

112public schools in person with very few problems no mandate the teachers teach remotely the federal government mandates the three types of accommodations for teachers with particular needs none of these require schools to allow teachers to teach at home additionally there are no state requirements for remote instructions unlikely that Lo local collective bargaining agreements provide such accommodations what is provided to teachers is the following one American with Disabilities Act Ada under the Ada schools and businesses have to make reasonable accommodations for employees with just disabilities or medical conditions so long as it won't cause the school or business undo hardship forcing a district to allow teachers to teach from home is not considered reasonable it was also creates an undue hardship on School District's customers to students the Family Medical Leave Act FMLA the FMLA does

113not require school districts to allow teachers to teach remotely under the FMLA teachers are entit entitled to take leave or care for a son daughter spouse or parent with serious health condition however during leave employers are not required to pay work workers they must maintain workers group insur health insurance and they must give employees back their jobs or comparable jobs when they return from leave teachers who might choose FMLA could use their own sick days so they could be paid during all or a portion of this time once they exhaust those sick days with compensation ends family first uh Corona virus act FFC the FFC does not require School District to allow teachers to teach remotely under the FFC a teacher May request time off to care for his or her child if the child's

114school or child care provider was closed to the virus and the child is required the teachers's parent care the payment under this act for the first two weeks of a teacher's absence is equal to the teacher salary up to $200 per day after two weeks the payments is equivalent to two-thirds of the teacher salary up to $200 per day with the total benefit cap to $2,000 district teachers who wish to utilize this benefit make much less money if they are forced to chose this benefit during their time on leave this benefit will probably be extended school districts are caving to unions too many school districts are making teacher accommodations that are not required to provide when teachers have a medical condition a family member with a medical condition or a child whose school or daycare

115is close to the virus teachers make these decisions because they do not have a long enough long-term substitute teachers to fill positions in the event that many teachers actually choose to apply for legal benefits on under the above reference act uh this continues on for a while we have three minutes per response I will forward the REM remainder of this post and all of the rest of the posts onto board members we're going to move on to the next submission how is the district helping parents address the mental and emotional I'm sorry this is from Kathy calbeck how is the district helping parents address the mental and emotional well-being of students not managing e-learning very well this PO next one is from Laura hoppy or hope I'm sorry Laura hope thank you Dr thean board

116members who striving to return our students to the classroom and fully supporting those who have to remain at home please continue to adhere to the guidance and consider levels of community spread for pivoting back to hybrid the teachers and administration are doing a fabulous job under really stressful circumstances the next one is from Carrie sson these numbers you are presenting are extremely low with the low incidence of teen H hospital hospital hospitalizations and mortality being considered additionally can you please tell me if the positivity rate includes multiple tests for one person a person can only be at risk once and therefore is being considered as a district are you asking these questions the community does not feel you are making students a priority look at those with low numbers with clear safety protocols we don't

117feel you're being honest with the safety and health of our students why are other Illinois districts successful what are you doing about teachers not following guidelines there are many not following guidelines thank you board member Dan for acknowledging mental health it's huge and Way Beyond what the board can even guess this needs to be a priority and then finally in Anonymous submission we are losing a year of Social and academic growth we are going to lose the student life we are punishing them we are worried there is a remote option please they need to be back period they're are losing everything and they are being punished schools are not open not 98 this board and it admin is not bending over backward there's a remote option for people passionate of risk there's nothing for the

118majority the majority so uh those are all of the posts they become part of the board record and I will circulate them separately uh to all board members as well and they will be part of the minutes as posted after this board meeting uh that concludes the virtual submissions and nobody has come in person while I was reading those okay thank you Hank um moving on to our Communications and announcements uh a report on lend nothing to report okay thank you uh sasset um nothing really reported could actually probably be changed by now but uh as relates to District 99 remote learning continues at sassed through the week of November uh 20th and transition program and Ed program are still in person that's it okay thank thank you um District 99 Education Foundation Terry you're

119on mute sorry here you go I forget we make it through I don't want you to hear the game in the background got it you're not watching your husband is Right Terry yeah I'm not watching it no um but anyway uh as you know we just approved almost uh um $6,400 of um of funds to go to um three different uh uh groups of teachers for Teacher grants and that is so exciting and we had an election of officers uh AR our president is uh still Julia Beckman uh vice president Megan Schroeder Treasurer um Diane Richards secretary Mora Bates and we are looking for a donor relations coordinator so if um if anyone in the community is uh so willing to join us in our mission of of um providing uh extra grants for our

120teachers please uh contact Julia Beckman on the website and you will be able to um to join us and and Remember December uh 1st is giving Tuesday so it would be really wonderful if all of our board members would uh remember the District 99 foundation on giving Tuesday and maybe uh uh contribute to maybe our future grants so that would be a really wonderful thing and anyone in the community who would like to give to uh the foundation that would be a good opportunity to do that so that's uh that's all I have right thank you Terry thanks for the hard work of the of the foundation and I'll Echo your encouragement that uh that we all get involved on that uh giving Tuesday yes that's that's really an important thing for the community also

121so all right so thank you um I have no further report on iasb um we have uh two upcoming board members board meetings sorry uh one on December 7th Workshop meeting at 6:30 pm and one on December 14th our regular uh business meeting 6:30 pm uh the one on the 7th is scheduled to be at the ASC but will probably be Zoom um and the 14th is scheduled to be at South High School if we indeed meet in person and don't Zoom that um the next item is our closed session and I need a motion wait wait Mike Clos Sam added a question in here as we were talking in the chat that I just want to address I saw that okay question about hiring younger Tas to assist students in person while most all

122teachers stay home a remote viable option for a hybrid in the future uh so that we could put in a lower risk population in the building as much as possible uh Sam I like you're thinking outside the box here uh however you know the goal is to have teachers inside the building working with kids and uh we also would run into some discrimination problems if we put an age range on who we were hiring to have in the building so I I love the way you're thinking and it's outside of the box but it it doesn't fit inside of HR and hiring practices unfortunately so um but that is you have tapped into the strategy that we are following for teach that can't come in the building right is that we put a a teachers's

123assistant in in the classroom to help them work uh remotely with the students that are there so um and and Sam to just extrapolate on that uh we're not seeing any issues with Staffing of our classrooms right now because of teachers that need to be home and and covering with Tas we're not facing resistance from the teachers union there there's no issues related to Staffing preventing us from bringing students in it is purely me following the recommendations that we're getting from the health professionals that are saying with the rates of the community transmission the way that they are that it's not safe to bring people back to school uh if th that guidance should change from the health department or better off our metrics should change in our community we will immediately start bringing people

124back as soon as the data points in the right direction for two consecutive weeks I'll encourage too Sam uh uh you know at this point all idea all ideas are welcome ideas absolutely I mean really I mean this is this is where you know where new ideas come from so don't ever be afraid to throw something out um and ask a question appreciate it um and that goes for the rest of you too um so uh we need to go into a Clos session and we need to go into Clos session for two reasons one a NE ation 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

125case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting in second student disciplinary cases can I have a motion uh for that please so moved you're you're um muted there Julie thank you I'm sorry who seconded please uh who is the second okay Terry pavage hi cherelle Fuller hi Dan Nicholas hi Rick panado hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler you're muted uh Joanna what's I thank you and Mike deav for I okay we're GNA move in Clos session now when we um we there isn't going to be any action taken after Clos session oh so we'll stop broadcasting here so this will be the end of the broadcast we will uh on the meeting come out in a in a journ there will be no other action items uh

126following this so the the live broadcast will stop um our student board members will drop off uh as well as administrators that aren't involved in the closed session we'll have that discussion and then we will